Viewfinders

The girls were "playing" with their view finders the other day. I can't remember the last time they pulled these from the bottom of their closet where toys are stored. Many years ago, Dwayne's mom gave us her old viewfinder with antique, unique inserts including one of photos from Queen Elizabeth's coronation. The viewfinder wasn't actually a toy for his mom; it was something her pediatrician prescribed her to exercise her eyes! We've added a newer viewfinder and some inserts with modern scenes like favorite Disney films. I am thankful that Adele can inspire Avril to embrace her childhood a little longer. The two still play so well together, and I'm thankful for moments like this. 

Avril Turns 13

We celebrated Avril's birthday at Cheesecake Factory last night. That's where she and her older sister really like to go for their birthdays. 

When I suggested going somewhere else for her birthday dinner, she started singing, "Traditioooon! Tradition!" from Fiddler on the Roof, so that settled any discussion. 

After dinner, we walked over to the mall to let Avril pick out a gift from the Lego Store. She was given a reasonable budget for one kid, one gift. 

But when she asked for input from her sisters, the girls all agreed they'd love a particular set, but it was over-budget for just one kid... 

But Adele's birthday would be coming in a little over one week...

So by cleverly offering to combine their birthday gifts into this one larger Lego set that they could share, they persuaded us to purchase something over-budget, but bigger, better, something they both really wanted, and best of all, we could avoid coming back to the mall again next week. 

We took the deal!

Adele has other ideas for her birthday dinner.  She wants homemade spaghetti and a special dessert she saw in a kids' cookbook, so there won't be a need to return to the mall for dinner and cheesecake, either. 

So we came home with one gift for both girls. 

That was totally unplanned, but it really works. 

It was a great night with lots of laughter and some intense, good-natured negotiations. 

Fresh Flowers

I try to keep fresh flowers on our table.

Their fragrances waft around us as we sit and complete our school work. 

As the days go by, the flowers open more, and the sunlight plays through their textures and colors and provides constant interest and delight.

I maintain that taking a minute to study the flowers isn't the same thing as giving in to distraction. 

Admiring them seems to facilitate our ability to concentrate longer.

It's a small expense, but I find it well worth the indulgence, especially if we have the necessity of sitting together in the same place inside for a while each day. 

Visit to The Met

I snuck away after church and drove into the city to spend a few hours at the The Met alone. I listened to my favorite podcasts there and back. It was nice not to be interrupted with, "Mom! Look at this!" every thirty seconds. I could linger as long as I wanted at one painting without having to look up and keep track of three people scattered throughout the gallery. But interestingly, I did find that I also missed having my girls there to discuss things with. They actually help me see so much more and really multiply my joy. So the plan is to go back with them very soon. 

The City of God Reread

 I finished the audio book of The City of God a few weeks ago. I was glad to be done, since some portions were a real slog. But then I found myself sad it was over and longing to hear Augustine's clear rhetoric again like a cool breeze, so I promptly started listening again from the beginning. 

That led on to a desire to actually see and hold the text. I wanted to highlight certain quotes and track the argument with my eyes and fingers. So I purchased the tome. Now I am listening some, then reading some, listening to more, reading more. 

I see that I am venturing into a different sort of reading these days, content to stay in the same books and linger over the same poems. For years, I just devoured content, taking what I could get quickly and moving on, saying to myself and others, "I've read that." But I am not sure that's reading. I would go so fast I often forgot what was said. 

I'm dissatisfied with that sort of reading anymore, so I'm taking my time with this book. It may take a while, but I suspect it'll be worth it. At this pace, what I carry forward will be with me forever, literally. 

Geometries

We're taking more walks outside as the weather warms. 

There's always enough to interest the eyes, even taking the same paths. 

The other day, everything seemed a study in geometries.  

Beekeeping Update

Our bees didn't make it through winter. It's not uncommon, but it's still a disappointment. I plan to process the wax and use it to make candles again. I am on the fence about trying again this year. If I do get another batch of bees to raise, I'll probably try the traditional Langstroth hive instead of the Layens I have now. 

