{SQT} A Week in Nebraska

1. Big Toe Injury

David (2-1/2) dropped a wooden kitchen stool on his big toe Saturday night, injuring it badly. I've had several children bruise their toes or thumbs such that a bruise showed and the child lost the nail over weeks or months, but David's big toe was black within sixty seconds. He likely broke it, so the doc had us treat it as broken. And here's a little tip: if the child needs a little hole drilled in the nail to relieve pressure from the blood, the doctor we saw claims it needs to be done within a couple of hours of the injury and the next day is too late to bother . . . but you will end up being awake all night with the child crying in great pain!

You're welcome for my not sharing photos of his disgusting, black, malformed toe!

2. Six Days for our Nebraska Trip

You can click here to read about our trip to Nebraska.

3. Music Practice

We took our keyboard and two violins with us to continue music practice while on the road because the children had an upcoming recital as soon as we would return and competition season very fast upon us.

4. Reading

This week, I finished "The Brave Learner" by Julie Bogart. The negatives: She does not present a Christian worldview, so I disagree with her about the value of obedience. Also, she is more of an unschooler at heart, which is not my bent. The positives: A whole lot! There is so much inspirational and refreshing in this book, much to give a homeschooler a boost. She is also realistic (especially in the latter part of the book), not a pie-in-the-sky idealist.

And in God's perfect timing, I read the entirety of "As I Lay Dying: Meditations Upon Returning" by Richard John Neuhaus while on the trip to Nebraska for Grandpa's memorial. Someone had given this to me for Christmas, but the delivery was unknowingly delayed, so it showed up as a complete surprise to me a couple of days before I left for this trip whose whole theme was death. I strongly recommend this deceptively slim book of philosophy on death written by Neuhaus after his near brush with death when an undetected tumor exploded in his intestine and he underwent three surgeries and several months of recovery, as well as experienced a Near Death Experience. While it is written by a Catholic priest, it is deeply philosophical and I truly believe anyone could read it and appreciate it, even coming from a spiritual-but-not-at-all-Christian perspective. I am so enthusiastic about this book's message about how we are all dying and, in fact, begin dying from birth, I have an urge to start buying it for various friends.

I'm still in the midst of reading many books, but the latest two passionate reads are "Mother Culture" by Karen Andreola and "The Obesity Code" by Dr. Jason Fung. For read-alouds, we are almost done with "Phantom Tollbooth" and have started "Family from One End Street."

5. Miscellaneous Moments

Catching lizards before setting them free

6. Homeschool Planet

This is only my second week of using the electronic planning software Homeschool Planet and it is going well so far! I spent Christmas break learning how to use it and populating it with all our school plans through the end of the academic year, and then we used it for the first week back to school after Epiphany.

When I got back from a week in Nebraska, I went into Homeschool Planet to shift all our assignments forward.

• Simple daily tasks like "Do spelling" four days per week were removed.
• Assignments for me (Mom as teacher) like daily Latin and daily math were moved forward one week.
• Assignments for online classes (other person as teacher) that are due regardless got shifted and piled onto Friday to complete all at once by the deadline.

Even though it was my first time, the whole process for four grades took me only 15 minutes! Next week, two of my students will be in D.C. exercising their civic rights at the March for Life, so I will practice shifting their assignments ahead of time. So far, this program is very helpful!

7. Joseph's Birthday!

Joseph turned seven, but it was on a travel day so we will celebrate this coming weekend.


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