Eugene Field

I really enjoy the poetry of Eugene Field, his rhyme, his rhythm, his subject matter; its all enjoyable.  Here's one I read to the kids today, which they loved, and so did I.

Pittypat And Tippytoe

All day long they come and go-
Pittypat and Tippytoe;
Footprints up and down the hall,
Playthings scattered on the floor,
Finger-marks along the wall,
Tell-tale smudges on the door-
By these presents you shall know
Pittypat and Tippytoe

How they riot at their play!
And a dozen times a day
In they troop, demanding bread-
Only buttered bread will do,
And that butter must be spread
Inches thick with sugar too!
And I never can say, "No,
Pittypat and Tippytoe!"

Sometimes there are griefs to soothe,
Sometimes ruffled brows to smooth;
For (I much regret to say)
Tippytoe and Pittypat
sometimes interrupt their play
With an internecine spat
Fie, for shame! to quarrel so-
Pittypat and Tippytoe!

Oh, the thousand worrying things
Every day recurrent brings!
Hands to scrub and hair to brush,
Search for playthings gone amiss,
Many a wee complaint to hush,
Many a little bump to kiss;
Life seems one vain, fleeting show
To Pittypat and Tippytoe!

And when day is at an end,
There are little duds to mend:
Little frocks are strangely torn,
Little shoes great holes reveal,
Little hose, but one day worn,
Rudely yawn at toe and heel!
Who but you could work such woe,
Pittypat and Tippytoe?

But when comes this thought to me:
"Some there are that childless be,"
Stealing to their little beds,
With a love I cannot speak,
Tenderly I stroke their heads-
Fondly kiss each velvet cheek.
God help those who do not know
A Pittypat or Tippytoe!

On the floor and down the hall,
Rudely smutched upon the wall
There are proofs in every kind
Of the havoc they have wrought
And upon my heart you'd find
Just such trade-marks, if you sought
Oh, how glad I am 'tis so,
Pittypat and Tippytoe!

Do you have a Pittypat or Tippytoe in your home? 

The Death Of A Good Friend

My heart is sad today because we lost a dear friend.  I was not aware of it until I heard Breck sobbing in the living room.  I rushed in and took one look out our window.  And then I knew.  Our beautiful dogwood tree had been toppled by the strong storm winds.  And then I was the one crying.

We live in a small subdivision in a small house with a small yard.  This dogwood tree was our treasure.  We loved it.  The birds loved it.  The kids played on it. We enjoyed her shade on hot summer days and spent many hours sitting underneath her beautiful boughs reading books together.

Alas!  She is no more.  Our yard will seem quite barren now that she's gone. 

Goodbye, Old Friend.

The kids finally stopped their crying and then decided the tree was more fun laying down then it was standing anyway!  Only its not so good for curb-appeal.

I have lots of things on my mind to blog about...lots of homeschooling stuff, since I'm up to my ears in homeschooling this time of year.  But to be honest, at this point I'm way too tired and sick to think and put two cohesive sentences together, so hopefully soon, my friends.......

Today I WILL Be A Mom!

Today, I vowed, I would be a Mom.  I know, I know, a funny vow for a Mom of three children.  What I mean is I will be a real mom as opposed to the glazed, half-dead woman who has been walking staggering around here lately just trying to exist and in some small way meet the physical needs of her family.  Just meeting your family's physical needs is not all there is to being a mom, though.

Let me go back.  This has been a hard week.  I think I would be in the loony-bin had it not been for my loving husband and kind Mother-in-law.  I'm not complaining...okay, maybe a little.  Its the kind of week that has had me up crying in the middle of the night when everyone else has been asleep, not just because I feel so sick but because of the discouragement of knowing that tomorrow I will wake and feel the same way and will try to survive and pray for night when I might be able to get a little sleep, if I'm not too sick.  Then there's the guilt.  The heavy weight of guilt I carry around knowing that little children need moms who meet their emotional needs as well as their physical needs and husbands need wives who can carry on a small conversation once in a while instead of just glassy-eyed nodding and mumbling, and look cheerful and happy once in a while when they return home from work.  There is a difference between tolerating your family and enjoying your family.  So I cry because of the overwhelming guilt I feel.

