Re-evaluating the Self via Decluttering the Bedroom.

The course leader, Joshua Becker likes to approach decluttering room by room. This week we're in the bedroom. The assignment (#4):

remove everything and anything that does not contribute to the two main purposes of the room: sleep and intimacy. 

Of course, it's also where I get dressed, so holding items necessary for that is important too--but we'll sort that later when our wardrobes get an entire week to themselves.

Like last week, my shelves gave me grief.

Those white boxes at the top are cassette tapes. Back in the day when I put 1,000 miles a month on my little Toyota, those tunes kept me company--and sane. I was able to get rid of about 1/2.

As I went through them, I got rid of anything I knew I wouldn't likely listen to again, (Sorry, New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band.) Anything easily replaceable, (Miles Davis' greatest hits) but I kept really precious ones (Nirvana), and personal ones (mixed tapes from long-ago friends).

I need to revisit these and decide what I am going to do with what's left. But I still have my cassette player, so I can choose to listen to them from time to time, too.

Then, my journals.

I opened one of them at random. It was from the months I'd just started Journalism school in London, Ontario. I wrote at great length about my plans and frustrations with trying to sew slipcovers for my couch cushions--and a chair. I was in love with something called "that flower fabric." There I am....starting a new school--a new career--and there's barely a word about my classes or what I'm learning. It's all about my decorating plan for my new apartment--and I knew I was only going to be there a year. Yet nothing was more important to me.

I picked up another. The one that covers the months surrounding my daughter's birth. I started reading. This one, I realised, this one is one I keep.

And so I am not ready to part with the Journals, just yet. A part of me just wants to burn them. Let that past go. Purify it with flame. Become someone who has left the past behind, utterly.

Yet that's rather dramatic for what's mostly a laundry list of things I did and planned to do. Heart pourings about people and my wooden headedness. I would like to revisit them at leisure and read through them, thank you very much. And then I'll know what to do with them.

For some, these shelves would not contribute to the two main purposes of the room: rest and intimacy. I thought about removing the shelves completely when, as I was going through two old binders that were on those shelves, binders holding many, many of my thoughts about my home and decorating plans and swatches and what not, I found a few pages talking about my bedroom. I wish I had the pages to quote right now, but I'd said something along the lines of "my books mean home to me. They comfort me. I need to put shelves up in my bedroom." So, there we are! Several years ago, I was quite deliberate about it--and the books there are the most meaningful to me.

Books still mean "home" to me--though, if I ever get the chance to move to my little dream cottage near the sea on Vancouver Island, all of it would be gone-- in a flash.

Joshua encourages us to touch every single item as we're decluttering. I did that as I dusted.

Decluttering makes room for us, as people, to change. It seems odd, but a lot of our self-identity is wrapped up in our possessions--the person we tell ourselves we are, is a person, often, who has this, but not that--who does this sort of thing over here--but not that. That's what this bookshelf in the basement held. The boxes are full of homeschooling books and scrapbooking things.

Two past selves.

And I want to move forward--and give myself room to breathe--to let go of my old self--and embrace whatever the future has in store. Not to become someone new, but renewed. Evolved.

I actually started to cry when I opened the boxes of homeschooling stuff. So many memories! So many dreams that weren't quite fulfilled. We were never quite that homeschooling family I'd hoped we be--and these books were both a reminder and a remonstrance. And I realised that it really was time to let them go. Emma starts Grade 12 next year. Ben will start University.

I also ran around the house and collected any audio recordings we still had on hand. Turned out Ben still had quite a few.

Joshua Becker encouraged me to donate these precious items--and so I've put out feelers to home school groups to see if there is a family who might benefit from these last four boxes. I hope we find someone who will take it all.

I've decided that I will make a donation run every Friday while the course is on.


This was the pile collected Thursday night:

And this was the pile the next morning:

I'd gone to bed thinking about all the things I hadn't touched. I collected it in about 1/2 an hour--before coffee!

Our next assignment is our closets (and drawers) and the bathrooms. I wonder if my husband will be willing to part with any of his clothes?

I'd like to paint the closet, too.

Day 25b: The Homeschool Report

As promised in the Goals post, here is today's Homeschool Report.

