However Imperfectly

This is the most controversial of Mason's Principles. Join me as we look at what this principle is telling us about the natural laws of education, namely that there is good and evil in the world and what that means for moms and teachers of children being raised in the 21st Century.

Mason wants mothers to understand the natural laws that affect our children and hinder or help our work as mothers so that we will joyfully fulfill our God-given role to guide and direct our them.

Read on Substack and go through the reflection questions

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There’s nothing more humbling than holding a freshly born babe complete with those glorious first cries and skin so soft it feels like you are touching heaven itself.

Looking at that face for the first time, seeing those baby rolls, and thinking about all the possibilities ahead for this dear one make those dawning moments touch the divine and help us to come into contact with the miraculous nature of human life. Motherhood begins with many hopes, there are some fears, to be sure, but we get the privilege of standing at the beginning of a new story, a new life, a new person and walking them through their childhood, helping them journey into adulthood and finally, Lord willing, we launch them into adulthood where we fully pass off the governance of their lives to the man or woman who must stand on their own, ready or not. 

Read this post and grab the reflections questions that go with it here.

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If you want to be effective with your Nature Study work, check out my Nature Study Hacking Guides. Learn how to get outside and use those lovely nature journals.

Welcome to Season #2 of the However Imperfectly Podcast. This season we will be diving into Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles because they help us see our children and our goals for their education clearly. Getting to know these principles encourages us to move from mechanically implementing booklists, checklists, and systems to educate our children and toward being fully alive to our own duties given by God to help our families thrive. Modern homeschool advice is generally about how to save time and energy so that homeschooling can be easier through open-and-go curriculums. What we need are not more tips and tricks, but guardrails to help us realize our freedom and limits as teachers not so that our life can be easier by doing less, but that we will know where to spend our time and energy so that our work will be effective, fruitful, and joyful.

As summer beckons us with her long days, late nights, and leisurely ways, let’s pause to consider a few questions before it melts away and the new school year is before us. What is a person and how are they formed? How ought we spend our time this summer? How does this time form us? What do we owe to our children these summer days? What, before the Lord, should we consider before one day melts into the next with delicious rest and rejuvenation?

Today we consider these questions and I also give links to the tools I use to keep our home humming for the summer months!

Read over on Substack:

Check out my Nature Study Hacking products to learn how to get outside and use a nature journal here:

Rest is essential to human flourishing. Rest is both a gift and a human right that will not only help us enter into the good blessings God offers us spiritually and relationally but will restore our bodies from the labors of this life and allow us to flourish mind, body, and soul.

Raising children is the best way to find out one’s weaknesses. Perhaps you thought you were a fairly good citizen. You always thought of others when taking turns at the post office and you never took more than your portion of ice cream at the birthday party.

But having children seems to expose the lazy and selfish parts of ourselves. That’s why we need the help from others who’ve been there too and can help us navigate through the cultural sludge and learn to see our work as an act of worship. 

We truly can learn to love the work that must be done. I’m pleased to share with you my interview with my homemaking mentor Mystie Winkler. She recently released her spectacular book, Simplified Organization where she helps us understand that the work we have to do is truly good work and that we can learn to love it.

This interview and Mystie’s book wrap up our miniseries here on However Imperfectly about Routines That Bless.

You will see that Mystie has also needed to work on her habits to weave peace and blessing into her home and we are confident that you can do the same in yours. Enjoy!

Buy Mystie's Book here.

Simply Convivial Membership - mentorship for homemakers:

Schole Sisters:

My nature study support guides are available at ⁠⁠⁠naturestudyhacking.com

Two Women Talking by a Gate Camille Corot

In my years of motherhood, I’ve met many friends who are better housekeepers than I am. Some of them just come by it naturally.

I come by it with effort and thoughtful deliberation.

I’m easily distracted by the dimples on my children’s faces, the lure of a good book and the conversation with a friend. If you are naturally clean and tidy, you may not understand the need for a pep talk to keep your home in order and to do thus on repeat until that last little one grows up gets married and, Lord willing, brings grandchildren into your home to make messes all over again.

For the rest of us, we need the reminder that keeping a reasonably clean house is worth the effort and will bear fruit for years to come in the form of memories set on the stage of a home that is peaceful to live in. We would all like to sow peace.

Let’s take a look at six practical reasons to do this good work!

Check out the transcript on ⁠⁠However Imperfectly on Substack⁠⁠.

My nature study support guides are available at ⁠⁠naturestudyhacking.com⁠

Picture: Horse Drawn Cabs at Evening, New York

Childe Hassam

One of the gifts of motherhood is to overhear a child humming or singing softly while playing or doing chores only to discover they are singing a hymn we learned in church or during our family devotions. Is there anything more precious than listening to children’s voices singing praises to God? 

To hear a child sing as loud as possible: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea” is to enter into the eternal throne room where we will all be lifting up our voices in worship. It’s a gift and duty to teach our children about their creator…

Check out the transcript on ⁠However Imperfectly on Substack⁠.

My nature study support guides are available at ⁠naturestudyhacking.com

Picture: The Thankful Poor by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Today I have a treat for you. We are going to step back in time to 1905. At this time, Ms. Mason was sending out her Mother’s Education Course correspondences and farmers were leaving the countryside to find work in the cities of America. This was a time filled with innovation and excitement for new discoveries and technologies were being made to make life more comfortable for more people. But as the Industrial Revolution made its way through the Western World, it affected the way American Women were seeing themselves and their work in the home. In 1905, most women stayed home and raised their children and even if they worked, their children were right there with them. World War I changed that. It took women out of the home and they haven’t returned since. 

But, just before this, President Teddy Roosevelt saw the importance of the work of mothers and what it means for a healthy and thriving society. He understood that a mother’s work is irreplaceable. And the American home, he shows, is a true growing ground for the nation.

My husband, Kevin, kindly offered to read Teddy Roosevelt's speech, titled “On American Motherhood”, as he presented it in Washington, D.C. to the National Congress of Mothers on March 13, 1905.

You will find that Teddy is speaking to mothers of all times and all places to be encouraged to continue in the good work we’ve been called to do. Enjoy!

Picture: Maternal Caress, Mary Cassatt 1896

Read the transcript on ⁠However Imperfectly on Substack⁠

My nature study support guides are available at ⁠naturestudyhacking.com