School's In

From my desk. The mural was painted at the end of last year by five high school students.

It looks like a sufficient amount of space until you try to cram 21 little first grade bodies in there at one time!

Looking toward my desk from the doorway.

The supply corner. The box in front of the shelves is a cave in the making. The middle school is studying art of the stone age and is making the cave to hang their "cave art" in. More pics of this project to follow later.

School began last Wednesday. I am enjoying being back in the classroom again. Since the school is on the small side, I teach art to all of the grade levels, k-12. Also, since the school is small and yet growing, other classes besides art are held in the art room certain days and periods throughout the week. On any given day I may share my small space with Spanish III, 8th grade math, Health, or high school Bible. These few breaks during the week afford me the time needed to put up displays of art work in the hallways and work on organizing the yearbook staff.



The upside to working in a small Christian school is definitely the kids and the Christian environment. They are a nice group of students and they have very active parental support. The downside is the lack of space. My room is small and my supply budget is limited. The nearest sink is across the hall in the girls' bathroom. Also, the days are long with 9 periods plus yearbook after school hours. We won't go there with the pay situation...but suffice it to say that I have taken a pay cut from my public school teaching job of twenty years ago. All that said, I am enjoying it and look forward to each new day. My head is full of project ideas and my heart is full of caring for these wonderful kids and their families.



While I am enjoying focusing on art alone, I am finding I miss teaching all of the different subjects a homeschool mom has to cover. Where is literature and science, history and math? I am certainly glad I had the opportunity to learn right along with my kids as they worked their way through our homeschool. Shawn is homeschooling history still this year, but he is doing it independently. I may sit down to watch a lecture or two with him, but he has ownership of the course. It is not "mom lead". I have always loved learning and the homeschooling environment suited me. I will always be a learner, always curious about that which I don't already know. Now I can look back on homeschooling with nostalgia, but forge ahead towards recapturing my true vocation of teaching art. How wonderful to have been blessed with both.



Shawn and Julia are both doing really well in their courses at the community college. I am so proud of them. Julia is working on a transfer application now. She is looking at Cornell as a transfer school and wants to apply early for next year. It's a good thing I went back to work when I did. Although it will be significantly smaller than Earle's paycheck, mine will become quite necessary soon.

Summer's Best

Lazy days spent paddling up an inlet of a lake, these are the times Earle and I look forward to in the summer. We strap on the canoe and head out for the day.

Paddling up an algae-covered inlet. Our clear path left in the wake soon closed up behind us until we were surrounded by a carpet of green.

The yellow water lillies were all in buds, waiting to open.

A flotilla of turtles hovers near the bank of another inlet.

A stray bobber attracts a passenger.

Wordless Wednesday

When cats dream...

First Day of School

Remember when you first went to kindergarten and mom and dad had you smile and pose while you stood at the bus stop in your new school clothes and name tag? For us homeschoolers, sometimes leaving the house for the first day of school comes a little later.

I couldn't help but snap this pic of Shawn this morning as he sat waiting for Julia to finish doing her hair so they could leave together for the first day of classes at the community college. I also couldn't help but be a little anxious for them. It is Shawn's first classroom experience since third grade when we decided to homeschool, and it is Julia's hardest year yet with all upper level classes with scary names like Organic Chemistry and tutor and lab assistant responsibilities. Yikes. It's enough to make a mom's skin crawl.

I know they'll do well. They are such good kids. I am proud of them both and wish them well today. This momma can't wait until they come home from the first day of school to tell her all about it.

Chain Maille

What does a crafty teen who has just visited the Renaissance Festival do with her last weeks before college begins? She picks up and masters a new hobby, of course.

Julia and her friends were intrigued by the chain maille for sale at the Renaissance Fair. She bought a small bracelet that drapes over the hand in a "V" and loops around the middle finger. It was an innocent enough purchase at first. Now, she is hooked. Now, there are bags of jump rings littering every horizontal surface in the house and pliers lain askew on place mats and coffee tables. And, there is a young lady, her eyes glued to a laptop monitor in front of her, pliers in both hands, who wrestles these stainless jump rings into all kinds of intricate patterns and beautiful weavings. We have a chain maille junkie on our hands!

Seriously though, the jewelry she is making is quite lovely. When one thinks of chain maille, if they are like me, they think of chunky suits worn by knights to protect them from glancing sword blows. But, this craft has grown to be much more. There are so many different fancy "weaves" and patterns that have crossed over from chain maille's once strictly utilitarian purpose to resemble something of art.

Julia has become so intrigued with this process and so proficient at her new craft that she is even considering selling her work, which I might add goes for a pretty penny online. Bravo to her for teaching herself this wonderful pastime and creative outlet.

My kids' creativity and ability to look up how to do something and then do it and do it well never ceases to amaze me.

Tagged by Melissa!

I've been on a bit of a blogging break, as you know, but my WTM blogging friend Melissa tagged me for this meme and I am a sucker for memes! Also, as I read over Melissa's list there were so many similarities to me that I just had to do it.

6 Unspectacular Things About Me

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here goes:

1. I love homemade popcorn with lots of real butter and sea salt.

2. Like Melissa, I startle very easily and my family has taken advantage of that fact. Just ask Julia about the fake black spider...

3. I sleep with one very old, flat pillow and sometimes even push that above my head. Hotel pillows, you know the puffy foam kind, kill me.

4. I snore sometimes. Dh has earplugs in his nightstand.

5. I require everyone to leave their shoes either outside the door, in their rooms, or in the cellar. They often opt for outside because it's easier, then they get angry at me when their shoes get wet!

6. I am a nut for SciFi.

There, everything you always wanted to know about me, right?! I'm not sure I will tag anyone right now, but I reserve the right to change my mind at a later date.

Reading and Watching

Summer is ideal for reading and watching. The heat and humidity dictate either a break on the couch with a book or one floating in the Intex pool. The long days turn into late night movie viewing as cool breezes finally begin to waft in through the open windows.

I am usually a one-book-at-a-time type gal, but right now I am reading two. I thought I'd fly through a few more Miss Read books this summer, but I've gotten side-tracked and will have to pick her back up a little later in the season.

A friend loaned me To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. I'm finding it very good and rather funny, but I am not compelled to read one chapter after another. I like the book well enough, it is after all a pleasant adventure in time travel with much silliness and history. It just seems I put it down and forget to pick it up again for days.

My other read right now is open next to me on the couch. I am almost halfway through its 311 pages after picking it up at the library yesterday. At the end of each chapter it compels me to begin another, and then another...Sundays in America, A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. I don't always share the author's views, but her "trip" is intriguing. Earle and I have always talked about worshipping at a different church every Sunday. Suzanne Shea did it for a year and we are along for the ride.

Apart from reading books I have been reading a blog I discovered called Zen Habits. I am all for simplicity and the articles there are very inspiring. Hop on over and give it a try.

Movie watching has been slow but steady. We picked up a few $5 movies out of the Walmart bin to add to our small collection. Among the usual fare of Terminator and military action movies were True Lies and one of my favorites A Knight's Tale. It is a great movie. What can be better than the character of Geoffrey Chaucer, stripped naked (from the back of course) bemoaning his gambling habit! Side-splitting stuff. The other great movie I watched (part of) recently was Master and Commander. I watched it at the precise time to see my favorite part: "Don't you know that in the service you must always choose the lesser of two weevils." If you've seen it you know of what scene I speak!