Keeping up with the Smith's

The following is something that I read and really appreciated. I e-mailed it to some of you, but I wanted to share it further and to put it where I can easily find it. The article was written by Becky Shah an Emmaus alumni. I also liked Kathy's response that follows. I trust you will appreciate it. I really don't know any real Mrs. Smiths. I think she is just a figment of our horizontal imaginations. We should really be looking up to God and not comparing ourselves to each other.




I am sure you all have heard of the Joneses with all their material possessions and materialistic pursuits, but have you met their cousins, the Smiths? Mrs. Smith is a woman like no other.She has 10 lovely darlings, though still wears a size 2 and hasn't hardly a wrinkle or stretch mark on her tummy. Each one is perfectly obedient at all times, perfectly groomed: nails are never overgrown and pants are never too short. She spends several hours each day catering the special needs and interest of each individual child. Of course, she is homeschooling and each child is exceptional, knowing classical Latin, Biblical Greek, and Hebrew by the age of 8, and on track to graduate with their bachelor with a full scholarship by 18. Each child has already started a business venture of their own and is making a sizable income, plays an instrument with skills surpassing their years, excels in organized sports, and yet they all still have several hours a day to just play. When Mrs. Smith is not investing in her children, she is caring for the household: laundry, vacuuming, dusting, washing windows, cleaning cabinets, polishing door knobs...all chores are are completed daily so the house is always at its best. Of course, she also provides 3 home cooked meals for her family mostly from produce she has grown in her own organic garden and fresh bread from grain she as milled herself. She has even managed a business on the side to help with the family income.The family is highly involved in their local church attending meetings 3 days a week, as well as helping with the church sponsored ministry every Sat.She has not forgotten to practice her faith outside of the church either, befriending the neighbors, having coffee and a Bible study with the elderly lady across the street twice a week, babysitting for the single mother regularly, and making sure that the grandparents get as much grandchild and child time as they want.Mrs. Smith makes sure that her husband does not feel neglected. Of course, when he comes home from work, she has the children quietly engaged in a project, dinner hot and ready to serve, and she herself, is perfectly groomed, hair fixed, spit-up free clothes, dressed to go out just to stay at home with her family. She saves all her evenings just to be with husband, listen about his day, and watch the game with him.Last, but not least she has not neglected her own spiritual growth, getting up at 4:00 in the morning to begin her day with a 2 hour devotion and prayer time before starting. Mrs. Smith is a woman to be admired. She is Godly, loving, productive, exceptional. She is the woman that I often find myself striving to be. She is also a woman living in a world with 50 hour days and unlimited energy. LOL!!! Please understand, ALL the things she does are wonderful (though some more wonderful than others). There is not fault to be found in these things. The fault I find is in me, striving for a perfection out side of Biblical standards: creating a Christian wife standard that would have made the pharisees proud with its unattainable goals and ability to destroy the one in pursuit of trying to succeed. I don't know how I get caught up in these things. How do I jumble up the great things to do with the good things to do? I know I need to seek the Lord more for His blessing on each days activities, and I know that the things I may need to cut out may not be the same for another. Because I am not Mrs. Smith, because there is NO way I can live up to her standard, I need to be sure to choose the BEST for each day, that which will bring the most glory to God whether in the church, or in focusing on the family and raising the children, or fully involved in ministry outside the home. I know His plan for me is not the same as His plan for you, so I need to make sure to stay in touch with Him and following His lead. Trying to follow Mrs. Smith would leave me exhausted, depressed, frustrated, and destroyed. I am so glad to remember that Jesus' burden is light and He will give me the strength and ability to do what He desires of me.
Kathy (Shields) Kerwin 10/28/09
I don't think it's possible that ANY woman could attain all that was listed there without passing out of sheer exhaustion. I also think that most Moms struggle with finding the balance between family, church, ministry, etc ... For myself, I tend to overbook. I don't do it on purpose but suddenly I look at our calendar and there's not a single day free of some kind of event/activity/practice/gathering, etc! Then I become completely overwhelmed and stressed trying to balance all the balls at once. I'm also one who tends to be hard on myself thinking that I'm not doing enough for my kids - especially when it comes to school work! I feel like so many weeks we are so busy that we're lucky if we get language and math done and all my other 'good' intentions fall by the wayside. What other balls do I drop on a regular basis? Oh yeah, I hardly ever make time to exercise, I often don't make time for my quiet time with the Lord and many days the house is messy b/c we've been so busy. And there's more ... oh there's always more! So what does one do? Honestly I think it's more about the need to sllllooooooowwww down. This week I canceled on 3 things simply b/c we have had a busy and stressful week and we needed to slow down a little. The world would have us think that our kids need to be in every program, activity and sport - but what our kids really need is a family who spends time with each other and is dedicated to the Lord. I'm trying to learn that lesson myself. I need to stop comparing myself to other homeschool Moms who are doing A LOT more with their kids, with other Moms who are thinner and healthier b/c they spend hours a week at the gym, etc ... I heard this awesome quote this past weekend at a women's retreat ... "Live your life before an audience of ONE" {one meaning the Lord, no one else.}

