Hospitality

One of the areas of my life that I want to work on this year is hospitality.

I’m not very good at hospitality.

If you’ve asked anyone who has been over my house, they might disagree with that statement, but they don’t see the whole story. You see, we don’t have people over very often for two reasons.

One, we moved far away from most of our family and all of our friends, and we haven’t made too many new ones yet.

And two, (I hate to admit this, but…) it stresses me out!

I’m always concerned about what our guests will think about all sorts of things. For example:

~ How my house looks. Is it clean enough? Is it too old and rickety?

~ How our barns and property look

~ If I’m preparing the right foods, the right assortment of flavors, fancy enough foods, etc.

~ How my children will act, especially with Iliana’s hyperactivity issues

When I think about how much physical and mental energy it will take to prepare for such a visit, I often procrastinate inviting people over.

And asking someone to stop by without adequate prep time? Forget about it.

Stress and/or worry also makes me really grumpy with Dan and the children about keeping the house in perfect order and I hate that!

I’m not sure how I came to be this way. Growing up, I my mom was very hospitable. I remember her always opening her home up to anyone, never apologizing for a cluttered room or what she had prepared to eat. Somehow, because of the people I surrounded myself with as a young adult, my view on hospitality changed from being “hospitable” to “entertaining”. I learned how to cook fancy dishes to fit into the way my husband’s family ate – dishes that are impressive but take a lot of work. I learned the “right way” to entertain. I became too focused on appearance.

But what is hospitality? In the Bible, the word is “philoxenia”, from the Greek words philo (love) and xenos (stranger), so the word literally means ”the love of strangers”. 

Some scriptures that I’ve pondered as I’ve thought about the idea of hospitality:

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. I Peter 4:9

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Hebrews 13:2

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;  not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Romans 12:10-13

Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.  Luke 14:12-13

It seems from these verses and others that I’ve read, that being hospitable is something that should be an integral part of being a Christian. God’s Word isn’t talking about only inviting my old friends over, but inviting neighbors and new friends over, too. It’s talking about becoming more aware of the people in my community who really need someone to care for them. Not to be too focused on my own life to see who we can bless in our home. I really desire God’s love to shine through me and my family and I can’t do that if I’m too focused on appearance – or to put it honestly – on myself.

So, I’m going to step out of my comfort zone this year and try to both learn what hospitality means and to practice it.

There are a couple of websites that I’ve come across that give great ideas for learning to practice hospitality. One of my favorites is a blog called The King’s Missus. Lindsay is always showing great ways that she can be hospitable and giving without spending lots of money, like in this post HERE. Another woman I’ve been learning from is Kendra at Preschoolers and Peace in articles like this one.

In keeping with the idea of being more ready and willing to serve someone in my home, I’ve recently purchased the More With Less Cookbook. I just learned of this book a few weeks ago and it is exactly the kind of cookbook I have been looking for! It has all sorts of delicious recipes by Mennonite women that use simple and healthy ingredients and are relatively easy to prepare. No cans of cream of mushroom soup or cake mixes. Just recipes for plain and good food. I’ve tried some of them out this week in the effort to make having people over less stressful in the food aspect.

As far as the heart aspect goes, that is something that God is working on in me. I’ll let you know what kind of progress we make!

Do you have any suggestions for me as I learn in this area? I’d love to hear them!

Learning Together Tuesday: Take Your Hat Off

Whenever I think about the Constitution, I often start humming a tune and the words of the Preamble flow into my mind…

…establish justice…

…ensure domestic tranquility…

…provide for the common defense… 

I learned the song many years ago in my childhood from this book/CD set that we often listened to in our station wagon (although it was a cassette tape back then!) The song, entitled “We the People”, is one of the 16 songs about America on this delightful set, Take Your Hat Off When the Flag Goes By.

The catchy songs cover a wide variety of topics about American history, patriotism and government. Through the course of the CD and story, children learn about:

• The reasons behind our fight for independence from England
• The Declaration of Independence
• How the founding fathers went about writing the Constitution
• George Washington
• The three branches of our government
• The Preamble of the Constitution and its six promises
• And many other things, too!

Take Your Hat Off follows a family as they enjoy a patriotic parade together and discuss many topics relating to America. The book that accompanies the CD consists of only song lyrics and illustrations. The storyline itself is only found on the CD. One of the things I really appreciate about this set is that the topics are presented in language that is accessible to young children while not bringing the subject matter down to a goofy or cartoonish feel.

My children, however, just like the music and don’t realize how much they’re learning. In fact, there are several pages of fill-in-the-blank questions at the end of the book. There are specific instructions: These pages are to be completed only after you have read the entire book and/or listened to the tape many times. Then you will be surprised how much you know. My children were certainly surprised when they could easily answer them all without “studying”!

You can listen to a few samples HERE, although you won’t be able to listen to our personal favorites, “Where’s the Justice?”, “Free Enterprise” and “Checks and Balances”. (Bonus! The CD includes tracks with just the orchestral accompaniment, so you can have your own students sing by themselves to see how much they know!)

