Mar. 9, 2006 - God's True Nature
This was at the end of an email I received today. Thought I'd pass it along to the masses:
“God’s true nature is to love people who are troubled, have mercy on those who are broken-hearted, forgive those who have fallen, and refresh those who are exhausted. (The Gospel) calls us to trust in God’s mercy and goodness alone. It encourages us to believe that God is on our side even when we feel abandoned and distressed.” Martin Luther, By Faith Alone.
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Feb. 23, 2006 - You Can't Take It With You....
There are a few things going on around my household currently...
1) My children have started attending an "American Girls Club" with a group of girls down the street. They are doing sort of a survey of each of the American Girl books and each "period" girl. Right now we are reading "Meet Kirsten", a story about a little girl who travels with her family from Sweden to America to settle in Minnesota. Common for most immigrants at that time, each family had to essenitally pack their lives into two trunks and that was it. Their entire livelyhood scaled down into one trunk and food for the other. What an interesting concept for modern day.
2) I am attempting to streamline our house by getting rid of JUNK, reading a book to help me out titled, appropriately, "Scaling Down". This is an interesting exercise. My goal is to de-junk my house and prepare for a possible down-sizing or travel on the road as my husband cranks up his music career as a guitarist.
So those two events combined have me on this intersting mission to go through my house and really rethink things like, just why do I own 15 coffee mugs? Or here's a fun one....my sunroom is a blast when all of the furniture has been moved out and it becomes the girls gymnatics room for the winter. Whoo-hoo!! Except for the small possibility of crashing through a window....they love it!!! (They are well supervised, don't worry).
Really, when you think about it, how much STUFF do we all honestly need? Now I know if I had the money, I would deck my house out in true Country French fashion, complete with stone hearth in my kitchen and lavender growing in window boxes all around my house and Peter Mayle dropping by regularly with delicious wine....but, I don't need that stuff. I just want it- for fun. Pure fun...well, and maybe to impress someone...don't really know who. My circle of friends (thank goodness) are not ones that need to be impressed by snappy interiors, but I'm sure I could find someone who would think I was the cat's meow for having Pierre Deux decorated "stuff". That word just keeps popping up...maybe because that's all it is. Pure, 100%, no trans fat, stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!
De-cluttering helps us to think better, relax more, concentrate harder, be less disctracted for learning at home...it's nice! Try it! If you need tips, email me. I try my hand at interior design every once in a while...you know, I shop for and convince people to buy pretty stuff for their house. Ironic, eh?
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Feb. 22, 2006 - Philosophy Phun
Okay, I am trying to figure out exactly what homeschool philosophy I adhere to. Not that it is necessary or anything, but I thought I might try and narrow the field down a bit.
I'm coming to the conclusion that I am somewhere in between unschooling and eclectic.
I love allowing my children to go about their day finding actvities that keep them entranced for hours, believing that they are developing skills within that activity. I think this is wonderful for their imaginations and with their ages being only 8 and 6, LET THEM PLAY, I SAY!!! THEY'RE KIDS!!! There comes a time, though, during the day, where direction and structure must take over (in my house anyway) and that is when we stop all other activties and plop down on the sofa to read history, pull out math manipulatives, or open up language arts workbooks.
We are an artistic and creative household. My husband is a musician, I am an artist, my oldest daughter is given free reign on the piano and keyboard pretty much anytime of the day, and my youngest , I'm convinced, is on her way to being an engineer or architect of some kind (she's only 6, but just the same!) or interior decorator with the constant rearranging of furniture and household items.....
I dropped my philosophy class in college quicker than a jack rabbit- but I'm learning that exploring philosophy on my own terms can be "phun"!!!
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Feb. 17, 2006 - How do Two Creatives Live Happily Forever Together?