Kathy

~Mom

Getting in Art and Writing

One thing I am trying, in our push to write more, is to have the children write a description of a piece of art work. I ask them to describe the picture to someone who can't see it. At some point I would think it fun to have them write a description of a painting in a book and have the other children try and pick it out. Another thought would be to have the other children draw a picture based on the description. This painting is from N.C. Wyeth's book of book illustrations.

Chance: There is a building with a lot of people standing on it. There is a man wearing a hat with three yellow stripes. The building is mostly white. There is a man smoking. There is a woman wearing a pretty hat. A lot of the people are wearing hats. The building is two stories high. There are two smokestacks.

T-Bob: There is a man in the picture smoking. It looks like there is a ferry in the background named the Prairie Belle. There is a woman who has a hat with a flower on it. I see two smokestacks puffing out steam. Multiple men are wearing top hats. The captain is up in the bridge staring out. There is railings on the ship to help so people don't fall out that much. On the lower deck of the ship there are supplies. One of the men in the top hats has a cane.

Thomas: This painting's focal point is a roughneck pipe smoker. He is wearing a plaid shirt. He has a conductor's cap on top of his tousled brown hair. One of his hands is holding a pipe. The other hand is on his hip. He has a sour expression on his face.

There are two people standing a little to the left of him. They appear to be a lady and a gentleman. The man is wearing a top hat. He is holding a carpet bag with roses on it. He has a suit on. The lady is wearing a hat with flowers. Her clothes consist of a blouse, skirt and vest. She has black gloves on. They are both looking disdainfully at the first man.

There is a steamer in the background called the Prairie Belle. It is a white ship with two decks. It also has two smokestacks.

Brook: There are about 14 people in the picture. The sky is a brilliant blue. There are people on a boat. The boat is called "Prairie Belle" . The boat has three decks. There is a man smoking a pipe. He has a captain's hat, so he may be the captain. There is a lady with a fancy hat looking at him. She has black gloves. She is standing with a gentleman with a black top hat and fancy clothes. He has a long walking stick. He is carrying a bag with roses on it. There are two smokestacks. There is a man on the bridge. There is a gold bird on the roof. There is a thing on the other side, perhaps it is the horn. The man and lady are looking at the man out of the corner of their eyes. The man smoking has a blue and white checkered shirt. It looks dirty. He has big rough hands. He also has a mustache.

Michelle: In this picture is a guy smoking in front of Prairie Belle the steam boat. He is wearing a blue checker shirt. He has a captain's cap on. A guy in a top hat is glaring at him. There is also a woman in am expensive hat staring at him. There are two smokestacks on the Prairie Belle. The captain's looking down from the bridge. There are 13 people in this painting. This is a white steamship with two decks. On the first deck is a rich family. On the second deck is three slaves stacking barrels. There is a bale of cotton in the front of the picture. The sky is a very pretty blue. There is a railing on all the decks.

Mr. Boots: The main focus is on an unkempt man in a checkered coat. The man is smoking and the boat is smoking too. In the background is a virago who is gossiping to her husband. They are all on the wharf. The Prairie Belle, A rear wheel steam boat, is in dock. It is white and is made of wood. It has two stories and a pilot's house. It takes the whole back of the painting.

There are people on deck. In all there are 13 people in the painting. On the lower deck three slaves are loading the ship.

The main focus has a glove on one hand, but not the other. He also has bad posture. He looks to be at home in a bar. The man is definitely out of place here.

The painting is oil on canvas and measures 32 1/2" by 25 1/2". It was drawn by N.C. Wyeth.

