But I didn’t mean to.  I would never do that to you on purpose.  I said we’d have daffodils in February, but here we are two days from March and the little daffodil blooms are still scrunched up, showing only a hint of the yellow to come, and it’s very, very cold out today.  Maybe hubby was serious about this being a long winter after all.

This, my favorite mosaic birdbath, has suffered a lot of wear this winter.  She’ll need repairs once the weather warms, but even the wearing itself is a beautiful process in the garden: a little bird sits on the tiled shore of an icy pond.

I’m okay, though.  Really.  I’m fine.  Really.  I’ll be okay.  (Spring?  Spring, where are you?)  Yes, I have a menagerie of warm little birds in my office, nestled in and around my plants.  They can sing to me while I work today.  (Really, I’ll be okay.)

I worked on pins last night, at the end of a long, productive day.  We had another amazing FIAR co-op at the EPA in Research Triangle Park.   Then home again, home again, jiggety jog, to work on budgeting, grocery lists, filling up Michaela’s cereal boxes, and bill-paying, all before settling into my desk this Friday morning.

I love the pins I’m working on now.  It’s my “women of the world series.”  As soon as they’re ready, I’ll put them in the shop. 

Michaela and a sweet friend discuss what they’re looking at on a worksheet, where they have to try and label pictures taken from electron microscopy.

We also learned about pH, environmentally friendly architecture, and a few other amazing tidbits.

Have a lovely Friday!

I must admit, the snow is awfully pretty.  It is so unusual for us to keep getting snow like this.  The children are always happy if we get one snow during the winter, but now we’ve had…three, is it?

This snow is not that deep, but it is a beautiful snow that swirls down from the trees when the wind blows. 

It’s the kind of snow that sits easily heaped up on every little thing, and I so enjoyed my little morning stroll through the garden. 

The sky was extremely gray this morning, making it seem as if the snow would start pouring out of the sky all over again.  By the time my walk was over, however, the sun was shining brightly.  This snow is not expected to hang around for very long.

The dead stalks topped with snow reminded me so much of cotton plants.  Have you ever seen cotton in a field?  It is a beautiful plant.  It is a powerful plant, full of wonder and history that makes one laugh and cry inside, all at the same time.

Today is a work day for me, but I just wanted to stop in and say a snowy good morning.  Each day, I look for the things I have to be happy about.  I hope to have a little time tonight to work on pins.  I like adding the charms and I have new clay, ready to be worked with.  

It’s a gray day here, and I’m finding myself feeling a bit gray as well.  Perhaps it’s been the thyroid all over again, seeing how the Levoxyl 75 mcg brought on palpitations and sleepless nights, then skipping medicine altogether for two days (on the doctor’s orders) made me a bit sluggish again, and now I’m leveling out again on 50 mcg.  I think it’s akin to jet lag.     Only I don’t have a fabulous T-shirt from anywhere.  Just a messy house.

To brighten my day, I’ve worked on a few pins.  I like this one, but what do you think?  Michaela thought it seemed a little long until she saw it pinned to a black velvet dress.  Then she said, “I do like it.”  I’ll try to get a picture of it actually pinned to a black dress when the sun shines again.

I have visited all my house plants to see if they had anything to say to me that might cheer me up.  The spider plant in the hallway is blooming right now.  That was a huge help.  (Mom, if you’re reading this, I love this plant.  Thank you so much.  Oh, and Oreo loves it too.)

I feel a bit out of control with scheduling these days.  I have had more errands and appointments than I can count lately.  A tire on the van decided to go bad the same day as I got my oil changed, so I spent two days visiting the garage last week.  This week I have two vet appointments, one dentist appointment and the usual stuff.  I’m not complaining, but when you work and homeschool, time off is precious with a capital P.  It goes by fast.  I must get grocery shopping done on those off days.  I must also plan errands on my days off.  And I consider my days off our big school days.  It can be done, but if I let my scheduling fall by the wayside, then much goes by the wayside. 

