Gloria in Excelsis Deo: {SQT} Joseph's Birthday Edition

1. Exercising in the Mornings

In case you were wondering whether it was a pipe dream or a realistic hope that I could exercise in the mornings with my new scheduling scheme described two weeks ago, the answer is pipe dream. We will add it to the pile of rubble of ideas I have tried.

2. Saturday

Saturday was typically busy plus we threw in my taking down all the interior Christmas decorations--and maybe we'll get to the exterior decorations by Candlemas!--as well as the girls playing violin at a music recital.

Mary and Margaret are preparing to play these songs at Federation later this month.

3. New Pets: Finches!

Click here to read about Mary's new pet finches! We are enamored with them!

We bought the hanging nest typical of finches, but the girlies wouldn't sleep in it, so we went back and bought a wee cup nest . . .

. . . which they snuggle in and share! I could just eat them up!

4. Joseph's birthday

On Tuesday, our city's hockey team, the Checkers, was having its 1950s night for which tickets were about $2, food prices were rolled back, too, and the cheerleaders wore poodle skirts covering the knees and sweaters, making this the perfect excuse to take Joseph for a father-son date near his birthday. Some friends and their dad were also going, so the whole group of fellas joined together for fun.

Joseph turned six years old on Wednesday: click here to read all about it!

5. Miscellaneous

After Chris finished assembling out new kitchen chairs, there were leftover screws, nuts, bolts, and thingamajigs, which Chris presented with ceremony to three-year-old Thomas. Let me tell you, this was the best gift possible for all involved, and Thomas spent numerous cumulative silent hours sitting at the table "building things" this week.

"Me want to play with my tools."

I spotted my sturdy and chubby Thomas one day and was struck that he's still so little, but he's big enough to pick his own CD (here, "Casey at the Bat"), put it in, perch on the couch, and listen to it during Quiet Time.

Mary completed a weaving project on her homemade loom and sewed a new dress for her corn husk doll this week.

Margaret took it upon herself to start writing a fiction story, which I think is her first typed story. She was passionate about it and skittered off to work on it every spare moment she was allowed, plus plenty of moments she was not allowed! It's more than two pages long and going strong.

6. Youngest Four

When Chris was gone Thursday and Friday taking the oldest two to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life, I was left with the youngest four all to myself. Boy, was this a joyful and meditative experience for me.

Going on errands in the morning on a school day . . . because we could!

1. My 7-year-old was transformed and absolutely shined getting to be the oldest. I must figure out how to let her step out of the shadow more often.

2. I was reminded just how hard it has been to go from teaching two grades among four kids to teaching four grades among six kids. Although it's only about a four years' difference (and shouldn't I be a more skilled mother now?), it is a difference that is pulling me to my knees (hopefully in prayer, but often in despair). With only two grades to teach, we enjoyed doing school in our pajamas like the old days! I did not have to keep us on any kind of precise time schedule (in contrast to the militant schedule that is dictated by the half hour I use now) and we happily finished all our work and music well before lunch.

3. And because we actually finished, I napped during Quiet Time, which I have not done probably in two years. I live on extremely little sleep and I get no daytime rest, which makes me A Growling Bear. This experience of RESTING and FEELING HUMAN reminded me of where I used to be, where I am now, and what I could maybe change, possibly, but I don't know how.

4. Similarly, because I did not have to manage schoolwork every single second (while breaking up fights all day) from 8:00 a.m. till 4:00 without respite, I could actually be a housewife during the afternoon. Those housewife's chores really do not disappear, even when one is homeschooling. For example, one afternoon while the children played peacefully around me, I emptied out the four bottom cupboards, which were a black pit of unknown appliances, cleaned it all out, separated out twenty-five percent for donation away, and put it all back in a very orderly fashion. I've been wanting to get to that chore for months and now I will be able to prepare meals more easily.

5. There were only two, really short fights all day. 'Nuff said.

6. And I managed all this with four children seven years old and younger without hardly turning on the television to babysit them. I let them watch a half hour while I cooked dinner and then we had a family movie night of watching the first half of George Balanchine's 1993 "The Nutcracker" (our preferred version) in the evening.

7. I went to bed with my heart cheerfully relaxed (!) and reflected that not one person yelled in anger all day--not the kids, not me. How can I care for all six of my children and add in those two other grades with a husband who regularly travels for his career while maintaining any of this peace? Is the problem my expectations? But the workload of fourth and sixth graders is real (and we do serious music and Latin pursuits), it's not just unschooling I can ignore. More experienced mamas of families as large or larger than mine . . . would you like to offer your experiences?

7. March for Life,Washington D.C.

An official report will be issued later about Chris and our two oldest who are at the March for Life in Washington D.C. as of this publishing! [click here to read all about it]