We took a rare Sunday afternoon walk this past weekend.  Just the girls, Dear Knight and me–the Boy chose to stay home and get ready for his hockey game later that day.   We drove down to the river then slowly, purposefully, meandered along a trail for about an hour–well, us older folks were slow and meandering…three of the four girls chose to run most of the trail!  The air was warm but not too warm; the company was in high spirits and we were together.  We ended the all too short afternoon with ice cream cones from our favorite little ice cream shop just up the road from the trail head. Truly the Sweet Life.

“Great peace is found in little busy-ness.”
~Geoffrey Chaucer

I have been reading Jane Austen of late…and I mean reading…Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Pride and Prejudice all in the last three weeks.  Currently I am reading Emma…this is the first time I’ve read these books and oh! what I’ve missed!  My mind has been filled with thoughts of gentility, etiquette, reserve, propriety (or lack thereof).  I have made the time to read this much..I’ve made myself less-busy and am the better for it.  I used to read often and for long periods at one sitting.  Then with the arrival of children my time became occupied with other pursuits…but now as the older three find their own interests and the two littles begin to play more and more with each other I find that if I am diligent with guarding our time at home and diligent with using that time well,  I can afford myself time to sit and read…of course the laundry still calls–is it ever really done?  And meals need to be fixed…stomachs always need to be filled. As such, I don’t get long stretches of time to  read but even 30 minutes of reading  feeds my mind with thoughts enough to mull over as I go about my more mundane activities.  I think this is what Charlotte Mason desired for children to experience as they read many books for small periods of time…just enough reading to give one food for thought and a desire and eagerness to pick up the book at a later time to feast some more.

Coram Deo,

Lola