Heavy whiteness blankets the neighbourhood,

Muffles sound.

(Eight more inches fell overnight.)

::

The task of releasing us from the home has returned.

Strong arms and back cooperate to move the barrier that keeps us inside.

(One shovel broke two days ago to be replaced by three new ones.)

::

Groans of an oversized engine sound across the way.

Heavy equipment has come.

Boys race to windows, stand, watch.

Uncertainty hovers.

Excitement?

Disappointment?

Joy is mingled with sadness.

(4 hours for the front end loader and dump trucks to clear away the pile in the parking lot.)

We've had more snow so far this winter than in many previous ones. Above freezing temperatures this afternoon and evening combined with rain have cleared away several inches of height, but much remains. The roads tomorrow might not be safe to travel to visit family, but we'll wait and see. In the meantime we have a quiet evening ahead still, and the anticipation of Christmas morning worship with our church family.

Blessings to all, this Christmas eve. Peace and joy be yours tonight, tomorrow, and in days to come.

Twelve More

Twelve more inches of snow fell overnight. Dear Man was supposed to visit a job site an hour away this morning and has decided to spend time in the office instead...a definite indicator that things are bad out there.

Some photos to back up my story:

The snow has piled up 14 inches against the sliding door that leads from our dining room to the deck.


The same picnic table I showed yesterday, looking even sillier.

This snow is deep!

And pretty.

Keep warm and out of the wind, everyone.

(I hear that my dear ones in BC are experiencing unusually large amounts of snow, too. I hope you are staying cozy, too.)

Pile It On

The Ones I Love have been busy outside. Yesterday they spent 4 hours in the snow pile that gets added on to regularly in the church parking lot across the street. It wasn't too windy, so the time went by quickly. The day before, however, the wind was gusting across the lot, down the street, around the buildings. There was more bundling up that day, and the time outside was much shorter.

::

In this picture, Brown Eyed Boy is showing off the tunnels. There are three holes in the hill: the left and right holes connect in a C shaped tunnel, and the centre hole goes straight back to meet the other one, kind of like a curved E. If you look carefully you'll see Little Man's head popping up at the top left of the pile. He was in one of the vertical digs which they like. They tend to make little nooks in those, to be chairs, etc.

Little Man, proud as can be, at the top of the hill. This is the best playground in town for my children!

My Girl makes valiant efforts to get the tunnels and forts started during the day, but truly, Dear Man does most of the digging. He likes getting out there and doing the 's' word (sweating: ick) and trying different structures. That's the engineer in him coming out, even in his play.

Those pictures were all from a couple of days ago. The ones below were from today. We had a great deal more snow come down over the course of the day, and lots of wind. Together that made for poor enough visibility that our evening worship service was cancelled (the Annual Candle Light Service, sadly), which allowed even more time to play.

::
Today's project was a long horizontal tunnel with a vertical access from the middle of the pile. It was probably over 12 feet long, and as you will see, large enough in diameter that no one had any trouble getting through, including Dear Man.

In this photo, My Girl has just descended from the central access shaft and is about to head out through the long passageway.

Brown Eyed Boy loves the snow, but his effectiveness as a worker is limited. He spends most of his time climbing, playing, trying to dig, and being adorable.

And My Girl can't get enough of this time with her Dad.

The saddest part of all this play is that the tunnels have to be broken in before we head inside for the day. Church personnel have requested that of us, and, as they are being gracious enough to let us play on their property, we oblige. But can you imagine the fun it would be to have the tunnels stay and build a whole network of forts, nooks, tunnels, escape routes...
::

Oh, and then there are the sad days when not only a snow plow shows up at the parking lot, but also a dump truck. That means they're clearing the entire pile away because it's begun to take up too much parking space and there's more snow expected in the near future. Sigh. At least it involves tractors.

Lots of the White Stuff Coming Down (Little Man DID pray for a White Christmas)

The top photo was taken by Little Man late last week. Then we had a couple of days of near zero degrees (Celsius) which turned everything to dense frozen mush. The table top was nearly clear - probably about an inch of ice-like snow was all that was left in that spot. That was what prompted the prayer at breakfast three days ago.



Well, in the past 24 hours we have had enough snow to cover the picnic table even higher than it was in Little Man's photo. There must be almost 18 inches of snow sitting on the table top now!

So, while some of our CM friends are enjoying nature walks and studies of winter weeds, non-flowering plants, and more, here's what we're enjoying:

I'll post about the winter fun that The Ones I Love have been having soon. Until then, stay warm and out of the wind!

Self Education

The philosophical portion of our meeting in January is supposed to be spent discussing 'Self Education'. An intriguing topic for anyone involved in education of any sort.

With perfect timing, Christine has posted an item about Self Education on her blog, The Real Life Home, as part of her Charlotte Mason Basics series on Fridays. You might like to head over to The Real Life Home and have your appetite whetted for the meeting that's to come. As always, Christine is direct, humourous, and engaging, while offering lots of valuable insight into the subject.

Other than this, I'm pretty sure this blog will be quiet until after Christmas, or maybe into the new year, so, on behalf of the entire leadership team:

Blessed Christmas to all.

What Would You Choose?

We live in a smallish house (by North American standards. I've lived in Russia; I know that there are millions of families who live with less space than we have. But that's a whole other conversation.) We love our little house. We love our street. Our neighbours are great. Dear Man's commute to work is mere minutes... But with three growing children, active boys, homeschooling and being in the home all the time, sometimes things feel cramped. So it seems that we are always trying to find ways to maximize the space we have.

Several months ago we had the children go through the playroom with us and each was allowed to choose three toys to keep. The rest were going to go to the local thrift store or, if not suitable for play anymore, to the dump. We guided them through the process carefully, making sure they knew that puzzles and books were not included in their limit, and that a 'toy' was being pretty broadly defined: dolls, for example, would include a couple of dolls, a selection of well-liked doll-clothes and bedding.

We went through the selection time slowly, having one child at a time choose an item (grouping) to keep.

What was the first thing that Little Man chose to set aside on the keep pile?

Not the Lego. Not the wooden train set. Not even his tool bench. No.

It was the homemade cardboard armour. Already a year old, well worn, and much repaired. Made from an empty diaper box, some duct tape, and spray paint. That was what he chose first.

What a precious thing that was to witness.

On Memorization

For anyone who has tried to memorize extended passages, be they Scripture, poetry, Shakespeare, or whatever, it quickly becomes clear that the "say a line over and over until you know it and then add another line" method really doesn't work. Nor does trying to cram it into the mind quickly before being 'tested' on it (as I and so many others I know did for English class and Sunday School); the words are there for the 'test' but fly out the window of the mind as soon as the direct attention to remembering is done.

This fall my children and I worked on memorizing a parable. Sixteen verses of Scripture. Not a huge chunk, by any means, but one of several longer portions that we've done as a family. Our memorization method was simple. I read the passage out loud every morning after breakfast, and again (most days) after lunch. Sometimes I'd read it a couple of times, but mostly just once. When it was quite familiar, I would sometimes pause part way through a line and let them finish the sentence, which they did quite easily, quite naturally, and quite happily. By the end of a month my two eldest children (12 and 6) and I could recite the passage without error. Now, almost 2 months after completing our memorization, we can still do it!

This week there is a new post on the ChildLight USA blog on memorization. Tina Fillmer has written an interesting piece entitled Memorization "Learnt Without Labour". I hope you will take a couple of minutes to read her article. It fit so well with my family's experience this fall that I felt I ought to share the news.

If you're interested, you can read about my family's experiences memorizing the parable by visiting PeaceLedge and clicking on the 'memorization' topic on the left.