Sunday, January 10, 2021

The Last Five Years

Guess what? A lot has changed in five years. Aidan is VERY tall.  No one fits in the Peep-Toe slippers anymore.  I'm all out of homemade ketchup.  And that sense of community that I couldn't yet find in Farmington in my last blog post, February 18 of 2016... I found it! I found it big.  In fact, work on a grant application for arts funding is what brought me back to the old blog today anyway!  So I opened it up and decided to read my last post.  Life has moved very fast in five years.



And many things have changed since that post was written.  But I'm only going to talk about one of them. I was a person seeking a community of artists and art.  I had lived in Michigan for eleven years at that time, but I still hadn't found what I needed.  Now I have found it. And while I knew I missed it, I didn't realize just how much until I found it again.  

So I haven't had quite as much time for homemaking.  There are still plenty of muffins and pies turned out around here.  I still spend more money canning things in jars than it would cost to just go buy the jar.  I don't sew dresses or bags, but I do sew scout patches and stuffed animal wounds. 

But I get to make something else.  I get to make art with people that I love.  I get to direct Shakespeare.  I get to teach acting. I get to sing with my best friends. I get to support local artists in a gallery space at KickstART Farmington.  I get to support the arts community in Farmington and Farmington Hills as an arts commissioner. And, for me, its better than muffins.  Even my really good muffins.  And you should know, if you are writing a muffin blog, I support you one hundred percent! Keep doing it.

My path back to myself came by way of a community chorus.  It had its highs and it had its lows.  I met some amazing people and we built some really beautiful things.  It didn't last, but it was a doorway for me into some amazing opportunities.  And those opportunities just keep multiplying.  Life keeps changing and turning and growing.  My life is filled to overflowing with people and projects that feed my soul.

And Wendell Berry still gets it right...

"Good artists are people who can stick things together so that they stay stuck.  They know how to gather things into formal arrangements that are intelligible, memorable, and lasting.  Good forms confer health upon the things that they gather together.  Farms, families, and communities are forms of art just as are poems, paintings, and symphonies.  None of these things would exist if we did not make them.  We can make them either well or poorly; this choice is another thing we make." 

So here's to learning to stick things together, learning to survive what doesn't stay stuck, and supporting each other all along the way, be it muffins or Macbeth.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Random thoughts on a Thursday

"Good artists are people who can stick things together so that they stay stuck.  They know how to gather things into formal arrangements that are intelligible, memorable, and lasting.  Good forms confer health upon the things that they gather together.  Farms, families, and communities are forms of art just as are poems, paintings, and symphonies.  None of these things would exist if we did not make them.  We can make them either well or poorly; this choice is another thing we make." 

-Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle



I never realized how lucky I was to grow up surrounded by people that intrinsically knew this.  My family, friends and community were  artists daily.  The people of Youngstown are still there creating a beautiful life that is perfectly tangible.  Every time we go home, I feel that community, that hope, that peace that comes from the familiar, that comes from what is known, that comes from a sense of place.  The people in Farmington are doing all those things, too.  I just can't feel it... yet.

If you know us at all in real life or read my blog, then you know that we have homeschooled our kids since my oldest was in preschool.  It became clear to us very early that traditional school was not a good fit for our family.  I didn't necessarily know the "why" of it at first, only that it felt very wrong for us.

We follow a "Classical" model of education at home.  It's based on the classical pattern of the trivium, a three-part process for training the mind.  You can read more about it here if you're interested.  We spend the first four years in the "grammar" stage, learning the building blocks for all subjects.  In fifth grade, we'll begin the "logic" stage where memorization and fact-finding is replaced by more analytical thinking.  Then, in ninth grade, we'll begin the "rhetoric" stage where we'll attempt to apply the logic practices from stage two to the information from stage one and form our own conclusions expressed through language.  Right now, we are just absorbing all the language that came before us:  fiction, histories, criticism, poetry.  That is what I see missing in public education.  I don't want my children reading some mediocre writer's interpretation of what someone great once said or did.  I want them to have access to the first hand account.  Classical education does that beautifully.

