How they found Pluto, not to mention Neptune (Book Review)

The Search for Planet X*, by Tony Simon.  Basic Books, 1962.  Issued in paperback by Scholastic, #TX 691.

This is a long-lost treasure for homeschooled students!  "My favorite book as a kid," says one Amazon reviewer.  Another says, "I remember reading this fascinating book, a selection of Scholastic Book Services, when I was hospitalized at age 9. I still remember the nurse coming into the room way after midnight to demand that I turn off the light. I couldn't do it. Planet X had me."

"Planet X" isn't science fiction, but true science writing for kids (roughly upper elementary through middle school).  It's about, first, the search for Neptune; because something was throwing the orbit of Uranus out of whack, and the odds were that the something was a planet.  But after confirming Neptune's existence, astronomers thought there must be something more dragging it out of its normal pattern.  And after years of searching...there was our ninth planet.

Or our ninth planet-that-was.

How did they do it?  Why did they do it?  Who were the key "space detectives?"  (I should be writing copy for the backs of Scholastic books.)  Clyde Tombaugh, of course, gets quite a bit of the story, since he was the astronomer who located Pluto.  (You do know, don't you, that an eleven-year-old Parent's Union School student came up with the name?)  Clyde Tombaugh becomes more than just a name, or the photograph of an old man peering into a telescope that's included in another of our solar system books; in this story, he's a curious, slightly geeky kid who can't get enough of stars and telescopes but can't afford college, but who then lucks into the job of official Planet X-searcher.  One of the reviews says that we don't know what Tombaugh thought of Simon's book, but actually there's a letter from him included as an epilogue.  It starts, "Your saga of the discovery of Pluto is told interestingly and with understanding in this book.  You have caught the spirit of the search for the elusive ninth planet..."  I think that was commendation enough.

Tony Simon pulls out the entire bag of non-fiction writing techniques here:  using images of planet-searching such as looking down at a ballroom floor full of beads, only one of which is moving; making use of fiction techniques such as dialogue; using short paragraphs, but not dumbed-down language.  Those who would like to write children's non-fiction could find this book instructive.

But I think its primary appeal would be to children who can still appreciate the romance of star-searching.  Yes, "Planet X" has been demoted to a dwarf planet; but that doesn't diminish the story of its discovery.  (And the Neptune story is interesting too.)

This would be a great addition to a study of astronomy.  The book is long out of print, but inexpensive copies are still available through online sources.

*The scientists in my family want me to mention that Pluto is no longer "Planet X," first of all because it has a name, but second because it lost its planet status.  So the search for "Planet X" goes on.

CM Quote for the Day: Everyday miracles are still miracles (Chapter 9)

Towards a Philosophy of Education, by Charlotte Mason.  Chapter 9, "The Way of the Reason."

"Children should be brought up, too, to perceive that a miracle is not less a miracle because it occurs so constantly and regularly that we call it a law; that sap rises in a tree, that a boy is born with his uncle's eyes, that an answer that we can perceive comes to our serious prayers; these things are not the less miracles because they happen frequently or invariably, and because we have ceased to wonder about them." 

Lessons from the poorhouse: The Hidden Art of Homemaking

We recently visited a museum in our area, one we'd never been to before although it's been there for years.  Small museums are typically housed in old mansions, or in school buildings; but this one's on the site of a former "House of Industry and Refuge."  The county poorhouse, in other words, and it functioned under that name until the 1940's.  It's a very solid-looking building, three stories high, with large grounds that originally held fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

Although there are other exhibits in the museum, like a log cabin simulation and a WWI trench, it's the blown-up photos and the in-your-face information about the building's history that seem to steep the whole place in unhappy memories.  As it says in the exhibit, once you were in this place, it was unlikely you'd ever be out.  The poorhouse wasn't an overnight shelter; it was a life sentence. (Occasionally young people, often children who had grown up there, were placed out as apprentices, but that didn't always work out, so they returned.)  The one thing that the "inmates" had in common, whether they were old or young, disabled or healthy, was that they had nowhere else to go.  Nobody wanted them. 

In 1992, PBS broadcast a series of programs called Millennium. One episode's title was taken from an African saying, "The Poor Man Shames Us All." In certain cultures (some more "primitive" than our own), there would have been no concept of allowing members of a community to be brought to such a point of desperation; people just took care of each other. In other words, the worst thing wasn't that there was a poorhouse; it was the fact that there had to be a poorhouse.  In some ways, the county administrators could boast that they were doing more than some other places to make sure that the poorest people were cared for...even having a poorhouse was considered something to be thankful for. Residents had a roof, clothing, food; oranges and hankies at Christmas. It was better than starving to death. But as Dickens said, "many would rather die."

Years later, the people who lived there have been reduced to a series of large, disturbing photo images on the walls of their "home"; is that so much different from their real-life existence?  Why are the faces in those photos so tortured and hopeless?  Was it just from years of poverty, added to mental illness or diseases such as TB, or was it not having anybody to really care for them (beyond each other or the few staff members who helped with their basic physical needs), and having no place to call their own?

The faces staring out from the walls must have been some of the most disconnected, splintered, lost souls of that generation.  Many of them had kind of flunked their life-management exam, and feeling like that is pretty depressing.  Others were there because loved ones had left or died; also depressing. That's a quick judgment, of course.  I don't know.  Maybe some of them were actually happy to have a permanent home, somewhere they felt safe.  Maybe some of them were Christians.  But the overall picture looked pretty grim to me, especially when you figure in the number of people who really needed more than just a home, needed psychiatric treatment, addictions counselling.  Maybe it wasn't so bad on a nice day if you were picking apples or something...but there's a lot of lostness about those photos.

What does that have to do with The Hidden Art of Homemaking?

Simple: all people need homes.  Homes should be part of blocks, neighbourhoods, communities, circles of people getting wider as you go on.  We need to create and preserve communities where people are not allowed to just disappear because there's nobody left to care.  But we start with homes.  Not necessarily two-parent-two-point-five-biological-children families; just places where people are reminded, through words and atmosphere, that their lives are important, and that they belong to the world.  It might be your own home; or it might be the "homey" atmosphere you help create in a classroom, a daycare, or a crisis centre.  Sometimes home can be a day place, even if you find a bed somewhere else.

So don't ever think that there's anything small or insignificant about making home places.

Yet another spaghetti sauce recipe (slow cooker)

Using what we had...the Apprentice said she liked this one, except for the chunks of pepper.

