life of seven

Encouragement for weary moms

Do you need any of that today? If there's one thing I find myself needing to get through the day in and day out, it's that.

Here are some scriptures I have been thinking about recently: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me," from Psalm 23, or Isaiah 43:2, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Romans 8:35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

The connection I'm seeing with all these verses is that in the midst of our trial and tribulations and fears and difficulties, God is always there. He never leaves us. He doesn't always take our trials away. We still have to live our lives and face the struggles that come with it. But in the midst of it all, He tells us, "I see you."

Recently I was praying and I felt God's presence come so near to me. I had been going through what had felt like a dry spell, where prayer and Bible reading didn't feel like they were as full of life as they had been in the past. While worshipping God, as tears streamed down my cheeks, I told Him a bit desperately, "Don't leave me alone again after this. Please don't ever leave me!"

Instantly these words poured into my heart, "I will never leave you, or forsake you."

"When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." (Isaiah 41:17)

"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from Thee." (Isaiah 54:10)

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20)

It's hard to put these things into words. But it means SO MUCH to realize that even while we are going through hardships, even when we go through dry spells, even when God feels far off, that He is always there, that He is our help. Because, honestly, if you asked any mom for the number one thing she needed, wouldn't she say, "I just need some HELP around here!"

It's not like the bills and dirty dishes and mess are going to miraculously go away just because I know God is with me. But that's not the kind of help I need, or want. (Sure, I will never turn that kind of help down!) What I need is to know that I have God with me. That He sees my struggles. That my life matters to Him. That He loves me. That He wants me to succeed at the job He's given me. That He'll give me wisdom in those thousand decisions a day that I'm faced with. That I need to keep running my race to the finish line, and He can't run the race for me, but can give me the endurance I need to finish strong.

"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:28) Oh, thank the Lord for that. If there's anything my weary bones need, it is an everlasting God who never grows weary.

"He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." (v. 29) That verse seems to hold an especially powerful meaning and beauty to a mom.Think about it. Power to the faint. Strength to the weak.

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." (I think this verse is saying, "Don't worry, Mama, even that relentlessly fussy baby; and crazy, bouncing, energetic toddler; and wild and dangerous six year old boy are eventually going to need rest and will, though it may seem otherwise, eventually fall asleep. Fear not!")

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (v 30, 31)

So don't faint. Don't grow weary. Don't quit. God the Helper, God the Provider, God our strength will never leave us. He will never forsake us. We can do this thing.

 

18

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Cate's 18th birthday with family and friends. A friend suggested making the party a fancy dress up one, with live background music (plenty of willing participants for that around here!) and I knew that would be perfect. We bought plenty of bouquets and spread them through the house, lit candles, and asked people to bring fancy appetizers. But, the funnest part of the night was the live entertainment portion, where everyone was treated to a cello solo, a euphonium/piano duet, and several performances of Cate's favorite songs. So, lots of Hamilton, La La Land, and The Greatest Showman was heard. It was so much fun and made the night feel really special, which is what I wanted. I wanted my girl, who is so grown up now, to have a grown up party and feel as loved and special as she deserves. Which is a lot. I know it was a memorable evening for her, one she won't forget. I'm sure, if I continue blogging frequently, I will write more thoughts on what it is like to have my children transition from kids to adults. For now, I will say, that it is magical. It's amazing. I'm so proud of them I could just burst. I miss newborns, and toddlers, of course, but having grown-up Cate in my life a close friend, and watching her set goals and achieve them, is indescribable. The whole parenting package is absolutely miraculous as I've seen it unfold for 18 years now. So many unexpected delights and fun and laughter, and, now, as my kids are getting older, the discovery that I have made friends for life. 

Knitting, turning 36, and life

Ooooops...totally meant to post before another week went by but that's the way life goes sometimes. Well, gear up because I feel like writing today. An organized blogger would put all these thoughts and photos into two or three posts, but I never said I was an organized blogger. Or an organized anything. 

