Gloria in Excelsis Deo: {SQT} Happy 14th Anniversary

1. Fourteenth Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary several days early so we could have babysitters come on a Saturday night. We've been running a million miles per hour all this academic year, so we were thrilled to get out simply for dinner and a movie. My dear husband gave me a beautiful necklace, which I will treasure.

"Happy Anuvrsorei" from Joseph (7)

Speaking of weddings, our 13-year-old got to serve his second-ever nuptial Latin Mass this week.

2. Sewing Class

After Mass on Sunday, the four oldest children and I attended the latest in the series of Life Skills Classes being offered to our homeschooling group. This one was not on entire art of sewing clothing from scratch, but on mending, both by hand and by machine. My 13-year-old mended his hockey gear and then created a fabric box. This was my 7-year-old's first introduction to sewing and he thought it would be boring . . . until about five minutes into instruction. He sewed a very creative piece during class and then sewed every chance he could get during the week. One day his brothers were watching a TV show and he actually said, "I'd rather sew, thanks." He ended up sewing daily and even sewed his first pillow!

3. Back to Regular School?

We were back to our first regular school week with a full five days of routine since Christmas, which felt so good!

Reading upside down

Reading right-side up

Finishing a level of spelling this week

Nature study on sedimentary rock

I finished reading aloud "The Phantom Tollbooth" and am currently reading aloud "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary and "The Family at One End Street."

Current literature assignments are:

8-year-old reading "Little Women"
11-year-old reading "Little Men"
13-year-old reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

4. Hosted a Mothers' Night Out

I hosted an MNO for a dozen women attending on the subject of asynchronous educational development (giftedness and delay) in homeschooling. We had a wonderful time and it was so refreshing and encouraging.

5. New Movie Reviews

As always, my collection of movie and television reviews from a Catholic perspective--for whatever it is worth--is available online:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CnWPXazNxPt5JxupADMAJ3w8mJn0SD0nuR3UlKobNPU/edit

Two new reviews:

“Joyeux Noel” (2005)

My husband previewed this French film, then watched it again with our children 11 and 13. We felt the 8-year-old was too young, both due to war content and that she probably would have found the plot boring. The movie was absolutely wonderful.

That said, there is that one unnecessary and explicit bedroom scene. My husband tells me that it is NOT a surprise and is very easily seen to be coming. He paused the TV, had the kids leave the room, fast-forwarded, and called them back. We would advise a parent watch the whole movie before watching with kids.

Also, there is a scene with a married couple that does not turn out bad, but I don't want your heart to jump like mine did. There is a wife of a soldier who gets to visit her husband over Christmas, so she is actually in the trenches with all the soldiers. It is nighttime and she was unable to get back to Headquarters as planned, so she has to shelter there. We see the husband and wife fully clothed under a blanket preparing to overnight in the shelter. I thought it was moving into romance or such, but it does NOT.

It was so beautifully Catholic and one of those hard-to-find movies that is enjoyable and meaningful for both adults and youth instead of being some dumb kid movie we are merely tolerating.

Review: https://parentpreviews.com/movie-reviews/joyeux-noel

“The Small Miracle”

Our 11- and 13-year-olds loved this old film: “A beautiful, touching story based on the book by Paul Gallico about a young Italian boy in Assisi who travels to Rome to ask the Pope's permission to let him take his dying donkey to the tomb of St. Francis to pray for a miraculous cure. Shot on site in Assisi and Rome.”

Available: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Miracle-Vittorio-Sica/dp/B000MV8K36

6. Outdoor Time

The weather warmed such that fruit trees began blooming and the overwintering ladybugs emerged . . . into our home instead of out of it, so we got outdoors a lot. I've been making it a new goal that if the kids are far-enough along on their school assignments then we can go on a walk at 11:00 a.m. (The 7th grader stays home because of his heavy workload and that he has organized sports on four days per week.)

Crashed on his bike and scraped up his lip

Two-year-old playing hockey like big brothers

One day, Thomas (4-1/2) got stuck climbing a tree and had to wait till someone went out back for him to be discovered. Where's Waldo? Can you spot him?