What We Do (a mommy tale)

If your daughter brings you a baby bird and hopes that you'll help her figure out what to feed it, and if the baby is cute and feathery and rather desperate looking, and if, all day, you try different things and it never will eat but finally, at nightfall, you realize that what it really needs is a mom to eat a worm and partially digest it and then throw it up into the baby's mouth, and this gives you an idea so you get a very fat grub from the garden and you smash it in the old brass mortar and pestle that was your mother's and then you suck the grub juice up in an eye dropper and find that the baby will now very happily open it's mouth for this delicacy--Well, I just want to warn you that you need to cover the top of the mortar with something while you're doing the smashing or else you might get grub juice on your face.  I'm just sayin...

Gathering the Good

Heather and I started back into home school today. It's late in January for a first day back and Heath has been worried that perhaps we're delinquent in our schedule-keeping.

The last few weeks have been (fabulously) filled with brothers (and a brother's girlfriend) for various lengths of time in over-lapping stays. For Byron, there's been plenty of work included in the schedule, but Heather didn't know how to recognize her work (that of gaining an education) in the midst of it all.

Mindful of this, we started our day by looking back over January. Marker in hand, I asked H to tell me about the things she's been up to. Turns out, it's been a pretty awesome few weeks of 8th grade. Pardon me as I elaborate...

This month, Heather's had 3 separate sessions of "outdoor ed." in 3 dramatically different environments. During these she camped, hiked, snorkeled, swam, caught, held and released ostrich chicks, spied on a couple of very shy hippos, observed fabulous birds, swung on vines, watched the always beautiful colobus monkeys and spent time in Maasai homes. She also read, baked, played piano, pursued new craft projects and prepared for and participated in a 2 day equestrian event. The event saw her complete her first ever cross country course, place in a novice dressage test and take first in her class for show jumping. More impressively, she faced down her nerves and rode competitively in front of other people. The School of January has stretched her on many levels.

If we hadn't taken the time to review this morning, would what she's gained have been lost? Would the warm, loosened muscles of her being have receded back to their pre-January selves? Probably not entirely. But I've come to believe that looking back gathers the good and helps us carry it forward. Forgetting to remember reduces the harvest. Before our pause to reflect, Heather was stressed that we might somehow be "behind." Piling the good up before us reminded her that life is filled with gifts and learning, and school has most definitely not been closed.

Burst of Adrenaline (a guest post by Heather Borden)

As I nervously climbed over the cracking dead log, Dad looked through the binoculars and stared death in the eye. Only twenty feet away was an enormous hippopotamus, staring right at us from the shallow pond. Because hippos kill more people annually than any other African animal, we were certainly frightened. Slowly and timidly, the six of us scrambled over the fallen tree, one by one, to catch a glimpse of those threatening pupils.



Crawling carefully back out of the hippo's view, I suddenly heard splashing water and crashing bushes behind me. Turning around I saw Colin, Dad and Trevor panicking to rush out of there. When realizing what was happening, I dashed through the trees, sprinting for my life! The bunch of us fled in seconds. My heart pounded and my lips spoke prayers that we would come out alive.

Finally, at a safe distance away, we came to a stop. With stunned, pale faces we looked into each other's eyes with astonishment to find that we weren't dead. The hippo hadn't trompled us! In fact, it hadn't even chased us. Instead, it was merely swimming away from us. Beginning to giggle at ourselves, the adrenalin in our bloodstreams faded back to normal.

Heather, Home School, Horses and Hip Hop

The constant motion (commotion) of a good summer has passed. The steady stream of visitors didn't trickle out-- it came to a sudden and startling halt when the Klein crew flew out and we returned to a (much too) quiet house. With Colin back to school in Kenya and Jesse and Trevor not even making an appearance here (the nerve of them to have lives!) the house is a little echoey and strangely tidy.

Heather and I have turned our attention to home school. Ah, the blessed activity that occupies our mornings. Ah, the drain on my brain and aggravator of my nerves; the perpetrator of some-time tears and the sneaky presenter of surprise joys.

Home school has its good and bad. For me, teaching Algebra is bad. And yet, we're making progress. As our third week of classes begins, we're doing ok. Neither of us are flunking out, which is nice. Heather is bright enough, but her teacher is a little cloudy when it comes to numbers. Vocabulary is much more fun. We are decoding the meaning of words based on their Greek or Latin roots. That's just plain entertaining.

But the things that Heather really enjoys are not the things we do at the desk. She loves her riding lessons, hip hop class, piano and photography. (I didn't list the p-words above as they didn't fit in my cute alliteration.) She thinks it's a great travesty that she can only ride once a week so the 3 day clinic (45 minutes on horse-back daily) over this last weekend was a veritable equestrian happy-fest for her. She also has a voracious appetite for musical things and wants/needs more.

So, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for an array of opportunities available in this town that don't come with heavy-handed pressure or out of reach pricing. I'm thankful for Arlene, the woman Heather rides with. I love to hear her telling Heather what the horse is thinking. I'm thankful for Joy, the woman Heather plays piano with. I love the way her face lights up when a piece is complicated and they way Heather feels happy when she's been with her. I'm thankful for dogs and cameras and hip hop and baking. I'm thankful for books and darts and squash and the odd foray into the bush. If we're going to home school, it might as well be fun, right?

Happy school year! I just hope I can keep up.

School Again!

Heather and I sort of dragged ourselves to the table to officially begin the new school year today.

Actually, I should say Heather sort of dragged me there. The thought of being back in the school schedule was not my favorite one this morning... Not after the stressful dream that shook me awake just hours before. It was one of those I'm-in-school-and-I've-lost-all-my-homework-and-accidentally-missed-a-million-classes-and-forgotten-to-turn-in-assignments-and-can't-pay-the-bills-and-can't-formulate-an-appeal-and-will-seriously-flunk-out-now dreams.

I hate those.

A friend of mine recently quoted a student we know. "How am I ever going to learn anything if I have to be in school all day?"

It's such a good question.

When my bigger kids were little I was a better, more creative and enthusiastic teacher.

So this is my prayer for the year ahead...

"Lord, would you reawaken my heart to the pleasure (the fun!) of opening a young mind to the endless possibilities that fill this very fine world you've made? Give us patience with math, and maybe some proficiency too. Give us stamina for science, with a heap load of grace. Give us good literature--the kind that makes us laugh or cry or both. Give us poetry that changes us. Give us history that inspires. Help us to explore with wonder and to question anything that demeans or degrades. Raise our expectations and fuel our curiosity. Fill our heads with dreams. Teach us about beauty. Allow us to see you everywhere in everything. And help us, please, to be nice to each other along the way."

Seventh grade has begun.

Here we go!

My Mom is a Rock Star

I've been emailing back and forth with my mom today because our boys spent part of last night at my folks' house. I have to say "part of" because my dad took them to the airport at some uncool hour like 3 a.m. He deserves a post of his own to talk about what a shining star grandpa and dad he is. Man, I love him.

And I love my Mom.

So I've been emailing with Mom, also known as Mum, because she's giving me updates on things like the weather in D.C. where the boys will change planes and how they are all checked in and eating egg salad sandwiches at their gate inside LAX. Mom's egg salad sandwiches for travel day are absolutely legendary. You are guaranteed to travel better when you've started your day with one of those. So, you should know that the weather is getting better in D.C. and my dad made it back from his pre-dawn run to the airport.

All I wanted to say here is that my parents are just the bomb. They are the cat's pajamas and the living end. They are, in fact, the real deal and the bee's knees.

They've joined us for many Christmases in our homes overseas so I always get particularly lonely for them right about now.

One of my favorite memories of a Christmas in Kenya with them included a scene of me, the mother of 3 young children, having a melt-down because I felt so pressured to keep our home school going till the last second before Christmas Eve because we were "so behind schedule." I just remember bursting into tears and trying to explain to Mom why I just had to keep doing school, even though there was so much to do to be ready for our relatively simple Christmas celebrations.

"School is CLOSED!" Mom yelled (in a nice grandmotherly yell.) "I have executive powers and I declare home school closed right now!"

Like I said, my Mom is pretty much the bomb.

Bits and Pieces as the Rain Pours Down

The pounding of the rain against our windows is a beautiful thing. On Sunday morning I was walking with my friend, Tait, through the dry grass on the hills near her home. As we looked out from her verandah later (with the good smell of biscuits baking in the oven) we spoke our thanks that rain was on its way. The sky was giving it away and we were happy with anticipation.

Rain. Yes! We bless these rains and pray that they come in just the right measure. May they do all the good they need to do, and cause no destruction.

In other happy news, technology was working and on our side the other day. We can't always say that. We often have no electricity as the city rations power, and no electricity means no internet. Even when the power is back, the internet is often fickle. This happens for multiple reasons, most of which we are not privy to. However, spotty coverage at our house was recently traced to the fact that a neighbor burned down his hedge. His hedge is just below the cable that brings internet to us and it kind of melted here and there so it was moody about letting signals pass.

Back to the day that all systems were (mostly) go...

I got a text message from Colin that night as I was lying curled up on our bed under the mosquito net watching The West Wing on computer with Byron and Heather.

