For the past several years my children, my mother, and I have spent a lovely day at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens on National Public Gardens Day for free. Go here to find out more about this year’s May 10 event. You can read more about our adventures in these posts:
This is a rather dark (get it?) picture book, but it has a good, even happy ending. It’s suspenseful and even creepy right up until the very end. Because of the suspense and the personification, it’s one of those stories that you could very easily make a lesson out of, although I think that would probably ruin it. I’m not sure it’s the book to read to just any kid, but my girls liked it. Caldecott winning illustrator Jon Klassen drives the suspense and creepiness home with his muted illustrations. They really look like something out of an old suspense film. Because it’s so unusual, I won’t be surprised if it gets some sort of recognition once the 2013 awards are handed out. (Little, Brown and Co., 2013)
I had another book to share today, but alas, but one of the girls has made off with it and I can’t find it. Another day, perhaps.
What’s in your read aloud basket? 
This second chapter of The Hidden Art of Homemaking defines and expounds upon the idea of “hidden art.” I like this because honestly, there’s not much that I consider very artistic about my home or anything I do in it. I love how Edith Schaeffer encourages us homemakers to live in the now instead of the one-day-when-all-my-kids-are-grown:
People so often look with longing into a daydream future, while ignoring the importance of the present. We are all in danger of thinking, “Some day I shall be fulfilled. Some day I shall have the courage to start another life which will develop my talent,” without ever considering the very practical use of that talent today in a way which will enrich other people’s lives, develop the talent, and express the fact of being a creative person. (33)
While making my home beautiful is high on my list of priorities, it’s usually a frustrated desire because I have both limited time and money, not to mention talent. I like how Schaeffer focuses on enriching the lives of others, developing talent, and expressing creativity–those are all things I can do. In fact, when I think about blogging, those three things encapsulate the reasons when I like to blog so much, especially about the books I read. I like to share with others to (hopefully!) enrich their lives, I like to hone what little talent in writing that I possess, and this is a natural outlet for my creativity. I’ve felt lately that I need to focus more on doing these things with people in my real world, not just my virtual one, but that’s a post for another day.
On the flip side of this is the idea that we have to choose how to spend our time. To be honest, I hate this. I want to be able to do it all: homeschool my children, keep an organized and beautiful home, cook delicious and healthy meals, exercise, keep up my own appearance, spend time with my children individually, make time for friends, serve in some sort of ministry, etc. With the recent addition of our fourth child, I am realizing more and more that I can’t do it all. Somehow, it is comforting to hear Schaeffer say so:
To develop “Hidden Art” will also, of course, take time and energy–and the balance of the use of time is a constant individual problem for all of us: what to do, and what to leave undone. One is always having to neglect one thing in order to give precedence to something else. The question is one of priorities. (32)
My problem is not knowing what to leave undone, or desiring to do the thing I should do instead of the thing I want to do. Schaeffer puts the emphasis in the right place:
Does this mean that we should all drop everything to concentrate on trying to develop into great artists? No, of course not. But it does mean that we should consciously do something about it. There should be a practical result of the realization we have been created in the image of the Creator of beauty. (33)
And so I end this post with a few photos of one of the only places in my home currently that I consider visually appealing: our fireplace mantle in our family room. Right now it’s decorated with several things that show we’re a bookish family: a book poster from Jan Brett’s Easter Egg tour and some old Lois Lenski library discards. I also have a couple of ironstone platters and some bird-themed knick-knacks that I love.
When I look at my mantle, I remember two things, and they both have to do with my dear husband: he installed the electrical outlets on either end of the mantle when we repainted the room last year, just so I could put some little lamps up on the mantle. He also encouraged me to purchase a few things on the mantle that I really like: the ironstone and the round jar with the bird on top. These are small things, really, but knowing how he generally doesn’t think much about home decor, etc., they both mean a lot to me because they show he loves me and cares about what I care about. Oh, and they help me forget that the lamp on the left side is already broken, the victim of some anonymous child’s mishandling. ;-)
I’m linking up with Cindy at Ordo Amoris. Go here for more Homemaking posts.
