From My Commonplace

 While reading Pilgrim's Progress to Mimi (yr2), I have been jotting down quotes in my commonplace - and many of them at that. 

I "read" the book (if you could call it that) some years ago - silently. To myself. When I could easily scan over the words without really thinking about them. 

 Not so with reading aloud. Reading aloud forces me to slow down and listen every single word. No rushing through it. It also makes for great discussion with Mimi. And even though she is only 7 years old, she has (of her own volition, mind you) started her own commonplace book. Yes, I know that she is a little young for keeping, according to CM standards, but I am encouraged by her willingness to start her own keeping.  So keep she will.  :)

(Since I was doing very little keeping last year until I decided to begin keeping again, 

I feel as if I "missed" so many things during those readings. So I am planning on re-reading the first part of the book).

There are so many wonderful thoughts in this book; I could easily fill my commonplace to the brim!  :)

Here is what I wrote in my commonplace from last week's reading..

"For to tell you the truth, I love Him, because  I was by Him eased of my burden.."

Which reminds me of Psalm 55:22, "Cast your burden on the Lord,

                                                              And He shall sustain you."

Sharing with Dawn.

And Celeste.

A Commitment to Keeping

Hi everyone,

In my last post I mentioned how, in our early days of implementing the CM philosophy, we did just about everything we could to completely immerse ourselves in it. And we did.

 Oh, how wonderful and exciting those days were: children eager and willing to learn; a mom who was ecstatic about the living books that her children were devouring.

And, early on, I realized that her principles weren't just for "school"; they were a lifestyle. 

Then, some time later....life happened. In other words, we got busier..and busier, and, well..you know. Things got dropped by the wayside.Life began, once again, to go by at break-neck speed and things got dropped by the wayside. 

 And one of the things that got dropped was the wonderful concept of keeping, or as some call it, having a commonplace book.  I had kept a quote book for years, but over the past couple of years, it had sadly been collecting dust on the top shelf of my baker's rack.

I consider myself the queen of sticky notes, and you would think that jotting things down in a notebook would come easy for me. Not so. I started using the excuse that I didn't have time to jot down what I gleaned from reading. But back up a bit...I didn't take time to read much, either. I decided that reading (other than my morning devotional) could wait til my 5 younger children had grown and flown. *gasp*

But then, December rolled around, and I began reading Brandy's awesome series. (Did I mention that this was an awesome series?) That was all it took to encourage me to get back to notebooking again.  

My dear friend, Silvia, was a big encouragement to me to get back to it, too.

But you can't notebook without reading, right? And I don't have time to read! There are clothes to wash, dishes to do, goats to milk and feed, eggs to gather, and list goes on forever. I don't have time to read!  Wrong. With encouragement from some of the ladies at the AO Forum, I am making time for myself each afternoon, for rest and relaxation which usually translates into reading. And whenever I am reading, I have my commonplace book and a pen close at hand to write down what I want to remember.

I was so excited to get back into keeping, I went out and bought my oldest 3 children commonplace books to keep their quotes in, too. I wanted my excitement to be contagious. And it was! They are following my lead.... although they maybe not quite as eager as I am to write down the things that jump out at them, they are still jotting down quotes here and there during their readings. It's a start, right?  I want keeping to become a habit -  a permanent one. I don't want it dropped for lack of time, or  some other excuse. I want it integrated into our home - into our lives.

Besides our commonplace books, we are also doing more nature journaling and sketching. We don't do the Book of Centuries: we use a century wall chart, which we are getting back to, as well. 

And by the way, keeping is an integral part of the CM philosophy. By the way, Miss Mason encouraged and required it of her students. 

We also started a bird list, documenting all the bird species we see. And when spring arrives, and plants comes back to life,  we will begin a plant list, too.  (Jeanne had an excellent article about keeping bird and plants lists.)

But back to the lovely art of keeping... what is the benefit and value of writing things down, such as quotes?

There is an excellent article here that explains it much better than I could.  
And another here.

Since last month, I have been enjoying writing in my commonplace book. Then Celeste announces a Keeping Company link-up at her blog. The first one is this week.   How wonderful!  :)  Once a month, other moms will visit Celeste and share what they and their children have been doing in their notebooks. I am hoping this will provide some accountability for me and that sharing what we are doing will be an encouragement to other families.

I also plan to share (on this blog) what we are doing in our commonplace books, nature journals, etc.

So join us as we delve back into some of the CM principles that we have, regretfully,  neglected. It's going to be a wonderful journey-again.  :)

"Keep a commonplace book for passages that strike you particularly." 

PNEU Program, 1922

Happy homeschooling!

Sharing this post with Celeste

Sketch Tuesdays

Happy Wednesday, friends.

We began our journey of homeschooling implementing the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education in 2011.

And in those early days, I came across Barbara's site mentioning Sketch Tuesday. Here's how it worked: Barbara would give a sketch prompt for that particular Tuesday, for example: sketch something that begins with the letter B. Ready, set, sketch! Then you could photograph your sketches and send them to her to post on her site.

And in those early days, we participated. Not actually sending in our sketches to be posted on her site, but just sketching at home. My line of thinking was that the sketching would encourage my then-reluctant nature sketchers to take more interest in their Nature journals. It worked. :) 

But as time worn on, and life got busier, it got dropped by the wayside. And last year, especially from May - December,  I was dealing with so much stuff, and doing what I called "treading water". In other words, getting the basics taken care and that's it. No extras at all. None.

