By the bed

I seem to be building a mini library by my bed, in stacks and piles. With feverish babies, lately I’ve neglected my poor stacks and am just now getting back to my midnight reads. Here are some of them:

• Freefall of the American University (A recent, timely gift from my mom. Why am I worried about college/careers for my little (please stay little) ones now? But I am, and she knows.) Does this make me a radical? Probably. I’ve always considered myself a pro-Harvard kind of home school mom. For the whole 11 weeks I’ve actually been a home school mom. I’ve witnessed many times the benefits and perks of having a prestigious diploma – it does make the path much much easier. That is, if you are looking for the easy path.

• Craft, Inc. – just plain interesting. And good for a short 5 minute read every now and then.

• and Amazon delivered this: Writing Road to Reading: The Spalding Method. Like I need another phonics book. We are moving along quite nicely with Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and our Explode the Code primers… but I’ve having a few reservations about using this long term. And the Writing Road came highly recommended. So… we’ve been learning the 70 odd phonograms together and I’m taking “night classes” (there is a special numbered “code” needed to teach this method) in reading theory in order to keep up with the program. It’s great. It’s thorough. It’s not easy for the teacher (or at least this teacher), but once adequately prepped for the lesson, it seems to be very easy for my learner to grasp the concepts. So far, so good.

• The Hidden Art of Homemaking, by Edith Schaeffer is just pure inspiration. I’ve read a few Schaeffer books, but this one was completely new to me when I stumbled upon it on Amazon. Written in 1971, the author includes chapters on painting, sketching and sculpting, music, food (she’s a big believer in beautiful dishes and creative table settings), drama, creative recreation, and, of course, a few chapters dedicated to the first artist. Most of all, it’s a book about beauty. Creating it. Living with it. Sharing it with others. What a refreshing way to look at homemaking!

• The book I’m reading (for the second time) right now (as in right after this blog post, hopefully) is Future Men, by Douglas Wilson. Wilson makes a very strong case for an individual, masculine, adventurous education for boys. No gender fluidity here, so be warned (or encouraged, if you’re like me!).
• My future little man:

The Birthday

Lalu is two. We celebrated quietly, but messily with the chocolate cherry chunk cake from this book, Kitchen Playdates. I substituted dried cranberries, and would recommend nixing the fruit altogether if you have a picky eater in your family. You may end up with spit up drools of chocolate cake all over your carpet otherwise as they exclaim: “oooo, yuckeee, a raisin!.”

Okay. So this is a picture of something any mannerly mother would not permit at her table. A very. loud. burp. It was perfect comedic timing too. I can blame this on my sweetie. Who picked up the camera all on his own and took a bunch of pictures of the party so our kids would know I actually was present during these activities – so I can’t actually be mad at him for anything right now. (Those of you without town-close grandparents will understand this.)

The pictures taking was just one in a long line of things he has done for me in the past 2 weeks. I am a very lucky girl. The GB Packers are on a roll. Maybe that explains it?

The dillema

Ooo. October. Love the change in weather, not so big on the holiday that lands at the end there. Or the fires that came raging through our county (San Diego), and right to the top of the hill above our house.

For those of you who know what I’m talking about with regard to Halloween, you’ll understand why I debated posting any pictures here. I really do feel like a Halloween scrooge (is that a cultural or internal pressure? why do I feel trapped in my house on Halloween if we do not participate?), but this year we walked around a few nearby streets, talked with a bunch of families and generally had a nice walk. And the best part, the part I really did enjoy? Dressing up.

No new costumes – just some old favorites. Oh, I wish we could do this a couple times a year. (I guess there is nothing stopping me – I’m already an eccentric!). And reading this article really did help me feel better about it, even though I don’t agree with it entirely. A little bit of theological cherrypicking, I admit!

As for those famous fires, we were evacuated twice. Twice. But nobody in our neighborhood lost their home, thank goodness. The only evidence left is the weird brown patch in our grass – see above.

My sweetie determined that nothing in our house was worth saving (Not that we had time to think about anything other than getting out the first time. The fires were that close, and the winds were that strong. And it was 3:30 in the morning). I, however, determined that there were all sorts of things I would miss and could not easily be replaced. Besides the obvious pictures & papers… just the little things like plates my kids have eaten off of, first books read, my spice rack. No joke. I would really miss my spice rack. I figure there are two possible explanations for this behavior: I am either getting shallower with age, or (hopefully) I am recognizing that I store memories and feelings visually, with certain things as touchpoints for those memories.

I’m still unpacking my minivan.

Yeah for November!