Thoughts for Thursday

Not much!  My kids were sick last week and we have been doing lots of sewing and reorganizing this week, which has left meals very simple.  On Sunday I cooked meatballs early in the day so that we could sit down to a big family dinner without much effort in the late afternoon and that was great!  For tonight I just took out some chicken from the freezer, suggestions are welcome.

Baseball and Ballet are filling my weekends this month.  We have two boys playing ball and two girls dancing, so lots of different places to be and schedules to juggle.  Also, Kate’s house will be on a neighborhood house tour, so my mom is coming down to see that with me — this is so exciting, Kate has been working on her house renovations for over a year now, so this tour was a good incentive to get details finished up, and I can’t wait to steal her ideas be inspired!

For Red, she is headed to some special doctors appointments today for her little one.  I am praying that things are not more complicated and that she will have peace as she deals with the stress of appointments and a sick toddler.

Sew!  We had a sewing playdate yesterday, and the girls all made skirts, so fun and cute! I made the boys go out and play, and when the neighbor kids were all going in to play Wii, I made my boys stay outside and play with each other, that was kind of harsh, but it was the only dry break in the day and I knew that they needed to be outside.  Plus, I am so, so grateful that my middle boy (the one who is growing up) wants to play baseball, and I want these boys to get in the habit of going out for a catch together.

Not enough.  He is working late and I am so tired at the end of the day, as Clare Huxtable would say, I have nothing left to give!  Maybe I can whip up a date night for Saturday.

I just finished Catholic Home Schooling by Mary Kay Clark, the founder of Seton.  That was a good shot in the arm, since I can’t make it to a convention this year.  I am sort of reading Tom Sawyer now, but I am looking for my next good read.  I am reading more and more on Kindle which, as a family, we are all loving.

The weather!  It is sunny today, at last, but the weather has been really dark here.  Our house has lots of natural light but not enough over head lighting, so on dark days it is dark here even in the house!  In the winter I light a fire, which helps my mood quite a bit, but these last few days have really been downers.  Hoping to take a big walk in the sunshine today and be recharged!

I have been thinking about school curriculum quite a bit, and a friend gave me some first grade readers for John and Mary.  They sort of finished Kindergarten level work in January, so now they are starting first grade.  I was stressing out about getting first grade work finished so that we could start second grade in the fall, but this same friend reminded me that the beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility.  They can start second grade next January, or whenever they are ready.  It is so, so hard for me to be flexible and have faith that it will all work out, but September birthdays are not a good fit for the traditional September-June grade leveling.

To be honest, I am not thinking about too much outside of my own household day to day.  This is sort of lame, but probably okay for right now!  Maybe time to turn on some NPR news while I do the dishes!