So this evening, supper will be easy.  My boys all pitched in last night to straighten their rooms a little better and put their clothes away.  (No, they don’t always put all their clothes away immediately and it drives me crazy.)

I’m about to sit down with my home notebook and my Charlotte Mason notebook and my bible and just try to wrap my mind around what I should be doing each day, and how.  One of my prayers is often that the Lord would help me to order my days, because I don’t do such a great job of it when I wing it based on my own wants.

Michaela is working on a project for an art show this week, so I have to lend a bit of my focus to making sure she has what she needs for that today.  And here it is 4:31 p.m.  Where do the days go? 

Anyway, I just knew that if I sat down for 15 minutes and told all of you about this that you’d understand.

Thank you.

I never know what to say about how I feel on Thursday evenings.  I don’t know if I’m winding down after three straight days off work, or winding up to work for two straight days.  I guess it always depends on how the week went.

This afternoon was actually warm enough to go to the park and play for an hour.  Michaela and a friend wanted to just get outside and run, I think.  It was fun watching them on the swings and, believe me, these two always have plenty of ideas going on in their minds about adventures and what not, so I doubt they were just swinging without there being some fantastic imagined  scenario clouding the swingset.

I sat on a bench, reading mesmerized by the most current issue of Victoria magazine.  (Hey, I noticed on their website that they are offering a trial issue right now.)  I could sit and look at the pictures in this issue over and over and over again.  I know, ’cause that’s what I’ve been doing.  On the way out the door to the park, I reached for a magazine.  I almost grabbed something I hadn’t looked at recently, and then I said, “Nah, I’ll just look at that Victoria again.”  I had prepared a thermos of piping hot Guayaki Mate Chocolatte tea and I was wrapped in a warm shawl, so I was fine on that park bench for an hour.  Yes indeed.

Once I got home, I fixed a quick supper — breakfast casserole with venison sausage, some black-eyed peas that had been simmering all afternoon, and a big pot of noodles with cheese.  It was one of those thrown-together meals that turned out yummy after all.  Then I worked on some pins and a couple of other new things for my Etsy shop, which I am having way too much fun with, by the way.

Well, I better wrap things up and go to bed.  I better wind down.  Or I better wind up.  Whichever thing it is that I’m trying to do.

I probably won’t post in the morning, as I’ll be at my desk all day, then tomorrow night is karate night, so Fridays are crazy busy, but I’m thankful to be able to enjoy a crazy-busy day.

Ahhh, the school bell is ringing this morning.  Yes, it is.  The past two weeks have been full of fun and relaxation, and plenty of food and family and friends, but it’s time to put our thinking caps on once again.  I don’t know about you, but mine feels a little loose this morning.  Uh…

As one of my brooches says, I believe that we’ll get back into our school groove.

The brooch pins are coming along nicely.  We are working, working, and Michaela has found her own little niche, but more about that later.  I’ll let her post when she’s ready.  In the meantime, I am working on something special for my Etsy shop for Valentine’s Day.  When the Etsy shop is ready, I’ll be sure and post a link here.

For lessons today, the following is on tap:

• Ambleside Reading — will all be independent today, as I have to work
• Practice harmonica
• Math – Saxon next lesson
• Work on further training Annie
• Grammar will be copywork from Snowflake Bentley
• Review Snowflake Bentley as we have a co-op built around that book this week
• Science - Bug review sheet from a previous field trip
• Nature Study – More copywork – write the definition of metamorphosis and then glue pictures of butterfly life cycle onto cardstock for notebook – label.  (The pictures are lovely pictures from our garden from this past summer.  I think Charlotte Mason would approve.)
• Work on craft project
• Practice sketching
• Review Raphael prints for Ambleside art

I do hope you have a wonderful Monday.  Mondays are work days for me, and they are sort of hard for me — a real transition after being off with my family on Sundays.  But it is okay.  It really is.  I try my best every morning to smile out at the world and focus on everything that’s lovely and pure and of good report.  I believe God gives us grace when we really want to have a right spirit for His sake.

