Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday.

~ 1 ~
First week of summer! Everyone home all week + all our friends still in school and no summer activities going yet = Family Togetherness Bliss. Right?

Right! It's been great having everyone home--we did a few little outings, swim team practice every day, one whole rainy day of total lounging, daily Mass a couple of sweet times, and...plenty of homeschooling! Really!

And I have to say, oh my goodness...how did I ever do this? It's so hard! Just kidding--sort of. I'm getting used to the higher level of general chaos around here again (so are JPD and MPD, which has been one of the hardest parts of this week), but it certainly is different from my relatively peaceful days with my two brown-eyed boys. Prayers and profound respect to all you full-time homeschoolers.

~ 2 ~

Want to know what we've been studying? This awesome literature/geography study. I highly recommend it. We are all loving it, and it's working well for our 6th, 5th, 3rd grader, and kindergartener too. Everyone loves it at their own level, which is so cool to see. We're reading Paddle to the Sea, which is exquisite, and working through the map that goes along with the book. JPD's busy making models of canoes, MPD's perfecting her beautiful map, KLD's in the process of re-starting her map right now, and WWD's gobbling up facts for his next go at the Geo-Bee.

Everyone's also working through their Singapore Math books, which we all seem to appreciate a bit more now that we haven't seen them in a year. It's interesting to see how Singapore meshes with the math curriculum they have in school; I'm hoping that between the two, they'll be well-prepared for middle school math.

~ 3 ~

Pray for my sweet friends who departed for China yesterday to meet the two precious children who they're adopting! It's such an exciting story! Read it and see if you can't help imagining being called to adopt a child--I know I've certainly been checking out the adoption agency website! (Don't get excited--we are old and tired and have no plans.)

~ 4 ~

So this week I've been big into reading the Nourishing Traditions cookbook that I referred to earlier this week. Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating. Please get it and tell me what you think. To me, the biggest deal has been learning about the nutritional value of real, raw milk--and conversely, the worthlessness and even toxicity of all the rest of the milk that I've been drinking all my life!

You'd think such healthful milk would be widely available in my area, where I drive by half a dozen or more dairy farms on the way to drop off the kids at school each morning. Well--not so fast--turns out it's actually illegal in my state. Here's a cool story about an independent farmer fighting back this week against Big Dairy. I like him already. (Did you know there was such a thing as Big Dairy? Of course there is.)

~ 5 ~


Lately Bill and I have figured out our two oldest sons. Perfectly. Here it is: WWD is my dad, and JPD is Bill's dad. I don't know why I never realized it before, but it's so right on I can't even believe it. And it helps me understand my sons so much better than ever! If you know my boys in real life, don't you agree?

~ 6 ~

I need ("need" as in "want") a new camera. One that can zoom far enough and with shutter speed fast enough to get good pictures at swim meets and football games. And one that's easy to use, even for a spaz like me who can barely focus my brain, much less a camera. Any advice? Anyone love/hate their camera?

~ 7 ~

We saw this on TV tonight (Rachel Maddow show--believe me, I did not have control of the remote!). Funny video about a current event that is beyond sad...