Who are you...who hoo, who hoo?

It's been a week of mild nausea and reading about classical homeschooling for me. While I've been watering the vegetable garden and adding to the compost pile, I really haven't been seeking simplicity in any way, shape or form. I'm beginning to wonder if the title/subject of my blog is actual or aspirational. I suppose only time will tell.

I did have my initial doctor's visit this week which actually wasn't with a doctor. I gave a thorough medical history to his nurse practitioner and left with a backpack filled with books, pamphlets and coupons courtesy of Enfamil formula. Let the commercialization of motherhood begin!

Holding the peanut in my belly has reignited my interest in homeschooling techniques. I found a copy of The Well Trained Mind in the library where I work. I read it cover to cover and am now skimming it again. After exploring Charlotte Mason, Montesouri, unschooling, Enki, Waldorf, and other homeschooling approaches, the classical approach certainly seems the best fit with me. It is academically rigorous without losing sight of the fact that kids need to be kids. The authors argue against sending kids to college early or pushing them to be academic giants. Their focus is on using the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) to teach kids how to think and learn.

Of course, before I start to teach the kid how to read, I need to first go through pregnancy and birth. Always getting ahead of myself!

Hello all you strange camels...

I thought it was time to explain the name of my blog. When I was in fifth grade, there was a bible competition at my Catholic school. Basically you studied the gospel according to Luke and took a test about the contest. I think I cracked a book once or twice and, not being a bible savant, didn't do so well on the test.

What I do remember about the episode was reading a passage (Luke 18:18-30 for those who want to play along at home), about a rich man who was asking Jesus how he could go to heaven. Basically Jesus told him to live a good life and the man said he was already doing that. Then Jesus seems to get a bit testy and tells him to sell all he has and give it to the poor. The man is crestfallen because he has so much and is reluctant to part with it. So Jesus says this to everyone who is watching:

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Well, this scared the poop out of me as a kid. A camel CAN'T go through the eye of a needle. Impossible! I knew my family was wealthy...not Rockerfeller wealthy but we certainly were better off than a lot of the kids I went to school with. I was certain I was doomed.

Then when I got a little older, I read a commentary that explained that the eye of the needle was probably a reference to a certain town gate that was very low and narrow
and thus called "The Eye of the Needle" because pack animals had to be unloaded to pass through and even then they had to crouch. I liked the idea that simplicity and humility could be the point of the story and not that rich people automatically go to hell.

So the crouching camel image has become something of a symbol for me for simplicity, serenity, and spirituality.

If one is good, two is better, then three...

it
Cleaning up my bathroom counter yesterday and realized that it was time to get rid of my collection of positive pregnancy tests. We still aren't telling the extended family yet...hoping to wait until after my first doctor visit so we have something to report other than, "Yeah, we got two pink lines."

I'm feeling a bit pukey lately but oddly enough, when I made a big batch of frozen dinners yesterday nothing. I think it helped that I wasn't planning on eating the food that I was touching right away. Weird.

One thing that is very apparent is how parenthood really challenges my simplicity values. For example, I already know that I'd like to try cloth diapering. So I've made an online list/registry of prefolds, covers, etc. But in my heart I know I've crossed over from need to want in just making the registry. Something about it being 'for the baby" seems to give me liscence to run rampant with consumerism. Hmm. We'll have to see how this pans out.

September Morn

Ah, it is September! The weather here in southeast Texas is finally getting cooler which in turn brings out all sorts of changes in my mood. It is also the cusp of a long Labor Day weekend. Thank you unions!

My new vegetable garden has moderate results right now. Most of the radishes I planted are coming up and the carrots have little sprigs. I also have one collard green sprout and one cabbage sprout. But the lettuce, arugala, and spinach? Nothing. Perhaps I planted the seeds too early...it was a very hot August. Perhaps they were bad seeds. I got them from the sale rack at Home Depot. Perhaps they needed to be started indoors in a more gentle environment.

This weekend I'll go buy some more potting mix and start new seeds in my newspaper cups that I made with the until-now-unused Baccarat crystal tube vase we received as a wedding gift.

I also need to plant something in our front yard "bed" next to our entryway. It is only about 1.5x3 feet so a large plant may be out. But how crazy would it be to grow veggies there too? I suppose it can't be any worse than the weed garden that was there before.