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Showing posts from April, 2020

Nature as a Governess

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As much good as I have planned for my daughters inside, if the weather is nice, I let them play outside. And even when the weather is not so nice, when it's cold but also dry, I will let them go out if they ask to go out. It isn't just the spring and summer and autumn world that is glorious. The winter world is full of wonders, too.  And winter must teach them something of hope. They see that the same tree that looked so dead comes back to life and even blooms and bares fruit in another season. It's a priority for us to have leisure time for simply being outside, so I haven't over-scheduled our lives. We have piano lessons and co-op in our week.  If we had other places to be all the time, we'd need to be inside doing schoolwork so we could "get it done" before we had to go, go, go. So we have learned from experience and we are making the conscious choice to limit enrichment extracurriculars for this instead, the ability to simply play outside as an en

Chores

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Chores are a  huge part of our lives. We spend more than an hour a day cleaning before we even begin any of our schoolwork. We have been doing things this way for more than ten years now. I've tried doing morning time first or starting the hardest schoolwork like math first, because successful people have advised that and I don't mind taking advice. But I tried it and I find that I just can't stand it. I simply can't begin the work day with dishes in the sink or laundry not going or toys all over the floors, so for me, the chores have to be done  first. So this is how it usually goes. I get up first and read my Bible and pray. I may read or work in another book or two, because I have things I am trying to learn for myself like rhetoric, Latin, and logic. I may go ahead and have breakfast alone, depending on how early I woke up and how hungry I am. The kids get up and they sit with me, if I'm still sitting. But they will always come down to the co

Piano Recital

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The girls put together a private piano recital. We invited their grandparents to watch and listen via Zoom. This recital was a nice way to mark the progress they have been making. Now we are making some adjustments to their piano schedule, so they can continue to progress: We're increasing the amount of time they each spend with their teacher.  Thus far, they have been sharing one hour once a week with the teacher, because our budget is limited. We are able to increase that to three thirty minute sessions. So they will each be with their teacher thirty minutes a week. While I see the value of time spent with the teacher and realize they could use even more time with their teacher, we are doing what we can. I am making them each practice ten minutes more everyday.  So their practice time has increased from thirty to forty minutes daily. Note: Adele, who is just beginning and only eight, went from ten minutes to twenty.  (We usually end up skipping one day of

Anna Karenina- Finished

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I finished Anna Karenina today. But I won't be done thinking about it. And I will definitely read it again.   Here's a quote from the end of the book. Levin realizes he's a believer, but he also realizes that hasn't changed anything, but it makes everything meaningful. "I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will still be the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on blaming her for my own terror, and being sorry for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no longer meaningless, as it was before, but it has the unquestionable meaning of the goodness which I have the power to put into it."  

The Best Kind of Saturday

Yesterday included but was not limited to: reading The Tempest, Acts 2 and 3, meal planning for the week, hours of yard work, tending the bees, listening to Christopher Perrin's What I Learned at St. John's and listening to a few chapters of A Patriot's History of the United States  while I worked, showering then putting my feet up and watching (and pausing and discussing at times) Logic instructional videos with my middle daughter, burning our first fire of the season in the fire pit outside, reading a few more chapters of Anna Karenina, while everyone else did their various chores or read books or practiced piano or worked in the yard or played outside, too.   It was the best kind of Saturday.

Virtual Piano Lessons

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We're keeping up with piano lessons via Zoom. We set up the laptop in view of the keys using a side table and some art books. The girls are making progress. Bach songs are my favorite to hear them play.

