One of Those Stories

Last night with a huge smile and a glowing face, Candace said, "Mom, this is like one of those stories you read to us, only this time it's ME!" She's was referring to stories of individuals I have read to her over the years about successful courtships where the couple never had to "date" and entered into the marriage covenant while still physically pure.
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So THE STORY...
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A short time ago, at one of our homeschool meetings, a new homeschooling mom showed up for the first time. She was trying to pay attention to the conversations about education that were going on but she was distracted by a beautiful young lady sitting next to her mom. She was distracted because she had an overwhelming feeling that this young lady should meet her nephew. That young lady was Candace.
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Candace had recently gone through a process with God of laying down an idol in her life. You can read about it on her blog here. I smile when I look at the date stamp on that post - less than a month ago. What she didn't say is that the idol was the desire to get married. She was laying that down at the altar of the Lord. Part of that laying down for her involved what she felt was the calling to not be out and about much. She felt called for a time to stick pretty close to home and not run around to social events. Coming with me to the homeschool meeting was one of the few things she did over that time. She was planning to teach a nature study class and wanted to learn more about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy. Isn't that just like God? When you lay it down, he gives just what you were dreaming of (and more)?
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During this time, I felt called to take up that burden for her and I was in an intense time of prayer for God to bring her husband. I am not the most disciplined prayer warrior but this was something beyond me. It was almost my every breath - when I woke up in the night, the first thing in the morning, while I drove in the car, every extra moment during the day. I was praying for her and asking God to SEND HIM NOW. This was not something I had to try to do, it was just with me so strongly I couldn't help it.
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A couple of weeks went by after that homeschool meeting. Then we got an email from Aunt Alana. She had taken the time to pray about the matter and ventured to ask us what we thought about introducing Candace to her nephew. She told us a little about him and waited for our answer. Candace was thinking, "Oh brother, another relative wants me to meet someone. I've been through this how many times now?" So she half-heartedly told me to go ahead and email her back and tell them a little about herself. She wanted me to tell them the most radical things about her so that it would be sort of a sifting process, discouraging anything further if this young man's heart did not match up to hers. Some of the things we addressed were physical purity, Candace's desire for a large family, that homeschooling wasn't an option, but a requirement and that she didn't want to marry a tv watcher because she hated tv. She didn't want anyone to even think about pursuing her if they weren't ready for marriage right away and she had me convey that in the email. I said good things too but I did warn them that she was a bit crazy and liked to do near-dare-devil stunts. She didn't want someone who wanted her to be a prim and proper lady. We sent this thinking that this oughta scare him away but in fact, it had the opposite result.
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When Michael and his family read the email, they had to chuckle because they didn't even own a tv and Michael did not want one in his own home either! When he read about her dare-devil nature, he said, "Sweet!" This was only the beginning of discovering how very much they lined up on every issue that was important to both of them. So Candace and Michael started emailing back and forth a little.
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Since Michael lives four hours away, he came to visit his aunt and uncle that live here in town with us and they all came to visit our church on Sunday morning. He asked to sit next to her during the kids program and hung out with her during the middle school get together that she helps with. They talked and she got to watch him interact with the kids. He showed her his guitar and they sat outside and sang some songs together. Within a short couple of hours, he managed to completely impress her and take her from a "let's get this over with" sort of attitude to complete interest.
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The next weekend Michael came prepared to talk to her father about getting to know her better. He spent the day with us and by the end of the night, they both knew they wanted to marry each other. Because they both knew that they were not interested in "dating" or interested in just friendship, they entered into serious and intense discussions immediately regarding their views and plans for life. They were shocked to find agreement on every side of every issue. Ford and I approved and they began having long discussions on the phone and things went quickly in the direction of plans for life together. Candace was reporting all about their conversations and we couldn't have been more pleased with the things he was saying.
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Even though he had not officially proposed we all knew it was coming and knew they wanted a short engagement. So last week we went to a bridal boutique thinking we would just start looking. We left putting a deposit down on the wedding gown, tiara, veil, shoes and the bridesmaid dresses and shoes! Candace has always been very decisive and she loved the first dress she saw. She tried it on and it fit perfectly. The only alterations she needs is a hem. There was no need for her to keep looking or try anything else. She was set.

The next time he came, he came prepared to propose and he let us know ahead of time that he wanted to do it in front of the whole family. When they arrived from church, we thought we would have a little joke and Ford got all of his weapons and laid them on the table along with assorted ammunition. He put his hat on and sat at the table sharpening his hunting knife. When Michael came in Ford said, "So I hear you have something important to discuss with me." Candace got the joke right away because she has never seen Ford have all of his weapons out and she began to laugh, but Michael just thought it was cool that the guns were all out on the table and the joke was lost on him. How funny! Little did we know we were kindred spirits when it came to joking.

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After some serious discussion about the future, Michael told us he was ready to propose. We gathered everyone together and he got down on his knee, asked her marry him and presented three rings from the bubble-gum machines for Candace to choose from. Candace had been in on the joke the whole time. We were all rolling on the floor laughing. Since this has all happened so fast, he hasn't had time to get a real ring, but that is coming soon.

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So the date is set and we are in high gear preparing for the wedding. Our lofty goal is to have a stress free wedding. So many parents are so stressed out and glad to have it over and we really, really don't want to feel that way. Candace and Michael are so casual and easy that we have hopes this can be accomplished.

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One of the most common comments she is hearing right now is, "I didn't even know you were dating! Well, that's because she wasn't, hasn't and won't be. And the most wonderful gift of all is that Michael has been raised with the same ideals! This has made it so easy since we are all on the same page. When discussing physical boundaries for the next couple of months, Michael said he didn't think they should be alone, not without at least a brother or sister. He understands that it will get tough for them to keep hold of their purity if they are alone and they are hoping to have their first kiss at the wedding altar. I can't begin to describe how nice it is to not feel like we are going to spend the next couple of months opposing each other. And we don't have to instruct him in these ways because his parents have already done that job and Michael has already made these ideals his own.

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Thank you to all of you who have encouraged us along the way and for those who supported us with the belief that this could be done this way. A special thanks to Granny, who took the time to reach out to me as an older mom and gave me hope.

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And most important of all a GREAT BIG thank you to Michael's parents because we know young men of his quality don't just happen! We are so very impressed and thankful - beyond what words can even begin to express. We have an appreciation for what it takes and we will always be eternally grateful to both of you!!!!

An Exciting Announcment

Some of you have caught wind of the news already but tonight we are making the official announcement - Candace and Michael are engaged to be married on November 10th. They have been talking about marriage plans during the past week but he officially proposed in front of most of the family tonight. He has passed the test (with flying colors I might add) of all of the men of the family - including her father, uncle and grandfather. Every member of the family is excited!

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house tonight and once again enjoyed the treat of Michael's playing and singing. He played a couple of his original songs and then we all sang some worship songs together. Grandma sat across the room with tears in her eyes. Even Grandpa, who eyes everyone that is interested in his granddaughters suspiciously, approves.

