Business as youzhe. (+ my shop logo reveal)

How is that even spelled? Yooj? Usue? I can’t accept “ushe” because then I want to finish with an r.  I could avoid typing it entirely but the abbreviation is what I would say if I were talking and that’s how I try to type so. Back to business. as youzhe.

Collin turned 3 last week. Not a day has gone by where he has not asked “Am I still 3?”

He is past the learning curve on the potty training bell, in spite of my half-hearted urgings.  The one thing I do not do well is transitions. Transitioning to using the toilet, I decided, would not be approached with military zeal.  I don’t have the energy to force my kid to have accidents so that he can learn he doesn’t like having them.  The thought of allowing accidents to happen on purpose kind of blows my mind.  I’m all for natural consequences to serve as lesson learning, as long as they don’t result in me being the one on damage control (plus, we have Emmett, and he’s another story which I don’t plan on sharing here). The carpets and furniture are in danger enough with 4 boys in this house, why chortle in fate’s snarling little face by taking a diaper off a child who isn’t yet ready for potty training? no.
I’m also not okay with letting them soil themselves playing outdoors. no.
I am not good at transitions, and I am even worse at laundry.

Despite all of that, we’ve had a few minor accidents, and one mad dash to the bathroom at Chick-Fil-A, having to bolt out of the drive-thru line, but overall, it’s been drama-free and that’s how I like it.

So, how’s homeschooling?
Thanks for asking. It’s good. Really good.

We are 3 whole weeks into it and I have to say, although it’s only kindergarten and therefore a cakewalk, I love it.  LOVE IT.

The part I love most?  Watching knowledge spread across Lexington’s face in the form of an enlightened grin is -just ah! It’s wonderful.

Our first day, Lexington sat down at 10am, wearing his new uniform, sipping from a juicebox, and eating an apple.  It feels good. So far, that is.  I know things can change.  But so far, homeschooling is way more wonderful than the burden I dreaded it would be.

Collin is homeschooling it too.  Not because I am making him, no, no, no. I figured he’d just play trains or at least whine about every nitpicky thing he could think of, but instead he sits with us and scribbles on index cards with a purple glue stick and says the letter sounds out loud with Lexington.

Emmett participates some days. More often, though, he prefers watching educational TV (not my choice, his. Autism super power, remember?) on the ROKU. Currently he’s working on memorizing the names of the U.S. Presidents.  All of them. In order.
We spent our time shushing him last week during mass as he kept blurting out presidential names:

“WILLIAM JAY CLINTON.” 

echo. echo. echo.

Jude usually naps while we do school, or sits with me drooling all over creation, or jumping in his bouncy thing while also drooling all over creation. I don’t have enough bibs.

Me? I drink my coffee and follow the teacher’s manual.

Yesterday was one of the days I’ve been waiting for on the homeschool front. We used current events to talk about what we’re learning. We watched the live feed of Pope Francis addressing congress.

Did Lexington stand around and watch Pope Francis through the whole speech with rapt attention? No.
He hung around long enough to watch the members of congress process in (“those guys help make rules to keep our country safe”), followed by the Holy Father, and long enough to notice Holy Father’s voice sounded different.
“Is he speaking Spanish?”

Our discussion turned into learning about the existence of different cultures and nationalities, different languages, and how it ties into creation. We’ve discussed this stuff before, but using it as a real life example is exciting to Lexington as he realizes the reason he’s being educated, the reasons why people are created to be unique, and the reasons why we value those differences in the human person.

Snifffff…. I smell a separate blog post coming riiight up.

Etsy Shop reveal? I know I’m doing this so wrong and should dedicate a separate post for it. But that’s just silly.  Here’s my shop name + logo.

Is the shop up yet? No. Still working!

Story behind the name:

I know. I know the name is…-well, I’ve never been good at creating unique names for things. What I end up doing is grabbing two things and mashing up.
My blog: Cinderella + Svellinger.
My Etsy shop: The color mint + brass kitchen hardware. (merely a Pinterest dream and not a reality of my own kitchen)
Brass & Mint co. There you go. Sorry to underwhelm you with that tale, but honestly, I’m excited and pumped to get this thing running asap. I’ll let you be the firsts to know!
Have a beautiful, fallish weekend.