My Daybook: 12th March, 2018

Outside my window…

the sky is slowly lightening, sunrise comes later now as we move further into autumn

I am thankful…

for my children. Bass said to me in a serious tone this week, “Mum, you and Dad are so lucky! ‘Cause you have ten children!” Yes Son we are indeed incredibly lucky 🙂

I am thinking…

about Bass’ excitement as he learns to read, he is just zooming along, I’m rather excited myself. Teaching my children to read has consumed vast hours of our homes education journey, and yet I love it, I’m rather sad that this is my second last time to have the privilege of teaching one of my children to read

 

Learning all the time…

as always the ‘best laid plans of mice and men’… We started this term with great gusto and ‘wins’ for the first week, then…as we were concurrently dealing with a crisis situation (not ours) our first few weeks of term were heavily affected. Consequently the younger children in particular were not achieving a great deal, although the older  girls continued to mostly achieve their goals. The situation then eased and we began settling back into our regular rhythm albeit rather burnt out.  We’ve had some great successes the last couple of weeks so we are ‘back in business’, the girls in particular, along with myself are very keen for uninterrupted weeks, it’s been a challenging beginning to the term

Celebrating the liturgical year……

well obviously Lent. Thinking though, about how on the weekend we attended a low Latin Mass for the first time in years, half of our younger six didn’t even recall attending before, much to our pleasant surprise all six loved it! Astoundingly and not usual, Bella (4) was silent the entire time!

 

From the kitchen…

all summer long we’ve enjoyed plenty of BBQs and salads, contributing to the easy rhythm of summer days. We’re beginning to feel the change of the season as we slip into autumn, likely only a few more weeks before we start to crave warmer food

I am creating…

well not my creation, as I’ve previously shared I am a moderator on a fantastic facebook group, Reshelving Alexandria, dedicated to assisting families in creating their own personal “Library of Alexandria” with books that are ‘true, honest, lovely, virtuous and of good report’. Well the incredible three creators of this facebook group have now launched an impressive website, Reshelving Alexandria. Highly recommend you check this out. So whilst it’s not my creation, as a mod I’ve been privvy to a little of the process and feel honoured to share in the excitement

I am working on…

I delivered my talk with the Start Homeschooling Summit and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’ve been  asked to participate in a second Australian Homeschooling Summit so my thoughts are traveling there, I need to make a decision as to the direction of my talk.  One idea I’m contemplating is ‘how to create an Australian history program’, have you any other suggestions of what you’d like to me to speak about? Also any other Australian homeschoolers you’d love to hear speak?

 

I am going…

tomorrow we finish our Art and Rowing classes. This term our homeschool group has had the opportunity to experience Art classes at our local Gallery, and rowing instruction at our local Rowing Club, for our teens, from a very experienced instructor.  They have been wonderful opportunities but even just one day out really disrupts our lessons

I am hoping…

to make some solid progress with Sacramental Preparation for our younger two boys. A couple of factors are making it difficult to pull my thoughts in order. One, I’m uncertain as to which Sacrament I’m actually preparing Bass for (long story), and if I am preparing him for Confirmation I’ve never prepared a seven year old for this Sacrament before, my previous youngest age has been nine. Any suggestions of resources to use for a young child? What would you recommend a young child should know before Confirmation?

I am praying…

• for our children, always our children 🙂
• for my brother and his wife, their baby is due in a fortnight
• for a dear friend whose baby went home to Heaven two days after she was born #trisomy18
• for another friend’s marriage

I am pondering….

the importance of extended family, of the blessing of having a support network who are there for you if/when needed. It has been bought home to me over the past several weeks how blessed we are to have supportive parents, siblings who are there if needed, I’ve come to realise that perhaps I’d taken this support as a matter of course, not all families are so blessed

 

I am reading…

rediscovering Mary Higgins Clark, it’s been a while since I’ve indulged in mysteries and it’s great to start back with Mary. She is an incredibly prolific writer and extremely talented, her plots are so well crafted I’m in constant suspense

 

I am listening to……

after listening to Helping Resistant Readers Fall in Love with Books, I took a gamble and bought Laura Martin’s Edge of Extinction: Ark Plan and much to my incredible excitement, my reluctant reader did indeed fall in love with books, well at least that book and he is now waiting for it’s sequel to be released

I am hearing…

noises about the house as the children awaken and our day begins; PC singing as he comes up the hall, Jack Jack in the kitchen rattling the porridge pot, the younger boys in another room

I am struggling…

to fit all our lessons into our learning hours, so what’s the solution; to reduce the work load, I’m reluctant, to increase the learning hours, the children are reluctant 😉

Clicking around…

on how to go about setting up a book club, rather pleased to discover our local library has a book club kit answering our questions. A local acquaintance and I have chatted about doing this for a while, we come from vastly different lifestyles yet sense kindred spirits if only we had the time, a book club promises to carve the time. We’re rather excited and have decided to invite ladies from within our rural locality, thinking we’ll host in our home library, a fitting location 🙂

Around the house…

for many, many months, over a year in truth, we haven’t undertaken any renovations, but we are keen to begin again and take advantage of the coming cooler months. I’m itching to find a moment and carve out some time to dust off our old list and revamp and re-prioritise

 

One of my favorite things…

it was International Women’s Day last week, some of the most amazing women in my life are our girls. These women and soon to be women bring joy and love and laughter into my life. They inspire me to strive to be a better woman, every day they teach me so much, I stand in awe of them xxxx

A few plans for this week…

the usual line up; swimming lessons and squad trainings twice a week, akido another day, a homeschool social afternoon, Youth Group and this week brings the completion of our art and rowing lessons. Mostly though my dream is for a quiet week wherein we managed to achieve a solid week of lessons

A little peek at my day…

lessons this morning, then this afternoon we head off to a homeschool social afternoon, followed by swimming lessons for two children, and swim squad for another three, our weekly fruit and veg shop on the way home, then time to rustle up a simple dinner