I am not an enemy of public school or compulsory schooling in general.  For most people it works fine.  I am, however, adamantly opposed to current education standards, or "the common core".  This is not because the math is "hard".  In fact, we use Singapore Math already.  It's not because I'm afraid that the government is recording my child's key strokes and filing them away in some vault, though I have no doubt they are, and they are already thinking that we spend way too much time watching Russians evaluate new kitchen gadgets on Youtube.  It's not because there is too much testing that tests nothing at all, even though there is... way too much.

My issue is with the great devaluing of all that is beautiful and mysterious in the world.  I can't understand how one size fits all is ever a good thing.  We are who we are because of our community.  Every community is different and has different needs.  Setting up schools as systems of production makes for poor schools and unhappy populations.  Teaching what is only necessary for one person's definition of "success" is a recipe for disaster.  I just finished reading a great book by Wendell Berry in which he states that, "We should banish from our speech and writing any use of the word 'machine' as an explanation or definition of anything that is not a machine. Our understanding of creatures and our use of them are not improved by calling them machines."  Public schools in Prussia and then the  U.S. were built on the idea that they were there to homogenize a population and produce workers.  And yet, even the public school of a hundred years ago would be appalled at what we feel is unimportant for students to learn today.

It makes me sad when I see people devaluing any way of looking at the world that isn't scientific.  My husband has listened to me go on and on many times about how much I dislike Bill Nye, the Science Guy... and I'm probably the only one who feels this way.  But to me, his snark at all things "less than science" that people have used to learn about their world from the beginning of time has spilled over into pop culture.  Anyone who looks at the world with a view that is anything other than scientific is fair game for ridicule.  Science isn't the only way to "know" something. The idea that learning about the world scientifically as an end game is a losing proposition.  

Nonfiction isn't the only way to learn about the world.  The lack of time and access that students, especially high school students, have to classical literature, poetry, music and art is a great failing in our time.  No matter what your child grows up to be,  portrait painter or house painter, they deserve access to the very best humanity has ever produced.  We shouldn't be the ones deciding what they need to know and what is irrelevant.  All the knowledge in the world without the ability to DO something with it, create something with it, or just think about it, is useless.

I am proud to think of all of my friends that are scientists and all that are artists.  The ones I look up to the most are both.  When it comes time to "save the world" that's who I'm putting my money on.  I don't think science will save us from global catastrophe.  I don't think our own ideas about religion will save us from cultural genocide.  I think the well-read, humble people with a vast knowledge of where they came from and who they came from, will be the ones to bring about lasting social change and environmental protection.  So I will take my kids to science museums and art museums, maker fairs and medieval faires, catholic churches and muslim mosques.    

And while I lack faith in our current school system, I put my trust in our community.  I have seen many homeschoolers toss around the phrase, "I've seen the village and I don't want it raising my children."  And I couldn't possibly disagree more with that sentiment.  I love the village.  The hope for my children lies in the village.  All of you:  the artists, the scientists, factory workers, police officers, accountants, stay-at-home moms and dad, engineers, painters, dancers, actors, grocery checkers, scout leaders, drag queens, historians and everyone else who will look my children in the eye, answer their questions, forgive their occasional impertinence and teach them that the world is immeasurably large and at the same time as tiny and intimate as they could imagine.  




Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Puffy Tuesday

 

Yesterday, we celebrated Fat Tuesday with some Mardi Gras recipes and activities.  It's the only day of the year that we toss the word "fat" around so carelessly.  We usually go with "puffy", as in, I can't button my jeans today because I'm too puffy from the three Paczski and two slices of King Cake I ate yesterday.


We made these fun "Muffuletta Roll-Ups".  I also made some with just ham and cream cheese that were a bit more kid-friendly.  They were a big hit!


