Winding up the Volume 5 Posts

Blogging over here today.

Something fun and exciting for CMers

Karen Glass explains what's up with this new blog series, here.

"Karen's Doilies": An all-thrifted 10 x 10 wardrobe challenge

It's time for another 10 x10 Wardrobe Challenge, created by blogger StyleBee. You choose 10 items, and use them to create 10 days of real-life outfits. If you haven't seen any of my 10 x 10 challenges before, I do them backwards, or maybe it's forwards: make the plan and take the photos before it starts, instead of posting it as it happens. 

I was inspired by this photograph of coloured-thread doilies, crocheted by the multi-talented Karen Glass.

Lacy, loopy, intricate motifs; in plum and wine colours plus neutrals, and a few bonus flowers.

Here are the clothes

In the photo below are (top) a tapestry-fabric jacket, a cardigan which I love but which got bumped from the list in favour of a poncho (see below); (bottom) a turtleneck sweater dress which works as a sweater (it's showing as brighter blue than it really is), a knitted vest, and a cotton pullover sweater.

One openwork grey poncho, instead of the cardigan, plus its matching circle scarf. It seemed to work better with the crocheted theme, and I already had a jacket for something warm-with-sleeves.

A collarless paisley print shirt which can also be worn as a cardigan, with a pair of dark-wash jeans; and a plum jersey t-shirt with a pair of grey cords.

That makes nine items. 

I had thought about including this skirt, which goes with almost everything including the poncho.

But I added a grey t-shirt instead, because I didn't really have enough tops there for ten days. Also, the coming week is going to be busy with a couple of extra meetings, but nothing dressy enough to need an extra skirt. The sweater dress will take care of anything not-pants.

 Most of these clothes came from the MCC thrift store; the cords came from Bibles for Missions (another thrift store); and the cotton sweater and poncho are from a consignment store.

Accessories

So I'm thinking about Karen's doilies. What do I have that reminds me of those shapes and colours?

Jewelry: some thrifted, some gifts

Closeup of the earrings

Two extras, found at the thrift store

Scarves and a shawl, all thrifted except for the little silk one (I've had it since I was a teenager)

An extra infinity scarf, from the thrift store

Hat made by daughter

Four purses, all thrifted

Shoes, not all thrifted (sorry)

Here's the list

Saturday, February 17 

Plan for the day: Errands (groceries), and finishing an annotated bibliography assignment

Outfit: jeans, raspberry pullover

Accessories: grey scarf with roses (or maybe the pink infinity scarf), flower-shaped earrings, grey boots, grey purse

Sunday, February 18 

Plan for the day: Church, plus leading a class this week

Outfit: Sweater dress, grey poncho (not in the photo)

Accessories: Scarf that matches the poncho. Earrings. Tights, flat shoes. Small purse.

Monday, February 19

Plan for the day: "Family Day" in Ontario, but we have no special plans, so I'll probably be doing online course work, writing a term paper on the value of reading in later life, and doing housework. Or we might go to a local art gallery.

Outfit: cords, grey t-shirt, jacket

Accessories: knitted hat, purse, boots, if we go out. 

Tuesday, February 20

Plan for the day: Thrift store in the morning, "school" in the afternoon

Outfit: jeans, plum t-shirt, paisley shirt

Accessories: Earrings, purse, socks, shoes

Wednesday, February 21 

Plan for the day: Afternoon meeting at thrift store 

Outfit: cords, grey t-shirt, jacket

Accessories: tba

Thursday, February 22 

Plan for the day: At home, doing "school" and housework

Outfit: Sweater dress, vest

Accessories: fleece-lined tights, maybe some beads

Friday February 23 

Plan for the day: Thrift store in the morning, course work in the afternoon, and evening CM study night 

Outfit: jeans, grey t-shirt, vest / swap for poncho

Accessories: tba

Saturday, February 24

Plan for the day: Errands, and finishing off the week's class work

Outfit: jeans, dress as sweater

Accessories: tba

Sunday, February 25 

Plan for the day: Church

Outfit: cords, raspberry pullover

Accessories: paisley shawl worn as large scarf; purple earrings; small purse; grey boots

Monday, February 26 

Plan for the day: At home, working on term paper

Outfit: jeans, plum t-shirt

Accessories: fuzzy socks!

One of Karen's doilies, put to use in the Treehouse

Something to read: what would Socrates say?

Socrates joins the discussion in "Classical or Not?," by Karen Glass.

Put on your sandals and mosey over there for some good food for thought.

Wednesday Hodgepodge: Up and Down

1. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes. Has your April been filled with showers? Do you carry an umbrella, wear a slicker, or make a run for it? Besides rain, what else has filled your April? 

