This week’s assignment is to post a picture of one your family’s/child’s art projects or drawings. Be even more daring and post one of your own! Journal about the project.

When Clara was six years old, she was very interested in birds. We keep several feeders and a bird bath in our yard and, as you can imagine; we have very many books about birds and bird identification on our nature shelves. After spending the morning and the better part of the afternoon quietly watching the birds in our yard, she came to me with several watercolors she had finished. I thought they were beautiful then and I think they are beautiful now. The first one is an American Goldfinch. You can tell he is a male because of his black cap.

 The second one is of a baby American Robin just toddling its way through the grass. You can tell it is a baby by its speckled breast and charming chubbiness.

 The third one is, of course, a Blue Jay.

 My favorite has always been the finch and I was tempted to just post that picture alone, but I think that showing all three of these paintings shows how she was able to capture the personality of each bird.

As we begin the New Year 2007, let’s look at what were our Hits & Misses for 2006. This could include anything at in your life. Perhaps you tried a new curriculum, a different approach to discipline, a new cookbook, a better (or worse) way to organize your time. Maybe, you joined a new group, or tried a new class.

The assignment for this week is make a List of “HITS” and a List of “MISSES”!

Extra Credit (from Training Hearts Mom): Take your favorite Homeschool item and write Raving Review! Be sure to share from the heart and be honest. In your review include the 5 W’s and the H…Who, What, Where, Why and How!

As I was writing down a list of what I consider the “hits” and “misses” of my life this past year, I realized that for every hit there seemed to be a somewhat related miss. It suddenly just jumped out at me while I was looking at the list. While I don’t think some of them are directly related; some of them definitely are. So here they are.

Hits

1. Our new puppy Banjo

2. Dressing more modestly

3. The Greenleaf Guide To Old Testament History

4. Headcovering

5. Our new bed

6. My new kitchen

Misses

1. Spending time with my girls

2. Reading my Bible

3. Wise Up! Wisdom in Proverbs

4. Pleasing my husband (a.k.a. keeping up with the housework)

5. Getting on a good sleep schedule

6. Cooking better meals more often

Now I shall explain.

Numbers One
On January 5th of 2006 our sweet little Boston Terrier was born and we were able to bring him home in early March. Banjo has turned out to be a wonderful addition to our family. He’s been a breeze to housebreak and has such a good temperament. God has really blessed our family with this puppy. On the other hand, I have had a strong desire to spend more time with my girls and feel like I haven’t done as well as I possibly could have this past year. This is not because I have given all of my attentions to Banjo, but it did seem superficially related when I was drawing up my list. It is a hard thing to explain to non-homeschooling moms how you can spend just about each and every hour of your waking day with your children and still feel like you haven’t spent time with them. I miss the days when they were younger and schoolwork didn’t seem as pressing. Now that Lily is in high school and I have to think about what her transcript will ultimately look like, I suddenly miss the days of tent-building in the middle of our living room and of paper dolls. I want to play games with my girls and read to them. I find myself resenting the shadow “college” has cast over our days.

Numbers Two
Now this year I have had a good deal of success and satisfaction in dressing modestly. I am far more comfortable in dresses and I feel like it has been a blessing in my life. On the other hand, I have felt like a failure at spending more time in God’s word. When writing up this list, I realized that, as satisfying as it may be to be dressing modestly, it is a small thing compared to keeping nigh unto God. It almost makes me feel like a hypocrite. I feel like a beautiful vase that remains empty.

Numbers Three
This year I decided to pull out a Bible curriculum that I bought a couple of years ago for Lily, but decided wasn’t really for her. I thought, for some bizarre reason, that I should give it a try with Clara. It is a very nice study of Proverbs, but it is a workbook. We don’t like workbooks. We really, really don’t like workbooks. So, after several attempts at using this curriculum, I dug out our The Greenleaf Guide To Old Testament History and asked Clara if she would like to snuggle up and read the Bible with me. She agreed that this would be a great thing and we are all very glad.