I'm feeling the knitting pull again, not that it ever goes away, but when we head toward fall (finally! hooray!) the knitting needles and the wooly stranded patterns and thick cables begin to call my name louder than ever. I am not much of a summer knitter, not meaning that I don't knit in the summer, I do, always, always, but I mean I hate knitting with cotton or linen or anything that's not from the fleece of an animal. The biggest compromise I will make when it comes to summer knitting is to use fingering weight yarn (love it, just takes so much longer) and I try not to knit huge projects that will cover my lap in a wool blanket. But, sometimes that happens anyway and there's nothing for me to do for it but to grin and bear all the sweat under my knitting. I know, did I make you cringe with the water balloon photos on an obviously suffocatingly hot morning, mixed in with photos of stiflingly hot stranded wool knitted projects? It's wishful thinking- fall is surely almost here!

Oh boy, so many projects going on. Love, love, love how Merriment came out. I need buttons still, and need to weave in the ends and sew up and block the adorable matching bonnet, but how cute did that pattern come out? Like always, Alicia's been inspiring me with her talk of stranded yoke sweaters and how fun they are to knit. I thought that already, but she has gotten the wheels turning in my brain as I scramble to remember the yoked sweater patterns I have been wanting to make for a while now besides Merriment. Should Alicia ever happen upon my blog, here you go Alicia: not sure if you yet discovered these yoked patterns yet. Like my sister said to me when I showed her Alicia's blog, "Um, why are we not best friends??" Um, right?? I just love checking out what she is up to in her adorable little Scandinavian-inspired house!

Back to knitting: I just hit the point (yet again, for the hundredth time) where I have to tell myself to slow down and not start so many things. Just when think I am getting burned out on knitting, or making things in general (like where I was a couple weeks ago), something or other always gets the ball rolling in an unexpected way. Maybe it will be with some sort of decorating project, maybe it will be something totally different, like sewing or cooking, but more often than not some new inspirational knitting project will call my name and I will be amazed that I ever felt the need to take a break from knitting.

For my readers who aren't knitters, don't worry, I have more to write about. I turned 36 a couple of days ago. I am so okay with it, in fact I have loved being in my thirties. Each year of life that goes by gets better than the last. I am not just saying that, I mean it with all my heart. Life takes so many unexpected twists and turns. So many bad, but so many of them so, so wonderful. I didn't realize watching my children grow up and seeing them experience the same things I experienced at their ages would be ten times better than when those things happened to myself. It's as if I'm living my life, plus seven other lives at the same time. Good thing I chose the right name for my blog.

There's so much joy and emotion I wonder if I will ever explode. I'm sure I entered the doll playing stage when I was two, like Clemmie is in the thick of right now, and I know watched my other kids love dolls as well, but that does not dampen my delight in watching Clementine discover her love of playing with "babies." In fact, it is perhaps more fun watching my last almost-two year old than it was my first. Now I know how much to appreciate it. I worry less. I am well aware now how quickly that stage, and all stages, pass. Before long, she won't sing "Hiya-Hiya" in the same sweet way she does now ("Hiya, hiya, Jesus hiya, Hiya, hiya, hiya, Lowa, lowa, Jesus hiya!"), or say with delight, "Shoe-y! Toad-y! Snake-y! Monkey!" quite the same way next month. And I use Clementine as the example because she changes so fast, but oh my, how proud I am of each child as they achieve each new accomplishment. Last night we watched what was my favorite movie growing up, in honor of the Olympics. When it was over, Cate asked Jude how he liked it (I wouldn't think a six year old boy would like a gymnastics movie). He gave a deep sigh and said, "I loved it." Ah, Jude. There is nothing more wonderful in life than sharing your favorite experiences with your children.

In five years my life will look so different from what it is now, and I am more than okay with that, in fact, I am delighted and I absolutely can't wait to see what life will bring. Though things don't always go well and many days, weeks, months, and years have been hard, I know for a fact that God has blessed every single day of my life. I'm so thankful that He loves and delights in His children every bit as much as I do mine.

