Daybook: Monday, Nov 28th

outside my window . . .  another gray day has broken.  But I think the gray will bring rain and a change in weather tomorrow - sunny and cool.  I'm ready for the chilly weather!  We had some in October, but November has been much warmer.  Nearly 80 degrees recently!

listening to . . . the train whistle in the far distance, tick tocking....and now "Curious George".  A little one just came to snuggle while I finish my morning preparations.

wearing . . . still in my pajamas!  But I'm planning to wear jeans, a black 3/4 sleeve top with a bright raspberry long sleeve top underneath...and a grey and pale raspberry scarf.

so grateful for . . . my grandmother coming to spend Thanksgiving with us!  I haven't had a REAL visit with her in years...just day trip visits.  I'm so thankful all my children have gotten to know her.

pondering . . . how to encourage Faramir to push on through the last bit of school work before Christmas break.  He's so ready to be DONE.

reading . . . Keeping House, On the Incarnation, still The Orthodox Church, and The Oresteia with my reading group.

thinking . . . about Christmas decorations...and Advent plans...and St. Nicholas Day, just around the corner!

on my iPod . . . loaded some new books:  War and Peace, Wicked, and In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

around the house . . . getting ready for more guests this weekend.  Missionary friends are staying with us while they visit our church.  Oh, and new curtains for the kitchen!  I'm hoping they'll help with the glare (it is a very sunny kitchen) and some noise reduction.

from the kitchen . . . maybe some batches of Spiced Pumpkin Bread for the freezer.

the church year in our home . . . the Advent wreath is up.  Today I'm going to print out some images for our little icon cards.  We plan on using Katherine's Jesse Tree devotions.

one of my favorite things . . . fresh cranberry relish!  I just love the sweet tartness of it.  Why do I only make it at Thanksgiving?

the week ahead . . . back to school for the kids, today Artemisia and I have to go check the lost and found for items she left at church yesterday, CC on Wednesday for the boys, missionary friends arrive Friday with a special dinner and dessert for them to share their work with our friends.

Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent -- Nov 27th

Welcome to the Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent

Each Sunday, Advent through Epiphany, a new "Mr Linky" will be posted for you to share your Nativity Season-related ideas and thoughts from your blog.  (Just copy the link to your post and paste it into the Mr Linky box below.)

Also, please add a link on your post back to this page, thanks!

The first Sunday of Advent, and a new liturgical year, is here!  It came in gray and slightly cool at our home...with a batch of cinnamon rolls to coax the kids from their beds and get them out the door in a pleasant mood.  It is always so hard to get up this first Sunday of Advent after the busy-ness of Thanksgiving.  And we only did a little Black Friday shopping!  (Hubby and I went to a few stores looking at rugs and curtains for our kitchen which desperately needs some noise absorbing textiles.  Didn't buy anything, but probably will this week.)

We said good-bye to our Thanksgiving company: my mom, step-dad, and grandmother on Saturday morning.  There were movies and playdates in the afternoon - and very tired kids last night.

This is the first Advent in a long time when we are not about to or have just recently gone through a major life change: in 2008 it was pending adoption travel, in 2009 it was a newly adopted baby, in 2010 a new home (and the flu)...and now...nothing.  Baby has been home for nearly 3 years...and we've been in our new home for a little over a year.  Wow - normalcy....will we know what to do with it?

If it is any indication, I actually have my Advent box emptied, the wreath assembled and some of my Advent books ready to be used as needed.   So, that bodes well!  You'd think someone who has lots of great ideas to share would be totally ready for Advent, right?   ** sigh **

I have managed to put together a menu plan.  Do you menu plan in advance?   I find it REALLY helpful!  Otherwise I wind up wandering around in my pantry, or worse the grocery store, trying to think of SOMETHING to have for dinner.  The trick, I think, is not being married to the menu plan, just dating it.  LOL!  Seriously, though, I just use it as a helpful tool...not at all written in stone.  You'll notice that I plan breakfast and lunches, too.  Since we are home all week together, I plan these meals for the kids.  Hubby and I tend to eat leftovers for our lunches rather than the "kid" food.