Faces of History

One of my favorite days of the year = Faces of History for Essentials students at Classical Conversations. Students write a final paper, dress up, and do a presentation about a person or character from the period of history we are studying. This year was ancient times. Adele was Persephone, Dread Goddess of the Underworld.

The Horror of Realization!

The horror of realization!

We are, every one, another Job.

And The Enemy is given leave

To do whatsoever He wills. 

Only He cannot kill us,

When death would be a mercy.

Barred out of Eden, 

Barred into Gethsemane

 

We thirst! 

I am mad with it, in fact.

But The Master at every feast,

The Devourer holds the only cup

And the knife. These pains, 

I confess, I see, 

Are crafted so exquisitely 

Fit to my every particularity

Indeed, almost lovingly! 

The Lord is not the only One 

Counting the hairs on my head.

My frame is not hidden from either of Them.

There is no secret place! 

How old was Our Christ when He perceived

That His Body was every bread torn,

That His Blood was every wine poured? 

The Incarnate Word would comprehend 

Every symbol so much sooner.

Was He very young then 

To be So terrified?

He was a man in the garden,

But did a mere boy have to stare 

Into this decomposing maw?

I, myself, seem far too old 

To only just recognize 

That Life is some portion of living Death.

I faint and bleed out; 

The Leopard pursues. 

If there is another road, 

To even begin anew, I must first, 

somehow, be nursed, healed,

If it be Your will.

Lead on from here!

Only be sure not my will be any of it! 

For I rave, spit, and long to fade

With my blood into the ground.

I forget my Sainthood; 

I become a shade.

I only long for that dream I am waking from, 

I only weep to dream again.

-Veronica Boulden

First Sign of Spring

We saw a crocus on our walk the other day. It was a Norman Rockwell moment. So we mimicked his "First Sign of Spring" painting for fun. 
 

The Sublime

I'm reading The Abolition of Man with The Literary Life podcast. A member of that group shared this video about Caspar David Friedrich. I'm reading Mere Christianity with my Challenge 4 class and I'm leisurely going through The Complete Poems of Keats in my free time. All of these sources mention the sublime. So it's a concept I'm thinking of often. I've also made it a goal to take 100 walks this year. Sitting by this stream today after one of my walks, listening to it sing, seeing the light dance on the surface, feeling the spray of tiny water droplets on my skin... ahh! It was sublime. I have decided to take as many of those 100 walks outside as possible to give myself more opportunity for experiencing sublimity. 

"I want to climb that rock wall and sit on that tree next time we come. Okay, Mom?" 

The next time came, and she did. 

God Provides

The girls have grown so much in the last few months that we had started to "run out" of enough clothes and shoes in their correct sizes and the right season. One was wearing jeans way too big which was better than wearing jeans that were way too tight.  Another was wearing tennis shoes with everything, because all the nicer shoes she had were too tight or else, far too large, etc. With three girls, we keep everything and pass clothes down, but stuff wears out and we may not have the right thing in the right size and season.  I said a quite prayer about it and told Dwayne, "We'll need to go shopping soon." It was only a few days later that a friend at church said she had clothes to give us. Her exchange student left many, many items when she moved. So the clothes came with her to church on Sunday and then they came home with us from there. We were able to keep the majority of what we were given; the items fit some one of the girls. And they are stylish, fashionable, fun pieces (like Eeyore overalls) we might not ever buy, since we tend to buy the most practical items. The girls are delighted and I wanted to record this testimony for posterity. We'll still have to buy a few pairs of shoes and tops, but the infusion of clothes came just in time! God provides! 

Another Sort of Learning

I'm giving this book to my Challenge 4 class when they graduate this year. I'm reading it now for something like the sixth time and I love it more than ever and I think it's just the thing for a group of young people who are going to college and starting their lives. I found Schall in 2016 by following the notes in another book. What a treasure! 