 

Mom Thoughts

The hardest part about having seven kids is making sure that each child, at each age gets the same experiences the other children got. Are the older kids stuck doing a baby activities all the time? Are the little kids getting to play enough Candyland? Do the middle ones get lost in the shuffle? I think about these kinds of things a lot. Lately I have discovered the couple hours I have  of free time during Cate and Grace's piano lesson is a good time to give my three littlest ones my undivided attention. Last week it was exploring a park we'd never been to before, thereafter christened "The best park in the whole wide world!"

The morning reminded me of the five mornings a week, every week, I used to have with Cate, Grace and Gideon. The sky was the limit back then, because our days were empty and free. Some weeks ended up with visits to library story time on Tuesday and Thursday, and Barnes and Noble story time on Friday. Hour long walks, mornings at the swimming pool (when I took Cate as a toddler, entrance cost me just one dollar), visiting every park I could think of, power walking through the mall before it opened in the winter, when it was too cold to go outside. My life isn't much like that anymore. I actually can't remember the last time I purposely tried to exercise. Or even worried about it...

I've been enjoying being able to focus solely on my littlest ones on these piano mornings. We start with discussing what would be the funnest thing to do, and inevitably they decide that would be a park, though I may surprise them and sneak some swimming in one day, just us, no older kids. They would love that.

On the other end of the spectrum, I've realized that while life is easier for me when we stay pretty homebound and get normal bedtimes for the whole family, that the so called "teenagers" (long story, but the word is jokingly taboo in our home) in the house might like to do something more exciting with their evenings than simply concentrate on getting a good night's sleep. Of course eight hours of sleep at night is ideal, and of course, as you know, I love to get my day, and subsequently our family's day, going at the crack of dawn. But, a while back I decided to be flexible about the older kids' bedtimes. I told Cate and Grace they didn't have to go to bed at any set time, but I was still going to wake them at the same time each morning, even if they stayed up late the night before.

I'm surprised at how well this has worked. I had to stop and think about what it was like for me when I was a teen. Certainly, it was full of late nights and crazy sleep schedules, and occasionally sleeping in on the weekend to make up for it. But I had then, as Cate and Grace have now, a schedule with enough commitments in it make me consider if the youth group all nighter or the late night baby sitting job, was worth taking or not. I quickly figured out how un-fun it was to pay for hours of lost sleep the next day. And sometimes I decided that the lost sleep was worth it, and sometimes not. But, I survived growing up with the occasional night of three or four hours sleep. Hey, I still do. It may be easier on me to treat them like they are still little kids and stick them in bed at nine o'clock every night, but it can be fun to live a little.

Live a little. That's what I tell my kids often. Try something new, don't just stand on the sidelines and watch. I want my kids to experience life and fill it with memories. This mantra is what had Cate, Grace and Gideon playing softball with friends one afternoon in the middle of a huge downpour. They came home soaking wet and begging for hot chocolate and laughing their heads off. Yes, school work all day without a break may be more ideal for me as a teacher, but it is often the sudden change in schedule to randomly decide to paint a dresser, or hang a swing outside, or buy flowers to plant, that stays with them longer than the lesson they were reading.

Over the years, I have gone from being a very scatterbrained person who procrastinated and never got any work done, to realizing my kids were never going to learn to read if that was the way I approached school. Then I buckled down pretty hard on the kids and became more of a drill sergeant, ensuring we would learn our times tables and spend our free time reading and practicing instruments; and it is in the last couple of years that I've learned to recognize that there is a legitimate balance between the two that can be reached, for optimal learning, and enjoying life. 

Life as a parent is amazing, isn't it? How is it possible that each day is better than the one before it, with new milestones reached, while at the same time utterly heartbreaking because the day before is never coming back? Soon, Jude, Truman, and Clementine's days with me at the park during piano lessons will be over. I wonder what they will be doing instead? Soon, my teens will be finished with school and lessons and my authority. I wonder what their lives will look like then? It's dizzying to even think about. In summary of all these scattered thoughts that I am thinking today, I will conclude with this simple but accurate thought: Life is such a gift.