There is a beautiful reality called imperfect progress. The day I realized the glorious hope of this kind of imperfect change is the day I gave myself permission to believe I really could be different.
So often when reading books like this (which I admittedly haven’t done in a long time) I end up feeling condemned rather than hopeful for change. This book left me feeling like change is something that can even happen for me, and given the volume of “unglued” moments I’ve had (usually with my children, let’s be honest), that’s remarkable. Not only do I feel hopeful, but on the flip side, I also feel like change is necessary. Hopeful about a necessary change? I’ll take it!
What even led me to read this book to begin with is that I have a love-hate relationship with my emotions, and honestly, lately it has been more of a hate-relationship. I feel things intensely, and that usually results in a rather intense reaction (or at least internalization) of whatever I’ve experienced. I feel like this is an issue that God has been dealing with me about, and yet it’s almost like I still don’t know where to go with it. I have too often felt like Proverbs 25:28 describes me to a T:
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
I know I’m often like that broken down, wall-less city, but what do I do about it? TerKeurst offers Biblical insight into why we often lose our cool, and the simple fact is that sometimes it’s because we lack faith in believing that God is in control and working the situation out for our good and His glory. My own personal Achilles heel is when I’m stressed out, and that’s where I’m living most days lately. This book offered me hope that even in the middle of homeschooling and raising four children, I don’t have to stay where I am. I don’t have to be a broken down city.
The biggest problem I have with books like this is that I forget what I’ve learned even before I really need to put it into practice. What do you do to make what you’re reading stick?
I give Unglued a Highly Recommended.
It has been something of a trying week here at the House of Hope, with three of our four children (everyone but Benny!) having dreadful coughs and the DLM having a fever at the beginning of the week and then relapsing last night. Today, though, I’m counting my blessings!
1. The girls had this bright idea to make a maze (?) or a spider web out of yarn in the back yard. This kept them happily entertained for quite a while.
2. My daddy and my brother-in-law showed up on Monday night and cut our grass. Steady Eddie has been so busy with work and travel (not to mention a new baby) that he hasn’t had time to give attention to it. We are so blessed with a caring family!
3. Steady Eddie had to go out of town Tuesday, so my mom had come over to spend the night with me and the kids. My baby sister’s 36th birthday was also Tuesday. I had decided that it would be fun to take her out to supper for her birthday, but as it turned out, the only ones who wanted to go were the birthday girl, my mother, and I (Benny had no choice). (My big kids decided to go to Nana’s because they hadn’t been in several days and my nephews and brother in law were busy.) We had a fun supper out at a local Italian restaurant, and then we came back to the House of Hope for a birthday cake the children and I had hastily baked that afternoon before piano lessons. (The cake looks terrible because I set some heavy stuff on the lid of the pan and that caused the frosting to stick to the lid. I can’t believe I’m even putting a picture here! I mainly just wanted you to see the candles. We improvise around here a lot!)
It’s the thought that counts, right? My sister is so much fun–the life of the party, really–and I was thankful to be able to spend her birthday with her.
4. Benny loves the Moby wrap. I didn’t have one of these with the girls, and the DLM wouldn’t tolerate it as an infant so I never tried as he got older. Benny, though, goes promptly to sleep once he’s cocooned inside it. I carried him this was a couple of times this week as we went for walks, and I’ve also been able to (slowly, slowy) do a bit of housekeeping while “wearing” him. I like it.
