Monday Memories.

Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the Proverbs of Solomon for her godly life. St. Jerome

Liddy was the sort of baby other mothers would kill for. We brought her home from the hospital & she promptly slept through the night; twelve hours straight; from 7pm to 7 am. I'd never had it so good with a new born.

Liddy never cried. When she was hungry she let out one whimper then waited patiently till I could get to her. She was happy to sleep in her own space, fed efficiently, disliked the sling but was happy to be lugged around on a hip. Every which way she was a very easy child.

We were expecting things to change somewhat round about the time she turned two. After all we'd done the *terrible twos* three times but Liddy turned two & continued to be her sweet, serene self. I was starting to worry that the child wasn't quite right.

I had three rough & tumble boys ~ & then I had Liddy. Naturally the boys adored her, spoilt her, treated her like the Queen Bee she so obviously thought she was. She used to march round the place laying down the law to everyone till her father was moved to suggest someone should swat her behind ~ only it wasn't going to be him!

Then one day it happened. Someone actually thwarted her. Liddy was flabbergasted. No was a word she rarely heard. She thought about it for a moment while we waited curiously then she got down on all fours & began feeling the floor. A little crowd of us gathered perplexed as to what Lid thought she was doing. Our floors are uncarpeted hardwood. After patting it tentatively Liddy very gently & carefully lay her head down, got comfortable & began to bellow. Having watched this performance in stunned silence it took us a moment to realise that this was Liddy's version of a tantrum. We began to snigger & within moments Dearest & I were gasping for breath while the tears streamed from our eyes! Oh my! Liddy glanced up from under perfectly dry lashes, saw us howling with laughter & marched off in disgust. As parents we were perfectly useless. There was obviously no point in wasting a perfectly good tantrum on us!

Now Lid doesn't give up easily & she learnt early the maxim you catch more flies with honey than vinegar so she stewed on her failure for some days but she finally found a solution & I caught her telling someone with perfect seriousness, "But I might cry!" Obviously there was no greater threat this child could offer the world. Exasperated I told her that in that case she would just have to cry!

Liddy found pre~school difficult. It was very competitive & she was bored . After all she'd been doing pre~school with her brothers for years. I pulled her out, a quieter, more anxious child whose confidence had been badly shaken by the whole school scene, & we continued as a twosome at home: coffee & cake with the girls, baking & gardening & lots of cuddling up together reading. I know we did all these things ~ a long string of days that have blurred together in memory ~but one day stands out from all the others.

All my life I have kept cats but since moving to the island we hadn't had one. Dearest just kept saying no. I hankered after a cat so when neighbours found a stray kitten on their waterfront that they didn't want my name got bandied around. I went to look but made no promises, Dearest had to agree, but I had Lid with me & that poor cat! Part Siamese, cream with ginger points & the bluest of blue eyes he was ragged, filthy & black with fleas. Liddy promptly fell in love. Liddy who never begged begged to keep him. At that point I was simply delighted to see the sparkle in her eyes, hear the assurance in her voice.

I let Liddy carry the poor thing home, cradling him oh so very carefully. She helped me bath him so he wasn't so flea ridden, & dry him with a soft towel & when her brothers came round the bend in the road she rushed to greet them with this most exciting of news. It was bedlam but that cat coped admirably. He always did. He was just forever grateful that he had found a home where he was loved.

Liddy loved that cat. As she had been with me the day we brought him home she was with me the day he died. We hadn't realised how sick he was. It was Liddy who wrapped him warmly & carried him to the vet but when we got the news of how sick he was she refused to come in with me. " I might cry..." Yes indeed. She wasn't the only one.

A God Story.

"I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing" William James

Second day down without a fuss. Liddy drove us in without trauma or incident & we hoyed Ditz out to be bored to tears while we took ourselves off to the cinema. Not real good choices but seeing Liddy had been at a 21st the night before & crashed at her brother's she wasn't feeling real bright & sparkly this morning when we picked her up & even the Ugly Truth was preferable to large amounts of exercise & bright sunshine.

Eventually the PR pics should go up on the VM site & I hope to be able to link anyone interested. Individual shots were done as well as group ones ~ CV stuff I guess. Who knows. Anyway I thought now might be a good time to tell the story of how we fell into Vocal Manoeuvres because in my wildest dreams I never expected to be doing this stuff.

