The new school year is beginning – or has begun – for most people around the country.  We have had a soft start consisting mostly of  "Morning Time +" meaning we pray, read, discuss, do math, practice dance/music etc, and do our chores.  It has made for some solid days with a reasonably tidy house, appointments kept, needs met, and awesome conversation had.  More will follow but it's a very gratifying start.

Cindy Rollins' reflection from a few years back rings so true here.  Morning time, done right, is an organic process.  It grows naturally.  Please don't think of it as another curricular checklist item.  Better to think about how you naturally catch up with good friends.  Do you share recipes or patterns?  Maybe you pass particularly inspiring books back and forth?  There might be articles or quotes you share with some you know will appreciate them. Ideally, as our children grow, some of our best sharing happens with the fascinating people around our table.  You wouldn't pummel your luncheon guests with data and it won't feel any better when they are your kids.  

Start small.  Read them your favorite stories, the ones you really get into.  Show them work by your favorite artist.  Listen to a rendition of a musical piece that moved you.  Maybe share a cool tidbit about the composer while you are at it.  Watch a youtube tutorial together.  And here is the thing: it isn't about chronology or themes.  It's about genuine, thoughtful conversation.  It is about learning to consider new topics or positions and to express your feelings about them.  It's cross-training in your homeschool.  You can't screw this up. You won't "miss" anything. As she says,

"Stop planning your school and go do it.

Read a chapter of a book to your children.  

Now. 

There is tremendous power in doing something for a short period of time consistently."

notes:

We use plain heavy paper sketchbooks for our timelines.  As we read a chapter in A Child's History of the World (currently) they draw or print a clipart picture of one thing to paste inside.  

The graffiti book was EXCELLENT for Socratic discussion.  It has lots of open ended questions which help students consider what art is and does not lead them to a particular position.  

Not pictured is the saint of the day book, the next Ralph Moody title, and a volume of Longfellow's work.  We read "Evangeline" this summer and I predictably wept at the end.  Now we are enjoying "Hiawatha."  As it turns out our elderly houseguest is enjoying our reading and discussion time most of all.  

One of the highlights of the summer was showering our daughter and son-in-law as they prepare for their first baby's arrival in a few weeks.  Several of us were able to travel from Utah and Colorado to be together.  The aunt's and uncle's-to-be are beside themselves with anticipation. Moira and her husband have lots of family nearby who have been a tremedous blessing to them as they have begun their lives together.  They are so lucky to have them! 

This is a whole starting over for us, a definitive next chapter.  In so many ways it is not unlike my own first pregnancy.  So many daydreams, trying to wrap your head around what is coming, trying to predict what may happen and how you might feel.  All that imaginary role play we do ahead of big changes, trying on the new life for size.  

And just like it was when I was expecting my own first baby, the end of my musing as an expectant grandmother leaves me with only guesses and wondering.  I can't know what this will feel like, though people try to tell me.  I can only wonder at my new role and how I will do in it.  I am not at all sure how to do it well from so far away much less how one could ever inspire the sort of devotion my own grandmother did.  How DID she do it, I ask myself now.  

Perhaps the one thing different at this time in life is having a long history of things falling together as they should.  There is less a need to know beforehand.  Somehow the answers will be birthed along with this tiny person. 

There is much more to tell about the long road that brought us here and eventually I will.   I can say this though, watching my daughter already owning her motherhood, researching her options, and making educated decisions for her baby leaves me in awe.  She is not a carbon copy of me.  She does things her own way.  Many things she does much better than I. A welcome gift time has given is that different choices don't bother me so much as an older woman.  I am only inspired with profound respect seeing her fierce determination to do her very best.  

It was probably youthful arrogance that led me to subconsciously believe the most monumental part of life was the early climb.  Year after year of expanding everything – doubling recipes, replacing stock pots, bigger vehicles, more bedrooms.  The dailiness of it was all-consuming and I think it led to a sort of myopia about what would come after all that.  It seemed as though whatever was coming next could never be as tremendous as what was.  For some years after my own last baby it was difficult to imagine any other way of life ever being as good. 

