Ordinary Time

I'm sure this is not a new trend, but it is one that has become increasingly irksome to me recently.  And what is so irksome?  When wives speak poorly of their husbands and when parents speak poorly of their children.  First let me tell you what I am not speaking of.  I am not speaking of when two friends are talking and sharing their struggles together and encouraging one another.  I am speaking of idle conversation, small talk, when a parent will say something along the lines of, "Ugh!  My teenagers are so obnoxious these days, I can't wait until they leave to go to college!"  Or a wife will say, "I can't let my husband do _______ (fill in the blank).  He never does it right."  I could go on and on with examples, but I'm sure you get the type of comments I mean. So what is wrong with this?  Doesn't everyone know it's an exaggeration or meant in fun, not to be taken seriously?  While the overt statement might be seen as frivolous...

We put up and decorated our tree on Sunday.  Over the years we have turned the tree decorating into a family party.  We put it on the calendar early so it stays free... one of the things I love most about it is the unhurried feeling.  It has become precious family time.  First the tree is set-up and the lights and pearls go on.  Then comes the decorating: TM TM and D. A. B.  (Aren't those blue lights glaring in the picture?  It's a multi-colored strand, but, boy, it doesn't look like it here, huh?) D., M., and TM TM and A. TM managed to make it into a lot of the picture, all with huge grins on his face.  That pretty much describes how our holiday season has been so far.  TM is a much different boy these days.  Often holidays are difficult because they are a departure from our normal schedule.  The unpredictable-ness of the holidays made him a bit, well, unpredictable.  But not this year.  This year, he is happy and ...

Our washing machine broke on Friday.  We have 11 people in our family and I was already a bit behind on laundry.  Did I mention our washing machine broke?  On Friday late afternoon, right before I had to leave with A. for her show?  This is not good. I already had a love/hate relationship with my front loader and now I'm afraid that there is significantly less of the 'love' part of that equation.  First, the gasket which keeps water out from between the drum and door cracked.  I had noticed this a couple of weeks ago, but when we carefully checked, it didn't seem to be leaking.  Well, that was a couple of weeks ago and now it is leaking.  Onto the hand wash clothing I was keeping in the bin underneath.  Those clothes are now drying and I hope to be able to salvage them.  That would be annoying enough, but would be something J. could buy the replacement part for and fix.  But yesterday, not only did we discover the leak, ...

Many of you are aware that I am a children's choir director in my spare time (as well as being a former music major and piano teacher).  So as you read this, know that I am briefly putting on my 'music professional' hat.  Over the past 13 years that I have observed a disturbing trend among the children with whom I work, that is, a lack of singing ability/awareness.  I believe it is nearly entirely a result of having minimal chances to sing.  A child's natural singing voice is their head voice.  That is the light, higher sound... what you think of when you think of boys' choirs.  The other singing voice is the chest voice.  It is the louder, lower voice... think rowdy camp song singing.  Most people can move between the two voices and really trained opera singers move between the two voices with virtually no audible distinction.  When I first started working as a choir director, I would every now and then have a child who could not find, muc...

We're back with the house tour today.  Since Kelly's Korner is focusing on front halls and entry ways, I thought I would as well.  Be prepared, this is picture heavy and while we start out in loveliness, you'll also get to see a small reason we refer to our home as, "The Big Ugly House." So, come on in.  This is from the vestibule between the exterior front door and the interior front door.  The interior door has a tendency to slam, and I just know that someday the glass will shatter. We'll now move around the front hall clockwise.  The opening to your right which leads into the living rooms: The doorway straight ahead which leads into the dining room.  That panelled wall on the left?  It is actually a doorway which leads down a half flight of stairs to the exterior servants' door.  It's blocked-up, but you can see it from the inside.  When we bought the house, the previous owners had turned it into a full bath.  It was ugly, ugly...

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We are finishing up a unit on basic geography knowledge.  Instead of doing what the book suggested and do a workbook page, I decided to get the land form pans and land form cards out and have the children build geographical terms with clay.  I bought these cards from a Montessori catalogue ages and ages ago when M. was in kindergarten or first grade and when I went back to try to find the link to share with you, it seems they are not carried anymore.  Never fear!  I have something better.  In my searching I found a link to a free, printable version of nearly the same thing.  That's much better, huh?  Not only do the children really get to see what the geographical features are in three dimensions, they get to play with clay and water (always a plus) and the cards really demonstrate how different geographical features of opposites of each other.  For instance, did you ever think about how a lake and an island are opposite? Here is the crew worki...