A Wedding Story ~ Details

Whatever our souls are made of,
his and mine are the same.

~Emily Brontë

A Wedding Story ~ Welcome to the Garden

A Wedding Story ~ Friendship

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

~Henry David Thoreau

This story begins with my sister, Shannon's, friendship with Larissa over twenty years ago. They were in sixth grade and became inseparable. Anne and Diana. They've stayed close over the years, through all of life's changes.

While Larissa has been sort of an adopted sister to me over the years, and I am so thrilled that she has been blessed with a truly wonderful guy, West, I have to brag a little (okay, a lot) on Shannon right here.

Shannon is one of those people who is good at just about everything she tries. And when it comes to events and weddings, she's in her element. Larissa is one lucky girl to have a friend like Shannon coordinating/designing/hostessing her wedding. Shannon did the graphic designing of the invitations (and even the signage at the wedding for dressing rooms and whatnot were beautifully coordinated). She did an obscene amout of gardening and design work on the yard and surrounding areas (including their little home into which they recently moved). She did the major design, coordination, and organization of all the elements (down to the tiniest little detail like saving a hummingbird's nest for photographing the rings in) that went into this event. She did all of the flowers. She did the paper crafting for the centerpieces. She coordinated the work-force and the scheduling of the day and ceremony. Her air-conditioned kitchen became a flower cooler/design studio, and the rest of her tiny house was the guys' dressing room. I can't even list all the things she created for this wedding and the work she did to pull it off.

If Shannon is stupendously amazing, her husband, Ben, turns them into a formidable team. This guy does EVERYTHING Shannon asks him to do. Not only the grunt work or lending an extra hand, but he has terrific people skills as well as aesthetic sense. Shannon trusts him with an enormous amout of tasks, knowing he's the guy to see them finished. Ben worked all spring on yard and house projects. He worked all week on wedding details. And he was RUNNING all. day. long. on the day of the wedding.

A Wedding Story Begins

Remember our family backyard softball game? Well, the yard was transformed this past weekend for a magical garden party wedding! Remember Larissa and West (and a few more engagement photos)? Larissa has been Shannon's best friend for over twenty years, and her dream wedding location was Poet's Garden (which is now Shannon's backyard). It pays to know the right people, and Shannon is definitely 'the right people.' (More about that in a coming post.)

I was the lucky-ducky photographer for most of the event, so I'll be telling the wedding story in photos over the next week or two. (This was a BIG event for 'us' and many people are (impatiently) awaiting photos to appear in this corner of cyberspace, so you'll be viewing/hearing about this one in spades.)

I want to start by sending a quick shout-out to the team behind the scenes. My sister, Holly, worked 13+ hours straight the day of the wedding (she's an old pro). Her daughter, Ilex, was there for a few days helping with child-care and being my mom's right hand (wo)man. Her son, Drake, was the go-to guy and Ben's right hand man. Book club girls were a life-saver: Cheris and Carolyn were Shannon's can-do team the day of the wedding. Domini had the (possibly harder) task of watching Shannon's dogs.

My dad was so gracious to let all of this craziness happen at his home, and he had a bunch of work behind the scenes. Mowing alone took hours. (And he arranged for a fly-over photoshoot during the reception! His photographer and pilot friends were so kind to do that for us!) My mom had her whole house transformed into a ladies' dressing room and provided lunch for all the women.

Larissa and West had a large, hard-working team of family and friends helping out with so many other aspects of the wedding.

A huge shout-out to my hubby for being so much help to me. After a full week of daddy responsibilities (including two trips to urgent care with Luke), he went to the grocery store early in the morning (we had nothing in the house) and then fixed me an awesome breakfast the day of the wedding. He even packed me a cooler full of yogurt and other snacks and stocked my mom's fridge with Dr. Pepper. He dropped me off (telling the other girls to make sure I drank lots of water and put my feet up occasionally) and then went to Costco to get me new memory cards for my cameras (we were having memory card issues). And then he manned the boys for 12 hours (including a re-check of Luke's finger at urgent care, fishing, and baths at the end of the day). Oh, and he had the Mustang all clean (and running) and in place for the bride and groom's get-away car. Did I mention my awesome husband? Grin.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story....

The D Family

I had the privilege of taking family photos for my friend, Christina. Her son, Jake, is like a cousin to my boys, and we've enjoyed having them as part of the family! We met out at Thompson's Flour Mill, which ended up being a PERFECT place for photos.

