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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Life with Levi and Random Other-ness

(Levi is in the kitchen as I am walking (or painfully limping, as it may be) through the front room with a hurt foot.)

Levi: Your gait is unmistakable. You're lurching.

(No sneaking up on him to see if he is on task…)

(He has been s-l-o-w-l-y working through tasks and begging to be released from servitude. As he finishes the dishes, he asks, in a somewhat exasperated manner…)

Levi: May I disperse myself with the seven winds?

(When this kid’s writing skills and maturity catch up with his verbal processing skills, watch out.)

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I have Minecraft birthday party pictures to share. And beach pictures.

But I also have a time deficit. (More of a self-management issue than a time deficit issue, but, whatever.)

Between a beach trip on Saturday, a painful foot (going to the chiropractor today to see if he can help), serious practicum prep (hours and hours and hours yesterday and the rest of this week), and a lengthy debate in the comments of my Common Core post (so not my forte and very energy- and emotion-sapping for me), my house has taken a serious hit. I’m so thankful for my friend Cheris who had my kids for something like nine hours yesterday so that they weren’t totally devoid of care.

I’ve decided to close my eyes when I walk limp through my house today so that I can pretend it doesn’t look like a bomb exploded in here.

Not only has my house taken a serious hit, but the chocolate consumption is out of control.

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As I’m preparing for practicum speaking, a truth has become manifest.

Leigh Bortins talks about her vision of “copiousness” for Classical Conversations practicum speakers. Ideally, we would fill ourselves full of skills, content, stories, and ideas, so that we will not be scraping the bottom of the barrel when we are speaking. We don’t merely study what we must to cover the information that we must, but we fill ourselves to overflowing.

And out of abundance, the best, the cream, rises to the top and pours out.

I hope, I pray, that will be the case in reality, as there are other contributing factors—such as the fact that I have never, ever spoken in front of a group like this [gulp!], and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to control anything coming out of my brain and mouth. Inspires confidence in y’all, right? [wry gin]

But there is truth here. What we fill our lives with will come pouring out. What we invest in will be what we are passionate and excited about. Copiousness. Out of abundance.

In our lives as teachers, we must first be learners.

And we must know God in order to make Him known.

[I’ve also personally discovered that when a brain’s capacity is small, overflowing happens very quickly. Ahem.]

5 comments:

Cheryl H said...

Hi Heidi! Remember back to what Andrew Kern said at The Two Andrews about learning from a place of rest. We have to get comfortable with where we are at with a challenge(or subject), whether it be the beginning or somewhere in the middle and be at peace with it, then as you fill yourself up with skills and knowledge it will really stick and you will get to that place of overflowing by doing another thing he suggested...just take the next step. Of course he was speaking to the topic of schooling children, but I think this principle can be applied to any "hard thing" we are doing. You are going to be fabulous. Praying for you as you prepare.

Hannah said...

I can't wait for our eldest boys to meet!

I m going to mull over what you wrote about copiousness for a while. It's not something you hear every day, for sure, but oh, how true. True of knowledge and of experience, including in the spiritual realm. I feel like my personal well (without the motivation of the kind of challenge you're tackling right now) is running pretty low, but I'm determined to use the year abroad to focus on my own education as much as that of my children. I'd love to do more inspiring than requiring!

Anonymous said...

We are praying for your preparations for speaking, Heidi. We have every confidence you will do well. "Copiousness" is a very good idea. I had not ever thought of it that way but it's a very good and important idea to emphasize. Grandma

Brandy said...

I find myself wishing even more that we could let the children play together! Levi could come with us to the shooting range every week :)

Winter was watching the mailbox today, and came away disappointed. The children want to check the mail every single day now. They have figured out how long it takes for their letters to travel back and forth and they are excited and anxious.

I was reading a post last night by the mother of a girl who is also 11 and homeschooled. She wrote about how her daughter loves to read, but when her daughter's friend came over, the friend (who goes to school) asked why her daughter was reading a book ("Did your mom MAKE you read?" she asked). The poor girl felt so awful and didn't want to read, even though she loved it.

Other parents of children the same age chimed, citing all sorts of struggles and frustrations.

I thought of the great group of friends that my daughter has, who almost all love to read. I also thought of Levi, and how Winter cannot wait to share new books with him (she read all of the books that Levi suggested in his last letter and found a few more by the same author to read as well--all last week, of course). She is looking forward to his next letter so that she can have more books to request at the library; books she doesn't know but wants to know. She is hungry for great stories. She also loves that she can share her love of books with someone else who loves books. There is no awkwardness; no lack of fitting in, but just a growing confidence and comfort with her own likes that has been so much fun to see.

Alicia said...

Heidi, You have been on my mind this whole week and I've been doing some serious praying for you! I know God has a plan for all that pours from your mouth even when you don't think it is controlled. God can use us so much more if we only let go and I believe that is the plan for you in July. Have a wonderful week!