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55 Summer Memories

Miz Booshay, she of the Quiet Life, inspired this post.

When I think back on the summers of my childhood and youth, I remember:

kool-aid and push pops.

swimming (or at least playing in the water) at the Municipal Pool.

not swimming because I wasn’t allowed until the scab from my smallpox vaccination fell off.

sucking the juice from the honeysuckle blossoms.

flies and mosquitos.

going to GA camp at Heart of Texas Baptist Encampment.

climbing on the rocks at Paisano Baptist Encampment.

a pallet on the floor of the car at the drive-in movie theater.

the swamp cooler that had to be kept moist in order to cool the living room.

'The Mod Squad 1968' photo (c) 2009, Mike - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/green St. Augustine grass.

playing barefoot.

playing Barbies on the front porch.

watching re-runs on TV, Hawaii Five-O and The Mod Squad.

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Mark Spitz winning seven gold medals in swimming at the 1972 summer Olympics.

Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain and Tenielle.

Only Women Bleed by Alice Cooper (I hated that song all summer long in 1975).

fresh apricots from the trees in our backyard.

wasps, yellow-jackets that stung me on the bottom of a bare foot.

going to Astroworld on our Houston vacation.

100 degrees on top of Pike’s Peak (a very hot summer on our second ever family vacation in Colorado).

purple hot pants and granny dresses.

Star Wars and Grease and American Grafitti.

'Chinaberries?' photo (c) 2005, Luca Masters - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/back-to-school shopping.

going to the library twice a week to get my limit, ten books at a time.

reading my books in the chinaberry tree next to our house.

chasing the ice-cream truck.

Vacation Bible School.

iced tea and lemonade. Actually, we drank sweet iced tea year round. Still do.

sweating profusely and then immersing myself in a cold pool or creek or even a bathtub. Cool, clear water.

playing with the water hose or in the sprinkler.

my lovely pink parasol.

calling for “doodle bugs.” “Doodle bug, doodle bug, fly away home. You house is on fire, and your children will burn.” Rather violent-sounding, now that I think about it.

catching horny toads.

sparklers on the Fourth of July.

playing house in the shade of our pecan trees.

instead of mud pies, making “salads” out of grass and leaves and berries and feeding those salads to my dolls.

riding with the car windows rolled down, before air conditioning in cars.

'DSC_0644_cruiser_complete' photo (c) 2010, Ryon Edwards - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/dusty, caliche roads that hadn’t been paved.

spending the night with my grandmother on Friday night and walking to the store all by myself.

walking barefoot on HOT pavement because I forgot to wear my shoes and jumping from shadow to shadow to keep my soles from burning.

teaching myself to ride my blue bicycle.

drinking Coke from a wet, frosty bottle that I could hold to my face to cool me off.

pouring water over my head to cool off.

learning to float on my stomach, on my back, but never really learning to swim, in spite of lessons and practice.

going to the air-conditioned movie theater to cool off and watch a movie.

sunburn, and peeling the skin from my sunburn.

my dad wearing a hat to keep his bald head from getting sunburned.

going fishing with my Aunt Audrey and Uncle Fred.

summer thunderstorms.

flip-flops.

'Watermelon' photo (c) 2007, lisaclarke - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/getting up early or sleeping in late, both ways to enjoy those long, long days.

summer picnics.

trespassing to play down by the creek that ran near our house.

walking on the railroad tracks, looking for loose change that someone might have dropped.

watermelon and hand-cranked ice cream.

Enjoy your summer. Make some memories.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking, ch. 4, Painting, Sketching, Sculpturing

I have zero, zip, nada, no talent or ability in the areas of painting, sketching, sculpturing or creating visual artwork in any form. Nevertheless, I love this chapter of Hidden Art.