Indiana....Ben?

No one does birthday parties quite like my best friend, Char. Her son and daughter's birthdays fall in the same week in June, so she alternates years giving them awesome birthday bashes. The Alice in Wonderland party was one of my favorites (and the Knight and Fairy Princess parties at Enchanted Forest), but the Indiana Jones theme this year was FABULOUS. I simply can't believe the amount of work she goes to (because it is one of her favorite things to plan and pull off!) as well as all the details she thinks up!

This year, she planned an elaborate adventure/treasure hunt for the kids led by Indiana Jones (my really great sport of a brother-in-law, Ben). Each child was given an Indiana Jones hat and a camoflage satchel to gather their treasures and clues in. They went through snake pits, turned each other into mummies, completed a short obstacle course and were shot at by 'poisonous darts' as they came out of the tunnel, and more. They received (fake) snakes, binoculars, compasses, and 'gold' coins for treasures. At the end of their adventure, they found a treasure chest pinata!

All the action was followed up with an awesome BBQ dinner and the incredible cake Char made! I don't know how she'll top this one, but I know I'm marking that weekend out on next year's calendar.

Saturday Seven ~ Week 27

1:: Russ put up the tent this past weekend and had a backyard camp out with the boys for a couple nights. I have the most awesome husband.

2:: Luke ended up at urgent care, again. This time for stitches in his pinkie finger. Not good. So glad Russ was home to take care of this emergency. Did I mention I have an awesome husband?

3:: As if he needed more points this week, he ALSO had to play the part of hunter/protector and save me from an animal-type-thing-which-shall-not-be-named in the middle of the night *in our bedroom.* I get points for not shrieking. First the skunk (oh, I didn't tell you that story, did I?) and now this. Ugh.

4:: I'm photographing a wedding today. Pray for me. My stupendously amazing sister is designing/coordinating/hostessing. This girl has talent you can't even imagine. It's going to be AMAZING. Have I mentioned my awesome family, yet?

Food for Thought:

5:: On Gender Wars and the Work Force : The End of Men at The Atlantic.

"The postindustrial economy is indifferent to men’s size and strength. The attributes that are most valuable today—social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus—are, at a minimum, not predominantly male. In fact, the opposite may be true."

The Case for Working With Your Hands at The New York Times. Really good stuff, here.

'When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options...

'If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn). Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things. One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.” '

And I Choose My Choice at The Atlantic.

'Linda Hirshman claims that “the family—with its repetitious, socially invisible, physical tasks—is a necessary part of life, but allows fewer opportunities for full human flourishing than public spheres like the market or the government.” Many people would no doubt find unpaid household chores less interesting than Professor Hirshman’s job … But walking up and down the super­market aisle selecting food for a family dinner is a job that has more variety and autonomy than the paid work being done by the supermarket employees who stack the same shelves with the same food day after day, and those who stand in a narrow corner at the checkout counter all day tallying up the costs of purchases, and the workers next to them who pack the purchases into paper or plastic bags. That space in the market is a bit cramped for human flourishing.'

Or, if you'd like to get really annoyed with the entitlement attitude of the new generation (which segues nicely into thought #6), you can read American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation at The New York Times. (Emphasis and [ ] comment are mine.)

After several interviews, the Hanover Insurance Group in nearby Worcester offered to hire him as an associate claims adjuster, at $40,000 a year. But even before the formal offer, Mr. Nicholson had decided not to take the job. Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out [while living with his parents and letting them pay his expenses] for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder....

For young adults, the prospects in the workplace, even for the college-educated, have rarely been so bleak. Apart from the 14 percent who are unemployed and seeking work, as Scott Nicholson is, 23 percent are not even seeking a job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The total, 37 percent, is the highest in more than three decades and a rate reminiscent of the 1930s.

6:: On Prolonged Adolescence: Long Road to Adulthood Is Growing Even Longer at The New York Times.

“A new period of life is emerging in which young people are no longer adolescents but not yet adults,” Mr. Furstenberg said.

And Why Young Men Delay Adulthood to Stay in Guyland (originally for Newsweek).

In his new book, "Guyland," the State University of New York at Stony Brook professor notes that the traditional markers of manhood—leaving home, getting an education, finding a partner, starting work and becoming a father—have moved downfield as the passage from adolescence to adulthood has evolved from "a transitional moment to a whole new stage of life." In 1960, almost 70 percent of men had reached these milestones by the age of 30. Today, less than a third of males that age can say the same.