So, today, my contribution to the Nativity Carnival is my Menu plan for the Nativity Season.  If there are any recipes that you'd like me to share, just leave a comment!

If you are reading in a feed reader, please click through to the blog for the Mr. Linky posts!

For those submitting links: So that others might enjoy the carnival, don't forget to add a link on your post back to this page, thanks!

Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent -- Nov 20th

Welcome to the Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent

Each Sunday, Advent through Epiphany, a new "Mr Linky" will be posted for you to share your Nativity Season-related ideas and thoughts from your blog.  (Just copy the link to your post and paste it into the Mr Linky box below.)

Also, please add a link on your post back to this page, thanks!

Christ the King Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Yesterday was Christ the King Sunday, also known as "Stir Up Sunday".

While I don't have any plans to make a Christmas Pudding, I thought perhaps a recipe that requires some good stirring, but could be made well ahead of Christmas might be in order.  So, I'd like to share with you a recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Bread.  I found this on Food.com, so I can take NO credit for it.  This also freezes up beautifully...and that is one thing I love to do this time of year, make easy sweet breads that can be frozen and then brought back out whenever we have company or I need to take a treat to share to a party, etc.  This would also make a nice baked good gift.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
Makes 2 loaves.

3 c sugar
1 c vegetable oil
3 lg eggs
1 can or pumpkin (16 oz)
3 c all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c coarsely chopped nuts (recipe recommended walnuts, I've used pecans.  But I've also omitted these altogether.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour 2 9x5x3 loaf pans.  Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. (I didn't pull out my mixer for this, just used a spoon to mix energetically.)  Mix in eggs and pumpkin.  Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and baking powder into another large bowl.  Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.  Mix in nuts, if desired.  Divide batter equally between two prepared pans. Bake until knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Transfer pans to racks and cool 10 minutes.  Using a knife, gently release bread from side of pan.  Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.


Some feast days coming up in the next couple of weeks:

:-: Saint Clement's feast (November 23rd) - stock up and feast on clementine oranges!  (I wonder if that is why they got this name?  Anyone know?)  He's also the patron saint of blacksmiths and metal workers.  It is the day before Thanksgiving, so I'll be polishing silver.

:-: Saint Andrew's feast (November 30th) - Andrew is a patron of many localities and countries (Scotland, Greece, diocese of Constantinople, Germany), so you have your pick of foods to choose from.  Since we have Scottish roots, we'll probably have something from this tradition.  Might also make some felt "thistles" to pin to our lapels.

:-: And Saint Nicholas Day is only 2 weeks away (Dec 6th)!  Will you be celebrating?  This is a special feast day in our home!


***And finally, I want to point you to a lovely and simple Jesse Tree resource.  I love that these readings are only enough for us to have to do a few nights a week to keep up.  With four children, there was always someone going somewhere...or something coming up that kept us from staying caught up with other Jesse Tree readings.***

If you are reading in a feed reader, please click through to the blog for the Mr. Linky posts!

For those submitting links: So that others might enjoy the carnival, don't forget to add a link on your post back to this page, thanks!

Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent -- Nov 13th

Welcome to the Nativity Carnival: Keeping Advent

Each Sunday, Advent through Epiphany, a new "Mr Linky" will be posted for you to share your Nativity Season-related ideas and thoughts from your blog.  (Just copy the link to your post and paste it into the Mr Linky box below.)

Also, please add a link on your post back to this page, thanks!

Oh, my have I been grouchy this week.  Every day it seems I notice more and more Christmas decorations going up in grocery stores, department stores, and neighborhoods.  All I can think is, "We've still got eleven days before Thanksgiving, people!"  And in my book, even THAT is too early.  But two weeks before Christmas?  And some stores have been setting out holiday displays for nearly a month now!  It is hard to take.

Our Advent wreath from last year.  Very simple.  Glass taper holders on a cake stand with clear
and purple flat marbles and greenery.

