roast-beefy links

Go here and here for posts on what The Pleasant family has been doing to stay Roast Beefy.

Smile A Lot,
Everly

giving Everything

Sometimes thoughts link together in my mind with invisible webs of association. These thoughts are threaded strongly. However, I can't tell if they would make sense to anyone outside of myself! If this is the case, then please accept them all separately.


"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
[2 Timothy 1:12 KJV or in YLT]:

"For which cause also these things I suffer, but I am not ashamed, for I have known in whom I have believed, and have been persuaded that he is able that which I have committed to him to guard -- to that day."

"Take my love, my God I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store."
-Francis Ridely Havergal
"Part of the sacrifice is the not knowing. But truly what He gives in return will be greater than anything we give up. What is the "Isaac" of your heart-that gift or dream from God that you treasure most? ... Are you willing to lay your "Isaac" on the altar to see it come back to life, bigger and better than you ever dreamed possible?"
Julie Ferwerda in One Million Arrows


"The Lord told King David to set up an altar on the threshing floor that belonged to Araunah the Jebusite. When the king asked Araunah if he might buy it, Araunuah begged him to take it, as a gift, along with his oxen for an offering and the threshing sledges for fuel. "No," said the king. "...I will not offer to the Lord my God whole-offerings that have cost me nothing..." Lord, I said, here's my heart."

Elisabeth Elliot in Passion and Purity

"Maturity starts with the willingness to give oneself."
Elisabeth Elliot (again) in Let Me Be A Woman


"Practicing The Golden Rule is not a sacrifice, but an investment." -Unknown

what to do to fill up all that spare time you have if you don't go to school:

I was thinking about my recent rants on un-schooling and wondering how many of you now see me as deprived. I wanted to share with you some of the things that we've replaced school with. I'd love to hear your comments, as usual. This isn't meant to be a Christmas letter of accomplishments of my family (not at all!) but an example of all of the fun and educational things that un-schoolers can have the opportunity to do.

Reading:
My mother is always reading us a book. We all listen. For many years, Joey, Sabrina, Birdie and I would all listen. When Joey moved out, he'd only listen some of the time (whenever he was around.) We've had several non-Pleasants listen in to several books. My mother is good at reading aloud and picks good books. Children who are read aloud to never grow out of enjoying it. Here is a list of books I can remember my mother reading to us.


Traveling:
One of the very best things about unschooling is our ability to travel. Traveling has taught me more than I can measure and I'm not even sure how. It has certainly given or increased my love for people, geography, language and dialect, transportation, museums, historical landmarks, nature and cuisine. The first thing traveling taught me was how to get along with your family in close quarters (knowledge I've been able to use many times since!) My favorites are probably those we went to during the school year. :)
We've lived in Manchester Connecticut, two towns in Haiti and lots of different towns in Texas.
We have visited approximately thirty of the fifty states.

Working together:
Most children today grow up with experiences of working together with other school students on assigned projects, but very little experience working with their family and people of other ages. We were always quite the opposite, and I am very thankful for the time I've spent helping my parents and siblings. I have moved nine times (if I've kept track correctly) and we have done major remodeling to almost every house we've lived in, plus houses of family and friends who need help. Moving in and of itself is a big opportunity to work together! Construction has given me many happy childhood memories and I love the smell of sawdust! We have also done a whole lot of landscaping over the years. My mother is a miracle worker in this area and has transformed many ugly yards into beautiful paradises. Over the past few years we have also done lots of gardening. We participated in a protest in Washington DC together, first traveling all over the country collecting teddy bears that represented children in the adoption process in Haiti. We cook, clean and learn together every day. We have taken care of our younger siblings, learning how to change diapers, feed infants, entertain small children etc. One of the most important things I think we ever did together was mission work in Haiti. We've even co-written books and plays!


Playing together:
Playing together and working together often overlap. When we're together, we usually have fun no matter what. But of course, we do do things just for fun. When we were younger, this involved a lot of make-believe. A whole lot! Also, making movies and putting on plays (one of my very favorite things we ever did!) And exploring woods and creeks, hiking. Building forts, playing games. Throwing parties, tea-parties, slumber parties, having poetry-readings and late-night "kitchen adventures." Writing letters to each other! Reading to each other (yay for The Series of Unfortunate Events!) Playing dress up, even today for photo shoots. Taking lots of walks together. Playing in the canoe. Doing many crafts together, making lots of messes. Randomly doing science experiments in the kitchen. Shopping together. Sitting around, drinking tea and philosophizing together. Debating, lots of debating and teasing. Watching many movies together both at the theater and at home. Going to see plays, visiting museums.

