Working Outside the Box (or cubicle)
/His "Office" Tonight
Production truck on site at the LA Galaxy versus Real Madrid soccer match
My "Office" Tonight
~home~
Passing These Along: UPDATED and EXPANDED
/All of these resources are ever so gently used. They are all hyperlinked below so that you can read more about them. We have finished with them and hope to pass them along to some who can benefit. Please add $3.00 shipping to each item. If you want a bunch, email me and we'll work out fair shipping. Payments can be made via Paypal to
elizabethfoss DOT reallearning AT gmail DOT com
Books will be sold on a first come, first served basis and will ship out on Mondays. I'll update availability as items sell. If you want to think on it, you can come back and find this listing as a page under the tab "Passing These Along" above.
ADDITIONS
First Language Lessons For the Well-Trained Mind Level 4 Instructor Guide by Jessie Wise & Sarah Buffington $20+ shipping
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 4 Workbook by Jessie Wise & Sarah Buffington $10+ shipping
Alpha Phonics by Samuel L. Blumenfeld $10+ shipping
The Story of the World Activity Book Two: The Middle Ages Susan Wise Bauer $20+ shipping
Teaching Textbooks Math 7 CD-Rom Set (Still shrink-wrapped) $75+ shipping
Teaching Textbooks Math 7 Workbook $50+ shipping
Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl $10+ shipping
Lingua Mater Primary Language Lessons by Emma Serl $8.50+ shipping
Lingua Mater, Language Lessons from Literature an English Course for 7th Grade by Margot Davidson w/answer key and Teacher's Guide $35+ shipping
Highschool of Your Dreams by Nancy Nicholson $38+ shipping
Our Island Story by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall $13+ shipping
Renaissance and Reformation by Christina Miller $19+ shipping (like new)
The Story of the Middle Ages by Christina Miller $19+ shipping (like new)
Tapestry of Grace
Year 2 Full Year. Unit 1 in a binder with tabs. All other tabs included. 3 Units of Pop Quiz CDs and cards for all the Pop Quizzes. Price : $160.
Math:
The Book of Think by Marilyn Burns Price: $30.00 + shipping
About Teaching Mathematics by Marilyn Burns Price: 20.00+ shipping
A Collection of Math Lessons by Marilyn Burns Price: 12.00+ shipping
Writing in Math Class by Marilyn Burns Price: 13.00+ shipping
The Magic of Mathematics by Theoni Pappas Price: 5.00+ shipping
The Write Tool to Teach Algebra by Virginia Gray Price: 7.50+ shipping
Faith:
Woman of Grace by Michaelann Martin Price: 4.50+ shipping
Catholic Morality by Fr. John Laux Price: 7.50+ shipping
Chief Truths of the Faith by Fr. John Laux Price: 7.75+ shipping
Latin:
Prima Latina Instructional DVD Set by Leigh Lowe Price: 22.50+ shipping
Prima Latina Teacher Manual by Leigh Lowe Price: 7.00+ shipping
Learning Latin Through Mythology by Jayne I. Hanlin and Beverly E. Lichtenstein Price: 8.00+ shipping
Latina Christiana Introduction to Christian Latin Teacher Manual Book 1 by Cheryl Lowe Price: 10.00+ shipping
Latina Christiana Instructional DVD Set Book 1 by Leigh Lowe Price 35.00 (Still shrink wrapped)+ shipping
Latina Christiana Teacher Manual Book 2 by Cheryl Lowe Price: 8.00+ shipping
Literature and Grammar:
Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian Price: 12.50+ shipping
Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling Price: 4.50+ shipping
Good Music Brighter Children by Sharlene Habermeyer Price: 7.50+ shipping
Geography A Literature Approach by Rea C. Berg Price: 6.00+ shipping
Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling Clancy Holling Price: 5.00+ shipping
Caught ‘ya! by Jane Bell Kiester Price: 6.00+ shipping
The Chortling Bard by Jane Bell Kiester Price: 7.50+ shipping
Mother of Divine Grace:
MODG Natural History Syllabus using Fabre's Book of Insects Price: 10.00+ shipping
MODG Geography Syllabus using Ultimate Geography & Timeline Guide Price: 10.00+ shipping
MODG World Geography Syllabus using Ultimate Geography & Timeline Guide Price: 10.00+ shipping
MODG Biology Syllabus using All Creatures Great and Small Price: 10.60+ shipping
General Education:
Teaching the Trivium by Harvey & Laurie Bluedorn Price: 17.50+ shipping
Lesson Plan Guide Middle School Years 5th-8th Grade by CHC Price: 25.00+ shipping
The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis Price: 5.50+ shipping
The Gift of Learning by Ronald M Davis Price: 5.00+ shipping
What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr Price: 6.50 (Hardcover)+ shipping
