{p,h,f,r} Hints of Spring Edition

Joining the ladies over at Like Mother, Like Daughter for their {pretty, happy, funny, real} linkup.

{pretty}

It’s starting to seem like spring is settling in!

I can take absolutely no credit for all the bulbs planted in our yard – they were planted by the former owners.  I do love to have the blooms, though!  The crocuses are almost done, but the mini daffodils are starting, and soon we’ll have the bluebells and tulips.

This rhododendron always tries to bloom in December if we get a couple of warm days, so it’s definitely the first bloomer of the rhodies in our yard.  The windows just behind are our living room windows, right by the piano.  Simeon looked out of them the other day and said, “Mom!  Come quick!”  I thought he’d seen a bird of some sort (because they fly quickly, so speed is necessary when going to see them), but he wanted to point out the blooms on the rhododendron. 

Naomi’s using her garden plot (each of the kids over 4 has a 3x3 plot to plant as he or she likes – Tess will get one when she’s interested in doing something other than digging the soil out into the little wheelbarrow and then dumping it on the path, driveway, or lawn) for a miniature garden.  She got some birthday money and put it to good use in getting some plants and mini garden accessories.  The stones for the dry river bed are from our yard.

{happy}

Starts!  Hardening off!

Peas!  For the pea trellis!

The pea trellis is finished! 

Hannah’s plot has overwintered garlic in it, a volunteer chamomile, and space for all the other things she’s starting under lights.

The kids were all industriously working on school work at the table this morning.  I don’t require them to be at the table for their work, and often they’re in different parts of the house.  Sim, in fact, is usually finished with is work pretty quickly.  But this morning they all ended up working here.  Later, Tess got out some play-dough and she joined them, too.  The {real} part of this is that they’re all in their pajamas.  Of course, there’s nothing to show what time it is, so I don’t have to disclose that!  :)  I wasn’t in pajamas at this point. 

{funny}

I gave Tess an outfit to put on this morning.  She’s actually pretty good at it – she can get clothes on and facing the correct direction fairly reliably, and she enjoys doing so.  This was not the outfit I gave her.  Even though it was supposed to be in the high 50s later, I wouldn’t have selected this particular outfit.  After the outfit she picked out last week, the one with multiple layers, I thought I wouldn’t have to worry too much about whether she was warm enough.  I guess she’s celebrating the return of spring…

The {real} part of this one is that I did have to put her in warmer clothes, and she screamed and thrashed the whole way through, despite my assurances that we could put back on the vest (which she dubbed her bathing suit) over her clothes.

{real}

It’s sometimes a mystery to my why I love gardening so much – it’s just like so many other things in life:  there are always more things to be done, and too many things waiting to be taken care of.   This tarped-over thing is a really cool bench with planters that my wonderful husband got me for Christmas.  Is it placed, filled, and planted?  Not a chance!  But…do I know where I want it placed, what I will use to fill it, and what shall be planted in it?  Yes, of course. 

This is my…potting shed.  Those are not my boots.  Nor did I bring out those cones.  Nor did I put that walking stick there.  And, truthfully, this is not a potting shed, but a covered area close to the house that I can use to quickly get compost into pots for starting seeds.  It’s messy.  And I ran over one of the empty little pots with the van, because it’s right by where the van gets parked.  Eventually I’ll figure out a better potting area. 

Sacrificing formality for learning

Okay, so our dining room isn’t exactly formal in its usual state, because we have four kids and we homeschool (besides not being exactly the formal dining room types), so formality probably isn’t what we’re sacrificing here, but we’ve put up a number line at Sim’s head level in our dining room. 

