Training up our children

Training up our children is a new blog which was the brainchild of my friend, Henrietta.
The aim of the blog is to be useful to Reformed Christians thinking about home education, how it actually works, what a typical day might be and so on.
I'm one of the co-authors but am hoping to learn being, very much, the new girl on the block.
Henrietta has home educated all her twelve children. She currently teaches eleven. Her eldest is now working.
The other authors are Sharon who is a single mother home educating her two children in Texas and Anne who home educates her four children on a Scottish Island.
We are all Bible believing Christians who educate outside the school system but the methods we use are different and tailored to our own families.
Do pop over and look at the new blog. Hopefully it will be interesting and useful not only if you are considering home education but also if you already home educate or have children in school. It may also be of value if you don't have children but want to know what home teaching looks like.

Autumn in Rye

Rye is one of my favourite places. The four younger children and I spent a day there, this week.
We love to wander and wonder at the quaintness, the history, talk about some of the books we have read which feature Rye and taste some of the delicacies.

We had hoped to walk up the church tower but it was closed as the weather was damp making the steps slippery. I can believe it-some of the cobbles were slidey. We did see the famous clock and found that there was a Geneva Bible in the church.

We love the eclectic mixture of architecture,

the cobbles,

the fudge shop,

and the autumn colours.

So good to have a day out of London and to relax together.

Thank you, children, for the photos and for being such good company.

Punctuation

Over the last few weeks, I have realised that frequently I cannot write out the Bible from memory. This, often, isn't because I can't remember the words but because I am unable to manage the punctuation. I don't for one minute think the punctuation is inspired but I suspect, no, know, that the people who punctuated the Authorised Version, which I use, were far better grammarians than me.
My punctuation is a bit wobbly. There is probably the odd semi-colon on this blog but I doubt that I have managed a colon. In fact, I only know one use for colons; they can go at the start of a list. It is fairly obvious that they are used for other purposes in the AV.
Anyway, having become interested in this subject, out of the blue, there was an article on marking in the AV which includes punctuation, in this edition of the Trinitarian Bible Society Quarterly Record. The Quarterly Record link is found on the left hand side of the home page and the relevant article is Called "Aspects of the Authorised Version, Part 2: Marking the text." It also covers the other interesting but uninspired features of capital letters and italics in the English translation. It is worth a read.

God counts His people's sorrows.

This is the theme of an Isaac Watts hymn that I hadn't noticed before; despite that fact that it is in our church hymnbook. Anyway, it was mentioned in the service yesterday morning. The version below is actually the one that I found in CH Spurgeon's "Our own hymnbook". I don't know how close it is to Watts' original.
This is a real hymn of encouragement.
The hymn is loosely based around Psalm 56.

God counts the sorrows of His saints,
Their groans affect His ears;
Thou hast a book for my complaints,
A bottle for my tears.

When to Thy throne I raise my cry,
The wicked fear and flee;
So swift is prayer to reach the sky;
So near is God to me.

In Thee, most holy, just and true,
I have reposed my trust;
Nor will I fear what man can do,
The offspring of the dust.

Thy solemn vows are on me, Lord;
Thou shalt receive my praise;
I'll sing, "How faithful is Thy word;
How righteous all Thy ways!"

Thou hast secured my soul from death;
Oh set Thy prisoner free!
That heart and hand, and life and breath,
May be employed for Thee.

Becoming a professional wife and mother

At the end of January, I plan to hang up my professional tools and become "just" a wife and mother-a housewife. This is a fairly considerable change after 21 years in the workplace-admitted 17 of them part time and the last year or so very part time.

I'm not leaving because I don't like my job-I do. I worked for years to have this type of job and more than that, it is useful and I like to think, helps others.

It isn't because my post is immoral or wrong in some way. There are ethical issues as in most professional posts but not such that I couldn't, with a clear conscience do the job.

So why? Because I'm leaving the good to do the best-the job that God has designed for me at present. I'm becoming a professional wife and mother.

Those verses in Titus 2 about the younger women that they should be taught to "Love their husbands,...love their children" have become more meaningful to me. Not that I hadn't loved my husband and children before-of course, I have but that they need a practical expression of that with me around to run the house, to take control of the home education rather than leaving set work on a couple of afternoons, to ensure that my husband has the freedom to work in peace without worrying about the doorbell or sorting out grammar questions or what Mum really wanted on the timeline. Perhaps, more they need someone around who will be able to listen, to pray with them, to look after them when unwell. Someone who is able to just be there.

In thinking about this over a long time, it has struck me that a good wife and mother has many characteristics of a good professional although without the dispassionate interest. A wife and mother is, and should be, emotionally involved.

The professional works way beyond set hours-this has been a major issue for me trying to balance my job and home. There is extra reading, going back to sort things out, writing proposals and business plans and going to conferences. Similarly, what wife and mother has set hours?

A professional will be trying to improve the service. A home maker tries to improve the home to produce a better and more welcoming atmosphere.

A true professional wants to pass on their skills and teach others. What is God's command to parents? "These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children".

This analogy becomes limiting. God's role for parents is so much greater. We are training children not only about earthly things-how to read and write, blow their noses and tie up their shoe laces-important though these are but we are given the task, if we are Christian parents, of teaching them spiritual things and given the responsiblity of praying for those children.

Pray for me-this is a major change and one which most of you will have accomplished without any ado, years ago.

Present wraps

We are in birthday season. During October, we have three birthdays at exactly weekly intervals.

I may be mean but it never seems a sensible use of resources to spend loads of money on wrapping paper so we tend to recycle reasonable pieces of paper and present bags are tended with special care!
I do splash out on wrapping paper in the after Christmas sales. Usually, I buy generic type paper that can be used for various occasions. In my opinion, gold wrapping paper can be used for Christmas, birthdays and babies!
My friend Carol has gone a stage further and uses cloth to wrap presents. I have been the recipient of a present wrapped in cloth that I was able to use to make an apron. Carol has blogged about cloth wraps A year or so ago, I made a half hearted attempt by making some cloth bags for presents but ran out of time and gave up! I'm not sure what the younger children would think-they like tearing paper but for older family members this may well be a less wasteful idea than wrapping paper. Has anyone else tried this?

False economies

I guess we've all made false economies. Here in the interest of honesty and, maybe, stopping someone else making a silly mistake are some of mine.

-Value washing powder-blocked the pipe draining the washing machine. Dh and I spent some time with old wire coat hangers and finally, rather nasty and expensive chemicals undoing the damage. I don't buy anything better than own brands but haven't had the same problem since. Lidl's washing powder seems fine as do the other own brands.
 I haven't tried making my own washing powder-I've tried soap nuts and some sort of plastic ball that was meant to substitute for washing powder but haven't been impressed.

-Cheap baking trays-spill hot food onto hands. I was given some heavy duty Prestige tins which are great and don't buckle.

-Second hand strollers. I've never seen a second hand stroller for less than I could buy a new one and anyway, most second hand strollers look as though a wheel could drop off anytime. My stroller, that has been through just two children, has wheels which may leave it at anytime. Not an issue, as Mr Exuberance likes to try to climb out and walk so the need for wheeled transport is unlikely to last long.

-A certain store's value teabags. I'm definitely not talking about Sainsburys whose value teabags are Fairtrade, 30p for 80 and don't require 2-3 teabags for every one standard teabag!

-Cheap jam-home made costs no more and tastes so much better. This is even more true for marmalade.

Anyone else have thoughts on false economies?