I like how there personalities and interests come out in their writings. We will see how there writings improve throughout the year. You can read along with me.

~Mom

It's About Time

Why did we take a picture of the clock? Look closely and you can figure it out. No, it's not because the classroom was only 63 degrees. That's pretty typical for us hardy Ohioans. Michelle and I have this thing where we watch for the clock to turn to 11:11. When I see it, it reminds me to pray for her. On November 11th we saw the ones all line up and Michelle actually timed it up so that we got a picture of it to the very second (11:11:11) Pretty impressive. The simple things that make my day.
~Mom

Reformation Festival

Halloween is not something the Mangos choose to celebrate. This year we had the opportunity to do something different. Some friends of ours were having a Reformation Party in honor of October 31st being the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door.

They had some stilts out for the children to play with. Mr. Boots did very well on them.

T-Bob stood around and was cold. It was very frigid that evening!

The boys checked out 'the door' with the Thesis printed out on it.

They listened attentively to our host.

Olivia, our host's youngest daughter, was dressed for the occasion. We all enjoyed the chili for supper, especially when it was such a chilly evening.

Our host gave a short history lesson and explained the significance of the evening. We also sang some hymns, including, of course, Martin Luther's famous 'A Mighty Fortress is Our God'. Being that our host is such a music guy, he had us sing it to a totally different tune than usual. We made it through.

Thomas and some of the rest of us snuck in the house for a bit to warm up.

The garage was the place to be, though. They had decorated it so nicely with Christmas lights and other things. The rest of the evening was spent in doing English country dancing. It was so fun to see the children enjoying being together and having fun. JoAn, Mr. Boots and Elizabeth had a good time dancing together. T-Bob didn't want to participate at all. Michelle and Thomas did join in.

The parents were the wall flowers. There was between 40-50 young people. There wasn't room for us more mature people. As it was the dances extended down the driveway quite a bit into the cold, dark, evening. It wasn't too bad as long as they kept moving.

Gabriel, one of the host's sons, was all gussied up.

Many of the guests came dressed in as close as they could get to period style clothing.


Here are JoAn and Mr. Boots dancing down the line. This really looked like fun!

Michelle and Thomas went swinging down the line as partners as well. It was a great evening. Not sure what Martin Luther would have thought, but we enjoyed it.

~Mom

Who's in the Doghouse Today?

Mr. Boots heard some strange noises coming out of the dog palace. It sounded a lot like silly giggles. He blocked the door so that these strange creatures couldn't escape. They slowly lifted the lid off to see what was inside and guess what they found?!!!

Two silly children reading books. They thought that reading in Dallas's house sounded like a lot of fun.

Dallas didn't care. His current preferred bed is a bed of leaves. He only goes in the dog house when it is really chilly. He didn't like it that the children left their books in his doghouse though. He carried them out and chewed them up thoroughly. So if you find a spare copy of "I Wish that I had Duck Feet", let me know.

~Mom

Manly Man Work- Widening the Driveway

The fight for premium space in the front yard continues. We really need another parking space that can be used and still allows cars to pull through the driveway circle. We have been using the grass over beside the garage, but it was slowly becoming more mud than grass. The Boss determined that if the grass and dirt was dug out and the space filled with gravel, that it would work much better. The week that The Boss was away at his Aunt's funeral, the boys went to work.

Dallas was highly excited to have the boys working on the other side of his fence. They let him out and gave him the role of Official Supervisor.

T-Bob and Mr. Boots did most of the digging. They got it down about 12 inches and a little deeper along the driveway where they put in a trench.

It was a lot of work and, the fact that it was already very muddy didn't make it easier. I think they enjoyed playing in all that mud. They then refilled it with gravel. We still need to get more gravel. Eventually, the plan is to put bricks over the top once everything is settled and the vehicles have pushed down the gravel.

Good Work Gentlemen!!

~Mom

Random Writings

Once again I assigned the children a writing assignment that involved them giving 6 random words and then putting them all in a hat and drawing them out. Each child then ended up with six words to incorporate in to their story. I have each child write at least as many sentences as their age. Their required words will be marked. The children had less than 20 minutes to come up with these'masterpieces'. Incidentally, Mr. Boots ws reading the book 'Million Dollar Words' while I was collecting their random words.