I have mentioned, once or twice, that my Ditz has a little trouble counting, that my Ditz is social to the point of lunacy, that my Ditz likes to sing like a canary....It's hard remembering back to a time when music didn't consume a large part of our week but such a time did indeed exist.

Once upon a time we began piano as an adjunct to Ditz's math & we toddled along with Ditz learning her music basics. To piano we added violin because Ditz insisted she wanted to learn & violin was almost her undoing. So when the local primary school decided it wanted a school band & declared the auditions open Ditz was champing at her bit. Because it was local I agreed Ditz could audition, not really expecting her to gain a place. She did. And she was also offered a place in the school choir. I began juggling our school schedule around Ditz's music commitments. The school band folded within 12 months & I was left with a distressed child so we commuted 2 islands over so she could join the other school band.

All this was just falling in Ditz's lap but it was, you know, fairly laid back. Not a big deal. It was nice Ditz liked music. It was nice she could sing in tune. It was nice she could play an instrument. It was nice she was improving & had the chance to play in a band with other musicians.

Then we went over for flute the last day of 3rd term & a flyer, literally, fell in our lap. Musicians were workshopping over the school holidays for what used to be known locally as the Strawberry Festival. Local opportunities are rare. Unfortunately Ditz knew that as well as I did. She begged. I made a phone call. Mistake numero uno. The council were keen to boast the islanders were being included in their cultural reach & offered us free transport. We took it. Second mistake.

For 2 weeks straight Ditz got the sort of training she now takes for granted. She worked her butt off to find her feet in a semi~professional ensemble. She really grew musically & she loved performing. When it was all over I could literally see the distress of being back paddling in a pool of mediocrity. Ditz went into mourning. She didn't nag. She didn't beg. She simply wilted ~ visibly.

Dearest, who is an absolute sucker when it comes to his daughters, begged me to do something. I made enquiries. I thought the audition would be the end of it. Ditz had never in her life sung a capella in cold blood for anyone & I couldn't see her starting now but she chose a song & learnt it off by heart & she sang a capella in cold blood. It was nerve wracking ~ & I was only watching!

There wasn't even any quibbling; Ditz was in! OKaaaay....We toddled off to orientation & the lights started going on for me. This was not some hokey~pokey choir got together by amateurs for a bit of fun. Nor siree. This was serious business. This had musical clout. This had Reputation. So much so that if Ditz wasn't keen I'd have her out like a shot because it is too cruel, too full~on, too rigorous for a child who isn't serious about what they are doing. I would never in a thousand years put a young child into something so full on but Ditz has thrived. Nope, I wouldn't have done it but God knew Ditz needed this & He had put everything in place so Ditz had enough music background that when the opportunity arrived she was able to grab it with both hands ~ & I was totally clueless. I couldn't worry & fret about what I didn't know about. Now I worry & fret but I can also see that Ditz has fallen into something really special, something Dearest & I would never have thought we could provide for her...but her father in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Guess he sold a few off just for Ditz.

Brisbane...

Anthea: All my friends are leaving Brisbane.
Michael: Get new friends. ~ All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane

One day down...& better than anticipated. I wasn't driving; always good. Congenial company; excellent. Ditz finished earlier than expected; super~duper.

Photo shoot tomorrow at Southbank. Looking good.

Answering Questions.

I have no particular talent, I am merely extremely inquisitive.~ Albert Einstein

What does your school day look like - care to share? What curriculum, if any, are you using, and what do you like or dislike about it? What are the things that are most important to you in your homeschooling journey, and to God?

Jillian, over here, is asking about homeschooler's days. We have a 2 pronged attack. Ditz has an academic program & a music program. Of the two music is the more important. Ditz has decided she wants to work in the music field so she learns 3 instruments: violin, piano & flute. The theory from these helped get her into AVAE, which is a vocal ensemble & routinely throws our academics into chaos with extra rehearsals & performances but it is performance oriented, small, & believes in showcasing individual voices. We believe it is giving Ditz an unprecedented grounding in music & preparing her beautifully to cope in a fairly hostile environment. The tale of how we joined the ensemble is one of complete ineptness & ignorance on our part, providence & grace on God's!

