Scrambled Eggs and Provolone Over Spinach

You will need:
1 Tablespoon of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh spinach (At least 3 ounces)
One egg
A slice of provolone

1. Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into a deep skillet and turn the heat on medium-high. Fill the skillet with spinach, really pile it in there because spinach shrinks a lot as it wilts.

2. Stir the spinach on and off as it wilts. When it's wilted, transfer it to a plate.

 3. Keep the pan off the burner and let the pan cool off for half a minute.  Turn the heat down to low then crack an egg in the skillet and scramble it as it cooks. 

4. Bunch the egg together and put a slice of provolone on just until it melts.  Then transfer the eggs and cheese to your bed of greens.

  

5. Salt it to taste and enjoy!

Our "Whys" Make All the Difference

This picture is going around Facebook and I've had conflicting feelings about it. At first, this mom appeared to me to be reinforcing negative cultural messages like being heavy should be avoided at all costs, that being pretty or worse, sexy, is power and influence women should strive for, that people aren't worthy of love unless they are perfect, that aging is bad, etc. I think all the fashion magazines at the checkout and advertisements on television have put me on the defense. 

But, on the other hand, I see how this picture can be inspiring.  Children should see parents modeling good choices and healthy lifestyles and they need to know that real life won't always be accommodating to their goals, even their most worthy ones.  You have to work for what you want wherever and whenever you find the opportunity, even if it's on the middle of your living room floor.

My daughters watch me work out because they are always with me.  My four year old has a little baseball bat that she uses to mimic what I do with my bar and barbells. When I first noticed her behind me, mimicking me, I was afraid, afraid she was learning all the things I had to unlearn since I grew up in this culture.  But I realized that I am not teaching her or letting her be taught all our culture's ideas about beauty, so I relaxed and have come to think it's adorable that she exercises with me.  

I pursued and continue to pursue health out of obedience to the Lord, so He will receive glory for working in that area of my life, so I can be strong and useful to Him, and because I have discovered that I just really enjoy healthy food and exercise.  (In yet another area of life, God has taught me to love what's good for me.) I have no doubt that when my daughters probe and probe, and they do probe already, that those reasons are the reasons they will find behind what their mom is doing.  Those are my "whys," truly.

I'm not sure what the mom in this picture's reasons are.  But I believe our "whys" make all the difference for the little eyes watching us.  

My Thoughts Upon Rereading The Core by Leigh Bortins

I just reread The Core by Leigh Bortins.  I had to reread it because I didn't glean much from my first time through the book.  But, this time, I came back to it with "a different brain,"as Bortins would say. I had a better understanding of the book because I had been reading and listening to classical educators talk about classical education for several months, so, quite naturally, I was able to glean more this time through.

And actually, this illustrates the classical model of learning that Bortins explains in The Core. She says we all go through three stages as we learn anything new.  First, we memorize the vocabulary and rules about a new topic, the basics. This is what Bortins calls the grammar stage of learning.  This may take place over years or just a few days, depending on how much we work at it.  If we are really interested in something, mastering the grammar of that topic may only take days.  Next, we begin to understand the topic logically and make all sorts of interesting connections about it and other topics.  She and other classical educators call this the logic stage. And finally, we become so familiar with the topic that we can explain it to someone else.  This is the last stage of learning, the stage of mastery, called the rhetoric stage. So, while I was reading The Core the first time, I was still learning the grammar of classical education. I was still becoming familiar with the terms Bortins and other classical educators use, so I wasn't able to really delve into the material. But, the second time through the book, I knew the lingo, so I gleaned much, much more.  And now, with this blog post, I am able to explain it to you, so I guess that makes me rhetorical!

Anyway, I think this book is a good fit for other "Well-Trained Mind" homeschooling types like me.  If you are classically bent, this book is one you will want to have in your arsenal.  But, if you hate "The Well-Trained Mind" and other books like it, you won't like this book either.

That said, even if you are classically bent, you may be put off by Bortins's style. She is very frank.  Reading her book is like listening to a seasoned home school mom tell you how she really managed to educate her kids as well as she did, only at times, it is like she's talking to you before she's had her morning coffee. Bortins doesn't qualify her statements like many authors do these days so that her readers don't get offended. She doesn't go out of her way to make sure you don't imply something that she doesn't mean.  Here's one quote that I think reflects what I am talking about.

"Success comes from doing schooling every day and not missing opportunities to do more when lying around sick or when it is raining or too hot to be outside."