7:: On Morality: Bad Books for Kids

"Making any sort of moral judgment is always bad, unless it reflects a mainstream piety, one of which is the wickedness of moral judgments. People who make any other sort of judgment are not attractive and lead lives the hero and the reader know they do not want to lead."

In The Core, Leigh Bortins quotes Ravi Zacharias, a popular debater at Ivy League schools, as saying:

'We are living in a time when sensitivities are at the surface, often vented with cutting words. Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practice anything, so long as you do not claim that it is a "better" way.'

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

And locals, don't forget the Mondays @ Monteith concert series starting this next week!!

Art and Creativity in the Great Outdoors

Summer. There is something delicious about that word, especially for a mother of three young boys after an even-rainier-than-normal Pacific Northwest spring.

Children need to stretch their lungs, their legs, and their imaginations. The great outdoors are calling.

We may be inclined to set down our formal spelling and grammar programs, but summer is a great opportunity to sneak in some of the fun extras we might have trouble finding time to share with our children during a traditional school year.

Time spent outdoors lends itself to creativity and an appreciation for the art of nature. Many famous artists have been inspired by nature, and it is a joy to learn from the masters.

“Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and
more.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh

Here are a few ideas to spark a summer study of art and nature.


I'm over at Simple Homeschool, today. Head on over to read the rest.

4th of July Weekend Tradition

We've enjoyed several years of celebrating during the 4th of July weekend at our friend, Bob's, house on Lake Oswego. We always know we'll be well-fed (his ribs and slaw are amazing), the company will be terrific (some of the nicest people, evah!), and the view will be spectacular.

Russ brought along our remote-controlled boats, and the boys had fun with them down at the dock (and spent a short amount of time in the water, themselves).

Bob had his boat out this year, so the boys and I enjoyed a tour of the lake in PERFECT weather. Yowsa, wowsa. Those houses are to-die-for. Eenie, meenie, minie, mo. If only I had a few million dollars.

The driveway next to our friend's house leads over this awesome bridge to a private island (which is the view from his dock). Last year at this time, it was the single most expensive piece of property on the market in Oregon. Anyone have 20-something million dollars? The boat house looks like a miniature castle. I'll take it. Grin.

What a wonderful way to kick-start our summer. Thanks, Bob.

Sweet Shot Tuesday

My first time participating in Sweet Shot Tuesdays.
I'm thinking it could be addicting.

Family Softball in the Garden

Have I mentioned how much I love my family?

We had book club in this garden a week ago and you'll be seeing many more pictures of this yard/garden next week in a very different capacity. I can't WAIT!!

On the Lake

Cookbook Delights

We've been on a cookbook kick around our house, lately. Levi got the wild idea to have an international-themed birthday party (in January), so he has been pouring over The International Cookbook For Kids. I often see him with a little 'composition notebook' writing down the page numbers and recipes that he would like to have made for his party.

Leif doesn't get left out of anything, so he grabbed the DK Children's Quick & Easy Cookbook. This is the perfect cookbook for Leif: very visual, some words that he can read, and step-by-step, numbered picture instructions. He wants me to look at it with him and pick out my favorite foods.

But Luke has been pouring over our hefty FamilyFun Cookbook (which is, of course, no longer available). It has so many great recipes, photographs, and ideas (a whole page on various play dough/clay recipes). Luke is constantly bringing me the cookbook, turning up his little earnest face, and saying things like, 'Did you know you can make all kinds of scones?!'

A few mornings ago, I walked into the kitchen, and Luke had everything on the counter to make Swedish pancakes. He put two eggs in a little glass bowl. He put a stick of butter in another. He found a 1 1/2 cup measure and put it next to the flour. He had the tablespoon measure next to the sugar. The salt and milk were on the counter. He handed me my apron. This boy was *ready* to make breakfast. It didn't matter that he didn't really know what Swedish pancakes were (and that I would have to eat the whole batch by myself.....).

Leif never misses out on any activity, so Luke read the recipe and they both helped measure, pour, and stir. They were involved every step of the way. (Levi was off in his own little world planning his January birthday party....)

The next morning, we decided on blueberry muffins to go with our scrambled eggs. Luckily, these were more of a hit, and I didn't have to eat the whole batch myself.