Taking up hobbies:
The hobbies we have all taken up individually are a really interesting way to learn about each of my siblings. Some of them have been writing novels, poetry, plays and non-fiction, photography, painting, pottery, ballroom dance, ballet, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, flag football, cheer-leading, gardening, cooking, baking, drawing, reading, carpentry, exploration, acting, filming and editing movies, babysitting, tennis, photoshop, sewing, book binding, candle making, starting our own blogs (obviously) and ministries, participating in church, bible studies, youth group etc, volunteering in childrens' ministry and nursery at church, swimming (for fun, in lessons and on a swim team,) plus all of the other things I've mentioned in "work" and "play." Don't let anyone tell you that if you don't go to school, you'll miss out on opportunities or have no opportunities for social interaction! The world is at your fingertips, O fellow home-educated ones!

Basically, our lives consist of eating together, working together, learning together, growing together, sharpening one another, loving each other.
Un-schooling is about living life and loving ones family. It is a goal: to live a full of life, learning as much as you can along the way.

Everly
photo credit to Birdie

On Un-Schooling

"I have nearly broken myself of the habit of the terms "school day" and "school work." "School" is about compartments, subjects, boxes. It implies a certain location and specific actions. But we are learners. The world is ours to grasp and know and marvel." -Study In Brown

I had someone inquire as to the differences, in my opinion, between "home-schooling" and "un-schooling."

I thought, "Interesting post idea!"

As usual (particularly in the nit picky world of the internet, particularly in blogs, particularly in blogs of conservative Christian women, see: courtship vs. dating,) the two terms often overlap. Therefore, this post will be one of my self-centered ones where I only tell you what I think (moo ha ha ha!)

In our generation, the term "home-schooling" is rather well-known. Perhaps not totally accepted yet, but still considered fairly normal in comparison to this radical new idea of (drumroll please!) "un-schooling."

As a matter of fact, to be quite honest, it has taken me some time to become comfortable with writing (here) about my education. To be totally open about the way we do (not do) school is an invitation for criticism, i.e. not my favorite thing. But nonetheless, the years have turned me into a die-hard un-school advocate who can't quite keep her tongue still about how much she loves to not do school. Ever.

Ahem, which brings me to the point: I don't do school.

(There! I said it!)

The first time I ever heard of an un-schooler was when my older sister had a pen-pal from Kansas as a child. They met in a chat room back when chat rooms were for chatting children and not preying perverts and began emailing and then snail-mailing. This girl was "home-schooled," but was a certain species. She was not the type with the bun and ankle-length skirt, no make-up and a True Love Waits ring. She was the type with the black hair with blue highlights, pierced nose and affectionate boyfriend (at least if I remember the pictures that came in her emails correctly.) Eventually, I remember her telling my sister that she was in fact "un-schooled." We raised our eyebrows to this. Apparently it meant that she had dropped out of home-schooling. Tsk, tsk.

My two older siblings and I all went to public school through '98, and in '99 my parents took us out (to the shock of our entire little town) and began to educate us at home. We were the only home-schoolers in our town (did I mention it was little?) and knew very few home-schoolers elsewhere. But my parents weren't about to base our happiness and education and futures on the opinions of the rest of the world, so home-school we did. This started me in first grade and I've never been to school since.

The reasons my parents took us out of school and the reasons my parents kept us out of school are somewhat different stories which I hope I can write about another time, but from the beginning, my parents were quite unique and personal in their approach to our educations. At first though, the logical thing seemed to be to bring school home, for isn't that what "home school" meant? Then again, there were the reasons that we didn't go to school to consider, so our curriculum was then limited to "school" without the parts we didn't want. And then we added the parts that we did, which "school" didn't provide. And then we altered it yet again.

And to tell you the truth, we went from relaxed, to more relaxed to even more relaxed. The more my parents taught, the more we taught ourselves, and the more we taught ourselves, the less work any of us did. For my parents didn't have to strap us to chairs and cram Abeka down our throats, and we didn't see anything we were doing as "work."

Eventually we moved and met more and more home-schoolers, but over the years, we became less and less like them. We were already strange to the majority, and now we were becoming strange to the minority. We were developing our own, even smaller minority, which turns out the be the philosophy behind un-schooling.

Our home-school friends still ask us the same questions:

"Did you do school today?"

"Are you finished with your school for the semester?"

"Do you like doing school?" and

"Who teaches you your school?"

These are all good questions for them to ask among themselves, but to us we always see one little glitch: the word "school."

So to tell you the truth, I don't do school. I never do. I don't sit down with a stack of books or DVDs or URLs or papers. I don't have a school schedule, I don't have school breaks. I do, however, "teach lessons." This means that on weekdays, I sit down with Willin and make sure that he practices a little reading, a little writing and a little arithmetic every day. Then I read aloud to him and sometimes we play games. Sabrina does this with Sam and Birdie does this with Jubilee. It is very relaxed, quite short (in comparison to school days!) and flexible. If we decide to go on vacation, we go and leave the lesson books behind (unless they beg to bring them along and peck through them on the road,) and if we decide to all go shopping together, we all go shopping. Or if our cousins come over to play or we are celebrating someone's birthday, lessons are put to the side. Because even though we try to do it every weekday, they are not our top priority.

