Fortress safe and secure

Proverbs 14:26
Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge.

This verse is on a tattered index card taped behind the sugar bowl.  I saw it again this morning as I scooped mine into coffee.  Yesterday I had fever and aches and cough - like all the other people in my county - so I sat on the couch.  My children schooled themselves and fed themselves and we waited for Daddy to finally come home from school to take care of us.  He texted me to say "don't watch the news, don't let the kids see."  As the cold chill struck me, I answered "uh, we're doing science not news, what??"

So, after Daddy came home and sent me to nap, I got to pray and think.  We're safe.  The same safe we've been.  We live in the same wretched world that we did last week.  There has never been any security for us in the guns Daddy keeps near or the country home or the Ohio address.  Our security comes from a Sovereign God.  He is our secure fortress.

Last week our Voice of the Martyrs magazine came and before I could tuck it away from little eyes, my 3-yr-old asked why the little girl had a hurt arm - and why was it short - and was she sad?  Oh yes, I told her, she is very sad.  But look, she's a precious girl just like you!  Little and soft and see her pretty brown eyes, do they look like Mommy's brown eyes?  And that satisfied my Anna.  But not my 8-yr-old Ruby.

For Ruby there must be answers.  And the answer is that sin and evil live in the hearts of men, in each of our hearts.   Without the Christ, to clean our hearts, the sin and the evil rule - and this precious little girl in the picture lives in a village where bad people came - they came to hurt the people there because they didn't want to be Muslims.  So we prayed for the little girl to be healed and not afraid and to have a strong heart.  And we prayed for all the children in the world who have fear and hurt.

And later last night, while dinner cooked (oh thank you, dear husband), we 6 cuddled on the couch.  Daddy gave the terrible report and my kiddos eyes got very wide.  They have almost no school experience - except that every day their Daddy goes there to "teach the kids".  Schools, to them, are dinner conversation and a fun place to visit Daddy.

We had the conversation again - sin and evil rule in the hearts of men - but there is hope.  Where horror and fear rise up, the hope is still greater.  Here is the question I ask my children when they tell me their terrible fears:  "what if that did happen, then what?"  And the answer is Jesus.  Jesus would take me to heaven.  Jesus would take you to heaven.  Jesus would give me courage.  Jesus loves me and so if I was hurt, he would help me not be too afraid.  I asked Jesus to clean my heart, so I know He did, so I know I could be brave and I would not be a bad guy.

That is our secure fortress, for surely the sin and evil are real, but our King has a fortress in which we can hide.  We have a future with Him, no matter what horror today brings.  And we have hope for tomorrow - there is always, always redemption.  What is meant for evil, is turned miraculously into good.  We are safe.

When my kids are afraid, they cuddle closer.  They whisper, I love you, Mommy.  And that is what I do with my King, in His fortress, I cuddle closer, I whisper "I love you, I need to be closer, thank you for tucking me in" and I draw my children close into His fortress.

Why do I home school

A sweet friend asked me for my top 4 or 5 reasons for home schooling as she considered options for her marvelously brilliant young boy.  So here's my response to her, for your reading pleasure :) I do not know why the fool-background color.  I cannot fix it.


yikes.  That is stressful - as I've not entirely convinced my husband of the obviousness of our continued schooling at home.  It's so obvious to me.  Why shove our beloveds into the mad crowd of schools, not when they have Mom's and Dad's who are capable and motivated and the resources are LIMITLESS!

I have a friend you might speak with.  She has a brilliant son who basically smart-ed out of public school - they just couldn't hold him down any longer - he ended up schooling himself (as many home schoolers do when they get up into middle and high school - my Peter is basically teaching himself Latin because I can't keep up with the memory work and so I'm only useful for elaborating on the grammar rules for him).   Her second child was struggled mightily and they tried lots of options and so this crazy wonderful mom is now an expert is some reading/teaching method and consults with people.  Point: she'd love to express the value and possibilities of educating a brilliant boy child from home (like yours!).

Our children were designed to thrive, to learn, to go get after their life-purposes.  Our jobs are to empower them, give them boundaries and opportunities, protect them from harm (physical, spiritual, emotional) and make them ready to do battle victoriously in life and delight in giving glory to God through their work.  Woooo hoo!!!  I get so excited.  I listened to a radical seminar the other day - he said that he teaches his children to read so they can devour the Word of God, to think so that they can decipher it and the teachings of man, and to write/speak so that they can be ready with an answer that makes sense for those who ask.  Yes!!!