Anyone who has read here for a while knows all about Ditz & her music driving me slightly loopy but we do have an academic program that is a little more eclectic than most. We use Sonlight as our spine for English & history. This is a literature rich program using *living books.* I tweak it fairly heavily because Sonlight is a quite rigorous academic program ~ which does not suit Ditz. She tends to be academically lazy & the way she learns best is not very conducive to being able to *show & tell* for the powers that be. To the reading & map work I add 1, just one, research paper a term, which operates more as a unit study than anything else. For example this term Ditz has elected to research Gypsies.

Ditz is a very visual learner & can look at plenty of stuff on~line & she pores over the pictures in the books we have though they tend to be fairly unreadable for a 14 yr old, not because they are particularly difficult or have esoteric vocab, but because they are academic in nature & you wade through a lot of guff before you get to the point & that is not something that suits Ditz. I'm enjoying them! ☺ And passing along the information.

What I have learnt from using Sonlight is that a good story will often teach better than anything else so I have got hold of a copy of Rumor Goddon's The Diddakoi as a read~a~loud. We have 2 chapters left to go. While I read Ditz will often sit & draw; it helps her focus & fits in her art nicely.

Ditz & I naturally tend to *immersion* learning. We get obsessed on one thing until we get tired of it so there may be weeks when we focus primarily on history & barely touch her other subjects. I try to combine immersion with a more regular schedule so Monday is for English, music history [from Beautiful Feet] & Home Ec [from Christian Light]. Tuesday is math day. Ditz is never happy. Math is our worst subject. We moved from Math~U~See this year because we just got completely lost & Ditz now has an individualised program through our umbrella school but is still struggling. She just has no interest & resents the time it takes from the things that do interest her.

Thursday is for History because Ditz is usually quite tired after music all day Wednesday & all the travelling & I usually do the reading while Ditz colours & does the map work. Friday is science day & a drama class in the evening. We use Apologia for science. I chose it for being very scientifically presented but I may change back to Abeka as Ditz couldn't give two hoots about scientific accuracy so we may as well go with something less rigorous that she enjoys better. The drama compliments what we are doing with her English work.

We do academics for 3 hours in the morning starting with a bible chapter [Leviticus at the moment & very gruesome it is too!] then Ditz is free to do artwork, computer work & music practise after lunch. I am flexible about start times so long as Ditz works solidly without fuss.

I have 5 kids ~ two of whom could be considered exceptionally bright. Brightness is over~rated. It creates it's own set of problems & one of those is a dislike of set academic work. You can imagine the sort of conflict this can create. Ditz is no. 5 & I have learnt you can't force feed a kid knowledge so I tend to try & work with Ditz's strengths as much as possible, minimise her weaknesses & not worry too much otherwise. I know she knows how to learn, how to find out what she needs to know & that is the most important thing academically.

We chose to homeschool for lots of different reasons & started pulling our kids out of the school system once we found them falling through the gaps. Kinesthetic learners tend to not do well in schools. I also taught in the public school so I know first hand the amount of time wasted & the sort of busy work that constitutes so much of a normal student's day. I consider little real learning ever takes place. I know Ditz often has trouble showing what she has learnt but that is understandable when her primary means of communication & self~expression are non~verbal; music & art. Ditz culls a lot of knowledge visually: T.V., DVDs, movies, artwork, pictures ~ & these are not generally considered acceptable ways of showing what one has learnt. This means I have to have courage to trust the way I feel God is leading us to educate our child ~ not easy for me as I am very academically inclined myself!

I don't fuss about it but God undergirds all our learning & I have a long list of blessings He has showered upon us over the years: moving us into a Christian umbrella school, Christian curriculum, the curriculum I really wanted for Ditz, instruments & teachers just falling into Ditz's lap at the right times.

Homeschooling has got harder as Ditz has got older because Ditz decided very early on what she wanted to do with her life & everything that is not to her purpose she wishes to discard ~ only the powers that be insist she remain on this sort of *liberal* education that gives a little of something in a wide variety of subjects, most of which bore Ditz to tears. When it come to her education Ditz has an obsessive one track mind & if it was left up to her she would do nothing but music & art. You can never have too much of either though my life would be a good bit simpler if other people also considered them viable & genuine career choices.

Slippery~slides & merry~go~rounds.

To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. Mary Oliver

Life gets too much at times, out of control & spinning wildly. Maybe it's just me. I don't cope so well when things start piling up. I'm a one thing at a time person. When I try juggling I drop things. Now I am grabbing at this month just trying to stay sane.

