Gloria in Excelsis Deo: {SQT} Orchestra Begins

1. Busy on the Horizon

This fall, I already feel at my max for how busy I am, so I had a meltdown last weekend when I was doing some calendar work and saw just how many special events are in October alone.

Cupcake Rosary with 80 kids and their moms
Parish Carnival
Pumpkin Patch
Husband out of town for a week
Attend children's theater
MiraVia banquet
Renaissance Festival
Husband's birthday celebration
Reel Scottish Weekend
Halloween

And that's on top of educating four grades; managing soccer, tennis, and dance on four days per week; managing youth orchestra and music lessons on three days per week; and feeding 8 people 155 times (3 meals, 2 snacks) that month. (Without my husband, I'd be sunk.)

Jesus, I trust in you . . . Jesus, I trust in you . . .

2. Strings Ensemble

Mary attended her first rehearsal for Sinfonia Strings, the strings ensemble arm of the youth orchestra. She enjoyed it so very much that she reported back that for next Saturday, she thinks she is actually looking forward more to Sinfonia Strings practice than to attending our annual parish carnival.

Rehearsing 'Shenandoah' for the first time

3. Music Recital

Not one hour after Mary's orchestral rehearsal ended on the south side of town, the children had a music recital on the north side of town. Thanks to Chris for driving them hither and yon all day!

This was Margaret's first violin recital since she paused on learning piano (three years' of lessons) and switched to violin about three months ago.

4. Michaelmas

I currently have two passionate bakers in the house, and last weekend John (11) baked a chocolate cake and its frosting from scratch out of the Fannie Farmer cookbook that my dad gifted me with when I moved out of the home twenty-four years ago.

5. Wildlife, Continued

The wildlife sightings continue!

One morning, I encountered six deer not twenty feet in front of me while on my morning walk.

And another day during school, the five-year-old came racing indoors screaming that the three-year-old was outside with a snake. Thank God, it was a harmless black rat snake.

Not harmless are the swarms of aggressive, large mosquitoes sucking blood from my children. I was mystified about the great surge of mosquitoes in October, when they should be dying off . . . and they are so big! Then I read an article (click here) about mega-mosquitoes up to 20 times larger than normal swarming in the Carolinas because of the standing flood waters from Hurricane Florence.

My kids' legs and heads are covered in welts, and they're big welts. One welt on a child was so bulbous, that his siblings thought he had a "goose egg," but it was just one mosquito bite!

6. Helpers and Homeschool Hacks

Start 'em on chores young! I was putting away laundry one afternoon when I noticed our 13-month-old steadfastly and determinedly stuffing clean laundry into the bottom drawer, which was the only one he could open.

Be specific when asking for help. I asked for one child to "Give the baby some graham cracker and peanut butter," but I did not think to specify to make it less than a quarter-cup of peanut butter!

One morning, Mary read her 40 pages of Andrew Lang's "King Arthur" while supervising the boys, who were finding and labeling bugs, so that I could help Margaret with math.

She came up on her own with a leash-like invention that attached to two sturdy belts (so that clothing would not get torn), thus allowing the three-year-old to walk (run!) on our walk instead of being in the stroller. I got my exercise and the preschooler got to run off energy, too!

I can ask the two girls to dictate spelling sentences to each other; I can check them later myself or I can ask the nine-year-old to grade them out of the teacher's book (and then the children know to re-write any misspelled words three times).

When Joseph was feeling insecure about reading aloud a story to me, I let his toy Mario "read" it instead. Psychologically, that means Joseph can let Mario make any mistakes without his ego being bruised. It totally worked!

I try to be positive when the baby is awake for the day yet again at 4:45 a.m.--and nothing I've tried has helped--by saying to myself, "Well, then, I can place my online grocery order in peace!" Or, "I can do my weekly lesson planning before 6:00 a.m.!"