{SQT} Written, While Seated With a Glass of Wine, at the Standing Desk
It’s late Thursday evening and I’ve just sat down with a glass of red to hash out a few Quick Takes. However, my youngest daughter also developed a stomach bug approximately two hours ago, so we’ll see how many I can complete between my trips to empty the puke bucket / coerce my daughter to PLEASE try to make it to the bathroom and NO NOT IN YOUR BED!!! (Updated: She’s doing much better this morning.)
1. January is always a tough month. Our Christmas break, although four weeks, is always so jam-packed full of Christmas prep, traveling, throwing away old toys, etc. that I enter a new school trimester in need of a vacation. It doesn’t help that I’m ordering the books I need the day before we’re set to start school back up. Second week back and finally, Edie has something to do during English besides annoy her siblings. On one hand, there’s not too much planned on the weekends, and just the usual stuff through out the week, but yet there is no longer any clean underpants in the house unless you’re willing to hike Mt. Laundry-more and stake a claim on whatever made its way to the summit. I had an excuse to get backed up on laundry over the holidays but now, I’m not quite sure why things have gotten so out of hand.
2. Okay, maybe I have some idea. I did rearrange the living room, turn our computer desk into a standing workstation and start hauling all our butts to the YMCA two to three nights a week. New year, new resolutions, same problem of getting all my priorities is the worst. possible. order. Upside, everyone love the Y, downside, we all stink from wearing dirty gym clothes. Who else in their enthusiasm to embrace all the new and wonderful things is sore and tired?
3. I typically walk on the indoor track and listen to audio books or podcasts. This week, I looked like a total nut job as I hoofed it around the track smiling ear to ear and gafawing at the latest ‘Fountains of Carrots’ podcast with Hallie Lord. If I’m going to look like some creepy lady who’s enjoying her evening walk just a bit too much, it’s only because I love those ladies so much. “The benefits of exercise suck compared to my enjoyment of such a great podcast. I could mouth breath and flail my arms awkwardly all night to these gals!”
4. I’m attempting Shakespeare this trimester with the kids because Charlotte Mason said so and because we’re covering Elizabethan England in history. Plus our last day of school viewing of ‘Henry V’ went so well. Addie has read a couple ‘No Fear Shakespeare’ titles and I thought ‘The Comedy of Errors’ would be a great intro for all the kids to one of Shakespeare’s comedies. WRONG. Edie was in tears while I read a synopsis of the play and the older two refused to listen to my poor recitation of Egeons monologue without unflattering commentary. I’m not giving up, as evidenced by the 50 tabs of online resources I’ve got open to scour for ideas, but I’m thinking no ones going to be keen for a live performance any time soon. Put away the costumes Kelly and let it go.
5. Thanks to everyone who made book suggestions last week. I added several titles to my Goodreads list. I recently finished up Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Decline and Fall’. I didn’t like it half as much as ‘Brideshead Revisited’ and am wondering if there’s a better Waugh title or two I might prefer? Currently I’m reading Graham Greene’s ‘The Power and the Glory’ and, while it’s not blowing my mind, it’s an engaging read.
6. So far the infusion of technology into the house is going well. I get emailed every time an app downloads and I’ve been amused at the titles of some of the free apps they’re finding; Lie Detector Ultimate, Blackjack 21, and Real Steel World Robot Boxing, just to name a few. The kids also all picked up on DuoLingo and are trying to learn various languages. Addie was already beginning to study French, Edie picked French as well, then a few lessons in I realized she was actually studying German (despite her insistence otherwise) and Byron picked Dutch “just because.” My husband and I also have accounts so we’re all following one another and comparing scores. Nothing like the constant taunting of your parents to really motivate you to learn! Talking smack; how real homeschoolers educate their children.
7. I attended a homeschool moms’ social on Tuesday which also meant minimal schooling would take place on Wednesday. We held our annual White Elephant gift exchange. One gift bag contained a lovely body spray and several pregnancy tests. Although at the beginning of the game everyone acted like it was such a funny idea and “Oh, thank goodness I didn’t wind up with that gift, tee, hee, hee”, but, by the end, several moms were lining up to grab a test “just in case.” It led our hostess to exclaim, “Only at a Catholic moms social are pregnancy tests the hot ticket item.” zing
How’s your week? Link up below and let everyone know! I’m going to go check on the invalid. Be sure to use the url of your post, and not your blog’s url. Don’t forget to click around and visit the other linkers uppers! If you’ve found a new favorite blog, share it in the comments! I look forward to reading your post.