Dwayne's 41st Birthday

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Dwayne wanted an ice cream cake on his birthday, so I went out and got him one. I brought it upstairs with the other groceries, but it wouldn't fit in the freezer in the kitchen. So I sent it back downstairs to the garage freezer with a child who will remain nameless.  I said, "There's a bunch of stuff in the freezer. So be careful.  Put it right on top."  I meant right on top of the stuff that's inside the freezer. Fast forward a few hours and Dwayne comes home from work.  He finds his cake on the outside top of the freezer, melted. He quietly puts it back inside the freezer.  He comes upstairs and calmly informs me what happened.  There would be time enough for it to refreeze before we had to eat it.  We both just laughed and sighed. Or maybe we sighed and then we laughed. Something about this is representative of a forty-first birthday to me. Ten years ago, there may have been frustration and blame, but we're older now and wiser and we realize that

Obedience to Narratives

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For my morning devotions, I am reading through 1st and 2nd Samuel. I read a little every day, usually one chapter. Then I may read commentaries, make notes, copy verses, or sit quietly and listen. I always pray. I have been studying these two books for over a year, and this is my third time through them.  I don't know how many times I'll go through them or how long I will remain in them, but I remain in this one stretch of narrative that starts before the birth of Samuel and goes through the life of David, because I sense I am suppose to continue gleaning in these fields, here and no where else, for now. I also have a deep desire to be able to know and tell these stories to my children's children someday from memory, if God wills it. But first, I must know and tell these stories to myself.  So I am the child for now and the repetition serves to imprint the scenes of the narrative on my soul. I am learning a great deal about the ways of God to man by simply tracing

Esolen Obsession

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Norah's a tad obsessed with Esolen right now.  It started years ago with 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. She took it off the shelf, because the title intrigued her.  She's been reading me portions outloud to me for years, so I have basically read the entire book, too. The photo above was taken when she was comparing The Screwtape Letters, a book she was reading for Challenge 2, to 10 Ways... since they are both written in similar styles. She has since started reading Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child and I also bought her The Hundredfold. An Esolen obsession is obviously something I'm willing to nurture.  Norah is a writer and will likely do that for a living, so Esolen is a great mentor.  And next year, she has to study and write some poetry, so Esolen's book on poetry will help inspire and facilitate (and validate) that.

Scars Can Come in Handy

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A magical thing happened yesterday. I was eating scrambled eggs with Adele and I noticed her beautiful scar above her eye. It really almost glowed in the morning light. I gently touched it and told her it was beautiful, before I even really thought about what I was saying. (Our usual impulse is not to mention it, since it sometimes causes everyone pain or embarrassment to mention it.) She scrunched her face, but her eyes were also dancing and hopeful. She asked, “How is my scar b eautiful?” That was a challenging question. How? I remember resenting the fact that God let her face be marred. So even my own heart was still tender about it. But I told her what came to me at that moment, “It’s a story... about you and your sisters. You were playing, having so much fun. Do you remember? Your sisters were spinning you.” Even before I finished saying that, Avril was walking in to the kitchen with her head in a book asking, “Mom! What’s an underground? Listen to this passage. Dumbledore sa

Hoppin Johns

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I got this recipe from my Aunt Lanelle. Hoppin Johns Chopped onions Chopped green and red pepper Chopped ham steak Chopped kielbasa Two cans of black eyed peas One can of tomatoes with chillies Chicken broth Salt and pepper Hot sauce or red pepper flakes or both Brown rice Add some olive oil to the skillet and cook the chopped onions and pepper until they are soft.   Add the meats, the tomatoes, and the broth. Drain the beans into a colander and rinse them, then add those, too.  Add hot sauce and pepper flakes to taste. Salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to boil then gently simmer for approximately thirty minutes.  Serve over cooked brown rice.

Beekeeping

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I tended the bees all by myself yesterday afternoon. It was finally warm and dry enough to open the hive. I mixed up a sugar solution and added it to the wells inside.

Grammar

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Today I learned that the Chartres Cathedral, constructed between 1194 and 1220, has a carving of Grammar. She's standing over her students with a book open facing out. One kid at her feet is pulling another’s hair and she's holding switches. I'm so encouraged. I think I'll make this my profile picture on Facebook and/or buy a poster of this for our homeschool classroom.

