Aug. 20, 2006 - New Blog
I have a new blog over at Blogger. Actually, I have had it since March, but today is the first time I posted on it. I am thinking of making it my main blog. Come and see!
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Aug. 19, 2006 - Reasoning
The other day we were driving back from having ice cream with our dear friends who live across the street. They are moving out of state in a couple of weeks and we are going to miss them terribly. So we went to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor to get a few more pictures of the children and tootle around the small-town square for an hour or so.
I got to have Cornflower and her sweet little friend (both age 5) in my van on the ride home. Cornflower brought up the topic of a sermon we heard recently.
Cornflower (excited): Sweet Little Friend, did you know that Jesus isn't finished with us yet?
Sweet Little Friend (entering agreeably into the enthusiasm): I know!
Then she looked down at her hands and thought for a bit.
Sweet Little Friend: He isn't finished with us yet. But we look like we're finished.
How hard they try to make sense of the things they hear.
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Aug. 18, 2006 - Intermeddling With Wisdom
Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. --Proverbs 18:1
This verse has always confused me. Seeking wisdom seemed to me to be a good thing, but then I would come to the word "intermeddleth" and think, that is a negative word. It brings to mind meddling, gossipy people who interfere in affairs that are not their business, and does not fit with a seeking wisdom in a godly way.
So I looked up some words in the ol' Strong's this morning. Desire is pretty straightforward-- a longing. That's what I thought. Separated is as it seems-- the meaning is to separate, set apart. Seeketh simply means to look for.
Intermeddleth, according to my Strong's Concordance, is from the Hebrew word gala: (1566 in the Strong's) a primary root; to be obstinate:-- (inter)meddle(with).
Hmm. Obstinacy isn't really a positive trait.
So I looked in the Life Application Study Bible to see if there was a footnote for Proverbs 18:1, and there was: Our selfish desires cause us to demand our own way, and by so doing abandon sound principles of conduct.
So it seems that this proverb is talking about separating oneself because of a strong (ungodly) desire and exchanging God's wisdom for one's own foolishness which one presents as wisdom, in an attempt to justify oneself.
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Aug. 17, 2006 - I *Do* Believe in Fairies...
Krakovianka has made up her own meme. And I like it. She has invited all and sundry to try. I accept.
1. One book on your desk right now? I don't have a desk. I have a counter and a bedside table that I set my books on. _Pride and Prejudice_ by Jane Austen is sitting on my table. (Triss and I are reading it together "after school hours" for fun.)
2. One book with a bookmark in it that you haven't picked up for a few days? _Partners of the Heart_ by Vivien T. Thomas
3. One book marked with a pencil (or other irregular marker) stuffed between the pages instead of a proper bookmark? I'm ashamed to admit that I dogear my books when I can't find a paper to use as a bookmark. Our Life Application Study Bible has post-its through it instead of traditional bookmarks. Is that close?
4. One book with the cover falling off, or other grievous injuries? An Old School Hymnal (we actually have six in various advanced stages of decay).
5. One book you "ought" to be reading, but don't feel like it? I can't think of one. Actually, the books I "ought" to be reading but don't feel like it are books I do not own-- I should probably be reading Locke, and it looks like I need to read some Froebel as well, and some other books that look meaty and informative from the CM Series list; but between Plutarch, Shakespeare and Charlotte Mason, I cannot pick up another challenging book without experiencing overload. Perhaps when the children are in college. :o)
6. One book sitting on the shelf and enticing you to read it instead of anything else? _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_ is my current "enticing" book, and I am reading it before I go to sleep at night. I "had" to reread it after I finished the Teddy Roosevelt bio. Terribly little discipline here.
7. Your most recently acquired book? _The Bears of Blue River_ by Charles Major
8. One book on your "wish list?" The poetry of Robert Frost
9. One book you literally threw in the trash? Our old paperback copy of _Little House in the Big Woods_. It was just falling apart.
10. One person who ought to answer these questions? Javamom. :o) And maybe we could add a #11: One book you are currently restoring?
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Aug. 17, 2006 - School Days
We are fully "into" our first week of school. Last week was kind of like orientation week, with regular lessons only the last couple of days. This week is the whole tamale.
It's a good thing I wrote the schedule in pencil, because I have found mistakes in it! For instance, I accidentally scheduled in the book _Story of Inventions_ for Mariel, when the book we have for her is _Great Inventors and Their Inventions_. I erased all that and divvied up the readings for the book we do have. (How did this happen, you ask? I followed one of the beautiful schedule charts to be found in the Ambleside Online yahoo group files, without noticing that the schedule had the first choice of books and not the alternate.)
