Seven Quick Takes - 2

--- 1 ---

It seems to be Sistine Chapel week around here. We finally did our Picture Study/Art Activity on Michaelangelo which consisted of the kids painting on paper hung from underside of the table while laying on their backs. They moaned that they weren't comfortable and they worried that the paint would drip on them. The activity certainly made an impression! I got the idea out of Mary Ann Kohl's Art of the Great Masters. Their paintings turned out pretty nice and no one got dripped on. I stopped off at the library in our old town Thursday night and bought a beautiful picture book on Michaelangelo off the Friends of the Library shelf. It was one of the books listed in the bibliography for the Charlotte Mason picture study on Michaelangelo we're working our way through. It's still in print, the author is Diane Stanley. I couldn't pass it up for $ 3. Of course, with all the news about the Pope's last day, there were lots of opportunities to see and hear about the Sistine Chapel on the news too.

--- 2 ---

After several meetings and calls and emails back and forth with the designer and contractor it SEEMS like we might be close to getting an agreement with the City on our cabana remodel project. Their initial suggestion was that I demolish the 55 year old cabana and move it 10 ft off the back fence line. I don't think so.

--- 3 ---

Kids seem to have made a good recovery from their colds/flu/fever/coughs. Bill is almost over his sinus infection. I, unfortunately, am still on antibiotics and still have the lingering wheezy cough. It's quite a bit better, but not gone. I hate having a compromised immune system. One of the many effects of having an auto-immune disease.

--- 4 ---

At 11 am on Thursday morning I started ringing our jingle bells while the kids were out back shooting hoops. They all stopped and we talked about Pope Benedict retiring. It is so strange to not have a Pope. I had to work really hard to control myself and not post a response to every obnoxious thing I started seeing on Facebook about the Pope's last day. Non-Catholics sure are obsessed with the Pope. What's even crazier is when they start spouting off opinions about who the next Pope should be. Ummm, you're not Catholic, so why are you even gossiping about this? I made one Facebook post and kept it calm and that was that. Back to praying for "our" Cardinal and for the success of the conclave.

--- 5 ---

My meeting with the charter school teacher went great this week. I was super-prepared and organized and we got through everything for all 3 kids in just under 2 hours. She also brought back the essays of the older two and I was so pleased to see they both scored a 4 out of 4 on the graded placement writing exercise. Next up, they have to do two days of STAR testing on April 8/9. So far, having to deal with state testing has been the only down side of being part of a public charter school for us.

--- 6 ---

The costume hats and revolutionary war toy soldiers arrived so we can start acting out some of the battles from our American Revolution history book.

--- 7 ---

This week during our homeschool play group I met a Mom who was discerning whether or not she could homeschool given her auto-immune disease and having no family support nearby. A friend put us two together and we had a long and honest talk about what it's like to homeschool when Mom has a chronic illness. I'm not sure I convinced her she could do it and to give it a try, but at least I was mentally ready to be an example of a successful homeschooler despite having a chronic illness. I keep hoping to meet another Mom like me, I have even started asking around on some yahoo groups I am on to see if I can find someone to guest post here about how they make homeschooling work for their family, but so far I haven't found anyone. Am I the only Mom with a chronic illness who home schools? Probably not. But maybe I'm the only one who can afford household help and thus has time to read blogs and write about it.

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