OB Update - 36 weeks

All is good, again!

Short version for those who neither want nor need all the details:
She's still head down, in just the right position.  All her tests today were spot on, and things in general look good!  We've got about 4'ish weeks to go!

Longer version for people like me who like the details:
She is head down, and is more "straight up and down" as opposed to laying sort of over on her side.  Even better, she's in an anterior position already, meaning that she is facing my back, which is the ideal position for traveling thru the birth canal.  Again, she may not actually stay in that position, but she's there for now! She scored an 8 out of 8 on the BPP tests (the tests they run during the bio-physical profile sonogram), so everything looks great.  My iron level was within a normal range, albeit on the low end.  I guess that means I just need more cheeseburgers.  ::grin::  They did the Group B Strep test today - I guess I'll get those results next week.  So far, that has never been a problem for me, and hopefully that won't be a problem now.  And, I have begun to efface - about 50% softened up.  No dilation at this point.  (However, I will remind anxious grandparental units that I walked around for 3 weeks at anywhere from 1 to 3 cm dilated with Tooter, and he still came 3 days "late".  So, if I do start any of that early, it won't necessarily mean anything!)

No pictures from the sonogram.  She's gotten big enough now, and is in such a position, that getting a good shot is tough at best.

So - praise the Lord for good news!

I have the bags pretty much packed except for a couple of items.  Got the family photo album for 2008 finally finished.  (I know.  It's July.  Hey, at least it's done!)  Got a baby blanket and hospital hat knitted for Sparks.  Got pretty much all the books and things I need for school lined up and ready to go.  (I'm missing some music for music appreciation, but that will be easily gotten).  Jmk has the garage back under control, and he has whittled the to-do list for the house down to what can be done in the few weekends left.  Poodle's ballet gear has been purchased (how fun was THAT, let me tell you!!!) and she is ready to go for August 17.
We are pretty much ready, logistically, for the baby to get here.  So, the goal for the rest of August is to enjoy the rest of the summer.  Spend some time at the pool.  Really live the last bit of this pregnancy so that when it is in the past, I won't look back with regret that I hurried through it.  We have been blessed, truly blessed, to get to this point.  It's hard for both Jmk and me to believe it sometimes.  But we're as ready as people can be.  Praise God for His mercies on us!!!

OB Update - 35 weeks

Good news - she's head down!  There certainly aren't any assurances that she'll stay that way, but Lord willing, she will.  At the last mention of her being breech, my Keeper Of Off The Beaten Path Knowledge friend, Kathleen, sent me to a website:  www.spinningbabies.com.  Now, I don't know if utilizing some of those ideas helped Sparkie make the turn or not.  The timing is interesting, certainly.  Maybe it helped, maybe it didn't.  I dunno, but I did some of the suggested exercises and she turned.  So, infer what you will!

I have begun the once a week visits complete with BPP (biophysical profile) sonograms each time.  (Which is how we know she's head down for now).  Why the sonograms?  Nothing is wrong at all - it's that dratted AMA (advanced maternal age) nonsense.  They measure amniotic fluid levels, heart rate, breathing, and size.  So, I'm cooperating like the good little patient that I am.  :-)

All is very good from that standpoint!  And, I'm feeling fine.  All the normal aches and pains and uncomfortable'ness of late pregnancy, but nothing out of the ordinary.  So, yay for that!  We've got about 5 weeks to go now, and Lord willing, it will be uneventful and boring.

The sonogram tech couldn't get any good pictures of Sparks today, so I thought I'd share some pictures that I've been wanting to get during this pregnancy.  Good tummy shots.  Jmk got involved and helped me with the lighting and ideas and the kids, etc.  And took the pictures!  It was fun.  Yay for digital cameras!  :-)

Of Reunions and Years

Jmk and I just spend the weekend somewhat immersed in activities for my 20 year high school reunion.  (If anyone is "doing the math" in their head, please remember that I was a child genius and graduated HS at 10.  You believe me, right?)