I home school my children so that

1.  They grow with wide-eyes-open awareness that all we say and do in life is shaped by our worldview and that we can distinguish the motivations and worldviews of other people.  There are differences and they are important.

2.  To shape their learning to their distinctly created selves - each have amazing strengths and differences and they will obviously learn best when the ratios are in their favor (4:1 is pretty nice, though I'd vote for 10:1 if Kevin would just jump on board ;)

3.  Time is limited - we only have minutes and hours and days before we send them off as adults - let's not squander.  The traditional school day wastes HOURS of their childhood that would be better spent at play (mine were insistent that the stuffed animals MUST play The Great War (WWI) NOW, not after I finished our history chatting - that is awesome, I think).  We learn much while tromping through the woods and doing chores and helping each other.  Chores and school work and family life are not separate - our lives have beautiful unity of purpose - it's all really valuable.

4.  I don't trust other people.  They mean well, but they teach what they know (whether they are a 7 yr old peer or a well-meaning teacher) - and when it all comes down, God holds US accountable for how we instruct our children (Deuteronomy 6) and not the US Dept of Educ or the Church.  Also, the Bible calls children fools - and we all know that they are, that's why we don't leave them alone together for too long :)  So, while it is valuable to learn how to socially navigate, it is not valuable to do peer immersion.  As adults, we choose who to hang with, some adults choosing more wisely than others.  Children are not equipped to do this.  Studies show that a child can rarely resist a marshmallow on a table for a few minutes - they certainly can't resist the allure of their peers or the teachers they long to please.

5.  I adore my children - I'm greedy for them - we have a delightful time together.  It thrills my heart to hear their responses to Emperor Nero, to the drastic difference between Mary Poppins the movie and the novel, to the way the dog "played" with our brown chicken, and to the last birthday party they attended.  I want to walk with them through their childhood, help them to avoid missteps and identify hazards and delight in overcomings together.  It is a high-calling and I welcome that exhaustion.  Oh, to be all used up by loving my husband and children - not a bad deal.  

My husband asks "and what if something happens and you can't?" Well, there are plenty of terrible what-ifs - and we'll deal.  And we'll do our best in that situation just as we ARE doing our best in this one.  That's irrelevant.  We must choose based on today's resources.  So I think you should LEAP in.  Goodness, I've used enough capitals??!

You are welcome to come out and spend the day devouring all my resources.  I found it very helpful to immerse in a few households I admired - it gave me a starting place for buying and planning.  Children are organic (right?) creatures - so the plan must be malleable, seasonal even, and it helps so much to have families you admire to turn to in process.

What am I doing?!

Ha, ha.  That's a funny title.  If you shout it with incredulity, that makes it better.  I'm not, for example, sleeping.  That means the "plan" I'm about to record will not be so smoothly administered tomorrow!  What I'll write is how we homeschool now; it's changed a lot.  I think this is the first year that I really get it: it is my responsibility to educate these children, God is watching, period.  I don't much care what the state has to say, God's standard is, uh, a lot higher.

I learned this year that my learners like to have a list.  So they each have a little book with their daily tasks in it - including chores, music and funny things.  It occurred to me just yesterday that I could write funny things there - and sweet things like "Peter, your diligence is blessing our whole family - thank you for noticing what needs to be done and doing it."  He blushed and dutifully checked that off his list!  Oh how I love him.

For the first time, I made a big chart with each big book/subject listed and all the weeks of the year and it shows me if I am sticking to it enough to finish it this year - it gives me big-picture so I know whats at stake if we blow off a day or week and then I can be accountable to the plan I prayed about and ought to implement.

For the first time, I went away by myself and prayed and prayed and prayed and read through my resources and sorted and made a year-plan for our school.  I guess having a 1st, 2nd and 4th (plus a delightful 2yo!) brought me to the precipice.  Winging it got too scary! (I did not, I did not wing it before, that sounds bad.)