Triss is reading _Kim_ by Rudyard Kipling this term (she is doing Term 3 of Year 5 for the fall and moving to Year 6 in January), and for some reason I thought the Theodore Roosevelt bio was going to be more difficult than _Kim_. Not so! There is so much of history and politics and religion in _Kim_ that I don't understand, we have decided to read _Kim_ aloud together and Triss is reading the Roosevelt bio on her own. I can answer her Roosevelt questions much more easily than questions about things like The Great Game, Hinduism and Buddhism, and Indian history and geography. (Yes, we have had to go on some fact-finding missions this week!) We are enjoying the book, in spite of all difficulties. I read the first chapter aloud to Mr. Honey last week and now he wants to read it too. He won't let Triss narrate to him because he's afraid of spoilers!
I think Cornflower has grown a foot in the last week. She is so glad to have lessons of her own. I have arranged our time so that all of us do some things at the table and then Mariel and Triss go to their rooms to work independently while I work with Cornflower for forty minutes. (Each of the others has their forty minutes as well.) As soon as we are finished with tablework, Cornflower leaps to her book bin and pulls out her phonics, math or reading. Then follows a delightful forty minutes of exploration into the worlds of numbers, words and ideas. The first day, after we read aloud from _Aesop's Fables_, I said to Cornflower, "Tell me what we just read about." She began to tell me, then stopped mid-sentence, got a big grin on her face, and said, "Hey-- am I narrating?" Then we paused for a hug and a little moment of rejoicing that she has grown to school age.
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Aug. 15, 2006 - A Kiss
Fourteen years ago today, in a little church in the crook of a canyon, Mr. Honey and I were united in marriage.
(I would do it all over again.)
And what is a kiss, when all is done?
A promise given under seal-- a vow
A signature acknowledged-- a rosy dot
Over the i of loving-- a secret whispered
To listening lips apart-- a moment made
Immortal, with a rush of wings unseen--
A sacrament of blossoms, a new song
Sung by two hearts to an old simple tune--
The ring of one horizon around two souls
Together, all alone!
--Edmond Rostand, from "Cyrano de Bergerac"
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Aug. 10, 2006 - Spur-of-the-Moment Scrubbing
And what was the fair lady doing while her noble knight was out slaying dragons? She was indulging in a spur-of-the-moment scrubbing of the laundry room floor. It's a new game for those of us bored with indoor air-conditioned life. First, place something inappropriate (like, say, one of those handy canvas casserole carriers with the handles that has had bean juice spilled in it one too many times) into the washing machine, along with other laundry. It's okay if you put it toward the bottom of the machine, because these carriers are buoyant and will float to the top. You want it to float to the top, because then it will block the center thing and cause the washer to overflow as soon as agitation begins.
Leave the laundry room and focus on other things. You might notice the washer making funny noises, but don't worry about it yet. Wander into the laundry room several minutes later on your way to put something in the garage and notice that the bottom of your sneakers are wet. Then rejoice because it is now time to clean the floor, and if you are like me, your laundry room floor has not had a thorough cleaning in almost three years.
(Okay. Scrubbing is really too strong a word. What I was doing was mopping up water, lint and etc., with bath towels and paper towels, and it was not hard manual labor like scrubbing. Although moving the washer and dryer were pretty good weight training exercises. I apologize for the mis-use of the word. I was trying to stay with the fairy-tale theme. Someday My Prince Will Come and all that.)
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Aug. 10, 2006 - Slaying Dragons
Mr. Honey rides away on his white steed every morning, armed with bottled water and an industrial strength fan. He is off to vanquish the foe, and acquits himself valiantly.
He sells and installs dish machines, and he sold a Big Account a few weeks ago. An entire independent school district. Thirty-four schools in all. This means thirty-four competitor's machines to tear down and thirty-four beautiful new Mr.-Honey-type-machines to install. He does this kind of thing a lot, maybe not on this scale, but installations are old hat for him.
Then why am I so impressed? Because dear reader, school has not started yet. And in an attempt to save the taxpayers money, the school administrators have not turned on the air conditioning.
This noble man, this paragon of diligence, awakens each morning to the prospect of a long commute, a day of sweat and cramped spaces, and another long commute. He gets up and goes with nary a complaint. All this to protect and provide for his wife and three fair young maidens.
He arrives home very tired and hot, but not too worn out to teach Mariel the finer points of Monopoly.
