Plumfield Moms
We are sisters in Christ who became friends over a shared love of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, found especially in good and great books. Our primary vocation is that of marriage and motherhood, but we feel a secondary call, as educators and homeschool moms, to walk with families who are seeking to help form souls who are capable of responding to the vocation God has called them to. Our objective is to form our children and grandchildren to the best of our ability, and in so doing share what has been meaningful to us with others that it may encourage them and lighten their burden. As homeschoolers, classical educators and Christians, we have a passion for the ancient Greek paideia and the loving education of Louisa May Alcott‘s Plumfield (from her novel Little Men).
Episodes
"It is right, with proper humility, for us to ask God to incline toward us. But it is we who need practice inclining toward God."
In the middle of the 21st century, historian Ned Henry has a severe case of “time-lag.” Exhausted from fruitless time-travel jumps to Coventry Cathedral in various times before the WWII bombing and fire, Ned has not been able to satisfy his boss, and find the hideous but elusive “Bishop’s bird stump.”
Lady Shrapnel is on a mission to have every detail perfect for the Cathedral reconstruction and dedication, and she doesn’t seem to...
“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
One last thought, in case I’m still wondering...
Join us as we discuss barcodes, book tape, inventory, summer reading programs, and renovations!
In the last few years, I have heard the great American classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, frequently being recommended for middle-grade readers. I staunchly disagree with the general practice of recommending that tough book to readers below eleventh grade. Could there be a particular child for whom it is a good fit? Maybe. But, it is my opinion that that essential work of American fiction was written for adults and should be considere...
"We know that not everyone is called to stand in the spotlight before crowds. In fact, few of us are. We are not all called to fill the same holes in the wall, but we are all called to do something. There is no checklist of day-to-day activities for a breach-stander. However, the more we read the word, pray, and listen, the more the general commands become astoundingly specific and personal.
You are the light of the world, you ar...
Join us for our May 2024 Our Reading Life episode where we talk about spies, codebreakers, and geeky grammar.
Tanya’s References
- The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan
- D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose
Sarah Kim’s References
- Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
- Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
- The Little Ships: The Heroic Resc...
"When the Ferris wheel seems to be running again, Timothy and the duck get stuck at the top. 'Up above, the duck on the seat whispered excited little whispers to Timothy. He liked it far above the noise of all the crowd. He was glad to be away from all that noise. He flapped his wings and whispered. He quirked and jerked his stubby tail. He was proud to be so high.'
Throughout Timothy’s adventure, several people think the duck has ...
"As I think about it in terms of wishing, in the midst of all our moves, for a place to nestle, I can see how gently persistent God was in teaching me to find my true dwelling place in him. He had moved me from what had become my comfort to a new state where we were strangers. Then he took us to a different country altogether, one where we knew we were sojourners. After some time to get used to that, he left me there with my childr...
Taken from Sherry Early’s blog:
It was indeed a different era. What was going on in 1924 when these books were being published and read? The 1924 Paris Olympics, Leopold and Loeb murders, the premiere of Rhapsody in Blueby Gershwin. Vladimir Lenin died, and Mallory and Irvine disappeared while attempting to summit Mt. Everest. Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and crossword puzzles were all the rage after Simon snd S...
Whether they loved her or hated her, everyone who knew her considered her an amazing and memorable woman. Klaus Barbie, the infamous Butcher of Lyon became obsessed with finding the “Limping Lady of Lyon.” He had posters made and offered a huge reward for information leading to the arrest of “The Enemy’s Most Dangerous Spy.”
"Don’t you love this sort of pithy proverb? You can toss the platitude to a teenager whose friends you don’t approve of with the assurance that its truth is indisputable and needs no context – exactly the way we like our favorite Bible verses.
Because the maxim is simple to understand and examples of its truth abound, it was a perfect topic for an essay assignment for my writing class. Since I asked my class to contemplate the...
Hello, friends! We are working on some big projects behind the scenes and realized the need to take a little break from recording new book clubs. Also, we have gained quite a few new followers in the last twelve months. And so, we thought that now might be the right moment to revisit three of our most popular book clubs: the books of the CS Lewis Space Trilogy. A few years ago, I (Sara) wrote a short article about the trilogy and i...
Part of the plan to sneak the gold out right under the noses of the Nazis involves teams of Riswyk children each carrying 75 pounds of gold on their sleds down to a fjord where the crew of a fishing boat waits to load the gold for transportation to America.
The plan works seamlessly. Until the snow starts to melt before they have transported half the gold. And until the Nazi Commandant decides the lazy, impudent children need ...
"What child wouldn’t love to discover a living dinosaur in the backyard? What if that dinosaur could talk? That’s what happens to Joey and Joan Brown, freckled, red-headed twelve-year-old twins. On the first few pages of the story, we are made aware of the family Problem."
The Pharisees dogged Jesus so relentlessly they should have known his teachings as well as his disciples did. It’s tragic that they weren’t trying to learn anything from him other than how to discredit him.
Have I learned what Jesus meant when he said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”?
It is hard to misunderstand what he means in the first chapter of Isaiah.
“‘What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices;’ says the Lord; ‘I have...
"If you are a believer, someone had to plant the seed in your mind. Someone else watered it. Acknowledging these gospel gardeners gives us perspective. When it seems like life has been mostly dark, it can remind us that Jesus has been there all the time."
I found that Downton Abbey and the Jeremy Irons Brideshead Revisited miniseries gave my imagination some kind of scaffolding upon which to understand this very subtle, very restrained, and very sophisticated fictional memoir.
To be perfectly frank, I really don’t know what this book is about. I know that it’s about dignity. I know that Mr. Stevens has a great deal of pride and prejudice related to the word dignity and that this bo...
"We know Jesus did say, 'Judge not, that you be not judged.' Are we to take this as our motto without context? In this same sermon, Jesus also tells us to beware of false prophets. How will we know true from false if we don’t judge anything?"
- Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early
- The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
- 100 Best Book for Children by Anita Silvey
- Kristi’s Totes
- The Card Catalog
- Biblioguides Online Community
- Private Lending Library Directory
- League of Lending Librarians
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/show-notes-our-librarian-life-april-2024/
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