So, what do we do.  In Kindergarten, we learn to read and discover Math is awesome.  My kids have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Singapore Math (just started with 1st bc they played math enough to be ready - Ruby did "school" as play and finished some K stuff)  In First Grade - we add History (Truthquest - love, love) and Science (Apologia creation series - all pleasure) and we do those on the couch, all together.  And some other stuff like Latin, piano, violin, map stuff, cursive, copywork, spelling stuff, drawing, singing, guitar.  Not all at once.  Come see me if you want more detail there.  This year we went nuts on Math and they are all 3 doing different (Singapore, Saxon, Life of Fred).  Through the years we've done an assortment of pray/read/memorize attempts - without much consistency.  I seem to have an enemy who is stealing my Bible time - but they all do reading time in their own bibles each day and whenever they want to - that started when we discovered our favorite Bible ever.

A normal day:
6 am I get up to read/pray alone or with prayer partners (our dad leaves before now)
7 am Boys wake to do exercises (per Dad) and shower; girls get jostled awake.
Kids do animal chores while I make breakfast/shower (ha! this is when I'd exercise)
8:30 do Bible study all together (hurray for Bible Bee sword study 2011!)
Kids start on lists and either work independently or with Mom - at the kitchen table or couch or wherever they can focus and not distract each other.
10:30 Dad calls, I remember I should go load wood burner. (or, I have kids going, I get in shower, silly child comes into bathroom asking if I want to talk to him while I shower?!?)
Mom makes bread or preps dinner or does other chores/food (and generally try to distract my learners)
1:00 I notice we haven't eaten lunch and I haven't loaded the wood burner.  Fix that.
Kids get mad and finish whatever they haven't
2:00 Kids are deeply immersed in playing - so much so that I forget to send Anna to bed until I see Kevin drive down the driveway from school (where he is a "real" teacher).  The hours until bedtime are a blur - don't know where they go.  We play and eat and work around the house.  It's good to be together.

I rarely make their lists in advance, but I take big chunks of late-night time to do library book-requesting (for pick up window) and re-routing plans gone wrong.  Everything else we do together, as we get to it.  I also use late-night hours to either re-fuel with blogs and books and to put my Arbonne business into order so that I can grab quick moments to make calls during the day (I shove them into the nooks and crannies and pray they don't derail our focus).

Feel like bragging?

I'm parked on the floor in front of my stupid smoking wood burner.  Why, oh why, can I not keep it burning.  It burns me up when my husband comes home and announces it is out.  Feels like the rest of my day's accomplishments just got canceled.
So, I'm bragging to my blog.  Because the only people who read this anyway are people who understand that I like verbal affirmation and they don't care if I brag because they like me so much that they even like my bragging.  So there.
Today I did a lot of things.  I'm going to make a bulleted list, for my own enjoyment.

• 3 loads of laundry (including the delicates load where I found the suit that I was a little freaking out about having lost - how exactly did I lose a suit? I thought I did.  So glad I have a washable suit.  It is very, very cute on me and also washable - so a huge victory that I found it.)
• Put away 6 piles of clothes in my own bedroom (a pile is defined: "as tall as you can stack without falling over" - so another great victory), including my husbands clothes partly.  That was very nice of me, I even hung up the shirts that he can iron.
• Purged an entire full garbage bag from my closet (I hate putting clothes in garbage bags, but because I do not shop, I have no nice bags to put them in) (including 8 bras? that was amazing.  How-ever do I have so many that do not fit me? Well, I guess it's attributable to pregnancy, nursing and the remarkable weight loss that nursing causes in me.  I kept 3 extra cute ones just in case the "milks" have some miraculous transformation.  Ha - not likely.)

Short break for cursing (in my head since beautiful 10-yr-old sympathetic son is watching me) at the woodburner, poking and prodding the stupid log that was seriously in flames just 3 minutes ago, dusting the stupid woodburner dirt off my knees and back to my stupid perch on the not-even-cozy (but at least I scrubbed floors yesterday for the first time since spring maybe) floor in front of the stupid woodburner.  Sorry about all the stupids.

• Ground the flour and baked an entire decent-looking loaf of bread.  Ground more flour and have rising another loaf's-worth for dinner's pizza crust.  Planned carrots/dip (oh yes, Kefir cheese ranch dip from yesterday's impressive list) and salad and maybe grapes to go with the one measly pizza that we will too-fast devour without some kind of side dish.

