The oldest wasn’t feeling well this morning and I so stayed home from with her, hence the early weekend wrap-up.   I hated to miss church as this is our one Sunday with no other responsibilities at church than to enjoy time with the Lord.   However, with http://www.streamingfaith.com, staying home from church isn’t what it once was.    I “attended” a wonderful service and was greatly ministered to at the point of my need.   If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

... know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28, NIV).

…am more than a conqueror through Him who loved me (Romans 8:37, NIV).

These are the words that I clung to after a week of battling depression.    It started when I visited LadyPoet33’s blog all too late—at least in my mind.   She reached out for some encouragement right before losing her home, and by the time I made it to her blog, I’m sure she was gone.   As I read through the other comments, I set up decorations and cranked up the music for my own pity party.   This wouldn’t have been abnormal, and I was even willing to dismiss it as hormonal until my husband shared that he, too, was struggling with being depressed.   Then I knew something was going on.    As I’ve shared with him before, it’s so difficult to pull someone else up when you’re feeling low, so I just focused in on me, and what I needed to do to maintain.   The oldest had her 3^rd science test, which I wasn’t feeling good about.   I’ve documented before my angst about the decision to enroll her in this course, so I won’t risk being repetitive.   Then my husband called to say that NTB thought he needed 4 tires instead of 2, and possible suspension work.   Thankfully, they reneged and said that 2 tires were all that was necessary.    The dryer started this eerie squeak.   Our youngest was upset that the older two were going to a lock-in at the dance center and she couldn’t go, so all week long she whined about what special thing she’d get to do—not what a parent wants to hear amidst all of life’s other annoyances.   However, at the end of the week, my hope was restored with two events:

1)    The oldest made an “A” on her science test

2)    Our son’s gecko, ”Spot,” after not eating for several days, attacked a batch of live crickets mightily (we have since found out that geckos have the nerve to be finicky and will stop eating if their diets lack variety)

It is amazing to me that, as a parent, so much of your happiness can stem from the smallest things that go well with your kids.  Is that healthy?   I meet moms all the time who are very into themselves—their time, their indulgences, what they like and don’t like, etc., etc., etc.   I keep wondering if, in the name of my family, I’ve let myself go.   Speaking of which, I worked out twice this week!  Not where I want or need to be, but from where I was, it’s a great place.

As a wife and homemaker, I…

enjoy immensely all of the special things that are happening in our kitchen.   First, I can remember a season on last year when our youngest daughter got really into seeds and planting.   It was right after her grandfather came and dug a garden for us—a garden that continues to yield many good vegetables.      She wanted to plant every seed from every fruit or vegetable that we ate.    So when we finished a batch of bell peppers, we put the seeds into an indoor pot, not expecting much because of the indirect sunlight.    It’s taken a while, but this is our first fruit from the plant most unlikely to.

     This very plain-looking bowl is another of my heart’s joys.   My father went home to be with the Lord in 1997.    While here on earth, he and my mother were lovers of a routine, so I suppose that I came by this trait honestly.   He was so into his routine until he even ate the same breakfast every morning—instant grits followed by a bowl of Crispix cereal—in this bowl.    During one of his last visits from Georgia to our home, he actually packed his bowl such that he’d not have to make an adjustment to what we had here.    One day on this past week, I was enjoying a bowl of instant grits—in his bowl—and reminiscing about some of our last days together.   I had to wonder, what seemingly insignificant trinkets will trigger lasting memories for our children?   If I were a fly on the walls of their minds, what (prayerfully) delightful anecdotes would I be a part of?

I enjoy the treasures of our kitchen.   I enjoy preparing meals, although I wish I was better at it.   Karen brought me a batch of Amish friendship bread when she visited, and I get so excited each baking day.   With the variations she later sent, each loaf of bread is a treat.   I was finally able to share a cup of starter with my MIL, and we now have a good time calling one another on baking day with “What type of bread are you making?”   Last week, mine was banana bread with walnuts, but I was one banana short of the recipe requirement.   This turned out to be a blessing because the bread actually tasted better without the strong banana taste.   This week, I’ll go back to lemon poppyseed, another personal favorite.

