Graduate School

Much of my time this week is dedicated to finishing my final paper for my current Rhetoric class for graduate school. 

This is my work station. Liquids, socks, blankets, books, all are at the ready. 

Dwayne is making dinners this week to save me an hour or more of effort each evening and free me to simply get up from my work, eat, and go back to work again. 

My girls are still homeschooling around me during the days. Right now, Avril's taking her online art class in the classroom, painting along with her teacher. Adele's upstairs in her room practicing guitar. The girls are often on the couches in the same room with me doing math or logic or Latin. 

I still manage to keep the household throughout my breaks, washing dishes and switching laundry here and there to give myself something different to focus upon. 

I am certainly less attentive than usual as far as homeschooling goes, but my daughters are older and they are very independent and responsible. It's easy enough to see that they are on task. And I can help as needed. I stopped work for a few moments yesterday to help Adele straighten out a particularly long long division problem yesterday. 

Sometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to complete my course work, why I must set aside so much time, but maybe it takes everyone just as long as it does for me. I am comparing myself to some imaginary idea that I have about how long this ought to take in comparison to everything else I do in life. 

I also wonder how, if at all, I might save time and effort, considering all I have to do in addition to school, but then I consider the difficulty of the material- Aristotle and Plato. I reconsider the richness of the texts, and I decide again that the work I am doing is proportionate to how much I actually care. I absolutely love what I am learning. 

Sometimes it feels like every book I've ever read has been preparing me to read (and actually enjoy) Aristotle. The first book I actually read to truly understand it was the Bible, and that's where my education began. I know the Bible better than any other text, so I see connections to portions of the New Testament and insist Paul and James must have had access to some of these texts or at the least, they had knowledge of these ideas. 

I see hints of Aristotle, too, in poems by Hopkins, novels by Lewis, and treatises by Charlotte Mason. Of course, all the great books are talking to each other, and to think- Even the Lord entered into this great conversation Himself, revealing to mankind all they could not determine through natural revelation and reason alone.  

The Lord I using this work to fit me for Himself. May all I am learning make me more capable of knowing, worshipping, and honoring Him with all I am. 

Collected images of our homeschool this week:

 

Be Serious Then Watch the Fun Begin

Last night, our Advent readings began again! 

Each night of December for over twenty years of Decembers, we have read from The Advent Book and we have looked up and read an Old Testament prophecy and its New Testament fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Then we place another ornament with these Bible verses displayed on them on the tree. Both of these items, the Advent book and the box of prophecy ornaments, were a gift from Dwayne's parents back when we were only a few years married.  This year, we've also agreed to add Malcolm Guite's "Waiting on the Word" to the nightly routine, so we will read a poem each evening leading up to Advent. Though our traditions are formally set and can be quite formal in tone, especially when we reading about Jesus's sufferings, it's usually a very casual time, everyone's in casual clothes or pajamas already. The readings often lead to quiet, intense conversations, but sometimes, the readings lead to outright raucous laughter. 

Take last night. Everyone was being sassy and sarcastic, so I read a portion of Aristotle's "Art of Rhetoric" aloud that speaks about insolence. Well, that only prompted everyone to act even more insolently, so the reading divulged into breathless laughter from everyone, especially me, and my anger over their extra insolence caused an indoor snow ball/ pillow fight. Note: I purchased a set of indoor snow balls last Christmas, and these sit in a basket near my chair for obvious reasons. I'm thankful for simple gifts of family and traditions and the heartwarming, funny memories made and those being made. 

Last night's range of moods and events remind me of a Lewis quote from "The Weight of Glory." Towards the end of that essay, he says that people can't always be solemn; we must play. But Lewis says our merriment must be of the kind that begins by taking one another seriously. Last night, our family's merriment was of the kind that began more than twenty years ago by taking each other seriously enough to gather and build a devotional tradition for every evening in December. I still remember that first Advent's awkward beginning. Norah was just a tiny baby, and what would she even remember of that Advent reading? Yet Dwayne and I honored one another by sitting on the couch with the baby, being serious when we were usually casual and light-hearted. We started something sacred. We read the book, looked up the Scriptures, and we ourselves had to hang the ornaments for our then infant daughter. Now I see that we may have done this for one another as much as we did it for her, and we may still maintain this tradition for one another as much as we do it for our kids. So now, our family shares that true merriment that comes, as Lewis describes, after we have honored one another by being serious. 

 

Decorating for Christmas 2024

We decorated for Christmas, as usual, the day after Thanksgiving, so that we are ready for our Advent traditions that start with December.  

At this point, most of our decorations carry potent memories. They are things the girls have made through the years or things we have been given by family and friends over decades of Christmases, so it's always a time of remembering and giving thanks as we unpack and place the items around the house, and the thankfulness and remembrance goes on all through the month as we move through the house all day long.

Avril crocheted this angel last year. She learned to crochet from a godly woman at our homeschool co-op. She also paper-quilled the tiny angel sitting next to it on the shelf a few years before that.  I bought her the paper quilling set as a reward one homeschool year for doing all her Analytical Tasks Sheets in Essentials at Classical Conversations. 

