If You Give Me Cookies...

So,  if you give me cookies, I would move in too!

No cookies for mouses in my garden, yet I have a new resident. There is a feeder and bird bath very accessible with lots of ground cover for little visitors to hide and gather all the seeds wanted for a happy family of critters.


A darling little field mouse has been tunneling all through my flower garden...  I do hope town mouse decides to not to make a long visit to his country cousin for too long.

So I did some research and found several references to non chemical remedies.  I decided to give it a try - Bounce dryer sheets.  I think I scattered and tucked about 50 of those behind shrubs and under all the hostas.  (I do have a large flower garden-flowers make me smile!)  I'll let you know if it worked.

Quote for the day

"Are we who have been made in the image of our creator to be less creative than those who do not know the Creator?" 

~ Edith Schaeffer from The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Squeaky Clean

Don't you love that clean smell of freshly laundered clothes?  I'm not so excited about folding or ironing, but still, when you unload an armful of warm whites, doesn't it make you feel that comforting homey feel?

I got all homemaker-like and mixed up some homemade laundry detergent a couple of weeks ago. Impressed?  I am :-).  I got it from Pintrest of course:

Source: howdoesshe.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Here's to having clean clothes this week!

Monday Meditations: Cultural quirks and perspective shifts

Across the Ocean and Thoughts for Home

Dear sisters,

I wrote an article for a Women's Ministry Newsletter and had a request to expand on some thoughts of an earlier post.  On this particular day I was thinking of some far away friends who moved… Across the Ocean…

CM thoughts for the day

*From Our Philosophy Flow Our Methods*

Especially a good reminder as my last post was on high school...

The core reminder and four quotes (from our last CM Peoria Study Group discussions-Volume 6: Book II, Chapters 1 and 2):

#1  Children are born persons. (encompasses CM's view of the child as a learner)

"One thing at any rate we know with certainty, that no teaching, no information becomes knowledge to any of us until the individual mind has acted upon it, translated it, transformed, absorbed it, to reappear, like our bodily food, in forms of vitality.  Therefore, teaching, talk and tale, however lucid or fascinating, effect nothing until self-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child's nature."

"...that stability of mind and magnanimity of character... are the proper outcome and the unfailing test of a Liberal Education."

"I feel strongly that to attempt to work this method without a firm adherence to the few principles laid down would not only be idle but disastrous."

"If we work for public examinations, the questions in which must be of a narrow academic cast, we get a narrow, accurate, somewhat sterile type of mind.  We reap as we have sown."

Sample CM highschool transcript

Dear CM friend,

Really, you can CM through high school and still keep it CM!

It's amazing what the upper years accomplish.  Our goals didn't change, our educational philosophy didn't change, therefore our methods didn't change.  It does look a bit different - just because they are older.  Of course, this covers four years of schooling, and four years of growing!  Here is what it might look like when you put those upper years into a more formal resume - the transcript.  It is a non-traditional format, but all translated to fit the academia mindset :-).  Take a look and feel free to use it as a template for your own student.  We use Ambleside Online as our base curriculum - this is an unofficial transcript based on that.  You can preview it and download it from my website CM Pages by Grace for the day.  We are finishing up this season and look forward to watching how this wonderful Charlotte Mason Education has made a difference for the next stage of life... and on through a lifetime of learning.

downloading the Science Guide files

CM Pages by Grace for the day website

I have found a temporary way to get you those resources under my pages section.  I created a webpage to host the files so you can download them for free.  You can still use the Scribd site if you like and have a premium membership to download the pdf forms.  The website has both .pdf and .doc so you can tweak to add a different book or personalize the schedule how you like (please still leave my copyright footnote though).  Both places allow for previews so you can look it over first!