5. I was able to get down in the school room and work for a bit on Thursday. I opened up the door and let the children play in the driveway and in the front yard, and I started cleaning off the counter tops. This alone helped my feelings immensely. I even began to THINK about starting school up again and how to tackle it. (Actually, I’ve THOUGHT about this a lot, but up until then I had felt pretty powerless to do anything about it.) Steady Eddie and the girls had worked for a bit down there on Wednesday night, so what you see here is a vast improvement over what it was, even without much work from me. It’s amazing what just being able to accomplish something can do for one’s spirit. :-)
And a bonus: we’ve gotten a kick out of this little video that made its rounds on Facebook this week. As a mother of an almost three year old, I can definitely relate!
How was your week?
I also recognized the surname Bastable, the name of the family The Treasure Seekers is about, so I thought there must be some reason why that name stuck in my mind once upon a time. Plus, the novel is free for the Kindle. (Let me be honest: this is the main reason I chose this title. Convenience and economy. :-) ) It turns out that this is the first of E. Nesbit‘s many novels, and while I eventually found it enjoyable, there were many times when I would’ve willingly abandoned it in favor of almost anything else if my girls would’ve let me.
This is the story of the six Bastable children and their attempts to “restore the lost fortunes of the House of Bastable.” Their mother is deceased and their father is somewhat inattentive due to his business troubles, so the children are left mostly to their own devices. They cook up all sorts of schemes to make money–everything from selling one brother’s poetry to a newspaper to borrowing money from a Generous Benefactor to becoming highwaymen. There are some hilarious moments in the story, and this is what compelled me to stick with it (that, and my girls’ persistence). My favorite scene involves the Bastable children accosting a man they think is a robber. They later find out is one of their father’s old friends who had dropped by for a visit, but only after he helps them deter a real robber. Another part of the story I really enjoyed is the poetry one of the younger brothers (I always mixed up the children!) writes. Here’s a sample:
Quarrelling is an evil thing,
It fills with gall life’s cup;
For when once you begin
It takes such a long time to make it up.
The poetry is remarkably bad, but in a funny, juvenile way. I also got a kick out of this observation one of the children made about there being six of them:
I have often noticed that it is the worst of our being six–people think six a great many, when it’s children. That sentence looks wrong somehow. I mean they don’t mind six pairs of boots, or six pounds of apples, or six oranges, especially in equations, but they seem to think you ought not to have five brothers and sisters.
This struck me as funny since we now have four children in our family. :-)
It is an entertaining story, but it’s somewhat dense. This is what made me want to chuck it more than once. It’s extremely British, which is something I don’t usually mind. However, in this story, there are references and words that even I couldn’t figure out. I don’t know how much of this I should blame on my postpartum brain and how much of it really is inscrutable. I also never quite gave each of the children a firm identity in my mind, so I never really got them straight as I read the story. I hate it when that happens. This, coupled with the density of the language, makes the story seem unneccesarily complicated. There are also lots of references to drinking alcohol in the story, which I’ve somewhat gotten used to in so many of the British stories we read. It still makes me feel odd, though, since we’re a teetotalling household. 
Last of all is the fact that the story is not at all PC. I’m usually okay with this, but I was shocked when I came upon the “n” word in the story unawares. The story ends rather abruptly, too, and the ending is not all that satisfactory.
Okay, so why did I finish this story again? Oh, yes–my girls enjoyed it, and it’s funny. Your mileage may vary.
What’s in your read aloud basket this week? Share in the comments!
To be completely honest, not much has been on my nightstand since Benny was born (three weeks ago today! Unbelievable!). I’m having a hard time focusing on anything right now, mostly because I’m terribly distracted by my iPad and Pinterest. I could feel really guilty about that, but I’m choosing not to. Seasons, right? Instead, I’ll just list what I’ve read since last month’s Nightstand post and link to the reviews I’ve written:
Maybe the fact that she’s had her nose stuck in these books the whole time we’ve been on this baby break from school counts for something in the first grade. ;-)
Right now I have a couple of nonfiction titles in the works: Unglued by Lisa TerKeurst and The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. I’m reading the first for my own edification; the second I’m reading along with Cindy at Ordo Amoris for a bookclub. (Well, I’ve always wanted to read it, so Cindy has provided the impetus.)
