Quick Takes Friday

1

I loved Melissa Wiley's idea of "tidal homeschooling" as soon as I read about it. It sounded just like me, only I was accustomed to thinking of it as times when I was doing a good job and times when I was doing a bad job. I adjusted my attitude a little and suddenly both of these seasons were more fruitful.

Now I find that she has put together a master list of her tidal homeschooling posts! She should really write a book about it--but I can't wait for that. I'm printing them all and keeping them in a three-ring binder.

2

Our two-year-old is in the difficult stage of refusing to be disciplined and really needing it. This week has had its typically difficult moments--he had a late nap and vehemently protested waking up. He bumped his head and would not be consoled. He fought bathtime tooth and nail and would not even be bribed with popsicles in the shower. Mean Mommy and Daddy told him to lie down at bedtime, and oh, the humanity! But I have a secret weapon: his little sister. Cora is the magic baby. (Actually, I think all babies possess this power. Holding babies in general is therapeutic.) It does. not. matter. how violent the throes of his righteous anger or unjust suffering are. As soon as I hold her sweet, smiling face level with his, he puts his arms around her, screws up his teary eyes, and says in his high-pitched, babyspeak voice, "Hi Co-wah! Hi Co-wah!"

3

And she always smiles. She's not the first of my kids to act this way. When somebody's demonstrably unhappy, the baby smiles in their direction. I believe in my bones that babies learn empathy early.

4

Here's a funny from 2009 that I thought I had already posted somewhere else, but is showing up as a draft in my list of blog posts:

Four-year-old: Do you remember last night when I held your ice cream cone while you opened Jude's popsicle?

Me: Sort of...

Four-year-old: I don't.

5

Clothing storage is a constant struggle for me. I have storage bins designated for every size my kids have grown through, boy and girl. This does not mean that the clothes in a bin correspond with the size with which that bin is labeled. That would mean that I am doing it right, which I am not. I have bins that are half empty, bins that are almost completely empty, and full bins (of mixed sizes) with no label. I have baskets, in addition to bins, full of clothing (of mixed sizes) and dressers half full of outgrown clothes. So this week I looked at how long it would take to go shopping for several kids (with all of them in tow), how much it would cost to buy even one outfit per kid that actually fit, and how many bins were no doubt hiding full wardrobes' worth of current sizes for somebody.

And I did it. Not all of it, mind you. There are still lots of sorting and stacking and storing to be done. But I went through every one of those containers and I pulled out everything that was in season in someone's size. (And I quite easily pulled out enough good-condition surplus to fill a box for our diocese family ministries agency, and there's more where that came from.) I feel as if I just saved us $2000 on the clothing budget. Dressers, here I come.

6

This is so cute! I got it from The Anchoress and had to post it myself.

7

3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does what is good is of God; whoever does what is evil has never seen God.

What are your Quick Takes?