So, yeah, that stuff gathered on the pew isn’t exactly formal, and that stuff-gathering happened long before the number line arrived…

In any case, Simeon has a somewhat fluid idea of numbers at this point, usually recognizing that there are place for hundreds, tens, ones, etc., but happily placing 50, 15, 25, 35, and 45 in that order, because he’s seeing just the 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 – the 5 is incidental since it occurs in all of the numbers, right?  I’m not worried about this – I’ve seen it in other kids, and it’s corrected itself with a bit of time – but I thought it might be a good idea to put up a number line so that I could point to the numbers in context.  Sim has already noticed that the evens are blue and the odds are red, and will happily use it to count to 100. 

The number line won’t stay up forever, and I imagine (though I can’t be certain) that as an empty nester I’ll miss the days that I needed a number line in my dining room. 

Weekends with Chesterton – In which Chesterton flouts popular childrearing ideas

Joining the group at Amongst Lovely Things again this weekend.

I find this quote particularly challenging – any thoughts you might have are very welcome!

“…I think with a sort of smile of some of my friends in London who are quite sure of how children will turn out if you give them what they call “the right environment.”  It is a troublesome thing, environment, for it sometimes works positively, sometimes negatively, and more often between the two.  A beautiful environment may make a child love beauty; it may make him bored with beauty; most likely the two effects will mix and neutralise each other.  Most likely, that is, the environment will make hardly any difference at all.” – G.K. Chesterton

(from the essay “The Tower” in Tremendous Trifles)

This quote strikes against so many, many people who write about childrearing and homeschooling that I find myself mentally arguing with Chesterton, which turns out to be an interesting exercise, because (given what I’ve already read of him) I’m pretty sure he’s much smarter than I am, and so must actually know.  This means that, instead of simply pointing out the crazy errors of his reasoning in my mental argument, I’m actually wrestling to find out what exactly he means. 

I don’t think he means that we should neglect our children completely.  I don’t think he means that we shouldn’t care if our children are raised in squalor.  I think that he means, at least in part, that we should be more concerned with our children themselves than their environment.  And he maybe he means that I should give up some of my ideas that about the amount of control I have in how my child turns out, admitting that my child has free will and can choose his or her own path regardless of the things that I do to help or hinder progress. 

I find myself returning often to this quote in my mind.  Sometimes it comforts me – when my house is messy and I realize that I still haven’t done X, Y, and Z that I’d planned for beautifying or making more edifying their environment.  Sometimes it challenges me when I realize that I can’t just rely on the things surrounding my children to form them while I attend to other things.  Sometimes it reminds me that I should be praying for their futures with greater fervor. 

7 Quick Takes

Joining Jennifer today.

1.  Pets teach us a lot of things.  Some are good, some are really difficult for the parents – and possibly for the kids, too.  Our new pet hamster bit Naomi the first time she tried to get her out of her cage.  She’s small, so it didn’t break the skin, but Naomi had a total meltdown.  It wasn’t pretty.  It wasn’t fun.  Since then relations have improved. 

We’re still learning pet lessons, though.  Like:  Hannah is much more conscientious about washing hands after handling animals than Naomi is.  This isn’t the greatest, because Naomi’s pet sits in her hands and sometimes poops there, while Hannah pretty much only comes into contact with the non-excreting parts of her pets.  Hannah’s exact quote:  “Naomi, I don’t want to get salmonella just because you don’t feel like washing your hands!”  This didn’t appear to move Naomi much, though.  We’re working on it.

2.  Who could be responsible for this mess?

Let’s use our Sherlock skills, shall we?  Okay, there’s a particular chair (belonging to Tess) pulled up to the cabinetry.  Also, Lima is left behind.  Also, the sugar is all over the cabinet and the chair and the floor.  Also, sugar has been meticulously moved from the sugar bowl into a convenient container – not meant for sugar – that was also there.  Yeah, so Michael must have done it.

3.  Good thing she’s cute:

This outfit cracked me up.  Under the fleece, there’s her lamb costume from Halloween, under which she sports a dress and leggings.  No fear of Tess getting too cold.

