Happy Almost Assumption!

Don’t you just love weeks with several of your favorite feast days? Today is the Feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who I absolutely adore, and it’s the eve of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, one of my favorite Marian Feast Days.

1.In honor of the Assumption, we’ve been working on our Let’s Celebrate the Assumption Activity Packet today. The big kids had a lot of fun creating their own versions of the assumption, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to talk to them about it. I loved their answers to the conversation starters- so sweet and innocent! Also, William declared that it must have been “awkward” for the apostles to open Mary’s tomb and realize her body was gone. Indeed. . .

2. William has discovered that he LOVES math thanks to Blueberry Math, the brainchild of my friend Aleesa. It’s absolutely adorable and is all quality content with no fluff. According to William it’s a “dream come true” (his words, unprompted), which is a big deal for my very reluctant learner who usually can’t be bothered to care enough to remember his numbers. It’s been making his homeschooling day a lot less of a slog, and his retention of the information has improved dramatically. Definitely check it out if you’ve got a preschooler or kindergartner and are planning on homeschooling this year.

3. Charlotte has learned to work the hose. She is incredibly proud, but the rest of us now walk outside at our own peril.

4. The kids’ grandma sent some care packages for the kids as we get closer to baby boy’s arrival, and one of the items she sent was the complete Elephant and Piggie Collection for G. If you haven’t come across Elephant and Piggie yet, definitely check them out- the books are hilarious. They are also a really great choice for readers who need a confidence boost. The pages only have a few words on them, which makes them not so overwhelming, but the books are all hardcover, which makes them feel like “real books” (which of course they are). The text is a good combination of sight words and words that young kids are capable of sounding out phonetically, which is great for early readers.

G read 6 out loud to me the first day we got them. She has them proudly displayed in our library (and fun- the complete collection comes with book ends), and enjoys reading them quietly to herself in the cozy chair or out loud to her siblings.

5. One normal family activity that we’ve been able to indulge in this summer despite covid has been hiking. The kids have been loving getting outdoors, and there are a couple local-ish parks with great hiking trails and almost no one on them. Their favorite is one with a stream that they can “swim” in. It’s really nice to be able to go somewhere and also still feel safe.

I think that’s all the takes I have in me today . . . Let’s chalk that up to the heat and the fact that today marks 37 weeks of this pregnancy. Between the two, I’m amazed I’m still a functioning adult. Click on over to Kelly where you can read some 7 Quick Takes that are actually 7 Takes.