A New Schoolyear Begins ~ Daybook

For today… Monday, July 6, 2009.

Outside my window… it’s dreary. We had storms last night – delicious, loud, rumbly, rain-soaked storms. We’ve been in need of rain. I am assured by the weather forecast that today will clear up. I do hope so. But….Sweet Pea and I managed to get wildflowers planted in pots around the house just before the storms yesterday. Sometimes frugality demands a creative solution, and we wanted flowers but have yet to get to the nursery to buy any. I decided that rather than putting this off and putting this off, I could be frugal with time and money. We dug around and found a few random collections of wildflower seeds and set to planting. Here’s hoping the rain didn’t wash everything away and our wildflowers bloom!

I’m happy to report that Mama Killdeer has 3 new babies! Of the four speckled eggs, 3 hatched. It is amazing but Mama Killdeer takes the babies out of the nest and into thicker cover mere minutes after they have hatched. It’s a good thing since they were so vulnerable to predators in the middle of the yard. We were so fortunate to be able to host them here! Thank you Mama Killdeer!

And this morning, Mama Mockingbird was severely scolding Gracie, our cat. I wonder if she has made a nest nearby? Poor Gracie just wanted to rest in the front gardens, but Mama Mockingbird was having none of it! I’ll have to go investigate later!

I am thankful for… a very productive weekend. I think I told you that the children decided they were ready to start formal lessons again, right? It’s so hot here right now and they wanted to be able to take time off in the more temperate months. I managed to get a great rhythm set up for the year in iCal. Sweet Pea’s plans are done and ready to go. And Peanut is bursting with excitement to get to the new picture books in his basket. There is so much joy and hope in the thought of a new year.

From the kitchen… it’ll be leftover grilled burgers and hot dogs! YAY!!! No cooking tonight! We found a new supplier for our pasture fed beef stores and the ground beef is great! We haven’t tried anything else yet, but I’m soooo glad we found this family farm! Whew! Check that off my list!

I am wearing… a denim skirt, a red 3/4 sleeve shirt, Mary Janes, and my hair swept up in this nifty clip I found at Target – it allows me to tuck all of it into the clip in a bun and then fasten the clip around it and have all my hair up. It’s different, and fun. I’m diggin’ it!

I am hearing… Peanut is sitting in the chair behind me playing peek-a-boo with Doodlebug.

Looking to the rhythm of the liturgical year… We need to set up the July Feast Table to reflect the month of the Precious Blood, and the Feast of St. Maria Goretti is today. St. Benedict’s feast is this Saturday, so I’m thinking Friday we’ll be reading about the Holy Twins. I think the older children will be reading St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills. A book I’m hoping to read soon is St. Benedict and St. Therese: The Little Rule and the Little Way.

In our learning spaces… we’re ready to use them in earnest again! We’ll get rolling today! I do need to put away a HUGE stack of Happy Hollisters I found at the used book store that are currently stacked on the kid’s table along with a few other books that arrived from Amazon on Friday. Everyone is excited to begin again…

Around the house… I’m really hoping to have time later this week to work on organizing my new red toile home management box! It’s been calling to me soooo loudly, but I’ve been trying to keep to the priorities….must…not…look…at…pretty…red…toile…box…. So far, so good, but if the week starts rolling along in a nice rhythm, I might have some time during the smaller children’s naptime to add those delicious black and white toile file folders to my box and do some updating to the contents of my home management helps. My poor, sad binder fell apart. Yes, Charlotte! I’ll be sure to post pictures of it when I do!

I will claim a moment for myself… hmmm….the red toile box sounds a little too fun to consider actual work!! 🙂 That will be a delight! And, there is a decidedly more manly movie (after all my Jane Austens) waiting for Rob and I to have a date-night – something with Tom Selleck! You can’t go wrong with Tom Selleck!

A few plans for the rest of the week… well, I suppose you know by now that lessons are on the top of the list! I’m sure there will be some kinks to work out in the plan. I have a nice menu in place again…finally! I intend to live that faithfully. And, hopefully Rob will be able to pick up mulch on the way home from work one day and we can mulch our gardens, now freshly weeded….again.

And, I’m working on a second follow-up post to A Detailed Look through the Learning Spaces! You ladies ask some great questions! There have been so many great comments and a number of emails asking specific questions. Along with the follow up post, many of you want to know **HOW** to organize your own spaces…just where to begin?? So, I’m planning a detailed post on the how-to of it all, from gutting the room to setting things out with an eye towards beauty as well as function. That will get its very own post along with another highly requested subject – the rhythm of our days. Many of you want to know what our days look like. I’ll work on a-day-in-the-life post with no cleaning before pictures so you can see the nitty-gritty…how a quick tidy works…what we do in the mornings…when I make dinner…the laundry tackled during naptime…juggling littles during lessons…all of it! So, if you sent me an email asking about these topics – know that I’m not ignoring you, I’ll work on answering in a post as time allows.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing…

The Anne Fields – a perennial source of inspiration
Photo credit: my very talented brother

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