So today when I awoke I vowed that whatever I had to do, if I felt well at all, I would just be a mom-a real mom.  I bypassed the mountain of laundry in the laundry room and after three doses of three different medicines, beginning at 5:00 in the morning, was feeling pretty good.  I decided I would take as much of my precious medicine as I had to, even if I had none left for the next week.  (If you have strong opinions about women taking medicine while they're pregnant, just don't speak to me.)

And we've had a good day!  We took the children to Tuttle's Apple Farm where they played on the farm, took pony rides, picked three kinds of yummy apples and drank fresh apple cider.  We narrowly avoided the rain.  Then we spent the rest of the rainy afternoon inside, making pencil toppers, writing letters together, playing games, enjoying a rare treat of homemade pumpkin muffins (I don't do much baking right now), made some homemade applesauce and watched a movie together.

Yes, it was a good day!  I felt that I really enjoyed my family and connected with them.  And for one day, I was a mom, a real mom.  Tomorrow I will probably be back to laying around in a half-comatose state, but today was good.

And for that I will be thankful!

Inside the Mind of a 7 yr. Old Boy

Take a good look at this face.

This is the boy who has told me on more than one occasion, with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye, "Mom, I like to give you trouble!" 

There is something about boys that is so mischievous and fun.  The thing about boys is that you never know what they're thinking or what they are going to say or do.

Let me give you a few examples from the past week.

During a school lesson Breck asked, "Mom, how do we know that God created the world?"  This child NEVER asks easy questions. 

"Well, to start with you have to understand that everything in life has a beginning.  God is the only One who had no beginning.  So the world had to have a beginning."

"That's not true, Mom."  "A fence that goes in a circle has no beginning or ending."

At which point I picked him up and threw him out the window!

I decided one day this week to have a "kindness contest" to see which one of the children could be the kindest to each other, with the winner receiving a prize at the end of the day.  They both did admirably well and I was impressed.  But toward evening Breck came to me with his head drooping and said to me with a big sigh, "Mom, being kind is haaaard!"  He had managed to get through the day with only hitting his sister on the head with a shoe one time.  

We were studying in history about how pretty much the entire world thought that the end of the world would be 1000 AD.  (which by the way, if you're keeping track, didn't happen)  This brought on a discussion of the end of the world and how it really would end.  I told them the Bible says that the world will someday be burned with fire and God will make us a new Heaven and earth.

Fast forward to that evening:

Autumn comes in crying because her older brother with his newly-acquired information about the end of the world has informed her that God is going to burn her alive with the world, which as you can imagine, did not go over too well with her!! 

It is a pretty normal occurance for me and Leland to share a hug and kiss when he returns home from work.  I imagine this is pretty normal for many households.  Breck has watched us do this since he was born, but last night when he walked into the kitchen and found us hugging, he ran down the hallway yelling, "Autumn, do you want to see something dis.gust.ing?????  Mom and Dad are hugging!!" 

I guess we've reached that age.  Sometime soon I expect to hear him say that he won't sit by his sister at the dinner table because she has cooties!

Boys are a handful trying delightful!  They definitely keep things interesting, and I suspect they make God smile just a bit.

"School is Boring!" said the 5-yr. old

Autumn turned 5 years old this summer, thus ushering her into the school age world.  A week ago I asked her if she was excited about starting school this year.  "No," she said.  I was shocked!  How could she not be excited about that?  I thought all kids were excited about starting school for the first time.


"Why aren't you excited about starting school?" I asked.

"School is boring," was her answer.

Now I'm in a mental sweat.  As an avid homeschool Mom, I am adamant that school should NOT be boring.  School may be exciting, fun, challenging, even hard, but NEVER boring!!  So I calmly collect my emotions and cried, "How can you think school is boring when you've never even been to school yet??!!!"  Ok.  So I wasn't so calm. 

