FRIDAY FAVORITES

This is a favorite spot in my house. Yes, it is my bedroom. I really like the pictures I found at the flea market and the pillows I found at the thrift store. My whole house is decorated in secondhand thrift style. You don't have to have a lot of money to make your home look cozy and nice. Just a bit of creativity (and believe me, I have the tiniest bit!), and some time to shop around at thrift stores, Goodwill stores and flea markets. I guess you could get stuff on Ebay and such places as well, but I like to actually see what I am getting up close and real. :-)

THANKFUL THURSDAYS

Since I focused on my Big Girl last week, I will focus on my Little Girl today. As you can see from the pictures, my Little Girl is not so little anymore. It was 13 years ago and then some that I brought home this gift for which I am eternally thankful.

My girls are best friends, but they are so very different from one another! Little Girl is my analyst, my lawyer, my sensitive and social child. She has in the past been a little rebel and still loves to argue, yet can be hurt so very easily. She is practical, very smart, honest, and very wise for her age. She loves to do things with others, and seldom enjoys activities alone, the exception being hanging out on the trampoline in the back yard. She loves the outdoors and goes out every single day she can, even all winter. She has a good imagination and can write very good poems, though she seldom does so. She loves to collect things she finds on her outdoor tramps, like rocks, tree bark, railroad spikes, old pieces of glass and pipes. I call her Frederika Sanford. ;-) She is a Christian and can spot heresy and false teaching a mile away. She loves her family, and right now, she would be content for us all to stay together forever.

As with her sister, I wish so much that I could just do it all again. I cannot imagine any greater gifts than these two beautiful blessings.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

TITUS 2 TUESDAYS - SCHEDULED HOUSECLEANING

I just thought I would post how I schedule my housecleaning, in case it would be of help to anyone. If I were a writer, I would have had a much more clever intro to this post, but since I'm not, I'll just have to jump right in. :-)

First of all, I do take a week or so once a year to declutter and "spring clean," whether it is spring or not. I do constantly get rid of stuff, but it still somehow accumulates. Once that is done, it is just a matter of maintenance. I have chores that I do every day, some that I do weekly, and others that I do on a rotating schedule. First, I determined how often various chores need to be done. For example, the bedrooms do not get very dusty since there is no traffic in there and the dogs do not go in there, so they only need dusted once a month. However, the rest of the house needs it several times a week. This is where having two daughters comes in handy. :-) So besides what is listed here, the girls do a quick dusting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Every Day:

Make beds

Do dishes

Wipe table, stove, counters

Sweep

Do a load of laundry (if there is enough to make a load)

Every Weekend:

Clean bathroom

Do laundry

Then, each week, I take the whole week to focus on one room or section of the house and do a thorough cleaning. This is where the rotating schedule comes in. I have them in a certain order, and simply do what comes next. If I miss a week, I do what was next on the list when I start back.

Week 1: Bedrooms (girls do their own)

Week 2: Porches (both since they are small)

Week 3: Kitchen

Week 4: Living Room

I simply clean a bit of the particular room or rooms each day, moving around the room, dusting, washing, removing clutter, organizing, until it is done. The last day, I wash the floor in that particular section. (We do not have any carpet.) This keeps the house basically clean so it doesn't end up overwhelmingly dirty and make me want to move out and start over elsewhere.

I have a very small house, so this doesn't take long at all. If you keep the clutter down, cleaning is much faster, no matter the size of your house. If you don't use something, get rid of it. Have a place for everything, and make sure to put things away as soon as you finish with them. Also, if you have things relatively neat and organized, people will exclaim how clean your house is, in spite of the dirt on the floor that you could plant a garden in. :-)

MISCELLANEOUS MONDAYS - FOCUS ON EXERCISE

Most people hate Mondays. I love them. A brand new week is almost as good as a brand new year. :-) Mostly, I just like the routine - school, regular housework, etc. Weekends seem long and boring to me now that my girls are older and mostly independent. I keep up the housework during the week and, besides a bit of laundry, there is really nothing much left to do on Saturday and Sunday. I wish we had a church, but since we don't, Sundays are really the worst. I always wonder what in the world I am going to do with myself once my girls are both finished schooling.

