From the archives: Listen first, knit later

First posted November 2011

Some advice to mothers of young ladies:

"Some people like to live as if they were catching a train. They are really only running after their own tails; they cannot select what must be done this minute, and what can be put off to the next day. Put them where you like; they will still have no leisure. If you want to teach the methodical use of time and orderly habits of mind, you must first learn to show a calm front and have a heart "at leisure from itself." I heard a woman who had many friends spoken of as one "who when you want her advice does not jump up to fetch her knitting before she will listen to you.""--"Girls from Twelve to Sixteen," by Mrs. Hart Davis, in The Parent's Review, Volume 13, no. 2, February 1902, pgs. 81-93

It makes more sense when you see it (Do-Vember #16)

Do-Vember

Scientists experiment. They change the variables and see what happens. What's the optimum range for whatever? How much is too much, what amount is just enough, and how much margin do you have? This kind of testing goes on all the time, everywhere from high-tech labs testing pharmaceuticals, to parents figuring out how long a child's afternoon nap should be or how many toys are enough without being too many, to the people who figured out that Ted Talks should be exactly 18 minutes long.

Sometimes it's nice when someone else does the work for you. If you trust their reporting, it could save you having to reinvent the wheel, or, as in today's Pinterest link, the cake and the cookie. What happens if you put in one egg? Two? Three? How do cookies change if you use white sugar? brown sugar? Some other sweetener? Butter, margarine, or some other kind of fat? You may have seen magazine articles illustrating this before (I have one stuck in my recipe binder that shows different oatmeal cookie results), but the post linked on Pinterest has collected up a few useful ones. It's helpful when the muffins turn out tough or pointy, or the cookies spread too much. Like a scientist, you can ask: what caused that? What do I need to change?

This kind of experimenting is actually something that Charlotte Mason wanted her students to practice--within reason, as they didn't want to waste food on things that wouldn't work. There were times when you might want your little cakes to be richer, or sweeter, or have some other special quirk--so knowing how to adjust a recipe for taste or ingredients was a useful thing to learn. If I were teaching that to children now, I think I'd use muffins as an example: there's a basic formula (I took mine from The Tightwad Gazette years ago), but the special ingredients, amount of sweetener, amount of fat and so on can be up to the baker.  Sometimes you can take advantage of a material's particular quirks: a non-food example would be strips of crocheting that tend to curl and twirl around themselves. That can be a problem, but if you're making legs for an octopus, it's exactly what you want.

But it can be useful just to see someone else's results.

From the archives: Waving our homeschool catalogues, or, what makes a real teacher?

First posted November 2007 (links edited)

Jacci M at "The Educational Life" has a thought-provoking post [no longer available] about the naïveté shared by many new homeschoolers (green as grass, right?): how can we, without formal teacher's training or experience, dare to say we are prepared to teach our children? Her solution is a good dose of Charlotte Mason's books, and I'd go along with that.

However, I'm not so sure that we, coming into homeschooling, are necessarily as unprepared, or as different from any other new teachers, as her scenario suggests:

"She [your child's imagined teacher] smiles a cheerful smile and explains that this will be her first year teaching. Although she went to college, she really has very little actual training in education. Her degree was in history. She did very well academically, though, and has always loved children. She babysat a lot as a teenager and was the oldest of four children. She's looked through teacher catalogs a lot, too, so she feels that she's fairly ready. Understandably, you're a little taken aback. Has she ever taught a child to read? What about handwriting? Does she have experience there? Or math? Did she receive any training in teaching math to young children? What are her thoughts on children's literature? Does she know how she will make sure the children are processing what they are reading? Her answer to all of your questions is, basically, "no". She seems very relaxed about it, though, and very matter-of-factly says that she has the curriculum the school system provided, and she will just learn along with the class."

Yeah, I know, that's how the school system and a lot of non-homeschoolers see us. As if we hadn't yet penetrated the mysteries of learning...as my husband's grandmother used to say darkly, just wait, you'll see.

However, is this hypothetical homeschooler much different from any other first-year teacher? Where I live, a B.Ed. is a post-grad degree, so every new teacher has a bachelor's in something or other--same as this story--plus One Year of Teacher's Ed. Is that long enough to make you an expert in teaching? If lacking one year of university classes and a couple of practice-teaching sessions is all that separates me from a first-year "professional teacher," I don't know why I should feel much behind. In my own pre-homeschool experience (that's up until The Apprentice was four), I would include all the babysitting and so on (and don't make light of that) plus several years of Sunday School teaching, volunteering in what was then called a TMR class, tutoring a special-needs student, directing camp arts and crafts for a summer (yeah, me), doing library music and movement programs for a summer (yeah, me again), volunteering at my toddler's weekly community-centre program, and taking several relevant university courses (developmental psychology, children's literature and so on). Had I ever taught anybody to read?--not from the ground up, unless you count playing school with my little sister. (Did that end up mattering?--well, no, all my Squirrelings have learned to read, with or without my help.)

But even more important than that--I had the luxury of a couple of years of "apprenticing" before I jumped in myself. I went to homeschool meetings and at least two conferences during that time, and I listened. And yes, along with talking to the real-life homeschoolers at the meetings, at church and down the street, I had the privilege of "meeting" Charlotte Mason, Ruth Beechick, Gayle Graham, Valerie Bendt, Mary Pride, Cathy Duffy, and other teaching parents who had written down what they'd learned. Oh, and John Holt. By the time I was ready to, figuratively, take my place at the front of the classroom, I had a very good idea of what was and wasn't going to work for us, and even some idea of why.

