in pursuit of wild things

We had a very busy and highly anticipated weekend. On Friday we only put in a half day of school. We then spent the rest of the time cleaning…well the kids cleaned. I worked in the kitchen making cake and icing for Littlest’s birthday. After tucking the kids in for the night I went off to slay a dragon or two (this mom plays the occasional video game) while my amazing husband spent a few hours in the kitchen creating cake art…Littlest’s Olaf birthday cake. Every year his cake designs impress us and every year he tells me how

much he dislikes working in the medium I provide for him…buttercream frosting. I think a celebration cake should not only be beautiful to the eyes but delicious as well. Maybe there exists another icing as yummy as buttercream…but I have serious doubts on the matter. Littlest couldn’t wait to eat his cake and couldn’t really understand why he had to wait for company to arrive before indulging. It was his cake!

On Sunday all of the children participated in Children’s Sabbath. I anticipated this day most of all. Sparkles helped lead an opening prayer, Littlest played the handbells (ok…I may have mentioned this a few too many times by now!), and everyone sang in the choir. Well, everyone sang except for Littlest. Most of the time he just stared at the congregation. Sometimes he amused himself by jumping off the steps or trying to play with his sisters dress. Sparkles managed to keep her composure throughout the ordeal without missing a beat and keeping the color of her undergarments a secret. Sunday night we returned to church for a Fall Harvest (or whatever it was called) for supper, costume parade and “truth and treating”.

I was a bit overwhelmed by all that socializing over the weekend so we only worked on math and a double lesson in geography. I then handed the kids a See the Light art DVD and let them go through all of the lessons in one go! They begged me the rest of the week to repeat the same schedule but I opted to be a responsible parent. I got very little sleep Monday night due to illness. I ended up sleeping in the recliner so my husband could get some undisturbed sleep. Whatever I had (or

maybe ate?) cleared up quickly enough and I decided to continue on with schooling anyway despite being really tired and queasy. I could hardly believe the view outside my window once the sun rose on Tuesday morning. The trees in our back yard that were green the day before were in their full autumn glory!  Perhaps there was a tint of color to them before but I failed to notice through business. I never want to be so engrossed in my own affairs I neglect the beauty of God’s creative expression in the changing of the seasons.

Today the boys collected branches for the Jesse tree along with pinecones and acorns for Thanksgiving projects. The crew also received their Christmas songs from their music teacher. Pretty soon Advent will arrive and we will be reading about the prophecies of the Suffering Servant and the birth of the Christ Child. Our Bible lessons are currently leading up to the Crucifixion. We have spent this week and will spent the next two weeks on the events of Holy Week. We will then spend the next three weeks learning about Christ’s death and resurrection. I thought about pausing our Bible studies until January. I won’t. I think they will understand more about their faith if we continue.

Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Aunt Cindy and crew ready to watch Wonder Woman

Temple ornament from my friend

Sparkles as Princess Anna