Finished (maybe)
I think I might add some beading to the mama matryoshka later.
Posts
The Baby
The baby likes to climb into her dolly pram and pretend she's the baby. Her sisters love to oblige her and push her around for ages. :)
My birthday gift from Steadfast
Steadfast gave me this grain mill for my birthday. Isn't it pretty? It makes nice flour, too. :)
“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.” - Winston Churchill
Catherine, Mary and Lydia
We had a get-together at our home and someone snapped this photo of our middle three girls after they had been running around in 94F degree heat. :) Yes, it has been unseasonably warm, but it looks like we'll finally get down below 40F tomorrow night. (yay!)
Sometimes our prayers are for deliverance from conditions which are morally indispensable--that is, conditions which are absolutely necessary to our redemption. God does not grant us those requests. He will not because He loves us with a pure and implacable purpose: that Christ be formed in us. If Christ is to live in my heart, if his life is to be lived in me, I will not be able to contain Him. The self, small and hard and resisting as a nut, will have to be ruptured. My own purposes and desires and hopes will have to at times be exploded. The rupture of the self is death, but out of death comes life. The acorn must rupture if an oak tree is to grow. --Elisabeth Elliott
Winds of Change
I grew up adoring Lord Byron, Tennyson, Browning, Rossetti, Swinburne, Yeats, Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.... but by far my most cherished versifier is my dear friend Jenni: Winds of Change
"So how would you feel if local laws required that you bring your pup to the bus stop each day to join other dogs in a yellow cage that wheels down the road to the kennel or pound for socializing exercises? You know for sure that association with the pack is the fastest way to destroy any obedience training *you* have planned. Does anyone who knows children believe that the yellow school bus takes children down the road to a constructive, positive sense of society? Or returns them in the afternoon or evening more loving creatures than when they left in the morning?" -Dr. Raymond Moore, The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook
Zucchini
These are from our neighbors and I have never seen, as Catherine says, such "ginormous" zucchini in my life. I drove by our neighbor's house just in time to catch their 12 yo boy with a broken wrist (in cast) about to carry a huge bag of these with one hand a quarter of a mile to our house in blistering heat... bless his heart. Since I was going the opposite direction of our house, he offered to take them down to our porch for me. I thanked him profusely and told him he didn't have to do that in this heat, I could take them with me, no problem... but I arrived home to find a HUGE bag of tomatoes on our porch. ;) I made fresh roasted tomato soup for dinner, with grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum. Any ideas on preparing zucchini "steaks"?? Just one of these will feed our family of eight for one meal, and we have eight of these!
Why am I so tired?
Yesterday our dear 'Elizabeth' celebrated her 16th birthday. Even though, until now, our 'Fanny' has strictly been on Dr Michael Traub's Allergy Prevention plan for introducing solid foods to infants, we succumbed to the festive occasion and allowed our dear one to a small piece of unfrosted chocolate cake. Big mistake. She was wired until well past 4 a.m. :)
No Children! by Edgar Guest
No children in the house to play-- It must be hard to live that way! I wonder what the people do When night comes on and the work is through, With no glad little folks to shout, No eager feet to race about, No youthful tongues to chatter on About the joy that's been and gone? The house might be a castle fine, But what a lonely place to dine! No children in the house at all, No fingermarks upon the wall, No corner where the toys are piled-- Sure indication of a child. No little lips to breathe the prayer That God shall keep you in His care, No glad caress and welcome sweet When night returns you to your street; No little lips a kiss to give-- Oh, what a lonely way to live! No children in the house! I fear We could not stand it half a year. What would we talk about at night, Plan for and work with all our might, Hold common dreams about and find True union of heart and mind, If we two had no greater care Than what we both should eat and wear? We never kn...
So far so good!
Mary is my first "completely homeschooled" daughter. She recently took her first standardized test and scored in the 95th percentile. I don't put much stock in test scores, but my state does, so I'm jazzed. ;) To top that off, here's a nice article in the Aussie news: Top marks for home-schooling (though I can't believe they *still* had to bring up the non-issue of socialization at the end of the article).
One of my favorites...
The Biblical Portrait of Women: Setting the Record Straight by John MacArthur
"I hope", said Gloriana warily, "that you are not going to suggest that I marry the American minister, because I won't do it. I've been reading about the Americans in a women's magazine and they're all cruel to their wives." "Cruel to their wives?" echoed the count. "Precisely. They treat them as equals. They refuse to make any decisions without consulting them. They load them up with worries they should keep to themselves. And when there isn't enough money, they send them out to work instead of earning more by their own efforts. Some of them even make their wives work so they can go to college. They are not men at all. They are men-women. And their wives are women-men. If I am to marry, I want a husband who will be a man and let me be a woman. I'll be able to handle him better that way." — "The Mouse That Roared" by Leonard Wibberley
Grief is a fickle thing.
