I have donated to Wikipedia a couple of times in the past. T scoffed at this and didn't really believe me. Now I'm even more likely to donate again because T told me that reading about the as yet unsolved mysteries of black holes on Wikipedia fired an interest which he is determined to take to degree level. Wow, and double wow. Thank you to all those people who write and edit it.
H said a couple of days ago 'Everybody loves reading' as he was sitting welded happily to his laptop in the kitchen. There are wiki articles about the games he particularly likes and they are up to date.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
One glance strewing
As it says, I'm going back yet again to the concept of deliberate strewing and deliberate recording of it.
One day my confidence in home education and in the understanding of it by the local authority will be sufficient for me to not even remember being concerned with this concept. I'm not there yet. I still feel the need to *try* and to *record* the business of trying.
It's a phase so I may as well enjoy it. The benefits are that I get one more item to note in my reviews, I relax and stop trying after I have done it, and I am that little bit more observant as I search for new things.
But what is it about more new things and about more different items on my lists. Digging up a plant to look at the roots is utterly pointless, any gardener knows that. So, what would a gardener do?
1. Look at the glossy leaves
2. Appreciate the being itself-ness of the growing plant
3. Make sure to spend time around and with the plants
4. Ensure there is a wind break
5. Assess the soil and plant a seed suitable for the conditions
6. Make sure the plant has enough space
7. Put in some companion planting
8. Take away the weeds
9. Take away any damaging aphids
10. Realise that nature is wonderful and complete in itself
11. Work with what is there, not against it.
I trip up over this concept every few months, maybe it is the grit which helps me make my pearl?
One day my confidence in home education and in the understanding of it by the local authority will be sufficient for me to not even remember being concerned with this concept. I'm not there yet. I still feel the need to *try* and to *record* the business of trying.
It's a phase so I may as well enjoy it. The benefits are that I get one more item to note in my reviews, I relax and stop trying after I have done it, and I am that little bit more observant as I search for new things.
But what is it about more new things and about more different items on my lists. Digging up a plant to look at the roots is utterly pointless, any gardener knows that. So, what would a gardener do?
1. Look at the glossy leaves
2. Appreciate the being itself-ness of the growing plant
3. Make sure to spend time around and with the plants
4. Ensure there is a wind break
5. Assess the soil and plant a seed suitable for the conditions
6. Make sure the plant has enough space
7. Put in some companion planting
8. Take away the weeds
9. Take away any damaging aphids
10. Realise that nature is wonderful and complete in itself
11. Work with what is there, not against it.
I trip up over this concept every few months, maybe it is the grit which helps me make my pearl?
Doing what needs to be done
This is not related to being New Year at all. Here is a post about the grieving process. From reading it I see how easy I have found it to go into myself, shed expectations and have times of being a stranger to myself. Each time and situation is different. It's a bit like labour or being physically ill.
TV
Well, yesterday was Goodies night. It brought back so many feelings of recognition of the 70's attitudes. H and I were rivetted. I managed to tape some of it for T, even though it will be on iPlayer or similar.
Tonight T has voted for back to back episodes of House and H has chosen Father Ted. RE I guess, but only just.
Eating meat has been closer to RE. We got to thinking that really we should pray for each animal before eating it as its personality is well and truly separated from its body by the time we are eating it.
Tonight T has voted for back to back episodes of House and H has chosen Father Ted. RE I guess, but only just.
Eating meat has been closer to RE. We got to thinking that really we should pray for each animal before eating it as its personality is well and truly separated from its body by the time we are eating it.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Counting
I have been writing down things I am grateful for each night for a while now. It took time to get started and to find a pattern which suited me. Now it is one column per day in a big diary S gets given each New Year at work.
If I miss a day I just put a dash there, when I come back to it. I don't try to fill up the space. It's usually because of illness or some disruption to my life. That's ok and evidence of the changing nature of life at home, sometimes regular and relaxed, at other times fretful and confused. If I don't have my notebooks in the right place beside me and a pen nothing happens!
Any day now I will get the book Ann Voskamp has written about this. Before I get it I will have a think about how this practice has been helping me. Lots of helpful things in life are deadly simple.
If I miss a day I just put a dash there, when I come back to it. I don't try to fill up the space. It's usually because of illness or some disruption to my life. That's ok and evidence of the changing nature of life at home, sometimes regular and relaxed, at other times fretful and confused. If I don't have my notebooks in the right place beside me and a pen nothing happens!
