From My Commonplace: No Perfect Families

"Most mothers like to think there are perfect families out there.  It makes them hopeful, but what should make them hopeful is that there are no perfect families yet.  There is only redemption, offered to you and your family through Jesus Christ…

 

Motherhood is a high calling.  Civilization depends upon motherhood.  I do not believe you should lose yourself so thoroughly in your motherhood that that is all you are.  That is not healthy for you or for your family.  But I do think women need to know that motherhood is a high-value commodity in the market of civilization.   Mama, you are the first pillar of education.  You are a vital part of the infrastructure of culture, family, and even the body of Christ. 

 

This is not about having the perfect family or the perfect school.  Your success or failure doesn't rest on your perfection, just your faithfulness."  (p. 158, 160)

 

~Cindy Rollins, Mere Motherhood

 

Whew.

 

(More to come on this book later….but if you haven't yet, please do grab a copy and give it a read.  It's not dense or heavy – actually it is a delight to read – but it will make you want to get up tomorrow continue on faithfully being the best mama you can be, with God's help.)

 

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On My Nightstand This Week:

Devotional: 1 Thessalonians with the Paul for Everyone Commentary (NT Wright)

The Daily Office Lectionary Readings and Prayers from The Trinity Mission

 Theological: Surprised by Joy (Lewis)

AO Book Discussion Group: (Between Books)

On Education: (Between Books)

                                                          Personal Choice: Gilead (Robinson)       

Kim (Kipling) – Pre-reading for AO Year 5
Poetry: TS Eliot

With my Hubby: Emma (Austen)

Family Read-Aloud Literature: Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)

 

*I am also reading Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 for a local CM book club, but these meetings are infrequent, and it is my third – or fourth? – pass through it and so I just read the brief section assigned as our meetings come up. 

 

 

 

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From My Commonplace: On Iniquity

"Our manuscript remarks here that the road of iniquity is indeed wide, but that does not mean that it is a comfortable road to travel; it has its stumbling blocks and its difficult stretches; it is a painful road and a tiring one, although it goes downhill."  (p.337)

 

~Alessandro Manzoni, (trans. Penman), The Betrothed

 

So I'm not quite finished with this yes, and usually I hold off on book recommendations until I have completely finished.   But please do add this book to your to-read pile, if you haven't yet.   This book is a fascinating book for people-watching.  Manzoni takes the time to tell the back-stories of each new character as they are introduced, which gives fascinating insights into their motivations – both their virtues and their vices.  What's really, really interesting is that various characters have basically been embodiments of the ideas I have read about in other books recently, such as Charlotte Mason's writings and Smith's You Are What You Love.  Absolutely fascinating – and all wrapped up in a compelling story.  Everything you might want to find in an epic novel. (Be forwarned - it is over 700 pages!)

 

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On My Nightstand This Week:

Devotional: 1 Thessalonians with the Paul for Everyone Commentary (NT Wright)

The Daily Office Lectionary Readings and Prayers from The Trinity Mission

 Theological: Surprised by Joy (Lewis)

AO Book Discussion Group: I Promessi Sposi (Manzoni)

On Education: (Between Books)

Personal Choice: Gilead (Robinson)
Poetry: TS Eliot

With my Hubby: Emma (Austen)

Family Read-Aloud Literature: Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)

 

*I am also reading Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 for a local CM book club, but these meetings are infrequent, and it is my third – or fourth? – pass through it and so I just read the brief section assigned as our meetings come up. 

 

 

 

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On the Eve of a New School Year

It's that time of year again.  My Facebook feed is starting to blow up with first day of school pictures from various places all around the country.  Around these parts some of the private schools have already begun, and the public schools are gearing up to do so next week (I think?  I'm not entirely sure.  I guess I'll find out when the big yellow bus starts circulating the neighborhood again…)  And tomorrow, our family will jump on the 'back-to-school' bandwagon too. (Back to homeschool that is. While I can't say I've never contemplated sending my children off on the big yellow bus, that bus comes through my neighborhood at 6:30 in the morning, so mostly I don't contemplate it too seriously.  I don't know about you, but we don't actually get up that early….)

