CPQ July Newsletter
Are you ready to begin lessons? We’ll start lessons sometime in August. I am excited but not in a hurry. Time is mischievous, but I’m learning to play its game. I’m at a place where homeschooling is the easiest thing I’ve got going on. It’s part of me, part of us, like a secret family recipe—like my mother-in-law’s green chili. Don’t ask her for the recipe. You’ve got to watch her make it. You’ve got to feel it. And in all seriousness, it’s got to be made with Love. This isn’t just a sentiment on a sign you can buy at Hobby Lobby.
Homeschooling is samesies. My husband asked me what else I needed to do to plan for the year, and I told him nothing. We’re ready to go. There’s nothing left to do but watch it come together. I need to get my hands in it to feel it. It’s the only way to make it with love. I’ve laid out some plans, but they’re just a bunch of water-filled stone jars. My only expectation is that Someone is going to Show Up. I’ve got no wine, and I’m always feeling a little empty, but that is the best place to be. That’s where the miracles are. This is why I’m convinced, after all these years, I still get excited when it’s time to start another year.
-Mariah
Speaking of green chili, I wrote a poem about my mil teaching me to make it. Maybe there’s a metaphor in it for us. ; )
Let me teach you how to make green chili Exactly how she taught me: cut up your pork / add it to the pan / with a little oil / you see?
Mince up some garlic / add it at the end / then sprinkle a bit of flour, too. Let it brown until it looks like peanut butter / if it burns a little / that adds flavor / it’ll do.
Then add a few diced tomatoes / chopped green chilis / stir for a bit / let it sit / you’ll know when it’s ready / then add your broth / as much as you see fit.
Bring it to a boil / add salt / let it simmer / That’s it / it’s finished / it’s done. You just learn to feel it / to tell by seeing / How can you ask for a recipe? There is none!
On The CPQ Blog
The blog has been quiet this summer as we are busy summering.
More coming soon!
Behind the Scenes
Personhood is getting the finishing touches before it heads to print
Goodness is ready for layout
Book articles are in copyedit
Things articles are being written
A Freebie For You!
A reading tracker for Home Education that doubles as a bookmark! Bite-sized readings to help you read Charlotte’s own words here a little, there a little.
CPQ in the Wild
Did you get to a conference this summer? Copies of CPQ were sent to the CMEC’s Summer Retreat, CMI’s Joy of Making conference, the Set Your Feet Retreat, and Alveary Grove’s Retreat for giveaways!
We also spied Common Place Quarterly on a new-to-us website!
They share:
Common Place Quarterly is a modern subscription based, quarterly print magazine designed and written by a team of dedicated CM moms. “It is a project that has brought together a variety of Mason mothers to create something of beauty and substance.”
Giveaway coming!
Make sure you follow us on Instagram, so you don’t miss all the hoopla! We are excited to giveaway books and more that will educate, encourage, inspire, and delight our readership on their home education journeys.
The giveaway is coming later in August!
Blast from the Past
A mother may wonder why she should point her impressionable young children toward the beauty of Beethoven and Bach, when she herself cumulated her music education by memorizing Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” in high school piano lessons and by making a bright orange, tumorous-mushroom-like pinch pot whistle in college pottery class. (It didn’t whistle.) In music, the sound of chaos is often made by playing augmented fourths or alternatively, having seven-year-old play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star variations on a ¾ cello.
There’s a responsibility involved when we decide to love something. I have learned this truth in Madeline L’Engle’s declaration in Walking on Water: “we do not have to be qualified; the gift is free; and yet we have to pay for it.” Showing up a little bit each day to receive our gifts is often a painful practice, but necessary.
Maybe you are the mother afraid of wasting time and money, afraid of looking like a fool with your ugly whistle, your child’s discordant sounds. Pay your debts anyway and be generous about it. “Generosity is costly, because it is always disbursing, be it the contents of the heart or of the purse; but it is also remunerative, for it has been said, “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together; and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” (V. 4 Bk 1, p.105)
From JoAnn Hallum in our Art of Music issue
Get To Know The Editors
What’s Cara…
Reading: so many books for HS and The Horse and His Boy with the kids (I’ve never read the whole Chronicles of Narnia and every year I say, “This is the year!” and then it’s not. But, truly, this is the year.
Buying: the last of our school books
Listening to: All the Flavia de Luce books.
Eating: those little snack packs from Costco with cheese and nuts and craisins.
Watching: Men’s Olympic Gymnastics
Making: spaghetti on the fly
Fixing: A big hole I put in our kitchen when I pulled out a bookshelf that was covering an old door.
Writing: My letter from the Editor for Personhood
Thinking about: Creating special memories with my kids.
What’s Mariah…
Reading: The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, and The Man Who Was Thursday
Buying: biology lab supplies
Listening to: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Eating: Ribs hot off the smoker
Watching: pigweed growing in my garden faster than I can pull it.
Drinking: some iced tea
Thinking about: the essay “In His Own Power He Must Go” out of Karen Glass’ new book Much May Be Done with Sparrows and making some changes.
Learning: how to parent an adult child—there’s a lot of smiling, a lot of keeping my mouth shut, and definitely more prayer.
What’s Sarah…
Reading: Habits for a Sacred Home, The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man: A Novel by Jonas Jonasson
Listening to: CAIN on repeat. My older kids and I just performed “Lifeline” at a church celebration, and we probably heard that song about 50 times.
Buying: More computers since there are three in high school now. My house is about to look like a good old-fashioned computer lab.
Thinking about: What should boredom look like for teens? In little kids it breeds creativity, but does the same hold true for teens? And if it doesn’t hold true, but it should, what is my role as a parent?
Eating: chili beans. From a can. With a lot of cheese. Comfort meal when I’m feeling lazy.
Watching: my first episode from The Chosen. My kids have been watching and telling me about it. I really love how normal all the disciples are. It’s a good reminder.
Drinking: hot chocolate. The temp dropped below 80 finally.
Learning: how to calm down emotional teenagers. I appreciate that there is a developing ability to reason with them (even if they aren’t always reasonable).