And you CAN learn a lot by browsing teacher catalogues--both the homeschool-friendly variety and the other kind. The best homeschool catalogues have detailed and sometimes critical descriptions and comparisons of the products (does anyone else in Ontario still miss Lifetime Canada/Maple Ridge Books?). And the other kind...well, as I've said before, you can learn from what you don't need.

Besides, you're not presuming to sit in front of a class of thirty, waving your catalogue as qualification; you are planning to provide the brain-food for your own children. This week, this month. You do not need a teaching degree to follow AmblesideOnline's HELP crisis plan, to read them a chapter of Understood Betsy and play math games with marbles or cereal. Homeschooling methods are, and should be, somewhat different from public school ones; remember that "we don't have to slice bread with a chainsaw" (a quote from The Common Room).

So while I would strongly agree with Jacci's advice to new homeschoolers (learn from the best parent-teacher-education resources you can get hold of, including Charlotte Mason's works; strive to understand what and why you do what you do; learn the best methods you can and base them on solid educational and spiritual philosophy), I would also like to reassure those who want to homeschool and maybe feel like they're not qualified (didn't finish college or whatever). Understand that being your children's parent, in at least one sense, qualifies you. Yes, you can learn more; and no, a browse through a catalogue is probably not enough to get you going. But you can learn, and much better and faster than the teachers' unions and other naysayers would like you to believe. (Feetnote: Jacci's not a naysayer, just to clarify that.)

I need a pre-holiday jump start (Do-Vember #15)

Do-Vember

It's just over six weeks to Christmas Day, but we're still figuring out plans. It's not a big crafting year for me; I know, I always say that and then an idea pops up and I spend all of November going from one project to another. But no, not so much this year.

I looked in the spot where we keep empty boxes and jars, and realized that somehow we had not kept most of the fishbowl-shaped canned pear jars I wanted to use for decorating. And the store hasn't had any pears lately. We might have to buy some canned beets (I am not a beet eater) and decant them. But I am not buying brand new jars just to put some tea lights in.

On our last weekend trip to Walmart, I picked up a few things that I thought might help set things in motion: the December issue of Canadian Living, which I mostly don't read the rest of the year; two packages of paper napkins; and a set of mini cookie cutters. (I already had the red basket.)  Mini cutters: I could see different possibilities for those. Cookies, biscuits, green peppers, fruit.

Between the magazine cover, the napkins, and the star cutter, we seem to have a bit of a star theme going. I'm good with that.

I just really liked the vintage truck and Christmas tree on these ones!

This isn't much of a year for cookies, either. But an article about bread...rolls, pizza dough, things like that--that's different enough to get my outside-of-Pinterest creativity happening.

Now, if Rold Gold would just bring back their white chocolate star pretzels, life would be perfect.

What's for supper? Almost-free minestrone

Tonight's supper menu: Homemade minestrone soup, with English muffins and whatever you wanted to put on the English muffins (Lydia turned hers into a fried-egg muffin). The soup was "almost-free" because I used up several small containers of leftover pasta sauce and beans that had accumulated in the freezer, along with a box of chicken broth, a bit of frozen spinach, a bit of pasta, and a few mushrooms.

(When you're cooking for two or three, it's hard not to have those leftover half-cans of sauce, beans and other things. One way to deal with them is to put everything in freezer bags ahead of time--make six bags of spaghetti sauce or whatever, and you won't have any stray tomato sauce. Another way is what I just did: use little lunch-sized plastic tubs to collect up the bits and pieces, and then thaw them all out at once when you want to make soup.)

Short Project 333 update: Barely started, already some changes

Have I ever mentioned that I like thrift stores? Our local store lately has been a treasure trove of good stuff. We have been there more frequently than usual for us, three times in the last two weeks to check on the status of that T.V. Mr. Fixit wanted; and I keep finding things. Today's treasure was an oversized deep grey shirt (photo above), that makes me think of kimonos. I also found a pair of grey jeans, and a light blue crinkle-cotton scarf that bled blue dye all over the towel when I gave it a quick handwashing.  (It was an old towel, luckily.)  (I also found some Christmas pinecone crafting stuff that I'll post about another time.)

Occasionally I do buy new clothes from a "real" store, although that seems to be getting rarer. The scarf in the photo was made by a co-operative in India and sold at Ten Thousand Villages. I have a couple of t-shirts coming soon, from a Canadian chain that often has basics in beautiful colours. But that's it for the next while. And yes, I realize that bringing these extra things home is going to change this season's Project 333 into more of a Project 339. But that's okay.

Sixty years of denim (Do-Vember #14)

Do-Vember

Today's favourite Pinterest pin isn't about making anything: it's just a walk down the memory lane of blue jeans.

The Apprentice, age 2

From the archives: Making it Christmas

First posted November 2012 (links edited)

This post is not about the spiritual side of Christmas, because that part of Christmas...the real, Joy-to-the-World Christmas... is there no matter what. This is more about the fun stuff:  the gifts, the food, the trimmings.  The things that take time, take money, or just take thought.  

For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas. Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer, home. --W. J. Tucker

These are not necessarily--in fact they're almost never--the same as the things that are advertised.  They're certainly not along the lines of "buy her a diamond for Christmas."

For some people, Christmas trimmings are new window blinds and ginger beer.

Marjorie Gibson is another Guyanese who believes that Christmas in the USA cannot even come near those she experienced in Guyana.

