Ok, here’s another dilemma for you.

It’s been my dream since I was a child to live in the country, have lots of animals, and enjoy the wide open spaces.

My dream hasn’t yet come true, but I still yearn for that style of life.

But I’ve been thinking recently about what God’s plan might be for my life. Since we live in town, we are able to participate in lots of people’s lives. I can visit my grandmother every Sunday evening, I can give people rides to and from activities, I can establish relationships with our neighbors, I can stop by my parents’ house, etc. But if we move out into the country, we’ll have to consider trips into town more carefully. With gas prices so expensive, I won’t be able to justify zipping into town for every little reason. We won’t be close enough to people to share rides. We won’t live close to neighbors that we can get to know on a daily basis.

So what’s the right thing to do? If we are called to reach out to the world and be “salt and light”, isn’t it better to live around people? How can we influence our society if we withdraw from it?

One positive example I have is my friend Janie who lives quite far out in the country, but she is always reaching out to people, having folks out for visits, etc. So she doesn’t let her country life isolate her from society. But I’m much more antisocial than Janie. I’m afraid I would get lost in my own world.

I would like to hear your philosophical opinion on the pros and cons of living in town and living in the country.  Meanwhile, I’ll keep dreaming.

Last night Isaac was sitting next to me visiting while at the same time holding his little bag of golden coins. Recently Michael has taken to getting his cash in these dollar coins instead of paper money, and Isaac is fascinated with them. Last night Isaac traded in all of his paper money for a stack of golden coins.

As we were visiting, I told Isaac that he reminded me of Silas Marner. Of course, Isaac had no idea what I was talking about, so I told him the story briefly, while trying not to give away the end. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I took the children to a nearby town to pick up some venison from a meat locker.  I had explained to the children that the deer we were going to get would not look at all like a deer, but rather much like the hamburger we see in the store.  When we got there and I ran in to get the meat, I was amazed to see a glass wall separating the waiting area from the working area.  Right there on big tables were deer carcasses being processed!  So I ran back out to the van and brought all the children in to see.  Isaac was grossed out and returned to the van rather quickly.  But the rest of us watched the “middleman” do his thing.  We even brought home a souvenir bone for Mac!

Once we got home and unloaded the meat into the freezer, I thought back to how much fun it had been to have an impromptu field trip.  And our reminder of the fun is a deer leg bone bigger than our little dog. 

Michael and I have been taking Spanish class this Fall. It happened rather suddenly one day on a whim, and 15 minutes later we were committed for the duration of the Fall semester.

Every Thursday evening we hurry off to class and then sit for two hours stretching our brains in directions they haven’t been stretched before. Fortunately, our teacher is good at keeping the lessons interesting and doable.

Every Thursday night after class as we drive home, I feel exhausted. I’m tired of working at something I’m not good at. Some days I feel like I’m learning, but other days I realize how far we have to go.

Our whole family has embraced this project. We’ve purchased bilingual books, checked out Spanish videos from the library, and we try out our Spanish on our Hispanic neighbors. My favorite book so far is “Eres Tu Mi Mama?” (or in English, “Are You My Mother?” by P.D. Eastman) and we often quote parts of it. Luke likes the book so much that he checked it out of the library last time we were there. I tried to convince him that he didn’t need to check it out since we already own a copy at home. But after explaining several times that he could just read the copy we already have, I gave up and let him check it out.

Michael put our efforts into perspective for me recently by saying, “I figure we can spend ten years learning Spanish and then ten years learning German.” Wow. That makes it seem like we’re doing ok. If I have ten years to get Spanish figured out, I’m ahead of schedule!

Much to my amazement, my new school schedule is working! We’re actually getting up early in the morning. The kids are actually getting school work done. And believe it or not, no one is really complaining about it much! I was only grumpy on the first day of the schedule. The last few days I’ve been surprised how cheerful I’ve been despite being quite busy.

One thing I miss is the slow lazy days where I could do what I wanted to as long as the kids stayed out of the way. But the guilty feelings that chased me around my day weren’t fun to dodge. Still, feeling guilty isn’t quite as frantic as being busy!  (Laziness does have some rewards.) 
I’m eager to share with you what is working for us, just in case it might help you.

Kids have to be up by 7 a.m. Then they have an hour to do what they need to do before school starts at 8 a.m. They can’t have breakfast until they are ready for the day. And once school starts, they can’t keep eating breakfast.

At 8 a.m. everyone starts school. Since we’re using the ACE curriculum they each get started in their paces and I go around helping kids, listening to reading, solving dilemmas, etc.

During school there is to be no talking. As you might imagine, it’s impossible to have NO talking, but I am rather strict that they sit quietly and work. If they need help they are not to interrupt me while I’m helping someone else. All of this is taking some getting used to, but it’s working!

We take a break at 9 a.m. The kids have to run outside (while the weather is nice) and I get to spend a few minutes checking my e-mail, etc.

It’s working well for all of us, and I’m eager to see if we can continue. Amelia is getting my attention each day and she’s doing great on her learning-to-read curriculum. Luke is reading each day and I can really see wonderful progress for him. Isaac is reluctantly making progress in his areas, most importantly in math and handwriting. Laura is doing great with grammar and math.

Alas, I must cut this short. My 15-minute break is almost up, and I need to keep on schedule.

Have a great day!

Yesterday Laura reminded me that I promised to keep you posted on our butterflies, so here I am with that update. Read the rest of this entry »

You may remember that Laura found a Monarch caterpillar. Since then she has found two more caterpillars to keep the first one company, and two of the three have formed their chrysalis in their final stage before becoming a butterfly. The original applesauce jar was quickly outgrown, so I offered a metal mesh wastebasket as the new caterpillar habitat. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that I sound gloomy a lot of the time. But there are some days that I get really excited about homeschooling. Yesterday was one of those days. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning we had the opportunity to go to a hatchery and see thousands of newly-hatched pheasants. The group travelling was to meet at 7:45 a.m. to head out on our little field trip. We almost never get up that early, so it was a challenge for me to pull it together and get kids up and fed and out the door. Read the rest of this entry »

Josiah is 2 ½ years old, and he can already count to ten and sing his ABC’s, so recently I decided to start teaching him Spanish. He already knows the names of so many things in English—why can’t he learn their Spanish names? So I pulled out the picture flashcards and started to say the name of each picture in Spanish. When Josiah saw the plane, he said, “Plane!”

“Yes,” I said, “Plane…Avion.”

He started to pout, “No Avion! Plane!”

I smiled and said, “Good boy!” After all, he DID say the Spanish word, right? I showed him the next card, “Car…Coche.”

He was still pouting, “No Coche! Car!”

Card after card went like this until finally he refused to say anything at all. Not easily discouraged, I pulled out the flash cards again the next day…and the day after that. Some days he participated, and other days he pouted, but I continued on, cheerfully saying the name of each picture in English and Spanish.

And then it happened! We were driving into town and he said, “Look, Mommy! Coche!”

I was shocked! “That’s right, Josiah! Do you see the house? Casa?”

He willingly chimed in, “House…Casa.”

Wow! I’m so glad I didn’t give up on him after the first try. Now when we walk around the neighborhood, he cheerfully joins me in saying the names of things we see in English and Spanish!