Seven Quick Takes vol. 149

Hi Kelly!

{one}

It's the last day of September. I barely know where this month went, and yet I do because it was fairly packed! I only posted twice here on the blog, and no quick takes! I miss blogging, I'm going to try and get back on the writing wagon in October. 

September is so busy for a lot of reasons, and for all those plus a camping trip, a weekend away for me, and trying to get everyone back on track with school writing just slides to the bottom of my list somehow. But look out October, I'm going to write....some....stuff....some....time....maybe...

{two}

Shockingly, homeschooling is still exhausting. After having a couple of really rough Septembers the last few years, this year I approached September differently. I thought I'd ease into school, or "soft start" as I've been calling it, with an emphasis on getting back into a good routine even without all our subjects or going hard for 5 days each week. I think it's helped. Probably because my personality demands order and instant action, I have a tendency to make my kids insane during September. And when I demand instant back-to-school-readiness/why-aren't-you-understanding-all-the-things the first few weeks of school it does not make for the best learning environment. The hardest and most important thing about homeschooling though is to cultivate and maintain a daily rhythm and expectation of learning everyday, so I feel if I consciously focus on that for the first month instead of ticking off my boxes the rest of the school year is miles more productive, I'm happier, the kids are happier, all over better. But it does involve a lot of attention on my part for the first month, hence no writing time on the daily. But hopefully this leads to good things for the year. And that's enough school talk.

{three}

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to get to go to the Blessed Is She team retreat in Minnesota and it was just lovely! Everything was just so much fun and really rewarding. It was amazing to finally meet a lot of wonderful women I've known online for so long, and to see other friends again - like we're real friends!! What?! Nell was wonderful as you obviously expect, and I love my Minnesota friends, I may have to move to the balmy state and live next door. I'm still incredibly humbled to be part of this ministry overall, and feel at any moment I should be kicked out for being the worst writer around. 

Also; travelling. By myself. Feels like a surreal, glamorous dream. Always and forever.

{four}

But back down to earth here this week. My husband is really busy at work for the next week or two and it's involving working weekends and 14 hour days. I'm just trying to stay in a constant state of denial/survival so we'll see how that goes. Only good things ahead I'm sure.

{five}

I haven't been watching too much because....all of the above! But I liked the first new episode of Poldark! Stuff actually happened! I did feel like last season moved quite slowly at times so I hope this season is better paced. I'm also so happy that everyone has important conversations on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, I'm glad that's just something they naturally do no matter where they live. 

{six}

The podcast is up and running with new episodes if you haven't gotten a chance to listen yet. We chatted about books we love for girls because we love books...and are girls! 

Then we talked to Tommy Tighe, the hilarious Catholic Hipster of Twitter fame. We laughed a ton and made a million jokes about Haley's toilet. Then we talked about the real life stuff like living with grief and the death of a child. I thought it was a really interesting conversation and Tommy's perspective was really good to hear. 

{seven}

Almost all our leaves have fallen! It's so very sad. I like everything about fall but the fact the pretty leaves fall off the trees. And of course, the darkness. But it feels sad to go to bare trees so quickly after a lush green summer. Today it's rainy and cold, and although we've already had several nights of frost since a week or two ago, the next several nights are forecast to be below freezing so anything left alive will definitely bite the dust. 

Here's to surviving a working weekend, have everything pumpkin for me!

---

follow along:

facebook ~ instagram ~ pinterest