Any day now I will get the book Ann Voskamp has written about this. Before I get it I will have a think about how this practice has been helping me. Lots of helpful things in life are deadly simple.
Culling
I have been culling blogs so that the list of the ones I follow isn't quite so long.
It is a sign of confidence in the climate for home education. If the climate turns nasty again I will re-follow as many blogs as possible, in particular ones with links to the law and helpful campaigns.
So I am appreciating the current situation as I perceive it. I am aware that this is not the case for other countries.
It is a sign of confidence in the climate for home education. If the climate turns nasty again I will re-follow as many blogs as possible, in particular ones with links to the law and helpful campaigns.
So I am appreciating the current situation as I perceive it. I am aware that this is not the case for other countries.
Friday, 21 January 2011
Rounding up the year
I'm in the middle of writing up my notes about December 2010 for the Home Ed review I will then print out and send to the local authority home ed person.
As it came to 30th and 31st December I was sorely tempted to cram in a discussion about whatever topic causes me the most anxiety if I don't feel there are enough references to it over the year. I even thought that if I shoved it in somehow on the 1st or 2nd January 2011 I could lie and write it in for December and therefore use it to bump up my score as it were for 2010.
I did not do this!! I went off to the home ed pub meet up and confessed to it and had a laugh about my weakness and fears.
So if anyone else feels like this, you are not alone.
As it came to 30th and 31st December I was sorely tempted to cram in a discussion about whatever topic causes me the most anxiety if I don't feel there are enough references to it over the year. I even thought that if I shoved it in somehow on the 1st or 2nd January 2011 I could lie and write it in for December and therefore use it to bump up my score as it were for 2010.
I did not do this!! I went off to the home ed pub meet up and confessed to it and had a laugh about my weakness and fears.
So if anyone else feels like this, you are not alone.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Waterfall
'It emerges frothing from that unseen darkness to fall like a tumbling cascade of brilliants into a deep rounded cauldron enclosed by rock walls on three sides, black water in whorled black rock, with the fleecy white spume ringing the blackness of the pool. Up above the black sides of the pot there are dark-green watery mosses growing deep and cushioned wherever there is a finger-hold for soil; the domed nest that the dippers build here every year is distinguishable from the other moss cushions by nothing but its symmetry. The sun reaches the waterfall for only a short time in the afternoon; it forms a rainbow over the leaping spray, and at the top of the fall between the boulders it gives to the smooth-flowing, unbroken water the look of spun green glass.'
from Ring of Bright Water
by Gavin Maxwell
from Ring of Bright Water
by Gavin Maxwell
Raw
I'm reading Life Without School by Veronika Robinson and came across a reference to one winter when they were raw fooders.
The only time I have done this is for a day with a group of others at the Abbey, Sutton Courtenay. I was staying there for something else entirely, but got into a very heated (!) discussion with a woman who was passionate about only having raw food. As a result we agreed to go raw with her for 24 hours. She thought up some things to make for us and we took part alongside the other events of the stay.
We spent most of our time around our end of the kitchen table musing about whether this or that would count as raw and reminiscing about yummy hot custard etc. as we ate our meals with her. It was a good thing to do and defused the extreme tension in a very practical way. I wonder whether she enjoyed no longer being the only one being raw for a time.
The only time I have done this is for a day with a group of others at the Abbey, Sutton Courtenay. I was staying there for something else entirely, but got into a very heated (!) discussion with a woman who was passionate about only having raw food. As a result we agreed to go raw with her for 24 hours. She thought up some things to make for us and we took part alongside the other events of the stay.
We spent most of our time around our end of the kitchen table musing about whether this or that would count as raw and reminiscing about yummy hot custard etc. as we ate our meals with her. It was a good thing to do and defused the extreme tension in a very practical way. I wonder whether she enjoyed no longer being the only one being raw for a time.
Recommendations
T tells me to watch House and H tells me to come and see Father Ted.
On the drive back from school T and I chewed over a couple of family (rows) discussions, one about books and the other about a hamster. It was such fun we covered most of the A34 bit of our journey in a flash.
H showed me a couple of pages in Universally Challenged to chuckle through when we got back.