“In Guyana you would get up in the morning and look over at your neighbour to see what type of blinds (curtains) they put up, if they have new ones. Here the blinds could be up for the whole year and it does not matter,” Gibson stated....“We do have all the traditional Christmas food," [said Marilyn Harper.] "I try to make Christmas the way I remember it in Guyana. I have everything, my ginger beer, sorrel, the black cake as usual and everything.”--"U.S.-based Guyanese Dream of Christmas in the Motherland"

What has inspired your ideas about how to make Christmas?  Or what a really good Christmas would be...realistic or not?

For years, people said "Dickens' Christmas stories."  Plum pudding, holly and all that.  But I think in more recent years a more common answer has been the Little House on the Prairiebooks, slightly ad nauseum. Tin cups, mittens, and a stick of candy, and they were so happy!  For those who didn't bother to read the books, there was always that oh-so-sweet first-season T.V. episode.  And it is a classic, I admit.

Christmas is for children. But it is for grownups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.--Lenora Mattingly Weber

However, much of Mama Squirrel's holiday inspiration has come from a smaller, stranger assortment of books and even magazine articles.  One was a Focus on the Family Magazine article, saved from a time before the Squirrellings were even thought of; it was an adaptation of the Advent and Christmas chapters in Together at Home, by Dean and Grace Merrill.  One was The Light at Tern Rock, about Christmas spent in a lighthouse. Another was Carolyn Haywood's Snowbound with Betsy.

Okay, okay, Mama Squirrel has never quite grown up?  But apparently I'm not the only one who fondly recalls the part where Betsy and the other snowbound children rummage through the storeroom for anything that might make good Christmas gifts.  They come up with all kinds of kid-made crafts, and then have a sort of bazaar and do their "shopping." 

In The Light at Tern Rock, those who end up using a trunkful of stored-up holiday plunder aren't there by choice, but because of a trick by the man who filled up the trunk in the first place.  But never mind about the deceitful lighthouse keeper for now...it's the trunk that interests me, and it's an image that often comes to mind when I'm storing away things like the cans of cranberry sauce I bought on sale today, or a package of candles, or a crocheted bookmark.  Who's the bookmark for?  Sometimes I don't even know...I just keep filling the pantry shelf, and the box under the bed (or wherever it is), here and there.  Then it's just as much fun pulling everything out again and figuring out:  yes, there's enough chocolate for Quick Fruit and Nut Fudge...I still have lots of that blue yarn, enough to make a quick pair of slippers (yes, I do know who those are for)....I saw some cool plaid ornaments in the Chapters Christmas flyer, and I bet I could make something like that with the felt and Wonder-Under in the craft stash...Everyone's "box" is different.  For one family, it's filled with MCC and World Vision catalogues, the ones where a donation pays for goats, soccer balls, clean water.  Their children spend days figuring out what they can give this year.  (Definitely beats the big gimme catalogue.)

And if you get to December and the box is still too empty to look like Christmas?

Then you read, or re-read, Little House in Brookfield (not the abridged version, please) and give thanks for Christmas bread.  Sing a few choruses of "Christmas Day is in our grasp, So long as we have hands to clasp." And maybe read this practical post by the Prudent Homemaker: Christmas on a Zero Budget.

As a postscript to this, there's one other magazine article I saved from several years back.  It also appeared in the Chicken Soup books, and I found a version of it online.  It's about a mother and two little girls who were given a Christmas food box during a difficult year--but the girls, not understanding how "poor" they were, decided to give the whole thing away to a neighbor who was even worse off. ("Even her dog was sick.")  The mother's immediate reaction was "Stop! You're giving away our Christmas!"  Then she thought again: no, that is how you make it Christmas.

Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. - Peg Bracken.

Something to read today, and a quote on malaise and discord

Joshua Gibbs just posted an interesting article on the Circe Institute blog, about whether one classical teacher in a school is more classical than another. He makes the point that the point is effectiveness.

But towards the end, he says something that echoes Charlotte Mason's words on teachers who wield undue influence over students, and also her beliefs on loyalty:

"So, too, the Catholic teacher who incites Presbyterian students to doubt the Presbytery is not making his students into Catholics, but atheists. Once malaise emerges, it is hard to direct. Malaise is like ink in water and becomes diffuse. In and of itself, discord does not kill morale, because man is born into trouble as the sparks rise. A little discord is unavoidable. However, the knowledge that discord is intentionally being stirred up breaks the spirit."

Worth reading and thinking about.

Christmas is coming (Do-Vember #13)

Do-Vember

I recently started a Christmas board on Pinterest, just to collect up ideas that were getting lost under other headings (was that Sewing? Crochet Patterns? Parties?).

Here are some of my favourites so far:

How to fold a disposable cup into a candy box (how's that for Sloyd?)

How to fold a green paper napkin into a Christmas tree

A pretty picture of jars with tea lights inside (but you can't click through for directions, it just goes to a weight loss site). I've actually saved up three or four jars like that this year, since we have a favourite brand of canned pears from Poland (really, don't ask), and they come in large jars. This is something I might actually Do.

Gingerbread Hug Cookies at the Wilton website, just because they are so unbelievably cute. Maybe not that practical, but cute.