Numbers Four
For several years now I have felt like I should wear a headcovering. Nobody in our congregation wears a headcovering, so whenever I questioned 1 Corinthians 11, everyone would say they thought that a woman’s hair was the covering mentioned in those verses or that it no longer applies to modern day Christians. I kept having a nagging feeling that that wasn’t enough. I read and reread this scripture and studied the Greek words that were being translated until I understood that God wanted me to wear a headcovering. I do not bind this on other women. This is between me and my God. I do not think that women who do not wear a headcovering will not have their prayers answered. I don’t think it is a salvation issue. I just feel like it is an issue I needed to address in my life. I started wearing a headcovering in the spring of 2006 and have felt many blessings come from having chosen to do so. It has made me more aware of my place in God’s plan for my marriage. I can see how it has changed my heart attitude in many ways. The other side of this though, the “miss”, is that I know perfectly well what pleases my husband and I continue to neglect those things. I know that he is happiest when we have a tidy home and I am in the bad habit of letting things slide around here. I want to work on that this year.

Numbers Five
I have been having sleep problems for quite some time. I know that I need good rest and that I can let my sleep schedule get completely turned around in a matter of days because I tend to be a night owl. My beloved husband took me out shopping for a new bed this summer since we had been sleeping on the same one for twelve years. He felt that a new bed would help to alleviate some of my sleep problems. He had me lie down on several mattresses until I picked the perfect one. I felt like the princess in The Princess and the Pea. I have never slept on a mattress such as this. It is absolutely dreamy. It was a hit, for sure. Getting myself on a regular sleep schedule, however, has been a terrible miss. It is after one in the morning as I type this.

Numbers Six
Now you are going to wonder how I ever came into such a blessing with my husband when I tell you this. After living in our home for ten years and having to cook in a kitchen that was fifty years old, my husband took me out to pick all new everything for my kitchen. New cupboards and cabinets to replace the cupboards with doors that were falling off of their hinges and drawers that were without fronts. A new counter top to replace the one with cracks running through it and awful black, bubbled burn marks on it. And, no, I didn’t create these horrific burns. He even got a new stove with a convection oven and a microwave above the stove and a new refrigerator. And a new sink and a garbage disposal and…Okay, I will stop now. I got a brand new kitchen because my husband loves me like no other man could ever even come close to trying. And, for several months, I cooked like I had never cooked before. I discovered Allrecipes.com and never have to wonder how to cook another piece of meat again. At some point, though, I quit. I am not sure why. So the kitchen was a hit and my cooking turned into a miss.

So there you have it. My wonders and blunders of 2006. I suppose I could use the “misses” to create a nice little New Year’s resolution list. I’ve never made a New Year’s resolution list before. What do you think?

The girls and I went on a field trip this Tuesday to a “frontier settlement”. Here are our thirteen pictures from the year 1725.

These little piggies stayed home

We interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program for this important message:
I just wanted to let you all know that the book Lily is using for Bible study, Exploring the Gospel of John is by Lester Bauman and is a Rod and Staff publication. I noticed that there is another book available with this title, but I know nothing about it. We really like a lot of the Rod and Staff nature study books for children and this series of Bible study books Lily is beginning to read.

I may have the girls continue with their readings through next summer so that they will be able to begin Term 1 of their respective years next fall. I have also been thinking of using Missey Gray’s “condensed version of Years 5 and 6 that can be completed by an older student in one year” with Clara next school year. You can find it here. If I do this, Clara will start Year 7 as she is going into eighth grade. This is preferable to me since it would put Clara on the same schedule that Lily has been on. Clara needed more help with her reading when she was young, so I had to spend more time with her in her early years of schooling. Clara now reads everything in sight and narrates everything back to me whether I asked for it or not. She could easily handle Missey’s version of Pre-Year 7 next year.
Children are so different and things are always changing. I can’t imagine forcing my child into some cookie-cutter curriculum. It’s so important to know your child and know that he or she is always changing. Don’t ever hold your children up to or limit them by someone else’s expectations. Not even your own. Seek out God’s expectations for your family. Look for his plan for each of your children. There you will find the perfect curriculum.
I hope to write more about our homeschooling efforts in the future. Along with the usual photos, poems, puppies and ponderings, of course. I would love to help anyone along the way. If you would like to read other homeschoolers’ posts, check out the Carnival of Homeschooling hosted this week at HomeSchoolBuzz.com.