I am so relieved to be able to report--and before dinner, no less--that we have completed all the items on the Homeschool schedule. Today.

It wasn't seamless. It took effort. I had to confiscate a game and a dvd. It got ugly more than once.

A lot of my problems come from not paying attention. I suppose that's not particularly unusual. Like anyone, when I'm interested in something, I give it my full attention. I know what's going on. I do whatever it is I need to do in order to stay on top of it.

But, since my daughter started attending public school last fall, my heart for homeschooling seems to have gone with her. It's wrong. It isn't fair to the student I have with me still and, thus, I have to change it.

I sat down with the work he did today to go over it and see what was what in order to write up this report. Let me just say that I am so glad I did. My inattention has caused him not to pay attention as closely as he should. My inattention has meant he hasn't been accountable to anyone for how he has been doing his work.

I am hanging my head in shame.

We'll do the corrections.
We'll do the work scheduled for tomorrow.

And I hope we have a happier report tomorrow night.

Meet The Little Iron Horse

This is Cherry Creek Fonzie Merit.*

Otherwise known as "The Canadian Horse."

Yes.

It would seem we have a national breed.



Way back in the 1600's, at the request of Intendant Jean Talon, horses from the stables of King Louis XIV were sent to New France to help establish the struggling colony. (Along with the Filles du Roi, but that's another tale.)

Once they got here, they interbred in isolation for about 300 years. Apparently the result was a unique and wonderful horse with incredible pulling abilities. It was also sturdy, took the harness well, and gentle. It had remarkably good feet and could endure the harsh winter on little feed. Apparently their dispositions are fabulous: if a bit "in your face" at times.
But truly, what better horse for the family farm?

Of course, the poor thing nearly went extinct in the late 1800's. (The reasons why are actually quite interesting. See the links below). In spite of a government breeding program, only 400 existed 100 years later. Now, however, thanks to independent breeders there are about 3,000.

credit: Clix Photography

Sturdy, hardy, survives on little and modest in stature.

Best of all, Canadian Horses are renowned for their kind, sensible, sociable
natures, intelligence and willingness to please.**

What great qualities to have in a National Horse, eh? Especially a Canadian Horse.

I love it. And I like it even better that I have learned this and can pass it on to my kids.


First photo from http://www.ironhorseequine.com/html/canadian_horse_le_cheval_canadien.html

Last two photos and information from http://www.deerfieldfarm.ca/canadahorse/canadahorse.html

**from: http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/canadian/

The Intellectual Elite vs Populism, perhaps?

I don't like to get caught up in events as they are happening. I'm much too apt to put my foot in my mouth. As I have been perusing the results of the US Presidential campaign and "doing my homework" I have become appalled at the Republican's choice of Governor Sarah Palin for Vice President. But not as appalled at that as at the thought it may have been a considered, deliberate choice.

Here's the Wall Street Journal article which argues this.

And here's something which concerns me, personally.

Traditional conservatives were always suspicious of populism, and they were right to be. They saw elites as a fact of political life, even of democratic life. What matters in democracy is that those elites acquire their positions through talent and experience, and that they be educated to serve the public good. But it also matters that they own up to their elite status and defend the need for elites. They must be friends of democracy while protecting it, and themselves, from the leveling and vulgarization all democracy tends toward.

See, I'm deliberately raising my average children to become one of the "intellectually elite." And if that's too much of a stretch, then I am certainly doing my best to raise them above the fray of what passes for education in the public school system which, at best, is anti-intellecual.

Lilla says, "They must be educated to serve the public good."

Interesting question: What would that be? And who gets to define it? I think I may be looking up some of the authors he mentions in the artcle.

For All You Writers Out There....

This is, of course, targeted at kids.
But I thought that it might be of interest to you to know there are free novel writing workbooks.

If you want them.

If you think you can even write a novel that way.

If you think it might just be fun to give it a whirl.

I recommend the elementary one, actually. It's just more fun to call the antagonist a "villian."

By the by, if you feel yo have 50,000 words (good or bad) fighting to get out in the month of November, there's some sort of contest or challenge thingy.

Holy Books, Batman!