For this fresh, new week, I am starting back with my weights for exercising, which I haven't done in almost a year. (Don't get too impressed. I am starting with 5 pound dumbbells.) I have been working out on the mini trampoline a few days a week for this past year, and though I notice many benefits (one being bladder control improvement) and am keeping in shape as far as cardio is concerned, I also noticed lately that I get sore or hurt easily, when I never did before. If I reach for something wrong, or lift something unusually heavy, I am sore the next day. It didn't use to be that way when I was using my free weights regularly. So here is my new plan.

Monday - Warm up for 10 minutes on rebounder; full body routine with dumbbells and squats

Tuesday - Half hour workout on rebounder

Wednesday - Off

Thursday - Repeat Monday

Friday - Repeat Tuesday

From everything I have read, this is the best schedule for weight training (unless you are a body builder and trying to get huge muscles). It is best to have at least 2 days off between weight workouts for your muscles to actually recover. Also, from tests they have done, 2 days yields more than 80% of a 3 day per week routine, especially as you get older.

There are great benefits in weight training for everyone, but in particular for the not-so-young. It builds muscle, obviously, which uses more calories to help you keep your weight down. It even strengthens your bones. But one of the biggest things for me is that once you strengthen those muscles, you are much less likely to hurt yourself doing regular everyday things (or even not so everyday things). I figure if I have to be an old lady, I'd rather be a strong, in shape old lady. :-)

Anyhow, I am hoping that I will be able to walk tomorrow. After the squats this morning, I feel like I have spaghetti legs. Can't believe how out of shape I am in that regard! I am hoping by next month, it will be easy again. :-)

SACRED SUNDAYS - A FAVORITE HYMN

This is one of my favorite hymns. In the video at the bottom, he sings the most often used stanzas, but be sure to read all of them. Read slowly and think about what is being said. I especially love that last one!

HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said,

You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;

In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;

At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,

As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove

My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;

And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,

Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Listen to the music here. A blurb from that site:

This hymn was sung at the fun­er­als of Amer­i­can pres­i­dents The­o­dore Roo­se­velt and Wood­row Wil­son. In ad­di­tion:

[It] was the fa­vo­rite of De­bo­rah Jack­­son [sic; her name was ac­tu­al­ly Ra­chel] Pre­si­dent An­drew Jack­son’s be­loved wife [he was Pre­si­dent-elect at the time], and on his death-bed the war­ri­or and states­man called for it. It was the fa­vo­rite of Gen. Ro­bert E. Lee, and was sung at his fun­er­al. The Amer­i­can love and fa­mil­iar pre­fer­ence for the re­mark­a­ble hymn was ne­ver more strik­ing­ly il­lus­trat­ed than when on Christ­mas Eve, 1898, a whole corps of the Unit­ed States Ar­my North­ern and South­ern, en­camped on the Que­ma­dos hills, near Ha­va­na [Cu­ba], took up the sa­cred tune and words.

SCHOOL STUFF SATURDAY

This week, we continued with our Civil War reading for history. Our favorite books right now are two biographies - the one on Robert E. Lee by Marrin, and one on Stonewall Jackson by Wilkins. We also read from Abraham Lincoln's World (just about finished with it), the American history encyclopedia, and a Landmark biography of Clara Barton. Big Girl is reading the appropriate parts of the Clarence Carson book and Robert E. Lee, the Christian. I know this would not go over well with more academically focused homeschoolers, but all we really do for history is read and discuss. I read the majority out loud. I asked the girls several times if they would like to each read their own books, or do their own history curriculum and they always say absolutely not. They love for us to all be reading the same things together. I love it, too, so there ya go. :-) They are actually learning and retaining, and anything that interests them, they will do further reading and research on all on their own. They often contribute extra information to our readings that they have learned elsewhere. What more could I ask for?

We read about Wagner from The Gift of Music this week. Wagner's specialty was operas, and he is most famous for his Bridal Chorus and Ride of the Valkyries (which you probably will recognize, whether you knew what it was or not.) He was definitely not a very nice or moral person and was greatly admired by Hitler later in history.

We continued to look at Monet paintings online, this being the girls' favorite for the week.

Little Girl started copying The Hobbit to practice her handwriting. It was her choice, and she does 15 minutes per day. She completed level 7 of CLE Language Arts, and will start level 8 next week. I am slowing her down to one lesson per week, split between two days. On alternate days, she will do her copywork for 20 minutes instead of 15. As I have said before, she reads several books at a time, one chapter per day of each. This week she finished another Walter Farley book (she is reading them all), Exploring the World Around You by Parker (a narrative science book), and Alice in Wonderland, which she labeled "interesting but weird."