I was tagged by the Headmistress over at The Common Room to answer this question:

Imagine that a local philanthropist is hosting an event for local high school students and has asked you to pick out five to ten books to hand out as door prizes. At least one book should be funny and at least one book should provide some history of Western Civilization and at least one book should have some regional connection. The philanthropist doesn’t like foul language (but will allow some four-letter words in context, such as expressed during battle by soldiers). Otherwise things are pretty wide open. What do you pick?

Well, I fear that I was not able to keep my list to the “five to ten” asked for above. I suppose I would have to donate some of them on my own.

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
(I took this book with me on a family camping trip in New Hampshire. Needless to say, I had my flashlight on well into the night in our little tent. My husband was patient, but really didn’t understand what all the giggling was about.)
Since I grew up in New England, these two books would have to be my regional picks:

2. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

3. The Poetry of Robert Frost

4. Young Folk’s Story of the World by Lou V. Chapin
(This is a huge tome and is long out of print, but it has a special place in my heart. It was written in 1896 and includes beautiful pen drawings. The book has sections covering Egypt, Ethiopia, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, Persia, Asia Minor and Neighboring Kingdoms, India, China and Japan, Carthage, Greece, Rome, France, England, Germany, Scotland and Ireland, Scandinavia, Russia, Spain, Modern European Kingdoms, Netherlands, Austria, Turkey, Italy, America, British America, and Spanish America. The introduction to this book, written by the author, is a prize in itself. From the introduction:

“Fact and truth, in a historical sense, are of course nearly related, but the seed of the highest truth may lie in a legend or tradition created by the poet or a story-teller, while the most undeniable fact may have in it no spiritual truth, no impulse to quicken the mind, enlighten the soul and make men truly wise.

There are millions of facts that have no real bearing upon historical truth in the story of a nation. They are trivial, even though considered so important by the old historians that all who came after them religiously copied them in writing history.

To be sure these records of fact should be kept as works of reference, and they will always be so preserved, but the age of twenty-volume histories has gone by, and the historian of to-day who would reach the public, and especially that portion of the public that is to become the nation-builders—the youth—must tell his story in a few words, and must have some rational excuse for telling it at all.

That “the noblest study of mankind is man” is not empty vaporing of a poet. The individuals compose the nations, and the biography of individuals is the history of the world. Their great deeds raised nations to power, their mistakes wrecked empires, and from them all we may draw lessons of incalculable value.

No man can be accounted truly educated who has not a general knowledge of the world’s history. No man can be truly enlightened who is not able to trace the development of his kind from a lower to a higher plane, and above all, no man can have that deeply reverent attitude toward the God who created our earth and all of its creatures, which is the natural relation of a soul towards its Maker, unless he is able to see in his own existence the outworking of the immutable laws that since the beginning of time have ruled the universe.

Through all the ages one increasing purpose runs like a thread of flame, lighting up dark and bloody pages in the world’s story, showing to all men, God in the humblest and highest places, manifesting Himself as unchanging, teaching men over and over the folly of trying to disarrange the rules of cause and effect, and endeavoring to stem with the puny strength of mortal hands and wills the resistless current of the Divine.”)

5. The Bible

6. The Complete Works of Josephus

7. Eusebius, The Church History

8. Plutarch’s Lives Vols. 1 & 2

9. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

10. The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy

11. Collected Shorter Fiction Vols. 1 & 2 by Leo Tolstoy

12. The Complete Works of Shakespeare

13. The Oxford Book of American Verse

14. The Oxford Book of English Verse

15. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

16. The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

17. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

18. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

19. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Those are just off the top of my head. I know I could keep adding more, but I will spare those poor high school students. Anyway, I am now tagging Amanda at Wittingshire, Kristen at Walking Circumspectly, Javamom at Take Time To Smell The Coffee, Anne at PalmTree Pundit, Amy at Amy’s Humble Musings and anyone else who wants to join in.

