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Hestia, the goddess of hearth and home

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Just call me Hestia–the Homeschooler
1. My winter ‘funk/blues’ (you know, the one I’ve been in for about a year and a half) is almost over.  I’ve been practicing my hitch kicks and have planned to make a small chocolate cake with buttercream icing to celebrate.  (after Lent of course)
2. I’m working on a guest post about homeschooling (yes the same one I’ve been working on for a month) and I was hoping my ‘funk’ would be over before I needed to submit the post.  As fate would have it, the funk will still be in place…..which means I’ll need extra special audio-visuals to ensure the ‘readers’ what a wonderful homeschooler I am.  Any ideas?  Oh wait, dummy me turned the comments off.
3. Never ask a homeschooler to do a guest post anywhere near February…..when most of us are looking for the nearest school that serves lunch…..and hasn’t had a shooting….in a while.
4. I cannot bear to tell anyone of my lenten discipline (other than closing my comments) …..because that would ensure me ‘breaking’ it within the hour.  I’ve already considered opening comments back up.  I’m just that disciplined.  
5. I have renamed myself Hestia-the greek goddess of hearth and home.  I’m having new cards printed with my new name and am working on new monograms.  Cindy, who made my beef stew, assures me that I qualify.  And I’ve always been jealous of “H” monograms.
6.  I can’t decide if I want Stevie to be Apollo (god of light) or Helios (god of the son) or Zeus (king of the gods).  I could be speaking out of turn, but I think he would also nominate me for Demeter (goddess of grain) because I bake so much bread.  
7. There is something ‘to’ this classical education thing.  The girls and I are reading about Odysseus, Greek mythology, the Trojan War, Alexander the Great, and even Plato.  We’re listening to Bach’s Mass in B minor and memorizing EVERYTHING…..lately we’ve memorized a list of the greek gods, Deut. 6:4-9, the Ten commandments, and the poem Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson.  We’ve read great books like Eight Cousins and The Railway Children.  We’ve done some fun art projects including making an Olympic wreath and a cardboard version of The Wooden Horse.  We’re studying the life of Christ for lenten devotions and have adopted ‘kneeling’ for our morning prayers. (which Emme was enraged by…..and with a big sigh said, “My knee hurts, mom”. ) My struggles over the past month with homeschooling have been real and grueling.  And yet, when I look at some of the wonderful things we’ve done, I can only cry out, “Lord give me strength”.  I say all that to say……..pray that I will make the right decisions regarding my childrens’ future.
8. I’m checking out a new program called Classical Conversations.  It’s an adjunct for homeschoolers (like a co-op of sorts) and meets once a week in Knoxville.  Email me if you have any advice or experience with this program.  
9.  To take a small break from the Greeks and to help me with my bookclub book for March which is the autobiography of Ben Franklin, I started a book called Founding Brothers.  Very interesting, so far.  I also plan to read a C.S. Lewis book a month.  March-The Great Divorce. Read it with me.  You’ll love it.  This will be my 3rd time reading it.  And I just placed an Amazon order today that will secure for me every last book that Lewis wrote.  Oh yes I did.
10. My prayer life reminds me of that of a 4 year old.  I start out with the best intentions:
Dear Lord, I confess to you that I am a sinner through and through.  I’ve sinned against you in so many large and small ways already today.  I’m a beggar in need of repentance and I pray that you will have mercy on me……..(wonder how that gargantuan ball of dog hair/dust got way over there……and I really should take that dog to get him groomed…he’s so cute…that Hank……)
Oh and yes Lord, please forgive me for my lack of attention….where was I?  Oh yeah, a poor miserable sinner…..I haven’t even written my thank you note to Aunt Rosemary.  (It was so nice of them to have us there last weekend.  I don’t know how Uncle Troy made those pepper mills.) And on and on until I almost laugh at how…..childish I must seem to God.  I’m like my 6 year old who starts to tell me about what she wants for her birthday and twenty minutes later is asking if I remember that time that she had a bad dream about a monkey driving a big car?  This my friends, is why I need Lent.  I need discipline and practice and a timeframe.
10. I’m planning a small Greek Festival for the girls and I to ‘showcase’ our favorite Greek projects.  We’re gonna make Greek food and wear flowing simple gowns.  Okay the girls refuse to wear gowns and will likely not enjoy the food.   But I am gonna enjoy it.  And very soon I will re-emerge from my ‘funk or whathaveyou’   a new, lighter, and  able to breath easier mama.  I just know I will.
11.  Marcus moves out this Friday.  We are sad for us and happy for him.  He’s moving to live very near campus which will save a lot of driving time for him.  To ease the pain of the transition for the little girls, I told them they could move upstairs to ‘his’ room sometime after he moves out.  Which I already regret….’cause they seem too young still (6,8) to not be right beside us.  This would however open up their room to me for an office/craft room/lock myself in and cry room.  This means I’ve got work to do.  Things to paint.  Redecorranging galore.  Any fresh ideas?  My mind is whirling.  My heart rate is 180.  And I haven’t even had an energy drink yet.  And Marcus, we miss you already, despite the fact that the girls keep coming upstairs to ‘scout out the place’. 
12.  I need a teacher’s aide.  Or a cleaning lady.  Or a year’s supply of energy drinks.  Or all of the above.
13.  If you have never heard a 6 and an 8 year old sittin’ around talkin’ about what they’re gonna *do* for Lent, then you should try it sometime.  Oh.my.word.  Funny stuff.  Very funny stuff.  And let’s just say that Elea is oiling up her bicycle chain.
14.  Maybe I should start a blog carnival called ‘Hooray for Hestia’ or ‘I am a Goddess’ where we women could post random stuff about our home and hearth and share it with others.   And then again maybe I need sleep.  Or chocolate.

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