Memory Master

She wants to try for Memory Master this year, so almost daily, we sit down together and review two subjects worth of material, either geography and timeline, or Math and history, or English and Latin, some combination. When she has built up speed and endurance in a few weeks, we'll do all the subjects in one sitting, the official parent proof, and we'll see if she can move on to the other proofs. "Can we review memory work now?" she asks. So it's something we're doing together. No pressure. Just consistent practice. And we're both learning. Almost daily, too, something from the memory work comes up in a sermon or the news or another book and she looks over at me and smiles or shares the known fact with the family and that leads to instructive and enriching conversations. 

"We Give Our Children Our Best"

I was actually physically pained to give Norah one of my two copies of Scott Crider's "Office of Assertion" today. 

She's writing her Senior Thesis, said she felt she needed to be reminded how to write academic papers, needed to read an example essay. 

Of course, Crider is just the thing, so I eagerly took my copies off the shelf and turned to her. 

Naturally, she took a book and looked it over then asked a question she has asked at least a dozen times before in situations just like this one, "Can I just have this?" 

Neither she nor I totally understood my hesitation this time. 

This same thing has happened so many times before and I am usually happy to put the right book in her hands at the right time.

I thought I lived to do so.  

"...Yes." I said, finally. But this time, it was obviously only by a force of the will that I got the word out. 

"Mom, you have two," she said. 

But then she must have recognized what was going on inside me. 

It must have been familiar, because she loves her books with that kind of love and guards the bookshelves in her room like Smaug guards his treasure. 

I know she is hoarding two copies of some most beloved books up there.

Norah sighed and with a hint of humor, patiently, then even kindly asked, "Which copy do you care about less?"  

I answered, "That one, I suppose. This one was given to me by Mrs. Constanza." 

So as I gripped the older one given by a friend that I decided I was keeping, I passed her the other book, finally.

But that one also has so many highlights, too.

Then I heard the Holy Spirit say to my heart, "We give our children our best." 

I agreed with Him with a silent "Amen" at the thought. 

I am usually happy to give my children books, but this time, God actually let me feel a physical pain in the giving. 

Of course, I recognized the entire time the book actually belongs in her hands.

And though I did not know it at time, I see that I was probably preparing that copy for her all along as I lovingly highlighted all of the best within it.  

What else is teaching anyway, but letting what we have been given pass through us to others? 

In "O Sapientia," Malcolm Guite says, "I cannot teach except as I am taught or break the bread except as I am broken..."

Today, for some reason, God let me feel the breaking that teaching is, like a tearing up and portioning out of myself. 

I have to trust that there will be enough left for me, too.

Or I have to know that if I am left with a smaller portion, because I have given my daughters what is due to them, that, too, will be God's will.

"This is my body..." Christ said before tearing the bread and giving it out, before giving His body to be broken for my sins.

He, too, had to trust Himself to God and do what was right with what He had for the others around Him.

Maybe He let me feel the pain today so I could recognize His Spirit inside me and know myself better. 

I am not as giving as I thought I was apart from His gentle urging. 

Or maybe He let me feel the pain so I would simply feel Him nearer in the mundane things I have to do every day.

Teaching is a refining process, indeed, so is motherhood, so is this Christ- life.

Mancala

The girls wanted to learn how to play with their dad's old mancala board, so I found a how-to video on You Tube for them to watch. (I had totally forgotten how to play and their dad wasn't home to ask at the time.) Apparently, the youngest won every game they played! I love what these girls have in each other. They play at least one game of chess every single day and many other games besides throughout the week! 

Science Fair Update

The results were recounted and Avril actually tied for first place at this year's Science Fair! 

Note: There was an error in calculations during the bustle on the night of the fair and it wasn't caught until later. Her tutor wanted to make it right and make sure the tie was officially recognized. 

Since the whole project was recorded here start to finish, I felt like Avril deserved for me to come here and correct the record for posterity. 

