This is a fun open air museum we visited over the weekend, with farmhouses from different time periods, some hundreds of years old. I was surprised how much Jude and Truman enjoyed it, asking me questions about why there were no light switches, and how they would not like to live in a house with spiders and spider webs, and sleep in a bed with hay in the bottom, because it would poke them. I found it interesting how many farmhouses shared the same shape, with four sides and a courtyard within. The farmhouse we are staying in- thankfully remodeled and updated with electricity installed!- while living in Denmark is similar in shape- four sections, forming a square, with a courtyard in the center. Just when I think I work very hard each day trying to get everything done, I reflect back to a time when water needed to be drawn from a well to wash dishes or do laundry, and laundry used to be done on a wash board. I'll gladly raise my seven kids in the 21st century, thank you very much.
That being said, these school days are full, full, full. Keeping track of five children's school schedules this year is almost, but not quite, overwhelming. The days here seem so much longer, since there is no leaving the house for lessons, no church activities, no getting together in the evening with friends, and my husband leaving first thing in the morning and not getting back till dinner time (in the past he has either worked from home or else been out of the country, working in Denmark). With these very open days I feel like every child is getting every subject in every day, for the most part. It's a good feeling to have it all get done each day. But it's exhausting, too. At the start of each day, I try to tell myself, "Just stay the course." So, that's what we've done. But that museum we visited on Saturday counts as a freebie, right? I feel like I should get a day off here soon. Surely we've all earned one.
