Simple Woman #12

SIMPLE WOMAN

FOR TODAY March 30, 2009

Outside My Window... darkness, clouds and rain. At least it’s not snowing, (though it tried on Saturday.)

I am thinking... about the stack of bills beside my desk, and wondering if I can keep the checkbook in the black for one more month. Also, that "Simple Woman" really needs a new logo. The Victorian looking one has never really worked for me, and the comment of one reader who looked at it and saw "AMPLE Woman" really clinched it.

I am thankful for... this house – our home. In our first house, and in this one - before the remodel - every time it rained we had a well-founded worry about leaks and water damage. Now I can lay in my bed and enjoy the sound of dripping rain, confident that the water will stay out and (since we’re not doing spring soccer) that I will stay in :0)

From the learning rooms... quietness, for the moment. If they’re not asleep they soon will be. We’re reading about Spain and Portugal and the colonization of the New World. The conquistadors came to find gold and treasure, and to spread Catholicism, and ended the civilizations of the Incas and Aztecs. But it’s hard to feel very sorry about the demise of an empire known for cutting the beating hearts out of its human sacrifices.

From the kitchen... home-made pizza for dinner. Don’t be impressed. Really.

I am wearing... jeans, wool socks, black shirt, fuzzy purple sweater. *sigh* You know, I'm not against make-up and jewelry, but when I get up and get dressed in the morning, and I look at myself in the mirror, I come to the conclusion that I don't think it would help.

I am creating... Still wondering what to do with some rather unique fabric my neighbor gave me. I have someone in mind to use it for, but want to think of something a bit more clever than another quilt of squares! But not too clever for a novice like me.

I am going... to bed. Soon. I have a headache and and a back ache... girl woes, but that’s all I’m saying. (I do have the occasional male reader.)

I am reading... a biography of Martin Luther, with the boys. Getting a jump start on next week, when we’ll cover the Reformation. In one week. Yeah. Wish me luck.

I am hoping... I am praying for more work for Kerry. Soon would be good.

I am hearing... wind and rain. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest.

Around the house... Dust bunnies. Dust elephants. And I’m having company tomorrow night. Well, my mama always told me to light some candles, turn the lights down, and enjoy yourself. Then clean after your company leaves so you can enjoy the clean house. Amen.

One of my favorite things... comics written by little boys who are just beginning to understand humor and develop their own. I’ll have to scan Tate’s interpretation of the “Civil” war. Oh so very proper.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Book club is meeting here tomorrow. (Dust bunnies beware.) Having dinner with friends on Thursday, and Kerry and the boys are going out to a father/son thing on Friday night (hallelujah!) They’re going to hear a man who was a fighter pilot in WWII, and was in POW camps and – I think – Buchenwald. I’d love to meet him too, but I’ll have to suffer through a quiet, peaceful evening at home alone.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

This is the special fabric. I'm assuming my neighbor cut the fabric before she washed it, so you're looking at an almost-eight inch square. The hula girls are about four inches tall, so I don't want to cut the pieces too small. I probably need to use them as big blocks and make some kind of interesting accent blocks to go alongside. Ideas?

Nuances

Kids are somewhat literal. Ahem.

We invited some new friends to come over for lunch after church today.
Of course, when someone is coming over the boys have two standard and immediate questions:

Who is coming? and
Do they have kids?
The second question being the more pressing.

I'm trying to teach the boys to be good hosts; to think of activities that might interest our guests, whom I've only observed in church. So I started my Mom-ologue by explaining that the boy and girl are both a bit older than Wyatt (12) and seem very calm and quiet. Possibly even shy. Like, hint hint... they're probably not going to want to have plastic light-saber duels, fir-cone wars, or certain other things my boys find entertaining.

The second the words calm and quiet left my mouth Gunnar piped up, "Oh. So they're not our type, Mom."

Friends, if you ever read this, please know that our kids enjoyed your kids and would like to play with them again (!) and that Gunnar meant only that they are Not Like Us, as opposed to Not Liked BY Us.

Just a day in the life...

I love the flexibility that comes with the combination of homeschooling and Kerry being self-employed. He took the boys out this morning for a nearly private showing of Monsters vs. Aliens (!) and a good time was had by all.

Of course, you realize that for the next month I'll be subjected to a steady diet of, "Oh! Mom! Let me tell you about a funny part!", followed by a pronoun-laden stream of consciousness explanation that makes no sense at all to anyone who wasn't there. "And then this guy threw this thing at this other guy who was an alien and then he said blah-blah-blah and then he said blah-blah-blah and then she climbed over....." Uh huh.

