To Boldly Go . . .

That iconic split infinitive has been such a part of my families' lives over the years . . . .

I remember watching Star Trek on a color TV with my Dad on WESH during its first run, and then a few years later on WTOG 44 in syndication.  As a matter of fact, my Dad insisted on a color TV as soon as we could afford it just to watch Star Trek in color!  In the years between its original run and reemergence as reruns, my parents had some difficult times. Daddy had to spend some time in the hospital as doctors tried to regulate his medication for his epilepsy. Moma and I would watch the reruns every night (on our little b & w tv) at 7:00.  She would pop some popcorn, and we would spend that hour together.  It was a means of coping with Daddy's absence. It was just a couple of months, but it seemed like forever. 

Fast forwarding many years to the point where Columbia House was producing the 2-episode VHS tapes, my Dad decided that since I would be foolish enough to try to purchase those, he had better make me my own set. He videotaped every one of the original episodes for me, writing down the episode title and the "star date" Captain Kirk mentions! I still have those precious recordings. He would be amazed that now you can buy all three seasons for what two episodes would have cost back in the day.

 Yes, our color TV's were always these major "cabinet"- jobs.  They were major pieces of furniture,weren't they?

If I have time this week, I will sit down and enjoy some more Trekkie things--fortunately for me, there are three other ENTHUSIASTIC Trekkies in the house, and 1 who loves me enough to go along with it anyway. 

Happy Golden Anniversary, Captain Kirk!

A Happy Kitchen

Yesterday was a great day in terms of accomplishments around the house.  My pantry has been getting me down these last few months, and I just couldn't get it together to clean it out the way it needed to be.  Friday afternoon, I came home after my classes and cleaned it out.  I had cans that had expired 4 years ago! Everything that was suspect was ditched or save for the outside dogs (who will eat anything with relish). It felt wasteful to toss things, but it is more wasteful to keep the space occupied with things we can't safely eat.  Everything was getting lost in the chaos of the cluttered environment. My long term motivation was to clean the thing out so that I can better plan and prepare meals for the family. My short term motivation was that hubby was going to take me to Kroger where our dollars stretch sooooooo much further!  I had been looking forward to that for some time. I got to know Kroger when we lived in TN.  Their prices are really outstanding--much better than Wally -World; and their store brands are always great. The bread box you see in the photograph was part of hubby's mother' s collection. We are blessed to have her canisters and bread box as part of our kitchen.  As you can see, there is Sunbeam bread--dear daughter's favorite. Bagels, peanut butter and Rama-noodles are all present and accounted for. I bought the Sunbeam for little more than the store brands here in town. Same thing with the bagels.  Our oven has passed on to its reward, and we are making do without one for a while. So a lot of the meal planning has to be around non-baked items. This planning has been much easier since I purged and organized the pantry.

Another source of saving is purchasing my household cleaning supplies through Grove Collaborative. (I still get my detergent, dish soap and fabric softener at Sam's or WW).  At Grove, the prices are really, really good. Free shipping is available, and they are always helping with little discounts here and there. They only sell those products that are environmentally safe--I have used bleach and comet for so long--I thought I would try something a little less harsh. I have loved using these products. They can be pricey in the grocery stores, but through Grove, the prices are comparable to any other product. Plus, they smell so nice and clean. Yesterday, I cleaned the sink and counters til they sparkled. The happy scent of lemon verbena was everywhere.

A Different Kind of Day

No, this isn't me or my house, but it's an idea! Ha ha!

Today, I am home doing housework and some schoolwork. It has been really nice. I am working in our bedroom and on laundry. I left that big box of pressure back in my office.

When I get some more things done, I might just sit down and try to finish that afghan.

Great News!

Our family has some wonderful news to share!  DS 2, our precious middle-born sweetheart, has landed a part-time job (paying!) at the University's library!  This is marvelous for many reasons: he wants to be a librarian and hopes to go to library school next year. This job will surely help with that all the way around. He loves being in the library, and has in fact, grown up there. Important to mom's heart is the fact that this job opportunity will boost his sense of purpose and identity. It is an answer to prayer beyond human measure or description. He will be a blessing to the ladies in the library, I am sure. He can be the go-to student worker for shelving the high stuff!

Thank you, Miss J, for your prayers. 

A Good Day . . . Making Progress

When you see this picture on my blog posts, you know I have just had a great day getting some housework done.  With the back-in-school schedule (five different ones, to be exact) in full force, we haven't had much time to work on long range projects. DS 2's room is beautiful (and we worked on vacuuming, dusting and steaming it yesterday).  He continues to enjoy it, and has done a GREAT job keeping it clean.  It is his brown, blue and gold haven. The other day when he was at school, I stretched out the afghan to see how much it likes being large enough. A few more rounds to go, I am afraid. I did buy to more skeins of the Heartland "Big Bend" color pictured below. Each of the colors in this Lion Brand series is a beautiful blend into itself. See the variations of brown in this one? Anyway, I am going to do about a 4 or 5 row border in this color to finish it out. He has a new brown comforter, and this will be the perfect addition to the look. 

