"One morning my father didn't get up and go to work. He went to the hospital and died the next day. I hadn't thought that much about him before. He was just someone who left and came home and seemed glad to see everyone. He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go into the basement by himself. Whenever I played house, the mother doll had a lot to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, "I'm going off to work now" and I put him under the bed. The funeral was in our living room, and a lot of people came and brought all kinds of good food and cakes. We never had so much company before. I went to my room and felt under the bed for the daddy doll, and when I found him, I dusted him off and put him on my bed. He never did anything. I didn't know his leaving would hurt so much."
(-- Erma Bombeck, not kidding about her father's death.)

May I never be such an enigma to my own daughter.

As I was putting together the annotated bibliography (or "Resource Feast", as I like to call it) for an HIU assignment this weekend, I noticed on Amazon.com a SIP (Statistically Improbable Phrase) that dripped irony:

"serve our neighbor"

Yup, it was right up there in rarity with "unitive wisdom", "prophetic simplicity" and "holy obedience": those words just don't get put together very often in the English Language anymore.

What a shame, on one hand. What an opportunity, on the other!

When I'm done with this paper, I'm going to slip next door and see if my neighbor needs help with anything. If not, I'll ask him to come help me with something. Together, we can make "serve our neighbor" a little less rare in this world.

Will you join me?

Kathryn has to supervise Nathaniel's schooling till midafternoon most days, I am toiling away to finish strong in my HIU intensive... and Armando doesn't start school till next week. He and Joy have been alternately enjoying one another more than ever, and at each others' throats, all day for almost 2 weeks. So Kathryn has been doing creative things with them to keep them on a positive track: walking to the library, walking to the Science Center, playing at Playa del Rey, visiting neighbors with kids their age, etc.

But I think the strain is telling on her. It seemed an odd idea to me, but the kids are thrilled about it. Ready? A camp-out... at home. Not in the backyard, in the living room. No tent, that's too complicated; they are pretending to sleep out "under the stars" ... er, that's a ceiling fan, hon.

Yup, the photos prove it.

Ah, the lengths to which parents will go, to maintain peace in the home (and their own sanity). LACS begins next Tuesday, though, so things will suddenly snap back to normal.

Normal for us, that is.

The boys went back to selling sorbet yesterday! They even tried taking the show on the road, selling sorbet outside the Ralph's supermarket. Actually did less business than they usually do on the corner of 29th and Catalina, right in front of our house, which is where they are in this photo, each hailing a different passerby. (they won't let Dad and his camera distract them from business!)

They made almost $10 today, pretty good at 0.50 per cup and only 8 cups per batch. They do all the sorbet-making work themselves (except washing up).

Later that day we had a picnic on the front lawn. Such a pleasant evening, after a hot day. That's Phil Epstein with us, Nathaniel's guitar teacher and good friend of ours, whose music was featured on this blog a couple months back.

All day long I've been thinking "I just have to blog about this tonight" and now I can't remember what it was. Enough staring at the screen (listening to Graffiti61 by the way: "an honest answer is like a kiss on the lips." Why can't I select it officially with the little doohicky below? Someone ought to sign Dominic to a major recording contract pronto).

Must go back to writing about mastering temptation.

(I'm writing about it, so I guess I ought to do it, not daydream about a blogtopic I can't recover)

Playing Laubach's "Game with Minutes." Wow. Anyone else tried that?

One of the things I savor about Jesus is that he always knew what to do next. A common and frustrating refrain in my life is "Okay... now what?"

Today I came across an interesting article in the LA Times Online (newsprint is only good for lining birdcages and washing windows: my animals don't do cages, and my windows don't get cleaned very often). It made me wonder if I am acquainted already with artists who haven't fit any particular genre, who will become more and more popular in the years to come. The artists my kids will be listening to in their teen years. My oldest son Nathaniel already likes Fernando Ortega and "world music" more than he likes the pop music marketed to young adults. A new genre is coalescing around these talented "unplugged" muse/musicians, called "Quiet Music" or "Soft Revolution". Some of the central figures are pretty weird, but many of them have a charming postmodern authenticity about them, and Christ-followers are apparently welcome.

