7 QTs: School, Schedules, and Schports.

Joining Jen this crazy-busy week...

1) All the schools for all my kids are back in full-swing this week, and it makes me feel like a drunk on a nonstop roller coaster. So. Many. Things. All. The. Time. 

Credit

(Possibly related side note: we are out of beer AND wine.)

2) Will is in school and loving it!! Our kids attend a Montessori school through 8th grade and all of them have started at the ripe old age of 2-2.5 in the Toddler class. Truly, it's more like a twice-a-week play date for them; especially for Will because his cousin is also in the class and the teacher is our good friend. The mornings that he isn't scheduled to go are quite painful for him as he watches his older sibs exit the car: "I wanna go to 'cool!!!". 

I like the 2 mornings a week schedule because it gives me just enough time to get errands run alone but still have all that time with my little guy. :)

"Look, Mama! I Kristoff! I Sven!"

3) My high school kids' schedules are ramping up. Between play practices, prolife club, French club, SciFi-Fantasy Club, retreats, discernment programs,  homecoming games and dances, they have me scrambling to remember pick-up/drop-off times and who is going where with whom. Their schedules, alone, have turned my whiteboard organization on it's ear and it's been replaced with reminder "pings" from my phone. But, they're happy and involved and that's exactly what we want for them!

4) From the scarce communications, I believe Killian is enjoying Ave Maria and his classes there. Again, if he's thriving, happy, and involved, I am totally OK with the big pauses between communications. 

5) A few years ago, Kyle and another dad from our grade school ran an after-school basketball camp for the 2nd through 8th grades. It was fun, but life got more complicated for both families and they had to put a hold on it for a while. The last couple of years, we've signed Jack and Eamon up for the park district basketball camps, but last year's camps were a 6 month long fiasco of parent coaches who were living vicariously through their 1st graders and parent referees who would unashamedly ignore fouls on their kids' teams in order to ensure a win. (Don't bother complaining to anyone in our village; most of the coaches and refs were directly related to trustees and heads of departments.) So, Kyle and I decided that we would start up the old basketball camp at our grade school and Jack and Eamon are so excited! We are, too!

6) Faith is trying to convince me that she "is really REALLY interested" in gymnastics and will happily go to a class every week without complaining. "REALLY!". She does need her own "thing", so I'm trying to make it work with the rest of the schedule and budget. 

Caught in the act of Chair Vaulting.

7) This year, I feel like Fall rudely intruded on what was a simple, sweet summer and I will admit to being a little miffed. But, having a routine is good for me and the change of seasons always forces me to take stock of where our family is "going". I don't know about you, but that's always a good thing! 

Requisite First Day(s) of School(s) picture!

Have a great weekend!

7 QTs: College Road Trip!

Hitching my wagon to Jen's  wagon train (get it? Road trip? Wagon?)

1) Waaaaaay back in December, my mom mentioned to me that Ave Maria University had decided to lower it's tuition by $5000 for the following year. This school had been on the very furthest edges of our periphery during Killian's senior year in high school, but, for various reasons was eliminated early on in the decision-making process. Given the fact that we were in the throes of a polar vortex and Killian wasn't having the most fun living at home and attending UIC, Kyle and I suggested to him that we visit Ave to "just check it out". (Yes, I was dying to get the heck out of Siberia)

2) Much to our surprise, Killian was on board with the idea and my dad generously paid for the airfare for Killian and myself (and lap-child, Will!) to visit at the end of January. Long story short, we were very impressed with the gorgeous, brand new campus and encouraged by the enthusiastic and well-educated faculty. Killian decided to apply.

3) Fast forward to this past May: Killian was accepted, all his credits transferred, and was awarded 2 scholarships! All-in-all, it was only $1500 more a year to live at and attend a better school! Winning!

The Indianapolis Speedway

The Grand Ole Opry!

4) And, so, we decided that most of us would make a week-long vacation out of the trip down to Florida to drop off Killian. (Joe and Maeve stayed with my parents, as their high schools had already begun the year. I hated that part.) You learn so much about your family on road trips. Things like, some kids are good at going long stretches without using a bathroom and some kids are good at sleeping for long stretches. Both of these qualities are seldom combined in the same child.

5) Killian's dorm suite is IN.SANE. 6 guys,  4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 huge study room. Pretty sure he's on vacation with a side of academia.

6) WE SWAM WITH WILD DOLPHINS! Apparently, a couple of the public beaches in Naples/Bonita Springs have regular visits from wild dolphins and manatees. We didn't quite understand how intensely cool this was until we were playing in the water with the kids and a pod of dolphins came to play with us! They got as close as 2-3 feet from us and splashed with their tails, swam around us, and played hide and seek! I am not ashamed to say that I had tears streaming down my face. 

