Weekly Wrap-up 1

Hello, hello! Welcome to the weekly wrap-up where I briefly write about what I’m loving this week. Some weeks it may be shorter than others but it’s my goal to always show up and share at least a few things. If you’re a free subscriber, you will receive this post straight to your inbox every Saturday.

If you are a new paid subscriber (THANK YOU!), you will receive this post plus biweekly essays to your inbox. The essays will be about anything, really. Life, motherhood, faith, cooking, recipes, the gloriously messy here and now…I am so grateful that you all care to read my work and appreciate every single one of you. I have big plans for this little publication and grateful you’re taking the chance on me!

So here we go! This week we’ve been in full summer mode. My daughter is taking ISR (infant swimming resource) swim lessons every morning and two of my sons are playing soccer multiple times a week. We’ve also been at parks and coffee shops and museums, and basically all the places we always want to go during the “official school year” (air quotes here because we homeschool and our “official school year” is actually quite fluid) but never actually have time for. It’s been busy, lovely and hot. I’m still not sure if I have gotten used to the humidity on the east coast again even though we’ve lived here for several years now. Not a fan.

So here’s the wrap-up:

1. The Big Three. I think I got this idea from somewhere else, but basically it’s the stuff that your kids “have” to do every day in the summer. This is academic for us and doesn’t include chores, which they always have to do regardless of the season. Our big three differs by the kid, but for instance, my eleven year old’s big three is Morning Time, Math and Independent Reading. I’m really hoping he finishes Robinson Crusoe soon because then he is going to start Swiss Family Robinson and I know he will love it. In a way, we homeschool year round but it works well for us because then I feel like we can take breaks whenever we want to. I don’t reward finishing your big three with screen time because we really don’t do much of that in our home, but I do say you can just go do whatever you want when you’re finished. They usually just race outside to play.

2. Harry Potter. We are new to Hogwarts and loving it so much. My eleven year old has now read through all the books and I am on book two myself. This is making my weekly wrap-up list this week because last night we let the boys stay up late and we all watched the first movie together, huddled under lots of blankets in the basement with popcorn handy. WE LOVED IT!!!!! Adam and I might have loved it the most. I know a few of you told me the movies do get darker after the third, but the first was just so delightful and fun! I am dying to go to Harry Potter world or the the play in London.

3. Pray as You Go App. I do think I have told you all about this before but I’m still going with it. Every early morning my routine is to make a cup of coffee and take it into our library to listen to the app. It is totally free and produced by a group of Jesuits in the United Kingdom. Every day has beautiful, meditative music, the mass reading and contemplative prayer. I have been listening almost every day for well over three years! Every day’s meditation is about twelve minutes and you certainly do not need to be Catholic to enjoy it.

Wishing you all a very lovely and summery next week. My kids are starting baseball camp, which should be fun and very hot.

Until next week,

Jenna