“Ideas carried out stimulate more ideas.” So true. My most recent obsession, other than watching K-dramas, is opening a small library for homeschoolers in my area who could use the books and curricula that I have collected over the years, much of which my own children have outgrown. I have a LOT of books and curriculum materials. I would like to gather these resources into one room in my house, and allow homeschool families to pay a small yearly fee to become “members” of my library. (This idea has almost nothing to do with the chapter we’re reading, but everything to do with where God is leading me in the area of hidden art. My giftedness, such as it is, has to do with reading and recommending “living books” and other educational resources.) Anyway, my idea of opening a full-fledged library is thwarted right now by the season my family is in and by the logistics of devoting an entire room to the purpose of a library. Still, I need to figure out a way to start small, and to carry out my idea in some limited way until I can get to the complete vision of a private homeschoolers’ library.

“A sermon can be ‘illustrated’ and thereby ‘translated’ at the same time, to a child sitting beside you, provided the child has any interest at all in understanding.” I used to do this , despite my lack of artistic ability, with my older children when they were preschoolers. I also sometimes had them draw a picture of what the pastor was talking about in his sermon. In fact, as they got older I had a page long form for their “sermon notes” that had a space for the date, the pastor’s name, the Biblical text, a sentence or two about the sermon, and a picture illustrating the sermon. Sometimes on the back of the sheet I drew stick figures, or Engineer Husband drew more detailed illustrations, helping the children to understand the sermon.

How the Semicolon family is expressing “hidden art” this week:
Engineer Husband is designing the program for the upcoming production of Singin’ in the Rain that two of the urchins are starring in. One of my adult children, Dancer Daughter (23) has done much of the choreography for the production.

Karate Kid (16) is in the living room playing the guitar for his sisters to sing along, as they record a a birthday gift song for a friend whose birthday is tomorrow. They’re singing this song by the group He Is We.

Betsy Bee (14) has been decorating and straightening up her bedroom, ironing the pillow cases (?!) and generally making her space beautiful.

My 80 year old mom, who lives in an apartment behind our house, makes beautifully designed cards for birthdays and anniversaries, using her computer and the artwork that she finds or purchases on the internet.

I continue to write my little blog and to try to figure out how to start a library without a designated space.

I’m looking forward to reading the posts that others write about how they incorporate the visual arts into their lives and homes.

12/12/12: Themes of My Life

These are the twelve themes or ideas or motifs that God has placed in my heart, and consequently the 12 Big Ideas that appear most often here on Semicolon.

1. Books. I have a houseful of books I read lots and lots of books, probably over 100 per year. I love books; I live inside books. I write about books here at Semicolon a lot. Some of my favorite booklists (may be helpful for last minute Christmas gifts?):
Reading Out Loud: 55 Favorite Read Aloud Books from the Semicolon Homeschool.
History and Heroes: 55 Recommended Books of Biography, Autobiography, Memoir,and History
Giving Books: Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction.
Giving Books: FOr the nieces and other girls in your life.
Nine Series for Nine Year Old Boys.
Narnia Aslant: A Narnia-Inspired Reading List.
Books for Giving (to kids who want to grow up to be . . .)
Best Spine-Tinglers
Best Journeys
Best Laughs
Best Crimes

2. Family, particularly large families. I have eight children. Five are grown-ups, and three are still growing. Actually, we’re all still growing. I don’t write as much about my children as I do about my books, privacy and all that jazz. But having a large family and seeing God through the joys and difficulties of large family life is one of the major themes of my life.

3. Community. Through family, yes, but also through the church, the neighborhood in which I live, and even through the blog-world, the experience of community is very important to me. I’m interested in community as an ideal, and I’m also interested in little communities that form around hobbies, intellectual pursuits, ethnic identities, and other kinds of people-glue. I want to know how a subculture develops around a shared interest like bicycling or collecting butterflies or playing Scrabble (Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis) or any other random interest, how those communities work and how they coalesce, what the rules are and how they resolve conflict.

4. The Bible. God’s Word has been a part of my life since I was a preschooler, and my mother read to me from the book of Genesis. I still remember how exciting and suspenseful the story of Joseph was, and how I wanted to know what would happen next. I have read the Bible numerous times, studied it alone and in groups, and still I find treasure, hope, reassurance, and life in the words of history, prophecy, poetry, gospel, and letters in the Bible. The Bible is the central book in my life, by which standard all the many, many other stories that I read stand and fall.

5. Prayer. God is still working out this theme in my life. I’m 55 years old, and I still long to know what it means to really, really pray. If God knows and has preordained everything that happens, why pray? I think part of what it means is to communicate the desires and depths of my heart in language, that God-given means of communication and organization. If I can put my inchoate feelings and thoughts into words and tell them to a God who really, really cares, then I participate in the creation of meaning somehow. I participate in God’s work on earth through prayer.

6. Language. We create community through language. God communicates with us and we with Him, mediated by language. The Word became flesh. What does that mean? We are creatures who speak a language, and that means something. One of my life’s quests is find out what it means to be a language-using creation and how to use those words to communicate truth.

7. Story-telling. One theme leads to another: from books to the Bible, to prayer, to language, to storytelling. Maybe they are all one grand motif that defines how God is working in my life.

8. History. I love family history, especially my family history, but others, too, if they have stories to tell. History is the story of how God created, how He creates in the events of our lives, and what it all means.

9. Singing and Poetry. Music, in general is nice, but singing, alone or with other people, is what I most love, what makes me feel alive. That’s why I did the 100 Hymns series: I love songs with words and poetry put to music. This theme ties into my fascination with language and words, but the melody adds another dimension.

10. Homeschooling. Education in general is a theme in my family and in my life. I pray that I will be always learning, always educating myself and others about the wonderful world where God has placed us. I believe that as a family we were called to homeschool, not because homeschooling ensures God’s blessing or favor nor because homeschooling is always better than any other way of educating young people into adulthood, but rather because it fits with the other themes and concerns of my life: the community in family, the immersion in language and story-telling, the transmission of God’s truth to another generation.

11. Evangelism and missions. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, in GA’s and Acteens, two SBC missions organizations for girls. I am still immersed in the idea of how the gospel is spread to other people and cultures and active in supporting missions and missionaries.

12. Jesus. Last, not because he is the least of my life themes, but rather because He is the foundation. If I wrote a book, Jesus would be the underlying theme, perhaps unnamed as in the Book of Esther, but always present, always at work, always the Rock upon which everything else rests. In Him, we live and move and have our being.

You can see these themes embodied in this list of 52 things that fascinate me. Now it’s your turn. What are the themes of your life? Where has God led you to focus your energies and talents? What is it that wakes you up in the morning, draws you into study and/or action, makes you who you are?

Thankfully Reading 2012

I decided to participate in Jenn’s Thankfully Reading weekend by doing what comes naturally–reading the books with which God has blessed me, with thanksgiving in my heart. In this kick-off post, I thought I’d share what the Semicolon family is reading this weekend.

Grandma G, who lives in a little apartment behind our house, is reading Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. I read Bel Canto a couple of years ago and reviewed it here.

Engineer Husband is reading I and II Thessalonians and Has Christianity Failed You? by Ravi Zacharias. He’s been listening to Mr. Zacharias on the radio a lot lately, and he’s finding the book a little scattered, but thought-provoking.

Eldest Daughter, age 27, is reading With Love From Karen by Marie Killilea, the sequel to her best-selling book, Karen, about raising a child with cerebral palsy. Eldest Daughter is in the midst of preparing to be received into the Catholic Church, and she likes the Catholicism and the family-ness of the Killilea books.

Computer Guru Son, age 25, says he’s trying to read my copy of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express in Spanish, Asesinato en el Orient Express, but I find it hard to believe since I’m the one who taught his high school Spanish class. He was not the best student in spite of being the only student in the class.

Artiste Daughter, age 23, asked for a mystery to read when she arrived today for Thanksgiving dinner. She’s already read and enjoyed all of my Agatha Christie novels, so I gave her Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers. Artiste Daughter is nursing a cold, and a good mystery is the best medicine we can prescribe here at Semicolon library and book depository.

Organizer/Drama Daughter, age 21, is reading JK Rowling’s new adult novel, The Casual Vacancy. She says it’s about English rural village life and politics, and so far, so good. Very different from Harry Potter, though.

Brown Bear Daughter, age 17, is supposed to be reading Vanity Fair by Thackeray. She finished the first six chapters last week, but she hasn’t made any progress this week with all the holiday distractions. She asked me for something lighter than Vanity Fair to read on Monday, and she ended up with P.G. Wodehouse, one of the Jeeves books. I’ll have to ask her how that’s going.

Dancer Daughter II, age 13, fell asleep the other night re-reading one of Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls spy novels. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You is the first in a series of good, clean fun for middle grade and young adult readers.

Z-baby, age 11, doesn’t read for fun, at least not too often. I’m reading A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence: Gonzales, Texas, 1836 (Dear America Series) to her for her Texas history class, and we’re enjoying the story of Lucinda, a young teen in early Texas just before and during the Texas Revolution.

And, of course, I am reading copious amounts of middle grade science fictiona and fantasy for the Cybils Awards. Scroll down to read some of my reviews.

What will you be reading this weekend?

Fifteen Year Old Boy Reads Books!

Almost-15 year old Karate Kid, who quit reading, except for school assignments, when he was about twelve, speed-read his way through the series of books he got for Christmas: Andrew Klavan’s Homelanders series. Then, he read The Client by John Grisham, a book I strategically placed near his bed for him to discover.

Today, he asked me to recommend an Agatha Christie mystery! I think he’s going to read either Ordeal by Innocence or Murder on the Orient Express. So, assuming he doesn’t spend the rest of the spring reading through the novels of Dame Agatha, what do I suggest, or give as a birthday gift, or leave lying around, next?

With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo

Somewhere along the way, however, the good reverend decided a small town meant a poor town, and a poor town meant humble people. Ollie’s daddy was born to preach to those people. His daddy had been a traveling preacher, as was his daddy before him, all the way back to the time of Moses. The Good Lord ushered him into that long line of preachers, and then his parents gave him the name Everlasting Love.
It was everything he was.

A children’s novel with a father/preacher character who is not cruel, not confused, not pathetic, and not looney is a rare jewel. I can think of one, off-hand, Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie. Now there’s a second.

And thirteen year old Olivene Love (Ollie), eldest daughter of Reverend Everlasting Love, is a PK who has no problem with being the daughter of a preacher; she just wishes he would settle down and preach in one place. The Love family spends three days holding a revival in one small town before moving on the next one: “[p]reaching, mostly—some singing and an occasional healing if the need arises.” Ollie is ready to stay in one place for a while, make friends, experience indoor plumbing and life in a house rather than a travel trailer.

I loved the characters in this book for middle grade readers. Ollie’s daddy gives her good advice:

“Be careful when you listen to people called they, Olivene. They often tell lies.”

“Some people are broken. They don’t know anything other than hatred. It’s like their heart gets going in the wrong direction early on in life, and they can never quite manage to bring it back around to love. It’s a sad thing and we should have compassion for them. Think of the joy they are missing in life.”

Ollie herself is a good girl, typical oldest child. Reverend Love says to her, “You are an example for your sisters in word and deed. I am blessed to call you mine.” Yet, Ollie isn’t perfect, not too goody-goody; she still gets impatient with her younger sisters, tired of living on the road, and sometimes a little too bossy for her own good. She reminds me of my eldest, whom I am also blessed to call mine.

Ollie’s mama, Susanna Love, is “like living poetry” as she welcomes the people who come to the revival meeting. Her sister, Martha, is the pessimist who’s always counting in her head to see who gets the most privileges or treats, but Martha is also the one who gets things done. Gwen, the third sister, is the spitting image of her father, and she wants to become a preacher just like him. Camille, sister number four, is “simple in mind”, but she almost has the dictionary memorized and has “an air of grace and dignity.” Ellen, the baby of the family, is friendly, a tagalong, and eager to please. Together, the Love family has a character and winsomeness all their own, rivaling other great families of literature such as the the Marches, the Melendys, the Moffats, the Penderwicks, or All-of-a-Kind Family. Actually, they remind me a little bit of the Weems family in Kerry Madden’s series Gentle’s Holler, Louisiana’s Song, and Jessie’s Mountain, maybe because of the time period (1950’s) and because of the way that each of the girls in the family has her own personality and way of coping with life in a preacher’s family.

With a Name Like Love is a good family story with a good plot (I didn’t mention the plot, but there’s a murder to be solved, friendships to resolve, and family decisions to be made) and excellent, heart-grabbing characters. Highly recommended.

What are your favorite families in children’s literature?

Prodigal Sons and Daughters

I read about the following rebels and wanderers as an encouragement to myself. I will not give up on the people in my life who have chosen to walk away from God. I thought some of my readers might also need similar encouragement.

Abraham Piper, son of pastor and author John Piper, writes about 12 Ways to Love Your Wayward Child.

Reb Bradley on Solving the Crisis in Homeschooling:

I once believed and taught that a parent could follow the right biblical steps and be assured of raising children who remained faithful to God from childhood into their adult years. In fact, as a parent of young children I judged as a failure any parent whose young adult children were prodigal. However, as my own children aged and I discovered that they were self-determining individuals with their own walks with Christ, I came to the alarming realization that I had a lot of control over their outside, but not their inside. They were like all people who were faced with the choice of whether or not they were going to listen to Christ and follow him. As Christians we all encounter opportunities many times in our lives – to choose to follow Christ or not. It was a rude awakening for me when I saw that even the best parenting could not exempt a person from making the wrong choice when faced with temptation. I do believe that by our influence we can greatly increase the likelihood our children will love and follow Christ, but I see nothing in Scripture that guarantees well-trained children will never succumb to temptation.

Consider the parable of the Prodigal Son – the righteous father raised two sons who turned out sinful – one went deep into sin and then repented – the other stayed home obediently, yet was polluted with self-righteousness and bitterness. Could the Father take blame or the credit for their sinful choices? Not at all, for the story is about God the Father Himself – it is a lesson about His mercy to His children when they fail. May we learn from God’s example!

Loving Those Who Leave by Matthew Lee Anderson.

Some books that might be helpful in this regard:
Nonfiction
Confessions by St. Augustine.
Prodigals and Those Who Love Them by Ruth Bell Graham.
The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.
Rebel With a Cause by Franklin Graham.
Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels by Tullian Tchividjian.

Fiction
Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush by Ian Maclaren.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
Home by Marilynne Robinson.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

$500 Million to Fix Five Year Olds Who Can’t Sit Still

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the administration’s new $500 million early learning initiative is designed to deal with children from birth onward to prevent such problems as 5-year olds who “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.

Maybe many, if not all, five year olds weren’t meant to sit still in a classroom. Maybe we should modify the curriculum or the environment rather than trying to modify the five year olds.

I had one child who was quite ready to sit and learn to read and do math at age five. I had several children who weren’t. Why are we trying to make five year old “fit” into our own particular cultural and educational jigsaw puzzle instead of working with them as individuals with their own needs and gifts? And who is most qualified to see each child as an individual with his/her own timetable and learning channels?

Hint: I homeschool, and although I don’t believe that homeschooling is the best choice, or even possible, for everyone, I do think that young children are better off and learn more freely and appropriately in their own homes with their own parents teaching and encouraging them. At least they don’t have to be taught to “sit still” as soon as they hit their fifth birthday. And If I did want to teach them to settle down and listen, it wouldn’t cost the federal government, or me, a cent.

