It’s been a busy couple of weeks, which means summer is flying by way too fast. We enjoyed the oldest Italian Festival in the country. Our town just wrapped up it’s 149th annual Our Lady of Mt. Carmel festival on Saturday. I think we’ve all had enough fried food to last us for the rest of the year. Addie arrived home from Cleveland Sunday night just in time for the festival’s kickoff on Monday, July 15. Tony and I enjoyed an evening out on opening night. Tuesday, despite a heat index over 100 degrees, we all headed downtown for the procession. The soaring temps meant less people marched in the ..read more

Morning baskets have become a huge thing since I started homeschooling. Even though my kids always learned certain subjects together, we used to cover them all one day a week (either Wednesdays or Fridays). In 2017 I transitioned to a morning basket (or I called it a morning meeting) and those subjects were done every morning, or most recently, at tea time in the afternoon. I actually don’t have a lot of experience doing a morning basket with really little kids, because I adopted the practice when my older kids were already in late elementary or middle school, and the younger two were in schoo ..read more

While it’s not a requirement to name your homeschool, many families choose to do so, and oftentimes, many Catholic families will select a saint to be their patron and namesake. That’s what we did many, many years ago. I remember I wanted a saint that was not so obscure information and recognition would be spotty, but I also didn’t want to be the third family at my parish with a homeschool under St. Anne or St. Therese of Lisieux (no offense to them!). We ultimately chose St. Bruno the Great, and I know he’s looked out for us. If you’re starting to homeschool this year, or just looking for a he ..read more

Most of our family’s July traditions can be summed up in one word: beach. Though it’s much less a tradition now than it used to be. Since our move to our new house, we’ve created some new traditions, but otherwise, July is quiet; no birthdays, anniversaries, or school events. At the old house, it should’ve been when homesteading was in full swing, but as I wrote about awhile ago, Tony and I both realized early on neither of us enjoyed gardening, canning, cleaning out the chicken coop, or whatever. Outside of fencing for the girls (not a summer sport) and Byron’s one year of football, we’ve nev ..read more

Welcome to July! I hope everyone is enjoying a few extra days off. We’ve had a good couple of weeks celebrating with family and friends.  Fulton turned 16 on the 28th. Tony’s parents were in town to celebrate. We had ravioli and ice cream cake and he got more Legos, War Hammer kits, and books. He also got to pick what we watched for family movie night. The day before, we all went fishing. Like all our fishing trips, we were unsuccessful at actually catching fish. We didn’t even have any luck with our crab traps. Next time Tony’s parents visit, I think we’ll try a new fishing spot, but hon ..read more

Making lessons plans and buying curriculum, while important are only a couple of the tasks that need to happen to kickstart a new homeschool year. But it’s amazing how often one forgets all the other moving parts that make a homeschool successful until its the end of September and you’re already breathing into a brown paper bag. That’s why I’m sharing my best tips for how to have a successful start to your homeschool year. Wrap Up All Loose Ends From The Previous School Year Before you start another school year, make sure your kids have submitted all their work from the previous year (either t ..read more

Summer time! It’s unbearably hot and I love it! Give me June heat waves over January snow ANY TIME. This month usually goes by way too fast. Time for a run down of our family’s June traditions. At least one affiliate link below. Month of the Sacred Heart Again, like many feasts/ months I mention, I know we did a lot of crafts and picture books when the kids were little. Now, Tony will usually read from Catholic Life at least a couple nights during family prayers about the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart, but we don’t do anything else special. Years ago during June we added “Most Sacred H ..read more

St. Bruno the Great Homeschool has another graduate! Edie finished up on the 14th. It was sort of anti-climactic. I believe we’re doing a baccalaureate service honoring graduates at our parish, but not until July. And she didn’t want to walk in a homeschool ceremony where she didn’t know anyone. But I did send out announcements featuring some of her beautiful senior photos. We’re incredibly proud of her (she tackled some extremely challenging classes this year!) and are buying her a fancy iPad as a graduation gift, so hopefully that makes up for the lack of pomp and circumstance! (As troublin ..read more

Time to sneak another family traditions post in under the wire! May is usually a busy month despite our lack of birthdays or anniversaries and “year end” school activities. (School wraps up in June around here; as homeschoolers and public schoolers. For that reason, I will add ‘Graduations’ to next month since that’s when we’ve had the most.) We do seem to get a fair share of hospitalizations and colds in May (holdovers from April I suppose). So I don’t know why May usually seems hectic- it just does! I will include a few liturgical feasts this month, even though they may usually fall in June ..read more

I’m finally coming up for air after a hectic few weeks. Some good stuff, some bad stuff, some planned things, some surprise things. Ultimately, I’m reminded how blessed our family is, and I’m coming out of all of this with relief and a lot of good memories. Fulton Was Hospitalized Spring is illness season in our home, and Tony and I were just saying we were due for a hospital stay when Fulton picked up a stomach bug at school. We tried our best at home, but things get dicey pretty quickly for Fulton and Teddy when they can’t keep anything down. We went to the CHOP ER Thursday evening April 25 ..read more