Poor Wayfaring Stranger

Sacred Harp singing:



If you're not familiar with this, the first bit they are singing the notes rather than the words (fa so la...)

Mom I'm Bored and There's Nothing To Do for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Play with a small super ball (like you'd use for jacks) or a small car and a paper towel or Christmas paper tube. Or toilet paper tubes.  Tape some together.

It's past time to hold the line

Via Hot Air:

When Obama was safely ensconced as a backbencher in the US Senate, raising the debt ceiling in 2006 (to $8.95 trillion) was “a sign of leadership failure.” Five years later, Obama’s colleagues passed $4.5 trillion in new debt ceiling limits while controlling Congress, and now Obama wants another $2.7 trillion....

He was right then. He's wrong now.

Stealth Education

Read aloud from Pilgrim's Progress, a Jane Austen book, and a biography.

Played a math game on the computer

Packed up a lunch (with appropriate discussions of food safety and nutrition), went to the nature center and sketched leaves, looked for birds, played with the educational exhibits in the children's room.

Went to the store and figured out which was the cheapest brand of shampoo, read labels to make sure products were free of corn, wheat and eggs for the Cherub

Listened to Vivaldi on the cassette player while driving ( you can tell I wrote this a few years ago) about town.

While driving, Mom asked the kids to figure out which turn we needed to take next, and took the turn they suggested even if it was wrong, had them figure out how to get to the store and home accurately and correct for errors (back before GPS, too).

Cooked supper together, asking children to triple a recipe, measure, stir, find the 9X13 pan, etc.

After supper while playing outside a neighborhood friend's mother (who is a schoolteacher) ask child, "What did you do for school today?"

Child replies, "Nuthin'. We didn't school today. We just played and went shopping."

Keeping Faith When Your Spouse is Deployed

I really love the advice found in this article. For example:

. Love is mostly what you do. Feelings will follow along with what you do. If you spend your time and emotional energy keeping in touch with your spouse, then your spouse will be the one you have feelings for.

one of the ideas I liked was picking out a novel to read together, buying two copies, and then working out a schedule so you'd each be reading the same chapter each week. There is other good advice, too, and much of it is applicable to any marriage, whether one of you is deployed or not.

Mom, I'm Bored Solutions for Toddlers and Preschoolers, Friday

Give a preschooler an asy-to-use paper punch and strips of paper. Yes, there will be a bit of a mess. You can encourage them to punch over a bowl and try to keep the holes in the bowl.  Use the holes for some other craft- a toothpick with a dot of glue will work to pick them up, or let the child sketch a picture, outline it in glue and shake the paper dots over the page.

Resource for Memorizing the Times Tables

I taught five of our seven children their times tables without anything more complicated than flash cards and a pile of seashells. One, The Cherub, is profoundly retarded. And for one, who would probably have been diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder, we used "Muliplication Memorizers" by Arthur Bornstein. Bornstein is the author of other 'memory booster programs such as Bornstein's Memory Training Course, How to Improve Your Memory, Train Your Memory the Easy Way, and I do not know anything about them other than I have heard of them.

Personally, I found the cards irritating, distracting, and annoying, but our child loved them and finally made some headway on memorizing her facts.

We bought ours through Dianne Craft, who lives not far from me and spoke at a hsing seminar I went to. She also explained how to make your own using the same ideas, but I've forgotten what she said. I know I didn't have time for it.

You can read more about her here:
http://www.diannecraft.org/

Four Moms Q and A

Kim C at Life in a Shoe

Connie at Smockity Frocks 

Kimberly at Raising Olives

ME

And this week we have a special guest blogger- KIM B at LFL!

Beginning in August, we'll be blogging through Kim Brenneman's book, Large Family Logistics, and we have some very cool news for you!

Kim C. at Life in a Shoe was able to get an exclusive promo code for readers of the 4 Moms series to get 40% off LFL from Vision Forum!. The code is 4MOMS and is good through next Wednesday!

And Kim B (have you noticed how popular that name is??) has agreed to answer questions for us.  We already gave her some and she kindly provided answers for us to share.  Furthermore, she's very graciously promised to pop in and out amongst our four blogs over the next week and answer more questions in the comments- so be sure and leave some- yours just might be the question she's never heard yet!

We asked her a lot of questions, and then we divvied up the questions and answers, putting the questions in one pile, the answers in the other, and seeing if they matched.

No?  Okay, no. We did ask her a lot of questions and we did divide them up so there are no duplications in what we post. We did not play Upset The Fruit Basket with them.  We did not do anything so frivolous because we are serious mothers of many who have too much to do to be all silly like that. Plus, it was midnight and we were giggling enough as it was.  Also, it is totally a rumor that one of us wanted to ask Kim to choose which of us has the best hair.

Here are the three questions I pulled (with proper answers) from the Large Family Logistics Lady:

10. Why is there no index?????

I requested one. That’s the only complaint I hear about the book. It’s my complaint also. Perhaps the publisher will put one in further editions. (What were they thinking?!)

11. I totally agree that the foundation of  it all must be loving God and loving others.  What would be some suggestions for growing in those areas?

Pray without ceasing. Read your Bible so that you can learn to know God better. Make your Bible fall apart you read it so much. Just plan to get a new Bible next year because the one you have has been read so much by you personally and reading it to the children. Pray that God would open your eyes to see people as He does. Every time you are in contact with another person be a blessing to him or her. Smile at people and talk to them.

12. Who do you think has the cutest grandbabies?

My mother and mother-in-law of course. I don’t have grandbabies yet but they will be as cute as my mom and mother-in-law’s grandbabies.  I think it will be so fun to be a grandma. Wow! I love to think about that.

Be sure to check out the links above to see the other questions and answers.

P.S. Which of four of us could benefit from the tips in this book the most?  I vote for the one who Skyped the following message last night at 10:00 PM:

Sorry, I'm eating supper and doing stuff online at the same time.  All while studiously ignoring the week's worth of unfolded laundry on my bed, which I have to fold so I can pack for the trip tomorrow.

I think I set my blueberry muffin down somewhere in the clean laundry.