Laying aside the fact that I have passed into that "late pregnancy" stage, where some women just swell up from head to toe and cause all their pictures to seem almost unrecognizable, even to them, we had a wonderful time.  It was easy for us, since we still live in the same area from which I graduated.  What impresses me most is the traveling that some folks did.  We had classmates come in from Washington state, California, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas....  It was impressive.

But what was more interesting to me was the different vibe, the different overall atmosphere than there was at the 10 year reunion.  The 10 year was fun, sure.  But.....  that first reunion after you have graduated, there is so much comparison, so much competitive curiosity, so much interest for the wrong reasons.  Or, at least it feels that way.  The thing is, it wasn't all that noticeable THEN.  It's just that comparing this past weekend to how things felt 10 years ago, that's when you feel the different vibe.

I came away from this weekend wishing I could have spent more one-on-one time talking with people. Get past the "how old are your kids and where do you live now" conversations and REALLY talk.  There are girls and guys alike with whom I was able to have brief conversations who really impressed me as people I'd like to get to know better all over again.  Because they have grown, their interests have widened and matured, and they have become more realistic about the world and life.  As I hope I have.

But, to borrow a phrase from the husband of a classmate that Jmk and I were talking to on Saturday night, folks are just more comfortable in their own skin now.  Actually, more to the point, if "you're not comfortable in your own skin by now, you never will be".  And it's that ability to know who we are and what is important to us (no matter what those around us declare to be important) that helps us to enjoy each other more.  The ability to be with those at different places in life and not play the comparison game.  The desire to see those around you be happy and successful and raise good families.

We've all LIVED by now.  We've worked for a long time now.  Most of us have gotten married, even if we're not still joined with that person.  A great majority of us have children.  Our collective focus on each other was one of true interest and shared experiences.  There was an honest understanding when an old friend says things like "I had to take my kids with me to my hair appointment the other day".  Suddenly, you have a connection with this person that goes beyond the mere sharing of classes or a locker.

So much of my personal life has changed from 10 years ago.  At our first reunion, I was working a "real" job (i.e. one that gave me a paycheck with my name on it), I wasn't married, had no children - my overall perspective of life in general was vastly different.  Maybe it's the changes in my life that changed my perspective on this past weekend.  Maybe it was an honestly different type of gathering this time.  Our activities thru the weekend were almost identical to the ones 10 years ago.  But the atmosphere seemed so different - and in a very good way.

We could see our classmates and see our differences and be glad for those differences.  There was no need to hide ourselves in order to fit some imaginary mold that had to be filled.  It was nice.  It was just plain nice.

If we actually DO do this again in only five years, like so very many people want to, I hope that it is again an uplifting experience and one that turns out to be as fun as this one was.

And the next time, I won't be in maternity clothes.  :-)

Clothes and Thoughts

A few weekends ago, Jmk pulled down boxes upon boxes of stored kids' clothing from the attic.  They've been sitting in the living room since.  And I finally got to the baby-baby stuff yesterday.  Started pulling out clothes that needed to be washed and gotten ready for Sparkie.  And......  all I could see was Poodle in them.

I remember being pregnant with Toot and wondering how we were ever possibly going to be able to love the second child as much as we loved our first.  And, as all moms and dads figure out, you end up loving both children equally and more than you did before you had the second child.  So, I know that seeing Sparkie in clothes that Poodle wore when she was little will be a sweet and wonderful thing when it actually happens.  But until then, all I can see is my sweet, chunky first daughter who wouldn't let me put her down when she napped and who loved with great passion even when she was a tiny thing.

But, then, it's hard to remember her as a baby at the same time.  All I can see of her and Tooter both are these growing children out playing Red Light Green Light in the yard while I type on the computer on the patio.  Thank goodness for pictures and videos.  Although, even those make us tear up sometimes. :-)

Babysitter Success!

For the first time in their young lives, the kids had a "real" babysitter.  As in, someone who comes over to watch them when neither Mom nor Dad is there, who isn't related to said kids, and who gets paid real money before she leaves.

