How I Need to Remember to Take them Outdoors

You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find in books.
Stones and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters.

--St. Bernard of Clarivaux

"In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. 

And long hours they should be; not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October. . . I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them.

~ Charlotte Mason in her first book in the series, Home Education

How to Greatly Rejoice . . . in Heaviness

"I sometimes think the whole art of the Christian life is the art of asking questions. 


Our danger is just to allow things to happen to us and endure them without saying anything apart from a groan, a grumble or complaint. The thing to do is to discover, if we can, why these things are taking place . . . 


 . . . These things happen, says the apostle, because they are good for us, because they are a part of our discipline in this life and in this world, because - let me put it quite plainly - because God has appointed it . . . 


 . . . We are walking through this life under the eye of our Heavenly Father . . . There is a very definite plan and purpose for the whole of my life, God has looked upon me, God has adopted me, and put me into His family . . . 


 . . . The trouble is when these trials come we tend to see nothing but the trials, or nothing but clouds. At such a time . . . When you can see nothing at all just open your Scriptures . . . and say: 'I know God is good, I know Christ died for me, I know I belong to God, I know my inheritance is in heaven, I cannot see it now but I know that it is there, I know that God is keeping it and that no one will ever take it out of His mighty hands.' Say that to yourself. Remind yourself of the things in which you greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be you are in manifold temptations . . . "


'When all things seem against us,
To drive us to despair,
We know one gate is open,
One ear will hear our prayer.'


{Excerpt from Spiritual Depression by M.L. Jones}

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
1 Peter 1:6-8

A New Heart

I wear wires today. Five leads to monitor my heart rate and rhythm. In about 48 hours I can remove them. Then the cardiologist can look at the results to see what is going on inside me. Can he truly know?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;   



Oh, don't I know it. 


who can understand it?

Or do I? 


Do I really know how deceitful? This striving to avail itself of every favourable circumstance to gratify its propensities to pride, ambition, evil desire, and corruption of all kinds. 


Can I really understand the extent of the sickness? 


God knows more evil of us than we do of ourselves. 

Ah well, yes, the cardiologist can look at my physical heart - the one that has been under a certain amount of strain from treatment received over 30 years ago for pediatric cancer. My physical heart; the one that has twisted somehow and does not pump just as it should.

But, he cannot heal me of my real sickness; the one that separated me from my God.  My heart wounded by sin, corrupt, depraved.

My heart is desperately sick.

The only thing that can heal me is the love of God; the blood of Jesus that flowed at the cross can heal this heart. He has given me a new heart.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

He gave me a new heart. A heart that beats with His. 

. . .  God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Yes, at times I fear the days to come with this physical heart of mine, but perfect love casts our fear. 

I will wear these wires, they will monitor my heart.

But my heart will rest in the One who has formed me and who knows my inmost being and rescued me by His grace.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Calvin, in his commentary, prays,

Grant, Almighty God, that as we are wholly nothing and less than nothing, we may know our nothingness, and having cast away all confidence in the world as well as in ourselves, we may learn to flee to thee as suppliants, and so put our trust in thee for our present life and for eternal salvation, that thou alone mayest be glorified: and may we be devoted to thee through the whole course of our life, and so persevere in humility and in calling on thy name, that thou mayest not only for once bring us help, but that we may know that thou art always present with those who truly and from the heart call upon thee, until we shall at length be filled with the fullness of all those blessings, which are laid up for us in heaven by Christ our Lord — Amen.

Is that what you call . . . living authentically?

So, we made korker ribbon today for a new adventure we are embarking on.

We wrapped the grosgrain ribbon around pencils (for I didn't have dowel rods on hand) and spun it around and around and attached it to the pencils with clothes pegs. Then they went into the oven for 25 minutes and the heat was applied so that the ribbon would stay curly. It worked.

That is how I feel my day has gone - I just spun around and around. The older children were at piano lessons this morning with their Dad and I only had one little one at home, but didn't she have a grand old time getting into everything while I was working on some projects. I should have just played with her!

When the pianists returned home the excitment of what they purchased when they went shopping after their lessons for their little sister's birthday next week just kept escalating. Excitment; or chaos?

So, after homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch, I decide to make korker ribbon. It went fine.

It was the spelling lessons afterward where the heat was applied. I had two children working and the little one playing with playdough. The next thing I knew she had the small top of a marker lid in her mouth.  It scared me!! I over reacted - I got it out ok, but my fears took over and in a very loud and stern voice told everyone to stop what they were doing and pick up every small little thing around. 

