Thanks so much. 🙂 Those kind, encouraging words mean a lot.

I'm okay with white & male at any given time, so long as we mix it up over the course of our studies. Billy Collins did NOT go over well here 🤣; we read through his Whale Day. Wallace Stevens: hadn't come across him, the poems you attached are amazing & worthwhile. I think he'd sit much better than Billy Collins. Is there a particular anthology or collection of his you'd recommend?

Agreed. Would you tend to prefer a book of Mary Oliver over the collection? In case it's useful: we've been off our poetry studies since, more-or-less, the beginning of Covid. With the exception of Kipling -- we did a term of Kipling + Social Commentary when we studied Early Moderns. Before that he had poetry reading & some writing a la "Wishes, Lies and Dreams."

I'd like to run a contemporary poet in parallel with the ancient ones. Currently my 10th-grader is reading Sappho (Barnard translation; I plan to pick up Carson's at the library this week for another view). Thoughts? He's not a poetry lover; I want something that makes sense as a foil to Sappho & will engage him. I'm thinking of "10 Poems to Change Your Life" which is an anthology and not the work of one poet, but covers a range of topics and is approachable. Thanks!

@Critterfixer: this is just wonderful & amazing. Wow. Whoo-hoo! ☕ virtual cuppa 🙂 and how did the schedules go?

Hello Critterfixer! and, thanks for the thread. I need to be accountable too. Major foci: writing, across the board, for both boys; and Greek & Latin. I'm going to try & get back later to round it out, but for now, here goes!

Morning, y'all. This week should see: a good amount of school; school planning work; house cleaning; some garden work; and we're having folks for dinner Sat and brunch Sunday. Today: Knock out good day of school. Greek + Latin. Fitness for boys, me. House cleaning. Meet with consultants: goal is to come out of it equipped with a plan (or to plan) for next year, and especially for the next few months. RPG tonight.

Thirding the suggestion to start with The Well-Trained Mind book. Particularly resources on beginning study of informal logic & fallacies. I'd also strongly suggest a subscription to The Economist for yourself. You could just start with reading the science section & the obituary; but The Economist is well-written and gives substantial background information in each article, is not anti-religious, and criticizes everyone -- you can count on them to point out the foibles of any politician, for example. A year or two of such reading will greatly improve your ability to understand the strengths of a variety of viewpoints as well as their weaknesses. FWIW, the Economist is socially liberal, more fiscally conservative. RE science -- Apologia has come up, and there are many things it does well, but if you want a science curriculum I'd strongly suggest you take at look at Wile's "Science in History" instead. I think it is a science program that will not undermine your religious teachings, but does teach science quite well (better than Apologia) and treats secular scientists even-handedly. It can fairly easily be taught to all elementary ages. Just my thoughts! take what suits; toss the rest; and I'm wishing you well.

well heck, I am in need of an accountability thread today 😉 School: churn through WTM, add our languages + piano for younger Fitness: run for everyone, weather permitting, and fitness for me. House: go for FLY stuff, continue to unpack boxes & civilize the place. Easter prep: brainstorm some food, some festivities for my secular family members

... I know it is now April, but I'll just tack this on here ... Hope all y'all are well enough. Better yet: fabulous. Today is a lot of physical movement for me (yoga, some strength. some "dance") and a focus on unspecified, general-purpose problem solving. Want to pop things around RE house, school, &c.

I was in the National Guard for the first couple years of college; then I received an honorable discharge early in my enlistment b/c of a scholarship opportunity in a different state. What kind of questions do you have? Briefly: I enlisted and did basic training the summer after my 11th grade year; did my monthly weeekends during senior year; and did specialist training in the summer & fall after I graduated, starting college in January. My state university system gave some credits for my military training; the private college I transferred to did not. I never saw active duty, and I had been a member of the Civil Air Patrol for several years before enlisting.

Kicking off the school today. Dinner: ravioli + sauce, enough veggies to prevent scurvy. Dessert! strawberry fool. ETA: bit crazy here; making a list of essential infrastructure work: FFL Latin vocab, grammar LL Latin Vocab, chapter or two Athenaze vocab boys' fitness: run, some DareBee fitness for me nap for me. when??? bed on time house clean.

Morning! I'm sorry to have been so absent; renovation work here is dragging on, and everything feels rushed, cramped, and it is hard to do Accountability stuff when things are fairly unpredictable. However! First, @Critterfixer, I'm looking forward to your reading break 🙂 too. Today here is: school: Greek (everyone); Latin (me, younger); math (boys); "dailies" for younger, coursework for elder, some history reading all around, me drafting a list of history readings so's I can space them out. fitness: hard, 'cause I have a minor injury. boys: run with DH; squats; catch-up upper body with me me: low-impact strength, some yoga, modified general home grocery run dinner: pasta + spinach; can make this on our grill's burner set up some furniture in the main living space to cheer DH up RPG work on for 15-30"

Today: work the boys hard; get fitness in; get some Anki going; look over my RPG notes.

A thought: there is a method for installing full wood that involves laying a plywood base, leveling it carefully, then gluing the boards before nailing and proceeding with the filling, sanding, etc. The wood used for the floor will be thinner than tongue-and-groove wood, b/c you don't need the extra depth for the groove fit. It is a more expensive method, but our contractor prefers it where feasible (we do NOT have this, we have tongue-and-groove) & he reports that (installed properly) it doesn't warp.

