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Week 4: KEEP IT SIMPLE week wrap-up: 8/23-8/29/2010
“Keep it simple” was my positive confession this week. I guard our time; however, this week was excessively busy for my liking. A lot of running that had to be done, along with Fall sports starting; there was no way around it. Who says homeschoolers stay isolated at home and don’t get enough socialization…sheesh, not in this house! I always tell new homeschoolers who are worried about being stuck at home or socialization that they’ll soon find it’s a battle to keep the HOME in HOMEschooling!
Monday – Jadin and I had a date to the county recreation office to get him fitted for his football gear. This was a several hour outing, so we had to slip in a trip to our favorite Gift and Thrift for some great library builders and…um…(shhhhh!) DQ blizzards for the ride home. We didn’t get home until around 1pm and as our weekly theme played out, we had a few hours of “down time” (aka, quick lunch, table work lessons, kind’a a rest time) and then back out the door to tackle football practice. THANKFULLY, our football field is 5 minutes from our house with a very nice walking track around the field. Jadin is very excited about football this year and has a very good homeschooling buddy on his team too (and together they met another homeschooling boy, yep, sloooowly we’ll take over *insert evil laugh here*)
Tuesday – was our “NOT-back-to-school-day” at our house : ) It was the day those yellow school buses started heading down our road @ 7 a.m., we celebrated our freedom. I dropped the big boys off at a birthday party of another friend (they had an invasion of 8 boys, indoors, neft guns/balloons/and alotta fun). While they were partying, the little kids and I went to visit another set of friends. Yes, the kids played, but it was more of a mommy play time too. Oh the joys of a like minded sister who doesn’t flinch that I’m pregnant w/ number 5, loves to can (even though I’m not there yet, next Summer ;), already uses clothe diapers, and gives me her doubles of books in their library. Good times! Again, home in the afternoon for just a few then back out for a 3 hour tackle practice (usually just 2 hrs). Zion really enjoyed all the track walking. He logged 2 miles both nights and even ran laps because he wanted too.
Wednesday – Beautiful Wednesday! It will not seem thrilling to many but we totally enjoyed it. Our only 100% homeday all week. Nothing we “had” to run out for. No football practice either. Wednesday the kids started out their day, after a few morning chores, jumping on the trampoline for a hour. After breakfast, we watched “A Nation Adrift – A Chronicle of America’s Spiritual Heritage,” with dad. It goes through history from pre-Columbus through the 1990’s. It was a great refresher and boy could we see the 20th century with it’s blessings and where it started to go very, very wrong. It gave a lot of history on Margret Sanger and her organization Planned Parenthood, with her quest to eliminate the black race (I bet many liberals don’t even know THAT about their hero). Also the foundations of the ACLU, gag! It also gave great history from 1963 when prayer and the bible were taken out of public schools. I love being able to really teach our kids history as a family. This was followed by another hour on the trampoline and then lunch. After lunch we read several chapters in our current read aloud, the classic Peter Pan. Naomi actually dodged her nap and listened to every word of the read aloud. Then it was afternoon and the boys hit their table work, which is their math, reading, writing, and flash card part of the day. As you can tell, we flip flapped our schedule but still getting stuff done and having fun in the meantime. Zion and I went together when his work was done to pick chicken eggs. He loves the process of collecting, washing and storing eggs. Then evening was a restful one. We actually watched some of that thing called the TV. It doesn’t happen that much around here, we’re so busy reading and playing outside. The boys love their Wii too, but even that they *might* get 1 or 2 hours a week on. (Sad note, I read this week the average family watches 7 hours per day of TV. I don’t even see how that’s humanly possible. The kids and I added it up and including Wii time we *might watch 15 hours per MONTH) We did watch several episodes of “The Most Extreme” (I could totally count that as science for today) and afterwards it was time to call it a night.
Thursday – Another day out…we all trooped to the baby doctor to SEE WHAT our baby was. Drum roll please….WEHAVINGABABYITSABOY! Yes, Naomi did cry. She’d already created her “baby sister” in her heart. I explained to the boys Naomi was grieving for the sister she made. Naomi is finally warming up to the idea of another brother. We picked a name out for him, Liam Joseph, and it’s helped make him real for her. I told her “us mommies” have to love all our babies no matter what and if Jesus gave us a boy baby, than that’s what we need. I know she’ll melt when she meets him! Daddy then took us out for pizza and then the playground before he headed to work. Back home for naptime for the little ones. A few hours for the boys to get their table work done and we fit in a two more chapters of Peter Pan. Next, surprise, surprise, football practice! Those of us who were not in pads and helmets running up muddy hills, walked another two miles around the paved track with good friends : )
Friday – I had a date day out with Naomi! She needed some “us girls” time. Daddy was actually off (he took off so he could be AWAKE for our big event Saturday). Her and I did our Once-A-Month-Shopping for September. It’s nice having seasoned homeschoolers at home. I left a list for each of the boys and they went right down it completing their chores and school assignments independently. I came home to the boys outside helping daddy, a clean house and schoolwork completed on the table. Now THAT is service, whew…but years of training!
Saturday – We went to the Restoring Honor Rally in Washington, D.C.! Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, David Barton, the list goes on. It was very powerful to be there amongst so many families. Glenn said “leave your signs at home and bring your kids.” Of course, the mainstream news media will not give it good press and they’ll most likely only report 50 people were there. They’re still not sure if it was 300,000 or 500,000 people in attendance. Every detail was extremely peaceful. From waiting in the line at the Vienna metro for 3 hours, then being packed on the train like sardines, to walking with thousands of strangers with their American Flag t-shirts. It was all worth it to be amongst so many who, despite all differences, love our great country. (In addition, it was cute to see Al Sharpton’s little group of 20,000)
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I always have way to much to say after reading about your week, but a few thoughts…
My mom used to talk about the KISS method growing up. Keep It Simple, Sweetie. It's a great motto.
Love Naomi carrying her baby! Too cute. She will adore her newest baby brother.
No that it matters ;), but I really like new baby boy's name!
I can see Zion running just for the fun of it. He's got such intiative and drive.
Looks like another great week! Glad Jadin is enjoying football, I know Caleb would love to be out there with them!
I just recently found your blog by happenstance and was delighted to see you're in our area and went to the Rally! What a great here-now learning opportunity for your kids to see the importance of politics in America!
Keep up the writing! We'll be reading! Congrats also on your Little One on the way.
We just stared our family a little over a year ago (if you don't count the dog) but we know there will be many more born/adopted along the way!
Sarah
http://www.supernaturalrunner.blogspot.com