What I’ve been reading lately:
I really enjoyed this mystery. It was the perfect amount of creepy without being to scary. The story follows a college professor who is writing a biography on an obscure gothic novelist with a dark past who just happened to live at the college she works at. Everything is going well until someone begins to kill the people closest to her in bizarre ways (much like the victims in the novel she is researching). It was delightfully eerie and perfect for Spooky Month.
Ben (age 9) is reading A Single Shard, Basil of Baker Street, and Bunnicula.
Emma (age 17) just finished up The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (the prequel to The Hunger Games) She loved it so much that she started to read the entire series all over again.
Interesting things I’ve learned recently:
We had a visiting priest come to mass and during his homily he told us a little about the religious life in the monastery. We were intrigued when he explained that no one is allowed to talk during lunch or dinner and instead they take turns reading a book out loud. The funny part was that apparently the monks used to get into arguments over meals like most families, so the superiors decided the monks could only discuss things at breakfast…..but never politics or religion!! Apparently even the monks don’t see eye to eye on those issues. That was encouraging to me on so many levels.
Something that’s making me happy:
Kaiser Benheim 
That Ben has developed a deep love a history over the past year. We have been doing The Story of the World series for our history and some weeks we get to make cool stuff like this Pickelhaube helmet that was worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by the Prussian and German military. We totally lucked out that he had found this military helmet at the Halloween store the week before, so we had to just cut out the embellishments and poof….we had a pretty cool pickelhaube replica. **Ben of course had to illustrate his own version of the skirmish after we finished the lesson.
Besides history, another thing both of my kids love is theatre. They have just finished up a successful run of Sleepy Hollow at our local theatre and they just keep getting better with each show. I love getting to see my kids doing something that makes them happy and helps them to develop a good work ethic. **This play was hilarious! “Katrina Won’t You Let Me Walk You Home” with Ichabod, Brom Bones, and Katrina was my favorite.
Things I was happy to accomplish:
What adoration looks like in case you didn’t know. Basically, the Eucharist is placed in the monstrance and you get to spend a little time with Jesus (in the flesh) once a week for an hour. Even if you are not Catholic, I would recommend you attend an Adoration. It is beautiful and humbling to be in God’s presence and to worship Him in person.
Our youth group ran a booth at our church’s Kermes festival to raise money for a perpetual adoration chapel. I made and packaged 72 cupcakes with my mom’s help (the packaging was the hardest part) **We wanted to have a duck pond as one of our games, but I could only find these weird (but adorable) rainbow unicorn ducks, so that’s what we went with.
This beautiful young lady got her senior portraits made (!!!!!) They turned out beautiful. We are slowly checking off things leading up to her May 2022 graduation. I am not really that sad (well perhaps just a tad sentimental) I am just so proud of her and thankful I got to raise her for these past 17 years. No matter how big she gets, I will always see her as a little snaggle toothed 6 year old wowing people with all the cool facts she knew about sharks and dinosaurs. I love you Emma! **Yes, that is an Anne of Green Gables quote on her shirt. She is a real life Anne Shirley if I ever met one.
What I am looking forward to next week:
I am looking forward to our Charlotte Mason co-op. We love this co-op because it exposes us to things we would never think to do on our own like wood burning, hikes, learning cool folk dances, reciting poetry, reading (and liking) Shakespeare, and so much more. Being around like minded people is simply delightful. I know for a fact that each mom there loves being around their children and exposing them to beautiful things and that is simply refreshing.
Funny (or weird) things that happened lately:
I get a kick out of all the little drawings that Ben does on his history sheet. This was apparently an interpretation of a Russian vs. Ottoman Empire battle. We are getting close to WWI, so Ben is getting very excited.
This little guy rode around on my car for over two weeks. If it rained he crawled under the car or my mirror until it stopped. And then he would crawl up on my window or roof when we went to town and let the wind ruffle his bristles as we drove. He disappeared one day recently, so hopefully he is in a cocoon somewhere nice and snug. Ben said he looked like he had mohawk, so we will be looking for a cool butterfly with an awesome mohawk flying around our yard later this month:)
Hope you have a great week!
The Thrifty Educator 