I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing that they haven't had a babysitter until now.  It's just what it is.  We are blessed to live near all the grandparents and Jmk's sister is always willing to help when we call on her.  Plus, we're just homebodies.  I mean, really.  We like being homebodies.  We just don't go out and do that much Stuff.  And, hey, it's good for the budget, too!

But, with the new baby coming, with all the grandparents working, with all the time that Jmk has had to take off from work during this pregnancy...  we just figured it's time to get them used to the process of how a babysitter works.  So, yesterday, I had a hair appointment and instead of bringing them with me, I decided to spend the extra money and get a precious girl from church to come watch them for a couple of hours.

And it went GREAT!!!  I had no worries about Poodle at all.  But, honestly, I was stressed about how Toot was going to handle it.  He has been so velcro-to-mommy lately.  Add to that worry was the fact that I ended up leaving before he even got up from his nap.  (He took a marathon nap yesterday).  I could just imagine the tears and fright and worry and all those things that moms imagine their kids go through, when in reality, they probably don't. Gabby said that he was a little weird when he woke up, but figured things out pretty quickly.  And when Jmk got home (he made it home before I did), Tooter was hugging on her leg and had already fallen in love with her.

I can not tell you what a relief it is to know that we have this option now.  We'll still be homebodies and we'll still do our best to take care of the kids ourselves.  But we can now say that we have a babysitter.  Hallelujah!!!

Quick OB Update from today

All is good.  33 weeks today!  I have one last 2 week reprieve, and then I begin the once-a-week visits.  Because they think Sparkie is so fabulous, they will be doing a sonogram at each visit from here on.  Okay - TECHnically, they are doing that because someone stamped SHE IS OLD on my file and that's their standard operating procedure for those of an "advanced maternal age".  What-EVAH.
The sonogram is to check amniotic fluid levels, breathing rates, movement, etc.  They either do that or do a non-stress test, and my doc likes the sonogram.  So, okay.

She also said that she will induce me a week early.  lol......  yeah.  This mommy doesn't do inductions unless medically necessary.  But, as she said, "we'll talk about it".  Actually, we think that the wee lass is still breech.  So, if she doesn't turn, I'll have to do more than just be induced.  A c-section will be necessary.  Again....  we have another 7 weeks to go.  A lot can happen in practically 2 months.

And, that's pretty much it!

Conversations with Tooter

Scene:
Tooter and Mommy are looking at a puzzle of the United States of America that he had just finished.  Each state was a different color.  He was pointing to the state names and asking Mommy "what is that name?  What is that name?"

Tooter:  What is that name?
Mommy:  That is Utah.
Tooter:  Me-tah?
Mommy:  No, Utah.
Tooter:  Not Utah, ME-tah!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tooter:  Mommy, may I have some popcorn?
Mommy:  Sure.
2 minutes later...
Tooter:  Mommy, what are you making?
Mommy:  Honey, I'm making popcorn, like you wanted.
Tooter:  I don't want popcorn!  I don't liiiike it.
Mommy, not without exasperation:  Well, then, what do you think you want for a snack?
Tooter:  I want popcorn!

The above are real conversations, without a bit of exaggeration.  It's a wonder I have any hair left at ALL.  It's a good thing he's cute.  ;-)

From Singing School

Singing School, you ask?  What in the world?

The short version (albeit not exactly accurate) is it is the Primitive Baptist version of Vacation Bible School.  Except that the purpose of the week is to help educate the kids of all ages on reading the shaped notes that are in our song books.  You don't have to be PB to attend, by any means!
This year, Poodle was one of the "big girls" in her class.  We're not sure if she'll spend one more year in the "little class" or if she'll move up to the "middle class" next year.  So I wanted to make sure I got her on video all 3 days that they performed for the big kids, just in case.  Tooter participated one of the days as well!

This first video is from Day Two (they don't "perform" on day one), and it is of them practicing their Do Re Mi's.




This next video is also from Day Two, and it is the "Thank you for making me" song. I'm not sure what I did wrong with the camera, but I managed to cut off both the front and back ends. Whoops!