What a man.
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Aug. 10, 2006 - To Love Mercy
Yesterday we read in I Samuel 21 about how David, fleeing from Saul and hungry, came to the the Lord's house and asked the priest for the shewbread, which was only to be eaten by the priests. It doesn't say how hungry he and his men were, but they must have been very hungry because David convinces the priest to give them the bread, although this goes against a Levitical law: "And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute." Leviticus 24:9.
We know the priest's action, although it went against Leviticus 24:9, was the right one, because the Lord approves it and uses it as precedent for picking corn to eat on the Sabbath in Matthew 12, stating that the higher law is this: "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."
It looks to me like this story illustrates a higher good than blindly following a written law, even the written law of God. The Lord tries the hearts; He expects us to be in tune with Him so that we know when it is appropriate to deviate from "standard operating procedure" in order to continue to follow Him.
As we read this story of David taking the shewbread meant only for the priests, I was reminded of Saul's actions after he defeated the Amalekites. He was instructed to "utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not." (I Samuel 15:3) Instead he defeated them, destroyed a lot of what they had and did not spare most of them; but he allowed the king to live and kept some of the Amalekites' stuff, including sheep and oxen, "to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God..." (I Samuel 15:15) This was the point at which the Lord revealed to Samuel that Saul was not going to be king much longer. Samuel rebukes Saul, saying, "Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king." (I Samuel 15:22-23)
And earlier in Saul's rule, he is rebuked by Samuel for taking over the duties of the priest: "Saul, thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee." (I Samuel 13:13-14)
My thoughts are pretty jumbled but bear with me as I attempt to explain what I have been thinking of. These passages about Saul leaped immediately to mind as I remembered that the eating of the shewbread, while "unlawful", was approved by the Lord Jesus and therefore lawful. "To obey is better than sacrifice," but "I will have mercy" is also above sacrifice in the order of things. The stories of Saul's disobedience show what a fearful thing it is to take life into one's own hands, so to speak, doing whatever seems right and not seeking the Lord (we need to take into account the repeated foolishness and wilfulness of Saul, not just in these two stories, but throughout his rule; which I think shows he was not seeking the Lord but trying his own way); and the story of David and the shewbread illustrates that seeking the Lord has to involve discernment and compassion.
It is good to follow the law of the Lord, and the greatest of His laws is love. "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)
I continually struggle with the idea that the law of love is higher than other laws, so I was pleased to find another lesson in the Bible illustrating this truth. (I don't know why I struggle. The Bible is filled with these kinds of lessons. I guess I'm just dense and stubborn and don't seek the Lord enough.)
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)
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Aug. 7, 2006 - Foes of Our Own Household
No abounding in material prosperity shall avail us if our spiritual senses atrophy. The foes of our own household will surely prevail against us unless there be in our people an inner life which finds its outer expression in a morality like unto that preached by the seers and prophets of God when the grandeur that was Greece and the glory that was Rome still lay in the future.
--Theodore Roosevelt, Foes of Our Own Household
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Aug. 6, 2006 - Amazing Grace
Amazing grace-- how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine,
But God, Who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun.
--John Newton 1725-1807 (1779)
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Aug. 5, 2006 - Rug Running
Another impromptu game to add to the hot-weather-indoor-activity repertoire: Apply Rug Grabber (that sticky stuff that goes between a carpet and a rug and is supposed to keep the rug from migrating) to the bottom of a long area rug, and allow the children to run, skip, hop and cartwheel across it to see if it moves. This works best if the rug is in a long open hall. :oP
(Yes, it was the rug in front of the Bookcases.)
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Aug. 5, 2006 - Bookcases
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Aug. 4, 2006 - Moderation
"Let your moderation be known unto all men."
"He held to the golden middle course, not tepidly or timorously, but with the zeal and conviction of a crusader. He was a middle-of-the-road man, not because he was unwilling or afraid of committing himself to the position on either side, but he found the way to truth to lie midway between the two streams. He was a zealot and fighter for truth, justice and righteousness. He found no monopoly of any one of these precious possessions in the camp of extremists on either side. He found moderation the one virtue everyone wished to ignore."
--John Cabot Lodge, speaking of Theodore Roosevelt
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Aug. 4, 2006 - Dawn
An angel, robed in spotless white,
Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night.
Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone.
Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.
--Paul Lawrence Dunbar
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Aug. 2, 2006 - Of Pencils, Poetry and Planning
I started scheduling our daily work for the first term into my planning book this evening. In pencil. I'm so proud of myself. It must be the influence of the Beautiful Bookcases.