No worries, though.  I found the muffin.  I mean, I heard the muffin was found, and the clean laundry was unscathed.

Our schedule for August:

August 4 - part 1: foundations and methods

August 11 - part 2 (chapters 18-27: planning your week)

August 18 -  part 2b (chapters 28-47: the nitty gritty details)

August 25 - appendices

Hope you can join us!!

Mom, I'm Bored Solutions for Toddlers and Preschoolers, Wednesday

Painting; watercolors, paint books, or food coloring in water with a  Q-tip.


A bucket of water with food coloring, a paint brush, and the back fence, a sidewalk, an old ladder or a sawhorse, the slide...


Shallow bucket on a towel on the floor or outside Add water, paper boats. Plastic fish,
measuring cups, etc. Or just let a single toddler sit in a dishpan of water, this was our firstborn child's first 'wading pool'.

Open Heart, Open Home, Ch. 9 and 10,

I only have chapter 9, and I'm cheating with that since I got way behind with my packing and other projects.

I found Karen Burton Mains' Blog.=)

To understand the true meaning of family, we need to first begin with the understanding that Christ early in His ministry redefined family in terms of a larger inclusiveness. The record of this in Mark 3:31-34 (RSV) reads:

And his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting about him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around on those who sat about him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

I don’t believe Christ was demonstrating personal independence from a domineering mother and from relatives attempting to preempt His ministry, but rather He was laying the groundwork for future understanding of relationships among His followers. He was not teaching that we should exclude our natural relatives, but rather that we should open our hearts to those who share our common faith, to that “extended family” of God.

In our modern churches the word “brother” is more an affectionate address tagged onto someone’s name than the indication of a soul-bond which it was for the New Testament writers. Romans 8:15-17 (RSV) develops this doctrine of the brotherhood of the believers:

...but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

How then do we go about building “family” in our churches, becoming brothers and sisters in Christ in deed, as well as in name? We can begin by getting to know one another. We can start by talking with each other about our common faith.

Strong stuff, yes?  What do you do to build family in your church?

Share your comments in a post on your blog and link up, or add them to the comments below. You do not have to limit yourself to chapter 9, either:

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Mom, I'm Bored Solutions for Toddlers and Preschoolers, Tuesday

I wrote these down ages ago when mine were little, and then shared it with a few friends who asked.=)




Coins: plastic, cardboard, real, or checkers and a piggy bank- bought or home-made.(Pringles can, slit cut in top; coffee can, oatmeal canister, etc)
Connect Four Game- little kids just like to drop the checkers in and then let them fall.

How 45 Balloons Helped Convince us to Home Educate

This incident is one of two public school experiences that are largely why we decided to homeschool at the end of our first child's year of kindergarten:


Oldest (HG) was in Kindergarten. At her initial placement test the teacher told me that HG knew everything she was planning on teaching the class. I asked what she would be doing, then. Teacher assured me that she would have lots of fun, and would have lots of 'enrichment activities' to do.

I learned that 'enrichment activities' was apparently the title of the most boring workbook in the world. Every page HG brought home had 'enrichment activity' printed in small letters in the top corner, where title page info might be. None of the pages covered new concepts. They were all coloring pages about the letters of the alphabet and counting to ten- which HG had long known and had no need to practice. HG got to sit by herself and color those boring pages while the rest of the kids played games and mixed edible clay to learn the alphabet and their numbers (which HG already knew). HG could count to a thousand when she entered kindergarten, and she loved playing with numbers. She never got to use those skills.

One day she came home in tears; her teacher had chastised her in class, written a nasty note on her paper, and requested a meeting with me. Her "enrichment activity" paper that morning instructed her as follows: (line 1) 'Draw and color one balloon' (the balloon was beautiful and detailed- you could see the knot, and the string was curly, there was even a square showing reflected light on the balloon.)

(line 2) 'Draw and color two balloons' (the balloons were nice)
(line 3) 'draw and color three balloons' (the balloons were showing signs of wear)
and so on, through all the numbers, down to: 'Draw and color nine balloons." The balloons were, IMO, terrific, an appropriate response to such a bone-headed assignment. She drew nine balloons, each with a single stroke- they looked like nines, the tail of the nine being the string on the balloon. To color them she laid her crayon on its side and gave it one broad stroke across the top half of the nine nines.

She thus completed a busy work assignment that was clearly supposed to keep her out of the teacher's hair for twenty minutes or more in about two minutes. Across her page in big red letters the teacher had written 'Is this your BEST work?! I want to see your mother." Hence the tears, and here I also learned something of what government institutionalized schooling does to children's heads even in Kindergarten. I reassured my sobbing child, reminding her that we had recently had a talk about this very thing, and I did not care about whether or not she colored 'inside the lines' or drew perfect pictures.

"I know, Mommy," sobbed my five year old, "But I am afraid you will go and the teacher will make you care!"

"As if," growled my inner rebel, now a mama Bear.

At that meeting I displeased the teacher by saying that I didn't think all activities deserved the same level of care, and I was pleased with how my HG had handled that paper.
I'm afraid that things may not have changed as much as one might hope, because whenever I have shared this story, any teachers in my audience generally think these assignments were right on target and the teacher perfectly reasonable and I was not. They say things like “But children need to learn to follow directions” (no matter how stupid and pointless, foolish, and unimportant and unnecessary they are, apparently). I was not bringing up my children to be mindless automatons who simply do as they are told without question in every single situation.

What I also find interesting about that response is how unthinking it is. Apart from the philosophical flaws on the face of it, this typical reply is a rote answer that has little to do with the subject. Because notice, my daughter followed directions. She drew and colored the number of balloons she was told to draw and color. She did not draw and color fish or bison. She did not fold her paper up into an airplane and sail it around the room. She did not wad it up and toss it in the trash- she just did it creatively, and this, apparently was a problem serious enough to merit verbal and written reprimands and a parent-teacher conference.

What happens inside teacher's education programs that results in the majority of people who have been through those sausage mills think this way?