We're up at 6:30am again. We managed it yesterday and now, today. It's been my goal to "get up with Dad" and see him out the door, and here we are two days in a row. (Tomorrow, though, he wakes up at 5:30, so he'll have to see himself out.)

But that's not all. They are reading. Reading! Not watching TV/DVD's as is usual. They wanted to.

It's calm. Peaceful. What a wonderful way to start the day.

Planning School

Well, it has to be done.

I still have my wonderful spreadsheet from last year, but it is hopelessly out of date and I'm beginning to be a bit alarmed. I hauled the kids outside today to read a chapter of The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, just so I could feel like we did something.

As a consequence, though, I've started posting again over at the SSC blog.

From the Inbox

One of the great things about homeschooling is finding out about all the neat teaching tools out there.

A notice that these are available arrived in my mailbox today.




They are from Dover Publications. (psst, if you click on the link, you can follow a few more links and see Cindy and Michelle, too!)

Aren't they great?

Note the posture. Are Republicans upright and stiff? Are they unyielding? Or, are they trustworthy and dogged? Do they have necks?

Are Democrats sloppy and slouchy and not to be trusted--or comforting and laid back? Will they park my car for me?

I wonder if there would be outcry and brouhaha if Hillary had won the nomination instead? (Though I would feel vaguely indecent dressing and undressing Bill.)

I wish they had Canadian equivalents.

More on Homeschooling

It's always difficult to know where to start educating yourself about homeschooling. There's almost too much information out there! But to get an idea of what is possible these three books are an excellent place to start.

I confess I haven't read Susan Schaeffer MacCauley's book. (Yes, she is one of those Schaeffer's). It wasn't in our library system back when I started. It is now, and I have it on request.


From this book, I learned that homeschooling is first and foremost about relationships: the relationship you have with your Creator, the relationships you have with your children and the relationships they have with each other. Protecting, nuturing, developing and growing these relationships is of paramount importance--and a good reason to homeschool no matter what curriculum or method you choose.

It goes beyond just this, of course, laying out an excellent way to approach one's academics. A way that doesn't let them take over your life. A way, I might add, diametrically opposed to the next one.


In this one, a mother and daughter team up to provide not only a vision for what educating your children with rigour and high standards may be like, but they offer specific curriculum suggestions that enable you to teach your children to think in the "classical" way. It is my "go to" book for planning the goals of our homeschool: but it tends to create "school at home" which is highly structured and very demanding.

That's why I'm looking forward to reading this book.


This book sets out the Charlotte Mason method. CM, as it is known in homeschooling circles is also quite rigorous academically, based on learning from "living books" and Nature. From the testimonies of all who follow it, it is more relaxed and the day's work flows from one thing to the next.

One part of me is scared to let go the reins and let things happen "naturally." Yes, partly I'm a control freak, but partly I tend to fall apart without a set structure in front of me and a clear plan to follow. Nothing gets done unless I know exactly what I'm doing. So, we'll have to see if this book will help me figure out what I need to know to relax things around here just a tad. School really doesn't have to look like school, and I'd like to figure out how to do that.

Homeschooling is always a journey, no matter which path you take.

Words from the Wise

Susan Wise Bauer, that is:
(She's considered something of a classical education guru in homeschooling circles.)

One thing classical homeschoolers really need to guard against is a devastating level of elitism: "We are doing the best homeschooling because our young children are doing such advanced work." This kind of elitism is non-Christian, it is unloving, and it is unproductive. I was recently asked, "What do you think of third-graders doing Saxon 5/4?" I said, "I can't think of a single thing you would gain by that. Some of them will be able to do it, but a lot of them aren't developmentally ready for it. You are going to finish advanced mathematics by the end of high school if you keep them on the normal schedule. What's the rush?" What do you gain by asking a seventh-grader to read the Iliad if that seventh-grader hasn't developed the maturity to understand and appreciate what he's reading? Nothing at all. You gain nothing in the way of emotional and mental development by pushing difficult tasks down to earlier grades.

