Weekly Wrap-up 7

summer books, mountain hikes, handicrafts

Hello hello!

I hope everyone had a nice week. It was quite a cool and rainy week here. We started our school year in a very slow way. I’m still puttering around, adding last minute books to the school carts and ordering art supplies. This term we are taking on the (quite!) lofty undertaking of learning needle felting. I pick the handicrafts based on what I really want to learn how to do. I figure since I have to teach them, they might as well be interesting to me and not simply gluing popsicle sticks on craft paper.

If you’re wondering what in the heck I am talking about, here’s the short version: we are Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. Every term we attempt to learn a new handicraft as part of our curriculum. Last year we focused on clay modeling and before that, origami. We usually also rotate brush drawing and chalk drawing. Lest you think we are calm civilized people, let me assure you it is usually very chaotic. But we do try. My eleven year old remembers quite fondly when we learned how to take a piece of paper and fold legit envelopes with it when he was seven. Life skills, people!

In other news, we explored a newer area to us yesterday (which is why this post is a day late - my apologies). We rounded up the kids early after breakfast and headed to the mountains for a day of hiking, swimming and being on the lake. I can’t even describe to you how refreshing it felt to my soul to just stare out at the water and mountains - even as I was covered with children.

This is Table Rock State Park for any locals who are wondering. It was absolutely beautiful!

Something else I am loving this week is my new book I’m reading for my book club -

While technically we don’t have a book required for the summer, we decided we wanted something light to read and discuss at our first meeting back next month. I had heard good things about this and recommended it - I started and just love it! It's very very sweet - definitely the polar opposite of that murder mystery series I’m loving at the same time. Life is all about balance, right?

We are working to get back into the swing of things this coming up week and adding most of all our subjects back to the plate. Homeschool requires so much of me that the biggest help is just having a fully stocked freezer so I don’t have to think much about dinners during the week. We love Butcherbox and I also am a huge fan of these seasoning packets for easy weeknight school meals. Also making sure my kids are eating enough protein and limited to no sugar during the day makes a huge difference. I always underestimate it!

Whether you are starting school or not this week, I hope you have a great one!