A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

We baked and baked and baked on Saturday.   Eventually Dad helped the girls deliver the treats to friends and neighbors on Christmas Eve.  I stayed home to help J11 finish her Christmas presents because her projects had met with one too many crises. And E14 built this super cool fort out of chairs and blankets. We couldn't get a picture of the whole thing--believe me, we tried!  Here is E14 standing next to the very edge of her structure.   On Sunday we had our church Christmas observance.  There was much dancing and making merry all week long. We baked sugar cookies. Lots of 'em. There were sweet quiet moments. I finally finished the ornaments for the kids commemorating the move to our new house last Christmas. We decorated the sugar cookies. The kids spent a lot of time putting each sprinkle in just the right place. We had our traditional reenactment of The First Christmas.  E14 played the innk...

I feel as though I spent the whole week shopping.  When I look back at the actual hours I spent away from my family I realize that I was actually home quite a bit.  But it feels as though I spent the whole week away, and now I'm glad to look forward to a week at home. E14 still had a bit of school work to complete before taking her break.   She did it. *She finished her Alpha Omega Lifepac High School Health course with an 89% average. *She finished her Rod and Staff spelling level 4. *She finished her most recent literature book-- Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology. And seminary concluded for the term, too.  So she's got quite the break from school. The conclusion of this seminary term was stressful because for the first time ever, passing a brief exam is part of the curriculum.  As the exam drew near, E14 began to fall apart.  The stress of taking her first-ever classroom exam was overwhelming.  I spoke to the teacher about our su...

I am struggling to write about this week--I  kind of don't want to go back and think over the days, remembering how hard they were and why. I shall start with the hard parts to get them over with and end with what I'm thankful for--gratitude always helps. This week I got an email letting us know that we were not chosen for the sibling group of 5 children we were hoping to adopt.  Someone else was.  I neither carried nor birthed them.  I've never met them.  I've never served or cared for them.  But for months now I've been praying for them--daily, hourly--and the loss was as real as any other loss I've experienced.  It was not as severe as some losses, but it was real. And I grieved. I'm grieving still. In addition I found out the same day (because I checked) that our inquiries about 2 other sibling groups in need of adoption were on hold pending other placements.  That means that we aren't needed. Why?  Why aren't we needed? ...

We borrowed a whole bunch of Elephant and Piggie books from the library this week.  Every single day this week has been punctuated by giggling groups of children in my living room.  They read them morning, noon, and night over and over again--bigger kids reading to littler kids--laughing, laughing, laughing.  Every day they've laughed together. To me, that's a foretaste of heaven, and it's what I want to remember about this first week of December. ************* I chronicled Sunday for our "A Homeschool Day in the Life--November" post.  But here are a couple of pictures of our game night: Right behind Dad you can see S12's very bored, very peeved face.  She'd hurt her toe the day before at the park and felt left out of the Twister game.  That was my plan, however, so that everyone would feel happier when I pulled out the Uno cards. 33 weeks . . . Dad's Twister victory dance. Waiting for Dad to deal the Uno cards. This is...