 

Beauty in the Every Day

 

School work is what's been happening around here. And knitting squeezed in while I'm helping Jude find "P-P-P" sounds. Despite feeling like my busiest homeschool year yet, with five kids to teach, and a baby and a VERY busy three year old to entertain, it also feels like my most productive year yet. It's fun how the busier and the more work I have to do, the more productive I am. I have no idea why that is. We watched an Andy Griffith episode the other night where Andy tries to free Aunt Bea of her duties by hiring an English butler for a short time. Aunt Bea begins to feel sad and depressed and Opie eventually tells the butler that Aunt Bea used to always sing, when she was going about the house working, but that she hasn't sung for a while. And then the sweet butler puts two and two together and  realizes that he's worked Aunt Bea out of a job and left her feeling useless, so he finds an opportunity to get himself fired, and Aunt Bea gets straight to work cleaning up and cooking and she's happy again.

I couldn't help but understand poor Aunt Bea during the show. I'm pretty sure I'm the same way. Not when it comes to housework, really, because honestly I'm not a great housekeeper, but I just don't care to have huge chunks of leisure time with nothing productive to do. I get pretty antsy and then I just can't wait to get back to daily life and find some outlet for work, and with it, creativity. I probably get it from my mom, who has absolute boundless energy and hasn't sit still for more than an hour in her life. For me it's not necessarily physical activity I crave, but I hate the feeling of not being in the middle of some big, interesting project. A business; a blog; a fairisle sweater; a group of friends over for dinner; figuring out the settings on my camera; sourdough bread; teaching a five year old to read; remembering what sine, cosine and tangent mean and trying to do quick refresher on husing a scientific calculator for the tenth grader; and if all those things aren't enough, dreaming of another, bigger project to tackle in the future. 

Don't mistake me and think that all the projects around the house always get done, haha, far from it. I often have to bring myself back to reality when my husband asks where the clean towels are. Or any towels, for that matter, would do just now... For instance, in the middle of packing for our trip, rather than let my mind put all it's energy into making sure to stay organized and not forget anything for our three months out of the country, I suddenly got sidetracked in the middle of it and began unravelling a sweater I'd knit years ago but wasn't get much wear anymore. This kind of thing tends to drive the rest of my family crazy, and I have to work hard to not float off on a tangent (HAH!) that often.

I think there is joy to be found in all sorts of daily tasks, and plenty of engagement for the mind if you really try. It's something I remind my kids of when they get weary of what can be the daily monotony of their lives. However, it's hard for me to preach to them, "Stick to you scales on the piano everyday and have a good attitude about it, and you'll discover that it's actually fun and you'll be glad you did years down the road from now," when mid cleaning I become distracted and leave to do something else more stimulating.

Oh, the lessons we learn from our kids; so often it's just like looking in a mirror. I guess that's why the Bible talks about striving to make our lives a reflection of Jesus. The closer we get toward living life like the perfect Man, the greater the fruits from it will be reflected in those around us. I say this not to make myself feel more condemned about my failings, but rather as an inspiration and a reminder of God's grace in me, working in me, to enable me to do the task He's set forth for me to do. 

And in the meantime I'm going to pull out my scientific calculator and try to show Cate the joy there is to be found in algebra. I know it's there if she looks for it.

Incremental Development

I have a sweet, cuddly, lovable little five year old who started his very first day of kindergarten today. The day snuck up on me, like everything does, when before my very eyes, my children grow and change and hit milestones long before I realize they are ready.

Jude was an eager little pupil, somewhat curious about what the day would hold, slightly humored at the excitement of those around him when they asked him if he was excited about his first day of school. "Should I be?" his eyes seemed to ask with mild amusement.

