4 hours ago
Today, as I was sitting down to write this post, I looked out the window and the driveway was slick with rain. I hadn't even noticed the clouds roll in. It hasn't been a warm October by any stretch, but we are still getting rain rather than snow. As the drops turn to a light drizzle and then stop, the sun pokes out from behind the clouds, and the whole world shines. It's really lovely. This has been the prettiest autumn that we've had in years, with the leaves changing gradually and in stages, instead of all at once, so the color lasts longer. The sky has been a brilliant blue with cotton ball clouds most days, but when you go outside the air is just crisp enough to be invigorating. I hope this goes on a while more before the frosts come and force the leaves to let go of the branches.
We are planning on going a pumpkin patch and corn maze tomorrow - it's one of those autumn family traditions that we always manage to cram in before hunting seasons take over all our spare time. We have a favorite corn maze on a small farm, an adorable little place with no Halloween paraphernalia and a field full of orange globes. We'll probably let the kids pick out a couple small pumpkins to decorate their rooms.
Speaking of fall decorating, I was thinking about writing a whole post about it, but for now let me just say that my whole goal for fall decor this year is to make the house feel cozy and ready for winter. My typical decorating colors are fresh and springtimey, so I'm switching out some of my pillows and throw blankets to include more wintry colors. I'm going to be honest, I'm not quite happy with my living room yet. Something is missing, and I have a sneaky suspicion that it might be a corner lamp (and a few more cozy-colored throw pillows). We have a pretty large living room with a vaulted ceiling, so the lighting in their during those dark winter evenings is not great. I've been wanting to get a lamp for the corner behind the couch for a year at least, and I think some warm light will make it nicer to be in there when it gets dark.
If you've been around a while you know that our family is a hunting family. I grew up hunting for our meat, and Derek has hunted every year since we've been married. I took a long break from hunting when I was having babies, but I put in for an elk tag this year, and since I had nine years of preference points built up, I drew a tag! So this weekend I am going elk hunting with Derek, and I am feeling the pressure. I really want to get something, because I spent nine points on this tag. I'll take a spike bull, just don't let the tag be a waste! We also could really use the meat. Hunting for our meat instead of buying beef takes a huge burden off our grocery budget, and when we don't have a successful hunting year our bank account feels it. So wish me luck, and say a prayer that I get one, if you think of it.
Also say a prayer for our dog, or for our family as we watch him fade. He's a very old dog, but he's been eating very little over the last week, and my heart sinks a little more as each day goes by. I know he doesn't have much time left, but it's hard to watch this creature you've raised from a puppy possibly begin the process of dying. Death is a terrible thing, isn't it? The worst when it happens to people, but difficult to watch with beloved animals too. When he goes, I probably won't share on here - I don't like to share when my emotions are raw. But I wanted to mention Harvey since his health is on my mind this week.
We're getting into that time of year when I really want to hunker down at home and bake, but I am forced to be out of the house for a bunch of activities that start up again with the school year. It's a good and bad thing! I've been eyeballing my bread recipe book, and I found myself drawn to a fall baking magazine at Sam's Club when I went grocery shopping last week (yes, I bought the magazine). I was recently in a conversation on Twitter about the cheapest place to buy wheat berries, and now I'm craving some nice, chewy fresh bread. I need to make more time for baking in my life. First on the list will be cinnamon rolls, I think. Have you done any baking yet this fall?
You know how sometimes kids come into their parent's room at night? Most of the time when my kids come in, it's one of three things: they need some water, they can't sleep, or they had a bad dream. Often, if it's a non-scared reason, we'll go tuck them back into their rooms. If they had a bad dream, we usually get them set up with blankets and pillows to sleep on the floor next to our bed (because if one comes in, one or two more are right behind them, and we can't fit multiple kids in our bed with us). Georgie came in the other night though, not really scared per se, but just needing something that she couldn't quite articulate - and instead of settling her on the floor as usual, I flipped back the covers and let her climb in. She snuggled up right next to me in the fetal position and fell back asleep within minutes, and I was feeling really nostalgic for those tiny baby years when she did the same thing. Where did all my babies go? It's the joy and pain of parenthood, isn't it? Watching your kids grow up, cheering them on, being so proud of the kids they are and the young adults they are becoming - but missing the smaller versions of them all the time.