What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr Price: 6.50+ shipping
What Your 3rd Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr Price: 6.50+ shipping
What Your 4th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr Price: 6.50+ shipping
What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr Price: 6.50+ shipping
What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr Price: 6.50+ shipping
Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey Price: 7.50+ shipping
Catholic Geography Bee by Kerry and Nancy MacArthur Price: 5.00+ shipping
A Child’s History of the World by V.M. Hillyer Price: 10.00+ shipping
The Complete Home Learning Source Book by Rebecca Rupp Price: 15.00+ shipping
Autumn Nature Activities for Children by Irmgard Kutsch & Brigitte Walden Price: 11.00+ shipping
The Heart of Anger by Lou Pridolo Price: 7.75+ shipping
Family:
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family by Richard Carlson Price: 5.00+ shipping
Neat Mom, Messie Kids by Sandra Felton Price: 3.00+ shipping
Kid Cooperation by Elizabeth Pantley Price: 6.00+ shipping
Real Food by Nina Planck Price: 5.00+ shipping
Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck Price: 5.50+ shipping
The 7 O’Clock Bedtime by Inda Schaenen Price: 6.75+ shipping
Family Matters by David Guterson Price: 5.50+ shipping
Critical Thinking:
Developing Critical Thinking Through Science Book Two by Paul Eggen and June Main Price: 10.00+ shipping
Book One Critical Thinking by Anita Harnadek Price: 8.00+ shipping
Small Steps Together: Cocooning and Flying Free
/I have long loved early childhood. From the time I was very little, I have invested much thought and prayer into the mother of young children I feel called to be. Much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone except my husband, I even majored in early childhood in college. (Just an aside: I had enough nursing and anatomy/physiology credits to also be certified to teach health and PE. God had a plan. I grew up to educate children who, when asked to name their school, inform the general public that they attend the Foss Academy for the Athletically Inclined. But I digress.)
I have held tightly to the promise that it's never too late to have a happy childhood. And since mine was not childish or carefree, I've set out very deliberately to create for my children what I think I might have missed and to enjoy it alongside them. Deep in my heart, my fondest wish was to be the very good mother of young children. You might say that I've dedicated my adult life to that task.
Not too long ago, I can't remember where, I read about a woman around my age who said that she was too busy with her grown kids and teenagers to mourn the fact that her babies were growing up and there would soon be no wee ones in her house. I'm not. I'm not too busy. There are still small children in my house and they slow me, still me. I still stay with them at night as they drift off to sleep. I still sit with them at the table as they eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, ever so slowly. I bathe them and brush their hair and braid it up before bed. I sit and rock and hold and read. I still thank God for them with every breath, much like I did the day they were born. I have plenty of time in the course of my day to be still and know that these are precious moments that will not be a part of my days in the not too distant future.
In a way, I envy those women who blithely move along to the next stage of life and smile brightly and say, "There! That's finished. Wasn't it grand? Now what's next?" I'm not one of them. Perhaps I'm just not good at transitions. I sobbed at my high school graduation. I remember how reluctantly I traded my wedding gown for my "going away" clothes. I cried so hard when Michael left for college that I had to pull over because I couldn't see to drive. I held more tightly to each newborn than the one before. And this last one? I don't think I put her down at all for the first twelve weeks. My intimate relationships are deep and rooted and meaningful. When I live something, I feel it.
I know it's time.
I know because my environment cries out that it is so. My house is full to overflowing with people. Several of them are more than twice the size they were when we moved in here. Some have left and come back and brought with them more of their own stuff. We are bursting at the seams. It is time to acknowledge that we are in a new season of life and to allow my house to reflect that.
