But what did she mean?
Three year old daughter: Mama, am I an angel or a lady?
Me: You're a lady.
3yod: You're an angel that's broken.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Monday, July 10, 2006
Public service announcement
Due to some problem with plagiarism, eBay has quit allowing listings of "teachers editions" of materials on their site. In response to this, a kind soul has opened a new auction place especially for homeschoolers called This Little Piggy Stayed Home. Check it out - lots of good stuff there.
(HT: a commenter at Degenhart)
Due to some problem with plagiarism, eBay has quit allowing listings of "teachers editions" of materials on their site. In response to this, a kind soul has opened a new auction place especially for homeschoolers called This Little Piggy Stayed Home. Check it out - lots of good stuff there.
(HT: a commenter at Degenhart)
Sunday, July 2, 2006
Update on father in law
About one in the morning, Papa Duke suffered another stroke and the doctors don't expect him to recover this time. My husband and oldest son have left to go to Florida to be with him, if this is the end. And if so, they will next travel to Georgia to break the news as gently as possible to Mike's grandmother. Please remember Nanny Jewell in your prayers. This dear ninty-seven year old saint has already nursed her only other child as she passed away three years ago.
About one in the morning, Papa Duke suffered another stroke and the doctors don't expect him to recover this time. My husband and oldest son have left to go to Florida to be with him, if this is the end. And if so, they will next travel to Georgia to break the news as gently as possible to Mike's grandmother. Please remember Nanny Jewell in your prayers. This dear ninty-seven year old saint has already nursed her only other child as she passed away three years ago.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Especially for Anne after reading this post. This funny-sad poem came to mind when I read the article Anne linked attributing the increase in asthma, allergies, and immune disorders to the santized environment that we in the West strive for. While I make it make it my ambition to keep a clean house, not a sterile one - and there is a difference - I tend to think these problems develop more because of eating dead food, that is, food that's had all the life pasteurized or irradiated out of it. Well, that and unnecessary vaccinations, but that's a whole nother subject, and one I'm not willing to discuss right now. ;-)
Strictly Germ-Proof
by Arthur Guiterman
The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gambolled up;
They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised;
It wasn't disinfected and it wasn't sterilised.
They said it was microbic and a hotbed of disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.
In sulphurated hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears;
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And 'lected it a member of the Fumigated Band.
There's not a micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a hygienic cup--
The Bunny and The Baby and The Prophylactic Pup.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Well, okay
Random updates for my faithful readers. ;-)
My two oldest (17yod and 15yos) are visiting my parents in Arkansas. They've been gone for about a week and a half and won't be home for another couple of weeks. I miss their work of course - Saturday I spent the whole entire day (about six hours anyway) doing Number 1 Son's job - cutting grass - but didn't finish it. And my workload in the house has doubled with Elai gone, since she does a lot of the kitchen work, including cooking lunch nearly every day and supper many days, and doing fun things with the little ones. But mostly I miss their conversation. It's so nice having nearly grown up children to talk with.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Prayer request - my father in law had a hemorrhagic stroke Saturday, and is stable now, but he's paralyzed on the right side. We haven't had an update since yesterday, so that means no change so far.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Have y'all been praying for me? Saturday we saw a new family looking at the house next door, so Mike went over to speak to them. The agent said that the family who had a contract on the house is trying to back out - they don't like the colors the builder has chosen. :-D
I told him that if he meets any more potential neighbors he ought to casually mention that we have seven children and nineteen animals, and that we hope to have more. Of course, if they ask, "More children or more animals?" he'd say, "Both." It's a public service, really. People want to know what kind of neighborhood they're getting into before they lay out cash. ;-)
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
We're finally getting some much-needed rain. We've been digging up small trees from the woods around here and planting them along the property line to make a border. Boundary lines always make a property look so civilized, don't you think?
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
I meant to post this back during the official poetry appreciation month of April, but it went by so quickly and I missed my chance. Well, Cindy has very kindly declared June to be the official poetry month of blogging homschooling mamas, so here's my contribution.
There are gains for all our losses,
There are balms for all our pain:
But when youth, the dream, departs,
It takes something from our hearts,
And it never comes again.
We are stronger, and are better,
Under manhood's sterner reign:
Still we feel that something sweet
Followed youth, with flying feet,
And will never come again.
