In my life this week… We started working on the gardens! Because it’s such an early start, we’re beginning with the flower gardens this year, and every afternoon the children and I spend half an hour chatting, weeding, and cleaning up. We’ll start the vegetable gardens in a week or so.
Mr. 16 and Miss 14 are away at a youth conference this weekend. Home feels empty without their cheerfulness and goofiness.
Miss 11 has been coughing all week, very discretely and quietly, but coughing nonetheless. She was unable to make it to our Good Friday church service, and when Miss 9 and I went canvassing for the Cancer Society, she had to stay home. I hope she soon feels well again.
I’m not a door-to-door kind of person, but once I get started on the Cancer Society canvassing, I enjoy chatting with the neighbors and seeing them all. Miss 9 loved all the dogs she met, big and small, and at the cat rescue house we saw a cat with two paws on each leg. Poor thing!
Our dogs have defended our home from porcupines again. Twice. Ouch!
In our homeschool this week… For some reason, I haven’t been keeping up with the administration side of our homeschool the past two weeks. Usually we check things off our term check lists as we go, and that helps keep things in balance. But lately I’ve been too busy making the Term 3 check lists to keep up. It’s time to catch up!
On the positive side, the children just keep on learning, formally and informally. Miss 14 even made a Greek outfit out of some gold-colored satin we had lying around! When we were going through the shelves in search of books we no longer need, I found The Sign of the Beaver and The Bronze Bow for Miss 11. She loved them. The tiny snail shells in our gardens are fun to study as well….
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… Don’t get behind in the behind-the-scenes homeschooling work; you will have to do it sometime and it’s easier to keep up than to catch up.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… Neighbors, catechism, library, stores, friends, woods.
My favorite thing this week was… Being able to garden again.
Questions/thoughts I have… Just like weeds in a garden, we need to get rid of sin in our lives and weed it out of our children’s lives. Perhaps the unnecessary things we do should also be weeded out to make more space for the responsibilities God has given us.
Things I’m working on…
- Dejunking our bookshelves. We found another 6 inch pile of books that can be donated or sold…but someone gave me a 4 inch pile, so we haven’t moved ahead much this week.
- Preparing for Term 3 and setting up the children’s weekly work lists—I only have Mr. 16’s Term 3 list left to make, but I have to catch up on checking off what everyone has done.
- Cleaning up the flower beds and preparing to plant our seeds indoors.
I’m reading… 1 Corinthians. I finished Tyndale and The Wedding Dress. Currently I’ve put all my other reading on hold: The Happiness Project, The Dip, and Mindsight. It’s just too busy, and the organ’s been calling to me when I have a spare moment.
With the kids, I’m reading 1 Corinthians, The Railway Children, Wind in the Willows, Rozemarijntje Gaat Naar School, The Story Bible for Older Children, and various books for school. We finished These Happy Golden Years, one of the best books I’ve re-read in a long time.
When my husband is home for meals, we read Isaiah.
I’m grateful for … Completed commitments. Organized to-do lists. Easy meals.
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This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and to Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Oh, I love The Bronze Bow! It has been years since I read it, but I still remember it as a favorite. I also read The Happiness Project a while back (lady year, maybe) and enjoyed it. I’m intrigued by the Bible story book you mentioned, so I’m off to investigate!
Yes, there are so many great books out there!
Sounds like a great week. I agree with not getting behind with behind the scenes things in homeschooling. It makes it very hard, on myself, when that happens. I hope you have a blessed weekend.
Thank you. It was wonderful, but Saturday was so busy I’m even further behind. Sigh!
Your post reminded me of watching the older production of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, and the mother is irritated by Mary’s coughing, to which Mary replies,”One coughs when one must.” Don’t talk about weeds! They’ve overrun me. I cannot bare to think of them right now. The house is wild, the beds are wild, and I want to run and hide! Grace and I read “These Happy Golden Years” last year. It is my favorite of all her books.
I hope that you’ve calmed the house and your world down! And I’d forgotten that line from Pride and Prejudice. Yes, one coughs when one must…which for Miss 11 is much of the time. Poor child!
Books! I have spent 7 hours this weekend purging and organizing our MOUNTAINS of books. I have 6 4 foot stacks of books to donate and feeling REALLY good about that! It’s amazing the books we’ve forgotten about and love, but couldn’t find in the shambles! Ah! LOL
We’re gearing up for our gardening too! The yard is cleaned up from the winter and the crocuses are blooming and my girl’s flowers are starting to come up. Our veggie seeds have been shipped and we’ll start on those soon! Fun stuff, huh?
Oh, if only I could get so many piles of books to purge. We’ve done so much purging over the years that there isn’t really much I can get rid of that we won’t need either for school, free reading, or sentimental reasons. Sigh!
I love how you say you got rid of a 6 inch pile of books but someone gave you a 4 inch pile. It’s a good illustration of all you talk about here – pulling weeds, keeping up with homeschool records…And oh this is such truth “Perhaps the unnecessary things we do should also be weeded out to make more space for the responsibilities God has given us.” Sounds like you’ve had a productive week. Hoping Miss 11 is feeling better.
Purging is on our to-do list for this week. No matter how much we get rid of, there always seems to be more!
Sounds like you had a full week with a lot of great learning opportunities for the kids.
Welcome back to garden season! May you enjoy every day you get to work in your garden.
I hope everyone got home safely & the sickies are done. Have fun in the garden!