The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

Two things about this picture make me very happy. 1) Claire is reading a classic; and 2) she's halfway done! At this point, I think she's definitely invested in this book enough to finish it. It never gets old watching a kid discover a classic!

Jumping Back In

 "I would never homeschool my kids."  ~ Me, 1998

Confession time. Once upon a time, I never imagined myself homeschooling. That was something the fringe of society did, and I was so … mainstream. And then I met a few families whose homeschooled teenagers babysat for us. Lauren, Bethany, the sister team of Hannah & Lindsay, Lindsey S.  … and it turns out, those girls were pretty normal and pretty amazing. Smart, polite, capable, creative, dependable. They challenged my stereotypes and forced me to rethink homeschooling. And now, 14 years later, here we are: seasoned homeschoolers. Plodding along in our big white van, with more than the socially-acceptable number of kids. And to think: early on, I also predicted we'd have 3 kids. Ha!

It hasn’t always been wonderful or easy – especially with babies and toddlers in the mix -- but I am forever thankful for the extra time. All parents hear “it goes by so fast,” but for me, it didn’t really register until after Rachel graduated. And now I look at the others and realize, the school years will probably go by just as fast with each of them (hopefully not faster!). So this is one of the ways we redeem the time.

Here’s one more confession. Even though I love taking pictures, I have to admit I don’t always take beginning of the schoolyear pictures. In fact, I’ve hardly ever done it. Because that would require, you know, planning ahead. ;-)  This year, the stars aligned, and since I made an announcement that I wanted to do pictures (right before we started this morning, of course), the kids made sure it happened. 

We worked hard on the schoolroom yesterday.

It won't look this good again until August, 2017.

Impromptu braiding session

Braiding hair does not happen on a typical school day, just the first. :-)

Wonder how long he'll fit under the countertop this easily?

We decided to take the pictures in the schoolroom in front of the whiteboard, and somebody had the idea of personalizing each student (there wasn't room for Erica and Courtney!).

Sarah, pondering the Quadratic Equation

Angel Brooke

Queen Claire (plus the artist)

Grant, the scuba diver (this is how he swims. :-) 

Trent, the puppy (what else?)

So cute!

and Rachel! Now a serene college sophomore. 

Me and my last kindergartner! 

10 Years Ago

10 years ago this month, I was 8 months pregnant with #6 and our house looked like this - a little like something Virginia Lee Burton might have drawn.

The humble Worley home, May 2006.

We bought it when we got married and lived in it for about 13 years. It was a decent old house, with 1500 square feet, central air (added the first hot summer we lived in it), a remodeled kitchen ... and one bathroom.

As the family grew, we talked occasionally about whether we should move or add on. Most of the time, three bedrooms seemed like plenty, but there was that one bathroom.

The decision to do something finally came one morning when we were rushing around getting ready for church and found ourselves all brushing our teeth at the same time in that one tiny bathroom. With one sink. I thought “OK, this is ridiculous.” And kinda funny, too.

We started looking for other houses nearby, but just couldn’t find that perfect mix of location, size and price. So, we looked more closely at our own little house, with its 2.5 acres and perfect location. Then we started talking to a custom builder and an architect.

Just before we started adding on, when I was starting to outgrow my maternity clothes.

When Baby Claire was 7 weeks old, we finally started work on the house. Major work. Like, rip off the side and part of the roof work. And dig a basement under the new part. Attach the garage. Build another staircase. Remodel the kitchen (again).

We moved out for seven months to a rental house down the road and watched our little house slowly turn into what we have today: a good blend of old and new. More than double the space (with almost double the mortgage payment), beloved creaky floors in the old part, more storage in the new, a gathering place for big reunions and dreams of future generations coming to visit.

We’re still surrounded by farmland, with the creek at the edge of the property, and a gravel road running past the house. It’s a work in progress, but we’re getting there. And now we have 3 (three!) bathrooms. Which is enough. Most of the time.

Home, April, 2016

Around here ...

Sneak attack

Bedtime stories. Frances is always a favorite. I remember reading these stories when I was a girl.

 Most of the time, he's very accommodating for the camera. ;-) 

A recent bedtime when Trent was scared and wanted to get in the girls' bed for awhile.

 Watching spring unfold...

Last weekend was the first warm weekend, so we had fun staying out late. 

This was about 9pm Sunday.

Brooke got some new pointe shoes, so she needed to sew the ribbons on. A beloved task (not). :-)

Sarah, Brooke, Claire and Grant have started piano lessons recently. Trent's close to being ready, but not taking any yet, so for now, he has fun just playing with the piano.

These two ... HA!

Warm Register Magic

7:45 am:  Trent walks in rubbing in his eyes and climbs up on the couch to cuddle beside me.

7:47 am:  Furnace kicks on. Trent gets down from the couch and lays on the warm register.

7:58 am:  This.


Love him. :-)

Finished: Charlatan, by Pope Brock

Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

True story: Midwest in the 1920's and '30s. Huckster John R. Brinkley makes millions off his ridiculous goat-gland transplant surgery, which is supposed to restore "youthful vigor" (placebo effect, anyone?). He also ran for governor of Kansas (and narrowly lost), built the most powerful radio station on the planet, from which he advertised his sham surgery and worthless remedies, discovered country music stars ... and left a trail of injured and dead patients in his wake. Brinkley's notoriety soon got the attention of Morris Fishbein, editor of the JAMA, whose reputation as a quack-buster was legendary. His mission became one of exposing and bringing Brinkley to justice. The question wasn't "would Fishbein get his man?," but "how" and "when"?

I forced myself to stay off the Internet while I read this, because I didn't want to find all this out from some bland Wikipedia article, but from Pope Brock's hilarious, riveting storytelling.

Two truisms I was left with:

1) The truth really is stranger than fiction; and
2) There's a sucker born every minute. Still. In post-modern, cynical 2016.

******

New word: expatiated.

Expatiate:  verb

1. speak or write at length or in detail.

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Beauty in the details

Last Monday was a typical gray spring morning. It rained off and on and looked generally dreary, since we're only just beginning to see the start of green here and there. That morning, from the kitchen window I spotted the only bits of color in the yard: the crocuses.

Since they're so small, they might be easy to miss in a big yard, except their colors are so bright! I can't even remember when I planted them -- at least 15 years ago, I bet. I ordered them from a Breck's catalog, and was sure they'd spread and create this carpet of color in the front yard. I was wrong - there are still only about 5 or 6 of them, but they are one of the highlights of spring for me, partly because they're always the first spring color we get!

It wasn't until I downloaded the picture to my computer and saw it on the monitor, that I noticed all the water droplets. I read a quote from Jim Wilson once that said something like, the more distant you are from an object, the more mysterious it seems. This is true when you think about the view from an airplane, or of a distant house lit up at night, or faraway lands. But what is also true is that the closer you get to an object, the better you can see and appreciate its detail and beauty -- things you couldn't have seen from a distance. The beauty is there, surrounding us, or as Elizabeth Barrett Browning said

“Earth's crammed with heaven, 

And every common bush afire with God, 

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”