This post is pretty emblematic of how I've been feeling this month - happy and cozy but also a little sad. We've faced no major changes this year, but alot of little ones, with more on the horizon. By the time January rolls around, our life is going to look pretty different from a year ago in alot of small ways, and that's sometimes hard when you're exiting an enjoyable season. The next one may be just as happy, but you really don't have a feel for it yet, so you just hope all these small changes don't sneak up and become overwhelming. The Lord is our anchor though, and always helps us find some equilibrium in the end when our eyes are fixed on Him. I remind myself of that on those days when I start to get a little too melancholy.
How has your fall been so far? Full of life and joy, or a little quieter and reflective (like mine apparently)?
Drinking: Traditional chai this time, with cream and honey.
(An African peanut stew I made a while back, one of our favorite soup recipes!)
Baking has always been something I enjoyed, but cooking, not so much. Cooking has felt like a necessary evil for so many years, with five babies coming right after another, and feeling like 50% of those ten years we were in low-key survival mode. But my kids haven't been babies for years (it feels sad to say that), and it's time to get my act together and figure out how to make cooking dinner something I can enjoy, with more meaningful and enjoyable end products for my family.
However, zeal doesn't equal skill, and a major hangup for me in cooking for my family well has been meal planning.
In our 14 years of marriage, I've never really meal-planned. When it was just Derek and me, and we were working it didn't feel necessary - we'd figure something out together when we got home. When I had babies, it felt impossible, and so I just scrounged in the pantry each night around 5:00 to see what I could come up with. Over the past couple of years I have tried a few times to make a meal plan, but it ended with me rearranging meals until the plan was unrecognizable and then giving up.
This post may just be a cry for help. Meal-planning gurus, teach me your ways!
All that said, I've realized anew recently that cooking good meals consistently is one tangible way to show my family I love them, to serve them well, and by serving them to also serve the Lord in the way He has called me to. So figuring out this meal-planning issue is no small thing.
When we recently visited family in North Carolina, my sister-in-law made an interesting point as we were talking about cooking and meal planning - she said she finds that if she can just plan three meals a week, things have a tendency to work out. If she can plan and make time to fix those three meals, the other two nights of the week they can eat leftovers, and the weekends often include eating outside the house, so thoroughly planning only three meals a week is sufficient.
When she said that, meal-planning suddenly seemed a little more doable. So I think going forward this fall, planning three meals a week will be my goal.
Here are my three meals this week:
-Pesto pasta with bell peppers and sausage
-Chicken enchiladas
-Roast chicken and vegetables
Meal-planning experts, this is where you tell me all your secrets! Comment or send me an email please!
For the last several years, October has become a sort of "Christian History Month" around out house. Not only do we celebrate Reformation Day on October 31st (our preference over Halloween, which we don't celebrate), but we spend more time over the whole month of October learning about other heroes in church history. I even get into the spirit and break out Christian history books and documentaries for myself to enjoy.
Note: I know everyone's book sensibilities are different, especially for books we are handing to our children - I'm not recommending every book on these lists/websites myself. There are some that I wouldn't read to my kids for various reasons. But I've found these lists to be a good starting point!
Book Lists:
IEW Book Recommendations “For Boys And Other Children Who Would Rather Be Building Forts All Day” - I love Andrew Pudewa whenever I've heard him speak in person, and this is a list from his website full of books that will appeal to more active children. So many of these are classics, but there are alot of books I wouldn't have thought of without this list!
Read Aloud Revival - Sarah Mackenzie's site has been my go-to for picture book recommendations for years! I love her "Picture Books Through The Year" booklists, with seasonal picture books for each month of the year. She has a whole bunch of booklists on her website, as well as a quiz to tell you what read-aloud you could try next with your family.
Simply Charlotte Mason Book Finder - Simply Charlotte Mason has a book search engine, with books searchable by grade, time period in history, etc. This would be a great place to get some ideas for living books!
81 Edifying Stories from Generations - I really appreciate how Christ-focused Generations is in their curriculum and their book recommendations - there are lots of wonderful Christian stories on this printable list.
107 Classics To Read Before Age 7 - This list is from the Gentle + Classical curriculum company, and it's behind a password protected page - if you sign up for her emails, you will get access to her free resource library. There are many great resources for younger grades in that library, and this booklist is one of them!
“The Ultimate Guide To Reading And Books For Children” - Pam Barnhill - I get a bunch of book recommendations from Pam Barnhill's morning time plans, and she has a post with some booklists she's put together over the years - it would be worth checking out!
