Details, details

We're back from the beach: tons of fun and oodles of pictures, but I'll have to journal that later. It's "G" week on the Alphabet Path for us, and some serious gardening is in the plans today (not to mention all the unpacking and reorganizing that comes with some time away from home).

My inbox is full of questions, so I'm hoping to answer here and be efficient:-).

Elizabethfoss.com is down. I'm not sure why. The webmaster for that site is Cindy Kelly's husband, who volunteers his time and expertise. His dad died yesterday. Please pray for Larry's soul and for the whole Kelly clan. Your patience and understanding with the web details are appreciated.

I know that navigating Serendipity is becoming tedious. I promise to look into other options and move it from blog format as soon as I can. I have no idea when that will be. Remember, it's free. ;-)

In the meantime, if you try the search bar on the lefthand side of this blog, it will search Serendipity for you. I had some success when I gave it a few trial searches.

There have been some questions about books for the Sunflower Basket. Here are my best answers:

Mary Beth is no longer using Botany in a Day. Instead we are using Apologia Botany and the Notebooking Journal. These, along with the other reading and the Botany Coloring Book make for a very complete course. The links I provided above give you a look at the samples of the book and journal. Sacred Heart Books and Gifts stock all the botany books we are using.

Sacred Heart also carries You Can Become a Saint and the workbook.

I've gotten some notes from people who are looking for my book. If you ordered from me in the last month, your book is on its way. I've now depleted my supply. Thanks for wanting it:-)!

My publisher tells me that Real Learning is out of print currently (and will be reprinted at a higher cost). A second edition is also in the works. Linda at Sacred Heart is the only one I know who has the first edition now and she has it for a great price.

Now, there are sandy jeans to shake and wash, weeds to pull, pansies to plant, and morning calling my name!

Fall In Love Again this Weekend

Moments from now, I am on my way to the beach. I've packed half the household and left detailed instructions for what's left behind to the able folks staying here. I have cried and complained through the last two days because no one moved fast enough or worked hard enough. I'm tense and tired and grumpy.

And a dear friend challenges me to fall in love again this weekend.

Really? With all these kids around (ours and a few more we've gathered along the way)? With twelve soccer games on the schedule? With a drive down and back that requires each of us to take a vehicle in order to get everyone there? With six kids bringing nebulizers and inhalers?

Well, there is that house on the ocean he rented, the love of my life who really does try to capture my heart. There is the promise of moments of peace in front of the sea.

And there is this simple "Rule of Four."

Falling in love.

Sounds like a great thing to do this weekend.

In Real Life...

We rarely follow the plans as written. In real life, my days look nothing like my iCal pages. Oh, I love the plans. They are like good recipes. I gather the ingredients, tinkering a bit to take advantage of what looks freshest and best at the grocery store. I glance through the directions and do what seems best at the time. And usually, whatever we're cooking comes out well. Cooking is an art, you know, with a little science sprinkled in with love. So, too, raising and educating children is an art. When it comes to our homeschooling days, I write the plans, but I don't become attached to them.

Because I do become attached to the children.

On Monday, iCal called for Outdoor Hour. Have you tried these? What absolutely wonderful gifts they are! We're on a roll with them this fall. Barb makes the Handbook of Nature Study come alive for us and graciously offers free guidance that is priceless. Everyone is enthusiastic.

We headed out to our new favorite, very local spot (we walked) and spent a pleasant time drawing. I had to drag the boys away because of an urgent girl potty issue. On  the walk home, the littlest girls each fell asleep in a stroller. We wheeled both strollers into the house and let them snooze. I seized the quiet opportunity to read William Shakespeare and the Globe to all children still awake. [Note to those who have followed my iCal plans previously: "School" didn't happen in any meaningful way on Friday of Birthday Week and I slid last Friday's plans to Monday. ]

My plans called for children to create a diorama of the Globe Theatre. Somehow, in my keeping room, those plans morphed. Big boys became team captains; teams were picked; cardboard, duct tape,  craft paint and glue guns were sequestered to opposite corners of the house. Daddy was named Judge. A deadline of three weeks hence was set. One child was frantically researching on his iPod Touch. Another was printing madly from the computer upstairs. A hush fell. And then the man arrived to deliver the dishwasher.

The man barely stepped from his truck before competing teams of children were begging for appliance boxes. Wise man, he gave them the box from our dishwasher and then stripped the box from another. More quiet.

Big boys left for soccer. I slipped out with a lone ballerina. I left her at dance and spent 33 minutes alone, in the quiet, at Adoration. Not that I was counting minutes or anything. What a beautiful gift quiet with Jesus is!

After I gathered my dancer and a week's worth of groceries for a family of eleven, I returned home. Globe Theatre construction resumed after dinner and continued well into the night. I went to sleep thinking what a perfect day it was: nature, Shakespeare, Adoration, soccer and dance. A good meal. A quiet night. What more could I have wanted?

