In the Heart of my Home

Oh Happy Day!

After a summer of snuggling Baby, my favorite blogger is back at her keyboard. I'm so thrilled to get a new dose of Cottage Blessings! Isn't it nice to have Alice back? And just in time for a Marian feast...

What is submission?

Sarah asked, in this thread, what submission really is. There was some conversation and then Martha expressed genuine confusion. I turned to Fr. Lovasik, who time and again, can cut to the chase and bring clarity to weighty topics that tend to be muddied when they are viewed through the lens of today's society. In 1962, Fr. Lovasik quoted Ephesians 5:20-6:4 and then he had this brief elucidation:

This is a perfect solution to a major family problem. Let the wife be subject to her husband as if he were Christ. Let the husband love his wife as Chrsit loves the Church. If such a relationsip existed between husband and wife, they would be in harmony as the Church and Christ are--in perfect love and peace.

"Yes, but..." I hear you thinking. But my husband isn't perfect as Christ was. I can't submit to a man who isn't perfect. I might be smarter than he is. I might be better educated than he is. I might be more thoughtful than he is. I might be more religious than he is. How can I submit to him?

The Blessed Mother was conceived without sin. She lived a sinless life. The only other person on earth who lived such a life was Christ himself. And they both lived under the guardianship of Joseph. God didn't make a mistake there. He could have saved Joseph from sin before he was born, just the way that He saved Mary. But he didn't. He put a flawed man in charge. And then, it took a sinless woman to have the humility to truly submit to him.

So, the two sinless saints lived in perfect obedience to the imperfect man--the father, the husband, the clear head of the household. When we look at the model of true perfection in family life, the indisputably holy Holy Family, we see how to submit. We can clear out the clutter of our present society. We can quell the voices that tell us that the Bible didn't really mean that one is in charge of the other. Of course it did! Women are created differently from men. And we need to trust the Creator with His plan for the family. He knew you would be smarter than your husband. He knew that you would be more devout. And still He made him the man and you the woman and he told you "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." Genesis 2:18.

"But that's Old Testament," comes the protest. "Christ changed all that." No, he didn't. Mary was the new Eve. She perfected that. Christ deliberately came to live in the midst of the Holy Family. There, Mary was the model of humility. She was an inspiration to her husband. She was his helper, first and foremost, because she perfectly loved her Son, and she modeled for everyone--even Joseph--how to do that.

How do we submit? We ask ourselves, "What would Mary do?" I promise you she wouldn't pout, she woudn't connive, she wouldn't demand her own way. She would draw heavily upon the sacraments to live a life of gentleness and grace and perpetual blessing to her family. Always. Not just when Joseph was behaving like the model husband. Not just when he was as holy as she was. She was a blessing when he brought a bad day at work home to the dinner table. She was a blessing when he was demanding. She was a blessing when he was hungry and irritable and when he forgot to take out the trash. We are helpers fit for our husbands when we are inspirations to them. We are imitators of the new Eve, the Blessed Mother, when our homes radiate the peacefulness and the faith of the little cottage in Nazareth.

Put yourself in that little cottage. I cannot imagine Mary grumbling or complaining as she went about her daily round. I can't hear her muttering about the menial labor of yet another workshirt to wash. I can't see her arguing at Joseph's decision-making ability. "But Joe, I'm nine months pregnant! Get real. You want me to travel to Bethlehem on a DONKEY?! And you want me to trust you--a mere mortal of a man--to get me and this baby there safely? You're nuts. That's not prudent. And I know prudence because I know virtue better than you do."

Instead, she trusted God's plan for the family. She inspired her husband to holiness. She modeled for all of us, including him, a perfect love for her son. And she lived a life of humility and grace. That's submission.

Who is at Home?

Genevieve Kinecke has posted some interesting thoughts on the "Wifely Duty." She's exploring the toll that the two-career marriage has had on intimacy.  And there are certainly some very good points there.

Most of my readers here aren't from two career families. They are moms at home, many of them homeschooling.  So, the tendency is to reason that Genevieve's post has nothing to do with us.  Ah, but it does.  There is a mother-at-home corollary. And it's far more insidious because it creeps up on you when you think you are doing your duty and you scarcely know you are falling into its terrible claws. 