I hike Mt. Laundry-more everyday and the Mt. is usually not in baskets or boxes, but on my bed! Hey, it’s more layers to keep me warm (but that’s what my husband’s for so scratch that excuse for laundry slackness!) 🙂 And yes, I’m sore and tired from my new years resolutions too! It doesn’t help my tired self blogging into the wee hours of the nest day though! 🙂 Thanks for the link up party! I’m at #5 spot! Woohoo! And I hope your little one feels better soon! No fun! 🙁 Have a blessed weekend!
I have just started reading Brideshead Revisited and am really enjoying his writing style. Let me know if you find another of his works that you like. I am also ashamed to admit but up until last week I thought Evelyn Waugh was a woman…
Kelly I LOLed at the pregnancy test hot ticket situation. I’ll have to try that next year. This year our most popular item was the massage discount and some natural homemade toiletries and pregnancy tea!
Aw, shucks, Kelly. Thanks for lovin’ the podcast <3
About Waugh-give the Sword of Honor trilogy a try. The first one is called Men at Arms. Super good. Also, Vile Bodies is a really scathing satire written after his first wife left him and Helena, about St. Helena, was written post conversion and is odd and funny and gorgeous.
I really enjoyed the Sword of Honor Trilogy as well.
Make me the third to recommend Sword of Honor! It takes some effort to get through all the British WWII era slang, but it’s well worth it. It has the pathos of Brideshead with a bit more of the biting irony and ridiculous situations of Decline and Fall. The movie version with Daniel Craig is good too.
Working out is so good for your body, but so so bad for staying on top of laundry. Since I nanny, there always bodily fluids on me by the end of the day, so I can’t rewear wear anything. Plus an extra workout outfit every day that, trust me, cannot be reworn, We have way too much laundry for a family of three.
Oh man, I really wanna see you working out and then randomly flailing with muppet arms! Thanks for listening to us crazy people!
If you’re looking for semi-educational but fun things, try GeoGuessr. I think the app costs money, but the website is free.
Copious laundry is the worst part of regular exercise.
Do you have any pictures of the new standing workstation?
I did post a picture on Instagram, if you don’t see it flip by on my sidebar, you can click over. http://instagram.com/p/x7fRujnokF/
Well, I think “Brideshead Revisited” is the best, but if you’ve ever wondered how horrifying reading Dickens could be, you could always try “A Handful of Dust.” Love “The Power and the Glory” because of the whole idea of being, through grace, both the greatest saint and the greatest sinner at the same time. But I *really* love Greene’s “The End of the Affair.”
Also, if you haven’t, you need to read “A Confederacy of Dunces” and then write about it here. I spent a lot of that book thinking “what is this I don’t even…” and then finding myself at random times snickering about what I’d read.
#7 is hilarious. I’m totally getting a pregnancy test next year for a white elephant at my hubby’s office party. (Evil laugh.)
bahhh! The laundry! Ours is in our luggage and in our laundry baskets. I never knew laundry could be so mountainous and unending… And, that’s pretty awesome about the preggo tests. That’s a good one I may have to use next year.
Oh! Shakespeare: have you heard of the book “How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare” by Ken Ludwig? You should get it!! If you want to do Shakespeare with your kids, this is it! He makes it fun. I introduced our little ones to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and now they know the story and have already memorized two passages from it. You could also read Melanie’s blog posts about how she does Shakespeare with her kids, (http://www.thewinedarksea.com/2014/09/27/8875/) and definitely listen to Sarah’s podcast interviewing Ken Ludwig. (http://amongstlovelythings.com/6/) ! There, some more resources for you 🙂 Sorry if you already knew all about them!
Oh my gosh, I swear I wrote my takes before I saw that you also mentioned Christy and Haley’s podcast. It is just so good!!!
It’s so funny how many people gaffe over their laundry situation because laundry is my hands-down-no-matter-what-all-time-favorite-chore! Send all your laundry to me and I’ll trade every bit of toilet cleaning or dish washing buildup ANY DAY!!