I will tell more of the story later, but tonight I'm running on very little sleep from the crazy weekend.

This is The Day

Today is Luke's thirteenth birthday! After years of "doing" the teenage girl thing, we now have our first teenage son. We had talked about this day, so many years ago in the baby days, when we realized the time would come when we would have five teeneagers at once and today it has arrived. Candace will be twenty in November, so it is a short lived novelty.

It is amazing that those seemingly far-in-to-the-future days actually do arrive, and rather more quickly than we imagine too.

It's been fun lately watching him, and even Abel, tune into the courting processes that go on around here with the girls. They can be seen lurking around the corners with full attention being paid to these conversations. Luke, trying to be cute the other night, pulled up an armchair to one of these talks that was going on at the kitchen table. They are so sure that after listening to all of these girls that they are going to have the upper hand and know just the right things to do and not do. This interest seems funny coming from boys who, not long ago, were interested in nothing but cars, legos and playing outdoors.

Art and Family and Friends

Our extremely brilliant and generous friend, Adam, has built this website. Elilyphants, for my niece, Lily. Stop in for a visit and see some of Lily's cool work. Lily is the daughter of my sister, whose blog is here. Who knew all of those endless hours spent drawing elephants could result in this!

Adam is a fellow artist who has done an amazing painting called The Valley of Rhyme. It's a collage of scenes from the nursery rhymes of his childhood. It has also been made into a book by the same title, which I think will soon be available from amazon. We are one of the lucky first ones to have a book and poster already! The first morning after he came out and gave us a copy of the poster to go along with the book, Annalise was up in the early light with the book open in front of the framed poster looking for each scene from the book.

To be so close to all of this amazing talent just makes me feel so happy to be alive and happy that I serve a God with fellow believers like these!!! I just feel overwhelmed with God's goodness to us all.

Redemption

When we come into contact with those who have had a less than favorable past, we have a decision to make in how we view them. Candace and I have been talking about this recently. She was pointing out that it's not people's pasts that are the problem but how they view their pasts. The distinction between those whose past mistakes have brought them to a humble realization of their need for a savior and those who stand obstinately in their pride and make excuses for their wrongs is what makes the difference.

Redemption has been such a great part of my life that sometimes it's easier for me to see beyond people's sins than it is for others. My childhood was marred by divorcing parents. Through the years I could see God's grace woven throughout it all: a mom who worked very hard to pick up the pieces and make a life for us, a grandmother who gave of herself to love and keep us as a part of the family, a dad who always kept in contact with us, took us whenever he had the chance and spent much time teaching us the things of the Lord and a step-mom who loved us and sacrificed so that we could be a part of our dad's life. I did see many of the consequences of sin but I saw people's sinful lives redeemed. My children are now blessed with a Grandfather that, though he does not share their bloodline, cares for them like he did and they love him so dearly you would never know he officially bears the prefix of "step-". In my younger years, I was blessed with a woman who loved me as a daughter (and I her) and now in my older years I am blessed with a man who loves me the same way (and I him).

Because of this I am keenly aware of this thread of redemption in the lives of others. I will admit that I rarely have tolerance for those who willfully continue in sin, but I have a lot of natural compassion for those who have repented (not just apologized but TURNED from their sin) and sought to make a new life.

I know the reality of turning and making a total and complete change. I married a man who was once an atheist, a thief, took drugs and commited other sins. (Amazingly he was a virgin and had never even kissed another girl, which was a huge blessing for me.) The wonderful evidence of what God can do is that I have never seen any remnant of that old person he was, not even a trace. He has been a wonderful husband and father. That is the power of God's redemption.

How could a life like mine that stared out so with such a foreboding of disaster be what it is now? I've been married for twenty years and have a beautiful family. I live in a beautiful area and enjoy the incredible blessing of living right next door to my mom and my sister. Daily I watch my children and my sister's run through the woods and find absolute delight in being together. How did that happen? God's redemption.

My kids have six adults in their lives who are intimately involved and watch over them with incredible diligence. These first few young men that come along seeking for our daughter's hands will have all six to answer to. They are going to have to be men enough to stand the test. But underlying it all will be a golden thread of an understanding of - God's redemption -.

Moments Like These

It's moments like these that make me so thankful that we are able to have our children home during the day. My mom and step-dad's dog that they have had for thirteen years had to be put down this morning. I gave her the yellow lab puppy all those years ago when I owned the sire. I was able to send my boys over to meet them when they arrive home so they can help dig the hole for the grave. A 60+ year old man does not need to be doing the job alone of digging the grave in near 100 degree temperatures. I am so very thankful that my boys can be a part of helping in this way. This kind of work and service helps me to have confidence in the kind of men they will become.

School Begins Again...and other happenings

We started our official-school-schedule-life Monday. So far, so good. Of course, there are always the little bumps as we get going again. I've decided to take a no nonsense approach to complaining this year and I'm trying to nip it in the bud. The boys are usually the only ones who complain much and they are being met with zero toleration. Annalise makes up for the both of them though. She is always so enthusiastic. I always look forward to getting out of bed more when it's a school day. The last two weeks when we were completely off drove me crazy. I just miss it too much. What am I going to do with myself when Annalise graduates?

Life has been wonderfully busy. Not the kind of busy where you are running ragged and worn out, but a pleasant kind of busy. It seems every time I turn around we are forming new friendships. It's been great! A social life has not been a problem and I feel so blessed to have so many lovely people around us. Sunday we had the treat of having a family over who had a 20yo son and an 18yo daughter. It was fun for my older kids to have another family over with older kids - though they really weren't kids. An extra benefit is that it seems we are always getting ready to have company around here so we are staying on top of things more than usual. I'm really looking forward to the cooler temperatures to arrive so we can have bonfires again, and now that Kezzi is learning the guitar, we will have music with the singing.

We traded in our two minivans for an almost new Dodge Durango and I'm loving it. It's so roomy and drives so nicely. It's been many, many years since we've had something this nice and new. It seats eight instead of the nine that we could really use, but eight is ok. Most of the time one of the girls doesn't mind driving their own car anyway.

I'm just savoring this time of life while we are all still together every day but at the same time excited about the future (I know I've probably said that before). I know change is probably just around the corner. An extremely nice college that is not too far away called for Priscilla today. I didn't know colleges actually make personal phone calls to prospective students? I filled out some kind of information form on the internet a couple of weeks ago. I also know that marriages can happen in the blink of an eye, the fact brought home by the recent marriage of a friend of Candace's. Ford and I are always keenly aware of that fact since we only dated for 3 weeks and then married 3 months later. We did have family connections so we weren't really like total strangers. It's not that we would totally recommend that for everyone, but we've never regretted it for one minute.

Now, if we can just get rid of these upper 90 temperatures, I'll be even more happy.

A Boy Who Can't Hear Wisdom Shouting...

because he is too busy spending time in the emergency room.