Don't answer that. I know there was no math, no Latin, no grammar, no time whatsoever at a desk. But really, truly, it was perfect in my book. A day when seven children from 3-17 are meaningfully engaged and working together all day long? How often does that happen?

The next day, while I hustled three sick children to the doctor, the children at home ignored my plans and kept right on working on those Theatre dioramas. There was a brief skirmish over toothpicks that resulted in my emergency trip to the grocery store, but mostly, work was steady. I thought about the iCal plans. Tuesday is our heavy geography block day.  This Tuesday was about scale drawings, popsicle stick construction standards, and wee felt actors.

Truth is, my days rarely look like the pages of Serendipity. They are not that neat. They are not that beautiful. They are not that full. Well, maybe they are that full but not in the way they look there. We pick and choose from the plans and the books. I hope you do, too, as I think it would be near impossible to do them as written. We change things out and abandon things that don't work and add things that work better. We abandon the plans altogether to binge on a great project.

"Simplicity" seems to be a goaland a virtue in pockets of  the blogosphere. For some people, simplicity is next to godliness from what I can tell. Things aren't simple here. At least, when I put my head on the pillow at night, in the three seconds before I fall asleep, they don't seem simple. There's is a lot going on.

A few weeks ago I read an authoritative email that declared that the secret to homeschooling success was to never, ever deviate from the curriculum as written. This seems foolish advice to me. If you are using my curriculum, please, please consider it in light of your children and your home and your energy level. Please use your common sense and your mama-wisdom. Please don't attempt to do it all. And please, if you find a better way to do it, write and let me know. I might just do it that way, too. 

Along those lines, here are some tweaks I've not yet had time to tell you about:

• Mary Beth abandoned Botany in a Day for Apologia Botany. The new notebooks offered by Apologia are just amazing! She is creating a beautiful notebook and doing all the activities and experiments and thoroughly enjoying Jeannie Fulbright's style. With the addition of the other living books in the Young Ladies' Curriculum and nature study, this is a very full botany course. And yes, Jen has the Ivy Basket all written and ready for you. She's waiting on me to finish my pages before we  post. I'm getting to it, I promise. Pray I get the gift of writing time with Mary Beth.
• Patrick, Stephen, and Nicholas are using Apologia Astronomy. Patrick is reading from MacBeth's astronomy suggestions. And we will also add this very full Teaching Company course to the study. I hadn't planned on Astronomy at all. The boys asked for it when they were unable to answer a trivia question Mike posed at the dinner table just after the school year began.  
• We haven't forgotten about the Writer's Workshop. Esther Hershenhorn, the author of S is for Story, contacted me when she learned of our plans to use her book. She was very interested in our ideas to create workshops using S is for Story. The book arrived just a couple of days after Bryce died. The author, who is just lovely, suggested that I might find these mini-workshops (click on Young Writer Extras) helpful while I wait for Colleen to join me again in writing on Serendipity. I do! Maybe you will like them, too? It's really nice when people who believe in sharing the joy of teaching reach out to each other and help in a time of need. Colleen was touched by the kindness of this stranger and so was I.
• Our Alphabet Path travels this year are mainly focused upon the Author Studies and the Science Trails, since Katie has already traveled the Path twice. However, we are truly enjoying the inspiration of gifted teachers like Jessica and Blair this time around. It's fun to see how beautifully the plans come to life in the talented hands of those ladies. I find myself having to refrain from wanting to do it all;-).
• Speaking of Jessica, we're loving the Little Flowers notebook pages! We use Little Flowers here at home and these pages are just wonderful. We aren't such good Little Flowers crafters and I don't always get to the edible goodies, but I'm sure glad to have Jessica's ideas to add to our days.
• The big boys are doing our geography studies along with us. I can't handle three different high school programs to supervise. I need to keep my boys close. Works better that way. I'm way out of writing time now. Maybe another day, I'll share how it all looks. Basically, we're taking books from the Sonlight high school lists and matching them with the geographical regions we're studying. All the plans are there; it's a pretty simple thing to pull what works for each kid.

And now, I truly must go. Gosh, it was nice to blog again. I had no intention of writing so long this morning. God's good; it's happy to be here.  Thanks for listening.

Blessings on your day!

Little Miss Sunshine

She hears we're going on an outing and she hurries up to get dressed. On goes a carefully considered T-shirt with a crocheted shrug over it, embroidered jeans, pretty socks and sparkly shoes. She pulls her curls up so that they cascade down the back of her neck. She checks the mirror and scampers into the van. We arrive at our destination just a few minutes later. With the baby on my hip and Nicholas following behind, we follow her into the office. "I'm here," she calls out to the receptionist, "but I'm not sick. Nicky's sick. And maybe Sarah Annie. I'm just visiting."

I think the nurse might burst out laughing, but she manages to stifle it. The receptionist gives in to the giggle. The children are weighed and measured and temperatures checked. The doctor arrives. He asks Karoline how she is and is met with a full report of the last week, including every cake baked, a full accounting of Cox Farms and the hayride, and the happy news of her trip to Red Robin, complete with a rendition of the birthday song. Now we're all smiling from ear to ear.

