Reading, Listening, Doing...

Reading: Outliers. I sat and read almost half of it at Barnes and Noble the other night. Now I'm waiting for my turn with the book from our library. I'm also reading Do Hard Things by the Harris twins, but that doesn't really count because it's a book for teens and I'm not one. I don't have any living under my roof either.

Listening: I just downloaded about 15 hours of Gregg Harris stuff from the early 90s. It's his basic home schooling seminars and it's keeping me company during kitchen clean up, laundry folding and the like. I will say I'm doing a lot more reading, writing, and catching up on random stuff now that our life is cable-less. (Fox News - I miss you!) Oh - I also introduced the girls to ABBA a bit this week. We're starting slow with Dancing Queen. I remember listening to the ABBA GOLD cassette over and over with my friend Ingrid and feeling oh so sophisticated as we belted out, "I don't wanna talk, about the things we've gone through. Though it's hurting me, now it's history..."

Doing: Helping to organize lemonade stands, reading Carry on, Mr. Bowditch with the girls, keeping the boys alive, splashing around at the pool, gathering fancy clothes for the neighborhood Yule Ball. It's all things Harry Potter right now, even though we're done with the books. Here's the gang of ball attenders. My very boyish boys were not exactly pleased to be attending a dance:

Dad-Kid Camp

My crew came back dirty, sun-burned, tired... and happy! Another great trip with their dad. (For some reason, Toddzilla's got that hatchet in every picture. I don't even ask anymore.)

It rained all day so we went to the museum for a new Egyptian exhibit. Little did we know there was also a cool Harry Potter event going on. Needless to say, it was a huge hit and now it's all about getting Hermione Granger (Bobo) and Ginny Weasley (Elbow) costumes.

"Mom, can you believe they actually make that stuff?"

Why no, I never guessed...

Wordless Wednesday: Happy

It's the Little Things...

...that make me happy.

Like my Bible with the spaces right on the side for journaling. (There's some great journaling inspiration here).

And the fact that my baby is now old enough to hang out at our club's child care for a bit while I take the big kids swimming. (And completely avoid the work out equipment. I'm up to a whopping ONE run since giving birth over three months ago.)

That my second littlest is 'all growed up' and sleeping in his brother's old fire truck bed. 

James Otis' speech in Johnny Tremain, "But because we fight, they shall see freedom like a new sun rising in the west. Those natural rights God has given to every man, no matter how humble... We are lucky men, for we have a cause worth dying for. This honor is not given to every generation."

It's also the little things that can drive me crazy...

Like that my baby loathes the stroller and hollers at the top of his tiny lungs at the most inopportune moments.

Or the fact that after cleaning the entire kitchen I made coffee sans pot. Nothing like cleaning up scorching hot coffee instead of sitting down to enjoy a cup. Isn't my machine supposed to sense that there's no pot there?

And the other passages from Johnny Tremain. This has probably been my least favorite read-a-loud. The history's great and the children are enjoying it. But I don't spend the day wondering what's going to happen in our bedtime reading like I usually do. Hubby told me it was the first book that really spoke to him as a child. Toddzilla went to bed crying last night, "More Johnny Tremain! More Johnny Tremain!" Maybe it's a boy thing?

Summer School

A few notes about summer learning around here:

• Bobo started Saxon 5/4 last week, which I'm loving because it becomes self-teaching at this point. She reads her lesson, learns the new concepts, and then works through the practice problems. It's still all review, so I'm not ready to comment on how this will be for the long haul. 
• Toddzilla is enjoying our current history read-a-loud, Johnny Tremain. I think he likes staying up as late as the girls more than anything - but hey, he's listening. Elbow is now reading The Courage of Sarah Noble; Bobo is on The Skippack School.
• We started making a book of presidents today. I'm printing out a head shot of each president, then the girls are copying the lyrics of this song onto the president's page. We did five presidents today because they got excited about it and Crockett was taking an extra long nap.

• Crockett "reads" Bob books in his spare time.

• The girls dressed up in their finery and sang the presidents song for Hubby upon his arrival home from work.

Child of God, Inheritor of Eternal Life

Jonathan Thomas was brought into the family of God this morning. The promised pictures - all but these - will have to wait. I forgot that my own camera would go largely untouched during the service, considering I had plenty of other things (and little ones) to attend to. 

It was a perfect day and all went well. My poor younger daughter is covered in poison ivy - face included. She handled it like a champ though, standing up in front of all the church despite her discomfort.  

His little suit has been worn by my brother, my parent's god son, my nephew, and all three of my boys. (Do I have that right, Nana?) The bib is a special form of Norwegian embroidery called hardunger. It was made by a sweet older woman in our internship parish.  

Praising God for the saving waters of baptism...

 

Saturday Morning Sermon Prep