This month is so out of control poor old Ditz has to wait on her birthday present because we have so much on & it all takes money. Ditz isn't fazed about waiting on her present. Ditz, like me, is far more worried about us having to find our way right across town on Saturday. I asked Liddy to drive. Between Lid & I we do better but Liddy now has to work so it is down to Ditz & I. We are such right brainers we need a left brained Liddy when it comes to maps. Ditz will say right & mean left & I will turn right when I need to go left because it all looks the same to me on a map! Useless!

I thought this weekend was free but it's not. I am already a cot case though Dearest has promised to work out a route for me using the refedex & I will write everything out for Ditz ~ how many street lights before we turn, how many round~a~bouts, the names of the streets etc Yes, I know. It's too sad but at least that way we have some chance of negotiating Brisbane. It is such a maze & all the music places seem to be in impossible to get to places. We won't even go into what I am going to be able to find to do for close on 8 hours!

The following weekend is the MBC concert ~ but we at least know we can find our way there! OK, I still have to be there all day but I've put my hand up to help out so that works ~ only Liddy has opted to come & she hasn't offered, though she probably will now. Oh well.

If it was either or I would be fine but not only do we have both followed by something else but none of our regular stuff stops either. Plus this is the term Ditz does The Dream; she is Demetrius. Normally when I start getting frazzled I cut the drama back but as I actually want Ditz to do the Shakespeare I'm stuck with it. I don't think doing his plays is making Ditz like him any better but she at least is getting an understanding of Elizabethan English, & Shakespeare's world & I don't have to fight with her about it. She chooses to do this & I just let her rip. At one point I entertained the idea of auditioning for a small part but I thought better of it. I seriously don't need the stress. I have enough to do without memorising antiquated English verse. Yes, I do, & frankly Ditz finds memorising him easier than I do. She just memorises ~ which is probably smart. I like him to make sense so I analyze & start sidetracking & sometimes I derail completely. Derailing is not a good option at present. Focus is what I need.

It is true that only one thing at a time will happen but somehow I have to keep the whole in mind & be well planned ahead because I have to allow for all the extra expenses ~ boats & theatre tickets, exam costs [due this week when the exam isn't till November & I'm betting that's not the entire cost because there a little thing known as an accompanist who has to be paid as well], parking spaces in town, petrol & food. Singing makes Ditz ravenous & no matter how much I pack it is never enough. In this process not only do I have to get all Ditz's uniforms through the wash & dry, they must be ironed, & not only ironed but starched!!! I am a woman who irons nothing under ordinary circumstances. Yes, Ditz will do her own ironing & starching & she is very good about keeping her music things all organized ~ make~up kit, deodorant, spare hair ribbons & elastics, the right music easily accessible, hair brush, dress shoes clean & polished, cat hairs removed from her black dress pants ~ Just the same I keep a mental tab because once we are on that boat it's just too bad if she has forgotten anything! Ditto for me. You have no idea of the frustration of being half~way across the bay & discovering the car keys are still sitting on their hook on the wall!

All this is manageable ~ when I am well. When I am well I fuss but I cope. I am not well. Whatever we have in this house involves a raging headache that comes & goes. One or other of us always has it. Me on Monday, Liddy Tuesday, Dearest Sunday, Ditz on Saturday. Now I have it back with our usual very full Wednesday & when that happens I often end up with a full blown migraine. I cannot afford to have migraines this month. I don't have time for them. Did I mention I need to stay focused?

What was it God said about each day having enough troubles of it's own & his grace being sufficient unto the day? I am immensely grateful that somehow, some way, He will work everything out. The money will stretch just enough & no further. The car has been fixed & is running like a dream. Liddy did stock~take this week when I was available to sort out her weird hours & not next week when I'm not here. That when it comes to early starts & late finishes for music Ditz is accommodating & sweet tempered through all difficulties. I am grateful for vitamin B pills. Oh yes! I am very grateful.

NOT, Tuesday's Trivia.

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education. - Sir Walter Scott

Don't tell me God doesn't have an exceptional sense of humour.

I read the books, you know. Without. exception. they told a charming tale of self motivated children scoring above national percentiles in standardized tests. They had the pictures to prove it: children sitting at desks or around the kitchen table diligently studying their math or science & reading at college levels in grade 4.

