A Quiet Place

I find myself needing a quiet place these days.  I want to write and share and delight and entertain and teach, but I walk past my computer, and keep on going.  There is nothing wrong at all.

I am reading a lot and writing on paper, but that doesn't show up here, does it?  I also can't seem to get my pictures and my computer to play nice and I find this place looks all wrong without a bit of beauty.  (Hence, the old picture reposted above.)

I took few hours last week alone and even took my camera with me, but between the clouds and rain I never took it out of my bag.  I did write and read and sip a cup of really good coffee.  (Mmm...Mountain Mudslide...)

I laughed aloud, which may have disturbed those around me, but I couldn't help it.  And I read so many books last week, I couldn't even tell you which one I found so funny.  I do know I read Unbroken yesterday.  I finished it at lunch today, so I remember that one.  It was good, but after three books dealing with WWI and WWII I've got to step away from the trauma of it all.  I don't think I could survive war with as much as simply reading about it troubles me. 

I also wonder when I will learn not to even pick up books that have anything to do with new stories with Jane Austen's characters.  Sigh.  Always a disappointment.  It is just so hard to resist something with Pemberly in the title, isn't it?  Someday I will learn and just walk away and reread the real stuff for the upteenth time.

We're having such fun with school these days.  I've been reading about the Civil Rights Movement since MLK Day.  It's so interesting to learn and teach about and rather timely as well.  Also, as we seem to live in very white areas of the country, it is so important to me for my kids to be understanding and compassionate and loving to people to appear different to them.  I want them to know that inside we are all the same.  There is so much to this one subject I could write about, but that's another post.

We're also working a lot on geography and maps.  We're learning to draw the world.  Our focus is more on location than shape, but we're all improving. 

I even sat down for awhile after school was done and just practiced drawing maps myself.  Cupcake was playing outside and it was so nice and sunny that I took my atlas out and some paper and happily drew while she played.  As I labelled certain landmarks on my maps I thought about stories I've read set in the different areas.  It was neat to see how the geography shaped the stories.  I probably need to get a life, but it was fun. 

We all wanted to burn the grammar book today with its lesson on two-point paragraphs.  It was painful.  For a lesson trying to explain expository writing, it managed to obfuscate the point and bore us all.  Luckily, most of the lessons are really useful and I know tomorrow's lesson will be better.

We also finished E. Nesbitt's Book of Dragons which was free on Amazon for my Kindle.  I thought it was hilarious and so very English.  My kids love anything with dragons and laughed along with the stories.  We may have laughed at different parts, but that's ok. 

Well, I think I've chatted on enough now.  I'm sure there is something I should go clean.  But I'll probably just go look for another book...Good night.