home hum

Seven Things

One:  I went out looking for my daughter’s cat this morning, as he didn’t come home last night.  I found him dead on the side of a road not far from where we live.  He was a beautiful, affectionate cat, only three years old.  Three of our four cats died this year.  I wish that we had never let any of  them outdoors, even though cats love being outside. 

Two:  I downloaded Murder in a Mill Town last night, because I finished Still Life With Murder, and loved it so,  but, I forgot that I borrowed This Life Is In Your Hands from the library.  It’s a memoir about a family who were followers of the Nearings (that famous back-to-the-land couple).  I know that this book tells a tragic story, and I’m not sure that I’m up to reading it right now, so I might just send it back to the library.  However, I  did love this passage on p.4 of the Prologue:

Three:  “We lay in the shade under the ash tree, gazing up at the crown of leaves and listening to the sounds of the farm--birds calling, goats bleating, chattering of customers at the farm stand, and whispers of tree talk.

“When you focused on the leaves fluttering in the dappled light, they vibrated and shimmered into one, becoming a million tiny particles.  You felt a shift inside, and you began to vibrate too, on the same frequency as everything else.  All secrets were there, all truths, all knowledge.  You had to scan with your heart to find what you were seeking.  It might not be spoken in words, it might be hidden in rhyme, in song, in images.  You knew the tree and the earth were the same as you, made of particles like you, come together in a different form.  You loved it all as you loved yourself.”    Oh, yes. Amen.

Four:  There are 20 eggs in my refrigerator right now, all from our chickens. Tonight I’m going to make omelets, acorn squash, and toast for supper.

Five:  My best friends are my children. I’ve been burnt pretty badly by friendships I’ve had as an adult with other women. I'm a lot more careful now about friendships.

Six:  I’m glad it’s autumn. The days are really getting shorter now, which I love, since I am an owl by nature and enjoy long evenings.  

Seven:   One of my favorite scenes from one of my all-time favorite movies:

 

Joining Sarah and Jennifer Fulwiler's Seven Quick Takes Friday. 

Yarn and Books

Last weekend my family was out-of-town for my nephew's wedding.  My two older sons were groomsmen, and they were so handsome in their tuxedos.  The wedding was lovely, but when we got back home we all came down with colds. This week has been full of laundry, bills, sniffley kids, and a few appointments. One of them was for a new haircut for me.  I let my stylist have her way with me, and she went really short, the shortest my hair has ever been.  It's a change, but I think I like it. There's something about having really short hair that is kind of liberating.  

Goodreads now offers recommendations for what to read next, based on the books that you've read and reviewed.  One of their recommendations for me was P.B. Ryan's, Still Life With Murder, which is out of print, but available as an eBook.  I think Kindle offers it for free; I paid 99 cents from Kobo.  All I can say is:  Wow.  What a story--what characters!  Still Life With Murder is a  mystery set in Boston in 1868.  It is rich in historical detail, yet compellingly vivid.  I really like P.B. Ryan's straight-forward storytelling style and multi-faceted characters.  This is one of the most entertaining books that I've read this year. I will definitely be reading more from P.B. Ryan.

The whipporwil shawl is coming along nicely.  I didn't bring it with me on our our weekend trip, as I knew that I would be too busy visiting with family to knit, but this week I'm making good progress on 'section two".  I just started working the second band of contrasting color.  I think it's going to look really cool when it's finished.  

Yarn and Books

I've almost finished 'section one' of the Whipporwil Shawl.  It doesn't look like much yet, but I am really enjoying the knitting process.  The shawl began with just five stitches and now has three hundred nineteen.  I can't wait to start 'section two", which will begin the wavy eyelet rows of contrasting color.  

I've been reading The Return of Captain John Emmett for a long time (about a month) now.  It's a well-written mystery set in post WWI England.  I love the setting, and would like to read more novels set in this time period, however, the story is uneventful and not very engaging.  After reading more than 300 pages, the main character is still an enigma to me. I kept thinking that as the story progressed I would get to know more about him and his life before the war.  That never happened, and so I don't feel a strong reader-connection to  him.  He has a love interest, and that subplot was handled very awkwardly by the author, who is a historian.  I wish that I could recommend this book, because it is well-written from a mechanical and stylistic perspective, and it is very well researched.  However, the story itself has a very dry, forensic feel to it, and the mystery is just not all that interesting.  

Joining Ginny at Small Things for her weekly Yarn Along.

Full of Awesome

I found the following link on my friend Brandy's list of "September Clicks" (she has some goodies!).  This one was by far my favorite.  I may put it up on my sidebar and keep it there forever :- )  I think it applies to everyone, not just girls:  Waking Up Full of Awesome   My own "full of awesome" five year old (wearing his sister's pajama bottoms as a cape :- ). 

Not School

Some people in my life wonder why I chose to homeschool my children.  Afterall, I graduated with a degree in education from one of the top fifty universities in the United States.  There are many reasons, actually, but it all boils down to this:  I want my children to grow up whole and to understand that learning is just what humans do.  It is our nature.  You don't need a classroom or a desk or special materials in order to do it (although a library card is pretty useful).  But, you do need to feel safe to explore, and you need to have the confidence to pursue your curiosity.

Sometimes my own confidence wanes, and I wonder what the heck I am doing with my kids.  Does homeschooling make sense?  Are my children "missing out" on something important and wonderful by not going to school?  Would they be kinder, smarter, and more well-rounded if they had school experience? Then I read an article like The Heartbreaking Point, and my confidence in homeschooling swiftly returns.  This is L's "kindergarten" year.  I am so glad that we will be spending it at home together (and in the woods; at the beach; in the garden; at the library, the Museum of Science, the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Worcester Armory, Hammond Castle, Drumlin Farm....etc.)  