Big Girl started Clarence Carson's Basic American Government book this week. She finished Dracula and wrote a short report on it. (Spoiler alert.)

Dracula

By Bram Stoker

A review

Time, Setting, and Location: Dracula was a novel set in Victorian England and Europe.

Author's Worldview: It's hard to say. Obviously, there was great evil and self-sacrificing good in the book, but the Vampires were victims as well as enemies. It was not their fault that they were what they were - another vampire had made them so. Even Dracula’s face, upon being killed, had a brief moment of peace as he was finally set free. Such objects as crucifixes and holy water and sacred wafers (I would dearly love to know how exactly the Professor got hold of them. He must have had some connections) were used along with garlic as a defensive against the vampires, but this could be more from the author using myths that were already in existence than from a Catholic worldview.

Who/what did you like? My favorite character was the Professor. This isn’t unexpected. I tend to like professor or archeologist characters. He was a foreigner and so didn’t speak English perfectly and sometimes messed up expressions, which made him endearing. He was the father figure of the group, trying to protect everyone. My second favorite character was Quincy the American. He was loyal to the end and, unfortunately, was killed off.

Who/What did you dislike? Nothing really. Every character fit in his proper place.

Was the book well written? Yes, or I would have never gotten through it.

Would you recommend it: Yes if the person can take a little bit of suspense.

FRIDAY FAVORITES - A FAVORITE POEM

The Road Not Taken

(Robert Frost)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Thankful Thursdays

Oh wow! Just where do you begin? There are just so ridiculously many things to be thankful for! Above all, I am thankful for the One by Whom, from Whom, and through Whom all the other things come - my God, my Lord, my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (James 1:17)

I am thankful for His love, mercy, grace, kindness, goodness, provision, protection, and on and on I could go. I am thankful for my family, my home, our health, our safety, my friends, the freedom and ability to homeschool, our pets, ..... and on and on that could go as well.

But today, I will focus on just one of those gifts for which I am so thankful - my oldest daughter. I will focus on her sister next week.

I can't believe how quickly 17 years have passed. She is my artist, helper, and peacemaker. She has always been obedient and compliant and eager to please. She has grown into a beautiful Christian young lady with many talents and interests all her own that I had nothing to do with. How did that happen? She loves drawing, writing fan-fiction, and making music videos. She loves reading great, old literature that many her age would shun in this modern day. She will do anything I ask her, or at least attempt it. ;-) She has always been the peacemaker in the family, and never could stand conflict or arguing, nearly always giving in to her little sister rather than hear her fuss. She is modest, kind, compassionate, intelligent, honest, trustworthy, and trusting. She may forget on occasion to do something she was supposed to, but she never disobeys or goes back on her word on purpose.

All those years have flown by, and I wish I could do them over. But I can't. So I am thankful for what is now. Very thankful.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

CIVIL WAR UNIT

The next 6 weeks, we will be covering the Civil War of the United States. Or, as some prefer to call it, the War of Northern Aggression. :-) Above is our bulletin board for this unit. I have kept it very simple. Above that are the books we will be reading. I have simply spread them out over the 6 weeks, as evenly as possible. They are as follows:

Abraham Lincoln's World by Genevieve Foster - the last 16 sections

The Pictorial Encyclopedia of American History - Volume 7

Virginia's General Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by Albert Marrin

All Things for Good (Stonewall Jackson) by J. Steven Wilkins

Clara Barton Founder of the Red Cross by Helen Bore Boylston (a Landmark book)

An Unlikely Friendship by Ann Rinaldi

The Life of J.E.B. Stuart by Mary L. Williamson

The Boys' War by Jim Murphy

Big Girl will be reading Robert E. Lee, the Christian by William J. Johnson, and Little Girl will be reading Welcome To Addy's World 1864, an American Girl book.

We are also watching Ken Burns' Civil War, and will be watching The Great Civil War Debate after we finish the unit.

Our next composer is Wagner and artist is Monet.

HOW WE USE SPELLING POWER

I just recently purchased a used 3rd edition Spelling Power to use with Little Girl. I have seen so many people talking about how long the instructions for use are, and how complicated. I suppose they would be, if you bothered to use them. But, being a rebel, I never use anything like the directions tell you to. Instead, I have modified to fit what works for us. So here is how we are using it.