"I've heard the other kids talk," she said in a very bored, grown-up way, "and they all say its boring." 

I heaved a sigh of relief-that's all, not some deep-seated inhibition against school! 

"Well, you wait and see, school is fun and you're going to love it!"

Fast-forward to last night after our first day of school.  I'm sitting on her bed as she prepares to go to sleep.  "So, what did you think of your first day of school?" I asked. 

"It was fun!" she said, beaming.

Then, "You were right!"

My big school-girl!

Life's Lessons- Willingly or Unwillingly

My blog has been strangely silent the last few months, but trust me- I have VERY good reasons.  Our life went from cruising along at a somewhat moderate pace (as moderately as you can get with three kids) to a neck-breaking fast pace.  I won't try to catalogue everything that has happened since May as the post would be too long and too dull and boring for any of you to read.  Instead I'll share some things that I have learned over the past few months (willingly or unwillingly!)

About Weddings:

1. Planning a wedding is harder and takes more time than you think.
2. If you plan a wedding, you must be very flexible-because anything can change at the last moment: for instance an out-door wedding can suddenly become an in-door wedding, leaving you with 2 hr. to get everything ready for rehearsal!
3. I will never plan another wedding. No.  Not even under Chinese torture!

About Lightning:

1. Children should not play outside in the rain.
2. If you have to go out in the rain, try not to go into an open, unprotected field, walk around in water and hold up an umbrella like a lightning rod.
3. God is more powerful than lightning!
(If at this point you have no idea what I'm talking about, google "four children struck by lightning" and you'll soon see what I'm talking about.  If you go to Youtube you will probably find a video with Leland in it...his day in the sun) :)

About Flying:

1. If you wish to prevent your children from crying and making a scene, don't forget the gum! (I am validated as my kids were not the only ones crying)
2. Flying is boring for children, or so I was told many times!
3. Flying is not for pregnant women.
4. If a pregnant woman has to fly, she should NOT sit in the very last row where she feels every sway, bump and air turbulent!

About Camps:

1. Song Evangelism is hard work!!
2. After 40 services in a row your kids will hate church, as I overheard one emphatic little girl put it.
3. Nausea, vomiting, migraine headaches and dehydration are a bad combination-especially if you're the song evangelist.
4. Collapsing on the platform is undignified, unladylike and ungraceful and should be avoided if possible.
5. I will never give my kids pedialite.  Leland made me drink the stuff.  *sigh* Yes, I complied.   WELL! He's bigger than I am!!
6. If you notice scratches and lacerations on your child's stomach, it might be because they jumped out  a tabernacle window.
7. Camp food can actually be good, especially if you're in the state of Washington where they serve you thick, fresh salmon steaks!
8. "There's no place like home, Auntie Em."

About God:

1. God is not hindered by or worried about my weaknesses.
2. God is bigger than I think he is and is able to do more for me than I think. 

Lastly:

One grin and hug from a 15 month old who had to stay with Grandma and Grandpa is worth a fortune!!

Ok. Enough already!  (His Mommy really missed him.)

Don't Give Your Kids Twaddle!!!!! Part 2 (Textbooks or Books?)

I can't talk about the issue of twaddle without talking about textbooks.  People, some of the worst twaddle is found in the textbooks we give our children to read.  (Please stay with me, I don't mean to offend anyone.)  Textbooks are among the least interesting and literary pieces of writing available.  Textbooks are filled with facts, places, names and dates-not interesting, literary writing.

One of the problems with using textbooks is that textbooks don't inspire.  The point of education is not to cram all the information possible into a child's heads in twelve years and then hope that they will remember it all.  Twelve years is a relatively short time of their lives and it is impossible for them to learn everything there is to learn.  The point of education is to foster a LOVE for learning, a LOVE for reading.  If my child is inspired in his reading he will love reading and love learning and that will last a lifetime.  Think about most of the textbooks you used in school...did they captivate your imagination, thrill you and make you want to read more, or did they bore you to tears?  If you would not want to read it, why give it to your child to read?  Instead, give your child a thrilling book and he will devour it.

