Banana Cream Pie is fascinated by the Little People. We could hardly hear the movie, she was asking so many questions—mostly focused on how to avoid being tricked by King Bryan.
I’m pretty sure she is hatching plans to capture a leprechaun.
“Three wishes I’ll grant ‘ee, large or small, but wish a fourth and get none at all.”
It’s almost Saint Patrick’s Day!
Of course, we will also watch
Cool skies and warm buildings. I replenished our paper supply and paint brushes, and our Cassie Stephens inspired snow globe projects are finally underway.
Is it only at my house that all the mugs get pressed into service for #artclass ??? Drink with caution. 😬😂💁♀️
I was listening to a podcast and the speaker was talking sort of on a “seize the day/make every moment count” theme. I was getting more and more stressed out listening to her. That particular stressful feeling of “I’m wasting my life and all my time and I’m not being productive” used to bother me all the time, but hasn’t recently, and I paused the podcast to think about why. I realized that
-in the past, I read so many efficiency and productivity books and was trying to be productive, but they were all business oriented so my housework didn’t seem productive to me. Those books all talked about goals and promotions and “getting to the next level”. Home making doesn’t really have promotions and levels. You can’t often make a S.M.A.R.T. goal for housework–because there is no end date. House work repeats over and over. There is no promotion to a new level where I suddenly don’t need to wash dishes any more. Because of this, I didn’t view housework as “productive”. Housework was the stuff I had get over with so that I could go do something productive. Since it never ended, my frustration was almost constant.
-A few years ago I decided to stop trying to be “productive” because it was getting in the way of me being able to love and care for my family. I was making everyone miserable trying to rush through housework. If a child spilled something or made a mess, I would totally lose my temper because I saw it as a setback to my goal of “getting done.”
I chose to accept what must be done and strive simply to do it well. No longer would I speak of housework as drudgery or complain of the Sisyphean mountains of laundry and dishes. Instead I reminded myself each day that my job as mother is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, make a clean and tidy place for my children to grow in, minister to the sick, and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. These are things that Jesus did while he was on the earth. They cannot be drudgery, no matter how often they repeat.
-This choice brought me a large measure of peace. Spills and messes are inevitable in a family of 11. I don’t lose my temper anymore because spills aren’t setbacks. They are just spills. I’m happy doing what I can do each day.
As I thought about what the podcast speaker was saying, I realized that no one has ever said house work wasn’t productive. That was just a logic hole in my own head. When I “gave up on productivity,” what I actually did was to let go of my narrow definition of productivity and accept the work set before me. I’m so much more productive now that my focus is on what is essential and not on an unrealistic view of what I ought to be doing.
“Mom, I drew the story where Jesus said, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
Snitched a few minutes to play with chalk pastels. I wouldn’t have these materials without homeschool as my excuse/motivation to buy them.
That’s my secret reason for all this…
Apple Pie and Banana Cream Pie wanted to do what Mom was doing.
Key Lime Pie’s lucky roll. I’ve never seen a die stand on its corner like this.
Painting by Guido Borelli
We took a couple of days to read poems by Federico Garcia Lorca (Romance Sonambulo, and Arbole, Arbole…) and then write our own poems full of color. I encouraged the girls to add a few Spanish words to their poems.
This lesson idea came from “Rose Where Did You Get That Red?” By Kenneth Koch, which contains some of the best poetry lesson plans ever.
Ley Lime Pie (age 10)
La Luna and the Mystical Place
La Luna shining in the azul sky
Its blanca y plata
Colores
Up in el cielo
Off to a mystical place
Singing all the way
Thinking of what’s there
Could you take me with you
To that wonderful place.
Peach Pie (age 13):
(Untitled)
There lies la Luna
Swimming in a sea of lonely azul
Ella esta llorando for the loss of her amore.
Her face pale with grief.
Little estrellas try to cheer her
Twinkling and shining for her
Trying to make her smile
With their jokes.
But try as they might,
The night goes on
La Luna llora
For the loss of her amore.
Cherry Pie (age 16):
Writers Block
Dark, dark mind lies in ruins, long since abandoned by ideas.
Dirty, Gris window fragments sit in ashy layers of drapery.
Dreary, blue paint peels around the edges of the fireplace.
Dank, green smoke stained the bricks not long ago.
Dead head never left it’s bed.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 