This is a tale of a child innovatively following directions she never should have been given.
Why do I find so many products of State Institutionalized Schooling and training reinterpreting this story  as a failure on the part of the five year old (and then a failure on the part of her mother for not jumping up and down in favor of tedious drudgery and busy work as appropriate pedagogy)?
How does coloring in the lines and drawing with the same meticulous care and attention to detail each single one out of 45 balloons become an example of something that is right with government schooling?

Second Hand

There's a first person account over here about somebody furnished thier house for 675 dollars through office discards, yard sales, curb side pick ups, and neighbors getting rid of furniture. There are over four thousand comments (and counting)- not all of which are positive. A number of people think this is tacky, unsanitary, and suitable only for people who want to live in squalor and ugliness.

Here are some of our free or nearly free finds:

The top part of this hutch was sitting out by the trashcan at a neighbor's house.Most of the books are second hand.  The baskets are second hand.  The lamp is second hand. The only things in the picture not second hand are a few of the books and the little china teapots. They were a gift from my husband.

There isn't anything new in this picture. The books and bookcase are secondhand. The pictures are secondhand. The tall wooden chair is from the Rattery. The director's chair is from a yard sale. The hooks on the wall and even the switchplate came from the thrift shop.The yard sale chair was the most expensive item at 8.00.

The blue and green cabinet is from The Rattery, I had to refinish it because there was a huge crusty stain of something on top.

Green bookcase - it used to be black, and I no longer remember whether it was a yard sale or a road-side find. The desk isn't showing up well in this picture, but it is a huge, solid wood teacher's desk circa 1950 or so. 25.00 at an auction.

Aw, you can see the desk better here.  I think the only things purchased new in this pictures are the printers and the coat rack with the rocking horse on it, and they are probably in the worst shape.

You've seen this before if you've been reading here long. The chair was frmo The Rattery, and later Jenny reupholstered it. The couch is from a former co-worker of my mother's. We paid fifty or less (I don't remember any more exactly what).  They were a childless couple who were ready to redocrate.  Lamp, table, 'coffee table', the bowl of accent balls, the accent balls, even the fabric covering the coffee table all came from yard sales, thrift shops, or Rattery finds.

Ahhh, the reupholstered chair, upholstered with cast off fabric as well.

This chair and the pillow came from the thrift shop.  It is incredibly comfortable.  The chair was less than five dollars. 

In my room, the bed is 'new' (13 years old), and there is a broken bookcase that was nce new.  Everything else, the curtains, the nightstand, loveseat, wicker chair, dressers, hutch,quilt rack and more- all were secondhand, whether from a thrift shop, yard sale, curb side, or the Rattery.  Honestly, I'd trust the cleanliness of a roadside pick up item more than something from the Rattery.

While the comments on the original article seem fairly evenly mixed, the ones opposed to furnishing a home from second hand products seem disproportionately venomous and even stoop to mocking the personal appearance of the original writer (who has  photo by her byline, and while nobody merits that level of ugliness over personal appearance, she really doesn't).  What is so distressing to people about the idea that other people do not go into debt to furnish a home?

Mom, I'm Bored Solutions for Toddlers and Preschoolers, Monday

Many of these activities are best suited to older children or mother/child play (IOW, heavily supervised).

 I wrote these down a few years ago, copied some from other sources, collected ideas from friends, etc.:


For some reason, Non-Toys are more interesting to kids than toys.  Some of those items we liked:


Pinecones, seashells, and stones: sorted, stacked, and just handled.

Cereal box and a butter knife- use the butter knife as a saw.  Works great
and makes a satisfying 'sawing' sound.

Chunk of styrofoam (packing from a stereo or television- nice big solid
piece) and golf tees and a hammer.

Everybody's Unique

  Over at Raising Homemakers a young writer has expressed concerns about girls keeping diaries or journals.  She makes some valid points, but the problem, IMO, isn't in keeping diaries, and simply not keeping one won't fix it.  The problem is one common to youth.

Remember when we were young and idealistic, and full of what we thought were brand new ideas that our elders had never considered, and lofty and compassionate goals we knew our elders never cared about, and they certainly did not understand us?

This is not a new thing.  Charlotte Mason described it in volume 5 of her six volume series:

"There comes an epoch in every young life when the person discovers himself to be an individual. He perceives that he is like no other. It is this notion working in them which makes the captious girl and headstrong youth 'neither to have nor to hold'; and 'education' leaves young people absolutely unprepared for an era so important in their lives. The arrogant young man is apt to suppose he is individual in all that he is, and, by consequence, that in everything he is superior. No wonder he is unmanageable and infallible! "

Charlotte Mason, Vol 5 pg 292-3

 What she is, is an exceedingly interesting study to the young girl.... She is full of vague self-consciousness, watching curiously the thoughts and emotions within her -- an extraordinary spectacle to her inexperienced mind, leading her to the secret conviction that she is some great one, or, at any rate, is peculiar, different from the people about her. Hence arises much mauvaise honte, shyness, awkwardness; she feels herself the ugly duckling, unappreciated by the waddling ducks about her. She is clumsy enough at present, and is ready to own it; but wait a bit until the full-grown swan appear, and then they will see!

I think this stage must be recognizable to anybody who has ever been 20 or younger, and to many who are parents of children in that age group:

Now, this stage of self-consciousness and ignorant much-doubting self-exaltation, this "awkward age," as people call it, is common to all thoughtful girls who have the wit to perceive that there is more in them than meets the eye, but have not begun to concern themselves about what may or may not be in other people. It is a moral complaint, in which the girl requires treatment and tender nursing -- only of a moral kind -- as truly as she did when she had measles. If left to herself, she may become captious, morbid, hysterical; the years in which the foundations of sound character should be laid are wasted; and many a peevish, jealous, exacting woman owes the shipwreck of her life to the fact that nobody in her youth taught her to think reasonably of herself and of other people.

Charlotte further describes young people at this stage in life as sometimes being a bit, well, boring- their 'talk is full of "oh," "well," "you know."' Their opinions often consists of unreasoning "enthusiasms and aversions" and the knowledge they have learned in their education hasn't really been applied toward "soundness of judgment."  They overlook responsibilities and claims of home, and the very acts of service which they are neglectful of at home will be performed under much more burdensome situations for friends or even  relative strangers, perhaps.  Sometimes young people at this stage in life are are also prone to what Charlotte terms 'excessive religious observances' while also, as Charlotte describes it, "comically blind to duty as her elders see it."'