We learn best from stories.  Humans have selective memory, which is why you can remember vividly a scene from when you were four years old but can't remember what you had for dinner last night.  Hey, I'm lucky to remember what I had for lunch today!  Why do we remember some things and not others?  It all has to do with emotion.  We remember things that impact us emotionally.  What happened to you when you were four impacted you emotionally and your dinner last night didn't.  Its that simple.  That is why the use of stories and good books in learning is SOOOOO important.  Children will NOT remember boring facts. They will, however remember a good story, and in remembering the story they will remember the facts that went along with it.

Jesus taught this way.  I am in no way a Bible scholar, but I think it was pretty rare for Jesus to teach anything without telling a story.  In hearing the story his listeners made an emotional connection and through that remembered the teaching.  That is why preachers use illustrations while they are preaching.  They know that unless the audience connects emotionally with their sermon, the likelyhood of them remembering it all the way out to their cars is pretty slim.

Let me give you an example.  Breck loves our Geography time.  Its not because he has an obsession with maps or even because I'm a great geography teacher, truth be told, I'm rather poor at geography.  He loves it because of the BOOK we are using.  The book, "Paddle to the Sea" by Holling C. Holling, is the story of a Canadian Indian boy who carves out of a piece of wood a canoe with an Indian in it.  He names the canoe "Paddle to the Sea" and sets it on top of the snow-covered mountain so that as the snow melts it will carry Paddle to the river and from there to the Great Lakes and on out to the Sea.  As you read the adventures of Paddle not only do you learn about all the geography surrounding the Great Lakes, but you also learn about logging, how saw mills work, the coast guard and how they help to rescue people from ship wrecks, the Soo Locks, how it works and why it was built, freighter ships, forest fires, tides, winter on the Great Lakes and soooo much more.  Its Geography Plus and its written in an interesting and literary manner.  And Breck LOVES it!  He has made an emotional connection with the little canoe and will remember the facts as he remembers the story.  What a great way to learn!!

So tell me, which way would YOU rather learn?

Don't Give Your Kids Twaddle!!!!! Part 1

People may say that Dog is man's best friend, but they are wrong.  Books are man's best friend.  There is nothing better to do on a cold day than to curl up in a chair with a hot cup of tea and a good, worn book... ahhhh, bliss.

I can hardly begin to state the importance of books in our lives.  Books mold our thought processes.  From the earliest years, through fairy tales we learn of good versus evil; we learn about morality: right and wrong.  We form our opinions and beliefs.

Books also teach us how to read, write and speak and therefore are (or should be) the foundation of a child's education.  I can not underemphasis the importance of choosing the right books to give our children to read.

I am not just talking about getting books that are morally correct.  I'm talking about something that Charlotte Mason called "twaddle."   An outdated word, to be sure, but give the lady a break, she lived over 100 yr. ago!   Twaddle is simple language, incomplete sentences, unimaginative writing, "UNLITERARY" writing..... you get the idea.  We've all seen this type of writing.  The library is full of such books.  That's why its important to be selective.

Here is an example from a reading book I had picked up for Breck and had not checked over carefully:

"Rushing down the highway, rolling down the road. Truck Stop."


What was that?  That's not a sentence.  Breck was totally confused.  He could tell that  "rushing down the highway, rolling down the road" was not a complete thought.  Needless to say, we will not be finishing the book.


On the other hand, here is an example of good literary writing by Rudyard Kipling.  This is taken from the beginning of one chapter from his book, "Just So Stories."

"Once upon a most early time was a Neolithic man.  He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why.  He was a Primitive, and he lived cavily in a Cave, and he wore very few clothes, and he couldn't read and he couldn't write and he didn't want to, and except when he was hungry he was quite happy.  His name was Tegumai Bopsulai, and that means, 'Man-who-does-not-put-his-foot-forward-in-a-hurry'; but we, O Best Beloved, will call him Tegumai, for short.  And his wife's name was Teshumai Tewindrow, and that means, 'Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions'; but we, O best Beloved, will call her Teshumai, for short.  And his little girl-daughter's name was Taffimai Metallumai, and that means, 'Small-person-without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked'; but I"m going to call her Taffy  And she was Tegumai Bopsulai's Best Beloved and her own Mummy's Best Beloved, and she was not spanked half as much as was good for her; and they were all three very happy."

