Weekly Rundown: New Life, Old Normal

I’ve been writing these weekly rundowns each Saturday (well, Sunday for this one) and it’s been such a great way for me to reflect on what we did for the week. As a person who probably focuses way too much on accomplishing tasks, this helps me so much to really stop and take it all in before speeding on to the next thing.

Stopping to take it all in really applies this week, as it was so full and busy that it felt like it lasted two minutes long! We made a quick trip to South Dakota, set a deadline to finish our bathroom remodel, and had a really amazing date night–it’s been full this week! I also added several more books to my already long list.

This is a hefty weekly rundown, so here we go…

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WEEKLY RUNDOWN: New Life, Old Normal

We made a super-quick trip to South Dakota this week to help welcome our new niece to the family!

Jemma Grace was born on February 24th–my brother and sister-in-law’s second child–two girls! She’s SO TINY!! My babies were never that small!

Sophia held her forever and it was so fun to see such a fresh baby. We helped my SIL get some organizing done, which always feels good when you’re surrounded with dirty diapers and can’t string words together for lack of sleep.

Vera got a stomach bug while we were there, which was a total bummer. We were up all night, so the drive home was not fun, but we made it.

Also, while in SD, we celebrated an early birthday for Sophia since we will be traveling over her actual birthday. My parents always like to be with the kids for at least a couple of their birthdays each year.

My mom “made” one of Sophia’s favorites for her: a Zebra Cake Cake 🙂

Old Normal

There are many, many phrases that have been popularized over the last 12 months that I would love to never hear again, but near the top of my phrase-hate-list is “the new normal.” It’s creepy and dystopian and if never seeing faces or hugging again is to be considered normal, call me abnormal please. Or better yet, just stick me in the regular, old normal category.

Thursday night, we got the opportunity to attend a private event and hear Dennis Prager speak in Wisconsin.

If you don’t know him already, Dennis Prager is famous among conservatives for his popular videos, his books, and radio show. He’s also hated among the Left for his popular videos, his books, and his radio show. I like listening to his fireside chats.

His talk touched on so many important topics. The current state of our country and the importance of preserving her greatness– because yes, we do live in a great country! He talked about his Jewish faith and how it differed from Christianity–he touched on many things I’d never considered before, and consequently made me thankful for God’s grace even more.

Walking around with unencumbered faces, shaking hands, listening to a speaker–it felt like the old days, the old normal. Praying for more of this.

MAKING HOME

The bathroom project has gotten out of hand. It’s been demo’d since mid-January and while we have made progress, it’s just been so slow-moving. We are going on a trip soon and our goal is to finish before we leave! I’m not sure we can do it, but we’re going to try.

Here’s a progress pic:

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

With our quick trip to SD this week and Vera getting a stomach bug, we’ve not had the most solid week of school. But we still checked off lots of math lessons and some great books!

We just started reading The Birds Our Teachers by John Stott. This book is lovely in every way! Stott is an avid bird watcher and each chapter covers a lesson that he learned from the birds.

It’s soaked in so much scripture and it’s just so rich with wisdom and beauty. The photos are wonderful and the pages are full of bird info and biblical teaching–it’s a perfect addition to our bird study.

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

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about is that I do believe that it will become harder, not easier to be a Christian–that’s not my opinion, you can see yourself in Matthew chapters 7 and 24 for just a few references.

We need to be firmly planted.

We’ll see a lot of believers turn away from Christian orthodoxy. We already are. I read this article from Albert Mohler this week and it discussed this very thing.

ON MY HEART

I’ve shared this before, but this last year has taught me so much that local government is so important. We always focus on the federal level, which is obviously important too, but we need to put just as much focus on the local and state level.

More than ever, I’ve been watching what my state is legislating and what’s happening in other states too because it’s important to know what could potentially be coming to your state too.

For homeschoolers, I love to subscribe to HSLDA because they keep us up to date on what’s going on around the world with homeschooling legislation. Minnesota has a bill coming that is troublesome. (HF874)

BUT I’m happy to report that friends of mine just helped get a new bill passed in South Dakota that makes it easier to homeschool there among other things. This is good news!

Annie is a friend and also my assistant and she and her husband moved to SD this summer and already they’ve been working on making it an even better place to live. The two of them and many other homeschoolers worked hard to help this bill get passed and I couldn’t be more happy for them.

ON MY NIGHTSTAND

Oh man, I’m in trouble here! I added several other books this week and haven’t had a lot of time to read, but they’re all so good!

Here’s what I’m reading:

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.

I just picked up Don’t Make Me Count to Three because I heard about it on a podcast. The approach is 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.

And if these weren’t enough, I started reading Mere Christianity with a friend and it is excellent so far! Don’t tell anyone, but this is my FIRST C.S. Lewis besides reading Narnia to my kids!

Hanging on to the old Normal

Though it seems that some have gotten cozy with this strange new world, I refuse to do it. Never will it feel normal to me to not see faces. Crowded rooms full of like-minded people listening to a morally-sound speaker is a good thing. Humans need to see other humans. Humans need social interaction. Real human interaction.

I’m thankful for moments that give promise to the old normal returning again.

Thankful for new life and time with friends–my kindred spirits. I’m thankful for my home state of SD. Thankful for the people that work hard for homeschoolers’ rights.

What are you thankful for this weekend?

Talk soon!