I waited. Ditz was young & flighty. I was doing as all the books said: choosing curriculum for her learning style, providing "enrichment" activities, working at her pace, appreciating her valuable uniqueness & it made not an iota of difference. Ditz was learning resistant.

No that's not quite true. Ditz only resists that which the state dictates she should learn. I have the proof. Ditz had her singing lesson Saturday lunchtime. By Sunday afternoon she was word perfect in 3 new songs & pretty much had the music down pat as well. Every day that child disappears into her room without a word to anyone & the muted sound of practise drifts through the house. If, per chance, I should stick my head round her door, she is bolt upright in her *default position* diligently applying every instruction she has ever received about singing.

It's true that for years I have had to nag her about *practise* for flute & violin but suddenly there has been a shift. Ditz's timing is lousy but when the news comes on each evening, & her father immerses himself in the woes of the world, it's Ditz's cue to grab her flute & head upstairs. These days she watches t.v with her guitar in her lap memorising chords. When the adds come on she practises her strumming.

Everything I have ever had to say on education all down the years, everything I've ever read about self motivated learning Ditz applies ~ to music! And to music alone. We do our best with the other subjects but Ditz is just going through the motions. Everything I've tried so hard to drum into that child I see applied to her music: hard work [don't ever tell me music isn't hard work after having a child nearly in tears because their diaphragm hurts so much!]; diligence; perseverance; self~motivation; immersion. God gave me what I wanted ~ just not in the way I was expecting!

Fourteen years ago today Ditz entered this world, a round roly~poly child with dimples in places I didn't even know you could get dimples! She had a cap of red fuzz & no eyelashes ~ which made her look like an alien. I knew we were in for an interesting ride when the child said her first words [words, plural! A complete sentence!] at just 5 months old. And she was bribable. I like being able to put a child down & know she will still be there 5 minutes later but Liddy thought Ditz should walk & to this end dangled luscious red strawberries before the child's eyes. When there were no more strawberries she used chocolate.

Ditz has been loved & petted & fussed over by everyone, which is the prerogative of the youngest child but for years she was very much my shadow. At 14 she is finally flowering into her own person. Yes, music is very much a part of who Ditz is but she is so much more. She is kindness itself. She can't bear any sort of cruelty to others. She is warm & generous. She has a marvelous sense of humour & a sunny disposition. We waited a long time to get Ditz but she was worth the wait & has blessed our lives enormously. ♥♥♥Happy Birthday, Ditz!♥♥♥

Sing like a Canary.

Truly to sing, that is a different breath. ~Rainer Maria Rilke



Ditz has been done like a dog's dinner. Liddy & I were beside ourselves. No, we're not being mean. We get a lot of *temperament* from Ditz, a lot of unwarranted theatrics, a lot of pseudo drama & while it can be good fun it is also very wearing & from Liddy's point of view proof positive that her little sister is a complete nut job. To see Ditz meet her match was just too entertaining for words.

Liddy, who tends to regard all theatre types with an extremely jaundiced eye because sane people just do not behave in the extreme sorts of ways that music & theatre sorts do ~ so by definition all arts types are ripe for the loony bin ~ insisted on coming with us to Ditz's singing lesson to do the driving for me. I warned Ditz she would probably be singing scales ~ & so she was. All the way in in the car we suffered Ditz ooohing & aahing & ninging away so her voice was on pitch & nice & relaxed for her lesson. Liddy was nearly beside herself. As I'd tried to dissuade her from coming I wasn't overly sympathetic. I have had a lot of experience of Ditz in a confined space the last two years & am perfectly capable of driving serenely through this particular Ditzism. Besides, understandably, Ditz was a little nervous & when Ditz gets nervous her more aggravating peculiarities are uppermost.

As it turned out Ditz didn't do much singing at all. Alison is very happy with her voice & began rattling through her cupboards pulling out music ~ bray vocal exercises, As long as he needs me from Oliver Twist [Ditz should sound wonderful with this one], Yea Bank & Braes by Robbie Burns [which I've always thought is just lovely] & Cowles Lurking in the Pond because it suites Ditz's personality. We don't know it but it is a funny with a swing tune & ends with a be~bop de doo! which Ditz really will enjoy! Casually, in passing, Alison mentioned this was Ditz's grade 3 exam work. Ditz nearly died on the spot! Liddy & I clutched each other howling silently. Alison just took it for grated Ditz would do her exams & no~one, ever, argues with Alison, not even Ditz. Just, no nonsense, you do your exams, girl. More than capable of grade 3. Torpedoed & Ditz never even saw it coming!