It's funny how it leaves you for a bit, and you become unguarded, and merrily roll along and then WALLOP, up side the head it comes. Maybe you noticed the date, maybe you smelled a familiar scent, maybe you didn't do anything except suddenly start bawling at this thing or that for no apparent reason. No... just a cat hair in my eye. No... just allergies of some sort. No... Christians shouldn't be so sensitive, you're right. And you wonder what on earth has gotten into you. It's not hormones... not time to PMS or ovulate... and WHAM it hits you. You still miss them. Achingly so. How can your heart contain it? Why doesn't it just burst and dissipate into nothingness like a vapor? You want to run to them for comfort, but they aren't there to comfort you. You want to run away, but there is no where to go that grief won't find you.. walloping you and whamming you relentlessly like waves. Except. In the arms of Jesus. The Steadfast Love of the L...
April Fools' Day has come and gone, and so has another birthday....
Happy Birthday "Lydia"! (Don't let her fool you with her candles, she's only four) ;)
Songs My Mama Sang
I love you a bushel and a peck A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck A hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap A barrel and a heap and I'm talkin' in my sleep About you, about you 'Cause I love you a bushel and a peck You bet your purdy neck I do
Modesty Survey
The Harris boys have released the results of their survey on modesty... Click here to view .
What happens when you let the heated water bowl run dry in winter?
For what it's worth, it's not our cat out there in a huddled mass. We aren't sure where he comes from, but we think he belongs to neighbors east of us. We don't know his name. We call him Jubilation T. Cornpone. Our cats live like this (or think they do)...
Do you watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials?
Did you miss some? Do you want to see some again? Click here: Super Bowl Commercials 2007
Okay, I lied...
I lied about no more sling shots. I just had to share my POV. (Mom, that means Point of View) :) Yes, that is a Christmas-y tablecloth. And our tree is still up too (it's fake, don't worry). We just love the tree lights on dark winter days, so we told Mary she can have it up until her birthday (in two weeks).
I just love having a baby in my pocket. :D
Okay, this is my last sling picture... until I finish the next one that I'm making "reversible" with one side dyeable Painting Red Rhinos boutique fabric from a few seasons ago that is 100% cotton jersey, and the other side dyeable 100% cotton Sherpa. I haven't started yet, and probably won't for a few days (need to decide on a color for the fabric first... and then buy the dye) :) So you'll be spared sling pics for bit. :D Do you know I'm typing with TWO hands right now, while my sleeping babe is nestled against my chest?? What a blessed moment. What does Jenni call them again? Ah yes... I'm having a feeling of Ultimate Blessing. What Joy!
Baby Wearing
Tonight we were invited to a Super Bowl party, and rather than letting Fanny sit in a corner in her car seat somewhere, I decided to "whip up" a sling this afternoon. I have to say I *love* this sling, and Fanny does too! It's a tube sling pattern, also known as a pocket or pouch sling. I made it out of some Malden Mills fleece I had left-over from diaper sewing. The fleece is flexible, but snug, and cradles her just right. I can lay her deeper in the pocket, or sit her up so she can see the world, and it holds her snugly in place. The pattern I used can be found here: Jan Andrea on the Web
Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there, Ours boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere, For smears are on the windows, little smudges on the door, I should apologise I guess for toys shrewn on the floor, But I sat down with the children and we played and laughed and read, And if the windows do not shine, their eyes will shine instead, And when at times I'm forced to choose the one job or the other, I want to be a housewife, but first I'll be a mother.
Here I am again...
...reading "A Mother's Rule of Life" by Holly Pierlot I feel the need to read this book once a year, and here I am almost exactly a year after I said I'd blog about it... re-reading it again. All I can say is Wow. After the Bible this book has been the single most inspirational book on motherhood that I have ever read. If you're a overwhelmed homeschooling mom struggling with getting everything done, this book will set your priorities straight by directing you toward's God's priorities for your profession (as wife, mother & homeschooler). When our priorities are His priorities our efforts are truly blessed, and everything falls into place. Really! I've experienced it! :) After every few pages I just have to set the book down and mull over it. I have so many "a-ha!" moments I have to take time to process them all... even the second or third time through! You have to know that I'm a woman who normally reads at least two page...
Two good reads...
Intelligence in the Classroom - Half of all children are below average, and teachers can do only so much for them. What's Wrong With Vocational School? - Too many Americans are going to college.
