Friday

Our lake excursion last Friday was exactly what we had hoped for...a yummy lunch, relaxing in the hammock and swinging on Carol's amazing rope swing, lake swimming, sitting on the dock and watching a storm roll in, getting inside before the storm struck and watching it from the windows of the sunroom while munching on picnic leftovers, back out to the dock for more sunshine after the storm passed over, and our first ever jet ski rides. Thanks, Carol for a perfect lake day!

Jenn and Andrew assuming a very Chinese camera pose,
according to Jenn!

With my dear Beijing daughter

M and A with that wind-blown look

After the lake, it was back home for a Friday musical evening which extended into the wee-est hour of the morning. The die-hard singers left around 1:00 after a full evening of hymns, four or five part harmony, worship songs, piano, cello, guitars, and way more pie than we could eat!

"Abide with Me"
Lovely in four parts, acapella

Notice baby Levi in the sling while Karen plays the guitar

Yeah - it was fun...we're doing it again soon

I didn't take a picture of the eatables, but just in case you're wondering, we had coconut cream, key lime, and chocolate pecan pies, triple-berry cobbler, cheesecake, and vanilla ice cream. Very delicious. We'll do a repeat on pie, too!

Back home, with company!

Well, I got home from Anatomy Camp last Friday, very tired but very psyched after a great week. More to come on that later.

Saturday afternoon, our dear Jenn arrived from China, via DC where she'd been leading a delegation of 300 Chinese tourists. After meetings for her work with the Commerce Department, she headed south for a week of relaxation at her NC home - our house! We are sooooo happy to have her here. We've had a lot of cello playing (she joined the worship team and played in church on Sunday), swimming, conversation, good eating (the best gazpacho and hummus ever last night, so I was told) and foot rubbing! The week is flying by far too fast. We're off to a friend's house on the lake today and have a gang of folks coming over to play music, sing, swim, and eat pie this evening. And then she heads back tomorrow. These visits are never long enough. (sigh)

Needless to say, I have had little time to write, but next week will find me at my desk. I do want to tell you about Anatomy Camp, and I have a blog post to write for the Charlotte Mason/Childlight USA blog on Masterly Inactivity, which was what my talk was about at the conference. And school planning and letters to write....

But for now, I'm off to pack a picnic lunch for the lake.

Blog break....

I got back yesterday from the 4th annual Childlight Conference at Gardner Webb University. It was a full couple of days of plenary and breakout sessions and some more relaxed time with homeschoolers, private and public school teachers, academicians, and others who embrace the educational philosophy and methods of Charlotte Mason. It was a rich time.

This afternoon, I head out for a week as a dorm mom and lab assistant for 30 high school girls who are attending an Anatomy and Physiology Camp at Appalachian State University. I'm excited about it, but a little daunted at the prospect of spending the week in the dorm with that many high school girls!!! Yikes. I'm used to high school boys. This will be interesting...

I'll be taking a break from the blog for a bit. See you when I get back.

PS Here's Jonathan's blog address, as mentioned in the previous post.

India

Jonathan is on his way to India and I confess a tinge of envy. I would be thrilled to be on that plane heading to Delhi next week. But, I will be content to travel vicariously - a mental traveler, experiencing the sites, sounds, smells, and impressions through Jonathan's eyes, by way of his writing. Many of you enjoyed following his travels in the Middle East in the fall of 2006 and he has promised to start writing again. I am eager to read. I'll let you know when I have a link. For now, you might enjoy seeing a few of the places where he will spend time.

Volunteer work at Bharti Integrated Rural Development Society and Children's Homes in India Trust and tourist travel to Varanasi, Delhi, and Agra.

The appliance man

I just got off the phone with the appliance repair man. My conversation with him reminded me of something I love about the South and of the way our words and tone can bless...

Telephone rings.....
Me: Hello.

Mr. Fix-it (who is a white haired gentleman): Hi, this is Mr. --- of --- Appliance Service. I believe your husband left me a message yesterday about your ice maker.

Me: Oh, yes. Thanks for calling. How are you?

Mr. Fix-it: I'm doin' fine, darlin'. I hope you are having a good day today.