Mama Squirrel's Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb. ground beef or other ground meat
2 little cans pizza sauce
1 little can tomato paste
1 cupful (more or less) beef broth
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 11-oz. package Europe's Best Roasted Gourmet Grilled Red & Yellow Pepper Parrilla (frozen grilled peppers), thawed in the fridge
Hot pasta for serving

Brown and drain the ground beef.  In a slow cooker (or a pot on the stove or a casserole in the oven if you prefer), combine the browned meat, pizza sauce, tomato paste, beef broth, and garlic powder.  The standard instructions would probably be to cook it on High for four hours, but if the meat is browned and hot, really you are just heating the rest of the ingredients through too, so you can probably get away with less time or with cooking it on Low.  If you're going to be home, you might try starting it on High and then turning it down to Low after awhile.  If you're cooking it on the stove or in the oven, just cook it all together till it's sauce.

Just before serving, I cut the grilled peppers up into smaller pieces and stirred them into the sauce.  They were still a bit frozen, but the hot sauce cooked them quickly.  They added some bulk and a bit of colour to the sauce.  You could use other vegetables instead, maybe mushrooms.

Serve on pasta, with cheese or whatever else you like.

Gardening Quote for the Day (Hidden Art Chapter 6)

"A Christian individual or organization should not move into a property and turn it into a shambles.  The opposite should be true.  It should grow and blossom into a place of beauty, demonstrating something of the wonder of the One who made plant life to produce seeds in the first place."  ~~ Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Photos by Mr. Fixit.  Copyright 2013 Dewey's Treehouse.

Linked from the Chapter 6 Linky at Ordo Amoris Blog

CM Quote for the day: This is indeed a debatable world ("The Way of the Reason")

"These Ten Marxian Maxims give us ample ground for discussion not for lectures or for oral lessons, but for following for a few minutes any opening suggested by 'current events,' a feature in the children's programme of work. But they must follow arguments and detect fallacies for themselves. Reason like the other powers of the mind, requires material to work upon whether embalmed in history and literature, or afloat with the news of a strike or uprising. It is madness to let children face a debatable world with only, say, a mathematical preparation. If our business were to train their power of reasoning, such a training would no doubt be of service; but the power is there already, and only wants material to work upon."

Photo of riot drill in Cali, Colombia, from May 22 "24 hours in pictures" at The Guardian.

Gardening Quote for the Day (Hidden Art Chapter 6)

Edith Schaeffer on the therapeutic value of gardening:

"Oh, the frustration and the monotony of not being able to be creative because of feeling that there is no time to pursue any of 'the arts', and that one must simply do the 'office work', or whatever is our daily work, and collapse at the end of the day!  A change can be as restful as any other kind of rest, and a change which gives fulfilment to otherwise hidden and suppressed creativity can do even more than 'rest' in releasing frustration."  ~~ The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Gardening Quote for the Day (Hidden Art Chapter 6)

"The day the first tips of green are seen, if they are your seeds, planted by your own fingers, there is a thrill that is surely similar to producing an art work, a thrill of accomplishment mixed with the reality of what is, what exists, what the universe consists of." ~~ Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Photo by Mr. Fixit

What's for supper? Chinese meatballs

Tonight's dinner menu:

Pork meatballs with homemade honey-garlic sauce
Reheated rice mixed with a few frozen vegetables
Celery sticks, cut-up green pepper, baby carrot sticks

Choice of melon balls, oranges, pears
Pieces of a Euro chocolate bar.

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Term 3, Week 8

This is a four-day school week because of Victoria Day.

Tuesday

New Testament: finish Saviour of the World this week

Poetry and The Aeneid: finish “Aeneas Seeks Aid From Evander”

Arithmetic: finish Key to Percents Book Two, page 10

Natural history: continue The Search for Planet X by Tony Simon.  Finish “Off Course Again,” start “Percival Lowell”

Sight Singing

Repetition: work on passage from Matthew 16

History: Augustus Caesar's World, “Of India and the Hindus”

People Pages

French: Lesson 8, "George’s Kite." (Translation of this week's passage: George is very clever. He has made this kite himself. The kite is taller than George. The artist has painted a house, a little dog, a man, the moon, and a bird.) You-tube video: watch “Trotro et le cerf-volant.”

Afternoon work


Wednesday

Natural history: The Search for Planet X, continue “Percival Lowell”

Balance Benders Level 2

History: “Pater Patriae” (very short) and “Buddha and the Kingdom of Truth”

Sight singing

Arithmetic: page 11, Writing a Percent Statement as Two Equal Fractions



Composer study: Handel, Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, No. 10 in D minor.

Geography: Lesson 2 on Devon, “North Devon.” “The combes along the north coast lie between the spurs of Exmoor, which come down to the water’s edge.”

People Pages

French

Thursday

Old Testament: continue Lore Segal's The Book of Adam to Moses

Poetry and The Aeneid: start “The Trojans Besieged.”

Arithmetic: continue previous lesson, page 12

French

Picture study: later pictures of Matthijs Maris

History: “December 25, Year 1”

Repetition

Love's Labour's Lost

Afternoon work

Friday

New Testament: Saviour of the World

Poetry and The Aeneid: finish “The Trojans Besieged.”

Arithmetic: continue previous lesson, page 13

Drawing lesson

Citizenship

People Pages

Singing

Recitations

"What can we do?": Crafting a Home (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5)

Sometimes Edith Schaeffer's favourite phrases make me a little crazy.

"It is possible," she keeps saying in Chapter 5 of The Hidden Art of Homemaking.  It is possible to learn to weave your own cloth.  It is possible to make your own pottery.  It is possible to blow your own glass, and all the rest of the things she lists.  And then she jumps off into the topic of play houses for children.

She does clarify this, at one point, and says that she's not suggesting that everybody do everything on her list.  Which is a good thing.

For one thing, serious crafting is expensive.  Making candles or macrame plant holders, not so much; and recycling fabric to make braided rugs can be an inexpensive hobby, according to the Tightwad Gazette; but even good-quality knitting and crochet yarn, and the related hooks and needles, aren't cheap.  (I like to crochet but it's mostly with thrifted and discount-store yarn.) And I don't have any old woollen clothing to cut up for quilts and rugs.  One wool coat, that's all, and I'm still wearing it. (Although I do know one lady who turns squares of old polyester and Crimplene into amazingly nice comforters for MCC.)  Woodworking tools, a sewing machine, painting gear all take money and storage space.