As much as I enjoy the kitchen, it is also my source of greatest frustration.   There is always artwork, some project, or a book or two from our school days.   Unopened mail stacks up quickly.   With four of the five of us always in the house, the sink always has dishes in it.   Moreover, our house has a very open design, and so from the kitchen, I can see our family room, a very used (and sometimes abused) living space.   I can see our “middle/ high school,” the dining room, with a never-ending stack of books that the older two have left out.   So, it is in the midst of this hodgepodge of hits and misses that I do most of my complaining about the house and the gap between what I want it to be versus what it is.    When I saw KeriMae’s post on scripture wall words, I knew it was a word in season for me.   Here are my humble beginnings, posted with our U.S. and world maps.  

I thought about what the maps are really for, and why we should take interest in where people are and what they look like.   With our commitment to missions work, these seemed like appropriate words:

Send Your ambassadors into all the nations.   Jeremiah 49:14

…that the gospel of the kingdom may be preached in all the world.   Matthew 24:14

Shake the nations, so they will come to the Desire of All Nations(Jesus).   Haggai 2:7

I still have far more to do with this project, but I am excited about an increasingly peaceful spirit that flows throughout this room as I remind myself of what is truly important.

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

am still relishing an overall great school year, and feeling especially energized after the oldest finished so successfully with her science test.   As she went through it, she said, “This is easy,” but I dared not get too excited too early.   Honestly, I felt as if the Lord had heard my questioning about this class and that whole plea about agenda, and simply said, “Rest.  I’m in control.”   As a part of my depressive state, I suggested to her a game plan for completing the lion’s share of what he gave them to do, but I couldn’t bring myself to follow up as to whether or not it was happening.   I didn’t necessarily fault myself for this: I’m trying to teach her to look out at where she needs to be by a certain date and then work backwards regarding what that deadline means on a daily basis.   So, this week she had to go it alone.

I mentioned that the oldest is faring well with the study of great books.   We are spending about 1-1/2 hour reading to one another on 4 days, and on Fridays, she is left to create in her commonplace book.   I came across a passage that I’d underlined, but forgotten, from Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Trained Mind.   Quite frankly, the student in me was intrigued by Bauer’s suggestions, but I found even the thought of implementing all that she recommends completely overwhelming.   In my mind, only a child who did nothing except school could possibly navigate his/her way through the many recommended hours of study.   As an aside, I understand she has a more realistic perspective on education in The Well-Educated Mind.   Nevertheless, I found this a refreshing dose of realism among all of the “headiness” of her thoughts of an ideal classical education:

Especially in the early years of high school, you should supervise this process, rather than allowing the student to disappear into the family room alone with her books.   Great-books study is demanding.   It requires the student to work hard, to abandon simple question-and-answer learning in favor of a struggle with ideas.  Often, the material isn’t immediately appealing.   The philosophies may be unfamiliar; the opinions are complex; the vocabulary is challenging.   Put the student at the kitchen table (or wherever you’re planning to be) so that you can encourage her to keep working.  (Bauer, p. 481)

So leave it to my quirky child to actually enjoy the things that she should be struggling with, and to struggle with what should be the “slam dunks” of academia.   We are working on getting past that question-and-answer mentality, though; right now, her commonplace book is full of written narrations—years of training, no doubt.  I find myself having to remind her that maps, timelines and other creative starts are acceptable for capturing history as well.  I thought I'd shared this before, but if not, these bookmarks, shared by Jimmie at Heart of the Matter online, are a neat tool that I printed for each kid to get them thinking about being creative in their writing.

Our son is wrapping up his land animal study, and will begin General Science after the Christmas break.    I am thinking to use Live and Learn Press’s Apologia lapbooks to help him with his studies.   This might lessen the shock that the oldest got going from the elementary series to Dr. Wile’s texts.   He will also begin a one-on-one study with me of Charlotte Mason’s Ourselves.    The oldest will wrap up this same study this year.

