Interests:music, quilting, history, making homelife warm and lovely, handbells, ocarina, composing, singing alone and in groups, making harmony, making people laugh Expertise:homemade pizza, bread, reading aloud dramatically, children's literature Occupation:homemaker and homeschool mom
“I have eagerly looked for strength, wisdom, blessing from You to meet my need, confidently trusting You are not only able, but willing to give. I have no doubt You have a generous heart toward me. I look for this favor passionately, actively, without double-mindedness or cynicism. It is not half-hearted.
“Because You have spoken, I am absolutely convinced of Your good intentions toward me. My sinful nature does not impede Your lovingkindness toward me, because You declare Your provision for my sin in Your Word.I do not mar our close relationship by doubting, by holding back because I am aware of sinful tendencies, or because I am half-minded to excuse and participate in sinful activity.
“I believe You. I believe Your written Word. I take it to heart. I press on to engage with you through the day, expectant of the outworking of Your lovingkindness toward me.
“I remind You of what You say in Your Word, not at all because I think you may have forgotten or are reluctant to help, but out of our language of love; I speak of your qualities because it gives us both pleasure. When I request you to “be” something, I am reminding myself of Who You are, and it gives me courage-making comfort. You are, therefore You will do.”
“I even dare to say, ‘I sought You, therefore be gracious’ for I know You delight to reward those who diligently seek You. Those who press on to know You are the ones who dwell in Your favor. It pleases You when we confess not only are You able, but You are willing.Be pleased to do unto me the things You have promised in Your love, and I in my love expectantly await Your grace.”
Summer is over.Though I swelter here in my upper story office at 9:40 p.m., Summer is over today: school begins tomorrow.I have run out of time.
John has been telling me all day he is glad it is school time, and he is excited about the first day. No one else has committed himself by stating it so boldly, but I do sense there is curiosity and hope about our change of course. I am excited, too, and hopeful that this time some badly needed growth is going to happen.
It all depends: will I be as disciplined as I need to be? If I can corral these wild horses and train them in the way of obedient service, the Lord will have done a marvelous thing in my family.And that is where I will leave it: not in my own strength but in the Lord’s will I find success.
Tomorrow I begin with the fine younger children (for Ben has a field trip with the other interns from the museum), and make my final preparations for Tuesday’s classes.(I wish I had some decent plan for the younger three children, who will be home along all day.)By accident, I left the most difficult seminars for last, and I haven’t really wrapped my mind around what I have to do for them. Current Events: I have to bring in two articles on the subject of Health Care Reform, one opinion and one factual, and discuss the difference. I have to explain what research they will be doing from here on out.For Science I have to teach research writing and MLA bibliography standards.I introduce Archimedes in an inspiring way, for they will be writing a paper on him in four paragraphs.
My house is beautifully tidy and clean (well, more or less) and I have the experience to know this will be a distant memory in a few weeks.I don’t know; maybe our new-found self-discipline will evidence itself in our picking-up-after-ourselves habits. One can dream.I do know I am not the same woman I was as I entered this summer, waaaay back in June, for I seem to have developed a backbone, a steely determination to insist the work load be shared among all able-bodied residents.We all have to face reality: Mom has a full-time career now, teaching them and tutoring the five students under my care on Tuesdays.
It is all good; the curriculum is dynamic and interesting, the chance to be among friends is socially-satisfying, and the fact they each have a tutor on Tuesdays who isn’t their mother (all except Barnaby) is exciting.
Monday night is Local's Night at Village Picture Shows in Manchester. So, for $5 a piece, we took the whole family, and sent 5 kids into G-Force, while Molly, Robbo and I went in to see Julie and Julia. It was packed, which surprised me, but air conditioned, so I didn't care. We sat so close to the front we had to slide down in our chairs and look up to the screen.
It followed the book very well. I really appreciated the loss of her cursing--her book is drenched in distracting language. I always felt mud-speckled coming out of a reading. She also thinks Republicans are out to destroy the world; Conservatives are not the only ones with conspiracy-theory paranoia.
I was fascinated by Meryl Streep's Julia Child, who I am too young to have met on TV. Julie was inspired by her forthrightness, her courage, her brilliance and zest for life. I am insprird by both women.
