Two Favorite Things in One

Two of my favorite things:

• Dividing time into 15-minute segments
• Mechanical devices

An hour, sometimes even just a half-hour, seems daunting. But fifteen is brief and undecided: at age fifteen I faced life boldly, eager to assume the responsibilities of adulthood, then drop them next to the front door like my school backpack and resume the role of unburdened childhood. Fifteen minutes also hovers in the balance between grim work and carefree play: it's the time I optimistically tell my family (and myself) it will take to do the dinner dishes but also the time to read a few choice picture books aloud, the time to fold and put away laundry, the time to mix up a batch of cookies, then that again for them to bake and cool enough to eat, the time for a grueling abdominal workout, the time for a stroll down the street to get the mail and examine it  briefly, the time to pay the bills, the time for a phone call with my mother or sisters. It is also, in Charlotte Mason's view, an appropriate length for a lesson with a young child.

Now to mechanical devices. Electronics dominate my life: phones, computer, email, pesky things that break all the time and have mysterious chips inside that somehow make them work. I prefer something I can hold in my hand, manipulate and watch in action: a lemon squeezer, an egg beater, a garlic press, a metronome with a pendulum.

So I coveted at first sight the 15-minute sand timer in the Chinaberry catalog. It's a physical object with heft, 7.75" tall and 3" in diameter. I want to chronicle my days in fifteen minute portions I can see flowing by in sand instead of hearing the electronic buzz of my kitchen timer. Seeing it I am transported to my childhood, watching The Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy's life visually sliding away until her heroics conquer the witch, and along with her, the relentless flow of sand in the timer. Perhaps if I turn it over carefully and repeatedly I can tame time, turning it backwards like Hermione in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. With a sand timer of my own, I hope to master time rather than have it master me.

I have to go. My next 15 minutes are set aside to make a purchase at Chinaberry.

Six Hopeful Habits

A new school year approaches. I love new beginnings because it always gives me an opportunity to try to improve. Not having been born perfect and still nowhere near approaching perfection, I sometimes feel on the verge of giving up, but a change of season, a change of emphasis, and I find renewed purpose and motivation. On another blog I found a homeschooling mom's list of six things that should be a part of her children's daily lives. Since my two favorite educational philosophers, Shinichi Suzuki and Charlotte Mason, both emphasize the importance of good habits, I have come up with the six habits I want my family to develop. These are not the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Instead, I offer the "6 Hopeful Habits of Highly Persistent but Inconsistent People." Each is followed by my brief definition.

1. Devotion: the regular practice of prayer and studying the Word of God.
2. Cleanliness: carefully neat and clean, both in my person and my surroundings.
3. Practice/Study: a concerted effort to learn a skill or gain knowledge in an efficient manner.
4. Exercise: daily activity that requires physical exertion.
5. Family Togetherness: daily positive family time.
6. Contemplation: a quiet time so that "with all [my] getting [I can] get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7).

What habits would you like to develop?