Wed 1 Mar 2006
This is just a reminder to keep praying for little Candace. My heart goes out to her. She is so tiny.
Thu 2 Mar 2006
I have been trying to read a lot lately. It sometimes takes me all day to get enough time to sit and read. Even more frustrating is that when I try to read at night in bed I always fall asleep. The other night I was so tired at 4:00 pm that I fell asleep trying to read. I then drank 2 cups of coffee in order to wake up enough to take Andrew to his first baseball practice. After baseball practice I came home and read. I was able to stay up much later than usual and finished Helen MacInnes’s Agent in Place. I wonder if really smart people just drink a lot of coffee. Have you ever listened to George Grant talk about his reading? It is astounding. Maybe he is just a caffeine addict. You already know that I consider smart & reader synonomous.
I do read The Great Conversation during breaks in the day but I am not trying to plow through that quickly. I like simmering over the bits.
The book I have been falling asleep reading is Kendall Hailey’s The Day I became an Autodidact. Kendall began that book when she was 15. I just hate having to put it down at night because my eyes are shutting. I must be very immature because I feel like a kindred spirit to a 15yo.
Kendall graduated from highschool a year early and never looked back. Same here. Kendall is not at all confused about the difference in going to school and being educated.
As you can see I haven’t given up blogging for Lent. As a matter of fact I am adding something to my life for Lent. I am going to drink more coffee.
Thu 2 Mar 2006
This morning I sat down to have my “devotions” in my usual place, looked out through the lace curtain and was confronted with a Bradford pear in full bloom. Now is the time of year that I keep the curtain open next to the computer. I do not want to miss one Bradford pear moment. I am almost glad I have errands to run today, which says a lot because I will usually go to great lengths to stay home.
Speaking of which, very soon I will have another excuse to stay home. Nathaniel is 16 today and will soon be driving alone, not that anyone ever gets to go anywhere alone around here. Today Nathaniel and I went shopping for cleats. Then I humored our shared addiction for Starbucks. He got a white chocolate mocha and I got a cinnamon dulce latte. I shared with him my thoughts on his having a birthday the same day the Bradford pears bloom and he shared with me his thoughts on how so many homeschooled boys are kinda sissified. We discussed Calvinism and gossipped about other members of our family. Fun.
Now for the real party with cake, ice cream & coffee. Hopefully, I will drink coffee while everyone else eats cake. Let them.
Nathaniel of the Goofy Grin
Thu 2 Mar 2006
Would you believe I have finally been tagged. I think I was only tagged once before when I was trying to keep up with Homeschoolblogger.
Thank-you, Gracie.
Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:
1) Space Station Samara
2) Renewed Day by Day
3) Montana Maiden
4) Irish Hills
5) Dominionfamily
Select Five People to Tag
Janet
Jeannine
Margaret in Va
Valerie BBG
Meredith
Feel free to ignore this tag if you want. 
What were you doing ten years ago?
Celebrating Nathaniel’s 6th birthday on our old, worn out farm. Surprisingly, I wasn’t pregnant although I was still nursing Emily and now that I think about it, I had just had surgery for melanoma. I am thankful that was 10 years ago. Trying to lose weight
What were you doing one year ago?
I was celebrating Nathaniel’s 15th birthday and feeling overwhelmed that another son was going to be driving. Trying to lose weight.
Five snacks you enjoy:
1) Peanut M&M’s
2) Almonds
3) Cinnamon Dulce Latte
4) Iced tea with Sweet & Low
5) I can’t think of anything else. Duh….popcorn.
Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1)Pachelbel’s Canon in D major
2) I Will Survive
3) Stairway to Heaven
4) Sweet Home Alabama
5) Freebird
(JK…you can look at my hymn list if you want.)
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1) Buy a brand new vehicle that our whole family could fit in…. or 2.
2) Stay at a wonderful hotel in Ft Lauderdale…on the beach or maybe a walking tour of England, Swiss hike, a trip to Florence.
3) Help some of the recent homeschooling families that have lost a parent, in our church and elsewhere.
4) I would remodel our house and landscape our yard. Flowers, flowers, flowers. I wouldn’t move. I would give my dh all the money so he could come home and do all those projects.
5) Send my children to college? Naw, buy them all great libraries.
Five Bad Habits:
1)Biting my fingernails. Hideous habit.
2) Spacing out. Meaning I don’t hear what is going on around me.
3) Interrupting my husband. It’s just that slllloooowww southern drawl of his…..
4) Getting upset over my clothing choices on Sunday morning.
5) Falling asleep while I’m reading. (Me too, Gracie)
Five things you like doing:
1) Homeschooling my children
2) Cheering at baseball games
3) All kinds of pencil/word puzzles
4) Driving around with Tim
5) Reading & Blogging, of course.
Obviously not counting.
Five things you’ll try not to wear again
1) That pink miniskirt
2) With the matching hot pink hose
3) Spiky heels
4) Bikini
5) A snowsuit
Five Favorite Toys
1) Alex and Andrew
2) Library card
3) My cell phone
4) Special Feature DVDs
5) Blogs & Yahoo groups
My ipod shuffle? I don’t have one but if I did it would be one of my favorite things.
Fri 3 Mar 2006
Kerri over at Cup of Grace posted this link to Feathered Hair. I am almost positive half those pics come from my highschool yearbook. I mean really. If only it wasn’t out in the garage.
Anyway, I did dig up this picture of not only my feathered hair but Tim’s. I see that his don’t show up very well online but they are there. Recently his hairstylist talked him into updating his look. I talked him out of the sideburns a few weeks after this pic.