I highly recommend this set as an easy and memorable introduction to American civics and government for ages 5 to 12. You can purchase it from the National Center for Constitutional Studies website and other places around the web. (If you try and purchase it used, just remember to be sure that the CD or tape is included, because the book alone is just lyrics.)

I hope you can join me again next week for another Learning Together Tuesday!

Children’s Book Monday: The World of Little House

 

The World of Little House
By: Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Ericksson
Illustrated by: Deborah Maze and Garth Williams

 

I first saw this book in a Little House display at a library in a nearby town. It was behind the glass where I couldn’t reach it, so I asked the librarin if it would be possible for me to check it out. After giving me a strange look, she said she could take my name and number and call me when the display was changed.

I’m so glad that I went back to check it out a few weeks later because it is a treasure for Little House lovers, of which there are several in our house.

After the introductory chapter that is a brief biography of Laura’s life, The World of Little House is divided into chapters that correspond to each of her books.

The authors share background information about the history of each area of the country Laura lived in, floor plans of each of the houses, and layouts of the Ingalls’ properties and towns. The book also includes detailed instructions for over 20 crafts and activities pulled from the books to try yourself at home. You can learn to make molasses candy, dried-applesauce, heart-shaped cakes, shelf paper, and thimble pictures as well as try some of the games that Laura and Mary played.

For Little House lovers, this book is a real treat. We especially loved getting a peek into what Laura’s different houses may have looked like with the illustrated layouts, all the way from the house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin to the surveryor’s house on Silver Lake, to Laura’s final home at her Rocky Ridge farm. We also really enjoyed the timeline at the back of the book that inserts events in Laura’s life with the many other things that were happening in the United States at that same time.

The authors visited every place that Laura lived in their research of the book. Because of this, they did a thorough job of creating an enjoyable book that is a delightful companion to the series.

Please visit A Path Made Straight for more great ideas for your next library trip!

Happy reading!

Lovely Winter

I’ll be honest. I don’t like winter. Then why the title of my post? Well, Last week, we checked out this wonderful book recommended by Ann:

This small volume is overflowing with treasures – poems with winter as their theme. A wide variety of poets are represented, including William Woodsworth, Rachel Field, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Dickenson and Frost, all accompanied by lovely artwork by Trina Schart Hyman.

One of the poems struck me as I was reading it to the children over breakfast last week. It is a rather short poem entitled “Night”:

Stars over snow,
   And in the west a planet
Swinging below a star—
   Look for a lovely thing and you will find it,
It is not far —
   It never will be far.

               – Sara Teasdale

I asked the girls to ponder what the poet meant by the phrase “It is not far, it never will be far”. Our conversation led to the various ways that we can view our surroundings. I asked them if they thought the poet was correct – that a lovely thing can be found near you wherever you are. We stretched our imaginations and tried to see if this saying would hold true even if we were living in a city. Would we be able to find a lovely thing nearby, even there?

It was an interesting discussion. After the meal was over, I walked over to the French doors in our dining room and looked out on the bleak, grey yard full of dirty, slushy snow. The children and I talked about all the yucky things that we could see outside. Then we took turns pointing out all the lovely things that we could also see.

Turns out, there were lovely things to notice , even on a dismal January morning! I was pleasantly surprised. I think I’ll copy down this little poem and place it on the French board above my sink. It may help me to see the rest of this winter through new lenses. Winter may actually be lovely after all!

It’s that time of year

This is what we’ll be working on tonight.

Spring is just around the corner, don’t you know?

Brain work

 

What happened to my brain?

I know it’s in there somewhere, but it doesn’t seem to be functioning so well these days. I’d like to blame it on all the pregnancies I’ve been through, or maybe on the sleepness nights that accompany the infant stage.

However, I may have to just face the fact that I’m  getting old. My memory and general communication skills have been going downhill pretty quickly. There was a time when I had an awesome memory. I could memorize an amazing amount of material for a test, an entire hour’s worth of difficult piano pieces, full shopping lists, people’s names and places on a map with ease.

These days, I have difficulty remembering something I read earlier in the day by the time everning rolls around and I have a chance to tell Dan about it. I cannot remember people’s names very well, even soon after meeting them for the first time!

This has really been irritating to me lately, so I’ve decided to try and get my brain back in better working order by practicing narration.

Narration is a major part of our homeschool routine. Abigail is required to narrate – or “tell back” – each lesson that we read together as clearly as she can. Narration not only shows that we have internalized what we read or heard, but it helps us organize our thoughts in a sequential fashion and enables us to practice speaking clearly.

When the children and I begin a successive lesson or chapter in a book, I will often ask the girls where we left off last time. While they are thinking, I try and remember, too, without taking a peek. They almost always recall the previous lesson before I can! So, my goal is to sharpen my memory to at least the point of being equal with that of my children.

