Wednesday

 

So what does Homeschooling look like in our house?  Well, here are a few pictures taken around 11:30am.  Our morning starts around 10:00am with poetry, a read aloud, and sometimes piano flashcards.  This is also the time when we do some Sunday School type talking or just chit chat. 

After our morning meeting we usually have Latin and maybe Art Study (de Hooch is our current artist) or other “Fine Arts” type activity.  Then comes the kids independent work…..

Heidi is reading from one of her history books….Augustus Caesar’s World.  This is HER spot at the breakfast bar!!  You are taking your life in your hands if you sit there!  Brat.  I give her no end of crap for being so possessive.  LOL

Here is Gretchen getting herself some lunch.  Algebra I is much easier on a full stomach.  LOL

Eli likes to read his History and Literature in his room.  With all that glorious light, I can’t say that I blame him.  He’s reading George Washington’s World.  I have to slow him down sometimes….he likes to read waaaaay ahead of schedule.  Nice to see the enthusiasm, too bad it doesn’t bleed over to Latin. 

This is our homeschool bookcase.  The girls share the top and second bookshelf.  Eli owns the third bookshelf down and the bottom bookshelf is mine.  our school year is almost two thirds over, we end in late June, so many of the books have been finished and transferred to the basement bookshelves. 

Buster stretching for the camera.  He spends most of his day requesting to go out…….and come in…….and go out……and come in……..and go out………come in……….go out………..come in……….. he bugs us, but he’s cute.

 

Finally, here is Kipper.  Kipper is the grand old gentleman of our school.  He will be 13 years old in June or July.  He hasn’t moved off of the couch yet today.  Sooner or later his bladder will tell him it is time to wake up.  LOL

Some thoughts

 

1.  I feel the change coming!!!  No!  Not that change…that has come and gone.  No…the change of season!!!  The light is so different these days!  I revel in it!!!  I see my chairs outside circled around the fire pit, just waiting for me to spend a glorious hour in the sun.  How long must I wait for the snow to melt?  Today is still cold and very windy, but I can smell Spring.  I can hardly wait.  It seems ages since Mr. Sun didn’t wake until after 7 am and left us around 4:30 pm every day.  Our days, when sunny, are gloriously warm and full of promise.  I yearn to sink my fingers into the earth and feel the cool dampness.  We have plans for veggie gardens and also for flower gardens.  I have about  a million Snowbell bulbs to relocate, as well as Gladioli and Tulips.  I also have to dismantle the existing flower bed and transplant some of the flowers to the front flower  bed.  And, finally, I hope to get the narrow flower bed next to the garage and front door rejuvenated and planted with Hollyhocks and something else (can’t decide what else).  I can’t wait!!!  The earth is waking and I can’t wait to welcome her.

 

 

2.  I just helped Heidi with her Algebra I….the question was something about square roots.  As she tried to figure the problem out from one direction I showed her how to approach the problem from the other direction.  Easy enough, but the real joy comes from seeing my kids figuring this stuff out.  That look they have when  they “get it” is priceless and I have had the privilege for their whole school career.  What fun!  I wouldn’t pass up homeschooling for anything in the world!  It hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been a blessing.  Does that make sense?  

 

3.  In just one month Mark and I will have known each other for 24 years.  24 YEARS!!!!  Wow.  We met in the Roswell Christian Science Church on April 9th, 1989 and were married just 3 months later on July 14th.  I can’t even imagine being without him.  No, he’s not some kind of awesome prince of a man……he can be aggravating and god knows he was a bachelor for FAR, FAR, too long!  LOL  For 24 years, though, he has come home to me…..he works hard to provide for his family…….he is funny…..and very, very clever………and he loves me.   No matter what has happened in our life together, he loves ME!  ME!  I am humbled. 

 

 

 

What more do we need, when someone loves us, really….REALLY loves us….we have everything. 

Transition, change, a fresh start....

