Top Ten Tuesday: mothers and their intellectual lives

I know I'm not the only stay-at-home mother who feels like my brain is turning to mush sometimes. Even though I am learning alongside my kids in the process of homeschooling them, I don't pay much attention to my own intellectual life.  I don't read as much as I'd like to; I don't learn new skills very often.  So in an attempt to buck myself up, here's a top ten list of reasons mothers should keep themselves sharp.

1.  "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." - Matthew 22:37   The more we know, the more we can glorify God.


2.  We are our children's role models.  If we aren't reading anything more than magazines, why should our kids?  If we don't bother to learn new skills...

3. We might be a role model for our husbands, too.  My father wasn't a reader, and while I won't say that grieved my mother, it did bother her a little.  He could say he was too busy working for his family, but, that's never true. Everyone has some time in their day, even just a little.  I know he did.

4.Or, maybe we could be better, more interesting companions to our husbands.  If your husband is interested in politics and likes to talk about it, but you can't because you don't know and don't care... 

5. How about: just for the joy of it?   Acquiring a new skill, reading a satisfying novel, or learning something we didn't know before can just give us pleasure. 

6. How old will you be when your kids are up and out?  I'll be pretty old, but maybe not too old to go back to school or back to work.  Many women are empty-nesters by their early 40s.  What then? 

7. Do you ever feel like all you can talk about is your kids?   And maybe the dog?   Isn't there something else you'd rather talk about sometimes?

8.  Staying sharp can help you avoid dementia. 

9.  Are you a grandmother?  OK, I'm stretching now because this is the pretty much the same as #2, but... grandkids need role models too.

10. Learning refreshes the mind.   (Yes, this is a lot like #5. Top Tens can be hard.)  We can go away from our duties for a little while and come back refreshed.  Don't you feel better if you have a break from homeschooling and homemaking, even for just a little while?  This is the concept of "Mother Culture," the idea that mother needs to learn and refresh herself alongside her children. Some people think of bubble bath and manicures.  That's fine, but wouldn't expanding your mind be more satisfying?

But before you click out to read about Mother Culture, tell me:  how are you taking care of your mind as you raise your children (and homeschool, if you do)?  If you are finished with that part of your life, what did you do?  What would you do differently?

Top Ten Tuesday: news and commentary blogs

Last week my Top Ten was about friendly blogs; this week it's all about my favorite news and commentary sites.  I guess it won't take too many clicks to figure out my political and religious persuasions.  This is not in any particular order, except perhaps number one:

1. Instapundit.  Best all-around source for news and other interesting information.

2. Althouse. Commentary on popular culture, among other things.  Lots of discussion in the comments; language warning!

3. Reformation 21.  Reformed Christian online magazine. 

4. DADvocate.  Commentary on culture, politics, and high school football, sometimes.

5. Contentions, the blog of Commentary magazine.  Political, um, commentary.

6. Joanne Jacobs.  School/education issues. 

7. Paco Enterprises. Politics, funny stuff.  And music.

8. Why Homeschool.  Homeschooling news and, well, commentary.

9. Iowahawk.  Satire.  Language warning!

10. The Corner. Conservative opinion blog of National Review magazine.

See more Top Ten lists on all sorts of topics at Oh Amanda.

Top Ten Tuesday: friendly blogs

There are a lot of blogs in my reader.  The ones listed on my sidebar are not all the blogs I read.  (I'm not very good at updating things around here.)  Some I read for news, some for political commentary, some for helpful advice.  And others I read because they just seem friendly: I'd like to meet and hang out with these bloggers.   Wait!  I have met and hung out with a couple of these bloggers!   I am not good at blog awards and such; if I was these women would get awards from me. 

