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. 

And Then There Was One

Avril was part of our church's production of the play "And Then There Was One," a spoof on Agatha Christie's famous murder mystery. 

The play was a fundraiser for the youth missions trips next summer. 

She and a team of other teens made funny sound effects for the play as the cast was on stage from start to finish. You can see her with one of the other teens on the team in the photo above. 

Being even a small part of a show for the larger grown-up cast was a lot of work for the teens- hours and hours and hours in the weeks leading up to the play. 

But the play was so fun to watch, so it was more than worth it.  

Avril's big sister, Norah, brought her flowers on the last evening of the show. 

We're all so proud of Avril for being willing to do something so challenging.

 

Keep Extra Supplies in Your Pantry and Plan Your Meals

We do the household and grocery shopping only once a week- usually on Saturdays. 

Shopping only once a week saves a lot of time and effort and allows us to just focus on homeschool during the week without any interruptions. 

I suppose I live too far away from the store to ever just "run to the store." 

Running to any store usually takes up at least an hour when it is all said and done. 

So it saves us time and effort to shop once a week, but when all is said and done, we find that we actually save money, too. 

We are never using extra gas, never shopping based on mood or impulse, and we are never in the stores mid-week seeing more and more stuff we want to buy, so it really saves to simply go into the store less often. 

To make it possible to go to the store only once a week, we have learned to do two main things:

#1. We have to plan all our meals for the week on Saturday before going to the store, and we make a grocery list based on those meals, buying little to no extra food, which means we save money.  

#2. We also have to have extra products on hand to be able to "shop" from our own supplies that we have in the house when we run out of something mid-week. 

Keeping supplies in the house-

It will take a while to figure out the products you use all the time and need to have on hand. 

It will also take a while to buy the extra portions over time. 

But it's a great idea for any homeschool mom to try and keep a limited supply of all of the products, food and non-food, you consistently use, and these can be stored in your pantry, storage closet, or freezer, depending on the product.  

For example, in the freezer, I keep chicken breasts, ground beef, ground turkey, ham, sausage, etc. in meal-sized portions and each week, as I plan meals and as I fill in the grocery list, I "shop" from the freezer, bringing the meat I want to use up to the fridge in the kitchen to begin to thaw in time for me to use it in the next few days for meals. 

In the pantry, I always have somewhere between 1-12 cans diced tomatoes, tomatoes and chillies, beans of all varieties, refried beans, enchilada sauce, etc. -things I use all the time. I also need to keep extra oat milks, rice cakes, nut butters, tortilla chips, etc., because we burn through those products quickly. 

In the closet, I also keep at least one container of all the necessary household supplies like trash bags, toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, ziplocks of all sizes, personal hygiene products, cleaning supplies, etc. 

Now that I have extra food and supplies on hand like this, I literally never have to take time or effort mid-week to run to the store. 

We can simple "shop" from our storage. 

When we run out of paper towels, we "shop" from the paper towels in the closet. 

When we run out of laundry detergent or dish washing soap, we "shop" from the closet. 

When we need beans for dinner, we run down to the pantry and get what we need. 

If I use the last of something mid-week, or if I notice that inventory is getting too low on an item, I add that to the shopping list for Saturday, but in the meantime, we still have whatever we need, because we got it from our excess in storage. 

Having supplies means our home just keeps moving on with our school day, day after day after day. 

Plan Meals-

We keep a shopping list and add things through the week as we notice we are out of something or running low. 

But on Saturday morning, I also take a more careful inventory of everything in the house- the fridge, freezer, pantry, and closet- and based on what I see, I add needed items to the list. 

I also decide all the meals I'll be making that week (including snacks, breakfasts, lunches, and desserts), and I check to see if I have all the ingredients, or if I have them in storage, and if I don't (or if I'm running low), I add those items to the list, so I can make those specific meals.  

When we come home with groceries, we open the garage and honk the horn, and the kids know to come down and help us carry everything up and put it away. 

We teach the kids where to put things and that way, they can run and get it mid-week when we're in the middle of doing something like making dinner. 

We definitely expect our kids to help with all the household chores. 

It's part of their homeschooling. 

By keeping supplies on hand and planning our meals, we have all we need once the homeschool week begins again. 

Every decision has been thought through and made and prepared for. 

This means that during the weekdays, we hardly have any errands to run- not even one. 

Of course, there's still the dentist and orthodontist and pediatrician, but generally speaking, having meals planned and all supplies on hand means that we are just free to do our homeschool work or read, etc. 