My college-friend gave me the first few pieces of our Christmas village. Through the following years of early marriage, I collected more. And now, the village decorates our dining room window sills.

The younger girls painted the winter-themed pictures on the mantle in previous years. 

Norah built that tiny clay nativity set. She sells these on her Etsy store, but my set is unique, since it includes two sheep and an adorable donkey. 

I purchased the pewter nativity in Boston, and I think that was the same year I was invited to try out for the Les Mills presenter team. With my health in a downward spiral in previous years, those memories of good health and fitness were once bitter, but now, they are sweet. Now that I am feeling better, I'm just thankful for the health I have, and I'm hopeful that excellent health and strength may return again someday. 

Every nativity set here represents some precious memory. I've had one of them since we were newly married. A few were made or painted by the girls during their young childhoods. The middle, miniature, wooden set belonged to Dwayne's grandmother, and it remains my favorite nativity of all. Much of our furniture belonged to Gerda. She and I had similar tastes. 

The bright yet potent red of poinsettias inside is always a welcome cheer to the dreary landscape outside. 

Dwayne always places the angel on the tree. Speaking of items gifted by family, my mother gave me that angel approx. twenty years ago. 

This year, we added a smaller tree with colorful lights to in our classroom, and we filled it with the over-abundance of homemade ornaments the girls and I have made at home and church and homeschool co-ops up to this point. We also put our Classical Conversations or collegiate ornaments there, and again, though the time for those things is past, we are thankful for the good things those institutions brought into our lives when we were a part of them. Norah and I made some of those decorations on the classroom tree when she was only three- four years old! That was a long time ago now, but also, it seems like just yesterday. 

The star on our classroom tree is the exact same star that was on my classroom tree when I was a teacher our church's private school before having kids over twenty years ago. I just kept my star in a small box with our other Christmas decorations until now. I'm glad to finally use it in my classroom again, glad it still works!  

Sitting up late with the tree lights just thinking or praying is one of my favorite things to do in December and January and sometimes February, too, depending on how long we keep the Christmas decorations up! 

Thanksgiving 2024

We hosted our friends, The Kennedys, for Thanksgiving. Our guests brought chocolate truffle to share with those of us who could eat it for dessert.  

This year, since Norah and I have to eat gluten, dairy, and sugar free, we decided to make two different versions of almost every side- dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and pumpkin pies- so we had a regular version of these dishes and a second gluten, dairy, sugar free option, too. 

I made a gluten, dairy, and sugar free apple crisp that everyone loves, even those who don't have to eat it. 

I also made Alton Brown's stove top mac and cheese at Adele's request, but I didn't even try to make a second gluten, dairy, and sugar free version of that. Norah and I just didn't eat any of that. 

We also had roasted carrots and, of course, turkey. 

After dinner, we made a pot of hot Earl tea, and gathered in the living room. Dwayne read a Merton quote about gratitude, and we took turns sharing what we are thankful for, then we sang hymns and Jim played his guitar. Later, after dessert, Norah recited one of her poems, and we enjoyed talking for a while until our guests went home. 

We've taken down the fall decorations, but we're still enjoying the sunflowers that were part of the table decorations.  

We are thankful for the holiday spent with friends. It certainly made the day sweeter. 

Paint Your Way Through Art History

Pictures of two of Avril's recent projects in Paint Your Way Through Art History at Delightful Art Co. 

The first project is a copy of Durer's "Saint Jerome in His Study." 

The second is a copy of "The Oxbow" by Thomas Cole. 

She'll be getting college credit for this class through Bryant College. 

Hillbilly Elegy

I listened to J.D. Vance's book. 

Many parts of his early life story were uncomfortably familiar to mine even through the details were vastly different. 

And painful though it was to be taken back to my some of my traumatic memories through hearing his, in total, the book was a confirmation to me that I have made a similar journey out of poverty and chaos and addicition into stability and even prosperity. 

Vance credits specific people who helped him.

He also admits to making many difficult choices to leave, to change, and even to forsake one way of life for another that was totally foreign to him.  

There were strategic people in my life, too. (People at church.)

I also consistently made painful choices- some mental, some spiritual, but many, if not most, were simply practical and physical- and these choices led me out and away from the life I may have inherited otherwise. 

In many ways, Vance's book was a secular explanation of how one person got out of poverty, but then again, almost didn't. 

I realize that someone could describe my life on similar, merely secular terms. 

She got a scholarship. 

She managed to keep it somehow.   

She met a guy who had been raised in a different way of life. 

She learned one million little ways of doing life differently than she had had life modeled for me, and she did those things consistently, and now, her life is totally different. 

But, at least for my story, I'll say that any merely secular version of my story is only 1% of the truth, and if you described my life in material terms alone, you'd miss the real story about the greater, unseen realities at work. 

I gave my life to Christ when I was a teenager, really gave Him the whole thing- and that has made all the difference- even the material, physical difference. 

Vance's book was a painfully beautiful story that honors his roots, while nevertheless, tells the awful truth about the realities of poverty, addition, and disorder in many American families. 

It prompts me to remember and give thanks for so much.