{SQT} Third Week of Advent

1. Rorate Mass

Saturday began bright and early with a contingent of us attending the 6:30 a.m. rorate Mass, described as follows by our pastor:

"This votive Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary takes its name from the first words of the Introit: "Rorate coeli, désuper et nubes pluant justum," which is translated: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just." What is special about this Mass is that it is celebrated early in the morning using only candlelight, a reminder that the world was in darkness before the coming of the True Light of the World, Jesus Christ. As the Mass is offered, and the dawn begins to break, the Church - through the prayers of this Mass - expresses her deep longing for the coming of the Messiah in the darkness of our fallen world. It is thus a Mass that is so wonderfully suited to the Advent theme of hopeful expectation of the coming of the Christ Child."

Photo courtesy: B. Williams

I was home packing suitcases and loading the van so we could leave for Atlanta as soon as possible, which was an hour and a half later than our planned departure which, combined with the 3.5-hour trip taking 5.5 hours, made us much later than we'd hoped to the Grandparents' Christmas.

2. Saturday in Atlanta

We did arrive, however, safe and sound! Chris' mother designs the most picture-perfect Christmas in her home with Chris' father dutifully moving this here and moving that there and doing whatever needs to be done.

We enjoyed a snack of hot cocoa and appetizers, the exchanging of gifts, eating a feast of a homemade meal, and then some caroling before we had to depart for our hotel.

3. Sunday in Atlanta

In the morning, the children busied themselves with playing our newly received Payday board game, making numerous potholders on the newly received loom, and listening to me read from our latest read-aloud, "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster--a favorite from my childhood and never yet read aloud to my own children! I chose this book intentionally because it is so delightful and not at all academic that I hoped it would lure my brood back into a reading aloud family culture. Indeed, they are asking me multiple times a day, "Would you read us another chapter, Mama?!"

Then we zipped to our former home parish where John and Mary had been invited to sing with the choir that day--what a blessed joy for them! After Mass, we enjoyed lunch with the children's loving godparents.

We had just enough time to meet the grandparents for the Christmas concert of the Atlanta Master Chorale. This year, I got to attend while Chris kindly kept the three little boys outside playing.

After a quick dinner after the theater, we got back to the hotel . . . where everyone was very, very tired.

4. Movie Date

Chris and I hired a sitter and dashed out for dinner and a movie date to see "Richard Jewell." Except for one, brief immodest scene in a bar (just turn your head) and a little bit of rough language by cops, it was a good, clean, crime movie and an important reminder about how an overreaching government can easily ruin any one of our lives.

5. Preparations

Getting back to my prayer life, disjointed lately . . . purchasing final Christmas gifts . . . putting up exterior Christmas lights . . . housecleaning . . . visiting with my baby goddaughter . . . planning holiday menus . . . attempting to resume any exercise at at all . . . battling terrible insomnia . . . running on fumes . . .

6. Miscellaneous Moments

Joseph (almost 7) lost his first and second teeth in one week!

7. Christmas Music for Seniors

The oldest four performed with other homeschoolers playing Christmas music for seniors in a nursing home. It was a jolly time and the elderly seemed to love it.

A contingent of us have been experiencing some illness, so pray for us that it is all passed by the time Christmas comes! If God allows otherwise, then it will be one of a good handful of Easter and Christmas feast days when we've celebrated ill and in our PJs!

David asleep from sickness,
Mama asleep from taking care of him for three days

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

{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!

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

{SQT} First Week of Advent

1. Family Visit Concludes

We had such a blessed week of my aunt and cousin visiting! On Saturday, everyone raced to do their morning chores and music practice in order to be ready for our afternoon family movie ("The Fighting Sullivans"--highly recommended for ages zero to 100+, bring Kleenex) with popcorn. We played war board games, and the children climbed trees outdoors and then measured their progress using my landscaping measuring tape ("Hey, Mama, I beat so-and-so's record by climbing 40 feet high!").

After dinner, we drove to look at Christmas lights and prayed our family rosary on the drive to Dairy Queen to celebrate Mary's baptismal anniversary. Such a fun, simple outing!

2. Advent Decorations

To my mom friends in the early years . . . just keep doing your traditions and trust that the tremendous effort you are putting in (with no big helpers yet) is so well worth it. Now that I have 11- and 13-year-olds, I can say, "Honey, please go up to the attic and get the Advent box. Then set everything up. You know how I do it."

And they love doing it! (Also, my decorations have become very simplified over the years.)

3. Scottish Ceilidh for the Feast of St. Andrew

Our Charlotte Latin Mass Community sponsored a Scottish ceilidh dance to celebrate the feast of St. Andrew. It was a delight to see all ages dancing together!

Mary got to wear a vintage crocheted blouse that was her grandmother's when she was a girl, making this darling piece about 80 years old!

4. John's 13th Birthday

We have our first teenager in the house!

5. Feast of St. Nicholas

My 11-year-old baked gingerbread cookies last Saturday and froze them for the following Friday because I don't have time to bake during the school week.

While it may look like I then allowed my four-year-old to decorate said cookies--what are they? happy ghosts and rocket ships?--I have to take all the credit.

I also ruined the entire batch of fun pancakes on the morning of St. Nicholas (with unblended and too much baking powder, causing numerous of us almost to vomit), such that I had to throw the batch away and have everyone eat cold cereal.

Morning fire and discovery of shoes

6. Zeppelin the Bird

On Wednesday, John noticed throughout the afternoon a tiny bird hopping around our yard and remarked several times that there was a bird who could not fly. So, when he showed up with a bird in his hand, we were not entirely surprised.

Indeed, the bird's right wing was injured, so we kept it safe in a little bird house we made for three days while trying to figure out how to help it.

Identifying the bird

Contacting two wildlife rehabilitation centers and awaiting slow responses, we finally learned that we were to drive it to safety at the rehab location in Indian Land.

Returning Zeppelin

Returning Zeppelin

7. Miscellaneous Moments

Alternative to 6:00 a.m. cartoons to allow Mama some time to drink coffee and do morning chores in peace: allow the little boys to tie butcher's string all over like a spider web! They had so much fun.

I love this age of almost 7 when the child begs to be allowed to do the weekly chores independently just like the big siblings. It will be a while yet before the seemingly inevitable collapsing with 'broken legs' and whining about chores begins, and then my tactics will have to change. For now, I celebrate!

When I asked David (28 months) which stuffed animals he wanted to sleep with at naptime, he filled his arms with all five, staggering into the bed while exclaiming, "Dee-Dee's favorites!"

Thomas (4): "I'm not tired, Mama! I'm going to stay awake and build Lincoln Logs during Quiet Time!"

Little guy didn't even last long enough to build one cabin . . . and we'll always wonder how that one Lincoln Log landed on his face.

An eight-year-old lovely girl knitting with her doll while snuggled under quilts on a chilly winter day.

We made the Bill of Rights lapbook for TAN's Story of Civilization this week, but I simplified the instructions even more than for a true lapbook.

On the night I had to stay up late and place my grocery order, I was falling fast asleep by eight o'clock, so I asked the two girls if they wanted to keep me company and help me do the meal planning. They were thrilled and said, "Just wait here and take a nap for ten minutes! Then we will come get you!" I came downstairs to hot tea waiting for me and decorations of Our Lady's statue surrounded by candles in the shape of a rosary. That was a pick-me-up!

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