Chance's Story:

Once upon a time there were two brothers. Their names were Yoda and Luke. Yoda had a cat. Luke had a dog. They each had a toy bomb. Yoda liked to play tea with his little sister. They always used teacups. When they had finished it usually was night time. But before his little sister had to go to bed, they would go outside to look at the moon. In the morning they had cheese and bread with their pancakes buttered.



Michelle's Story:

A fifteen year old boy named Luke walked into the living room and flumped into the nearest chair. He was bored. He was very tired of Star Wars Legos. His cousin Thomas was so very obsessed with Legos, ostensibly. How could some one like Star Wars Legos that much? He could not stand even thinking of Lego's. So instead he studied his mother's dingbat. Why would someone name the tassels on the furniture that? "Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong" There went the doorbell. He went to answer it. It was two girl scouts trying to sell cookies. "Would you like to buy some cookies?" they asked him. "I would love to buy some, ostensibly" he said and went into the house. He then forced himself to go raid his mother's cookie jar. ostensibly that is.



Mr. Boots:

Crunch, the underbrush was ostensibly pushed aside. A Lion and a horse ran out followed out by Yoda, the master. They were all being chased out by a virago, who happened to be Yoda's mom. The running was out of this world. They were on a planet called Doll. Doll is a very desolate planet, that is lit by a giant candle. As they were all running away from Yoda's mom, they came across a nearly deserted village, where all the viragos live in solitude. They were a very primitive village. They had one form of communication, tell-a-woman. Yoda, his horse and his lion swung right. They picked up Speed, a very amiable cheetah, and ran on. They ran and they ran and they ran. In the distance Yoda saw the candle. Yoda's mom saw it too. It signalled the end of the chase. they would all stop running and eat the sausage gravy that was being cooked by the candle. If you ever see a lunar eclipse, it is probably breakfast time on Doll, a moon.

If you don't believe this tale is true,

Ask the blind man he saw it too.



Thomas Tale:

One day as I was watching a movie about dinosaurs and the Bible, I happened to glance over at the turtle cage. I saw that my turtle eggs had started to hatch. There in the cage was a beautiful newborn turtlet. One down and nine more to go, I thought. I ran downstairs to grab the video camera and let the others know. When I got back three more had started to hatch. Two hours and eight turtle eggs later, one egg remained. I was so disappointed. I went to bed, tripping over my plastic light saber on the way. As I went to asleep that night, I tried to think of names for the turtlets. I woke up the next morning feeling very happy. I immediately raced to the turtle cage and saw a little crack on one side of the shell.

"Mom,Mom", I called. Then my aunt, a virago type woman walked into the room.

"Why are you yelling so loud this early in the morning?" She demanded.

"My last turtle egg is hatching."

"Your Mother isn't home."

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Out shopping."

Five minutes later the turtlet had hatched. He was a brilliant tomato orange. I decided to name him Sparky. I developed a great bond with Sparky over the next few weeks. I played Dolly with him in the cradle, and adventurer in the sand box.

One day a terrible incident occurred. I was playing with Sparky on the mantel and suddenly my father's cutlass fell and pierced poor Sparky. I was so sad.

I have always hoped to find another Sparky, but have unsuccessful. If you ever find a blaze red turtle, let me know.
~Mom

King Dallas No Longer

King Dallas the dog likes to sit and survey his kingdom, preferably with a bone firmly fixed between his paws. He is enjoying the autumn beauty. He runs through the leaves and attacks any errant rakes that would steal his leaves away. He thinks he is king of the Mango kingdom.

He regularly patrols his fiefdom and tries to keep out any marauding squirrels or other critters. If any forgetful boy leaves a football lying around. The king assumes that it was left for his benefit. When we look out he usually has it grasped firmly by the laces and is running in big circles around his kingdom, hoping for a boy to come join him.

He really likes his new palace. It is lined with clean straw and an old rug. It is clean, warm and dry. Just perfect for the dog king.

He delights in getting his bones to submit to his fierce jaws. Life is good for the dog king. Except....

This week he became the dog Eunuch. There is no longer any chance of offspring to continue the royal line of accession. Poor Dallas has now been 'Tutored' in the realities of a dog's life. The vet wanted him to remain in the house for a week. It lasted 3 hours and then by mutual consent he was returned to his outdoor fiefdom. He has the run of his kingdom once again and my sanity has pretty much returned.