It is very clear to me that Luke may be my biggest ally in the kitchen within just a couple years. And I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that....

Made for Another World

"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death..." ~ C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." ~ C.S. Lewis (Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)

"Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self---in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart." ~ C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

"All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy." ~ C.S. Lewis

Reading Round-Up ~ June: The Twilight Edition

21. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. (Borrowed from the library. Book club selection. 498 pages. 1 day. Yeah, I know.) WARNING: Long review with spoilers for the two people who haven't yet read this book.

Brilliant. The author delivers EXACTLY what the reader (of Twilight) wants. Any guesses? It isn't superb writing. It isn't a complex plot. It isn't witty dialogue. It isn't breathtaking descriptive passages. It isn't fascinating ideas to keep one thinking long after the book is closed.

The reader wants to BE the female lead in an emotionally intense romantic story. She wants to be HERSELF, in a common place, with an extraordinary experience. She wants to feel not just wanted, but obsessed over. Not just beautiful, but irresistible. Not just popular, but worthy. And she wants the chance to give herself over completely to the experience, no matter the cost, no matter the danger--yet be protected/saved by the person with whom she is risking everything. Yep. Stephenie Meyer delivers. Spectacularly, I might add.

When you enter Twilight, you don't have to live vicariously through the story of a beautiful woman in an exotic location. Nope. You get to be you--with all your insecurities, your low self-esteem, your empty life, your angst. You get to be Bella in the rainy Pacific Northwest. Your father and mother are like children. You have never been part of the in-crowd. You don't fit in. You're invisible. You're plain. You're physically awkward. You're the new girl in a depressing, ordinary place. You're writing the story in first person.

You don't have to wait long to feel a change in the atmosphere. (It's a good thing. We're at the fast food counter, here.) You're the new girl--suddenly mysterious, fascinating. The boys are lining up. But you aren't the typical (shallow, unimaginative) girl, of course. You don't want just any boy. You want THAT one: the mysterious, fascinating, exotic guy across the cafeteria, the rich one with the fancy sports car, the one who makes your hair stand on end. You want the one who can make an author spend an entire book convincing/reminding the reader how unnaturally god-like he is, and run out of original ways to say it on page 50 of a 500 page book. Let's not even get started on his eyes.

Just looks and a fancy sports car aren't enough for you. (Besides, it's his eyes that intoxicate you; who has time to notice anything else?) He can do EVERYTHING superbly. He's insanely smart. He drives at 125 miles an hour. He has super-human strength, speed, and reflexes. He plays the piano more brilliantly than Rachmaninoff. He has to play baseball in a thunderstorm because the crack of the bat sounds like lightning. He reads minds. (Except yours, of course. You are his kryptonite, which makes him irresistibly flustered and vulnerable only when he's with you.)

But, oh, wait! There's more! Not only is he the (supernaturally) best looking teenager in the school/world complete with supernatural talents, he has all the attraction of an older man and the charm of the early 1900s: he can dance, he is elegant, he has beautiful handwriting, he appreciates classical music and good books!

(I swear, this is almost as addicting as the Dr. Pepper I'm drinking to stay up late enough to finish this book in one day....)

So, we've established that he is the best looking, most talented, charming, teenager/older man, but we're not through. He's dangerous. Deadly so. He's the tormented bad boy (and that's an understatement). You get all the angst. The up and down roller coaster of moods. The obsession. The stalking. The smouldering emotional passion.

Ah, but even though you are 'the addict's personal brand of heroin,' he loves you. Not only loves you, but loves you supernaturally in a way he has never before experienced in his looooooong life. He will fight every urge to consume you physically, will summon up a supernatural self-control in order to save you, to protect you. So now he is the bad boy turned personal savior. Awesome.

Feeling faint in biology class? He'll carry you to the school nurse. Almost run over by a van? He'll stop the vehicle with his hands while shielding your body. Trapped by a gang of guys in a dark alley? His sports car will screech up at the last minute and he'll order you to get in (and take you out for dinner so that his jealous/protective instincts don't cause him to hunt the guys down and kill them).

He knows that he is bad for you, but he's between a rock and a hard place. You need him and he needs you. Life has no meaning apart from your love and desperate need to be together.

You make up your mind. No risk or cost is too great. You can't live without him, so you put your life in his hands, offering yourself to him. He summons that inhuman self-control, and your life is safe. Luckily, a single kiss (with a vampire) packs enough physical and emotional punch to make up for the absence of other things.

