Peaceful Week at Home

What a calm and sweet week it has been! Because the children were sick (fever and coughing), we stayed around the house all week. I think I stay home a lot compared to many families, but, still, we're normally out several times per week. I don't know why but it seems like going out for one outing in a day badly messes up our routine, and two outings means we're just shot and ordering pizza for dinner because it's been an ugly day and Mama is so frazzled.

This week the children got to do many crafts, in part because I had extra energy from staying home and because I didn't want their feverish selves playing outside in the cold November temperatures.

One day, the children asked to do pencil drawings on paper taped to the wall, so that occupied them for some time. John drew a family portrait of three stick figures. Then the next day, I got even more "bang for my buck" because the John invented a game of "David and Goliath." He tied a shoelace to a pencil and made the pencil the "stones" he was throwing at Goliath. In an excellent decision, instead of trying to aim for a particular stick figure, he told me that whichever stick figure he struck on any given turn was Goliath. This game occupied him for quite some time.

Meanwhile, I discovered that Mary, three next week, has learned how to maneuver a computer to play Starfall and Fritz & Chesster all by herself. All this time she's had to sit on the side while John played, but one day he was busy and she asked to play herself. I thought, 'sure, ha ha.' But away she went! So, she's been playing computer games all week.

My time in the kitchen has been good. This week I implemented using a list of simple meal ideas, taken in part from the ideas suggested by my kind blog readers. So I've actually had dinner on the table each night, it was simple, and I didn't feel very stressed about it. We've also been doing a lot of baking during the day. We're hanging around anyway, we have nowhere to go, and I don't want the children to overdose on television when they're basically up and about. In addition to the fabulous pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, we tried a yeasted waffle recipe (that one starts the night before) from "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter." It was absolutely light and airy, with a delicate crisp, and a mildly sweet flavor. We all enjoyed it and John was disappointed when there were no more waffles the subsequent morning.

Eating waffles

We also tried our hand at making our own graham crackers, which we all know are really cookies. This recipe also was from "Make the Bread."

These were wonderful and far better than the dry, insipid things we buy in a box!

Because we stayed home, I even had time to tackle de-cluttering my kitchen and the master bedroom, and reorganizing two closets. Plus I sort of stayed on top of regular cleaning tasks. I had time to read, particularly because the baby is back on a kick waking at 5:00 a.m. (currently reading: "Nurtured by Love" by Shinichi Suzuki and "Bringing Up Boys" by Dr. James Dobson). I had time to read more to the children, so beside the typical little books, we started a children's biography of St. Therese of Lisieux and discovered that the kids really enjoy T.S. Eliot's poems about cats. I had time to walk on my treadmill--sorely needed after all that baking! And I wasn't frazzled from being out and about so I had more patience to deal with a certain girl who is newly experimenting with being almost three and seeing if her advanced years means that if she just screams 'no' at me loud enough, she will get to run the household. Was I perfect with said little girl? Far from it! But I had enough patience with sometimes a half dozen 15-minute tantrums per day that I didn't have a breakdown myself.

So, overall it was a really calm and pleasant week that made me ponder about staying home even more than we do already as a homeschooling family that is not carting off to preschool or school-school or sports activities daily. But I continue to wonder at the value of things we are missing. For example, by staying home for six days this week, we missed Mass on Sunday (a special Missa Cantata), a once-a-year costume party, a play date, a Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation (All Saints'), a likely outing on All Souls' day (e.g., going to pray at a cemetery), and our twice monthly Art Class and Free Play in the Gym, as well as a funeral we would have liked to attend. Those things have value, right?

And why can't I do both? Speaking of St. Therese above, do I have to face my own "littleness" and realize that maybe I can do only so much? Maybe right now, with the kids I have at the ages they are, with whatever growth I've had as a mother (and wife and homemaker) and the great amount I have yet to grow, maybe I just can't go to such events and have a peaceful, calm heart and smoothly running home? Maybe I have to stop looking at other mothers who can do both and simply face up to what I can do?

I don't know, I just don't know.

Anyway, the kids should be free of contagion now so we can enter back into the Big Outside World tomorrow.