They feel they have a heightened moral sense, quick to see the faults and shortcomings of their parents or other older people (and the faults are present, after all, and often the young people have a keen eye for spotting them), while somehow their own small evasions, disobedience, a critical spirit and a lack of full hearted cooperation at home do not appear under this strong moral magnifying glass.  These compassionate young men and women imagine what great things they could do in the service of great causes, "but the trivial round, the common task, afford her occasions of stumbling."

She likes to talk about herself––what she feels, thinks, purposes, and her talk is pathetic, as showing how far she is in the dark as to the nature of the self about which her thoughts are playing curiously. And this is a thoroughly nice girl, a girl who will make something of herself at last, even if left to her own devices, but whom a little friendly help may save from much blundering and sadness.
There are girls of another pattern, who have no enthusiasms––other than a new "frock" excites; who do not "gush," have no exaggerated notions of duty or affection, but look upon the world as a place wherein they are to have and to get,

Miss Mason says that the latter sort of girl is often easier to deal with,because they have 'marked out a line for themselves and know what they are about,' but there is no principle of growth at work here, and they must be helped as well as the young women with noble ideals and aspirations for helping others that somehow cannot find an outlet, or even a small expression, in cheerfully helping the immediate family.  They imagine they will will do great deeds of service for untaught tribes in the jungles of South America, but they do not cheerfully do the dishes or even put their own shoes away at home.=)

Miss Mason says there are three things which make up the ideal of a noble life- to do, to bear, and to give.

Charlotte has a suggestion for the cure, too.  There were hints in one of the above quotes- they must be helped to gain a sense of perspective,  "to think reasonably of themselves and other people:"
Give the young man or woman "a ground-plan of human nature, let him know what he has in common with all men..." (Vol 5 pg 292-3)

A woman's success in life depends on what force of character is in her; and character is to be got, like any other power, by dint of precept and practice: therefore, show the girl what she is, what she is not, how she is to become what she is not, and give her free scope to act and think for herself.
..., and open discussion on this subject [the subject of 'what she is'] helps her out of foolish and morbid feeling (Volume 5, page 232)

It is only a few who founder; many girls are graciously saved: but this does not make it the less imperative on the mother to see her child safely through the troublous days of her early youth. The best physic for the girl is a course of ... (study) just enough to let her see where she is; that her noble dream of doing something great or good by-and-by -- for which achievement she is ready to claim credit beforehand -- is shared, in one form or other, by every human being; because the desire of power, the desire of goodness, are common to us all; that the generous impulse, which makes her stand up for her absent friend, and say fierce things in her behalf, is no cause for elation and a sense of superior virtue, for it is but a movement of those affections of benevolence and justice which are implanted in every human breast.

Thinking of ourselves and others reasonably is a cure for many of the ills and frictions of day to day life, methinks.

By the time the girl has discovered how much of her is common to all the world, she will be prepared to look with less admiring wonder at her secret self, and with more respect upon other people. For it is not that she has been guilty of foolish pride; she has simply been filled with honest and puzzled wonder at the fine things she has discovered in human nature as seen in herself. All her fault has been the pardonable mistake of thinking herself an exceptional person; for how is it possible that the people about her should have so much in them and so little come of it? .

It is true that a life of stirring action and great responsibility is the readiest means of developing character -- better or worse: but not one woman in a thousand leads such a life; and then, not until she has reached maturity. Put into the hands of the girl the means of doing for herself what only exceptional circumstances will do for her; teach her, that is, the principles and methods of self-culture, seeing that you cannot undertake to provide for her the culture of
circumstances. ...By the time the girl has some insight into the nature of those appetites, affections, emotions, desires, which are the springs of human action; into the extraordinary power of habit, which, though acquired by us, and not born in us, has more compelling force than any or all of the inborn principles of action; into the imperious character of the will, which rules the man, and yet is to be ruled and trained by the man; into the functions of conscience, and into the conditions of the spiritual life, -- by the time she has some practical, if only fragmentary, notions on these great subjects, she may be led to consider her own nature and disposition with profit. So far from encouraging the habit of morbid introspection, such a practical dealing with herself is the very best cure for it. She no longer compares herself with herself, and judges herself by herself; but, knowing what are the endowments and what the risks proper to human nature, she is able to think soberly of, and to deal prudently with, herself, and is in a position to value the counsels of her parents.

Volume 5, 239-242. Emphasis added.

These passages reminded me so much of myself when I was at that stage full of secret (and not so very secret) admiring wonder of myself and so willing to take credit for all the deeds and accomplishments I only hoped to achieve, that I blushed to read them the first time.=)

As I say in the title, everybody's unique.  When his mother tells him 'everybody's special,' the young philosopher Dash in The Incredibles mutters that this is just another way of saying nobody is.  Dash was making a funny dig against egalitarian, politically correct standards which would create an artificial sense of equality.  But at a deeper level, the understanding that yes, you are special and unique, and so is everybody else is just the correct seasoning of humility we all need.

Each Little Flower That Opens

Mom, I'm Bored Solutions for Toddlers and Preschoolers

 Many of these activities are best suited to older children or mother/child play (IOW, heavily supervised).

 I wrote these down a few years ago, copied some from other sources, collected ideas from friends, etc.:

My littlest guys love to move packing peanuts from one bag to another.  They also like to melt the biodegradable ones (put 'em in water and stir.


Stomping on bubble wrap is always fun. Instead of letting them do this when a package comes, save it up and get it out when a good bubble wrap stomp would clear the air.

Thanksgiving

It's been a good week, even though the van has had two flat tires, the lawn mower is in the shop, and Pip has had a nasty allergic reaction to something that pretty much made her face look like she'd been beaten, it was so swollen.