Also, you get better at any craft as you learn to do it, but it takes time to learn to handle big projects.  Treehouse readers may have noticed that in the last couple of years I have said fewer bad words about the "evil sewing machine."  However...there are people out there who are even less confident about making stuff than I am.  I hear it all the time:  "I'm not crafty, not even one little bit."  "I couldn't do that."  "Who has time?"  Sometimes, like me, "Who has money?"  And whose fault is that?  Could it possibly be craft gurus in the magazines and on TV who have turned Making Stuff into something that needs an advanced degree, a special studio, a whatsit machine from Michael's before we can even think of starting?  Even Edith may inadvertently scare us away when she starts talking about pottery wheels and glass blowing.

But look at her bigger picture.  Even look ahead to the gardening chapter, where she's talking about growing morning glories in a rooftop garden, during the Depression.  A packet of flower seeds and an old tub didn't set the Schaeffers back much; but it was more than most people would have thought of doing.  Remember that list of nouns?  Imagination, beauty, connection with the natural world and so on.  Rather than wilting with intimidation before those with better tools, bigger budgets, or longer-honed skills, look at the small places you could start.  I personally can't keep houseplants alive, but you might find joy in a pot of African violets or basil or cactus.  (I have a lovely pot of artificial flowers (see photo) that I bought on clearance at Michael's, and both its cheerful colours and the fact that I don't have to water it make me very happy.  Also, Dollygirl made a very realistic vaseful of tissue-paper flowers from the directions in a Klutz book.)

Remember my post last year about the online book Mary at the Farm?  Mary gets a lesson in "you could turn these old faded clothes into something beautiful" from her Aunt Sarah.  (I've never figured out why she hauled a trunk of unwearables along on a summer visit, but whatever.)  She's getting married and wants to make her house beautiful; Aunt Sarah points out the possibilities for recycling skirts and dresses into comforters and "collar bags." 

"Mary, sometimes small beginnings make great endings; if you make the best of your small belongings, some day your homely surroundings will be metamorphosed into what, in your present circumstances, would seem like extravagant luxuries. An economical young couple, beginning life with a homely, home-made rag carpet, have achieved in middle age, by their own energy and industry, carpets of tapestry and rich velvet, and costly furniture in keeping; but, never—never, dear, are they so valued, I assure you, as those inexpensive articles, conceived by our inventive brain and manufactured by our own deft fingers during our happy Springtime of life..." ~~ Mary at the Farm

As Edith points out in other parts of the book, she just wants people to have spaces to live in that make them feel happy, safe, encouraged, connected; that turn dull and same into original and beautiful.  Beautiful can cost a lot, but it can also be cheap or free.  Beautiful can take huge talent and lots of time, or it can be a quick perk-up with some paint.  And since what's simple for me might not be for you (something I could run through my sewing machine vs. something you could nail together in your workshop), having that common goal gives us an extra opportunity to work together and maybe inspire each other.

All photos copyright Dewey's Treehouse.

"Treasured Possessions" (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5)

Heirloom-quality tablecloths, candlesticks, silver spoons, fine bedcovers? I don't relate much to the particular home-making items that Edith Schaeffer recommends we acquire in Chapter 5.  A candlestick wouldn't necessarily make a hotel room "homier" for me (and do hotels allow you to burn candles in the rooms, anyway? I'm thinking it might be a bit dangerous). 

And Edith knew as well as anyone that "lifetime" treasures could easily be lost or broken.  It was her sweaters that got chewed in the opportunity-for-recycling incident she describes in this chapter, and her wedding china that reportedly got broken by the Schaeffers'constant stream of houseguests.  Moths (mice?) and rust corrupt, cigarette sparks make holes, and careless guests break dishes.  It's a bit of a paradox that Edith describes, in such detail, the value of having your own special stuff; but that she could also see possessions as belonging, ultimately, to the Lord; that dishes and rugs could be somewhat expendable in the service of the Kingdom.

I do have a few treasured family items, but they're not the sort of things you'd want to cart around in a suitcase or that you'd use to dress up a temporary space: a piece of red glassware that was my grandmother's, a Psalter in German script that was passed down through her family, some photographs, my mother's earrings, and so on. I don't think those are the "treasured possessions" that Edith was talking about.

"What about me?"

I think she was shooting more for two types of home-related treasures. One would be just familiar, everyday (but also beautiful and individual) home stuff that becomes so much a part of your life that you, or your family, can't imagine home without it.  These days, instead of silver spoons, we might think of afghans or scrap quilts, pottery coffee mugs or bowls, a something-a-day calendar (somebody recently mentioned one with daily paintings), personalized pillowcases. 

And her point is that if you don't have any homey stuff like that, then you need to get busy and find some, or make some, or let your kids make some.

The second would be seasonal, ritual-type treasures, things like Christmas ornaments or a birthday plate. (Remember the Red Plates you could buy for special days?  The RedPlate.com site mentioned in that post is defunct, though.)

(Photo found here)

I'm thinking about my grandparents' move to a granny flat, after forty years in one house.  Somehow they managed to make their new living room look something like the old one.  My grandpa still had a special chair, and some of his steam-train memorabilia.  Grandma's coffee table was still topped by a particular millefiore paperweight.

I'm thinking of my own lifetime of moves and temporary living situations (summer places, university rooms), and there were quite a few; some achieved "home" and "connection" more than others.  When my sister and I were in university, our parents moved to a smaller house, and they had the attic space converted to bedrooms so we'd have a place to stay.  The nicest thing my dad did was to ask the carpenter to build bookcases for me around the staircase railing; it was a kind of "welcome home" even though I lived there for only a short time.

My biggest concern with this chapter, or rather its meaning now, isn't so much whether our treasure is silver candlesticks or something else; it's that, I think, the youngest ones among us--say the young adults and then that generation of grandchildren now making an appearance for many of my own friends--don't seem to cherish much that doesn't come from a big-box store (I don't mean couches and washing machines, but electronics).  Stuff is cheap, easy come, easy go; if something breaks, it often costs more to repair it than replace it, so out it goes.   They're more likely to make themselves feel at home somewhere by pulling out a laptop or an electronic device and playing a game or some music.  

There may be a small positive side to this in that our next generation feels less materialistic than their parents or grandparents; that is, they don't see themselves as caught up with "things."  They're less likely to register for wedding china and then cart it through several moves over a lifetime and then leave it to the grandchildren et cetera.  The prices on (used) Royal Doulton figurines have taken a dive in the last few years.  But this also means that they're not taught in the same way to care for things, to preserve, to treasure.   So here's the last point: if Jesus said to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth, isn't that a good attitude to have?