I am not talking about the lowering of academic standards. I don't want them lowered; I am just talking about extending the time needed for children to meet those standards. Children move from grammar to logic stage thinking, and from logic to rhetoric stage thinking, at different times in different subjects. We should focus on this, rather than focusing on age or grade level. And I hope that classical schools will also begin to think seriously about what is being gained in the classroom if immature students are being asked to do work that continually frustrates them. Is our goal to educate as many students as possible, or to identify a small, advanced, elite core of classical scholars? I hope it's the first, and not the second. I think there is a very high level of achievement that all children can reach, given the appropriate amount of time. Keep the standards high, but give each child the appropriate amount of time for those achievements.

from The Old Schoolhouse.

Like every teaching parent, I need reassurance.

We are so far behind in our curriculum that there's no way ds is making it to University by 18! Yes, he's only ten, but my heavens, I calculated today that if we continue school without any breaks, we'll be done this year's curriculum by September 13, 2008.
September 13th?!
No breaks?

We took a long long break in the fall--the entire fall, in fact. We did about three weeks of school in August, and feeling smug and quite ahead of the game (public school doesn't start here until after Labour Day) we took a bit of time off--that turned into a week, that turned into two weeks. Then a month went by, and then another, and then, why, it's almost Christmas, so why not wait until after Christmas? One January 7th, I could wait no longer...the public kids went back to school and so did we.

It's been a tough month.

First, we decided to visit relatives in Montreal and the Ottawa Valley this spring, so I decided it was time to get moving on the Canadian History course I'd partially planned. I've been doing a lot of on-line research in the evenings, pulling together resources here. It's been fascinating, but time consuming.

Second, I've been introducing our curriculum back in slowly. My objective is to do math, latin, grammar and spelling every day. The kids love to do their History (using Bauer's Story of The World, Vol. 2) so they keep me on task to get it done! We added in Art--just to give our poor brains a rest.

I started Bible this week and it was a disaster.
And we did start that Canadian History course.

There's science to add (I have found two great lesson plans for a study on the Human Body) and writing and Bible Study for the younger, and dictation.

I am overwhelmed.

Because we are so far behind, all the planning I did last year seems irrelevant. The schedule, even before we fell behind was overwhelming. I had seven and a half hour days planned for the ten year old, and only an hour less for the seven year old.

It just doesn't feel possible to do everything I'd planned to do and get through a day--let alone a month--or, even, the rest of the year.

Contributing to this is the third thing: our daily wake/sleep cycles are completely out of whack. The kids and I are up until 2 or 3 in the morning--and thus not up and at it until noon. I feel preassured all day long to keep moving. I hate giving the kids breaks because it is nearly impossible to bring them back from them. So, I keep pushing, let's do one more thing before we....But, it's Newton's law in action: the more I push, the more they resist. I haven't found a rhythm to our day, such as it is.

Lastly, I've been spending a lot of time over at the Well-Trained Mind message boards. I've been checking out other homeschooler's blogs. And I'm depressed. The women (and men) on those boards would be the very last people in the world to heap scorn and shame upon my head, yet I'm intimidated by their energy and committment (pre-reading? A Mom is actually pre-reading her history book selections?) and in the inevitable comparison between her kids and mine, mine seem to be way, way behind.

I must take a few days and get a handle on what's happening and what I want to have happen. My original plan was a 40 week school year with a week off every six weeks. That leaves us with six weeks for a "vacation" --now to be divied up between the three week trip to be taken out East in the spring and maybe three more weeks in the summer.

I have yet to figure out how far back that pushes our curriculum to next fall--but as Bauer writes: is there really a rush? Still, I can't help cringing. You just can't take half a year off and expect not to be half a year behind. In the words of the Wise, this needs to be my focus as I reevaluate:

Children move from grammar to logic stage thinking, and from logic to rhetoric stage thinking, at different times in different subjects. We should focus on this, rather than focusing on age or grade level.

or where we are in the curriculum.

Struggling

We are struggling with our circadian rhythm. No one, except the husband is sleeping anything like normal hours. For example, it is 2am here--and both kids and I are wide awake. And of course they refuse to do any school from about 5pm onwards. We just can't get anything done getting up at noon!

I found this poem by Emily Dickinson for us to memorize. It hit several chords. I thought I'd share:


Morning


Will there really be a morning?
Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?
Has it feet like water lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I've never heard?
Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!
Oh, some wise man from the skies!
Please to tell a little pilgrim
Where the place called morning lies!