But the good stuff-

No more supplemental oxygen for the STriderling.
Striderling's Mama had an ultrasound to determine if his little sibling has the same genetic-link disorder he does, and the ultrasound indicated everything is GOOD!!!
The geneticists remain impressed by Striderling's progress and also somewhat puzzled at how well he's doing, so much so that they are still sometimes wondering if he might possibly NOT have the genetic syndrome they've diagnosed.
He remains fed exclusively on breastmilk thanks to generous donors- more is coming from a far in the next couple of days.
A dear friend of ours, one of the two chemistry majors we used to have in the house so often before they both graduated, got married last night/tonight/Friday, and the wedding was lovely.
My niece's wedding is in a week, in Missouri (and we're going).
One of the flat tires in the van was on our way to the Chemistry Major's wedding (to a Disney Princess).  We were able to contact friends on their way to the wedding to pick up most of us, so we arrived in time.  The HM and the FYB stayed behind and fixed the tire, and my husband swelled with pride later when he told me "I couldn't have done it without the Boy, he really was indispensable."
The Dread Pirate Grasshopper and his family all come home from vacation tomorrow night.

This is just amazing

Cuttle Fish

What's a cuttlefish?

Member of the cephalopod family, like the nautilus, octopus and squid.  Has more tentacles than octopus or  squid and it's cuter.  There are some really fascinating videos about cuttlefish on youtube. Has an amazing ability to change color in a flash, which turns out to be via something like electricity and an incredibly complex combination of color changing cells in its skin.

If you only have time for one video and you're not interested in the details about chromataphors and irridifors (I am totally guessing on the spelling), you just want to see the amazing coolness of the color changing cuttlefish then you should probably watch this one:



I suspect that once you watch that one (it's short, too), you'll want to know more about this amazing species and how it does what it does.

I find the explanation of the cellular complexity of their ability to change color here interesting.

This is a longer one, cobbled together from other youtube videos as well as new footage. The script in some cases is lifted verbatim from those of other videos, only read aloud by one of the Asian students who made the video. The 'yummy hunk of protein' tipped me off. It's worth seeing in particular for the discussion of their ability to change shape as well as color, which I didn't find on other videos I watched.

 This one is also intriguing- although billed as showing a cuttlefish make a chess pattern, it doesn't.  Cuttlefish can't do checkerboards, probably because a perfect array of squares doesn't occur in nature., Still, there's some amazing information  about cuttlefish and the mechanism of their color changing abilities.



Nova did an entire special on them just this month: NOVA: Cuttlefish - Kings of Camouflage

Their website has a cool page of information about the critters.  Although they tell you you should try their cool interactive version, it really didn't do anything for me. I prefer the printable page.

About that 'yummy hunks of protein' aspect:

Although I feel kind of bad about it after watching all those videos, dried cuttlefish or Saki Ika, is our first experience with cuttlefish, and it remains a favorite. The last time we were there (which was ages ago), the commisary carried it (grocery store on our local military base for you civvies), although it's
pricey.
 It's sort of like squid jerky I suppose, and very, very tasty.  Smells vile, but tastes good, IMO.  It tastes like nothing else, so I can't describe it for you other than to say there's an element of smoked meat, with that accompanying hint of sweetness, but  otherwise, I can't tell you.  IT certainly tastes *nothing* like chicken.

WE first had it in Japan.  We saw a real, authentic, honest to goodness Pizza Hut in one of the towns on the island of Okinawa, and just had to check it out.  Decor was the same, and for the most part the pizza was the same as Merkan, but they offered cuttlefish and corn as two of the toppings.  For a side dish instead of salad they had a tasty mixture of fried potatoes and bean sprouts.

Corn on pizza didn't do a thing for me, but the cuttlefish added a bit of a zing.

Scottish HIstory Respource and More

Funny how one thing leads to another.  I was looking up Scottish folk songs. I specifically wanted one from the time of Edward Longshanks, Hammer of the Scots. I did not exactly find that, but I did find this enchanging BBC program about Scotland and spent entirely too much time watching all of episode 2, Hammers of the Scots.

Note that it does show some gore and disturbing scenes and have disturbing information at times.  It's England and Scotland in the 13th and 14th centuries, after all.  Still, I think they approached those issues about as well as they could. 

I was really enjoying the narrator's voice  (Americans are such suckers for almost any UK accent,and I am not and exception to that), but I didn't know who he was, so I looked him up, and found this:
 

TV historian Neil Oliver wants to resurrect the 'manly man' by telling tales of old-fashioned heroism, says Roya Nikkhah

• Read an exclusive extract from Neil Oliver's new book
• Listen to Neil Oliver read an extract from his book

When Ernest Shackleton planned the "last great journey on Earth" - a hazardous attempt to cross the Antarctic continent via the South Pole - he went about recruiting for his expedition team by placing an advertisement in a newspaper.

It read: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

More than 5,000 aspiring adventurers replied to that 1913 advertisement. What would be the odds for generating so much enthusiasm for such a daring, even foolhardy, mission these days?

Small, according to historian and archaelogist Neil Oliver. "Frankly, the only thing that would get so much interest these days is an advert for bloody Big Brother," he sighs.

 
 So he wrote a book to inspire the boys of today, Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys.

With a title like that, I was curious about the Amazon reviews.  There was a shining review by an actual boy, several reviews that were negative because, as the reviewers explained, they'd been expecting a book for four year olds and it is apparently for 12 and up.  There were a couple charges of chauvinism, and one of those also cmoplained:

Who would read the story of Thermopylae to an 8 year old before bed time?

Guilt as charged, except I think it was Bullfinch's Mythology or Homer and it was a newborn. 

turns out Neil Oliver of the plummy voice has written other books as well.A History of Scotland: Look Behind the Mist and Myth of Scottish History, Two Men in a Trench, and a couple others.

I never did find my folk song, but Edward Longshanks, William Wallace, and Alexander II, who had the infant child of a rival to his claim brutally murdred, and who then himself died when he fell from a horse on a stormy night and broke his neck.

What's for Lunch? Link Up!

Scroll down for our awesome news about The Striderling!

Kim C at Life in a Shoe

 Connie at Smockity Frocks 

Kimberly at Raising Olives

And ME!

What do four moms with 35 kids do for lunch?  We've done different things over the years.  Back in the days when I had three in diapers and five under 9, mostly we ate baked potatoes, bread spread with beans, soup, and popcorn for lunch- not all on the same day, you understand.

