Grace

After a massage, I always feel more thoughtful, deeper, as though my view of the world has slowed and each sensation comes through without distraction. I feel more connected.

Is it the process of the massage itself – the physiology stirred into action by all that deep-tissue release? Is it the fact that for the duration of one hour I have stopped? That I have halted? That rather than juggling so many things my job is simply to breathe?

I didn’t pick a word of the year, but one seems to have wandered along and picked me. The word is grace. It strikes me as an odd one. What seems to call out to me is the desire of moving through my life – relationships, tasks, responsibilities – with a grounded and beautiful grace.

Perhaps it is the illusion of an unharried life that calls.

There is a scene in ‘The Princess Diaries’ movie that I suddenly remember: The Queen says, “A queen never hurries. She hastens.”

This is what I want. To move through my life with calmness and a feeling of space and time. To hasten but never hurry, and never get harried. To keep my feelings about the tasks at hand in a cheerful and productive frame. To breathe deeply and finish a task before moving on.

It would make me a better role model for my kids. It would make my inner life more centred.

Grace.

wandering off the track a bit

Sandra and I are off on a bit of an unexpected topic. We’re watching World War II in HD Colour on Canadian Netflix. WWII is a very troubling topic and I’m a total wimp when it comes to anything that plumbs the depths of humanity’s capacity to be horrible. I read the description of the plot of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” and that alone was enough to set me weeping. This series of documentaries, however, focuses on the tactics and the events. It is informative and balanced. We’re 9 episodes into the 13 and really enjoying it.

Part of why we’re homeschooling is to raise citizens rather than consumers. I believe that understanding 20th C history is an essential part of understanding modernity, understanding decisions in a global setting, and understanding the huge trends and tensions of our world. I’m very pleased with the contributions this series is making toward that goal.

I’m reading How the Girl Guides Won the War at the same time, an unexpected glimpse into the war. Girl Guides and Brownies formed a kind of trained and eager backbone for England during WWII, not to mention Poland, China, and many other countries. They were organized, dependable, and skilled in all sorts of areas from cooking over a fire (think of the Blitz and the destroyed houses) to Morse code. The author has unearthed all sorts of anecdotes and voices to bring the varied experiences to life.

I’m even thinking I might be ready to read “Anne Frank’s Diary”. The idea of reading it has always intimidated me. I worry my heart will break. What do you think?

Summer fashion

I don’t get summer fashion. I have a fall body and fall fashion sense. I like layers, a more tailored look, and I don’t like showing a lot of skin. Summer styles always seem so girly, and I’m really not girly or flouncy or sweet. (I’m sweet on the inside, but on the outside I am not sweet. Not so much with the cute, either.)

But I’m trying to fix my summer wardrobe, I really am. I’m hoping to solve my problems with some group shopping this weekend.

I’m also knitting a cardigan to go over summer dresses and tank tops.

I was swatching and swatching! For gauge. For the lace edging. For the collar.

There is definite possibility in this. Structural yet lacy.

Canadian historical non-fiction

We’ve found a few books of Canadian history this year that we can heartily recommend. We’ve used all three as read alouds. It works best in this house of kids who learn best by listening.

“Canada Moves West”, the omnibus edition, by Pierre Berton is a compilation of 5 shorter books previously published separately. I reviewed it already here, but am reporting back to say that it is not just the history-loving-mama in this house that is enjoying this book. Everyone is.

This is a rollicking good read. Berton has an eye for detail, choosing stories and characters that bring an event to life. Facts that are usually talked about in dry, broad terms suddenly leap to life full of heroism, preposterous ambition, clashing personalities, and tragic juxtapositions.

The book chronicles the flood of immigration that changed the prairies and the outlandishly ambitious railway that made that possible. This is a book that boys will love. It’s not a “boy book”, but those of us with non-bookish boys know that many books which are gender neutral still often fail to interest our lads.

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The next two books are part of the Canadians series put out by Fitzhenry & Whiteside. “Gabriel Dumont” and “Louis Riel” are both solid biographies for middle-school and (easy) high school levels. (They’re slim books, but with a small font and a complex vocabulary, so unless your 10 year old is a strong reader, I’d say they’re not right for that age.)

What I have read of this series of Canadian biographies is excellent. They are written by different authors with different styles and levels of complexity. Compellingly written, the right level of detail, solid history. They read aloud very well, unfortunately unusual in Canadian non-fiction.

The series is maddeningly difficult to track down in list form. The best I can find is this list from Canadian Home Education Resources, although the back of my books list 30 books in the series.

Light reading

I tried to get into this book and that book, but they needed me to commit. Commit to learning a new history, new culture, new social structure. I needed something with for a reader with commitment issues. It turns out that I needed…

“Hold Me Closer, Necromancer” This is a surprise hit with me, because other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my entire opinion on the Undead Obsession currently sweeping pop culture can be summed up as meh. It sometimes seems that boring, dumb, and shallow undead vie with stupid, gory, and twisted undead on every book cover and new show. Put the word ‘paranormal’ in the gushing description and my eyes roll.

This book was a perfect book this weekend. Charming, light, easy to start and then compelling as it developed. The characters were real and the banter was funny. Unsurprisingly, it was another recommendation from Bakka Phoenix, the Toronto book shop that seems able to peer into our family’s hearts and find the perfect pages for them. It’s YA and was bought for Sandra, my 16 year old, who also enjoyed it and found the style smooth and easy to slip into.

And finally, finally, finally a slacker main character who, thrown into a weird new world, vows to learn every thing he can. Oi, how it bothers me that Harry Potter – yes, Potter I’m looking at you specifically just now, although you are by no means alone – never seems to link knowledge with power about any facet of his new world, his past, his…anything. It’s convenient for plots to have laid-back characters shrug their shoulders and learn as the plot forces them, but it’s an easy route that lacks any convincing edge.

Freezer tip

Hummus freezes really well.

So make lots and freeze it in one cup containers. You’ll be so happy some day when you can have homemade hummus without doing any more work than locating it in your freezer. How hard that is depends on your freezer.

It’s pretty much looking like a blizzard out there

Sob.

This is the longest, slowest, coldest, greyest spring I can remember. Just now I passed my son in the hallway and he snorted. “Mom, you just gave snow the evil eye,”

Spring Witchery

Like many, many other people, I’m trying to manage the temperamental weather forces.  My brother-in-law apologized yesterday for delaying spring – he’d shaved his beard.  I try not to mention the sunny days aloud, as though spring were a skittish thing, but merely head out for a run in whatever direction will give me maximum eyeball time with the light.

So I’m not sure if I’m in the coaxing magic realm here, or the jinxing zone, but here’s a project I couldn’t resist.

 

 

Cool and dry to the touch like a summer yarn should be, in colours of the ocean and beach, this set of 3 colours of Fuji is destined to be a chevron scarf. Just don’t mention it aloud.

Homeschooling Older Kids…For The Win!

I read aloud and drank tea. He made Spicy Avocado sushi.

Now that’s what I call a return on investment!

I get it, Mom

I have a clear memory of a meal when I was about 15 or 16. Mom had called us to the table and we sat, waiting. She walked in, set a loaf of bread on the table, along with a block of cheese, the tub of margarine, and a bottle of salad dressing. Then she plonked our plates in front of us. Upon each lay a wedge that represented 1/4 of a head of iceberg lettuce.

We looked at her.

She looked back at us.

She shrugged. “I’m sick of making meals.”