My Homeschool Mother's Journal - February 8

In my life this week…my husband and I finally got the hang of date time during art class. We went out to a local mexican restaurant we have never tried even though it's blocks from our house. Then we headed home and booked a weekend get away in March. It's going to be our combo Valentines/anniversary celebration. For the first time, the time period actually felt like a date. And we're looking forward to time without children in March. We've also been prepping for having 4 additional children at our house this weekend. Cousins are spending the night Saturday and my kids are not sure that 7 kids in the house is a good idea which makes me smile.  Should be crazy and then we'll all appreciate what we have on a daily basis!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

YDD made a skirt out of a scrap of fabric. It matched her outfit so well, I had to take a picture!

ODD working on a project she conceived for our new Harry Potter book club. I was impressed with the effort she put in. [Details below.]

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…Wednesday the girls and I packed up and left the house with DH at 7:30a so I could attend this appointment. It was a good appointment for me to attend because we got our first letter from his heart donor's family. Thursday the girls started swim lessons.

In our homeschool this week… even though we were gone all day Wednesday, the girls managed a decent day of schooling which I was impressed we pulled off. Thursday I put all scheduled schooling aside and the girls worked on writing their own letter to the donor family and creating art to go with it. That wrung us out so I didn't even attempt more. On Monday, the girls spent lots of extra time on history creating these covers for our Ancient China section:

They decided painting those characters was a lot harder than writing English with a pencil.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… life happens. Fit school in how you can and in ways you can. Wednesday's math was done on the iPad, but math was done. I hadn't been planning to drop all subjects Thursday, but it was the best thing for us. Don't kick yourself or guilt yourself. Be flexible and do what your family needs.

My favorite AND my kids favorite thing this week was… our very first Harry Potter book club. For a while now I've wanted to take my girls deeper into literature analyzation and I've thought using their favorite books would be an excellent vehicle. I had planned to just do it with my girls, but we've added a couple friends. "A" read all the books because ODD read them, and we've turned "S" onto the books. So today we had our first discussion and and a lot of fun.

Our crew so excited to eat the chocolate frogs!

I "made" the chocolate frogs by pouring melted chocolate into my frog mold. ODD made the frog boxes and wizard cards herself. Each person got 2 different wizard cards and then they traded around to get the ones they wanted. Everyone loved her work.

Our discussion comparing and contrasting Draco and Dudley

Our discussion of the strengths and qualities Harry, Ron and Hermione bring to their adventures.

Working on their writing of what they would see if they looked into The Mirror of Erised.

And of course playing with Harry Potter legos.

Favorite resource this week... was The Harry Potter Reading Club from Scholastic.There are all kinds of resources to print out. Fun stuff like bookmarks and serious stuff like discussion questions. There are also worksheet and writing activities. I really didn't have to do any lesson planning or prep work because I used these resources.

Things I’m working on… "Our priorities as wives and mothers should be God - Husband - Children - Home - Family - Church - Other People - Other Things." I saw this quote on facebook this week; it isn't new information to me, but I've been pondering it. Our heart transplant journey has forced me to make my husband come before my children. Now as we're settling into more normal life, I am working on shifting my focus from caregiver back to romantic partner. It's not an easy change. We've put romance aside for many years because of DH's heart. But we are working on it together.

I’m thankful for and praying for… I am so thankful for the opportunity to pray by name for DH's donor's family. From the time I began praying for a heart for my husband, I have been very conscious of the fact that means another family would be grieving. I have prayed for this family, but not by name and I am thankful I now have a name. I am thankful I can pray more specifically for this family that made the decision that led to new life for my husband. I am also thankful because I know that contact between the recipient and donor family means the recipient is doing well, so I am thankful for the affirmation that DH is in fact doing well.