7) Our last night in Naples, we took our oldest baby out for a farewell dinner. As good as we feel about Killian being at Ave and as much as he seems to be loving it there, it still wasn't easy to hug and kiss him goodbye. Some of the younger siblings really struggled with their emotions. Huge change in their very small worlds. 

We are so happy for and proud of Killian as he takes this really big step in his life! 

WWRW: Divergent

Joining Jessica because I actually read something!

Always late to the party, I finally read Divergent by Veronica Roth. In a word: underwhelming.

Since this book (and it's series) has been out for a while, I won't waste much time giving a book report. Basically, it's another young adult novel set in a dystopian future-Chicago. Some nameless war in years past has caused the society to split into 4 factions based on certain personality traits, and in Amish fashion, when a person reaches 16 s/he can choose which faction in which s/he will live out the remainder of her/his life.

We good?

The main character, "Beatrice/Tris", is revealed to be "divergent" when she undergoes the customary testing at age 16. This means she exemplifies strong characteristics of more that one faction and this is viewed as "bad". 

Blah, blah, blah. Fast forward past where she is advised to hide her "divergency", chooses a new faction, and is forced to abandon her parents and brother. 

This is where it began to lose all touch with any kind of reality for me. The violent and brutal initiation rites of the new faction, the quickly-formed rock-solid friendships, the ever-present references to physical sexual feelings (not overt, just overdone) did not feel "human" or "realistic" to me. 

For me, a story can be as far-fetched as Harry Potter, but still be "real" because the conversations between characters and the development of the characters themselves are true to human beings and our nature. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is a good example of a plot that is far-fetched made even worse by poor dialogue and an unwillingness to "act human" on the part of the characters. This was never more evident as when the book was made into a movie and most intelligent people could easily hear and see the odd way the characters acted and conversed.

So it goes with Divergent. When I spoke some of the phrases out loud, I was faced immediately with the idea that no 2 people would ever really speak this way to one another. 

Divergent was a big "meh" in my opinion and I have no desire to read the rest of the series. And, I have even less desire to watch the movie. 

What is the fascination with this book?

Five Favorites: Road Trip Lifesavers!

Joining the gorgeous Heather this week!

Last night, we arrived home from a week-long road trip to drop off Killian at Ave Maria University. (More on how he came to the decision to transfer in my 7 QTs on Friday.) It was an amazing trip; long, bittersweet, and filled with beautiful memories. 

But, let's back it up a bit to the word "long". 

Chicago to Ave Maria, Florida is a 21 hour drive. 

We chose to break it down into a 2-day drive each way. That makes it just bearable. Our 2 high school kids had already started back to school, so they stayed with my parents, while the 4 youngest (and Killian!) came along. Knowing that I would have those younger kids to entertain without the help of fun older siblings, I began furiously pinning road trip ideas back in April, and I found some real gems!

I would love to share my 5 favorite sanity-saving road trip ideas with you today....

1) The dollar store is your BFF. I bought small cookie sheets for each child to use as trays for snacks and activities. This idea proved even more ingenious when I found magnetic games for the 4, 7, and 11 year old. But, what about 2.5 year old Will? Read on!

2) Magna-Tiles are from Jesus. I have sung the praises of Magna-Tiles before, but I have never loved them more than I have this past week. Will can play with them for long stretches of time, and because they are magnetic, the cookie sheets were the perfect "play table" for them: no dropped pieces! They also were a nice, quiet toy to play with in boring hotel rooms.

3) Pack intelligently. We knew that the first couple of nights we would be moving from hotel to hotel to hotel. I decided that I would pack a couple of outfits for each person into a smaller suitcase, so we could leave the bigger suitcases in the car until we arrived at the hotel with the longest stay. And, always include swimsuits on top! Hotel pools were the perfect way to get kids to work off the restless energy they had built up all day in the car.

4) Take the free breakfast! No matter what, choose a hotel that serves a free breakfast! Aside from the money-saving feature (we figured we saved $42 each day), it's super nice to stumble down from your hotel room to a ready-made breakfast (some of us may have dined in our PJs...).

5) Ain't no shame in bringing a potty chair and a roll of paper towels! Will was at a crucial point -- no turning back! -- in his potty-training when we embarked on our trip and hadn't yet mastered "holding it". Having his little potty chair in the car saved us from having to stop eleventeen-hundred times that first day. And, the roll of paper towels sure came in handy as poor Will puked his way through Atlanta on our return trip! 

I learned lots of other tricks -- as well as, some ideas that did not work so well -- and I'd be happy to share those if anyone is interested! Just ask away in the combox!

More on the decision, the trip, and beautiful Ave on Friday!