Post #1 - 2021: January - March

Well, hello!

A couple of minor housekeeping notes before I proceed:

1. When I deleted my Instagram and Facebook accounts I had the intention of writing occasional blog posts.  I wasn't sure how often "occasionally" would be, but as my busy life plays out, I'm now thinking a casual pledge of one post every 2-3 months sounds doable.

2. Because I no longer have a social media account on which to share photos and videos, you can probably expect my blog posts to be very picture and video heavy.

Now, with that out of the way, I will dive right in --

Off Social Media

I deleted both my facebook and instagram accounts during the second week of January. In case you are wondering what that is like and how it is going, I'm happy to report that I haven't had a single regret.  It's been a huge relief  as it has alleviated much anxiety and eliminated much distraction.  I am so absolutely busy with so many other things that I can't even remember how I had to time to scroll through those feeds in the first place!

I fully understand that not everything about social media is bad, but I think most of it is.  It may be true that I gave up a few positive things, but I removed far more negative things. I have been very happy to be off.

January - The New Year

In January, Elijah turned 14 on the Feast of Epiphany and Isabelle turned 6 on January 29th.  

  

Elijah received a wood whittling kit for his birthday. Isabelle received far too many things, the most notable being a new bicycle.  Elijah hasn't had much success with the whittling yet, but he hasn't given up.  He has spent many long hours practicing in the garage and getting a feel for his carving knives.  He has come close to producing some tall gnome-like figures, but seems to have an unfortunate tendency to slice off their noses.  Isabelle has had no issues at all with her bike.

I don't really make resolutions for the New Year, but I do keep a few things in mind that I want to improve on.  This year it was things like: learning some Latin with my kids, learning how to braid my girls' hair, improving my knitting skills, learning how to sew skirts, and teaching Isabelle how to read.  It being March now, I can tell you that some of these things are going great and others are, well... I haven't attempted to braid hair even once yet.

Co-op

You might remember that in October I joined a group of homeschooling moms in putting together a Latin co-op for our children.  We hired a young woman who speaks Latin and it was all really very wonderful for a couple months, until she had to suddenly move away due to a family emergency.  Our Latin co-op had to end but one of the moms, without missing a beat, transformed our Thursday afternoon Latin meetings into Thursday afternoon P.E.  For many Thursdays, we gathered our boys together and put them to work doing very physically demanding jobs.  One week they moved bales of hay; another they dug ditches; another they removed a row of shrubs; another they shoveled and moved rocks.  When a homeschooling family in our community suffered the tragic loss of a shed due to a fire in the middle of the night, our group of boys was there to remove the debris.  

It was just as fantastic as Latin.  Really it was.  But that, too, came to an end because track season began.  The same doesn't-miss-a-beat mom put together a homeschool track team.  She coaches them twice a week.  At first my boys didn't want to do it, but they were willing to give it a try and they ended up loving it.  I don't think they love running, but they do love moving their bodies outside in the fresh air and warm sunshine with their best friends.

Yes, I said it: friends!  We have friends!  For the first time since we moved back to Idaho a-year-and-a-half ago, I feel like we found "our people" and have a group of friends that we cherish.

Parish Mission

On the weekend of February 5th, 6th, and 7th, we had the pleasure and great grace of having a mission come to our little parish.  Fr. Alphonsus of the Redemptorist Fathers came for the weekend.  Friday night, he said Mass and gave some talks on confession.  On Saturday, he began hearing confessions early in the morning, then gave a series of talks all day with Mass and Rosary and Holy Hour in between, and then he heard confessions again for the rest of the evening.

On Sunday, after Mass, he heard confessions for the rest of the day.  The point and purpose of his mission was the Sacrament of Penance. He wasn't hearing just regular confessions, but general confessions, which entails confessing all the sins of one’s past life. I was profoundly grateful to have the opportunity to make a general confession!

Knitting

One of things I have replaced my social media time with is knitting.  As I mentioned before, I have the vague "resolution" to expand my skills.  Stepping out of my comfort zone, I knit an adorable skirt for Abigail... but she never wants to wear it.

