Seven Quick Takes: Crazy Week

Also known as: the seven reasons I didn't blog much this week!

1. I got all my pruning for the year done on the very last cold day! For those who don't need to prune, when the weather warms up, the sap rises and it's very hard on the plants if you lop off bits when the sap is running.

Anyway, I started on the ice damage (agnus castus) and ended up getting to all of the fruit trees (red cherry, white cherry, plum, pear, and crab apple). I even was able to start teaching Klenda how, where and why to prune!

A nice side benefit to pruning fruit trees is being able to force the blossoms from the trimmings. You mash the ends with a hammer (so they absorb more water) then put them in a vase. Also, I kept a few branches for the parakeets to chew on.

2. I went to a meeting with the Archdiocese of Washington to help determine their home school policy. This was great!

One of the issues that has come up in the past is that some parishes require homeschooled kids to attend CCD because they are "not in a Catholic school." It looks like Cardinal Wuerl wants a paradigm shift.

He wants pastors to care for three groups of kids: those in Catholic schools, those in CCD, and those being homeschooled. I do choose to send my kids (and sometimes teach) CCD, but this is still very good news. I also like it that the Cardinal wants to be sure homeschool families are connected to their parishes.

3. We also had our big Valentine's celebration. I think Valentine's day is a major feast for us because the family is the school of love (or possibly, we are all goofballs who love to celebrate things).
I blogged about our celebration here, but I thought I'd share the recipe for Pink Burping Cows of Love. This year it was cherry ice cream, pink heart shaped marshmallows, cherry soda, and a cherry on top!

Here are the Zoomlians enjoying them with cupcakes.





4. We made huge progress on our major household reorganization! We totally cleared the store room, created a storage area in the nursery, and sorted out the resulting detritus in the homeschool room and guest room! Thank you to the many people who prayed for me on this job!

5. All the kids came down with a nasty cold, some with fevers. We actually missed a bunch of stuff this week including Spanish class, co-op/Adventurers, and Science class. I'll spare you the goobery pictures on this one!

6. I figured out that some minor weirdness I had been going through was actually due to minor thyroid problems! It's still considered "sub clinical" so I am going to try some supplements before moving on to standard medication.

7. Mxyl and Zorg painted their new room yesterday, and will be making their bed today! Yes, it's a brand new Ikea bunk bed. I suspect they will be able to do it all on their own, but we'll see. I figure that, after all those fantastically complicated Lego diagrams, this will be easy peasy lemon squeezy for them.

More with Jen!