On December 9 I will be 50 years old. The time for dreaming about buiilding a future is past, and that is okay with me. I know being a mother, and a home-educator, is a work I can spend the rest of my life on, with satisfaction and pride. And yet, there are days when I yearn for a creative purpose, something that will outlast me. Something that exercises the creative energy and gifts in me.
Tutoring the Challenge B class is the biggest undertaking I have attempted in years. Perhaps I will do so well at it I can park here for years. (3 more of my children will need it after I am done with Barnaby.) Maybe I will not lose my respect and admiration for Classical Conversations, and will find a place in its organization; they desperately need a New England Regional Manager. Could I grow big enough to fill that need? Am I nuts?
Anyway, I can tell you this: I feel tremendously happy to be teaching again. I think I am a natural teacher, and the concept of making connections and bringing all ideas under the Lordship of Christ is exciting for me. The very idea of having to hit the books and study for several hours a week makes me shiver with delight.
For CC to work for this family, we have to learn time-management and self-discppline that we have never known. When I was a music teacher I used to be organized and self-disciplined, when I was single, and had more time in which to do my work. Now, I must parcel out my moments with a timer and a clock, and push the rest of the family before me. Scary.
I am grimly determined to do it. What the children need is real leadership. I can't be a comforting parent any more, but a parent that demands better performance so the children can achieve high goals. Robbo and I have been able to perform on a high level because we had those teachers and models in school that showed the way, and we were certainly competitive enough to reject a low standard for ourselves. We built a house, took on homeschooling, built up a successful consulting business, established an awesome flower garden! So, even at 49, I am taking on this new Career and tackling the reshaping of a family, because I have seen a worthy goal and am determined to get there.
The day I turn fifty is the day after my last tutoring session for the first semester. God willing, and in His strength, it will turn out well, and my students--as well as my six at home--will be growing tremendously to fill the expectations of their tutors and their mother. I won't have time to blog--I am not an aspiring writer like Julie--but I pray I may find satisfaction before God in this new endeavor.
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While I enjoy my gay friends I do not support ‘gay marriage’, so called.This is a complex issue and I have a multi-part reason. Please bear with me.
As I have gotten older (I am 49) I have become convinced the family unit is the bedrock of society. There is no healthy community without healthy families.It doesn’t need repeating here the evidence that missing fathers and missing mothers injure the well-being of children, nor that alcohol, drug use, gambling and other abuses wreak havoc in the family unit.
Marriage is not an idea created by some innovative group of people somewhere in recent history, but the encoding of social custom that had been lived across cultures for millennia.In other words, it comes from deep-seated, deeply held views of the nature of human community.Across time and in countless cultures, a man and a woman have joined, have brought children in to the society, and have worked together to provide for their family and for the community.It is an expression of commonly held beliefs rooted in human instinct.If a marriage is childless it is seen as unfortunate, but no less valid, just as a paralyzed man is still a man though he is deprived of the use of his legs.
Regardless of one’s ideas about children before giving birth, when a couple experiences the birth of their own child, a powerful instinct and reaction follows.They feel connected to the past and the future of humanity by virtue of bringing another life into the world.
Now we are seeking to loose marriage from its connection to the well-being of the human race, and give it the limited scope of ensuring the protection of mutual property. Since civil unions already ensured this benefit, in ‘gay marriage’ we are being asked to accept a lifestyle that cannot naturally serve the greater good of the humankind.Marriage loses its distinct meaning, and in ‘gay marriage’ society yet again expresses a casual disregard for the intact family unit.
It is short-sighted and self-defeating to redefine marriage to include gay unions, and in time, other unions society now considers abhorrent, as same-sex unions were and are still considered in many parts of the world.In approving ‘gay marriage’ we are not serving the higher good of the species. Vermont itself feels the urgent lack of a younger population to work alongside its aging majority.The economic ramifications of this paucity, seen here and in Europe, are obvious for anyone who is paying attention.‘Gay marriage’ is not the direction to take for the well-being of humanity.
I urge you to vote not to extend the name of marriage to the union of same sex couples.