In the past month, I have pumped out three sets of matching newborn socks and hats.  I have a few pregnant friends that I will be gifting them to.

Most of my knitting happens when I am listening to something, usually either an audiobook or the Bible in a Year podcast.  As I write this, I am on day 71.  I haven't missed a day yet!  

The first audiobook I listened to was A Tale of Two Cities.  The second was Pollyanna.  I'm still trying to choose my next one.

Anja has also been learning how to knit.  This was not really inspired by me, but by a friend.  One of her favorite friends is quite talented at knitting tiny toys, so Anja has been motivated to learn.  Below are photos of her first and second attempts at knitting a dishcloth.  The improvement is obvious!

Homeschooling

I'm still not enjoying homeschooling. I'm looking for some workable alternative.  

Elijah starts high school next year; we're considering Tan Academy at home for him, but we put Anja, Oliver, and Isabelle into a lottery for a chance to attend a local charter school with a classical curriculum.  If their names aren't drawn, I guess we'll just keep struggling to get through.

In the meantime, I've been reading a tremendous amount of books about the Montessori method of education and I'm understanding it better and better.  I have been implementing many of Dr. Montessori's philosophy into my schooling with Isabelle and it's been going really well.  I've especially had fun learning how Montessori teaches math.  Isabelle caught on to the "golden beads" remarkably fast.  We both have a lot of fun playing the bank game together.

I'm also using Dr. Montessori's method for Language Arts.  Remember one of my vague "resolutions" is to teach Isabelle to read? She's doing okay, but she seems to have hit a dead end.  Although she is a champ at phonics and can manage to sound out simple 3-letter words, she still struggles to blend and can't seem to memorize a single sight word.  I just keep practicing, playing games, reviewing, and waiting for it all to click.

We are having a lot of fun, though.  I came across a book that beautifully blends together the Montessori and Classical approaches to education.  Reading it has inspired me to be more intentional about art and music.  I don't know anything about music so I assumed that I couldn't teach music to my children, but I think I was wrong.  Right about the same time that I was feeling inspired, some friends of ours moved away and didn't want to take their piano with them.  We gratefully took it in and now all of the kids have enjoyed becoming familiar with the instrument and watching instructional videos to learn how to play simple songs.  

I already had (but had never used) a set of hand-bells for the twins, so we brought those out of the storage closet and now we're all learning some basics of music theory together.

We've also been doing a lot of simple "how to draw" tutorials.  There are many free step-by-step guidelines available online. I was able to print a whole collection and slip them into plastic sleeves for protection. I decided to incorporate elements of our faith into our drawings, so a story goes with each page.  For example, on the "how to draw a lion" page, there is the story of Daniel in the lion's den.  There is also a dove, a fish, an ark, a sheep, church buildings, etc.  It enables us to talk about Scripture while we are learning how to draw simple shapes.

Snow!

During the second week of February it snowed a lot.  It's one of the first times I can remember that the kids experienced a large snowfall, and they were able to play in it for several days in a row.  I think we had at least four days of nothing but playing in the snow.  It was fun! (But I'm glad it's over!)

 

Chickens!

Some other friends of ours (other than the piano people) also moved away and they needed to re-home their chickens.  It's a small flock of 7 one-year-old speckled Sussex, and they come with a cute coop.  I said YES PLEASE.

They are the sweetest chickens.  Okay, so my experience with chickens is admittedly very limited.  But these are sweet chickens.  They are friendly and vibrant and fun, but also mellow and easy.  I have a low-hanging birdfeeder in the backyard that the chickens love to eat seeds out of.  They love to go digging in the compost. I just love to watch them strut and scratch and peck around, and to hear their soft clucking as they explore the yard.  It sounds weird, but I just love these happy hens!  They bring a lot of joy, a lot of poop, and wonderful eggs to our backyard.

That is All

If you want to see pictures more regularly, you can go to my flickr page.

If you want to see what I'm reading, I do update my goodreads.

I'll be back to post again in May or June!