Book Review: An Echo in the Bone by Diane Gabaldon

In her much anticipated seventh novel, Diana Gabaldon gave another peek into the lives of Jamie Fraser and his time traveling wife, Claire Randall Fraser. For those of you that have followed this pair since the release of the first book in 1996 the opportunity to learn more about Claire and Jamie was worth the wait. In her usual swashbuckling style, Diana Gabaldon took Jamie and Claire from America at the beginning of the revolution and carried them, almost safely, to Scotland and there, she left them, and me, anxiously awaiting the eighth novel.

When I first found Jaime and Claire more than ten years ago, I never imagined that their story would become so far reaching or continue to be so much fun. I can't tell you of another hero and heroine that I have enjoyed more. Their relationship, talents (individual and joint), conversations, friends, adventures and love would be worth reading without the masterful historical context, celebrity guest appearances and drama.

Three cheers for the adventure, suspense, history and joy I experience in each of the books of this series. My only complaint with this addition to the series is the avalanche of action in the last section. I ended the book breathless and was required to reread a bit to make sure I'd understood everything that had happened. A cliff hanger in every sense of the term. Write quickly, please, Ms. Gabaldon.

Wordless Wednesday - Time with Oma and Opa

Happy Birthday!

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Today we celebrate the eleventh birthday of our daughter. I don't know how it happens but every single birthday catches me off guard. It's not that I don't think and prepare for birthdays. I do. Sometimes I prepare for several different birthday celebrations. I plan dinners, invite guests, buy party supplies and favors for guests. I spend time selecting the perfect gift for the birthday child. I make cakes, to order, to the specifications of the birthday boy or girl. I love birthdays and treat them with all the importance that they deserve. After all, each child only gets their special day once each year.

The part that catches me off guard is the private part. The recollection of the days that only I remember. The private treasury of moments that add up to being the mother of this amazing creature. A creature that is intimately known, only to me. One that I've nurtured and treasured since before she was born. On this day, eleven years ago this child was born and I was born as well. We were born to each other, mother and child.

While I've never talked about this feeling with another mother, I can't imagine that I'm the only one that experiences that soul clutching emotional vertigo when looking at my growing child. I imagine that all mothers must look at their children and see that child at each stage from infant to present in one glance. The rush of knowing that child. The helplessness of time moving on despite the desire to freeze it all for just one moment and hold that precious infant, kiss that sweet from the bath toddler, smooth the hair of that smiling, toothless six year old...and we do. In one blink, we are able to move back in time and know the depth of love we hold for each of those children that are this child.

And so it happens, every birthday. I spend time preparing for the day and forget to prepare my heart for another milestone. I find myself counting candles and fighting back tears as I remember the hours and hours my darling girl screamed as an infant. I ice a cake remembering the stories we read and the songs we sang on car trips and while walking together. I prepare the meal and recall the kisses and hugs, the bathtub games, the laughter, the tears. I set the table and catalog the milestones we've passed, the favorite colors, songs, outfits, movies, foods and friends that this child has loved.

I watch her blow out one more candle and pray that this year is better than any year prior. I pray for her safety. I pray for her continued growth in knowledge and wisdom. I pray for her spirit and her heart. I pray for myself and for the two of us together. I pray that next year we will be celebrating this day with even more joy than we celebrate today.

Weekly Recap 3/15-3/19

This week was full of special activities and gorgeous weather! We celebrated the Ides of March by watching Julius Caesar. Because of our history studies we had a pretty good understanding of the story of Julius Caesar and were able to understand and enjoy this first taste of Shakepeare without too much trouble. The black and white film gave us more difficulty than the language.


On Tuesday, we traveled to the Indianapolis Museum of Art on our way to pick our Idaho grandparents up from the airport. We were thrilled to see a wide variety of European artists and know that we will have to make a return trip to the IMA when we have more time to spend.

We enjoyed a junior version of Once on This Island on Wednesday performed by a local school for the arts. It was fun to see children perform a musical with an interesting story line. Discussion about religious beliefs followed. That discussion continued later in the day when we participated in a Seder at our church. The dc were very familiar with the story of Passover and really liked this addition to the story.

Thursday, there was a special performance by H10 and S8 at our Bible study opening. It was nice that Oma and Opa were able to see the sign language singing that was performed.

In between the activities, we spent plenty of time playing outside and did a partial school week with lots of extra help and some fun and games.