Let me just say here that I packed twice the schoolbooks for Jude than what I packed for the older kids. Kindergarten curriculum never seems to suffer from quantity; over the years I have realized it's the quality that often seems to be lacking. This year I decided to go with Veritas Press Phonics Museum. So you know, we don't follow classical education, which Veritas is known for, however, upon having tried many different kindergarten phonics programs, I was curious to try Veritas. I thought the songs, book suggestions, and and workbook looked like something Jude would enjoy.

The flash cards are beautiful: each letter of the alphabet is illustrated by a famous painting. A, for apple (duh), is some famous painting of an apple, that I am not classically educated enough to know the name of, nor the artist. I guess my five year old and I will learn about this together. Anyway, we read a book today about the alphabet, learned a fun alphabet song, practiced tracing lines and circles (I like this aspect of the workbook so far) and colored a suit of armor. Bad mommy; I forgot to make sure I had crayons on hand and the suit of armor had to be one color only: graphite, since the only coloring utensil we had on hand was a pencil. Jude and I looked at 26 famous paintings that all represented a letter of the alphabet. D-d-dancer is illustrated by a painting of a ballerina by Degas. So, at least on the teaching end, this is certainly more entertaining to go through than many other programs I have looked through, and tried. I have yet to see if it proves more efficient, and effective than the simple Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, a book I brought along as a back up, just in case. I can promise Veritas will be more interesting.

For math, Jude is beginning Saxon 1. You guys, I love Saxon math. I love it so much. It's magical. I know some people hate it. The thing with Saxon is that it doesn't pretend to be anything but a math book. It's not fancy. It's not innovative. But it teaches mathematical concepts, beginning with the very easiest ideas, and builds up from there, one small  idea at a time ("incremental development" is Saxon's byline), and, just as Isaiah 10:28 says, " for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little," you can see that even the Bible endorses Saxon's teaching philosophy. You can't get a higher authority than that. And I'm only half joking when I say this. My kids go through love and hate phases with math. And who doesn't? Math is very hard work. And hard work, while extremely rewarding, is not necessarily always fun. There's really no getting around that. So, they sometimes suffer through math, sometimes flourish, and always test very well. Today Jude learned what a calendar was and wrote a 1 in his Meeting book to designate day one of school. We also counted to 30. We were supposed to discuss what mathematicians are and do. I elected to skip that conversation just then. I'm sure we can talk about it another day.

Jude and I looked at a map and learned a song about the capitals and countries of Scandinavia. I love the cd of geography songsI own. I'm determined for the kids and I to learn all of them this year. I can't remember what that curriculum is called, but just google "geography songs" and you'll find it. 

Finally, I showed Jude how to find all the twins and triplets (black notes) on the piano, and had him practicing playing one note four times in a row, then holding it down while counting to two. Jude will probably start piano lessons next summer or sometime around then, and I want to show him a few of musical concepts before he starts that.

That was Jude's first day of kindergarten. While all this was going on, the four older kids practiced piano, picked up where they had left off in their math lessons last June, did spelling tests, looked at maps, journaled, listened to poetry, and read. I managed to check in from time to time and make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to. Also, I threw together spaghetti for dinner, kept Clementine relatively happy, and helped Truman "color" (with graphite). Our school year got off to an impressive start.

Of course I don't expect every day to go this smoothly. I know it won't; life is busy, complicated, and things so very often don't go as planned. That's okay. I'm going to keep Saxon's model in mind as I go forward in the school year, that of incremental development. Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little there a little. Oh right, that's not just Saxon; it's also in the Bible. Just remembering that every single day, putting in just a little bit of effort, not giving up, not quitting and steadily staying faithful to the task at hand is all that God is asking me to do.  

How a knitter thinks (Denmark edition)

Forgive me for the multitude of Clementine photos in my last several posts. I haven't been pulling my camera as much as I'd like. The truth is, life is a little busy right now. Our family is going to be moving to Denmark for the next three months, while Ben is out there working. He's been out of the country nearly as much as he's been in it for at least the last year, if not two.  That's why, in the middle of August, we will be packing up the whole family, our school work, piano music, and winter clothing, and getting on a plane to Denmark. We'll return just before Thanksgiving.