Quote for a Sunday: where Isaac Watts echoes C.S. Lewis

"If folly or vice be represented in its open colours, or its secret disguises, let us search our hearts, and review our lives, and inquire how far we are criminal; nor should we ever think we have done with the treatise while we feel ourselves in sorrow for our past misconduct, and aspiring after a victory over those vices, or till we find a cure of those follies begun to be wrought upon our souls." ~~ Isaac Watts (thank you to The Common Room for posting the longer version)

A Crockpot Full of Carrots (Do-Vember #12)

Do-Vember

How could I not be intrigued by a post called "Crockpot Christmas: 30 Recipes for the Holidays?" This is yet another roundup post of links to other sites, hosted on Kids Activities Blog.

So there are recipes for candy, for beverages, for Christmas-morning casseroles, and then some party appetizers and main dishes. I'm not sure what makes the Vegetarian Two-Bean Stew particularly festive, but it does look filling and tasty. Problems: you need to have "trout beans" and Aleppo pepper, neither of which are staples in my kitchen. Mixing cayenne pepper with paprika apparently is a possible substitute for the pepper, and I'm sure there are other kinds of beans that would work.

We do have some serious spinach-artichoke dip fans here, although we usually make a simpler recipe than this one (or just wing it).

But the one recipe I think I am actually going to try (and not wait until Christmas) is Honey Glazed Carrots. As in, with tomorrow night's dinner. You put the carrots in the slow cooker with honey, butter, salt and pepper. Cook on high. That's it.

The backyard rabbits will have their noses glued to the window.

What every woman needs: to stop lustening, stop listening.

Something worth reading today at The Vivienne Files: "12 Must-Have Items? Let's Consider..."

If you read right to the end, you'll see these blunt words:

"Remember, these lists are written in order to make you feel inadequate, and to drive you to go shopping."

This applies not only to lists of must-have clothing, but to homeschool items, organizational tools, and toys of all kinds.

Janice (at The Vivienne Files) points out that not only does every woman in the world not need black pumps, but, in some places, she might not even need shoes. Someone else recently posted about how we all live in certain bubbles that make up our own reality. If our bubbles are too small, we can end up seeming callous or just ridiculous when we start listing "needs."

One of the Vivienne commenters pointed out that women's real needs are love, a way to keep clean, and "a way to get around--a bus, a bike, a camel, a Bugatti." I can think of a few more things to add to that list, but it's a start. To look at it the other way around, those of us who have those needs met (along with the other essentials like food and a safe place to live) are already well-furnished.

The list of must-haves...when we're told (or shown in photos) the ways that we don't measure up...who is writing that list? And why are we still listening?

Why they call it fall (photos)

 

Some thrift-store DIY (Do-Vember 11)

Do-Vember

Pinterest roundup posts often take you through a mess of active and broken links, posts on original websites, and re-posts in different languages. Sometimes the important thing is not so much tracking down the original set of instructions, as just catching inspiration.

Case in point: "21 Thrift Store DIY's That Make Frugal Fabulous."  This is a roundup of home ideas, with links which might or might not be helpful. I like the first one, "Stencil some old plates for a cool wall hanging," not because I want to have plates on my wall spelling out "E-A-T" (like a neon sign?), but because the plates used for the photo are unusually pretty, and because I can think of other three-letter words (or four-letter, if you have four plates) that would work. Maybe J-O-Y? You wouldn't want to use your heirloom dishes for a project like that, but if you found three or four plates you liked at a yard sale or thrift store, it might be fun to try. Or you could paint letters on other objects, like jars.

#4: Painting an upholstered couch? Apparently (I'm very ignorant on these things) you combine the paint with a "fabric medium," and that keeps it from turning into a hard, crunchy mess. And according to the comments on the original post, painting upholstery is a "thing." I had no idea. We actually went through two inherited French Provincial couches much like the one in the photo, but I'm not sure that painting them would have been worth it.

#7 and #8: Anything turned into wind chimes or a glittery vase is the stale end of the recycling loaf, in my opinion. 

I'm halfway through the article, still hoping for something I'd seriously Do. (It's Do-Vember, remember?) Here is #15: Decoupage part of an old purse with a funky fabric panel. That looks fun and somewhat useful, assuming you have the purse and the fabric. Would I actually do it? Yes, if I saw a piece of fabric that I liked. Put that one away for a rainy/snowy day.

Finally, #21: improve a wooden tray with paint and a new covering. That idea is as old as wind chimes and glittery vases, but trays, unlike wind chimes, are very useful and uncluttery. You can use them indoors and outdoors. You can use them as memory pieces if you decoupage photos on them, or collect signatures. You can serve food on them, you can arrange gifts on them. I'm in.

So, no couches or wind chimes, but I'm going to think about stenciling letters and upcycling purses.

Remembrance Day: An image of hope

Woldemar Neufeld, "In the Midst of Life"

From the archives: C.S. Lewis on Peacemaking and Pain

First posted November, 2009

"To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled, by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labour to make us lovable....We are not merely imperfect creatures who must be improved: we are, as Newman said, rebels who must lay down our arms."--C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

 "Lest we should think this a hardship, this kind of good begins on a level far above the creatures, for God Himself, as Son, from all eternity renders back to God as Father by filial obedience the being which the Father by paternal love eternally generates in the Son."--The Problem of Pain

 "Indignation at others' sufferings, though a generous passion, needs to be well managed lest it steal away patience and humanity from those who suffer and plant anger and cynicism in their stead."--The Problem of Pain

 "I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly away at limited objectives, such as the abolition of the slave trade, or prison reform, or factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can achieve universal justice, or health, or peace. I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can....the dentist who can stop one toothache has deserved better of humanity than all the men who think they have some scheme for producing a perfectly healthy race."--from "Why I Am Not a Pacifist" (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

Using up an impulse buy (Do-Vember #9)

Do-Vember

Today's Pinterest project was a simple one: using up some yogurt-flavoured baking chips that I saw at Bulk Barn and meant to use in cookies. Except that I didn't, and they were still in the cupboard.