 

I did a fair amount of reading this summer.  Included in that reading was Charlotte Mason's second volume Parents and Children, James KA Smith's You Are What You Love, and Cindy Rollins' brand new book Mere Motherhood.  The only one of those that I had planned on reading was Parents and Children.  The other two were new releases that I couldn't quite resist waiting on, despite the number of books still languishing in my to-be-read basket.  More about all of those books in the weeks to come, I hope.  In very brief summary, all of them talk about the importance of nourishing our children with good ideas, training them in good habits, and the way those ideas and habits form their affections and influence the people they become (although coming at that theme from different angles).   All of them gave me a great deal of food for thought.

 

Then, last weekend we were at our church's annual family-style retreat.   Our bishop came to deliver the teaching portion of the retreat – a study of 2 Timothy – and all of a sudden all of the ideas that had been floating about in my mind from my reading this summer started coming together.

 

Have you noticed in Second Timothy that more than once, Paul mentions the 'shaping influence' of Timothy's mother and grandmother?  It was their teaching and training in Timothy's formative years that equipped him to live out his calling in the world.  That 'shaping influence' is the Word of God – the Word that is powerful and effective for everything.  And our end (Smith would say our 'telos') is Jesus.  He is our goal.  The One around whom our affections should be ordered.  He is also the One who gives us sustaining grace – grace for every moment.  Grace to continue with patience and perseverance even in the face of severe trials and testing.  (Cindy's book is a memoir of how these ideas played out in her family.)

 

At the end of the final teaching session on Sunday morning, we had a communion service.  In the Anglican liturgy, at the end of the service, we are commissioned to go back out into the world with these words: And now Father, send us out into the world to do the work You have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord…

 

One of my children – the one who, if I'm honest, is the one that I find the most difficult to parent most of the time – was right there, snuggled up against me during that service.  This isn't the first time I've heard those words, as they are part of the liturgy week in and week out.  Nor is it the first time that I've had a child snuggled up in my lap at the point in the service.  But that day, with the words of 2 Timothy still ringing in my ears, and my nose resting against a child's head, I heard them in a new way.   That little one in my lap…and the other two who were scattered in other parts of the room with their friends – they are the work He has given me to do.  That is my mandate: to faithfully train these little ones God has placed in my care.  To nourish them with Good, True, and Beautiful ideas.  To guide them into good habits – liturgies if you will – that will guide their future lives.   To steep them in His Word and point them to Jesus.  To do all of this in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

 

So tomorrow we embark on a new school year.  I have my books and lists ready to go – ready enough at least.  I'm excited about the new opportunities that the coming year will hold.  And I look forward to sharing some of those plans with you here in this space in the weeks ahead.  But in the midst of new books and new checklists and new supplies and new activities and new schedules….let us not forget the goal that we are aiming for.  The holy task we have been called to.   The sustaining grace we are given to carry it out – grace that is new every morning.  Let's love and serve Him as faithful witnesses right here in our homes.

 

 

From My Commonplace: What does it matter?

"…What does it matter what committee you serve on?  What promotion you get?  That book you labor to write and push to publish, someone will end up resting a coffee cup on, without any care as to your sacrifice.  Your children are only young once.  Your marriage provides you a chance to put someone else first daily.  Such things refine your soul." (p.285)

 

~Carolyn Weber, Surprised by Oxford

 

Another little gem from one of my very favorite books.   I struggle with this: wanting to do something that "matters" – something that "counts".  Some of that is pressure that I've felt in the missionary/ministry culture I've been part of my whole adult life, and some of that is pressure that I put on myself.   If I'm honest with myself, what I really mean by that is something that other people notice and recognize.

 

Ouch.

 

Our church women's group recently finished a four-session study on the Proverbs 31 woman.  Our conclusion was that God doesn't ask us to do all of those things mentioned in that chapter at once.  We all have different gifts and different callings and are in different seasons of life.  Just because God has called me to do one thing in this season, that doesn't mean He won't call me to do something else in a different season.  So…no pressure.  Bottom line: do the thing that God has put in front of you to do today.  Do it faithfully.   Trust Him for the outcome.

 

Such things refine your soul, regardless of whether or not anyone else noticed.

