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Studying Literature

  "The best readers I know carefully mark every worthwhile thing they read. They are well read because they read well." --John Snider Once upon a time I was a high schooler that loved reading, so naturally I took English classes that required a lot of reading. I enjoyed the discussions and definitely learned a lot about reading. Later in college, I was trying on different majors before I ultimately graduated in Technical Writing. For a year I was a literature major, until I realized about the only thing I could do with that is teach. I had already tried Elementary Education and knew I didn't want to do that. (Funny, since now I teach all the time and love it!) I wrote a lot of papers about books through high school and college. A lot. In the process I spent tons of time trying to remember what I had read and searching for quotes to include. Out of college I still loved to read, and I got involved in neighborhood book groups. I wanted discussions like I had had in sc...
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My Collection

Maybe 15 years ago I learned about commonplace books, and I started to keep one, noting things I enjoyed in my studies. Then I learned a better way, putting a category or subject at the top of each two-page spread, then adding quotes in a more organized way. I liked that much better, because the study seemed much more effective. I could find what I was looking for. Then I learned about having notebooks and notes online. I put my same categories into online notes, and moved to adding information from my studies there. Not only was it categorized, I could search my notes. And my notes were always with me - easily accessed and easily added to. I've continued that way ever since. I have a LOT of notes saved. My main study notebook has 367 categorized notes at the time of writing, though I have other notebooks for other things, many I would include in the study category.  Why do I do that?  I went to my "Journal, Record" note for an answer. How's this?  Charles Darwin wrot...
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Owning the Snippets

"Unlimited time became the luxury I yearned for, but because I didn't have it, time became what I learned to use. A minute here and a minute there and there was, surprisingly, 'enough' of it. I just had to be willing to be open-minded. I just had to be willing to give up my agenda of 'lots' of time, my fantasy of life as a full-time artist, and settle for the patchwork quilt of time here and there." --Julia Cameron I get asked all the time how I do all that I do. A big part of that is owning the snippets of time we have sprinkled throughout the day. I learned this lesson from a friend's father. He studies languages on his own, speaking many and reading even more, to be able to read literature in the language it was written and to understand the culture there more. He shared the story of being invited to attend a session where ancient Egyptian documents were being translated. The translators sat around a big conference table, and each took their turn wi...
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Friends of Friends

I love discovering mutual connections on Facebook. One of my college roommates married the cousin of a friend I met many years later, which I discovered when I commented on a post by one of them, and the other said, "Hey, how do you know...?" It's already delightful knowing them, but it creates a fun friendship triangle, somehow making our connection feel deeper.  Someone in my neighborhood asked about a singing instructor, and since my girls are musical I looked up one of the people mentioned over and over in case we decide someday that voice lessons would be a good idea. She was friends with so many people in different circles of mine that I wanted to send her a message and say, hey, we're not currently friends, but apparently we should be because we like a LOT of the same people. Turns out she'd grown up in my current neighborhood and helped with a play one of my daughters was in (while I was helping with a different play). I briefly met her, but not enough to ...
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Wonder

The weather here is uniquely warm this year. We have a tradition of celebrating the last warm day with a slurpee, always happening with a spike in temperature in November, but this year I've wondered if we need to have another slurpee day in December. Then I look at the forecast - though sunny, 45 degrees isn't slurpee weather. I walked outside and realized a bit later that I tracked these leaves in on my shoe. Pretty enough for a picture.  A few days ago my children were out enjoying a nice day in the backyard with a friend. They needed my help with a crisis situation when they realized there was a bird in our shed, ("leave the door open, it will get itself out") and I saw they had been at work on quite a project, gathering and sorting a beautiful nature collection. From Katherine Paterson, "Children are born with a wholesome sense of curiosity. I won't argue that, but wonder is more than curiosity. It demands an element o...
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December

With homeschooling classes on hold for the month, I'm setting goals for myself to use this time well. Amazingly, lot of my Christmas preparations are already done, and I am excited about the openness of the month. I want to... - art every day - clean something every day Both are stretches. I printed some habit trackers for myself and to encourage my children in setting their own goals. This is definitely a part I love about homeschooling - the open time available for them to discover who they are and build talents. A few inspiring things... "‘The question,’ she replied, ‘is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.’ ” from Oathbringer, I believe page 931 (going off kindle). "The opposite of spare time is, I guess, occupied time. In my case I still don't know what spare time is because all my time is occupie...
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