Recipes for yogurt-chip cookies are, understandably, scarce, but really any oatmeal cookie recipe will do. I found this one that also called for dried cranberries, and I didn't have any, so I just used up all the yogurt chips in the bag. I also didn't feel like making individual cookies, so I baked the whole thing in a 9 x 13 inch pan, and cut it into granola-bar-sized pieces while it was still warm. And that's so easy it almost feels like somebody else did the work.

Give it up for a borrowed Wednesday Hodgepodge

There is no actual Wednesday Hodgepodge this week, so I'm borrowing an old set of questions from the Hodgepodge archives.

1. What song reminds you of a specific time in your life and what is it about that song that makes you remember?

That could apply to just about any song, from something we learned in kindergarten or that my parents rocked us to, to the music that was played at campground dances in the 1970's, to the Christian pop I listened to in the 1980's, and the children's tapes and CDs that were our soundtrack in the 1990's. Or I can go the other way and think of hymns and Christian songs that were sung at different churches over the years. There are pieces I played in piano lessons, or in Stage Band. There are folk songs we sang at Brownies, or in our homeschool, and Christmas songs, and things that were sung in one choir or another. One summer I worked in a camp kitchen with a head cook whose preferences were the Rolling Stones and Killer on the Rampage. Non-stop.

But here's one that makes me think of my grandma. She used to sing it when we went to the beach. (Sorry the sound on this one isn't too good--you'll have to turn the volume up.)

2. What's something you've given up on?

Becoming the next Anne Tyler.

3. What's something you'll never give up on?

Books made of paper.

4. If you had to cook something from scratch in the next hour what would it be?

Does that include putting ingredients into the bread machine?

Well, stay tuned and maybe I will come up with something from the Pinterest Do-Vember files.

5. Have you started Christmas shopping? Decorating? Listening to Christmas music?

Music, no way; although a music-loving friend has been talking about a Christmas album by Josh Garrels that is coming out soon. Sometime I would also like to get hold of the Mitford Christmas album, just for fun.

Decorating, also, no way; I just got rid of the October pumpkin. (I cut it up and steamed it in a pot, but the smell was a little off so we decided not to eat it this year.)

Shopping: yes, if you count a bit of mail-ordering.

6. What do you know about your parent's wedding?

They were married in the neighbourhood church I grew up in, the same church where Mr. Fixit and I had our wedding thirty years later. At least two of their grandmothers were there, and both of those grandmas lived within a few blocks of the church. It was the middle of summer, and very hot. Everyone wore hats (well, the ladies anyway). My dad's brother was a florist, so he probably arranged the bouquets and corsages (he did our wedding flowers too).

7. I can't believe I ___________________....

...am this old, and not still chopping garlic to Eddy Grant, or singing "One Little Elephant Balancing" in the kindergarten classroom, or listening to Keith Green on my Walkman. Time all collides together, and here we are in 2016, the morning after a historic U.S. election, during a week of horrendous wet November weather, with my youngest Squirreling away for the day at high school and staying afterwards for Robotics club (she takes photos), browsing through Pinterest pinnings, and trying to figure out what music goes with this stage of life.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I thought that last bit was rather random already. I'm going to leave this space open for a possible random update later in the day.

The regular Wednesday Hodgepodge will return next week.

From the archives: When cooking is like homeschooling, or vice versa

First posted in October, 2005. The Apprentice was 13 and doing Homeschool Grade 9. Ponytails had just turned 8, and Lydia (Crayons, at that time) was 4.

Yesterday the Squirrelings took a walk with Mama Squirrel (in this insanely warm October weather) and we decided to pick up some bananas at a gourmet food store that was on our route. It's the sort of place that's fun to browse in but also a place mostly for Serious Cooks. There are bottles of olive oil that cost as much as wine, more kinds of cheese than there probably are cows giving the milk for them, and jars of capers and all such things that have very limited use for the Treehouse brand of cookery. Crayons got to try a sample of cheese that had chopped oranges sandwiched in the middle--that got mixed reviews. We ended up buying the bananas, a piece of Gouda, and a two-dollar chocolate bar to split later for dessert.

Does Mama Squirrel know how to cook? Yes, she puts three meals on the table every day for the five squirrels, along with the occasional company meal, Christmas dinner and birthday cake. (All right, Mr. Fixit does the turkey roasting. And he cooks some meals on weekends. And makes pancakes.) Does Mama Squirrel know how to cook with $40 olive oil and capers? No, and the squirrelings wouldn't eat it if she did. Would Mama Squirrel know how to work a shift in a restaurant kitchen? Does she know how to make a roux? No, although she did work one summer with a chef who showed her how to bump lettuce, chop onions with a mean-looking chef's knife, and squish garlic. What are the Squirrels having for dinner tonight? Farmer's sausage sitting on some sauerkraut in the crockpot, frozen perogies, and some vegetable yet to be decided.