In the beginning of July Abel did a back flip off of a diving board while we were spending Sunday afternoon with some friends. He ended up with an ambulance ride and five staples in his head. I didn't think the ambulance ride was necessary but since it happened at a public pool, they were pretty freaked out about possible back and neck injuries. When we left the hospital, he was barefoot, in nothing but his bathing suit and covered in dried blood. We had to take the board that they brought him in on back to the pool and since we were driving Candace's beetle, we had to open the sunroof and drive with the bloody board sticking out. We joked with the doctor about taking him to Target on the way home just to gross everyone out.

Yesterday I spent all morning in the emergency room again. This time over a "bee sting" that turned out to be a snake bite. He came in Tuesday evening saying he thought he had been stung by a bee while reaching into some brush to retrieve an arrow that he had shot. I thought it a little strange that a bee sting would have a couple of marks and one of them was a little bloody but didn't think much more about it. After treating it, he went to bed that evening and by 2am his whole hand and wrist were swollen. I still didn't think too much of it since we have other children who swell up with bee stings. Then in the morning his whole forearm was swollen and the bit area looked bruised and I started thinking more about the bloody mark. So, I decided to be at the doctor's office when they opened so they could take a look at him. He wasn't in any pain unless people started touching it. My pediatrician was concerned about compression and sent me over to the hospital so I could see a surgeon right away. After spending the several hours there waiting on a surgeon who was, of course, in surgery, the ER doctor told us that after talking to the surgeon he thought it would be fine and to go ahead and go home. The consensus was that yes, it most likely was a venomous snake bite but that since it was 12 hours old, the worst was over.

This morning the swelling had moved about an inch further up his arm but he was moving his fingers more freely. Now the whole back of his hand is slightly bruised and discolored looking but it seems like it hurts less to touch it and I think his fingers are less swollen. I wish I could post a picture but for some reason this crazy computer won't let me.

His pediatrician just called and wants to see him again since that is what the ER doctor stipulated on the discharge papers. So I'm off again. Hopefully we will be home soon. Please be praying for a quick recovery for him.

**Update: The swelling is almost gone and he is using his arm again. Last night at church he was playing 'wall ball' with a group of boys so I guess he's on the mend. Thanks for the prayers and concern. I think he's taken us to the emergency room more than all the other six children combined! :) I think he thinks it's pretty cool to have been bitten by a snake. The whole time when it was in doubt as to whether it was a bee or a snake bite, he kept saying why it was most likely to be a snake with this air of hopefulness. It reminded me of part of It's a Jungle Out There, where the kids were competing to tell their most grusome injury stories. Life with boys. After four girls, I can sure see a difference.

Wisdom Shouts In the Street

"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock - to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."


Flannery O'Connor in Mystery and Manners

After reading about this author in WORLD magazine, I got this book from the library thinking it might interest one of my daughters. As I began skimming through it I came across this quote and it has just stuck with me. I have thought that not just novelists with Christian concerns, but Christians with Christian concerns have to face this very issue.

Unfortunately, I am not a novelist and do not have a means to put forth my ideas and concerns in such a detached way. I must deal with the problem that I have the potential to intimidate others and must decide if sharing my thoughts and ideas are worth it. Yes, using a novel to speak is an enticing idea, but I haven't the hint of imagination required for such a task. So I stumble along trying to walk a line that isn't clear enough for my liking because you often don't know you've crossed it until it's too late or if crossing it is really a bad thing. Even though it's been quite some time since I've been in any trouble, I still know that "shouting" doesn't always go over well, even when you are speaking in normal tones.

A Christmas Letter In July

As an update for our out-of-town friends and family, I decided to post about what is going on with each of us currently. Sort of like those letters you get at Christmas time. I apologize for it's length but there are nine of us to post about, you know.

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There have been other seasons of upheaval in our lives, but we are currently enjoying a time of contentedness. We've experienced enough of hard times to know that God will carry us through when we cast ourselves on Him. But right now it's nice to see my family casting themselves on Him in thankfulness and appreciation and not taking good times for granted. We all have had a sense of being extremely grateful for all of the many blessings in our lives.

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Ford has been enjoying a season of a rest of sorts ever since our brother-in-law, Kenny, started working for him. He's always had one great employee since we came to Tennessee eleven years ago, but now he has two great men that help ease the burden of running a business. He has been very thankful that the business is providing well enough to support three families and that things are looking like they are getting better and better. A website is being built by a very talented homeschooled young man and I'll share that here as soon as it's ready. This past year he has added a large addition onto his building and is currently building a lake down there. My sister has posted about that project here. He's been working hard but still finds time for lots of recreation with the kids like tennis, playing frisbee or floating down the river.

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I have also entered a time of more rest than ever before. I have an army of children available to help take care of our home and land. Projects that would have overwhelmed me in years past are easily done in a short time. I enjoy many fun times with the kids. With the kids all getting older, I have been able to pursue more study time. The homeschooling support group that I have led for many years is growing and we are expanding it to include monthly activities, which includes a picnic at our house tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to the relationships that are growing and being formed in this group, and I now feel like I have some extra time and energy to devote to it. Some of my daughters have begun to be interested in coming to our monthly meetings and are catching the vision of this work.

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Candace (almost 20) has come home to work here for me. She still runs errands when Ford needs her and takes an occasional babysitting job, but her main work is here. She has taken on the responsibility of grocery shopping and meal preparation along with other daily tasks. Her morning hours are allotted for study. I've been surprised that she loves it so much since she is such a people-person. She has decided to pursue studies in education and I couldn't be more thrilled. She has asked me to teach her all I know and feed her the right books. Next month she is going to be starting a nature study class for homeschoolers in our area. We have a fairly large building on our property and we are going to use one room for a classroom. She plans to put up shelves for nature collections and has fun plans for read alouds, nature walks, nature journaling and all sorts of fun projects and crafts. She is very, very excited about this project. At church, she has been working with the youth and may be leading a small group of girls this year. It's nice to see her enter into a rest and put her trust in the Lord for her future.

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Priscilla (18) currently works nearly full time for Ford as his office manager. She dances two afternoons a week. She is busy planning for a mission trip in September and working on illustrating the fourth book in the Grandmother's Hope Chest series. She has been working with the young girls this year at church and this coming year is going to have her own class of 4th-5th grade girls. It's so sweet to see them come up and hug her on Sundays. Going to a L'Abri conference and a Worldview conference this year has spurred her on intellectually and spiritually. She has recently been a bit overwhelmed with all she has to think about so we came up with the idea of her hiring Hope to help with some of the things she needs done here at home. Hope is even going to start helping with the illustrating job. This has been a great relief to her and it's great for Hope to have some extra money. She recently posted about her consideration of a college in Missouri here, but she modestly failed to mention that the art director was "over-the-top impressed" with her work and said that she was already doing things that some of his first-year students never get. She likes the idea of pursuing more education in art, but she doesn't want to leave home so I've been looking online for her at colleges closer to home.