Bookmarks

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We were given some gently used books from my sister in law. This bookmark fell out of one of them when we opened it. The bookmark was made by my niece, Andrea, obviously. At the time this bookmark fell out of the book, I was struck by how similar the bookmark is to the bookmarks my daughters are currently making. So I like to use this bookmark. It makes me think of Andrea, of my own daughters, of my sister in law, Michelle, of Michelle's motherhood to Andrea, and of my own motherhood to my girls. I married Andrea's uncle when she was still a little girl, so I got to watch her grow up.  (That's one of the privileges of marriage that people don't tell you about. You get to be a part of a family.) So I got to watch Andrea's mom raise her (mostly from afar.) But nevertheless, I learned a lot from watching Michelle, because I my eyes were open and my heart was humble.  (I find those are necessary requirements for learning and I also find that if you have open

Anna Karenina

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I listened to a webinar about the twelve best novels by Martin Cothran.  He spoke so highly of this book and I keep hearing about it from everyone else I respect that I had to read it. I am about 25% in and I am loving it.

Sibling Read- Aloud

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My middle daughter started reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to her younger sister one afternoon just because they wanted to read it for fun. I was thrilled. Adele needs to be read to more. Avril needs to read more and practice reading aloud more. They continued reading like this the next day.  The next day, I noticed they weren't getting around to it... so I just told them to do it, gave them time to do this, and handed them a 30 minute timer.  And ever since then, I've made thirty minutes of reading aloud a formal part of their homeschool day.  At first they would complain a little on some days, but mostly they submitted willingly, since it was something they already liked doing.  Now that we've been doing this, they have read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe , Prince Caspian , and the Usborne Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare .  I learned a lesson about nurture and discipline from this. The two go together hand and hand.  I saw what they were doin

A Garden of Moss

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I kept (or tried to keep) a moss garden in a lid inside my old house. Only God, who dwells within my heart, knows how much joy that little garden of green texture inspired in me.  Now the great Gardener of the whole earth has set my whole house inside a moss garden. This house sits center of an acre of moss! (The leaves were covering the ground when we bought the house that winter, so I had no idea how much there was until we cleared away leaves that spring.)  So I am still surprised when I look out the windows. And I just laugh.    Then the Lord laughs at me for laughing. I feel His joy in my delight and wonder over this, His doing.  His laughter echoes off the rocks and trees back to me: His joy reverberates constantly. I can perceive it then: I'm inside His heart.  This is just one patch of moss outside my dining room window. What extravagance! What kindness! What mirth! I begin to perceive  the infinite joy ahead for me, for  He is the Garden I dwell in etern

19th Anniversary

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We celebrated our 19th Anniversary with a take-out meal from Texas Roadhouse, since we are still in quarantine.  The kids waited on us, bussed our table, and brought us dessert.  We "ordered" vanilla ice cream from the freezer with Oreo cookies from the quarantine junk food stores. Honestly, the service was a little slow. Later, we read the essay "Poetry and Marriage" by Wendell Berry.  I had to reread it for Circe, so Dwayne listened, too. It was a timely essay, since we're in "the thick of it," so far as marriage goes. Here's one quote that moved Dwayne and I as we read: "The Zen student, the poet, the husband, the wife- none knows with certainly what he or she is staying for, but all know the likelihood that they will be staying 'a while': to find out what they are staying for.  And it is the faith of all of the disciplines that they will not stay to find out they should not have stayed." We celebrated Dwayne's p

Paradise Lost

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Me earlier this week, wringing my hands in prayer: “God, there is so much to do! Spelling, Algebra 2, PE... I am worried about many things... Please show me what is most needful. Teach me to recognize the better portion. I will choose it. Only show we what to do. What do you want for them?”  Norah today: “Will you read this out loud with me? A little everyday? I read Book 1 for Challenge and I really liked it, but it was really hard. I know I can’t, I won’t read this on my own. But I really want to read it.”  So I knew just what God wanted me to do.  We started reading a little from Book 1 today.