So the difference, in my mind, is that home-schoolers do school at home and un-schoolers just live life and learn along the way.

But as far as me, I have decided to improve my math. I don't like math, haven't "done math" since eighth grade and still have no desire to do math, but I do have a desire to be an educated, competent adult and therefore, I decided on my own to work towards improvement. My mother bought me a book on the subject and I am slowly working through it. When I reach the back cover, I'm going to throw a party. And then everyone can ask me about college. :)

The Roast Beef Education:

Do you ever read the words of another person and wish that you had said them yourself, merely because they reflect your own opinions/feelings/beliefs so well? Here is a collection of those words-concerning education-applying to Everly's Roast Beef philosophy. Bon Appetit!


"You don't need highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves." -Adam Cooper and Bill Collage.

"Only the educated are free." -Epictetus

"Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading." -G. M. Trevelyan

"College isn't the place to go for ideas." -Helen Keller

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -Mark Twain

"It is only the ignorant who despise education." -Publileus Syrus

"Yes, that is considered an excellent school, I find, and I dare say it would be if the benighted lady did not think it necessary to cram her pupils like Thanksgiving turkeys, instead of feeding them in a natural and wholesome way. It is the fault with most American schools and the poor little heads will go on aching until we learn better."
-Uncle Alec in "Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott.

"And they made good laws and kept the peace and saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to live and let live."
-C.S. Lewis in "The Chronicles of Narnia."

"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child." -George Bernard Shaw

"It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail."
-Albert Einstein

"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more than better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences."
-Helen Keller

"i have nearly broken myself of the habit of the terms "school day" and "school work." "school" is about compartments, subjects, boxes. it implies a certain location and specific actions. but we are learners. the world is ours to grasp and know and marvel." -Tonia of studyinbrown.com

"There is no difference between living and learning...it is impossible, and misleading, and harmful to think of them as being separate." -John Holt

Defining The Meal

Well, you've all waited long enough.

Though I've been busy elsewhere, this little blog has been sitting alone, in the roaster, you might say, heating up and cooking through-and-through and now it is finally tender. I hope that the picture on Clickety-Clack whet your appetite, because you've been invited to a feast of sorts...a feast for the heart and the mind and the soul, and when you are done, you'll be stuffed with Roast Beefiness, if I do what I came here to do.

....

On October 2nd, 2007, I wrote a post called "The Roast Beef Life." That was the first time Roast Beef was mentioned on Clickety-Clack and it was my definition of the thing itself.

I said: "...it is my example of the ultimate life, the way I want to live."

"...how I want to live is thoroughly, hardily, heartily, down to earth, looking to Heaven, strong, purposeful and rich. Not rich like wealthy upper-class people, rich like chocolate. Rich...real. Rich...makes your mouth water because it is so flavorful. The ingredients are perfect. I want to give my best."

And my example was:

"I imagine life like a meal. The way I feel when I eat a cold Sonic corn dog and watered down slush compared to lean roast beef that's cooked to perfection, juicy and delicious with a warm wheat roll and fresh vegetables...all smothered in gravy...each bite followed by a swig of cold black tea."

"I want the happy moments to be absolutely jubilant, the sad moments to be true grief, and everything, the good points and the bad points, the happy and the sad, the day and night, year after year to be thoroughly rich through and through. Have you ever tilled soil with your hand? Warm, moist, dark soil falling through your fingers? Rich.

Have you every looked into the bright eyes of a baby who learns amazing amounts every time she looks another way, her eyes just being opened to another world where she can't help but be fascinated? Pure. The ultimate exploration.

The warmth of your feet on the hearth, your father's hug. Tears that aren't drama, genuine ones that show that someone really cares and is deeply attached. Real."

On December 13th of 2007, I described "The Roast Beef Life" as:

"...My life philosophy and, in a nutshell, (it) means doing everything with your whole heart in it, thoroughly and well."

Through these posts, I hope that you gained some sense of sincerity in my words. These things are things that I honestly want to seek...these words are a vow of sorts that I have made to "The Roast Beef Code." To seek Beauty, Truth, Sincerity, Honesty.

This blog will continue to define The Roast Beef Life and will be doused in examples of it...pieces of it. Come and nibble anytime.

Things To Come:

* My definition of "Roast Beefiness"
* Instructions on how to be Roast Beefy.
* My opinion on different aspects of The Roast Beef Life:
* Unschooling
* Country Living
* Being Well-Read
* Honestly seeking The Truth
* The Roast Beef Family

-Everly