However, did you know that some Christians are just about to begin their preparations for Christmas?  No?  Neither did I until recently.  But these Christians do it right...they actually FAST during Advent.  Imagine that...while the rest of the world "parties on" (with excesses of food, decorations, and activities), these Christians quietly prepare to receive the Incarnation, the Christ Child.  Who are these Christians?  The Eastern Orthodox.  Their Nativity Fast begins on Tuesday, November 15th.  Depending on the church (Greek, Russian, Antiochian, etc) some will fast very strictly (no meat, animal products, or oil) and others allow some animal products to varying degrees.  And even with these restrictions, practices vary based on personal abilities. (You Orthodox out there, please correct me if I get any of this wrong.)

Those of us in the west, particularly we Protestants, could learn a valuable lesson here.  I am finding more and more the truth in the vacuum theory.  Nature abhors a vacuum...and this is true in human nature as well.  When we remove something (fasting before feasting, in this case), our natural tendency is to fill it with something else and of course that would be more feasting!  Protestants (especially American Protestants), in their zeal to "de-Catholicize" their faith, have removed from their practices so many of the traditions of the Church that these vacuums are then filled with junk from the secular culture.  

Kalliope in the very dim light of our Advent devotions. 

God established His Church.  He led the Church Fathers to build a carefully balanced annual cycle of fasting and feasting, and we, in our modern attempts to "correct" those who've gone before, now have a very out-of-balance faith.  It makes you wonder how that has affected us spiritually. 

Advent offers us a chance to regain some of that balance.  I plan to take the time this year to prepare my heart and my home for the Christ Child.  How about you?

If you are reading in a feed reader, please click through to the blog for the Mr. Linky posts!

For those submitting links: So that others might enjoy the carnival, don't forget to add a link on your post back to this page, thanks!

Keeping House: Preface

Honestly, this is a discouraging time to begin reading a book on housekeeping.

My husband has been working 14-16 hours a day, or more, for the past month or two.  He rises and gets to work around 8am and ends his day around 1am or 2am.  Since he works from home, we do have him around to pitch in at breakfast and dinner...and other times during the day.  It certainly eases the load I'd normally be carrying in the home if he were at an office during these hours.

Girls and Daddy carving our jack o'lantern

In addition to that, I've been taking two classes at night and serving as co-coordinator for my church's Women's Retreat.  These commitments, in addition to a heavier homeschool load for all my children, has left me very little time to do housekeeping, much less housecleaning. (And there is a difference!)  There have been moments of housekeeping, but they have been far and few between.

When I came home from the retreat this past weekend, I exhaled and looked around my home.  I am not exaggerating when I say there was an easily visible layer of dust on most of my furniture.  That served as a visible accusation: "You are slacking!"  On the whole I feel our home is barely limping along at the moment.  Home meals are cooked, clothes are managing to get laundered, basic cleaning is being done...but none of this is being accomplished by much more than grudging duty.

When Willa announced that she would be blogging through this book (Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Living by Margaret Kim Peterson), I made my first "impulse" Kindle purchase.  (oh, my the ease of that transaction is tempting)  I felt in a moment that perhaps joining this book blogging would help me find some inspiration to get my home in order.

Roasting and spicing the pumpkin seeds is our favorite All Hallows Eve tradition! 

I'm thankful we are going slowly through the book, although it is an easy read...and I'm already well past the Preface.  Going slowly will let me keep up with the blogging.

One of my questions going into this is, "Can someone discuss this in a Christian context without over spiritualizing it, making it too abstract to be any use, or, on the other end of the spectrum, without it becoming another example of legalism.  We'll see...

The author began her book by doing informal interviews with her friends.  She found a commonality in their desire to run their homes with "enough predictability and order for it to be easy and pleasurable to invite others in for a visit or a meal."  How many times have you been embarrassed to have someone come to your front door?  You know you *should* invite them in, but where would they sit?  Do you even have a clean glass to offer then a drink?  Surely, most of us have experienced this!  So, it is a common enough desire.  However, is this enough of a reason to keep house?  Our family has to live in that chaos on the other side of the front door, is that appropriate?  Surely, we shouldn't keep house with the main goal to be avoiding embarrassment.

Artemisia and Kalliope dressed as the Winter and Spring Fairy Princesses.
 Good friend the Little Mermaid in the middle.  

