Weekly Wrap-up 5

audiobooks, school planning and a recipe!

Hello, hello!

This will be short and sweet today, as I’m about to hop in the car to go grocery shopping. My kids were in VBS (vacation bible school) at our church all week so I was solo with the toddler.

I’m starting to feel re-energized to start school again in August and gathering my materials and such. In the past few years, we have slowly shifted into making “morning time” the real center of our school day. If anyone is unfamiliar with that term, it just means basically when you put all your kids on the couch and you read out loud and do a variety of “subjects” all together.

I find that if I skip Morning Time too many days in a row, my eleven year old starts to get grumpy and beg for it back. It’s a really great way to combine subjects and cover a lot of ground with different ages. However, it IS challenging when you have a toddler so I’m slowly stockpiling random things I can bring out when we start (like a giant tub of pom poms with cups for her to sort while I read).

This year I’m doing things slightly differently than I have in the past because every month we are studying a different subject together during that time. In August, we are starting out with a whole unit on Japan! My six year old is very, very excited about this because he is totally into Japan and is dying to go there one day.

After we do our Morning Time, my eleven year old goes off to read his assigned school books and then comes back to narrate to me orally or to write a written narration (I require a paragraph every day). My younger two kids do phonics, spelling, copywork and math. It’s always a goal to get as much done before lunch as we possibly can.

Okay, I wasn’t planning on making a total school post today but since it’s fresh on my mind there ya go!

Other things I’m loving this week -

This audiobook! I would describe this as a G rated Outlander. lol. It’s the second book in the series and the first one was great, too. I really, really like it and since my kids were at VBS all week I listened a ton while I was running errands.

This new children’s book! Absolutely loved this one and so did all of my kids.

I talked about these sneakers on Instagram but I’m just really loving them and they are on major sale right now. They go with absolutely everything and are just so comfortable once you break them in. Yes, they are white so they will get dirty but they are great quality and super cute with summer dresses.

We’ve been eating so many great dishes with tomatoes recently! Here’s my VERY favorite way to enjoy them in the peak of summer -

Summer Sauce

5 juicy tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1/4 cup olive oil

a bunch of basil

ricotta for serving

Dice the tomatoes. Place them in a colander in the sink and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for about 20 minutes. Heat up your olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and cook for about one minute. Add the basil and cook until the basil is dark green and fragrant. Add the tomatoes now and cook just until they start to look their rawness —about five minutes.

Serve the sauce with hot pasta and top with big spoonfuls of fresh ricotta cheese! SO GOOD.