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Prologue
Once upon a time, quite some time ago, there lived a fair maiden by the name of Lydia. She had the potential to be pretty, one might say, with her long, brown curls and blue eyes, but years of hard labor had darkened her skin and destroyed her once beautiful hands.
As far back as she could recall, she had been enslaved to the king and queen of France, her home country, and worked countless hours tending to the horses. She did not mind the work at all: she had learned to love it, even if it had provided her with no money. However, the queen grew jealous of her beauty and sought to destroy her sunny disposition by whatever means possible.
So, Lydia was often given more work than the other servants and was not respected at all, and on this note begins this particular tale.
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One brisk evening, enveloped in the French winter of 1127, Lydia was walking to the stables to groom the horses. She was deep in thought of the previous night, her seventeenth birthday, when she had received a Bible from her friends. She had always been a Christian, and was elated to read it.
Suddenly, she stopped, and if anyone had been looking on at the scene, they would have been almost as horrified at her expression as she was at the sight before her. There was a new groomer tending to the horses, and she had no doubt in her head that this was the queen’s doing. She had loved this job: in her eyes, it was a small ray of sunshine, a tiny delight in her miserable world.
Lydia ran. She dodged other servants and dashed up several flights of stairs until she stood in front of the large, wooden door that gave way to the throne room. She knew that if she seemed upset, the queen would be even more proud of herself. She realized she had to seem calm and composed, even if she was about to cry. Lydia opened the door.
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Wondering what happens next, hmmm?? Me, too! This is not my writing, but a little noodling around by my eldest, written in about 20 minutes of spare time. Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to reading more of her words and encouraging in the upcoming months the pleasure she takes in spinning a yarn.
To summer, which starts tomorrow in our household, I say welcome.
Someone out there just read those words and - upon considering how life might be with five active kids, a large dog, and a perennially tired mom cooped up in the house for the summer - flinched slightly. I understand how it might be possible to envision tedious misery, squabbling, dirty diapers, and persistently messy rooms. And to a certain degree, all of those moments will happen, but I do have a plan, and I have learned from hard-fought experience that a plan is key.
What's on tap for summer 2014? My 12-year old wants to work on writing, so she is starting The One Year Adventure Novel, a curriculum to take her through all the steps of storytelling, with the end product being a self-written novel. She is fired up to begin and has already decided on the setting and era.
We will also be doing Geometry with the oldest two, for which I am detecting a high degree of interest. I picked up the book last week and a certain someone discovered it, whisked it away, assembled a notebook, and completed the first lesson. The two younger kids will be doing Saxon math with their big brother/sister tutoring team, the cheapest and perhaps best help I could possibly rustle up.
Science also made the list: the whole gang is doing Oceanography 101. I purchased the text and we have plans for field trips (hey, this is Florida!) as we get deeper in the curriculum. This topic has particularly captivated my third child, who is a tough nut when it comes to academics but is passionate about shells, water, and anything critter-related.
On the sports front, my fourth child passed his swim team test last week and is officially joining his siblings for swim workouts and meets three to four times a week. This piece of the plan is a critical way to take the edge off of the abundant energy present in my household. All four are also slated for triathlon activity, having been inspired by the tri the older kids completed this weekend. I even found them sneaking a Sharpie and body-marking the baby and themselves, for which they were roundly scolded (although I admit I was extremely amused.)
In between all of this structured brain and body activity, there will be lots of cannonballs in the pool, sleeping in, badminton rounds in the front yard, lego constructions, sidewalk chalk, and pillow forts. All the while, Kate Middleton will be wondering where in the Sam Hill all her quiet doggie-napping days have gone.
Summer 2014, bring on your happy, hot madness. This mama is ready!
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