 

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My Bookbag This Week:

Devotional: Galatians with the Paul for Everyone Commentary (NT Wright)

The Daily Office Lectionary Readings and Prayers from The Trinity Mission

 Theological: You Are What You Love (Smith)

AO Book Discussion Group: I Promessi Sposi (Manzoni)

Personal Choice:Gilead (Robinson)

Poetry: Collected Poems 1909-1962 (TS Eliot)

With my Hubby: Emma (Austen)

Family Read-Aloud Literature: Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)

 

*I am also reading Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 for a local CM book club, but these meetings are infrequent, and it is my third – or fourth? – pass through it and so I just read the brief section assigned as our meetings come up. 

 

 

 

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What We've Been Up To....

So, you may have noticed that it's been a little quiet over here these past couple of weeks.   We spent a fantastic 2-1/2 weeks traveling on the West Coast visiting family, and then came home and almost immediately left for a church retreat.   It has been a lovely, albeit intense, few weeks.   Here are a few of the highlights of our summer travels:

 

Lots of cousin fun with cousins of all stripes – first cousins, second cousins, cousins-once-removed, 'friend' cousins: park dates, swimming, sleepovers….

 

 

 

 

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA

 

These are my children, as they are.  Just keepin' it real, folks!

 

El Dorado Park Nature Center, also in Long Beach

 

 

Tidepooling in San Pedro, CA

 

 

Fun Meet-up with some Ambleside friends in Oregon.  It was like our kids had always known each other or something.  Thanks again, Harmony and Maggie Annie!  (I also got a coffee date with Brandy and dinner with Kathy…but forgot to take any photos. Oops!)

 

 

Deception Pass State Park, Washington

 

 

Day out seeing some of the lesser-known sights in Seattle – or at least things I hadn't seen before, even though I've been there 4 or 5 times - such as Gasworks Park:

 

 

 

The Troll Under the Bridge…

 

 

And watching boats go through the Locks!

 

 

A fun time was had by all, but we were wiped out when we got home and are glad to not have to travel anywhere again for a long while now. J   Now that we are home, we are working towards getting back into a routine…which means starting our new school year….launching a (very modest) new co-op effort….new opportunities for the kids….and hopefully some time for writing in the margins.  My summer reading has been so enriching, and I have so many thoughts swirling in my head that I'd love to have time to share with you here.   Stay tuned!

From My Commonplace: On 'Goodness Infinite'

"Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes

To call by vision, from his father's house,

His kindred, and false gods, into a land

Which He will show him, And from him will raise

A mighty nation, and upon him shower

His benediction, so that in his seed

All nations shall be blest. He straight obeys,

Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes.

'I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith

He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil…

 

Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth

With God, who called him, in a land unknown…

 

This ponder, that all nations of the earth

Shall in his seed be blessed. By the seed

Is meant they great Deliverer, who shall bruise

The serpent's head…"

(Lines 120-129, 133-134, 147-150)

 

"Jesus…

…who shall quell

The adversary serpent, and bring back,

Through the world's wilderness, long-wandered Man

Safe to eternal paradise of rest…

… of His reign shall be no end."

(Lines 310-314, 330)

 

"Thy punishment

He shall endure, by coming in the flesh

To a reproachful life, and cursed death;

Proclaiming life to all who shall be believe

In His redemption; and that His obedience,

Imputed, becomes theirs by faith: His merits

To save them, not their own, though legal, works."

(Lines 404-410)

                                                                                                                                                                                          

"O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense!

That all this good of evil shall produce,

And evil turn to good; more wonderful

Than that which by creation first brought forth

Light out of darkness."

(Lines 469-473)

 

~John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XII

 

A few choice lines from the final book of Paradise Lost.   I had set Paradise Lost aside during a busy season this past spring, and figured it might be a couple of years before I would pick it up again.  So much to read, so little time, right?  But my summer reading took a bit of a detour when I picked up a paperback copy of Surprised by Oxford (I had previously read it off my Kindle) and re-read it.  Her descriptions of studying seventeenth century literature at Oxford inspired me to pick Paradise Lost back up...and I finished it!  I am so very glad I did.  The story Milton tells in Paradise Lost is a heartbreaking one.  Satan rebels against God in heaven…he falls.  God creates a beautifully perfect world – He speaks order into the chaos, and Satan infiltrates it and tempts Adam and Eve into sin as well.  They are cursed, and thrown out of God's beautiful paradise.  All is lost.