The youngest is performing well, and we will probably add a grammar study via English for the Thoughtful Child to her work in the spring.   Right now, she’s not challenged enough.   She even told a dance center parent that her favorite subject was phonics because it was easy.   I bought this book to begin with her in the fall, but I was concerned that she wasn’t ready for the parts that required writing.   Now I’m again realizing that my preoccupation with high school preparation was at the expense of the younger two, who have more time on their hands than I think they should.

As a business owner, I…

am very far behind in my plans, but this week I am regaining strength.

 Wow!  This was long.   I must have had more go on this week than I thought!    May the Lord bless your week as well.

(Wilbur asks:) “Why did you do all this for me?   I don’t deserve it.   I’ve never done anything for you.”

“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte.   “That in itself is a tremendous thing.   I wove my webs for you because I liked you.   After all what’s a life, anyway?   We’re born, we live a little while, we die   A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies.  By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle.   Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”

Isn’t that beautiful?     I’m often puzzled by what makes a classic a classic.   Who decides what is a great book?    And though they’ve not asked me, I’ve read a number of the great works that left me longing—for a nap, that is.

At any rate, as I read this passage to our youngest, it hit me why some books are irreplaceable.   I recently read or heard somewhere that so many of today’s books for older children are consumed with helping kids deal with divorce, abuse, neglect, premarital sex, drugs, and a long list of social ills.   Though they are very real issues and I don’t deny anyone’s right to speak to them through literature, I find myself drawn back to a time when books were less politically correct, even if it means educating the kids on terms and events that I wish weren’t a part of their history.   I feel the same way about a number of newer authors who publish books that are “for our (meaning African-American) children.”     As I preview them, I often find that the illustrations are rich and effective at depicting our beauty, but the storylines and the interplay of characters are a constant reminder of why Charlotte Mason felt the need to discuss the perils of feasting on “twaddle.”  

Why do we read classics?  Because even in an age where literacy and moral standards are declining, there is still a body of knowledge that shapes our language and our culture.   One of my educational goals is for the children to be aware of what shapes our thinking, past the memorization of dates and names.    As we’ve moved through these books, I make sure I complete enough homework to have a conversation about what the book means in the larger scheme of life.   That’s the academic, more “heady” side of why we read classics.   The more important piece to me is what these books do for the heart and mind aside from giving the kids a fighting chance at appearing intelligent (smile).     The characters in these books challenge us to be more, to do more.    You cannot read The Iliad—no matter how long-- without examining your own courage, your sense of romance and relationship, and your general sense of self.    Secondly, these books increase our sense of compassion for our fellow man.    Isn’t that what God commands of us—to love Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves?   Incidentally, there is a great article that I “tweeted” a while back regarding evaluating classics according to God’s will for our lives.   I can’t find the original article now, but it asks a thought provoking question that helps me in determining what is suitable for our studies:  ‘does this literary work teach my child a Biblical perspective of the theme elevating Jesus Christ, imparting the correct principles, and teaching my child to know and love God?’

As a final thought on why classics, the oldest and I are continuing to share Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book together.   This is our second year working through it, and we’ll probably take a third.   Reading it at a rate of about 3-5 pages a week, with written narrations, allows us to digest it more thoroughly than if we tried to rush and read it in one school year.   This excerpt was from a recent notebook entry of mine:

‘When you read the “great books,” there are reasons why they seem overwhelming.   First, we have not been taught to read books well (analytically, that is).   The other problem is that we fail to recognize the relationship between the books.   They should be read in a certain order such that you can understand previous authors’ effect on the current author.    ‘Related books provide an even larger context that helps you interpret the book you are reading.’  (Adler, pg. 173)   The great authors were great readers, and we must view their books in relation to one another.

So with this thought in mind, I am reading these books and making the connections between the authors—who were their teachers, what the thinking of the times was, and why they wrote what they wrote.    We don’t skip to the table and birds aren’t singing as we read, but the oldest is actually having fun in a way that I never anticipated, and I am enjoying the fruits of this year’s labors enough to stay with what’s working.

