Veronica Boulden

Avril started Challenge B yesterday.  This morning of the day after our community day, we sat down with her guide and her schedule and portioned the work out day by day by day...  We left time for volunteer work, piano practice, art classes, doctor appointments, etc.  It took more than an hour to get it all planned out.  It always does take that long to schedule the week.  But I have found that this time scheduling makes all the difference.  Planning like this the morning of the first day right after community usually means:  My kids get a good start on the work for the week; They aren't waiting around a half a day, or a full day, or a full day and a half until they start doing their work.  Hardly anything ever gets left until the last minute, so it's a fairly stress-free week. The work is portioned out evenly. Even the day before community feels normal, sometimes even light, as far as work load goes.  My kids actually end up with quite a few hours of free time everyday and sev

We spent Friday at The Cloisters. What an other-worldly place! The gardens were magical and beautiful with medicinal and edible and even poisonous plants. The herb room with all the drying herbs was the most delicious thing I’ve ever smelled. Think of prying the lid off a tin of the best loose leaf tea then multiply that sensation exponentially. We sat here for lunch and enjoyed sights of interesting carvings hidden on all sides of the columns and walls surrounding us, the birds that flew over the roof and into the garden, and the flowering plants and  busy bumble bees.  We watched two juvenile pigeons peck, peck, peck their mom and each another for several minutes. The nest was in one of the fruit trees inside a cloistered garden and close enough to touch.  So many images and symbols to interpret and inspire the imagination!  We begin Cycle 2 on The Middle Ages in Classical Conversations soon, so the timing of this visit was perfect. As we admired and discussed each piece, we could

The day started with church at Cornerstone Presbyterian where Norah and at least one of her roommates plan to attend. This is also where New College has its classes, so much of Norah’s life will be spent in this church building for the next few years, Lord willing. Each weekly order of service at Cornerstone is a small book, a true gift, a treasure filled with rich and beautiful Scripture, hymns, sheet music, prayers, etc. The opportunity to attend Cornerstone was a major affirmative reason for Norah to come to New College. Norah and her roommate have both said they plan to save these weekly books for all the years they are here… Wise girls. After church, we had lunch right next door at Biscuit Love… Wow! Then we went over to Norah’s place and started working and working and didn’t stop till all the boxes were empty and almost everything was in its place and that was sometime around dinnertime. Each of the girls who has arrived so far has at least one parent on hand helping them as the

The caterpillars are eating so much that we just brought home an entire plant. We put the stem in a glass bottle filled with water. Note: We "plug" the hole of the bottle with a paper towel wrapped around the stem. This keeps the caterpillars from crawling down into the bottle and drowning themselves or forming their chrysalises inside where they would not be able to get out.     

After two long days of driving, we made it to Franklin. Norah’s spending her first night in her new apartment! We managed to put her bed together in time. We’re in our vrbo. It’s a bit surreal. We get to spend several days here before actually leaving her. We will attend her church in the morning, and there are some college functions to attend this week, and lots of unpacking left and shopping to do. We’re thankful for a few more days together before we say the big goodbye. Every few moments brings another confirmation or comfort of some sort that God is ordering her steps and this is a really good place for her to be. I guess the tears will come, maybe on the long ride home? We’re wondering who will cry first. But for now, we’ve just been laughing alot, working together, enjoying each other .

The caterpillars keep eating, growing, pooping, and sleeping; We keep replenishing the leaves. We don't have to keep them inside a butterfly habitat. We have found that as long as the leaves are fresh enough, they have no reason to stray, and they will just stay on the leaves and never leave the platter. 

 We leave to take Norah to college tomorrow. The cars are packed and decorated for the trip. 

Our friends invited us to meet up with them at Quassy, a local amusement park. We hadn't been to Quassy since our oldest was very young, at least ten years. We just didn't think we were amusement park people. But I'm so glad we went, because it was great to spend the day with our friends and we enjoyed the park so much more than expected, especially the waterslides. We may very likely buy season passes next summer.   

Stuff on her floor,  on her spare bed,  on the hallway floor,  stuff filling the corner of the basement,  piles piled on her desk,  in my room,  in her sisters' room; we're moving Norah out and into college.  We're emptying her room altogether so that her younger sister can move into it once she is gone.  It seems unfair and impractical to shut her room up like some mausoleum for her memory and continue making her younger sisters share the other room when she'll be gone most of the year. So there's a lot of decisions to make. We're packing the stuff to take,  putting other stuff in storage in the attic,  passing clothes down to younger siblings,  donating stuff we're done with,  throwing stuff out.  It's exhausting work,  and I knew it would be,  so I set aside four days for this endeavor,  clearing the calendar of everything else.  It'll take every minute. 

Adele has finished every drawing/ writing exercise in Draw Write Now Book One.  She filled an entire red report cover with her work.  Notice she even drew a cover page for her collection.  Now she's starting to work Draw Right Now Book Two.  She requested another report cover wherein to keep her work, so I obliged.  I found the entire set of Draw Write Now books on sale at our co-op.  At the time, Adele had been begging for a new handwriting book, and I was looking for a fitting solution, so I bought them and brought them home.  These aren't my favorite handwriting books, but I figured Adele could use them over the summer to stay in practice.  When my daughters were learning handwriting early on, I preferred to use a combination of Abeka, Zanier Bloser, and Prescripts materials instead.  Those programs did a better job of teaching letter formation. Those resources had guiding arrows to remind students about where to start letter formation and which direction to go with their pe

I started to see the beauty in mullein in fields and meadows where I would see it growing wild. So this year, when it started to grow in my side yard, I just let the "weed" stay instead of pulling it up. Today we saw a downy woodpecker perched on the side of it for several minutes vigorously eating the seeds. What a treat! A weed is only a plant growing where it isn't wanted. Well, now it's wanted. It stays!

This month I finished, almost finished, or I spent time reading in these books.  Life Together by Bonhoeffer  The Great Tradition Edited by Richard Gamble  The City of God by Augustine Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin Beauty Chasers by Timothy Willard Faith, Hope, and Poetry by Malcolm Guite Ember Falls by SD Smith Ember Rising by SD Smith

I made my own Five Elements of Shape poster for my Foundations class with a piece of foam board with a grid, a pencil, a good eraser, a yard stick, and a permanent marker. Mona Brooks suggests doing this if you can't obtain a photocopy of the Five Elements of Shape. She says, "...I recommend that you fashion a handmade version to put in your drawing space." (Drawing With Children, 61) In my case, I had a photocopy; I just didn't have one large enough for my entire class to use at once. But now I do! This firm poster will sit nicely on my white board tray where everyone can see it.