The danger intensifies. Now you are being hunted by the deadliest tracker on earth. It will take the efforts of seven supernatural beings to protect you, but you are worthy. You almost die as the hunter traps and savagely attacks the hunted (because you nobly offer your life in the place of another), but your personal avenging angel saves you at the very last moment in his most agonizing moment of self-denial.

Then everyone lives happily ever after... at the high school prom. (And only if you can resist reading the sneak peek of the sequel placed for your convenience at the end of the book.)

The best part? You may read this even if you are only ten years old because there is NO SEX. But your mother will enjoy it, too. Because, deep down, it just isn't about sex. It is about a deep, compelling, emotional hunger to be someone's EVERYTHING. To be desired. To be worthy. To dangerously offer every part of yourself...and be protected in return.

{Suddenly, unexpectedly, as I'm sitting here typing this review, it hits me with a knock-my-breath-away force. We were created with this desire, but on a staggeringly grander scale--with a more breathtaking culmination possible. The parallels are jumping out at me. Here's a PSA: God's got it all covered. I'd quote C. S. Lewis right here, but I think it would be sacrilegious to do so in a review of Twilight. Plus, I can't find the exact passage I'm looking for. ETA: Give these quotes a try.}

ETA: I am not endorsing this book. I am simply describing what it felt like to read it. And I am certainly not recommending that you let your ten-year-old daughter read it. (I apologize if my sarcastic tone didn't come across in the writing.) I think the theme I proposed could be much more insidious than any sexual situations, for young girls and their mothers alike, not to mention that this is, indeed, a book about vampires.

[On a MUCH LESS serious note, for those of you who missed this article when I linked it some time ago: What do you get when you mix vampires with the Amish and the End Times? The Ultimate Christian Novel. Am I the only one dying laughing?]


In the anticlimactic finale, we have the other three books I read this month:

20. The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education by Leigh A. Bortins (Purchased from Amazon. 215 pages. A week of reading.) Lengthy review can be found at this link.

19. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. (Purchased from Amazon. Book club selection. 187 pages. Two weeks.) Many quirky, silly, mostly older women lived in Cranford. Random events happened. The end. (Skip this book and go straight for North and South, Wives and Daughters, or Ruth.)

18. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. (From my bookshelf. 266 pages. The first 50 pages took me a week or two, the last 210 took a day. Grin.) There is a reason Agatha Christie is considered an undisputed master of mystery (if not THE). That is all.

The Science of Summer

The Science of a Bicycle: The Science of Forces

The Core

The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education is written by Leigh A. Bortins, the founder of Classical Conversations. Bortins is an aerospace engineer who has home educated her four sons.

I found myself reading with a pencil in hand. My copy is marked in some way on many, many pages. Bortins talks about the history of education in our country and why our current education system is not going to serve our children and their futures. The historical and literary details sparked my attention, and I thought the author did an excellent job of explaining the basics of classical education.

Introduction

pg. 5

The classical model emphasizes that learning feeds the soul and edifies the person rather than producing employees to work an assembly line. The goal of a classical education is to instill wisdom and virture in people. We see learning as a continuing conversation that humankind has been engaged in for centuries, and we are concerned that industrialization and technologies reduce contact and context between children and their elders.

The Classical Model

pg. 14

The goal of education is to teach children to become adults who can handle complex ideas, in uncertain situations, with confidence.

pg. 15

The purpose of a classical education is to strengthen one's mind, body, and character in order to develop the ability to learn anything.

pg. 37

Today's educators reject the importance of preparing our next generation to enter the great classical conversations of history because they no longer believe there is a core body of knowledge common to man. So personal opinion has trumped universal truth, expediency has displaced goodness, and edginess has shoved aside beauty. Families no longer know that a great classical conversation exists and that their children could become its most interesting participants.

pg. 40

Classical education encourages us that we are capable of becoming an Oxford don who builds bicycles, or a plumber who reads Milton, or a business owner who spouts theology. The classically educated are not defined by their occupation so much as by their breadth of knowledge and understanding.

pg. 47

Classical education is analogous to brain training. When encountering new information, the brain must know how to store data (grammar), retrieve and process data (logic), and express data (rhetoric).

