A Friday

 

Hangnails

Luke crawled in bed with me at 6am. He said his leg hurt and he wanted to go to the hospital. I gave him some ibuprofen and we snuggled for a bit. I crawled out before 6:30 to shower. Spent a little more time pampering myself than usual. As I was walking out of the bathroom before 7, Lola was calling me. Sigh. I walked up to her room and she asked, “What is that beautiful smell, Mom? I can’t know where it’s coming from.” When I lay down beside her, she smelled my arm and said, “That’s it.” I told her I had put on lotion. She said, “It’s beautiful.” I snuggled with her hoping she would go back to sleep. No such luck. I left her lying there and woke up Levi at 7:20. So much for alone time today.

I didn’t fill out my SPS or do Bible study or stay on task this morning, but it is what it is. My days are not in competition with each other.

My morning was filled with little tasks. I realized Levi was almost finished with his math program, which sent me on a rabbit trail thinking of what we needed to be doing in the next few months. (I obviously do not follow a strict lesson plan and schedule!) In order to know what we need to be doing for the next few months, I had to think ahead to next year. That set me to thinking about the Classical Conversations Challenge program, which Levi will be entering in the fall. Serious rabbit trail. I’ll have to write and share about that in a separate post. But I did order a new math program today (completely new for us, not just leveling up).

I also registered us for outdoor school in April with our distance learning program. This is our first year to attend, and Russ and I will go along with the three boys (leaving Lola with…someone, ha!).

Lola needed a nap today, so I managed to get her down and then spent some concentrated afternoon time working on lessons with the boys. Luke and I wrote a rough draft of his writing assignment. I might share it below. Levi went. to. town. on his writing assignment. I decided to let go of the reigns and let him write whatever and however he wanted as long as he was inspired. He has been writing for hours, and I don’t see an end in sight. It might end up being a book. Certainly not the three paragraph story that he was assigned. But it’s on lined paper, double spaced, with neat handwriting. I think he is up to nine pages.

Levi and Russ headed to swim practice, while the rest of us went to Costco. Then I made beef and veggie stir fry (over rice for Russ, over cauliflower fried rice for me) for dinner. I’m at the end of “paleo-ish” day 5 and feeling well—not as foggy and sluggish. Just as my 40 Days of SPS challenge came with additional benefits (most importantly, quiet time/Bible study), the 40 Days of Food comes with the additional challenge, not just of eating good food instead of junk, but of meal planning and cooking regular meals.

[I hate to cook dinner. Truth. Spending an hour or more in the kitchen cooking and more time cleaning up only to watch dinner either downed in 3 minutes or complained about is not my idea of a good time.]

So, here I sit ready for a weekend. Lola will be up for a while, so I’m thinking a tv show is in order. Yes, Netflix Streaming to the rescue.

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Cosmic Order

Wouldn’t you know it, God sent perfect words of encouragement and affirmation to me today, on a day my children woke early and things didn’t go quite as planned.

::  Hands Full of Good Things @ CiRCE

"We are profoundly skilled at being frustrated with the never-ending goodness of God. Among the blessings of God are the labors to which He has called us. For those of us laboring in Christian classical education – at home, in a school, or in some other context – we would do well to remember that, while our hands are full, they are full of good things. Nurturing the souls of students on truth, goodness, and beauty is a high calling indeed. Sure, it would be easier without students, but it would also be non-existent."

::  A Slave in My Own Kingdom @ The Rabbit Room (Inspired by The Silver Chair by CS Lewis)

“In this little house, with the front closet that’s always filling with damp and mildew, with the warped boards in the floor beside the washing machine, with the shelves spilling over with books, and the walls covered with photographs of chunky babies . . . in this place, the place where God has given me some measure of dominion, I have lived like a slave. I’ve seen every mess, every meal, every load of laundry as a link in a chain. I’ve answered endless questions and filled endless mornings and changed endless diapers as acts of penance. The Enemy is so subtle, and I am so easily bewitched. Ever he comes to “steal and kill and destroy,” and I relinquish my freedom, my authority, my joy. I let him take it all, without a fight, without a word of protest. That’s slave mentality for you.”

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A Short Story

The Peasant and the Knight (a retelling of Aesop’s The Fox and the Leopard; IEW Medieval History-Based Writing: Lesson 18)

By Luke and Heidi Scovel

Once upon a time there lived an elite knight and a lowly peasant. Near a massive castle in the English countryside, villagers were lavishly feasting to celebrate the outstanding harvest. While some villagers were dozing and some villagers were dancing, the knight and the peasant were disputing. The knight, who was clad in impeccable, embellished armor, smugly relished his superb appearance. Scornfully, he remarked on the peasant’s dilapidated cloak. Now, the peasant prided himself on his agile, muscular body, made strong by years of hard labor in the fields, but he was wise enough to know that he could not rival the knight’s appearance. The peasant chose to exercise his wits and have fun debating. The knight’s temper soon exploded. He scowled. The peasant yawned. “You may have smart armor,” the peasant rebuked the knight, “but it is better to have a smart head.”

Moral: Fine appearance does not equal an attractive mind.