For those of you who have asked about my progress in reading the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, I must confess that I haven’t gotten past the first chapter. I promised our preacher I wouldn’t start reading the books without him and it seems as though we just can’t find a convenient time to start reading simultaneously. He is either in the middle of a book or I am. Well, usually I am in the middle of several books, but there are only so many I can juggle at a time. I am beginning to think that I am just going to jump in to the first book of the trilogy, The Bridal Wreath, without my friend.

One of the reasons I am bringing this up is because I have just updated my “literature” links. There are a couple of other books that I’ve been reading that may interest some of you.

I have been reading Home-Making and it has really been both pleasurable and painful at the same time. I suppose one might call it convicting. I find that the author is telling me exactly what I know to be true about creating a home and, although I have longed for this affirmation of what I believe to be true, it stings a little to see in print many of the ways in which I have fallen short. I don’t say this to discourage you from reading this book, though. It was written by a nineteenth century man by the name of J.R. Miller whose eloquence and obvious love takes most of the sting from what he has to say. But not all. And that is as it should be. This book would be worth very little if it just affirmed what we already knew to be true without pricking our hearts into further action. This book is also not just meant for wives and mothers. It is meant to be read by the entire family. Miller is very careful to let the burdens of keeping a Christian home fall where they should. He has words for both husband and wife as well as for the children. We plan on reading this book as a family as soon as I am done with it. I think it will be a very humbling experience for me, but a necessary one.

Raising Maidens of Virtue has been a good read so far. I am pre-reading it before I read it with my girls. I bought it to read with them since they have been coming to me with concerns about modesty, male friendships and what it really means to be a Christian young woman. My girls are still young, but not too young to be talking about such things. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I have found it to be rather good at covering all of the areas that I feel my girls are desiring instruction in. We are one of only a few homeschooling families in our congregation and we were the first ones to start homeschooling. Thus, my oldest is the oldest homeschooled child in our congregation. We are having to make decisions on an almost daily basis that both put our faith to the test and set precedent for those who follow in our footsteps. I find it comforting that my daughters are coming to me with concerns that most girls wouldn’t even think twice about in our culture. Part of me, though, was concerned that the answers that they were craving wouldn’t fall easily from my lips to their ears. I think that this book will be of great service to us in this area.

Which leads me to a whole series of thoughts that I want to share, but they must wait until some other time. I have a dress that must be ironed before tomorrow morning and it is getting late in the day.

We’re halfway through February. I am sitting here wishing for spring like a child wishing his most desperate wish before he blows out the birthday candles. This is the time of year that I seek out all the good books I can find just to get me through these cabin-feverish days. I am going to start reading the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset this week. They have been lying on my shelves since last fall waiting for me. If anyone out there would like to read them along with me, let me know. That might be interesting. I used to belong to a few e-mail groups that would read various books together, but they either were reading something I’d already read or they were reading something I didn’t feel like reading at the time. I read enough books on my own, so I don’t really need the encouragement. If anyone out there has any good book suggestions, though, I’d be glad to hear them. I will add them to my list of books to look into.

My girls love to read and our house is so full of books that it has become more of a library than a home. The girls beg me for more books and devour everything I hand them. Lily just read Huckleberry Finn and is now reading The Swiss Family Robinson. Clara is reading The Wind in the Willows. They were so excited at Christmas because they got so many books. Will and I really love that about them. It makes us feel good to know our girls enjoy reading as much as we do.

I think I have given up on my college dream of writing some great novel. I don’t even write poetry that much anymore. Who knows, though, I still have an idea that I turn around every now and then. I could see myself writing something in my old age. If, by then, I don’t end up needing more naps than I presently do. Maybe I should get busy now. But first I have some books to read.