I kind of stuck on poetry, though. We haven't bought a lot of poetry books so far because there is so much else to buy and poetry can be printed off the Internet. I started printing poetry for the girls tonight and got caught up in the poets' biographies and some of their poems.
Cornflower is doing Robert Louis Stevenson this term. I think this poem is particularly appropriate for August in Texas, especially since I started the kids going to bed and rising early this week to prepare for school.
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
--Robert Louis Stevenson, "Bed in Summer"
And now I need to go to bed myself, because it is almost 11 o'clock and I should be turning into a pumpkin any time~ I have begun rising early as well this week, and it is tough! (Only 6 am, Goggy, don't fret. We are getting plenty of sleep...)
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Aug. 2, 2006 - Great Indoor Activity
In trying to escape the heat, we have developed a new indoor activity: Bubble blowing in the kitchen. And when you get tired of blowing bubbles, have everyone grab a wet rag and wash the kitchen floor without soap. 
(Our floor needed a good scrubbing, too!)
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Aug. 2, 2006 - Still Here
We haven't gone anywhere, but are doing a somewhat significant reorganization of our home, moving Mariel into the schoolroom so each of the girls now have their own bedrooms, and moving our "schoolroom" into the living/dining area. I was concerned that our homey ambiance, such as it is, would suffer if the computer and bookshelves and such had to be in the main rooms of the house, but the Lord has blessed us to enhance rather than take away from the atmosphere of our living area. We were able to purchase some new bookcases from Ikea. They are around 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide, and all of our books fit on them with space to spare. Previously limited to short, particle board thrift store bookcases, Mr. Honey and I have never had space to spare on our bookcases in our married life. We don't have nearly as many books as some of you folks do, but we have a lot. I have had to start stacking books on the floor in the last few months, and Mr. Honey had begun making noises about not needing to buy any more books. (Horrors!) Thankfully, we now have these bookcases.
Now the dining room resembles a library-- our dining table even looks like a library table with the backdrop of those beautiful bookcases. Granted, there is no smell of worn leather bindings, library paste, or stamping pads; and I have yet to find Francie's little golden-brown pottery jug of nasturtiums. But it is the beginning of the fulfillment of one of my childhood dreams-- to have shelves and shelves of books.
The dining table will be my home base when we start lessons again. The kids each have work stations in their rooms, and that is where any educational posters or reminders will hang. I just don't want a lot of maps and grammar lists hanging in the main part of our home. The girls will report to me at the table for together work, when they need help or when it is their turn to work with me. (Cornflower will be working with me first so she can play the rest of the day. After all, she won't be six until November.) I have an entire closet for school supplies and files, because we emptied the game closet and put the games in bins under the girls' beds.
The computer sits in the living room in its armoire, which looks surprisingly well. I will just have to get in the habit of closing the doors when we aren't using it. With the elimination of the schoolroom the only common room in the house is now the kitchen/dining/living room (a greatroom), the result being that we are all either together or in our own bedrooms. It looks like having only one room to congregate in will improve family togetherness. And each child having her own room for quiet alone time ought to improve family harmony. In theory anyway. It has so far, but the novelty of pleasant change tends to encourage contentment at our house.
Triss, who was not particularly affected by any of the rearranging, received a new bedside lamp, and some filmy curtain panels so she can play that her window is a cloud. (A couple of years ago, Mr. Honey painted her room to look like sky with puffy cumulus clouds floating by.)
Mariel, in her new bedroom, now has a space for her violin case and music stand. The large chalkboard is still in her room, so we bumped her desk up against it. It should be useful for giving her visual aids. I also gave her an old trunk to put dress up clothes in.
Cornflower has divided her room into "sections," with a section for her dressing table, a section for her desk and bookcase and a section for closet and dresser. We still need to hang things on the walls. She and Mariel each got their own digital alarm clock, and Cornflower has not ceased to talk about the time since.
I recently found out that a nearby city has a department where people drop off unused paint. Folks can go and choose colors they need for their own homes for free. I expect the choices and quantities are somewhat limited, but free is worth a look. As we moved furniture around the last few days, I began to realize that three years is too long to go without repainting the interior of the house. I would like to see if they have any paint for us.
In short, we have been having a great time playing "Design on a Dime." Soon I will need to put daily specifics into our 12-week schedule for the autumn school term, but for now we are setting the stage.