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Kezzi (almost 17) is gearing up for her last year of homeschool. She has very recently been teaching herself the guitar and making quick progress. She is still dancing twice a week. Most of her free time is spent reading or running next door to play with my sister's babies. She is also helping out at church and tends to gravitate towards the little boys. Last month she and Priscilla had 16 children (boys and girls are mixed together in the summer) in their class and they managed them beautifully. She has a talent for managing the young boys, which is no easy task, as many of you well know. Kezzi has grown into a very responsible young girl and often steps into the place of my right-hand girl. She has grown a lot in her relationship with the Lord and in her willingness to be bold in her stands.

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We have discovered an amazing secret about Hope (almost 15) this summer. She has been filling up a notebook with songs she has written. Amazingly, she can turn to any one and sing it for you. I can't even comprehend how she can remember all of those different tunes. Her voice is really good too. Candace dragged her up to me on day and made her sing one. Luke, who is not the flatterer, was sitting at the computer with his mouth open in astonishment at how good it sounded. I have been amazed to hear beautiful music coming from the piano, music that she has either composed herself or has heard somewhere. She has just begun to take piano lessons again after only having lessons for a couple of years when she was very young, and we are pursuing voice lessons. Actually, all of the girls are hoping to take voice lessons as they love to sing together. Both Ford and I are really excited to see this pursuit of music taking place in our home and we are planning on setting up a music room in the extra building we have.

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Luke (almost 13) has found a passion for making videos. He purchased a very small camera this past year and has now graduated to using our mini-video camera. Our friends in Missouri showed us the Movie Maker program on our computer and he is going to start playing with that. His first filming episode was a close up of an ant hill that was very cool. Combining his love of nature and film will be a good wholesome pursuit for him as he is growing away from boyhood toys. He has also been working for Ford some afternoons. He is loving to learn man things and is always by Ford's side when it's time to repair something. For the first time ever, he asked me for some specific books and has been seen reading them during his free time. He has also been seen reading on his own from the field guides. This is a first. My sister came in the other day and saw him reading on the couch and whispered, "I don't think I've ever seen Luke with a book." So there is progress.

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There isn't much to report on Abel (11) and Annalise (6) but they are enjoying being children. Annalise told me she didn't want to grow up because she loved being 6. They are both enjoying playing together, swimming and reading.

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So that's what's happening at Shadybrook Acres. The older kids, especially, are relishing the time when we are still all together as a family, knowing that life may soon bring changes. I am relishing it too. It's a nice feeling to look forward to the future, while still enjoying the present and be able to look on the past with gratefulness for what God has brought us through.

The Thinking Blogger Award

Thanks to Tim's Mom who has given me a Thinking Blogger Award!

Here is the information on The Thinking Blogger Award.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

(I can't do this because my stupid computer is having some kind of problem importing pictures.)

The problem for me is that I really don't read too many blogs. Here are five that I read regularly and find much "thinking" material. I really would like to get out more and explore other blogs but between all of the books I want to read and fighting for computer time, it doesn't look very likely. So, here are my top five, besides Tim's Mom's blog.

1. The Common Room

2. Dominion Family

3. Granny

These first three, Deputy Headmistress, Cindy and Granny are all slightly older mothers than I am and I have drawn much inspiration from them. I've had the privledge of meeting the DHM in person and talking to Granny on the phone.

4. The Lilting House Melissa inspires me to think of education as a way of Life.

5. Dewey's Treehouse is always full of treats. Lots of frugal ideas from recipes to educational materials and it's a great place to stop in to find out what's going on in the blogosphere.

The Leatherback Turtle

Here's a picture from an activity in our Swimming Creatures science book. The boys had to draw the size of a leatherback sea turtle on the concrete. This was a great idea to help imagine their massive size.

Our Weekend in the Mountains

My sister, Lori, posted pictures and descriptions on her blog of what we did in the mountains a couple of weeks ago. So now I don't have to! Just pop over there for a visit and I'll keep enjoying being a slacker over here.

School Planning for Fall

This month at our local homeschool meeting we are going to be talking about schedules. There are some great schedule helps at Simply Charlotte Mason and a new online planner that looks great.

I'm going to post my proposed schedule for next year here mainly because I know some of the ladies read this blog and it will be nice to have this in a central place. I have 5 students this year, ages 17, 15, 13, 11 and 6. This schedule does not include my 17yo as she will be on her own schedule. My 6yo's routine will fit in with this one but not follow this exactly -more on that below. So this schedule is mainly for my three students, ages 15, 13 and 11. This is the basic format of what we have done for years. Sometimes I mix it up a bit because I just like change. I've been working hard on getting everything planned out so that afternoons are free for work or personal pursuits and this year we are going to try to be finished by 1:00. I give approximate times of each block and our planned starting time is 7:30am. Sometimes life happens and everything doesn't go according to plan but this is what we aim for. I am somewhat flexible but I guard this time and try to be purposeful about what I let take its place.

1 hr. - Bible (alternate doing this together & alone) and then Read Alouds during breakfast - poetry plus historical fiction or classics Monday thru Thursday, composer biography on Friday.

30m. - Math

30m - 45m. - Reading time #1 - History M, W, Fr and Science on Tu, Th

30m - Break - boys and Annalise exercise, Hope takes 15 m. of this time to practice singing

45m - Together Time - 1 activity for each weekday - US Geography with map questions, picture study & art, nature lore, science project, missionary stories

45m - Writing (various work - grammar, dictation, copywork, narrations, freewrites, other assignments)

45m - Reading #2 - Literature M, W, Fr and Geography Tu, Th

45m - Various:

M - Latin with boys / Hope gone to dance

Tu- Apologia Science with boys / Hope Science notebook page

W - Nature Study

Th - Latin with boys/ Hope gone to dance

Fr - History timelines and illustrations

The Reading times will mostly be times when each student reads their own books. In addition to this schedule some afternoons we will have a Poetry and Shakespeare Tea. We will play the term's composer throughout the day. I will try to encourage more handiwork this year. Music lessons will happen in the afternoon for at least Abel and Hope this coming year. Also sometimes the boys talk me into reading to them before they go to bed, usually just fun books.

Annalise will mostly do math and writing when everyone else does. One of the reading times she will read to herself and the other reading time I will read something aloud to her - mainly selections from Ambleside Online's first year booklist that we haven't read yet. She won't spend the whole alloted time on these things though, more like 20 minutes for each subject. She will participate in our weekly nature study, picture study and composer studies.

I tallied up how many times a week will do each subject and it looks like this:

Math - 5x

Writing - 5x

History - 4x plus historical fiction 4x a week - total of 8x

Science - 6x

Geography - 4x (includes missionary stories)

Composer - 1x plus music playing throughout the week

Art: Picture Study- 1x

Art: hands on- 1x

Foreign Language - 2x

I think that's pretty good considering we should be done by 1:00.

American Education: A Research Project

I've decided to embark on a research project on the state of American education. My question is what is the state of education in America and (as I confirm it's as bad as I suspect) as Christians, what should our response be? I'm collecting all kinds of articles on different aspects. So if anyone wants to send me links, I will appreciate it.

