Mom Studies

On this page I am going to try and keep track of all of the things I read and study for myself and my children. This would fall under the "KEY" You-Not Them

I will list my most recent learning endeavors here at the top.


August 25,2014
OK, its been a year since my last update here. Oops! Well I have been busy on You, Not Them and trying to focas on my own education a lot. So to do this I am enrolled in both a Class by the DeMilles called Mentoring in the Classics and the Classic Moms class through Abigail Adams Accademy. Right now I am lisening to Les Miserables and enjoying it quite bit even though it is quite the task. I am also starting The Door in the Wall. Ontop of this I am enjoying writing more in depth blog posts for all of you. I hope you will enjoy them as they come out.

August 30.2013
OK, so I did not finish Uncle Toms Cabin. I plan on finishing it this year though. But I did jump into the Hunger Game series. I had listened to the first book before the first movie came out and I did enjoy it a lot. Well the next movie is coming out in November and I wanted to read it before hand. I wanted to give myself enough time so I could get it read. Well little did I know the books are addicting. I finished book 2 in 3 or 4 days and and strait out to our local used book store and got the last one.  I finished that one in about 4 days also. I even found 2 pages that I need to tape together but I did not want to wait any longer to read it. Yes they are Violante but the questions and thoughts it brings up in your mind makes you really think about what you would do in such situations.  Very good books. 

My next set of classes have begone and I have to read an essay by C.S. Lewis called Membership from the book The Weight of Glory. 

July 4, 2013
So I finished the Lonesome Gods and I loved it. I am so going to read this book to my boys some day. One thing I really liked about the book is how the chapters are really short. This book contains just over 60 chapters. I liked being able to sit down and feel as if I was able to get a chunk of reading done when I read a couple of chapters in one sitting. It has great stuff in it like strong but still feminine woman characters, a boy overcoming fear and adversity, mentors, self and formal education, life skills, revenge and anger and soooo much more. Now I am onto Uncle Toms Cabin. I have enjoyed what I have read but sometimes get lost in all of the characters.

May 6, 2013
So what have I been up to??? I completed reading The Chosen and found it very interesting. Just had to make it past the first two chapters . They were SLOW! It is a very interesting glance into the Jewish culture and how racism can and disharmony can exist within other cultures. I did not finish reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People but hope to this summer. Unfortunately I still have not finished my book. Another goal for this summer. But I have read the books Gaps and Psychology and most of Parenting: A House United. I am now jumping into The Lonesome Gods and I like it so far. It is set in the old west time period.

January 14,2013
So I am still doing my Abigail Adams Academy classes and I love it. We had two bonus classes during our winter break. One was with Brenda Haws about building a community through a common wealth school and the other was with Kari Tibbets. Both classes were very interesting and I was able to take valuable things from both. I am currently reading THE CHOSEN. Next is THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE. 



November 30,2012
So I did it. I wrote over 50,000 words in a month. I cant believe I did it. Unfortunately the story still is not done so I will still need to find time to write so I can finish the story. Two friends of mine have been editing it for me and they have really been enjoying it.

November 29,2012
This months read was by John Taylor Gatto. I loved it. It was a quick read and was very entertaining and eye opening at the same time. The man has a great sense of humor and EVERYTHING he says makes sense  Want a reason to believe that home schooling an a free, child center and lead learning is the way to go. This is your book.

October 30,2012
So there are only two days left till the National Novel Writing Month and I am a little lost for organization of my thoughts. I have my story idea and I think it is going to be a great book but I sure hope I can get all of my ideas down with out it being to jumbled up. Here is the synopsis:
A young man is sentenced to community service in a convalescent home. When asked what his interests were he listed chess as one of them and was pared up with an old man who was known for pestering other residents to play a game of chess. Carl, the young man, developed a friendship with the old man and one day was offered to play a game on a very unique chess board. At the end of the game Carl finds himself standing in an unfamiliar place with no idea how to get back home. Wish me luck.

October 26,2012
So as an attempt to continue my "You not Them" I am going to participate in the National Novel Writing Month this November. I have to write 50,000 words in one month.  That is about a 200 page pocket novel. I am very excited. I was first thinking about  doing a story about a boy and a chess game but now I am not sure. I am excited to see where this goes.

