in pursuit of wild things

Time got away from me this month and I am very late getting the weekly wrap-ups posted. Turns out my husband likes to read them and misses hearing about our school week and my silly banter. I have been a bit quiet on the blog lately…maybe too quiet. I am just upset and troubled over a few things and couldn’t get the words out of my heart. Writing is a wrestling match for me but the process helps to calm my emotions in the long run. Sometimes I have a hard time controlling my feelings…those inner emotions that should be kept under lock and key…Most of those writings do not make it to the published page, but I do write them out and feel better and spent. A little wine can be helpful too.

I should have sat down at the keyboard before Thanksgiving. I was a bit pathetic and I am kinda cross at myself for losing control. OK…that sounds like I was horribly rude! I just had to get out of the house. While we were praying and thanking God for the food my skin just crawled, my heart went crazy, I had this panicky feeling come over me and I had to get out. So I did. The road was a nice place to hang out for a while. I then went inside and got Littlest and took him so my husband could get something to eat. Littlest and I went outside and I rocked him until he was sleepy. We went back in and I held him while he slept. After a while my husband suggested I get a bit to eat so I tried but couldn’t eat much. One of my brother-in-laws tried to talk to me about my departure but I told him to find something else to talk about. That went over well…I then returned to my husband to rescue him from being Littlest’s nap pad but he suggested I go see my friend at the end of the block.

So I did and had a wonderful time. I visited with her at her in-law’s. Most of the people were strangers to me but I puttered in the kitchen with the ladies and left feeling like I had spent a couple of hours with life long friends. I then returned to the family gathering. I was asked again about my “episode” and since I wasn’t exactly sure what to say I just said that the crowd made me feel anxious. Which was followed up with a statement about me staying home all the time and these things wouldn’t happen if my husband let me out more to socialize. I took that for what it was…criticism for being a homeschooler. That’s fine but the stab at my husband wasn’t nice…not at all and I felt angry and let down. I then found my husband, we rounded up the kids and left.

I’ll remember this as the awkward Thanksgiving but it is not my worst Thanksgiving.

The other struggle I’ve had the past few weeks is determining to stay with the review team. I like reviewing things but not being used for free advertisement. I’ve had to do a couple of things that made me uncomfortable and…well…I just need to pray over this concern. I’ve two more reviews due the early part of December and then I’ll need to make a decision.

We’ve been very busy this month at school. We finished up a two month study on the Pilgrims and Squanto from our favorite history curriculum…Beautiful Feet Books. We enjoyed the study and finished up the day before Thanksgiving. I had each of my scholars write-up a final paper and gave them several prompts from which to choose. Oldest wrote about Dr. Who taking him to the first Thanksgiving which I thought was fun and creative. Sparkles wrote a letter from the Mayflower and Middle Boy narrated the life of Squanto. I was very impressed with Middle Boy’s report since he wrote most of it without my help and his paper needed the least editing and input from me. I am working on another post about our Pilgrim studies and hopefully will get it up soon…

We also enjoyed Literature Club this month with one of the local homeschool groups. Oldest read A Christmas Carol and really enjoyed the book…he didn’t get it finished in time for the meeting but that happens sometimes. Littlest slept through his class…he is a tired boy these days. I’m constantly finding him asleep! We also enjoyed another art co-op with our friends this month and did a collage. The art class was at Mrs. Cuddle-me’s house again. My crew loves to go to her home and her boys are wonderful young men. My kids also like to chase her turkeys…and get chased by her turkeys. I’m going to have to get a picture of it sometime because it is absolutely hilarious!

Last week we went to the International Fair at Murray State. The kids enjoyed getting out for the day and we learned a few things from the international students at the university. The kids have papers with their names written in Chinese and we sampled a few goodies from the different countries. I liked the Chinese rice crackers and the kids liked the German gummy bears. I think they were most impressed that Angry Birds was created by the descendants of the Vikings! That is a funny statement but I am just glad they made the connection when they looked at the map!!

Last weekend I immersed myself in all things Dr. Who and totally loved the Day of the Doctor! I am looking forward to the next episode on Christmas Day and meeting the new Doctor!! I also learned that I am the only Whovian in my Sunday School class…so sad but true.

Thursday night I went Black Friday shopping with my friend and had a blast. I enjoyed hanging out with her and chatting with strangers in various lines. The only hard part was finding a place open to eat around midnight. Yesterday we put up the Christmas tree and had fun remembering all the places we got our ornaments for the tree.

Seems like there were a few other things that happened the past three weeks but I have misplaced my memories. For my praying friends out there please keep a friend of mine in your prayers. She went into the hospital to have a C-section on Wednesday. The baby boy is just fine but mama is still in critical care and her situation was life threatening at one point. Hold your family and friends tight.

his favorite is math

I added the bamboo stitch for February

dragon close-up

Littlest loved the game

Oldest’s DragonVale tablescape

snow and sunshine

Conversation Hearts make schooltime better

The dark parallel contrail in this photo is actually a shadow…we were totally freaked out over it

snowy morning

Littlest loves school

poetry and breakfast last week

January temperature blanket

Boots played the piano for us