That's good writing.

All I'm saying is think about what you give your children to feast their minds upon.  What you read is what you become and for what you will develop an appetite.  I regularly read books to my children that are hard for them to understand.  Sometimes I have to stop every sentence or two to explain what is happening or explain new words that they don't understand.  THAT'S OKAY!  They are learning.  Their minds are being challenged and are expanding with new understanding every day.

There is one more reason for not allowing a constant diet of fluffy material, and that is because the main reason we teach our children to read is so they can read the greatest literary masterpiece ever written-the Bible.  How can children be expected to grow up and read the Bible consistently, revere it, love it, and at least somewhat understand it if they have been fed twaddle all their lives.  I'm afraid I've been around far too many Christians who stumbled around trying to read a passage from the Bible.  The Bible is a difficult book to read, so we better be preparing our children.


Something to think about.

Try A Little Tenderness

In honor of Valentine's Day here is one of my all-time favorite love songs.  I have so many that its hard to say which on is my favorite, so this is ONE of my favorites.  This song just gets me every time I hear it.  I become a pile of mush every time.  And Michael Buble is just....well, pretty awesome.

Oh, and if you're interested in seeing him up close and personal you can get a front row ticket at Conseco Field House this summer for only $1,700.00  That's just a tad over my budget, so I'll have to watch on youtube.

Happy Valentine's Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68yM87fcktE&feature=related

Mattise, Van Gogh or Picasso?

I believe that every child can learn to draw.  Its just like learning to read, sure it might come easier for some than for others, but they can all be taught.  I am constantly amazed at the creativity and artistic abilities of children.  All they need is a little guidance

Here are some pictures that my kids have drawn in art class this year (all but one are Breck's).  Breck says that he either wants to be a carpet-installer like his Dad or an artist when he grows up.  I think he has a good start on the artist.

The first two pictures are flowers in a vase.

The next picture is of his favorite hero...Larry Boy.

Space.

A Boy's Face.

Autumn saw her big brother drawing a face and decided she should draw one too.  Autumn loves color...LOTS of color.  I absolutely love this picture.  It really has quite a lot of emotion in it.

I swear it looks as good as some stuff that I've seen in art galleries!  Do we still have child labor laws?

JOKE, people, a joke!

A Brilliant Idea From A Brilliant Man!

Once again, Leland is my hero.  If I had a dollar for every time this man solved my problems I would be a rich woman.  (Lets just say I'm still waiting for those back-payments to kick in.)  Well, once again he came to my rescue.


Here was my problem.  A broken-down box full of hats, gloves, mittens and scarves.  This is as bad as it ever looks.  This actually looks good.  Half of the time the items are not even in the box.  Not only is it messy, but it is very frustrating clawing through the pile to find your one good pair of gloves on Sunday morning before walking out the door.

Also, my kids like to play with them Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  They find it a favorite past-time to play dress-up with them.  So I like to keep them out all year, which basically means I have a mess all year.

So what does a girl do?  She goes to her husband and says, "What am I to do?!!!" *sob* *sob* *sob*  No.  Actually, I don't think there was any crying involved.  This time.  The time before that?  Probably.  Here was his brilliant solution.  I'm kissing his feet over this.

An over-the-door shoe holder.  PERFECT!!  Why didn't I think of this?  Not only is it neat AND organized so you can actually find that wayward glove, but it is also a great space-saver.

So I went from this:

To This:

Men's work gloves?  No problem.  Long scarves?  No problem-just double them over a couple times.  I put the kids' things on the lower rows so they can get their own and put them back in the right places when they're done with them.

I'm in nirvana.