"Family life is rarely perfect, but some things can be pretty darn good. Sharing conversation and food with those we care about can be one of life's continuing joys.”
- Miriam Weinstein, The Surprising Power of Family Meals: How Eating Together Makes Us Smarter, Stronger, Healthier and Happier
On Letting Go
author unknown
To "let go" does not mean to stop caring.
It means I can't do it for someone else.
To "let go" is not to cut myself off.
It's the realization that I can't control another.
To "let go" is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another.
It's to make the most of myself.
To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about.
To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To "let go" is not to be in the middle, arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept.
To "let go" is not to nag, scold, or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
To "let go" is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
To "let go" is to fear less and to love more.
Happy iphone snaps taken during errand running. Have a splendid weekend.
Obladee, oblada…
It's been a little surreal from this vantage point. I hope you will understand if I just step away from the Facebook feed scrolling wildly still and rest my eyes here for a minute remembering a quieter day last week. Maybe you'd like to join me for a minute too and think about something else for just a moment? Sit. I will tell you about it.
(all pics from the phone in the dark – my apologies)
(vintage Dickens set)
(this peasant girl caught my eye, reminding me of the German countryside we left behind)
(here with a friend on either side – what better place to find oneself : ))
Do you remember these? : ) My Gram had a set of salt and pepper shakers like these. Made me smile to see them here.
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Just a collection of lately-ness so I don't forget.
I have been teaching for nearly a quarter century now. It was high time I got a proper laminator, yes? I have a driving urge to laminate EVERYTHING in sight now.
(game freebie from CHC)
Soup on the stove. Applesauce on the stove. Chili on the stove.
I love this stove.
I watched them putting away the size matching sticks the other day and as always they got stuck and had leftovers. I was thinking of Steven Covey's "big rocks first" analogy and realized that this current group of kids had never heard this metaphor. The older boys had read the 7 Habits for Teens. It's been a while.
We got on youtube and watched a 'big rocks' presentation and quickly restacked the sticks. Then we talked about the ipods, the fantasy football, the many things that eat up the day and how we often find tasks undone at day's end. I need this reminder as much as the rest of them.
My silly kids. : ) What I love most is the laughing.
Speaking of youtube, Aidan mentioned an experiment in his text that he couldn't do because we didn't have the supplies. It was about water testing and ph levels. It occured to me that surely there was such a test in cyber space. And indeed there was. Many of them. Five minutes later we learned all about acid/alkaline balance and the pro's and con's of many brands of bottled water and sports drinks.
Youtube – it's a beautiful thing.
Bowling with the homeschool group.
and some thoughts about when to discipline. And when to just hug.
Autumn is a busy season for us. Sports practices keep children up later than usual in the evenings and out the door early on the weekend. A midweek holiday stirred up lots of excitement. Timing for a homeschool outing might have been less than ideal but important for children who are meeting new friends in a new place. So we went.
Tess and the older boys had a blast. Brendan was so very excited to go. He had mentioned early on he didn't need bumpers on his lane anymore so I didn't program his lane that way. However the other children did have them and his scores were quickly dropping behind. He was soon in tears and fixing the program to provide him bumpers did not help his distress.
The girls who delighted to play with the children at the center likewise promptly fell to tears on the way home. Seatbelts too tight, jackets too warm, everything suddenly just…wrong. There are times like this when you pause, look deeply into a child's eyes and err on the side of mercy.
How often does this happen to moms after all? Up all night with a baby, running from appointment to appointment, laundry to fold, and finally a broken cup or paper cut and it all spills out. It isn't a character flaw. It's fatigue.
Sometimes naps are better than nagging.
There was plenty of day left after resting. And it went better then.
It always does. : )
A month ago Shakespeare was a really good prop, but it had been a while since I had dusted off the Lamb's volume. The little boys hadn't heard the stories I admit. I didn't have a real driving urge to fit them in. I admit that too. They were on the educational bucket list but that list is pretty long and we have been ticking off line items at a ferocious pace the past couple of years.
When we arrived in Germany we inherited a group of close friends. Jen was on her way out as we were arriving and she smoothed the path for us in so many ways. She introduced the girls and I around, helped us find extracurriculars. We were off and running in no time.
Arriving in England was different. We had work friends which was wonderful. The children knew no one however and living in the country meant no neighbors as built in playmates. While I was relishing the quiet community of the farm I knew the children needed more, at least some of the time. As the weeks wore on I, too, missed the comraderie we left.
The solution pushed all of us out of our comfort zones.
The best way for a newcomer to meet new people? Volunteer to be the offical meet and greeter in the homeschool group. : ) They needed to fill a board position. Doing that introduced me to some wonderful women, one of whom happened to have been stationed in Germany herself just before we got there. We have mutual friends it turned out. These women have there bearings here. They know the transit system and have older children for whom they are teaching older children classes. They welcomed our current set of olders in and we are happily pooling our energy and skills to meet each other's needs. It's awesome.
I have been reading a home management series and the author mentioned how her system has changed over the years but that each method used was perfectly suited to that particular stage of their lives. Homeschooling is like that. There are many constants in our journey. The specifics flex a bit from year to year, from pregnancy and nursing times to teen years. From good health and great energy to recuperation and quiet times. Books read to children in a hospital bed or a body cast and later seeing that same child posing before the Olympic rings. It all works over the course of the years spent together.
So, that is the long story of how on this day the older children and their Dad learned to navigate the system to get to the Globe and the Golden Hinde to highlight their Shakespeare co-op class. The little ones and Alannah and I baked and read at home. No doubt the roles will be reversed before long. I look forward to that too. Meantime, here are some of the pics from the field trip. They got a guided tour of the Globe:
Above are the "heavens" and on the stage floor is a trap door so actors could descend into "hell" as needed.
The children got a full hands on demonstration of costuming, complete with the dressing of one of the students in all the layers a female part would require. Their impression was that it was very, very heavy!
Then the walk to the Golden Hinde.
The animated guide managed to fit the word "defecation" into the presentation a number of times I am told.
Starry Sky Journal 