And, the last video from Day Two is of "Only a Boy Named David".






Now, for Day Three. This is the day that Tooter was awake and in a participatory mood. It's just one video for the 4 minute performance.






And, lastly, Day Four. Please excuse the shaky camera and the constant reprimands to the Tootman. He was awake that day, but was tired by that point in the week and was pretty whiny. So, between his trying to climb into my lap, not sitting still, general fussy'ness and wanting to hold the camera, the video looks as if the camera person was attached to a hang glider. Oh, and he got to be so much at one point and I had to stop the video and continue it in another segment.
The video starts with Poodle and one of her friends, Abigail, doing a demonstration of "song leading". Poodle got a little off, but no worries!





So, here's the last part of it!

Father's Day Niceness

It was a wondermous day!  The day started, of course, by going to church.  It was hot as blue blazes as it has been here for the past week, but they were patient enough with Mommy to let me get a couple of shots before we left.

J and 2 of his kids - this man is truly a God-send to me and I'm so grateful to be able to call him the earthly father of my children.

After church, we came back to our house....  the plan originally was to have Robert and Audrey and J's father come over for lunch.  (My dad is still in bonny Scotland).  But, J's dad was working, so it ended up being just Robert and Audrey.  And it was wonderful!  We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and just sat around in the nice cool air conditioning.


Well....  not the whole time.  As hot as it is right now, kids still can't stand to be inside all day.

There was ball playing......

Hula-hoop'ing......

(And as you can see by the stringy, wet hair, there was some sprinkler jumping as well).....

MUCH water drinking......

(forgive the bad focus job on this picture).

And some poor, amateur photography.  :-)

I'm attempting to keep my camera on its Manual shooting mode so as to force myself to learn how to shoot good pictures.  Obviously, here, I'm overexposed.  It was so bright outside that I couldn't tell from my viewfinder that I needed to make some adjustments.  And, it was too stinkin' hot to spend too much time with the daylillies.


Overall, it was a lovely day with lovely people, and I for one enjoyed it.  Hopefully, the two dads that were there enjoyed it too!  At least the food was good.
:-)  And the cousins are SO digging being together right now.  Yay for FATHERS!!!!!

Conversations with Monkeys

Me:  Tooter, where's your right hand?
Toot:  Here!  (holds out his right hand)
Me:  So, that makes this your left hand, yes?
Toot:  NO!  That's my other hand!


Scene:
I'm in J's closet hanging up clothes, and Poodle comes running in, breathlessly, after having been at Walmart with Tooter and Jmk.
Poodle:  Mommy!!!  We're back!  And we got Cheetos AND chocolate pudding!  I just ADORE chocolate pudding!

(The "adore" thing made me laugh.  It's not a word I use regularly, and I haven't the slightest idea where it came from.)


Just for my own failing memory, I have to note that Sparkie has been getting the hiccups now for about a week.  Well, I've been feeling her hiccups for about a week now.  I remember, when pregnant with Poodle, that she would get emphatic hiccups every single day (if not multiple times a day) and it was just a "thing" with her pregnancy.  Tooter certainly got them, but not nearly as much as Poodle did.  So, it's just a milestone, for lack of a better word, for me to note when I start feeling the hiccups.  :-)

I have so many updates I need to give out for the family folks - pictures and updates from our swim lessons, videos from this past week at Singing School at church, etc.  And I will get around to those just as soon as......  um........  they add extra hours to a day?  Maybe?  Yikes!

Strange Birthdays

Yesterday was the yearly anniversary of my 29th birthday and it was an odd day indeed.

To summarize: I missed church, sort of lied to my mother, skipped a birthday gathering, and spent most of the day on the couch knitting.

Yep.

See, what had happin'd wuz little Tooter spent most of Saturday night crying, clutching his throat, not sleeping and developing a seal-bark type of cough.  (No, he doesn't actually have croup - his chest colds start off sounding that way and then turn into "normal" coughing after about half a day or so).  Anyway, by the time he woke up Sunday morning, he was running a decent fever so that we were able to brilliantly deduce that he had.....  drum roll.......  a cold.  Yippee!  In all seriousness, I really am grateful that it wasn't anything more than a cold, but he's oh-so dramatic about any type of illness.

