7 Quick Takes

--1--

Oof. That was a rough week. It started Sunday, when my already-hard-to-manage-morning-sickness took on a stomach virus and sent my poor innards spiraling out of control. I spent Monday in the hospital getting juiced up on IV fluids, and then Tuesday feeling like I was at death's door. I'm not actually sure I've ever been quite that sick before! The upsides:

1- I'm feeling quite a bit better now.
2- I'm officially out of the first trimester. Cue the Hallelujah chorus!!!
3- We got another peek at the babies and they are both doing great (and my- so much bigger than they were last time!).
4- My husband and oldest daughter showed off their rock-star status around the house. Seriously, Andy pulled out all the stops around here, and when he couldn't be here my 11-year-old ran the show. She runs it well, as you know.

--2--

This picture makes me laugh. Sometimes, baby doesn't really need to be entertained. She just needs to be close to someone she loves. :)

--3--

We had a great conversation about Bare-Bones Homeschooling- did you miss it? I thoroughly enjoyed reading through all of the comments, and between your words of wisdom, my husband's advice, and a little 2x4 on the side of the head (ahem), I've realized that I'm going to have to cut down more than I was originally planning to. It's so hard to figure out what's important and what's gravy when everything looks... important! Kim reminded me that pretty much nobody gets that all done on a daily basis, new babies or not. (I figure Kim ought to know- she has ten kids, see.)

I think I'll let go of the extensive memory work for now. We do IEW's poetry memorization program, which is excellent and enjoyable, so we'll hold off on the rest of it. And then we'll depend on read-alouds and independent reading times for the bulk of the rest of the learning (which is what you pretty much all told me to do anyway). One of my anonymous commenters told us what she did with her older son after having a baby :

"When we went to the library (we went every other week) he had a list of books he had to select. Not titles, just types. He had to select a biography, poetry, science, history, fiction, award winning, fairy tale, project based (a book that had things he could do - art projects, science experiments, things to build, etc.), audio book. There might have been more, but I'm tired ;) Anyway, I found this really helped him get a variety of reading material to have available. It also sent him down many trails he would have never thought of."

Isn't that a GREAT idea? Yep, I thought so too. :)

--4--

I have had some very (veryveryveryvery) generous and fabulous friends offer to step in and help, in big-gigantic-humongous ways. Like a dear local friend who offered to tackle Latin with Prim each week, as well as do some literature and baking stuff with all the kids and just give me general help. Volunteer. Out of her own free time. For a few hours every week.

I know, right?

And another friend has taken over Prim's writing class, is giving her assignments based on the classical-writing model, edits and gives feedback by email and telephone, and is pretty much letting me lift my hands from that project entirely. (Psst... Tracey... Prim is loving her work for this week! You rock!)

I told you buckets of grace were getting ready to rain down! But even I had no idea how soon and how plenty. Thank you, Jesus!

--5--

Do you know what I miss? I miss Pinning it Down. Remember that? Pam and I co-hosted, and we all did projects from our Pinboards and then shared them. That was before the whole big Pinterest-is-going-to-get-you-in-huge-legal-trouble scare. And now? Do I ever DO anything on my pinboards? No. I need to remedy this. There are lots of good ideas pinned to my boards- I need to make some of them come alive.

--6--

Did you enter the giveaway on last week's Read-Aloud Revival?  I have a winner! The lucky winner of Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Child's Heart is... Charissa. Send me an email, Charissa, and let me know if you'd like the print version or ebook, and I'll get that sent your way.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion- I just love how much conversation we are having at these revivals. Be sure to come back for the next one on February 23rd. We'll be talking all about Books for Boys, so don't miss it.

--7--

Some links for your weekend wanderings:

 Putting My Coat On :: Tiny & Small

Keeping Sons Close :: Starry Sky Ranch

And then you can just oogle over this photo at Creating Beauty. I just keep going back to stare at it.