Talking with my children about these books: The girls are all aflutter at the new Penderwicks book. In order to maintain some semblance of peace, we settled Karoline into re-reading the first one, and Katie re-reading the second while they waited for Mary Beth to binge on the fourth and then pass it along. Are you a Penderwicks fan? Such great stories!
In my own reading: I've been reading a lot these days, books on audio and books in hand. I've several to share. Recently, I finished The Rosie Project. it was a delightful, funny story of a professor with Asperger's syndrome who falls in love with a most unlikely "wife candidate." It was a sweet, touching, and also fascinating look at Asperger's through a very different lens.
Thinking and thinking: Oh, wow. I really wish I could turn off my brain sometimes. There have been days lately that I'm weary of living inside my own head. Mike went to a leadership workshop last week that focused on Myers-Briggs types. He learned his own and learned a good deal about typing in general. All very fascinating. I've long known my type (INFJ), but never really done much with it. I had never tried to type my husband or my children to see how we all fit together. Last week, I learned that I am vastly outnumbered by Thinking Extraverts. A house full of noisy commanders who leave it to me to feel all the things. And I do. Oh, how I do. For all of us. Ahem.
I'm also reading: The Highly Sensitive Person. Because I am one, and they are not (bless their hearts). Are you highly sensitive?
Pondering: Elizabeth DeHority died on Holy Thursday. That was more than two weeks ago. I keep reaching for my phone to text her. I keep expecting to see an email in my inbox. Before the Tuesday before she died, I don't think I've gone more than a day in the last six-and-a-half years without hearing from her. The silence is striking. Ann and Ginny both wrote lovely tributes. I didn't. I can't find the words. I did start a new knitting project, though.
Carefully Cultivating Rhythm: I think we are maintaining as much of a regular rhythm as I can expect. I'm driving back and forth to Charlottesville every couple of weeks for one thing or another. Patrick will have surgery in early May and will need to stay here all summer for physical therapy and conditioning. I cannot begin to adequately capture how grateful I am that he chose to go to school here, in this town. I love to be here. And I have a home here. For a kid who moved around a whole lot, "home" is something not to be taken for granted.
Creating By Hand: Ugh. I'm sewing dance costumes and not loving it much at all. it's not real sewing--it's rigging to make costumes fit well enough to fool the audience. Oliver + S just announced a super cute new pattern. I plan to make at least four of these. I really miss sewing and I recognize how important using that part of my brain and my hands in that manner is to me. Making time...
Learning lessons In: Grief. And fear. April is always hard in the fear department. This April has been brutal.
Encouraging learning in: Carefully reading the assignment, doing exactly what one is asked to do, and completing it cheerfully and on time. As homeschoolers, one of the biggest benefits is the ability to tailor a lesson, a course, or an entire childhood education. If the lesson as written goes on and on with endless repetition well beyond what is necessary for mastery, we just cut it short. If the method doesn’t work, we switch to something else. Creativity is encouraged wildly. Rarely is a kid sent off on his own to muddle through vague directions. We’re right there to keep things on course. And if they were away all weekend at a soccer tournament and the bus broke down on the way home and it’s early on Monday and they’re tired, I cut them all kinds of slack. What I’m learning though, is that they need to learn how to work that other system—the institutional system—before they leave home. They need to understand how to follow directions and that sometimes we do stupid assignments because that’s what it takes to get through the class. Unless I teach them how it all works, they’re in for quite a shock. I’m not sure how to balance the reality that they need those institutional skills with my own philosophy that everything must have meaning and the best education is a creative one, carefully tailored towards a child’s strengths. Daily, there is a striving for balance between two worlds.
Begging prayers: For rest. Please Lord, peaceful rest.
Living the Liturgy: I love the Easter season. I love to occasionally to something special and out of the ordinary and then just nonchalantly explain it to my children by saying, "Oh, of course, it's still Easter." Mike has been traveling a brutal lot. Sarah and I got up early one morning when we knew he was taking the first flight home. They had a breakfast tea party. Because, you know, it's still Easter.
