Learning Update: Sept 4

This past week was a lesson in "theory vs reality."

We started last week with outside classes on Tuesday and then didn't get much done beyond that. We did manage a hike on Saturday - does that count toward science if no one is doing natural science? Something to think about.

Last week was supposed to be a gradual moving into the full schedule. Instead, the girls spent time at the barn soaking in as much barn time as they could before school started in earnest. Isabel and Lucas each went to work with Frank one day; the joy of self-employment. Not a lot of class work being done, but that is ok.

So, a final list of classes for each and here's hoping for more reality and less theory this coming week.

Isabel - 11th
Algebra 2 - Saxon
Marine Biology - Apologia at Pilgrims Progress Academy co-op
Early US History - Easy Peasy HS at Pilgrims Progress Academy co-op
Geography - Study US States using Alphabet Books
American Literature - Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Gold Book
Grammar - Read Eats, Shoots and Leaves; Editor in Chief - C
Understanding the Scriptures - Didache
Teen Personal Finance - Spiritual Cents - Faith and Finances for Teens
Outside activities: 4-H, daily babysitting for morning and afternoon bus duty, horse riding

Julianne - 9th
Algebra 1 - Saxon
Biology - Kolbe syllabus at St Gregory's co-op
Early US History - Easy Peasy HS at Pilgrims Progress Academy co-op
Geography - Study US States using Alphabet Books
American Literature - Sonlight book list for US History
Grammar/Writing - Rod & Staff 9/10
Introduction to Catholicism - Didache
Outside activities: 4-H, horse riding, work with Frank a couple days a month. Also looking for a regular weekly art program

Lucas - 6th
Math 76 - Saxon
General Science - Apologia at Pilgrims Progress Academy co-op
Anatomy & Physiology - Apologia at St Gregory's co-op
US History - Sonlight
Geography - Study US States using Alphabet Books
Literature - Sonlight with History program
Grammar - Winston Grammar
Spelling - All About Spelling
Handwriting - lots of practice and copying
Bible Study - God's Merciful Love - Image of God Series
Minn of the Mississippi - Rabbit Trailing at St Gregory's co-op
Outside activities: Boy Scouts, Karate

We should have ourselves a great year!

Salesian Sunday: September 2

True devotion does better still. It not only does no injury to one's vocation or occupation, but on the contrary adorns and beautifies it. All kinds of precious stones take on greater luster when dipped into honey, each according to its color. So also every vocation becomes more agreeable when united with devotion. Care of one's family is rendered more peaceable, love of husband and wife more sincere, service of one's prince more faithful, and every type of employment more pleasant and agreeable.

Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 1, Ch 3

It has been a while since I sat and found a quote to ponder for the week. I found this quote in my book. Each time I read this book, I use a different color to underline certain parts and make notes. This quote is quite colorful.

Some of my notes from my book to keep in mind this coming week:

 * I do not have to be a Religious to be devout!
 * If my devotion takes me away from my vocation as wife and mother, it is not for me.
 * With the right devotion, I will be a better wife and mother.
 * I am unique and my devotion will be as well, don't think I have to do what everyone else does.
 * My devotions should enhance my vocation, not take away from it.

Basically, if I am participating in a devotion; ie: Praying the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, whatever. and I am interrupted and start screaming at my children to "leave me alone, can't you see I am praying?!" (um, yes, that may have been something that has happened before) I need to rethink something; either my devotion, my timing of the devotion or my actions.

I need to remember St Francis would stop writing in the middle of a word if interrupted to give his undivided attention to someone. I think I should be a bit more patient with interruptions from my children. 

And -  that is my goal this week.

7QT - Calendars, Meals, and Planning, Oh My!

September 1st is tomorrow.  WHAT!?

Classes started this week for us. I am drowning in my ideas about schedules and plans. I finally got September planned for the house and food.

