Archive for March, 2009
Noteworthy Links: New Song Edition
While dusting, scrubbing, polishing, I listen, ponder, pray. The vacuum hums and my voice rises. I cannot hear myself yell as the same song blares over and over.
This could be all about just letting go
This could be all about just holding on
I can’t get my feet off of the ground
I wanna run but I don’t know how
Can you reach me here and pull me out
Two-hundred-year-old wood gleams under the mop, and my heart gets a swipe or two by my first love. He reminds me of the words heard in my sleep last night.
The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
I leave the pristine doll house to return to my own home. I step upon the dirty porch and enter a room full of commotion. Children run to greet me. As their arms reach around my neck, I remember there is a song in Heaven for them too. I cannot sing it to them, but I can help them learn to hear it.
To do so, we need both wonder and order in our days.
Wonder
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Order and Wonder, or the most frequently asked question! -Leila answers, “What curriculum do you use?” Her conclusion inspires.
Diary of 1: The Masters and the Classics -Jennifer starts the day with music and art. She shares her idea and resources.
Holy Experience: {How to Make an Easter Tree} A Pilgrimage to the Cross -Ann Voskamp hangs art upon a tree. The passion captured with beauty.
Color Me Orange: This is the best system EVER! -Jess organizes her school day with a box and envelopes. Tasks completed with joy (usually).
Squidoo Lens: Mini Offices -Jimmie opens up the idea that expands upon lapbooking. She includes everything needed to create a portable reference for your children.
Knowledge Quest: Homeschooling with Toddlers -Terri Johnson shares her strategies and ideas for teaching with little ones. Protect your house from markers and sister’s hair from scissors…
More links can be found at my Noteworthy page.
I hope melodies of joy chime in your heart today.
A Simple Way to Store and Preserve Children’s Art
Anne-Marie agreed with me about getting rid of stuff, but wonders what to do with her children’s artwork. I’ve wondered the same thing for awhile. And in typical perfectionist fashion, I’ve done more pondering than doing.
My children’s artwork is stashed in the desk drawer, file box, or craft closet.
I planned to store current items in my desk, add a few photographs from the year, and put them all together in scrapbooks for posterity. It’s a good idea and a good plan, but it has yet to be implemented.
For me scrapbooking becomes all about the paper and color and layout. My craft time vanishes. I look at my accomplishment, one vibrant page with three photos displayed. Hundreds of images are left in the box.
The following tutorial inspired me with its simplicity at last year’s Heart of the Matter’s Online Conference. Kelli Crowe shows how a binder, page protectors, and stickers can be used to quickly store and preserve the memories of a school year.
I can do that! Anne-Marie, you can too.
How do you store your children’s artwork?
Keep the Memories, Get Rid of the Stuff
One computer failed to revive even after the skillful hands of my husband tried to resuscitate it. Another wants to read and type, so I wait.
A week goes by and this place is silent. Words begin to trip over themselves trying to escape. Perhaps it’s good to let them crash around once in awhile. They bounce and the momentum slows. Words pile up in my mind, but other piles come into view. The piles stored in dark corners.
I yank stuff out of my dingy, crammed closet. Clothes that don’t fit. Mounds of mending. Broken toys. Unfinished projects. The pile of castoffs grows to a dangerous height.
I pull out the cabinet that hides fabric, scissors, patterns, and thread to reach the shelf above. Memories are stashed in boxes there.
A ratty, rotten cuddly. Teeny, tiny preemie clothes. Handmade wooden horses missing their legs.
Then I see the broken snow globe pushed to the back of the shelf with intentions to restore it. Jagged glass surrounds a angel with a misplaced hand. Baby Jesus reaches for the missing shimmers. This shattered token of love reminds me of my first days as Mrs. Renae Deckard.
It is broken. It hasn’t been fixed in five years. Did I keep it for fear I’d forget?
As a young mother, I stumbled across my mother’s journal. My giggle was not because her notes were funny, but because I was delighted. She planted a garden. She made a birthday cake. She sewed a dress for me while she waited for my dad to come home from work. The common every day jotted in a plain writing tablet. A few pages of tasks she’d accomplished. And it was a treasure to me.
My childhood toys are gone. I do have a baby blanket and two little dresses my grandfather picked out before he died. They don’t take up much room. However, the memories of a childhood full of wonder fill my heart.
Won’t my children desire the same? A few glimpses stored on a page or a blog, in a scrapbook or a box mean more than a closet full of stuff.
Inspired by Dana’s post “Can blogging get in the way of living?”
Space Frontier Day Inspires Forgetful Me
My eyes scan the entrance. April of Question the Culture planned to meet us if her little ones were well. After thirty minutes I stop glancing around. Disappointed she didn’t appear and sorry for the reason, my children and I continue to make our way through the science experiments.
Children wide-eyed with wonder tug my hands. We stop and squint in a telescope. Run to see the meteorites. Stick magnets to the iron crashed to earth. Take turns. Then hear a growl and glance right. A boy glides on air. Little girls cower, but Bug lines up. His face is serious as he swirls and sails across the floor.
After the noisy earthquake of the hover craft, we assemble constellation charts. Stuffing them in my bag, my troupe steps over to wait for popcorn. The planetarium show is about to start. Kernels explode from the basket, appetites whetted, only to find out we can’t take it with us. Never mind, let’s go!
Around the corner, we are ushered into a dome glowing like the sky. We huddle in back. Our journey through space begins.
A train fills our vision. The rumble of the tracks shake us as the rocket is pushed to the launch pad. A visual timeline erupts as Sputnik breaks free from Earth’s pull.
The details hang themselves on the outline I made with my son earlier. His LEGO creations of the first landing on the moon take their place in the history of the space race.
I learn along with my children. Reminded of the vastness of the universe. The beauty of Earth. The astronauts see Earthrise and read Genesis 1,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…
I forgot this event, this worship. How often I forget. The whole of existence is not me. I’m small. My thoughts swirl in my own chaos, yet there is so much more to life.
There is beauty in the blackness of space unmeasurable. Blue, green, wisped with white, our home created with words of love.
We can now see how amazing space is. It inspires me to love God all the more.
It inspires me too, Bug. Me too.
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The article I mentioned above is published in The Science Mouse, a science e-zine for children by children. If you would like your children to participate in future editions, please look at the theme list.
Also, Life Nurturing Education is in the spotlight at Happy to be at Home. You can learn how blogging has changed my life (and my house).
Wordless Wednesday- Real Life Homeschool
Often while I teach my son, my two little girls simply play. During break I wandered back to their room. The room we cleaned the night before. Every toy put in its place, floor swept, sheets changed.
An open door revealed twenty minutes of freedom.
What happened to your room?!
Sunshine explained with a grin,
We exploded it!
More Wordless Wednesday