Short break to roll the offensive log to the back and stack a little boy-scout tripod of kindling onto the inept glowing coals hiding underneath.  I think I shall use only kindling.  I hate logs.  Forevermore I will just sit in front of this woodburner, load it with tiny sticks of flamable kindling and read blogs about other people's accomplishments and deep thoughts.

• I took a shower - with cute girl almost 2.  I had some clear thoughts in there about my business.  Hopefully I will remember them when I'm done venting here and maybe do them.
• I administrated independent-workers aged 10, 8 and 7 to do the work on their lists and be happy about it.  I fed them breakfast and lunch and read them a beautiful chapter of Pollyanna upon waking.  Got everything done on their school lists except the science notes I did not dictate to them.
• I drank 2 cups of coffee.  I ate a real lunch and an inadequate but wholesome butt-of-bread breakfast.
• I read a chapter in a good book to myself this morning and prayed a little bit during and after and since.
• I turned on an old CD in the kitchen rather than blowing my top in the kitchen.
• I called 4 people on my list and left 4 messages, while folding laundry.
• I remembered that almost-2's need naps.  So what if it was 3:30 and my husband already home, dang it.
• I cleared my calendar to better fit hunter's hunting schedule, got a nice thank-you for that.
• I remembered that I need a sitter 6 nights from now and actually procured one before the night-before - this is a new record in sitter-planning for me.

OK - fire barely burning but I'm feeling a little better.  Thanks. 

Tepid Coffee

I should have known it was cold when it didn't burn my leg. But I was too busy being exasperated and irritated (Peter says "at least you weren't indignant". Isaac says "what's indignant mean?". Peter: "I don't remember. I just know it isn't good.")

We haven't accomplished much school today. You can tell by it being 10:31 and I am typing on my blog rather than hearing someone read or reading to them. I'm eating my fourth protein bar (does that mean I don't get to eat lunch?) and my now-hot coffee is going down smoothly while I ignore my children.

Ruby flopped down to read her last phonics lessons and made my coffee splash. She flopped because it was the third time I'd asked her to sit. I want to justify my eruption of temper and declare (in an indignant voice) that my jeans are wet! And my coffee is cold! And it's not my fault, you foolish children!

My kids were dutifully repentant while I ranted. But they thought it was funny (I could see the twinkle in their downcast eyes) as I indignantly dried the splashes and said "now I am going to drink this coffee in peace while each of you does what I say instead of whining for an hour and then complaining you aren't done!" And then my coffee was blech (bletch as Isaac says) and tepid. And their eyes twinkled. And darn it, (yes, Anna learned that lovely, feminine phrase from me) I laughed!

Praise Jesus. Not 10 minutes earlier I had grumbled at the sink: why, oh why, Lord. why do I ask you for grace overflowing in the early morning and then spend my later morning overflowing with irritation? why do I pray for my husband and kids and ask for your power and love to flow out of me and then dump grump on them?

Thank you Jesus for their twinkling eyes, overflowing grace to their mama. Thank you for laughing, giggling, cackling kids who find their mama's cold coffee hilarious (vengeance is mine, says the Lord!) and forgive me so quickly. Thank you for grace overflowing.

Ruby, will you forgive me for overreacting about spilled coffee?

Yes, Mommy.

simple is better

I have a plan forming in me each time I pray and get quiet about school. It is calling me to simple. I have these precious learners to lead. And I am only me, filled up with the powerful God-Spirit and flailing with flesh-weakness, so the Simple is calling to me. (Forevermore I shall capitalize the words I wish - just as Winnie the Pooh does. Some things are Important Things and the capitalizing helps you see that I think so! Good idea, A.A. Milne.)

I type fast, the light is growing outside so I'll soon hear thumping down the stairs. I feel compelled to write this down in words so I don't forget and get muddled later. My life is not OVERwhelming. It is possible to do the things set before me because God has a plan for my days and He will do it if I will surrender and be still and listen a bit and bravely step into it.

I am eager to make lists and calendars - for maps and history and latin root words and copywork and math facts and patterns. Our little schooling house is a wonderful place to live. It is less daunting when a path rolls out before me. We can get clever and stop to lap up the sweetness of a day when the simple path is clear before us. Ah, here comes someone thumping down the steps.