First of all, I gave her the placement tests. No big deal. I let her type the words out on the computer, and it didn't take long at all to figure out where to place her. Then I got two composition books for her to use for the regular tests, as I want her to actually write the words out. I think they "see" them better that way.

Spelling Power has lists of 20 words with a spelling rule above each list. The rules are pretty useless in my opinion, so we don't use them. We learned spelling rules with Spell to Write and Read, which had really good rules but was much too time consuming to continue. However, I am glad for the time we did use it. I learned a lot myself. I could have just used the Wise Guide from SWR the way I am using Spelling Power, but after research, I realized I like Spelling Power better. SWR only has 2000 words. It doesn't include variations of words because those are included in the exercises the student does (adding prefixes, suffixes, etc.) Nor does it review words throughout the lists, but each word only appears once. SP, on the other hand, has 5000 words. It does include the variations of the words and it also reviews them throughout the lists, thus accounting for the number of words included. This is what I wanted.

Ok, so on with how we actually use it. The first day, I call out one word at a time from our list. Little Girl writes the word in her notebook, then spells it aloud to me. If it is correct, we go to the next word. If it is wrong, I have her mark it out, give her the correct spelling, and discuss any rules, hints, or tricks for remembering how the word is spelled. We continue to the end of the list. The rules say to stop when they have missed 3 or 4 words, but the most she has ever missed is 3 anyway.

After we finish the test, I have her copy the missed words into her second composition book. I have her spell each one aloud to me, to make sure she doesn't copy them wrong. She then studies the words, one at a time, covers them, and rewrites each out beside the original. She hasn't missed any so far, but if she does, she will erase it and repeat.

The next day, we get a clean notebook page. We start with the words she missed the day before and go through the next list, using the same steps as before. So far, she hasn't missed any a second day.

As I said, review is built in, and every 5 lists, I believe, is a review test. We had our first today. I crossed out some of the easier words and replaced them with some she had missed from the recent lists. She got them all right the first time.

I like this book because it goes all the way through 12th grade and the kids don't have to study words they already know, but only the ones they need to work on. I had previously dropped spelling for a while, but I think I will continue this until she graduates, or finishes the book, whichever comes first. Good spelling is important.

A BRAND NEW YEAR

I love a new year. It is like a fresh new notebook, or a new pack of crayons. :-) I do have a few resolutions I am hoping don't fall by the wayside by February.

1. Daily Bible reading (hoping to read through a couple times this year)

2. Post here at least once a week, especially about schooling

3. Write in my diary/journal daily

4. Exercise 3 days a week

5. Go for walks when weather permits

6. Continue eating healthy and try for smaller portions

7. Keep up with revolving housecleaning schedule (in which we thoroughly clean a different room of the house each week

8. Post on accountability threads at RBG

If we did grades in our homeschool, Big Girl would be in 12th and Little Girl in 8th. Wow! That is just crazy to think about!

We are continuing to do my homemade history, since dropping TOG. We have been enjoying it much more. Lots and lots of reading! We are still covering the 1800s.

We are covering one composer at a time, trying to do the ones we have cds for and who were most important in the 1800s.

We are also covering important artists of the time period in much the same way, one at a time. I simply read a bit about the artist, then use his paintings as desktop pics (one at a time) on my computer for the weeks we study him.

We are continuing to read through How People Live, one two-page spread each morning. I think I am going to alternate with The Fallacy Detective, which we have already been through before, but can use a refresher.

Big Girl is reading the Idiot's Guide to Music History, Abeka World Literature, The American Impressionists, A Ready Defense, and Carson's A Basic History of the United States. She also has at least one other book going at all times, as well as doing her own writing, video making, and drawing. Oh, and I almost forgot, she is continuing to practice on the keyboard.

Little Girl is still using CLE math and language arts, Vocabulary Vine, and she just recently started an italic handwriting program (her penmanship is woeful), and Spelling Power. She still always has many books going at a time during her reading time. I am having her read a two-page spread of the Kingfisher history encyclopedia each day. It has lots of cool pictures and sidebars. We skipped the first sections about pre-history junk.

Both Girls are currently rather obsessed with Dr. Who and Sherlock Holmes. They have been watching the old versions of both shows. Little Girl still loves her trampoline, and is not enjoying the cold weather that is keeping her off it. :-)

A FAVORITE POEM

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.