Sunday Afternoon

I doubt this could be a better fall afternoon.  Cloudy, cool.
Brian brought me a wood-wick candle yesterday, pumpkin butter.  You can hear the crackling of the flame. 
It has been a busy weekend, and yesterday our house was filled with giggles and little feet running back and forth in their fun.  Brian's sister and her kids came for a visit.  Here's Sam with Caroline.

 

I've gotten back into some Wendell Berry, Fidelity, Five Stories.  He can tell a story and draw the reader in like no one else I've read.  From the first short story, "Pray Without Ceasing:"

"The whole house in that moment seemed filled with a quiet that extended not only out into the whole broad morning but endlessly both ways in time."

Friday Afternoon

Right now is a castle cup kind of moment.
That means it is completely quiet and I have coffee in my castle cup.
The boys are out with their dad, Lucy is napping, and Kayla is so happy to be in her room with her newest Nancy Drew cd to listen to.
I have raced around this messy house sweeping and wiping down bathrooms with Chlorox wipes.  For now, everything smells fresh.
Even the windows are open.
I think I've needed some real down time.  I can get so worked up about the state of the house, all the things we didn't get done in school, etc...
One thing that's been big this week in school is writing.  Love that.  Kayla and Jack are doing great with their IEW, and Sammy has started some storytelling.  We visited some of our dear "older" friends and they gave us an old toybox that had a few goodies left in it.  One goody:  a memory game where you sequence some story pictures.

 Can you see the horse and cowboy on the toybox? 

We used those story pictures to tell stories.  Sam is pretty proud of his.  Here's one:

Bark's Dinosaur Bone

Bark found a hole.  He started digging faster, and then kept on going farther.  As he expected, he found a bone!  Bark took the bone to his owner.  His owner said, "Wow Bark!  You found a dinosaur bone!"

Odds and Ends

A few things:
*I always marvel at how much I love planning and preparing for school and how things rarely go as smoothly as I imagine they will.  The best laid plans, right?  I need to learn to roll with things a little better.
*Sammy has been sooo...excited to start gymnastics (as have been Kayla and Jack).  It seems like Sam is always on his head or doing flips.  Well, we had our first class today and it went GrEAt!  I wish you could see the smile on Sam's face once he got started- that kid needs a room filled with mats and bars in at home!  I had to wonder what was going through Kayla's mind when she got out on the floor; she's been so looking forward to this since the Olympics.  I head Jack say, "I thought it would be fun but wow!  That was better than fun."
*A few titles in our book piles lately:
for Jack:  Danny Dunn Invisible Boy  (we'll be getting more of these!)
               Hittite Warrior  (to go along with history)
Kayla:    Betsy- Tacy  (we'll also be checking out more of these)
               The Littles  (there are several books about the Littles- we found 5 this weekend at the                
                                     Goodwill bookstore.  Score!)
Sammy:  train books and more train books!  He and Jack set up our train set and he has loved it.
Lucy:  Elmo and Amelia Bedilia
Me:   I wanted something quaint and cozy so I checked out some more of Miss Read's books.  Also,
         The Envy of Eve by Melissa Kruger.  A very challenging book on coveting.
Brian:  Lost Communites of Virginia  Fascinating.  There was one story of people being baptized in the
            winter; they dug a hole in the ice first!

A Peek into Our School Day

Sometimes people ask me what our daily school schedule is like.
Sometimes they say I seem to be so calm and organized and that our days must be so nice.
Well.
Let me tell you a little about each.
I am neither organized nor calm, generally.   However there are glimmers!
One day this week, Sammy asked me, "Why do you have so much sin in your heart this morning?"
He was right.
I am more prone to impatience or frustration than I ever thought I would be.  Sammy is right to call it sin, and I am convinced my sanctification is all a part of this thing we call homeschooling.  The gospel has to be central to our day and our home or we will be in one sorry mess.  I need reminding often, even by a five year old.