"Call me," it read. Colin (in Kenya) had just missed a call from Trevor (in San Francisco) and he didn't have a way to reach his brother and ask him to try again. He wanted me (in Tanzania) to let Trevor know he was now standing by for the call. But power had just gone off here so I wasn't on line either.

We brake for brother time so the DVD was paused as we went outside to pull-start our generator into action. Restoring power temporarily, we were able to get on-line and, lo and behold, Skype was in a good mood that evening as well so we raised Trevor pretty much immediately.

"Call your brother," I said, so pleased to be able to connect them.

We turned off the generator and went back to our laptop TV time while Trevor Skyped out from his computer to Colin's phone 10,000 miles away. They had a great talk and I grinned at the way we worked together to beat the TIA factor.

I'll round this post off with a great quote from home school today. Heather and I were talking about potatoes and how Columbus had no idea what a future they would have in Europe when he hauled the "new" food back from the New World. Basking in the glow of the goodness of potatoes, Heather gushed softly, "I love potatoes... greasy, fried, salty potatoes." I could see the warm appreciation of the humble spud shining in her eyes.

Life is good!

Young Concerns (or May Her Tribe Increase)

Heather and I read her science and history lessons together daily. I'm happy to do this rather than have her watch the teaching on DVD like she did last year because we get to stop along the way and talk about the things that interest us... particularly the things that interest her.

Now, as I learn with Heather, I am really quite surprised by the little revelations of what makes her tick.

As it turns out...

Topsoil being washed away breaks Heather's heart. Rain forests felled wantonly make her cry. Loss of wilderness and unchecked development make her angry and/or terribly grief-stricken. Pollution makes her crazy.

I am stunned by this 10 year old's heart for Creation.

I pray blessings and blessings and blessings and hope big hopes that her generation will do so much better than mine.

House-Proud

I know that "house-proud" is not actually meant as a flattering term, but I'm very pleased with myself about this cozy (cosy) little grouping in our living room.

We've been in this house for over a year and during that whole time I've never really been happy with the living room arrangement. It took spending an evening at home with me sitting and pondering on the sofa. I re-arranged things in my head until I found a plan that I liked. Then I enlisted the family to help me shove a few things around.

Now we sit in our sitting room instead of just walking through it. Heather and I read her history and science lessons together on the sofa.

Little changes make a big difference,

And morning sunlight is such a nice thing.

And This is How i Know...

That I married the right man:

Because while the overwhelm was trying to overwhelm me this morning, he slipped into the kitchen and made us all a big pan of scrambled eggs with green onions and potatoes mixed in.

And when I cried after breakfast and told him I was disappointed that we didn't have a better school situation for the kids, he told me how great the kids are and how great they are doing and how maybe God knows a thing or two.

And when I asked him what God might possibly know about what was best for my kids, he laughed (and didn't worry that maybe I had lost my faith.)

And rather than wait for tomorrow to catch up with us and shock us with the list of things that aren't yet done, he seasoned all the ground beef and got it ready tonight for tomorrow's BBQ burger thing that we're bringing the meat to.

And THEN, because he realized the celery he had been so excited to find was about to fade, he made a big batch of Mrs. Lucia's Italian chicken stuff for our dinner and we had enough to freeze for some other night too. (All this while still putting in a day's work.)

And Heather said, "Mom, you never cook anymore!"

And Colin said, "She cooks all the time."

And I said, "I married the right man."

Life looks so much better from the vantage point of tonight.

(And home school was actually just fine today.)

Clouds on a Sunny Day

There has been a clingy cloud over Colin, Heather and I today as we have tried to launch the new week of school.

It's Monday and we've been having a terrible time of it. We feel half asleep and fully discouraged. I don't know why we're having such a hard time today but I'm telling you, we are some sorry looking home schoolers. The kids did a great week of work last week, but today has landed with a thud and we are total duds.

I know Colin was really struggling with missing his brothers last night. I know I'm really discouraged about finances. I know Heather needs to grow in some of the fruits of the Spirit. (Come to think of it, I do too.) I know we all need to be more disciplined.

Colin only has English to go now and Heather has been let out of science early. Soon all books will be closed for the day.

The reality is that the sky is blue and we are healthy. I need to shift my focus.

Here's are a few things I'm happy about:

1. The air coming through our open door and windows is warm
2. The shade of green on two walls in our living room is really nice
3. Skype works most of the time
4. I have a cute dog
5. We have never run out of food or slept on the street
6. My husband thinks I'm great
7. I think my husband is great
8. Wild Hopes will throw a party for our soccer team tomorrow night
9. Byron is at lunch with our wonderful Tanzanian co-worker, Philemon
10. We get to join hands with good people and see good things go forward here