Maybe.  But as Edith says...without any material connections, we risk becoming splintered, unsettled.  Our longings for a home on earth may simply reflect our longings for home in heaven, but while we're here, can't we make our homes places that we care for, and where we know we are also cared for?

"She loved Clarence very tenderly; when he was yet a tot, she taught him to be gentle with all that he touched.  She began this patient instruction by giving him a rare piece of early Staffordshire, a milkmaid with a brown cow.  She taught him to lift the piece with great care and dust beneath it.  Over and over again, he did this under her watchful eye, with never a chip or a crack, Father, and he was but a toddler!  All that love pouring into him is today poured out into his beautiful [carved] bowls and animals and walking canes."  ~~ Jan Karon, Light from Heaven

Related posts:
Interior Decorating and The Friendly Giant (Chapter 5)
What Can We Do? Crafting a Home (Chapter 5)
Homemaking thoughts, Home-making blogs (Chapter 5)

What's for supper?

Tonight's non-repeatable dinner menu:

Casserole made of leftover brown rice, smoked sausage, a cupful of beef broth, and a bit of pork stir fry that The Apprentice made on Wednesday

Hot spinach dip: thawed frozen spinach, seasoned and heated in a skillet, with a cupful of cream cheese heating in the middle

Carrot sticks, mini pretzels, fresh crusty bread (from the Euro store where Mr. Fixit got the sausage)

Choice of Polish doughnuts (also from the Euro store) or strawberry crisp with yogurt.  The crisp wasn't very crispy when it came out of the oven, so I sprinkled on the end of a box of flaky-crunch cereal that The Apprentice brought home from university.

And that's why this menu is pretty much non-repeatable.

Homemaking thoughts, home-making blogs (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5)

Here's a three-question summary of The Hidden Art of Homemaking, chapter 5.

What kind of place do you live in?

What kind of place would you like to live in?

How can you make your (current) place more of that (imagined) place, so it's more your place, and more His place?

And here's a bonus question:

Is there a Christian "decorating" ideal?  Or an "ideal" Christian decorating style?  What do you think the inside of a Christian home should look like?

Does that last question exclude non-Christians from being good interior decorators?  No, of course not.  But since Edith Schaeffer is talking about reflecting God's artistry, there should be a visible consciousness of God's truth, beauty, and creativity in the homes of "Christ-followers."

Photo from Curtain Queen blog (a blog worth checking out!)

Edith has a whole string of nouns for this: imagination, personality, originality, purpose, charm, usefulness, beauty, interest, restoration, order, caring, wholeness, connection, balance. Abstract as those words are, they do give us a picture of what we could be ourselves, by living in rooms that show interest (vs. dullness), restoration (vs. falling apart or discarding), connection (to God, to the natural world, to our own roots, to each other).
There should be something about our homes that says "Welcome Here."

Not only to guests, but to us. 

Maybe it's with words, on a dish towel, on the wall.  Or maybe it's a wordless greeting.

Photo from Coffee Tea Books and Me. 

Maybe it's a place to sit down.

Photo from The Common Room Blog.

Maybe it's a shelf of good books. Maybe it's the art, the music, the flowers, the food (all chapters in the book).  Maybe it's everything together.  However you create it...

Home Making is the Home You Make.

Related posts:

What Can We Do? Crafting a Home (Chapter 5)

Treasured Possessions (Chapter 5)

Interior Decorating and The Friendly Giant (Chapter 5)

How we reason ourselves into right (CM Vol 6 Quote for the Day)

"But it must not be supposed that reason is malign, the furtherer of ill counsels only. Nurse Cavell, Jack Cornwell, Lord Roberts, General Gordon, Madame Curie, leave hints enough to enable us to follow the trains of thought which issued in glorious deeds. We know how Florence Nightingale received, welcomed, reasoned out the notion of pity which obsessed her, and how through many difficulties her great project for the saving of the sick and suffering of her country's army worked itself out; how she was able to convey to those in power the same convincing arguments which moved herself."  ~~ Charlotte Mason, "The Way of the Reason" (Towards a Philosophy of Education)

Robert Harris, A Meeting of the School Trustees, 1885

How we reason ourselves into wrong (CM Vol 6 Quote for the Day)

"He shall be Thane of Cawdor, and, behold, confirmation arrives on the spot. He shall also be king. Well, if this is decreed, what can he do? He is no longer a free agent. And a score of valid arguments unfold themselves showing how Scotland, the world, his wife, himself, would be enhanced, would flourish and be blessed if he had the opportunity to do what was in him. Opportunity? The thing was decreed! It rested with him to find the means, the tools. He was not without imagination, had a poetic mind and shrank before the horrors he vaguely foresaw. But reason came to his aid and step by step the whole bloody tragedy was wrought out before his prescient mind." ~~ Charlotte Mason, "The Way of the Reason" (Towards a Philosophy of Education)

The Hidden Art of Homemaking, chapter 5: Interior Decorating and The Friendly Giant

This You-tube video, if you've never seen it, is a clip from the program Clean Sweep. Several years ago when we had a satellite dish, it used to come on right around the time we got home from church on Sundays, and the kids and I would get a quick lunch and watch. You know what happens after they blow the whistle? Everybody gets busy and hauls EVERYTHING in that room out to the yard, for sorting and a whole lot of discarding. Some of it, they junk--the dirty, the useless. Some of it gets sold in a big yard sale. The best stuff gets kept and incorporated into a new room design.



I learned several things from watching this show.

1)  Many of our houses contain several-times-over-enough stuff already to be beautiful, functional, and express our dreams, values, and individuality.  At church we are watching a DVD series with Dallas Willard, and in yesterday's session he stated that humans are "treasuring creatures."  Our "things" are important to us; they give us identity; they give us comfort.  As Edith Schaeffer says, they also give us continuity when housing has to change or life gets difficult.  It's not unnatural to want to have treasured possessions, cherished things.  Sometimes they remind us of people we love, or places we've been, or special times.

What Edith Schaeffer didn't deal with so much, around 1970, was the problem of Too Much.  She didn't talk much about shopping addiction, hoarding, or just getting stuck with a load of somebody else's possessions. The issue of creative homemaking for us now is often cutting down, cleaning out, detaching ourselves from enough of the "stuff" so that we can cherish the most meaningful, most memorable, most beautiful.  Charlotte Mason talks about using our will to make choices, rather than just accepting whatever default options present themselves; in making our homes more homelike, that would include making conscious choices about the things you want in a room, and what you don't want.

