leading up to January 29

All they say is true: enlist help and things go more smoothly!  Simple things, like Fina's homeschooling dad has been a proper vacuuming of the house on Saturday mornings. It is routine for him now. And I ask for help with laundry and dishes. And Fina is taking a more active role with certain things. Washing sinks and cleaning mirrors (yes, you have to take the time to teach them how to do it properly first, but then it starts to work!), making her bed, laying out her wool clothes to air out when she takes them off when we come in. Even the simplest of things (we live in a two story house and when things need to go upstairs or down, I just leave them on the bottom or top of the stairs. When she walks by, she will transport the objects to the top or bottom. She doesn't need to put the things away, just leave them at the other end for me to sort out the next time I pass by.)  You wouldn't believe what a difference these little jobs make in my day to day!

All this to say that since I have taken on a fairly long list of "new" things to my life routine, I have needed more help. Are you interested in seeing the list of things I've added to my life, all wonderful, soul nourishing, exciting things? This is mother-culture like I have never had before!

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After supper, Fina's homeschooling dad reads to us our Bible readings of the day. Then he reads to us a few pages from his fancy Bibliotheca bible (we are currently in Leviticus) and we draw names to narrate. Then he reads a bunch of pages from Story of A Soul - The Autobiography of St Thérèse of Lisieux.  (Fina is loving this. The first half of the book is her recounting stories from her childhood and youth and is really quite accessible!)  This takes us probably half an hour. At times, Fina and I will work on our handicrafts while he is reading (like a scene out of life from 100 years ago!) and sometimes we will just sit and listen.

Before going to sleep, I am reading The Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography by Thomas Merton. It reads like a novel, (in that it is easy to read). I am really enjoying it.

In the morning (you may remember that my body is waking me up really early), I reread the Bible readings of yesterday and look the passages up in Logos, and I read any of Charlotte Mason's poetry that may be attached to those verses.

I read portion for the day in The Cloud of Witness.
I am re-reading the Thérèse of Lisieux stuff (I am probably 50 pages behind) in order to re-hear it and add things to my common place book.
I am reading through Charlotte Mason's volume II, Parents and Children, for my monthly online video book club.
Once a week or so, I read a few pages from The Great Recognition, edited by Nicole Handfield. (It must be sold out right now, I can't find it on the Riverbend Press website. I'm nearly sure they will have another print run!),
I'm also slowly reading Anne White's Minds More Awake.

I try to add entries from all of this to my commonplace book as I go.

And, I'm on a few online long term projects.

With my two friends E and L, we started a Manitoba Charlotte Mason Facebook Group. And, as a sub-group (kind of) of this, we have started a Podcast/Book Discussion FB group as well.  I'm managing that group, and listening to the podcast episodes and trying to encourage some discussion there.  We are listening to A Delectable Education podcasts right now, one a week.

And I'm doing some work regarding Charlotte Mason's Saviour of the World volumes of her poetry with Art M.  I helped him create a Charlotte Mason Poetry Readers FB discussion group and am trying to comment there regularly and interact with others.

And I'm working in the Logos app to update all the CM poems that Art and his friends put in there, attached to bible verses. I'm going through all six volumes of her poetry and adding the poem references to the app (and I'm making corrections as I go).  I'm actually making all the corrections to her poetry right now, in the Logos app and in the word documents that have become pdfs on his website.

And I'm working with L, Art's friend, on transcribing CM manuscripts (yes, written in her hand) from digital copies they have. We are working our way through her seventh volume of Saviour of the World that was never published.

This, plus the every day schooling and life things.

It is glorious. It is marvellous. I love it. (At first, I was a bit overwhelmed and exhausted, but I am in the swing of things now!)

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Fina continues to enjoy her skiing! She went skating yesterday at our town's outdoor rink. She has really impressive skills, considering she is self taught and I can't skate for beans!

We are looking forward to the forecasted snowfall in the next day or so. The ski trails are very hard and wrecked up! But she loves it, just the same!

We just re-read our way through these four Margaret Atwood books for kids. I can't recommend them enough. They are so cute, full on alliteration, a tongue twister to read, but so fun!

And we continue to read from Andrew Lang's Orange Fairy Book.  Fina's homeschooling dad is reading through some Paddington Bear novels with her as well.
We have been enjoying watching the birds at our window bird feeder. Fina has been continuing to learn how to cook (we made blueberry pancakes yesterday), reading aloud, doing some origami, working on her fingerknitting handicraft, her wood working, playing lots of Monopoly and more!