DS 1's room has remained a mess downstairs. The room is an unfinished basement room.  It has studs, and DH has been working on adding the paneling. One wall is concrete block, and we had to get a special masonry paint to use.  I started painting yesterday with my roller brush and saw very quickly it wasn't going to work at all. I asked hubby to run up to the hardware store to get a brush for that particular surface. He brought back the PERFECT roller brush and another regular brush for the nooks and crannies. It took an entire can of paint to do the wall, but I had enough to finish. I think another coat would be beautiful, but we will stick with this one. It is a pretty sage green. The paneling is the standard warm brown, and I plan to use forest green to decorate.  I have started an afghan for him that should be done when it starts to get cooler. This picture doesn't capture the beauty of the color. It is called "forest heather." It is a wool/acrylic blend and will help keep him warm in the winter.

Michael put up most of the paneling that was left to be done yesterday after I finished painting. The boys moved some of the heavy furniture pieces into place. One of DS 1's friends gave him a desk the size of Rhode Island. The miracle was that we were able to get it in the basement.  Be that as it may, the desk is now in place with a lamp on it that we have had for some time that is the same color as the walls. It looks so good. I washed clothes like a crazy woman yesterday and got all of the bed clothes cleaned from pillows to pillowcases, blankets, sheets and mattress pads. His home-made book shelves (bricks and planks) covers one entire wall. He loves that. 

The room is far from finished, but we made a lot of progress yesterday. He has a good place to sleep, read, and study that is his. DS 2 has his own space.  They shared a room for over 20 years, and never had any "get along" problems, but I think they are enjoying having their own space. They still spend a lot of time together, and that makes me happy. 

Last night, after all the hammering, washing, folding and painting, we sat down to our Saturday night supper.  This time, although we had planned on a western, we watched our "go-to" favorite, The Andy Griffith Show. That was just what we needed. I love to hear everyone laughing out loud.

Hope your Saturday was lovely, too!

Kids Are SO Funny

Our children never cease to amaze me. Now, they are 17, 21 and 22.  All are in college (the 17 year old is primarily completing her senior year of high school), but we have the BLESSING of them all still living at home. We spend a lot of time together at home, church and school. But despite all of this familiarity, they sometimes still surprise me.  In Bible school this year, we had LOTS of juice drinks--Sunny D's and Capri Suns.   I don't usually get these things because I think of them as younger kids' drinks, and I usually like to get Hawaiian Punch.  We had some Capri Suns left over--tons of them, in fact. Our "kids" have relished having those to drink after Church.  Since they enjoyed them so much, I decided to get some for the fridge here at home. Our local grocery store had them at $3.49 or so the other day. At that price, we needed to drink them carefully and sparingly. But I thought I could find them cheaper elsewhere. We happened to stop by Kroger the other day and lo and behold, they were $1. 49   a pack--all of the flavors.  I loaded up the cart, and there are 3 very happily hydrated young adults in our home!  Haha!  I love it. They act like those little pouches of juice are the latest, greatest thing since TANG! They sit around and talk about which flavors are the best, and we have speculated that some of the flavors are marketed toward certain regions ("mountain cooler" and "pacific cooler"). This is the greatest thing!  I have trouble getting Dear Daughter to drink enough.  Dear Son 2 is trying to cut back on his diet Dr. Pepper habit, and Dear Son 1 doesn't drink nearly enough either. I am so tickled.

Good Night, Martha.

 

I love this painting of George and Martha Washington. The children are most likely grandchildren. I chose this picture not only because it is so lovely, but because it seems to capture the beauty of life--family, home and time spent together. This week has been a whirlwind--I am so behind in EVERYTHING; as we used to say, "it is not even funny." 

But, DS2 and I have had a great night working through a Bible study together (Rod and Staff) and then playing a game.  DD practiced her piano, and I am not sure what DS1 is doing--probably homework. I had probably an entire hour today  with him, and we were able to talk about so many things--nothing important except the time together. Hubby is reading. Bedtime is near. Tomorrow, I will probably be even further behind than I am today, but Martha encourages me! Did you know that she went to winter quarters (during the Revolution) with General George Washington anytime she could?  She mended and sewed for the men, and her motherly presence was a balm to all. 

Wishing you all a good night's rest and a peaceful day tomorrow. 

Today!