 

Arcus Loves Showers

Our pet sun conure, Arcus, loves to take showers in the kitchen sink. 

He sits on his perch on the counter while I wash dishes. The sound of the falling water is usually irresistible to him. Once the sink is empty, he knows it's his turn to use the sink and he often can't resist walking over and hopping down into the sink and under the running water. At that point, I usually turn down the water and transfer his perch to the sink, so he has a firmer place to sit. 

When he's all done, he flies up to my shoulder- a very messy affair, since he gets me all wet. 

After that, he is content to sit on his perch again on the counter, shaking himself out, fluffing out his feathers and drying as I continue my work in the kitchen. 

 

Paint Your Way Through Latin

Adele is in Paint Your Way Through Latin, an online art class hosted by Delightful Art. Co. In her most recent class, they painted a mural found in Pompeii. 

Homeschool Science Fair (without the fair)

Adele is doing a science fair project without the fair, since we are no longer a part of a homeschool co-op that does a science fair. 

We still aren't sure what Adele's specific science fair question will be or what her experiment will look like. 

That will come later. 

For now, Adele is interested in preserving cut flowers, so that's the topic we are researching everyday more and more in depth. 

As we sit together and search for sources and read through information, we naturally ask more and more questions about the specifics involved with the topic, and we write those questions down, too. 

So, after only a few days of research, we already have several questions to answer. 

So at this point, we aren't afraid we won't know what to do next; We have enough questions already to keep us busy for days, and I'm sure more questions will arise.

This research portion of the project may take weeks. 

Adele has started keeping handwritten research notes (and she also records all the new research questions that come up) in a composition book. 

After a Google search using a few key words or phrases about the topic or questions, we click on articles or sites that seem promising and legitimate. 

After a brief scan of the website or article, I can usually tell if a source has valuable information that answers all or even part of one or more of our questions about her topic. 

At that point, we read the content together and we discuss it and I explain complicated things (if I can.) 

Note: If I can't explain difficult content, I just tell her I can't explain it or I don't understand it (yet), and then I have the opportunity to model to her how to keep going in the face of uncertainty. 

Once we have read a source and we know what content applies to her research topic directly, I will either print the article and highlight the content that needs to go into her notebook, or I will copy and paste words and phrases from an article or website into a word.doc that I print for her. 

Then she hand copies all the important notes and info into her notebook. 

She's also keeping track of the specific sources and the relevant website addresses, so she can make a bibliography. 

It's a very time consuming process! 

And, as you can see, I help her a lot. 

Part of what I am doing is showing her how to research, and that is something that needs to be modeled elbow to elbow. 

After the first day of research, after more than an hour of taking notes by hand, Adele still said, "This is fun!" 

I agreed with her that it is fun, indeed!

It's fun to learn about the specific content she wants to research- flower preservation. 

But it's also fun to learn that you can learn about anything that you are curious about by simply being willing to ask and answer questions about the topic. 

One of the main things I want her to take away from this project is the knowledge that she can learn anything if she's willing to do the work. 

Visit to The Met

We met up with our friends at The Met. 

The Met is one of the only field trips we ever take, and we like to take it a few times a year. 

We like to find works of art that are our old favorites. 

And we always something new that strikes us. 

I recognized this head across the room, because I'm reading Aristotle for grad school right now! He is taking up all the extra space in my head, and I couldn't be happier about it! 

And I'll be reading Socrates soon! 

Illuminated manuscripts are always some of my favorite things to see. The vibrancy of the colors is astounding. Even the best printers can't match these colors after hundreds of years. 

Taking a break after walking around for hours

Avril recently painted her own imitation of this painting in her Art History class through Delightful Art Co. 

We met this lovely artist named Dwight and purchased one of his prints, which he signed and dedicated to our family.

This is a photo we've been taking and retaking for years now- the three girls in front of the three graces. 

This field trip of all field trips never is a waste and never grows old to us. 

 

Best Part of the Day

Lately, one of my favorite parts of the day is cleaning the kitchen after dinner. 

I'm aware of how sad that sounds, but hear me out. 

Tonight, Adele helped me clear off the table, put away leftovers, and hand dry all the pots and pans and put them away as I loaded the dishwasher and hand washed the things that couldn't go in the machine. 

We listened to worship music and sang as worked around one another efficiently. 

This habit of cleaning up the kitchen started with Fly Lady. She says to go so far as to shine your sink every evening. That's a bit too much for me. But I certainly empty mine. I'll only take out the stainless steel cleaner once every week or two. 

