{SQT} Second Week of Advent

1. Grandfather Passed Away

My dear grandfather, John D. Baldwin, M.D., passed away this Wednesday. We were on alert for the past week, receiving daily or more frequent updates from Nebraska until he passed. I was sneaking in many prayers in quiet moments amidst my duties.

Grandpa was a Board-certified and practicing psychiatrist for 50 years, very accomplished in his profession and chief of the hospital, a published author, a world traveler, avid fisherman, and a goofy guy. We will miss him so much.

Below are photos from our last visit to him, just two months ago for his wife's funeral.

He was given exceedingly good and loving care for these last months from one of his daughters and her husband who moved in with Grandpa. I suspect this was, in its way, one of the fondest periods of his life. For this, I am so grateful and may we all be so blessed as to witness the best way for a family to take care of its elders.

I am sobered to be only 42 having only one parent left living and no grandparents at all.

In your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of my grandfather.

2. Weekend Festivities

The past weekend was busy with festivities, as we hosted a birthday party for John's 13th and a very belated birthday visit of friends for Mary's 11th. Mary also enjoyed a St. Nicholas celebration with her youth orchestra, the boys had their monthly homeschool football game, and some of the children attended two Nativity plays at church.

My newly 13-year-old invited me (!) out with his birthday money to buy air plants (as he and I have been admiring them for months) and to treat me to ice cream: what a gentleman! He started school at 6:00 a.m. and worked diligently in order to be able to finish his work and take me out at 1:00 during my only available window that week.

3. Joseph's First Confession

This was a sacrament week, always a joy for a Catholic family! Joseph (6-1/2) has been preparing for his First Confession. On Saturday, he went to his two-hour retreat at church, his dad chaperoning and big sister being an assistant helper to the nuns.

Then on Monday evening, we all met at church for a marathon night of girls' choir practice, boys' altar server practice, a crowning of Mary in honor of the Immaculate Conception (Margaret was asked to be the girl who did the crowning!), Joseph's First Confession, and neighborhood Christmas caroling.

Margaret crowning Mary

Joseph asked me to be the parent who stayed for the Holy Hour while he did his First Confession, so Chris took the rest of the crew with all the parish teens and their families to go caroling.

Joseph before First Confession

Joseph had been very nervous ahead of time, which is typical, but came out and whispered to me that he was wrong, he was very, very happy, and he was sure he was even happier than his Mama right then. After praying his penance and finishing the Holy Hour, he asked to go back into the church to light a candle and say another prayer.

Joseph praying after First Confession (not his penance)

 Meanwhile, the big group was back from festive caroling and enjoying cocoa and sweet treats!

Goose egg on forehead from being dumped out of a laundry basket by a certain 4-year-old brother

4. Scholastic Scenes

After repeated adjustments, I've found what I think is a good rhythm for teaching the Story of Civilization for history (designed for K-8th) to my four different grades.

Monday: I read aloud the chapter while the oldest two are taking notes. Learning how to take notes in a Roman numeral outline is an important skill that requires actual instruction and practice. I read aloud (instead of playing the CD) so I can stop often, spell proper nouns, and direct the students to be sure to write down certain facts. The goal for my third grader is to listen carefully and my goal for my first grader is simply to sit still for the half hour, so he is allowed to play with a quiet toy.

Tuesday: I ask the review questions orally and we do one activity from the activity book. Many activities are offered, but I choose only one: a map or something else.

Wednesday: We listen to the chapter again--on the CD this time. Often there is a coloring page to do or a freehand drawing assigned to occupy their hands.

Thursday: First we talk through the narration activity on a specific topic. I ask questions from the youngest child first up through the ages so that the littlest kids have some opportunity to give information before being shown-up by the older kids who know more. Children are required to raise hands instead of shouting answers and this takes so much practice for homeschoolers. After doing the narration (which jogs everyone's memory), the third, fifth, and seventh graders take the weekly quiz. Then I pass out red pens for grading and read the answers aloud, not just "Number 1 is D," but the whole sentence. Children are being taught not to make any indication of their answers ("Yeah, I got that one!" or "Awww, I missed it") so that nobody can tease anyone else about their grades. Then they pass their tests to me to hide away. Lastly, the fifth and seventh graders are required to turn their oral narration into a short essay to submit by the end of the day (writing skills!).

Looking up weekly vocabulary words and getting distracted by "sooo many interesting definitions!"

Teaching simultaneously grammar to the third grader on my left and spelling to the fifth grader on my right

5. Teaching Cooking

I'm no font of patience, so every time I'm asked by an eager child to cook something himself--at nearly every meal--I have to hold back the selfish desire to cook it faster and easier by myself.

The latest four-year-old is now expressing the age-typical desire to "do it myself!" He's been practicing spreading his peanut butter and Nutella all week. Then he triumphantly announces that he is going to put the two slices together himself and, voila!

I remind myself that letting a tot go slow and do it himself leads to big kids who can and enjoy to make a dinner themselves, like our 11-year-old cooking the below meal with her pals.

6. Saint Lucy's Day

We put up the tree and lights adjacent to St. Lucy's day (associated with light). Ornaments will appear later.

This is the first time I've ever had a tree in the front window, which delights me!

We celebrated St. Lucy's day in a quicker fashion than normal in between 7:00 a.m. Mass and getting ourselves to a production of "It's a Wonderful Life" at 10:00.

I cooked sausage, too, before remembering it was Friday!

Black eye from an unfortunate run-in with a playground swing!

Attending "It's a Wonderful Life"

7. End of Hockey Season

Friday marked the end of this hockey season before a few weeks off until the spring season. Kudos to the ice rink for making it festive: after the last practice was a pizza party and the last game was made notable by the players skating onto the ice under spotlights and with their numbers and names being announced, just like in the pros. Our whole family attended to root for John!

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