~Mom

Homeschooling Myths

There is a myth that homeschooling is merely setting up school at home and all the children either are sitting around working quietly or gazing attentively at the teacher soaking up all her vast wisdom. Kind of like Ulysses is doing here. The Mango Academy is unfortunately not such a place. They do sit quiet while we are praying together, but somehow, once the teacher starts teaching, they all get busy with something else. I am OK with that as long as they are learning and still paying attention, but the other day things got a bit wild.

T-Bob started laughing and the children were being silly.

Elizabeth sat and sedately stitched on her project, but the bigger girls got absolutely silly. What was with that? The problem started when Brooke brought her hot curlers to school so she and Michelle could try them out in each other's hair.

Michelle's long bangs formed long 'sproing' curls that were so much fun to be slung around.

And how do you use these things exactly? Don't they make one look beautiful? Even some of the boys ended up with some wild hair-dos and the water from the spray bottle kept ending up where it didn't belong, so it was banned from the classroom.

T-Bob finally got bored with the girl's shenanigans and went back to his Legos.

Elizabeth got tired of sewing and decided to do some coloring. Believe it or not they really were listening and learning the whole time, and not just learning beautician skills. They had fun AND did their memory work and listened to the missionary stories and other biographies and history. As long as they don't talk or get too distracting it is OK. I have to admit that this day did get a little out of hand. I had to rein in a few of their activities. We had some good laughs though. It was memorable. Then they put the toys away and settled down with some good books.

Chance was reading Lois Lenski's Corn Farm Boy.

Ulysses found a Dr. Seuss picture book to go through.

Brooke was reading a novel by Christmas Carol Kauffman (What were her parents thinking when they picked that name?) Mr. Boots slipped out on the porch to check out the autumn scenery. He came back in and did his reading too.

Everyone found a comfy spot to do their literature reading. The rest of the day went much smoother.

~Mom

Giggling in the Leaves

The leaves are falling off the trees. The van was parked in the back yard and managed to collect quite a few on top. It was fun to watch the leaves blowing behind us for almost a mile as we drove down the road.

The girls that JoAn babysits for came over to play in our leaf pile. It is the benefit and curse of having lots of big trees in the back yard. Fun to play in, but not so fun to rake up. Fortunately Mr. Boots bought a super duper high powered backpack blower. It has taken a lot of the pain out of cleaning up the yard.

I love the little girl giggles as they play. They are so precious. Elizabeth enjoyed the company. It is not nearly so much fun to jump alone.

~mom

Autumn in the Mango's Backyard

It is such a beautiful time of year. I love the color of the leaves in Autumn.

The green fades and the yellow is so vibrant. It changes the look of everything. THey are like beautiful flowers.

Even our grassless yard looks a lot better as it is covered with a blanket of yellow.

Thank-you Lord for your awesome creativity in creating the seasons!!

~Mom

Elizabeth and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Have you all read this book? It does make one smile and realize that things aren't really THAT bad.

Elizabeth had one of those days on Thursday.

She was playing on a rope swing, kind of like this one at a friend's house. They have a big dog who decided to bite the rope that was hanging down. Unfortunately, he missed the rope and got her thigh instead. I don't think he was being malicious as he let go quickly, but she had a slight puncture wound, a scrape and a pretty good bruise. I guess she wasn't emotionally traumatized, as she was ready to go back there and play some more about a half hour later.

Her brothers then set up this slide on the platform. However, it wasn't bolted to the platform and it fell as she started down the slide. Yep, another scrape and bruise to her behind.

That evening, the children were outside playing in the dark. Elizabeth was running across the yard and hit the guide rope that holds up the volleyball net. You can see the sun shining off of it just above Dallas's head. She cut her mouth on the inside and had a swollen lip.

At least someone caught her as she was hanging from the net by the roof. It twisted as she was climbing down. Fortunately, she has gotten quite adept at crossing the monkey bars and was able to hang on long enough to be rescued.

She hasn't said anything about wanting to move to Australia, yet.

~mom

Hearts and Brooke play Volleyball

Brooke likes to play volleyball and does so on the local homeschool groups team. Last Saturday was the State Tournament. It was a lot of fun. The girls played well.

Mr. Boots, Elizabeth and I went to the Junior High Tournament.

It was neat to see Brooke's entire family there. We are so glad that her Mom is improving and was able to come to the championship Match.

Brooke has a smooth and consistent serve.

Her team was runner up in the State Junior High Tournament. Way to go girls!