I’m off work today. (Big happy sigh.) It’s hard to understand what a feeling that is unless you work. Yesterday was a work day, but look who kept me company.

Annie sometimes sits in my lap while I type, but most often she snuggles up behind me, so that I have to scoot up in my chair. I don’t mind sharing my chair, though, because — like I said — she’s keeping me company. That’s a treasure.

I also don’t really mind working. My job is such a blessing to our family.

I was out early yesterday morning feeding the bunnies (my little walk before work starts) and I tried to get a picture of Boomerang for you, but the sun was just too bright.  After seeing the picture, I though you might just enjoy seeing the bright morning sun on our shoulders.

Basil likes to chew on pieces of what appears to be Timothy hay growing around the cage.  I suppose that’s what it is.  We now have a lot of bunny droppings and some accidentally spilled seeds all around the cages.  I have noticed bright green patches of a grass growing which I have never seen before.  It looks like the Timothy hay, only not dry.    Anyway, the bunnies love it.

Poor Midnight can hardly open his (her?) eyes, the sun is so bright.  You can see just how black Midnight and Boomerang are.  Coco looks so small now that her babies are getting bigger.

One of my favorite things to read about on other blogs is when people share their ideas for feminine dress.  What do you reach for to put on in the mornings?  I love to grab a dress and then layer something pretty over it, if it’s cold.  I usually put on an apron and tights or leggings and try to find some pretty way to put my hair up for the day.  Lately I’ve been test-driving the brooches that Michaela and I are making. 

Today is cold but bright again.  I hope to get some lesson planning done today.  We simply must start back to school in earnest next week.  We’ve really been slacking off the last few weeks.  Hopefully I can work on a few more pins as well.  I also need to get out into the garden and remove some dead, unsightly potted plants left over from the summer. Enjoy your day.

But have you met the little birds that surround me while I type?  Oh maybe you glanced at them when we undertook the office redo, but I thought you might like to see them again.

I realize the little bluebird is blurry, but she really likes to be hidden anyway, in a mass of green and camouflaged by a butterfly finger-painting project a neighborhood girl gave to me.

A trio of gifted birds have alighted high up in the office, two on painted-white brick columns and one on a framed Marjolein Bastin artwork.

My children all love this hand-carved bird with what appears to be Japanese writing carved into the base.  He was rescued from Goodwill and set to watch over the nearby birdhouse.

A ceramic pomander bird-occupied cage filled with lavender from the garden.

Another pomander ~ a white ceramic dove.

Love is…a heavy cast iron bird.

One of my favorites is the large bluejay, because the carpenter bought it for me on our last vacation to Tweetsie Railroad.

And very humbly last, but certainly not least, is this little formed-from-clay sweetheart of a bird, sitting in a string-and-glue nest, fashioned by Daniel’s little hands when he was only 6 years old.  He has a chipped beak, but to say he’s not my favorite would be a travesty.

Things like collected birds are just tokens of days spent with friends and sweethearts, and of times gone by.  It’s the memories these tokens elicit that are the real treasures. 

We all only have today.  Enjoy…

As many of you know, my second son Joseph graduates from our homeschool this year.  Is he spelling like I wanted him to?  No.  But I know that learning does not stop just because someone hands you a diploma.  Spelling well is going to be a personal challenge for him his whole life.  It’s a challenge that I cannot undertake for him, though I will continue to encourage him to find ways to maneuver around and work with his dyslexia, and in spite of his dyslexia!

As a benefit of being a consistent member of North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE), we can order a diploma for a graduating child by filling out a form and sending 5 dollars for postage.  It’s still up to me to put the transcripts together, but I think it is so nice to have a professional looking diploma for my son’s records.   We were all very excited (just like we were for Daniel) when Joseph’s diploma arrived in the mail.  Michaela took one look at it and disappeared.  I did not think much about it until she reappeared with a homemade “cap” to go with Joseph’s diploma. 

