Week Wrap-Up

A pretty typical week in review . . . 

Margaret at 19 months is not the avid climber that Mary already was by this age, but she can now escape the back yard so I can't turn my back and assume that she's quietly playing behind me.

Playing in the structure they've built with Daddy in the back "woods"

John gave another presentation at Catholic Schoolhouse, this one on Christopher Columbus. It went very well and he fielded more than half a dozen questions. I won't post the video because I captured the images of all his classmates too.

A friend gave us a craft kit she'd made, so we made "mosaics" of St. Luke, to look like the one we have in our very parish.

Even Margaret really did painting with the gold sparkles, very much enjoying being a big kid. 

Our season of kickball ended (so much fun!). On Friday, the children were able to attend a field trip to a wildlife expert and falconer.

You know you're tired when you take an hour-long nap lying askew on a table!

November has been a busy month for me because I purposefully scheduled a lot of once-yearly events for this month, knowing I'd soon be so uncomfortable and limited by pregnancy that I wouldn't be up for doing much. For example, each mom in the co-op has to teach art class once in the year, so that was something I did this month. I also hosted a mothers' night out at my home this week, open to all the homeschooling mothers in our city. We had about eight ladies come, which was so enjoyable--and the potluck snacks were delicious!

Anyway, it has been a busy month with these annual commitments being taken care of, and I breathed a sigh of relief to look at this week's upcoming calendar and see that it was almost entirely blank! I think I have to leave the house only two times--and one of those is for Thanksgiving where some other saintly women are cooking for us! What a delight. I built in to our school work some extra Thanksgiving gratefulness crafts and activities to do this week with the children.

Meanwhile, I'm deeply launched into planning for St. Nicholas' feast day and Advent! Are you? Advent is a very busy time in our home, so academic schooling will be reduced so that we can participate in the Church's rich traditions and feast days of its beginning of the liturgical year. I am nowhere (even close!) to as organized as the lovely lady at Catholic Icing, but you can always click on my labels (e.g., Advent) on the right hand side bar to see links to crafts and activities I've done in years past if you're looking for ideas for this year.

I'm 29 weeks along now and the third trimester challenges are definitely settling in. Hello, old friends! I used to think that mothers of large families "must have really easy pregnancies"--otherwise, who could do this repeatedly? Experience and quiet conversations with gracious mothers willing to encourage me has taught me that many of these mothers make great physical sacrifices to embrace God's will for their lives and to hand over their very fertility. And if the mothers are making these great sacrifices, that means the fathers are making their own concomitant sacrifices. I'm sure there are a minority of women for whom many repeated pregnancies (even more than my four) are easy, but, in general, it is a truth that this is quite hard on the body, so those women who carry these babies for so many months with a sweet smile on their faces are such a good example to all of us trying to walk the Christian walk. I can walk the walk--waddle the waddle!--but I aspire to put a sweeter smile on my face while doing so.