Naturally, everyone feels the way I do: excited and sad at the same time. We have so many friends, family, and activities here. Our lives are here. And I am such a homebody. I sometimes need to be bribed to leave the house. Being gone for three months is not my natural inclination. However, I have very, very fond memories of the last time we were in Denmark, two years ago, when we took an extended visit during the early spring (again, for Ben's work). I am expecting it to be much, much warmer this time. Thankfully. And, naturally, I am excited about all the learning we will do while over there. I feel very fortunate to have such a great opportunity to learn about another country while living in it.

And, as you might expect, there is lots of great knitting to be had when visiting a country so far north. I hope that we will have plenty of hats, scarves, and sweaters while staying out there. I'm knitting some now (I know, I know, I should be packing, but priorities, you know?) and have plans to take plenty of yarn with me to make sure our heads and hands and necks are well protected from the cold. Sorry. This is how a knitter thinks.  

Home's Best (and Disney World is probably second)

I didn't take very many pictures with "my" camera. Keeping track of a camera in Disney World was less of a concern than keeping track of my children. And, as it was, we did, in fact lose Evie for about 15 minutes! It was at a water park, on the lazy river, when the rest of the family was being quite lazy, but she kept pushing further and further ahead, un tip, during one of my every five minute head counts ("one, two, three, four, five six, seven, okay good, everyone's here still" whew!) I realized I hadn't seen Evie in a while. We looked around but immediately discovered she wasn't within our vicinity.

Not sure if she was further down the lazy river or not, and having all the other kids with us, we quickly decided Ben should jump out and look for her while I tried not to panic/stayed in the water with the kids in case she was still near there.

Thankfully, Ben found her within minutes waiting under the "Lost Children" tent- the tent that I had seen coming in and wondered whether it was a joke or not. Apparently not.

Imagine how many children I would have lost if I had tried to keep track of my camera, too. (That was a joke.)

I didn't think about anything during the trip. I read about one sentence in Atlas Shrugged. I knit about a half a row. I put all my mental energy into avoiding wait times on the rides and trying to stay cool at every opportunity. The energy was well spent. Between fast passes and stroller passes (for those waiting with the children to short to ride) and getting to the park 20-30 minutes early, we were able to steer clear of heavy crowds and long lines. And making a beeline for every air conditioned store (Disney has a LOT of places to shop as you walk along, don't you worry about that), water mister, fan, and shade (Disney has plenty of those as well- do they ever want you to be comfortable and happy and have a wonderful time while you are there! It's actually mind-blowing.) ensured that the heat and humidity didn't kill us. Though it felt as though they tried.

Oh, and I tried to keep us fed. That's what else I had to concentrate on. I think we walked about ten miles a day. I have never seen myself or my children eat so much. We consumed huge quantities of cashews, fruit roll ups, beef jerky, trail mix, goldfish, cheez-its, almonds, and granola bars. That was in between meals.

It's hard to use words to describe Disney World. If you ever have a chance to go, no matter your age, or the age of your kids, or whether or not you think you like Disney in general, just go. You will love it. Their propaganda works wonders. I'm only sort of joking. For instance, going into the trip, none of us, particularly Ben, Cate, or me, cared for the movie Frozen, or the characters. But look at us now, posing for pictures with Princess Anna! We went to the Frozen sing-along twice! And now all of us accidentally sing "Let It Go!" under our breaths all day long!

