Sweetening the Deal (and a Yarn Along)


Sometimes you've gotta exercise the freedom that homeschool gives you a little bit.  Just to remind you of the reasons you do it and just sorta because you can.  It sure does sweeten the deal for the littles and I ain't above reminding them of that.  So today, rather than returning to the lessons like the rest of the kids around here are doing on this finally hot and sunny day, we waved at the neighbors trucking away on the school bus and did this:






This photo may have been awesome had I actually managed to get his full face in it.







I don't remember ever wearing goggles while swimming when I was younger.  These kids act like they will go blind if they don't wear them if their eyeballs are less than two feet from the water.




David was so so so proud to ditch the swimmies and "only" be wearing a vest.

Just because we can.
Next week we'll start the lessons back up again.  I did do a (very) little over summer since we had so many cool and rainy days but not a whole lot.  I'm trying to get my motivation back and get my bottom back in gear.  It helped that yesterday I printed out the new daily routines for each of the older three along with new chore expectations...all laminated and hanging to get all of us ready.  I even did my monthly meal plan while I was at it which made me feel all sorts of on top of things.  The curriculum plans have already been tweaked a bit before we even started which is pretty much just par for the course, I suppose.  
And that's enough school talk for one day.

How about knitting and reading talk instead?

weirdest internet pic you'll see all day

I'm still working on my placenta to use as a teaching aid with my clients.  The first one I knit using this pattern came out so small (there would have been an immediate induction ;) and did not look realistic enough for my taste.  So I ended up just knitting a circle using this tutorial, adding a few edge rows once it was the size I wanted and then just decreasing in the exact same way as the increases for the first side.  It turned out so much better.  I used old yarn to stuff it and now I've got to figure out how best to knit a umbilical cord.  You can see that picked up eleven stitches at the end of the placenta and started knitting tube in some white and blue but I'm not sure I like it.  I may end up doing a separate artery and vein using two I-cords and sheathing them somehow in something sheer.  Sort of like this.  Wow, this is probably the weirdest thing you've read all day, isn't it?  Anyway, that's my placenta that will be used along with my uterus for my clients.

I've been reading Fill These Hearts by Christopher West the past few weeks and it is a definite must-read.  This has the capacity to be one of those change-your-life types of books, I think.  His writing is so relatable and so profound.  I highly recommend it.  My favorite part, one that seemed to be speaking directly to me was when he discussed being "trained by longing" and the "dilation of the heart."  He quotes extensively from Augustine and Teresa of Avila and other great minds of the Church to clearly present the goodness of desire and the longings of our hearts, all in accord with the Theology of the Body.  You should read it.  Really.

And that's it.  Adorable children, school talk, knit placentas, life-changing reading...what more could you ask for?

Head on over to Ginny's for more Yarn Along.



5 comments

  1. Play that homeschool card! And I had the exact same thought about goggles the other day -- I never used them; my kids can't swim without them. Is chlorine stronger these days? Weird.

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    1. I know! And my mom even has a saltwater pool and it doesn't hurt at all! Why are my kids' eyes so wimpy??

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  2. That's exactly why we are on vacation this week instead of back to school...because we can! I have some fun field trips planned for next week, then we'll hit the books on the 15th.

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  3. ugh, that pool looks glorious! we have only gone swimming once this year :(

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  4. Haha, playing the card had me laughing over here. Love all the photos! So great! Your placenta is amazing. I have yet to decide its amazingness solely being because it's knit (mad-skill) or because it's a placenta. I'm thinking both! Glad you found such a good read. The life-changing ones are always helpful!

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