Weekly Rundown: Baby Turns 8

Hey friend! Happy weekend. It’s been a busy week over here after being gone all last weekend, trying to push forward with school with only a few weeks left, and a birthday this week. Yes, my baby turned 8 this week! Yes, it makes me sad. But yes, I’m so grateful I get to be her mama and that God entrusted her to me for a while. Goodness motherhood is a bittersweet pill to swallow isn’t it?

Let’s talk more on that later on in the rundown.

For this weekly rundown, I’m sharing about some books we finished, some things on my heart, and some things we’re looking forward to. Here we go…

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WEEKLY RUNDOWN: Our Babies Turning Older

A couple of weeks ago, I shared about our kids getting older, leaving the nest, and what it looks like for us moms after that happens. It will look different for us all, but I got some messages from readers wondering why I felt I needed to get a full-time job or why I felt obligated to go work at an office or something along those lines. To be clear, I don’t think either of those things. Honestly, I fully trust that God will guide my plans and as my kids get older, I will be able to discern what’s right.

I would love to be available for my kids, even as adults. It would be amazing if I am still in the homeschool realm helping homeschool moms navigate the waters.

My only point in bringing it up a couple of weeks ago is that as we see our kids edging towards independence, leaving home, and growing up, a weird feeling sets in. And “weird” doesn’t mean wrong. It just means that there is an end to the hands-on motherhood days, creating a huge shift in our lives as moms. Processing together, with you, dear readers, is my way of saying, “hey, this is going to be a bittersweet transition, isn’t it, friend?”

I’ve gotten texts from several friends with kiddos graduating next month. Some of them homeschooled and some not. We’re all saying the same thing–please tell me my heart won’t hurt so much a year from now. While I can’t promise that, I can say that if your child is graduating in t-minus 4 weeks, I get it, mama.

Your job isn’t finished, you’re just changing positions from teacher and instructor to guidance counselor and then onto friend. It’s going to be so good. But we can still cry some tears together.

All that to say, my baby turned 8 this week, so there are many sweet years ahead with her, but it’s still a jarring number for my heart to handle.

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we are for ONCE finishing a science curriculum!!!!!! This is truly a homeschool miracle for us. And maybe I’m just riding the science-high, but for some reason, I ordered not one, not two, but THREE different LIVE insect types to be sent to my doorstep. To raise. Like pets.

I’ve entered a new realm, folks.

The live ants arrived first. (Go to Insectlore.com for all of these terrible ideas.) There were several warning labels–they sting. Cool.

First, we put the tube o’ ants into the refrigerator–where our food is–so they would get a little sluggish. Then we filled their little Ant Hut with sand and watered it to pack it down and released the ants. They started tunneling right away. It would be really cool if it wasn’t so gross.

Then the ladybug larva arrived. We released those into their house and supposedly they will attach to the walls of the container and become pupa, then ladybugs.

Lastly was the jar of caterpillars, which we have been doing with the kids about every other year for 12 years or so. Watching them become tiny caterpillars, then big ones, then chrysalids, then butterflies is awesome.

Because of this, we have SO MANY great books started right now and we will have to tie them all up before school is over in seven weeks!

WHAT WE’RE READING:

• The Birds Our Teachers by John Stott. (HIIIIIGHLY recommend!)
• Exploring Creation with Zoology: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day
• Beautiful Feet Books Around the World with Picture Books Part II
• Genevieve Foster’s George Washington’s World and I cannot express how much I love these books! We are reading this as part of Beautiful Feet Books Early American and World History
• Sebastian Bach: the Boy from Thuringia as part of Zeezok Music Course
• SQUILT March Listening Calendar. We are studying Bach this month!

THE KIDS AND I ARE ALSO CURRENTLY READING THE FOLLOWING IN THE EVENINGS:

• Created to Work by Bob Schultz. 
• C.S. Lewis Biography

ON MY NIGHTSTAND

My goal for this Quarter: FINISH THESE BOOKS! I can’t drop any of them! You know how sometimes, you’re reading a book and it’s not that great and you have better things you could be reading? That is not my situation. They’re all SO GOOD!

Here’s what’s on my nightstand:

• Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher–must-read!
• [STOPPED READING, flipped to the end, read the last chapter, and quit. It was so sluggish and hard to get into and it felt like she desperately threw in unlikely romance to make it interesting and it just didn’t work at all. I don’t recommend.] The Huntress. A work of historical fiction about a woman charged with persecuting Jews in WWII.
• Don’t Make Me Count to Three  A parenting book with the approach of starting with the heart of your child as you discipline. Everything leads back to scripture so you are training as you discipline. This idea is so good!
• Becoming MomStrong is a new bible study I’m doing with some friends and I love the book so far. Really solid biblical teaching. A lot of women’s bible studies are completely surface-level. Not much depth or too overly emotional. I just really struggle with good, solid bible studies, so I usually just go back to the solo bible. I actually learn a lot more that way. But I am happy that this study looks really good.
• Mere Christianity with a friend and it is excellent so far!

BE THANKFUL

Vera wore my sister’s First Communion dress to church last week. She was so proud and it made my sister smile big too.

Quick List:

• a happy birthday weekend for Vera
• the inerrancy of God’s word
• R.C. Sproul’s body of work

How about you?

What are you thankful for this week?