An Historical Perspective

When I teach the course on Medieval history, one of my favorite areas of lecturing deals with the monastic transcription initiated during the era.  Monks would hand copy Scripture and commentaries; beautiful art work would be added, turning the hand-printed page into a colorful work of visual art. Monasteries typically had libraries, and part of the library might include a Scriptorium. The scriptorium was a place for writing and "illuminating"--transcribing by hand the Word of God and adding to the page the type of  illustrations you see in the examples above.

When we lived for a semester in England, I saw a beautiful display of these magnificent works --the blues and golds were amazing.  The collection I saw dated back to the Renaissance, and the colors remained vibrant.

So why then does this bother me a bit? (Having said that, I have looked at journaling Bibles at Lifeway with the thought of getting one). 

Maybe it would be safe to say that it is all about attitude. If you "journal" (i.e. draw and letter with markers) in your Bible with a loving, respectful motivation, it is fine.  My hope is that those brothers in the monasteries pursued a true labor of love, using their talents, inks and time to lavish upon the Scripture all the beauty they could muster. 

Similarly, I hope that this journaling movement will draw individuals more deeply into the Word of God--not as an art project, but as Divine work of art in and of itself. 

Redwall Stew

Hubby's doctor wants him to cut way back on his sugars, sodium and calories, pronto!  That is good advice for all of us.  Here is a picture of my lunch.  Hubby's was much like it, sans the bread and potatoes.  Years ago, I often fixed "Redwall Stew" for the family.  It is a recipe based on DS 2's favorite book series, Redwall. I have described these stories as a cross between Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael and The Wind in the Willows. Our version of Redwall Stew is simply chicken breasts, carrots, potatoes, and onions thrown into the crock pot all morning.  I added a little low-sodium chicken broth and sea-salt and ground pepper. It is so good, simple and healthy.  The pastor enjoyed it quite a lot. the kids loved it, and I savored the happy memories it brought back.

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words . . .

This picture is from a Pinterest board and it is about multi-tasking. I think the pin and the picture tell us a lot, unwittingly revealing the weaknesses in education and learning today. What do you see in the picture, and what is missing?  On the school desk sit  a computer and a microscope out front. These are the key tools in learning today.  Anything wrong with that? 

The books seem to be an afterthought. The computer replaces the literature book, the lecture, the dictionary and the Bible. The microscope, the protractor and the athletic memorabilia reflect the emphases--typically referred to as STEM--science, technology, engineering and math.  These subjects are marvelous and crucial, but not so that we should neglect Shakespeare, handwriting, art appreciation and history. But that is precisely what is happening. 

Now here is a desk where I feel would feel more comfortable. 

The tools of our trade.

A problem in today's learning culture is the fact that the computer teaches two great disservices:

--the absence of the ability to concentrate.  Students jump all over the place with the internet.  They are constantly clicking back and forth between whatever they are supposed to be doing and what they want to be doing. It's just too easy to check your email or twitter or facebook or whatever.  We are learning to have attention deficit. I say students, but it is true for me, too. Emphasis on multi-tasking has robbed us of our ability to work through one subject, one task, one book and the ability to concentrate.

--the second great disservice is students  (and adults) expect everything to be instantaneous.  We have moved from a rotary phone world to a remote control world to a high speed internet world!  We are losing patience; we can't wait; we can't wade through slowly any problem or project.

How can we change this?  Well, there has to be some recognition that there is a problem, and I think that admission is far away! I hope the pendulum will begin to swing back toward the humanities and toward the revaluing of time.

This is The Life!

This has been a crazy week, and Hubby and I have been in meetings for the last few days. Dear daughter is home with the boys, and she is working on her school work. They bought her some kind of frosty treat from Taco Bell today. She sent me this picture and said, "this is the life."

Do you like her pencil case/

Learning Lessons

I have to do a better job taking all of my self-righteous advice about what I watch on television. I love mysteries, histories and especially whodunits.  I made the mistake of watching a mystery/thriller, that I really wish I had not.  The reviews were great, but I should have read closer and took better note of the rating.  Now, I am having to RESET.  We worked really hard Friday on Dear Son 1's basement room, and then Saturday took a little road trip to see lots of different things and do a little back to school shopping. When we got in, we (hubby and I) watched the end of our movie, and regretted every second. Never again. 

To reset, we turned on The Andy Griffith Show and then, the lovely BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Hubby was asleep by then, but I enjoyed crocheting through some of this lovely, lovely production.  This version has the sound and look of the best of British television, reminding me quite a bit of the beloved series, All Creatures Great and Small. 

James Herriot, Jane Austen, Andy and Barney--you can't go wrong with this crowd!