The baked potatoes we like with butter and cottage cheese. You bake them until they are thoroughly soft and mealy.  I would scrub the potatoes clean with a steel scrubby (not a soapy one, just plain steel).  Then I put a large nail in each one (possibly giving us all lead poisoning?  I do not know).

Next, I put the potatoes in large baking pans with an inch or so of hot water in the bottom of the pan.  I put a cookie sheet over the top (instead of covering with foil), and baked for 30 to 45 minutes until the potatoes were soft enough to poke a fork into them.  I would slice the potatoes lengthwise, then make multiple cuts the opposite direction, and put butter and cottage cheese in them, then cut it all up together.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Potatoes are very nutritious, packed with good things, in fact.I usually served this with slices of apples on the side.

Another favorite fall dish was fried apples and onions, something we read about in a pioneer book. See the first lunch listed here.

Popcorn, diced fruit and cubes of cheese was a special treat for when Daddy was overseas, and we would usually sit on the floor in teh living room eating this while listening to somebody read aloud.

"Bean bread"- we made this easy and tasty whole wheat bread recipe once a week. Then we would slice it, spread it with refried beans and a bit of cheese and broil it until the beans bubbled and the cheese melted. it took about ten minutes to make. Home-made bread, I find, works best for open faced sandwiches.

In the summer, we favor salads and always have- but this corn bean relish was a nice cold favorite for several years, especially served with corn chips.

This BLT Chicken and pasta salad is a good way to use leftover cooked chicken and lettuce and tomatoes when they are plentiful in the garden.

Cheese tortillas or quesedillas are also quick and easy when you are pressed for time. I used to grate a lot of cheese as soon as I got it home from the store. I would also chop up vegetables or grate them for salads and stir fries later. That was back when I did the grocery shopping at midnight as often as not, sometimes even wtih kids in tow.  My husband worked nights, and we kept to his schedule.

  Now I mostly buy cheese grated because it's cheaper that way, and I never go anywhere at midnight. We're still odd though.  Add sour cream and salsa to our quesedillas, and strange things could happen.

For a few sadly short years we followed up lunch with afternoon tea- a snack at about 4:00. 

Lately, noodle fritters have been a frequent lunch.


What about you?  What are some of your lunch ideas for a large family?  Share in the link below. You must link back to one of us, and your link must be to your actual lunch post, not the main page of your blog. If you see your link missin g(or rather, if you don't see it), just repost, after following the rules.=)

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Postscript: The Striderling had his sleep study a couple days ago to determine whether he still needs to be on supplemental oxygen at night and when doing his physical therapy. The results:

NO MORE SUPPLEMENTAL OXYGEN!!! 

That was even with him being very upset about the way the study has to be done and screaming his sweet little head off at times, so this is really encouraging!

The Cost of a Second Income

Purely in economic terms, sometimes that second job won't really get you any further ahead, anyway. I've know of more than one person who factored in their new work wardrobe, daycare, more convenience foods, and higher tax bracket and found that they had less money with the second job.

Open Heart, Open Home, Ch. 7 and 8

  Join me and three other mothers of large families every Thursday when we discuss rearing a large family. Starting August 1st, the Four Moms, 35 Kids blog through Large Family Logistics.

Wednesday, I'm discussing Open Heart, Open Home, and will be posting a link-share so you can join in the hospitality discussion. Here's the first week, more on ch. 2, then the second week, , and last week we discussed chapters 5 and 6, being a good steward and servant. Today we'll discuss chapters 7 and 8, the Telltale Marks, and Welcome (we be specifically addressing how hospitality begins at home, and hospitality toward children, including your own).

Parts of these two chapters made me wince and rub my poor battered toes, and parts of it made me sigh in relief, because, hey, that's at least one area where I'm not doing too badly! How about you?

The book was first written in the mid '70s (1976), and I think the approving reference to the psychologist who recommends we just be friends with our children and treat them like guests in our home is very Seventies. Kids have friends. They need parents who are parents. I can't treat children like guests in my home because it is not my job to parent and train guests, who are, after all, moving on. Other than that, there is a lot of good stuff in this chapter, if by good we mean, "Stuff that makes me cringe and feel guilty."

She begins with the story of a little boy who tracked mud through her house to get a drink of water, and she sharply suggested he could do that at his own house. Minutes later, of course, she found herself smacked in the head with Mark 9:37:

Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.

And also  Mathew 10:42:

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

 Naturally, she'd been studying the synoptic gospels that morning, so that's what she read. I often wonder if this happens to me so often because God deliberately brings those verses up in my face, or if I'm just such a slacker all the verses I meet are convicting (this is a rhetorical question meant to make a point while being funny. It is not an invitation to debate Calvinism vs Arianism)

So she asks, "Why is it always easier to extend the courtesies of hospitality to those outside our immediate family?"  "Hospitality," she says, "Like charity, in order to be true, must being at home."

What are some of the ways we can do that, show hospitality to those who already live with us?  Some of her suggestions include:
Welcoming family members when they return home.
Make sure you're communicating with your kids and spouse daily, real communication about real things.
Family meals at the table.
Reduce or eliminate those things that interfere with family time. They got rid of the television.
Welcome your children's friends, too, keeping in mind the way Jesus treated those wriggling little children who the disciples believed had interrupted an Important Man while He was doing Important Stuff.

What would you add?

Although the Mains family did apparently send their children to public schools, she points out the folly of expecting children to 'witness' on their own.She says she wishes that her own Christian parents had had more time to extend the warmth of her own family to others, to her nonbelieving friends, and welcome them into the family circle. It made me think of this verse.
Is your family a place where the lonely can go?
Do you know the names of your children's friends?
Of the children at church?
In your neighborhood?

A couple years ago I was feeling irritated with a neighbor child, and I let my irritation show. The child was a self-invited party crasher to a birthday party.  My son-in-law Shasta told me, "You know, that kid just wants part of what you all have here. The kid wants in.  I can relate to that. I felt that way once."
Shasta, if you are a new reader, used to be one of our 'projects.' We babysat him and his brother for free for their single mother many years ago, and then he grew up and married our second girl.  I was humbled, and I appreciated the reminder.


