Ordinary Time

This is the comment I get from multiple people every time I neglect to post pictures for more than a couple of days.  Here are two pictures of each girl, each doing one of her favorite things. G., pushing a baby carriage: And L, coloring/drawing: You enjoy these and I'll go back and continue to clean and organize the third floor.  I'm nearly done organizing toys and creating a resource room.  The big reveal will be on Monday... if I get it all done.

When I first started homeschooling, I spent a lot of time convincing people that my children were no different from theirs, the only thing that was different was how and where they went to school.  This rose from my need to convince myself of the normalcy of our decision in an area where homeschooling was not normal at all.  (We lived in a "very good" school attendance area; an area into which people purposefully moved in order for their children to attend the elementary school.  Our decision to homeschool was either baffling or infuriating to most of those around us.)  I was not as good then as I am now at not caring about what other people thought, so I made efforts to convince myself and others that we weren't freaks. I did such a good job that I had myself pretty convinced, but various events this past summer have caused me to rethink my position.  In watching M. and her friends prepare to go off to college, I'm realizing the untruth of the "just...

My parents head back to Arizona this morning which means the rest of us have to come back to reality from our little mini-vacation.  While they were here, we were treated like royalty... lots of treats and take-out.   Which was really just the icing on the cake of having them here.  The hard part of having moved so far away from where I grew up is that it makes it difficult to visit.  Arizona is just not somewhere you wake up in the morning and drive to on the spur of the moment.  At least not when you live in Illinois.  So we have to enjoy our visits for all they're worth when they happen. So the pre-departure moping by some children has already begun and I think I will plan on keeping everyone pretty busy this afternoon as a distraction.  They adore their grandparents and don't like to say good-bye. Thank you Mom and Dad... we love you and love to spend time with you.  And you really do spoil us!

It's August (and the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop), so that means I should probably spend some time thinking about what we will be doing this year.  I have a pile of books and resources stacked in my bedroom which I have been collecting all summer, and I suppose I should get them all out and see what I have. Since we do a lot of learning as a group and because we tend to use a literature-based unit study approach, I find it easiest to talk about our curriculum by topic rather than individuals or specific subjects.  I'll start with what everyone will be working on together. Our history co-op , having had a year's hiatus to allow the mothers a break, will be heading back to ancient Egypt this year, so that is what will focus on at home as well.  This being my third round of teaching ancient Egypt, I have decided to do things a little differently this year.  I will be combining outlines and reading lists from three sources and making our own reading and learning s...

My parents are in town, so we're play a lot this week, but I thought I'd give you a little update on the purging of the toys in the kitchen.  We had a lot of toys in the kitchen.  Some always lived there and others migrated.  It's the room we spend 90% of our time in, so it's not surprising.  Even though I had baskets and bins for them it was just too much.  The baskets and bins were overflowing and there were a lot of baskets and bins.  It took far longer than five minutes to pick-up and the amount of toys available to strew about made a significant mess. I have now pared down the toy selection to a much more manageable amount and the results have been wonderful.  First, we really can pick-up in five minutes (maybe less).  There is much less visual clutter and less raw material to create the clutter and mess.  And, the toys really are being played with.  I was pretty selective about the toys that were left out.  There are some bo...

The text for yesterday's sermon was the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32, but that is not what caught my attention.  I skimmed ahead to Genesis 33 because I wanted to remind myself what happened when Jacob actually met his brother Esau again.  (To remind you, Jacob had tricked Esau out of their father Isaac's blessing by disguising himself.  Jacob then fled so that his [twin] brother would not kill him.  It has been many years since they parted under such bitter circumstances.)  What really caught my attention in the Scripture yesterday was Genesis 33:13-14: But Jacob said to him [Esau], "My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me.  If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die.  Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir. (ESV)...

Yesterday I returned from a quick trip to central Iowa.  We (me, B., P., G. and L.) left on Thursday morning and arrived at our destination at 4pm.  Spent some time visiting my parents (who do not live in Iowa) and family friends.  Woke up, drove to the meat locker to pick-up our side of beef and a side of beef for friends (the whole point of this trip) and came home, arriving at home at 4pm. The trip went very smoothly, though I have had better nights.  G. and L. are good travellers, but tend not to sleep in the car.  They do babble at us, though.  Consequently they were very tired by Thursday evening and fell asleep with the lights on while the rest of us were still getting ready for bed.  They slept quite well until about 2:45am, when evidently a pinch fairy came through the room and attacked both girls.  Why do I think this?  Because both woke up screaming at exactly the same time for no apparent reason.  (What is it about hot...