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Also, as mentioned on this blog before, a line I heard recently about the public schools being the greatest mission field keeps resonating in my brain. Even though I must confess I doubt the abundance of such, I'm going to be on the lookout for any great mission stories. I'm looking for stories of Christian students who have an effect on their schools. In fact, even any success stories of children going through the system without loosing their faith, virginity, closeness with their families, love of learning, etc. will be welcome finds. When I do become aware of these students, I would love to interview them and find the secrets to their success. Maybe it could help others who are struggling but determined to stay in the governmental school system.

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My first reading on the topic is John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education. You can read this book online. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Gatto he was a teacher for 30 years and awarded New York's Teacher of the Year award. His assessments and observations are not pleasant to say the least. I've been in tears all morning while reading his writings. Sometimes it's painful to open your eyes to the larger world around you and see what you are sheltered from, but I believe it's our duty to face reality and then decide on a Christian response.

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On a trip I recently listened to Focus on the Family's radio theatre of Amazing Grace, a set of three different biographies of the main characters in the Amazing Grace movie. The one that inspired me the most was the story of Olaudah Equiano, a former slave. He took upon himself the unpleasant task of making people face what was really going on around them, a task that does not bring popularity. People don't want their comfort disturbed. When they wanted to whitewash what was happening, Mr. Equiano held the truth up for them to see. He forced them to look. I see a lot of correlations between what was taking place then, and what is happening now. I prayed that God would help us to be as brave.

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It's easy to look back on issues of the past and see what seemingly blind people could not see. We might wonder how people could have tolerated the injustices that seem so clear to us. How many issues do we have in our society today that future generations will look on and wonder how we tolerated them. Will our system of "education" be one of them?

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It is often tempting, as a homeschooler, to just live defensively. "We just want to be left alone." I remember a visit with a state senator years ago and he admonished us to leave off that attitude and push for more. Then recently our pastor preached about living offensively. Hearing that sermon and Equiano's story have got me thinking, a thinking that is leading to a desire to be "doing". May God raise up more Mr. Equianos and Mr. Gattos.

I Have Caved

So, I have finally given in and caved in to the library's summer reading program. I had a long climb down to get off my educational-philosophy-high-horse. I had always hated the idea of offering children bribes to read. The story should be reward enough, I contended. Then came The Boys. They never want to read. They would rather be outside playing, exploring, investigating...anything besides reading.

So we signed up. Every so many pages they get to go in and spin a wheel for a prize. The prizes range from ice cream cones to getting to choose a free book from the designated shelf. So far it's working. The boys are reading more and keeping a count of their pages. The very next day after signing up they had read enough to spin the wheel. One got an ice cream cone coupon and the other won a coupon for free breadsticks at Dominoes. Annalise is participating too and was happy with her pencil and ruler set.

We are off again today to spin again.

More Math Fun wih Fractions

We are really having a math revolution around here. It seems the younger the children are the more responsive they are to these non-traditional ways of learning math. For some reason this is really setting off some triggers in my mind and I am amazed at how easy math concepts are becoming to me. Math used to be such an area of frustration around here. I only wish I had caught on to this idea when my older children were young.

Fraction Jugglers is what I'm using with the boys. We've been using the wooden fraction puzzle that is shown below to check our work, sort of like how cusinaire rods are used with whole numbers. It's funny that I need to use the puzzle more than they do because they seem to be able to picture it better in their heads. I have some other fraction games with the set of games I bought from Right Start Math and I'll be pulling those out too in order to add some variety.

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I got this Fraction Action book from the library and I read it to Annalise. I was amazed at how much fraction knowledge she picked up from this one title. Abel sat in on it too and was saying, "Aw. She's learning about fractions too? That's not right. I'm four years older than she is!" I tried to explain that I was starting to look at studying math the way we study history. We are all learning about Ancient Rome together aren't we? Why not do the same with math topics? Of course, there will be different levels of understanding but why not all play with fractions together?

Here is a picture of the fraction puzzle I bought from Right Start. Annalise just played with it one day with no help from me and the next day she was explaining to me how fractions get smaller when the bottom number gets bigger. She explained in excited tones how 1 was bigger than 1/10. She continued to expound on how it was the opposite of counting with regular numbers and that is why they were called fractions.

Thanks to Julie at the Living Math site and the accompanying email list, I'm seeing numbers in a whole different light. I look forward to trying more resources and enjoying our mathematical adventure. I'll continue to post things that we use and enjoy here in hopes that it will encourage others to step out of the workbook/textbook box and have fun learning!

Discussion on Courtship

I have found Cindy over at Dominion Family to be an astute observer of the homeschooling community. She recently posted her thoughts on courtship. I have considered writing my own reformed thoughts on the topic many times but never quite got it together - "it" being both my thoughts and my courage. I posted a few quotes from her post here along with my thoughts on the issue. I am sure my thoughts will be more scrambled than Cindy's.


"It is not an easy topic to discuss because people have violent opinions and the younger the children the more violent the opinions get."


This was definitely me a few short years ago. It's amazing what actually having some experience in the matter will do to your opinions. I think the violent opinions come from wanting so badly to protect your children from unnecessary hurt. But God knows it is often times pain that forms our character and like Jesus we can pray for what we think is best but ultimately we need to say, "God's will be done."

"Almost every family I know with older children has modified their views on courtship. That is not to say that they have rushed towards dating but just that they have stopped believing in courtship as a panacea. Courtship carries within itself just as many pitfalls as dating, some of the same pitfalls and a few more besides."


That would also describe me and I would have to agree with the rest of the paragraph. Both of my older girls have been hurt through a courtship process and in one of the cases a few others were hurt too and we ended up having to leave our church of eleven years because of the situation going sour. However, we have all have grown tremendously from it. And because we were involved and our wishes respected, neither relationship became physical so they both still have the chance of entering into their marriages completely pure. I thank God for that.


In one of the comments Cindy says,

"One thing we have not been confused about is that the goal of all this is purity. Our boys are not in any doubt at all about the fact we expect them to remain pure until marriage and guard the purity of the girls they pursue."


Amen. I have known people who have different standards for their daughters and sons, thinking it is up to the girl's family to protect her purity and putting no responsibility on the sons. I think that is pathetic and pitiful and I'm glad to hear Cindy say otherwise.

"For parents of boys, courtship basically means whatever the father of the girl decides it means. This can range from mild interest to the boy almost having to fall in love with dear old dad. "

For us, details about things such as where they spend the majority of their time are no longer pre-determined. I'm sure our children will want prospective mates to spend time with us because they like to spend time with us and they will want our opinions on the matter. I expect the prospective mates will desire the same thing with their own families. As one commenter brought up the idea of long-distance relationships and the problems that brings for the girl to spend time with the young man's family, if we were in that situation I think the ideal would be having the young man and the young man's father as committed to protecting our daughter's purity as he would his own daughter/sister. If that were not the case, I would not suggest sending her alone.