We have wood upstairs, engineered in the downstairs bedroom level. I wear shoes inside so my feet don't hurt, but carpet wouldn't help much b/c I am on my feet for hours in the kitchen, and we're never gonna put carpet there. Our engineered has held up well, but it isn't nearly so lovely & I'm hoping to replace it in the next few years. Our full wood floor has been refinished twice: once, not the best job about 6 years ago and now during some other work, a FABULOUS job. If you go full wood make sure the distance between nails & the quality of filling cracks etc. is to a high standard. I also find that engineered is a bit noisier, and what we've had is a bit slick for the dog's feet & for me in the shoes I do yoga etc. in. However: the engineered is hands-down more lovely and functional than the flooring which it replaced (remainder carpet). Just my thoughts on things here; I don't know nearly enough to offer advice! 😉

Yay vacation! I missed all of last week due to Renovation Head. Now I'm trying to think despite those polyurethane fumes which seem to be unavoidable, despite airing. Still living in the bedroom zone of our house; the house is a big one, which usually makes it impossible to clean but right now means we can actually get by with all the main living areas off-limits. This week: oh, Lordy. <---- actual heartfelt prayer get up to date for my online Latin class. try to get term's vocab into Anki for unsuspending as we encounter it. math for boys. writing for boys. sanity!!!!! fitness for boys. fitness for me. Latin & Greek all around. At least a bit of it.

Evening! Things are kind sorta coalescing here. Yay! Tomorrow: math, Greek, music & English focus. Plus fitness all around. Dinner: ????? something we can heat up in toaster oven or on the grill; don't have a functional counter at the moment.

Yes to this. Yes, yes, yes. I mean: I do wish it were possible. Last week was a morass of week-ish-ness. This week's big thing is to keep us exercised, educated, well-ish, and manage house construction gracefully.

🤣 I was just wondering, the other day, what y'all were up to these days ... & I hope your back was better for the weekend. This week has been sort of surreal, but fine. Today: Wrap up various loose ends of the week. Do weekly planning, have goals for getting main level of house packed out for various work to begin, set outdoor plans, CM focus \get my annual goals up on the rpg discord Fitness for me; make boys do a quarter hour or so of chores; straighten house, esp. work on bathrooms

Morning! Today: Begin recovering my homeschool plan, grokking out what we're doing, what my real goals are, and ideally come back here and note time spent/progress made. Migraine Prevention Protocol for me House: FlyLady routines, spend 15-30" clearing out upstairs/kitchen errands: groceries; go by ATM; maybe game store Homeschool: younger: piano; get our feet wet in history, some English, play some logic games elder: online chemistry; some history, English. both: Anki, some poetry memorization Fitness boys: DareBee, run unless really raining me: meet my week's goals, do round of "dance" Dinner: leftover roast chicken, roast veggies, maybe butternut squash soup. Something crunchy? NOTES: 1. Recovering Homeschool Plan: WTM for English, history, logic; mostly for math, add living books; combine with CM for arts exposure; add drawing; use WTM history ideas for science, adding in appropriate memory work & hands-on projects to develop manual dexterity and ability to follow instructions; IEW's poetry memorization program; Teaching the Classics for intro literary analysis; Memoria Press geography for younger; Greek & Latin; CM riches: Plutarch, Shakespeare, hymns/folksongs, picture study, poetry reading. No wonder I feel overwhelmed. Ah well.

Evening! Hit some stuff, not other stuff. Actually, much of yesterday's list remains. But we got to art: hurrah! So kick it off tomorrow with piano & figure out piano lessons (I DID figure out composition lessons today); Sappho, some poetry memorization; and some art. We're also going to see "Encanto" tomorrow. Last day of showing, hoping theater is nearly empty 🙂

There was a molasses-s feel in the air here, too. I am actually catching up on sleep, hurrah! Last night was the first RPG night that I wasn't so tired I could hardly think after the game was over. Progress! Today saw very little done, and chicken & biscuits for dinner. Tomorrow: start picking up with things that I can't really ignore, even if I'm on extended vacation. Piano -- more practice, and straighten out where we are in DS's lesson package, also write teacher New Year's note of appreciation AP: contact Tam-- school via email Fitness for boys, for me Clean Homeschool: anki; work on Sappho + math with elder; hit some poetry memorization and I'm hoping to get here early enough tomorrow to add (or subtract) as I ought.

Evening! Today I took sick and everything was slow. I think it's just a response to my covid booster, hurray for immune system kicking in! Remaining goals: straighten house; take a shower; tuck children in; get to bed at a good hour. Without going all weepy!

Okay, sketching out tomorrow. More of doing not much. Trying to do as little as possible, noticing what needs doing and what works for restoring wellness, what doesn't. I'm extending the holiday at least another week, to give us (me, really) wellness recovery time. sleep in a bit house fitness for me, the full round: try to do this 6 days this week & see how it helps sleep, mental health, &c. fitness for boys, run + DareBee out of the house stuff some sort of hike extra ingredients for dinner -- some chiles, maybe sesame oil, seeds get a big wall calendar for the new year. or do this mon or tues when it is more rainy. holiday school: Anki, minimum for elder, some poetry/poetry memorization, some classical sayings, dabble in piano for younger, read some holiday stories/LotR dinner: sesame noodles, chicken, greens got turned to pasta with Alfredo sauce read some fun stuff