I've been thinking about my blog a lot lately.  I really like blogging, but it seems to be missing something.  I write when the mood hits me, but my writing seems to be lacking something....at least, to me it lacks something.  I know what it lacks, but have been afraid to change my writing.  What's lacking is ..... ME!  My interests, my passions, my daily and rambling activities.  I have withheld these entries because I haven't wanted to exclude my friends from my audience.  I have done them, and me, a disservice though.  I haven't been wholly myself in my entries.  Maybe it is time to rectify this problem. 

You see.  I am a Christian Scientist and a Homeschooling Mom.  These two activities of mine might exclude some of you from reading my blog.  For some reason that thought kept me from being fully honest within its pages.  Yes, I've mentioned my homeschooling, but not on a daily basis.  I haven't mentioned the daily joys and struggles of what I do and how I do it.  I need a voice for these issues because I have no one else to talk to.  So, ready or not, I will post a nearly daily mention (I hope) of our Homeschooling journey. 

As far as being a Christian Scientist....well, I've run into a lot of flack for that in my life.  Usually when I mention what religion I am the room gets quiet and sometimes someone will gasp...drawing in all the air, fear, and lies that have surrounded that religion since its beginnings.  I will tell you that I will NOT try to convert you.  In fact, I have never seen where forced proselytizing has ever been completely successful.  Christian Science has been my standard for life....but it may not be yours, and that is just fine!  Just PLEASE do me a favor and don't try to SAVE me......I'm not trying to SAVE you....leave my eternal life to me and God.  Thank you. 

So there it is.  Hopefully I will be able to add to this blog on an almost daily basis, and hopefully it will give you a few chuckles and promote some honest dialogue.  I would like that.  I am a zealot of nothing and curious  about everything.  Welcome to my journey. 

My Tapestry

 

My life is a tapestry.  Its threads were handed to me when I was a newborn, all fresh and pink and squalling.  The tapestry was made of the threads of my ancestors, woven hues of pink, green, and blue.   The immediate history of my parents was there within its threads……..and the much older history of ancestors that came from Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands.  All their stories, all their struggles, and all their joys were passed to me as I took my first breaths….the continuation of warp and weft tangled in  my chubby little fingers.

As I grew, the tapestry grew…..new people were woven in and some people were woven out.  As we continue on through life those threads from people who pass through our days gather in our weaving and strengthens it.  When someone passes on and  they are no longer in our human experience we find a hole in our tapestry.  Sometimes we may not notice the hole, but other times the hole is so gaping and raw that we find ourselves at a loss to mend it.  We stand staring at the hole that has been left, a hole in our heart, a hole in our day, a hole in our tapestry of life.  “I’ll never be able to fix that hole!”, we cry out in anguish.  The loss and pain is unbearable…..continuing on through our lives carrying those threads that weave our essence seems unimaginable.  And we look back for some guidance from those threads of others…..and we see what has been done for us for so long.

We see where others have passed on in our lives and maybe we were too young to remember, or acknowledge the loss…..and we see that those areas, those times in our lives when holes appeared in our tapestry, that somebody mended them!  Where a favorite Uncle or Aunt left and a hole appeared, there is a patch…..a patch of threads woven out of the threads of all who remember.  The hole has become filled and strengthened with the memories and love of everyone whose lives were touched by that individual.  We see what needs to be done…..and we begin to understand.

That hole that is left in our tapestry by the passing of a loved one needs to be lovingly and carefully repaired.  We will weave our stories and our pictures together and strengthen our tapestry.  The love of that missing individual is felt again and again….they never can truly leave us, for there they are!  Each memory, each laugh, each joke is there in the threads we hold in our hands and our hearts.  As we share our stories of the loved individual we fix that hole and find that the tapestry is stronger for the sharing. 

I rejoice in my tapestry and all the individuals that help me weave it.  I don’t always get along with each one all the time…but I love how you have changed me and helped me weave a life I am proud and content with.  I am little more than a blank canvas without the thousands of threads that each of you are.  Thank you for making me whole and strong.  And to the latest patch jobs that I didn’t think I could ever repair, thank you for handing me one of your threads, a link to all those wonderful memories that made you, you.  Your lives continue in each of us that you touched with your love and humor. 