Something beautiful is vanished,
And we sigh for it in vain:
We behold it everywhere,
On the earth, and in the air,
But it never comes again.
(Richard Henry Stoddard)
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
It's been three weeks now since my dryer broke. It hasn't been any trouble at all, since #1Son rigged up a clever contrivance in the back yard for me to dry the laundry on in the sun, and Dear Husband cleverly rigged up a sytem of pulleys and lines in the basement for me to use during rain. The repairman is scheduled to come back Wednesday and install the part he ordered.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
I'm doing my spring cleaning now. A bit late, I know, but my asthma has really been acting up lately, so I've stripped my bedroom so I can wash and vacuum everything. My dream house has a separate dressing room for Mike and me so we don't have to have any clothes in the bedroom.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Speaking of stripping - I need to do some serious decluttering around here. What with the recent change in our family's focus (read: there's a lot more outside work since we got goats and chickens!), I need to pare down on stuff inside. Clutter is my bane. I need to be ruthless. Ruthlessness regarding stuff is not a problem with me, but just physically handling so much stuff is. Sometimes I wish I had a magic wand. :-p
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, so I must post my favorite Trinity Sunday hymn:
O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!
He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame
Himself, and to this lost world came.
For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptation sharp He knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.
For us He prayed; for us He taught;
For us His daily works He wrought;
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not Himself, but us.
For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death,
For us gave up His dying breath.
For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here,
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.
To Him Whose boundless love has won
Salvation for us through His Son,
To God the Father, glory be
Both now and through eternity.
Words: Unknown author, 15th Century; translated from Latin to English by Benjamin Webb, 1854
Music: “Deo Gracias,” The Agincourt Song, 1415
Random updates for my faithful readers. ;-)
My two oldest (17yod and 15yos) are visiting my parents in Arkansas. They've been gone for about a week and a half and won't be home for another couple of weeks. I miss their work of course - Saturday I spent the whole entire day (about six hours anyway) doing Number 1 Son's job - cutting grass - but didn't finish it. And my workload in the house has doubled with Elai gone, since she does a lot of the kitchen work, including cooking lunch nearly every day and supper many days, and doing fun things with the little ones. But mostly I miss their conversation. It's so nice having nearly grown up children to talk with.
Prayer request - my father in law had a hemorrhagic stroke Saturday, and is stable now, but he's paralyzed on the right side. We haven't had an update since yesterday, so that means no change so far.
Have y'all been praying for me? Saturday we saw a new family looking at the house next door, so Mike went over to speak to them. The agent said that the family who had a contract on the house is trying to back out - they don't like the colors the builder has chosen. :-D
I told him that if he meets any more potential neighbors he ought to casually mention that we have seven children and nineteen animals, and that we hope to have more. Of course, if they ask, "More children or more animals?" he'd say, "Both." It's a public service, really. People want to know what kind of neighborhood they're getting into before they lay out cash. ;-)
We're finally getting some much-needed rain. We've been digging up small trees from the woods around here and planting them along the property line to make a border. Boundary lines always make a property look so civilized, don't you think?
I meant to post this back during the official poetry appreciation month of April, but it went by so quickly and I missed my chance. Well, Cindy has very kindly declared June to be the official poetry month of blogging homschooling mamas, so here's my contribution.
There are gains for all our losses,
There are balms for all our pain:
But when youth, the dream, departs,
It takes something from our hearts,
And it never comes again.
We are stronger, and are better,
Under manhood's sterner reign:
Still we feel that something sweet
Followed youth, with flying feet,
And will never come again.
Something beautiful is vanished,
And we sigh for it in vain:
We behold it everywhere,
On the earth, and in the air,
But it never comes again.
(Richard Henry Stoddard)
It's been three weeks now since my dryer broke. It hasn't been any trouble at all, since #1Son rigged up a clever contrivance in the back yard for me to dry the laundry on in the sun, and Dear Husband cleverly rigged up a sytem of pulleys and lines in the basement for me to use during rain. The repairman is scheduled to come back Wednesday and install the part he ordered.
I'm doing my spring cleaning now. A bit late, I know, but my asthma has really been acting up lately, so I've stripped my bedroom so I can wash and vacuum everything. My dream house has a separate dressing room for Mike and me so we don't have to have any clothes in the bedroom.
