My Heart's at Home Daybook
/the weeds are going nuts in my garden beds after all this rain. I'm expecting landscaping help this week. We'll get rid of the weeds and build up the beds. We
are going to do an herb bed close to the house and a salsa garden in the backyard. I've ordered more roses for the abundantly successful rose garden on the side of the house. And I'm thinking wave petunias for the front yard. All this week. I hope.
Nicholas downstairs getting his daily dose of Sportscenter.
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we are going to have a tea this week in honor of the waning days of the Pauline year. The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus begins the Year of the Priest. I'm going to gather a basket on St. Jean Vianney.
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To Fit and Happy...
Mary Beth and I have planned for a year now to walk the babies every morning as soon as the weather permits. it's time, now. I need to get a second stroller somewhere and then we're going to cultivate a new habit.
Erin had newly organized all her weight loss and exercise posts, making it irrestible to revisit for a fresh burst of encouragement.
Mary Beth has orchestrated a Mother's Day surprise that I haven't seen yet. I have a hunch I know what's happening and I will be ever-so-grateful. She's planning to tell you about it. I know this because I read it on her blog (modern communication is great, no?).
Mother's Day weekend was a quiet joy.
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A am having a blissful cup of coffee, made to perfection in a new coffee maker. As much as I enjoyed going to Starbucks for a fix and a friendly smile, it's nicer to roll out of bed and drink in the silence with the coffee.
I have a new summer menu in place, inspired by this chart generator. If I make a chart of something and put it on the refrigerator, Nicholas holds us all to it--no matter what the chart or whether he likes it. This might be my greatest habit training tool ever.
New capris, a t-shirt, and new turquoise-colored cashmere socks. So, maybe not everyone wears cashmere socks, but I do, because they remind to pray for my friend who knit them. She will have surgery within the week. Byt the way, the new socks match the turquoise earrings Mike brought me from Utah yesterday. Since I almost always wear pink, I'm left wondering if great minds didn't think alike as they conspired to get me to change my color-scheme, particularly, since Kimberlee has suggested a once-a-week blue day.
a surprise for a friend. Praying I can finish soon.
On my iPod...
Looking for downloads of past homeschool conferences...I'm going to conference-at-home this year. E-mail me if you have suggestions or links.
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Towards a real education ...
[We've dusted off the learning journal.
It's time to focus and this worked for me last time. Of course, today
was to be the first day and I didn't get to it. Hope springs eternal.]
That's last week's note. I'm still tweaking there. I'll let you know here when we go live.
Mary Beth continues to write Alphabet Path stories.
We began a Shakespeare study last week. I'd planned to do some Shakespeare this summer anyway, but Nicholas was insistent upon reading Romeo and Juliet immediately since he didn't understand Taylor Swift's Love Story. We read the Bruce Coville version and he's suddenly a big fan of Will. Inspired by Katherine's main lesson books, I think we're going to create some Shakespeare ones here. I've dug up Michael's old one and recognized anew what treasures these become.
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There are fresh flowers in several vases following Mother's Day. Michael sent an enormous bunch of tulips. All the little boys on Stephen's soccer team presented roses to the mothers after yesterday's game. I've got a lovely bouquet of freshly-picked dandelions gathered by Katie and Karoline at soccer yesterday. The peonies look just about ready to burst into bloom. I like my chances of having roses from our garden soon after. The house will be filled with flowers from now until October...
I am very serious about implementing the seven point plan, adapted for the Foss Family. we had huge success with this last week. I've tweaked quite a bit and I'm keeping careful notes (even the engineer homemakers would be proud). Firstly, I learned that doing a load of laundry a day would guarantee that I'd be behind by about ten loads by week's end. Clearly, this plan needs some altering. Also, I'm having some difficulty persuading the dog to clean up after himself, so I've built some vacuuming into the daily round. More on this later.
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One of my favorite things ...
baby thighs
.
Lots of baseball as we try to catch up from all the rainouts. My mom will be in town at the end of the week. Hopefully we'll return to our nature study place with some friends on Friday. We didn't go last Friday because I just wasn't up for the mud. Instead, we visited all the baby animals at Frying Pan Park. Need to post those pictures. Last count, the calendar proclaims five soccer practices on the agenda, a soccer fundraiser Saturday night (feel free to come keep me company--I'd LOVE it), ballet rehearsals this weekend. Oh, and "school" to do, too.
I love finger paints. I know that most people eliminate fingerpainting first when they eliminate messy stuff to do with children. But, it's really not so bad. First, a good smock or no shirt at all. Then, washable finger paints. A liberal covering of newspapers. Finger paint paper. Wipes at the ready. Lots of fun.