2)  If you're letting it get dirty, piled over with junk, even mouse-inhabited (like one Clean Sweep family's "heirloom clock"), then maybe you don't really care about it.

2b)  Honesty time:  abandoned projects and hobbies, clothes that don't fit, mousey clocks, big buying mistakes--let them go.

3)  If you do care about something, then use your newly-cleared-out space to use or display it.  On one episode, the Clean Sweep decorator framed some fabric and glued on treasured but hidden-in-a-box dried rosebuds.  As I recall, the decorators also found ways to display Scout memorabilia (after deciding that it WAS really important to the owner), and odd pieces of inherited furniture (ditto).  That doesn't mean that you have to turn EVERY dried flower into art, or that EVERY ex-Scout should have his/her badges on display (or should even keep them).  That's where individuality happens.

3b)  I don't know if this came up on Clean Sweep, but sometimes, especially with children, "treasures" that were once loved can be outgrown.  A good clue is if the dust on the model horses is now an inch thick.

4)  At least on Clean Sweep, a good carpenter seems to solve a thousand problems.  Once the clutter is out of the house, the re-do usually follows two different streams:  the decorator works with colour and the look of the whole thing, and the organizer usually gets the show's carpenter to build some kind of a wall unit in a family room or dining room, or a work island in a workshop, or a neat loft bed with storage.  Sometimes it's just shelves in a closet, or extending a too-small desk.  This is not to say that all storage problems need to be tackled with a router; only that sometimes the piles get piled because there is no good place to put things, even important things.  Backpacks get dumped if there are no pegs to hang them on. 

Again, even good shelving doesn't solve the problem if (as they say on the show) you're trying to cram twenty-four feet of books into twelve feet of space.  But it does look better than stuff every which way.

5)  The last thing I learned on the show, and on other similar programs:  that little bits of comfort are important.  Not having grown up in houses with huge bedrooms (and not living in one now either), the idea of having a "sitting area" in a master bedroom, or in the corner of some other room such as an office, is one idea that's not intuitive for me.  When I was growing up, we just sat on the couch.  But the de-cluttering and re-do shows do this all the time, and it's not that complicated: usually a chair, a light, a little table, a pillow or throw, maybe a bookshelf nearby or a basket of things to read or write in.  If space allows, maybe a coffee table and another chair for a friend.  Just like The Friendly Giant. (photos here)

Related posts:
What Can We Do? Crafting a Home (Chapter 5)
Treasured Possessions (Chapter 5)
Homemaking thoughts, Home-making blogs (Chapter 5)

Linked from Hidden Art of Homemaking linky for Chapter 5 at Ordo Amoris.  (Link Fixed!)

Dollygirl's Grade Six: Plans for Monday

Monday

Old Testament:  continue Lore Segal's The Book of Adam to Moses

Arithmetic:  Key to Percents Book Two, pages 6-7, Using Cross-Products to Make Equal Fractions

Studied dictation:  from The Fellowship of the Ring

Outdoor Break

Repetition:  work on Scripture memory passage

Geography:  Begin working on Devon, including map work  (my favourite maps for this are at d-maps.com, but there's also a good one at lonelyplanet.com)

People Pages (year-long notebooking project)

French:  Hachette Illustrated French Primer.  "Nous sommes en hiver.  Il y a de la neige et les enfants au sortir de l’école font des boules de neige et se les jettent.  Il y a deux garçons sur le mur."  Review the phrase "il y a."  Goal for the end of the week:  to use the given phrases to describe the picture.

French song:  Raffi,  "Y a un rat" (a bilingual version)



Afternoon work:  readalouds, other projects.

Crissy Clothes: Sweet Sweet Suede**

We bought a fabric grab-bag at the thrift store, but most of it turned out to be half-sewn leather and suede scraps.  Maybe it was unwanted stuff from a  factory?

I used a piece of lightweight soft green stuff to make this shirt.  But I wasn't sure what to do with the rest. 

Then I saw a piece of purple suede in there that wasn't too heavy for dolls, and it just called out "Crissy."

The vest is vintage Simplicity Crissy pattern 8519.  The purse I put together from a scrap that was left.

I used the same pattern (8519) to make a suede jumper, but the first one turned out pretty short (even for Crissy, the mini-skirt girl).  OK, we'll just call it a tunic.  I was surprised, though, that the pattern was so skimpy--usually Crissy patterns are sized correctly. (Looking at the photos on the Crissy And Beth sewing page, though, I think it WAS meant to be very, very short.  And I do remember skirts at the time being very, very short.  But we like Crissy to be just a bit more covered.)

I tried again with a piece of cranberry-red suede, and cut it longer.  This one turned out knee-length.  Just for fun, I put the fuzzy side of it inside, and left the "back" side for the outside.  Both Dollygirl and I thought it looked better like that anyway.  Dollygirl thinks the jumper will look really good with Crissy's burgundy turtleneck.

Cost of outfits:
Pattern:  free download--cost of ink and paper, not much
Bag of suede scraps--$1, and we still have some left.
Thread and snaps--all on hand, didn't cost much
TOTAL for jumper, tunic, vest and purse:  maybe $2?

Seems like a "suede" deal to me.

 **That's a joke for Electric Company fans.  Doesn't Morgan Freeman's outfit look a bit like Crissy's purple stuff?

Linked from Hidden of Art of Homemaking linky (Chapter 5) at the Ordo Amoris blog.

Love To Dress Up: 18-inch Doll Clothes (Book Review with Photos)

All these outfits were sewn from patterns in Love to Dress Up: 18" Doll Clothes, by Lorine Mason.  I liked the idea that you could mix and match the popular "fat quarters" from stores like Wal-mart (something readily available for us, even in Canada), although I ended up using thrifted fabric and bandannas to sew the sample outfits.  The clothes are pretty and contemporary-looking (unless you don't want them to be, see wrap dress below).  Some of the patterns are basic enough that you could use them for your doll "go-to's" if you didn't add extra embellishments, such as the shorts that match the smock top (bottom photo).

We wanted a 30's-style wrap dress for Kit. The pattern in Love to Dress Up is a more contemporary, shorter style; but all I did to change it was lengthen the skirt and use a calico print instead of something brighter.