This next month I plan to read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell for the Reading to Know Bookclub because I’m the hostess! :-) We’d love to have you join in and read this Newbery winning title.
Since last month’s Nightstand, I’ve shared my thoughts on a couple of read-alouds I’ve read to my children: The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. I’m currently reading aloud The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit, and I hope to have it finished in time to share my thoughts about it this Read Aloud Thursday.
Beyond this, I won’t even venture a guess. Either I’ll while away all my extra time (of which there is plenty since I’m nursing Benny every 2-3 hours) pinning all sorts of neat home projects I’d like to tackle, or I’ll rediscover my self-discipline and do some actual reading. We shall see. :-)
I find this whole focus on creativity and art in regards to homemaking interesting and very much in sync with what I’ve been thinking about lately. The first chapter of Schaeffer’s book is given to establishing the fact that God is the Master Artist, and because we are made in His image, we, too, are artists. My creative side is not something I gave much attention to as a teenager and young adult. I was very much into my Smart Girl persona, and I spent most of my time on academic pursuits. To say that I didn’t value art is probably true, but it’s more accurate to say that I just didn’t think it really meant anything to me personally. I did a bit of sewing, both hand sewing and machine sewing, but other than that, I just didn’t do art. (I also did a bit of writing, and while that’s definitely a creative endeavor, I’m focusing on the visual arts right now because that’s the direction in which my interests are going at the moment.) As a young adult I discovered scrapbooking and did a whole bunch of it. I started the year I got married and really only gave it up once the DLM was born and I was in the throes of homeschooling and bringing up a baby once again. (I have dabbled in Project Life since then, but my dabbling has been rather inconsistent, unfortunately.)
All of my scrapbooks, minus the ones I’ve given as gifts
I worked at scrapbooking and did it for more than just memory keeping purposes. It really was a creative outlet for me. It is also something I did as a part of a community, and sadly, I’ve let that community go in the wake of my busy-ness.
This is one of my favorite scrapbooking layouts I’ve ever created. It was even published in a scrapbooking magazine!
So, now in these postpartum days, I’m feeling a real desire to recapture this creative part of me. I wrote a bit about it in this post–how I’ve been inspired by various blogs to make my home more beautiful. Beyond that, though, I have a real desire to create just for the sake of creating. I have one daughter who loves to do this as much as I do, and often when we create art in our homeschool, I participate, too. I’ve developed an interest in mixed media collage art, and I even have a vision for a project I’d like to make for my home. I love that this is something I can do alongside my children, too. Now I just have to find the time for it. (I’m really inspired by this artist right now.)
What does this have to do with The Hidden Art of Homemaking? Since I’ve only read the first chapter, I don’t know. Really, the first chapter is all about God as Creator, so the logical jumping off place would be nature. However, what this chapter has done for me is what I already knew but just need to embrace: ”It is not a waste of man’s time to be creative. It is not a waste to pursue artistic or scientific pursuits in creativity, because this is what man was made to be able to do” (24). I’m looking forward to what else Schaeffer has to say.
Can you believe it? Two posts in two days!
Here are a few of my favorite things from the past few weeks:
1. My mother and mother-in-law. My mother has been at my house every day that someone else (Steady Eddie or Nana) wasn’t since Benny was born. She has come early and stayed late. She has done all of the DLM wrangling, not to mention cooked several meals, taken care of laundry, and cleaned the floors. A girl could get used to this!
My mother-in-law (Nana) has taken the three big kids off our hands for quite a few evenings after she has had a busy day at work. She also took off work a half day one day to go with me to take Benny to the pediatrician. She came and stayed with me and Benny while Steady Eddie and the big kids went to AWANA. She has folded lots of laundry.
I am so very, very blessed to live close to these precious women!