She got first place and tied with her closest friend, which is probably the part she enjoys the most. 

The other first place project was outstanding, so it is an honor to be ranked up there with that project and the young lady who did it. 

Too, her classmates chose her project as the class favorite, which is a special honor. 

Her tutor gave out other special recognitions for various reasons and Avril was given "Most Organized Project, Impressive Lab Journal, and Best Display." 

My daughter is still interested in her topic and has more she wants to do with it, but she isn't ready to continue yet. 

She has a few weeks of Challenge work to finish. 

Her plan is to start again where she left off in her research and lab journal and trials when she has more leisure time in summer. 

It's a good plan! 

Cup Stacking, Board Games, and Archery

We joined a new homeschool co-op. 

Actually, it's not new a new co-op at all; It's a very well-established co-op that's been meeting at our church for many years. 

So it seems like it should have been an obvious choice for us to try to join it a while ago. 

But for a long time, I worked part-time teaching and also subbing as many fitness classes as I could manage to fit into my schedule. 

During that season, there was a real concern that we might not get enough school work done unless I was home when I was home and we were doing school when I was home, so the only co-op we ever did was our weekly CC meeting. 

Now that I am not working, I am thrilled to discover we have this thing called "margin" and now we do the sports and we can even join another co-op!

But honestly, even if we found out that we couldn't do as much school work and we ended needing to adjust something and do less, we'd probably go ahead and do that and make this co-op a priority.

It only meets every few weeks. 

And while academic work is going to remain important, relationships become more important.  

Lately, it feels as if the Lord has hacked my personality and I'm not even an introvert anymore. 

I'll have to turn in my introvert card after admitting all of the following:

I am in a season where I literally long for people, and I am actually energized by them. 

On top of that, when I am not physically with others, I actually continue to think about people and pray for them hours and even days later, and then I reach out to them via phone and text and cards. 

Make what you will of it. 

But I was once the most intense of introverts. 

Now there seems a vast space inside me with room for others.  

To me, this change is squarely in the category of "miraculous," but also totally expected and simply evidence that there is a Spirit at work within my spirit. 

That Spirit is the original extrovert who began with, "Let us make man..." and continued with, "The second is like unto it: Love thy neighbor.." and ended with, "A new command I give you: Love one another." 

The Lord calls what is out of what is not indeed.    

So it was a true delight to be at this new co-op and with its lovely people, many of whom I already know from CC or church. 

The co-op classes focus on fun and enrichment. 

My youngest is taking pottery, board games, and chess club. 

She made the most adorable "pinch pot" owl inside the space of one class period

It'll dry before next class, then she'll paint it, then the teacher will take it home and fire it and bring it back, etc. 

I hope it will eventually live on my dresser forever. 

I was really impressed with all the adorable things that the pottery students had made and were in the process of working on, and I wish kind-of there was a pottery class for the moms. 

My oldest signed up for cup stacking. 

(It's a thing. We had no idea until we saw it listed on the class options and did a Google search to check it out.) 

My oldest came home from co-op and proceeded to #1. ask and ask for a set of official quick stacking cups until I sat and ordered them off Amazon and then #2. promptly started practicing with disposable coffee cups. 

She's also in board games and archery. 

The archery teacher also happens to be our kids' most beloved pastor and our family's dear, dear friend. He never fails to speak to us if he sees us in the church lobby, and though it seems a small gesture, after years of that consistency and kindness, he's built an incredible influence with our girls.  

Again, joining this co-op was an obvious choice. 

After co-op, we even went on to go to lunch with friends at Chick-fil-a. 

He's a wonder-working God! 

In all seriousness, I am truly, very thankful for the fun we had in the classes and the new stuff the girls learned about, but mostly, simply, I joy in the extra time spent with others.