Meanwhile Alison put together a CD with the notes & the accompaniment so Ditz can practise & we have our very own homeschool singing program because, " You're used to doing this, aren't you!" OK. Hm. Ditz is still in shock but these will be the Trinity exams rather than the AMBE ones. I've heard people speak disparagingly of the Trinity exams but Alison just said they are performance motivated rather than geared to AMBE "performing monkey" ones. I have no idea except the AMBE ones so did Ditz's head space in we have had issues ever since. They are simply terrifying ~ & seem meant to terrify & what is the point of that?

Ditz was very quiet in the car afterwards but we took her out to the point where the Dawn Treader is being built & had a look at the *hull in progress*. All the fancy trim is still lying all over the grass but the hull itself is now in one piece & looks very like a real, if rather small, sailing ship. The we went home & Liddy, who had nabbed a couple of DVD's while we were out, put in St Trinians ~ which I was a little dubious about, but it was terribly funny & after about 5 minutes Ditz was laughing, a little colour came back into her wan cheeks & the horrified look in her eyes faded somewhat.

So happy it is not me what wants to sing like a canary & has to do these thing!

"The Doll" ~ Papusza

"Not far from us lived a Jewish shopkeeper. I stole a chicken and took it to her, and she taught me how to read in return. And then I began to read various books and newspapers. I can read well, but my writing is awful because I read a lot and didn't write much." Papusza

Sometimes when you are researching you come across something that breaks your heart.

We, of a generation that saw the genocide of WWII, of Stalinist Russia & Mao's China, Vietnam & Pol Pot, are inured to mass tragedy. It is simply impossible to individually mourn so many. It is individual tragedy that still has the power to shatter carefully constructed barriers & strip the heart raw.

Ditz has missed it. She borrowed the book Bury Me Standing from the library & tossed it aside as being too difficult & not to her purposes. I opened it & the first thing I read was the story of Papusza. Even when I tell Ditz she won't be impressed but Papusza will haunt me now all my days.

Papusza was Polish Rom. She was a gorgeous looking woman, smart, sensitive, ambitious but she was Rom at a time when most Roms were illiterate, Her desire for an education, to be able to read & write, was frowned upon & she was beaten for it. Her desire was so strong she stole to achieve her ambition. She was also female. The Roms married their girls off at 13 or so & Papusza was married off to a much older man, a renowned harpist, & was deeply, deeply unhappy. For a Romany woman there was no way out. A man could leave; a woman could not. Children might have helped but she did not have children. Instead she sang.

Soon Papusza began writing her own songs. Not unusual. The Romany have always been renowned for their music & like many illiterate peoples can commit huge amounts of information to memory. Like generations of Rom before her her songs would have lasted for as long as it took to sing them & dispersed amongst the stars & fire smoke but that was not to be her fate. She was heard by a Polish poet who mentored her, got her published, advocated for the settlement of the Rom & inadvertently destroyed Papusza.

The Rom considered her a traitor for divulging Rom secrets to the gadj & shunned her. Her distress landed her in a mental asylum & quenched her creativity. Except for one brief period she never wrote again living isolated from all that made her who she was: her people, the long road of the Rom, her music. Nobody noticed when she died in 1978 but she is celebrated as one of the most brilliant & evocative of Romany singer/poets.

From: Tears of Blood.

So much snow fell,
it covered the road.
One could only see the Milky Way in the sky.

On such night of frost
a little daughter dies,
and in four days
mothers bury in the snow
four little sons.
Sun, without you,
see how a little Gypsy is dying from cold
in the big forest.

She survived the persecution of the Germans but not that of her own people. I cannot imagine her suffering. I hope that God has had mercy on her soul & she has found in the afterlife more grace & mercy than she received in this world.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor...

'Only human beings have motives, so they alone can be cruel.' Romani quote

Sometimes I am lucky & what Ditz wants to learn runs in tandem with things that interest me but our study on the Romany has been sidetracking me more than usual.