And so. I cocoon. Somehow I know that this is intense, deeply personal business and at the end I will be the same and yet, forever different. I spin a silken thread tightly around my home. My cell phone goes dead. I don't recharge it. I don't touch my laptop. I don't carry the house phone with me. I don't leave for several days. It is time to conquer all those recesses of my home that I neglected while I held babies. It is time to let go.
We need space. We no longer need a co-sleeper. Or the sheets to go with it. We don't need a swing. I begin in the basement.
We don't need three neatly labeled boxes of beautiful thick, pink, cotton clothes -- 0-3 months, 6-9 months, 9-18 months. I carefully save the christening gown, the sweet baptism booties, the first dress Karoline wore to match Katie and Mary Beth. The rest I fold into giveaway bags. Michael takes the baby "things" to the Salvation Army on Friday.The clothes remain until Saturday morning. The Children's Center truck is due to arrive at 8 AM. After I've finished with the clothes, I cannot stay here in this basement on Friday. I've done what I know will be the most difficult task. I also know I'm nearly suffocating. I need to go upstairs and get some air.
I begin in Mike's office. This isn't really my mess or my stuff or even the stuff of children who haven't been carefully supervised. It is just the overflow of two busy adults who pile and stuff a bit too much. He doesn't use this room. It's a lovely room in the middle of the house with a bright window. I put a new sewing machine on the desk. I rearrange shelves, discarding things he no longer needs. I spend an hour or so carefully dusting his youth trophies and 25 years of sports paraphernalia. I think about this post and I know that we can (and should) share this space. I move some baskets in. My yarn, my knitting and sewing books, a few carefully folded lengths of fabric, holding place for a stash to come.
I stitch a few things in that room. And I am happy there. I am no longer knitting in my womb. But I am still creating. And it makes me happy. My arms are ever more often empty, but my hands are increasingly free for other pursuits. Still, a small voice whispers, knitting and sewing are nothing like the co-creation you've done for the last 22 years. I hush the voice. I have no idea where this is going. He is the Creator. He has written a beautiful pattern for my life. All He asks is that I knit according to His plan. Trust the pattern.
On Saturday morning, that truck comes. I can't even watch as they load my dear boxes. My stomach clenches and my eyes fill with tears. Things. They are only things. The girls who wore those things are safe in my arms. Another mother will be blessed to hold a sweet pink cotton bundle close and nuzzle her cheeks. I descend to the basement.
Here. Here is where I must force myself to cocoon. Here is where ten years of "put this carefully in the craft room" will come back to haunt me. They have tossed at will every single time. It never recovered from the great flooring shuffle. I do pretty well with the rest of the house, but I dislike coming down to the basement and Mike rarely comes down here. So, here is where the disorder has collected. The "craft room" is a jumble of stored clothes, curriculum, craft supplies, and 25 years of family photos. It is a mess.
I am humbled by the mess. Quite literally driven to my knees. But I have spun myself into this small space and here I will stay until I can emerge beautifully.
I have banished all outside interruptions, but I have brought with me the Audible version of this book. Good thing, too, because I will benefit greatly from the message within and, frankly, I will need to hear the narrator say "You are a good mom" as often as she does.
I see the abandoned half-finished projects, the still shrinkwrapped books, the long lingering fabric and lace. Did I miss it? Did I miss the opportunity to do the meaningful things? To be the good mom I want to be? I am nearly crushed by the weight of the money I've spent on these things and the remanants of my poor stewardship.What was I doing when this mess was being made? To be sure some of the time was sadly wasted. It is easy to berate myself for time slipped through my fingers. Cocoons are really rather nasty things.
Determined, I clear out the clutter. I tell myself that life is not black and white. It's not all bad or all good. I fold fabric and recognize that what I have here is the beginning of some new projects. I gather acorn caps and felt and label them and tuck them away for the fall. I make a very large stack of books to sell secondhand. I sort and sweep and remember. I see picture after picture of smiling children. I see, in those color images, time well spent. Time well filled. Their mama always looks tired. I recognize in those pictures that my children were happy--are happy. And I also recognize that it's been a little while now since I felt that tired. It is true that much of my time in the last twenty years, I have been filling well. I have been holding and rocking and nursing and coloring and listening and reading and giving and giving...I have been cherishing childhood. And it is a true that in a household this size, it is darn near impossible for every corner of the house to remain clean and every lesson to be carried out according to plan ,while caring well for babies and toddlers. Messes happen.