Here's more of her poetry.

No Muffins, But

(The famous image of the two renegades, Radisson and Groseilliers. No wonder it's ubiquitous, it's by Fredric Remington. I had no idea! from this blog .)

I am up to the year 1670 (the year King Charles II granted the rights to all the land through which the rivers flow into Hudson's Bay to his cousin Rupert). (Yeah, that's an inelegant mouthful, but so's the size of that land! No one had any idea how much of it there was. No one had even been through it yet!)

I'll show you:

Staggering, isn't it?

Cousin Rupert, as you know, founded the Hudson's Bay Company--and all because of those enterprising, renegade coureurs de bois, Radisson and Groseilliers.

I can't tell you how much I'm learning.

Librivox--a free resource for Audio books.

Have you heard of this?
The titles they have are amazing! From Alcott, to Boethius, to Burgess....

It's a voluntary project where individuals read books in the public domain. You can listen to them on the computer--or using I-Tunes, download onto disc for the car or CD player.

I just downloaded a book on the Jesuit missions in Canada for the kids and I to listen to on those long errand days spent in the car.

The catalogue is a bit difficult to navigate--nothing by subject matter--but if you know the title or author of the book you want, it's easy.

Here's the link to the main page.

Map-Making

Just a total aside--but did you know you can make your own maps on the web?

I haven't tried it (though I just might, during my "slack" time, of course!) but there's one here and another one here.

Of course, I want black-line maps for the kids to label and colour in....but holy cow, what the web can do for you!

Names.

We did our Latin today and as an introduction to pronounciation, the kids were to pick Latin names. My son immediately chose Caius without reading them--but I made them persevere and my daughter picked Aurelia--it is actually the name of a female relative. We're doing ecclesiastical pronounciation so, phonetically, their names are:
Caius: K eye us
Aurelia: Ow ray li ah (short i)

I'm happy: now I have a names for them for the blog!
Tomorrow we get into the nitty gritty. Nouns!

Hooray--the Latin came through!

Long story, but let me say that the Woman in Charge came through, not once, not twice but three times for me today to make sure that a book I'd paid for on Sunday was available for complete and thorough download today.

I'm more excited than I was at Christmas...I always get giddy with new curriculum. This is our new Latin text. And I'm so excited. Silly me.

But I've been threatening/promising the kids we'd get back into it--and tomorrow we shall. I've got it all ready to go.

On Curriculum.

You'll see that in the side bar I've included the materials I use (and hope to use) in our homeschool. But I have chosen those materials not entirely because they are subjects we need to cover: but because covering those subjects imparts skills I think we ought to have. The kids are young, yet. At this age, I'm just trying to get down the fundamentals.

We have a hard time getting to all of our material. And given my goals, I'm sure there are redundancies. I'm writing all this out here not just to tell you what we do and why, but to help clarify my thinking and perhaps simplify our lives as a result.

I have chosen to follow a particular model of home education called, for better or worse, "classical." As a homeschooling method, it began with the discovery of an essay by Dorothy Sayers extolling the virtues of a medieval classical education with an eye and an ear to the different psychological "stages" on the child's ability to learn. It has evolved from there into various forms. I have read what I could and picked out what I've wanted for the goals I want to achieve.

I am also attracted to what is known as a Charlotte Mason education. There are tomes on her method, including those she wrote herself. It's a very attractive method, conjuring up images of well-trained, thoughtful and observant children reflecting the Victorian age in which she lived and taught.

However, this is my go-to site for keeping me on track with what I'm supposed to be doing and how to go about it.

In both educational orientations there's the idea of moving from model to practice. You provide a child with a model of what is to be expected, to be emulated, and, eventually, executed.

The very best example is copywork. Here, a child is given a piece of fine prose or poetry or a Bible verse, written out. The child then copies it out letter for letter, word for word, including punctuation. It provides more than an example of correct penmanship--the idea is to provide the correct model for recognising good language. Copy work gives way to dictation, so a child can learn to write what he hears.

Parallel to this is narration. The child "tells back" the story he heard, the passage he read or describes the picture he sees in front of him. Thus they learn to synthesize, organise and summarize information.