So, I skip church to stay home with him and Jmk takes Poodle.  My folks, sister, and youngest brother all left for a week and a half in Scotland yesterday, and my Mom was calling from the various airports letting me know that they made it here and there.  She would ask how church was and ask how the kids are and those types of questions, and I would just.......  not tell the whole truth.  It's not like Toot was really sick, but if I had told her he had a cold and we had skipped church, she would have been all worried for no reason and there was no point in all that.  Heck, he's already acting like he feels fine today, although he's still running a low-grade fever.  And, then, Jmk's sweet mom planned to have us all over to her house after church for a birthday celebration.  SO....  (because Poodle cried when we told her we might not go to SueSue's) Jmk took Poodle and I stayed home with the Tootman.

Toot is really quite pitiful when he's sick and Mommy can't be more than 3 feet away from him during the worst of it.  Else there is much whining and gnashing of teeth.  So, I sat on the couch, watching Disney channel with him and knitted on the wee lass' baby blanket.  When I wasn't actually holding the poor, pitiful little man.  (In his defense, those seal-bark coughs do hurt in the beginning).  It was a quiet, pretty relaxing day, to be honest.  Plus, Jmk came home with roast beef, potatoes and carrots, rolls, chocolate pecan pie and brownies from SueSue's!  YUMMO.  And, you know what - as unorthodox of a birthday as it was, it was a quiet, relaxing day overall.  As busy and noisy as my life usually is, to have a quiet, relaxing day was actually a very nice treat.  Not a bad way to spend a birthday!

And, even though I had to send Poodle off to Singing School at church with another family this morning, we should all be able to be there tomorrow.  Because except for the little bit of fever (and the coughing and such), you'd never think Toot missed a single beat yesterday.  Ahhhh, the resilience of kids!  Now, to keep him relatively calm during the day today so he doesn't over do it.....  good luck to me!

It's 4D Sonogram Time

I had a regular OB checkup today and scheduled the "for fun" 4D sonogram for this morning also.  First, the checkup was fine, weight gain is... ahem... no longer an issue (ha!), blood pressure is fine, all is good.  She's measuring approximately 3 lbs 5 oz which is on target.  Basically all is good!  Praise the Lord!

Mostly today's big fun was the 4d sonogram.  It was fun to watch her open her mouth and eyes in "real time".  She is still lying sideways (which is remarkably uncomfortable, btw), so we're hoping she'll turn and get head down soon.  I couldn't decide which pictures to include, so I just put all of them in there for the grandparents and aunts/uncles.  I really think she's definitely going to have her daddy's nose, but I'm back and forth on the lips.  Some pictures look like mine and some look like his.  I guess we'll just have to wait a couple of months to see for sure, huh?  (Like it really matters - as long as she makes it here healthy, LIPS aren't much of an issue).  Overall, I think she's a keeper.  :-)

Mentally Cleansing? Really?

From the June 2009 of Good Housekeeping magazine,
A quote from Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay:
"Men should always change diapers.  It's a very rewarding experience.  It's mentally cleansing.  It's like washing dishes, but imagine if the dishes were your kids, so you really love the dishes".

lol.....

Yeah.  Um, okay.  I hope he said all that with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.  But I suspect that he was serious.  So, in an effort to be a good blogger, I will translate the above for you:

"I have changed enough diapers to understand the mechanics of it, but only enough that I have been able to romanticize something that is not in the least romantic.  In fact, I'm so out of touch with reality that I don't even have the good sense to know that reading to a child is a rewarding experience.  Singing with a child is a rewarding experience.  Teaching a child is a rewarding experience.  Praying with a child is a rewarding experience.  But, changing diapers, on the other hand, is nothing more earth-shattering than basic routine maintenance and doesn't get anything "cleansed" but the little baby po-po!"

lol..... man.  As we say down South - bless his heart!