Re do, Redone . . . Almost

Here are a couple of pictures of Dear Son 2's room redo.  The plates are part of a Royal Albert/Royal Doulton series commemorating The Wind in the Willows story. I have 2 of the 4, and he really loved that book--along with the Brian Jacques' Redwall series.  The framed documents are his "President's Club" letters from Dr. Caner. When a student earns a 4.0 in a semester taking 12 or more hours, they are members of the "President's Club" for that semester. 

Here is a picture of his bookshelf.  We didn't need to spend money on a new shelf so we "borrowed one" from another member of the family (me! haha) and gave it a new home and new contents. He is so pleased. 

More pictures coming soon.  Still waiting on Mom to finish that afghan. 

Do you like the beautiful blue he chose for the walls?
He helped a lot with the painting and the trim work. 

Getting Ready

Here we are--some of the books that Dear Daughter will be using in the coming semester.  She will also have A Beka math, and Dad will be working through that with her. As I said in another place, she will be reading some wonderful books- In His Steps, The Pilgrim's Progress, and Pride and Prejudice. I have added two Lamplighter titles, Ishmael, and Self-Raised,  both by E.D.E.N. Southworth.  These are two of the most highly recommended and read of the Lamplighter series. I also want her to read The Autobiography of George Mueller. This is my last year to really have any influence in what she is required to read (I don't think she will be a history major!).  I really like the Landmark English--there are LOTS of dictionary-based assignments. Her favorite professor (other than Dad) in the college courses she has taken always carries in his briefcase a dictionary and a King James Bible. He has had a lot of influence on her, and I am grateful. Anyway, I love dictionary work, and we have done lots of it together over the years. Looks like Dorcas is ready to help.

Thoughts from the Family

This has been a good week for Bible study so far.  We are still in 1 Samuel with the Sunday School lessons, and I have so enjoyed using Dr. Bob Bergen's commentary to better understand the Scripture. I am thinking about moving my desk downstairs into the school room. Everything is such a mess right now as we try to figure out what and who goes where! haha.  

The best routine of any day is to begin with Bible study . . . . it has worked for me over the years, and I feel it keenly when I don't do what I should.  Years ago, when Dear Daughter was on the way, I had a tremendous teaching challenge, teaching dual-enrollment and regular college classes at three different locations (in another state where we then lived).  I decided that I had to be "prayed up" when I left so every morning, I started the day with a time of intense prayer and study. Those days were really difficult, but joyous in their own way. This school year will have its own challenges, but I think we all need to be "prayed up."  My heart and thoughts definitely need some housekeeping (Psalm 51).

At the Home Educator's fair in Chattanooga, I bought 2 wonderful Bible study books from the Rod and Staff folks so that Dear Son 2 and I could do something  together. I would like to get started this week so that the routine can be firmly established by the time classes begin.  Dear Daughter and I have things to do together, and Dear Son 1 will be doing intense Bible study and reading with his new degree program. 

Speaking of which, last night, our supper hour was thrown back until after 8:00.  By the time we sat down to eat, Dear Son 1 was coming in from the Chicken House and was able to eat with us. Dear Daughter had made a wonderful Blackberry cobbler using a box of Cracker Barrel Biscuit mix. It was delicious.  But what made this dessert all the more sweet was the fact that we were able to eat together.  Afterwards, Dear Daughter spent the evening working on getting her desk ready for school, and Dad and Dear Son 2 went to the Wally world to get cat food.  When they came back in, Dad saw Buttercup under my car.  What a joyous moment.  To add frosting to all these cupcakes, while they were all doing their thing, Dear Son 1 and I watched The Andy Griffith Show while I folded clothes. You just can't get much better than that! 

God bless you all this day, and thanks for reading!

Headed to Bed

The Lord is so faithful--never think that your problems are too small for Him to address. The last couple of weeks have been very emotionally draining--first with Bible School, then with things happening here over the week. One of Dear Daughter's fish left this earth after she made a long effort to keep him alive. Our little cat, Buttercup, disappeared. Then other things fell into our path of worry.

But the Lord listened to our hearts--we know that our problems are nothing compared to those that often come in life's way.  However, they were not too small to escape His notice:  Buttercup reappeared tonight, wet and hungry. Daughter moved her older fish into the warmer tank where Rainbow fish had been, and he is doing better in the warmer water. This blog also gives me a sense of peace and privacy. The Lord is in control of all things. 

Lots of blessings to count as we drift of to sleep. Buttercup, hubby and me . . .

Welcome

Welcome to this quiet place--hopefully comfortable and inviting. My favorite place on earth is here at home in the midst of my family.  Join us as we take joy in the everyday blessings of life. Look for more posts over the coming days. 

God bless and keep you as you seek the Old Paths.