I am not "there" yet to report back but I can say the trailers for this upcoming show are very promising.  

Outside: Summer temperatures slow rolled but they are here now.  It is still very green which is a wonderful treat in the mountain west. We have discovered a young cherry tree at the edge of the woods which appears to have grown up near a larger mature tree.  It has a cheerful sprinkling of little red cherries this year, still a bit sour.  

Reading: I just finished Brideshead Revisited the day before last and am in the throes of book hangover.  It was an achingly beautiful book.  Though it was quite sobering in some respects it was also encouraging and helps me consider a much longer view.  Another author I put off far too long.  Trying to decide on what is next.  

Thinking About: Much.  I was musing during Brideshead over how much longer most things take than I expected as a younger women.  The hard things anyway.  That whole "it's a marathon, not a sprint," saying has taken on new meaning in middle age.  

From the Learning Room:

The girls have picked up the Key To Geometry books (link in sidebar) and are working through them.  We are having Morning Time every day and continuing an abbreviated school day due to upcoming travel.   Current stack looks like this….

The first poem in the Longfellow volume is Evangeline.  Sniff! I read it the first time to oldest children when we lived here in the 90's.  I remember crying and fully expect a repeat experience.  

Around the House:  As part of my continuing education effort I decided to learn to refinish furniture properly this summer.  We have some old pieces that needed serious work.  I have painted furniture before but learned the hard way what happens when you skip some of the instructions.  Turns out there actually ARE essential steps.  This time we got legit with a hand held sander and stripper fluid and have experimented with various wire brushes and sandpaper grit counts.  It was low risk project since the pieces were all free at some point in the past.  It has been hard physical work doing it "right" but also extremely gratifying.  Not gonna lie, this feels something like a super power.  

From the kitchen:

This tastes far better than you may think.  I've been lightly steaming collard greens and using them as wraps.  Super cheap and easy.  There is chicken salad inside these if I am remembering correctly but we have also done tuna and egg salad.  All good.  

Creating: The girls and I have pulled the sewing machine out to cut down some thrifted women's clothing to fit a tween who is all legs.  So far so good.  

Family Stuff:  The man of the house had a very happy birthday.  

I hope summer is off to a wonderful start wherever you are.  (Or winter for my Australian friends.)  It's been good to sit and gather all these little bits and pieces in one place again.  For a time I had been busier on popular social media.  It's so very convenient there as apps on the phone.  A thought can be tapped out as words almost as soon as you've thought it.  Perhaps that is not always a good thing. Morale suffers on a steady diet of contention so I am regrouping once more. Time to inhale all this sunshine and steady on with these many projects. 

Thank you,

For organizing birthday games,

For dressing up at Halloween, 

For helping with taxes and insurance forms, 

For shopping for first cars, 

For tying ties,

For making walls pink or taupe or gray or whatever would be SO cool, 

For hauling mulch and shoveling snow alongside, 

For showing them eclipses and aquariums and oceans and cathedrals,

For leading the rosary – even when we are tired,

For roasting by the grill, 

For coordinating schedules,

For always thinking "the kids would like that" and then making it happen.  

Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday soon to come.  We are so glad you were born and so grateful for all you the ways you show love. 

“Beautiful is the man who leaves a legacy, that of shared love and life.

It is he who transfers meaning, assigns significance and conveys in his loving touch the fine art and gentle shaping of a life.

This man shall be called, Father.”

― Stella Payton

Some days it's called for.  We found ourselves uninspired at home so we piled into the van and found a local ice cream shop.  Before dinner.  #worthit   

Good stuff, y'all.  I prefer mine slightly steamed before carrying on with the roasting part. Makes it less bitter. 