Alec Hanley Bemis writes, in The Soft Revolution (LA Times, today's issue):
"The singer-songwriters of the Soft Revolution are part of the first generation to come of age in a world where nothing was forbidden. They are the anti-Victorians. For these kids—and in this day and age, even 30-year-olds can be referred to as kids—the bras have already been burned, rock 'n' roll is the soundtrack to a car commercial and the '60s are no longer thought of as a revolution in consciousness. Rather, the '60s are something from a history text or an ad in Rolling Stone, and rebellion is a canned message you can get your fill of by watching five minutes of MTV. Many members of this generation have had it with sex and drugs and doing it in the road. They are looking for something deeper."

I know one band that may fall within the curtilage of this new movement: doSul. Another band whose music I have liked (particularly their song "Dick Cheney") is Kipchoge and the Ginger Ninjas. Some of the singer/songwriters at my church MOSAIC might also find themselves selling albums under this new genre.

The article concludes, "...Beam, Stevens, Banhart and their cohorts are not the types to proselytize. They have no particular technique for living. Yet by their quiet example they show why this music is spreading. More than any of the others, though, Beam is the face of the Soft Revolution. He's the guy who wants to believe, who wants to be good, who wants nothing more than to have a wife and family, a good job and an off-the-radar life somewhere nice like Miami, where you can take your kids to the beach a couple of times a week.
"These quiet people are today's equivalent of the silent majority. All they want is for the world to please calm down, please. So, those of you who are faithful and stable and undemonstrative, take strength. Those of you who hold as your foundation a quiet kind of belief—in family life, in spirituality, in the Tao—the Soft Revolution speaks for thee. And it will grow louder."

Hmmm! Makes me want to browse the indie labels' websites for song samples I might actually enjoy! Maybe I ought to regrow my old beard before showing up at one of their concerts though.

Why homeschool?
And why just for 6th-7th-8th grade?

Millions of reasons. Top ones that come to mind right now (in order they occur to me):
• Kathryn and I have both taught junior highers, in many settings: Boy Scouts (Nic), private school (Kathryn: 7th grade English), inner city Bible Clubs, World Impact summer and family camps, and Sunday School settings. We were taught age level characteristics and saw them played out, a thousand unique riffs in the same signature. I want to have my hand directly on the tiller of my child's life and heart while he/she navigates these stormy waters. Kathryn wants to be their social engineer, rather than delegating it to the randomness of classroom settings; she wants to actively craft the peer group during these years, encouraging the positive and (mostly through benign neglect) discouraging the negative peer relationships that are so influential during this time.
• These are the years they start to learn really cool stuff, or re-learn it at a level that is interesting to adults. We want a chance to keep up with our brilliant children, one at a time!
• Each of our kids are unusual (all kids are unique— ours happen to be really odd in a delightfully serendipitous way). We want to give them individual attention at this strategic juncture, give them a custom-fitted curriculum that can flex daily, weekly, monthly to take advantage of learning opportunities and our kids' own shifting growing passions and interests. We believe many kids lose their natural hunger to learn at this age because they no longer fit in the standard phalanx of the class setting: falling behind in some areas, wanting to surge ahead but disallowed to, in other areas. Homeschooling now, we hope, will preserve that precious hunger to learn, explore, experiment, grow, adventure, seize great handfuls of life and leap giddily about with them.

Phillip Done says "The main reason I became a teacher is that I like being the first one to introduce kids to words and music and books and people and numbers and concepts and ideas that they ahve never heard about or thought about before. I like being the first one to tell them about Long John Silver and negative numbers and Beethoven and alliteration and "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning" and similes and right angles and Ebenezer Scrooge. . . . Just think about what you know today. You read. You write. You work with numbers. You solve problems. We take all these things for granted. But of course you haven't always read. You haven't always known how to write. you weren't born knowing how to subtract 199 from 600. Someone showed you. There was a moment when you moved from not knowing to knowing, from not understanding to understanding. That's why I became a teacher."

...and that's why we have become teachers, private tutors for our own children, one at a time when the molten iron still gleams with inner light, still yields to the gentle touch of the smith's tools. Six other lucky adults have enjoyed Phillip Done's role in Nathaniel's life. Now it is our turn, our privilege, our joy!