Curriculum Websites With Good Book Lists:
The following is a list of curriculum that are heavily book-based. I you look through the curriculum options on the website, they will also include the books that will be covered, and you can put together some great booklists for yourself that way!
Books With Booklists:
Stars on the books in this list that I have actually finished reading myself.
Honey For A Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt - This is the classic book about books, and Gladys Hunt includes so any great book recommendations as well as encouragement for reading to children.
*Read Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie - Mackenzie has books lists for each age category in this book, but where it really shines to me is when she covers the types of questions you can ask to get your kids talking about the books they just read!
*Better Together by Pam Barnhill - This is actually a book about morning time, what it is and why you should incorporate it into your homeschool, but there are book recommendations and a bunch of great resource ideas in here as well!
*Turning Back The Pages Of Time by Kathy Keller - This is a booklet that includes many read-aloud suggestions to coincide with different periods of American history, and also separated by age recommendations. I have gotten some real historical gems from this little booklet!
*Timeline Of The Classics by Gail Ledbetter (IEW) - This is not a booklist so much as a reference guide for which classics occurred during which period of history, but I think it's really useful to have on hand! Not all of these classics are ones I would want to read, but it gives you a bigger picture of what was going on in each historical period.
The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease - This is THE book everyone tells you to read - but, confession, I haven't been able to get through it yet. Maybe I need to try it on audio. There are a bunch of book recommendations to reference in the back though!
Blogs To Check Out:
Redeemed Reader - This is a blog with tons of book reviews and booklists that I a looking forward to exploring more!
Humility And Doxology - This is the blog that originally featured the list of booklists I saw, and Amy has many useful booklists on this blog as well!
The following is just some information and quick ideas I put together for a handout for our homeschool support group, and I thought I would include it here! So much of this information is fleshed out in some of the books I mentioned above!
Benefits Of Reading Aloud:
- Developing better listening skills.
- Developing sophisticated language patterns.
- Developing vocabulary and reading comprehension.
- Allowing them to enjoy stories that are beyond their own reading level.
- Making good family memories.
Tips For Reading Aloud:
-Start with picture books. They are short and easier for younger kids, and older kids can enjoy them as well. They also add alot of color and interest to different content-based subjects (history and science). Find some that go with different topics you are learning about!
-Set a time each day for reading aloud. We read aloud during lunch, sometimes picture books, sometimes chapter books.
-Pick a book that you (as the mom) are enjoying - if you aren’t enjoying reading aloud, it won’t happen.
-Some books are better for reading aloud than others. Choose one that has rich language (language that is more complex than what we use in conversation).
-Remember that kids get better at listening to a read aloud the more you do it. Don’t get discouraged if they wiggle alot while listening. When they are young, keep it short and gradually build listening stamina.
-Let them do something with their hands while they listen - play dough, latch hook kits, drawing, fidget toys, crochet chains, etc. Just avoid things that will involve the language portion of their brain (word searches, for example), to keep it free for listening!
-If your voice gets tired, use an audiobook! Time spent driving is also a great opportunity for audiobooks.
Happy Reading!
"We make men without chests, and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
-C. S. Lewis, The Abolition Of Man
Last night I started reading C. S. Lewis's book The Abolition Of Man, and I read this phrase "men without chests". Now, I've heard that phrase used many times, but now that I've actually read the chapter, Lewis meant something slightly different than I always thought, having not read the book before.
If I were to summarize the argument, it would be that there is an intrinsic quality in certain things - things in nature, things in literature, things in life itself - that requires a certain response from humans, and that quality is not given to the thing by our feelings, but is inherent within it. Mountains don't make us feel majestic, they are majestic. Babies don't make us feel precious feelings, they are themselves precious. A noble act isn't noble because it makes us feel noble feelings, it is inherently noble in a mysterious way. It is proper and right that we feel those things, but our feelings are not what give those things their admirable qualities - our feelings are just the correct response to them.
If a man walked by a gorgeous mountain view and had no ability to recognize the awe-inspiring quality of it in his own feelings - something would be a little wrong with that man. As Lewis says, his head and belly aren't connecting. He has no chest.
A man without a chest is a man who does not or cannot feel about certain things the way he ought. He can't recognize the good and true, the beautiful things in this world for what they are. His values are askew and his right feelings taught out of him. I would say that he can't see things the way God intended and created him to see them, because I believe God himself intended us to see glimpses of His character in the deeper feelings that certain things should inspire, and our God-given conscience is what tells us when we are not feeling about things as we should.
