Detox Baths

As part of coping with our Lyme treatment, we have to take baths to help manage all the symptoms of bacteria die-off. 

And since we take so many of these baths, I decided to make it easier by doing some of the prep ahead of time. 

Now, we just have to grab a jar of salts already mixed with essentials oils, a bag of baking soda already measured, and the measuring cup and hydrogen peroxide.  

The "recipe" for the detox bath is as follows:

Fill the tub with the hottest water you can stand.

Add one cup of epsom salts mixed with 10 drops of rosemary essential oil. Note: Mix the oils into the salts ahead of time so that the oil mixes into the water, doesn't just float on top, etc.

Then add one cup of baking soda and one cup of hydrogen peroxide. 

Soak in the tub for twenty minutes or more.

Church Art Show- James

Our church has started a new sermon series through the book of James in the New Testament. 

Whenever there is a new sermon series, there is usually an art show, and the church asks for artwork from members that goes along with the theme and content of the series.

We always try to participate, but with the start of the homeschool year, things have been so busy, and I was uncertain as to whether we'd be able to contribute much if anything. 

We had to work right up to the deadline, but we pulled it together this weekend just before the deadline tomorrow. 

We worked as a family to illustrate several of the metaphors from the book of James.

Here are some pictures taken over the last few days. 

We are submitting these frames with drawings and paintings made with different medium all grouped together. 

I'm really thankful for a church that support the arts. 

As Christians who know and walk with the living God, we have so much to tell, and there just aren't enough words.

We need visual art, too. 

Home Makeover

I made a smash-book spread to capture images of our recent home makeover. 

The work started earlier this summer. 

First, we paved the driveway that had basically been reduced to gravel after many years of rain storms and snows and ice and winter plowing. 

Next, we painted the girls' bedrooms, something we had never done in all the years we have lived here. We just made the girls live with the (tolerable) colors the previous owner had chosen. 

Then we added AC. (I have developed severe asthma and allergies, so this will be a life-changing blessing.) 

Then we replaced the roof. It was at end of life. 

Then we replaced all the windows and doors and sliders, some of which are so large, they are the size of walls! These were also at end of life. 

Then we painted the outside and all the inside walls that were damaged/ affected by the work. 

It was quite a project, stressful, etc. but we had great people doing the work, and we actually enjoyed getting to know them and having them around. 

We continually meditated on the urgent need to make our home healthy for the humans who dwell in it. 

We also considered the ongoing command to steward our property and handle all the deferred maintenance as a testimony to our neighbors and as an act of faith in the Lord, believing He wants us to really dwell here. 

May the Lord be banner over our home.

May we dwell under His wings in this our nest. 

"Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness." Psalm 3:37

My Morning Time

While I think there's too much emphasis on self-care these days, and if we did all the self-care recommended, we'd find it impossible to do anything else including caring for anyone else, I do think it's important to have quiet time in the morning.

Lately, I've been making myself pumpkin spice coffee. (Starbucks Holiday blend + sugar-free caramel syrup + two drops of pumpkin pie extract+ frothed oat milk+ a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice on top = sugar and dairy free, but still delicious!)

My church has a weekly Bible study for women, and that ministry is starting up again for the fall. I'm taking a study on the Names of God by Melissa Spoelstra, so that will be part of my Bible reading/ devotional time for the next several weeks. 

I'm also reading through Lumen, published by Goldberry books, and doing a picture study at least one a week. 

Note: Some homeschool moms might find it interesting that I am not reading this book with my kids as part of our homeschool day. I decided that I am not adding this to what they are already doing, because they are already maxed out. At some point, homeschool moms come to realize there are just too many good things to choose from, and one has to settle on a finite number of good things that will fit into a reasonable homeschool day and therewith be content. So Lumen is just for me, formally. But the book and the prints stay out on the coffee table. The girls are free to pick them up and enjoy them informally. The book and prints definitely add to the beauty and richness available in our home. 

Some mornings, I also take the time (per doctor's orders) to be out in the morning sunshine. I think the doctor's intent was to help balance my hormones and improve my energy and sleep cycle. So I make a second cup of coffee and take a (very slow) walk around our property, a big loop down the hill towards the forest and back up the hill to the house. That walk will be impossible once the snow comes and freezes. The hill is far too steep. But until then, I am enjoying the extended time for quiet this walk provides me. 

In general, I am more and more convinced that none of us moderns experiences enough quiet. There are far too many invasive distractions from tech, even for those of us who do try very deliberately to limit our tech, tech still invades and distracts from the quiet we still need. I get constant texts from women at church, because I am helping with ministry. I get constant texts from friends, because I love them and we are connecting. I get constant texts from homeschool mom friends, because we are running co-op together. So I am not complaining- just recognizing that tech is changing the way we live in this world even though the world isn't changing. Our bodies and spirits don't get upgraded as technology advances. Our bodies and spirits are still human, organic, spiritual. Even as some people seem to be attempting to become machines and/ or live totally virtual lives, I'm certainly not. I will attempt to honor the nature and creatureliness God gave me, so I know I need morning time to be quiet, to think, pray, plan, let God speak, and just be.   

Pride and Prejudice Class

 I'm teaching a class at our homeschool co-op on Pride and Prejudice. We read a portion of the novel, discuss it while drinking a pot of hot tea, then we watch scenes from the chapters we just read from different movie adaptations, comparing and contrasting them with the book and one another. It's great fun! 

Another Year of Homeschool Begins

We've started another year of homeschooling. 

Avril is in 10th grade. 

Adele's in 7th. 

After more than a decade of being part of Classical Conversations, we aren't doing that this year for a multitude of reasons, but the girls are using most of the same books they would have been using if we had remained in CC's Challenge 2 and Challenge B.

Since I graduated an older daughter out of high school with Classical Conversations Challenge 4 a few years ago, I already own every single book Classical Conversations uses, almost every book I could need/ want to homeschool every subject through 12th grade. So far, I find that I still like most of the resources, so I feel no need to alter my curriculum or plans much (at least not this year) even though I am free to do that now. 

But being on our own schedule (and not having all the added responsibilities that directing a program put on my plate) means that we have been free to add more to our plan than we have ever felt comfortable doing before. 

For instance, after Avril finished reading Beowulf and instead of moving on to the next book on the schedule, we took time to listen to the book aloud again and listen to several hours worth of lectures about Beowulf by Angelina Stanford from House of Humane Letters every afternoon for a week while sipping tea. 

We are still involved with another local homeschool co-op that does not mandate so such or take as much time to manage. 

I help administrate and I teach one literature class. 

This semester at co-op, the girls are taking classes including pottery, Shakespeare's Skits, crochet, photography, art. 

The girls are still taking piano and practicing guitar. They are both helping with the youth worship teams at church. 

They are also in a few art classes online with Delightful Art Co., including a college dual enrollment class for Avril, which is a big first for her! 

This is my fifteenth year of homeschooling!

The years are flying by! 

Library Book Sale

It's an annual tradition we have kept, since I can't remember when. 

We attend the library book sale. 

Some years, we go everyday, since there are so many books, you could go every day and still not see them all or be bored. 

Some years, we even go so far as to volunteer several hours and help with set-up, so that we can get buy books early, a perk for volunteers who give their time and energy to help. 

This year, we only went on the last day, when you can fill a box of books for $10. 

Over the years, we have found that the books we like don't tend to get taken earlier in the week.

Or maybe we have such eclectic tastes that we can still manage to find what we think are downright amazing books, even on the final day of the sale when everything has been picked over. 

Either way, we weren't afraid of missing out by waiting until the end. 

For instance, first book a picked up was a book of essays by Wendell Berry that I haven't read yet. 

The last book I picked up was a book full of beautiful prints of Durer's woodcuts and engravings, some of my favorite artwork of all time. 

And there were so many other great finds in between.  

Here are some pics from previous years of the sale. 

The more things change, the more we love books the same. 

Graduate School

I have started graduate school for Classical and Liberal Education at Belmont Abbey. This semester, I'm taking a class on Grammar, so I'm reading several works by Aristotle and The Trivium by Sister Miriam Jospeh as a companion. Aristotle is, by far, the hardest thing I've ever read, but  as difficult as it is, I'm already having the time of my life!