My Hearts' Haven Daybook

Written on Monday evening, August 30th


Outside My Window.......a lovely sunny day easing away into a lovely evening.

I am thinking........I wish someone else would set up the curriculum for the three kids, out of four, that still need their school planning organized.

Also...it has been a long time since I blogged....I enjoy using this "script" to know what to write next :) my grandma will be surprised that I actually wrote something! :)

I am thankful for...my husband who works hard for us and carries the heavy burden of financing this family. Not easy when stupid things are allowed to happen to make cell phone bills unnecessarily increase. Sigh......that would be my fault.

From the kitchen.........there is an awful lot of squash sitting on my kitchen counter. We already ate as it is almost 8 pm.........leftover hamburgers for the little boys and me....not sure what the girls ate....

I am wearing........a lovely thrift store find....a long skirt with criss crosses and flowers on a blue background....and a nice blue knit shirt. Sandals.....hair is down....but not long anymore......

I am creating........curriculum, lesson plans.......though my scrapbooking is calling to me......sigh

I am going...........to drive home from the college where I am parked in the hallway of the theater waiting for my four children & their friends to finish their Ballroom Dancing class.......and watch our current family series......one episode at a time......while working on curriculum. Of.course.

I am reading.........I am over halfway through Walden; Or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau. Reading Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald aloud to the boys......not much.......we need to get back into our reading habit....our copy of the book is 100 uyears old!!!.........right now I am waiting on the library to bring me some books I need.......in the meantime......it would be nice to update my blog with my reading since I last posted about books. This summer I have read the first seven Betsy-Tacy books:

Betsy-Tacy (1940)
Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941)
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942)
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943)
Heaven to Betsy (1945)
Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946)
Betsy Was a Junior (1947)
Betsy and Joe (1948)
Betsy and the Great World (1952)

And then, here is an edited post I wrote recently on the 4 Real Book Club:

"I still have the last Betsy-Tacy book to go.........been slow at the library.........but in the meantime, I just finished EARLY CANDLELIGHT by Maud Hart Lovelace. Here is HER description of the story:

"My second novel was Early Candlelight (John Day Co. 1939, later Grosset and Dunlap and the Minnesota Historical Society Press.) In the course of my research for "The Black Angels", I had read Folwell's History of Minnesota and was fascinated by the life at Fort Snelling in the early decades of the Nineteenth Century... with its gay routine of dinners, balls and picnics in the midst of Indian country. The story includes the founding of St. Paul. The love scene in the next to last chapter takes place at the meeting of the Minnesota and Blue Earth Rivers, where Mankato's Sibley Park would later be built."

I loved it........She writes so well! Much better writing than the BT books....as those are kind of like candy .........but this was a very well written novel.......clean and historical. I think is was the writing and the way she helped me get to know the characters so intimately that got me. The story itself is simple enough.......I could not sleep last night so I got up and read it till 1:45am.....oops! I finished it today......and I am so sorry........I miss the main characters so much.

I also read this summer by the same author: EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY, WINONA'S PONY CART

I ADORED the Emily story immensely, even a bit better than the Betsy-Tacy stories........Emily is such a wonderful girl! If you love BT and have not read this........DO!!! The Winona story was young......kind of like an American Girl story.

And lastly and finally!!!! I have read LEFT TO TELL by Immaculée Ilibagiza.

Have you ALL read this book??? I know it was popular when it came out, but my library did not have it......and finally a friend received a copy to lend to me. I could not put this book down. What lessons this woman can teach us about thankfulness, fear, love, forgiveness, FAITH, the rosary.....

Here are words from her website:

Immaculée Ilibagiza is a living example of faith put into action. Immaculée's life was transformed dramatically during the 1994 Rwandan genocide where she and seven other women spent 91 days huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor's house. Immaculée entered the bathroom a vibrant, 115-pound university student with a loving family - she emerged weighing just 65 pounds to find her entire family had been brutally murdered (with the exception of one brother who had been studying out of the country). Immaculée credits her salvage mostly to prayer and to a set of rosary beads given to her by her devout Catholic father prior to going into hiding. Anger and resentment about her situation were literally eating her alive and destroying her faith, but rather than succumbing to the rage that she felt, Immaculée instead turned to prayer. She began to pray the rosary as a way of drowning out the negativity that was building up inside her. Immaculée found solace and peace in prayer and began to pray from the time she opened her eyes in the morning to the time she closed her eyes at night. Through prayer, she eventually found it possible, and in fact imperative, to forgive her tormentors and her family's murderers.

You can find the rest here.

READ THIS BOOK if you have not yet....... "

And now......I just finished yesterday: Carney's House Party, also by Maud Hart Lovelace. I loved it! It was so sweet and fun and good to be back in Deep Valley where even Betsy came for a visit!

I am hoping.............it feels like summer for a good two more months....wouldn't that be lovely?

And, SEE ABOVE: I am thinking.......

I am hearing......Cha, Cha, Cha music and a practicing orchestra.....I especially hear the horns and the clarinets.

I wonder if that is because I am sitting in a college music dept?? Last week we also had the Barbershop singing...but they are somewhere else tonight.

I am wondering.......if the curriulum planning would get done on its own while I sleep......

Around the house.......yikes...the house needs some serious help ! My desk and dressers are covered with stuff......the living room is full of curriculum, Lincoln Log buildings and Matthew's clothes awaiting the final pack-up by me. The dining room has a table covered in books and some stuff.....and the boys room needs help...and the rest of Matthew's stuff accounted for.......and two rooms need painting......and I already have the paint. sigh.

Now Showing..........Ocean's 11 and 12........James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, half way through the first season......

In the schoolroom.....hmmmmm.....I am guessing the notes about curriculum above would make one think there would be nothing going on here......yet.....

......but......as we actually live a life of learning, not simply school-at-home....I can claim to some learning going on.......such as ballroom dance lessons, soccer, piano lessons and practicing, listening to Schubert, an occasional math page this week.....definitely some reading...including one of my more current delayed readers picking up a book and reading chapter after chapter.....a simple book...but it IS a chapter book!

And, my youngest has decided to read through Go, Dog, Go.....and several have been poring over the Great Books from Usborne lately.......The Sea and Through Time....the high schoolers are reading Beowulf and Christopher Columbus for their history......watching All Creatures Great & Small (that's literature brought to life, of course).......we also attended a chamber music concert...visited Lake Tahoe.......

There, now I feel better.......there IS something happening here!!!

One of my favorite things.........knowing we have the Rosary prayed for the day already!

Signs of the seasons............cooling nights, an abundance of squash from the garden, and other vegetable goodies.......and a big pumpkin already turned orange!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week........soccer games and practice.......teach a childbirth class....start math lessons with Patty........Anne will be home for the Labor Day weekend and the G Family from San Francisco will be here, too.......leading a large group to the Lava Beds National Monument on Saturday.......plus the usual!

Special prayer requests on my mind this week.........for a special intention, for Molly whose husband is ill.......for our priest who is having problems with a leg and with walking.

St. Gerard's List..........Tonia, Suzanne, Jody, Suzanne, Clara.......the last two are nieces......

I am currently scrapbooking......ah, I wish!!!....I have not had a chance to scrapbook since the last week of June, at Willa's home.......I read a scrapbook magazine from Creative Memories, the last issue e.v.e.r and their new book, too......

I am exercising.........well, I am thinking about how I need to get back to the walking......


Here is picture thought I am sharing........

ack...blogger is not letting me load a photo at this time......I will try another time....

Was writing this blogpost avoidance behavior? I wonder......

Blessings,

Chari