October 23,2012
The book is done. I read all of the Secret Garden and most of it was shared with my children. They missed about 4 chapters in there. I had to stay up on the reading. We had our group discussion and it was quite cool. Magic represents the wonders of God, Dickon represents the kind and gentleness of Christ and the robin could be the Holy Ghost. The book was a lot better than I anticipated and I cried at the end...well I wont tell you what happens so I don't ruin it for you. Susan Sowerby is one of the best characters and a parent can learn so much about children by reading this book. My two little boys even loved it.

October 16,2012
So I have continued ready The Secret Garden with the boys and we are all enjoying it. New things keep popping up here and there to keep your attention. Mysterious garden, mysterious people, mysterious sounds...whats next. We just finished chapter 13 and if I could just keep reading Milo would love it. Unfortunately there is this thing called life, and my throat is starting to hurt from reading out loud so much.

October 11,2012
Tonight was a wonder full Abigail Adams Academy class. We went over the fundamentals of both Core and Love of Learning stages. I finally feel like I understand them both so much better. I have also come to realize that I am so still in Core phase myself. I am disorganized, choose to do things I want to do lots of the time rather than the things I should be doing and I have no routine to my life. Oh how I dislike strict routines. I am taking myself back to the basics. 
1. Read from my Core book daily
2.Establish some sort of routine that I follow every day.
3. Get organized

I am also working on picking up that book to read instead of going strait to Hulu or the computer for entertainment. 

I also learned in this class a lot more about Love of Learners. This is going to help me a lot with Milo. It is natural for him to want to jump from subject to subject even within the same day. He is not a quiter but exploring. In Scholar phase (around 12 years old) he will want to stick with subjects. If it is not fun but boring they want nothing to do wit it because it does not feel like play. I learned so much more but this is just a taste of what I learned.

October 5th
Today I started reading The Secret Garden with my boys. I very tragic beginning I must say but brings up lots of discussion about life and ones perspective.

September 28th
I have finished reading Jane Eyer. I will say that this is a book that I was both glad and disappointed that I had seen the movie before reading the book. It helped me out for the most part because I never got lost while reading the book. I must say the latest movie version of Jane Eyer was quite accurate but a few small details and the way the book ended. They probably just wanted the movie to be over. But there was no surprise for me ever. Most books I have totally enjoyed even when I had seen the movie because so much more detail is revealed. I even totally enjoyed the Hunger Games and I was told how the whole story unfolds to include the ending. But with this book there were very little extra detail added by reading the book. So if you are a movie goer and avid reader...read the book first. Some of my favorite parts of the book are the parts with Helen, a little friend Jane makes at Lowood school. My top favorite being the last scene with Jane and Helen. We could all learn a lot from her little character. So much understanding and wisdom from such a young girl . Some adults could benefit from reading chapter 6 over and over. Give Jane Eyer a try. Want to listen to it? Visit www.booksshouldbefree.com 

September 24,2012

So I have signed up for a mothers Classic education class on the Internet through Abigail Adams Academy. In is class we will be reading a total of 8 books and discussing different areas of Thomas Jefferson Education. I am very excited about this. We have already had our first class an we discussed how we all have a mission and we were assigned to share what we felt our mission was.  Bellow you can read the simple paper I wrote. This week we are to be done reading Jane Eyre for our group discussion. So far I am most effected by the beginning of the book when the young Jane Eyre has been  miss treated for so long that she no longer could even find joy in the simple things of life. It has truly made me think about the relationship I have with my children.

What On Earth Am I Doing This Year

Christine Owens 

So this school year we started off with a big move from Page Az to Kent Ohio for my husband to begin the PHD path in Music Education at Kent State Ohio. After living here for 3 weeks and not totally unpacked my oldest (8 year old Milton) was in the ICU of the Akron Children’s Hospital with Type 1 Diabetes. So not something we expected.  I only mention this because my family just left a life of supporting my husband in his high school music teaching career. I taught his color guard, wrote marching drill, designed his shows, did the choreography for his show choir and twice did all of this while pregnant with high risk issues. This was very consuming and I was so looking forward to focusing totally on my own kids and not other’s teens problems. Don’t get me wrong… I loved it and miss it a lot. But the balance was not there.