Our author, Mrs. Peterson, noticed that each of the women she spoke with felt that "the disciplines involved in feeding and clothing, and sheltering others, beginning with the members of their own households, were profoundly worthwhile...."  Do you feel that way?  Honestly, there are times I see the value and many times I just don't.  I mean, yes, I want to have clean clothes and freshly made food for my family...but do I always feel that it is "profoundly worthwhile"?  No.  Sometimes I just feel it is my duty...and that it keeps me from feeling out of sorts.  And sometimes I just do it because my family expects it to be done!

 As a homeschool mother, I often find that I can relate more to working mothers than stay-at-home mothers who send their children to school outside the home.  I find that I can entirely relate to keeping house in the "leftover bits of time".  I believe this book is written from the perspective of a woman who has a few hours in her home each day to work undistracted.  This is not something most homeschool mothers or working mothers have.  In both these cases, our attention is focused elsewhere for significant portions of the day.  It will be interesting to see if what Mrs. Peterson has to teach us is something that is adaptable to these two family lifestyles.

One quote that struck me, that is true no matter where one works, and no matter how much time one has to devote to housekeeping: "...a Christian home, properly understood,  is never just for one's own family."  If this is the main point and focus of this book, it will have a great deal to say to anyone keeping a home.

"...housekeeping is about practicing sacred disciplines and creating sacred space, for the sake of Christ as we encounter him in our fellow household members and in neighbors, strangers, and guests."  M. K. Peterson, Preface to Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life


Be sure to read Willa's first post...and check the comments for other bloggers!

Artemisia and one of her best friends (Dressed as "I Dream of Jeanie") ready for the CANDY!

Willa's blog book club

Willa is reading through Keeping House: A Litany of Everyday Life and plans to blog through it.  She'd love some other bloggers to join her.  I've got the book on my Kindle, so I'm going to at least read and comment on her blog.  I might even manage a blog post here.  The reading schedule she's set is very easy!  Won't you join her?

Nativity Carnival?

Any bloggers out there interested in a Nativity Season carnival?  I'm thinking: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.  We've done the Advent Carnival in the past and it was a big success, but I'd love to expand it a bit.  However, I know I won't have time to collect and post links during the holidays. Maybe a weekly "Mr Linkie" (where you add your links yourself) from Nov 20th (the week before Advent starts) until Jan 6th?

If you would be interested in contributing a link, would you leave a comment?  You are welcome to spread the word on your blog, too, in fact I'd be thankful if you would!  If there is enough interest, we're ON!

Fairy Tales for Today

On Saturday, Erik and I took Faramir, Artemisia, and Kalliope to Kings Mountain State Park  and National Military Park in South Carolina.  This is the site of the Battle of Kings Mountain (a Patriot victory - Oct 7, 1780) in which one of our ancestors, Robert Young of Tennessee, is credited with the fatal shot that killed Major Ferguson (the Loyalist commander).  We went to enjoy the fall colors and maybe get a little history.  We definitely got BOTH.

On my way to run an errand recently, I popped on the radio to our local NPR station where a panel of very ardent women were discussing the evil that is the Disney princess empire. One panelist explained her concern that girls get stuck with a princess mentality: looking for a man or money or just really long hair to solve life’s difficulties. They were also quick to point out that the male figures in these stories didn’t fare much better.  What surprised me was that their concern wasn’t just with Disney, it was with the fairy tales even in their original form.

Faramir looking decidedly like a teenager.  Next year, my boy, next year.  We sat in the leaves and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Oh, look!  You can see a tiny corner of someone's sandwich down at the bottom of the picture!

Now, I don't like the disney-ization of fairy tales either, but these women were ready to strip all children's stories of anything that diverged from their political agenda.  We'd be left with stories in which no children lose their mother.  No children are  in any danger.   No ugly creatures are transformed by another's love. No princesses ever need rescue.  No strangers ever offer a poisoned apple.

Artemisia and Faramir race off to explore the homestead at the Living History Farm.  We decided it would be worthwhile to come back when they have the interpreters in the buildings.  (It is "self-guided" most of the time with a few weekends of the year which feature the "farm family".)

It would be safe, I suppose.  But how anemic.  How boring.

These chickens were NOT boring.  Kalliope was particularly interested in these guys.  They clucked and fussed at us.  I think one may have been trying to intimidate us into feeding her.