How many days to build a habit?

Working on establishing some new norms here before we break for Christmas. Maybe if I "say them out loud" I'll do better at being faithful? Because, you know, the systems rely upon the mama - if I'm not all-in, they crumble.

Mama wakes up at 6:30 (if it's Monday, I pray by phone with Jess!! Very nice way to start the week). Do anything I want to do until 7:30 - drink coffee, read Bible, pray, start laundry, read Holy Experience, fill cups with warm milk and Ovaltine (how did this habit start?!) as the kiddos trickle down. Do NOT check email or go anywhere near the laptop. Texting husband is permitted.

7:30 -wake kids and remind them they have until 8:30 to do Breakfast chores (teeth, clothes on, beds made) and Animal chores (chickens, cat, dog) and be fed. Commence cuddling them (fully knowing this is where we get off schedule entirely). Meanwhile, I wash dishes (um, bc evening routine is missing that key part) and get laundry lass (that's what I should call that hulk of a wonderful machine - hardest working servant I've ever had!) moving and grab a shower maybe. Yeah right, while I cuddle them? Well, sometimes you have to just make hard choices and be thankful you work from home and can look scruffy. Oh, and think about dinner - just think on it. Maybe that will help it become a reality.

8:30 - thank God that they are getting tall and can almost feed themselves. Finish feeding them and convene on the couch for official Cuddle Time: reading out loud (doing some Holling C Holling right now - back to missionary bios from YWAM after Christmas), sing a hymn together, review memory verses. Then get Peter started on his Advent study (so he can have the fresh bread-of-life for us at lunch) and write his list of work for the day (so he can check things off). Keep Ruby at the couch for reading lessons while Isaac starts Math or Explode the Code or cursive at the table. Keep working, being mindful of who needs my focus so they don't get entirely distracted while they wait.

11:30 - say "let's stop for lunch". Now, I still seem to not be actually feeding them until 1:30 (argh, bc daddy returns home hungry at 4), but this is going to get better. We have until 12:30 (in my plan) to Eat, talk about Advent study (we are loving this!!), finish chores and maybe even play. Finish chores: Kitchen, Floors and Bathrooms - 1 area for each big kid. This is brilliant - I haven't decided if they are static and the kids just march off to do - or if I give them daily delights in each area. We'll see. But my kitchen, floors and bathrooms feel happy about this.

Today, we switched areas from last week - so we did a little "mature conversation" practice that went like this (entirely scripted by me):

Isaac: Ruby, do you have any good ideas for me about cleaning the kitchen?

Ruby: Well, one thing I know, you just have to work in life. It's just life. You just have to do it.

Ruby: Peter, do you have any good ideas for me about cleaning the bathrooms?

Pete: Ruby, sometimes we don't want to do chores that are hard. But if we just do them, then they are done and, actually, they hardly take any time.

Yes!!!!!!!

Ok, back to the plan. Finish it all up after lunch, be done by 1:30 or 2. So, in reality, we are still racing to get done by dad's return - but goodness, did you see all that house-help getting done and the glorious responsibility sharing?? I failed to mention that they get a check for each chore done for the day (Breakfast, Animals, Kitchen, Laundry - oh I forgot to describe laundry). Laundry means you delivered to me your dirty and you put away your clean. Look out baby Anna, your day is coming! And each check is 10cents. And no pay if you have a bad attitude.

That's my plan. I have a one-room schoolhouse! With a very entertaining toddler. Better than I ever dreamed (or could have asked or imagined)!

Secret Church

I've been reading Radical by David Platt and joined this read-along. So I'm reviewing Ch 1 and couldn't keep it to myself, so we read aloud this morning. We read about house churches and

how people must sneak and risk danger to gather together with their bibles to learn and praise together. They come in the dark, at secret locations, sneaking their whole families in, risking their lives, their property, their jobs and their loved ones.

They got dressed in suitable, secret-y dark clothes and created a shady tent for their church-spot. This is what my worshippers thought:

Ruby (5): I loved it. About you guys coming, because I usually only have 1 person at my church, but this time I had 4 people. I will want you to come back at the same time tomorrow, I will be there. Maybe. The baby should not come next time, maybe she could be sleeping since we will have our secret church so late in the night.

