just a thursday morning, and one of the things i like about our odd little house

I just realized that it is probably no coincidence that I last "really" blogged on a Thursday.  Wednesdays are busy days out and about for us, with Korean martial arts in the morning and recorder/classical guitar lessons in the afternoon, and lunch and naps and school to squeeze inbetween.  So on Thursday mornings I am ready to have a slower morning, and it just so happens my two older girls participate most Thursdays in an amazing literature immersion class called LitWits Workshops, the brainchild of my very own soul-sister Becky and her sister Jenny. (If anyone is interested--could be good idea gathering for you homeschool-minded moms--click on the link, and it will take you to the photos section of the site, where you can see the kinds of activities they do.  And see pics of Sunny and Merry. And if they look a little oddly dressed at times, it is because they were trying to dress like characters from the books they had just studied.) 

photo property of LitWits Workshops

(Perfect when they wore their new Christmas dresses for Anne of Green Gables; a little more interesting when they were doing Hans Brinker or Treasure Island. ; )  The class is from 9-1 over on the Westside of Santa Cruz (about 10-15 min. highway drive from us) and Becky is SO SO sweet that she actually comes and picks up our girls at 8:30 in the morning so I don't have to get us all out of the house quite so early.  Ahhhhhhh, what a luxury!  The "LitWits Bus" brings them home too.  (Sometimes the kids of other friends are in the Bus too, their moms living out in the country even less conveniently, so they drive their kids to Becky's house and the Bus takes off from there.)  It gets better.  Not only are my kids taking this amazing class from two amazing women, and getting chauffered, and spending those hours with some of their best friends, but our homeschool charter is paying for the classes!  It could not be more ideal.

ANYWAY this blessing means I don't actually have anywhere I have to go on Thursdays.  And my two oldest are being well-schooled, and not by me.  And I can stay in my pjs late if I want (as I am now!) and sit with my tea in front of the computer and write!  Don't get me wrong--we will still do school today, but it won't be at the same pace as normal.  Morning is really the best brain time, and when we do most of our serious schooling, so giving up the morning means I have more relaxed expectations for the rest of the day. 

So this afternoon we will have our usual quiet reading during naps, then finish up whatever worksheets or activities they did not complete during the workshop, just do a little math, a little correcting of the work completed yesterday, go run a mile, practice instruments, play a little Timez Attacks, or watch some Liberty's Kids or maybe watch this cool animated version of The Tempest, which was the LitWits selection this morning.  And then try to get the kids to bed at a decent time so that DH and I can finish watching X3: The Last Stand, which we started last night.  : )

Oh, and I won't be completely lazy today.  DH's dad just emailed to say he would like to come down this weekend to help on some house projects, so there's cleaning to do, and I need to do some sorting in the girls' clothes boxes.  And finish some laundry. And maybe try to cook some meat. And I should really take advantage of DH having a rare day working from home to run a couple of errands child-free. . . or maybe I won't, because then I would have to get out of my pajamas.

I realize this was a post about a whole lot of nothingness.  But, really, why does EVERY post have to have a point?  

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I'll close with some final randomness.

Some of those things about our life most of you probably don't experience in yours--waking up to a house 52 degrees.  Getting kids up and ready while daddy is making the fire (which normally he does before he goes to work), seeing your breath in your own bathroom.  We heat out little house with a wood-burning fireplace, and it does a great job.  Fine most of the time.  Great when daddy has the fire going when he leaves for work and I can stumble out of bed to a warming house.  Not as great when daddy sleeps in on a freezing morning and then I am the first one up, like today. ; )

When our kids bathe, they always call out "is the fire on?" from the shower room.  If the answer is yes, they come out and dry off in the living room in front of the fire. (The fireplace insert has a fan that automatically kicks on when the firebox gets hot enough, blowing the heat out into the room.)

Smiley on the potty while drying off from the bath.  Finishing the fireplace surround is one of my our projects for this summer.

I like our fireplace and the coziness of a fire.  The kids huddled around it doing their math in the morning--after the house is nicely warmed but they just want the decadence of sitting right in front of the blower.  Laying in bed at night watching the flickering of flames against the white beams and boards of our ceiling.  Being warm and snuggled in bed under our feather duvet during a cold night, feeling the chill air against my cheeks and nose, but then arising to the spreading warmth and sunlight streaming in the windows. Even the freezing floorboards under my bare feet when I get up in the still-dark hours to attend to calls of nature, which make it all the more satisfying to snuggle back under the covers against a warm spouse.

Those moments of homey warmth and natural cold reinforce the sense that we are living in our own little world--in our own Little House in its own Little Woods.  Where modern conveniences like central heating and double-walled construction don't comfortably insulate us from the senses of changing seasons.  Where the swift flow of contemporary culture seems to pass around us, as if we are nestled cozily in the lee of some mighty rock.  Where our unique circumstances lead to feeling like we are living just a little more in harmony with nature than most folks, and not so purposefully away from it.

So while the fire is sometimes a pain, and the occassional dead cold no fun (like when we come from from visiting family for Christmas and the house is as cold and dark and still as an abandoned icebox), I think the fireplace is one of my favorite things about this house.

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Oh, and just to let you know--Gabe, I'm talking to you, if you are still reading--I have not forgotten about my promise to post pics of my house.  In fact, about 2 months ago after my in-laws left and my house was as clean and neat as it ever is, I took pics when the light was good.  But then when I started to resize them and get them ready for a post, I was having trouble with my photo program, and a couple of the pics were corrupted, and I was trying to see if I could restore them. . . .  Anyway, I have not forgotten.  Just consider the project temporarily on hold.