Fairy tales present opportunities for a child to confront some of their biggest fears, for example being small and helpless in the face of bad people.  Once can see this most clearly in the persistent absence of mothers in fairy tales (only dead mothers and mean stepmothers).  Is this not the epitome of vulnerability to a child?  Fairy tales allow a child to enter into those deep fears, without them being too realistic for comfort, and imagine themselves triumphing by kindness, wit, bravery, and love.

I loved the grey roughness of the wood and the rusty chain contrasted against the clear beauty of the autumn day.

A view across the field toward the barns and pastures.

I know this is not revolutionary thinking.  JRR Tolkein has written about fairy tales. Bruno Bettelheim published The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales.  William J Bennett has compiled volumes of stories that display virtue. GK Chesterton commented on fairy tales in Orthodoxy.   More recently, Vigen Guroian, a theologian, author, and professor of Religious Studies at Univ of Virginia, examined the importance of fairy tales in developing a child's "moral imagination."(a great essay, by the way)

Me and my girls.  That pacifier was becoming Kalliope's best friend by the end of the day when this picture was taken.  She had woken up with a cold and was pretty worn out.

Fairy tales are also just good story-telling.  A good story has a dynamic power which can fire a child's imagination.  When we feed our children’s minds on good stories, those that present Goodness (not just niceness), Truth (not just honesty) and Beauty (not just prettiness), they grow up to be adults who seek those virtues.  Fairy tales are all about Truth and Beauty and Goodness.  Captain Underpants, not so much.

Faramir, Kalliope, Artemisia and Erik watching the cows come home, literally.  

I understand those ladies were just trying to do their best to provide their daughters with "strong role models."  But I would remind them that generations of daughters were able to love fairy tales as children and still manage to grow up to be wise and good mothers, hard workers, and faithful leaders in so many aspects of their lives.  There are more to those fairy tales than just princesses with beautiful dresses and long, flowing hair.

Daybook: Wednesday, Oct 19th

outside my window . . .  it is very drippy.

listening to . . .  a few of Artemisia's friends from Classical Conversations playing upstairs, downstairs, and on the stairs.

wearing . . . dark olive green jeans and a pale purple tank under a tan sweater.

grateful for . . . new, old chairs.  New to me, old to me: they were in my grandmother's home for many years.  We hope to recover them in the near future.

reading . . . Pride and Prejudice, The Orthodox Church, my most recent "First Things Journal", and the Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

on my iPod . . .  just listened to an interesting show from KERA (Dallas) called "The Case for Boredom."


around the house . . . no more rearranging this week.  Plowed through Artemisia's room sorting clothes and junk.  She just needs a few items to complete some outfits for the fall.

from the kitchen . . . I mentioned last week that I needed to make banana bread, and I did!  Actually made Coconut Banana Bread.  It was delicious!

real education in our home . . . the girls and I read "Ferdinand" last night.  It is one of my favorite books.  I'd forgotten about the "corks" growing on the cork trees.  Artemisia asked, "Is that how cork grows?"  Had to set her straight.

recent milestones . . . Kalliope is now in a booster seat!  Oh, my, a new bed, potty-training and a booster seat all in the last month and a half!

Daybook: Monday, October 10th

outside my window . . .  the woods are really starting to thin out from the thick greenness of summer.  This might be about my favorite moment of autumn: still enough green to highlight the golds and oranges.

listening to . . . NPR, my corn chowder simmering, Kalliope trying to "cook" with me.

wearing . . . jeans, black top with bright blue tank under.

grateful for . . .  a successful backpacking trip for the guys and a relaxing "girls' weekend" for Kalliope, Artemisia and me.

reading . . . Pride and Prejudice, The Orthodox Church, my most recent "First Things Journal", and the Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

creating . . . or rather I created, a pretty silk flower arrangement that somewhat camoflages the mess in my sink.  With a houseful of people all day, our sink ALWAYS has dishes in or around it.  I'm tired of that being the first thing anyone (read: ME) sees when they enter my kitchen.  So, I made this big arrangement.  It is really pretty (pictures?) and does the job.  I love it!

on my iPod . .  . the SAME OLD podcasts because someone has "borrowed" my iPod sync cord again and I cannot find it.  We have three of these cords, and I still can't keep one in my desk without it being "borrowed"!