Did I say anything somewhere about not liking to sew bias tape around bolero jackets? Well, I did it anyway.  I do have to mention about the sun dress, that it would NOT have fit any of the 18-inch dolls without pattern adjustments--too snug around the chest. Crissy was the only one it would fit. The green and pink dress fabric is a bandanna; the purple bolero is from a pillowcase.

Crystal's smock top and matching shorts, sewn from a bandanna and some plain blue fabric (for the shorts). You can't see it in the photo, but the shorts have stripes of bandanna fabric sewn down each side (it's in the pattern).  This would make a cute pinafore pattern too if you cut the top longer.

I haven't sewn any of the more complicated outfits in the book, but so far the instructions have been straightforward, and the only thing that didn't fit a "standard" 18-inch doll was, as I said, the bolero and dress outfit.  If you go on the publisher's website, you can print out a few corrections to instructions and pattern pieces.  Overall rating:  good.

Photos are by Dollygirl.

Frugality, second (or third) generation (updated with photos)

Our Dollygirl was recently given a Samantha doll by her Grandpa Squirrel.  Samantha is a "retired" American Girl doll, so she was acquired through E-bay.  She is in very good condition and is missing only her shoes.  Samantha, if you're not up on your American Girls, is a well-off eleven-year old from 1904.  Dollygirl wanted her to feel at home, so to speak.

We found out that Samantha was coming last Sunday night.  By the time the package arrived on Tuesday, Dollygirl had already carved out an extra doll-space in her room, made a bed from a box, and contrived some Edwardian-inspired bedding.  

She had previously borrowed a pair of pajamas from her doll-playing friends around the corner, so Mama Squirrel's nightwear services were not required.  In fact, this is one doll setup that Dollygirl has managed almost completely on her own.  (We do have the free downloaded patterns for "Samantha's Pretty Clothes.")

Samantha's homemade bedroom furniture includes not only the bed but a washstand (also from a box) with a Mylar mirror, and a nightstand from a plastic container.

She also has a small (real) copy of The Wizard of Oz (Dollygirl says it's Samantha's favourite book), a Madame Alexander Oz doll (McDonald's giveaway), a sewing basket with an embroidery project that we scavenged from a Little Women treasure chest, and some mini paper dolls (same).  Dollygirl made her a lunch basket with a plastic peach, a Sculpey roll, and a cookie (all things she had already), and she's working on some school supplies.

All without having to so much as shake Dollygirl's piggy bank.  Or ours. (The Springfield doll line, at Michael's, apparently includes some plain black shoes that should fit Samantha's feet, and that shouldn't set us back much.)

I am very proud of my next-generation frugal-hacker.


Linked from Festival of Frugality #388 at The Frugal Toad.

Quote for the day: Dreams are for doing (Parents' Review Volume 2)

Hommerin' the Leather (A WORD WITH OUR BOYS), by J. J. Wainwright. The Parents' Review, Volume 2, no. 2, 1891/92, pg. 422-428.  

"All things are possible, but I shall be astonished, and more than astonished, if Jack should learn Spanish, or, indeed, if he should ever get those bookshelves put up until it is too late; for time is flying, and young Ollendorf, one of our junior clerks who came over from Deutschland only a year ago, has already learned Spanish; and moreover he talks and writes it grammatically, which is what the young Briton who "just picks it up, you know," never does. He has actually learned that language since he made his descent on this country--German, English, and French he brought with him....

"....Ollendorf's pay is only a pound a week at present, but on that he contrives to live respectably and pay for lessons in Spanish, or shorthand, or anything else that will help him to get on in the world. He never halts; his motto is always the same as old Blucher's on that memorable day of June, 'Vorwarts. Wir mussen vorwarts.'"

What's for supper? Inauthentic Chicken Paprikash, but we liked it (recipe included)

Tonight's dinner menu:

Canadian Living's recipe for Chicken Paprikash, adapted to what we had (see below)
Reheated basmati rice
Sweet potatoes
Butterscotch dumplings, because we had a container full of homemade sauce that needed to be used up

Boy, people nitpick a lot.  The Hungarian-born readers (see the comments below the original recipe) certainly didn't care for this version of Paprikas/Paprikash.  I'm sure they wouldn't like what I did to it, either.  But you know what?  Mr. Fixit, whose Schwabian grandma fed him many Hungarian-influenced dishes including Paprikas, thought it was fine.  So don't call Lisa and complain.  (Besides, she can't cook anything except hots-cakes.)

Also, the sodium count as calculated in the sidebar is very high.  Looking at the ingredients, I'm not even sure what's driving it up quite that high.  Probably just the chicken broth (even in a reduced-sodium version) plus the added salt, and then dividing the recipe into only four servings.  A couple of commenters blamed the tomato paste, but the tomato paste we buy, just ordinary store brand, doesn't have salt in it; in fact, we used tomato paste quite a lot when Mr. Fixit was on a severely-reduced-sodium diet, so I think they're wrong.   Possibly the sour cream, although I'd have to check our container to see.

Here's the recipe plus my comments/changes.

Chicken Paprikash to Enjoy (Not to Fight Over)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp (30 mL) olive oil

1 lb (454 g) boneless skinless chicken thighs, quartered --  I used a pound of chicken breasts instead, partly thawed and cut in small chunks

1 onion, thinly sliced; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 2-1/2cups (625 mL) sliced trimmed cremini mushrooms --  I used frozen mixed vegetables that contained diced onion, mushrooms, red peppers, and green beans, plus half a teaspoon of garlic powder

2 tbsp (30 mL) sweet paprika --  I used only 1 tbsp. of "regular" supermarket paprika, plus 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

3 tbsp (45 mL) all-purpose flour

2 tbsp (30 mL) tomato paste

2 cups (500 mL) sodium-reduced chicken broth

1 tsp (5 mL) lemon juice

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt -- or less

1 pinch pepper

1 pkg (375 g) broad egg noodles --  we had leftover rice so didn't cook noodles

1/2 cup (125 mL) 5% sour cream --  we passed this at the table

2tbsp (30 mL) chopped fresh parsley --  left this out

Preparation

In large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium-high heat; brown chicken, 4 to 5 minutes. With slotted spoon, remove chicken to plate. Drain fat from pan.  (I didn't drain anything, because I was using white meat.)

Heat remaining oil in skillet over medium heat; cook onion, garlic, mushrooms and paprika, stirring often, until onion is softened, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add flour and tomato paste; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Gradually stir in broth and bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 1 minute. Return chicken to pan; add lemon juice, salt and pepper.