I recognize that to some (many?), our hospitality has seemed a bit extreme- more than fifty over night guests in a year, the little boys who come for weeks at a time, the homeless family who lived with us for a month or two and left in a huff, leaving us all feeling like we had PTSD. Even the dog acted traumatized after that family. I've received some very kindly intended hints that my children will grow up to resent this, that the time for this kind of hospitality is after the kids are gone. I won't say this isn't something that hasn't worried me at times, too.  Thankfully, most of the kids *are* grown now and I can ask them- and they've said that they think it was good for them. They learn, as Mrs. Mains says, the 'tools of hospitality,' greeting guests at the door, noticing when a small child needs attention, offering a glass of water.  They also learn deeper things, compassion, that suffering happens, pain is not foreign to the human condition.Sometimes, people use their children as an excuse to absolve them of any responsibility for hospitality,and somehow, I just do not think the Lord would agree.

Chapter 8: Welcome- are the people in your household 'gladly and cordially received?'  The focus of this chapter is your relationships with the other adults in hour home, whether that is a spouse or a room-mate. These relationships can be rich and rewarding, models of warmth of peace to the world. It takes work. It takes commitment. She talks of discovering as a young wife that she no longer even loved her husband. Her response was hours on her knees in prayer.

Families that wish to exude the fragrance of Christ for a dying world would do well to practice the following things together:
Shared prayers
Shared worship
Shared faith
Support and encouragement for each to develop their own gifts
Shared work projects (actually, I don't remember if she said that, I just think it's important)

She also suggests that married couples work on some common outside interests.  The chapter isn't all about married couples, however. She has quite a bit to say about singleness and the role singles play in the kingdom, and how we shouldn't take it for granted that marriage is for everybody. That is certainly true, and life does not, as she says, begin when you marry. Singles have work to do in the kingdom, including hte area of hospitality, before they ever spot a shiny new potential spouse.
Nor should singles be treated as second class citizens.  That said, a single friend of mine points out:

Paul says that the ability to forego marriage/children for the sake of Christ is a gift. He is describing a highly spiritually minded person, someone whom God has enabled; this is perhaps even a spiritual gift. I submit to you that many of us who find ourselves unmarried or who deliberately choose to remain single (and are therefore childless) are not the sort of person Paul is writing about -- we don't have a gift. Rather we are single as a consequence of sinful choices earlier in life, mostly our own. And some are single because of sinful choices of other people -- godly girls who were passed over for unbelievers, folks whose spouses abandoned them early on, etc. ***We are living with a consequence and not with a gift.***

Still have work to do in the Lord's kingdom of course, still deeply cherished by the Lord, but not necessarily an ideal situation.

I have a little study guide that was written for this book. Here are some of the activities and questions recommended:

Share three things you like about your children (or a child you know).  I would add, do the children know this?

What are some things involved in showing hospitality to your children or their friends?

Pick a child and resolve to pray regularly for that child and get to know the child better.

The author says 'each household has the option of creating family.'  What does that mean? 

"Love does not spontaneously sustain itself over the living together of days, but must be gardened- hoed, weeded, watered." What are some practical ways of hoeing, weeding, and watering a marriage?  What are some ideas for bringing freshness to a stale relationship?

Is your home a place of hospitality to your own family?

What inspired you from these two chapters? What depressed you? Can that feeling of falling short motivate you toward inspiration? What would you like to share about these chapters?

(linked at Homemaking Linkup)

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Boys

Shasta has taken his family on vacation- they took a train to Texas and now are in an R.V. with his dad and brother driving up through Colorado.  We all miss the little ones very much (and their parents, too, of course, but no, mostly, the little ones).

Here's part of an email the Equuschick sent us about their adventures:

We saw a baby bunny rabbit! It was very cute and The DPG was very excited. He stood staring at it in rapt attention for several long minutes and I watched my cherubic little man and imagined all the sweet and tender things he must be thinking about this adorable little bunny straight out of a Beatrix Potter.

And than my cherubic little boy (emphasis on the boy) said "Frow rocks bunny wabbit?" 

He was not allowed to throw rocks at the bunny rabbit, but he is allowed to throw rocks in the lake, which makes him quite happy.

Meanwhile here at our house in the woods, my Boy is planning a party.   An Airsoft party.  He has been cutting trails through the woods for 'P.E.'

Boy. Steel-toed boots. Woods.

He asked me if that could also be handiwork, since he is planning them out with some care. I said no.  Planting me a knot garden, designing an arbor, building me a willow bench, those things would be handiwork. 

Woods. Weeds. Log barricade.

He has built a barricade using branches and small downed trees he dragged to the right location.

teepee, boy, woods.

He cleaned up the teepee and the ground around it.He is standing awkwardly because I asked him to stand still for just a minute.

Teepee

Our teepee was made with logs from the woods and a large piece of bill-board fabric. It's been standing for at least two years now.

He also did some work on the treehouse area, but I didn't make it back to look at that, so you'll have to admire from a distance:

He cleared out the firepit, made rules (no headshots), and more.

I am once more the Mother of the Year (you may remember I lost that when I wouldn't let him build a latrine in his dirt fort) because I bought hot dogs, buns, canned beans (.50 a can, Mother of the Year is going cheap this year), and will let them cook these over the fire outside, along with potatoes wrapped in foil.  This hamburger, pork'nbean and cheese sandwich would probably be a huge hit, too. Maybe another time.

If I can come up with five dollars cash money between now and Friday, I'll stand them a watermelon, too, perhaps.  I wanted to take it out of the doctor's bills envelope of our Dave Ramsey envelope system, but then, with all these boys out running in the woods with airsoft weapons, I thought maybe the doctor's bills envelope needed all the money we could scrape up.  Even if nobody gets hurt, I will need mental health therapy when it's over.

The Mess and Red Cross area, around the firepit, is off limits for shooting.  The laundryroom bathroom is the Latrine, and will be so marked, although I humiliated the FYG when I remarked that I did know boys would probably use the woods, and I just hoped they avoided the poison ivy.  Well, I was actually a wee bit less tasteful in what I said that I knew boys would do in the woods, but this is a blog.

