Domestic Adventures

Despite the fact that several people suggested it, and the fact that it would have been a pretty good fit, Emmaline did not dress up as Sarah Palin for Halloween. All she needed was a little business suit and some snazzy shoes. Still, I think my kids are too young to be going around dressed up as political statements.
Real Halloween pictures coming soon.

I have been enjoying Spunky Homeschool’s take on things lately. In light of recent political discussions and their impact on education, I especially liked her definition of a teacher posted here.

… is finished! It’s been finished for a few weeks now, and I am appreciating running water just as much as all the fancy stuff.
First, I hate when people apologize for their photos, but really, the color on these did not turn out great. It’s not really this yellow/orangey. It’s pretty neutral, and over all the colors are cooler-toned than they appear here. Anyway, that aside, I am thrilled.

Someone commented that it didn’t even seem like the same kitchen, and it’s not. It’s a completely different kitchen that just happens to occupy the same space. The layout is completely rearranged and we raised our soffitted ceiling from seven feet to eight. We installed a huge island and put the sink and dishwasher there. The new sink location has been wonderful. It used to be tucked into the corner, and we were always tripping over each other, but this is much more convenient and also affords a pleasant view of the backyard rather than the corner. The new kitchen also has a built in double oven and separate cooktop with a hood which I love for both form and function.

One of my favorite details is the fluting on the cabinets to either side of the hood, and also next to the refrigerator. This detail really adds to the finished look of it all. Also I am loving the suspended seating. The chairs appear to be hanging from the countertop, but their supports are actually bolted to the foundation. The really wonderful thing about them is that there are no legs to clean around and they magically pull themselves in close to the counter when not in use. Because the space behind the chairs is kind of high traffic I did not want stray stools always cluttering the way. This is pretty much where the kids station themselves for breakfast, lunch, and anytime I’m working in the kitchen.

This little nook, where the ceiling is still seven feet high, is the possible future site of a window seat. In the meantime, it’s a nice reading and lounging spot for the kids.

I actually paid to have insects delivered to my home. Oh, the sacrifices I’m making here for education.
The ants for our any farm arrived not long ago. A nice little colony of all female harvester ants. They arrived in a little plastic test-tube in a cardboard box, along with instructions and some ant food (as if ants really require special food - aren’t I always cleaning so as not to encourage them to be eating my food?) The instructions on how to get them out of the test -tube with the big, round opening and into the ant farm with the tiny, narrow opening, said to put them in the fridge for about 15 minutes to make them sleepy. It said they might not even wake up for 24 hours after you gently tap the subdued ants into your ant farm. So into the fridge they went. In 15 minutes, the ants looked dead. We opened the arm farm, we opened the test tube, we gently tapped, and suddenly the ants were alive and awake and eager to escape. Out they came, and none of them wanted to go into the narrow ant farm opening, they wanted to climb down the sides of the farm, onto the counter, onto the chairs, onto the floor. Ack! I tried to capture them by luring them onto a piece of paper, but the best bet was to pick them up one by one with little green plastic sticks that came with the farm, then scraping them off the sticks into the narrow opening. After a bit of panic and shrieking on my part the ants all made it into the farm, and I believe we only had one casualty from overly violent scraping.
Now the ants are happy ensconced in their plastic farm, digging away at the fake sand and providing tons of entertainment, and education I’m sure, to my children.
P.S. A warning came with the ants about how you should be careful never to take ants from one colony and mix them with ants from another colony because you will start an ant war. There was a description about how mean and nasty ants can be to one another, and even though it was a warning, I think it was a dare in disguise.

So many of the blogs I visit make me wish I sewed. This blog, however, Grosgrain, just amazes me. Even if I did sew I would not be producing these wonders. Plus she has gorgeous photography of her adorable daughters modeling. And get this, she gives away her creations weekly, like this 1700’s French gown (a la Marie Theresa) - in itty bitty sizes! So go, look, be ye inspired.

Bumpy, tall, squat, scarred, orange, white, and red. Searching for the perfect pumpkin is one of our favorite fall traditions. In the end we came home with the biggest one we could find, and the smallest one.

“Momma, I’m six. And soon I’m not gonna be the girl who lost two teeth. I’m gonna be the girl who lost three teeth. I think I’m growing up.”

Indeed.

I try not to get wrapped up in what the news is shouting, but sometimes it’s difficult to keep a right perspective. The other day I asked Trent for his thoughts on all the mess on Wall Street. How serious is this, what does it really mean? His answer was, however serious it is, whatever it means, our trust is in God. Our hope is in God. Whether God would have our country or our household prosperous or poverty-sticken is not where our focus, our purpose, and our joy should be.
In Philippians 4, Paul writes, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.” That secret Paul has learned is having an eternal perspective rather than a temporal perspective. While God loves to bless us, often with homes, jobs, and other material blessings, His concern is not with our ease of living, but our Christ-likeness. Whether we grow to know and trust God in prosperity or in trial is no matter, it is the growing God is concerned with. After all, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
Having said that, I am struck by this quotation from Michael Crichton in regard to current news, “There is nothing more sobering than a 30-year-old newspaper. You can’t figure out what the headlines mean. You don’t know who the people are. Theodore Green, John Sparkman, George Reedy, Jack Watson, Kenneth Duberstein. You thumb through page after page of vanished concerns — issues that apparently were vitally important at the time, and now don’t matter at all. It’s amazing how many pressing concerns are literally of the moment. They won’t matter in six months, and certainly not in six years. And if they won’t matter then, are they really worth our attention now?”
If Crichton can have such a perspective, shouldn’t we, whose hope is in Christ, be able to see past the headlines. Looking back, not 30 years, but from eternity, how will we regard today? What will have mattered, and what will not?