I Miss Homeschooling, Part 2

Back in January, when I was wistful for homeschooling (when am I not?), I promised to share my top ten things I don't miss about homeschooling. It's important to be balanced about these things, right? :) Without further ado, here are the things I don't miss...

10) When we were homeschooling, my house was impossibly cluttered with kids' work, toys, gear--just STUFF. And since I'm outnumbered 5 to 1 around here, I felt powerless in the face of all that stuff! Now at least I can pick up a little when they're at school.

9) One child's tantrum--any child's--could de-rail the whole day. That's all I'm going to say about that.

8) Figuring out how to motivate my precious little students, who may or may not have been self-motivated on any given day, was really hard for me.

7) I don't miss constantly feeling inadequate because I was trying to do 3 or 4 full-time jobs.

6) The holy grail of one-on-one time with each child was ridiculously elusive. Of course that is still the case when they're in school, but I do get lots of time with the little ones, which is so sweet and satisfying.

5) On one hand, it was frustrating to never have time for any of my own projects, such as cooking (nice cooking, that is), exercise, writing, or anything for me. On the other hand, though, homeschooling was my own project, and I liked it better than all that other stuff!

4) Homeschooling was not so great for my marriage. Not that it was terrible, or anything, but there were many days when Bill came home full of news to share and I was way too tired to fully appreciate said news. Without homeschooling, of course, I absolutely hang on his every word each night when he comes home. :)

3) I hated never being able to do anything exactly the way I wanted to, either in homeschooling or in the rest of my life. There was almost always a huge gap between my (ridiculously unrealistic) expectations of how a lesson or a day would go, and how it actually turned out. Good for my humility, that!

2) My Mommy AD&D--also known as utter failure to complete a thought or a task without getting distracted--reached frightening levels on some days. I won't think or say too much here about whether being a 40-something homeschooling mom had anything do to with that!

And...my #1 least missed thing about homeschooling (if you're a Mom, I know you'll agree!!)...

1) Sibling Bickering!! Just shoot me!!

Now, I know that there's a solution for each of these 10 items. In fact, I'm always collecting solutions to them! And the big question, of course, is whether the Ten Favorite Things outweigh the least favorite things, not to mention the availability of other appealing options for each student, financial considerations, etc., etc. This is quite a timely topic around here right now, as I'm very prayerfully trying to discern discern discern what to do for school next year! As with each year, I change my mind every week. :)

Friday Quick Takes

Joining Jen at Conversion Diary for Quick Takes Friday!

~ 1 ~

Last Sunday, when rushing out with WWD and MRD, I (stupidly) backed the van--hard--into the garage door. The car was unscathed, but the garage door was really mangled. As in, could-not-close mangled.

I expected the worst. But the garage door fixer man was able to bend it back into shape, put the broken wheel back on the runner, and get it back (almost) good as new inside of 20 minutes and inside of $100. Well inside of $100.

What a happy ending to a very unhappy situation. Must drive more carefully!

~ 2 ~

For some reason, this week has been more peaceful than usual around here. And I think I know the reason: my Lenten resolution to get up (at least) 30 minutes early. Once the day gets off to a good start, I am much less stressed, I accomplish more, so I'm calmer at the end of the day when they are home. We've been on time for everything, calm bedtimes, I've cut down on caffeine...it's all good. Amazing!

~ 3 ~

This week JPD's teacher sent me an email expressing her amazement at my son's brilliance. No, really. :) They're working on geometry, and she says she was "blown away" by some of the shapes he created.

Perhaps we have an engineer in the family (channeling his Grandpa Lee, possibly?), if we can only keep him from getting kicked out of preschool for throwing snowballs at the recess teacher! I love you JPD!

~ 4 ~

Have you been following the Pioneer Woman this week? She's everywhere! I occasionally like to go check out her blog, which is full of great food, inspiring photography, a touch of homeschooling, and funny, funny writing.

She's been on a book tour of late, promoting her new cookbook which is comprised of a bunch of her recipe blog posts, with cool step-by-step pictures of each recipe. And this week she was on Good Morning America and Fox and Friends in the morning (no, of course I don't watch those shows; I watched the segments from the links on her blog!).

If you're not familiar with her blog, check it out; I'd love to know what you think. I think a lot of things about it, mostly that it's incredible that she has the time for all that recipe/photography stuff along with (alleged) homeschooling! What am I doing wrong here?! :)

Also, after reading her blog for a while and based on her writing style, I was shocked by how she seemed in person on TV. Not what I expected AT ALL. (Especially shocking was her Ethel Merman impersonation!!!) Read the blog first, then watch the links of the shows, and let me know what you think. SO different! Weird, no?

Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps this isn't so weird. Maybe people who have the gift of the written word rarely have the simultaneous gift of volubility. What do you think? Know anyone who's a great writer and a great extemporaneous speaker? Do you think they're kind of mutually exclusive--you know, different Myers-Briggs types and all that? Hmmmm...must think about this idea.

~ 5 ~

I should really begin potty-training MPD, who is so ready. In theory at least, I do believe the Montessori thinking that earlier (within reason of course) is better, and that the sensitive period for this is 18 - 24 months. In theory. But I've never gotten it to go smoothly in practice, and 33 months seems to be the best timing around here. But MPD really, really seems ready, no doubt due to being surrounded by big kids and wanting to be like them in all things. MPD's mom, however, is not so ready. Sigh...

~ 6 ~

Bill is making great progress on painting the basement. It started out to be just painting the two walls that will be behind anchored-to-the-wall-for-safety bookcases, so that we wouldn't have to *ever* move those bookcases. Now the project has grown, as projects do, to include the entire basement, even all the baseboards and woodwork. Once it's done, which should be pretty soon--I'm hoping before Easter?--we can finish unpacking the last of the boxes, and see all our books and toys again. Funny that we can live without those toys for months and not even miss them, isn't it?

~ 7 ~

Here's what's going on around here this morning...mixing Transformers and Playdoh. Don't you wish you were here?!



And now, February, BEGONE!

Retro Thursday

Speaking of regular Thursday posts, I've been remiss on my Retro Thursday photos-from-bygone-years posts.
For today, here's ME, about to have MPD two years ago! Wow!

Small Success Thursday

I haven't had a Small Success post in a while, but today was so great I just couldn't resist. Without further ado...

1) Finally, I made some serious progress unpacking our filing and paperwork. Four boxes worth, and lots of badly-needed filing organization. I feel so much better!

2) Our broken-washine-machine ordeal is over, as of today. I made it through the whole washer-less week without getting behind on laundry--loving that laundromat! I have the whole routine down so well now that I'm almost sad that I won't be doing the laundromat thing anymore for now. It's peaceful there, know what I'm sayin'?

3) Our 35-year-old dining room chairs have been getting wobbly and close-to-broken. Also, the edges of the table were all banged up and chipped. Tuesday this week I finally got a furniture repair guy over to fix all of that. Hooray! Good as new (well, almost). Funny how the new dining room makes the old furniture ever so much more worth keeping.

4) ROCKING Lent! Daily Mass and Rosary every day this week. Waking up earlier is *awesome*; I'm so, so thankful!

Check out Faith and Family Live! for more Small Successes!

Another Good One for Lent

"Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others."

~ St. John of the Cross

Lenten Disciplines

"I have jotted down in my notebook my lenten resolutions, but I want to confirm them here. I must truly renew my life, and it is God whom I ask in all simplicity to transform me. I want to live interiorly more spiritually, exteriorly more gently and lovingly so as to make God better loved, who is the beginning and end of my spiritual life. More than ever I want to hide in the heart of Jesus my good works, my prayers, my self-denial, to preach only through example, to speak not at all of myself and little of God, since in this sad world one only gives scandal or annoys others by showing one's love for God. But whenever someone approaches me, or whenever it seems to be God's will that I should approach another, I will do so simply, very prudently, and disappear as soon as the task is done, mixing no thought of self with God's action. and should I be misunderstood, criticized, and judged unfavorably, I will try to rejoice in remembering our divine exemplar, and I will seek to be of no consequence in the esteem of others, I who am in fact so poor and little in the eyes of God."

~ Elisabeth Leseur (1914), a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway.

Arrow of Light

Last week at the Blue and Gold Dinner, we celebrated WWD's graduation from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. And Bill's graduation from being the Pack Committee Chair--hooray for Bill! :)

WWD is planning to continue on to Boy Scouts. We are lucky to have great packs in our town for both levels of Scouting, and I love that the boys get a chance to do so many fun things that they wouldn't otherwise do.

Also, of course, we're now going to be gunning for that Eagle!! :)
WWD with his best friend JH:

An Empty Cradle

"What is Holy Communion but Christ given to us, and we given to Christ, his words given to us to utter, his deeds to do, his beauty to reveal, his love to rejoice in, our littleness given to him?

"There are thousands of people with whom we come into contact who do not know Christ, who do not guess that he wants to be a brother, a lover, a child, a friend to them, who do not know that the gap, the emptiness they feel in their lives is there because God leaves it there on purpose, that they may hunger for his intimate presence, may accept the gift of himself!

"There is in every human heart, be it the heart of a man or a woman, an empty cradle, waiting for the birth of Christ to fill it. those who have him, those in whom he is born again day after day, have just this one work to do: to show the others that what they want, what they long for, is Christ."