And being that the bride is the one being "given", I still think that her father should know enough of the young man to be able to give wholeheartedly, thus demanding some amount of relationship. However, it is the girl who must live with the choice for the rest of her life. She is wise if she seeks counsel from those she trusts, especially in case her emotions are blinding her. But demanding a best friend relationship with a father-in-law is foolish in my opinion. Why should we assume that the kind of person our daughter wants to marry should be the type that my husband would have as a best friend?

Sometimes as humans we like formulas. But God often gives us principles instead. I think this is a good scripture to apply to the matter. When you look up the definitions of the words sanctification, defraud and transgress it makes it even more clear.

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7

Looks Like She's Having A Good Time

This picture was posted on the website of the worldview camp where Priscilla is this week.

Fun Math

Last month at our local homeschooling meeting I know I astounded my ex-math professor friend when I told her I was actually having fun with math. Math has always been something we got out of the way so we could get to the "fun stuff", which for me was reading, writing and drawing. I'm experimenting with Annalise and using lots of games and real books to see if we can learn the basics.

I thought I would share a few titles that we have been having fun with. Annalise asks for math every day. We'll see if I can manage to keep this fire burning instead of the dousing with the boredom I usually provide with endless workbook pages. Thanks to the Living Math site and the library, we have lots of books to try.

Number Jugglers is something I've been using with Annalise and the boys. Everyday Annalise asks for the odd/even game or the number ladder game. The boys like some of the games too. Or I should say the one who is winning at the moment likes it. At least they admit it's better than workbooks. It's been a great way to review the four basic operations. Often we can all play together adjusting the game for the different levels by not dealing as many cards to the older ones as the book suggests. We have also been using Fraction Jugglers for the boys. My summer experiment is to see if I can teach them all about fractions while reviewing what they already know in a fun way .

Annalise just loved this and other books by Greg Tang. Sometimes I'm the one who needs a different way to do something after doing it six times before. This particular title involves finding addition strategies.
The library had many in this series so I brought home a large stack to read to Annalise. This little title taught her about negative numbers. Since she is already in the habit of loving books, these are an easy way to introduce new topics. At the end of each book there are reinforcement and activity suggestions. I think this one stack I have could keep us busy for quite a while.

I Just Don't Understand It

I recently read an article in WORLD magazine where a Congressman read some of the material that the public schools use for sex education. It was truly appalling. While I appreciate WORLD keeping us abreast of what is happening, I actually tore those pages out so my children would not be subjected to the material. Many of the adults in Congress were squirming while it was being read because it made them so uncomfortable. Imagine, reading to children things that even most adults consider inappropriate.

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Then I ran into this over at the Common Room.

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I know things have been getting worse. In recent years when even Dr. Dobson was calling for Christians to remove their children from the public schools, I knew the situation was becoming critical.

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I have heard and read about the agenda in the public schools and the kinds of things the kids are being indoctrinated with. It makes me want to do something but since I homeschool I know it would not be effective. I don't have a dog in that race. But what about those in the system who are Christians and who are opposed to what is happening? Are they doing anything? If the public schools are a great mission field (which I have heard Christian parents say), where are the great missionaries? Surely we are not entrusting children with such a job. When I hear the statistics of adults who consider themselves Christians, I marvel that this propaganda can continue to be allowed. Do people not realize that ideas have consequences? Have we so been lulled into complacency that we don't even care? Or has the propaganda had it's desired effect and the parents actually think this is necessary? That this is the answer? I don't get it.

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Hasn't anyone out there read Brave New World? Oh, that's right. No one reads anymore. Maybe if they made a tv show out of it people might recognize a slippery slope when they see one.

Purple Makes Me Happy

Something kinda weird about me - purple makes me happy. It really does. I was sitting in the car, honking for the last stragglers to load up so we could go to a church meeting. Normally, this is a time when I get very irritable. I hate being late and I hate waiting. But when I looked up and saw my pretty purple clematis climbing up the stair rail, I had a wave of happy feeling come over me that overrode the irritation.

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I think maybe I started out liking purple when I was seven years old in order to imitate my step-mom. But it never went away. Now I involuntarily notice purple everywhere. My eye just draws to it. I don't think anyone really knows how much I love it. Almost every room in my house has something purple. The living room is tan, green and purple, the dining area and kitchen is painted solid purple, my dishes have purple irises on them, the upstairs bathroom is lavender, my bedroom is deep purple and white.

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Once when Candace was searching for a birthday present for me at a flea market, a sales clerk asked her if I collected anything. Candace replied, "Errr, purple. Anything purple."

Purple was very "in" a short time I ago and I was in my element. Purple things were available everywhere. I was tempted to stockpile everything purple. Now the fad is fading and other colors are replacing my own favorite.

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Thankfully, I have found an answer to being able to surround myself in purple despite retailer's fickle tastes. Purple flowers are my latest love - hydrangeas, hostas, larkspur, balloon flowers, irises. If it's purple, I like it. They make me feel like I'm in purple heaven. Even my potatoes are blooming purple. Ahhh.

Miscellaneous Goings On

I haven't been able to think of blog posts lately. We are just enjoying life and feeling very grateful.

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Everything is green and has finally recovered from the late freeze we had. We've been working in our garden and yard quite a bit. So far we have the tomatoes, peppers, peas, potatoes, strawberries, lettuce, and broccoli in. Today we hope to finish with the green beans, squash and cucumbers. My semi-new discovery in the garden has been landscape fabric. I love putting it down between the rows and avoiding weeding. We use hay or straw in between the plants and we have very little weeding to do.

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We tore down our pool after our puppy drowned in it and we are replacing it with a cobblestone-type patio. We have plans to install our little pond and some flowers and we're making a fire pit in the middle. The girls bought me a park bench for Mother's Day and it's going to be perfect out there. (The boys each got me beautiful cards and flowers. )

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Ford and Kenny (and even Lori) have been working hard on the additions down at the shop and they are hoping to start the digging of the lake soon. They are really hoping to have it done so we can use it this summer. They hope to bring in sand for a nice beach area and leave an island with a big tree on it in the middle. I'm having fun imagining get-togethers with volleyball and big bonfires on the beach, seeing the kids enjoy fishing, boating and swimming, camping on the island and having ducks.

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My sister, Lori, has also fully recovered from her last baby. The sound of hammers and saws can be heard through the woods on a regular basis. She's always tackling something - redoing a floor, drywall, ripping off a deck, etc. The other day she popped over to fulfill her promised birthday present to me and cut landscape timbers and cut out some steps that come down the hill from her house to ours. We just have to finish nailing the timbers down. Now you don't have to slide down the muddy bank into our screenroom. What a woman!

The Master Plan of Evangelism

Have I mentioned how much we love our church? Oh yeah, forty times or so. I think I mentioned before when we changed churches we expected to have to swallow quite a bit. It turned out quite the opposite. Instead we are constantly, even still, amazed at how much we love it and how excited we are. And not just over the people but the underlying principles that govern the church's actions.

