Thoughtworthy (Theology Book, School Planning, Big Kids & More!)

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:: 1 ::

While I had heard good things about it, I put off ordering The Wonderful Works of God because it’s over $40. However, in my end of the year interviews with my children, they let me know what they wanted to read and think about more and it became very obvious that something like this book would fit the bill — and if something like it, why not the actual book itself?

So I ordered. At almost 700 pages, it’ll last me a couple of years of Circle Time, if not more, so that’s something.

:: 2 ::

I’ve dabbled a bit in school planning this week. I finally realized that it wasn’t that I “hadn’t had time,” which is what I’d been telling myself, but that I have been avoiding planning because then I would have to admit that I’m planning a year without my oldest for the first time.

So I bit the bullet and took my first step: mapping our calendar for the year.

I always print the one-page annual calendar (the academic style that goes from July to June) from Plan Your Year. My basic approach is this:

1. Mark off known time off. Some things are non-negotiable — think Christmas or Thanksgiving. (I put this in green.)
2. Mark off known travel time. I don’t travel to speak like I used to, but I still have a couple things that will happen (like the Scholé Sisters annual retreat). My children are old enough that I may or may not need to have them take that time off when I’m gone, but I still want to consider it when I plan school dates. (I put this in purple)
3. Note family birthdays and other special dates. We aren’t the kind of family that takes the whole day off on birthdays as a general rule, but I still want to remember them when I’m planning the calendar because if it works really well to take that day off, we’ll totally do it. (I put this in pink.)
4. New this year: note the college calendar dates. I want to coordinate of much of the time off as possible, which means it needs to be marked. (I put this in blue.)
5. Highlight the 36 weeks of our school year. I try for a general Sabbath schooling approach (six weeks on followed by one week off), but I’m not super strict about it. If it makes more sense to do seven weeks on followed by a week off and then five weeks on followed by a week off, I do it. (I put this in salmon.)
6. Mark whatever remains as time off. Basically, I add more green and then I’m done.

Now that this is done, I can start with more formal planning. I’ll probably begin with high school science since I’m trying a different schedule with my second than I did with my oldest.

:: 3 ::

You know your kids are officially Big Kids when they stop asking for tape. For years during our annual review, O-Age-11 has used “tape” as his reply to my question about whether he needs supplies for anything. Sometimes that was the only thing he requested and sometimes he had a long list of things, but always there was tape.

This time he asked for a thousand dollar drone. (Um … NO.)

Sigh. He’s about to turn twelve and I’m going to miss his tape-loving version.

:: 4 ::

This month in 2018:

I stand by this.

:: 5 ::

Podcast episode of the week:

• The Sword and the Trowel: Chad Vegas | Local Christian Faithfulness in a Time of Anarchy
  • My pastor, Chad Vegas, was on as a guest talking some basics. I thought he did a good job!

:: 6 ::

This week’s links collection:

• Best news of the week: Prosecutors formally charge Ghislaine Maxwell at press conference from NY Post
  • The arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell is something I’ve been waiting for for a very, very long time.
  • Can you believe it’s been a year almost to the day since Jeffery Epstein didn’t kill himself? I hope they are watching her; I believe she’s much more valuable than Epstein was. It’ll be an interesting case to keep tabs on for sure.
• SEE IT: Same Day L.A. Mayor Says ‘Avoid Gatherings’ For July 4th, LAPD Posts Photo Of Thousands Gathered For Protest from The Daily Wire
  • The double standards are maddening.
• Hong Kong Now — China has taken over from Michael Yon on Facebook
  • Are any of you keeping up with Hong Kong? The citizens there lost most of their basic human rights this week. I keep thinking of a dear friend of mine from college who was from HK and wondering how he is now. So sad. Hong Kong was an amazing and free country in those days.
• Christians who Changed their World: Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, “the Far Traveler” (c.980-c.1019) from Breakpoint
  • Our friend Dr. Sunshine is at it again with a great history series. This time it’s lesser known church history. Did you know there were Christian vikings? I certainly didn’t! This was fun to read.
• Thomas tears into abortion precedent, says Roe v. Wade should fall in dissent on Louisiana case from Fox News
  • John Roberts is a travesty.

:: 7 ::

Covid reads:

• SARS-CoV-2 T-cell epitopes define heterologous and COVID-19-induced T-cell recognition from Research Square (HT: Nick Walker aka “Uncle Nick”)
  • I have been following this idea for a while, and this is an interesting study. The bottom line is that if you had something in the more recent past that had enough cross reactivity with Covid, you might be so immune that you don’t even produce antibodies — because you don’t need to produce antibodies if your T cells take care of it first.
  • This sort of thing is why I like to see moms reading in the health and physiology categories. It pays to have some basic understanding of how the body works, even if you are a lay person and not a medical professional.
  • This article is a preprint so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to it during peer review.
• Genomic epidemiology of novel coronavirus – Global subsampling from Nextstrain
  • If you are a geek, you’ll find this page to be super fun.
  • You do know there are many strains of Covid, right? (Of course, not every mutation is significant).
  • I’ve wondered if we have a really mild strain going through the neighborhood. All the positives are truly no big deal, children entirely asymptomatic, and we can’t seem to catch it no matter what we do. Not that we’re trying; I just mean we’ve been exposed repeatedly and nothing happens.
• UK researchers warn of only ’50 percent’ success for COVID vaccine trial from Fox News
  • Why?? “[T]he virus may be disappearing too fast for the studies to produce ‘meaningful results.'”
  • Turns out, this coronavirus acts like other coronaviruses. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.