It’s made from a column of cardstock, upon which sits a lovely square of cardboard, and (leaving no detail undone) there’s a fancy link of blue beads for Joseph’s graduation tassle.  What a graduation ceremony they had in the kitchen!  I told Joseph he certainly needed to keep that cap forever!  It is indeed one of a kind.

When you have a child with special needs, it’s easy to feel like you failed.  You can think of the “what ifs” until you make yourself crazy.  I did that for a couple of years, and while I still worry some, in the last year I have seen Joseph begin to find some things in life that he is very interested in.  I have watched over the last four years as he read nearly 100 large  (500+ pages) books for pleasure.  I know that he has what he needs on the inside to work hard and to find a way to make it, and that is more important than anything else.

It’s rainy here today and it’s a work day for me.  Michaela will do timed drill sheets for math.  I have some of my garden pictures printed out of the butterfly lifecycle and will have her arrange those and label them for her school notebook.  She is continuing to read in her Ambleside Year 5 books.  She will do a geography word find and some writing today.  When you work and homeschool, it’s good to have some easy ideas before you sit down at your desk!

I’m thankful for a cozy little office in which to work, my rain barrel that’s running over, the near-by birdfeeder that I can watch, family, faith, my tea kettle, and so many other little and big things.  Have a good Monday.

Lynn

‘Twas the thought that came to mind last night as we read on in our current nighttime read-aloud, On The Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Pa was out building “the wonderful house” for Ma and the girls.  It would be a house with boughten doors and shingles.  It would be a house with glass in the windows.  It would be a home built with beautiful, straight, smooth boards cut by a machine.

Laura and Mary could hardly stay in the dugout long enough to do their work.  But Ma made them do it.

“And I won’t have you giving your work a lick and a promise,” said Ma. So they washed every breakfast dish and put them all away. They made their bed neatly. They brushed the floor with the willow-twig broom and set the broom in its place. Then they could go.

I expect that back then watching a house with boughten doors go up would be about as exciting today as Disney dot com or a stack of twaddle-y books or magazines, or lying on the couch playing a video game.  And yet Ma made Laura and Mary do their work first, and not just give it a lick and  a promise either.

This business of working and homeschooling is a tedious thing.  To the aforementioned, rather mindless activities that could so easily take a higher place than real work, it’s just as easy for me to say yes as it is for Michaela to beg, please.   Especially when I’m tired or have not had much time for myself. 

But in the end, it’s the real work that will make Michaela a real lady with a real thinking mind.  And I don’t mean just a lick and a promise. 

Am I doing my job?

Lynn

It’s a work day today.  You know I’d rather be outside playing, but my job brings my little family such benefits!  So I’ve opened the curtains and here I sit in the sunshine that streams into my tiny office.

Let’s dwell on the good things, shall we? 

Michaela and I have been away at my mother’s for the weekend.  I wanted to take lots of pictures, but my mother and I spent most of our time talking and walking around her yard, wading through the fallen leaves, watching the animals and enjoying the sun.  The camera barely came out of its case. 

In news around here, I’ve been wanting to share that Joseph recently went to a Karate tournament with his sensei and came home with a first-place trophy for his kata!

I am so grateful for our Karate family and all we have learned.  I took the month of October off due to my health, but I look forward to starting up again soon.  I must work hard to get where I need to be for our next Karate testing.

As far as life goes, I find my body whispering to me to slow down these days.  I am thankful for the peace that only God can give during times like this.  Michaela and I enjoy school outside, talking about life lessons, and especially, especially our bedtime reading.  It is such a peaceful ritual for us.

The tea kettle will whistle soon, so I’m off to refill my teacup and dive into my transcribing. 

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly.  Do not mistake activity for achievement.  ~Mabel Newcomber

Happy Monday,
Lynn