  

Avril, my middle daughter, is drawing and learning the skeletal system in Challenge A right now, so I took the model skeleton out of the schoolroom closet for her. Adele, my youngest, must have thought the looked lonely there in the middle of the table alone, so she brought the art manikin out to keep him company. I laugh every time I notice these two. They look like bros. 

Easter Decorating Continued

My youngest collected all our Easter or Springish books and put them out on display to add to our Easter decor. 

She and/ or her sisters read them silently to themselves or aloud to one another here and there throughout the days. 

The libraries do this kind of thing, putting out books for every season. 

I always dreamed of living inside the library anyway, so that's fine. 

Commonplace Book Update

I'm still copying my highlights from Ourselves by Charlotte Mason into my commonplace book. 

I finished Ourselves earlier in the year, but I highlighted so many quotes that it is taking me a really long time to copy them all by hand into my commonplace book. 

I've finished several other books since then and I've got highlights in those books, too, that I'd also like to add to my commonplace book eventually. 

But I find that I don't mind reviewing the texts slowly in this way. 

It is a nice way to slow down and go back and revisit and collect and cherish and contemplate beloved ideas from the books I've read. 

Reflections on the Basketball Season (and Sports Activities in General)

My two younger girls have been playing basketball for the last few months with the rec center. After their final games on Saturday, we celebrated the season with a late lunch/ early dinner at Sycamore with frozen root beer floats, cheeseburgers, and two big baskets of fries- curly and regular. 

This was the first time the girls had ever played basketball (or any organized sport for that matter). That's not because we don't value sports, but like most every other family, we have limited time and money, so we had to make choices and order our priorities based on what we prefer and value most. 

We know families that make sports a priority and apparently, really enjoy doing so, but sports activities usually proved to be far too expensive in our reckoning and/ or they were usually going to require too big of a time commitment during the week and on weekends for our sensibilities. 

We wanted to spend most evenings at the dinner table or fireside. 

We didn't want to be most of the time shuffling here and there in the evenings, eating convenience foods instead of home cooked meals. 

Note: I can't manage to cook and do a bunch of evening activities. I know some people have their kids in sports and still manage to cook and they have my respect and admiration. I know some moms just go through the drive through and live with that, but that's also not me. 

But the rec center had an affordable basketball program with a reasonable time commitment, so it was a perfect fit for our family's limitations, priorities, and sensibilities. 

We still had to stretch ourselves out of our comfort zones a little to make it a priority. 

There were evenings when I wanted to skip practice and stay cozy at home, but we never did. 

It was just a season, so we made it a priority for the time and got to (almost) every practice (I think we only missed one) and we were at every game. 

Both the girls learned a lot, got a ton of hearty exercise, made friends, bonded with their coaches, and want to play again next year. 

The youngest is continuing with basketball lessons once a week now that the season is over, because those are available for her age group and at a time of day and price that works for us.  

I am very thankful to find a way to add sports to their lives without feeling too overwhelmed financially or time-wise.

Lent

We're preparing for Easter in our home and in our hearts. I'm thankful for my daughters. They help with the motivation and inspiration to decorate and mark the seasons in special ways. I find it difficult enough to simply clean as often as is needed, let alone find the energy to also decorate with the seasons, so my daughters' youthful enthusiasm when it is time to decorate is a welcome relief at this point in my life.

Our Easter decorations includes a crown of thorns. This crown sat in its box for years, because the children came along and they were very little and very clumsy, and it seemed like too much of liability to display it anywhere. 

Then, one Easter, our beloved neighbors gifted our daughters the pink basket you see in the picture above. (They always give the girls baskets and generously invite us to join their family's Easter egg hunt making our Easter memories so much more rich and special.) Once all the candy and toys were removed from the basket, I realized it was just the right size and shape for our mantel and just the right place to place the crown of thorns. 

