a kindergarten diploma

the homeschool way.

mama made. bound. and delivered.

washable. re-usable.

can be used alone.

or shared with others.

but best of all it will always evoke love.

for letters. learning. reading. and sharing.

busy hands and books

enjoyed reading.

on earth

sea clocks the story of longitude

there’s no place like space

fairyland in art and poetry

once upon a starry night

michelangelo

listening to.

the queen’s pirate and galileo and the stargazers

the song of the unicorn

discovering great artists

 the limbourg brothers

making.

their own “book of days” with seasons. feasts and holy days.

i could sit and watch this kid all day. he is incredibly amusing.

overheard earlier: “i am gonna bust your chopsticks!” he called to one of the big brothers as he chased after them. on his scooter. in the house.

and these little fabric vowel cards were much fun to paint. i wish i had time to do the whole alphabet. they don’t get wrinkled or ruined. (i don’t consider grubby little hands a threat to these at all.)

 

i felt a little under the weather again. i’m probably just overtired. i picked up this book at the library today. some of it isn’t very interesting to me. other things are really important. especially the parts about having a code of conduct with regards to blogging. but you shouldn’t have to worry about that too much here. i always try to be on my best behaviour. and with regards to spreading misinformation, i never do it purposely.

hope your corner of the world is filled with books and busy hands too!

around here

i know i’ve been kinda quiet. sometimes a retreat from blogosphere does me good because i actually accomplish the things on my “to do” lists. i say lists because i usually have 4 or 5 running lists. which is the reason i needed to back away from blogging and insert every area of my life into a NOTEBOOK. crafts. bills. household. school. etc. i have to admit that actually seeing my life in black and white-and even a little bit of color-scares me. but avoiding it any longer was scaring me even more. so i worked on lists friday nite. master housecleaning/chores lists. lesson lists for each child. and a daily/weekly household list. it will probably take me a while to iron out the kinks. things change with every move. we gain and lose pets. some people get older and can handle a more responsibilities. and so on and so forth.

this weekend we stayed close to home. i battled ants in my kitchen most of saturday. i hate ’em. i don’t like to say that about any of God’s creatures. but when such creatures enter the realm where i prepare and store OUR food i immediately begin to dislike them.

anyway, whilst perusing the blogosphere on saturday i noticed a trend in “bad days”. that darn devil is having a back-to-homeschool blast. shame on him. my prayers are really going to focus on the homeschooling mamas that give their lifes’ blood to do the right thing. i don’t know why it has to be so hard. correction. i do know why. because it is just the way of the cross. the path of the christian. the agony and the ecstasy.

i am finally reading the screwtape letters by c.s. lewis. GREAT READING it is. and i really could not have stumbled upon it at a better time. it was as if the hand of God dropped that book in my lap and said, “read”. so much has been revealed to me in those conversations between wormwood and screwtape about how the devil works. he is not really so clever. he just takes our own fears, vices, annoyances and weaknesses and uses them against us. he doesn’t really use his own material. so the less we pray and arm ourselves, the easier it is for us to fall. hmph!

i am also reading the mysterious stranger by mark twain. which is an awfully good read too. between these two books, the confessions and all of the things i am reading with the kids, i am really feeling like we are a literary family.

that saying is funny to me in an inside-family-joke sort of way because my great-aunt-God rest her non-catholic soul-used to tell my grandma, her sister, that she really wished she’d come from a literary family….

what does that mean i wonder? it sounds so silly because i would think any family that enjoys books and reading the way we do could be considered a literary family. 

what about stalking amazon. com to track my order? watching it leave the warehouse. palms sweaty. thinking to myself hat nevada isn’t thatfar away. the books will be here soon. phew! the first of the month never looked so good. even though they aren’t story books, just the THOUGHT of crisp. brand-new books makes my heart skip a beat.

speaking of heart beats i am really going to have to lay off of the caffeine. it is doing funny things to my body and i don’t like the way i felt today. i decided, after discussing it with my husband, that it is a drug. and i think i first knew that i was addicted when even the smell did something to my brain. it was like…”hello wonderful! where have youbeen all day?” i get so nervous and fidgety. scattered and flighty. and i am all those things anyway, so it’s back to green tea for me. so watch out for mrs. hyde…she might be back again sooner than later.

i guess i should get off this thing. i have to finish the rosary.dishes. read bedtime stories and plan some meals. oh, and ponder what happened to my black chicken….something fishy went on in the yard the other night. one chicken was dead on the porch and my black pearl is gone without a trace. i get so tired of this animal roller coaster that we seem to be on.

well, that’s it for around here. my word count is at 756 (just for you shelly!). that’s alot for a monday, eh?

ps. i spell-checked and i’d spelled warehouse wrong. guess what the first replacement word was? whorehouse……..what is this world coming to? 772. g’nite. or good morning. depending on when you read this! 791.

nothing profound

i don’t know that i have anything very profound to report this evening. today there was a basketball game. our team won. 48 to 26 was the score.

it has been so humid here. and the outrageous cost of our june electric bill has caused me to re-evaluate what number we can comfortably keep the thermostat at. 78 was great. but i had a really sick feeling when i saw what 78 costs. needless to say any and all upstairs chores have to be completed either later in the evening or very early in the morning, because that is the only time it is even bearable up here. my computer is upstairs too, which is the main reason behind my infrequent posting. y’all wouldn’t want me to faint just so i can let you know what is going on in my world, now would you? besides i am rather enjoying the emails back and forth that some of my dear little friends and i have been sharing.