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At a recent leadership meeting one of our pastors highly recommended the book The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman. We ordered it and began reading it aloud as a family at dinner (which is at noon) today. We've never been a family that has had a big interest in evangelism as is commonly practiced in our society but this book definitely has our interest. One thing we have been amazed at is how successful our church has been at reaching unchurched people and they do it with a large dose of REALITY. Being real and relevant while loving people not only draws them but keeps quite a few of them growing and in turn serving others. We immediately felt that not only would this be a place where we could give, but that there were things we could learn here.

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Back to the book. The first chapter describes Jesus' stradegy. He concentrated heavily on teaching and mentoring a few, while at the same time serving the multitudes. He "favored" a few because of His love for the multitudes and He had a plan to multiply His work on earth.

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"Yet, strangely enough, it is scarcely comprehended in practice today. Most of the evangelistic efforts of the church begin with the multitudes under the assumption that the church is qualified to preserve what good is done. The result is our spectacular emphasis on numbers of converts, candidates for baptism, and more members for the church, with little or no genuine concern manifested toward the establishment of these souls in the love and power of God, let along the preservation and continuation of the work."

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"Here is where we must begin just like Jesus. It will be slow, tedious, painful, and probably unnoticed by people at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it. Seen this way, though, it becomes a big decision in the ministry. We must decide where we want our ministry to count - in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of our lives in a few chosen people who will carry on our work after we have gone. Really it is a question of which generation we are living for. "

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Several of us remarked on this last passage and how like homeschooling it is. How so many parents are giving up the approval or recognition from their peers and society because they are thinking ahead to the next generation. And how like Jesus' plan it is to spend the most intensive teaching time on a few.

Being a Helpmeet

You know when you have those times where there seems to be a theme in all you experience? Being a better helpmeet to my husband has been a theme for me lately. Shirley Solis of Lifetime Books gave me the CD of her lecture on the topic and we listened to it on the way home form Missouri.

I am also working my way through the Anne of Green Gables series. I am in the middle of Anne of Ingleside. Anne has to live with Gilbert's aunt who has come for a short visit but it has not been so short. This aunt "poisons" the home and makes everyone miserable. Gilbert does not do what several wish he would - kick her out. "He says he could never look himself in the face again if he turned his own flesh and blood out of doors", even though she has plenty of money and a home of her own. She is mean to the children and the household help and ruins every potential nice time together. She constantly complains and undermines Anne and makes her feel as if she doesn't belong in her own home. What would I do in those circumstances? Unless God had really got a hold of me, I can tell you it would be the exact opposite of what Anne does. What does Anne do? Does she explode with anger at Gilbert? Does she disrespect his spinelessness and unwillingness to stand up to his aunt and protect his family? Does she take matters into her own hands? No. She defers to Gilbert's sense of honor. She chides herself for complaining of such "little things" and feeling sorry for herself. Instead she embraces compassion for the friendless woman and ends up giving her a surprise birthday party. God blessed Anne in the end because the aunt ends up offended over the birthday party and finally leaves. But in her leaving, Anne can rest with a clear conscience and the knowledge that she chose Christian love.

With a little more free time this week I decided to borrow my sister's copy of Debi Pearl's Created to Be His Help Meet. It is such a chore for me to read these kind of books but I decided to give it a try. I've read the first few chapters this afternoon and it immediately put me in mind of the character of Anne. She demonstrates the qualities of a helpmeet with a joyful, merry and thankful heart.

All of these things sure shine the light where improvement is needed in my character. It's one thing to read these things and gain fresh inspiration to do good, but it's another to form habits that last long after the books are forgotten.

My middle name is Ann without the e. I need to become more like the "Anne with an e".

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**Update: A funny note. Tonight I sat on the porch swing reading to Annalise the next story in James Herriot's Treasury for Children. The story we are on is called The Market Square Dog and in it the country vet and his wife are all dressed up in their best clothes about to leave on a special rare date out when a policeman comes and brings a hurt dog. When Mr. Herriot apologizes to his wife because the care of the dog will prevent them from their plans, she graciously reassures him that she understands. And here is a quote from the story:

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"By the time we had finished, it was too late to go out anywhere, but Helen was quite cheerful. 'We can still have our picnic,' she said. We carried the sleeping dog out to the garden and laid him on a mat on the lawn so that we could watch him as he came round from the anaesthetic.

Out there in the old high-walled garden the sun shone down on the flowers and the apple trees. Helen put on her fancy hat again and I put my smart jacket back on and as we sat there, enjoying the good things from the picnic basket , we felt that we were still having a day out."

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Isn't that a beautiful example of a good wife bringing comfort to her husband and being thankful and cheerful and not pouting and scolding and feeling sorry for herself? Isn't it funny that this was in the story I read to my little girl tonight right after I wrote the above post? Hmmm.

Home Again

We are home after a fun time in Missouri. Pris and Kezzi especially had a grand time hanging out with the young people there. I spent lots of time with the young people too, hanging out and sitting down for meals and snacks with them. What a nice (and fun!) group of kids. Too bad they live so far away.

I bought quite a few things at the fair. I met the new owners of Lifetime Books and Gifts, Gus and Shirley Solis, and what a delightful and beautiful family they are. Shirley is so warm and friendly you immediately feel like you have always known her. She allowed Priscilla to move up from the basement, where she was not seeing much traffic, to share a little of their space. Priscilla immediately started selling more books. We listened to a couple of Shirley's workshops on the way home and Kezzi asked for copies to put in her hope chest. They were very good. Priscilla was a part of a panel of homeschool graduates that held a question and answer type of workshop. She did a great job, as did all of the graduates, and I was very proud of her.

On the way home I pondered an idea for a summer routine and decided to come home and try an experiment. You can read about it here on the Shadybrook daily blog.

Going on the Road

Today Priscilla, Kezzi and I are leaving for Springfield, Missouri. We will be at the SHEM curriculum fair where Pris will have a table selling the Grandmother's Hope Chest series that she has illustrated. So stop in and say hi if you happen to be there.

We are really looking forward to this trip. Our very dear friends are putting us up and I'm sure we will be having a grand time rushing in and out of the house and all getting ready with one bathroom!! My kids always love to go to Missouri and spend time with their friends and their friends' friends. I love it too.

Granny is My Hero Too.

I made Granny's Carnitas Burritos today. Make. Eat. Enough said.

Weekend Happenings

Ford, the boys and I spent Saturday building a chicken yard onto our chicken house. It was fun working together and swinging the hammer a little. We had chickens years ago but since then the fencing had fallen apart and the weeds had grown up so high you couldn't even see the chicken house. So it's almost ready now for a new batch of hens. We just have to finish tacking up the fencing and I'm going to repaint the little building. It looks so cute and farm-y.

Saturday evening a couple of young men from church joined us for dinner. For extra chaos, we invited my sister and her family to come over too. We had a lot of fun talking, laughing and playing games. These young men did the polite thing and offered to leave at a reasonable time but we were all enjoying ourselves so we reassured them we are late night people and they stayed pretty late. Luckily our church has a third service that doesn't start until 12:30 so we can all sleep in when we need to.