The season just passed? The very long season? It was good and full and messy and cluttered. It was bursting-at-the-seams joyful in a way nothing ever will be again. It was also very hard work. Very, very hard work.There were utter failures and big mistakes. And there was a whole lot of good.
This new season? I don't know yet. It's not nearly as cluttered. I have stayed in this cocoon until every corner of my home, every nook and every cranny, has been cleared of the clutter of the last season. Every poor choice, every undisciplined mess has been repurposed. Every single one. I can see my way clear to do the meaningful things. And the blessing is that there are still plenty of children in this house to do them with me.
As I sweep the room for the last time before considering this a job well done, I see a picture that has slid under a bookshelf. It is Mike and me at our wedding rehearsal. I stare long and hard at that girl. But I stare longer at him. He is still every bit as happy as he was that night. Happier, really. Really happier. These days in this cocoon, I have been brutally honest with myself. I've held myself accountable for every transgression. I have humbled myself before God and I have confessed my sins. I look at his image and then back at mine and I realize something very important. Whatever my failings, I have consistently been a good wife. I wonder at the ease with which this recognition comes to me. I am certain that much of it is born of his frequent words of affirmation. I know it is so because he has told me it is so. But why is it so?
Grace.
Ours is a gracious God. It is only by His grace that I am the wife I am. And it is by His grace that I have this sense of peace about the most important relationship in my life. These children willl grow in the safe home he and I have created together. And then they will fly. Mike and I? We will be us. Always us.
I carefully put away the very last picture, turn out the light, and climb the stairs.
I've cleared out the clutter, made peace with the past. I've learned a very valuable lesson that I'm long going to be pondering in my heart. It's time to fly free.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Small Steps focuses on humility this month. Would you share your thoughts with us, let us find you and walk with you? I'd be so grateful and so honored to have you as a companion. Please leave a link to your blog post below and then send your readers back here to see what others have said.You're welcome to post the Small Steps Together banner button also.
Dear Friend, Please come visit.
/
I promise you that I will not spend days and days cleaning my house before you arrive. I will not stuff the evidence of life lived here into far recesses of closet corners you will never see. I will not pretend that the life we live here is always ever perfectly ordered. I will not seek to impress you. Instead, I will endeavor to befriend you.
I will make sure that nothing gross will surprise you in the bathroom. I'll probably plump the cushions on the couch. I'll make you something good to eat and share with you endless of pitchers of green tea lemonade. Instead of coaxing my children to scour and shine, I will share with them the fun of expecting company.
I tell you all this--I'm doing it this way--because I trust you. And I want to be your friend. I trust that you are coming to spend time with me, not to judge me or take notes or compare me to anyone else. And I promise you that when I come to your house, I'm coming for you--your company and that alone. I trust you with who I really am, imperfect though that may be. I trust that the half-finished paint job will make you smile in ready recognition that you have been there, done that, too. I'm going to throw open my doors--and my heart--and be real with you.
Because that's what friends do.
And you're my friend, in every sense of the word.
Love,
Elizabeth
The Perfect Spring Break
/We took a deep breath of sweet fresh air (much of of it misty and rainy, but all good anyway). Every day, for nearly two weeks, we hung out by the creek, in the woods, on the rocks. We played and played and played. Down there, old friends joined us to keep a spring tradition going: godchildren and godmothers, big kids who were toddlers together, middle kids who once were babies in slings, toddlers walking these banks all on their own, and ~oh-be-still-my-heart~ new babies out for the very first time in spring sunshine. We also had the great, glorious privilege of introduing new friends to our place of joy. All in all, it was pretty much perfect, there in the spring and the flowers and the mud.
This slideshow is probably too long for anyone but Mike to watch to the end, but it does capture our days and Mary Beth and I hope it brings a spring smile to your day.
The perfect song is Virginia Bluebell by Miranda Lambert.