Right, that's probably not selling it for you, is it? (And I still don't care for the movie, but I think the art from it is beautiful)

Somehow, from the very first moments there, walking down Main Street, USA, while classic tunes are playing, nostalgia and coziness begins to set in. Employees, excuse me, CAST MEMBERS are smiling,  waving, high five-ing, and calling you either Princess or Prince Charming. Everything smells wonderful, the flowers are growing, the shops are clean, and Mickey Mouse and his friends are standing around to pose with you in pictures. And as the day progresses through castles, and pirates dens, and forts, and tree houses, and songs, and fireworks, and as you walk back down Main Street headed home at night (yes, they make it slope downhill on your way out so that when you are worn out from the day your feet have an easier time trudging out to your car), same music playing as before, you discover that you actually ARE a Disney fan, and you just never knew it before.

I must make some breakfast for the fam, now. As wonderful as Disney feels, like something out of a dream, waking up to a reality of home, where spring is here and everything is growing and alive, our home sweet home is the very best. 

Schedules, beautiful, terrible, schedules

I don't have a whole lot to add to the blog today since I got my Monday off to a late start after spending the morning with Ben talking about schedules. Oh, how I hate the word schedule. I think of restriction like a strait jacket, not ease and freedom, like Ben promises me the schedule will be. I know he's probably right, and it's true that every minute of our day feels crammed full and there's probably lots of little empty pockets of time that get wasted rather than utilized to move our day forward, but I can't help feeling like wanting to hide under my pillows when I think about what scheduling looks, feels, and sounds like. I haven't given it a fair shot yet, though. I'm willing to do it, because goodness knows if anyone on this planet needs a schedule, it's me. I'm just trying to make the argument that I don't need a schedule, because no one should be forced to suffer through such torture. Apparently "schedules are of the devil" in and of itself doesn't make a good argument? 

Well, I'll be back to this blog one day, I suppose, if I can ever again find a spare minute to fit it in again somewhere in the middle this monster of a schedule. (grumble, grumble)

Okay, that's not very nice of me. Hopefully, now that everything should start running like clockwork for a change, I'll have a nice, long leisurely time every day to write a beautiful blog post. Is that better?

Our "Thomas Jefferson Education"

I happened upon this cozy scene this afternoon when I was trying to figure out just where and if my older children were doing school. Of course, in Cate and Grace's little attic room. It's chilly out today and there are still screens in place of window glass so the blankets were a necessity.

The final photo is from Gideon's book he's reading about Thomas Jefferson (or Tommy Jeff, as Gideon and I like to call him. Don't ask.). Considering A Thomas Jefferson Education is probably my favorite home schooling book that best describes my educational philosophy (but isn't a perfect depiction because I stray from it where I feel I should), I was quite interested in reading what Jefferson considered a suitable way to learn each day. 

In case you are having trouble reading it, he says to his daughter Patsy:

"From 8 to 10 o'clock practice music

From 10 to 1 dance one day and draw another

From 1 to 2 draw on the day you dance and write a letter the next day

From 3-4 practice French

From 4-5 exercise yourself in music

From 5 till bedtime read english, write, etc."

I find his emphasis on drawing and music interesting. One would assume the schedule would be filled from dawn till dusk with language lessons, sentence diagramming, Latin and the seemingly (to me)  boring like.  I asked my kids how they liked the schedule and they said it sounded too rigorous going without a break from 8 till bedtime. Our schedule is more like:

7-10 practice music (juggling 4 kids on 3 pianos ensures everyone gets more or less 2 hours of practice time)

10-12 math lesson,

12-2 reading, and sewing after that for Cate and Grace.

Writing happens most days as well.

Oh, we eat lunch, too, actually.

Evie is doing a more formal reading and writing lesson, and I am happy to reinvent the schedule if a project comes up that I think the children would get a lot out of, so our days don't quite look exactly like that, but you get the general rough, very rough, idea. And of course everything takes much longer than it should on paper so somehow this schedule doesn't get done till around 4 or 5 most days. Maybe I can cram an hour to draw in there. Wouldn't that be nice.

I think it's funny how Jefferson wrote to his daughter, "Learning will render you more worthy of my love." Not quite the general philosophy of our day, is it? Hahaha. I hope when my children read statements like that, as well as finding out about Patsy's recommended educational schedule, it will remind them that I am a very very very nice mommy.