[Meanwhile, in saucepan of boiling salted water, cook noodles according to package directions.]

Drain noodles and serve topped with chicken mixture. Garnish with sour cream and parsley.

Source : Canadian Living Magazine: February 2012

Hidden Art of Homemaking: On cupcakes and ceramic unicorns, and something more

See, I ain't as cruel and vicious as I seem
Though I do like breaking femurs, you can count me with the dreamers
Like everybody else, I've got a dream...

Toll would like to quit and be a florist
Gunter does interior design
Urf is into mime
Attila's cupcakes are sublime
Bruiser knits
Killer sews
Ven does little puppet shows
And Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns...

~~ "I've Got a Dream," from Walt Disney's Tangled

Obviously the leisure pursuits of the "Pub Thugs" don't line up so well with their means of making a living.  This seems to me a bit of Disney fantasy, however.  Wouldn't Bruiser be busy enough scouting yarn and teaching sweater classes that he wouldn't have time for trouble and mayhem?  How can someone who cherishes ceramic unicorns go around smashing things?  It's also interesting that the songwriters chose stereotypically "feminine" hidden hobbies for the Thugs--we notice that they're not into woodworking, flyfishing, or hockey.  (No offense meant to male mimes or female hockey players.)

However...they do have a point: that anyone, no matter how unlikely, can have a hidden talent or knack for finding beauty that's just bustin' to get out...and for some of us, developing that talent may be what keeps us sane or out of trouble (or bigger trouble than we're already in).

And even if we don't yearn to collect ceramic unicorns ourselves, can we find ways to open up those doors for those around us?  To give our spouses time, resources, appreciation for their interests?  Our children?  Our children's friends?  Are we opening up art, music, literature, natural outdoor beauty?  Even a little, occasionally, is better than NONE, and that's what a lot of children these days are getting--NONE.  Our family has a limited budget for concerts and plays, but we've taken advantage of low-priced and free options when they've come up.  One year Mr. Fixit and the girls took me out to lunch for my birthday--and then stopped off at a local college for a free lunchtime concert of Renaissance music.  But just focusing more on beauty (of all kinds) in our homes is sometimes the right place to start--as Edith Schaeffer explains.

Can we nurture creativity in our church congregations?  I've heard of innovative churches that have art shows...and how sad, when you think of it, that that has to be considered "innovative."  At the church we attend, our music director organizes evenings of instrumental music, often inviting talented musicians that he knows.  As the adult Sunday School co-ordinators for the same small congregation, Mr. Fixit and I have included sessions on Christian writers and other related topics; we also had a guest teacher this winter for a few weeks, a geographer who is completing a book about the ways that God reveals Himself through the natural world.

Can we go even further?  I know of Christian mission and outreach programs that involve art, music, crafts.   Some quilters have a program at a local correctional facility, and they get the women there involved in making quilts for teenage mothers and babies.  Everybody benefits.  I also recently browsed through a book about herbal crafts, and the author described her stint as craft leader of a church summer program.  There were no paper-plate atrocities in her craft room: she had the children making scented wreaths and other things with dried plants and herbs (many from her own garden), real crafts they could be proud to make and pleased to give someone else.

Many churches have traditionally used sports programs to give kids, guys, dads a way to connect.  Mr. Fixit remembers one childhood priest who often seemed more interested in his duties as basketball coach than he did the more spiritual end of things.   But could we also offer pottery?  Poetry?  Not that churches should become funhouses...or that we should pour our resources into building more glorious cathedrals...but that in whatever situation we call "church," in our everyday walk together as well as in times of worship, we could find ourselves in a place where people, believers and seekers, adults and children, discover something beautiful; where something that is too much lost, can be found.

That's my dream.

Open now thy gates of beauty,
Zion, let me enter there,
Where my soul in joyful duty
Waits for Him who answers prayer.
Oh, how blessed is this place,
Filled with solace, light and grace! 

 ~~ words by Benjamin Schmolk, translated by Catherine Winkworth

Linked from The Hidden Art of Homemaking linky for Chapter 4 at Ordo Amoris.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Week Three: Homebodies

This gorgeous sampler pillow was designed and stitched by Charlotte Lyons of HouseWrenStudio.  Can you see the word "homebodies" below the girls?  There's a good closeup here.  Notice what their dresses are made of?  I love it, especially because it kind of reminds me of my three Squirrelings.  (The screenprinted design can be ordered from her Etsy shop.)

(I don't get compensated for showing you this, I just liked it.)

Talents and trust, and the music chapter (Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 3)

"If what we have
we believe we have gotten,
and if what we have
we believe we must hold onto,
and if what we have
is not available to others,
then we will live in anxiety.

"If what we have
we receive as a gift,
and if what we have
is to be cared for by God,
and if what we have
is available to others,
then we will possess freedom from anxiety.

"This is the inward reality of simplicity."  ~~ Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline

I get anxious about the challenges of The Hidden Art of Homemaking, from Chapter 3 on.

Because Chapter 3 is music, Chapter 4 is art, and so on.  Something definite is going to be demanded of me.

I get anxious because I don't think I have "gotten" enough talent in any of those areas to make it worth worrying about.  I get anxious because I would rather hold on to the little I have (hold on to it in private, thank you), than risk being compared with those who have serious talent.  I feel guilty because, out of the small talents I do have, I probably haven't worked hard enough on improving them.  I get anxious because I would not think of nailing leather over a barrel to make a chair.  Joyce Radway,  I am not.

But look, this is what Richard Foster is saying: 

Our creativity did not come from us.  We have not "gotten" it ourselves. It is not ours to hide under the bed with.  It is not ours to obssess over, whether we think we have enough or not enough, whether we have read enough interior design magazines or listened to enough Beethoven CDs.  It has been given to us by God, is cared for by God, and needs to be used, made available to others, in a spirit of thankfulness.

And yes, if there is no real awareness of what is dull or ugly or un-creative, or just too random in our lives; no deliberate attempt to try to improve those things, a bit at a time; then we do need to be dissatisfied, even to repent.  We don't need to set the curtains on fire in an attempt to beautify, as one of Louisa May Alcott's characters did; but we need to be open to trying. (Hmm, that didn't come out quite right--trying to celebrate creativity, not trying to start fires!)