The reading for next year is pretty well-defined by our curriculum.   We stick to these as a foundation, but I also take out and add in others.   I am convinced that many of the great classics, and perhaps even the definition of them as THE classics, stems from a Eurocentric perspective.    One of the challenges in our home has been trying to fit a number of these great works in with stories that tell the histories of others in the world.    So I’ve made a conscious decision that we might veer away from those listed as “classics” for the sake of also learning more about Asia and Africa, specifically.  

In her Well Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer suggests that high schoolers read 8 books per year.   We may or may not get there—both my daughter and I tend to read slowly (as in taking in each word rather than being skilled at skimming—I’m trying to train her differently, but it’s dreadfully hard to lead where you’ve not gone).    Also, many of these work s need bigger print and more pictures!   The “free” reading, i.e., those books that will not be a part of any other assignment except to ensure that they are completed, is still being mulled over.   And over.   And over.   I’ll be there by next summer.   Here are my thoughts--today:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Samurai by Shusaku Endo

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Several works of Shakespeare

The list isn’t totally inclusive—yet—but it’s a solid start from which I can build.

With almost half a school year behind us, it’s not too early for me to begin assessing where we are, and where we might go next year.   I’ll have another year with a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary school student, so I don’t see much changing in terms of my own time commitments.   We’ve had perhaps one of our best years since we began homeschooling seven years ago, and I know this has everything to do with me being humbled enough by last year’s dreadful results to submit myself to much prayer time with the Father.    He’s answered almost all of our plans with a resounding YES!—history/literature, as we teach it here, is seemingly leaping off the page (in spite of the fact that Mom’s ready to check the Iliad off our reading list—only 300 more pages to go!!  LOL), everybody is using the math resources effectively, and we’re in that sweet spot where everyone is learning from everyone else and everything.   As one example, our son has hit a point in his land animal studies that he’s supposedly focusing on spiders.   I say “supposedly” because spiders repulse him.   So I struggle getting him to look at the pages and grasp the concepts.   Almost as if God-sent, his little sister is reading Charlotte’s Web, so guess where he’s learning about the strength of drag lines, the process of egg sac production, etc.?   The coordination of these units was not my planning at all, but everyone is benefiting from keeping their ears glued to what’s happening around them.   Even the oldest is a step ahead in biology as she covers reptiles after interacting—from a safe distance—with Spot, our leopard gecko.

I’ve not been one to try and fix what’s not broken, so we’ll continue the same path on next year, for the most part.   I’ll add grammar via English for the Thoughtful Child, to the youngest’s plate.  I wanted to begin this year, but didn’t feel that she was ready for a larger amount of lessons than I remember requiring her to write.   I may place our son on a local homeschool debate group to help him use his propensity to argue effectively.     Because my understanding is that debate requires a lot of research and writing, it would probably replace studying history.   I’m still thinking about reading lists for both he and the oldest, which is, in part, food for thought regarding my current dilemma.