The girls and I colored Mardi Gras masks and pictures of bead necklaces.  Aidan couldn't be convinced to join in.  We found all kinds of great printables on Pinterest.  You can find my Mardi Gras page here.


For dinner, we had Red Beans & Rice and our Muffuletta Roll-Ups, along with some "Alligator Juice" that was just light-colored juice mixed with green food coloring.


For dessert, we had our annual King Cake from Sunflour Bakehaus.  They make awesome cakes and we get one every year!  The baby popped up in Annalise's slice so she's looking forward to a year of good luck!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Posts and Paczkis



My friends have been encouraging me to start blogging again.  In the past, it has taken me a lot of time to try to find something interesting to blog about, photograph nicely, and then write about in some entertaining way.  I have felt that if I couldn't do it frequently and perfectly, then I shouldn't bother.  BUT, I can't really do much of anything frequently and pretty-much NOTHING perfectly, and still I have missed blogging.  So, I'm going to give it a go, infrequently -with whatever happens to be going on... sometimes dull, poorly photographed and probably not all that well-written.  I'm sure you guys are going to REALLY enjoy it!  

We kicked off our Fat Tuesday with some Paczski(s?) early this morning before we got into our school work.  We didn't stand in line in Hamtramck for hours to get the authentic ones.  We just picked some up at the grocery store last night on the way home from church.  Everyone cranked through their work today so that we could make it to the bakery to pick up our King Cake before they closed.  I spent the afternoon working on some Fat Tuesday recipes while the kids played in the snow.  You should check back tomorrow for some recipes, activity ideas, and pics of kids that didn't get "the baby" crying and pouting.  I mean, unless I have quit blogging by then...






Monday, March 30, 2015

Rollin' in Dough



I know you probably all thought that we must be starving over here since the "What We're Eating" posts disappeared for a while.  What can I say?  We got a dog, I became a Mary Kay lady and we've had colds, croups and ear infections aplenty.

But... I'm going to try to get back on track updating everyone with all of our comings, goings and eatings.

This week, I thought I would share my favorite Pizza Dough Recipe.  It comes from one of my fav cookbooks, Jamie at Home.  I have been making it since Aidan was a baby (along with several other recipes) and it is my absolute favorite.  It's easy.  It doesn't require anything too weird and it always turns out great.  It also makes a big batch so I can freeze few dough balls for another pizza night?





Just so you know:  I ALWAYS use the mix of high-gluten bread flour and semolina they mention.  But, feel free to throw caution to the wind and go with bread flour all the way!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Gulliver's Travels

I missed my regular Tuesday craft post; but we were still crafting... "crafting" a good story to go along with this dog we brought home.  Surprise Dad!


Actually, it wasn't a TOTAL surprise.  When he messaged to find out where we were Tuesday evening, we texted him this....


"WHERE are you?" he asked.


"Westland," we said.


We actually hadn't gone there to GET a dog.  We were just browsing.  We found this guy online and went to take a peek.  He was just too sweet to leave behind.  Matt, being the good guy that he is, asked a few questions and then offered to pick up pizza.



Gulliver is a pretty sweet guy!  Matt thinks he looks like a Jim Henson creation.  As for "What We're Learning"... Sit.  Mostly Sit.  But he's really got it down.  In fact, he pretty much sits the moment anyone appears now, in the hopes of another treat.


He's had a bath at home and been to the groomers for a little trim...


...gotten his own hoodie...


...and received lots of TLC.  The people at the Humane Society said that they wanted him to go to a young family that would have lots of time to play with him because he had so much energy.


Mission Accomplished.


Monday, February 23, 2015

What We're Eating...Well...Ate.



Just a quick post today to share this YUMMY and EASY recipe we tried while Matt was in Japan.  You can find the link here!  I had been trying to clean out some odds and ends in the fridge left over from our last Door to Door box.  I googled pasta, mushrooms and broccoli and this popped up.  I had everything on hand so we went for it!  So glad!  It was a hit, easy to make and delicious!  It reheated well the next day for lunches, too!