This late summer crepe myrtle branch blazed into autumn with orange on its mind. Add in snippets of purple from a neighboring tree. It brought autumn beauty to our living area. Nature indoors for the moments we cannot be outdoors.

Parenting our children equal doesn’t mean parenting them identical-yes, this means that you’ll have to make hard decisions. The “easy” child and the “challenging” child both deserve unrelenting love, but loving the challenging child unrelentingly will at times mean you’ll have to parent the two children differently. Often, the challenging child WILL desperately need more of your time and attention.

It doesn’t mean you love the easy kiddo less, it means you love the challenging kiddo just as much-you’re not willing to leave any child behind.

As someone who grew up in a era when nightly homework was rare, especially in the elementary and junior high years, I have so many thoughts and ponders about homework. As a mother who watched nightly homework(starting the FIRST night of kindergarten)arrive when our oldest was in a public school setting, I remember wondering why in the world was a child getting sent home with homework in elementary years.

Homework doesn’t bring relationship together, it doesn’t reinforce healthy lifestyle. It attempts to cover material that wasn’t covered thoroughly in class.

October's Party

by George Cooper

October gave a party,
The leaves by hundreds came —
The Chestnuts, Oaks and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;
All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;
The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,
The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.
Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;
And then the party ended
In jolly " hands around. "

One question: three answers

What are you doing? Laying brick, building a wall, or building a cathedral

Who knew being thankful would shift my feet? Who knew that seeing life as a blessing, pausing and naming the good often ignored or naming commonplace could pivot from shadow centered living to Son turned glory. Mama Ann did.

Today’s gift: number 18,434 is just plain Ann-who’s anything but plain.

A woman in another hallelujah place on earth, penned words. Shared them and changed a life.

Just some thoughts about the teaching approach that Miss Mason utilized-𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘥, she observed that her students 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 when they received little small surges or dopamine followed by serotonin.

“A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.” -Norman Cousins

Autumn is in full swing, trees dance in Artistic glory. They unabashedly show us their beauty, a hard gruesome transformational work in the beating heat of summer. They welcome us to join.

It’s harvest and they dance in breezes under a sky illuminating their ability to shine. That they were always created to shine, a glistening on dry land, sharing a touch of glory.

Motherhood is individual. It has more nuances than social media squares. As a Christian mother, you’ll need to filter your choices, postures, and approaches through the lens of the Gospel. You’ll need to make prayerful choices with wisdom and discernment-it may not be popular. It likely won’t receive an earthly trophy.

But.

Your goal isn’t popularity.

Your goal is…

If the mountain feels steep, take one strong step followed by another. It isn’t speed that matters as much as the strength of the step.

Some early morning writings seem more like feelings than offerings-I never considered that sharing thoughts and wonderings could usher negative reactions from others. When I see it, I balk, wanting to hide from naysayers. I know what it really means, though. Experience says this is where I should lean in, listen closer.

Charlotte Mason created a dopamine hit for her students way back in Victorian England.

There may not have been a scientific name, but she observed and saw her students were beginning to crave knowledge enough to work for it.

And when you want something bad enough, work doesn’t feel like work-it feels good.

I think you should keep going just to see what happens-

you may be surprised-

it’s likely better than you even imagined.

A living education should move us-out of our own places and spaces-and make us feel like we are living within the pages of the story with the characters. To understand the full story, we must feel like we are part of it. That allows us to form deeper thoughts on the story itself.

I’m not sure if we fully appreciate at a deep conscious level that what we daily surround ourselves with deeply forms the direction we face, the way we daily walk…