The teacher writes the narration out in the beginning....later, after enough dictation (practice in writing what he hears) the child writes it out himself.
The narration is the foundation for all writing. Changing and manipulating the narrations can be used to teach grammar, vocabulary and spelling.

For now, these are the skills we're focusing on:

Brain Training:
Models: Poetry. Latin. Bible Verses. Eventually, Aristotelian logic. (I may have to write up my own curricula for this for kids to use and understand.)

Method: Memory work, in the form of memorizing poetry and Bible verses (and math facts) establishes the habit of retaining rhythm and wisdom and knowledge. Translating Latin is where the brain stretches itself and we aim to get there quickly. Eventually, we'll do our Aristotelian logic and engage in Socratic dialogue. Fortunately, I have two degrees in Philosophy, so I feel fairly confident we can do this in the teen years. I'm just not sure how to get there from here, yet.

Materials: Um, poems, Bible verses and a good Latin program. Strategy games also fall into this category like Yahtzee, chess, checkers, Clue and Blokus. I also use a series in beginning logic called Mind Benders.

Expression:
There are two kinds: verbal and non-verbal.

Verbal: The fine art of using language.

Models:
The Bible, Poetry, Quotations and Maxims, stories and good books. We need to know what to listen for, we need to know what is a well constructed sentence, as well as what is a good sentence aesthetically. The same goes for stories, and later, arguments.

Methods:
I read books to them. We also use copywork, narrations, and for now, a formal study of grammar, spelling and writing.

Materials:
I have two programs for grammar (one for each child), one for spelling which they do together, and one for writing.

Beyond copywork and narrations we aren't doing any writing. I think this is a disservice to the ten year old but the program I've picked is so teacher-intensive and thorough that my mind balks at the amount of time I think it would take to do it with him. He also needs to be able to type: that's the best way to handle a great volume of words at this age.

I aim to do something with spelling and grammar every day. These are subjects we will drop doing formally at some point so I feel sort of rushed to get through them quickly now.

Science (which I can't ever seem to get to) and History are fodder for narrations and copywork.

Non-verbal: The Cutural Arts.

This is strongly emphasised in the CM method of education, the classical method doesn't place as much emphasis on it--not even half so much as the original Greeks and Romans did. This, I think is a result of following the medieval model of classical education: it's as if the Renaissance never happened.
We don't do as much of this as I would like, either.

Models:
Music, Poetry, Plays (both live and on video and CD), Art.

Method:
Exposure, mostly. I'm working on the implementation, slowly.

Means:
Both study an instrument. I have plans and materials to start teaching us to draw. We go to plays and later this month, our first opera: The HMS Pinafore.
Looking at this, I'm realizing that really, we just need to focus on Music and Art. The poetry and plays are really part of our verbal expression program. That seems much more manageable.

Mathematics:

We don't actually do mathematics. Real Math is brain-training at its highest form. In a brilliant explanation of mathematics Adrian outlines the proper method of teaching it, starting out with the Big Questions and ending up at an understanding of sets. I do want to get us to this at some point. I'm just not sure how. For now, we do arithmetic. I use a program that explains part of the rationale behind the computations. Not in an intimidating way, but in a kid-friendly "oh now I get it way" that's extremely empowering. I'm not afraid of arithmetic anymore. I was when we started.

Looking at the world from a Christian Perspective. More generally and briefly known as our "worldview."

As Christians, I want my children to have a particular world-view, a biblical world-view like Francis Shaeffer talks about in What Shall We Do Now?
Models: The Bible, reading a non-Catholic version of the lives of Saints.
Methods: memorizing Bible Verses, studying the Bible, catechisms, going to church. I think I may have them memorize one of the shorter creeds, too.
Materials: For now, it's simply a course in conflict resolution and Bible Study. Developing a world view is a lot more than just going through a Bible Study program, of course. Still, the one I've picked (by Memoria Press) does present the material so that one can begin to understand that being a Christian means to occupy a particular set of beliefs about the world, its Creator and our relationships to everything and everyone in it.

Get a general idea of stuff so that when we do it in more depth later on you have some idea what we're talking about:

In this category we have History and Science.