"Until quite modern times all teachers and even all men believed the universe to be such that certain emotional reactions on our part could be either congruous or incongruous to it - believed, in fact, that objects did not merely receive, but could merit our approval or disapproval, our reverence, or our contempt." -Lewis
And that "taught out of him" part was particularly interesting to me. Lewis gave the example of an elementary textbook in which a story is told about two visitors viewing a beautiful waterfall. One declares that it is pretty, and one says "That is sublime"! The authors point out to the student that the waterfall itself isn't sublime, it is just giving the man sublime feelings. You can see the whiff of postmodernism and relativism here, can't you? Lewis spend the rest of the chapter arguing that no, the value of the waterfall does not lie in the man's feelings - there is something intrinsically sublime in the waterfall that rightly produced those feelings in the man, and by not teaching the child that fact, the textbook writers were training him that there is no deeper meaning in anything than our subjective feelings.
That whole example was frightening in that it is so easy to subtly undermine a person's better inclinations through their education. A person who is well-educated in the fullest sense is someone who has been taught how to feel about things as he ought to feel. A well-educated person likes certain things because he recognizes they are things worthy of being liked, because he has been taught from a young age what is beautiful and what is ugly, what is noble and what is base, what is true and what is false. People don't come to these proper views of things by their own feelings - they come to it by being carefully trained in the better things from a young age.
The implications for parents and educators, and especially those parents who take on the whole education of their children themselves, is obvious. We must show them the beautiful things, and help them absorb them into their soul. We must teach them what is right and noble, through all the means we can find, especially through the word of God, so that they can recognize the wrong and cowardly and sinful for what it is. We must give them true things to aspire to, to innoculate them against what is false. We must train them in righteousness through the word of God, so that they are thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If that is not part of our homeschool or educational plan as parents, we are in danger of producing people without chests and crippling our children against fully living life as they could.
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Obviously C. S. Lewis says it better than me and this is his concept, so if you are interested in this idea at all, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Abolition Of Man - even just the first chapter is worth it. I am going to be reading through The Abolition Of Man this month, and may have more posts coming about what I learn if you'd like to join me! I also saw that there is going to be a webinar from one of my favorite homeschool bloggers discussing it that I am considering purchasing as well!
Welcome to my new Tuesday series for the month of October! I'm looking forward to doing a non-formal chat on my blog each Tuesday, kind of like a virtual letter written to a friend while sipping a lovely cup of tea. I hope that is how it feels to read these posts each week, anyway. Those kind of posts are my personal favorites to read, and I think many of you would say the same. There is something interesting about getting a glimpse into someone else's life, isn't there?
Drinking: A homemade pump[kin spice latte, made by my (affectionately-dubbed) coffee snob of a husband. I know, it's not tea. Next week I'll play fair.
This is the first week that we are back into a normal rhythm after taking a trip out to North Carolina in September. It was a long drive across a large portion of the country, with five kids and homeschool books in tow.
If you are thinking that sounds like chaos, it actually wasn't very much. My kids are good at riding in the car since we typically have a longer drive to get anywhere, living where we live. Our school subjects actually provided some structure to the drive time and made it go faster for all of us. And I think there is actually something really special about the experience of driving through the country, instead of flying over it. You get to be immersed in different climates, the slight cultural peculiarities that each state has. Derek and I have a fun time talking about whether the state we're driving through would be a good "back-up state" in case we have to leave ours for whatever reason someday. Some states feel like home, and some feel so foreign I can't imagine living there myself. And, of course, there is the benefit of being able to envision the setting of books after you've been there yourself!
On the way out we stopped to visit our dear friends that had to move out of state for reasons out of their control. They have a beautiful piece of wooded property now in Kentucky, and are in the process of building a new house! We were able to celebrate a birthday party of my friend's son, held in their brand-new garage since the house is not yet built, and it was so special to be there for that. It was bittersweet to visit, because I so wish they could still live close to us - but not having them nearby makes me treasure the times when we can all be together even more, and I am already mentally planning loads of future visits as the years go by! I was listening to a seminar recently about Christian friendship, and it was a reminder that good, God-honoring friendships are a relatively rare thing, I don't take it for granted.
(The kids, running ahead on our way to the creek that runs through our friends' land.)
