break week

My evol sweater knitting accompanied me everywhere last month: several car trips, a wedding in Baltimore, the CMEC mini-retreat, the school table, the playground, and my own bed.  Of all the sweaters I've made for myself, this is my favorite.  The fit, the yarn, the subtle texture, the level of warmth...all exactly right.  I've written about it in previous posts, so the only thing I'll add here, aside from gushing praises, is that I inserted some elastic into the collar to keep it from rolling.  You can see a little of it peeking through in the photo above.  (The only color choice was brown.) I've worn it for the past four or five days because the weather is finally right for sweaters.  The next big project in my queue is the Lunenburg Pullover, although I haven't yet pulled the trigger to order yarn.  

This week has been our break week, scheduled for between Terms 1 and 2.  Our immune systems have finally cried "Enough!" after our hectic October, and several of my people have been under the weather following a trip to NYC last Tuesday.  We were incredibly blessed to attend the door opening service for the St. Nicholas Shrine at Ground Zero.  It was the first time our youngest children had been to Ground Zero, and trying to explain the horrors of September 11, 2001, well, I struggled to find words.  Seeing the relics, too, I was brought up short with an inability to swallow past the lump in my throat.  So many deaths.  So much destruction.

While my people recovered from their various illnesses (not the c-word), I cleaned and tidied our trashed school room.  Except for the school table.  That's a perpetual disaster.  I put away and purged all of our handicrafts, recycled a ream of paper from the kids' shelves, culled our nature collection, and swapped out the Term 1 and Term 2 books.  It may not look like the schoolroom has been cleaned but, let me assure you, it absolutely has been.  We're still trying to figure out how to organize our space, and look forward to a major renovation of the kitchen/dining room in a few years.  Floor-to-ceiling built-in book shelves and a lighter color on the walls are a must.

I'm eagerly anticipating Term 2 this year.  While our schedule is uncomfortably full, there's much more purpose to our daily work, and we carefully orchestrate our time to use it to the fullest. My dad always says, "If you want something done, ask a busy man," and what follows for us is "A busy man is a happy man." Our full schedule is perfect for the Charlotte Mason concept of "thought turning."  When I think back to last year, I appreciate the abundance of free time we had, but we didn't especially flourish.  This year is a different story.

So now we're hunkering down for a delightful winter and thinking ahead to the Nativity fast, which begins in a few weeks.  I love, love, love November.  It's my favorite month.  How are you faring, friends?