Some years we seem to go almost straight from winter to summer, but this month has been very springy, meaning we've had some warm days, the snow stomped off in disgust, and yes, there's been some rain. People are, as usual, over-eager to buy things at the garden centres and get something into the ground, but around here they really should wait a bit, because frosts can sneak up.

I am not really one for walking in the rain just for fun (sorry, Charlotte Mason).

What else has filled our April? If you're just popping in here for the first time, One Word: Moving. The rest of you already know that.

2. What's something you could you give a 30-minute presentation on at a moment's notice and with zero preparation?

I have sort of done that, more than once. Usually it's been on a homeschooling topic, like ways to stretch your budget and re-use what you have.

3. Share with us a favorite food memory from childhood.

Food memories: Campfire Pie Irons. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were the best, alhough the filling got hotter even than a McDonald's fried apple pie. But bologna and cheese ones were good too.

4. What's a song you thought you knew the lyrics to, but later discovered you were wrong?

"Fly Robin Fly," by The Silver Convention. When I was younger, I thought (for no good reason) that they were saying "Fly Muffin Fly."

Muffin says, "What???"

5. According to one travel website, the most overrated tourist attractions in America are-
Niagara Falls (NY), Hollywood Walk of Fame (California), Times Square (NYC), Epcot (FL), Seattle Space Needle (WA), and Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market (Boston). How many of these have you seen in person? Did you feel like a tourist? Did you care? Tell us about a place (not on the list) you've visited that might be considered a tourist trap, but you love it anyway.

I have been to Niagara Falls and Epcot Centre. I used to walk past the C.N. Tower in Toronto all the time, but never went up there, and I probably never will. Too expensive, for one thing, and (okay I admit it) going up that high just scared me. A lot. But we're moving to the almost-top-floor of an apartment building, so we can just pretend we're up there.

Since I seem to be in a You-tube mood this morning, here's what's going through my head:

6. Your signature clothing item?

Do I have to have just one? Here's my 10 x 10 Wardrobe Challenge for our pre-move.

7. What's an experience you've had you think everyone should experience at least once? Why?

Not sure about that one! Sometimes things we're glad we went through...weren't that fun at the time.

How about....having a job with a boss that you don't entirely like, or that you don't think entirely likes you, and having to stick it out anyway? Good practice in relationships and the way the world works. (See #8.)

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Not my own thought, but something from a friend:

"And parents are persons. Teachers are persons. Each of our homeschools or our classrooms is unique, and the way things are this year might not be the way things are next year. So we adapt, according to the principles we know. If the weather takes on a deeper chill, we build up that burning fire to keep the room warm. If a child is struggling in math, or we’re adding another first-grader to our homeschool this year, or we have a chance to visit a foreign country, or…fill in the blank with your own special need…well, we have some solid principles to guide our decisions about curriculum, and language study, and schedules." ~~ Karen Glass, "The Spirit and the Letter of a Charlotte Mason Education"

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Five interesting things you should read today

1. If you're at all interested in the era of the Spanish Armada, or just like good book talk, and you happen to be registered at the AmblesideOnline forum, you should check out the recently-begun discussion on Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! Before I ever knew what that book was about, or much about Charles Kingsley either, I assumed that anything called Westward Ho! must have something to do with covered wagons. Westward, for Kingsley, meant westward from Britain, across the Atlantic--and not necessarily to the location you'd think, either. Anyway, come join the first-time-through readers for some speculation about whether Rose will become a worthy heroine or not.

2. Karen Glass recently posted about a startling painting she saw in London's National Gallery.

3. To Sow a Seed posted on the fulfilling aspects of work.

4. Donna-Jean posted about the importance of "morning by morning."

5. A Holy Experience posted about what it means to be brave.

All worthy of your time and attention.

Consider This makes it clear (book review)

I remember when homeschoolers were first reading Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's For the Children's Sake. It sounded nice, but we had to scratch hard for the how-to's. That led many of us to the newly-reprinted CM Series books, and we started to find out where the most useful bits were, in all those pages. We all seemed to be hollering for practical, concrete, and writers like Catherine Levison obliged with concise CM-made-easier books. How to do copywork and narration, what Charlotte Mason said about math. The operative verb seemed to be "use": we "used" Charlotte Mason.

