{SQT} Big News for Our Family

1. Nebraska

I flew with my ten-year-old and toddler to Nebraska for four days to attend a Memorial and to visit my ailing grandfather. Click here to read about our wonderful time.

2. Meanwhile

Meanwhile, back at home, Chris took the children to the Lego exhibit at the science museum.

The gang highly recommends the IMAX movie "Backyard Wilderness" if you can still see it anywhere near you. We seek to get it via streaming or DVD if it becomes available. From my 12-year-old to my 3-year-old, they were all raving about it.

Josey and Thomas finished another two months of ice skating lessons and graduated up to the next levels.

John (12) alone made fried chicken and garlic knots for dinner on Saturday night.

The gang managed without me, even though for the first time in 13-1/2 years of marriage, the Magic Toilet Roll Fairy did not do her job. Somehow, they soldiered on through adversity.

3. Big News: We Are Moving!

A lot of our rooms are looking like this lately  . . .

. . . because we are under contract to buy a new home! There has been much going on "behind the scenes" (off the blog) for a couple of months.

We thought our couple of years of discussions about whether or not to move were concluded and we had even engaged contractors to make some renovations to our current home when we learned that our neighbors would be selling their home of 35 years and that it had virtually all of the features we were desiring, including getting to stay in our own neighborhood and even still adjacent to the beloved "woods" behind the house.

We are moving three doors down! The move is a bit poignant because we do love our home and it could be a forever home. However, with six children homeschooling and a husband who works from home, we are in the home virtually 24/7, so more space and certain layout changes would bring more peace to how we function. The new home should be a great blessing and we are excited.

God willing, all appears to be going smoothly with the sellers and we are scheduled to close three weeks from now and the movers are booked for a date in early August!

4. Folk Music Jam

On Tuesday night, 24 hours after our plane had landed from Nebraska, we drove to a friends' home for dinner and a folk music jam based on the CD all our kids are currently loving so much: Singsong Penny Whistle (you can obtain lyrics here). The group had a really fun time! They also played in the acres of woods, shot Airsoft guns, caught fireflies, and watched Chris set off fireworks.

5. Independence Day 2019

In the sultry morning, we participated in our neighborhood's annual parade behind the fire truck: always a festive time!

This was the first year that Thomas (3-3/4) got to ride his own two-wheeler bike instead of being confined to a stroller.

Kids spent the day . . .

• watching "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949)
• playing water guns in the back yard
• playing "Memoir 44" and "Monopoly" board games
• baking bread pudding with Daddy
• baking chocolate chip cookies with Mama

Mom spent the day . . .

• cleaning the WRECK of a play room for three hours because sometimes the mess gets so bad that a Mama has to roll up her sleeves and do it herself instead of having the children do it because, NO!, the Legos, Magformers, play kitchen toys, wooden blocks, and science kit do NOT all go mixed up in the same bin . . . and
• planning my History lesson plans for next year (enjoyable for me to do)

And all was fun and games until Josey tripped running up the brick steps and sliced the underside of his big toe pretty badly. When Margaret (8) encounters an injury, a whole, beautiful side of her emerges immediately. She is very calm and thoughtful when someone else is hurt. This time, she rushed immediately to get bandages without being asked, and then she ran off to retrieve our Scripture Memorization cards. While I was trying to rinse the wound of the hysterical, screaming six-year-old, Margaret cheerfully read him Scripture to try to distract him, which actually began working.

We decided he might need stitches, so took him to Urgent Care. I took along Margaret as his comforter and she certainly was, playing 20 Questions and Rock, Paper, Scissors with him. In the end, they used Hibiclens to clean it, a blunt syringe to flush it, and Dermabond to seal it, so I came home and ordered a generic cyanoactylate (like Dermabond) with which to stock my home medicine cabinet.

If only each of us would behave always as we do in our best moments! I suppose that is why we are forever working out our salvation.

We missed family dinner but were home in time for our grocery store legal fireworks in the back yard.

Certain overtired tots would not stop crying, so I took them inside to watch the fireworks from their upstairs bedroom window.

6. Sources of Modest Clothing

I was updating my blog post about Sources of Modest Clothing with this Nee See's Dresses (so great for teenagers! and more inexpensive than many I see!) when I realized I should publish the whole blog page anew.

See my page here: https://luke2-14.blogspot.com/2019/07/sources-of-modest-clothing-updated.html

Also, I added an oldy but a goodie: "Why Must Catholic Women Be Modest When Swimming?"

7. Bonus Reading

"Against my Will, How I Became a Homeschool Mom" by Hifalutin Homeschooer.


For more 7 Quick Takes Friday, check out This Ain't the Lyceum.