Atlas Shrugged

by Ayn Rand - A SHORT Review of a LONG book

So, with my choice already decided in my head, I quickly clicked "ADD THIS TO MY CART" without reading the summary or other pertinent information with as much attention as I usually do. I had heard some brief but rave reviews from blurbs of conservative sources.  I confidently planned this book for my leisure reading over our week's vacation in Jamaica not knowing that it would add a few pounds to my personal carry on and 1,168 pages of 'light' reading!  So it was a bit more than I had intended for vacation - good thing we had a beautiful place to relax and plenty of reading time!

Not quite vanished away

Christopher Robin
Had wheezles
And sneezles,
They bundled him
Into
His bed.
They gave him what goes
With a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold
In the head.

from Sneezles by A.A. Milne

Hoping my wheezles & sneezles vanish away... and my voice returns :-)  Never time to be sick, but thankful it came AFTER vacation!  Planning to be back up and going next week with those changes and a book review of Atlas Shrugged which I read over vacation week.

New stuff to share...

I promised everyone in my sessions at convention some links and pages on my blog.  I will spend the next couple of weeks working on getting those new areas up and accessible.  I plan on adding a history area, a language arts page, a high school section, maybe some homeschool schedule examples, and some more general Charlotte Mason Education information.  Whew, I'm getting ambitious!

Constructing a GRACE filled site

If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see discussed more, let me know. In the meantime, see the labels from the sidebar for specific topics from previous posts.  If you are interested in the Educational Philosophy of Charlotte Mason,  you can follow along with my study notes (under Pages at the right) from Volume VI, 'A Short Synopsis'; you should keep in mind that the chapters that follow will address each of these points in detail as you move through the book.  Check back a few times in the next couple of weeks to see what's new!

Or follow me or join as a friend and see when I post something new to encourage your day!

Monday Meditations - seeing the Beauty of God

Dear Friend,

My mind is full and my days are busy this week.  That's why Monday Meditations has posted on Wednesday! The upcoming conference this weekend has me busy preparing my sessions (I am sure I will share some thoughts on those talks a bit later).   A silly refrain about being 'dreadfully busy' from a Veggie Tales song keeps popping into my head!

When I was a young mother of three active preschoolers there seemed very little time to accomplish the tasks of the day.  And the laundry was never done (even today it seems there are way too many piles).  So, a 'quiet time' when there seems to be not a moment of stillness was always hard to find in my day.  There are some resources listed below that you might find helpful; It does get easier to fit in deeper Bible Studies and just more time in the Word - hang in there!

In the past couple of weeks, I have added some specific prayer requests to my list.  The issues are varied, yet truly the one thing that can change these needs is for these individuals to see the beauty of God.  It reflects his character which is unchanging regardless of our situations, needs, struggles or questions. 

Calendar of Firsts - A Follow Up

You asked about My Calendar of Firsts book I mentioned in the 'Signs of Spring' post.  Until I was introduced to this one a couple of years ago at the ChildLight Conference, we used a regular wall calendar to jot notes on days - which works great.  I used the Backyard Birds, like the one pictured at right, to record the weather, keep a list of the bird sightings in our yard, and write about happenings in the forest from our walks.

It is a capital plan for the children to keep a calendar––the first oak-leaf, the first tadpole, the first cowslip, the first catkin, the first ripe blackberries, where seen, and when. The next year they will know when and where to look out for their favourites, and will, every year, be in a condition to add new observations (Mason, vol. 1, p. 54)