verse purse

we’re memorizing this poem over the next two weeks.

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
Robert Louis Stevenson

win something cool!

we’re ready for a break. after a long year with vacation postponed & postponed again…and again…it’s time for us to get away & relax, but we need some ideas.  leave an idea in the comments section & win a cool prize (catered to your identity).

*no further than 4 hours from our current location (central illinois)

*must accommodate for 2 adults, 3 children

*a bargain would be nice

*relaxing for all

even if you only suggest a particular town or a person to contact about a place to stay or whatever–if we use your idea, you win.

my little heart is a graveyard

what i love–lyrics that tell a story, capture passion, paint a silhouette.

thing is, i’m not much of a lyrics snob.  the melody & music have to move those lyrics along.  if i can’t understand the lyrics, but feel the essence of the song from the ordered chords, harmonies, & interludes, i’m happy.  in fact, i’ve been listening to music this way over the past five or six years, since the kids were born & the quiet tapered off.

tonight i decided to read lyrics to some recent favorite emotive songs.  ugh.  the feeling i had attached to some of the tracks from “the living & the dead” were so mismatched–i wish i hadn’t read the liner notes or caught the meaning of “how absurd, how absurd, how absurd”.  bleh.

thus, the end of my own terrible monday.  i’ve realized a few things today (follow by my favorite lyric stanzas):

1. don’t take a long nap on sunday & follow it up with a 32 oz. chaser of diet mt. dew (@ 4pm). makes cleaning the refrigerator at midnight a breeze–and ruins the start of a new week for everyone else in the family. “i tried to come clean, but i guess it’s no use…and i can’t feel my broken heart.” Kathleen Edwards

2. netflix is boring me.  the selection is too broad.  i’m quitting. “Dude I’m so over you. You don’t even have a clue. All you did was make me blue.” Lucinda Williams

3. if i can handle kidney stones, i can handle getting my veins laser-zapped. i can. i can. i have to i can. “Take your tomorrow, your pain and your sorrow, and teach it how to fly”. Ryan Adams

4. a new loofah is so nice. “Til now I always got by on my own, I never really cared until I met you.” Heart

5. i’m ready for this day to end. “When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone, When you’re sure you’ve had enough of this life, well hang on.” R.E.M.

kiss me over the garden gate

“caron! caron!,” i heard lovely mrs. haller shout across the back fence, “would you like a bouquet of naked ladies?”

we accepted the offer & are enjoying the wonderful beauty & fragrance of the surprise lilies.

(**kiss me over the garden gate is my favorite flower as of late)

rainy days & tuesdays

have you ever been talking to your 6 yr. old, saying, “i am getting a few things done. i am not going to goof around with you right now. when i’m done i will…” and then you turn to  make sure the kid is paying attention & you see her videotaping your semi-crabby monologue?  just happened.

this morning was perfect for puttering & tinkering around the house. we all found something to get lost in this morning.  the kids colored & played “doggy” for most of the first storm.  i drank coffee & wrote letters to friends on the typewriter & sorted through old letters i’ve saved from the same folks.  ah.  lovely change of pace.

ah, one whole month left of summer vacation.  a list for the next 30:

**run old settler’s 5k /pumpkin festival 10k

**finish “the poisonwood bible”

**paint family room (sprig of ivy)

**water park with kids

**water park without kids

**long bike ride with kids

**make homemade ice cream

**kayak.please.kayak.need to. kayak.

uh huh.

sitting on couch with jay.  we’re really tired. he’s listening to the cardinals game.

i say: “too bad we can’t be early morning people and late night people.”

he says: “uh huh” in that obligatory whatever you say honey tone.  so i’m posting this as a rebuttal to “uh huh”.

do what?

i happen to despise the expression “do what?”  when it’s applied randomly to contexts that don’t fit.  for example, i say, “i had so much fun in chicago.  i feel rejuvenated”.  the person i’m talking to doesn’t quite hear me & so then replies, “do what?”.  i think it’s like “come again” or “huh?”, only worse because it doesn’t make any sense.  (almost as bad as “well, there ya go”)

in the spirit of “do what?”, let me prove i’m still alive with a list of “what do”:

-we are gearing up for the hanna city hustle, a 5k run on august 29th.  come one, come all!  (p.s. i lack administration skills)

-we took a fantastic trip to chicago.  walked, talked, walked, talked, ate, talked, etc.  the hoagie hut owner shut the place down & gave me a ride when i was incredibly lost.  my mom never reads this blog, but if she did, she would not like this story.

-reading the poisonwood bible at snail’s pace. what’s slower than a snail?

science of relations

i’ve been slowly reading through karen andreola’s “a charlotte mason companion”.  this summer i’ve decided to gradually prepare for the school year ahead, instead of my usual time-crunch-cram method.  i thought i would share some insightful passages that i found inspiring.

“Rather than feeling it is our duty to pass children through a system, it should be our duty to ask ourselves how our children can acquire knowledge. ” p. 36

“It should not be ‘How much has our child covered?’ but ‘How much does he care?’ and ‘About how many things does he care?’. p. 37

“A true intellectual life is not achieved by exercising children’s minds as if they were nothing but memory machines.” p. 43

“Self-education by means of real books, narration, first-hand experience, and observation is such a very satisfying and rewarding process that it naturally continues throughout life.  Self-education is not dependent on a system of artificial rewards, prizes, and grade scores, because it is not bound to a system of education, but a method of learning. A system and a method are two different things. A system depends on a cycle of tedium: read the textbook chapter, find the facts, and record them as answers to the chapter’s list of questions, take the test, get the grade, get it over with. A system makes the process more important than either the information or the learner. On the other hand, a method emphasizes the process by which the goal is attained. If the goal is an educated child, a variety of means will best achieve it.” p 44

retreat!

well, it just keeps getting better.  you’ve read of my slow conversion to a particular moms group (MOPS).  it came out in a conversation with kate and ended a month later with the realization that i had yet again been a dummy about the whole thing.  over the past two years of being involved, i might even use the word flourish to describe the way my heart would responded every other friday after our meetings.  

and this weekend it goes even further: a retreat with other like-hearted moms, preparing for the next year of meeting together, as discussion facilitators (i prefer facilitator to leader).  you know the prep work we had to do?  TAKE THE MYERS-BRIGGS TEST!  was fun to revisit those questions, although i have to admit that i couldn’t answer most of those questions without pause and a sense of “well, sometimes i gravitate toward the center of a room…and sometimes i’m leaning against the wall”.  

i wonder if the test outcomes are compromised if the testee (ha-ha-ha) has kids they’re chasing around or is always functioning in ministry mode.  often times, i’d much rather sit back and observe the friendship occurring at church, marvel at the complexities, & go home and write about it.  BUT: i feel compelled to contribute to the connection between people because i love them, i want to know them more deeply, and because our time together is limited.  and when i get home, i’m getting my rambunctious crew ready for la-la-land.  necessity draws the E out.

candy shop

we went to a candy shop in washington last week.  the variety was amazing.  the kids picked lots of gummy candies.  i ended up with 80 cents worth of chocolate covered espresso beans.  we visited a game shop across the square and decided to get some dinner from taco bell & enjoy some time at a little park nearby.  it was so nice to get out of town and relax.  i can’t wait for vacation.