Things Worth Remembering The three habits that lead to success are: Patience, Application, and Vision.
It is always better to be underestimated.
There are three things that are better than riches: Health, Freedom, and Honor.
Think swiftly, speak softly, act wisely.
All from: The Book of Celtic Wisdom
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Ric Olie: ….our communications are still jammed.
Obi-Wan : Now stay here, and keep out of trouble.
Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
That’s an apt quote. My communications have felt jammed lately. For a couple of months, actually. In the past, I’d have those ‘I have to write about this’ thoughts a couple of times a day or week, but lately… Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And since I’m of both the If you don’t have anything to say, do us all a favor and put the keyboard down and It’s your blog, so don’t feel the need to apologize if things go quiet camps, I’ve not written and I’m not sorry about it. I wish it hadn’t been so long, but it has been and I guess it needed to be.
Padawan Learner is off watching Tron 3D with the local teen group, Dad Windu is hob-nobbing on shores of the Mississippi with the corporate headquarters crowd, and I find myself in an aggressively Christian coffee shop eaves-dropping on some very interesting conversations. A mom/daughter duo are discussing a felon’s drug/alcohol addiction (sounds like a dad/brother) and his refusal to enter a half-way/treatment house post incarceration which is – specifically – why he’s not being allowed back home. Apparently his parents in AZ are not facing the fact that he’s going to end up right.back.there if he doesn’t get the help he needs. Dad, it turns out to be.
A customer just said, “Happy Holidays” to the latte-maker girl. This has been such a BIG DEAL on my Facebook status update wall, with calls to (and I quote) “force stores to say Merry Christmas” and announcements that people are “not going to have a Happy Holiday but only a Merry CHRISTmas” or that they won’t go to “Holiday concerts but only to Christmas concerts” that I actually shuddered a little to hear him say it. But no one in the coffee shop even blinked.
The guys next to me are discussing a co-worker (not present) that likes to show off his p@rn collection in the warehouse - can you spell F.I.R.E.D? – and the fact that tomorrow is a guy at the table’s birthday. One of the guys just smiled at me. I wonder if he knows I can hear every word they’re saying.
A new guy at the coffee counter is now debating the existence of God with the girl behind the counter – and doing a good job of it, frankly. Respectful, but not taking the “mystery” and “faith” arguments as definitive answers. I just heard, “Come on, Jonah really sat around inside a whale? You know better than that.” It sounds like this is an on-going conversation with a regular customer.
An intense, Save the Whales bumper sticker on the computer case, trio of guys across the room are discussing ways to bring freedom of the press to some country I can’t quite hear from here, but somewhere in Asia from the sounds of it. Wow, I feel like such a slacker just sitting here. I’m not doing anything to save the planet or expand personal freedom to oppressed peoples anywhere. One of the guys looks just like the lead actor from Napoleon Dynamite – without the painfully poor fashion sense. He must have gotten so much crap after that movie came out.
OK, the religious conversation is beginning to grate on my nerves. Time to find a new typing place. But on the upside, I think I’m digging out. It feels good to write again.
“Sir, I don’t know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.” – C-3PO, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
As you may have realized (yes, I know, I hide it well), reading is one of my favorite activities. In reality, reading mysteries set in the English countryside has become, to be blunt, a bit of an obsession these past few years. I like them set from modern times (Minette Walters) to a more genteel age (Agatha Christie), between the World Wars (Jacqueline Winspear) to over a century ago (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), and everything in between. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.
Despite the fact that the authors and I share (for the most part) a common language, there are frequently antiquated or obtuse terms that send me running for my trusty old Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary – spattered, stained and highlighted (but still tightly bound, thankyouverymuch) after these two and some odd decades. Yes, I can generally gather the meaning through context, but it niggles my brain (3rd definition: GNAW) not to know exactly what the author meant. So I scurry into the delicate pages, hunting for meaning, before re-reading the passage with the full knowledge of what the author meant to express. Ah, it’s just divine.
So I have been sitting here this afternoon, while Padawan Learner goes about his lessons, very much enjoying my first book by Catherine Aird, The Stately Home Murder , with my much revered old red dictionary by my side. Seventy-three pages in and I’ve already looked up a dozen words. Now that’s my idea of an afternoon well spent!
Aunt Beru: “Luke’s just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him.”
Owen: “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Saturday in Central Iowa was drop dead, autumn weather perfect.
Although we were going to visit the historical farms and 19th Century town at Living History Farms with Dad Windu’s parents this weekend, they decided (at rather the last minute) that it wasn’t a good time to visit since his mother wasn’t feeling her best. Pulling on our big boy/girl pants, DW and I decided to go check it out anyway while Padawan Learner was at trampoline class. We enjoyed it so much, we hosed Padawan Learner off and went right back for the rest of the day.