In more recent years, it seems that the most common questions of CM methods, though still sometimes misapplied, are well-understood enough to allow CM discussions to return to the big picture, the philosophy. This is very welcome, especially for those who may not be actively homeschooling but who find more and more wisdom in Mason's writings. As I wrote here in a review of Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page (2013), talking about Charlotte Mason has become less homeschool-ish, more of a larger effort to value people and their families, homes and communities; a new understanding of why relationships matter, possibly because those things that were once taken for granted are now rare commodities. Susan Schaeffer Macaulay wrote regretfully about people seeing children just having fun playing outdoors together as unusual, families reading together as unheard of; that was thirty years ago, and things are worse than ever.

So when new CM books are published these days, they tend not to repeat the "user's manual" information; we seem to agree now that it's time to stop "using" Charlotte Mason and simply learn from her, as she learned from those who came before her. The Living Page discusses notebook keeping and the "blank page" philosophy in new ways. Karen Glass's book Consider This (2014) focuses on wisdom-in-action, examining a long classical tradition of character-centered education. The interesting thing is that all of this ends, like the best CM lessons, with the opportunity to do something about it: to find a blank book or, if need be, staple some pages together to write down favourite quotes; to sprout some seeds, to read a book, to look for loveliness. In a way, we're back to the ideals of happy family life described in For the Children's Sake. It's time now, and we need it more than ever.

If I were to make a word cloud of Karen's book, particularly the last, most hands-on chapters, I'd choose words like this: We need to begin with a life-giving, relational, synthetic (putting-together, making connections) kind of thinking and learning that begins with relationships, and involves delight, loveliness, wonder, enthusiasm, heroes. Much of that learning is going to be centered on names, words, language, books; books that make us want to know more, that show us that there is order in the universe, that truth exists and that we can know some of that truth, though we need the humility to see that we will never know all of it. We will incorporate analysis, picking-apart, facts and terminology, when they are useful and necessary, but the main focus, for most of the school years, will be synthesis.

In a way, you could skip the buildup to Karen's later chapters (but don't do that, the earlier part is interesting on its own); even stop worrying your way through Charlotte Mason's books, at least temporarily; and focus on what is indeed practical and concrete. Eat apples. Sprout seeds. Sail twigs. Read stories together. Narrate them back. Act kindly. Sing hymns and silly songs. Have courage. Learn to be a mensch.  It's not only that everything fits into something else, but everything you've tasted and touched and read fits into you.  Our learning is a gathering together. It is putting together and seeing wholeness before we try to take apart and analyze fragments. As parents and teachers, we need to provide a healthy learning environment, to offer ideals to strive for, to teach habits of right thinking (and right acting), and to allow children opportunities to think, to explore, and to act.

If that is classical, I'm in.

Things I'm doing today

Re-reading Karen Glass's book Consider This. I have had this in e-book for awhile, but recently acquired a hard copy.

Shoveling snow.

Folding laundry.

Marking math.

Serving leftovers.

Classical: depends on definition

Karen Glass has a thoughtful post on her site, about the definition of classical education and why that definition really matters. I am especially taken with her paraphrase of Archilochus:

"I do not like a diploma from a prestigious alma mater, nor a Latin quotation, nor a teacher who is proud of his knowledge. Give me a man who knows what he does not know, but speaks the truth, asks the right kind of questions, and is full of wisdom."

Teacher training this week

"Teachers are the lifeblood of the success of schools. But teaching is a creative profession. Teaching, properly conceived, is not a delivery system. You know, you're not there just to pass on received information. Great teachers do that, but what great teachers also do is mentor, stimulate, provoke, engage. You see, in the end, education is about learning."  ~~ Sir Ken Robinson

Reading:

Consider This, by Karen Glass (done re-reading)
The Seashell on the Mountaintop, by Alan Cutler (done and reviewed)
All for Love (done)
Why Geology Matters, by Douglas Macdougall
How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, by Edward Hirsch

Watching:
Sir Ken Robinson, How to escape education's death valley  (TED talk)

Crocheting check-in, and a note on gauge (now with photos)

Last weekend I posted some notes about our first crochet class. The girls (and a couple of moms who came) all did splendiferously. Later that day I went to Walmart and picked up a big skein of blue Red Heart Super Saver, and two smaller multicoloured skeins of the same. You'll see complaints about RHSS all over the Internet, but I like the colours and it's affordable (especially at Walmart), so I keep using it.

I decided to use some of the blue yarn to make a hat for the Apprentice, like the red one shown on the cover of that pattern book. I often do "forget" to do a sample swatch and check the gauge before jumping into a project (yes, I know it's one of the ten rules), but this time I wanted to be really careful. Good thing too, because it took three swatches and two changes of hook before my stitch size lined up with the pattern. But I got it worked out, and the Apprentice liked her hat fine. (Photo coming)

So I started a second hat, using the Primaries mix above. This time I didn't bother to check the gauge, since I had worked it all out the first time. And you can guess what...it turned out bigger than the first one. Not miles bigger, but enough that I probably should have gone back to the original hook size. Same Red Heart Super Saver--but the multicoloured yarn was slightly heavier and also had a bit different texture (what RHSS critics call "scratchy").