Genevieve quotes the following, writing about the husband of a wife who is at work in the world all day:

So pity the married man hoping to get a bit of comfort from the wife at day's end. He must somehow seduce a woman who is economically independent of him, bone tired, philosophically disinclined to have sex unless she is jolly well in the mood, numbingly familiar with his every sexual manoeuvre, and still seething over his failure to wipe down the worktops after cooking the kids' dinner. He can hardly be blamed for opting instead to check his email, catch a few minutes of Match of the Day and call it a night.

I offer another scenario:  The husband, home from a long day at work, checks with his wife via cell phone.  There is no inviting smell meeting him as he walks through the front door. She is not at home, cooking dinner. Instead, she is shouting instructions over a bad cell connection to order pizza.  He is to pick up two of their three children from soccer practice at the school across the street.  She wants him to feed them, bathe them, and get them to bed.  In the meantime, she will gather their daughter from band practice at school and rush her to her evening dance class.  She'll dash through the grocery store during dance lessons and be home around nine.  From there, the scenario will look much like the one quoted above, except for the economic independence.

Ladies, we don't have to be employed outside the home to lose the focus on hearth and home.  We don't have to be employed outside the home to leave our homes devoid of a feminine presence. We can be lured away by the busy-ness of suburbia. We can be persuaded by coaches and teachers that one more class, one more practice, is completely necessary. We can feel insecure as we compare what our children are doing to the many and varied activities of the neighbors. We can find our own meaning of success in the extracurricular successes of our children. This just might be a trickier problem to solve. We want our children to have extracurricular opportunities.  We want to be able to offer them chances to grow and explore. We want them to "succeed."  But how do we do that without completely destroying the fabric of family life, making family dinners all but extinct, and rendering ourselves so exhausted and so unavailable for intimacy or conversation that we can do little more at the end of the day than roll over and go to sleep?

Lovely Learning Rooms

The latest loveliness fair is up at Castle of the Immaculate. Drop by and be inspired as we begin a new school year. Beautiful job, Helen!

Rest in Peace

A few years ago, a little boy named Stephen was afraid of all things having to do with animals.  He shrunk from dogs, big and small.  He wouldn't go near frogs or turtles or lizards.  Animals were just not his thing.  And then he discovered Discovery Kids and Animal Planet.  More specifically, he discovered a man who shared his name and who had boundless enthusiasm for all the wonders of God's creation.  And that enthusiasm was infectious. He was mentored by Steve Irwin, otherwise known as the Crocodile Hunter.  Irwin was a "living science" kind of guy.  He so loved what he was doing and so loved where he was doing it and so loved the people he was doing it with that he passed that passion on. And with it, he passed on a lot of knowledge. At first, Stephen was just fascinated with the animals caught safely inside the television.  But, with time, he ventured outside.  He wasn't  wrestling with crocodiles, but he was pursuing frogs and toads.  And he took a big leap and embraced our puppy, who soon became a rather large dog.

Some children ask for Cartoon Network; Stephen will always rather watch Animal Planet.He retains all the little facts and big concepts presented in a larger-than-Australia way by a man who has a contagious passion for science.

It's going to be a sad day here.  Steve Irwin died this morning, out doing what he loved to do--getting very close to dangerous animals.  We've lost a kind of hero for little boys.  And we've lost a great educator for us all.

The Plan for Mary Beth

Mary Beth turns ten this fall and it promises to be a very big year for her. Truth be told, all curriculum plans aside, Mary Beth's biggest lessons will be those she learns helping to care for a new baby.  She was six the last time we had an infant in the house.  That baby--Katie--is her pride and joy and her constant companion.  Together, they are both going to so love caring for this new sister.

Mary Beth is a big fan of Catholic Heritage Curriculum.  She loves Language of God, handwriting, and the speller.  She drinks up the Catholic readers in big gulps.  The infusion of faith truly touches her heart.  So, she'll have a steady supply of those.