pg. 48

A student must begin with grammar no matter their age or the topic. Grammar is essentially defined as the science of vocabulary. Every occupation, field of study, or concept has a vocabulary that the student must acquire like a foreign language before progressing to more difficult or abstract tasks within that body of knowledge.

pg. 51-52

Educated children are building a permanent, organized storage system in the brain with key ideas that they will continue to use lifelong... No matter what your children's strengths and weaknesses are, or their likes and dislikes, or their gifts and talents, their brains want to gather, sort, store, and retrieve information.

pg. 61

We need to offer children a broad, freeing education that allows them to think well and to be lifelong learners. Children need to be prepared for any challenge, even for job opportunities that may not exist until well into the future.

pg. 71

We want children to recognize the difference between expressing an opinion and developing a logical conclusion through induction or deduction. That doesn't mean they can't or don't express feelings or opinions. They just need to recognize that it is a feeling or opinion.

In Part Two of The Core, the author explains, in detail, the core of a classical education: reading, writing, math, geography, history, science, and fine arts. She emphasizes process over materials or lists and gives the reader very specific ideas on teaching each skill and subject.

pg. 103

In order to read well, you need to spend lots of time reading. Words need to be savored, laughed at and cried over, wrestled with, and stomped on. They should hit us in the head, knock us off our feet, and spin us around. Words should be the thoughts in our heads that comfort, challenge, sharpen, soften, frighten, and embolden.

pg. 169

Often an artificial tension is presented between the goal of teaching basic skills and core content. To classical educators, both are needed. While we emphasize the practice of skills, we need excellent material to practice on. Classical educators go out of their way to ensure that the content is of enduring quality.

The Core is a book that will challenge your ideas about education, introduce you to the classical model, and show you, step-by-step, how to teach your children (and yourself!) the skills and content they (and you!) will need to be confident adults who can learn anything, adapt to new situations and careers, and participate fully in the great conversation of humankind.

{While Classical Conversations is a distinctly Christian program headed by the author, The Core does not expound upon either faith or the Classical Conversations program specifically, so it is appropriate and inspirational for anyone interested in education in America, homeschooling, and/or classical education.}

Signs of Summer

What is one to say about June,

the time of perfect young summer,

the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months,

and with as yet no sign to remind one

that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.

~Gertrude Jekyll

No price is set on the lavish summer;

June may be had by the poorest comer.

~James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal, 1848

Bliss

A morning trip to the library and an afternoon of reading on the lawn.
In 75 degree weather. Lovely.

Sunday Seven ~ Week 24

:: My most favorite childhood strawberry stand is open for business. The boys helped me pick out a flat. YUM!! Nothing like fresh-picked Oregon strawberries, though it has been so ridiculously rainy this season, I'm guessing the strawberry season is going to be rather short. Get them while you can!

:: We had a 2-day summer.... LAST weekend. It is pouring down rain as I type. Sigh.

:: Even though the weather hasn't been great, it was lovely enough last evening that my family was able to have an awesome game of backyard softball. (ETA: Pictures at my mom's blog, Treading on Moss.) HEAVENLY. I found out that Luke can really throw that ball, and Leif is awesome at batting! I can still hit the ball, even if I run the bases verrrrrry slowly. We all play outfield when the brothers-in-law are hitting...and no one is left to play infield. My nephew, Drake, can pass everyone else up when running with the bases loaded. My Dad pitched the whole evening. I think he is going to feel it today.

:: I feel it today. Ouch. It doesn't help that I have a stomach bug on top of an evening of softball playing. I got out of bed at 1pm. And I'm heading back there shortly. As soon as I kick Russ out so he can watch the boys again.

:: The back seat of a '65 Mustang is not meant for adults. (ETA: I'm not sure I want to edit this, but my hubby laughed like a crazy person. For RIDING in the back seat. Good grief. It is the only place left for me on a *family* drive after the boys are buckled.) Especially the MIDDLE of the back seat. Driving a '65 Mustang isn't much more comfortable. I'm guessing both experiences are 'enhancing' the way my body feels today.

:: My hubby may come in 6th on this list of 7, but he's #1 to me. Grin. What an awesome Dad he is!! Happy Father's Day, Love. And I have the best Dad on the planet. How did I get so blessed?

:: And because I think you all deserve something profound, informing, or edifying in all my posts, I found this article about ideology in children's books by M. T. Anderson quite fascinating.

The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity.

~Jean Paul Richter