I love not knowing what will happen next.
On the drive back from school T and I chewed over a couple of family (rows) discussions, one about books and the other about a hamster. It was such fun we covered most of the A34 bit of our journey in a flash.
H showed me a couple of pages in Universally Challenged to chuckle through when we got back.
I love not knowing what will happen next.
Tidied up and thoroughly lost
Over Christmas so many crucial and favourite items have been tidied away by me. I am still refinding and rearranging my stuff so that I can function normally again. Even the table itself was switched round by 90 degrees.
H doesn't have many items downstairs, so he has been able to live his life as usual, although he has been ill for over 2 weeks with a bad cold/lurgy.
T has mislaid practically everything, but not all at once. He likes to have his many favourite things all over what used to be my desk in the kitchen, plus quite a bit of other space there. I move them around which doesn't help!
S is the only one who keeps his stuff in a drawer and well out of range upstairs. Hmm, maybe he has an evolutionary advantage over the rest of us?
I think I will decorate light fittings and the exit doors next year and keep our living space as it is.
H doesn't have many items downstairs, so he has been able to live his life as usual, although he has been ill for over 2 weeks with a bad cold/lurgy.
T has mislaid practically everything, but not all at once. He likes to have his many favourite things all over what used to be my desk in the kitchen, plus quite a bit of other space there. I move them around which doesn't help!
S is the only one who keeps his stuff in a drawer and well out of range upstairs. Hmm, maybe he has an evolutionary advantage over the rest of us?
I think I will decorate light fittings and the exit doors next year and keep our living space as it is.
Decorations
I took down the last stars and snowflakes from my windows and dresser yesterday. I thought it might help me get past the current stuckness I have.
It didn't, but it was a good feeling to take some decorations upstairs each time I climbed the stairs for other reasons.
My dresser hooks are now freed up to hold all my many mugs, including the seaside ones my mother brought us for our Serbian Xmas/joint H and S birthday celebration on Sunday.
It didn't, but it was a good feeling to take some decorations upstairs each time I climbed the stairs for other reasons.
My dresser hooks are now freed up to hold all my many mugs, including the seaside ones my mother brought us for our Serbian Xmas/joint H and S birthday celebration on Sunday.
Inertia
I don't know why I have a big case of inertia. It isn't unpleasant, but I wind up sitting in the same place for too long. I know that all of a sudden it will lift.
A sour dough starter is maturing by the sink. It takes 7 days according to a web site I found. By the time it is ready I'll be able to knead one loaf and see how it turns out. Maybe my do nothing phase will be gone by then.
A sour dough starter is maturing by the sink. It takes 7 days according to a web site I found. By the time it is ready I'll be able to knead one loaf and see how it turns out. Maybe my do nothing phase will be gone by then.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Farewells
Cas. 'For ever and for ever, farewell, Brutus!
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed;
If not, 'tis true this parting was well made.'
Bru. 'Why then, lead on. O, that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known. Come, ho! away!'
from Julius Caesar (Act V, Scene II)
by William Shakespeare
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed;
If not, 'tis true this parting was well made.'
Bru. 'Why then, lead on. O, that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known. Come, ho! away!'
from Julius Caesar (Act V, Scene II)
by William Shakespeare
Medicines
I have a range of harmless medicines which work well.
Bread pills are the oldest one. My mother made these for J and I when we were little. Just a bit of white bread squished up into tiny blobs! I only ever make them when the patient is at just the right stage.
My newest one is to decide that one yellow Skittle is the correct help for immobile legs. I had immobile legs too, so I had to make up a medicine from the other side of the room from the items I knew H had on the chair beside him! That went down well.
Dvds help a lot. The Bond films are great and so is Hitchhikers' Guide to the Universe.
Bread pills are the oldest one. My mother made these for J and I when we were little. Just a bit of white bread squished up into tiny blobs! I only ever make them when the patient is at just the right stage.
My newest one is to decide that one yellow Skittle is the correct help for immobile legs. I had immobile legs too, so I had to make up a medicine from the other side of the room from the items I knew H had on the chair beside him! That went down well.
Dvds help a lot. The Bond films are great and so is Hitchhikers' Guide to the Universe.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
Tinsel
Now the snow has gone it is time for me to look appreciatively at our tinsel and all the other twinkly decorations. They won't be here for long now and we only do up the house once a year in such a special way.
