Some of the Latest Doings and Some Deep Thoughts

Renaissance Festival:
This worked out well since we had just finished listening to Howard Pyle's Robin Hood and were very much in a Renaissance mindset.

Petting goats

Knight initiation

Horse Vaulting

Renaissance Music

Magic Shows

My cousin's wedding:
I loved this day.  The temple ceremony was beautiful.  The sealer had some wonderful things to say.  My cousin's new husband is a very good man and they looked so happy together.

Ray dancing with my cousin at the reception

Ray dancing some more:

He does get into his dancing

Rock and I at the U2 concert in Salt Lake:
(I often have my eyes half closed in pictures)
Someone did thank me for not going into labor on the tram - there were so many people that we were packed as tight as sardines in the AmTrax... I must love my husband (he's the U2 fan).  Did I mentione that we drove to Vegas a couple of years ago to see them in concert there?  I'm beginning to feel like a groupie.  

 Part of a song - they had a pretty neat set-up:

Homeschool Reading Party with Brandon Mull: 
He gave an inspiring presentation.

A cute chicken coop:
We found a great deal on this coop.  The kids have been doing a great job taking care of the chickens.  We found our big white one was a rooster, so they were a little sad to see her him go.  Hopefully we don't have too many more roosters in our flock.

"Sweet Mama" the rooster.

Some more Moab pictures I just uploaded from my phone:

The kids did a great job on their play Mingling of Fantasy, but I didn't take any pictures.  My brother took some and as soon as he e-mails them to me I'll post them on here.  They had so much fun with it.

That's pretty much what we've been up to, besides working on our daily routines and on doing them better.  I'm starting to feel very pregnant and tired - just 4 weeks left :-) I do love this time of anticipation though.  The kids have a choir performance of Oliver next week that they are looking forward to.  It's on the evening of the 8th in Salt Lake for any family or friends that want to come watch it!  They'll also be doing their play again on the 13th - let me know if you want more info on that.

Latest Thoughts:
For those of you in the mood for some deep thoughts on education (I can call them deep because they are not my own, I've been reading them - I'm too tired for many deep thoughts lately), I've been re-reading parts of one of my favorite books and I have enjoyed seeing how new things pop out at me that I hadn't thought of before.  It is interesting that you get from a book whatever you are ready to get from it.  It really makes me think about the importance of a solid "core" phase ("core phase" is the foundational educational stage - it's when you learn right/wrong, work/play, good/bad, etc.)  If we are making our children read books, but we are not as focused on building their character - they're not going to get all that much from the books that they read.  I loved this thought:

Learning the truth is a moral endeavor.  It is a process of becoming truer, more faithful, and more responsive.  Just as the light radiates from the Lord as it "proceedeth forth... to fill the immensity of space" (D&C 88:12), so, I think, do we irradiate our situations with this same light to the extent that we are resonating with it" *

In other words, the closer our characters get to the true light from which they came, the more we are able to connect and understand truth.  We can not assume we are educated just because we know stuff.  It is correctly interpreting the "stuff" that makes a person truly wise, but a person can not correctly interpret anything if he himself has not become the truth that he knows.

When we are in tune [with the light of truth], as it were, there is nothing in us that diffuses or obliterates it... we will be yielding ourselves to his law, his power, and his love.  Instead of merely receiving information (what a paltry conception this is!), we will, quite literally be informed: we will in other words be taking on the form of truth, coming under the formative influence of the Being who is its source, changing so that we are more like him, more "of the truth." *

 As our children are immersed in truth and beauty in their formative years, they will begin to become truth and they will resonate with other true things.  They will see clearly to see the truth in the things they read, watch, hear.  There is no point in stuffing out kids with information if they do not have the ability to know what to do with it, or how to let it penetrate them in a way to mold their character.

I've been amazed at some of the insights that Spice has been sharing with me as she's been reading Anne of Green Gables, and I was surprised to hear some of the comments the children made recently as I read to them The Princess and Curdie.  They saw so much truth and made so many connections that it made me realize the incredible capacity even young children have to understand if they are being raised in a true and real environment - without the distractions so prevalent in our world.  I still have work to do in making our environment as true, real and full of the Spirit as I would like, but it made me happy to see that even my small efforts are helping them see things as they are.

*Quotes from Terry Warner in the preface to Arm the Children by Author Henry King