Isaac (7): I was the driver. My job was to drive the people who didn't know the way and one person who did know the way.

Peter(8): Mom was the guest and Isaac had to drive her to my secret hiding place. I hopped in the car and after we got a little ways from our meeting place, me and mom hopped out and crawled to our secret place in the tent. When we got there, Ruby and Isaac had to have a secret code to get in.

Ruby pretended she was basket-weaving before she came in, and when she came in she pretended she was going to bed like usual every day. The code word was Mark and both Isaac and Ruby had to say it before they came in. Isaac tried to scare us, but it didn't work. I was the security person. Hope you enjoy what I said.

Mom: It was hot in our church. And dark.

We read the beginning of the book of Mark with a flashlight. Ruby worked hard to "write" every word that I read - in case we didn't have my bible next time (I was the visiting bible-teacher). Anna climbed all over us and didn't do well with being quiet. We fear that someone outside may have heard us! Ruby led the singing: "hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest" is what she chose. Because if we don't praise Him, the rocks will cry out. So we praised Him.

This cute picture of Anna is her wondering why we are driving a pretend car down the hall and why she isn't.

starting again

Tomorrow is Kevin's first day reporting to school for teachers. So we are starting too. Ruby is doing a strange groaning and even "I hate school" - what?!?!? Who taught her that - I thought I was carefully limiting their socialization - ack! But I tickle her and remind her that she's insisted on doing math pages the past 2 days.

So we are starting tomorrow. Starting slow and easy - working our way in. I need a little ta-da for the morning - thought that could be eggs (since they are cute and brown from our own little chickens) for breakfast and good cuddle time with a new read-aloud (a George MacDonald classic I just finised reading to preview). And then some good times with the new school books!! And I'm determined to get a class photo - including our helpful little squirt, Anna. Might need the UPS man to take it for me so I can get in, too.

Now to finish snapping the beans so the canner can sing to us in the morning.

Pictures

It's not like we haven't been doing lots and lots. We just have been doing it instead of blogging it. On our last day of school, we created nature journals. They seized the idea and we had to wake early for a nature hike the next morning. Good thing that we did. These photos document Kevin's amazing bridge. The very same bridge that was lifted by a 4-ft-deep flooded creek just a few days later and carried several feet "downstream". Crazy. The water wasn't even over their boots this day. You can't see Anna because she is in the back pack - wildly kicking her legs and somehow not getting mosquito-bitten on that glorious soft skin.

We had blazing hot days before school was done - poor daddy trapped inside his classroom. We weren't trapped, nope. We played and learned outside. We did pool-introduction for Anna-the-plump. She was quite happy splashing in her own little puddle - looks kind of surprised about it all, doesn't she!

While the bigs did leaping launches into the bigger puddle (pictures will not cooperatively load for me!) - how did it not pop?Anna is clapping. That is old news, though, because now she is crawling. But i don't have any of those photos off my camera and onto the computer yet. I need an assistant for all this memory-keeping. She is also growing more hair that is still blond in the sunlight. That is very sweet and different from the older 3 - just like I asked, "Lord, what if you made this one a different color." I love how God does that.

First Day of School!

Thanks Jessica, for taking this family picture (Daddy couldn't find us at 6am when he left for his 4th day of school).

We started today!! So much eagerness! Isaac peered around the corner early this morning: "Boo! I'm ready for school!" First boy up - that was good. We did sweet cuddle time: pray for the day, read/repeat Phillipians 4:4-9, read first 2 chapters of the Jesus Storybook Bible. Just as we started to cuddle on the couch, Peter saw a spotted fawn tip-toeing through our watermelon plant! The boys raced outside onto the deck to shoo it away and Ruby and I saw its twin startle in the field and then make a marvelous leap over the fence. What a fun sight for our early morning.

Then we did Breakfast Chores and since it was already 9:15 (ack!) I did the ta-da on their newly configured notebooks over breakfast. Whew.

Isaac and Ruby's enthusiasm made a slow go for Peter - but due to his very stuffy nose/head he patiently waited and plodded through his lessons and allowed for their "I want to do more, can I do more?" eagerness. Isaac is already on 54 of his 100 Easy Lessons - making huge strides. I'm so glad that he's doing Kindergarten now, at six. Good choice.

