After a large Thanksgiving meal, for which we were duly thankful, my mother, my sister, my sweet husband, my son Joseph and I set out on a slow, easy walk around the pond.

The beauty of the woods enticed me to think on happy . . . → Read More: The Walk]]> “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”  Psalms 8:1

After a large Thanksgiving meal, for which we were duly thankful, my mother, my sister, my sweet husband, my son Joseph and I set out on a slow, easy walk around the pond.

The beauty of the woods enticed me to think on happy things.  My mind was renewed as my thoughts flew to getting back into school after a week of cooking, eating, and relaxing.  We have the marvelous AO Year 5 books to devour.  This season offers the chance to study some of the greatest music of all time.  Handel’s Messiah comes to mind.  Music appreciation should flow almost without effort. 

In my Charlotte Mason reading this morning, exercising the mind was the subject of her writing.

Most of us have met with a few eccentric and a good many silly persons, concerning whom the question forces itself, Were these people born with less brain power than others?  Probably not; but if they were allowed to grow up without the daily habit of appropriate moral and mental work, if they were allowed to dawdle through youth without regular and sustained efforts of thought or will, the result would be the same, and the brain which should have been invigorated by daily exercise has become flabby and feeble as a healthy arm would be after carried for years in a sling.”

Oh what encouragement to push ever onward in the coming week! And though it might sometimes seem an inconveniece to my child to forgo mindless (insert name of modern pop star who most gets on your nerves) videos on YouTube, in favor of a more noble pursuit:

Do not let the children pass a day without distinct efforts, intellectual, moral, volitional; let them brace themselves to understand; let them compel themselves to do and to bear; and let them do right at the sacrifice of ease and pleasure… 

I find that we are not without things to work on.

Wishing you a beautiful and productive Saturday,
Lynn