Quick Takes

--1--

I'm back! Did you miss me?  Besides not perusing blogs during Lent, I sort of fell head first off the blogging bandwagon.  But the kids and I did finish their third term of the school year, take a field trip week to the Parthenon, Tennessee State Museum, and Cheekwood (Nashville's botanical gardens).  We made it through the long, late nights of Holy Week, whilst my husband and his schola sang beautifully.  Now we're on spring break. School starts back next week (I just need to finish writing the plans!).

 

--2--

Our parish does not have a deacon and so, for the past three years, my husband, as chief Schola geek, has had the job of singing the Exsultet on Easter Vigil. You can hear him here. He's done a great job every year, but I think this was the best yet.

--3--

What kind of mother forgets to take any photos of her kids on Easter? Um, that would be me.  However, it's still the octave of Easter. Maybe I'll get the kids all dressed up tomorrow.  We did dye Easter eggs with our own natural dyes (which we've done for several years now -- boiling up batches of cabbage, beets and onion skins doesn't smell so great, but the colors sure are beautiful). I also made hot cross buns for Good Friday. So the kids aren't totally deprived, even if they'll look back some day and wonder why their mother took more pictures of food than of them (hint: food stands still and poses nicely).

--4--

The world's worst baby continues his reign of terror, stuffing every bit of dog hair, stale Cheerio, piece of paper or Lego in his mouth. I have become far more vigilant about sweeping, vacuuming and picking up bits of child detritus than ever before. Of course, when he can't find stuff on the floor, he has taken to pulling books off the shelf and ripping and gnawing them to bits.

In spite of the penchant for eating and putting things in his mouth, he seems to be following his two closest siblings in not growing.  He was almost ten pounds at birth, but is now only 17, which puts him in the 4th percentile for 9 month old boys.

In those rare moments when he isn't choking, gnawing or trying to climb things and plunge to his doom, he's awfully cute and I seem inclined to keep him.

--5--

We've entered a new era in the family. Our oldest can mow the lawn without any help from me or his father.  Sadly though, this isn't working out quite as well as I would like, because April and May bring out horrible seasonal allergies for the boy and he spends those two months with swollen, itchy eyes, a runny nose and a cough.  So I had to mow the front yard yesterday.  As I posted on Facebook, "I used to think that there was something soothing and meditative about mowing the lawn. Today I had to mow the lawn myself for the first time this summer, and I have changed my mind. It is much more soothing and meditative to sit on the front porch and watch your oldest child mow the lawn."

--6--

I've been planning next year's school curriculum and books.  I've even bought a few things.  Every year I think how nice it would be to just buy a whole package from someone and have one big box arrive with all the books and plans neatly laid out in front of me. I still that would be nice, but I can't imagine actually doing it. What do those of you who homeschool do?  Do you buy it all in one place or piece it together?

--7--

Pray for everyone in Alabama.  I lived in Tuscaloosa for a year while I got my master's in library science from the University of Alabama.  I haven't been back in years, but from the looks of this video and the angle from where it was shot, I'd be very surprised if my grad school apartment was still standing, and I know there was no place in that apartment to hide from a tornado. 

Achoo. Pardon the Dust.

You don't sit down to blog for a few days and suddenly weeks have gone by. I have been mostly off the computer during the day and when I get on at night, I've been working on planning my curriculum wish-list for next year. I have learned to start planning early, because a lot of the good sales run in April or May, and I need to know what I want to buy in order to find those sales.  Add to that, that with time away I've felt like I've lost whatever little bit of a writing voice I had.

Life fills in all those "usually on the internet" spaces. Kids turn out to be far-sighted.

Toddlers dress themselves.

Lego competitions are carefully built for and entered, if not won.

Add in Stations of the Cross and other extras, and the days truly are full. The kids are finishing up their third quarter of the school year this week, next week will be field trip week, and then we'll take a spring break until after Easter.

I'll keep searching for my lost voice and perhaps be back sooner than you'd expect.