The conversation continued, but you know, that little sentence in his soft accent made me feel like he really did care that I was having a good day. It made me smile. He went on to tell Coty what to do to determine what's wrong with the ice maker. Coty got off the phone and said, before I could get a word out, "He sure is a nice man."

A little conversation...full of kindness....and now, one day soon, we'll have ice again!

Congratulations, Andrew!

Congratulations to Andrew, fourth child to complete his homeschool days in the Pinckney Family School. He's spending the summer working and saving his $. He'd love to be traveling to France but will save that, Lord willing, for Study Abroad during his time at Furman. This is the first summer in a while that he hasn't been across one pond or the other.

He had a very fun graduation party, attended by family and friends.

Grillmaster, Coty. Yes, believe it! Our mostly vegetarian husband and daddy did a great job manning the grill, assisted by Mamaliz, who told him when the burgers were done and provided all the IBC root beer to go with the food and the soft serve ice cream. Our friend John, set up a commercial soft serve ice cream machine in the garage. Mmmmm, it was good!

Good food, good friends....

Good music, provided by DJ Matthew, who worked with his
brothers to make a special Andrew playlist

night swimming...

and conversation and s'mores around the firepit.

I think it is safe to say a very good time was had by all!

My son, the donkey

Matthew's always willing to help out when he can - even if it involves donning a set of donkey ears. But who could resist such a lovely fairy queen?! Anybody care to guess who the lovely Titania is in real life? Her hair is not usually such a lovely shade of orange.


For his efforts, Matthew, er...Bottom the Donkey, was rewarded with attention from little fairies who catered to his every desire for hay and scratching, a pillow under his donkey head, and loving attention from the fairy queen.

Thanks for helping young friends with their co-op production, Matthew. What a good sport!

Scenes from the Stout/Schmidt/Hodson CM co-op's Saturday performance of scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream courtesy of David Hodson.

Back in the swim

With graduation trips and celebrations over, I'm getting back in the swim routine. And the pool is ah, just perfect! Keeping tabs in the sidebar.

A trip to the Mint

The boys and I took a trip to the Mint Museum the other day and spent a couple of hours gazing at paintings, woodcuts, and more. What a treasure of a museum we have in our city. We didn't talk much as we walked through. We just wandered, mostly separately, at our own paces, looking at whatever we wanted.

I loved the current exhibit, "Quiet Spirit, Skillful Hand: The Graphic Work of Clare Leighton." Just the title of the exhibit drew me in. Here's what the Mint website has to say about the exhibit:

Born to an artistic family, Leighton studied wood engraving in Great Britain before moving to the U.S. during World War II. Settling first in Baltimore, she moved to Chapel Hill in 1943 and served as a visiting art lecturer at Duke University from 1943-1945. During her career, she wrote 15 books and created more than 700 prints. The natural world and her surroundings were a continuous source of inspiration. Her timeless images reveal an abiding interest in and respect for the earth and those who tend it, advocating the virtue of hard labor and the rhythms of nature. On the surface, her subjects are simple working people -- the ploughman, the washerwoman, the net mender, the cotton picker -- but Leighton portrays them and their labor with dignity and reverence.

Scything by Clare Leighton

Woodcut, 1935

The exhibit is up til September 14. If you're in Charlotte, go!

Flowers and phoebes and friends and food

I give thanks for...

83. God's gift of gorgeous lilies, bold and bright, gracing the poolside

84. This little eastern phoebe, nesting under the eaves of the porch who chirps and flits from clothesline to branch to nest as I watch each morning.

85. A visit from Rob and lots of porch time.

86. A summer meal on the deck, surrounded by young men, sons and friends, wet from the pool and delighting in a meal of salmon and tilapia, sweet potatos and rice, spinach salad and ginger carrots, cantalope with lime and mint, raspberry cobbler with ice cream. It all tastes even better in such company on such a beautiful summer evening.

87. Boys who clean the kitchen while I rest after such a meal - not a small task!

88. Spires of rosemary in the morning sun.


89. Cheery chartreuse hosta, also catching the early rays.

Opening my eyes daily to see God's good gifts and remembering to "give thanks to the Lord, for He is good." Psalm 107:1