Does Mama Squirrel know how to teach the Squirrelings? With modesty, she thinks that the Squirrelings seem to read, write and figger as well as most other kids. Are the Squirrelings socially competent? Have they missed out on not having to share their Legos with the rest of the class? No, they still have to negotiate for the pieces they want and refrain from bashing each other. Is Mama Squirrel happy when she sees not one but two pairs of feet sticking out from under the Chev Caprice during an oil change on a beautiful afternoon? Oh yes. (And Ponytails would be under there too if Mr. Fixit would let her, but this activity is restricted to those who are actually getting Dad-credit for Transportation Technology.)

Does Mama Squirrel buy all her groceries at the gourmet store or her teaching supplies at the teacher's store? Nope. Does she get her recipes from Gourmet, or her teaching ideas from whatever the teacher's magazine is? Nope. The last time she made a dessert from a magazine like that, she ended up pushing raspberries through a sieve and making this cream thing, having to chill the thing about three times, and ended up with something that pretty much resembled raspberry yogurt. The last time she flipped through some classroom ideas, she was dazzled (not) by the fun little ditties we could sing about making people graphs (in a previous post) and the wonderful idea of demonstrating the letter D by having children paste dimes on their letter D's.

Does that mean professional chefs and professional teachers are wasting their time? No, it's just that Mama Squirrel has other things to do than sieve raspberries and paste dimes. She'd rather eat the raspberries and spend the dimes.

And that's the difference between classroom schooling and homeschooling. Bon appetit.

My grandma didn't make sweet potato bread (Do-Vember #8)

Do-Vember

But I'm going to try this recipe anyway.

Today's Pinterest project is inspired by the roundup post 25 Old-Fashioned Recipes Your Grandma Knew By Heart. Pie crust, biscuits, apple pie, and cranberry sauce. My grandma liked to cook, but I doubt that she made all the things listed, and not by heart. She was more of a church cookbook kind of cook.

Sweet potato bread also sounds like a good chance to use the mini-loaf pans that don't get used too often.

Done!

Eyes Open in Advent (Book Review of All Creation Waits)

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss (Paraclete / ISBN 978-1-61261-785-5 / 112 pages / Paperback / $17.99)
www.paracletepress.com

"Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spend enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature." ~~ Meister Eckhart, quoted as a preface to All Creation Waits

In his review of All Creation Waits, writer Brian Doyle refers to it as a "sidelong" book, which I take to mean indirect, something like a parable. In twenty-five short readings, accompanied with woodcut illustrations, Gayle Boss takes you on an early-winter walk around Lake Michigan, with stop-offs to visit skunks, foxes, porcupines, and other local inhabitants. What are they doing at this time of year? As "all creation waits" for the Advent of the Saviour, animal activities are lyrically described, but without much added-on interpretation. This is not a book of prayers or Scriptures; the animals are not analogies; they do not think of much beyond shelter and food, and they have no imagined sense that Christmas is coming. It reminds me more of Prayers from the Ark, or some of the Christmas readings that take the viewpoint of the cow and the spider; or the muskrat scene at the beginning of The Long Winter.

A sample from the chapter "Whitetail Deer":

"Gliding through the woods in groups of two, three, or four, their coats the color of brush and bark render them nearly invisible to us. So when, in October, we see herds of them out in the open, it seems a curtain has been pulled back on a secret society. They know the cold is coming. Banding together against predators, they forage widely in the fields before their food freezes, or vanishes under snow.

"But then, a drive deeper than feeding seizes them. By November both bucks and does, restless, verge on reckless. Trumping food and wariness, the primal urge to reproduce one’s self and one’s kind surges with the winds of the coming, killing cold."

This book would be most suitable for families with children, who perhaps are looking for something non-commercial but also not directly Bible-related for Advent reading times. [One possible note of caution: there are occasional references to mating which might or might not be appropriate for some families.] It could be useful for homeschoolers, or for those who need a set of readings for less-usual, out-of-church situations. It is a good reminder that the animals are (still, thankfully) all around us. Their stories are a (sidelong) glimpse of the way God creates and sustains them--and us.

Statement of disclosure: I received a complimentary e-copy of this book for purposes of review, but I was not otherwise compensated for this review. All opinions are my own.

Why I didn't bake or crochet anything today (Do-Vember #7) (UPDATE: Link fixed)

Do-Vember

Did I mention that some of my Pinterest interest has to do with clothes? I don't exactly have a mood board, but I do have some pictures pinned of colours I like, boots I could imagine wearing, and so on.

I wasn't going to post any changes this winter to my Project 333 list, but a five-dollar trip to the thrift store made me re-think the plan for the next three months. Here it is. (LINK FIXED)

And now that that's settled, I will get back to searching through the more crafty, I-have-to-try-that side of Pinterest.

(If you want to know why we went back to the thrift store, Mr. Fixit decided to put a bid in for that old television set.)

The Essential is Invisible: Notes from the L'Harmas Retreat, October 2016

"What is a rite?" asked the little prince. "Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all." ~~ Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince

My autumn rite for the last four years has been to attend the L'Harmas Retreat, a Charlotte Mason-inspired weekend held in Kingsville, Ontario. It is created by the combined vision and work of a local C.M. learning community and a team of parents/educators/inspirers from several far-flung places. This year's insect mascot, if you can't guess from these photos, was the ladybug.

Kingsville is near Point Pelee, on the shores of Lake Erie. Because I went early this year, there was more time to explore. I found out that you can pick up small seashells on the beach there; at Lake Huron, a place I know better, we just find pebbles. Every place is a little bit different.

What made this event different from any of the others? Among other things, the chance to spend work and play time with a few special ladybug friends, who moved various mountains to be able to get there. And even more fluttered in for the retreat on Friday and Saturday. New friends are good. Old friends are good too.