Speaking of stripping - I need to do some serious decluttering around here. What with the recent change in our family's focus (read: there's a lot more outside work since we got goats and chickens!), I need to pare down on stuff inside. Clutter is my bane. I need to be ruthless. Ruthlessness regarding stuff is not a problem with me, but just physically handling so much stuff is. Sometimes I wish I had a magic wand. :-p
Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, so I must post my favorite Trinity Sunday hymn:
O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!
He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame
Himself, and to this lost world came.
For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptation sharp He knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.
For us He prayed; for us He taught;
For us His daily works He wrought;
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not Himself, but us.
For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death,
For us gave up His dying breath.
For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here,
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.
To Him Whose boundless love has won
Salvation for us through His Son,
To God the Father, glory be
Both now and through eternity.
Words: Unknown author, 15th Century; translated from Latin to English by Benjamin Webb, 1854
Music: “Deo Gracias,” The Agincourt Song, 1415
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Six Things, part 3
Vacations
Being an enlisted family, we've never vacationed much, but, being an enlisted family, we've moved around every few years, and have taken advantage of the moves by visiting fun and interesting places along the way, and by making short side-trips when we've lived in exotic locations, like Upstate New York. ;-)
Fort Stanwix
Baseball Hall of Fame
Niagara Falls
Fort William Henry
USS Constitution and the USS Constitution Museum
Plimouth Plantation and the Mayflower II
Fort Toulouse, where we saw a mock battle modeled after the battles of the French and Indian War
King's Mountain National Military Park
Shot Tower Historical State Park
Hm. An awful lot of those are military history places. Imagine that.
My favorite place to visit, and one I'd love to go back to, was the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, which we first visited while moving from Valdosta, GA, to Rome, NY, in the summer of 1994. "The Museum currently features six permanent, outdoor exhibits comprised of original farm buildings from Britain, Germany, and Virginia. These buildings have been carefully documented, dismantled, transported to Virginia, and restored."
Pictured here is a farmhouse from Ulster, Ireland. When we visited, a kind woman was sitting by the front door of this cottage doing her needle work. She showed us the lace she was knitting on tiny wooden needles that had been carved by her husband, and she asked our eldest daughter, who was five at the time, how old she was. On hearing her age, the woman told her that if she'd been living on this farm two hundred years before, by five years of age she would have been responsible for knitting all the family socks. Fascinated by this, Elai wanted to learn how to knit. Looking back on it, the most useful thing I learned from the trip is how little meaningful work there is for small children to do when you buy everything you need ready-made. We're finally (mercy, it's been twelve years now!) learning to knit and crochet some things, most notably hats and dishrags, but I'd like to add socks to our repertoire.
Vacations
Being an enlisted family, we've never vacationed much, but, being an enlisted family, we've moved around every few years, and have taken advantage of the moves by visiting fun and interesting places along the way, and by making short side-trips when we've lived in exotic locations, like Upstate New York. ;-)
Fort Stanwix
Baseball Hall of Fame
Niagara Falls
Fort William Henry
USS Constitution and the USS Constitution Museum
Plimouth Plantation and the Mayflower II
Fort Toulouse, where we saw a mock battle modeled after the battles of the French and Indian War
King's Mountain National Military Park
Shot Tower Historical State Park
Hm. An awful lot of those are military history places. Imagine that.
My favorite place to visit, and one I'd love to go back to, was the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, which we first visited while moving from Valdosta, GA, to Rome, NY, in the summer of 1994. "The Museum currently features six permanent, outdoor exhibits comprised of original farm buildings from Britain, Germany, and Virginia. These buildings have been carefully documented, dismantled, transported to Virginia, and restored."
Pictured here is a farmhouse from Ulster, Ireland. When we visited, a kind woman was sitting by the front door of this cottage doing her needle work. She showed us the lace she was knitting on tiny wooden needles that had been carved by her husband, and she asked our eldest daughter, who was five at the time, how old she was. On hearing her age, the woman told her that if she'd been living on this farm two hundred years before, by five years of age she would have been responsible for knitting all the family socks. Fascinated by this, Elai wanted to learn how to knit. Looking back on it, the most useful thing I learned from the trip is how little meaningful work there is for small children to do when you buy everything you need ready-made. We're finally (mercy, it's been twelve years now!) learning to knit and crochet some things, most notably hats and dishrags, but I'd like to add socks to our repertoire.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Six Things, part 2
The truth is, I'm having trouble coming up with six things that folks would find interesting about me. :-p But here are two things today that might fit the bill.
