Informal Lost Tools Of Writing Workshop for Challenge Moms

Just a bunch of home educators learning rhetoric together, so we can teach it to our teenagers, so then they will be even better at arguing with us

Sprouted toast with salmon patty cooked in a little olive oil then dressed with a bit of mayo, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon, and crisp dill chips = delicious!

“And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still.”

The Old Man and the Sea

Norah is in Challenge 1 at Classical Conversations.  Right now, she's reading The Old Man and the Sea and writing an essay on it.

To be more engaged with her as she works this week, I read the book, too.

I had read it before, but the details were vague and I remember thinking it was boring.

I loved it this time!

One of my favorite quotes was:

"He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of pride."

This quote resonated with me, because I've been humbled by several mistakes and failures in the past several months. I am pushing my limits all the time in several areas of life, so failure and mistakes are just bound to happen, really, if I think about it.  So I am more reasonable about that and accepting of it.

At this point, thankfully, I usually don't feel much embarrassment for very long, and I have to say, this is really nice, because mistakes and failures used to debilitate me for hours or days. When I make a public mistake now or try and fail at something now, I just admit/ accept it and move on.  I usually think something like, "Well, here we go again. I know myself.  And I know God loves humility, after all. This is one more opportunity to practice humility and one more proof that God is committed to my sanctification."  So this quote resonated with me, because I begin to see that a person can have humility, because humility goes hand and hand with honesty.  A person can be humble without being totally defeated and that same person can have pride without it needing to be arrogance that comes from denial.

I also cried at the end. It was a sobbing cry. Getting older and having people I love get older made the story come to life. I saw my dad's body fail him, ultimately. I felt his spirit leave his body, since his body was no longer capable of holding his spirit.  So I was touched by this story, because it subtly speaks to these realities.  

I was glad to read this with Norah. We've already had a few amazing conversations about the book. To her credit, even though she's still very young, she loved it.  She does express regret that he made it back with only a skeleton.  But, from where I am in life, I tend to think, "But what a skeleton!"  

Memories from Christmas 2018

This is a photo from Dwayne's company's Christmas party. We always go to this event and get this same picture in front of the tree.  At this point, we can track our aging in the photos of this events.

We always attend church on Christmas Eve, too. Christmas Eve is one of the only times I make efforts and take expense to get everyone dressed up.  The other time is Easter.  On regular Sundays, we go to church, but we just wear our nicer casual clothes.

These are common sights for me in winter: bare trees and blue sky (or grey skies), fires in the hearth, and my tree.

We read The Advent Book each night of December. It's the story of Jesus' birth from the book of Luke.  By the end of the month, we all have it memorized. Each night, we also read one prophecy about the Messiah in the Old Testament and we read its fulfillment by Jesus in the New Testament.

This December, I took Norah to Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb."  We felt so blessed that the concert was held at our church. So convenient! And, to us, it felt so cozy, too.

We always open new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

This year, I put these fun glasses in with the pajamas.  When you look through the glasses at the tree lights, you see various Christmas shapes.

Here I took a photo through the glasses. You can see snowflakes!

We always finish our Advent book on Christmas morning after breakfast and before gifts.

This year, the girls got t-shirts from movies or shows they like.

Norah's a Trekkie, like her dad (and her mom).  I do enjoy Star Trek, but I've seen them all once or twice now, so I just can't commit the time to watching the shows a third of forth time. Maybe that makes me less of a fan than other fans.  But Dwayne watches them with Norah and they enjoy that time together.

Our family usually goes to the Star Wars movies when they come out, so we are all big fans of that movie series, too.  We are a family of three girls, so we love the fact that there is a leading girl Jedi in the current story line.  

And I always love to get the girls a Lego set, so I can help them put it together.  I get a set that can be done in a few hours on Christmas day and we all help.

Photos of my Bodyflow class today - I looked out and saw so many going for it today. Look at us fly! Because of an injury, Bodyflow is the only workout I can do right now. It’s always been a gift, but I feel that is true now more than ever.

"The memory of my mother, and my mother's mother, and her mother's mother's mother are all mine... They were set aside for me, my heritage, for me to reclaim when I awoke... The memories of a hundred lifetimes are mine." So speaks the dragon in Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb. By God's grace, so speaks every daughter of mine upon being given a Classical education. I'm raising dragons.

I have been working through one injury after another this season. It’s like being knocked down by an opponent who just keeps coming. It feels like I’ve got blood on my hands and knees and my face is in the dirt. I am pretty sure my rib is broken. (Really, doc says it’s an abdominal muscle tear this time.) When I catch my breath, I ask, “God! What are you doing?!” “I know how to build a champion,” He says. “Trust me.” He whispers to my heart. So I get back up. And I’ll get back up, because He says I will.

I think I’ll put a few of Portia’s and Calphurnia’s choicest quotes to memory, so I can use them at timely moments in conversations with my husband. “Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure?” and “Alas, my lord. Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.” are too good not to use again. Dwayne probably deserves better, but I only have one husband, so he will have to endure.