On the Last Day Before the End of Christmas

(I'm counting Sunday as the first day of the new week, an energizing feast for the spirit and mind before getting back into the swing of things. So today is the last day of Christmas break. With apologies to people whose Christmas celebration extends well into January.)

I woke up this morning between 9 and 9:30, and it was so quiet. If the sun had not been shining through the blinds, I would have thought it was much earlier. I walked into the living room and found Mr. Honey and the kids being very, very quiet so I could sleep. There were legos scattered across the floor, and the children were absorbed in a game of oceans, penguins, horses, princes, castles and planes.

Mr. Honey was reading the news on his tablet PC. I got some coffee and sat down to read emails and such. There was evidence of pancake consumption on the table. I cleared a few dishes.

After awhile, I thought about taking down Christmas things, and then decided I would decorate a fridge poster instead. (Earlier in the week, I used two large pieces of scrapbook paper and our nice markers to write out two quotes I want to have before me in the new year. Our printer is not complying with the wishes of my laptop, so I had to handwrite them, and I wrote them large so I could have good penmanship.)

After making starlight on the poster, I took down the paper nativity the kids had gradually added to the refrigerator last month, being careful not to tear the paper dolls so they could use them later. We only lost one shepherd, and a few of the animals. Then I rearranged my two posters, as well as Mariel's, and the fridge was ready for the New Year. I contemplated the quotes on my posters, and thought that I should probably take a shower and get ready so I could get right on whatever tasks the Lord has for me today.

Breakfast seemed like a prerequisite, so I ate some pancakes with peanut butter and jelly, and decided against another cup of coffee. Mariel came into the kitchen and heated up cornmeal mush for her breakfast. She has a marked liking for hot grain cereals-- oatmeal, malt-o-meal, cornmeal mush, reheated rice. She isn't fond of quinoa or steel-cut oats, though.

As I ate, I saw the envelope containing a Clip-n-Mail for our local homeschool group's Science Night. I asked for a volunteer to put it in the mailbox at the end of our driveway.

Everyone was still in their pajamas.

Mariel volunteered, and started to go outside as she was. I protested that she couldn't go outside in jammies.

"But Mom, I made a goal to stay in my pajamas until noon today!"

What a goal. Lol.

She got dressed and took the envelope out for me.

The kids burst out with "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". Mr. Honey caught me in the kitchen and pretended to be one of those cursor decorations that follow the cursor all over the screen (I being the cursor and he being the decoration), finally enfolding me in a great big bear hug, as we talked about how a website with cursor decorations is not worth visiting at all, but a similarly attracted Honey-decoration is most welcome.

He wandered back to the living room, humming "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and grousing good-naturedly about how his children put these songs into his head.

I finished my pancakes and realized I needed to read my Daily Bible before the day got away from me. The kids sang, "Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great To Be Crazy". I filled a glass with water and sat down to read it aloud. Reading it aloud helps me to focus better.

The kids sang "George, George, George of the Jungle". Cornflower put "Meet the Robinsons" in the DVD player.

I updated my Bible-reading tally in the sidebar (for accountability, you know), and went to get ready for the day.

Our Homeschool Motto

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah 6:8

When I started using Homeschool Tracker to record our assignments for schoolwork, there was a section to record a verse or phrase to represent what we try to achieve in our schooling.

I do like the CM motto: "I am, I can, I ought, I will!" But we felt we needed a family motto as well.

We chose "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."

It appears every time we open the Homeschool Tracker, and we use the Tracker pretty much every school day. (Otherwise we have trouble keeping track, you see.) But after almost a year of seeing it, the motto has blended in, like wallpaper. So I thought I would mention it here, to bring it back out again.

Blog Retrospective

I got this idea from Willa, who got it from UK Bookworm.

January

I asked myself, do I think to pray when I leave my room each morning? When I'm met with great temptation? When my heart is filled with anger? When sore trials come upon me?

February

How do we give our kids the freedom to choose right, along with the understanding that the way of transgressors is hard?

March

Very soon my Dad will be leaving on a trip to Kenya. An excerpt from his email on the subject:

"[One of the Kenyan brethren] has also arranged for us to visit one of the refugee camps to share the gospel with people who lost their homes during the post-election violence. This is particularly exciting since with the power sharing agreement many of these people will be able to return to their communities soon and hopefully, carry the truth of the doctrines of grace with them."


We hope that you will join us in praying that their trip is safe and edifying, and that you will pray for my family while my Dad is gone. We cannot keep from being somewhat anxious in an earthly way for his safety, but are so excited that he is being used by the Lord in this way.

(Dad is going back to Kenya near the end of this month. Please pray for his safety, as well as for the sharing of the beautiful gospel of Christ, and for the increase of health and comfort for the Kenyan people, many of whom work very hard just to survive each day.)

April

The Lord gave us a healthy, tall coreopsis for a present! It just came up in our front yard.

May

"We miss the general principle that critical studies are out of place until the mind is so 'throughly furnished' with ideas that, of its own accord, it compares and examines critically."

June

'Random' means, well, random.

If you stare at it long enough, it looks like it doesn't mean anything.

July

"[Petrarch said] 'Everyone should write in his own style.' The theme to note here is Self-Consciousness. It is allied to Individualism but it differs from it in being not a social and political condition but a mental state. One can be in prison, individuality all but submerged, and yet be acutely self-conscious. Individualism has limits imposed by the coexistence of many other individuals; Self-Consciousness has none. Over the centuries it has dug ever deeper into the ego, with no boundary in sight."

(July was also the month we recommmitted ourselves to getting out of debt. You can find monthly updates under the Personal Finance label on our sidebar.)

August

"...the decisions of life are not simple, and to taboo knowledge is not to secure innocence... ignorance is the parent of insatiable curiosity."

September

"In the final analysis, the bipartisan group reasoned that as Ameri­cans, we failed to imagine such a thing happening, and so could not fathom it even as it happened. After hearing this conclusion during the prebriefing on the commission's findings, I exclaimed, 'Yes, it was a failure of imagina­tion, but it was caused by a failure of education.'"

October

"The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgement, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last."

November

"Well, I never could see but that my bread rose just as light when liberals were in as when they were not."

(More posts on the election process and decline of the markets can be found in the sidebar under the label, "Current Events".)

December

Our goal should be knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Not a job, not a dream. But a whole person, well-equipped to honor God and serve her fellow man in whatever capacity lies open to her.