winter blessings

Winter can be long. And hard to weather at times. But I am trying to notice the blessings. There are many! Like one on one outings with each of our children every now and then. Toby asked to go to Chick Fila on his outing with me a couple of weeks ago. And Mike snapped this on his date with Opal at her requested "Scoopy." After a particularly challenging day, Abigail called me in to see the living room she had completely cleaned and vacuumed- such a beautiful gesture for her exhausted Mama <3 After a rough week of flooding and heating issues, this greeted us in the mail from some extremely thoughtful friends (we were so thankful for the many other kind offers and prayers, but I managed to get a picture of this lovely array before digging in :^) Swapped weekly date-nights with Will and Ashley have been an incredible blessing. The kids have enjoyed sleep-overs with their cousins, and Mike and I got out on our first completely kid-free date this past weekend- SUCH a welcome break with my love! Reading to her cousin Speaking of which, this one has been making good progress with her reading. She finished level 2 in All About Reading a couple of weeks ago! Finding sights like this melts my heart. Abigail has been baking a lot more independently, and we often have freshly baked goodies to accompany these chilly winter days. Beautiful snow (it's been few and far between this year, but I'll take it when it comes!) Cousins playing Bath time is not my favorite, but I am grateful for bath time helpers, big and small. Our first Hibachi experience! (At least for the kids and me) One of the biggest blessings these past several weeks has been having Mike home since before Christmas. His employer is very generous when it comes to paternity leave, and he gets to use it any time within Joel's first year of life. He wanted to take us out to a nice restaurant sometime before he went back to work (today), and he picked a fun Sushi/Hibachi place for us to go to after Mass. It was a big hit with everyone, except for Joel, who was past his bedtime and crazed (and didn't care for the big, flaming fires.) Short hair again! It feels so nice.

Mike and I each took some time to ourselves during his time off, too. Last Wednesday, I had a en entire day to myself- enjoying my pick two and chai tea latte while lesson planning and reading this book (a wonderful read) at Panera; wandering a great antique emporium I just discovered; doing a little much-needed jeans/skirt shopping at St. Vincent's; getting pampered at a hair salon (I can't remember the last time someone else washed my hair!); and going for a nice, uninterrupted run while listening to uplifting music. I felt quite refreshed afterwards but was glad for the gaggle that enthusiastically greeted me upon my return home. I wouldn't trade my days.


We are blessed!

a clean slate for Iris

Iris had her first confession last weekend, and I didn't get a picture or anything to mark the occasion. She was so sweet, though, talking about how nervous she was beforehand because she didn't know what to expect (though we practiced it by acting it out with Jack and Abigail for weeks leading up to it), "But then, I found out it wasn't so bad, and I was happy!" She is so excited to receive Jesus in May and has been keeping a journal to lead her to that special day. Here she is with a verse she copied this morning <3

Bathtime love

This boy <3s bathtime. Getting out is very sad. But a bottle helps.

Round round get around Joel gets around! (and the big kids go sledding)

Some friends in town invited us to come over today to sled on the huge hill behind their house. We all went over, since even the dads had off for the holiday. I stayed inside with the two little boys while everyone else went sledding. And Joel decided to busy himself with the starting crawl. He's been getting up on his hands and knees for more than a week now, kind of wiggling like he's about to pounce, but he finally got the hang of the movement today and couldn't be stopped. It was really cute. Until I realized that now he will be EVERYWHERE and finding things he shouldn't have and stairs, and there's no going back to immobility.



It didn't take too long for younger people (Opal and their 4-yr-old) to start coming back inside to warm up with some hot chocolate. It was quite frigid at only 19 degrees, and feeling much colder with the wind whipping at their faces as they dashed down the humongous hill (No, I don't have any pictures of the sledders). Poor Mike splintered one of their sleds into eight pieces when he was riding with Opal (she was just fine), but he hurt his tailbone pretty badly and has been groaning and limping around the house tonight- please pray for his recovery- and that it is nothing serious!

Catholic Schoolhouse

Science class Extracting DNA from strawberries- check out that strand! Art class- learning about artist Winslow Homer Watercolor snowmen

We began a new Classical homeschool curriculum/program at the beginning of the month called Catholic Schoolhouse. I had heard glowing reviews from several other involved families and went to observe the Tuesday morning meeting last month. I was very impressed with the quality and versatility of it. It is almost identical to Classical Conversations, which we had seriously considered joining last year, before we decided to take a break from all coops in the fall.

We meet with twelve other families on Tuesdays from 9-noon for group learning activities, which include memorization in Grammar, Religion, Saints, Latin, Math, Geography, Science, History... presenting things they have learned or memorized on their own, and doing art and science projects together. The rest of the week is spent expounding the things they learn in more detail- and we will also continue to supplement here and there. Catholic Schoolhouse takes the one-room schoolhouse approach, with all of the kids learning/memorizing the same things. For our weekly meetings, they do break off into smaller groups for more age-appropriate learning. Opal is in the Grammar A class (4-6 year-olds), and so far, she LOVES it. Jack, Abigail, and Iris are in Grammar B (7-11 year-olds), and Toby and Joel are in the nursery, or with me. This is the first year of this group, and so far, there is no Rhetoric group (for older children), but, God willing, we will begin one in the future.

Also, once a quarter, there is a showcase, where all of the families meet for a potluck dinner, and the children present some of the things they memorized the previous quarter. We are looking forward to attending our first of these tomorrow night- our kids don't have to present anything at this one, since we weren't there last quarter, but it will be neat to see what the kids have learned- and to have all of the families come together for a meal and fellowship, including the dads, since we don't get to see them on a weekly basis. We already know a couple of the other families, but we are grateful for the opportunity to grow close in faith and learning with the Catholic Schoolhouse family here in Madison. It seems like a wonderful bunch (two other families joined with us this past week, so the group is now at capacity for the number of teachers/classes we now have).

Epiphany gifts

Every year, the kids each get an ornament to open on Epiphany. Happy (belated) Epiphany! I hope you all had a wonderful season celebrating the incarnation of our Lord!