For starters I thought Kubla Khan was a figment of Coleridge's drug induced imagination but in fact the man really existed. He was a grandson of Genghis Khan, that ferocious Mongolian tartar ~ which is important to know because at the end of his reign his troops [& those of Mahmud of Ghanzi whom I'd never even heard of {sultan of Afghanistan in the 900s}] were rabbiting about north west India at the mouth of the Indus river where an Aryan people of the Sind lived a semi~nomadic life. Aryan life being more important than other life [echos of Hitler?] the Sind emigrated east & west & up into Armenia & Turkey spreading slowly throughout Europe over the next 400 years. Ok, they aren't sure why the Sind emigrated but they do know from linguistic evidence & DNA that the present day Romany Gypsy is descended from the Sind ~ & the time frame is about right.

I could be sidetracked forever just on the first bit but Ditz, as was only to be expected, declared this fascinating insight boring. Unfortunately for Ditz I happen to think a little background knowledge is important but knowing Ditz diverted into finding out about the traditional vardo {wagon} ~ only to find it is not so traditional & has only been in use for about 150 years & is now usually replaced with motorised transport. I was mesmerized for hours clicking on all the images of gorgeous wagons. I can't help it. I'm a visual learner.

Hopefully I can find some useful stuff on Romany music as well. That is sure to interest Ditz, especially if I can show her the link to some famous composers. Nothing like studying something you know nothing about to find out how little you know about anything! And I know very little at all about music history. And this, folks, is why I love homeschooling!

The menu merry~go~round

If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat? ~Author Unknown

I do not like to cook & I do not enjoy having to think about food though I am not adverse to eating a good meal if I have had nothing to do with its actual preparation. That being the case it is taking Ditz & I some time to make a complete change from carnivorous habits to vegetarian ones.



Part of the problem is that Dearest is strictly a *meat & 3 veg* man. He is perfectly happy to get a good plain meal, minus all spices & condiments, on his plate 7 nights a week. Boring is the name of the game.



Liddy & Theo are actually quite adventurous but strictly carnivorous so whatever I cook has to be an acceptable side dish to the meat lovers so it has taken a while to get even 3 or 4 main dishes happening that everyone actually likes.

So far we have: quiche ~ though I often add shredded ham to this to appease the meat lovers. Theo doesn't think much of this. Shredded ham is not meat in his opinion; Ditz begs to differ but not enough to pull it all out & set it aside. Quiche however is something we actually all like. Fried Rice. I put so much veggie in ours as well as egg it makes a very hearty & substantial meal for Ditz & I & this is the one meal Dearest will eat without meat, especially if I sneak shredded ham in. [Like I said, going strictly vegetarian is proving a little difficult but we are persevering.] Nut Patties. This one I particularly love, being a huge nut lover! It has 5 varieties of nuts; I just use whatever is in the cupboard but it is time~consuming to prepare & I am reluctant to make it unless I know I have oodles of time. Dearest also loves these so I don't get leftovers! I have a mixed vegetable stir~fry swimming in ginger & coconut milk which is very yummy, very rich & nowhere near as healthy as it should be. No~one else is real keen on it. Spring rolls are a goer but again require more time than I often have. All us girls love a sweet omelet with fruit but again this requires lots & lots of time & time is a commodity often in short supply.



Then there are the not quite successes. Egg & potato dum was one of these. Everyone quite liked the potato & curry. No~one liked the fried eggs. I may try this again minus the eggs but without them it is nowhere near filling enough as a main meal & not really worth the preparation effort to make the curry. We have tried the nut meats & meat supplements on the market but they're pretty disgusting. Ditz quite likes the bacon alternatives & will fry them up with baked beans & toast. I don't really like beans so I opt for a poached egg on toast. Don't even mention tofu to Ditz!



I have been perusing cookery books ~ an unheard of pastime for me ~ but for every book I am lucky to get even one recipe we can use & that is plain disheartening. Food is difficult enough for me without it looking & tasting disgusting. No~one wants a plate of things that look like long brown worms, or baby spew or something the cat couldn't quite digest. I am going to experiment with vegetable crepes I think, especially coming into summer when we can do lots & lots of salads but with all the vegetarians around these days you'd think someone would have come up with plenty of healthy & edible alternatives! No, it's not going to be me. I have other fish to fry...no, not literally; I don't eat seafood, not ever. YUK! *sigh* Now who's idea was this again, Ditz?