It was grand. In fact, they did school all morning, then played pretend school all afternoon!

Peter met Botany after lunch - taxonomy, binomial nomenclature. Whew, he's a trooper. But then we giggled through the Field Guide for trees and said the silly latin names for a few minutes to wrap up - I love my little learners.

quiet

I've been feeling blog-quiet lately. Maybe because I did something radical and put the blog address on my Christmas letter - why did I do that?!?! Ack! Ah well, it's all an illusion anyway - it's not like I really thought this was private musing, right? And also because I'm so very full. I cannot believe how much history there is, how many books, how many things to do. Oh, you knew that?! Yes, but it's daunting to be the designer of our days. The author of our times.


HAAAA-HAAA!! That is my deranged laughter.


I am not the Author, nor the Designer. That job is taken! Yahooo!!! Shout for joy to the Lord!! The Author of life and the Designer of creation has it under control. Whew. That is a relief.


I just get to pick which books we will read today (or tomorrow, I should say, because today they are romping in the thawed Ohio, um, wetlands). And that task is my joy - my thrill - my honor.


This weekend I've read 2 books - one the bio of Susannah Wesley and the other an imaginary tale wrapped around her real son John Wesley. I would recommend kids lit to anyone who wants to know history and doesn't like the grown-up books! They can be dry and icky (as in - who wants to know all the dirt on these history heroes - I want to know what they did that is honorable and heroic and history-changing - and that is in the kid-books).

Does anyone in the world know a good way for me to make a little side-bar thingy that can have my recently-read and currently-reading books there in a clever way?

snow day

This day did not start out the way I expected. When Daddy is on 2-hr delay, we are all glad. But, the quiet time was rather conversational and soon the kids were piled onto my couch. You know, not very focused.

Next, preschool canceled - ah lovely - finally got that appointment tucked in tightly and now we have to reschedule since appt + 3 kids = not productive Arbonne. Try, try again.

Then, van doors frozen shut. Don't even try to go to town, just don't go. Don't you know it is a snow day!!!! Who knew that all those merry moms driving their minivans were under constant threat of suctioned stuck slider doors? I never knew. Man! I need my Mercedes.

So, as you can see, we did snow instead. And it was ever so much better.

After we conquered Pete's grief over missing piano, they dove into the snowsuits. (small praise to Peter - we conquered all of today's school in spite of Mom's many frustrations and not-Spirit-led responses. Woo-hoo Peter!!)

My bests were the all-3-on-same-sled attempts. My kids really love, love each other - all praise to Him. And Ruby sleeping on Daddy's pile of wood-to-be-split. "Do you know why I did that Mommy, because the boys did not pull me up that time. And I just laid my head down because I was too tired."

My other best (this is me talking like them, saying "my best". When will they be talking like me, ever, will they ever?) was Ruby just needing one thing before she could sled more. "I just need a drink, and then I can"

Peter: "Ruby, snow is water - you can drink it!" She's quite amazed and brave to try. Hope you enjoy the video like we did. We have since educated her on the parameters for drinkable snow. Don't worry.

back to it

In honor of it being the very last day of our mammoth Christmas break from "school", Peter did actually read the entire Usborne Children's Encyclopedia today. You know, just a refresher before we dive in tomorrow. I so love him, so much. Because he just wanted to read it - it is fascinating stuff.

Should I just skip Christmas on this abandoned blog? I don't know. But I'm back now, real life resumes and I'm ever so glad. I love homeschooling. I've done the wild emotional ride today from must-plan-how-have-I-procrastinated-until-today to oh-horror-I'm-a-wretched-unprepared-teacher to wow-we're-farther-than-I-thought to here. Here is here:

Peter is thriving. Needs to be moving in math, I've been lazy and he deserves better than tiptoeing through the texts. He reads like a whiz and I'm just not starting the "grammar/english" until next year because why should I mire him up. But I am making him labor on his handwriting and spelling so he's not so stumped when he tries to write. And we're adding copywork (for spelling lists, geography and memory verses) and dictation (for poetry and bible). Science is awesome and we love it. History got mired in the colonies - but we're pressing on toward some cool new biographies and the Declaration of Independence! I said we were adding Spanish, but I'm backpeddling. And Art on Friday's. Yes, we're not skipping it. And music playing - I think I need to go marinate in Ambleside and that will either make me shutdown or step forth victorious!! Here we go!