We are doing a modified year 'round schedule this year since we have a lot of travel opportunities once again.  Right now we are in the thick of all things dirt – on a literary and a literal level.  Once the snow melted and the rains began to fall the weeds erupted in the open expanses of dirt we brought in the backyard last summer.  We laid landscaping fabric and hauled in a couple truckloads of mulch to bed it down and crossed our fingers.

Living here has been an ongoing real life lesson in soil content, quality, and enrichment. Our dirt is sub-par, a shallow layer resting upon rock.  That likely bodes better for our foundation stability than our landscaping options. We are using this experience as a launching point for a unit about soil and composting.  

Experiement with oil and water and why soap removes dirt better than water.

Tess felt "dirt" dessert would inspire lol

There will also be  Dust Bowl reading and perusing after learning about erosion and climate:

Dust Bowl Oral Interviews

More here

Topics to research here

End of unit questions here

Summer has officially kicked off. We have been working hard on the yard and helping some of the kids begin new ventures.  Weekends at home are sacrosanct however – especially holiday weekends.  This first long weekend of summer took us all over town.  The sun set on a good number of us here at home afterwards with hot dogs grilled over the fire and backyard games.  It's what we do and I love that even though they can go where they please these days they still sometimes choose to come here.

20 odd years ago I had a friend who was one of 13 children.  Her husband came from a similarly sized family.  She mentioned how much they loved going "home" to get together.  Over the years her in-law's had made thoughtful additions to their modest midwestern family home to ensure their growing clan always enjoyed their time there.  A swingset one year.  A swimming pool later.  A ping pong table.  It was one of those casual conversations that planted a seed in my mind.  

Everything we do around here is with an eye towards the time we spend together.  What would make it nice sitting on the deck or what games could half a dozen people play at once in the yard?

I never take for granted that the time our adult children take to come here is their vacation.  It's such a blessing when they choose to spend it with us.  There is nothing better than falling asleep with the windows open on a summer night and hearing their laughter and shouts wafting up to us.  

We are not perfect.  Neither are they. Sometimes we step on toes.  Sometimes we make grave missteps.  I hope they always appreciate the gift they have in each other and the ability to come home, no matter what else the world is offering.  

Child of mine
Come as you grow
In youth you will learn the secret places
The cave behind the waterfall
The arms of the oak that hold you high
The stars so near on a desert ledge
The important places
And as with age you choose your own way among the many faces of a busy world
May you always remember the path that leads you back
Back to the important places

(Dad to Forest, 1986 – Forest Woodward) 

The pull of the deck on these pleasant, warm evenings is irresistible.  We eat outdoors often and linger long.  When dishes are finish we wander back to the yard.  Respiration deepens, pulses slow.  During one such evening we heard a distant call echo up from the woods. It was not the peacocks down at the farm below us. The sound grew louder and more furtive until out burst a little quail in quite a state, calling and calling and rushing to and fro. The Audubon Society describes the call as haunting. (link here) It did indeed bewitch me enough to follow it around the house til the cries stopped.  Once reunited they happily and quietly walked off. 

They are favorites of mine, these timid little birds that flee to nearby bushes as soon as they are noticed. 

Since we are always up for a new challenge to try together, the at-home clan decided to sign up for a terrain race this spring.  I say this all the time but I wasn't sure the younger's could hang with the adults.  As usual it was just fine and they performed amazingly well.  If it's one thing we have figured out through all these years it is that it's better to let them decide what they can and cannot accomplish.  It is usually way more than we could guess.    

The picture of the two of them teaming up for the tire haul is a fave.  Winning has many definitions.  This has to be one:

Victory dance lol.   And all of us together beforehand.  Just know, if you photograph a terrain race you pretty much cover the entire course – with a camera in tow.  You stay cleaner though. 

“No matter what your current condition, how or where you grew up, or what education or training you feel you lack, you can be successful in your chosen endeavor. It is spirit, fortitude, and hardiness that matter more than where you start.” – Jack Ma