A Pre-Christmas Post

I wonder, is there a dominant Christmas person in every family?  Does someone kind of “rule” over the holiday and decide how it will be celebrated in your family?  Well, there is one in mine…..nope, contrary to what you may think, it isn’t me.  While everyone may think that I am the dominant, opinionated, bitch in the family…..it is Mark who has shaped our Christmas celebration.  He isn’t an ogre about it.  No, far from it…..but he has a way of arguing in his own defense that I have given in to.  After all, it is only this one holiday.  Let me elucidate what traditions in this family come from each of us….

1.  Tree goes up Christmas Eve….. Mark’s rule.  Apparently that is how his family did it and it is more right than any other way.

2.  Tree decorating……Mark’s way.  Yup.  I sit back and have little to say that would be heeded.  His way is better. 

3.  Presents………Mark’s way.  Presents and Stockings are to be opened on Christmas morning…ONLY!  That’s the way Mark’s family did it and the way my family did it, on Christmas Eve, was stupid. 

4.  Visiting others……Mark’s way….. NO!  We go nowhere on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  That’s the way his family did it…..(I’m okay with this one..LOL).

5.  Christmas Eve dinner…… MY WAY!  Hot dogs, beans, and sauerkraut!  Mark thinks its stupid, but this is one Koehler tradition that I was able to hold on to. 

6. Tree down……Mark’s way.  New Year’s Day…..fine, whatever.

So.  The holiday belongs to Mark, and after 23 years of marriage, I don’t care anymore.  I make sure the presents get bought for the kids.  I wrap the presents.  I cook the cookies and the dinner.  I decorate the house.  I put it all away. 

I don’t mean to make him a beast, because he really isn’t.  I have just grown tired of trying to instill some of my family traditions into the holiday and I am now just a facilitator.  Perhaps he needs Christmas more than I do…..the scheduled activities, the routine.  It leaves me a little sad though.  I keep Christmas to myself now……….it has become a very private and personal celebration within my heart.  Maybe that is what I needed…..to have the time to be free and explore the coming Christ privately.  In the end, I guess we each get what we need out of the holiday.  I still think my Christmas Trees were prettier. 

This is the winter……

 

Dark days

Cold nights

Holidays that leave you empty, missing those no longer near

National unrest full of angry words and judgmental and vile rhetoric

Hurtful words in what should be a time of Peace and Love

 

Today was a grey, grey, day.  I never saw the sun, and to say that I felt its warmth is laughable.  Having come off a few days of sickness, I really needed that sunshine…..that warmth.  It was nowhere to be found it seemed.  Our school day began without that welcome glow through our back sliding door. 

I begin our schooling with reading a poem from Robert Frost and one from Alfred, Lord Tennyson.  Both were rather chilly in nature, as I recall.  we then follow that up with 5 or 6 pages of A Christmas Carol by Dickens.  Scrooge is being visited by the third and final ghost.  He is learning about the lack of compassion at what he must only guess is his own death.  Not the cheeriest of readings.  We move on to Latin…….. ugh.

As the kids move through their Latin worksheet they all ask for help with the diagramming and translation of two simple sentences.  And all of a sudden, THERE IT IS!!!  My sunshine!!!!  My kids are all laughing at me over some faux pas I made while diagramming sentences.  LOL  In that one moment, as we laughed until we cried and gasped for breath…….the glorious radiance of the sun flooded that house and turned the tides of sadness and doubt.  No celestial body could have ever lifted my spirits higher…….it takes the pure and unmeasured love of a child’s laugh to touch a mother’s heart.

 

…..and the heart. 

It's me...........

I know!!! I KNOWWWW!!!!  I've been missing in action.......but I'm coming back.  Just not right now.

Maybe later tonight.