Books
I'm always in the middle of reading too many books. Not nearly as many as Kelly M, mind you, who generally has a score or more books she's in the middle of, but too many for me to read through and still be able to remember the beginning by the time I get to the end, or be able to remember in which particular book I read a certain interesting thing.
Currently, I'm reading:
Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts
Rod Dreher's Crunchy Cons
Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin's So Much More
J.R. Miller's Home-Making
Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves
and
R.C. Sproul Jr.'s Biblical Economics
Vocation
My mother was a school teacher and her mother was too, and from the time I was a little girl I wanted to be a mommy and have lots of babies, and be a school teacher. I had always figured I'd teach school until I married and then start raising babies instead, but back in the 80s when I was in high school, a family with three adorable little girls whom I babysat, began homeschooling. That's when the lightbulb went on - I could do both at the same time! at home! with my own children! How fun that sounded. And it was fun in the early days, but then it got hard and we had to reevaluate why we were homeschooling. Well, there are still plenty of fun days, but nowadays it's a matter of conviction, and quite often it's that conviction that sustains me. But I'm finding that as I get older and more secure in what I'm doing and why, it's becoming easier and funner again.
The truth is, I'm having trouble coming up with six things that folks would find interesting about me. :-p But here are two things today that might fit the bill.
Books
I'm always in the middle of reading too many books. Not nearly as many as Kelly M, mind you, who generally has a score or more books she's in the middle of, but too many for me to read through and still be able to remember the beginning by the time I get to the end, or be able to remember in which particular book I read a certain interesting thing.
Currently, I'm reading:
Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts
Rod Dreher's Crunchy Cons
Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin's So Much More
J.R. Miller's Home-Making
Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves
and
R.C. Sproul Jr.'s Biblical Economics
Vocation
My mother was a school teacher and her mother was too, and from the time I was a little girl I wanted to be a mommy and have lots of babies, and be a school teacher. I had always figured I'd teach school until I married and then start raising babies instead, but back in the 80s when I was in high school, a family with three adorable little girls whom I babysat, began homeschooling. That's when the lightbulb went on - I could do both at the same time! at home! with my own children! How fun that sounded. And it was fun in the early days, but then it got hard and we had to reevaluate why we were homeschooling. Well, there are still plenty of fun days, but nowadays it's a matter of conviction, and quite often it's that conviction that sustains me. But I'm finding that as I get older and more secure in what I'm doing and why, it's becoming easier and funner again.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Words
This is the first time I've ever encountered peonies in the flesh. Their heady frangrance and lavish beauty have me struggling to find the right word to describe them, and I can't find the one that's just right.
alluring
beautiful
brilliant
dazzling
delightful
effulgent
elegant
excellent
exquisite
extravagant
flamboyant
gaudy
glorious
gorgeous
grand
heavenly
lavish
luscious
luxuriant
magnificent
majestic
marvelous
opulent
ostentatious
posh
prodigal
profuse
radiant
ravishing
resplendent
splendid
splendiferous
stunning
sublime sumptuous superb triumphant wonderful
This is the first time I've ever encountered peonies in the flesh. Their heady frangrance and lavish beauty have me struggling to find the right word to describe them, and I can't find the one that's just right.
alluringbeautiful
brilliant
dazzling
delightful
effulgent
elegant
excellent
exquisite
extravagant
flamboyant
gaudy
glorious
gorgeous
grand
heavenly
lavish
luscious
luxuriant
magnificent
majestic
marvelous
opulent
ostentatious
posh
prodigal
profuse
radiant
ravishing
resplendent
splendid
splendiferous
stunning
sublime sumptuous superb triumphant wonderful
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
Cindy's Six Things
Since brevity is not one of my virtues, this meme is going to be posted in several parts. Tonight's Interesting Thing About Me is so long I decided to do only one.