in fact this morning i was a little hormonal  teary-eyed thinking about communities. and some of the people i have met because of blogging.. nothing negative, mind you. just a bunch of wonderful, faithful, loving women, many of whom i’d like to bring together for a home-cooked meal, here. with candles and twinkling lights. some good wine. laughter and conversation. and while i know that is highly unlikely, unless i were to win the lottery or something. i want you all to know how lovely you are.

nadja recently gave me the true heart award again and this is my official thank you to her. if you have never visited her, please do. she is so sweet i could eat her. but that would be cannibalism. and besides she has a precious new gem to take care of. and if you are reading this and have not received this award for some reason, i hereby bestow it upon you, you wonderful readers!

i am also very excited-and nervous- to say that i have been commissioned-meaning getting paid– by a dear friend in real life to make her two darling daughters some handmade dolls-like my lola– for Christmas. i am rather nervous. i don’t know that i have all of the doll making kinks worked out, so if anyone has any pointers they’ve learned along the way, please feel free to let me know.

and finally, this quaint little picture is of  some felted blueberries i made for the dollies to eat. they need their anti-oxidants too. i have a bunch more cut out, but a whole basket full will take time.  don’t they look adorable in that tiny depression type dish? they aren’t real antiques. but i just knew my girl would love them.

 i am reading a novel. i left it at my parents’ house and my mother took it over for a week. she gave it a pretty good review. like a good mother she said there were a few subtle things she wanted to cross out with a marker. but i gently reminded her that we don’t do such things to library books. it promises to be a page turner. and after that terrible murder-mystery that i just read-and was GRAVELY disappointed in-in the end-i hope it delivers. i don’t know that i’ll be getting any more books like that again. it left me feeling very unsettled. true crime stories tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

sewing related news: i am progressing on the alphabet quilt. i finished Ll tonight. i need to  sew /piece the blocks for Mm-Xx, Yy and Zz  in the upcoming week and i’ll work on the embroidery/letters as time allows. i am ready to burn all of my yarn. my knitting isn’t going very well. i had to take a step back. re-read some knit/purl instructions. and learn a lot about tension. too much tension isn’t good. in life or knitting. good night dear friends. happy weekending. 

sufficient

i am writing this post from my parent’s house as my computer screen/monitor is on the fritz. it flickers like a sign on a creepy old motel. you know the ones that say OT L and have owners with names like norman bates. so these silly words of mine will have to be sufficient, for now.

i have nothing very exciting to report. i did make some delicious blueberry buttermilk pancakes for breakfast on saturday morning. that will have to suffice as my greatest cooking accomplishment this week.

i have a box filled with vintage-y, treasure-y hand-me-downs to go through. they were given to me by a second cousin-daughter to my great aunt who recently passed away. i see some pretty linens sticking out. linens with possibilities for market bags. the ones i have been waiting all summer to work on. the fact that i have all of the supplies will have to be sufficient, until time allows.

i’ve been going through coffee withdrawals. the headaches are really terrible. but since there isn’t anywhere i needto be this whole week, i am going to wean myself off gently. tonite i have a babysitting engagement. tuesday the teenager is leaving for a 3 day retreat. and except for catching up on laundry, i don’t imagine that this week has anything very exciting in store.

nana and my girl are reading the first four years out loud. i have one eye on my writing and one ear on the story. we are kinda sad that this is the last book. we checked out a bunch of books pertaining to laura ingalls at the library and are awaiting the little house cookbook to come. can you think of a better way to spend the rest of summer? cooking like laura and mary….

it got really hot here yesterday. i mean off the charts hot. but when you are passing the time sipping strawberry lemonade and reading piles of good books on a sheet laid out on the couch, there is really no room to complain.

i had the pleasure of perusing the pages of meredith’s book the other day while the kids swam at a friend’s house. it was great reading. and i was blessed enough to have an interest in Mary sparked in my soul again. it’s been a while since i’ve done enough for her. it seems that as the kids have gotten older we have done less. i am to blame for dropping the ball and i am feeling compelled to start fresh.

i don’t really want to say this out loud, but i am contemplating taking my kids out of charter this year. at least for the first semester. i miss being home. i miss their education being totally catholic. and after this move and the peace i feel in this home, there really is no excuse.

the world is a lot like an attractive vine. at first, the beautiful green leaves and tendrils are welcome in your homeschooling garden. in the case for charter it comes disguised as curriculum and art classes. and then slowly, its’ overwhelming presence begins to choke out all of the flowers-ie. virtues-that you have tried so hard to cultivate in your childrens’ souls.

it happens to the best of us. it happens when life hands you situations that make you feel like maybe you aren’t equipped enough to homeschool. it happens when life hands you a difficult teenager that you’d like nothing better than to get “rid” of by sending him off to someone else. someone else to deal with the algebra and english papers. it happens when he wears you down and ultimately you are tricked into sending him to real school. where he’ll become a real boy. if you’ve ever seen pinocchio, you’ll know where i am going with all of this…….

however, i forgot that i had the GREAT God on my side. and He is more than ready to step in and help me when i am weak. because it is especially when i am weak that He is strong. and “His grace ALONE is sufficient for me.’

just writing and thinking about this post has made me realize that there are times when sufficient is enough! i am not owed any blessings. i am not owed freedom from the mostly minor irritations that come my way. i follow a God that allowed His only Son to be nailed to a cross for my sake. and if that is not sufficient, well, then something must be really wrong with me.

so please forgive me if i owe you an email. you are all so kind and sweet to me. i am just really behind right now. my lurking on your blogs that are so dear to me will have to be sufficient for now. i have to go and play LIFE (pirate’s of the Caribbean edition) with my own father. i owe him a game since father’s day, when i was too tired. and yesterday was his birthday. so at this point, this is what his love requires of me. not exactly the afternoon of sewing i’d rather be doing. but it’ll suffice….