I like the contrast between the two items. It aids my contemplation as I go through the season. Behind all the bright Easter trappings of our modern celebrations that we make so safe and joyful for our children, (and rightly so), there is ever-present, right there, a terrible, gruesome, bloody, cruel reality of the story behind the holiday. Of course, our children will hear about Christ's passion often as they grow up in church, but eventually, they all become old enough to actually comprehend what was done to Him, and that such a thing could happen to anyone, that human beings could do such a thing to anyone, that they might be the victim of such terrible things, or worse, capable of doing such terrible things themselves. It all has to be confronted.

It all is being confronted in our Lenten readings. For our readings, I took all four Gospels (and some of Acts) and started at the place where each Gospel begins telling of Christ's passion, then I portioned the texts into thirty-seven readings, (so we could have room to skip a reading or two out of necessity as life usually happens.) 

We begin each evening with reading "O Sapietia" by Malcolm Guite aloud. By the end of Lent, I'm certain we will all know it by heart just like that. Note: This was not part of the original plan, but it came about because my youngest asked for a new poem to memorize for her weekly presentation at Classical Conversations and this happened right as Lent began. So I read her "O Sapientia" and she liked it straight away, especially when she found out it was written by "Our Guy." That's what my girls affectionately call Malcolm Guite. They watched him on Hutchmoot Homebound 2020, saw his vest and his pipe and his garden tree and they liked what he had to say well enough to listen to him twice. But then they saw him again on Hutchmoot 2021 and he was sailing and then he let them into his study and they spied his bookshelves and he ate jam and crumbs fell on his vest and he slurped his tea and he read them silly but seriously profound poetry and they've been absolutely smitten ever sense. Now he's "Our Guy." So we start each evening with a poem that's actually a prayer to Wisdom for wisdom. 

The first evening of Lent, we started in John with the death and resurrection of Lazarus and the anointing of Jesus' feet by Mary. We have a bottle of spikenard, thanks to the easy availability of essential oils these days. We each took a drop on our wrists. Even with only five drops, the sent filled the room as it did that night. My original plan was to only use the spikenard on the evenings we read about Jesus' anointing, but now my youngest takes up the bottle every night and anoints herself with one drop at the beginning of every reading and offers it to everyone who may or may not take some. And I let her do this. I can see no better use for the oil. These will not always be with me. And human nature will be avenged if it has been starved, so I just let them feast, pour it out, soak it up, and breath deep while our time together remains. We find that even one drop fills the room with fragrance. How truly extravagant and overwhelming it must have been to spill out the entire jar!  

We hold a smooth coin or coins that go along with the place we are in the story. Note: My friend Jesse paints these Easter coins and many other good, good things like them that she shares with Children's ministry or Sunday school classes and sells to friends like us. We have also purchased several of her Christmas ornaments. Our holiday contemplations are so enriched and beautified by her gifts. 

Last evening, we held the coin with the crown of thorns and we read about Jesus being struck in the face, and the crown of thorns being placed on Jesus' head, and the purple robe being placed on his shoulders, and the mockery. I chocked up as a I read it and in doing so, I probably made it harder for my daughters to hear. They quickly offered to relieve me and read. It was painful and awkward for us all. But I asked for a second and I recovered quickly enough to be able to keep going without too much trouble. But when I think of it now from a distance, God forbid I read the words like some Stoic. That might be worse than any awkwardness that comes from the proper human emotions one ought to feel when witnessing that sort of suffering. 

I'm reading Malcolm's Guite "Word in the Wilderness" through Lent. It's the first time I haven't read Scripture in the morning, but with all the Scripture reading at night, I felt the freedom to read poetry instead. This is the first Lent that we've ever done so much, so deliberately, and it is proving overwhelming in the best sense. The heavy weight of the holiday is permeating our days like a heady scent filling up the room, and we are breathing in deeply.

Faces of History

It's Faces of History time again at CC. 

Essentials students write a Faces of History paper at the end of each year. 

Students pick characters from the history cycle that CC is currently on, and they compose a paper about their character, and give a first-person presentation in costume.  

This year, students are choosing characters from ancient history, so my youngest daughter chose Persephone. 