I am convinced that as homeschooling parents, we teach according to who we are.   Our passions become the areas that we teach best, and the place where we bring the most to the classroom experience.   The corollary is that there are other areas that we either don’t like or don’t understand (like poetry for me) that become hits and misses—perhaps less hits and more misses—in our school.  Incidentally, I think that traditional school teachers do the same thing, but at older ages, they don’t cover the full gamut of subjects the way that many of us do, so the results might not be as recognizable.   Because of this factor, we have to stay before the Lord regarding agenda.   What do I mean by agenda?    I mean those plans that have more to do with you, or other factors not germane to academic wisdom.    One example might be when you’re determined to prove to the in-laws that homeschooling is a valid alternative to a traditional school, and so you overwhelm a small one to create a “genius” who can parrot information, but has limited knowledge and understanding.     It might not be where you are, but I have had two years—this year and last year—of revelations.   This is after a whole-hearted desire to subjugate academic wisdom to spiritual wisdom.   How humble do I need to be, Lord?    I could detail all the places where my own borderline obsession with producing intellectuals got in the way, as well as all the consequential moments that I could have spent gingerly teaching and encouraging instead of panicking and frowning.   But I won’t.   I’ll speak instead about where we are now.   In the midst of a great year, as I mentioned before, is a high school science class that I don’t think is working.    I mentioned that she didn’t perform well on the first test.    The second was better, and her score was actually above the class average.   Her third test is this week, and she claims to be ready for it. But for a number of reasons that aren’t entirely her fault, this class has become her life.   The pursuit of a good grade means that she is having to study every day for several hours a day and doesn’t get to do hardly anything else.    That was not the plan.    I placed her in a virtual class in part to nurture a budding interest in a science career, and the amount of material thrown at her each week has all but squelched any affection for this subject area.   As I contemplated options over this past week, I had to come face-to-face, yet again, with agenda.    In the midst of our horrendous year last year, I bought into this class in order to give the oldest a peek into how a teacher would treat her that didn’t love her enough to put up with all the crap I did.   I thought it’d be one less thing on my plate.    Instead, I’m having to spend as much time with her on this, if not more, than I did before, and now we’re both dancing to the beat of someone else’s drum.   Spanking received, Lord.   I’ve considered just cutting our losses and going back to our Apologia studies, and I’ve still not shut the door totally on that option.   Yet, my husband, yin to my yang, verbalized the same concern regarding wasting money, which, with the year we’ve had, is almost unthinkable.    I’m more concerned at this point about what messages we’d teach regarding quitting every time something isn’t as we desire.   I’m also sorting through whether there’s another issue with me and agenda:  Do I struggle with releasing some control?   The high school years, at least if your kid plans to leave home, require that you begin to let go.   Am I ready for that?   I talked ad nauseum to her on last year about the calendar spinning on how many days she’d be “safe at home with Mommy” (inclusive of being able to push Mommy’s buttons, knowing just how much or how little to accomplish for Mommy not to fuss).   Maybe she’s not the only one who’s struggling with someone else in the driver’s seat?     Anyway, as I said, the reason this class has had mixed results as far as I’m concerned are multi-faceted.    So as I wait on answers that are beyond yes or no—answers that reveal God’s greater truths and more perfect plans for all of us—I am meditating on these words:

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;

be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek [4] my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.” [5]
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path…

13 I believe [6] that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

would be able to better describe where my head’s been by writing about what’s happening in the other areas of life.   I am stuck on the 27^th Psalm; more on that later.

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am thinking about ways to stay mindful, at a “grass roots” level, so to speak, of who I am, what I’m about, and what this family should be.  Like everyone else, our lives get so hectic, and amidst all the busy-ness, it gets hard to stay focused on the basics.   I was so inspired by Keri Mae and her blog post regarding scripture wall words until I spent Saturday morning “decorating” the walls with God’s Word.   Keri writes so beautifully about the loves of her life until I continue to try and give her a bigger audience that she doesn’t want.     At any rate, now I’m embarrassed that I actually didn’t think of this on my own for all my enjoyment of interior decorating.    Then again, I don’t guess that you see these ideas much from my HGTV-watching days.    That’s a whole different post on what we find our minds.    In the meantime, I’m always one to say that the Word works if you work it, and so I’m putting it to work.  I’ll post pictures later of my initial efforts.

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

am feeling my hand to the plow lighten as we grow nearer our Christmas break.  The weather is just cool enough in the mornings to warrant a little extra snuggle time.   This has actually worked well for me as I am now up before the kids, with my internal clock still set to daylight savings time.   That will change I’m sure, but I hope to ride this wave right into December.

Our youngest is an amazing study in child development.   We wrapped up Leading Little Ones to God, and with the oldest reading so well, I thought she was ready for her own “real” Bible and a seat at the table with the big kids.   So armed with her own God’s Word for Girls (in pink, of course), she now joins the table.   Fro where I sit, we’ve gotten mixed results.   On one hand, she’s very proud of sitting among them, reading with little assistance, and using her own Bible.    On the other hand, even she admits that she’s not understanding as well, and she hasn’t yet learned to remain at the table and mentally engaged while the others are reading and sharing.   So, we’re having to train as we go, and I think the quality of our overall lessons is suffering.   Perhaps other lessons are more important right now, like having patience with someone who’s not where you are.   It’s in God’s hands, and we’ll wait on Him before I change anything.

