THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Tom and Linda got married. Their blended family welcomed teenage Tim into their home for a season a couple years later. They've considered him (then later his wife, kids, and daughter-in-law) family ever since. Today we helped celebrate their thirtieth anniversary. My bonus in-laws are a blessing.

FRESH AIR, FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Thursday was a good day, but I struggled with my attitude about something in the afternoon. We had to leave for something on the calendar, but I made a spontaneous decision to leave early and spend some time outside. We headed to Memorial Park, parked at the top, and walked a hilly loop. It was perfect!

Nothing beats fresh air, movement, and nature when your head and heart are a little wonky. It doesn't negate whatever problem you're facing, but it puts it into perspective. It's a reminder that your situation, no matter how big or small, is just one part of a huge world filled with intricate details. Life will go on. Just keep moving forward. 

 

WOODWORKING PROJECT

Unbeknownst to me, Devon saw directions for making a wooden candy dispenser in Boy's Life magazine seven or eight years ago. Also unbeknownst to me, he's wanted to make one ever since. 

He came home from work last night with an odd assortment of things for a mysterious project he wouldn't tell any of us about. He came to me later in the evening with a huge grin and excitedly told me to come see what he'd made. 

It's a wooden candy dispenser, just like the one he saw all those years ago. He decided to just wing it, making one solely from the memory of the one he read about when he was younger.

How cool is that?! I suspect he'll be making more in days to come, whether to give as gifts or sell as a side gig. I also suspect he'll be purchasing some better tools to simplify and speed up the process. 

I'm so impressed!

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THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for windows. What's one thing you're thankful for?

SIBS IN BLACK

I walked upstairs at church tonight and saw all four little Ws together. And they were all dressed in black. So I made them pose. Which they thought was ridiculous. But I didn't care. The end.

Not the end.  They actually wear black a lot or always, depending on the kid, but it struck me as funny to see them all together that way. It's like a sibling uniform or something.

 

QUICK VISIT

Tim wasn't able to come home as planned over the weekend because the crew had to work on their day off, but he ended up getting yesterday off because of weather. He found out too late on Sunday to make it home that night, so he did a day trip yesterday. He ran some errands on his own, spent about four hours with the three of us that were home, and met up with Devon for dinner on his way out. I'm glad we got to see him for a bit!

BOOKS I FINISHED - FEBRUARY 2022

About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known: Ruminations and Revelations from a Desperate Mother to Her Dirty Son, written by Peggy Rowe

A lighthearted read filled with short stories about a marriage of two people with opposite upbringings and personalities, their life raising three sons, and how they handle fame.

Bamboo People, written by Mitali Perkins

Two boys, one who has no interest in fighting and another who's eager for violent revenge, find themselves as soldiers having to choose whether or not to do what they find uncomfortable or unfair. It's a novel about personal growth, doing the right thing when it's hard, the love of family and friends, and seeing the humanity of those we disagree with or have been hurt by.

Bud, Not Buddy (audio), written by Christopher Paul Curtis and narrated by James Avery

Ten years old, without a mother, escaped from a foster home, and determined to find his father, Bud has some adventures ahead of him. With moments scary, tender, and funny, this novel quickly draws you in. 

Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace, written by Sarah Mackenzie

A beautifully written reminder to become neither overbearing in our focus on academics or lazy in our appreciation for the freedom we have, but prioritizing restful learning as we focus on relationships with our kids. A valuable read for any homeschooling parent, and probably for all parents to some degree, I found it timely, practical, and encouraging as someone who's both a Type A box-checker and one still struggling to find a rhythm after a long stretch of depression-induced apathy. 

p. 2, Can you hit the pause button on your frustration long enough to realize that people rank infinitely higher than anything else on the list? Have you considered that God may have scooted these people into view for the very purpose of slowing you down? 

p. 3, (quoting C.S. Lewis from Letters of C.S. Lewis) The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's "own," or "real" life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's "real life" is a phantom of one's own imagination. 

p. 7, If our children are images of God (and they are), then we aren't meeting their needs or tending to their real nature when we swing like a pendulum to either the vice or anxiety or the vice of negligence. 

p. 7-8, The Greek historian Plutarch once wrote, "The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting."

Modern translations of Plutarch's maxim tell us that education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire, but we must remember that a fire does indeed need to be lit and then stoked, or else it will burn out. 

p. 22, However, how we interact with our children while using the material matters far more than whether or not we get through it. Instead of focusing on what we need to cover in any given year, it may be helpful to think about what we might uncover and master. After all, if our eyes are so fixed on the finish line that we miss the experience entirely, what have we really gained for our labors?

p. 24, Pacing doesn't matter if you are sacrificing mastery and love for truth, goodness, and beauty. Change the way you assess your success. The quality of study matters far more than the mere quantity of learning. 

p. 27, If we don't know where we're going, what our purpose is for our children, our homeschool, and our family culture, it will be impossible to know what should go and what should stay. 

p. 27, Which words, phrases, or sentences do I want my child to use when describing his or her homeschooled childhood?

p. 37, Perhaps most importantly, put relationships above everything else. God made a true, beautiful, and good world to relish. Don't get so distracted by thirty-six weeks of carefully plotted lesson plans that you miss the glory that is already yours for the taking. 

p. 40, Life is made up of inconsistencies, so make sure your schedule provides guide rails for your day rather than serving s a measure of guilt or frustration as you do your best to keep things running smoothly. 

p. 51, What if, instead of trying to make the most of our time, we worked harder at savoring it? What if we were more intentional and lavish with our time and more detached from our checklists?

p. 52, If education is in part an atmosphere, then creating an atmosphere of peace should be of utmost importance.

p. 54, Today, do less. Do it well.

p. 60, If we would like our children to practice deep thinking, contemplate big ideas, and relish truth and beauty as they go about their learning, perhaps we should make that a habit ourselves. 

p. 69, Our children are not projects. If, by the grace of God, we can manage to remember that our children are all made in HIs image - and more importantly, if we can treat them as such despite the mess and the chaos - then we will really be able to teach from rest. 

p. 79, Value academic work because nurturing the intellect is part of what makes us fully human, but don't elevate it beyond its place. There are relationships to cultivate, books to read, oceans to swim in, forts to build, toilets to scrub, bills to pay, paintings to create, dinners to make. 

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