Ordinary Time

We had our annual Christmas Tree Trimming Party today. There was lots of food, lots of fun, and we took zero pictures. All I have to show you are pictures of the final results. From outside. If you make the picture bigger, you can see the tree and some people in the window. Now to put away all the boxes tomorrow. Usually, I try to get it done all in one fell swoop, but we decided it would be more fun to all watch a Christmas movie together tonight. The boxes will keep until tomorrow. And a couple of bonus pictures. K. built a porg, which, if you are like me and have no idea what it is, it is a puffin-like creature from a Star Wars movie. We have the regular version. And the Santa hat version.

I think I mentioned that in my Creative Writing class, over the past few weeks I have been reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol out loud to everyone. I also think I mentioned that I love reading Dickens out loud. He wrote such rich language which then formed such memorable characters. A Christmas Carol is the best entry to reading Dickens, I think. First, everyone knows the story and second, it's really a novella being not that long. I can tell you, if you read at the rate I do (which I admit is a tad on the fast side), you can read the entire story out loud in just over three hours. If you have never read the actual story or have never read it to your children, do it this year. There is far more going on in it than even the best movies can put in.  Of course, since it was written in 1843, there is some language and customs that a reader in 2021 might not understand. When I can, and when it doesn't interrupt the flow of the story too much, I will pause and explain a few of th...

Every so often I come across a question that catches me totally off guard because it is so different from how I see the world. These are the questions that I have to read several times because I can't quite believe what I'm reading. The most recent of these was someone in a homeschool group asking if they should punish their child because the child was having a difficult day and weren't being cooperative.  Before I begin, I want to talk about the idea behind this question and not dump on the parent. Parents, like children, do the best with what they have. We all make mistakes or have areas that where we need to rethink our attitudes. No one is perfect and it is far better to support someone as they learn and grow rather than hold them up to ridicule. My issue with the question was the word 'punish'. Does anyone really think that punishment is a way to instill good behavior in a child (or anyone)? Do you do your best if you are punished (or having the fear of punishm...

Since I'm sure that no one really wants to hear about my holiday to-do lists which are rapidly growing if I'm going to pull everything off, I decided to share the status of my current crafting projects. That sounds much more pleasant, doesn't it? I admit that I've been retreating to my studio to spin more frequently than I probably should because "spin yarn" is not really on that list I mentioned, but it makes me happy and calm which is good for dealing with too many things to do.  First, I have almost reached the halfway point of the yarn I need to spin for the cardigan I want to make for myself. I'm up to 550 yards out of 1300. This is what 550 yards of yarn looks like. I go back and forth between filling bobbins with singles, filling each bobbin on the lazy Kate, and then plying it all together. The plying definitely goes the fastest. I have also figured out the gauge for the sweater. Here is a swatch of what it will look like knitted up. The bottom hal...

I don't know about you, but I have found being a Christian to be difficult over the past year and a half or so. Between the pandemic and the societal divisions, I have often found myself seeing what other people post or say or share and wondering how on earth they can reconcile those things with what Jesus said. Personally, I find much of it so mutually exclusive that I wonder if I even knew these people at all. I know I am not the only one to feel this way. Who have we become? I didn't want any part of it. Jesus yes, but so much has been done and said as representatives of Jesus that the disconnect became too much.  Except for outside services for major holidays, we haven't been to church in over a year and a half. There were many reasons for this. Lock downs, concerns for the health and safety of our children, overwhelming fatigue from any number of sources, and at least for me, feelings of being very much in the wilderness.  I really struggled with questions such as ...

If you've been around for any length of time, you might have begun to suspect that homeschooling and traditional, brick-and-mortar schooling are two very different things. And you would be correct in that suspicion. There are a few reasons for this. Even families with quite a few children are still not doing crowd control of upwards of 25 children in a classroom. Just that one fact alone changes everything. We also have control over our curricula... what we use, how we use it, whether we keep using it. We can tailor the curriculum, method, timing, frequency and duration of lessons to each child. There is no wasting time on teaching something that is already understood or is so far beyond that child at that moment that it is ludicrous to even try. We can go outside, take breaks, enjoy nice days, have spur of the moment field trips, eat snacks, and take bathroom breaks as needed. And working one on one with a child is extremely efficient. All of my children have learned to read with ...

It's difficult not to love a day with sun and 53 degrees on December 3.  I drove to pick-up our semi-annual bulk order today. It's not quite the same without my good friends along, but my children were excited to see the makings of hot cocoa mix. It was also a smaller order than usual. I think this is due to having generally fewer people at home combined with having bought quite a bit at the beginning of the whole pandemic thing. We are still working through some of that. We certainly weren't going to starve! Christmas is coming and I'm suddenly finding myself not feeling terribly motivated about school. This happens every year. Some years I am sensible and realize this is going to happen and adjust the school plan accordingly. I guess I was more optimistic about my outlook in December when I was planning this past August because we still have another week of so of school to work through. It is going to be a slog... for me, not my children. Christmas is coming and I...