Our "schedule" is a loose one.   Between 8:30 and 9:00 we get started.  I read aloud to everyone first from a chapter book, and we try to pray together before we get started.  We do math, spelling, word study, handwriting, and independent reading in the morning.  There's more "fun" reading in the afternoon or evening.  (If you know anything about our family, you know that we are a family of readers so books find their way into most every part of the day in one way or another!)
Our Classical Conversations memory work usually comes in the morning as well and includes a history sentence, geography, Latin, English grammar, science, math- skip counting, and timeline.  Much of this serves as the springboard to other activities we do.

Jack and Kayla are able to do some of this on their own while I work with Sammy.  Lucy plays so nicely during much of this time- which sometimes leaves lovely messes but that's ok with me.

What I love about history, and to a certain extent science, is adding related reading- both fiction and non-fiction.  The older kids usually do some writing (or dictations) to go along with what they've read.  There's time for history or science in the morning most days, although it sometimes gets pushed to after lunch.  I'm trying to get in a lot more nature study this year as well, which is mostly observation and sketching.

In the afternoons, Jack and Kayla work on IEW (usually history-based writing) and EEL (grammar) with me.  I love IEW.  It has been a wonderful help to the kids but also to me as we learn how to write with quality.  Sometimes we also throw in math games during the afternoon- which we all enjoy and should do more often.  I'd also like to throw in projects like lapbooks and art after lunch.

There are other parts of our day that I haven't included.
There are other things I'd like to add to our day.
We're always in process and I hope my kids are learning a lot and enjoying it as we go.

From Labor Day

The days are full and the weeks are getting busier.  I think that I am finally ready to settle into fall:  pumpkin, cinnamon candles, mums, football, etc...  It's hotter outside than it has been in a while so some of  those might have to wait a little.
Labor Day was a day off for us this year and we actually DID something so it felt like a day off and not a day to catch up around the house- which is obvious if you look around but that's ok.  Sunday night the guys camped at Brian's parents' place at Claytor Lake.  The girls and I joined them Monday to swim and just relax.  Granny and Grandpa brought up fried chicken and other goodies.  I think we all enjoyed it.

 Look who's swimming in the lake with his life jacket now!

 Truly.  The picture of relaxation.  She stayed like this for a looooong time.

Warming up after a swim.

A Legacy

That's my Grandma Pearl and Uncle Dennis on that cake.  We celebrated their birthdays last weekend.
I was struck hard by something as we were leaving that afternoon.
As I said good-bye and take care to my cousins and their children and everyone else, I saw before me the fruit of a grandma's prayers.
If you know one thing about Grandma, it's that she loves the Lord and she prays.  A lot.
I do not know the hours she has spent on her knees over her life.  My guess is that it's way too many to count.  I know she kept prayer journals and I am sure our names are written in them over and over.  She did not let you leave from a visit without circling up and "having prayer."
Now let me admit sometimes I liked this and sometimes I did not.  But that didn't matter because if Grandma wanted to pray that's what we did.
And I am humbled at what the prayers of just one woman have done for the kingdom.  I know it's the Lord who does the work but I also know He calls us to pray and He answers our prayers.
The fruit?  A family:  two sons and daughters-in-law, four grandchildren and their spouses, and eleven great-grandchildren who are seeking the Lord.
I don't doubt for a second that the times our names have passed from her lips have been used to grow us all in our faith.

 Daddy and Uncle Dennis with some of the grandkids.

 Yep.  The sign on Uncle Dennis' porch.

Celebrating 90

Everyone was done eating in the fellowship hall.
The candles had been blown out.  Presents opened.
And the ladies got to work.
I don't know how it is in other places but in small country communities, when the ladies get to work in the kitchen, it's a little more than just work.
It's relationship.
I saw them busy as bees, wrapping up leftovers, washing dishes, wiping counters.
And laughing or talking just as they have over a lifetime.
These women who are cousins, with the same grandparents who sent out nine children into this world  to work and raise families.
There have been seasons, to be sure.  Times when they have been together more than others but they are family.
And the one sister still living, the one left of the nine- my grandma.  She will be 90 on Wednesday.

And so we celebrated this one that is dear to us all in the fellowship hall of that little country church that is etched into Ennice, North Carolina and into our minds:  the place of my parents' wedding, choir specials, receptions, anniversary parties, funerals and 90th birthday parties.