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Last week, we finished up Season 8 of Scholé Sisters with a bang!
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This week, we did our first session of Flourish. This was the sessions where we talked about self-assessing and student-assessing — how to do it, attitudes to have, dealing with imperfections, etc. I’m really looking forward to next session!
For those of you who still haven’t signed up, there’s still time for you to register, watch the replay of Session 1, and join us live next Wednesday for Session 2 where we talk about a big picture, whole-homeschool assessment and tips for goal setting.
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I finished reading Christy a few days ago. I don’t know what I expected, but it was really quite good. I read it because it was spoken of highly by some women I respect, but when I realized the general story line, I think I feared it’d be sappy.
Happily, my fears were unjustified! I thought it contained so many worthy ideas — what it means to really love those who initially seem unlovable, what real love between a man and a woman might look like, what it’s like for your the faith you were taught as a child to grow up and mature, and more.
Christy is a young woman who volunteers to work in a mission school in the Appalachian Mountains after hearing a missionary to the area speak at her church. The book, based on the true life of the author’s grandmother, but fictional in nature, is the story of Christy’s first year. It was quite engrossing and unlike other novels I’ve read.
I recommend it, with one caveat: there is a fairly detailed description of child abuse and rape. If these topics are too much for you, you might want to skip it. They’re not gratuitous, but they are disturbing.
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This month in 2008:
It’s so weird to read words from myself at age 30, expecting my fourth child!
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This week ten years ago, my husband was dying on the couch. I’m not exaggerating, though I didn’t realize at the time how serious it was. We just thought he had a bad flu. And then he got a little better over the weekend, until midweek, when he took a dramatic turn for the worse. I have always prided myself in my at-home nursing ability, a skill I’ve worked hard to perfect. But I still remember that moment, that sinking feeling, when I realized that this was beyond me, and that he needed help fast.
I remember the doctor sending us to the hospital and telling me he just needed hydration. And I remember knowing deep inside myself that wasn’t true. I had already read a very long medical paper describing the progression of E.coli 0157:H7 and I had already diagnosed him at midnight the night before.
We got to the hospital and everyone told me he would be fine, but I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t be. I remember when we called in the family to say their goodbyes, when his twin flew out (ready to donate all his internal organs if that is what it took), when I wondered if Baby O. (who was only 10 months old), would remember his father.
God didn’t have to be merciful to us — to me — but he was. I’ve been glad to have this bonus decade (so far) with my husband.
This summer during our morning Circle Times, we’re going to be reading through a special little book I put together. While he was hospitalized, I wrote a prayer update letter every night. No matter how tired I was, when I got home from my last visit to the hospital (because I had a baby, I made multiple trips), I wrote. I never wanted to forget. And now it’s the ten year anniversary of our survival, and we’ll use my letters to remember.
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This week’s links collection:
- A Happiness Question: What Should We Do if We Feel Like We’ve Fallen Behind or Fallen Off the Wagon? from Gretchen Rubin
- This is a good complement to my post How to Move Forward.
- Conceived in rape, former Miss Pennsylvania shares why every human life deserves protection from LiveAction
- One thing that always bugs me about the “except for rape” caveat is that we’re implicitly saying all the people whose lives were conceived in rape — and there really are some! — should have been killed.
- French Senate votes to rebuild Notre Dame exactly as it was from Aleteia
- Not sure they’re capable of pulling it off, but so thankful they dispensed with Macron’s “inventive reconstruction.” Blech.
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Another for your ear buds:
It was so nice chatting with Cindy Rinna from Homeschooling Outside the Box!
The post Thoughtworthy (Book Mini Review, Circle Time to Remember, and MORE!) appeared first on Afterthoughts.