2. Friends. I haven’t cooked an actual meal all on my own yet thanks to my mother, Nana, and our friends from CC. These ladies have outdone themselves! Did I mention a girl could get used to this?
3. My big kids. Really, so far this transition has been far less difficult than I imagined, at least as far as the kids are concerned. (My getting it all figured out has been a whole ‘nother story!) The girls have been troupers, and the DLM has provided us with enough laughs through his entertaining observations about baby brother (particularly in regard to the way Benny gets his nourishment!) to make up for the rough patches.
One of the bouquets the girls brought me when we first came home from the hospital
4. Inspiration. I haven’t been reading much, but I have been exploring some new blogs that excite my latent desire to decorate and organize my home. I find that when I’m in the thick of homeschooling, I don’t have the mental energy to do much else. Add pregnancy to that, and my creativity has been nonexistent. Hours spent nursing Benny and wifi internet access on my iPad has yielded lots of home inspiration this week, though, and a break from school has given me the mental space I need to dream. Here are a few of my favorite home decor blogs:
What are some of your favorite online places to go for home decor and organization inspiration?
Besides looking at a whole bunch of lovely rooms and furniture, I’ve actually done a bit of decorating this week. I’m a little hesitant to share this because a.) it’s not quite “there” yet, but it’s probably as “there” as I’ll ever get it and b.) I’m breaking my own rule about posting pictures of my children on my blog, but since they’re all newborns here I figure in a year it won’t matter anyway. I’ve wanted a gallery wall in my home for a long time, and while this isn’t exactly what I had in mind (that’s for another wall), I do like how these big Ikea frames turned out. We had no idea we’d be adding a fourth child to our family when I bought these frames (see, I told you, I’m slooooooooow), but didn’t it work out nicely? ;-) I had to stick cardstock behind the pictures because I couldn’t enlarge them all to be 11.5″ x 11.5″.
What do you think?
5. A sweet, sweet newborn. I have to say that I have a love/hate relationship with this phase of life. (I hate to say it that way because it sounds bad; I hope you understand.) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having a newborn baby. They are so very sweet. There’s nothing like the little sounds they make, and tell me–is there anything sweeter than a newborn’s foot?
Even a blurry foot is sweet. . .
However, I also find this time personally challenging because I’m a do-er, and I haven’t been able to do much in a long time. I’m rarin’ to go, and yet, I can’t. I’m thankful, though, that I have such a sweet hindrance. :-)
Benny has been such a good baby so far. He’s the most predictable newborn I’ve had–he wakes up 3-4 times a night, but it’s always spaced out in about 2 to 2 1/2 hour intervals. Of course, some of this predictability might have to do with the fact that he’s our fourth, so we don’t expect it to be easy. ;-) Steady Eddie and I take turns at night–I’ll feed Benny, then Steady Eddie will sit up with him for a bit if he’s not ready to go back to sleep. (Maybe that means that Steady Eddie should be my #5. :-) ) Benny is quite the eater, too. Yesterday at his two week check up, we learned that he gained 9 ounces in 9 days. Wow! The doctor jokingly asked me if I was feeding him pure cream. ;-) Nope. He just likes to eat and had it all figured out from the first time he nursed. For that I am thankful!
So. . . .I have a lot to be thankful for. I still don’t have it all figured out, and honestly, the thought of being on my own next week and trying to get started back to schooling (whenever that happens–I’m still not sure we’re really ready yet) is a bit unnerving, but I’m depending on a Philippians 4:13 promise.
How was your week?
I have nothing–nothing except a picture of a little bit of reading aloud that has been going on around these parts. Lulu decided to read I’m Mighty! to Benny, so of course, Louise and the DLM had to listen in. :-)
I have been reading aloud The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit to the girls (and the DLM, when he chooses to listen), but it hasn’t grabbed me yet. I hope to have something to actually share next week.
What are you reading aloud these days? Share in the comments!