Hair
My hair first started going grey when I was thirteen years old. My maternal great-grandmother was completely grey by the time she was sixteen, and my mother had a cool grey streak that curved back from her forehead by the time she was in her early 30s, so early grey just runs in my family. But when I was sixteen I started coloring it. Not precisely to cover the grey, though - all the kids in my Sunday School class thought it was cool - but because I wanted to look like Anne Shirley. Heck, I wanted to be Anne Shirley, so I started using henna. After about two years of this, my daddy told me it was starting to look brassy, so I switched to something else, but stuck with the dark auburn color.
I was nineteen when Mike and I first met and he really thought I was a redhead. I told him before we married that I wasn't, but I don't think he believed me. Apparantly my temper matched my hair color. Around the time I was in my late 20s, I decided to let it grow out so I could see what it looked like. I'd been coloring it for more than ten years by then and really couldn't quite remember my natural color. It was surprising to see how my original small grey streak right on the top of my head and grown - there was an area on my scalp about the diameter of a golf ball that grew silver hair. Before too long I started coloring it again, only more of a golden brown instead of dark auburn, trying to make the color closer to my natural color.
Now, my paternal grandmother had very dark brown hair, and she kept it colored up until she was about 80 years old. It was shocking to see her with dark brown hair one visit and snowy white the next. When I first started coloring it, I'd decided that I would stop coloring it long before I was that grey, so the change wouldn't be so shocking. I stopped the second time when I was mid-thirties, but started again when a woman at the mall asked me if I wanted to sign up for a special discount for Senior Citizens. :-p
The last time I colored my hair was in August, two summers ago. It is simply amazing how grey my hair has gotten in the past few years. That spot on the top of my head has grown a bit, but now I also have a grey streak at the right temple, and grey sprinkles throughout the top and front. The funny thing is, I always wear my hair up and it doesn't look grey from the front, except for that vague streak at the temple. And the underneath is still very dark, but the top is so very grey that it just... Well, I'll show you.
This is me from the front, taken last weekend when were at the Highlands Study Center Conference:
And this is me from the back, that same night:
Pretty wild, huh?
Since brevity is not one of my virtues, this meme is going to be posted in several parts. Tonight's Interesting Thing About Me is so long I decided to do only one.
Hair
My hair first started going grey when I was thirteen years old. My maternal great-grandmother was completely grey by the time she was sixteen, and my mother had a cool grey streak that curved back from her forehead by the time she was in her early 30s, so early grey just runs in my family. But when I was sixteen I started coloring it. Not precisely to cover the grey, though - all the kids in my Sunday School class thought it was cool - but because I wanted to look like Anne Shirley. Heck, I wanted to be Anne Shirley, so I started using henna. After about two years of this, my daddy told me it was starting to look brassy, so I switched to something else, but stuck with the dark auburn color.
I was nineteen when Mike and I first met and he really thought I was a redhead. I told him before we married that I wasn't, but I don't think he believed me. Apparantly my temper matched my hair color. Around the time I was in my late 20s, I decided to let it grow out so I could see what it looked like. I'd been coloring it for more than ten years by then and really couldn't quite remember my natural color. It was surprising to see how my original small grey streak right on the top of my head and grown - there was an area on my scalp about the diameter of a golf ball that grew silver hair. Before too long I started coloring it again, only more of a golden brown instead of dark auburn, trying to make the color closer to my natural color.
Now, my paternal grandmother had very dark brown hair, and she kept it colored up until she was about 80 years old. It was shocking to see her with dark brown hair one visit and snowy white the next. When I first started coloring it, I'd decided that I would stop coloring it long before I was that grey, so the change wouldn't be so shocking. I stopped the second time when I was mid-thirties, but started again when a woman at the mall asked me if I wanted to sign up for a special discount for Senior Citizens. :-p
The last time I colored my hair was in August, two summers ago. It is simply amazing how grey my hair has gotten in the past few years. That spot on the top of my head has grown a bit, but now I also have a grey streak at the right temple, and grey sprinkles throughout the top and front. The funny thing is, I always wear my hair up and it doesn't look grey from the front, except for that vague streak at the temple. And the underneath is still very dark, but the top is so very grey that it just... Well, I'll show you.
This is me from the front, taken last weekend when were at the Highlands Study Center Conference:
And this is me from the back, that same night:
Pretty wild, huh?
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