1.  Cup of Grace.  Kerri is an artist and the mother of a wonderful (and large) family.  I love her ponderings.

2.  Wayside Sacraments. Leslie always has gorgeous pictures, and she knits dishcloths (and other things). 

3.  Dishpan Dribble and Blueberry House.  Mrs. Darling is the busiest person I know. 

4.  Falling Like Rain and  Pencil on Paper.  Sandy always has good things to say about homeschooling and life.

5.  Explorations in Learning.  G has great ideas for homeschooling her young kids.

6. Smallworld at Home and Smallworld Reads.  I've been reading Sarah's blog for a long time.  Love her book reviews. 

7. LLR Homeschool Mom. A new find; I just enjoy reading her blog.

8.  Barbara Frank.  A veteran homeschool mom who shares her knowledge freely.

9. Free to Learn an Lovin It.  Rana always has good things to say and does such fun things with her kids.

10. A Slob Comes Clean.  I can so relate.

Some days I haven't the time to click out of the reader to go to the actual site.  But I read every post.  I also don't follow all these blogs - I've stopped hitting the "follow" button because whether I follow or not, they are still available for my reading pleasure.  I admit I don't exactly get the purpose of the "following" thing so if someone wants to enlighten me, please do.  And honestly, if I find I need to remove a blog from the reader, it's twice the work because I also have to stop following.  Plus I've read that it hurts people's feelings when they lose followers and who wants to do that? 

I should stop by with comments more often. Someone told me she doesn't like to comment too often lest she appear to be a stalker.  Hey, who doesn't like comments?

See more  Top Ten Tuesday at Oh Amanda.

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Family Read-Alouds

My top ten this week is all about reading aloud. Reading together is one of our favorite homeschool activities.  Here are my family's favorite read-alouds; either individual books or series.

1.  Without a doubt, Swallows and Amazons, and the books following; 12 in all.  I could have a top ten just from Arthur Ransome!  Everyone should read these books. They are so worth your family's time.  You will all love reading the adventures of children sailing, camping, and having adventures in England's Lake District.   You can look here for some background on the stories.  Excellent, wonderful books.

Now that I've taken care of the best, these following are in no particular order.

2.  The Children of Green Knowe.  A mostly-sweet series by Lucy Boston.  Starts off as not-quite-fantasy, but does get a little stranger and a little darker as the series continues.  I wrote a little bit about it here.

4.  The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Chronicles).  This is a long series by  Joan Aiken.  We have not quite finished; I think we have two more books to go.  I can't say we've loved every book in this series, just most of them, but we've liked them all. 

5. The Star of Kazanby Eva Ibbotson. One of the best all-around stories ever. Exciting, beautifully written.

6. Journey to the River Seaalso by Eva Ibbotson.  An exciting orphan story. But more than an orphan story.  I wrote a review of it when we read it in 2008.  Now I'm ready to read this again. 

7.  The Misadventures of Maude Marchand Maude March on the Run! by Audrey Coloumbis. Fantastic stories of two orphaned girls in search of their uncle in the old west.  We listened to the audio book narrated by Lee Adams; perfection. 

8. A House Called Awful End: Book One in the Eddie Dickens Trilogy and following by Philip Ardagh.  Hilarious, absurd story set in Victorian England.  The audio narrated by Martin Rayner is fabulous. We've listened to this on more than one road trip.  Pure fun.

9. The Phantom Tollboothby Norton Juster.  I have loved this book since I was a kid. My kids love it now too.

10.  The Voyager's Stoneby Robert Kraske and Brian Floca. The story of a bottle tossed into the sea. I described how we used this book in our homeschool here.

But, you're asking, where is Middle Earth?  Narnia?  Well, of course.  But everyone knows about those.  

Enjoy more Top Tens at Oh Amanda.

Top Ten Tuesday: Why I love homeschooling

Since we're getting back into our fall routine (or trying to), I thought I would post the top ten reasons I love homeschooling. 

1.  Custom education.  My kids can learn what they want and need to learn.  They don't have to waste time on things they already know, or things they are already learning at home anyway.  (Why is recycling part of the school curriculum?) But that is almost a cliche now, isn't it?

2. More free time in my kids' days to pursue their own interests.   Like crocheting hats!

My girlie in her first hat.

3. My kids don't have to eat and I don't have to deal with packed lunches or school cafe lunches.

4. My kids get more involvement at home: yard work, housework, taking care of troublesome things that come up.. And I get more help. When I think of the things about housekeeping I never learned from my mother... 

