YES! You should see the sticky note I have of potential books for literature for next year (things I need to pre-read). I keep scribbling in more titles in smaller and smaller writing! 🤣

A semester spent on The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever, followed by Writing & Rhetoric (we've done books 1-4 - we're about a week away from finishing book 4).

Oh, thank goodness you remembered. I kept checking this thread to see if you'd figured it out yet. Because, you know, it really affects my life in a major way. 🤣

I finished John Bunyan's Prayer. It was...fine? I definitely learned things and was edified. The second work (the book is two works in one volume) is about coming boldly before the throne of grace, and I found the exposition very instructive; he presented a number of things in ways I hadn't thought about them before. However, the writing was particularly dense, and some sentences just really didn't parse well. And I say this as someone who has very much enjoyed reading works by other Puritans (Edwards, Owen, Flavel). I know I found Pilgrim's Progress much more readable than this (though of course that was narrative), so maybe if I read a different work of his I'd enjoy it more? Don't know, and I don't have any other Bunyan on my shelves at the moment, so it'll be a while before I attempt another of his works, if I ever do. Also, I've just realized that the first names of the Puritans I've read are John, Jonathan, John, and John. Anyway, setting Puritans aside for the moment: I started a re-read of Black Beauty as a pre-read for DD#1 (trying to select "school books" for next year for her). I think it may have to wait another year, if I end up having her read it at all. There's a lot of sad in that book. I'll finish Black Beauty, and then I'm not sure what I'll pick up next. Likely either another pre-read for DD or something by J. Gresham Machen.

We had a shooting at a yoga studio here back in November. Two women died. The shooter was motivated by "incel" ideology. It's sickening and scary.

Made some strikethroughs and updates (in red). I am in the middle of prepping for history (making my own "student pages" for Human Odyssey), science, and literature. Feeling slightly overwhelmed with it all at the moment, lol.

I finally finished Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings , woohoo! I particularly enjoyed reading what Luther had to say about the importance of classical languages, because it reminded me of discussions I've read on these boards. 🙂 Also last week, I read the young readers' edition of Hidden Figures as a pre-read for my girls. It fits beautifully with our studies in both history (last several chapters of SOTW 4) and science (astronomy, with a visit to the Kennedy Space Center planned), so I think I'll have them read it. Current read is a Puritan Paperback, John Bunyan on Prayer (actually two works in one volume).

Spring break Monday for us. Highly recommended. 😄

Do you think something like this might help? "I have time for one question and one follow-up. Think carefully about what you want to ask, because after those, I'll expect you to just do what I'm instructing."

I'm still working my way through Martin Luther - only about 80 pages to go! I will be surprised if I don't finish it this week. 🙂 I did finish my devotional commentary, 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity, by Dale Ralph Davis. I started the next book in the series, also by Davis, 1 Kings: The Wisdom and the Folly. I thought about switching over to a New Testament book but decided to stick with this section of OT history to keep it all together in my mind a little better. The series, by the way, is Focus on the Bible Commentaries (not all titles are by the same author). Also still working on All Things Made New: John Flavel for the Christian Life, which is a one-chapter-a-month deal because I'm leading a book study on it at church. Need to spend some time with it this week!

Indirectly related to science - would he like Math with Bad Drawings?

Oh, I have a new one from yesterday. I asked DD#2 to translate a sentence out loud for me from her Latin worksheet. Note that she has been doing Latin for nearly two years, so this is not a brand new thing. She stared at it for a moment and then turned back to me and said, "Mommy, it's in a different language." ...yes, dear, that's the whole point of asking you to translate it.

Yep. My girls grabbed the guide books each time they arrived in the mail and disappeared with them, having to work out solutions for who got which book for bedtime reading, lol. They never stopped at the stop signs. They just read them, and then re-read them. "Learn anything?" "Oh, there was this funny part where blah-blah-blah." Nothing actually mathematical. Then later on they say something and I'm like, wait, what? How do you know that? And they roll their eyes and tell me it was in the Beast Academy guide books, Mommy.

I realized I didn't mention my DS, who's almost 5. He is really into counting, by 1s, 10s, and 2s. He also started asking me recently "what comes before zero" and has been exploring negative numbers. He's also enjoying adding and has been noticing that addition is commutative (and I provide the terms when they notice things like that). He likes to identify polygons that he sees out and about. We just talk about math a lot, and I answer his questions and ask him things in return.

Years ago, I was misdiagnosed as having shingles, but I actually had some sort of fungal infection. It was HORRIBLY itchy. My doctor put me on an antifungal medication (it was so long ago that I don't recall what it was) and Prednisone, and those knocked it out. (The misdiagnosis was at an urgent care place; when it was continuing to get worse instead of better, I went to see my regular doctor.) So, might be worth asking if that's a possibility.