I have to start somewhere. Or I should say, start again. I'm picking up blogging again after a three or four year break - and here's my plan.
I want to record stuff we do and perhaps muse a bit. I do not plan to go negative on anything or be sassy. That got me in trouble the last time I blogged (in my own heart) ... I tended to go negative and tried to be as sarcastic as I could be. Yuck. It wasn't good for me. I also started looking at our whole lives as a possible blog entry, and that somehow took me out of life or somehow made it less authentic. But Giles has asked why I don't blog anymore, and I have a little hope that if I pick it up again, it might spark his interest in writing, and maybe he'll start one! Woohoo.
Christmas break is over for the kids who go to school. We'll try to slide back into a routine as well. We are heading to the Boston Tea Party in our studying, but will spend time leading up to it by reading about colonial life. I've gathered some recipes to try (involving corn meal and molasses mostly) and this will give Lydia a chance to wear her new apron and bonnet her Meemaw made her for Christmas. And the boys can get out the coon hat and pretend some of their sticks are muskets.
We could be studying the Revolutionary War by Spring Break.
Actually, I am counting yesterday as a partial school day. It was the day to honor former President Gerald R. Ford. I almost forgot to watch the funeral but we turned it on just in time to catch former Pres. George HW Bush do the Dana Carvey line "not gonna do it." It was a very fitting laugh.
Lydia protested but a little about watching it. She wanted to watch a cartoon, but all I had to do was tell her this was important and she could watch her show tomorrow, and she snuggled in to watch with me. The boys watched it too.
And we had a pretty good discussion about it. We talked about Pres. Ford, the various military represented, the flag and also what a Christian was and whether we were Christians. I guess parents should not take anything for granted about what we believe our kids know! (Duh!)
I shed a few tears. When the camera panned to Mrs. Ford, elegant and grieving, sitting with her children, I couldn't help but see my grandmother in that spot when she lost her sweetheart after a long love affair that also spanned many decades - that included wars, the depression, good times and bad times.
The most poignant and meaningful eulogy, I think, came from Tom Brokaw. I found the transcript from the NY Times, here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/washington/02cnd-ford-brokaw.html
Posted in: on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at at 9:20 AM