K13:
R&S Grammar 8 - Chapter 9
Lial BCM - Ch 9 Basic Algebra
History - Julius Caesar and The First Roman Prince
Biology - Mammals project: Tigers

H10: R&S Grammar 5 - Chapter 9
Life of Fred Fractions - Lessons 16-20
History - Julius Caesar and The First Roman Prince
Biology - Mammals project: Dolphins

S8:
R&S Grammar 2 - Unit 5 #9-14
Math on the Level - Multiplication facts
History - Julius Caesar and The First Roman Prince
Biology - Mammals project: Chimpanzees

M5:
Phonics Pathways
First Language Lessons
Math on the Level
History - Julius Caesar and The First Roman Prince
Biology - Mammals project: Seals

Wordless Wednesday - Signs of Spring

The Nature of Trust

According to ">dictionary.com trust can be a noun, adjective or verb. Trust has 24 definitions.

The definitions that seem to pertain the most to my thoughts recently are these:
to have trust or confidence in; rely or depend on.
to believe.
to expect confidently; hope.

Before our frustrations of the previous week, I would have said that I had trust or confidence in my children. I knew I was able to rely or depend on them and wouldn't have doubted that trust. Over the last week I've wondered how I managed to misjudge the level of responsibility my children were able to handle and how we could repair the relationship that had been damaged.

My children let themselves down and they let me down with their behavior. They are only beginning to realize the toll that their lack of judgement has taken. They've been working this weekend to make up the work that they didn't do when assigned. They understand now that it would have just been easier to do the work as expected. The next few weeks will help them understand the loss freedom and the process necessary to earn back trust. I hope it will also help them understand the benefits of having trusting relationships. I pray that this experience will enable them to appreciate trust in a way they didn't last week.

While I no longer have the confidence to rely on my children (trust) I do expect confidently and hope (trust) that this lesson will be learned well and that we will all be better because of it.

Weekly Recap 3/8-3/12

This week was like the old sports show intro... the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

I think the biggest victory of the week was completing "The Young Carthaginian" on CD. We've been listening to the story for awhile now. We all loved the hero and his superman like side kick but we weren't particularly in love with the reader's voice. It's funny what a difference the voice of a reader can make when you spend lots of time listening to it.

M5 has finally expressed an interest in learning beyond play. She's taken whole heartedly to her phonics and grammar and has even allowed a few math games. I guess she's finally decided it's worth her time to give more formal learning a try. It's been a fun week with her.

M5's first narration exercise.
Little people math is just our style.


S8 has made study progress this week. His biggest victory was the discovery of Timezattack

and a new haircut, thanks to his dad.


The agony of defeat came from K13 and H10. The girls had taken the initiative to do their grammar lessons together, checking each other for any work that could be done orally. This had really freed me up to work a bit more with M5 and S8. I was being trusting when they told me that they were understanding everything and working really well together.

On Tuesday, I was given three poems that K13 was to have written demonstrating various poetry techniques. I knew immediately that the work had not been done by K13 or anyone else in our household. Serious discussions followed with the end result being that since I've been trusting the girls to "help" each other with grammar, neither girl has been doing grammar and they've been lying for each other.

As you can imagine, I felt betrayed and disappointed. They aren't nearly as contrite as I'd like them to be but have the good sense to display meekness in my presence. They are in the process of doing the entire chapter that was supposed to have been completed this week and weekend. There isn't much else for them to do with out t.v., Wii, phone, computer or friends. I expect they'll know more about this chapter than any other they've studied. Unfortunately, it's going to take much longer than that for trust to be rebuilt.

K13: Writing Strands 5 - #1
R&S Grammar 8 - Chapter 8
Spelling Power
Lial BCM - Ch 9 Basic Algebra
Fallacy Detective - Ch 25-28
History - Julius Caesar
Biology - Mammals project: Tigers

H10: Writing Strands 3 - polishing selected pieces of writing
Handwriting/Copywork - Draw and Write Through History (Creation through Jonah)
R&S Grammar 5 - Chapter 8
Spelling Power
Life of Fred Fractions - Lessons 16-20
Fallacy Detective - Ch 25-28
History - Julius Caesar
Biology - Mammals project: Dolphins

S8:
Handwriting/Copywork - Draw and Write Through History (Creation through Jonah)
R&S Grammar 2 - Unit 5 #5-#8
Spelling Power
Math on the Level - Multiplication facts
History - Julius Caesar
Biology - Mammals project: Monkeys

M5:
Phonics Pathways
First Language Lessons
Math on the Level
History - Julius Caesar
Biology - Mammals project: Seals