Seven Quick Takes on Cake Decorating, Podcasts, Reading, and More!

:: 1 ::

Today is cake decorating day! We’re having a small gathering for Daughter A.’s tenth birthday tomorrow afternoon subsequent to tennis lessons, and I like to decorate the cake a day in advance. It’s always a fun day, and I’m trying a new technique for the top. I’ll share pictures next week!

 

:: 2 ::

What I will tell you now is that it pays to have a multi-day plan so that cake decorating doesn’t cause too much stress during a school week. One aspect of Daughter A.’s cake is chocolate trees made from melted chocolate wafers that will go around the outside of the cake. I made those on Wednesday. We baked the cake on Thursday. And decorating is today. We serve the cake tomorrow. Doing steps along the way keeps it from getting too crazy.

 

:: 3 ::

What’s in your podcast app? I’ve been enjoying listening again lately. It gets me motivated to do chores if I tell myself I can listen {oh, and also tell myself I can’t listen if I’m sitting down}. Here’s what I’ve listened to lately:

• Mortification of Spin did an interesting interview with Todd Billings, who has been diagnosed with incurable cancer. It was all on death and dying, what to say, what not to say, how to pray, how to help. It gave me a lot to think about. Todd Billings is a youngish man with toddlers, so it was heartbreaking to listen to.
• Underground Wellness is one of my favorites, as you know. Yes, even though I’m not paleo! His shows are long, though, so I often get behind. In fact, since he’s pretty paleo, it was probably hard for him to do this interview with Matt Fitzgerald on diet cults.
• The Homeschool Snapshots Podcast is new, but quickly making it to my favorites list. I’m probably biased, but my favorite so far is still the one with Mystie explaining how organizing is like laundry.

 

:: 4 ::

A-Age-Ten was finally allowed to breed her rabbit this past weekend. She’s been dying to do this, but we made her wait until the weather had warmed up enough. We didn’t want dead babies out there from too-cold nights (because our rabbits live outside). I overheard her telling her siblings that she is now “in the rabbit business.” We will see how well they sell, but she is excited about trying to keep the babies well-handled so that they make better pets. Her last doe died in pregnancy, but this one is proven — we bought her after she had already had a successful pregnancy — so we have higher hopes this time.

If any of you are local and interested in having a pet rabbit, let me know. Babies are due around March 21st.

 

:: 5 ::

This week’s link collection:

• Indiana Superintendent of the Year: Parents should homeschool kids during testing week from The Washington Post.
  • The only risk I foresee is that they might like it. 😉
• The real reason why the US is falling behind in math from The Boston Globe.
  • Ha. Memorizing out-of-context facts. Maybe they read Charlotte Mason.
• Lies My Government Told Me About The CA Drought from FlashReport.
  • Yes. During a drought they demolish dams and allow perfectly good water to run out to sea.
• Lost Sherlock Holmes story discovered in man’s attic from The Telegraph.
  • American attics are boring by comparison.

 

:: 6 ::

Siah and I are reading What is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile. It’s required reading for those pursuing membership at our church, and it’s a great book in its own right.

I also went on a homeopathy reading binge. All this talk about having a well-balanced reading list, and I fell off the wagon big time and specialized almost all of this month. I need to stop because it’s becoming a Problem. So far, I’ve read The Homeopathic Treatment of Children, Joette Calabrese’s little {free} booklet on cell salts, The Solution, and Homeopathic Medicine at Home is sitting here staring at me from my desk, tempting me to overindulge even more.

Also in the health vein, I’m reading Move Your DNA and trying to figure out how to integrate this into our drill times. I think I’m going to make a loop schedule.

One good thing about a habit of reading aloud to my family, and pre-reading the Year Seven school books, is that it keeps me from becoming completely myopic.

 

:: 7 ::

Answering your questions:

• Question: I was looking for you Stupendous Sunday Selections. Are they under the Assigned Reading headline?
  • Answer: I’ve discontinued the SSS posts. I know, I know. Some of you loved them. But there were some technical difficulties when I moved to WordPress, and I just decided to switch the formatting. So first, yes, they are in the Assigned Readings in the sidebar. Then I also choose a few of my favorites and incorporate them into Seven Quick Takes. I’m sorry they completely disappeared for a while! I just wasn’t sure what to do at first.
• Question: Are you familiar with the My Father’s World curriculum? I get their catalog and have spent months looking at their curriculum and how it is organized. Do you mind commenting on the curriculum, if you’re familiar with it?
  • Answer: I wouldn’t mind commenting on it if I was familiar with it, but unfortunately I am not. I have a couple real-life friends that really like it, but to be honest I have never even flipped through it. So I can’t help. 🙁
• Question: I see you have a Pianophonics link as something you use. I am planning to start home teaching music next year and I would love some info on that program. The website is intriguing, but it is hard to tell how it is set up, how far it goes, and whether it teaches any theory or just note reading… Anyway, decision time soon, would you care to stick in a brief review? Thanks.
  • Answer: Pianophonics is weak on theory, it’s true. That is the one weakness I see. As someone who can play piano, but had no clue how to teach it, Pianophonics has been a lifesaver for me. You can read a review I wrote of it here. We are still using it. We still love it. My oldest is almost done with it, and the girls are still at the beginning. I plan to start my littlest guy after his eighth birthday.

Let’s see. This weeks’ answers get a helpfulness score of only 33%. Hmmm…