This is one thing I have done lately about music:  bought a couple of new-to-me CDs at the thrift store.  We often have the radio on ("the radio" is a misnomer in this house--say one of many), particularly tuned to a favourite FM jazz station; but again, that is somewhat random.  What I want are a few music choices that I can put on, when I want them, and listen repeatedly.  I don't have any of those gadgets that shuffle tunes and so on--tapes and CDs will do fine, but I want to listen a bit more deliberately.  Right now I'm rotating between a Handel CD (NOT the Water Music, I've heard that way too often), a CD of lute music, and a CD of the original Quartetto Gelato members.  Here's something by QG's more recent incarnation:



Linked from The Hidden Art of Homemaking: Linky for Chapter 3, at Ordo Amoris.

Related posts:
On cupcakes and ceramic unicorns, and something more
Embroidered homebodies
Quote from "Drawing Lessons"

Frugalities and so on (updated)

1.  Frugal: lentil soup made with last night's extra enchilada sauce.

2.  Fragrant: chocolate chip bars just out of the toaster oven.

3.  Tuneful:  the lute CD I bought at the thrift store on Wednesday.

4.  Yellow: a mass of dandelions outside the basement window.

5.  Purple:  a suede vest and fringed bag for Crissy, made from a grab-bag scrap which seemed to have no other possibilities

6.  Camouflaged: the back side of a robin.  Did you ever notice that?

7.  Hopping:  rabbit in the back yard.

8.  Bright: one red tulip, sprung wide open, in the periwinkle bed out front.  Looks more like a hibiscus, or some kind of overdressed opera singer among the everyday purples and greens.  Rabbits, keep away.

Nature quote for the day: CM reviews John Burroughs (Parents' Review Volume Two)

"BOOKS," [link fixed] by "The Editor" (Charlotte Mason).  The Parents' Review, Volume 2, no. 2, 1891/92, pg. 391-394.

"Pepacton, by John Burroughs. The 'Pepacton' appears to be the Indian name for the eastern branch of the Delaware, the author's native stream; and one summer he takes a naturalist's voyage down stream in a boat of his own building, and he tells us all he sees and hears and does as he punts down stream or camps on the banks with the peculiar charm of the Home Naturalist. Now he reminds you of Gilbert White, now of Gilpin, now of Isaac Walton, and you get to know the blue bird, the wood chuck, the hickory, the oriole, just as you know thrushes and tomtits and hawthorn bushes at home. Then, there is in the same little volume an 'Idyl of the Honey Bee,' and, 'A Bunch of Herbs,' wherein he is envious, for no American poet may see such a sight as Wordsworth's 'Host of golden daffodils;'

"but then, does he not give us a list of upwards of forty species of fragrant native wild flowers and flowering shrubs and trees to make up--several of them strangers to us?

"In Fresh Fields, Mr. Burroughs comes to England, chiefly to see what Nature is about with us.

"The publisher (David Douglas, Edinburgh) has done good service in introducing Mr. John Burroughs's 'Six Books of Nature, Animal Life, and Literature' to English readers in 'one shilling volumes.' They are, 'Winter Sunshine,' 'Locusts and Wild Honey,' 'Birds and Poets,' 'Pepacton,' 'Wake-Robin,' and 'Fresh Fields.' We cannot imagine a more delightful birthday gift for an intelligent boy or girl."



(Check out the little girl with the huge hairbow at 1:50!  Some comments on the film are here.)

Book cover photo found here.

Frugalities (doll sleeping bag) and what was for supper

1.  Supper menu: leftover-pork enchiladas, rice, spinach, carrot sticks.  Mixed fruit bowl: frozen blueberries, one sliced frozen banana, two sliced fresh bananas, one and a half chopped apples.  (One half had a mushy bruise, the other side was fine.)

2.  Reuse, recycle: one doll sleeping bag, made from a bandanna and a thrifted, much too small pink terry cloth skirt.  The whole thing took exactly half an hour from thought to finish.  I was just cleaning up the fabric and stuff from recent sewing projects, when I noticed that the skirt and the pink-and-turquoise bandanna looked pretty good beside each other.  I cut the skirt in half, cut off the waistband, and sewed the two halves back together to make one large flat piece (that would fit the bandanna); sewed it right-sides-together to the bandanna, leaving a gap; and turned it right side out, so all the seams were hidden inside.  Then I folded it in half, lining-side-out, and sewed across the bottom and most of the way up the side, to make the sleeping bag.  That's all-- turned it right side out again, inserted a doll (it happened to be Crissy), and gave it to Dollygirl.

Size Note:  if you're making a sleeping bag with a bandanna-sized piece of fabric (or a fat quarter, which would be about the same size), it should be big enough for an 18-inch doll, if you keep the seam allowances small, and leave enough of a slit near the top to get the doll in and out.  This one fits Crissy very well, but she's slimmer and just a notch shorter than the AG and Springfield dolls.

From old shoes to David's nose: what to make in clay (Parents' Review Volume Two)

From "A First Lesson in Modelling," by Mrs. F. Steinthal.  The Parents' Review, Volume 2, 1891/92, pg. 290-292.  Mrs. Steinthal explains how to begin modelling lessons by having the child copy a younger sibling's small shoe.  Then one can go on to grander things...

The pupil must remember that the shoe is not new, and as he must always be very truthful if he works for Madame Art, he must turn up the toes, and put in two or three little creases baby has made with creeping, so that mother will know, at once, that it is a portrait of her dear little baby's shoe, and will give the artist a kiss for it. Now he has only to make a very little roll to go round the top, and smooth the sides with his thumbs, keeping them for this purpose wet, by rubbing them on a wet sponge, and the shoe is ready. Cut it off the board with a piece of string held in both hands, and let it dry. If a brick kiln is near send it there to bake, or cook will perhaps let it stand in a very hot oven, and as the shoe is small it may be made hard enough to hold water and flowers....

If the little artist shows a natural aptitude for modelling, and a pleasure in his work, boots, dolls' cradles, dolls' pumps, horses, and all kinds of toys might be copied. After this it would be wise to begin more serious work. For this I would recommend in order, David's nose, eye, and mouth, by Michael Angelo, casts of which can be obtained in the south from Brucciani, Covent Garden, and in the North from Alberti, 1, Oxford Road, Manchester. Both these firms sell excellent models of animals' heads, 6d. each, which are a great joy and delight to boys and girls.

What's for supper? "P" words.

Tonight's dinner menu:

Pork (with sauerkraut)
Perogies
Peas (frozen)

Pudding (chocolate, homemade).