5. We all get to read great books.  I am getting to read books I missed when I was in school.

6. Mornings can be calmer because we're not rushing to the bus or carpool.  (Of course I'm sure there are school moms who manage calm, relaxed mornings.  I've never heard of anyone like that though.)

7.  Extra-curricular activities count as curriculum.

8.  My kids face less negative peer pressure.  Another cliche, but true. And notice I didn't say "no negative peer pressure."  They still deal with it.  They also deal with unpleasant personalities and such.  But not all day, every day.

9.  We can enjoy field trips more than if we were traveling in a large pack.  We can take our time, study what we want, listen better to any speakers involved, and learn more. 

10.  We pick the worldview.  My kids enjoy learning logic and "critical thinking."   Some people don't like this but we parents are supposed to be the primary teachers of our morals, ethics, and values.  We can do that more easily if we are not competing with someone else's teaching, particularly if it conflicts with our own.

These are my reasons; they might not be your reasons.  And somewhere there is a mom who has top ten reasons she loves her kids' school.  How great that we get to pick the right thing to do for our own family, huh?

Type up your own Top Ten on any subject, and go post it at Oh Amanda.

Top Ten Tuesday: Cookbooks

My top ten this week is all about cooking.  My best cookbooks.  I cringe when I hear of people getting rid of their cookbooks because "every recipe is on the internet."   Is that true?  So what if it is?  I love cookbooks.  Don't you love cookbooks?

I do have a bookmark file of recipes too, and a binder full of recipes pulled from newspapers and magazines, printed off the 'net, and handwritten.  But I do love to sit down with a cookbook and browse.

1.  The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook/Dedicated to the Pure Joy of Baking: Anything you want to bake.  Great instructions for making yeast bread, and how to use alternate ingredients.  The best scone recipe ever. 

2.  San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook (Volumes 1 and 2)  OK, that's two books, I know.   Volume 1 is really the best, but I have to count Volume 2 as well because of Super Rica Rajas and its spinoff, Arroz con Rajas Y Crema.  Heaven on a plate.  Serve as a side dish to some healthful main course and finish off with the Spanish Flan from Volume 1.

3.  Madhur Jaffrey's An Invitation to Indian Cooking: The one that got me started cooking Indian food.  The seminarian owned this before we were married so it's a sentimental favorite too. 

4.  Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking:  We love Indian food the best.

5.  Wholesome Cookies by Jane Marsh Dieckman:  Out of print but worth picking up used.  It's just a little book full of good cookie recipes using whole wheat and other flours, fruit, granola... just a little more healthful than your everyday tollhouse cookie.

6.  Better Homes and Garden's Biggest Book of Cookies:  Just about every cookie you could want to bake.

7.  New Basics:  Just a great all-around cookbook.  I'm on my second copy; the first fell apart because I used it so much.

8.  Cook's Illustrated Magazines Best Recipes: Oh, the carrot cake.

9. Cover and Bake, also by Cook's Illustrated:  Quick and/or easy.  Crockpot meals too - good ones, which are not always so easy to find.

10. Flavor it Greek!: Purchased at a Greek Festival in Portland, Oregon; put together locally.  Eggplant salad, tzatziki.  Octopus recipes, too - maybe someday I'll try one of those.

More top tens at Oh Amanda Top Ten Tuesday.  Join the fun.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 websites in my homeschool

The top ten websites we use to enhance our homeschool experience:

1. Animal Diversity Web: Loads of information on and photos of animals. Great for classification exercises.

2. All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Everything you need to know about birds.

3. Explore PA History: Self-explanatory. Your state probably has a site like this too.

4. Encyclopedia of Life: More animals, and plants!

5. Usborne Quicklinks: Keyed to their internet-linked books.

6. Our local library database. We can request books from any branch in our county-wide system to pick up at our closest branch. Check out your own.

7. English for Everyone: Grammar and punctuation worksheets, free!

8. Khan Academy: Math help!

9. National Geographic: photos, videos, articles.

10. Google Maps, because we need to find those field trip locations!

Go visit Top Ten Tuesday and see more lists or post your own.  But first, what are the favorite sites in your homeschool?