A few pictures for you to enjoy:
This Ioway Native American lodge looked downright cozy.
Traditional medicinal plants and their uses were identified in and near the Ioway farm camp.
The one-room (with loft) Frontier Cabin…
and it’s matching lean-to barn/shed. One of the things DW liked best about this set of historic farms is that they had live farm animals and (very informative) interpreters engaged in the daily tasks of farming life. I liked that they were NOT trying to pretend they were actually IN each farm’s stated time period. I know some people love that type of thing; I am not one of them.
On our way to the 1900 Farm, we spotted a stunning set of matching dappled gray draft horses participated in the farm’s annual weekend-long fall plowing contest. (I believe there’s one in the spring, too.) What a clever way for the LHF to quickly get their fields plowed. I wonder if a laundry contest could work in the apartment…
My heart never ceases to go pitter-patter when I see a big, beautiful barn like this one. The hay, grain and leather harnesses inside made it smell heavenly.
I’m pretty sure PL’s favorite part of the day was finding this sweet little kitty to love.
This interpreter said she started as an elementary summer camp attendee, 9 years ago, and has been involved with the LHF in one way or another every year since. Now that’s impressive, in my book. Did you know that Iowa has one of the highest rates of volunteerism in the nation? Just another reason to love this place.
This pantry and the prep area below had me drooling into the collar of my turtleneck (it was in the high 50s, after all).
Anyone know what that corrugated-looking thing in the corner is?
With such a scene as this, it almost makes a girl want to go boil up some laundry. Ok, but it does make me think of flapping sheets and towels on the clothes line.
This is similar to the treadle sewing maching that I remember from my great-grandmother’s house, which she had from her mother.
The 1950s kitchen from the Modern Farms exhibit stopped me cold (there was also a Modern Farm Kitchen; I found it pretty sterile looking). This little honey is almost an exact replica of the kitchen we had when we bought our Grand Rapids house all those years ago. I think it’s just lovely.
We had planned to go back the next day to watch the old-time baseball game, but found out while eating breakfast that Padawan Learner had (a shitload of) work that was due the next day for one of his public school classes that he figured “wouldn’t take that long.” Oh, the learning curve ride this kid is taking… He worked straight from 11am until we had to leave for a homeschool family potluck at 4pm and was back at it when we got home at 8:30 pm, finally finishing around 10:30pm. Nothing like learning the hard way to get your stuff done as it comes in, rather than waiting until the very end because you’ve got “lots of time to do it.” Dad Windu is finding all this very hard to be patient about, but I keep reminding him, “The fastest way to learn is to screw up.”
For those of you who didn’t check out the curriculum log over at The Jedi Academy, here are notes I made on Thursday and today about his Ocean project and some more work that we didn’t know about until later for the same class:
Padawan Learner’s Environmental Sustainability class found out Wednesday that their Oceans-related project – his is on the Smalleye Hammerhead Shark – which was scheduled to be due in late December, was being moved up to being due… this Friday… to meet the 6th week marking period. <snark>Ah, the logic to be found in grades-based public schooling.</snark> Therefore, we have pushed our homeschooling scheduled work off to Friday (after he gets back from his public school classes) and Saturday afternoon (after gymnastics/trampoline practice) so that he can spend today getting his ES project completed.
and
Considering Padawan Learner’s experience with “projects” last week at Public School and the fact that he has several more projects coming due in both Italian and Environmental Science, we’re taking the next week to do some (much needed) science review here in The Outer Rim, especially since we’ve just finished Unit I in Biology, a little more Pre-Algebra & Algebra review – a few things are still a little shaky – and to give him time to get these crazy Public School projects zipped up and out of the way. No more last minute project “emergencies” for us, please.
“I’ve built a racer. It’s the fastest ever!” – Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
Just found this in my drafts area. I guess I forgot to hit the publish button. It’s from this past May.
I’m watching, well really just staying around with, the boys of my friends, Mr and Mrs Sunday Morning Donut Buddy. Mr is off visiting my dear Dad Windu for the weekend while Mrs is working. After running to and from Jango Fett’s soccer game, I popped the television on just to see and what should be playing but the movie International Pie.
I’ve never seen this movie, which is rather shocking, as it was my most favorite book growing up. Parts of it brought tears to my eyes, just because I knew what was coming. Like when she goes to buy the foal and the drunk college boys and the selection trials. For I wanted nothing more than to compete in three day events until the day I died. My beautiful bay standard-bred, Charlie Brown, and I were inseparable from the age of 12 until I left for college. It was then that the reality that I was poor (I really didn’t know until I was 15, since everyone else I knew was broke, too), that riding was beyond expensive, and that I had to choose between college and riding.