And that, as they say, is that.

This has been helpful. Not the least of which is that it I now have something called my "educational plan" somewhat written up. The "EP" is a legal requiremnt I have to file with my school board in order to continue hs'ing. I only just realised, as I was typing this, that I hadn't done one for this school year.

I want to digest this, yet. I think I may have worked out what we need to do next and what I need to prioritize. I'll let you know.

Fragments

Dear Friends,

Husband has just taken the kids out sledding for about an hour. I thought I'd told everyone I was staying home to catch up on a few things, but they all seemed surprised and the husband cheesed off I was staying at home.

I wish I'd gone. The dratted dog is barking and whining like crazy and it's not quite the peaceful, reflective atmosphere I'd hoped for.

I just cuddled the beast and sat with him for a bit. He's napping now, thank heavens. It's just like having a baby. Did I mention we don't want another baby? Still, he's cute.

Where was I? Oh yes. I wanted to introduce myself, fully, with all my myriad interests and preoccupations. Long before I started this blog, I dreamed of having one--actually, I remember thinking I would love to have a "place" where I could gather all the different places the world impacted me and ruminate about things. This was actually in the nineties, before blogs had been invented. And so now I have a blog. This can be that place, I suppose.

First, as you've no doubt gathered, I'm a bit O/C. I get involved in something and bam, the rest of the world, the rest of my world doesn't exist anymore except in so far as it contributes or gets in the way of whatever I'm doing. I'm exaggerating, of course, but not by much.

So far, you've experienced AT and the obsession I have with all things design related. That's done and we all moved on to WT which opened my eyes to the inner decrepitude of my closet and self-image, the mall's inability to help me rectify it and the world's obsession with celebrities' fashion and "must have" wardrobe lists. I discovered dozens of defensive fat girl sites, too. There's stuff I could say about all that, and maybe I will, but not right now.

I'm in love with books. No surprise there. For inspiration, I read MM-V. I try to keep a chapter book as she suggests, but there isn't always time to write out a passage and my thoughts upon the book and author. Still, I'm always happy to have done so whenever I do. Right now, I'm reading Ann Patchett. Perhaps I can do my chapter entries here, on the blog.

(I just finished this one. I'm reading Taft now.)

We're back at schooling again. That could be an entire blog in and of itself. It's consuming me at the moment. For this, I participate on the message boards at the Well-Trained Mind website. It's utterly amazing to me what homeschool moms and dads will do for people. I've gathered so many resources and ideas from the folks there that I almost don't believe I'd have been able to do this at all without them. And they are all strangers, of course. This, I don't how much to include. Unless you're involved in the day-to-day machinations, it's pretty boring to read about: even when you are, it's kind of weird--like peering through someone's window while out walking in the evening. I admit, I enjoy it. But there always comes a point when I wonder why they haven't drawn the curtains yet.

Nonetheless, as I have found others' sites inspiring and useful, there may be a side bar (or two) coming soon with a list of curriculum and such.

Scrapping. Ah yes, here is another obsession which can quickly take over my life. I used to participate on the message boards here as well as post my layouts. I may do that again. It will keep the blog from being cluttered up with stuff. But we'll see.


(This is one of those I create from time to time that I'm not sure works. It's from our vacation in 2006 for the m-i-l's album)

Housekeeping. OK, I'm never obsessed with it, but it does nag at me--a lot. My favourite site for support for this has been de-activated. It's a shock, really. When I found out, shortly before my connection to the internet went all wonky, I actually felt pain--like a favourite place has been demolished. I've been considering returning to flylady but I have problems with my e-mail and I'm not sure I can face all those reminders on top of everything else every day. (Did I mention that when I re-activated my e-mail after two weeks I had 2,476 messages waiting for me? Only about 10 of which were worth keeping.)

So: decorating/home repair, homeschooling, reading, scrapping, and housekeeping--these are the things which consume me more or less intensely from time to time. I have a spiritual life, too, and that may crop up now and again, but even though I know that in some circles, it should be otherwise, I prefer to keep the details somewhat private. These things and my family, of course, are the fragments which make up my life.

I hope to make the blog rounds this evening and catch up with you all.

Ta ta for now,
Alana