  

We picked up anything little we could see and went back to our lessons.

But I was spinning.

I took the time for some quiet and read these words:

O Father in heaven, who didst fashion my limbs to serve Thee and my soul to follow hard after Thee, with sorrow and contrition of heart I acknowledge before Thee the faults and failures of the day that is now past. Too long, O Father, have I tried thy patience; too often have I betrayed the sacred trust Thou has  given me to keep; yet Thou art still willing that I should come to Thee in lowliness of heart, as I now do, beseeching Thee to drown my transgression, in the sea of Thine own infinite love.

My failure to be true even to my own accepted standards;
 
My self-deception in the face of temptation;
 
My choosing of the worse when I know the better;
 
O Lord, forgive.
 
My failure to apply to myself the standards of conduct I demand of others;
 
My blindness to the suffering of others and my slowness to be taught by my own;
 
My complacence toward wrongs that do not touch my own case and my over-sensitiveness to those that do;
 
My slowness to see the good in my fellows and to see the evil in myself;
 
My hardness of heart towards my neighbors’ faults and my readiness to make allowance for my own;
 
My unwillingness to believe that Thou hast called me to a small work and my brother to a great one.
 
O Lord, forgive."

Before bed we read a chapter from The House at Pooh Corner from the Winnie the Pooh series by A.A. Milne. All morning Pooh keeps getting distracted with what he plans to accomplish. He thinks he will go visit Piglet, but is distracted in his thoughts and actions. He ends up walking in circles, getting nothing accomplished and finds himself back at his own house at 11:00 - the time he always eats a little smackeral of something. 

I related to Pooh Bear today - spinning around and not really accomplishing what I set out to do.

How often I choose the worse when I know the better.

 
Too often I fail to apply to myself the standards of conduct I demand of others.

When tucking in my children to bed tonight I had to apoligize and ask them to forgive me for my lack of self control. What I had said was all true, but I had subjected them to my fear. I had let fear control me. They said, of course they forgive me.

It was their prayers for me that struck me.

Yes, I spun today and the heat was applied, and by God's grace at the end of the day all was fine.

Row, Row, Row your Boat

You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find in books.
Stones and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters.

--St. Bernard of Clarivaux

September had brought a crisp morning air. First day of school for this year. Fishing.

When we first stared homeschooling I would have had a hard time doing this. I thought that we should start school 'properly'. This in now our seventh year! Hard to believe. But I have come to realize that "the acquisition of mere learning is not necessarily education at all." (Charlotte Mason)


Although the 'fishermen' came in empty handed this time and quite cold it was a great way to start the year. After a snack, some reading and math we were off on a nature walk. A casual walk of observing, collecting treasures, and the grade 5 student capturing photos of things that were of interest to her.

































A good day of curiously discovering.

CARE Academy

“Our aim in Education is to give a Full Life. — We begin to see what we want. Children make large demands upon us. We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. ‘Thou hast set my feet in a large room’ should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking — the strain would be too great — but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest… The question is not, — how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education — but how much does he care?”
–Charlotte Mason





Last week I felt the pressure and stress mounting as I thought about the beginning of school. We have had a quiet summer and enjoyed our holidays and slow rythms and time to freely play and some organized recreational sports in the evenings. However, the thought of rushing around and making sure we get everything done ~and teaching math facts~ seems to put me in a panic.

I came back to thinking about the name that we gave our school at the end of last year. We really don't want to change the atmosphere in our home just because 'school' is starting. Learning is to be lifelong and continuous, not just nine months of the year.




So what do we want our homeschool to look like. As mentioned in the above quote we want our children to care. We want their learning to lead to a full life. It is our desire that their learning and faith will be integrated. We will learn about God and His world. This needs to happen by example as well. As their mother I never stop learning and it is so amazing how much my children teach me.

As we learn together this is what we desire our homeschool to look like:

For other home education posts click here.

Stopping to See and Enjoy the Moments

I have been inspired by my lovely sister to come back here and just write. She occassionally asks if I will blog again and I just felt too overwhelmed to write. However, as I read her blog and see that as she tells her stories she is living more fully. Often in life we are just going through the motions and we don't stop to enjoy what we have be blessed with. I think as I look for things to share and as I write it will cause me to enjoy the moments more fully. I don't really have much to offer, just my story. If it will bless even one other person that will be wonderful, but even if it just helps me to slow down to live my life more abundantly then it is worthwhile.

So I will take the challenge . . .

And pop back in here . . .





Try to get comfortable . . .



Take a deep breath . . .



Face those paralysing fears . . .



And enjoy the moments . . .