The Wimmin Folk is staying inside where it is cool and where there are no bullets flying.  We are eating salads.

I learned recently all this is illegal in Australia.  Probably all over the civilized world in fact.  I have mixed feelings about it myself.

The Pros:
outside play and exercise and plenty of it.  My kid is getting muscles.(he wouldn't let me post pictures unless I paid him five dollars)
strategy skills
the development of excellent hand eye coordination
Learning to be a good sport
Learning to be manly about pain, as those who make a big fuss about little things like getting shot in the arm or backside with a plastic bb that goes 180-300 fps are relegated to target shooting or KP
I get a lot of weeds removed from the property
teamwork
My son is getting pretty good at handling the hedge clippers and, he just informed me,  a machete
Male bonding


The Cons

It's, um, guns.
And they shoot each other.
These babies are 'safer' than pellets or even paintballs, but they still hurt.
I did not know he was using a machete.

The thing is, those cons are all, "Hoo-RAH, YES!" to my 13 year old.  "Shooting each other is male bonding,Mom," he explained patiently when he read this post.

These flowers and berries are here because there was too much testosterone in this post and it needed balance.

The Debt Ceiling and Deficit Spending Levels

Here are some numbers that look pretty straight foward.  If you're like me, this stuff can make your eyes glaze over and you want to leave it to the politicians.  But we can't. In a representative democracy, which is what we've become (at least in name), it is your responsibility, your civic duty, to use terms long out of fashion, to be an informed voter.  You can no more throw up your hands over this and decide it has nothing to do with you (assuming you're an American) than you can responsibly ignore the numbers of your own household income and outgo:

Here are some overlooked or under-reported facts to help clear the fog of this week’s Debt Ceiling Wars.

First, where do we stand, exactly?

The budget for fiscal year 2011, which began October 1, 2010, and ends September 30, 2011, was passed in April, 2011. The Congressional Budget Office sets tax revenues at $2.228 trillion and expenditures at $3.7 trillion, with a deficit of $1.48 trillion.

Right now, the total debt is $14.3 trillion. The Treasury Department reports interest payments on the national debt on a quarterly basis. For fiscal year 2011, total interest payments for the first three quarters were $385.9 billion. For fiscal 2010, interest payments totaled about $413.9 billion.

Others, using Treasury Department data, say that on August 2, the federal government is due to pay about $35 billion in interest to bond holders. On August 3, the government is due to pay about $61 billion in Social Security and disability funds.

In 2006 when then President Bush wanted to raise the debt ceiling from 8.3 (or .2, I forget) to 9 trillion, then Senator Obama said that was failed leadership, irresponsible, and putting too much of a burden on the backs of our children and grandchildren. He was right then. Nothing has happened that somehow makes a 16.5 trillion debt ceiling (which is what he's asking for and even that is only until the election, which he will ask for more) 'responsible.'

We have to stop this. And given the past history and behavior of both parties, we cannot trust them with more taxes. They have to start with deep, painful cuts. They have to live with those cuts (and so do we). Giving them any more 'revenues' (which means our money) right now is like giving an alcoholic a bottle of rum because he promises he can fix this problem as soon as he gets some booze. It's like a battered wife coming home to her abuser because he promises if she'll just let him hit her one more time, then he'll behave.

We have seen some words, but not much action demonstrating they are serious enough to trust them with more of our money. Consider the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill which supposedly is an example of the Republicans standing firm (or being obstructive, depending on which side of the aisle you call home):

Under the bill, the debt ceiling would be raised by $2.5 trillion, which is the amount President Obama wants to borrow and spend to tide him over until the 2012 election. In return, federal spending would be cut by about $111 billion. But a cut this size amounts only to 4.4 percent of the $2.5 trillion President Obama will be authorized to borrow and spend in the next 18 months. And it would be about three percent of the $3.7 trillion budget Obama proposed in February, rejected in May.

That's not enough. Even the Whitehouse's own Government Accountability Office report found more government waste and duplicate services than that piddling 111 billion (a report both sides are largely ignoring).

As small as this 'cut' is, the President is threatening to veto it.  The only specific plan the President has published increases budget spending, and his complaints about the Cut, Cap and Balance bill make it sound like what he wants is simply:

eternal deficit spending, with no attempt at any discipline whatsoever

Unfortunately, so long as all of us expect the government to protect us from losing our homes, to give us a free college education, to feed our kids, and to stick its fingers in every pie, that's really what we want, too.

I hope so

“Re-election is the farthest thing from my mind,” said Representative Tom Reed, a freshman Republican from upstate New York. “Like many of my colleagues in the freshman class, I came down here to get our fiscal house in order and take care of the threat to national security that we see in the federal debt. We came here not to have long careers. We came here to do something. We don’t care about re-election.”

I make no assumptions that this is actually true and representative.  I hope it is.

Education Goes Through the Child

Charlotte Mason:

"For example, I think we owe it to children to let them dig their knowledge, of whatever subject, for themselves out of the fit book; and this for two reasons: What a child digs for is his own possession; what is poured into his ear, like the idle song of a pleasant singer, floats out as lightly as it came in, and is rarely assimilated."

Cindy Rollins:

The point here is that it is the child's own efforts that produce the learning. This is a key point and one completely missed in modern pedagogy.  Please note that we often feel we have educated a child because we have covered certain standards when in fact no assimilation has taken place.

Me to my sixth child:

"Honey, the point is not that you get through the book lickety split or even at all. The point is to get the book through you, to have the ideas in this book spark something in you, to have the content of this book get through to you in a way that it might change you in some way. It's not a race just to get from the front to the back of the book as fast as possible or even by a certain date."

Small, smart alecky voice jeering at me in the back of my head:

Oh, yeah?  Are you sure you really believe that?  Are you sure that is what the school schedule you put together for her communicates? 'Cos I'm thinking what that schedule communicates is 'stand in front of this fire hose and suck it up, kid.'

Education goes through the child.  Schooling is something else.  Schooling is what the child grits her teeth and gets through.  Which one are you providing?