Tonight Candace and Priscilla came home from a meeting at church and both of them have decided to go on a mission trip in the fall. Priscilla is planning to go to Kenya and Candace to Spain. In Kenya Priscilla's group will travel around from village to village telling the gospel story with a story cloth, which they will leave in each village. Using art to tell a story is right up her alley. Spain is not so receptive to missionaries so Candace's group will be doing more one on one talking to people on the streeets, passing out water, Bibles and DVD's that tell the story of Jesus. Candace is so good at meeting people and talking to strangers so this sounds perfect for her too. I'm so excited for them and so glad they are taking advantage of this time in their lives to experience new things and places.

We have a busy next couple of days. The girls and I are cooking for a women's gathering at church Tuesday night. Normally a group of ladies share the cooking chore but we thought it would be fun to give them a break and do the cooking ourselves. We will prepare enough for fifty but there will probably be less than that. After all fifty is only five times more than a normal dinner for us to make. We always enjoy these meetings and we're looking forward to serving.

Our Studies

So far our nature studies with the Kamana program are going quite well. I did decide to slow the pace down a bit and really give them time to absorb the new awareness activity so we most likely will not finish the first part of the book in the prescribed 12 days. And I realized there is no way we could do both Kamana and the Moon Journals at the same time so once again, the moon journals are taking a back seat, hopefully to be picked up later.

I am very pleased with the interest the kids have in the Kamana program. We have had to filter through the Native American thanking Grandmother Moon stuff, and instead we thank our Creator for His creation and read what God' view of nature is, but learning about a different worldview has been interesting too. Last night on the way home from church, the girls were talking about everything they have to look forward to and Hope mentioned the Kamana studies and said she was excited to have this to do during the summer.

Today at lunch Luke was describing a pair of goldfinches that he had watched bathing in the creek and Hope told of a pair of cardinals that visits near her secret spot each day. Kezzi came in telling about a red-tailed hawk that flew over while crying out. These were just a few of the observations that were discussed over lunch. Abel told of a yellow-jacket that landed on him and left some "spit" and how he had smelled it and that it had a strange smell. I highly doubt he would have thought to smell it had it not been for that idea being presented in our Kamana studies.

One of the recent activities we did was thinking about where we were and what it looked like from a bird's eye view and drawing a map of that. Everyone has seemed to really enjoy making these maps and I have seen many extras lying around the house.

Sometimes I am plagued with things we do not do and I know there are others who do so much more. We have never been successful with a foreign language, for example. Many "great" books are way above us and we can't manage to muster up enough interest to tackle them still. Spelling...ugh...we are making progress, but ugh.

But when I think of my kids' day today, how in addition to all of this great nature study some of them sat crowded around the book of Greek myths while listening to a wonderful audio version, how they heard a true story about a boy who grew up with Cherokee grandparents in the mountains, how they learned a little about one of these great United States and heard Solomon's prayers as he dedicated the great temple to God, that they can go out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine while they read a good book and write about the thoughts that that book inspires, that they have time in the afternoon and evening to dwell on what they are learning in addition to time spent fellowshipping with family and friends, I am very thankful for the opportunity to have them learning at home. The good times still outweigh the bad.

Tasting the Fruit

As we've been working through our naturalist training with the Kamana program, I'm pleased to see connections with Charlotte Mason's methods and the fruit they bring. It is easy to see how the children have already been trained to pay attention to detail since we've been doing nature journals for many years now. Drawing the local flora and fauna of the region demands attention to detail. Field guides are some of the first books they begin to use for themselves, before they can even read well. Not only nature study but picture study and narration have also provided training in attention.

When you read about these methods and begin practicing them, it takes faith. Often you think, "Can it be that simple?" Can we just read good books and talk about them? Will hanging up pictures by different artists and spending 5-10 minutes looking at the detail every so often really do anything? Will playing the music of great composers and maybe occasionally reading a short biography lead to a love of great music? Can scientific knowledge be gained by just going for a walk and finding something to draw in your nature notebook? These truly are seeds and by planting the habits, watering and pulling out the weeds, they will grow. There will be fruit.

The fruit is opening your eighteen year old daughter's cd case and seeing Vivaldi and Brahms CD's among the other music. The fruit is when your sixteen year old says she wants to get up extra early to go to spend time at her special place in the woods or when she asks for a great man of history's autobiography to read outside of "school time". The fruit is when your nineteen year old wants to study writing and yes, she may still need some help with the mechanics but she has so much to say and she says it with style.

It's always easy, for me at least, to see the mistakes I have made or the bad habits I have allowed to go unchecked. So it's really rewarding to have those times when you look back and see things that you've done right, things that bear good fruit. It's good to jot down those realizations in a journal somewhere so you can look back on them during the times when it you feel hopelessly discouraged and it seems everything is going wrong.

Ok, So I've Got a Ways to Go

We are all enjoying our new studies with the Kamana program. The first few lessons have been about encouraging Awareness, which I am in great need of. I am not the most observant person, to put it mildly.

Once I walked up onto my mother's front porch and entered her house. She asked, "Do you like my new porch furniture?" Er, new porch furniture? There was furniture out there? Sure enough, beautiful WHITE wicker porch furniture with pretty floral cushions. How could I miss those? This really slapped me in the face. I'm too quick and intent on what I'm doing or thinking to notice much. Not good. Especially when it comes to wanting to know more about nature, not to mention people.

Another little example. Yesterday we were up at the lake. Instead of being my usual lazy self and staying on the beach with my World magazine or a book catalog, I got up and slowly starting walking down the beach looking for THINGS. I was so proud of myself because I found a string of amphibian eggs and some small mammal tracks up near the water. I noticed the black skippers flying around. Fun. The boys and Annalise had joined me. Luke pointed out a HUGE toad nestled in a little spot right on the water's edge. How had I missed that? Well, it did look a lot like a leaf if you didn't look directly at it. We stopped and looked at a little area where Luke thought might have fish and they saw one. I saw a very large one beyond where they were looking and when I pointed it out they were amazed at it's size. I was amazed that I had been the one to see it.

So, I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself noticing different plants around the lake. I had spent the drive up noticing the wildflowers that we already knew the names of and even stopped to look closely at one I had never seen before. I looked it up in the Reader's Digest Field Guide that I had brought with me and found it was a dwarf blue flag - so cute! We continued our walk around the lake, realizing this walk may not have been the smartest thing since no one was around and this was very near the location of a bear attack last year when a girl just Annalise's age was killed. We started making contingency plans just in case. We made it back close to the beach when I saw a beautiful bank of violets. I sat down to examine them closer with my field guide. I swept one large red ant off of my leg and in the back of my mind, I wondered if maybe I was near an anthill. Then Annalise tells me there is a bug on my back, another ant. I figure I better stand up and look around. There I was sitting smack dab on top of an anthill while I was trying to the learn the difference between violet species. I did identify this Arrowleaf Violet. And at least I didn't get bit (or do they sting?) by the ants.

A Thank You From the Becks

The Becks have posted a thank you on their blog with a picture of the farm house they are living in here. Stop on over for a visit.