Earlier this week, I received a big box from Sacred Heart Books and Gifts. Nestled inside, surrounded by homeschooling books for next year, was my birthday book (the book I selected this year to buy with my birthday money), The Little Oratory. I've flipped through it a little and it looks just wonderful! I've promised myself I'm going to finish The Idea of A University first, though.
Speaking of Sophia Institute Press (publisher of The Little Oratory), they are having a nice sale with lots of $10 books, $5 books, and a $5 flat rate shipping. It includes a few of my favorite books like A Life of Our Lord for Children, The Year and Our Children, and The Young People's Book of Saints. First Daughter will be reading that last book next year in second grade for her saints study. (I don't receive anything if you make any purchases.)
The two older kids have been at Totus Tuus all week, our parish's version of vacation Bible school. It's a wonderful time of fellowship with our community, but oh my! It is exhausting! There has been much wailing at the slightest provocation (from the kids, of course, never me; I'm not exhausted at all...oh wait). I'll be happy when the week is over, though we're following up with a week of swimming lessons so perhaps we're only jumping from the fire into the frying pan (slightly less painful but still not what you'd call relaxing).
I spent the first three days this week working with some of the other catechists in our Atrium. We pulled everything out, washed all the cabinets, shelves, and materials, and reorganized the Level 2 and Level 3 materials to make room for the new ones. The room looks beautiful and (almost) ready for next year. We were so productive we were able to focus on finishing up some of the materials on the third day. I feel so blessed my children will have a Level 3 Atrium, but also very glad to be happily teaching Level 1 myself.
Summer is such a good time for nature study. Without any real effort on my part, we've been noticing things. At a small suggestion, the children are eager to pull out their nature notebooks for some drawing. This week I found a brown recluse spider in the cabinet, trapped in an apparently slippery bowl. The kids were fascinated and loved showing it off to the Totus Tuus team members. They all sketched it in their notebooks, too.
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We have a lot of birds right now. Kansas Dad butchered three earlier this week, but we still have a batch of laying hens (though still too young to lay any eggs), a young batch of meat birds, a second batch of meat birds, and ten keets (baby guineas). Eventually we will have eggs and meat to show for them, but for the moment the meat birds offer a nice greeting to anyone who comes to our door.
Second Son recently had his eyes checked under the See to Learn program. An optomotrist will examine your three-year-old's eyes for free. There are quite a few conditions they can treat more easily if they are detected early. (You can find a list of participating providers online.) He did really well, though he kept calling the duck picture a giraffe.
In other health-related news, First Son recently learned his braces will come off in August. Hooray all around! He's already coming up with a list of all the foods he wants to eat that have been taboo for the past year.
I think I'm out of takes, so you'll have to make do with a picture I found on First Son's camera recently.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
