Ordinary Time

If you've read here for any length of time, you are aware that reading to our children is extremely important to us. We start when they're babies and continue often though high school. J. still reads to Y. every night (her choice). Between reading out loud for school, reading at tea time, and reading at bedtime, we probably averaged well over an hour a day of books read out loud through the elementary and middle school years.  There are so many positive benefits to reading out loud to your children: Increased vocabulary  Increased sense of how written English sounds Increased ability to follow oral speech Increased ability to follow complex sentence structure Understanding of the idea of story and story structure Connection between parent and child Exposure to stories a child might not be accessible if the child has to read the stories themselves  Exposure to different ideas and concepts Focus I'm probably missing some benefits from that list. There is pretty much nothing...

You know I'm always interested in the difference between perfection and striving towards excellence. I came across this passage in a book I'm reading by an author and creative writing teacher which I thought was profound.       "Nothing perfect is interesting. Sometimes a student who is struggling to get work to me will say, 'My problem is that I'm a perfectionist.' I always answer, 'Oh, you don't like to fail in public, unlike the rest of my us?'       'No, no,' they say. 'The problem is I'm my own harshest critic.'      'If that were really true,' I will say, 'then you should have no trouble at all showing me your work.'       I'm a perfectionist. They say it apologetically and boastfully, a character flaw that speaks of high standards. Not I'm better than you , but I need to be better than you. Nobody ever modestly said they were a perfectionist." from A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction by El...

To celebrate the warmer temperatures, I’m offering a half-off SALE through March on adult Equine Assisted Learning!  What is Equine Assisted Learning? It is creating self-awareness which allows for the possibility of change by working with horses. Horses reflect back the physical and emotional states of the people they are near and we can use those reactions to gain insight and experience positive change by using an experiential learning cycle. No horse experience is needed or expected. This is not therapy and I am not a therapist. We deal with present experiences and tools for everyday life; I don’t need to know your stuff. Who would benefit? People seek out Equine Assisted Learning for a variety of reasons. I’ve had people come who were feeling stuck, who needed to face upcoming changes, who were grieving, who were overwhelmed by life, and just for curiosity.  What is the benefit? Here are a couple of testimonials.  “After my first session, I was hooked. At no point did...

J. has some pictures of him with his parents and next youngest sister on the wall in our bedroom. Sometimes R. notices it and wants to talk about it. R.: That your grandpa? J.: No, that's my daddy. R.: Your grandpa is so tiny. J.: That's my daddy and he's not tiny, he's a grown-up man. I'm tiny; I'm a baby. R.: You a baby?! J.: Yes, I was a baby.  R.: Your grandpa not a baby? J.: Not my grandpa, my daddy. R.: My daddy? J.: No, not your daddy, my daddy. R.: Oh, so little  I'm not entirely sure how many times they went round and round, but you get the idea. I thought about helpfully asking who was on first, but I restrained myself. And yes, if you were curious, J. is infinitely more patient than I am. 

In my pattern drafting class, we finished drafting the trouser foundation which meant that we turn could move on to drafting patterns for actual garments that we wanted to wear. I ended up with a very long list of patterns I would like to have. It was kind of hard to choose what to start with. In January, when it was so cold, all I could think about was making a pair of barn pants out of boiled wool. If the weather has stayed brutally cold, I'm sure that is what I would be working on. Thankfully it is now trending warmer and my motivation for creating a pair of very warm pants and buying the expensive fabric to make them out of has plummeted. I decided to pick something else.  Here is what I decided on. I loved this skirt and literally wore it to death. I loved it so much that instead of throwing it out, I tucked it away hoping I could make a copy of it. I even moved it in its present ratty state. I'm very excited to have a pattern for it.  First, since I've owned it for de...

We don't watch much television here and have cancelled all of our streaming services due to either political ideology or lack of use. That meant in order to watch the Olympics, we needed to get a month's service. I think we will be getting our money's worth, certainly more than three movie's worth. Yes, we still think in terms of how many movies from Blockbuster the cost would be. We are not young. All day today various children have paused to turn on the television and watch some of the Olympics. Y. was a little disappointed that curling wasn't as exciting as she had imagined it to be. Unsurprisingly, the curling team from Great Britain is dominating. If you were curious. And of course last night we all watched the Opening Ceremonies together. We'd had pasta for dinner and an Italian jam tart (compliments of G.) for dessert in honor of the host country.  Parts of the ceremonies I enjoyed. Listening to Andrea Bocelli singing an aria by Puccini was definitely the...