November 14, 2009

7 Quick Takes: November 13, 2009 (Volume 21)

in children,emotions,family,homeschooling,illnesses/accidents,mortality,music,shopping,unplugged play

~ 1 ~

Thanks so much for all of the kind words on my Grandmother’s sudden passing. It was so helpful for me to be able to write about it, and I appreciate all of the kind words that you guys have left.

We had the funeral last Friday, and spent this week continuing to clean out her apartment. It has all been tiring both physically and emotionally, but it has also offered so many small moments of joy, as well as time to be with family.

~ 2 ~

In my quest to say yes to the kids a whole lot more often, I have found myself spending a lot more time doing things like listening to books that the kids have written (especially by Molly, who has to read them to me, since they are mostly scribbles with a “mom,” “dad,” or “cat” tossed in occasionally), playing rock paper scissors, and drawing with the kids.

Though I have felt so behind in many things I need to do lately, it has also been nice to say yes a lot more often instead of saying “in just a little while,” which becomes “how about tomorrow?”

~ 3 ~

Speaking of being busy — how can I always be busy? And, really — if a person is always busy, then are they actually busy or is it just their normal?

~ 4 ~

After struggling with whether to get the H1N1 flu shot for the children or not, we finally had the immunizations. They had been very scarce around here. So, when the county had a mass immunization, I knew we just had to decide. Since Jack has a heart defect (and Molly now has a small murmur), I thought that it was probably a good move for our family.

So far, so good — no side effects. And, while the shots were free, we did spend an hour and thirty minutes in line. We also spent $16 on books for the kids as rewards (seriously — what kid wants to wait in line that long for a shot?), and then $25 on lunch from out. Those were some expensive shots!

~ 5 ~

The Homeschool Classroom has been nominated for the 2009 Homeschool Blog Awards!

Help us move up a few more places in the Best Homeschool Group or Family Blog category — we would really appreciate your support!

~ 6 ~

It was with a lot of sadness that I read this week that my favorite online scrapbook store, Lifetime Moments, is closing in less than a month. Not only is this an amazing store with great selection and fabulous customer service, but their message board has introduced me to a whole new family and their yearly crops have left me with memories that will probably stick with me forever.

If you’re a scrapbooker and have never shopped at Lifetime Moments, you might want to check out their closing sale. They have 25% off everything in the store with the code of 25-011 at checkout. Go quickly though — they are already selling out of an awful lot of things. To make it easier to browse though, it does appear that they are trying to keep up on deleting products that have sold out.

Goodbye, Lifetime Moments, I’ll miss you.

~ 7 ~

One of my favorite song lyrics lately is from You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie by The Submaries: