Things I Love (July 2024 Edition)

A flip through my July journal

Dear Friends,

I’ve been looking back over my July journal this morning, surprised by the range of deep emotions that have surfaced in my life over these last few weeks. Scribbled pages about grief and death, desperate prayers for inspiration and peace where life/homeschool was concerned, heart-leap hopes for the season ahead, some already met and some already dashed. Lists of ideas, some that are coming to fruition, some that now seem absolutely unattainable. And yet, I am full of new hope this morning when I see all the good and beautiful things that have come to me so recently. I would like to share them with you, in hopes that you will find some inspiration too.

Things I Love (July 2024 Edition)

Morning Time: This is the bedrock of our homeschool life. When things are out of whack here, all it takes is the most basic planning and telling everyone to stay at the table after breakfast. (This, of course, is much harder some days than it would seem, especially if we are used to weeks of self-directed learning/play all day long… There is some resistance to starting the routine up again, but it is always a relief when we finally get it going again.) We clear the table, grab sketchbooks and colored pencils, and do some reading aloud/discussion for the morning. Usually even the little ones will hang around a while. We are currently reading from the Bible with Randy, and then from Story of the World. Yesterday, we read from Anna Hibiscus, a fun read-aloud about a little girl in Africa who lives in a big house with all of her aunts and uncles and cousins, and her younger twin brothers named Double and Trouble. I read a passage about the brothers, who are called Double Trouble when they are getting into mischief, because we have two little boys who remind me of them constantly.

After reading aloud, we have been having a 10-minute creative writing time. I throw out a prompt, and everyone writes for 10 minutes. Then we read our stories aloud. This is probably our favorite part of the day. If the younger children want to participate, I have them draw the story or speak it into the voice memos app on my phone. My most brilliant prompt ever was this week, when I told them to write an instruction manual for a time travel machine. Here are a few of my favorite lines from the excercise:

“Disclaimer: Time Travel Incorporated and its workers are not responsible for temporal radiation, destructive anomalies, destruction of the universe, etc.”

“First, add 6 3/4 rat tails to the niptook sprayer. Now, put 3 1/2 seagull eggs and 1 frying pan in the basket so you don’t starve in the pinline voice. Now for the fuel: Add 6 pocket watches and 8 digital wristwatches to the fuel tank. Do this all at 2:00 p.m. on the 8th of August, 2029.”

“Warning: Do not use this device near active volcanoes, as severe disturbances may occur.”

“Dear Ernie,
By the time you read this, you will have exactly 60 minutes before the tear in time closes and you can’t get back. I’m sorry, that’s as much time as I could buy. It should be 1:03, 32 seconds. If it is, wait till you see a flash of light through the window, and set the grandfather clock to 9:47, 6 seconds, then wait one minute. A man will come into the room. Do what he says immediately. When he leaves, set the clock to 7:14, 10 seconds, and break the china cup on the mantle piece. A woman will try to stop you. Tell her her son is alive and he says oranges are blue…”

“Never place time machine in front of a mirror, as this can interfere with the machine’s ability to recognize the real you and can cause your reflection to be sent into another timeline. This problem is irreversible and will result in your own disappearance from reality.”

After writing time, I hand out notebooks with a simple list of everyone’s daily work. This includes math, copywork, chores, etc. I got the notebook idea from this episode of The Read Aloud Revival Podcast, and it has been a huge help to me to get things going each day and to keep them going till they are done, especially since so much of my day with little ones is stopping and starting.

Getting into a rhythm with homeschool brings so much peace to my life. It reminds me, when I have a simple plan in place, that it isn’t a chore, but it is really the life of connection I want to have with my kids. I like sitting at the table with them, having conversations, hearing their thoughts, doodling in a journal while we read together, lingering… Lingering. I like that word. I am going to come back around to that word in a post one of these days.

Doodles:
My journal is full of drawings once we start a morning time routine again. I always feel like drawing is seeing x 1000. When I draw a child or a leaf or a tree, I am noticing things I have never seen before. I learn things by heart by drawing. There are always lots of sketches of the people sitting in front of me…

And here is a sketch of the crepe myrtle tree in our front yard…

I also keep a couple of nature reference books around for moments when I can’t think of anything to draw. I am trying to become more familiar with the trees that surround me.

I also have lots of doodles by my children, because they can’t resist my big pages and my perfect pen. (Pilot Precise V5—another thing I love.) It makes me happy to flip back through my journal and see these gems:

(Is it just me, or could this picture have come out of a Miyakazi movie???)

Finding New Places:
Rosie, Paloma, and I found an awesome little bakery/coffee shop to celebrate Paloma’s birthday. We are admittedly very picky about our coffee shops. We usually end up trying a place out and then making a list of all the things we would have done differently if it were our place. (Natural light, music without words, cozy, warm colors, memorable food, inspired flavor combinations, etc., etc…) It is always so nice to have a new place to go with shoulder bags full of journals, books, and pens and spend a morning together.

Tuesdays to Work:
My family has seen the wild look in my eye, and they have graciously allowed me to take back my Tuesdays to work again. In the last days of pregnancy and the first days of life with a newborn, this rhythm got knocked out of place. But having a day helps me sooooooo much. There were seasons in my life where I couldn’t lock myself in a room all day—I actually remember despairing that I couldn’t see the day coming for years that I wouldn’t be constantly needed. But the day has come. Of course, I am still nursing the baby when he needs me. But for most of my day on Tuesdays, I am locking myself away, working on getting all the words and ideas out of my head. I have found that taking the time to do this has made me a much better wife and mother on the other six days of the week. Instead of going through each day trying (and failing) to snatch moments to think/write/think/feel/process, getting more and more desperate with each passing day, I jot down little scraps of ideas I am having through the week, and then, on my one blessed day, I take the time to sift through them, pray over them, feel them, write them without that desperate feeling that my time could be over any second. It is such a gift to have a day, and something I will never take for granted for as long as I live.

Reading Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, a book I first read when I was pregnant with my first daughter. I copied a whole chapter down in my journal the day before she was born because I loved it so much. It is a book of short chapters in which Einstein, asleep at his desk, is dreaming of a world where time behaves differently. Each chapter represents a time in a new light. The language of this book is exquisite, and several of the chapters have stayed vividly in my imagination for nearly 17 years. Here is my journal entry from December 3, 2007.

Memorizing Scripture as a Family:
I forget how easily children learn the Word. It only takes about 3 minutes a day to learn something new and review something already learned to keep it fresh, and we are putting the Word of God in our hearts. These words change us. I am also trying to put scripture up around my house. Azalea painted this, and it is a beautiful reminder to all of us, hanging in the kitchen—where most of the complaining and arguing happens!!!—to choose a more peaceful life.

This is a message I need to hear. It is easy to look outside your own life for things that can make you happy and satisfy your soul, but I am finding that slowing down, looking in, and seeing the beauty that is already here is a profound joy and comfort to me.

Sending love and hopes that your eyes will be opened to the beauty that is right before you, and that God will give you provision and vision for a way forward in your own life today.

Mackenzie

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