In December, I decided that some re-evaluating of our school days was in order. It seemed to me that Sketch Tuesdays weren't the only things that got dropped. I knew that I needed to tweak our schedule, and revive the things I had so enjoyed (and the children enjoyed, too!) when we first began our CM journey. And just to clarify: I am not so foolish as to believe that I can do all that's listed in the AO curriculum;  it is a very rich curriculum to say the least. And at this point in my life, I am learning that doing all of it is simply not possible right now. But I wanted to re-establish some of what gave us so much joy way back when.

So I did what always do when I want to remember something: I made a list. (Sticky notes are my best friend, btw.  lol) 

At the top of my list was Sketch Tuesday. It was definitely something I wanted to bring back.

When I first mentioned it to the children, they said, "We remember that from when we first started the Charlotte Mason method!" And they love it - just like they did in the early days.  :)

(I make up my own prompts, but you can follow Barbara's prompts, if you want to.)

I wanted to share some of Sketch Tuesday fun with you..if any of you would like to join in the fun.  :)

Our first Sketch Tuesday prompt was to sketch an ornament on the Christmas tree.

They sketched glass ornaments and tongue-depressor snowmen.  :)

The 2nd prompt was sketch something in a pharmacy.

They sketched medicine bottles, jewelry, and light sabers. (Why yes, our pharmacy does sell light sabers!  :) )

The third prompt was given yesterday: sketch something that begins with the letter X. I thought I was giving them something challenging to sketch, but they came up with X words immediately and began to sketch.

Ian (on the left) sketched and x-ray machine and a xylophone. Asher (on the right) sketched Xanadu.  

Mimi (on the left) sketched a xylophone. Aaron (on the left) sketched a xylophone and a pirate map with "X marks the spot".  :)

Natty sketched a very colorful xylophone, too.  :)

Happy homeschooling!  :)

And the Winner is.....

Good Monday morning, friends,

Today is the day!

The Flexi winner has been chosen!

I wrote each of the names of the participants on a piece of paper, folded them up, and put them in a hat.

Mimi "stirred up" the names before hubby picked one. :)

He reached in, grabbed one, 

And the winner is (insert drumroll)..

Congratulations, Kelly!

Your Flexi is on its way!

Thanks for participating, everyone, and stay tuned... I will be having another Flexi giveaway in the spring.  :)

One Day at a Time

I found the thoughts expressed in this poem to be appropriate for the beginning of a new year.

One Day at a Time

One day at a time, with its failures and fears,

With its hurts and mistakes, with its weakness and tears,

With its portion of pain and its burden of care;

One day at a time we must meet and must bear.

One day at a time to be patient and strong,

To be calm under trial and sweet under wrong;

Then its toiling shall pass and its sorrow shall cease;

It shall darken and die, and the night shall bring peace.

One day at a time, and the day is His day;

He hath numbered its hours, though they haste or delay.

His grace is sufficient; we walk not alone;

As the day, so the strength that He giveth His own.

~ Annie Johnson Flint

If you have never heard of the amazing faith-filled life of Annie Johnson Flint, please go here.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for a link to her other poems.

The Flexi Giveaway

Happy (early) New Year, friends!

Here are the details about the Flexi giveaway that I have been mentioning...

First of all, it was really hard to choose a Flexi for the giveaway because all of them are so elegant and beautiful.

I finally chose the Lovely Circle Borealis, size small.

Here's a photo..

 Beautiful, isn't it?

 

You can see by the photo that depending on the light, the crystals appear to change color. I must confess that when this Flexi arrived in the mail,  I took one look at it, and almost decided to keep for myself.  ;)

Another photo..

 

So here's what to do to enter the giveaway..

1. Leave a comment on this post.

Yeah, that's it!  Easy enough, right?

Comments will be open until Sunday.

Then, on Sunday evening, all commenters' names will be put into a hat.

A neutral person (my hubby) will draw the name of the winner, and I will announce the winner right here on Monday, January 5th.

Stay tuned!  :)

Looking Back on 2014

Well, friends..it's that time of year...the time when one year is coming to an end and a new year is just around the corner.

For me, it's also a time of reflection. I look back on 2014 with great sadness. I consider this year The Year of Loss.  

It's the year that I lost my Dad.  It's been the hardest thing I have ever gone through, not only because of how much I grieve for him, but mostly because of how hard his passing has been on my Mom.  I feel as if I lost part of her, too, when Dad passed away...that part of her went with him. And after 60+ years of marriage, I guess part of her left when he did.

It's the year that I lost friends, dear friends...or so I thought. Not in the physical sense. I mean lost them as in... they simply weren't there when I needed them most and haven't bothered to keep in touch since then. 

 

However, the Lord was so good in the midst of it all. The bright spot of the year was that our firstborn daughter and her family moved only 20 minutes away from us, while they had previously lived a 8-hour drive away. We get to see them so much more now!  :)

Adding up all the difficult things (and believe me, there are so many more things I could list) that happened this year, I can say without a doubt that it was the hardest year of my life. And I couldn't be happier  - or more relieved - to say good-bye (or good riddance!) to 2014.

I know the Lord has a reason for it all, but on this side of eternity, it's hard to understand. I am hoping that it will all be made plain when I get Home.

Philippians 3:13 tells us that we should be "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead."

That's one Scripture verse I will gladly obey. ;)

May the Lord bless you beyond measure in the coming year.

P.S. To kick off the new year, I am announcing a Flexi giveaway on New Year's Eve. Stay tuned!  :)