I had to chuckle at her frankness in this quote. I kept waiting her to say, "But, of course, if your child is very sick..." but she never did. Still, I don't believe Bortins actually means that a kid with a raging fever should be propped up at the table so they can still do their school work. I give her the benefit of the doubt because in other places in the book, she talks about snuggling with her boys throughout the day and things like that. But, from what Bortins doesn't say at times like this, you can imply that she thinks parents who home school should be doing the hard work of teaching their kids and that they should take their responsibility seriously. 

I am taking away at least one very practical piece of advice that I plan to apply to my home school right away.  I am going to make my kids set a timer and do thirty minutes of math everyday from now on. Bortins says that her boys were able to work through more than one math textbook every year because they would work for thirty minutes and do as much math as they could in that time period instead of just quitting after they had finished one lesson for the day.  Math is a weak area for us and we are slow to get through our one, singular textbook each year, so I think Bortins's advice will help us solve both those problems.

Bortins recommends several books and resources as she discusses all the different subjects. I've added a few books to my "must read" list because my interest has been peeked by what Bortins said about them.  Two books I am planning to read are "Do Hard Things" and "Amusing Ourselves to Death."  Both sound amazing and I love it when one book leads to another.  

Happy Easter 2013

 

We lived out of suitcases for the entire month of February and now that we are home again, I keep finding myself overwhelmed, even anxious, by all the stuff we have in our house.

I think I'm a productive person. I keep myself and the kids on a strict schedule that allows us to get all the beds made, do the laundry, take care of the pets, keep the whole house clean, neat and organized almost all of the time while we also home school and I nurse and nurture the baby.  I cook three healthy meals a day from scratch and empty the sink and re-clean the counters, table and floor after each of those meals.  I read to my kids, talk to them, play with them, supervise their play and work.  And, in my free time, I exercise and read through several books at once.  So I have no reason to be ashamed about how I use my time.   

Yet, when I walk by shelves of so many books, I see the ones I haven't read to the kids yet and I feel guilty. When I walk by all our board games, I see the ones we all haven't played in a while and that makes me think, "I'm not doing enough." And then I feel condemned.

But it's just not true, I realize.  It's all this stuff that makes me feel like I'm not doing enough.  It's maintaining all of it that swallows more and more of my time.

So I've started purging.  Twice I have filled our van with books and toys and furniture to donate.  But, as much as I have given away, I still feel like I am spending too much of my time putting things back where they go or supervising my kids as they put things back where they go.  We have too much stuff for one family to handle and I don't want our whole lives to be about handling our stuff. 

Interestingly, while I was on vacation, making due with what fit in a few bags, my friend told me a story about an Amish woman who asked her husband to build a purple martin birdhouse for their backyard. He built it and put it on a pole so she could see it outside their kitchen window.  It was beautiful and it brought her a lot of joy, at first.  But, as time went by, the Amish woman fell back into her busy routine of work around the house and the farm and she found herself too busy to fed the birds in the birdhouse as often as she wanted to and that brought her tremendous guilt.  Every time she saw the birdhouse, she was reminded about what she didn't have time for.  The woman realized she shouldn't have asked for a birdhouse in the first place. She should have just been content without one. 

That story keeps playing in my head, stirring inside of me.  I have so many of those "birdhouses" in my life.  From now on, I want to be content with what I can manage as one person. And in the future, I want to guard myself and my family from wanting more than we can handle. So I'm getting rid of what we don't have time for, all of it, no matter how much we wish we had time for it. We'll do as much as we ever did with what's left over.  But, with less stuff around, I believe we'll have even more time for the things that remain.

"Be on your guard against all forms of greed, for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."  Luke 12:15

Dwayne: "Mom isn't on a diet. She's changed the way she eats, the way we eat."  

Norah: "You mean this is FOREVER??!"

I've found a healthier chili recipe.  Note: I use only organic products, whenever possible. 

Beef Chili

1 lb. grass-fed ground beef
One 28 oz. can of whole, organic tomatoes
3-4 cups of V8 Juice
One medium-sized onion, chopped
Three cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed well
One tablespoon dried Italian seasoning
Two teaspoons chili powder

After opening the can, carefully chop each tomato before adding it to the pot. Pour in the remaining tomato juice from the can and the V8.  Add the onions, drained beans and spices. Let this begin to simmer, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, brown the beef in a skillet then drain it and add it to the pot.  Simmer chili for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy!