A few Friday musings

I guess I should clarify where baby Matthew fits in the family tree! We have two children, Stephanie who is twenty-nine and Christopher who is seventeen (who is close to the end of his junior year of homeschooling)...twelve years between them...God's timing, not ours. :) We also had our own Matthew, who was our first child...a preemie who lived only a half an hour on this planet before going (so I believe) straight to Heaven. Wouldn't that be remarkable?

Our daughter is married to the "world's best son-in-law" who is a professor at a New England college. They met at the university when he was working on his Master's and PhD in statistics (yawn) and Stephanie was working on her undergrad degree in Interior Design. Matthew will be welcome by a brother and two sisters...symmetry.

My daughter will now be a homeschool mom of four children five and under. She has my admiration as well as prayers. :)


Tuesday was our last official homeschool co-op day, which I spent with the cell phone next to me (and received the baby call while there). I'll miss my students very much and I was so touched by each one of them telling me how they wished I was teaching a class next year. I asked each student to tell me what they'd learned in the class and it brought tears to my eyes as I was amazed at how much they had absorbed in their ability to discern the worldview of a communicator (writer, broadcaster, etc.).

One of the boys said he learned that the real truth was probably somewhere in the middle of the extreme "left" and the extreme "right" and to do more research before making a final opinion. I gave him a standing ovation. :)

I spent the last half an hour giving them advice on how to have a conversation with people who differ with them in theology, politics, etc. A number of times I've had to remind them...throttle back! (Oh...the excitement of youth.) I reminded them to always treat the other people with respect, that there is probably a grain of "Truth" within their argument, and to...use the science.
A few of the young people are thinking of careers in science and math so I encouraged them to always challenge in the area of factual science and statistics (okay, so there is room for statisticians in this world!) to make their point whenever possible. I'm going to miss that class but it is time to move on in our homeschool journey.

A few students also said they'd never read "classic literature" until we went through A Christmas Carol and they were surprised how much they enjoyed it. One boy brought the copy of Great Expectations with him that he was now reading. A couple of the boys made me laugh when they told me what they'd learned was that they could read "those really big words" out loud! Actually, that is a good thing because they aren't quite as fearful of classics as they once were.


Speaking of books and such, Sherry at Semicolon has an "excellent review of Excellent Women". The first time I read the book, I only skimmed it because the type on the edition I was reading was very challenging. So it was down on my Spring Reading Challenge as a re-read for that very reason. It is a wonderful book and certainly a "must read" for anyone who loves all things British (as well as just good writing).

Sherry has included a lot of my own favorite quotes from the book. This was only my second Pym book to read (the other being Quartet In Autumn) but I'm definitely going to be looking for her other titles. She has been called the "modern day Jane Austin" and I think that fits her just right...perhaps a mixture of Austin and Trollope.


Since he doesn't have to work at his part-time job, my son was able to take the car without me today (as well as Saturday) so I'm using this opportunity to get caught up on the household gotta do's. It is still rainy and chilly here, I have chicken baking in the oven to be used for a homemade chicken pot pie (one of my guy's favorite meals). Since this will (hopefully) be one of our last chilly days for awhile, I figured it was perfect for a pot pie meal. The weatherman says we're to be warm and sunny next week. I'll believe it when I see it.