So now this has come along and it is consuming a lot of time. A free living family who eats quite healthy and does not worry about a skipped snack or a 1pm lunch now and then now must schedule and plan everything with the food and times of snacks every day.

So to the question what is my mission? I said during the class that it was preaching the Truth. Standing for the truth for many teens who live in a very confusing world with parents who have very little moral compass or direction themselves. Showing them that one can make good choices ad still have fun and enjoy life. Showing them that hard hard work and trying new things even though they don’t come easy is so worth it in the end. This is what I did. Now what? That is gone and I am onto a whole new chapter.

Number one I am here for my family. Supporting my husband on his new adventure.  Learning to take care of my oldest child’s health. Trying to figure out my crazy three year old who tries my patience every hour, of every day. Wanting to find more time to hold and love my new little baby so he is left crying less during the day. So what mission am I on now if I were to pick one to start with?  I am going to make up my own. It will be to Love My Family. Simple? In words yes. In action not always so much. I’m just being honest here.  When there is so much to do around the house the love can just be gone. Of course I am doing all of the acts of service because I love my family. I want them to have an orderly home ( at least as close as it is going to get while still unpacking) that they want to be in. But this is not what people, especially children care about. Taking the time to stop and spend that extra time to snuggle, to sit down and talk or kiss the boo boo rather than telling my boys to be tough takes time and is needed by them because that is what they see as acts of love. I did not grow up in a very affectionate home and I don’t want my kids to have that same thing.

What clues have brought me here? This is why I know that I need to work very hard on making this my focus. I was just listening to a presentation from the Family Forum and it was about healing relationships. I feel I need to do this with my two oldest kids. Also, my husband because we see each other less than before.  My marriage is very important to me. And my baby needs me but my time is so divided by everyone else that I feel he is not getting the Mommy time he deserves. It makes me a little sad really.

My number two thing I think would be to Educate the ignorant. This would be within the world of TJEd. My husband continues to be annoyed if at the end off a day it is not the perfect TJED model day. With our current events for instance (my son’s medical issue) I have become frazzled. This is not normal for me. I am a keep it together type of gal even in very high stress situations. This has pushed me over the edge. I even gave my son the wrong insulin shot last night because I just was not focused on what I was going and in a daze. So today I took a day off from major thinking. I set up a couple appointments in the morning, Took the boys to Mc Donalds for lunch (cheeseburger happy meal with milk is the 60 carbs he is allowed to eat). I fed baby there and we hung out for a little over an hour. I felt rested. Then to a park for some scooter time. Then baby doctor appointment, walmart for prescription, cold cereal dinner and Life of Fred before night snack…then  this class. By late tonight he just says that we did nothing and no schooling was done. After days saying that he is worried about me and wants me to take care of myself. I needed a day with little thought. I will try to continue to help him understand TJEd. I will help my 8 and 3 year old to learn through fun. The baby just needs more of my time.  

To repair my foundation I am so going to try and do my scripture study and prayer. This for some reason hard for me. I will establish little buts of order every day by following the Flylady and spend little bits of time tidying. I will also increase the organization of homeschooling.

My vision is to have children who love both of their parents and each other and look forward to spending time together no matter what their age is. 

Other things I need to work on. Not spending money, exercise more (even though my knee is upset) and start up the EFC again even though sometimes I feel like it is just time I am told that Everything is not going right. I want this. I need this. Sorry if some of this sounded like a rant.

Nature Journal

John Muir

We are about to leave the land of the desert and I have decided it is time for me to start a nature journal. I purchased a nice moleskin sketchbook and cant wait to get started. Lo and behold, my oldest said that he wanted to be the head rangers of the national parks after earning our Rainbow Bridge Jr. Rangers badge. I told him that people like John Muir was a man who loved the wilderness and he kept a nature journal. John Westley Powell was also a person who learned from a mentor about nature. Milton is now all geared up to start his nature journal. I want to sketch some of this desert before we leave to the eastern side of the USA.