Been awhile since I have done one of these... been awhile since I have written anything here. I haven't even added birthday photos from Cecilia's 6th birthday and Caroline's 9th. Seeing as I use this blog mostly like a scrapbook, I really should get on that!
Outside my window... sunny and beautiful. The girls are playing outside and enjoying popsicles, which are really just frozen coconut milk and blueberries. Lucy is getting her last molar and I am hoping the cold feels good on her gum! I am going to go join them in a bit with my iced mocha coffee drink that I get obsessed with in the warmer weather... warm milk with coffee and cinnamon steeped in it, dark chocolate, more milk, splash of vanilla, blended and poured over crushed ice. So yummy. I am trying it with raw milk this time.
Outside my window... sunny and beautiful. The girls are playing outside and enjoying popsicles, which are really just frozen coconut milk and blueberries. Lucy is getting her last molar and I am hoping the cold feels good on her gum! I am going to go join them in a bit with my iced mocha coffee drink that I get obsessed with in the warmer weather... warm milk with coffee and cinnamon steeped in it, dark chocolate, more milk, splash of vanilla, blended and poured over crushed ice. So yummy. I am trying it with raw milk this time.
I am thinking... about lots of things. My brain is full. I am planning a tea party for my Little Flowers group on Sunday afternoon. We are also wrapping up the school year and I need to be thinking more actively about next year's plans - Cecilia will be a first grader and Caroline a 4th grader!
I am wondering... how to make more time to read. I have some books - mostly about homeschooling and parenting - that I would really like to get to. I am also realizing that as I give my oldest child more and more content to read, I may need to be keeping up with that myself to make sure her narrations of the content is accurate! I'm a night owl, so that is the right time for reading, after kids are all asleep, but I usually split that time between vegging out (reading about homeschooling and parenting online, ha!) or taking sudden inspiration to start a project such as making yogurt or "crispy nuts," or some kind of hands-on project. Sometimes I think I spend more time contemplating projects and homeschool ideas than I do actually implementing them, but then I look back at the fact that certain things have been accomplished and so I guess I am doing okay.
I am praying... for many things, one of which being guidance on how to best carry out the next school year. For patience as I balance school stuff with my two year old - she has been a challenging toddler and wants her big sisters to play with her always, not to see them reading and reciting poetry and writing and drawing!
I am thankful...for my husband. He is so, so awesome. I get to go run errands all alone for several hours every weekend because he takes care of the kids while I am out enjoying my introvert time. And he holds down the fort about three evenings a week when I go swim laps. And he loves me even though I am crazy! ;)
I am hearing... the kids playing outside. I am hiding out in the den... they play so much better when I am not out there. Lucy is about to the age where she can stay out with them in the fenced back yard for decent periods of time, although I still hesitate to leave her out there for two hours without checking in, ha. But if I am out there, I tend to hear complaints from the older two ("I'm too hot/cold," "She did x, y, and z to me," etc.), and Lucy will just cling to me. If I am inside, I will see them out the windows all happily engaged in some kind of imaginative game. And that's what I loved most about my childhood - getting wrapped up in some imaginative game. If my mom was watching me play all the time, I would have been hindered - I wouldn't have felt as free to be creative knowing an adult was watching.So I try to find the balance of giving Lucy enough time outside - safely - and not being in the way of the older kids.
I am hearing... the kids playing outside. I am hiding out in the den... they play so much better when I am not out there. Lucy is about to the age where she can stay out with them in the fenced back yard for decent periods of time, although I still hesitate to leave her out there for two hours without checking in, ha. But if I am out there, I tend to hear complaints from the older two ("I'm too hot/cold," "She did x, y, and z to me," etc.), and Lucy will just cling to me. If I am inside, I will see them out the windows all happily engaged in some kind of imaginative game. And that's what I loved most about my childhood - getting wrapped up in some imaginative game. If my mom was watching me play all the time, I would have been hindered - I wouldn't have felt as free to be creative knowing an adult was watching.So I try to find the balance of giving Lucy enough time outside - safely - and not being in the way of the older kids.