Freedom.

Earlier this week, I found out that a friend of mine left an upper management position to take a less-busy position with another company so that she could be with her family more.  So she could have more control over the structure with her family life in general.

::applause for the bold move::

And then yesterday, during the 5 minutes of GMA that I happened to catch, I saw this report.  Now, I realize that a lot of the flex-time that employees are able to use these days is thanks to the increase of viable communication outlets through web-based services.  And fast internet connections.  iPhones and Blackberries.  Web conferencing.  Etc.  30 years ago, flex-time wasn't this doable of a thing.  Now, some companies are taking advantage of this new freedom.  And good for them if they can do it!  And it got me to thinking and thinking....

I also just finished reading the latest Imprimus issue that Hillsdale College puts out.  And that got me to thinking some more......

Obviously, freedom has limits of rational sorts.  For example, I wouldn't be terribly interested in a doctor or a dentist who wanted to provide his or her services via web conferencing.  But as our world changes, so does the way we provide goods and services to each other.

Yay!  This is a good thing!

As long as WE are the ones doing the providing.  There is not one person out there who thinks that the government is going to be better at running GM than the GM execs were.  And look what a mess THEY made of things.  If you really, really want to be sure a package arrives on time - are you going to send it via USPS or via UPS or FedEx?  Honestly?  How often do you choose government services over private services, when a choice is available?  Be honest with me - if you could choose between a "free" clinic and a private doctor, who are you going to choose?  Why?

But, yet, there are so many people who genuinely believe that having the government involved in our private health care decisions is a good idea.  And, I'm not even talking specifics here.  I'm talking about the broad idea of freedom.  To have the government "do it" for us will mean less money in our pockets.  That's less freedom.  It will mean less choices regarding what we can and can't do.  That's less freedom.  It WILL mean someone else gets to make decisions for you, even though you are perfectly capable of making those decisions yourself.  That is less freedom.

I will admit, unhappily, that there are those who don't care much about freedom.  Because, with freedom comes extra work and responsibility, and they don't want it.  And I'm sorry for that.  But, please everyone, please think about what freedom means.  For a lot of working women, it means the opportunity to live their lives as completely as they want.  They can run a major company and still be able to be attend school functions with their kids.  Technological freedom is making it more possible.  But the minute we give up our freedom to make decisions, even the hard ones, then we give up our freedom to manage our own lives.  I know there are a lot of "things" to consider about how "everyone" can have access to good health care.  But having the government decide the who's and the how's and the why's is just NOT gonna work.  I mean, come on.

We can't bring everyone's quality of life to the same common denominator.  Unless everyone goes down.  We can not create a classless society.  Matthew 26:11 doesn't talk about this exactly, but it does bring up a point that we can't avoid.

I just want to urge anyone who is on the fence about this kind of thing to think about the ramifications.  Please.  Taken from Mark Steyn's Piece:

If you're a business, when government gives you 2% of your income, it has a veto on 100% of what you do. If you're an individual, the impact is even starker. Once you have government health care, it can be used to justify almost any restraint on freedom: After all, if the state has to cure you, it surely has an interest in preventing you needing treatment in the first place. That's the argument behind, for example, mandatory motorcycle helmets, or the creepy teams of government nutritionists currently going door to door in Britain and conducting a "health audit" of the contents of your refrigerator. They're not yet confiscating your Twinkies; they just want to take a census of how many you have. So you do all this for the "free" health care—and in the end you may not get the "free" health care anyway. Under Britain's National Health Service, for example, smokers in Manchester have been denied treatment for heart disease, and the obese in Suffolk are refused hip and knee replacements. Patricia Hewitt, the British Health Secretary, says that it's appropriate to decline treatment on the basis of "lifestyle choices." 


I just find the whole idea of incompetent people in Washington, D.C. making decisions about my health care choices completely absurd.  Sort of like trying to imagine those legislators building cars.  They won't do that well either.  Just watch.