Circa 1980
As you can see from my recent video presention I have more facial hair now. But I do keep it feathered. I attribute the new addition of facial hair to the Arbonne line of products. The neat thing about Arbonne is that you don’t actually have to use the product you just need to get people to sell the idea of selling the product. You see apart from the miracles Arbonne can perform on your physical body, it also leads to financial freedom and spiritual growth. You can throw away your budget and your Puritan writers by using Arbonne. I don’t really use Arbonne or sell the idea but I have been asked so many times that it has caused me to break out with feathered facial hair. I wonder if my friend Dayna has grown facial hair because she also keeps refusing to sell Arbonne, but then again she is not menopausal. But then again she could use a little facial hair.
Btw, Tim and I really do look just exactly the same now, just add helium.
Hey, and what’s wrong with Valerie Bertinelli’s hair anyway? I love it.
Sun 5 Mar 2006
Judge Roy Moore will be at our church this afternoon at 1:30 for those of you who may read this in time and know where we go to church. Everyone is invited.
Mon 6 Mar 2006
I met more than one famous person this week-end.
The CCA Falcons, our homeschool highschool baseball team, played a double header against Nashville on Saturday. James and Nathaniel play baseball for the Falcons.
It got pretty cold at the end of the baseball game so I walked out to my car with Christopher. We passed a man on a cell phone and we all said, “Hey.”
Christopher and I got into our car and promptly forgot about the man but about 5 minutes later my brain sent me a name….Paul Overstreet.
I began to use logical deduction. The man was wearing a CMT sweatshirt and cowboy boots, he was from Nashville and was on a cellphone. He was at a homeschool baseball game. My brain was right, it must be Paul Overstreet. Christopher thought I was a looney tune. I tried to get him to go ask the man but he refused. Since I believe that children are born persons I didn’t make him go ask.
Finally at the end of the game the man began to walk behind our car. Not realizing what I was doing I jumped out of my car right when the man was passing. Then my great brain failed me. I looked dumbly at the man. Finally, I rudely blurted out, “What is your name?” He said, “Paul,” and Christopher’s heart sank. He hated to admit his mother was right.
I stared dumbly again before asking, “Overstreet?” Yes, it was a very gracious Paul Overstreet who talked to me a bit about homeschooling 6 of their children. I told him what big fans we all were and how my older boys had stolen all the CD’s when they left home. He very kindly offered to replace them but I said we would rebuy them. Then I suggested he write a song about baseball. So if he DOES write a song about baseball you know who to thank.
Paul’s website is www.pauloverstreet.com but it appears to be down today.
Mon 6 Mar 2006
Why Doesn’t Anyone Start a Christian Community in Alabama?
Posted under Agrarianism , Southern Living[17] Comments
I don’t mean to be totally obnoxious and I know some of you live in the far north but I can’t resist posting a few Bradford pear pictures. To make you feel better it will all be over by this time next week.
Tue 7 Mar 2006
What I would really like to do is post long excerpts from both Tozer’s The Pursuit of God and The Great Conversation. But if you are like me you don’t actually read the long excerpts people post. I find myself skimming blogs more than reading them sometimes.
That leaves me with the idea of paraphrasing.
Tozer Paraphrase:
The life of the cross is hard. God sends trials to those he loves. He doesn’t allow us to have idols. Our lives should be lived in servanthood and dying to self. Gain, profit, me, mine, are all bad words. Cheery, huh? Also freeing. We are free to let go of all the THINGS that so easily entangle us and to seek first God’s kingdom. Let’s.
The Great Conversation Paraphrase:
A liberal education has disappeared chiefly because of John Dewey and his nasty specialization. Charlotte Mason was right; a liberal education is for everyone. ( He didn’t exactly say Charlotte Mason.) The American educational system exsists for social and recreational purposes. The curriculum is extra and the extra-curriculum is the heart of the matter. Hence the real question Americans ask: What about socialization? Truth: we hardly need to spend so much money on education if all we really want is a gym and a band. BUT we need the infrastructure to keep a large body of people out of the workforce. 1952, no less. If you can’t find this little old book, you can read John Taylor Gatto.
Wed 8 Mar 2006
Husbands are delicate creatures and must be handled with care. Several months ago I developed a purely philosophical interest in agrarianism. Now my dh is embarrassing me by talking to strangers about the dangers of animal id’s. He found our family a source of raw milk, cheese, butter & eggs, and he has the kids plotting backyard garden spots. I think I am going to erase my agrarian blog links because I found out he is actually reading those blogs !! I finally put my foot down when he said, “If we get a cow we are going to need pigs.” PIGS!! Who is this man?
Speaking of raw milk. I thought I would give one of my unpopular opinions. I believe (whole) milk, raw or not, is good for people. Yes, I refuse to believe that milk is the great Satan sent to destroy our bodies with its oversized molecules. My children drink tons of milk. In all my years of parenting I have only seen one hairline break in the bones of my children. This may not seem like a big deal but my children are not known for their quiet play. Timothy once had a iron weight fall on his head from a rafter during a barn raising. His skull is still intact. As for the estrogen, I would prefer not to have it but so far all of our males are thoroughly masculine.
Milk, like eggs, is a cheap form of protein.
I don’t think I have ever had to say, “He has the croup.” We do get sick but not with that sort of sickness.
Btw, none of my children are overweight.
So there you have it. I am pretty much the only old school homeschool mom I know who will say this and hence I have heard all the arguments against milk. Please feel free to argue. I will just smile and nod and go buy a few more gallons.