Another thing the youngest does is to emulate her older sister in a quiet activity during read-alouds.    Though I struggled with this in the beginning, the oldest often whips out her sketchbook and creates new designs while I’m reading.   She says it helps her concentrate, and though I’d prefer that her eyes are on me, I have to admit that her narrations haven’t slipped one bit.   So now, we see that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.    The youngest gets her paper and is scratching out her designs as well.

I so appreciate friends with teenage girls.  Though I know that any parent of a teen in general needs a special grace, I also think that, because moms have been there and have such a passion to see our girls not make the mistakes we made, every ounce of passion and energy we have tends to be spent on them, and sometimes with no appreciation or thankfulness. Earlier this past week, I was able to pull such a mother’s ear and heart about how to have the tougher conversations with the oldest that even we as adults don’t always look forward to.   How do you give “constructive feedback,” as the corporate world calls it, to someone who’s still trying to figure out who they are?   How do you speak honestly to your teen’s skills (or lack thereof), and work ethic without crushing their spirits and dreams?   So after the reassurance from another mom that I was not going crazy (thanks, Marci!), I waited for the right moment.   It’s amazing how a less-than-positive word said at the right moment can have a totally different impact than when it’s said in frustration at an inopportune time.   I think that’s why the Lord calls it a word in season.

As a business owner, I…

am working on the elementary series and struggling with finding kids’ versions of certain stories.   UGH!   I’ll get there.   In the meantime, the revised version is coming together.   I’m also in prayer about making this easier for some.   The curriculum itself is priced lower than comparable works, in part so that parents can buy the books and enjoy the story with their children.  I also select books that can easily be found through a public library or, at most, via a used online book store.    I feel bad when parents write me and say that they liked the curriculum but didn’t get to use it because they couldn’t afford any books.    Yet, I know the reality of homeschooling is that people buy things all the time that, for one reason or another, don’t work for them.   There is a value to what I’ve done; it relieves the problem that most of us have when we try to find history that is told from something other than a Western European perspective--the stories aren’t all in one place.   I have no plans to give away my intellectual property.   Yet, how to get it into more people’s hands without compromising such that I’m losing money is an issue that continues to evade me.

  May the Lord bless your week as well.

If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

am intrigued, for lack of a better word, at how various communities use social media networks.   Five years ago, I didn’t know anyone who blogged, or who used Facebook or Linked In or Twitter, etc.    Now, from my reading for my “big kid” classes, I’m learning that employers will actually Google potential employee candidates to get a better look and feel for who they are.  This means that any blog, “tweet,” or Facebook/ MySpace/ LinkedIn, etc. post that someone deems inappropriate, for any reason, might cost you a job.   On one hand, I can appreciate that managers might want to know who is coming into the organization.  On the other hand, is this fair, or is it intrusive?    Does this practice cut into a person’s right to his/her individuality, and the right to be a person with a life away from the job?   Who else is qualified to decide for me what my sense of humor can be, or what is acceptable content?  Such was my thinking on this past Sunday when our Children’s Director talked in a meeting about the need for each of us to be consistent no matter where we are.   Though not particularly computer savvy, she used her granddaughter’s skills to find another church worker on My Space who had something deemed as inappropriate on her “space.”    A part of me is thinking that this is a good thing; unless you live as a “double-minded” man, why would you be concerned that someone else might see the content of your site, wherever it may be?   Yet, another part of me is feeling rebellious, daring anyone to challenge me about what I choose to write or not write.     I think that what truly incensed me is that, right after she gave her presentation, our co-teacher stood up, giving her credentials (again) and talking about how to get kids excited about coming to class.   The fruit of all this wisdom, thus far, has been that she takes copious notes the whole time that we’re teaching, and then uses them to basically re-teach our lessons, via a review, during her Sundays to work with the kids.   I’d be fine with this—imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?--if she hadn’t had the nerve to constructively criticize what we do (or don’t do, as was the case) and if she didn’t keep throwing her educational credentials around.   Of course, she’s endorsed by the Director, and, I’m guessing from her age, she doesn’t use the social media networks, so she’s safe, right?    Then I laughingly told my husband that one or both of them probably read the blog.   He thought it’s probably a remote possibility, but it wouldn’t be a concern either way for me.  I’ve written nothing that I wouldn’t say in a face-to-face environment, given the chance.   That was a problem for me in the corporate world--I never wore my feelings on my sleeves; I aired them right out of my mouth! (LOL)    When a cooler head prevails, I can appreciate what is happening.   In truth, God has a standard, and wrong is wrong, whether it’s an electronic mishap or a failure to practice as you preach, but the double standard just feels wrong.  For as many doors as technology opens, one of the keys must be to Pandora’s mythological box.   Much prayer and fasting needed.