I'm so impressed with all things published by Hillside Education.  Mary Beth is still working through Stories with a View and enjoying it.  We'll pull some lessons from Primary Language Lessons as needed.  Those needs present themselves in the context of something real and meaningful for her:  blogging.

Her real writing progress is happening somewhere hidden.  She has a private blog and a circle of friends who both visit her blog and provide a wonderful example of fine writing at their blogs.  Every day, all of her own volition, she writes journal entries.  Following her big brother's example, she's even attempting to write a novel!  The only rule is that she is to edit with me before  she posts.  This is an incredibly meaningful and effective way to teach composition.

Much like her mother and her brother, she's not all that enamored of math.  The Math-U-See videos exasperate her. So, we're dialing back a bit.  She'll use some of the manipulatives her little siblings are using, but with a big kid twist.  We're planning to work through Multiplication and Division with Rod Patterns and Graph Paper and to make good use of our well-worn Math-It Kit. She'll also share Touchmath materials with Christian.  One way or another, she'll multipy and divide this year.

For religious studies I'm looking very forward to reading St. Patrick's Summer, The First Christians, and A Life of Our Lord for Children with her. These treasures have recently been re-published by Sophia Institute Press.  She'll narrate as we go and I know there will be plenty of discussion.  She has been devoted to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd since she was tiny and we are eagerly awaiting Moira Farrell's third book.

She's already put all the Catholic Mosaic books on the shelf and is creating her own liturgical year notebook.  This is a child for whom literature-based learning is perfect!

I am determined to follow through on plans to learn to sew with her.  We are going to begin with Sewing with St. Anne. I inherited it from a friend who bought it sight unseen.  She found that there was nothing in it that she didn't already know and wasn't equipped to teach her daughter.  I, on the other hand, really need a basic, beginner's book like this.  And even with it, I will be constantly begging the intercession of St. Anne.

For art, her biggest brother will teach drawing lessons and we will all enjoy the art included in CHC's fourth grade lesson plans. Because of strict no-sharing policies, I can't use the plans for everyone and I'm not doing a different picture study for each of seven children, so we'll just use the prints and we'll all appreciate the art together.

Unit studies round out the plan.  It's not difficult to get her to add to our family nature blog or to draw for her own nature journal.  She loves historical fiction and has created her own impressive reading list.  I'll add to it as we study history units.

She's as physically gifted as her brothers are.  She plays a very competitive game of backyard soccer.  But, for our own sanity, we have strict policy of limiting "extra-curriculars" to one activity.  We do everything we can to help the children pursue that one passion as deeply as they desire.  And we have found that they tend to be very committed.  Mary Beth is no exception. Last Christmas she was the youngest child to dance Clara in her dance school's history.  She loves to dance! This fall will be full of rehearsals for this year's Christmas performances and she will be at the studio for three or four classes week. She's made it very clear though, that she wants those classes loaded into two days only.  There are going to be two little sisters at home and she doesn't want to miss these fleeting little sister days...

The littlest things...

I am so excited about this tiny little bud!

For nine months, I've told myself that that when the mums bloom, I'll be holding our baby.  This morning, in a light rain, I surveyed the garden and I found a little, tiny pink bud!

The rocking chair is at the ready.

We've had a lovely baby shower.

Soon, very soon, we will have mounds and mounds of sweet pink flowers.  Soon, we'll hold our baby.

The thrill of a new year!

A few weeks ago, I noticed that it smells like fall.  I wasn't outside, catching the first whiff of falling leaves.  I was actually at the mall, shopping for a few late pregnancy items.  The smell?  The distinctive scent of back-to-school shopping.  Though the fashions have changed, I am happy to report that new shoes, crisp khaki pants, and stiff backpacks still smell like they always did. 

I loved back-to-school as a child.  I loved it even more as a teacher.  And, I admit, I had considerable pangs of wistfulness the first few falls that I did not go back to school in either capacity.

We try to school year 'round here, at least to keep to some maintenance level in the summer.  So, back-to-school can sort of disappear into the ordinary days. This year, when the neighborhood children board the bus, I will be about three weeks from delivering a baby.  Since this is my fifth baby born between the last week of September and the third week of October, I know that back-to-school for us will be followed in short order by "Fall Break,"  even if fall has just begun.