Learning at home... Caroline has finished up her "Extreme Environments" study - she read three books set in the Sahara Desert, the Solomon Islands, and the Arctic, and she made notebook pages as she went along. She also read several supplemental books from the library that were related to the regions. I want to scan in the pages and post them here at some point. Cecilia is wrapping up the Alphabet Path - she will do Z next week! I guess it is time for me to plan another End of the Alphabet Path party... maybe not so elaborate as the last one, but still, Kindergarten is supposed to be fun, and we can celebrate it! I still have all the fairy figures and can easily make a set of alphabet cupcakes... I also need to finish reading the Treasure Box Books to Cecilia... she keeps asking for them, and we are getting toward the end of the 20-book series.
From the kitchen... beef! We got a share of a grass-fed cow - actually, we picked up the whole thing and shared it among four families - and I have been using some of that lately. Last week, I cooked liver for the first time, and I was so excited!! I made bacon liver meatballs... ohh, so yummy. I made a double recipe, so there are some in the deep freeze, and I have entertained the thought of going out there and just getting one out and gnawing on it, ha ha. I've also bought raw milk for the past two weeks from a local family farm... it has been very good! A friend had told me they were doing pickups on my side of town - it is literally five minutes away where I have picked it up! And then there's coffee, always coffee in the kitchen, or tea. I discovered "bulletproof coffee" just this week - grass-fed butter and coconut oil in your coffee, blended until frothy. Oh wow. I love it! Tonight we are having a Mexican recipe using sausage and lots of cheese... yum. And this past weekend, I made banana pudding at random. We were grilling burgers and so I figured, why not, it is kind of a southern cookout type dessert. So full of eggs - yum, eggs!!
I am reading... The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason. There was another homeschooling mom hosting a book discussion on her blog, which was where I heard of the book and what was helping me to keep up. The author apparently asked for that discussion to be removed and stopped, so... I haven't read more recently, but I am getting back into reading it now.
To live the liturgical year... we honestly haven't done much lately to celebrate feast days. We have been keeping track of the Easter season by using the Garden of the Good Shepherd sticker calendar. That's about it. In a few weeks it will be Pentecost, so we will have to do something for that. My baby brother will be ordained a deacon on May 31st - this is the time of the church year that ordinations occur - so there will be much celebrating for that! I am going to help my mom get things set up and ready... I need to go through old negatives and get some prints made of old childhood pictures to use in decorating tables for the reception. I am sure I can find lots of embarrassing ones... I think we are saving those to use in a slideshow for next year, when he's ordained to the priesthood!
One of my favorite things... Trying new recipes. Writing. Reading. Looking at old photos. Getting a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop. Fresh eggs. Flea markets. It's the little things, people. To quote myself from sometime way back in my late teen years, "It's good to get excited about lame stuff!" My favorite things are all relatively simple things.
I'm also creating the Little Flowers tea party plans... it is coming together nicely and will be a special way to wrap up the year!
And I am creating various projects in my mind, as always... and I need to get on that photo project for Tim's ordination! I thought I would be making a music playlist and a beer list with his friend who apparently likes all the same music as I did in high school, but he was apparently joking. I did give input on the beers, though, seeing as I have quite a refined taste in beer for a 34 year old stay-at-home mother, according to both Tim and some guy doing wine tastings at Trader Joe's, ha ha. I'll assume they know what they are talking about. I just like what I like.
Around the house... See the above on the bedroom switch.
A few plans for the rest of the week...
* School
* Pick up eggs tomorrow - found a lady who is selling them to me for $2/dozen, and they are pastured and fed a locally-sourced, non-GMO feed - yay!!!
* Get-together with friends on Saturday - it's bring a side plus BYOB
* Mass - need to decide which Mass which includes the choir we will start attending regularly as we don't care for Bette Midler songs during Mass, ha ha
* Grocery shopping and cooking for the tea party
* Little Flowers tea party on Sunday
A picture thought I am sharing...* School
* Pick up eggs tomorrow - found a lady who is selling them to me for $2/dozen, and they are pastured and fed a locally-sourced, non-GMO feed - yay!!!
* Get-together with friends on Saturday - it's bring a side plus BYOB
* Mass - need to decide which Mass which includes the choir we will start attending regularly as we don't care for Bette Midler songs during Mass, ha ha
* Grocery shopping and cooking for the tea party
* Little Flowers tea party on Sunday
The girls at Swan Lake (I still maintain that it is a pond, not a lake) at Berry last week
