Veronica Boulden

Just a bunch of home educators learning rhetoric together, so we can teach it to our teenagers, so then they will be even better at arguing with us

Sprouted toast with salmon patty cooked in a little olive oil then dressed with a bit of mayo, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon, and crisp dill chips = delicious!

“And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still.”

Norah is in Challenge 1 at Classical Conversations.  Right now, she's reading The Old Man and the Sea and writing an essay on it. To be more engaged with her as she works this week, I read the book, too. I had read it before, but the details were vague and I remember thinking it was boring. I loved it this time! One of my favorite quotes was: "He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of pride." This quote resonated with me, because I've been humbled by several mistakes and failures in the past several months. I am pushing my limits all the time in several areas of life, so failure and mistakes are just bound to happen, really, if I think about it.  So I am more reasonable about that and accepting of it. At this point, thankfully, I usually don't feel much embarrassment for very long, and I have to say, this is really nice, because mistakes an

This is a photo from Dwayne's company's Christmas party. We always go to this event and get this same picture in front of the tree.  At this point, we can track our aging in the photos of this events. We always attend church on Christmas Eve, too. Christmas Eve is one of the only times I make efforts and take expense to get everyone dressed up.  The other time is Easter.  On regular Sundays, we go to church, but we just wear our nicer casual clothes. These are common sights for me in winter: bare trees and blue sky (or grey skies), fires in the hearth, and my tree. We read The Advent Book each night of December. It's the story of Jesus' birth from the book of Luke.  By the end of the month, we all have it memorized. Each night, we also read one prophecy about the Messiah in the Old Testament and we read its fulfillment by Jesus in the New Testament. This December, I took Norah to Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb."  We felt so bl

Photos of my Bodyflow class today - I looked out and saw so many going for it today. Look at us fly! Because of an injury, Bodyflow is the only workout I can do right now. It’s always been a gift, but I feel that is true now more than ever.

"The memory of my mother, and my mother's mother, and her mother's mother's mother are all mine... They were set aside for me, my heritage, for me to reclaim when I awoke... The memories of a hundred lifetimes are mine." So speaks the dragon in Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb. By God's grace, so speaks every daughter of mine upon being given a Classical education. I'm raising dragons.

I have been working through one injury after another this season. It’s like being knocked down by an opponent who just keeps coming. It feels like I’ve got blood on my hands and knees and my face is in the dirt. I am pretty sure my rib is broken. (Really, doc says it’s an abdominal muscle tear this time.) When I catch my breath, I ask, “God! What are you doing?!” “I know how to build a champion,” He says. “Trust me.” He whispers to my heart. So I get back up. And I’ll get back up, because He says I will.

I think I’ll put a few of Portia’s and Calphurnia’s choicest quotes to memory, so I can use them at timely moments in conversations with my husband. “Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure?” and “Alas, my lord. Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.” are too good not to use again. Dwayne probably deserves better, but I only have one husband, so he will have to endure.