4.  We’re nearing 26 weeks of pregnancy and during my pregnancy with Hannah I felt like I still had an eternity to be pregnant at this point.  In this pregnancy, I have little freak-out moments when I realize how SOON the baby is going to be born.  This greatly aids my motivation to do things like clear out clutter.  I’m hoping to have the garden all planted by then, too.

5.  To that end, a look at how my starts are doing:

I started a whole bunch more stuff, and I’m hoping to plant some of these guys out over the weekend, and up-pot the ones that need more time inside. 

6.  Lenten reading so far:

The Shadow of His Wings, by Gereon Goldmann

This is a book about a Catholic man in Germany who was drafted into Hitler’s SS.  It’s an amazing story – I read it a couple of years ago and am reading it again for our reading group.

The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence

It’s on prayer.  I’ve only just started, but it looks to be a very good one.

Bringing Lent Home with St. Therese of Lisieux, by Donna-Marie Cooper-O’Boyle

Actually, we haven’t started this one yet, even though it’s supposed to be daily readings and reflections starting with Ash Wednesday.  We’ll start it soon, I hope. 

That’s what I’m working on for spiritual reading at the moment.  Six weeks is a good long time, though, so I’ll probably end up adding some things in later on.  I’m also planning on hunting down and pulling out the Lent and Easter children’s books we have stashed in various bookshelves around the house.

7.   This is a pretty Tess-heavy update, but one thing that just makes me laugh is that she says “w” for most Vs.  Ridiculously cute:  “Mama, can I have a witamin C?”  Another popular one:  “Mama, can I wear my Walentine dress?” 

Owl Pellets

Science last week included dissecting an owl pellet.  This was the most awesome science lesson ever, according to the kids.  

Once the bones were found and cleaned, the kids then classified them and constructed a rodent skeleton.

It turned out it was mostly rodents, but there was also a mole pelvis.  Science!  It’s awesome!

Enter the Hamster

Naomi has been asking, longing, for a hamster for a long time.  We have tried to talk her into various alternatives – ducks?  plush toys?  robotics kits?  - for a long time, but it just wouldn’t do.  She turned eight yesterday and really wanted a hamster.  She had done her research and knew exactly which species she would get: a Siberian winter-white hamster.  (yes, that’s a real species.)  So, off to the pet store we went.

We were surprised when they let the kids hold the hamsters:

We thought perhaps it was some kind of ploy: “you let it escape, you bought it.”  We were having visions of chasing these beasts all over the store so that we didn’t have to pay for three of them.  But they were about as placid as tribbles, and charming, too.  Naomi was happy to get the one she was holding, a little female.

I sort of thought we’d end up with a cage like this:

But cages have come a long way – check this thing out (toddler not included):

It’s a complete hamster habitat with food bowl, hide away, den, water bottle, and a detachable carrier [saucer section] on top.  Very cool.

The hamster was soon quite at home (eyeing the Linnaeus book, no doubt: Phodopus sungorus, in case you were wondering)

Naomi is very happy with her new pet, whom she has named Valentine:

Valentine is kind of a family middle name for my family – Naomi doesn’t know that, but it is still an appropriate choice for our new family hamster.

Weekends with Chesterton – Lima Edition

When I read the quote I’m offering today, I thought of Lima, of course.  Lima looms large in Tess’s life – and consequently in ours.  I mentioned the other day that her body is slowly ripping away from her head, and this is a huge concern because I didn’t think it was sewable (her body fabric is VERY loved) and I don’t know if Tess will accept a new body for her doll.  However, Naomi solved this problem by seeing the problem and not worrying, as I did, that maybe it wasn’t solvable.  She just sewed it back on, regardless of the delicacy of the fabric.  It seems to be holding.  For now.  Thanks to St. Rose of Lima (the real one, not the doll) for her aid!

“It is much easier to care for an educational cause than to care for a doll…it is almost as difficult to look after a doll as to look after a child.” – G.K. Chesterton

For more quotes from Chesterton, head over to Weekends with Chesterton at Amongst Lovely Things.