Charlotte Mason wrote that "education is an atmsophere, a discipline and a life."  It's oft-quoted, simple, and direct.  That's been the guiding principle for my summer--a summer I've spent at home, preparing for the baby and hyper-focusing on meeting the individual needs of each child in this house.

With the encouragement and support of much good conversation, I've looked at atmosphere.  The good and generous Lord gave us this home and yard.  Have we used it in a way that is pleasing to Him? Does the atmsophere welcome Him to the home that is His?  We're trying.  We've gardened and cleaned and organized and spruced things up.  I've kept my eyes and my heart on the goal of Marian loveliness.

Then there is discipline.  That's more than a paragraph in a post about learning rooms, but discipline is key to making home education work.  We have our household routines down.  Really down. Order is the backbone of executing all the lovely plans we've made.  If we can't find the pencil, if we don't get up in time, if there are no clean socks for the big game, we will be frustrated and cranky and--before long--despondent over our failures.  There must be order and there must be time planned into every day to maintain that order.  It's not optional.

So it is with preparing the learning room. I take comfort in an ordered environment, probably too much comfort, as if I really have the control that a clean room promises. Just invite a toddler in, all delusions of perfect control will dissipate rapidly.  I've shared much of our "atmosphere of learning" in the preschool posts.  There are lots of pictures there.

• Our arts and crafts supplies are  actually two floors down in a cabinet in a room that has lots of lights and a vinyl floor.
• Language arts materials for little ones are described in this post.
• Math manipulatives for one and all are detailed here.
• Hands-on materials and picture books for to encourage growing closer to Jesus, the Bleesed Mother and the Saints are pictured here.

Here is the big picture of the room where we spend so much of our time.There is only one working computer for the eight of us (Dad has a laptop).  It's a mixed blessing--no one spends too much time on the computer and I definitely can see what people are doing there all the time and we get lots of practice sharing cheerfully but, well, there are eight of us competing for the machine;-).  The computer on the desk with the pink lamp isn't functioning, but we are hoping to refurbish it so that it can run a word processing program, at least. In the clear plastic shoe pockets behind the door are all those little office supplies that tend to walk away--pencils, staplers, postit notes, sharpies...

The basket to the right of the main computer desk holds teacher's guides and books for mom.  The basket on top has nature notebooks in it. Scrapbook/notebook supplies are in the clear plastic drawers beneath it.

There is a big, unfinished (the plan was to paint it to match the table, but I had a baby instead) armoire cabinet filled with all sorts of paper and other lapbook supplies.  On top of it are finished lapbooks and books to ship.

The big baskets are labelled with the children's names and hold their current workbooks, living books, and notebooks. (Michael and Christian have theirs in their room.) The peach crate on the floor holds all the Five in a Row volumes and picture books.

 

Finally, there is the "room" that was my husband's vision and ranks right up there among the most romantic things he's ever done.  When this house was being built, it was supposed to have a two-story family room.  He asked that there be a room above the family room instead. That's the learning room you see pictured here. In that room, he drew plans for a large walk-in closet--the biggest closet in the house.  And the day after we moved in, he installed shelves in there.  And now, we have a real live library!  Some people buy their wives jewelry, mine buys me books!

The shelves are all labelled according to subject matter.  The children all have bookshelves in their room for books that are extra-special to them, but most other books find their way here. I love this closet.  I love the many, many things in those books that are mine to discover and to share with the people dear to me. I love this lifestyle of learning alongside the dearest people in the world.

Education is a life.  It's my life.  I'm learning all the time--learning about my Lord, about my children, about my husband, about myself.  I'm learning how to teach and how to learn.  Real Learning is a lifestyle; it's embracing with humility the idea that no matter how much we've learned, there's still much, much more to know.

Now, THAT's a big family!

I lumbered to the computer this morning, feeling the full weight of Baby Number Eight, who is just a few weeks from making her appearance and I saw that The Bearing Blog brings us the story of a woman who had 22 children. Read the links for a look into a remarkable life. I'm awed and inspired!