If I don't plan meals ahead of time, we tend to eat one of two things: pancakes or hamburg stroganoff.  Or worse: we do take-out. Frank is sick of both the cooking choices and our budget is sick of the other choice. With being out of the house 2 days each week for outside classes, and trying to keep up with laundry and dishes, meal planning is a must. It is also important for me to have the house as clutter free and clean as reasonably possible; I do not do visual clutter well - at.all!

So, my September meal plan in 7 quick takes (linking up with Kelly, as usual) (house plans may be in another later post)

1

The whole enchilada. 

In our downstairs hallway we have the "command center" I set this up a while ago. It seems to be working pretty good. (maybe because it is on the wall directly from the downstairs bathroom door, EVERYONE sees it all the time!) Because I am cheap frugal, I hung clipboards on the wall. Some of the clipboards have charts which are laminated so we can use dry-erase pens to check off accomplishments. Each clipboard is for a different thing.
Clockwise starting top left corner:
1. Daily Chore Chart,
2. Monthly calendar,
3. "Catch-all" Clipboard, currently holding the Marine Boot Camp Matrix so we can see the main thing our son is doing on any given day;
4. Menu with shopping lists and recipes;
5. Weekly Chore Chart.
This is the place where the crew can go to see what needs to be done, what is going on, and where we need to be on any given day.

2

The calendar. 

Each person has a color. The dry erase markers on the top have the name of the person that color belongs to. This new magnet system is new. I made an excel sheet of the most common and frequent events and printed it on magnet paper: I LOVE THIS STUFF! Anything new to add can be written on a blank color magnet, or just put down in appropriate color. If it ain't on the calendar, I cannot guarantee it will happen (of course if it is on the calendar, it could get missed as well!)
This needed to be filled in before the next step could take place...

3

The menu: Part 1

I looked through the calendar and figured out which days we would need something quick and easy and which days I could make something a bit more involved. I searched the internet for some new recipes for my slow / pressure cooker (this one was a gift from my Mom and Dad this past Christmas: game changer) I then filled in the blanks trying to make sure I didn't have 2 days in a row of the same protein source: poultry, beef, pork, seafood. (yes, I do like color-coding, thank you for asking.) I did make all Fridays seafood.

4

The menu: Part 2

I sat with the kiddos still here with us and asked them for ideas for breakfast, lunch and snack. The goal is to bake something for breakfast and have eggs with it, as well as a set lunch and afternoon snack each day. I am hoping having this planned will help with more balanced eating and help with the budget as well. No more running to the store for something quick and walking out with a receipt that says I spent $50 for a quick lunch or snack!

5

The menu: part 3

After the lists were made, I filled in my weekly menu plan to put on the board at the Center. I added a starch and veggies for each main meal trying to make sure, again, I didn't duplicate starches or veggies two days in a row. Notes on the bottom to remind me to make something the day before or whatever.

6

Shopping: Part 1

I went through all the main course meals and made a list of all the ingredients, whether I thought I knew we had it or not. This gave me a main ingredient list to go by when preparing:

7

Shopping: Part 2

The weekly shopping list for the menu the following week. I love this list. I have it on a clipboard. This lets me clip the coupons I might have to it. It makes it easy to mark what I need and the children know to check off anything they want me to get the next time I go shopping. If it is not on the list, I will forget to buy it.

And there it is, September meal plans in a nutshell.

Now to head over the Kelly's to check out other Quick Takes

Learning Update - The First Day

The First Day

Well, fortunately, our first day consisted of attending classes at a new to us co-op. Lucas is taking General Science, Isabel is taking Marine Biology and US History, and Julianne is taking US History. 

When asked in the car how the classes went: 

Lucas: My science class was great! I like the teacher, it was fun.

Isabel: They were good

Julianne: It was good

I will take that as a win!

We got home and since I am STILL working on schedules and trying to get a bunch of phone calls and plans done, what was done in co-op was the only thing done.

I have mediocre hopes for tomorrow. Really don't want to set the bar too high too early. 

Once I get the schedules done and totally nail down what we will be doing, I will try to remember to update the classes and resources for this year.

A mid-August 7QT - Reasons

7 Thoughts on blogging and the reasons for doing so after so much time. And a way to organize my thoughts and ideas for this little space.