Go figure.

Crayons said she would like that hat, even though it was a bit big, and she also requested a smaller one for one of her dolls.  The doll has a side ponytail, so I left a gap for her hair.

I also brought home some scrap yarn from the thrift store: the fuzzy, furry eyelash kind. I used it to make a long, skinny boa scarf--two strands held together to make a long chain and then three rows of double crochet. Almost three, because I ran out of yarn just before the end of the last row, but it's not too noticeable. Fuzzy eyelash yarn isn't a great choice for beginners, because it's really hard to see where your stitches are--I just guessed as I went along. On the other hand, it's very forgiving, even if you run short of yarn or have to work in a lot of ends (the yarn was in small balls and scraps that I had to work together), because mistakes just disappear into the fluff.

Did any of you try the bead bracelets or the snowflake ornaments? Have you been making anything else? Crayons has been making jewelery for her dolls this week. My friend Krakovianka does awesome things with thread--but if you want a lesson in that, you'll have to go to Krakow.

Around the holiday Blogosphere

Or post-holiday, for some people. At the Treehouse, it's still the Twelve Days of Christmas, and some of the Squirrelings are getting over Christmas Day coughs and sniffles. So we haven't been doing too much.

But everybody else seems busy!

Krakovianka is crocheting.

Ann and her children are sewing corn-filled warming bags.

Meredith is yardsaling and blowdrying her hair. (Too many good posts there to link to all of them.) (I like those vintage thank-you cards! I bought a bag of old cards like that at a rummage sale, but they're mostly 1960's get-well and sympathy cards! Not so useful.)

The Deputy-Headmistress continues her series on Victorian homekeeping with Aunt Sophronia.

Tim's Mom tells about their Christmas and shares a not-too-spicy cookie recipe. And Tim thinks the message of Christmas is just bananas.

Christmas sparkle

Meredith has a way with Christmas greens. And oranges. And bananas.

The Deputy Headmistress does Christmas Crafts.

And Krakovianka posts about St. Nicholas and this year's Christmas in Poland.

Mama Squirrel's reading list

Working on:

Paradise Lost. (You didn't think I bought it just to class up the coffee table, did you? I am in Book II and thoroughly ENJOYING IT. I don't think I enjoyed it so much in university; funny what twenty years will do for you, post-pregnancy idiocy aside.)

Breathing Lessons. (Re-reading. Maggie's off-to-college daughter asks her, "Mom, was there a point in your life when you just decided to be ordinary?" Ouch.)

Done:

Erewhon. (Krakovianka, I'm sorry, I dutifully worked my way through this and even read most of the weird boring parts about unborn babies pestering potential parents so that they could get born; but I still don't really get it.)

Peter Pan and Crystal Mountain, with Ponytails and Crayons.

Tales of Little Grey Rabbit, with Crayons.

When the old rules change

This post started out as a conversation--actually many conversations, many of them with Mr. Fixit. Then it graduated to scribbles and arrows on the back of a computer printout; and now I'm trying to make something coherent out of it. So you'll understand if it sounds like I'm coming from a lot of directions at once.

What we're talking about here is the thing that we call frugality, simplicity, or just making ends meet. The world has changed--not just in the last 50 years, but in the last 10 or 15. And the rules about how you make do on less (by choice or by default) have changed. I'm not sure if the principles themselves have changed, but the ways we apply them have. [Update: I keep using the word "rules." I don't like it, but it's hard to come up with another word a bit less severe. I mean it more in the sense of "rules of the game, how you play" than "rules to follow or face banishment." OK?]

The rule for thrifty transportation used to be, buy a decent used car and keep it fixed yourself. (If you couldn't get away with the bus, a bicycle, or a horse.) Up until a couple of years ago, the Squirrels had never owned a new car; we never needed to. Mr. Fixit had the tools and the know-how to buy and service older cars that still had some mileage left in them. Other than gas costs, we spent very, very little money on those cars. They were cheap to buy and insure, and if they were well taken care of, they hardly ever had to go to a garage. When they eventually died, we replaced them with similar cars.

Then came the new run of cars that aren't worth buying used. They're poorly made to start with and they have fewer user-serviceable parts. Most of the "old grandpa" cars are gone. Add to that the new realities of emissions testing, smaller parking spaces, and changes in insurance, and suddenly doing things our old way is no longer an option.

