It never ceases to amaze me just how interesting our first week of our Fall semester can be each year.  This year we had most of our work planned out for months in advance and it stayed that way until this past weekend when I finally finished pulling things together.  That’s not like me.  I usually have everything organized and ready much further in advance.  The sad thing is that all those years that I pulled things together far in advance don’t seem to have any real advantage over this year.   We are having fun, but I think I may have more read-alouds going on than I should.  I made myself a bit hoarse yesterday!

Our family Bible studies have gotten off to a very interesting start this semester.   Strangely, they have gotten off to a great start NOT because of us having a great plan, but because some fabulously difficult questions have been asked which have sent us scrambling for answers.  The first question (we’ll call it “A”) had everyone digging through five different translations of the Bible looking for answers.  Two of those translations seemed to contradict the other three.  Why was that?  Was there something implied in the original writing?  We didn’t know and couldn’t figure it out so we e-mailed a Bible scholar we know and trust who is fluent in Biblical Greek and Hebrew and asked him.  His answer?  “Neither”.  He went on to explain things beautifully and our question was settled.  However, it did stir up a lively conversation on Bible translation preferences!   The next big question (”B” for consistency’s sake) came yesterday while I was up to my wrists in bread dough and had no hope of extracting myself anytime soon to look for a suitable answer in the Bible.  Eaglewood called home from Alabama, however, and had to question transferred to his more capable hands.  Much discussion and Bible searching followed.  This time we also did something of a web search in hopes of finding a better worded explanation.  Fun stuff.  Who needs TV when you have BIG questions to entertain everyone with, anyway?  We are such nerds.

If I haven’t commented at your blog lately, please know that I have probably been reading it faithfully and enjoying it very much in spite of having a cranky teething baby on my lap fighting me for control of my keyboard.  The teeth in question have finally broken through and Wild Child is feeling MUCH better.  Now he’s back to concentrating on learning to walk so that he can get into all of his siblings things much easier!

Speaking of blogs…  Both Ditto and Pookie have recently started blogs of their own.  Ditto’s blog is called “Geek Paradise“, and Pookie’s is called “Aspiring Lilly“.  All four of the older children have also expressed an interest in changing their blog names.  So, to honor their wishes, Ditto is now “Technobabble”, Pookie is “Aspiring Lilly”, Sneefert is “Flash”, and Puddleglum is now “Hulk”.  How’s that for a change? 

I’ve had everything ALMOST ready for our next year of homeschooling for much of the Summer.  Unfortunately, almost ready is right where it has stayed, too.  Now that school will be starting on Monday, I really need to get my ducks in a row, huh?  

To make life more interesting, Eaglewood is going to be out of town all week, and I am in the throws of another major clean-up.  Our house is usually pretty clean, but every so often I sort of lose my mind and feel a need to get some sort of major seasonal deep-cleaning work done.  It always seems to start off so simply, too.  I go to put away some things and think, “while I’m in here I should really take care of X, too”, and it begins.  I can’t really blame Eaglewood for being out of town for a week.  Even if he didn’t already have a business trip lined up, he would probably be wanting to hide to avoid getting drafted into my little cleaning project.

Our Pioneer Diet is still going quite well (in spite of some minor “learning experiences” that we just won’t talk about!), but all of the extra baking is taking up bunches of time.  I have got to figure out how to stream-line my schedule.  Any suggestions from you experienced bakers out there?  Please?  

We are also trying to figure out how to schedule in cleaning our carpets.  Has anyone else ever noticed how hard it is to clean floors when your children and their projects always seem to be spread out on them?  I’m guessing that Legos are just as bad for a steam cleaner as they are for the vacuum….  We are also still trying to get everything baby-proofed.  It’s amazing how much such a little person can find to get into in just one or two rooms.  This is especially true for a little person who’s older brothers have a Lego obsession.  Puddleglum, in particular, cannot seem to walk through the house without leaving a trail of Lego in every room.  

We ended up taking something of an unexpected homeschool break over the Summer this year.  We usually don’t do that.  This year it just seemed like we needed to concentrate more on our family and less on our formal studies.  While this has been absolutely WONDERFUL for our relationships, it is making getting back to our formal studies that much harder.  Maybe I should just put the Wild Boys to work on “kitchen science” and let them figure out our baking schedule?