And I'm done for now.  I just had to get this off my chest and out to the universe.  Please read the Imprimus piece if you get a chance.

Quick OB Update from today

And it went fine!

Today was the glucose screening test, which I passed, thankfully.  Got my RhoGam shot, found out I was slightly anemic.  I was with Toot as well, so it's not a major thing.  Those dumb iron pills are expensive though.

I start with the checkups-every-two-weeks schedule now.  Yay.  (Can you hear my excitement?)  I remember how fun it all seemed with my first baby.  And now, the hassle of having to either schedule someone to watch the kids or bring the kids with me to all the extra appointments just seems to be a big ole bother.  But, I understand the reasons behind it.  And, it's but for a short time.

We'll have the 4D sonogram next time also.  This is merely for "fun" - it is not diagnostic in nature at all.

And that's it!  Nothing exciting occurred, and for this pregnancy, that's a good thing!

Charlotte who?

In the homeschooling realm, there are almost as many education methods practiced as there are in "regular" schools.  Even inside a single family, a parent may decide to use one method with one child and a completely different method with another child in order to accommodate various learning styles and abilities.

Right now, at the Zoo, my intentions are to follow a "Charlotte Mason" type of education, for the most part.  There are always tweaks and alterations that are necessary, I think, to any type of education in order to make the learning as accessible as it can be to each child.  I will say that if at any time this doesn't seem to be working, we will make quick adjustments as is necessary.  But, for now, this is what we're going to try. If you are like I was a year ago and didn't know Charlotte Mason from Adam's housecat, this is a pretty decent and quick summary of what the Charlotte Mason method of schooling entails:

 From SimplyCharlotteMason.com  

  1.  How does Charlotte Mason view the child?

      The child is a whole person whose education should cultivate the whole person. A child's personality deserves respect, and his natural appetite for knowledge should be nourished.

   

   2.  How does Charlotte Mason define "education"?

      Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.—"By this we mean that parents and teachers should know how to make sensible use of a child's circumstances (atmosphere), should train him in habits of good living (discipline), and should nourish his mind with ideas, the food of the intellectual life" (Vol. 3, pp. 216, 217).

      Education is the science of relations.—The child should form personal relations from a feast of great ideas given through a broad curriculum.

      "They come into the world with many relations waiting to be established; relations with places far and near, with the wide universe, with the past of history, with the the social economics of the present, with the earth they live on and all its delightful progeny of beast and bird, plant and tree; with the sweet human affinities they entered into at birth; with their own country and other countries, and, above all, with that most sublime of human relationships––their relation to God" (Vol. 6, pp. 72, 73).

   

  3.  What does Charlotte Mason say is the role of the teacher?

      The teacher is a guide. She is to carefully prepare the banquet and spread the feast of living ideas by introducing the child to the great people of the past and present who thought up those ideas, then get out of the way and let the child form his own relations.

      "Give children a wide range of subjects, with the end in view of establishing in each case some one or more of the relations I have indicated. Let them learn from first-hand sources of information––really good books, the best going, on the subject they are engaged upon. Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with a warm diluent at the lips of their teacher. The teacher's business is to indicate, stimulate, direct and constrain to the acquirement of knowledge, but by no means to be the fountain-head and source of all knowledge in his or her own person" (Vol. 3, p. 162).

So, there it is in a very small nutshell.  I thought the grandparents might appreciate being able to sort of know the direction we're attempting to follow.  For now, anyway.  :-)

He's OSO special!!!

There's a new show on the Disney Channel that currently comes on at 7:00am during the week.  It's called Special Agent OSO.  And this little bear named OSO has quite captured Tooter's attention.  He will sing the opening song sooo loudly that you can hear him anywhere in the house, no matter what doors are closed between you and him!

Anyway, I finally got it on tape and thought I'd share.  This is way funnier to me and to Jmk than probably anyone else, but here ya go.  :-)  (Oh, and poor Poodle thought she might sing with him, but was sharply rebuked during the middle of the song.  Toot is a performance hog).  And, yes, he's eating breakfast whilst singing.  It is 7am, afterall.