Tuesday Teaparty

OK, well it wasn't really tea. They voted for hot chocolate. And then complained that it didn't have much "flavor". Hmm, maybe because I always skimp on the chocolate.

Isaac told me that at Grandma Sharon's, the chocolate milk is much chocolatey-er, much better. I told him, that's probably right - most things are better at Grandma's!


We ate Grandma Mills no-bake cookies and sipped our cocoa. You can see the perfectly set table, by our hostess Ruby. She also got to do the pouring - needed a new shirt when we were done - but she was delighted with her job. Need to assign someone the job of handwashing all the tea-party dishes next time.

We listened to Peter read from his Poetry book. He recited The Vulture by Hilaire Belloc - a hoot. He re-wrote Ewey-Gooey was a Worm with a new main character - giggles. I read Singing Time by Robert Louis Stevenson - we all giggled more because they know I don't really do what the poem says, even though I claim to (poke my head straight from my morning covers and sing and sing and sing!). And The Wind by Christina Rosetti - perfect illustration - lots of evidence of the unseen wind out our snowy windows.

Tea party rules:
1 Pray before we start - this is something to be so thankful for!
2 Pick something good to recite or read - anybody can pick
3 Have yummy something to eat and tea (or something that's a drink) to drink
4 Use polite rules like "please pass the cookies" and "may I have more to drink" and "that is a nice poem" and "excuse me, I spilled the tea, please pass a napkin"
5 Invite guests to tea (Jim was invited but evidently the deer hunting was too taxing, so he napped through our tea party)
6 Have tea parties on Tuesday because they both start with T.

piano concert

This was fun!! Peter had a fan club. When he marched in with the other students, he gave us his wink. Why does my 7-yr-old wink like that? Because he is so handsome. Because I tell him he's so handsome? I was proud. He wasn't even nervous!?! I was nervous for him. This was his first performance.

The fan club was a little comical - way too many cameras per capita. But, it's well-documented, at least.

Paula warned us that the favorite part for the students was the cake and punch at the end. No kidding? Good grief - they were rewarded for their cultured-quiet-audience-behavior by huge pieces of cake.

Peter was awesome. We were proud.

Eat the crust first

About a year ago, on another drive to town, I explained to Peter about "eat the crust first". It's a concept I probably learned a long time ago, but my Arbonne business has driven the point home. If I want something different than what I've had, I have to DO something different. To get extra-ordinary results, be extra-ordinary. If you want to enjoy the pie, eat the crust first.

So today I say, "the only thing left for you to do is practice piano and do handwriting. How about you practice piano while I take a shower - then we'll all go outside. You can do handwriting later."

He groans. He says, "that's like eating the cheese first!"

What?!?! Cheese? NOOO - it's a pie, not a cheese sandwich! Wrong metaphor!! Oh, guess it still works - that would be 7-yr-old-boy vs. sweets-loving-Momma.

So, he's doing his handwriting. What a wonder of a boy. Hmm, wonder what I should do first.

Holiday hustle

I'm about to begin a packed-tight 2 weeks of calendar before Thanksgiving! School is so together - I'm so thankful for my eager learners.

Isaac made huge strides today - diving into his "kindergarten" math book and conquering like 6 lessons in his phonics book. God bless the writers of that book - it works!! He's all confident and writing and sounding out - hallelujah!!

And I'm ready to accomplish all my Arbonne goals (including big bonus - woo-hoo!) with NOTHING to do over the whole Thanksgiving week. What a cool job. I am on a hunt for friendly people who could do what I do and have a reason (who doesn't?) to add extra income to their family budget. I love my job. All my jobs.

Super-Isaac!

He leaps sisters with a single bound. He scales furniture with ease. It's Super-Isaac!!

And for his latest accomplishment, click here - he reads!! I know, his blue eyes are distracting, but try to notice how he sounds things out and notices when he guesses wrong.

Isaac's Norsemen

The norsemen (as in Leif the Lucky's crew) are fleeing from the Indians who lived here first! See their boat!