HT: Mommy Life by Barbara Curtis

Potluck Saturday: Beef Danish

I’ve resisted the temptation to share recipes here at Semicolon for a couple of reasons. First of all, I don’t think I’m much of a cook. When I got married I knew how to fry everything and bake a few things with a recipe, but that’s all. Now I know a little more, but Im still cooking-challenged.

Then there’s the stereotype of “mom blogs” full of product reviews and recipes that I wanted to avoid. However, this recipe is one of my favorites, and I thought you all might enjoy it.

Source: My sister-in-law, O. Jones

Yield: 6-8 servings

1 –2 LB. Steak I use tenderized round steak, cut into pieces.
2 T oil
1 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Black pepper
1 medium onion sliced thin
2 bay leaves
1 T brown sugar
2 C. water

2 T flour
1 T paprika
1/2 C. water
1 T vinegar

Directions:
Cube beef into 1/2 ” cubes. Brown lightly in oil. Add salt and pepper. Cover with onions, bay leaves, and sugar. Pour water over this. Cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours or cook in Crock pot on low for several hours. Do not boil. Remove bay leaves.
Combine flour, paprika, water and vinegar. Stir into meat and cook 20 minutes to thicken. Serve over hot mashed potatoes or noodles.

What’s cooking at your house this week?

Bitter Melon by Cara Chow

Nominated for 2011 Cybil Awards, Young Adult Fiction category. Nominated by Lisa Jenn Bigelow.

“Frances, a Chinese-American student at an academically competitive school in San Francisco, has always had it drilled into her to be obedient to her mother and to be a straight-A student so that she can get into Berkeley to become a doctor. It has never even occurred to Frances to question her own feelings and desires until she accidentally winds up in speech class and finds herself with a hidden talent.”

Bitter Melon was pitched to me as sort of the “anti-Tiger Mother novel,” the Rest of the Story from the pressured child’s point of view. I would have thought about Ms. Chua’s recent controversial child-rearing memoir as I read Bitter Melon even if the association between the two books hadn’t been brought to my attention. Amy Chua apparently believes (I haven’t actually read her book, Battle Cry of the Tiger Mother) that children should be raised in a very strict, competitive, and pressured environment so that they will learn to achieve their best and be proud of themselves. In her Wall Street Journal article, Chua talks about giving praise and encouragement along with (or after) the initial response to substandard grades or performance which is to ” excoriate, punish and shame the child,” but it looks as if the positive reinforcement and simple love get short shrift in the Tiger Mother model for raising kids. Such methods may work to produce highly competent pianists or doctors, but I would argue that there’s a dark side to to this parenting technique that borders on the abusive, if it doesn’t actually cross over into child abuse.

Not all cultural traditions are equally moral, virtuous, and yes, Christ-like. The Chinese and other Asian cultures may have many things to teach the West about principled behavior, honoring parents, and even teaching children to excel, but shaming children and beating them and controlling their actions by force and by emotional manipulation even into young adulthood are not right ways of treating the children that God has placed into our families, no matter how brilliantly it makes them perform. Love is not, or should not be, based on performance, and our children should never wonder whether we will continue to love them if they fail.

Sadly enough, Frances in the book Bitter Melon sees herself making a choice between pleasing family (her mother’s expectations) and speaking her own truth. She writes, “Then the question of whether to choose one’s family at the expense of oneself or oneself at the expense of one’s family has no easy answer. It is like choosing whether to cut off one’s right hand or one’s left hand.” There is a third way: we can teach our children that they are ultimately responsible before God to praise, enjoy, and glorify Him forever. It’s not all about me. Nor is it all about family and making my parents happy. Life is about accepting the love of the One who created me, loving Him with all my heart, mind and strength, and glorifying Him with my talents and abilities, serving others as if they were the Lord Jesus Christ, and honoring my parents even if I must defy their expectations. It’s still not an easy answer, but it is right, and God’s way of living transcends culture, both East and West.

Bitter Melon is a good novel, and a good antidote to the poisonous temptation of making human excellence and/or filial devotion one’s god.