An "harmas" is an old French term for ground that looks fallow, worthless, unworkable; but upon close inspection is rich with life. The L'Harmas retreat began with small, seemingly insignificant ideas and objects: a piece of paper and a ruler; a collection of needlework made by a grandmother; a simple song; thoughts on going to sleep. We were encouraged to look (or listen) again, and we saw a folded box, a wartime treasure, a child's growing trust in a parent who sang to her. We allowed the ideas to grow, and imagined more boxes of other sizes; a Beethoven symphony; a greenhouse full of plant and insect life working in harmony. 

One thread that came up several times was the idea that a "Charlotte Mason education" encompasses the physical aspects of our lives, the  intellectual or emotional aspects, and also the spiritual aspects. Many times more than one of those is at work at the same time, for instance during a paper-folding exercise that develops not only mathematical sense and manual dexterity, but encourages habits of character such as patience, attention, and accuracy.  When discussing those parts of our  personhood, or as Mason and John Bunyan called them, the Mansoul, we may find it convenient to separate the strands, and focus, for example, on how a child's intellectual needs can best be met through living books and narration. But in practice, just as we offer whole and living food at meals, we don't need to be as aware of those categories. We read or we sing or we look at the patch of ground, and our needs are met simultaneously and most enjoyably. Analysis, necessary at certain times, gives way to synthetic thinking, whole-person learning. As Louisa Thomsen Brits says about the Danish word hygge, "‘Hygge  is a way of acknowledging the sacred in the secular, of giving something ordinary a special context, spirit and warmth, and taking time to make it extraordinary.'" 

We were allowed to see some of the work that comes out of the busy minds and hands of the local C.M. learning community, through their insect paintings and the gifts they made for retreat guests. There was a reminder of the global community through a display of soaps and oils crafted in Indonesia. My own part in this ladybugs' picnic was to talk about the patch of ground where I do most of my own exploring and cultivating, and to invite others to come and join in that experience as well. 

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."  "It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . .""Yes, that is so," said the fox."But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince."Yes, that is so," said the fox."Then it has done you no good at all!""It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields."

(Thank you to the friends who kindly offered me a place in their vehicle when it was time to "fly away home.")

Let's do coffee coasters (Do-Vember #6) (Updated with photo)

Do-Vember

Are you a little bit jet-lagged with the North American time change this weekend?

Would a cup of coffee help?

Would a coffee-cup-shaped coaster be a nice go-along?

Today's Pinterest project is the coaster pattern from Repeat Crafter Me.  I didn't have any coffee-coloured yarn, so I used camouflage brown/green, which was probably not the best choice. I also got the handle a bit higher up on the side than I think was intended, but then cups do come in all shapes and sizes.

Overall impression: quick and easy, but not amazing. I think it would look better with another row of coffee.

Add caption

Laughing is doing too (Do-Vember #5)

Do-Vember

This guide to Furby-speak popped up on Pinterest for me today. It was suggested for my '60's and '70's Kids nostalgia board.

Which is pretty weird, because Furby wasn't introduced until 1998. The closest thing to a Furby that I have on my board is the late-60's Rat Fink.

But the guide to Furby-speak was very entertaining. Apparently the Furby can communicate such concepts as:

"Boh-bay" = "Worry"

and

"Dah lee-koo wah!" = "Big sound!"

and

"Kah-toh-loo-may-tay" = "Me like kisses."

I told Lydia we need one of those guides for guinea-pig squeals and chirps.

Saturday thrift shopping: teal heels and more

No yard sales now, but we did stop by the thrift store this morning. Mr. Fixit was smitten with a vintage armchair (the kind our grandparents had with prickly upholstery), and an equally vintage (and large) television set that needed repairs.  The chair was a great price, but it had some hard metal things in it that would poke you in the back, so he decided to pass on it. The T.V. was a silent-auction item, so he's thinking about going back later to make a bid on that. Lydia found a very very good deal on a name-brand purse for herself (she notices these things).

I was looking at clothes today more by colour than by function, and I found a couple of things that matched what I had in mind. These tops were all $2 or $2.50 apiece:

I am a terrible shoe shopper. I tend to stick to practical colours (other than my purple sneakers); I'm happy just to find something that fits. And you would think that there would be even less chance of finding nice shoes that fit at the thrift store, but I've actually gotten lucky with that several times. So who honestly needs a pair of teal pumps in their closet? Me, me, me.

Books were a dollar apiece this week. You can't see what these all are from the covers, but the red one is a paperback copy of Barbara Leonie Picard's retelling of The Iliad (used not so many years ago in Mrs. Norton's PNEU school); and the others, counter-clockwise, are the Faber Book of Modern Verse, which has a lovely vintage 1930's look to it, and includes several poems by T.S. Eliot; a history of Bruce County in Ontario, along Lake Huron; and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Overall, a very successful thrifting trip. (Can I sleep with the shoes under my pillow?)

Wouldn't you like to know? (Do-Vember #4)

Do-Vember

There are some things I'm very happy have popped up on Pinterest. This thing I'm making (don't click if you're related to me) is one of them. It took a test try to get it right, but I think I have it down now.

The problem is, since I can't, ahem, talk about it, this is going to be a very short post. So I'm done.

