{SQT} Lots to Share

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Some weeks I have next to nothing to say. Other weeks . . . 

1. Energy Consumption

Our monthly energy statement has revealed that we are now in line with Average Folk, and my husband attributes this to our new energy-efficient washer and replacing our incandescent bulbs with LED ones. Even with those changes in mind, we are astonished that we could be consuming the same as average homes because

• we have six kids, so we do things like have lights on all day and run two loads of laundry daily all week,
• I am a stay-at-home mother,
• my husband works at home, and
• we homeschool, so between hubby and kids, we have three computers going all day.

2. Baby in the Kitchen

David enjoyed his first solid food at six and a half months old! I fed him mashed and watered down avocado, and he grabbed the spoon, shoved it in his mouth, and acted like some kind of Eating Solids Expert.

3. Kids in the Kitchen

My five-year-old cutting the apples for dinner one night . . .

My 11-year-old made us glazed chocolate doughnuts on Sunday morning because I said I didn't have time to make something so labor-intensive.

4. Exercise Walking

It's because of things like those doughnuts that I'm trying to exercise more! I have adopted a new tactic that might help me get moving even while homeschooling six kiddos. See, when we go on a neighborhood walk, it ends up taking an hour between getting all the kids ready, taking the agonizingly slow walk, and then getting all their shoes and coats put away. So, taking an idea from "Diary of a Catholic Fat Girl" by Jean Allen (recommend this one!), I've begun marching up and down my driveway. I've timed how long it takes me to walk one mile. Meanwhile, the children are playing in the front and back yards, I don't care if they have shoes on or not, the baby could be napping indoors or be on my back, and I'm still getting in my exercise.

Usually I find an older kid walking up and down with me, bending my ear, or a littler person zipping alongside me, like Thomas below.

5. Outdoor Outings

Speaking of exercise, we signed up the four oldest children for a five-week tennis clinic in our neighborhood. It was highly enjoyable, all the children are now enthusiastic about continuing the sport!

We also enjoyed an outing to a delightful little park and a walk around a fishing pond just five minutes from our house--which it only took us a decade to find.

With the warmer weather, we enjoyed our first lunch time out on the deck, which is always way more exciting than eating in the kitchen.

6. Miscellaneous

David (6 months) is now Part of the Gang, and will sit with his siblings, playing with toys. Melt my heart!

Ever closer to Margaret's First Holy Communion, we finished her banner in time for her upcoming retreat.

We use Keyboarding Without Tears (for fee) and www.PowerTyping.com (free) for teaching typing. These are more or less successful with varying students. Mary has taken to typing like a duck to water and now is simply transcribing books she finds around the house . . . chapters and chapters of them into Microsoft Word, and she types them as well as formats them nicely. I think by Middle School, she might be renting out her services as a typist of chicken scratch school papers!

7. Stations of the Cross with Children

I am trying this Lent to pray Stations of the Cross with the children each Friday. The trouble is that the typical late evening time at parishes (e.g., 7:00 p.m.) is not conducive to large families, and I'm not willing to take my brood there so the littlest ones can be crying in the back, ruining prayer for others, while the prayer ruins their own bedtimes.

We're at church in the mornings for school, so last week at one o'clock, I announced to my children that we would be praying Stations. Wins:

• Nobody complained at having to leave playtime with their friends.
• The only fights that broke out were over who "got to" pray which parts.
• We made it through seven Stations before the littler set couldn't take it anymore.
• Even after that, the oldest three finished Stations independently while I stepped outside.

Losses:

• The younger set simply couldn't make it through Stations and all the meditations and prayers.

I, of course, focused mainly on the loss ("I'm such a bad parent! This is impossible!") but I forced myself to count our many blessings too.

Over the course of the week, I realized that these handy-dandy Resurrection Eggs given to us by grandma would be just perfect to help during Stations. These are, essentially, praying of Stations for tiny tots!

The children requested to "play Resurrection Eggs" multiple times daily all week, and then an older child would read the story of the Passion to the children while opening one egg (and symbol) at a time. It was more successful than I ever imagined.

Today arrived, and my husband even met us at the church for Stations, which was the most helpful thing. I did Resurrection Eggs with the littles in a rear pew until the littlest little had a giant explosion of the sort that resulted in a wardrobe malfunction, such that I gave it up and took the three ducklings out to the van.

BUT, we did it, and this is how we form habits and memories. I shall try, try again.


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