Easter 2020

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I have started filling up one, big Easter basket for the three girls (and providing a little extra candy for their dad, too.)  I put this out really early in the morning, so the girls see it as they wake up and come downstairs. We watched church online. The girls filled a bunch of plastic eggs with a large bag of Starburst candies and three chocolate Cadbury eggs that I provided for the purpose. I had the girls hide in inside while I hid the eggs outside. They had an egg hunt, while the grown ups watched. The teenager was held back for a good fifteen to twenty minutes, then I let her start hunting, too. All the while, Dwayne smoked a ham shoulder that he finished cooking in the oven overnight for dinner the next day. Late in the afternoon, we met the Boulden family online.  We chatted about various things and we laughed at each other. We ended by singing "Amazing Grace."

Spring Yard Work

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We cleaned up the yard, cleaning the beds, and laying out all the fresh mulch today.  The girls worked really hard, doing a fair portion of the work, working the entire time.  This was my main goal, actually. Knowing we had planned to put out all the mulch today, I told Dwayne in the morning that even more than getting the work done, I wanted the girls to learn the work . So we agreed to spend the day training and supervising them and simply working together until it was done.  I wanted the girls to understand how to take care of the beds in spring, experience how physically difficult yard work can be, but also how satisfying it is.  I was very proud of them. They worked without complaint!  Everyone was thoroughly exhausted, but satisfied, just as I hoped. When we were done, we sat around outside with cold sodas for the kids and cold beers for the adults from the garage fridge, and junk foods from the pantry stores.

The Tempest

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I am reading The Tempest by Shakespeare for the Circe Apprenticeship. But it's a play, so it was meant to be seen/  scene.   So I purchased the Royal Shakespeare Company's version of The Tempest on DVD. The littles watched it with me.  They don't get much screen time, so that might have helped motivate them to watch this. This was the little girls’ first play, so I wasn’t sure how it would go. We were just enchanted and thoroughly entertained the entire time.  They laughed at all the bawdy humor, some of which went mercifully over their heads.  I asked Avril how she was doing. “I’m not getting it all, but I’m getting enough.”  At a break, Adele said, “Now I can see why Queen El izabeth liked his plays.” Note: They have just heard about Elizabeth and Shakespeare in The Story of the World, their history book, so the timing was beautiful.  Avril knew it was Shakespeare’s last play and I heard her whisper his name when she heard his voice coming through Prospero’s

Adele's Eighth Birthday

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Adele turned eight today.   We crowned her the a wreath of flowers. Crowns are a new tradition on birthdays.  She helped me make her cake, french vanilla with vanilla icing.   The cake was a disaster, which was my fault. I ran out of store-bought icing and had no powdered sugar to make more. We are in quarantine, so we are generally avoiding stores. So I decided to use brown sugar, which created a kind of marshmallow fluff icing that seemed to continue expanding and oozing down the cake. But Adele was thrilled with it, truly.  I kept looking for signs of disappointment. There were none.  In fact, the whole family liked the cake and said they wanted it again!!?? I think it might be that any cake is welcome here full stop. Like we did for Avril's quarantine birthday, we gave Adele Legos sets that morning right after chores, just three boxes unwrapped that she could open and start working on right away. So we all helped put together Legos all day. Those

A Good Word

Don Katz, the Founder of Audible, sent an email this morning saying that listeners   "tell us that the well-performed words we convey got them through the most profound personal challenges as well as devastating natural disasters and acts of terrorism."  That's the power of story. An image can come into our mind's eye through  the  scene of a book and we can carry that image, that scene, with us forever. It can  inspire  us and instruct us how to act. A good word can stay with us, and we can speak it to ourselves again when we need it to get us through a tough time.  That is why I focus on stories (and words in general) our homeschool.  I teach my kids to read. We read out loud everyday and I make them read silently everyday. I make them tell the stories they have read back to me. I talk to them about the stories.  They read to each  other.  They talk to each other about stories.  They   reenact  or make up  stories  when they play.  We sing together.  I make