Weekly Rundown: Beauty in the Everyday

Over the last week, we’ve checked a lot of things off the list. We celebrated a birthday and we created together. My favorite days are the quiet ones where we’re steadily getting work and school done together, but I remember to pause and see the goodness in the mundane.

My kids’ birthdays always give me pause. Time moves so quickly and thinking about it too much makes me cry, but it does remind me that life isn’t the milestones, it’s the smallest most everyday things that add up to a life well lived. It’s never perfect. Our days are always clunky and messy, but still there is so much beauty in it all.

WEEKLY RUNDOWN: Beauty in the Everyday

Happy Birthday to Noah!

His last year of his teens! SO hard for my heart, but this is the story of motherhood–bittersweet. We went out for dinner last night, opened gifts, had ice cream cake. And today his friends surprised him with a day of airsoft guns and hanging out. He hates being surprised, but I know he’ll have a blast.

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Noah’s birth story changed my life. I’ll never not get through his birthday without thinking about my former-self. I became a Christian while I was pregnant with him–at age 19, his current age. All of my kids are my favorites, but just because of the sheer transformation he made in my life, Noah’s birthday will always stir my heart.

Vera’s Still Making Dinner

I shared a couple of weeks ago how Raddish Kids is just so fun! Vera made a recipe from an older Raddish box this week– sweet potato gnocchi!

MAKING HOME

We kicked off the week with a big project that we didn’t have to do ourselves–new windows and a new door! You know you’re middle-aged when new windows make your face hurt from smiling so hard.

The windows in the kids’ rooms were the only original windows in our 1955 house and they were showing their age. Rot, mold and zero efficiency–it was COLD in their rooms!

In the kids’ rooms, it’s kind of funny because the company ordered the wrong sashes and it looks really ridiculous. But just pretend they’re correct. The right ones are on their way.

The door leading out to our deck was also very sad and worn out. On sunny days, you could actually see through the cracks and snow would blow in under it and through its holes.

The new door is all windows and I’m not quite used to it yet. When I walk into the kitchen, it’s so bright I keep thinking someone left the door open. We love it!

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

The girls and I are working on Ancient Greek history. We are using Homeschool in the Wood’s unit study, which is so good! We have done several of these unit studies and they are always a hit!

A typical lesson looks like this:

• read the text provided
• read from any additional books or resources I have that go along with the lesson
• while I’m reading, the kids cut out the pieces for their timeline and/or their notebook or lapbook
• we assemble their lapbook pieces together

Every so often, the study will provide a hands-on project that we do as well. And at the end of the study, we assemble the lapbook and they are gorgeous lapbooks!

You can read about the Colonial Times study we did HERE.

And a review about the Greek Study HERE.

We also did a super fun art project this week. Deep Space Sparkle membership offers really amazing art projects. We are off-and-on members, as I accumulate a ton of the projects and then need to unsubscribe for a while and actually DO the projects instead of just accumulate!

Anyway, I found one in their Classical Art bundle that I couldn’t wait to try: marbled paper columns in the designs of the Greeks.

First, we created the paper with shaving cream and liquid watercolors. This was SO FUN! After our paper dried, we drew some of columns like the Ancient Greeks designed and then shaded them in with chalk pastels. We love how they turned out!

WHAT WE READ THIS WEEK

We have been reading Genevieve Foster’s George Washington’s World and I cannot express how much I love these books!

They are on the long side, but they are fantastic for covering what was going on all over the world during the span of the main character’s lifespan.

We started reading a book with the boys called Created to Work by Bob Schultz. It’s so good so far–teaching them about God’s design for working. The chapters are really short and each one ends with a few discussion questions.

NOTEWORTHY

For a long, long time now I’ve been deeply troubled by the absolute void of truth in our culture. We live in a society of my truth which is just another word for my story or my opinion, but it is not the truth. A society cannot thrive in moral relativism. I read the following this week and it made so many great points surrounding the issue of moral relativism and gave me hope, too.

The Coming Collapse of Secular Man by Doug Wilson

Another tool I’ve been using a lot lately is GotQuestions.org. Pretty much any question you could think of on theology is there. It’s been so useful!

ON MY HEART

Admittedly, I’ve backed away from the Enneagram for the last year or more. But I also shared about it a lot on social media and other places, and I can no longer support it or write it off as a neutral tool for learning more about yourself.

Over the past weeks I’ve been reading tons of articles, listening to podcasts, and delving deep into to the true roots of the Enneagram and it’s been eye-opening. It’s been on my heart because I do have guilt about sharing something that could be detrimental to one’s faith. I’ll be sharing more about what I’ve found soon.

ON MY NIGHTSTAND

Still working on Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher–it is a must-read!

When I’m needing something a little less “heady” before bed, I’m really liking The Huntress– a work of historical fiction about a woman charged with persecuting Jews in WWII.

So much beauty in the everyday

Morning coffee–that I can now taste again!

Warmer, sunny winter days after -20’s.

Late-night conversations with my teens.

Hearing my kids memorize scripture.

When Jarrod knows what I’m thinking.

Have a lovely weekend, friends! Remember to see the beauty.