{SQT} A Day Late

A day late because I thought Friday was really Thursday . . .

1. Camping and Chivalry

Margaret (6) and Joseph (4) were playing camping when I heard big sister gently leading her little brother along.

She said so encouragingly to him, "You know, the best thing about being a man is that you get to carry things for ladies!" And then she made the side comment to me in stage whisper, "He's carrying my backpack as well as his."

2. Esther Costumes

Wednesday was costume check day as well as my last time scheduled to volunteer for the Esther rehearsals. 

John as Stooge

John as Courier

Mary as a Jewish townsperson

Mary as one of Queen Vashti's attendants

I was a rehearsal monitor, where this pregnant lady was grateful to beach . . . I mean take her station in a chair by the exit doors to the restrooms, where I could watch all the practice on stage as well as watch students coming and going.

Putting my feet up while on duty

It was really enjoyable to watch the kids run through more than half the play. The Stooges are in many scenes and provide great comedic relief.

3. Modest Clothing Trick

I have recently learned of a clothing website called HalfTee which I want to share: For years I've bought half-tee shells from orthodox Jewish websites in order to make many more tops and blouses meet my modesty preferences than they could otherwise. I never could find such shells in children's sizes . . . until now! HalfTee sells sizes from children's size 4 to plus-sized women, and the shells are in a variety of sleeve length and fabric/color.

Also, I've updated my blog post on Sources of Modest Clothing.

4. Social Time and Crochet Lessons

On Thursday morning, I was too sick, having caught Thomas' cold, to take the children to a much anticipated multi-family play date, which included crochet lessons for the girls. Three cheers for my husband who works from home and agreed to work from the host family's home so that he could take the children to the event. They had a fantastic time tromping through the woods there, except that Margaret reports that the only things that happened were that she got lost in the woods and that she fell on the driveway and scraped her knee.

Margaret (6) was too young to join the 8+ crochet class, but she quietly observed Mary (8) crocheting back at home, learned it right away, and has since been crocheting necklaces for everyone she can think of.

I stayed home and folded laundry . . .

. . . and helped my sad, sick toddler.

5. Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

On Friday night, Chris took the two oldest to a Latin Mass at our cathedral to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is symbolically very special, coming from the bishop's see, given that I think there has been only one Latin Mass at the cathedral since Vatican II, and that was a recent private funeral, making this perhaps the first public Latin Mass. There were something like 25 altar boys, so John served in coro.

6. School Wrap-Up

For this last week and the following week I have some goals to wrap up our official school year. Then John will go to summer camp (!) and upon his return, I plan to have the kids do some light independent work until the baby makes his appearance.

• Latin: Finish current chapter and test with John, then stop learning new chapters until the fall. John can run flash cards in the interim.
• Composition (IEW): Finish the third paragraph of our three-paragraph essay on snapping turtles, and then pause on the IEW units until the fall.
• Grammar (IEW Fix-It): Do one more lesson next week, then pause till the fall.
• History: Finished our textbook reading on this unit this week. Before summer camp: finish reading aloud book on Simon Brute. After summer camp, read book on St. John Neumann.
• Literature: I've purchased some solid, classic literature books that I'd like to be reading aloud in the oppressively hot afternoons when I'm a beached whale during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy, and into postpartum time. If I can do nothing else, I can bathe the children's brains in elevated language and beautiful concepts.
• Subjects for the children to continue independently just to use up 2-3 hours of idle time daily over the summer: math (Teaching Textbooks), spelling (All About Spelling), memorizing Baltimore Catechism and poetry, reading science, Latin flash cards, doing the music theory workbook, practicing piano and violin as usual.

7. Bonus Reading

"In Which There Is No Hope" by Jenny Uebbing

Feel free to check out my updated list of Wholesome Television and Movies for Children: I added quite a few movies from earlier decades.


For more 7 Quick Takes Friday, check out This Ain't the Lyceum--humorous bit about the chaos of summer (and confirmation of why I'm planning to assign 2-3 hours of independent school work most mornings).