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Jul. 29, 2006 - Carry a Big Stick
Last night I started reading Carry a Big Stick: The Uncommon Heroism of Theodore Roosevelt by George Grant, which is Triss' history biography for next term. She will be doing AO Term 3 of Year 5, then in January she will start Year 6. Kind of a funny way to do things, but it works for us.
Teddy Roosevelt always seemed like an interesting character to me, which is why I am surprised to realize that I have never read a biography about this man.
I am now. It is a good book. I kept interrupting Mr. Honey, who was deep in a Robert Ludlow novel, to say, "Oh, honey, listen to this." I must have read half the first chapter aloud to him. I wonder how that affected the flow of his novel? He was very good-natured about it. I don't deserve such a man.
We both agreed that the book is well-written. I appreciate Mr. Honey's comments on things like this because he is more literary than I am. He also knows more about history. And he can remember more dates, which impresses me.
Theodore Roosevelt was really a kind of Renaissance man. Did you know he wrote fifty-one books on a great variety of subjects? At least two of them were written and published while he was President.
And this strong, dynamic man who scaled mountains was sickly as a child. He was so sick his relatives didn't think he would see his fourth birthday. As he got older and continued sickly, his father recommended that he *make* his body with exercise. And, with his characteristic determination, that's what Theodore Roosevelt did. Even as a young man he was advised to avoid excitement and physical activity. He informed the physician that he was going to continue with his strenuous physical activity and exciting life because, "If I must live the sort of life you described, I don't care how short it is."
But my favorite part so far is how he operated his life as a public servant. Mr. Grant says, "By the taint of today's rigidly ideological standards, he was a bundle of contradictions and cross-purposes: sometimes he coursed to the left, sometimes to the right; sometimes he was a champion of mugwumps and progressives, sometimes of standpats and monopolists; sometimes he was the guardian of labor, sometimes of capital; sometimes he was the voice of hawkish expansionism, sometimes of dovish nationalism. But to Roosevelt, there never was a contradiction in his seemingly conflicting positions. In fact, he was unswayed-- and even repelled-- by the traditional categories of partisanism. Instead, he tenaciously pursued the path of truth and justice-- wherever. To this day he is a sort of universal hero: captive to no single interest, no single party, and no single movement. It was almost as if he were above the petty fray." (Carry a Big Stick: The Uncommon Heroism of Theodore Roosevelt by George Grant, Introduction.)
Wow. I can't wait to read the rest of the book. Good choice, Advisory. Thank you.
Triss will probably need to sit with a dictionary as she reads it. This author is good at choosing descriptive words not in the everyday vocabulary of most Americans-- words like ribald, prodigious, insatiable, debilitating, proclivities, latitudinarianism. Lots of good word discussions coming. Perhaps Triss should have a vocabulary notebook.
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Jul. 28, 2006 - Beat the Heat
It has been very warm here, and today it was overcast and humid as well. Frustrating in a drought. Reminds me of that proverb: "Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain." (Proverbs 25:14) If we ever wondered what that meant, we learned today. Fifteen or twenty tantalizing drops hit our windshield as we drove to the post office, and then-- nothing. (A side note: This reminds me of a Thomas a Kempis quote Javamom shared. Hidden manna is the opposite of clouds and wind without rain, I believe.)
The dibbuns have not played outside all week. It's just too hot. This mama who enjoys a quiet house was beginning to get a little frazzled by all the jumping and running and giggling and shouting taking place. So I decided to participate.
I sat down at the piano and pulled out my jazz and boogie-woogie piano books. (I am terrible at memorizing. If my children want to be excellent pianists they are going to have to take lessons from someone other than myself at some point. But I digress.) As I warmed up with a rousing rendition of "Dizzy Fingers," notable for volume rather than technique, the children joyfully ran for dress up clothes.
They performed interpretive dances while I crashed through my small jazzy repertoire. Running out of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, I turned to my book of lounge-y piano solos. Oh, yes. I tempted Mr. Honey away from his paperwork with "Misty," "The Rose," and "Tara Theme," while the kids sailed and pirouetted, bumping into each other and arguing over who was Plink, who was Plank and who was Plunk.
And finally those sweet, energetic dibbuns got tired.
Now in the peaceful afterglow we relax, while Cornflower perches on the stepping stool no longer used for jumping, and gracefully conducts the CD soundtrack of the movie "Restoration."
A Keeping Day if I ever knew one.
Posted by Mother Auma
Who wishes she could have invited Miss M, in her new dancing dress, to participate in the fun.
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