1. I miss it. There, I said it. It is true. I am not a writer by nature so this one came as a surprise. But I do miss the sorting my thoughts on paper, or the computer screen as the case may be.

2. We have a daughter who now lives 705 miles away. This will help keep her in the family loop, we miss her!

3. Our son left for boot camp this week. He will be gone for 13 weeks with only letter contact with us. I am hoping to use ye-olde-blog to help keep track of what we have been doing while he is gone. While writing a massive amount of letters, of course.

4. Salesian Sundays- I miss picking a quote by St Francis de Sales and concentrating on that for the week.

5.  Learning Update - A Tuesday round-up of the past week of homeschooling and education. (I made that up!)

6.  7QT on Fridays - I will try to write this on Thursday nights. I like this format.

7. Saturday Home and Family- weekly catchup of the goings on around the old Homestead 

Linking up with Kelly again

Tuesday Learning Update - The planning phase

Today is Tuesday

Not much happens on Tuesdays.

This might be a good day to keep track of our teachings for the past week.

I think I'll start a new themed day:

So, this year will be a big change for us. Still homeschooling. But this year I am down to 3 students. What a difference!

Unfortunately, 2 weeks to go to the first week of school and I am still working on what we are going to do. Some definites:

Outside stuff

We will be participating in a couple outside co-ops. All the sciences will be covered in the co-ops this year.

Tuesdays 
We will travel to about 35 minutes east for this co-op. It is new for us this year, but we are excited to be a part of this.
Isabel will be taking Marine Biology. We opted to have her do an advanced Biology class rather than the typical 11th grade Physics. She struggled last year with math and having a math based Science so we will continue to work on the math, but not add in the "Math class disguised as a Science class" Physics this year. She is very excited about this.
Lucas will be taking General Science - this will be a trial of sorts. We usually do this class in 7th grade. Lucas is in 6th grade. But, he is super smart, a bit lazy with school and he love Science. We will be pushing him a bit this coming year and this was a good choice to start the pushing.
Isabel and Julianne will be taking a US History class

Wednesdays
I will be teaching a High School Teen Personal Finance class. This will be super cool. We are the first group to do this as it is in development. The same people who do Navigating Finances God's Way are doing this. We will be the first group and be able to provide feedback on this new program. And a potential HUGE bonus might be heading our way as well. I can't really say much here now, but I am hoping by next week this time we will have another really cool thing on Wednesdays as well.

Thursdays
We travel to about 40 minutes North for our Catholic Co-op. This will be our 4th year with this co-op. Julianne will be taking Biology, complete with a lab (looking forward to those dissections!) and probably a book discussion class.
Lucas will be in the middle school group. They do a topical study based on a book and then rabbit trail from there. This year the book is Holling C Holling's A Tree in the Trail. Should be fun.

Other Classes
History
I and J will be doing the US Hist with the co-op. Lucas also wants to study US History, so I think we will stick with our Sonlight US History. Mostly because I have everything and this will help to increase his reading. I am thinking of having everyone do a US Geography program of some sort. Still thinking about it.

Math
is set with Saxon:
I: Algebra 2
J: Algebra 1
L: Math 7/6

Language Arts
This is where I am getting bogged down. I think the following is going to happen, but definitely NOT set in stone:
I: American Literature, vocabulary book (?)
J: American Literature, vocabulary book (?) and book discussion (mostly because she will be there)
L: Sonlight US History Literature; continue with All About Spelling; daily Handwriting practice; and I think Winston Grammar. I like this program for him because it will not involve a lot of writing (I am getting that in lots of other places) but will continue to work on the basics of grammar.

Well, when I type it out, it looks like I have more planned than I thought.

In addition, this year the girls will continue with 4-H, both as seniors; working at the barn; Isabel is consistently babysitting and also getting ready to travel to KY in November for the National 4-H Horse Round-up. Lucas will continue with Boy Scouts and Karate.

Hopefully next Tuesday I will have a more definite, well thought out education plan with schedules.

