Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water
loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen;
   even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

                                                                                                                               —Leonardo DaVinci

Carol at Three Little Ladies asked me which one of the kids got to experience all of the “simple science” that I spoke of before, and my response would be that all three went somewhere and did some part of the three trips.    My husband took the youngest out to a nearby wildlife refuge to see alligators first-hand.   She survived the gators, but lost the battle of composure against the deer flies (as big as they were numerous).  

It’s amazingly hot so early in this Texas summer.   May was unseasonably cool, but as I write on today, June 8th, we hit 97 with little rain in sight.   Last summer it stayed so rainy in this area until I did not have to use the sprinkler once during the summer.    As I dragged out the hose already twice now, those days feel like a distant memory.   Even the frog in the picture waited until evening to seek out a cool place under the dwarf hollies.

The dance recital and its associated stresses ended on yesterday with a wonderful performance.    This has been such a special year for us, and if you’d like, you can read more about it here.   Through all of the trips here and there, the fees, the costume money, the last-minute stitching, etc., I had waited for the moment when I could say that this season was over.   Yet, I have to confess that I felt a bit melancholy yesterday afternoon while packing the car after the recital.

On last Monday, we joined one of the local homeschool networks on a tour of Leonardo DaVinci’s works at the natural science museum.    I was only familiar with DaVinci’s artwork, but my husband’s thinking was that DaVinci would have had as many as six professional jobs in this modern era—artist, scientist and inventor, military weapons expert, politician, sculptor and welder.    In marveling at this man’s incredible gifts, it also occurred to me what the mind is capable of when it doesn’t have to conform to conventional wisdom.   This man studied the wings of birds and bats to design fairly sophisticated machines hundreds of years before the Wright brothers put Kittyhawk on the map.     He learned to write Latin backwards in order to keep anyone from stealing his ideas.   His horse statue, his Mona Lisa, and his Last Supper remain timeless works of art.    Where might I have gone if Romans 12:1-2 had sunk deeply into my head and heart as young child?   Where could I go from here?   How far might our children advance if we nourish their God-given passions without trying to find out what page in the workbook this particular lesson fits?     What moments might I look back on and realize just how often I missed the spiritual and academic forests of learning for the [worksheet, page number] trees?

After a week like this, I’m glad we’re hitting the beach for a few days, and I am looking forward to relaxing for the first time in about 5-6 weeks.

yadot uoy ot sgnisselb detimilnu s’doG fo ynaM

(I won’t tell you how many minutes it took me to write that out, but I can safely say that DaVinci need not quake in his boots just yet!)