I tend to speed read and while that used to work well for me, these days it is a detriment to my full retention. I’ve been trying to narrate back to either myself or Dan after I read something so that I’m sure that what I’ve read really sunk into my brain. I’m hoping that by practicing narration, I’ll also become more clear in my speaking and writing. In college, I used to be able to write essays and papers with no problem. Today it’s more difficult to get my thoughts on paper. Hopefully, writing here will help that, too.

Doesn’t it seem that in our Facebook, Twitter, texting and instant messaging world, people tend to communicate with less clarity and purpose? I personally want to make sure that I can still communicate effectively as I get older. Like they say, “if you don’t use it, you lose it!”

How about you? If you’ve been out of school for awhile, could you still write an essay on anything of significance? How’s your brain working these days?

Learning Together Tuesdays: Egypt

Welcome to Learning Together Tuesday!

In this new weekly series, I’ll be sharing with you some of our favorite books and resources that we’ve been using in school lately. I always appreciate the recommendations of other homeschool moms when I’m looking for new resources, so I thought I’d share too!

Also, I hope that Learning Together Tuesdays will give my family a peek into our homeschool. Just in case they want to know what we crazy homeschoolers are actually doing with our children all day!

This week, I wanted to share a couple of resources that we found very helpful in our history study of Ancient Egypt. There are literally hundreds of resources pertaining to this time in history, as it is so fascinating and mysterious to most people. The following were some of the ones that we used this term that really stood out.

 

Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones

This “living” book about Egyptian history was the girls’ favorite book this term. It is the story of a 10 year old boy and a mystery surrounding pyramid robbers. Although it is a work of fiction, there is a wealth of information about the culture, geography, government and lifestyles in Ancient Egypt. (It believe that it was written intentionally this way.) We really enjoyed reading it together and learned quite a bit by the time the story was through.

Although the book is has been out of print for quite some time, the ladies at Simply Charlotte Mason have recently re-published it and you can preview it and purchase it HERE.

 

Unwrapping the Pharaohs: 
How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical Timeline 
by John Ashton and David Down

Dan and I bought this book for ourselves to aid our study into Ancient Egyptian history along with the girls. As we studied into the chronology of Egypt, we found that scholars have had a difficult time fitting it in with Biblical history. This book shows how the two can and do fit together in an amazing way. We learned a great deal from this fascinating book. The girls really enjoyed all of the beautiful, full-color photographs that fill this book and they will be able to use it as they get into the middle school grades and beyond.

Pyramid by David Macaulay

This book gives the step-by-step process of how and why the amazing pyramid structures were built, with the intricate illustrations that make all of David Macaulay’s books stand out. The engineering that went into the building of the pyramids was so interesting to both me and the children. We’ll want to revisit this book again and again.

Salt Dough Map of Egypt

We (I should say Dan and the kids) made a salt dough map of Egypt to aid us in our study, per the recommendation of our history curriculum. It was very helpful to help us understand the terms ”Upper Egypt” and “Lower Egypt”. Northern Egypt is actually “Lower Egypt” because of the elevation of the land. It was nice to be able to understand that visually.

Here are a few pics of the girls working on it. There are many ways to do a salt dough map. If you want to try it, here is a good tutorial: Salt Dough Map Tutorial

Thanks for visiting today. If you have any favorite resources or books on Ancient Egypt, please share them with me in the comments.

Please join me next Tuesday to see more of what we’ve been learning!

Simple Woman’s Daybook 2/1/10

 

For Monday, February 1, 2010

Outside My Window… The full moon is starting to set and I can still see the tree shadows

I am thinking… about how hard Dan works at his desk job to support our family when he’d much rather be doing active, outdoor farm-type work. He dreams of doing that someday and in the meantine, I’m thankful for his dedication.

I am thankful for… the smiling faces of the children as soon as they wake up. I wish I could be that cheerful in the morning!

From the learning room…  we are learning new things every day!  I’m going to start a new series this week called Learning Together Tuesdays where I’ll share some of the favorite resources that we’ve been discovering this year.

From the kitchen… chicken stock simmering on the stove. I started it yesterday morning and it will be done by tonight. Homemade stock/broth is so tasty and healthy, too!  

I am wearing... my pj’s and robe  

I am going… to try and make the day great and not just get through it.

I am reading… When Children Love to Learn by Elaine Cooper 

I am hoping…  that a dear, old friend has successful heart surgery today.

I am hearing… Grace starting to squeak in her crib. Time to start my day!

Around the house… Trying to stay productive on cold days in a drafty house. I’d rather just curl up on the couch under a blanket and read all day!

One of my favorite things…  munching on stove-top popped popcorn and talking to Dan after the kids go to bed

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Visiting with some new friends, getting our barn ready for the sheep we’ll be acquiring soon

Here is a picture thought I am sharing…

Winter is the perfect time for farmers to catch up on their reading

And to enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee!

To visit other DayBookers, click HERE.