I can hope.

Twenty-Seven Months in 7 Quick Takes

Well, that was a very long, unintended hiatus from the blog world.

Lots of changes in the household and documenting them came in second to living and surviving those changes. Most good, some not so good and many growing pains. Graduations, big life decisions, first child to move out (wow, that one was tough!), medical stuff (lots of PT around here and a very large life-changing fall for an extended family member), huge accomplishments. It all boils down to living busy.

I have also spent a lot of time pondering those changes and shifts in this family of mine. It should make for a very interesting stretch of time coming up.

I find I am needing someplace to continue to ponder "out-loud."

so - I though I would jump right back in to blogging with a 7 Quick Takes. small caveat: I have never done this before and I am not sure how small this will be! So here are the big events that happened over the past couple years at our house to catch the old blog up to date:

1. The Hubby and Me:
Frank is still doing his electrical thing. We are still working the budget thing. Monthly. Who knew that after 30 years of being together, we would finally get this money thing under control. Not better, but under control! Very grateful for our friends who jump-started this thing for us.
On October 1, 2016, after 5 years of formation, I became a Consecrated Daughter of the Society of St Francis de Sales. I was blessed to be able to have Frank and 4 of my children be there, as well as our great friends. I even got my 2 sons to serve the Consecration Mass! Blessing upon blessing

2. The Two Oldest Daughters
Our oldest daughter, Olivia, is still working 2 jobs, living here and saving up to buy a house - rent in this area is outrageous and a mortgage can be less - crazy times we are in!
Our second daughter, Catherine, graduated from college in NC in May, 2017. After much searching in MA for a job, she finally found a great job, in her field, researching Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease - in NC. So, she moved 830 miles away, got an apartment and started a job as a Research Technician at Duke University.

At Catherine's College Graduation; May 2017

3. The Older Son
Nathaniel graduated high school this year. He also earned the Rank of Eagle Scout this year. And, he decided, after many years of thinking he would try to be a competitive rifle shooter for the Naval Academy, that he would rather not be an officer in the Navy. He started to research enlisting in the Navy to be a mechanic. After many conversations with recruiters, he signed his Delayed Entry papers -- with the Marines. Yeah, he is going to Parris Island in NEXT WEEK!!! for Boot Camp to begin this new life. Super proud of him, and maybe a small bit frightened, and a whole lot of nervous I am.

At Nathaniel's Eagle Board of Review

4. Number 3 Daughter
This one - a busy one she is. In the past 2 years, Isabel has gone to Kentucky for the 4-H National Horse Round-Up for Hippology her first year as a senior in 4-H. Hooked up a very regular weekly baby-sitting gig, earned a spot on this year's National Team to go to Kentucky again this November for Horse Bowl. She then turned 16, got her driver's permit and started lessons to get her license this Fall. Super busy! She is most busy, however, at the barn where she rides working with the horses, taking lessons and helping out whenever she can.

Winning the Champion Ribbon her first show this season

5. Number 4 Daughter
My baby girl. Julianne is now 14 and in her last year as a Junior in 4-H. She is still volunteering at the barn she rides at, working with Frank occasionally and helping out a great deal at home. She is my neat-nik. We are looking forward to her starting high school in the Fall and becoming a Senior in 4-H. It should be interesting to see the path her journey will take.

as always, helping out where she can

6. The Younger Son
The baby of the family, Lucas - is now 11! We are not sure how that happened, but it did. He earned his black belt in Premier Martial Arts this past March after over 3 years of studying. He is enjoying being a Boy Scout after moving up in March from Cub Scouts.

At Lucas' Black Belt Graduation; April 2018

7. My Mother in Law
Frank's Mom has lived with us for about 6 1/2 years. At the end of January she had a very bad fall which resulted in a Med Flight to Boston for emergency neurosurgery. Unfortunately, she is unable to move back here, so we are now navigating the Elder Care Law waters. Daunting to say the least. We visit as often as we can as we got her placed about a 20 minute drive from us.

And there you go; 2 plus years condensed to 7 small takes.