She's long been enchanted by the Greek myths about Persephone, and we've read and enjoyed these stories for many years already. 

Now, we're working on her essay little by little, rereading our beloved sources, taking notes, fusing details into a thorough and organized retelling of Persephone's story to share with her classmates, the Essentials families, and guests. 

We've ordered my daughter a Persephone costume (that will also happen to double as a beautiful, white Easter dress for this coming Easter.)

Note: We keep every costume and prop we ever purchase in a chest in their room, and reuse them for fun or for Halloween or for dramatic occasions when we may read a play and need a costume. 

And we've also purchased my youngest a crown of flowers with long, satin ribbons to go with her dress on the day of presentation, just the sort of thing a bride's maid would wear, but also perfect for Persephone.  

This project and event brings the magic of story into the real world and always fires my daughters' imaginations.  

It's something they all encourage one another in, since they all do it when they are in Essentials. 

In years past, my middle daughter was Artemis, Lady Guinevere, and Laura Inglas Wilder. 

In years even more past, my oldest daughter was Hera, Joan of Arc, and Sacagawea. 

Almost these characters become a part of our family through the shared Faces of History experience and will often be referred to in conversations even years later. 

Faces of History has become a delightful part of our family culture.

Just like the old costumes, I know I have all the pictures somewhere, but let me see if I can quickly find one or two pictures from previous years to share. 

Here's one of my middle daughter as Laura Inglas. This was only last year, her last year in Essentials. 

Here's one of my oldest as Joan of Arc many, many years ago. We made the costume out of a garment bag and duct tape! She insisted that Joan needed armor, not a dress. I agreed, of course! We still have the banner you see in the picture in the coat closest. She painted it herself. 

A Stack of Faithfulness

I helped my nine year old clean out the book bag she takes to CC each week. 

Once all the trash had been thrown away and we'd organized what was left, I noticed the pile of papers she has accumulated. 

I counted. 

There were fifteen essays. 

I thought to myself, "This! This is why I am a part of Classical Conversations!" 

I know. 

I know. 

It's not about the quantity of the work. 

It's about quality. 

But sometimes artifacts can serve as one reliable indicator of how well you are doing, even if they simply indicate how faithful you have been to work at the material set before you. 

That's what this stack of essays indicates to me. 

I don't remember writing fifteen essays, but I know we've simply been faithful to sit down together a few days a week and focus on the content, talk, work through the material, laugh, and learn.

I'm not all that worried about assessing exactly how much my daughter has learned.

But I am sure good things will come from that stack of faithfulness. 

CC is my very deliberate way of bringing accountability to our homeschool. 

We get lots of other benefits from community, of course, but this stack of papers was a reminder to me about the good accountability brings to us.

I have enough self-knowledge to know that if it weren't for the fact that we are in CC, too much of my kids' schooling would be at the whim of my moods, 

or their moods, 

or our combined moods.

We'd probably be skipping far too many assignments, especially the borings ones, far too many subjects, especially the ones we aren't inclined to, and far too many school days altogether, especially when we'd just rather not. 

But simply having to show up weekly at CC means we're all motivated to do the curriculum (or as much of it as we can) and do well (or the best we can.) 

The Action Bible

 "Mom, Jesus just had an epic Scripture battle with Satan, and He won!"

*proceeds to narrate the entire temptation of Jesus in detail*

"Satan misused Scripture, but Jesus knew it better."

-My youngest daughter after reading The Action Bible one afternoon

Graphic novels are becoming more popular, but popularity usually doesn't impress me. 

It may even make me more skeptical and suspicious to find out most people like something.

Of course, my kids were drawn to graphic novels like every other kid who ranges the stacks at the library in summer, but I was on the fence about them until I saw an outstanding graphic novel done on The Iliad by Gareth Hinds. 