So Mr. Fixit's new rule is "find something new and moderately priced, and take care of it as well as you can (that includes things like taking it easy on the gas pedal)."

The problem of "the new things just aren't as good" applies to all kinds of things:

1. The last potential new Treehouse we looked at was about 12 years old; the windows and the roof already needed to be replaced (apparently those are the first things to go in new slammed-together houses).

2. Mr. Fixit's stereo equipment was bought in the 1980's; two of the components needed repairs this year (which Mr. Fixit managed to do with the help of the Squirrelings), and that was the FIRST TIME EVER that they hadn't worked. Try getting that mileage out of something off the shelf now.

3. FarAwaySis bought us a food processor for a wedding present. It's had several new parts over the years; there's a small fixit shop near us that used to do that sort of thing, no problem. And it's still running. But now the fixit shop is just about out of business. Nobody's bringing their food processors and whatsits in to be fixed (you'd put a new motor into something that's cheaper to buy new?), and they can't get the parts anyway.

4. Grandma Squirrel bought a new sewing machine, top of the line in 1960. She sewed on that thing--and she sewed a lot--for forty years. Mr. Fixit bought me a new sewing machine for Christmas, and he had to really look to find something solid (he chose a commercial model). And I still don't expect forty years out of it, even though I do like it very much.

5. You can get smaller and smaller on this track of things, from houses to cars to sewing machines to band-aids that don't stick and pencils that won't sharpen. The Squirrelings play with my old Barbies because the heads of their own new ones have broken off. The point is the same: mass production and moving a lot of manufacturing to third-world countries have cost us all in quality. Stuff is cheap and plentiful, but it doesn't last--small things, big things, very big things like houses. It can't be fixed, or if it can, the repairs cost more than the replacements. And you can't send houses to the junkyard.

And that means, thrifty friends, that the rules have changed. It's harder to find good stuff that's WORTH hanging onto, fixing, re-using, recycling. New laws mean that you can't even resell some stuff that someone else could use--like car seats, cribs, older cars.

Here are some of the rules [of the game, or guidelines, or principles, however you want to say it--see update above] we're currently operating under. Most of the ideas are not new--we just have to work harder at thinking of new ways to apply them.

1. Avoid excess. Everything from the plate of cookies at the office to most of the junk sold at yard sales (and I love yard sales), the gifts given for every occasions, and garages stuffed with everything. The concept of buying less and using less still works. Take fewer pictures, buy shoes that match more of your clothes, make simpler birthday cakes (without character pans).

2. Stay behind the trend. Buy the older version if you can still make it work. Sometimes this is possible now that we have the Internet--because you can buy gizmos and parts on E-bay to keep an old whatsit going. Mr. Fixit has bought older cell phones and their battery packs online--and he keeps them going.

3. Stay WAY behind the trend. Mr. Fixit's latest thing (well, you weren't going to blog about this yourself, were you?) is trying out a vintage razor, a mug of shaving soap and a brush. (You can buy those on E-bay too.) He says the soap feels better on his face, and besides, it's one less pressurized can of shaving cream in the dump.

4. Focus on time, people, and space--three things that deserve more attention than stuff. Do non-techie things together.

5. Have a favourite hobby or two--not twenty with different stuff for all of them. Put time into learning something that will pay off or benefit you and your family instead of just being short-term fun. Like making salsa, or learning to fix things (what things there are left that are fixable), or starting a rock collection.

6. Take Krakovianka's approach to decorating--go for the natural look, pottery and that sort of thing vs. plastic and particle board. Wood is still wood, and clay is still clay.

7. Use what you have (the Deputy Headmistress's approach). George Washington Carver used different colours of mud to make paint for buildings (I read that in Krakovianka's favourite book about him). Use whatever you have better and more creatively.

8. Don't focus so much on the cosmetics of things, stewing over just the perfect colour or style. I once read about a woman who had just been through a find-your-style seminar and shopping makeover, and then she went on vacation and lost her luggage (all her new clothes) at the airport. She said something like, "I didn't let it get me down at all! I just thought, I'm a beautiful person in less-than-perfect clothes, and I'm going to have a great vacation anyway."

We haven't re-papered or painted the Treehouse living room since we've lived there. Which means the paper's been up since the 1970's. It's even been patched in one place (although you have to look close to notice). We just preferred to use our money on some comfy furniture before we got around to making the walls look better. It doesn't make any difference to what we do in the room or whether we're happy there.

9. Sometimes say, "that's good enough," and leave it at that. Accept the natural way of things, like the Sultan in Jane Yolen's The Sultan's Perfect Tree (who learned that it's okay if the leaves fall off in the autumn).