Living Unabridged

I told my husband that April usually feels like the calm before the May storm. But this April hasn't really felt calm at all.

What We've Been Doing:

The month started with the fabulous Great Homeschool Convention. I made it to at least part of all three days. Our teenager attended the Teen Track sessions on Friday and Saturday morning (and also made it to a few more college specific sessions). The whole family spent most of Friday at the convention.

We celebrated my niece's 4th birthday but we didn't make the trip to celebrate my husband's nephew's 1st birthday. (Sometimes clones of ourselves would sure come in handy. There were multiple times this month that I wished we could be in more than one place at one time.)

I went to a Ladies' Area wide one weekend. We went to Children's Theatre. The older girls had their play. Philip and I went to a friend's surprise party. (The big 4-0) We had people from church over for a game night that turned into a game afternoon because it got moved to the only free Saturday afternoon. (The girls and I cleaned the house but everyone ended up on the deck. Ask me if we had cleaned up the deck.)

We had our last day of homeschool co-op (although Kindergarten Graduation, Ballet Recital, End of the Year Picnic, and Play tryouts are all still upcoming in May.) Philip had a guy's night out with some new friends (fellow homeschool dads who enjoy board games). And Philip tried to go to a game convention in Lexington, but had to come home early because of a mishap with the van. (Not a wreck, but one of the sliding doors was damaged. This is still not 100% fixed and it is a pain but we haven't had time to take it anywhere for repairs. This is how you know you're too busy.)

Then we all attended a mission conference in Lexington (so yes, Philip came home from Lexington just in time to go back again). We came home from that on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was fairly normal and then we went to hear a friend preach last night.

Here was the reaction of our super-spiritual children when they heard we were going to a revival after attending a mission conference, "More church? Again?" Now, those of us who were older had heard 9 sermons earlier in the week. But the younger crew had been in the concurrent children's conference having a blast. So I'm not sure they had any reason to complain.

But anyway, lest you think their mother is super-spiritual either, here was my response, "It's only one service this time. And we can get ice cream afterwards."

So we did.

Tomorrow is May 1st and the iBoy turns 3. Yes, this guy:

Is now 3.  I know, I can't believe it either.

What We've Been Watching:

Other than Children's Theatre and the girls' play, there hasn't been a lot of watching time. But we have managed a few episodes of Fixer Upper and various editions of Bake-Off. One night the kids and I watched The Sound of Music. I think that was a ploy to stay up late, because it's pretty much the longest movie we own that they're all allowed to watch.

Five Things I'm Loving This Month:

• Meeting up with "Facebook Friends". From the GHC to the revival services, this month I've seen a lot of people that I don't get to see very often (or at all).
• Explaining to someone what the intrinsic difference is between introverts and extroverts. At the mission's conference a friend was astonished to find out that Philip and I are both introverts. He said, somewhat incredulously, "But God has saved you from that, right?" He had never heard the Introvert / Extrovert difference defined by how you get energy or process information.
• Good preaching. Wow, I heard some amazing sermons this month. (I heard a few not so amazing too, honestly, but even those had something that I needed to hear.)
• Late night Sonic runs. We don't have a Sonic near our house, so when we found ourselves near one late Friday night, it was  no brainer. Some things have changed (we're driving a mini-van now, that we've filled up with children) and some things haven't (we still love Sonic's treats).
• Toddler-isms: the iBoy found the experience of staying in a Motel very diverting. He called it a "home-tel". Which is, obviously, what we're going to call them forever more.

Links I Loved This Week:

• 4 Ways to Help Your Teenagers Discover Their Identity in a Confused World by John Majors at Challies.
• This was fun: Teenage Vocab for Dummies (i.e. Parents / Adults) by Betsy at Family Style Schooling.
• It's kind of sad that this type of post is necessary (but yes, for some folks, it is): How to Get Your Kids Used to Playing Outside from Free-Range Kids.
• I wasn't sure where it was going when my friend Dawn chose "Attend" as her word of the year, but her most recent post really caught my eye: Attend! Serving Others.
• Can You Pass This Basic Literature Test? from Zimbio. I'm not sure I'd consider some of these "Basic". (I scored 90%.)
• Philip sent me this: Extremely Accurate Charts for Book Nerds. That first one is so very true.

My favorites from Living Unabridged in April:

• The Profundity of the Doxology. This was inspired by the GHC and I mused on it nearly all month before finally writing it down.
• Classical Education: Who and Why. Another one inspired, at least in part, by the GHC.

What did you do, watch, or love in April?