Mother's Day 2009

Just some pictures from a couple of weekends ago:

The family just before lunch after church.

 All of us'ns who went to eat lunch after church.  My family plus my mom and dad and my sweet brother.

Then, we went over to Amy and Jay's house and got to see Jmk's mom and grandmother.  Notice the garden off to the right - not too shabby, eh???

And, here are the winners of the Peas and Carrots pageant.
Or, two peas in a pod contest.  Whatever.
Poodle loves her some SueSue!


It was a lovely day, truly.  And, as my grandmother always used to say - every day is Mother's Day!

Test post of the picture from Amy and Jay's house.  I wanted to see what cropping would do after it was posted.  You can ignore this one!

A, My, The

Some clarification on the sermon that I referenced in the last post:

The quoted verse was II Tim. 4:7 -

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." He was keying on those three little but powerful adjectives.  The point Bro. Philip made exactly was that Paul fought a good fight, not the good fight.  There are many fights that can be fought.  Paul just fought one of them.  There are many courses that can be run, Paul ran his course.  We must run our own course and fight a good fight, but always keep THE faith.  There is only one faith - the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Forever and Amen.

"Run Your Own Race"

Or:
"Keep Your Eyes On The Goal Or You're Going To End Up Running Into The Neighbor's Grass And Falling Down"

Last night, we had a wonderful meeting-of-the-moms with our homeschool support group.  The primary purpose was to bring and share curriculum choices and to talk about things that are and are not working for us as individual teachers.

It was very wonderful for me to have some time to talk with some other mothers who have the same educational philosophies that I do - and to talk about certain book list choices that I am getting ready to put on our shelves.  Lots of good things happened last night, but one thing in particular has been on my mind today.  I was talking with my sweet friend (and church sister) Karen, who was relating to me a sermon that she heard from Elder Philip Conley that dealt with running your own race.  Essentially, keeping your eyes on the "prize", (i.e. Jesus Christ) and keeping your path towards Him straight and true.  There were other things that she mentioned about the sermon itself, but it was how she related that to homeschooling in general that made so much sense to me.  And, as I thought about that concept today, I thought about how it relates to life.  To parenting.  To dealing with children and family and co-workers and friends and clients and neighbors and on and on....

When we're talking about things regarding life as we live it, there are a number of goals that we have for ourselves and our family.  And even if we have the same goal as someone next to us, the path to that goal may be very different.

For example.  In my own family, I want my children to have an education that is part of their becoming whole, well-rounded, vital citizens and that encourages them to become lifelong learners.
But, the path to that same goal is going to be vastly different for Poodle than it is for Tooter.  (And likely as equally different for Sparkie).  Because they are such different people with such different learning styles already.  And it is definitely going to be different for my children than it will be for another family's children.  But, if I am always looking over my shoulder to see what the family down the road is doing, than I'm going to have to take my eyes off of my own goals.  And I'm going to wobble.

Just like watching the kids ride their bikes.  When they are looking straight forward and paying attention to what they are doing and where they are going, then they stay right on the sidewalk and do a great job. But the first time they look behind them to see what everyone else is doing or they start watching their own shadows or they watch a car pass by in the road, they all of a sudden start veering into the neighbor's yard and usually end up either stopping or tipping over.

I realize this isn't a new concept for life in general.  It has probably been the subject of a whole lot of speeches and a whole lot of pre-game motivational talks.  But, it helped me, personally, to be reminded of that last night.  And, I thought that maybe someone else could use that reminder as well.  Just because my friend down the road did something a certain way to reach her goal doesn't necessarily mean that this is the way I need to do it in order to reach my goal.  Whether we're talking about curriculum choices or relationship choices or free time choices or family choices.

There are different paths to the same goal when it comes to life.  And that's why we have a big responsibility to be true to ourselves when traveling down those paths.

Thankfully, there is only one path to Heaven - thru the blood of Jesus Christ.  And, as the song goes....  "I'm so glad that salvation's free".