But that's fine. I'm used to it. :0)



The catch was, they got to the mall before the movie started and had some time to wander around. I thank the Lord above that the stores weren't open yet, and I submit to you Exhibit A in "Why Men Should Not Shop Unattended", especially for home decor.


Exhibit B would be the following dialog, as reported by the boys.

Husband: "Hey! Why don't we buy that for Mom for an early Mother's Day present?!"

10 y.o. Son: "You'd really waste all that money just to annoy her?"


Thank you, Tate, oh thank you!

The Re-Weirds of Parenting #3

And that's all I have to say about that.

Best Twenty Bucks I Ever Spent

I know, it may not be the best picture, but trust me, this was the best twenty bucks I ever spent.

At a consignment store, one day, I saw a K'nex roller coaster kit, and a huge plastic tub of random K'nex pieces. They must've just been brought in because they weren't priced.

"How much?"

"Twenty bucks."

"For the kit or the tub?"

"Uh... for both."

Yeah. I hit the jackpot.

It's a little rainy here, in the PNW. The boys will spend hours and hours with toys like this, or Legos, or Lincoln Logs.

Not only were all the pieces and the instructions there, both of the motors (the big orange units) work, zinging the little roller-coaster car in endless loops around the track.

Oh, blessed peace and quiet in the house!

Who says you can't buy happiness?!

Macho Man

Yes. His hair is blue. It was "Crazy Hair Night" at AWANA. And he was due for a hair cut anyway.

As the hair came off his head, and clung to his little chest and back, Kerry and I couldn't help cracking up.

A vision of his future???

I should've named him Esau...

When Gunnar doesn't want to finish his dinner

The Re-Weirds of Parenting #2

For their journal writing today I told the boys to write about where chocolate milk comes from. In case you have trouble reading them, I'll write out the text, unedited. Bear in mind that I usually try to leave the room while they're writing these because I want them to work them out for themselves. I don't correct their "GPS" (grammar, punctuation or spelling) in their journals. These are just to get them loosened up and WRITING.


GUNNAR, who is 7 years old, is the only one who went for realism. I suspect he may have talked Wyatt into helping him with some of the spelling, but I'm actually thrilled to see words he misspelled. I know that sounds weird, but he is very cautious about just launching out and trying to sound things out for himself, so writing "huny" for "honey" is a big success. He put down an appropriate letter for every sound in the word. He even remembered the apostrophe in "it's"! Anyway... We've been reading about the Aztecs this week, so he wrote:

How we get chocolate milk.

We get a been from a tree and we add sweet huny a (and) add yumyyy chocolate and add milk and mix and ta daa it's chocolate milk

Nice :0)











WYATT loves dramatic stories, and came up with this, supporting the idea that you can explain anything using aliens, (thanks to my friend the Babylonian Squirrel for the link), with a multitude of sound effects I won't even try to replicate:

Once upon a time, on a farm, in a field, the cows were grazing peacefully. When suddenly, the aliens were upon them! The UFO chased the cows around the barnyard until it cornered one against a fence... ZZZAP! They took the cow to their planet, and their atmosphere had a wierd affect on the cow; it turned brown. the aliens, who had taken the cow to supply them with fresh white milk, now got chocolate milk. And when they tried to drink it... they coughed, belched, farted, and exploded... eeeeeeeewww. So the aliens quickly took the cow back to earth and put it back in the barnyard, and left. That cow's descendants all made chocolate milk, and thats why we have it, and its also why aliens never come to earth anymore!!!!!

The end




TATE, however, always goes for humor. I have to say how impressed I was that he incorporated "poetry" (to a kid, if it rhymes, it's poetry), music (an imitation of the song from the old "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"), and - more poetry - a haiku, at the end. And, yes, I know his handwriting isn't great, and his spelling isn't great. Part of that is related to hearing loss and part of it is impatient 10 year old boy who would much rather do hard manual labor that painstakingly write out his thoughts. I'm thrilled with how much he wrote, and all the different elements he included - even checking with me to make sure he was using "intently" correctly. (Deaf/HoH kids commonly struggle with word meaning. Tate is often so close, but not quite right... like offering to give me an "interview", rather than a "review" of a book.)

But I'm rambling. Here is pure 10 year old boy:

Chocolate milk coms from cows of cors, but not just any cows...
45 foot brown cud chuwing, crud pewing, cocolate cows!
They eat chocolate, they dringk cholate. Everything abowt them is chocolaty. They mow dawn any thing in their path like giant 45 foot chocolat lan mowers!
(music notes) Attac of the killer (music notes) chocolat cows they eat and eat? until ther feet turn brown (music notes) ther 45 foot cows (music notes) the size ? of 50 sows (music notes) But... their milk is so chokolaty that they hav to put it thrug a straner befor they can sell it!

