{SQT} Fall That Feels Like Summer

1. Youth Orchestra

Last Saturday was the first rehearsal for Sinfonia Strings, the youth orchestra to which Mary belongs. A new season begins, this one with three concerts!

2. Feast of St. Michael the Archangel

Our parish celebrated the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel (in the old calendar) with a Solemn High Mass and afterward venerating relics of St. Michael (rocks from the cave that he visited). Our diocesan parish prays the St. Michael prayer after all its Masses (which I take for granted, but should not) and our family prays it daily as well.

3. First Aid Class and Medical Mishaps

Our parish homeschooling group is hosting a series of self-reliance classes this year, and so far we have attended auto maintenance and first aid. Upcoming are adult and pediatric CPR, self-defense, and (we hope) mending clothing!

Mary being a volunteer for head injuries

We really appreciated the first aid class taught on Sunday by a Nurse Practitioner who has worked in the Emergency Room for ten years. Clearly our family needs first aid information with our long string of events lately!

Joseph being a volunteer for wrapping bandages

The class was good timing because I got to take Margaret to the Nurse Practitioner to have him check the burn she had received that very morning when she ran (!) through the kitchen (!) and straight into a hot frying pan. The burn is across her cheek and neck so prayers that she will not experience a facial scar are appreciated. Anyway, the NP said we had done everything right and had the perfect prescription burn cream and the appropriate non-stick bandages on hand. I'm now using vitamin E on the burn to reduce scarring.

Additionally, Margaret fell off of our playground equipment this week and landed on her tailbone--on a cement block that somebody had thought to put underneath a playground--such that I thought she might have fractured it. She was out of commission from much moving and certainly from dance class for a whole day.

Later in the week, Mary got her first orthodontia on the way to braces in three to four months! She has had such a sore mouth all week. Additionally, she hurt her toes, maybe fracturing them, maybe just big ouchies, but they are nonetheless taped as she hobbles around.

Everyone survived another week.

4. Pumpkin Patch

On Tuesday, I took five of the children to a pumpkin patch (John having a scheduling conflict that day).

We did witness a terrifying moment at the pumpkin patch when a four-year-old ran away from his mother and into the country highway and came within two feet of being hit by a car going 55+ mph. Our group was under the gazebo listening to the presentation on the pollination of pumpkins when we heard screaming and looked up. A mother was several hundred yards down the private lane (deeper into the farm) chasing after her little boy, who was at that moment running pel-mel past our group and toward the road. One of the mothers in our group (much closer than his own mother) began running after him as fast as she could, but the four-year-old would not respond to anyone. The rest of us mothers and children in the group were frozen and several started screaming as we watched. The boy did not even slow as he ran straight into the highway and a car (driving the appropriate highway speed) screeched his brakes hard and came within two feet of killing the boy . . . who just kept right on running onto the other side of the road into an area with rural homes. Finally, the woman chasing him tackled him and pinned him down till his own mother caught him. While I could not see anything physically wrong with him to indicate that he might have had mental disabilities, something mental or behavioral was wrong because he had to be carried kicking and screaming all the way back into the farm and his leash attached and then he lunged and pulled at his leash the rest of the time we were there. Anyway, I was so shaken up at what almost happened that I was in tears most of the subsequent hayride.

5. Clothing the Crew

Our four-year-old Thomas has been intent on dressing like Mr. Rogers for maybe as long as a couple of months. Thomas exclusively wears what we call Mass shirts (long sleeve, button down shirts) and long pants (khaki slacks or jeans). Considering this has been Charlotte's hottest September on record and it was still 100 degrees during this first week of October, Thomas' sartorial choices have been outright dangerous for causing overheating! In fact, he even likes to put on his red, zipped cardigan sweater over his Mass shirts, just like Mr. Rogers.

To top it off, Thomas sings "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" at the top of his lungs while he is getting dressed. What Mama could resist that?

Since I like the look anyway, this week I finally made it over to the consignment shop (and with my 20% coupon in hand) to buy him more Mass shirts and slacks. He previously owned only three, which was suddenly not enough when he was wearing them every single day!

Wearing a new Mass shirt

We also made some real "scores" this week buying pants for the boys with blowout sales at two different stores for dress pants in one and jeans at the other for just $9 apiece, even up into teenager sizes!

New wool Mass pants, too

6. Sixth Week of School

We wrapped up our sixth week of homeschooling!

We've done local co-ops and hybrid schools for many years and then began withdrawing, making this year the first year we are not in anything for academics. This one-year experiment was a scary plunge. Six weeks in, I can report pros and cons, but I am definitely liking having more control of our own calendar. We can do things like go on a field trip again or slow down due to medical mishaps. I've booked four theater events this year, as well as a bunch of volunteer opportunities. The children can do their daily chores again (which we couldn't manage last year). We can also get more book work done because we're not hauling the family in the car back and forth a couple of days per week.

We are trying quite a few live, online classes for our seventh grader and those decidedly have costs and benefits too. I'm sure I'll report more on that later in the semester.

I'm working very hard as of late on cultivating a rigorous, quiet classroom atmosphere. We have schedules and I'm trying--trying!--to impose quiet during school hours. I try speaking in an undertone in the classroom and remind kids regularly, "This is our classroom during school time, you need to speak quietly." I'm handing out many monetary fines for talking during school and it's actually working and I'm making real progress in ACHIEVING QUIET, which makes study so much easier and makes me a much kinder mother.

Do any of my readers also get sent over the edge by noise?

We even did some painting with acrylics and drawing with pastels this week . . .

My artist Margaret (8) looked out the window at my potted plants and painted them beautifully.

7. Bonus Listening: 

Talk for Young Men about "Keeping Perspective"

This week, I previewed a 30-minute talk given by a Marine officer at the St. Benedict Center young men's summer camp. I pass this on as an inspiring talk for the older sons in your life. The speaker was talking to boys age 14-22 and I certainly think my 12-year-old will love listening to it.

As far as mature topics go, the speaker does refer to "remaining chaste" and avoiding "abusing our bodies for pleasure." He warns against "mistreating young ladies" or looking at them in a mistreating way. He does not use more graphic language than that.

This is an inspiring, manly talk that is good for boys aspiring to manhood!





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