Ketchup is not Chinese (Do-Vember #3)

Do-Vember

I don't pin a lot of recipes, because I honestly wouldn't remember to go look for them if I did. In the realm of food, I post more links to general things like "Ten Healthy Freezer Meals." But one of the first recipes I ever pinned, probably a year ago, that I never ever have printed out or made, is Crockpot Sesame Chicken. I was sucked in by that delicious-looking photo, and it has stayed on my Supper board ever since.

When I looked at the actual list of ingredients today (thinking that it was time to fish chicken or cut bait, I realized that the sauce is almost identical to the magic ketchup-based Honey Garlic sauce for chicken and pork that we've been making for several years. The recipe is the one from A Year of Slow Cooking, except that I cut the soy sauce in half and it still tastes good. It works in the slow cooker, in the oven, and on the stovetop. We've even put it in small bags of pork or chicken for freezer meals. It is the tastes-most-like-Chinese-restaurant thing I know how to make, and I realize how bizarre that sounds (ketchup? basil?), but you have to try it to believe it.

So I guess it's time to unpin the Sesame Chicken photo; and next time I make Honey Garlic Chicken, I might try sprinkling some sesame seeds on top as well.

Of thrift stores and other things (Do-Vember #2)

Do-Vember

If you were expecting a post today about Pinteresty chocolate-covered cross-stitching, I'm not quite there yet. I have been running through some of what I've saved, deleting a few pins, moving a few.

Today's Do-Vember post is inspired by the pinned post "10 Things You Should Always Find at Thrift Stores (Before Paying Retail)," from the blog Sunlit Spaces. I think we've bought nine out the ten things on her list: yes to jewelry, shoes, furniture, books, vinyl records, and so on. About the only thing mentioned there that I don't remember ever thrifting is "anything cast iron," mainly because our house came with some cast iron pans (among other things), and we weren't looking for more.

So in celebration of thrifting and Pinterest, this is me today in the back yard, wearing mostly thrifted clothes, including my cost-a-dollar handmade fake suede purple coat. The scarf isn't thrifted, but I finally figured out a knot I'd seen several times on Pinterest, so now I can unpin that one.

Less sit, more do (Do-Vember #1)

Do-Vember

I thought it was appropriate to base the first Do-Vember post on a pin from my Frugal board: 107 Productive Things to do Instead of Spending Money, at Tay Talks Money.

Out of 107 suggestions, what am I actually going to do instead of just acting like a "serial pinner?" Tay divides her post into categories, beginning with one of the most obvious, doh-face-palm ideas: things to do with actual money. Working on a budget, rounding up spare change, improving your credit or finding out about investments. Then there are suggested ways to earn money (which veers off into emailing old friends), and some general good things to do that are way better than playing cards online or watching too many BBC dramas.

 After ruling out some impractical ideas (for me) like jumping jacks and swimming laps, and things I already do all the time like crossword puzzles, reading and laundry, I've narrowed it down to these things that I am going to try to do over the next week or two (after the fridge gets cleaned. I do clean the fridge too, it just happens to be needing attention right now):

 62. Sit and talk with your spouse, roommate, friend, or child.
 63. Count your blessings.
 70. Go to a free museum, art show, or art festival. (If I can find one.)
 71. Go to a book signing or book reading. (If I can find one.)
 75. Clean your fridge.
 82. Shop your own closet – pair new things together or hack it up to make something new entirely. (I was going to do that anyway.)
104. Listen to a TedTalk.
(One of my own). Pull out a board game and find someone to play it with.
(One of my own). Read one of the library books that I downloaded to OverDrive, before it disappears back into cyberspace.

But really, the whole point is that whether you decide to swim laps, write your life goals, or clean the fridge, you're making choices about how to use the time that you're given. If you're busy with a lot of other things and people, you might not have that much "discretionary" time, but then it's even more important to use what you do have carefully. The point, as I see Tay making it, is that T.V.-type entertainment is, most often, a non-choice: we turn it on, it's there. It's not that we're not allowed to rest, not allowed to just be; but that we have the choice to learn new things, to do what we've been putting off, to create something or make a memory with somebody else, that will have more lasting significance than just the plot of a T.V. episode. I think Charlotte Mason would agree with that.

Do-Vember in the Treehouse (Pulling out my Pins)

Do-Vember

It's a new month. It's that new month that, in my corner of the blog world, usually means the  Christmas sewing and crafts start to appear.  Sew Mama Sew is starting their annual crafting-plus-giveaway. 

There isn't any Wednesday Hodgepodge this week (since our indefatigable Hodgepodge Hostess and family are finally getting to move into the house they've been building. I was browsing through the archives there, looking for an old Hodgepodge that I could borrow for inspiration, and I found this 2011 Pintervention post instead. Short version: some people just like to Pin things. Other people actually make and do the things they pin about. The challenge in that post was to take photos of things you had actually made that were inspired by something you saw on Pinterest.

I started a Pinterest account about a year ago, actually when I was looking for Christmas gift ideas. So yes, I can say that I am not just a "serial pinner," I do make use of a lot of what pops up. Some of my boards are just dreams (things to do in Edinburgh), and I admit that I am not too likely to make Hallowe'en mummy cookies. Others are just nostalgia: I don't really want a stack of the books I read when I was little, but I like seeing their Tip Top Elf covers all arranged in a row.

But other Pinterest boards I created--those are the do-it ones, the equivalent of the Mom-I'm-bored box for grownups.

So November is going to be Do-Vember at the Treehouse. I'm going to Use it or Lose it on a number of the things I've pinned over the past year.  Successes and fails: I promise to be honest.  Watch for the first Pin Post later today.