Seven Bits of Things that are Nice

One

I really love Memoria Press. I know I said I wouldn't talk curriculum, but, oh well, here I am playing the hypocrite. I really love Memoria Press for three, to channel Alouicious, reasons.

First, it's layed out in a way that I am able to understand. Somehow, however it is that I think and conceive of reality is not upset every time I open a Memoria Press book. Their materials makes sense to me. This happens rarely in the vast cosmos of homeschool curricula. There are So Many materials out there and so so so many of them violate the order of my thoughts and feelings.

Second, it is conducive to the indepdence of a child. The average child can be left alone some of the time and still move forward. When you have so many grades levels to attend to at the same moment, not everyone can have all the attention they need all the time. They have to do some things alone. By and large the materials are an encouragement to the push towards independence.

Third, it is because of Memoria Press that I have been able to carry out the secret of my homeschooling success, cough. It's a big one and I'm sure you've all been longing to hear about it. Here it is. Every subject must be contained in a workbook that the child can write in. Each child, at the beginning of a school year, is presented with a big pile of books. “Here they are,” you say, “finish them by May and may God have mercy on your soul.” It is to my sorrow that Memoria Press has not put out nice books for art, music, health, and PE. I guess it would be bad to make them write in books about sports and music, but still, someone should think about it. Because each child has a book for each subject that they also write in, I don't have to make photocopies, I don't have to lose bits of paper, I don't have to forget a subject. I can look at each stack at the end of each day and see if actual work has been done. I also don't have to make schedules. They work through their stack in the order they want. The exception to this is history. We're starting our second year of history together. We did it together last year and it was so well written and interesting that we're doing it again together this year.

That's the fourth thing I like about Memoria Press. It's well written. I can bear to read it myself. It is very formal, which some might loath, and there are nice juicy big words that have to be coped with, but it's pleasant to my adult ear. When I open my lips to read it aloud, I don't have to alter it in the moment.

Two

Along that train of thought, I really love our piano teacher. It is so marvelous for me not to teach piano. It's hard to part with the money every week but it's so worth it. Listening to them practice all day, even when they shouldn't be, yelling at them to stop playing for a couple of minutes is a beauteous golden dream.

Three

I've slowly been ploughing through John MacArthur's series on the Beatitudes. I feel like it's been months and months but it's probably only been one. Each sermon is at least an hour, although some longer. They are comprehensive looks at each verse in the list, and after listening to only half of one, I usually feel knocked flat, but in a good way. If you really love Jesus but are discouraged all the time, they are really good as a way of reflecting on your day to day life and whether you are going anywhere or doing anything or changing at all. For example, in Happy are the Humble, his description of poverty of spirit, which feels like such a bad thing when you're in the middle of it, and then his articulation of how and why it is good, and why you are actually “happy” when you have and are nothing, was really helpful. At the end of each sermon, and I'm about to lose all my piety points right this second for saying it out loud, I've been able to say, that really is where I am. But in a good way. Don't hate me for being humble and holy. Just kidding. I'm not either of those. Now I'm spiraling down so I'll stop.

Four

I am so so tired when I finally crawl into bed at night that I only am able to scroll through one page of Unhappy Hipsters before I succumb to sleep. In the few moments of attention to such brilliance, I am filled with both true joy and deep jealousy. Would that I, lowly, unpeaceable, impure, not desirous of being persecuted, as I am, be able to achieve such focused genius. I can but dream, and then perchance to sleep.

Five

This week I finally started doing something to stretch myself out and attend to the ongoing idiotic pain in my lower back. It's called Six Children and it's a…what's the word I'm looking for…anyway, I didn't want anything that would mean jumping around. And I didn't want anything longer than 25 minutes. And I really didn't want Jillian Michaels. I guess two out of three isn't bad. I've done four whole days of her yoga smack down or melt down or shake down or whatever it's called. It's better than regular yoga because there are reps of things (that's just a little technical language for you) and it's really hard but it doesn't last for hours. And if you turn the sound off and listen to a sermon, you can assuage some of the guilt for doing yoga at all. I can always hear the voice of my grandmother in the back of my head. It's pagan, you know, and I don't really need to do sun salutations and melt my heart to heaven. The great thing is that when Jillian Michaels says those particular words, you can tell she thinks they're stupid, plus the stretching is good, and the sermons.

Six

Another really nice thing is that this week is almost over. Going to take all the children to go see someone become an American citizen tomorrow, and then the library, and then maybe to Cole Park, and then the brief bright hour of fellowship and love where Matt and I speak to each other and the children eat junk food in front of the TV. Then the sharp incline up to Sunday and the many tasks that in there do abide.

Seven

Here's some more zucchini.

Go read Jen!