Five years old is so very young, and childhood is very short.  It really is heartbreaking when you think about how many five year olds spend all day in school sitting, listening to the teacher, and doing worksheets.  I think that it is worth mentioning that the author of that short article lives in a very affluent community.  The Marblehead school district is highly rated; their high school is ranked 23rd out of 308 in the state. 

 

 

At the End of the Week...

I found myself at land's end.  It was 55 F degrees--invigorating!  

We ate our picnic lunch on a sunny, flat outcropping of granite sheltered by dunes, where it was less windy.  We had the entire beach to ourselves. It was heavenly.  A lovely, peaceful ending to a stressful week.  

An Invitation...

to come and play with me!  

For most of the summer, my friend Sarah and I worked on a creative writing project together.  The result is a website (created by Sarah) that features a new writing prompt every two weeks. The prompts are creative and widely varied, and include things like photographs, lists of words, and lines from poetry. They are specifically designed to encourage writers of all ages, styles, and skill levels to listen to their muse and write something new.  There are no limits.*  Finished pieces can be of any length, form, style, and genre.  We accept:  poetry, stories, song lyrics, essays, journal entries, lists, note fragments---whatever your muse whispers. Nothing is edited.  No submission is denied.  The purpose of the project is to give you the opportunity to express the divine as you experience it through your own writing (those are Sarah's words~aren't they lovely?)  

We hope that the website will become a community of creativity, where everyone can come to play and have their writing published.  

I hope you will come!  

Clicking the link below will take you to our website.  The first thing you will see is our current prompt--Prompt #4.  Below the prompt you will find Sarah's and my submissions (I write under the pseudonym Tibbie Reed :-).  We hope that the prompt (and our stories) will inspire you to play along with us.  Remember, you may submit  anything that you'd like! (To view older prompts and submissions, see the site's sidebar.  There are poems and other fun things to read).  

Why not give it a try?  Listen to your inner voice.  Challenge yourself to partipate. Encourage your children to submit something, too!  And, please don't forget to tell others about the project :- )

The Aeolian Harp 

* We do not accept offensive material.

Wild Bear-y

If you go out in the woods today, you'd better not go alone.  It's lovely out in the woods today, but better to stay at home.  Beneath the trees wear nobody sees...is a beary  w i l d  animal!  

Pattern:  Baby Bear, from Susan B. Anderson's, Itty Bitty Toys (I love this book!).  Knit with some Noro Kureyon sock yarn from my stash (colorway S184).  

E has named him Rory.   

Forecast

It's been raining for three days.  At first, I thought, This is nice.  We need to settle down into our home learning routine, and at least we don't have the sun teasing us to come outside.  Now, I find myself wondering how on earth I will make it through the winter.  It's definitely going to take lots of this:

Arrived in the mail today:  two balls of Knit Picks Stroll in Agate Heather, and one ball of Chroma in Mesa for a Whipoorwill Shawl for A.  

 

Late Summer Supper

Today was our first day back to lessons.  The kids were ready for it, but I wasn't.  Living in New England, I have a hard time letting go of summer.  I woke up at 7:45 am--a bit late.  I had a terrible night's sleep with allergy symptoms keeping me up for hours.  (My allergies are awful this season, the worst they've been in years.)  I made pancakes for breakfast, and we dove right back into history (ancient Greece), writing, vocabulary, spelling, and math.  L did "school", too.  He is getting better at cutting, coloring, and tracing.  

As the days begin to shorten, I often make this warm Mediterrean Salad, which is a simple, quick dish, and a family favortie:

1 lb. Penne Rigate cooked and rinsed (use hot water to rinse)

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

fresh basil, salt and red pepper flakes to taste

tomatoes--any kind (I was using cherry tomatoes from the garden up until they got blight a couple of weeks ago)

sliced black olives (I usually put in two small cans)

steamed broccoli florets

Mix the oil, garlic, basil, salt and pepper flakes in a large bowl.  Add cut tomatoes and sliced olives and toss.  Add steamed broccoli florets and hot pasta.  Toss to mix and coat, top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.  This salad is really best served warm.  It is really yummy, and makes a great meal for transitioning from summer to fall.  I usually serve the salad along with grilled chicken and fruit.  

PS: I can't stop thinking about Sarah and the flooding in Vermont from Hurricane Irene.

Summer Days

   

Hello!  It's been awhile :- )  

Summer was:

• Swimming
• Chickens and eggs
• Gardening--veggies and perennials
• Ice cream
• Road trips to see family in upstate New York
• Visitors from Japan
• Good books--especially this one
• Evening wood walks
• Sunday mornings at the farmer's market
• Daytrips
• Writing stories and letters
• Thrifting and antiquing 
• Painting (rooms in our house)

My teeny tiny garden produced:  peas, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, green beans, cucumbers, zuchinni, carrots, and butternut squash.  Three little 3 foot by 5 foot raised beds grew all of that!  This was our test year with the raised beds.  Next spring we plan on adding three more.  

The squirrels planted two large circles of sunflowers for us right under the bird feeders.  The flowers were glorious all through July and August.  The goldfinches particularly loved them.  But, then so did the chickens :- )  We had our first egg on July 29th, and we've had eggs every day since then.  I haven't had to buy any store bought eggs for a couple of weeks now.  

The nights are already noticeably cooler, and it gets dark about 7:30 p.m.  Summer is nearly over. Tonight, we're having a bonfire and making popcorn.  In the past week I've become interested in my knitting basket again (as well as this blog :-).  I'm working on finishing a little bear that I started for my youngest daughter back in the spring.  I hope to have it all finished by the time the new yarn I ordered arrives in the mail next week :- )