Miscellaneous Musings

Here I sit, coffee cup beside me. I've been thinking about blogging, but thinking about it hasn't got the job done. While I have a few moments, I'll jot down some thoughts.

First, Spring in Sweden is absolutely gloooorious! Enough said.

Today, the boys and I will go get tick shots. Yeah, tick shots. I know about ticks, having grown up in Missouri where they can be a problem, but I've never heard of a tick shot till we moved here. Ticks are pretty bad around here and after the boys have been outside we need to check their little bodies for the disgusting little critters. I hate trying to pull a tick off. Ugh.

I finished reading Cane River. The author, Lalita Tademy, quit her job as vice president of Sun Microsystems to immerse herself in researching her family tree. She then put all her research into the form of historical fiction and she's done a fine job. I could hardly put the book down-- I took it with me everywhere, and I could be found reading when I should have been doing _______________ (fill in the blank with any household chore.) Included in her book are pictures of 4 generations of women, African American women who grew up on plantations in Lousiana as slaves, and who later "grapple with the contradictions of emancipation."

I was particularly interested in a comment relating to the education of children, made by Narcisse, one of the Frenchmen in the book who finally has his first son, born to his white wife. He is excited about teaching his son to hunt and fish, farm and dance, how to live. Narcisse had other children but they were born to a slave. His white child could be openly brought to town, and he looked forward to starting him out with a private tutor.

"Narcisse didn't hold to the notion the carpetbagger government pushed, that all children should attend a public school set up in the parish, regardless of their color, race or previous condition of servitude, mixing indiscriminately. No good could come from that. It was wrongheaded to expect his taxes to pay for children he didn't know and had no responsibility for, whose parents couldn't pay for their education. Everyone should take care of their own. He had engaged tutors for all of his children, white or colored."

Hmmm. Vwery interwesting.....

And yet another very interesting thing to share with you. We receive a weekly newsletter, written in English, from my husband's workplace. On the very back page of the newsletter was an ad describing the Boy Scouts "Lone Scout" program. At the end of the ad was a person's name and phone number to contact for more info. So I called. After I introduced who I was and what I was calling about, this lady began to share with me about the Boy Scout program and casually mentioned that she homeschools! (Jaw hits the floor and makes a thumping sound.) Excitedly, I tell her we are about to begin homeschooling! And she says they use a Christian curriculum... And I'm thinking, Lord, Thank you for intervening in this way and encouraging me with another sister IN SWEDEN who believes in You AND homeschools!!! Now, the bad part. She lives 8 hours away. I might as well be in Texas and she in Missouri. BUT, we traded email and phone numbers and who knows! Maybe we can help each other in some way. Just knowing someone else out there who is homeschooling in this non-homeschooling land is an encouragement to me. Coincidence? I think not.

13 1/2 days of school left and I'm
Rejoicing Evermore!

Marla

"Sometimes while you wait for what you think is better, what is good enough slips away."
--words of wisdom from Philomene, "Cane River"