around the house . . . I rearranged my kitchen this weekend (I love to take on projects like that when hubby is away).  The bookshelves always just looked messy to me, and they still do a little, but in a more elegant way, maybe.  Messy or not - I live them much better.  Also rehung almost every single piece of wall art in my kitchen...and created a new mantle arrangement.  Oh, and turned my kitchen table on an angle, which I love!  My mother started doing this when I was in my teens.  Maybe it is a mother of a teenager thing?

from the kitchen . . . corn chowder with bacon tonight.  Beef Stroganoff Meatballs tomorrow night.  The bunch of very overripe bananas means there might be a batch of banana bread in my future.

real education in our home . . . The backpacking weekend has put us behind schedule.  Everyone spent Friday getting the boys packed up...and I took the day off of school with Artemisia today, too.  It was a good, quiet holiday.

rhythm and beauty in our home . . . an idea I have for that big flower arrangement is to slightly change out   some of the more seasonal pieces throughout the year.  The main pieces are fairly neutral and should look nice with other seasonal colors.


the church year in our home . . . not much been going on in this area.  I have made a few more icon for our little family altar, but we just haven't been using it as much.  One of the problems is that it sits on our buffet in the kitchen and often becomes a dumping place for little bits of nonsense.  I cleared all of that off and then refilled it with a basket of icons and a pretty houseplant.  Maybe that will encourage the family not to use the buffet as a rest stop.

recent milestones . . . Kalliope started potty training this weekend!

the week ahead . . . "Romans" bible study tonight and boys arrive home, CC on Wednesday as usual, Friday we have friends coming over for chili and a marshmallow roast.

picture thoughts . . .

Autumn Fires

Autumn Fires

by Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens

And all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires

See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

The kids memorized this poem last fall.  I stumbled across it today and they enjoyed hearing it again.  I wish we'd memorized more poetry!

Friends and fires and smores - they all go well together.

The girls have really enjoyed our newly dug fire pit.  We've had a few fires already and hope to have many more this autumn.  

Our neighbors from across the cul-de-sac came over to enjoy some roasted marshmallows, too.

This is Kalliope with our next-door neighbor.  They are both 3 and already becoming good friends.  Hey, they both like cheese puffs - what more do you need in a friend?

Turning 3

Our Little Kalliope has moved from Toddler to Preschooler!  She has grown amazingly in the past year.  Here's last year's birthday photo:

And this years:

Notice the blurring of movement...that might say it all.  This girl is a girl IN MOTION!  She's busy talking, and walking, riding and hiding!  

Here are some of our favorite birthday moments . . . 

The kids pulled out the "Welcome Home" banner they'd made to welcome us back from Ghana.  

Kalliope received a sweet zebra pillow pet from  a long-distance family member.  He's very snuggly and is now named "Deeba" (that is Kalliope-speak for "zebra" if you hadn't guessed)

Farmor sent some new clothes and Kalliope was really so excited.  "My clothes?" she kept asking.

Dad-Dad sent a funny blue dinosaur.  Kalliope is very interested in dinosaurs.  She thinks they are dragons and she loves dragons because her favorite movie is "How To Train Your Dragon."

Gram and Fred sent a fun book, "Pete the Cat".  She had been introduced to this story through a YouTube video of the book (author telling the story and singing songs).  We love to dance around with Pete and sing, "I love my white shoes!" 

From her family, Kalliope got her first "American Girl"-style doll!  She was really excited about this doll.  I think it made her feel like a big girl.  And she is.

Bring on the Cake!

Auntie B stopped by to bring a gift, too.  A magnetic doll set!  

The girls went right to work getting the dolls all dressed up.

And from our friends, and fellow Ghana-parents in Cali, a wonderful book to share!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

{pretty, happy, funny, real} -:- October 6

{pretty}

Kalliope and I gathered bags full of these lovely dark brown nuts.  They look like acorns, but littered the ground under what didn't look like an oak tree.  (None of the typical oak leaves I'm familiar with at least.)  Anyone know what these are?  Regardless, they are very pretty and now fill a tall jar on my buffet.