Do I regret my choice? Sometimes.
“Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side. You have paid the price for your lack of vision.” – The Emperor, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi
Poor Padawan Learner. All these years he’s never had to learn to take proper notes from a book, but all that has changed.
With his move into high school classes and his interest in taking a whopper of a class next year (with Biology and/or Chemistry AND Algebra II as pre-requisites), I’m weaning him off the mom-directed manner that used to define how we homeschooled – you know, back before we were unschoolers. (Cue the maniacal laughter for the strangeness of the path PL has taken over the years.)
In past years, I drew up a daily to-do list with everything broken up into little bite-sized morsels of reading, math, and etc. In addition, we previously only used conversational assessment since I find test-taking so limited in its scope. It was easy for PL since he didn’t have to put any thought into how things were going to get completed, and it was lovely for me because I’m an uber planner. Different times require different methods though. As he becomes independent as a student – even making his own lunch the night before school without being reminded – I’m scheduling weekly- and chapter-based readings for the science, history and health-related books that he’s using. That means I’ll still be breaking his math and formal writing topics into 2-3 day chunks, since they require so much participation on my part ahead of time, but he’ll be setting the pace (to an extent) for his independent reading.
What about the note-taking though? Well, part of his independent reading task is taking good, detailed notes from the chapters read. I want to emphasize that: good, detailed notes. Yes, I’m being a stickler on these notes because this skill will be the foundation for any out-of-the house classes he’s bound to take in the future. PL is not enjoying this at present, but I didn’t expect that he would. He hates writing, mostly from lack of practice I do believe. The conversational manner of his education up to this point has been fantastic for comprehension and rationalization skills, but it has done so at the expense of his writing skills. I wrote up some good, quality notes from the introduction of his Art History book to show him an example of what to aim for, and explained that I knew it would take some time for him to get to that point.
I’ve also included section review sheets for his Biology and Physical Science books and will include chapter quizzes, a mid-term test, and a final exam. This is a completely new arena for both of us, but is the reality for the educational setting that he has chosen for the sciences. It would be a disservice to exclude them this year just because I find them so distasteful and limited in scope. We’ll also use the corrected section review sheets as a study guide for chapter quizzes and the larger tests to come. Ah, the skills one learns while taking traditional classes. They will serve him well.
Princess Leia: “Han!”
Han Solo: “Yes, Your Highnessness?”
Princess Leia: “I thought you decided to stay.”
Han Solo: “Well, the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.”
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back
With apologies to the people who have already seen this on Facebook…
I did it. I signed Padawan Learner up for classes at a local high school last week.
Despite the fact that he had – for years – said that he never wanted to set foot inside a school again, PL decided that classes on environmental sustainability and Italian sounded too good not to attend. Despite the fact that he’s a confirmed night owl, he chose to take a class that starts at 7:55 am. Choice makes all the difference in the end, doesn’t it?
On days that he has school, his day will end at 2:15 pm - those will be every other school day – with a 2 hr study/lunch period in between the two classes. He also wanted to take an intro art class, but it had a waiting list of 40 students so he couldn’t add it this time – maybe next year. So I guess we’re about to join the ranks of tied-to-the-school-year families now. (We’ve even bought a few school supplies to get him through his first few days: a 1″ binder for each class, an insulated lunch box, a water bottle, and mechanical pencils. We already have a ton of paper and pens.)
About two hours after I signed him up, I had to point out the inconsistency of taking a class in environmental sustainability and leaving the deck slider door open when it is about a billion degrees outside and the AC is running.
“One day, I will become the greatest Jedi EVER. I will even learn how to stop people from dying.” – Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
Special piece of wisdom that crawled into my brain while showering today:
You are the person you want to be.
If you are not the person you want to be, then you are working to change yourself into the person you want to be.
If you are not working to change yourself into the person you want to be, then you are indeed the person you want to be.
Just a few of the things I am, am becoming, and am not.
- I am a nightly retainer wearer.
- I am becoming a person who is dairy- and sugar-free (and maybe gluten-free).
- I am not a singer or music-maker.
- I am a clean house keeper, ok a kid-and-cats-live-here clean house keeper.
- I am becoming a bi-lingual English and Dutch speaker.
- I am not a fashionista (though I do love beautiful shoes).
- I am a voracious reader.
- I am becoming a regular exerciser.
- I am not a radical unschooler.
- I am a truster of my child and promoter of his wishes for his future.
- I am becoming a daily leg and underarm shaver.
- I am not a fabulous cook, instinctive decorator or natural hostess.
- I am a loving, and loved, wife.
How about you? What are you, what are you not, and what are you becoming?
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