One workout while on vacation.   So sad, is it not?  I’ve continued to maintain my weight through pushing away from the proverbial table.

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am in the process of writing an article/ blog entry, wherever the Lord sees fit to place it, on what winning looks like.   We have discussed, during most of our vacation, why the Lord allows events to occur in our lives for what seems to be no apparent reason.  When I say “no apparent reason,” I don’t mean that things turn out badly; I mean that you move through something only to be right where you began, with nothing positive or negative to show for it.   Of course, we know Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:9-11, but what happens when you can’t see the good?   What happens when the plans don’t harm you, but don’t seem to help, either?   I’m sure this all reads like muddle now, but as I’m said, the words are coming…

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

took a very restful week off from all my homeschooling responsibilities and allowed us all to simply have fun.   I learned quickly that our kids are entirely too plugged in, especially our son.   Yet, as the slideshow below depicts, we did get some outdoor time, and it was tremendous fun for all of us.  

I’ve gotten a few questions about Glen Rose.   This region of Texas is known largely for dinosaur tracks and fossils, and the town has a number of hotels, non-chain restaurants, etc.   If you’re like our family and, for various reasons, feel more comfortable in a bigger city with more options, Fort Worth is just shy of an hour away.   As I said, for the money, this was perhaps one of the most unique trips the family has ever made.   My only disappointment was that we didn’t actually get to see any tracks at the Dinosaur Valley State Park (day two of the trip).   The Paluxy River, normally at a height of 1 foot in the area where the tracks run alongside it, was a staggering 10 feet high after steady rains that fell on the night before.   So, we’re already thinking about how we could schedule ourselves in Dallas/ Ft. Worth for early summer (the best time to see the tracks, according to the park guide) and take a side trip back to this area.  

The things we as parents do for our kids, especially as the heads of these homes/ learning environments, never cease to amaze me.   Guess what our son got excited about after we finished our science unit on reptiles?

We welcome “Spot,” our new leopard gecko.   I keep looking at his tank and shaking my head.   I’m sure that my parents are doing the same from an overlook in heaven.  I guess that, for the money we spent, I keep thinking that if I stand there long enough, he’ll come out from under that fake log and sell me some insurance.   As if this weren’t enough, our son, who traded in any potential bug/ spider affections for ballet slippers, actually handles the mealworms—mealworms that must be refrigerated, mind you (yes, you know where!)—with his bare hands.   The world has gone mad.

As a business owner, I…

am excited that the elementary school series (so far) hasn’t needed as much correction as I anticipated, and I can truly focus on enhancements.   One bit of constructive feedback I received was that the curriculum does not have as many kinesthetic activities for young hands, so I am looking forward to adding in more hands-on learning opportunities.   See?   I can take constructive criticism!  

I also have an opportunity to perhaps cross promote with another business that promotes history products, and I’ll submit the Harlem Renaissance unit study (see here) for review to the Old Schoolhouse Magazine later this week.

  May the Lord bless your week as well.