Leaving the kitchen clean at night was something I aspired to for years, but it's finally become a very happy habit. 

It makes a difference that I don't have babies or toddlers who demand more time, but instead, I have grown daughters that help. 

And, at this point, it's a real (albeit mundane) joy to work in the same space with them so efficiently.  

Having an empty sink to start your day can make to big difference to your morning. 

It's easier to brew coffee and prepare healthy foods if everything's clean and out of the way. 

The Best Christmas Movie Ever

We have been reading "The Best Christmas Pageant" aloud at Christmas time on and off for ten years or more. It's hilarious and heartwarming. You will laugh. You will cry. 

It was made into a movie, so we took the family to see it this week. Dwayne and I tried to surprise the kids, but they figured it out when we turned toward the theater. We don't do many out-of-the-ordianry things, so I guess we are quite predictable after all. 

It was a great movie! It has a very different pace than most movies these days- much, much slower- but if you love the book, they've honored the book, so you should love this movie. We did! 

Gather and Display Homeschool Work

I like to display my daughters' homeschool work on our mantle. 

I purchased a few display stands, and I use them to display the most recently finished essays, visuals, artwork, etc. 

All the artwork from a certain class goes in the same folder with the newest art on top. 

All the history essays and their visuals go in another folder. 

All the literature essays go in another. 

All the science research reports and visuals go in another. 

This way, by the end of the year, in almost every subject or class, there's a "book" worth keeping and rereading, and as you turn the pages, you step your way back to beginning of the school year. 

Gathering their work into "books" and displaying their work is a wholesome way to encourage healthy pride in their work.  

It also provides a means of accountability.

If your homeschool students know their work will go into a book that they will keep and look at again and again, and if they know others will see their work and engage with them about it, they tend to care more and do a better job. 

This is also a practical way for the whole family to share in what they are doing and continue enjoying their work long after it is complete. 

One of my daughters' favorite things is to go find and read through the book that their older sister has made back when she went through a subject. 

Their dad is usually at work all day, but this way, he can take down their essays at his leisure and read them and discuss the ideas with them when it is convenient or interesting for him to do so. 

Displaying their work, too, is a way to fill our home with "rare and beautiful treasures" like Scripture says. 

Artifacts made by our own hands make some of the rarest and most beautiful treasures in my opinion. 

The mantle works best in our home, but you could choose another location that works better for you if you like this idea and want to implement it, too. 

Homemade Hand Soap with Essential Oils

I bought the Young Living Thieves hand soap once. It was $16, which is almost unbelievable. Sorry, Young Living fans. That's expensive. 

But I had a plan in mind.  I didn't have a soap dispenser like this. So when the soap ran out, I simply refilled the same dispenser with two tablespoons liquid Castile soap, approximately 6-8 drops of Young Living's Thieves essential oil, and 2-4 drops of their Citrus Fresh blend. Then I turn the water on to a trickle and gently, slowly fill up the rest of the space with water directly from my faucet. I put the lid back on securely and turn it over a few times, so that the ingredients can mix. Viola! Homemade hand soap! 

Note: Some people use distilled water. I find that to be "a bridge too far," so to speak. If I had to use distilled water or boil water to purify my water, I wouldn't make my own soap. It's obviously better to use sterile water, but it's not something I am overly concerned with at this point in my "crunchy mom" journey. 

Note: My friend gave me a gallon of Castille soap when she moved a few years ago, so that was a huge blessing. A little goes a long way, so I am still using the soap she gave me.  

I use the same "recipe" for my bathroom soap as well. I purchased the Ever Spring soap from Target once. It was only $3-5, making it much more affordable. I do the same thing described above. I fill the empty container with two tablespoons of liquid Castille soap, then I add 7-10 drops Bergamot and Lavender blend of essential oils. Then I turn on the water to a gentle trickle and fill the space in the rest of the container. I turn it over and back a few times to mix it. 

I'm saving a ton of money on hand soaps by reusing the containers I have and making my own. I also save a ton of time and effort. I can replace a soap container in minutes- no shopping required. 

 

Taylor Leonhardt

We attended the Taylor Leonhardt concert at the Community Coffeehouse in Danbury last night. It was surreal to hear the songs we have listened to for months sung live. Since the girls are guitar students, it was fascinating to watch her play the guitar with such mastery. The Taylor gifted the girls her set list and even signed it!