Last Week: A Summary

 Our first week of school is behind us! 

Well, first half week. 

Monday: I honestly don't remember much about Monday, except that we went to vigil mass that evening. 

Chris got caught up at work, so I had to get the kids fed, dressed, and out the door by myself. He met us there in his work clothes, then went to go get dinner somewhere while I took the kids home and got bedtime routine going. 

It was a long day. I'm glad it's over. 

Supper was scrambled eggs and rushin' pancakes (crepe batter poured like regular batter. Turns out thick and doughy, but the kids like them and they're quick to make). 

Tuesday: I didn't want to do school on a holy day of obligation. I went to Catholic high school and in retrospect it kind of rubs me the wrong way we didn't have those days off (not actually a holy day of obligation, but we had to be back in school the Monday after Easter once. It also happened to be my birthday that year. I was less than thrilled). 

So now that I'm super Catholic homeschool lady (ha), I've thus decreed that on holy days of obligation or on feast days that have special significance to our family, we aren't doing school. 

(As an aside, I've named our homeschool "Sacra Lux". I've been around enough Catholic homeschool co-ops to know that religious homeschooling can very quickly turn into a pissing contest as to who's the most pious (we've termed it "rosary envy" in our house). "Sacra Lux" can be poorly translated into "virtue signal". I'm hoping the subtle irony helps keep me from getting a big head). 

Anyway, after surviving vigil mass the night before, we celebrated the actual day with a craft that involved way too much glitter. 

We had pork burgers and jalapeno poppers for supper, and I brought out the 4th of July cake we bought on clearance and stuck in the freezer last month. 

The cake was surprisingly good; moist and had a good flavor. Definitely doing that again next year. 

Wednesday: First day of school. 

The way I'm running the school day, the kids have separate assignments for language arts/grammar, religion, and math. Science, social studies, and literature, I teach them the same things (though I might simplify things a bit for Little Girl). We start right after breakfast, and we've been finishing before lunch. 

I found out that it's totally doable to set up the next day's lessons while they're working on today's, and that's made things a lot less intimidating. The morning was all about feeling out what mornings are going to be from now on, and so far so good (though paint with water for Bitty Baby probably isn't making a comeback for awhile. It was a pretty impressive mess). We did have one small meltdown when a kid had trouble understanding an assignment, but we were able to address and move past it pretty quickly. 

We also had a very impressive storm front that came in, blustered, shot off some lightning, then moved off with no rain. 

Beans and rice for supper that night. I discovered that the kids will eat veggies if I toss them in with the beans, including  salad greens, which has broadened my culinary horizons slightly.

Thursday: Once we were done with school for the day (it went well AGAIN!!), things got a little messy. 

I decided that we were going to have a library day. There are two libraries near us; one belonging to the county and one belonging to the nearby city. The county one is a bit like a community center. There's play areas with toys, set up rooms for community events (and a lot of community events and organizations meet there), you can check out novelty cake pans like books, and there's a nice outdoor area where you're allowed to bring food. 

Ironically, their book collection and scheduled storytimes are their weak points. The book collection is better than when it first opened, but you can still get a wider selection through the city one (and it isn't skewed quite as heavily towards "woke" rainbow books and books on witchcraft. I don't know who does book selections there, but someone needs to check on them.

 Ironically, it's also a homeschool hotspot for the local co-ops and they apparently request stuff, so there's a lot of how-to Christian homeschool material and practical parenting books on the shelves as well). 

So we did lunch at the county library (peanut butter and jelly. I learned the interesting way that bringing a glass jelly jar onto a concrete area is a bad idea. Thank God for patient janitors), I let the kids play computer games for awhile. I selected a few books, and then we drove to the city library and I let the kids pick books there.

Then we stopped by the local Catholic Church that has adoration all day on Thursday. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, the kids all decreed that they needed to pee. So we trooped in, past the little cry room/chapel filled with praying middle aged ladies and elderly men, and towards the bathroom where I had to beg the kids several times over to lower their volume. 

Then, bladders and colons emptied, we made our merry way to the tiny chapel, found seats, and squeaked out a quick Glory Be. Then we made a quick getaway before someone loudly declared they wanted to leave or the toddler rioted. 

I figure if nothing else, we make a good story for the ladies to tell later. 

Dinner that night was pork chops cooked in homemade wine with roasted garlic, and the entire family really liked them. Definitely keeping that recipe in the roster. 

Friday: The morning went well, but this was the day that Bitty Baby declared that she was done with naps. 

As she naps (napped?) in the afternoon and school is in the morning, this shouldn't affect homeschooling too terribly much. It probably will affect afternoon quiet time though, as one of the most commonly used phrases in my toolkit is, "I need you to be quiet, the baby is sleeping". 

Late afternoons and evenings post supper are probably the most difficult part of the day.  I'm tired and there's not a lot of structure there for me to lean on. I've thought about making that "project" time and using it to teach the kids to cook something or some other skill. 

This day, I decided to put that idea to the test and set myself up in an advisory role while they made cookies. It was difficult. I think the kids had fun, but I think we need to practice listening to directions and being patient (both on their part and on mine). We did end up with edible cookies and an only slightly -worse-than-if-I'd-done-it mess, so I think it was a success. 

Supper was enchilada casserole made with corn tortillas and leftover beans from Wednesday. It also involved Velveeta style melty cheese from Aldi's, which I like using perhaps a little too much. 

Saturday: I joined my fellow church ladies and spent the morning at the parish hall cranking out kolochies for the upcoming parish festival, 

Texan Czech church lady crack right there, y'all.

And then came home, ate lunch, and packed the kids up to go to the gun store with Chris. 

The gun store was obviously used to people with youngish kids coming in and taking awhile. There was an area with tables and simple board games set up in a corner. The kids immediately settled in to play with a comically oversized Uno game, and Chris and I got to window shop in relative peace. Not going to lie, it was pretty nice. 

And that was this week. We've got a birthday party to go to in town tomorrow, and then it's back to the grind. 

Random chicken picture.