40 foot brown cow
chewing its cud intently
lying in the shade

A Small Field

I've been reading Everyday Mommy lately. 

She posted this earlier today. (Well, by the time I post, yesterday.)

What is the unique purpose God has given to you as His special creation? What work has God given you to do in your home, church, community & world?

It got me thinking about how much my life has changed, not so much recently (that's a different story), but over the last many years.

I left her the short version...


In my single years, I was happy. Though I came from a godly, Christian home, with parents who love and respect each other, I did not assume that would be my life (married and raising kids.) I spent several years between university, skiing, hiking and climbing, sailing, various jobs, traveling, and working with an adventure-based youth ministry. It was all good :0)

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” I loved my life, and would have said that God was indeed giving me the desires of my heart. Those were good years.

As time passed and - I hope - I matured, God was working in me and I saw the deeper meaning of the promise. Not only was He fulfilling the desires of my heart, He was GIVING me the desires of my heart - giving me new desires, and then fulfilling them.

Now I’ve been married almost 15 years, I’ve been home for 13 of those. I never thought I’d be who I am today - and home educating my 12, 10 and 7 year old boys. Truly, new desires that came from Him.

I’ve always thought this quote expresses my heart;

We cultivate a very small field for Christ but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements, but a heart that holds back nothing for self.
St. Philippine Duchesne

So there ya go.

Simple Woman #11

FOR TODAY March 23, 2009

Outside My Window... darkness. I forgot to post earlier, not that anyone is keeping score.

I am thinking... about family friends. When I met them, almost 15 years ago, the wife was in the early stages of MS. She walked with a cane, but could still drive a car. We went to a Bible Study together, and she always had insightful things to share.

Of course, her condition got worse as time went by. Her husband has cared for her all these years. She could no longer walk, keep house, cook, feed or bathe herself. Her speech was hard (or impossible) to understand.

I've never known him to complain or even to seem discouraged - he just carries on. He loves to work with children at church and has a wonderful, natural rapport with them. And he helps with just about everything. When we bought our first house, with apple trees in the back yard, he came over and showed Kerry how to prune them.

A friend called a few days ago to say that the wife is in the hospital. Infection. Heart attack.

Now, I think she must be dying. But that isn't a question one calls and asks. Still, tomorrow I'll call someone. Find out what is happening. They've requested no visitors at the hospital.

We pray for them. The husband, the wife, the (grown) son. For their comfort.

I am thankful for... health, friends, for faith to be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

From the learning rooms... the boys are asleep. We changed the sheets, (off with the flannels, though the nights are still cold), and cleaned and moved furniture in their bedroom. The school room is tidy also. Lessons are waiting for tomorrow, a day that will be happily disrupted.

From the kitchen... only the hum and gurgle of the dishwasher.

I am wearing... I ought to eliminate this category, because it's so repetitious. Jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, socks and slippers.

I am creating... planning yet another quilt, but have not begun it yet.

I am going... soon to BED.

I am reading... "Winter Birds", by Jamie Langston Turner. I love her writing. She uses actual chapter titles, and they are clues to the characters and events in the story. This one has double clues. The chapter titles are all quotes from Shakespeare (of whom I am woefully ignorant), and descriptions of birds and their natures. One bird, I've forgotten the name, is known to hide in a thicket and gorge itself on grubs - fat hairy caterpillars. Her husband had a wicked secret.

I am hoping... to get more done tomorrow than will be possible, what with a meeting with Tate's HoH teacher, a piano lesson, and friends visiting from Siberia. The boys are intrigued. I don't think they remember meeting them before, and are even more interested now that I have told them that many of the people where our friends live are descended from actual Mongols, who came up in our history studies earlier this year.

I am hearing... blessed silence. I have a Catholic friend who told me she once went on a weekend retreat at a monastery or convent. And it was silent. Their may have been certain hours when they were allowed to speak, but mostly it was silent. We both had toddlers and preschoolers at the time and I, at least, felt as if my entire life was being narrated. Her retreat sounded absolutely blissful.

Around the house... order, for the moment anyway.

One of my favorite things... boys that can load the dishwasher.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: after tomorrow things look pretty calm. Gunnar goes to AWANA on Wednesday evenings, but other than that the week looks pretty clear.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

This is the eyesore in my backyard a sign of my boys wonderful creativity.
This is another view of the backyard wonderland known as Dino-opolis.

Yes, that's a little fire.
Yes, I was right there watching.
Yes, they put it out.
Though the notion of it spreading, in our damp mossy climate, is a bit laughable.