 

Or so we think.

 

But all is not lost.  There is Another One coming.  One who will triumph.   One who did triumph at the cross, and One who will come again in ultimate victory.

 

 

This is a crazy world we live in.  There are times when the Unthinkable happens.  There are times when it seems that Chaos overwhelms.  There are times when it seems All is Lost.

 

Christ Has Died.  Christ Is Risen.  Christ Will Come Again.   We declare those words every week in church as part of the Anglican liturgy.

 

I don't know about you, but that's a truth I need to hold on to.

 

"O Goodness infinite, Goodness immense!"

 

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My Bookbag This Week:

Devotional: Galatians with the Paul for Everyone Commentary (NT Wright)

The Daily Office Lectionary Readings and Prayers from The Trinity Mission

 Theological: You Are What You Love (Smith)

AO Book Discussion Group: I Promessi Sposi (Manzoni)

On Education: (Between Books)

Personal Choice: A Morbid Taste for Bones (Peters)
Poetry: TS Eliot

With my Hubby: Emma (Austen)

Family Read-Aloud Literature: Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)

 

*I am also reading Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 for a local CM book club, but these meetings are infrequent, and it is my third – or fourth? – pass through it and so I just read the brief section assigned as our meetings come up. 

 

 

 

Click Here for more Words

 

 

 

 

 

What We've Been Up To....

Out and About::

One of my goals for our "summer term" was to take advantage of some field trip opportunities….and we did!   A few highlights…

 

 

The Discovery Place, our local hands-on science museum.  The second time they went, Papa took them uptown on the commuter train which was an extra special bonus.

 

 

Long hike in one of our local parks.  When the weather cools off in the fall, I'd love to do a lot more of this kind of thing.

 

 

And swimming.  Lots of swimming.

 

In the Schoolroom::

We finished our summer term right before the Fourth of July.  We left off exactly half-way through AmblesideOnline Years 2 and 4 (and 6 weeks in to Year 1), which will be a good place to pick things up again in the fall.  We read Twelfth Night – the first 'real' Shakespeare we studied at home.  We read a retelling first to familiarize ourselves with the plot, followed by this movie version (over about three viewing sessions), and then the older two and I took parts and read through the play.  So much fun!  We've also gotten back in to drawing again, and had a blast drawing a scale-plan of our dining room after reading that section in Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography.   Summer term was a success. 

 

 

 

The past couple of weeks have been blissful nothing, other than my planning wheels turning along in the background while my children invent wildly creative games such as "World War II bomber pilots", which involves launching paper airplanes across the room at various targets….

 

 

Creatively::

We made little wooden people to go with our Twelfth Night study.  I'm not a crafty Mama, but this little project was fun.  They have gotten a lot of play too, so very well worth it.  Our inspiration came from here.

 

 

 

 

In the Kitchen::

Peaches.  Carolina peaches.  And ice cream.  Or if you prefer, coffee with ice cream.

 

 

Oh merciful heavens yum.  I'm not a fan of Carolina summers (think upper 90s and HUMID), but this just about makes up for it.

 

Around the House::

I have slowly started going through some of the boxes in our garage, boxes that have been in storage for most of the 15 years we lived overseas.  What a trip down memory lane that has been.  I've turned up some real gems in the process.   Like this:

 

 

My old Disneyland pass from college days.  Disneyland was only about 15 minutes down the freeway from where I went to college, so we went often.  Back in those days, you could purchase an annual pass for only $99.  I always used my birthday money for this purpose, and then had a whole year of something free-and-fun to do on Friday nights (or for the cost of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream in a dipped waffle cone on Main Street).  Such fun memories.

 

And also this:

 

 

My best friend and I on my 19^th birthday.  I will decline to share how many years ago THAT was.  She's still my best friend, even though we live in different states, and I get to see her next week. J

 

What have you been up to?