After I picked my chin up off the floor, shocked at how beautifully done the work was, I quickly purchased it and then slowly started purchasing others including The Odyssey, Poe: Stories and Poems also by Gareth Hinds and The Hobbit by Charles Dickon. 

In that context, I found the graphic Bible shown above at the library book sale, and it was nearly free and brand new, so I also bought it and then promptly hid it until Christmas, so I could gift it to my youngest daughter, who had asked for a Bible and also happens to love graphic novels. 

Note: I also bought her an actual Bible with the actual text. I'm no fool. 

But the last few weeks, she's been reading this graphic Bible for her silent reading time. 

I had reservations about allowing her to do this. 

I like her to use her silent reading time to read the best things. 

No twaddle.

This is a graphic novel... 

But it's also the Bible. 

So what to do?

I let her read it.

I have been pleasantly surprised and ultimately, refreshingly humbled, by how much more Biblically literate my daughter is in only a very short time. 

Like I described above, she was able to narrate the temptation of Christ in detail, so she is getting a good deal more than I would have thought possible from this graphic Bible. 

I also notice that she still reads her regular Bible other times throughout the week, so it's not like she favors this Bible over the other. 

It may be my imagination, but she seems to be reading the Bible more and copying more Scriptures and it is certainly coming into her conversation more.

I was skeptical about graphic novels in the same way I'm skeptical about abridged versions of classic stories or adaptations of any sort.  

I fear they will "ruin" the real book for my kids, and because my kids have read the abridged versions or some adaptation, they might think, "I've read that," when they really have not read the original book at all, and then they will be less likely to pick it up again. 

And that may actually be true for some readers. 

I am a teacher, so I can see how that might definitely be true if the readers reading graphic novels or abridged versions or adaptations aren't really readers at all.  

If a student is reading begrudgingly and under compulsion, probably nothing but the actual book will be enough to help them overcome their lack of discipline or interest. 

But I have found that in a very literate family like ours, where everyone reads all the time and is constantly discussing books, graphic novels aren't devastating to our reading habits and appetites, quite the contrary. 

This seems to be true of the families of my students who are also avid readers. Not neglecting the actual texts, these families don't hesitate to enjoy graphic novels, even abridged texts, even at times, adaptions or fan fictions, because they just add those materials into the great conversation they are having in their homes. 

These materials, graphic novels and abridged versions and the like, have the same sort of place Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare has. 

Tales of Shakespeare introduces my kids to the major characters and plot points in a Shakespeare's play before they read the whole play for the first time. 

Note: Even the grown-ups in our home find the summaries of plays helpful if it is the first time we are reading a play or if it has been a while since we have read a play. 

Similarly, for the great stories, the type that can't actually ever be spoiled, the graphic novels we have seem to serve to introduce my young ones to the plots or characters or ideas and even seem to make them more likely to read the unabridged original text at an earlier age and more often than they might have otherwise. 

The graphic novels and abridged versions do actually seem to excite them and peek interest. 

But again, this may be because the readers reading them are already disciplined and enthusiastic readers rather than begrudging readers. 

I would never want this Bible to replace the KJV or NIV, same as I would never want the abridged version of Jane Eyre to be the only version of the story my girls ever read, but in our very literary home, these graphic books and other adaptations certainly have a place in the ongoing conversation. 

Mothering

As Norah has matured, she has started “mothering” her siblings. I’m allowing this within limits, because I am trying to honor her nature. She loves. She wants to protect and nurture. And she’s usually not wrong. It IS Avril’s turn to do dishes, or Adele does need to brush her teeth, or we all do need to careful because of the ice, etc. Today, she picked up my glasses and handed them me. “I really wish you’d wear these… *then she ventured into lecturing me* I’d usually remind her how old she is and/ or who is in authority here. But as it was happening, my imagination totally fast forwarded me forty years into the future to when I’m in my eighties and I don’t want to put those drops into my eyes because they sting, etc. Instead, I hugged her. I said, “Thank you for caring about me so much.” (But I still didn’t put the glasses on.)