Grace. That is the word of the week. At some point between Sunday and Monday, I was INCREDIBLY contaminated with something on my long intolerance list. It could have been a new hair product or breakfast on Sunday, or coffee from Starbucks on Monday, or a combination of any of the above. Whatever it was...knocked me flat for three days. TKO. It was ugly. And this week was already behind because Monday JK woke up vomiting, so we focused on our "homeschool lite" schedule. (Reading, writing, arithmetic.) And then Tuesday through Thursday was a bust because I was down for the count. Not good.
Today, Friday, was the first day I've been fully upright and functional as a mom, teacher, and just human. Every day we managed to do something, but not everything needed. So in the final week of our first Trimester, we are behind. Honestly, I'm just grateful it's at the end of the trimester and not the beginning! We are going into a 5 week break, so while I'm not thrilled about doing school right now, I'm not totally stressed over it either. We'll slowly get through it the next few days before Thanksgiving hits. I will say praises to God for watching over my children when I was recuperating. Those three days, I slept a LOT. The boys? They played quietly, gently, and really well together. For three days straight. I didn't break up one fight or argument. Now if that doesn't say something about God's Grace, I don't know what does! Thank you Lord!
But today we're back on the wagon and getting some stuff done! We caught up on math and are almost caught up on our literature, copywork, and history. To celebrate, we spent the afternoon on a suburban nature walk. A local friend had mentioned that she had some oak trees in her front yard, so we went to collect leaves and acorns. We're doing a comparison on white and red oaks and their different shaped leaves and acorns. But while we were there, we found some other treasures.
Today, Friday, was the first day I've been fully upright and functional as a mom, teacher, and just human. Every day we managed to do something, but not everything needed. So in the final week of our first Trimester, we are behind. Honestly, I'm just grateful it's at the end of the trimester and not the beginning! We are going into a 5 week break, so while I'm not thrilled about doing school right now, I'm not totally stressed over it either. We'll slowly get through it the next few days before Thanksgiving hits. I will say praises to God for watching over my children when I was recuperating. Those three days, I slept a LOT. The boys? They played quietly, gently, and really well together. For three days straight. I didn't break up one fight or argument. Now if that doesn't say something about God's Grace, I don't know what does! Thank you Lord!
But today we're back on the wagon and getting some stuff done! We caught up on math and are almost caught up on our literature, copywork, and history. To celebrate, we spent the afternoon on a suburban nature walk. A local friend had mentioned that she had some oak trees in her front yard, so we went to collect leaves and acorns. We're doing a comparison on white and red oaks and their different shaped leaves and acorns. But while we were there, we found some other treasures.
Our dear friend Ms. Georgia introduced us to Matrix pansies, HUGE burr oak acorns, and yaupon holly berries! Her two grown boys are Boy Scouts, so she is familiar with the bouncy, chatty, dirty little mugs I brought with me. Thank you Ms. Georgia for hosting us today and always encouraging me in my motherhood. You are SUCH a blessing to our family!
Afterwards we headed to a local park to throw rocks in the creek. I absolutely love this place because it is just gorgeous. But at the top of the falls (pictured), there is a good 20 foot drop into the water. My anxiety gets the best of me here herding two monkeys, so we didn't stay long.
Goodness they are cutie pies! My silly willy (left). My contemplative observer (right).
I can only get them to give me good genuine smiles when I say things like, "At the count of 3 everyone say 'turtle toots'!" Of course they crack up and that cheesy Lifetouch smile disappears. #sneakymommy But I love this shot. Dirty fingernails, glue in my eldest's hair from our craft earlier today, holes in their jeans, smudged faces...such a perfect capture of who they are right at this point in life.
After we got home, we laid out all our treasures and recorded some of them in our nature journals. This will likely be a two part process since we were too close to dinner to finish. B is a little young still, so I sketch out a few items and he colors them in (right). JK drew a few of his favorite things and will likely complete them this weekend (left). Considering how the week started, I would say we REALLY needed to end our week on a high note. I'm glad we took advantage of the nice fall weather!
JK drew his yaupon berries and leaves, matrix pansy, a snail shell, burr oak acorn, and a hitchhiking roly poly.
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