Note Speller

This was a beautiful moment I wanted to capture with a picture. Avril is helping Adele with a page of a new Note Speller book assigned by her piano teacher. The girls often help each other throughout the day like this. And by helping the younger sister/s, the older sisters reinforce and review their own knowledge.  Homeschooling is a very nurturing environment.   

The Wind in the Willows

Dwayne was traveling for a few weeks and we did not want to continue reading our current read-aloud, The Wheel on the School, while he was gone, so we started a totally new read-aloud in his absence, The Wind in the Willows. The girls and I loved it immediately. Rat, Mole, and Badger became our fast friends and we started referencing them in conversations right away.  

I am very familiar with CS Lewis at this point in my life. As I was reading this book at particular moments, I wondered whether Lewis must have read this book, too. It reminded me of him. I checked the timeline, publication date, etc. and found that it was, at least possible for Lewis to have read this book.  Then I inquired of my literary friends and many confirmed that CS Lewis loved this book and even reread it many times.  No wonder the characters in this book felt like old friends to me all at once!  Next to Willy Shakes, Jack is my oldest literary friend. Jack knew and loved these characters long before I ever met them! 

It was exhilarating and rewarding to be able to trace that connection between Lewis and Graham.  They say all the books are talking to one another and in this case, that was obvious to me.  Reading this felt like meeting someone new and really liking them, then finding out that you and the new person both have a mutual friend. 

The Perfect Lasagna

In a very conscious and deliberate effort to bring more excitement to our weekly meals, I have been attempting to make "the perfect lasagna" for the last few months.  I will take my family's feedback like "not enough sauce, too much cheese, etc." and apply it to the next lasagna I make and I have been averaging one lasagna every one or two weeks. 

The other day, everyone loved the lasagna I made. No one had any complaints, only praise. Everyone said it was "perfect." As I sat there hearing their feedback, the realization dawned on me that I had finally succeeded and made the perfect lasagna according to my family. But, I also realized that that day, I had used what was left in two different brands of sauce jars and I was not at all sure how much of either sauce was actually in the jars. I had even used a portion of plain tomato sauce to fill out the dish and make up for what was still lacking in the jars. So I realized there was little to no way I would ever be able to actually recreate that particular lasagna in the same exact details and proportions. 

I laughed ruefully and my entire family laughed when I explained the situation to them. It just figures.  Since that day, I've made lasagna again, but it wasn't as good and it probably never will be again. But when I combine cheeses, pasta, sauce, and meat in layers, it's actually hard to go very wrong, and my family is always happy about any lasagna.

The search for "the perfect lasagna" is just one way to honor dinnertime more than I had before. Our daily meals have to happen. One way or another, my family will eat. I have been making dinner for years and years, and honestly, I had stopped caring a great deal about our meals for a while. And since I stopped caring, quite naturally, meals had simply become less special. Dinner was something I endured from the start of cook time to the end of clean-up, so dinner started to become something my whole family simply endured, too. And I started noticing this and it started bothering me.  

I decided to put more of myself into the task of feeding them again, since dinnertime wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.  And by spending a little more time and effort and even money on our evening meals, I've changed everyone's experience, especially my own. By cooking better meals, I have been bringing more honor, attention, excitement, and richness to our dinner table each night, everyone else has, too. It's a basic principle that I am simply rediscovering in this particular way. "Sew sparingly. Reap sparingly." If I care more about dinners, my family tends to care more, too.