I will probably work on a post this month with a list of all the interesting places we were able to visit in North Carolina, so I won't go too far into it here, but seeing Derek's family for an extended period of time was lovely. His brother works as a mechanical and tech professor at a nearby college, and we were able to take a tour of the facilities and see a 3d printer, a machine shop, a robotics lab, etc. The boys were very interested, especially Clyde! My sister-in-law is an accomplished potter, and the kids had a great time working on pottery with her and making their own cups and other items. We spent several evenings just watching TV together, and drinking especially good coffee while we chatted, and it was a wonderful time. They are excellent at opening their home to guests, and their hospitality is a good example to me.
On the last day of our drive home, one of the kids came down with a stomach bug. At the time we thought it was food poisoning, but then multiple kids threw up a day or two later, and even I had one day where I just felt terrible. Thankfully it seemed to be a 24-hour bug, because none of us was sick beyond one day.
This is the second time we have come down with something after a trip out east, and I wonder if it's our immune systems reacting negatively to the heavy, humid air? In our higher altitude, the air is very dry, and I always notice various odd effects when we visit lower altitudes and more humid climates. A couple of the kids got rashes on their faces, we got several weird reactions to bug bites (likely from different bugs than we have at home), and then of course the typical sickness a day after we arrive back home. I know this also happens in reverse when people come from the east to our western high altitudes - I heard a couple stories before and during our trip of people visiting my state and being ill because of the change of climate and altitude. It starts to make sense of the missionary accounts I've read from the 19th century where the British were always worried about not doing well in foreign climates. It's amazing how our bodies adapt to living in one kind of place after a while, isn't it?
The rest of last week was taken up with running errands, and celebrating my daughter's 7th birthday. I can't believe how fast time goes by! Those of you who have been around for a while probably remember that I would write birthday letters to each of my kids on the blog every year. A couple years ago I decided to move those birthday letters to a private family blog, just to protect my kids' privacy a little more, but I wanted to mention that I still do write them. I hope to one day collect them into a binder and present it to my children when they are grown.
I discovered a notebook in my baby book a few years ago with letters that my mom wrote to me when I was a child, and reading it made me want to cry. If you don't already write letters to your children to give to them later, I recommend it. I think it will be a really special thing for them someday.
I'll close this now, and be back with another "Tea On A Tuesday" post next week! If you want to write your own chatty, letter-style post, what's stopping you? This is your cue to go ahead and do it. Comment below and I'll go read your "Tea On A Tuesday" style post too!
After a bit of hesitancy, I decided to challenge myself to do another writing challenge in October. Typically the Write 31 Days challenge is just that - a challenge to write every day in the month of October. If you are paying attention, you are probably scratching your head, because didn't I already miss October 1st and 2nd?
Yes, I did, thank you for noticing.
I've done the official Write 31 Days challenge for the past several years, and 2021 was the first year I was actually successful in posting to my blog every single day. That felt like a huge accomplishment!
In the years leading up to 2021, I felt I had to keep trying until I had completed a successful challenge - and now that I've done it, I feel the pull to participate in an October challenge just for the fun of it. I find that putting that little bit of pressure on myself to post every day gets me back in the practice of writing after the usually slack summer months. It sparks alot of creativity for me with photography as well as writing, and when I devote a little more time to those two things, it's life-giving in it's own way.
That's the bottom line. Getting back into writing and noticing my surroundings for photos, for the purpose of these October challenges, gives me joy. That's a good enough reason to participate, even if I've already got a "failing" start to the month.
Since I did miss the first days of the month, I'm thinking of modifying my personal version of the challenge to posting every weekday in October, and taking the weekends off. Here is my tentative topic outline:
Mondays: A homemaking topic (excepting today).
Tuesday: Tea On A Tuesday - A chatty post written over a cup of tea. Feel free to steal that title and join me on Tuesdays.
Wednesday: A catch-all day (Wednesday Fives, random topic posts).
Thursday: Homeschool topics.
Friday: Another freebie day, possibly a Five-Minute Friday post as a challenge.
Saturday/Sunday: If I post on the weekends, it will probably be quick links of interesting or challenging videos/posts/podcasts.
If there is anything specifically that you are interested in reading about, please let me know! Post ideas are always welcome. And if you decide to challenge yourself to write in October, even if you're starting an imperfect challenge like me, let me know so I can keep up with your posts too!
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