~ Caryll Houselander

Friday Quick Takes

Lots going on around here this week, so I'm joining Jen for Quick Takes Friday:




~ 1 ~
Mayday! Mayday! BIG problems at school! I've had to let the angry mama bear out of her (deep, dark) cage, and she's not going back in any time soon. And my ever-hopeful homeschool-mama heart is going pitter-pat in a big way. That's all I'm saying, for now.

~ 2 ~
KLD decided to give up tantrums for Lent. God bless that child, and I will give her chocolate cupcakes every day until Easter in exchange for her blessed sacrifice. Go, KLD, go!

~ 3 ~
My Lenten observances, along with giving up Diet Coke OF COURSE, include getting up at least a half hour early each day. So far, so good. Why, oh why, can't I do this without Lent to motivate me? It hardly even feels like a sacrifice, because it's so nice to avoid all that morning panic. I'm hoping to inch up to an hour early a day, to get in more prayer time and maybe even some other paperwork, or exercise, or meal prep, or...
We'll see how that goes. Good thing I'm NOT giving up caffeine any time soon.

~ 4 ~
When we bought this new house, one of my very most favorite features was its spacious, light-filled, fully-decked out laundry room (with a mini-fridge, no less!). Well, this week the awesome Kenmore Elite front-loading washer just self-destructed. The repair man, who fortunately is sent over by the home warranty company, diagnosed it as a complete FAIL of the main bearing assembly that spins the washer's drum--something like a new transmission, as best I can understand it. $700, to be blunt about it. And a parts order, and a week or so.

It's a good thing I have lots of time to run around shopping for possible new washers, and measuring the matching dryer and pedestals to figure out whether we'd really have to replace everything in order to rebuild the glorious temple o' laundry that I have come to feel is my right. And it's a good thing I have even more time to hang out at the laundromat until almost midnight last night, washing all our clothes and towels and everything I could find that might need washing before next week.

And good thing I'm not giving up caffeine any time soon.

~ 5 ~
My baby is going to turn 2 in a few weeks, so naturally my thoughts are turning to...myself. (Yikes!) Now what? More babies? (Now there's a blog post in the making, I promise!) Some homeschooling? (See #1 above) :) Inch back into some sort of career, or at least some sort of something? Some of you have mentioned lately that perhaps that "something" should involve writing, which makes my heart go pitter-pat almost as much as homeschooling! So I've been writing some stuff...you know, that I haven't put on this blog yet. And I might try to learn a bit more html and so forth. You never know what I'm going to come up with next, right?

Bill, if you're reading this, I promise I'll get to cleaning out those closets and organizing our finances any minute now, really I will!

~ 6 ~
MPD has really been saying lots of little words lately and it is so darn cute. He can really get in on our conversations these days, and make his wishes quite clear! Here are some words I can think of just off the top of my head: milk, ball, truck, "right there," yes, no, me, Mary, Jack (sounds like "ssssshhack!"), boots, coat, play, all gone/done, more, cup, spoon, basketball, car, open/close door, bath, hot, dark, moon...and he understands just about everything. I love telling him to put his clothes in the laundry, or put back the bowl and get a plate, or to throw something in the garbage and seeing him perfectly understand me! What a sweetie! These first years are just so cool I never get tired of watching all the cute stuff they do. Well, maybe a bit tired--not of the cute stuff, just tired in general...good thing I'm not giving up caffeine any time soon.

~ 7 ~
Four weeks to spring break! I can't wait! (See #1 above!) Not sure what our plans are yet but I have a bit of winter cabin fever and I feel like a little family fun of some sort. We shall see; four weeks out is much farther than I typically plan things these days! One thing for certain is that I am very much looking forward to the SPRING part of the break! We're in the home stretch of winter--hooray!
(And we can't wait to see our beloved JAMIE the week before our spring break!)

Party Weekend!

JPD's party wasn't the only one we celebrated last weekend! My amazing, wonderful 10-year-old MRD had her party on Saturday morning. We took a few of her BFFs to the movies to see The Lightning Thief, which we all loved. What an easy and fun party it was!
Now she can truly be 10, because according to JPD, you turn your new age the minute that you actually blow out your candles. :)

The Baby Gianna Story, Part 4

We hope that you have been following the Baby Gianna Story (see Part I, Part II, and Part III) this week. Among the many things that we take away from this heartbreaking yet life affirming story is the critical need to keep Catholic hospitals Catholic.

Continue Reading Here.

The Baby Gianna Story Part 3

On January 9, the world changed forever because of a baby girl. I know that many of you do not know the whole story of Miracle Gianna. Many of you have been praying for her fervently- praying for her to heal, praying for her to be OK, praying for her to live.

We have all had a piece of this story, which on the outside, looks like a tragic, sad, devastating defeat. But this is not a story of defeat. This is a story of triumph- the triumph of Baptism.
Continue reading here.

Kicking off Lent with...

The Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

The Baby Gianna Story, Part 2

Rebecca had been on the fence for months over whether to abort her child as her boyfriend wanted her to. But through Jessica Chominski’s efforts and prayers, along with volunteers at the crisis pregnancy center, Rebecca made the brave decision to keep her baby. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s boyfriend upon learning that she’d chosen to keep the baby kicked her savagely and repeatedly in the stomach.

While treating her, doctors discovered fetal abnormalities in the 18-week-old fetus, including diseased kidneys and underdeveloped lungs resulting from a dearth of amniotic fluid. Despite being in a Catholic hospital, the doctor stunned them by saying that since the baby had no chance of living he recommended an abortion.

Continue reading here.

The Tale of Mr. Jackson

"Mrs Tittlemouse is “a most terribly tidy particular little mouse”, forever cleaning her house and shooing away intruders. But one day Mr Jackson, a “fat-voiced” toad, arrives and makes himself at home, lounging in the rocking chair and putting his feet on the fender. He not only refuses to leave, he scours the house for tasty morsels, spreading chaos as he goes. It takes Mrs Tittlemouse a day to clear up after him when he finally leaves."

I love EVERYTHING about this awesome article in a recent Economist about management consulting, as it affects the workings of government in the U.K. Of course, many of the accusations and insights in the article apply to both the New World and the private sector as well.

"This counterblast against consultants is largely to the good. They have frequently left devastation in their wake and have treated the public sector as dumping grounds for airy-fairy ideas such as “transformation” that have been rejected by the private sector. They have built overly elaborate management structures that make it harder for people to do their jobs. And they have demotivated people who like to feel that they are working for the public good. The government has wasted huge amounts of money on botched IT projects designed by consultants."

This article is spot on. I must, however, add the caveat that as management consulting applies to me personally, I have no complaints whatsoever. As far as my own career, that is--a lifetime ago. I can't say anything but good stuff about my 10 years at Andersen Consulting. I may not have always been happy, but that was certainly not their fault! I must say that some of my husband's cynicism and bad experience, mostly as a client of the evil Accenture, has rubbed off on me. That's all I'm sayin'.

But I LOVE the Beatrix Potter analogy. Bill and I are loving his Christmas-present subscription to the Economist--way too much reading to keep up with, but lots of great food for thought!! (Like I needed more...just fold the laundry, Kim!)

The Baby Gianna Story, Part 1

Sharing this amazing story from CMR.

Jessica Chominski fights for the lives of others. Little lives. The ones many don’t think are worth fighting for. She is the sole full time employee of the Bucks County Community Women’s Center, a crisis pregnancy center in Pennsylvania.

About once a week a woman calls or walks into the center asking about abortion and Jessica asks them why they feel the need to abort their child, she tells them about other options, explains what abortion is, and tells them about the dignity of every human life. “Hopefully they leave thinking twice,” she says.

It’s nerve-wracking work. At 24 years old, Jessica works daily under the weight that lives depend on her. Every phone call. Every conversation. And she knows that she can’t control what a woman does when she walks out of the center so she just does all she can. And when there's no more she can do she prays. But to her it’s all worth it because in the end Jessica knows, “there are babies crawling around right now because of the work we do. And that is miraculous.”

Last June Jessica's phone rang. It was the call that would change her life.

Continue reading here.

Happy 5th Birthday JPD !!!

JPD's 5th birthday has been HUGE! We celebrated yesterday with a big party and lots (way too many!) of presents.
Check out his awesome solar-system cake--all his idea and design!!







We love you so much, sweet JPD!!

Headed for Carnegie Hall?

In our house, we're lucky to have lots of music.

Getting Ready for the Winter Olympics

Loving our Wisconsin winter again today!

It was SO beautiful today--bright blue sky, fresh white snow, birds chirping ("Happy Day, Happy Day," they said, according to JPD), about 20 degrees--so we went for a stroller walk/bike ride to go skating at the park. JPD found bike riding on the icy sidewalks to be a bit slippery, but at least the wipeouts into snowbanks are fun.

And then this:





Note: No JPDs were injured during the making of this blog post!

There could be a hockey guy in my future!
And how I'm going to miss him when he goes off to kindergarten...

MPD, however, was a bit less enthusiastic, as you can see here:

He mostly wanted to stay in my arms:

And he fell asleep face-down in his stroller on the way home.
Sweet dreams, MPD!

Being Small

"Come to me, all you who toil and are overburdened, and I will refesh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart."
~ Matthew 11:28-29

There is what you have got to get hold of, brothers and sisters, and it's certainly little enough. We are striving for great things; let us lay hold of little things, and we shall be great. Do you wish to lay hold of the loftiness of God? First catch hold of God's lowliness. Deign to be lowly and humble on the same account, yours, not his own. So catch hold of Christ's humility, learn to be humble, don't be proud.

~ St. Augustine of Hippo, approx. A.D. 430