Top Ten Tuesday: in my freezer

Top ten helpful things I try to always have in my freezer:

1. Ginger root. The fresh stuff, only not fresh, because.. it's in the freezer. I buy a big bag of the roots for a buck or two at the produce market, put it in a ziplock, and keep it in the freezer. When I need some, I pull a piece out, peel the skin and use my microplane grater to get the amount I need.

2. Pecans. We buy the 3-pound bag at Costco and use them in cookies, pancakes, apple crisp... almonds are nice too.

3. Whole bean coffee. The seminarian likes to grind it fresh before every pot. This is another thing we buy at Costco, and once we open that big bag, we store it in the freezer to keep it fresh.

4. Orange juice concentrate. Two of our number drink a glass every single morning. But sometimes we make this nice "Orange Breakfast Nog" from my ancient BH&G plaid cookbook - the one held together by a rubber band: 1.5 cups buttermilk, 1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 or 3 ice cubes. Blend everything but the ice, then add the ice and blend again. (I usually skip the ice.) If you don't have buttermilk, regular milk is OK but not as good - you lose that nice tang. Sometimes I use yogurt. If I have vanilla yogurt, I leave out the sugar and the vanilla extract. This makes two 10-ounce servings.

5. Chocolate chip cookie dough. I don't always have this, but I try to. Just make a batch of your favorite cookie dough, form into little balls, and freeze. Then, hot fresh cookies whenever you need them. Yes, need.

6. Toasted wheat germ. For the Sunday pancakes, mostly, and sometimes cookies and bread.

7. Loaves of bread. In cooler weather I like to bake bread. Or, I buy the French bread from Costco and freeze a few of those. I don't like running out of bread.

8. Blueberries. I buy a 30-pound box every year.

9. Salmonburgers and "meat burgers" (as my kids call them) from Costco. Pull 'em out and grill 'em.

10. Bits of stale bread for bread pudding and to grind up for crumbs.

What's in your freezer?

Top Ten Tuesday can be found at Oh Amanda.

Top Ten Tuesday: Where to get books

It's book acquisition season (oh, when isn't it?), so for my first Top Ten Tuesday post I thought I'd post my top ten places to get books.

These are listed in about the order I thought of them:

1. Exodus Provisions: the best homeschool bookstore I've ever seen. Not that I've seen many, and certainly not around here. Exodus is in Oregon City, Oregon, and any homeschooler living nearby should be familiar with the store and its great staff. But they do mailorder, too, so I am still a faithful customer. (Cheap shipping!) Though I'd prefer to be able to go in person.

2. Westminster Bookstore: The bookstore for our seminary but not just books for seminarians. Reformed Christian books for kids and adults. And academics, of course. Cheap shipping here, too.

3. Daedalus Books: remainders, cheap.

4. Chinaberry Books: a sentimental selection; they were better for us when my kids were small. We still treasure many of the picture books we bought from them. This is the sort of book catalog I fear will disappear soon, as people use it as a resource guide to buy elsewhere. My philosophy: if I found it here, I should buy it here.

5. Dover Books: I am always amazed when I hear of someone who doesn't know about Dover Books. Why, I was ordering from them when it was just a print catalog and I had to fill out an order form and send a check and wait weeks for my books. Great books. The best coloring books.

6. Paperback Swap: I just joined, so maybe this is a premature listing, but it looks promising for those of us who have books to get rid of. That includes me.

7. Public Library: OK, you don't own the books, but you get to read them. And some books we just don't need to buy. We love our library and use it a lot. We still buy books, but some are just not keepers.

8. AAUW book sales. These are huge book sales with a wide variety of books, cheap. (We don't always have to buy our books cheap, but it's nice to be able to.) There is no site that I can find for "AAUW book sales" but check for your local area. I discovered that I just missed mine.

9. Public library book sales: with a couple of caveats: only large branches, and only if you can get there early. Otherwise, it'll be all Berenstain Bears and Disney.

10. Powell's City of Books: My bookstore in Portland, Oregon. New and used books together. Love it, miss it. But they do mailorder too!

Where do you get books? Tell me that, then go check out Top Ten Tuesday.