By the time we leave with $200 worth of prescriptions, it's confirmed that Karoline has an ear infection and a fever, among other things. She gathers her stickers (and a few extras for Katie).

"Good-bye. I'll see you later. Thanks for having me!"

I don't think the sun has ever shone so brightly in that office.

Daybook: October 5th

Outside my window::

::we have been enjoying glorious autumn weather. The days have truly been golden and the nights are a little crisp. 

 I am listening to::

::silence. It's early and not even the dryer is singing yet.

I am wearing ::

::a very old McLean Celtic sweatshirt and yoga pants. The sweatshirt was Michael's when he played on the Celtic. When the team graduated, the name was recycled and now Stephen is a Celtic. I fell asleep wearing these clothes last night, after Mass, atrium, three soccer games, a visit with a very dear friend,  and Karoline's birthday celebration. They are not my fashion statement for the day.

To be Fit and Happy::

:: I survived birthday week and my jeans still fit. I confirmed that sugar is not my friend.

I am thankful for::

::being healthy enough to make four birthdays as perfect as possible for four children in the same week.

I am pondering ::

::"We are called to be witnesses, not lawyers." ~from a local church billboard

I am reading ::

::a wonderful book that is not yet published. I have been blessed by the author throughout my motherhood journey and I consider this advance copy of her new book to be God's provision. I can't thank her enough for the honor of reading it now (when I so need it) and I am very eager to share it with you soon.

From the kitchen::

::anything but cake!

I am creating ::

::new lists. We travel to the beach for a tournament this weekend.

On my iPod::

:: It's what's on TV this week: First, I have a small, unique problem. Three years ago, Mike took a job at ESPN in a Washington. One of his duties was taking the two studio shows on the road every Monday to shoot live on location at Monday Night Football. He was gone about four days a week. In order to stay connected and be supportive, we launched Monday Night Geography and we developed a Monday Night Football habit that included the pre-game and the game itself. Due to budget cuts, they aren't traveling the studio shows this year. That's great news: he's home! The bad news is that when he gets home from work, he's not much in the mood to watch ESPN. I've  more or less accepted this silently the past few weeks, but tonight's different. Tonight, Brett Favre plays Green Bay. I've been a Brett Favre fan since before either of us were gray. I stayed Brett Favre fan even though he's made a fool of himself. We have to watch football tonight.

::and, Jim and Pam get married on an hour-long Office on Thursday!

Towards a real eduction::

::Considering all the celebrating last week, we managed to stay pretty much on target. This will be a short week because we'll travel on Friday.

Towards rhythm and beauty::

::I was so overwhelmed when I first looked at what had to be accomplished this fall. It seemed there was no room for margin at all. I laid it all out in iCal and about suffocated with the reality. But iCal isn't the reality. In reality, we don't live inside those time-boxes. They are helpful for planning purposes and they keep me honest and on task, but life is much more fluid than they are and that's a very good thing.

To Live the Liturgy::

::This week, we celebrate Our Lady of the Rosary. My kids want to do a cupcake rosary. There's absolutely no chance of that. None. No. More. Cake. 

I am hoping and praying::

::for a happy outcome for a long-prayed family intention this week. Still.  If you have a moment, won't you pray with us? I would be so grateful.

In the Garden::

::pansies should go in this week.

Around the House::

::we picked up little pumpkins when we visited Cox Farms last week. I got St. Therese flowers on Thursday and Karoline got flowers yesterday. Our garden roses are abundant. The house is full of color.

On Keeping Home::

::Truly, I need  second wind. I want to leave things very orderly when we go to the tournament this weekend. I also want to cook ahead so we don't eat out the whole time we're there. 

One of my favorite things::

::little boys with fresh haircuts. It's so hard not to just keep kissing their necks.

Sarah Anne this week::

::Still not crawling. Not even close. But she pulls herself to standing and she waves and says "bye." She's eating a little better--but not much. She's just Sarah, on her own timetable.

How's the burnout recovery going?

::Smile. I think I have moved from "recovery" to "prevention." A few days at the beach will do nicely, don't you think?

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week::

:: I'm going to kick back and relax after Birthday Week. I going to plan and pack and cook for a Virginia Beach tournament. We'll stop and see my friend Jan in Richmond on the way down:-). It will be a very busy soccer weekend, but the ocean will beckon for some real R&R as well.

 A  Picture Thought I'm Sharing:

This is the beautiful sight of a new dishwasher being delivered to the Foss house. Do you know how many weeks you have to go without a dishwasher over the course of three years, how many times you have to wait for parts and repairs before Sears decides that yes, indeed, you have a lemon? I do.

And now, I have a new dishwasher and I'm going to set the table tonight with LOTS of stoneware dishes that will need washing. Not by hand.