7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol 188)

1
My wrists are continuing to ache, it’s been four months now of sharp, intense pain.  Do you have any idea how often you move your wrists? Lots and lots! I’m a huge reader, this week PC suggested perhaps the weight of the book (many of the books I read are hardcover) and the still position of hands maintained whilst reading wouldn’t be helping. He suggested I go back to my ereader which I’m endeavouring to do, however… I can’t remember how to transfer the book from my computer to my ereader.  Perhaps I should give up reading any fiction for Lent.

2
Yesterday my friend Margaret and I were discussing memorisation, in particular the importance, or not of memorising catechism.  I was wavering, and Margaret was encouraging me to stay the course.  She was arguing a good case, then we sidetracked into another conversation, as we often do, about the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.  That was when Princess(12) piped up with the Catechism answer about the Blessed Trinity and won the day! Catechism memorisation is firmly back ‘on the books’.

3
My heart has been heavy this week, death sometimes comes too, too soon.  My sister attended a funeral this week of a young woman, K__ 29, who died 2 days after giving birth to a baby girl.  My sister’s friend went shopping to buy a white dress for her infant niece to wear to her mother’s funeral.  Sis wrote to our family about the funeral and these lines keeps running over in my mind, “A young man aged before his time, clutching a bundle of white, with no emotion on his face…The wailing of a newborn with no mother to feed her.”  On the same day my brother shared about a young friend of his, L___24, who committed suicide and of another young woman he knows who attempted suicide both on the same day! L___ had so much promise, so much love but sadly there were other factors at play. Please join me in praying for the repose of the souls of these young women, and the young girl whose life was saved just in time, and for their family and friends, for the all the communities affected by these tragedies.

4
Sarah has been chatting about Teaching From a State of Rest, for someone so young she is so wise!  “We forget that we are dealing with a soul,….When you are performing mommy triage- that is, when you have a crisis moment and have to figure out which fire to put out first- always choose your child….But your child? He is God’s. And the Almighty put him in your charge for relationship…”
This week I remembered her words and made a conscious decision to take heed.  A teen initiated a conversation that led to a D & M (I’m sure everyone my age remembers D&M’s – Deep & Meaningful’s) so we ditched the books for the morning and leisurely enjoyed a conversation together. Listening, guiding, making sense of the world, relationships, and God, encouraging tolerance, compassion etc, this precious time with our children, this is what it is all about.

5
My friend Margaret and I have started back with our Writing Club, meeting once a week to encourage and support out children in writing.  We’ve divided the hour into two parts, formal instruction and creative writing.  We’re using Brandy’s series on Progymnasmata as the basis of our formal instruction and 100 Writing Prompts which we discovered thanks to Multi-Tasking Mama’s shout out. The prompts are so interesting, the children love them!

6
We found a physics teacher for Einstein and his friend C__!  Both boys intend on attending Science Universities next year with a Physics focus, so finding a teacher is a real blessing. B__ is a retired ex-deputy head with a passion for physics and the boys are so enjoying his teaching.  After each lesson they are beaming and literally bouncing with energy, yesterday after their physics teacher left they then headed to the computer for further research and I overheard them excitedly discussing the properties of iodine, potassium etc

7
If you have Leigh Bortins book, The Core:Teaching Your Child the Foundations of a Classical Education, you may be interested to know that Leigh Bortins has a previous book available online for free! Echo in Celebration: A Call to Home-Centered Education.
HT: To my friend R__ who is the Queen of free!!:):)

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