{happy}

Artemisia doing what she loves best - painting!  I'm such a bad mom.  She had to BEG me to paint.  "Mom," she pleaded, "I've been waiting for weeks to paint!"  It was true, she'd been asking and I'd been putting her off.  She's very happy, can't you tell?  

I don't know why I hesitate to let her paint.  She loves it and she is very careful to tidy up after.

{funny}

 A very silly moment. 

{real} 

My perpetually messy desk.  I've heard there is a "bread box principle", which I think means everything on your desk should fit into a bread box or it is too much.  HA!   On top of my white shelf is a radio/iPod/CD player that is almost always on, a photo of hubby in the island of Samothraki, an antique framed card my great-grandmother gave my grandmother, and a stack of slinkies to go in our CC tutor's goodie box.  I wonder what website that is on my computer screen?

I really am a slow-learner

and random photos from the last month. . .


So, I'm not at all sure about this new blogger format.  (I know you may have no idea what I'm talking about...but a lot of my blog readers are bloggers themselves.)  If you blog on Blogger, have you tried out the new format for your dashboard?  Not liking it one bit.

Maybe it will grow on me . . .

Our fun-to-drive Datsun had a good summer.  Soon it will be time to put her up for the winter.

My cats are tearing around the house this morning.  I have no idea what has gotten them so wound up.  It certainly isn't the catnip we bought for them.  Faramir needed to do a report for Challenge A (Classical Conversations - homeschool group) on herbs.  Of course, he chose catnip, and  we bought some so he could videotape the cats and share with his class.  Do you know our weird cats were Totally Uninterested?  All three of them!

Well, one of them sniffed it a little bit, but that was it.  Weird cats.

I spent a couple days making Fig Jam; 32 jars of it!  I do hope my friends like Fig Jam.

How is your school year going this year?  (Homeschool or otherwise)  It has been challenging to juggle all 4 levels: high school, middle school, elementary, and preschool.  Although, I don't really believe in preschool homeschooling, so I'm not sure that counts.  Yet, somehow, despite my best efforts Not To Teach Her, Kalliope has managed to learn to count to 5 and name most of the colors of the rainbow.  Except indigo.  And violet...she just says, "Purple."

You know I jest when I say I tried not to teach her, right?  I just mean I haven't done anything formal.  I really am astounded by what she has picked up.  Maybe this is not surprising.  Maybe I've totally forgotten what most three year-olds should know?

Our first day of school is always celebrated with an ice cream
dinner.  This year I made Lucky Charm Treat (like Rice Krispie
treats) ice cream sandwiches.  Too sweet for me, but the kids
loved them!

Athos, Faramir, and Artemisia are thriving in their CC groups and their studies at home, although they each have their challenges.  Athos is with a totally new group in Challenge 2, but has enjoyed getting to know some new people (being the "new kid" again was daunting).  Faramir, while not totally being the "new kid", has blossomed despite being known as "Athos' younger brother".  And Artemisia is back in class with the same kids she's known since she was 4!

Something I've learned in the past couple of years:  the person teaching your child might be one of the Most Important aspects of her education (duh, right?).  Being able to have complete control over that is another strength of homeschooling.

It has only taken me 8 years to learn that.

Nothing like a well-built firepit to welcome in the autumn chill!

That elderly dogwood tree outside my window

After a long hard season, my elderly dogwood tree has lovely red berries popping out on the branches.  This is wonderful!  We were not sure this old, gnarled and knobbled tree would make it through the construction process.  There were a few, a very few, blooms on it this spring.  That was a good sign, but not a sure sign.   However, those little red berries, not being an horticulturist I must qualify this with an "I think", are a very good sign...and maybe even a sure sign that our dogwood has indeed survived.

Not unlike this blog, perhaps?

This spring there were a few blooms here on this blog, but not enough to say for sure whether I'd keep on blogging.  Not for a lack of desire!  But for lack of energy. . . lack of time . . . and honestly, for lack of anything that felt worth saying.  Or reading.

Those last two are still to be seen, but I feel a slight invigoration.  Like an old tree that has had a long, rejuvenating summer and is now filled with just enough energy . . .  just enough to pop out this first, tiny, lone berry.