Yuletide is still happening here, the surfaces are covered with presents and cards. So much is out of place. S has been on holiday from work for ages. The house has been full of coming and going. We got into synch with each other quickly. I think the snow arriving helped by cutting out external pressures and allowing us to attend to whatever we felt we wanted to do.
Because of the cold we really were in one room for lots of the time. Luckily M lives next door so T and H only have to walk through 2 door ways to visit and eat her sweets!
Yuletide is still happening here, the surfaces are covered with presents and cards. So much is out of place. S has been on holiday from work for ages. The house has been full of coming and going. We got into synch with each other quickly. I think the snow arriving helped by cutting out external pressures and allowing us to attend to whatever we felt we wanted to do.
Because of the cold we really were in one room for lots of the time. Luckily M lives next door so T and H only have to walk through 2 door ways to visit and eat her sweets!
Always Room
There's always room for another blog on my side bar linking thing. It's amazing how many beautiful people there are blogging away often or infrequently.
I was just looking at my books, wondering which one I'm reading at the moment. Then I realised I prefer wriggling, kicking writing hot from the stove of the internet. Until my eyes get a tired sort of feeling and I have spent enough time in the endless vortex. Then I switch to here and now in this very room.
How many mixed metaphors can I put into one post? Sorry for the bad writing!
I was just looking at my books, wondering which one I'm reading at the moment. Then I realised I prefer wriggling, kicking writing hot from the stove of the internet. Until my eyes get a tired sort of feeling and I have spent enough time in the endless vortex. Then I switch to here and now in this very room.
How many mixed metaphors can I put into one post? Sorry for the bad writing!
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Wish List
Yes, this is greedy and to the point, but people ask me what I want and I go so blank and embarrassed that it helps no-one.
Playing cards
Books by:
Sharon Olds
Books about:
Michelle Obama
Mindfulness
American pioneers
Development of the Earth
Evolution of the animals
Fake fur bed spread!
Glass containers with glass lids for peanuts/sweets/nibbles at the table
New garage
Blogs to read
Biographies of my grandparents and other relatives, make it up if necessary...
Books of photos of America
Move our eucalyptus trees to the middle of our garden and turn back time so I didn't get them pruned and so they were able to grow freely to their full height
Playing cards
Books by:
Sharon Olds
Books about:
Michelle Obama
Mindfulness
American pioneers
Development of the Earth
Evolution of the animals
Fake fur bed spread!
Glass containers with glass lids for peanuts/sweets/nibbles at the table
New garage
Blogs to read
Biographies of my grandparents and other relatives, make it up if necessary...
Books of photos of America
Move our eucalyptus trees to the middle of our garden and turn back time so I didn't get them pruned and so they were able to grow freely to their full height
Moving stuff round the house
One room was painted recently, so I moved a book case, took all the books off it and arranged them in heaps up the side of a staircase.
Now I am at the stage of taking a small number of them down to the room with all our books in it each time I go downstairs.
So I stand there deciding where to file them and whether to bin or charity shop them. The book of Punch cartoons was so good I brought it to the kitchen table as my strewing item.
Now I am at the stage of taking a small number of them down to the room with all our books in it each time I go downstairs.
So I stand there deciding where to file them and whether to bin or charity shop them. The book of Punch cartoons was so good I brought it to the kitchen table as my strewing item.
Buttons
Why don't I make my New Year Resolution to expand my button collection and find a beautiful box for it?
I was reading about another family who had access to their grandmother's collection and it got me thinking back to my grandmother's thin and wide mother of pearl buttons with a little raised edge to them. I used them as little plates to play with when I spent time at her flat. I wonder who has them now?
My grandmother used to buy second hand jackets and cut off the boring buttons. Then she'd sew on fashionable or eye catching ones instead. If she got rid of clothing she'd keep the good buttons! Waste not, want not.
I was reading about another family who had access to their grandmother's collection and it got me thinking back to my grandmother's thin and wide mother of pearl buttons with a little raised edge to them. I used them as little plates to play with when I spent time at her flat. I wonder who has them now?
My grandmother used to buy second hand jackets and cut off the boring buttons. Then she'd sew on fashionable or eye catching ones instead. If she got rid of clothing she'd keep the good buttons! Waste not, want not.
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