Here are those photos that didn't upload this morning:

(Nathaniel's 6th grade classroom)

(the newest Middle School in Los Angeles)

(Nathaniel hits the books in the morning...)

(...and the laptop in the afternoon. Sweet, a Mac!)

:::::::::: NEWSFLASH ::::::::::
NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL OPENS TODAY IN SOUTH CENTRAL L.A.!
(Parepidemos Newswire)

After months of preparation, Nelson Family Middle School officially opened its doors today. The kitchen door, that is. With an extraordinarily small staff and student body, it eschews the formal schoolbuilding and meets instead at a table in the corner of the kitchen of Nic and Kathryn Nelson. This is very convenient for principal and 6th grade teacher Kathryn, who lives in the home. "There really weren't any serious competitors, besides this venue," she confides.

Science teacher Nic Nelson disputes this. "I thought there was a good case to be made for a couple of other locations in the house, but none of them worked out."

Is he frustrated with the small space? "No, it's actually roomier than I thought it would be. And this way, our student can keep an eye on the tortoise as she roams the back porch."

Student? Yes, the Nelson Family Middle School has only one student formally enrolled. Nathaniel Nelson began 6th grade today, all by himself in the corner of his kitchen.

Noticing the similarity of surnames, we pursued the issue.

"Did I know my teachers before the first day of school? Sure I did. They are my parents, silly!" Nathaniel reveals the sordid truth. His candor is commendable. Investigation of nepotism is underway.

It is not expected to get far. Although there is mounting evidence that the entire school administration and core faculty (Nic and Kathryn) are related to the student body and to each other, the electives teachers are clearly outsiders. Phil Epstein, guitar teacher and resident punster, and Carl Lundgren, percussion and coolness instructor, were not available to be interviewed before press time. But even a cursory review of their bios proves that they do not appear to be related to the Nelsons, and live at different addresses (though Mr. Lundgren is suspiciously scandinavian and lives within walking distance of the school, and Mr. Epstein frequents the school grounds often and has been known to read books in Spanish and play the blues).

The Nelson Family School is also under scrutiny concerning its apparently limited student body. The administration (Kathryn) claims that a preschool enrichment program will be offered soon, but sources have revealed that only one child will be eligible: a Joy Marie Nelson, 3 years old. The similar surname may not be coincidental.

"Well, to be eligible to apply for the school, you must live in our district: that is, in the Nelson Family home," explained Kathryn Nelson. "Joy does, so as soon as we have a program set up for her, she is welcome to enroll."

Are there any children in the district who will not attend the Nelson Family School?

"Sure. Armando Nelson [family connection under investigation] is eligible."

Why is he not enrolled?

"Two reasons; first, we do not have a second grade curriculum in place. Second, Armando is already enrolled at Los Angeles Christian School, and very happy there."

Speaking of happy, observers report that Nathaniel, the sole full-time student of the new school, was giddily happy today. In his enthusiasm he plowed through three days worth of geography material and four of Bible, and is making excellent headway on all his other coursework as well. And the schoolday isn't over yet!

"His hand was trembling so much with excitement, he could hardly hold his pencil steady," said Kathryn the math teacher. "We covered more ground than we thought, on our first day, and he looks ready to stick to that pace for weeks," added Nic, guidance counselor.

So despite the rumors of nepotism and exclusivity that shadow it, the Nelson Family Middle School is a happy place to be, for student and faculty alike.

(For more information contact the front office at parepidemos@mac.com.)
(photos won't upload right now for some reason: coming soon!)

Just a quick note to confirm the rumors: we have in fact broken ground on 37th Drive! Grade beam excavation is complete, we're building the forms and doing some rough plumbing— the old sewer line was like an archaeological find, choked with roots, had to be completely redone. It will take a while to do all the rebar because of the interesting regulations etc. that go with the territory, but when it's done it will be bombproof. Not that we're concerned about terrorists tunneling under our house. Especially after our Adventures in Compaction over the past month. You can't see very well in these photos, but the earth was so solidly compacted, the sides of the tunnels look like they are carved from sandstone. Kathryn picked up a rock from the trench and Bob said "That's not a rock, it's a dirt clod". She couldn't break it in her hand, it was so packed together.
Here is an aerial view of the excavation. And another one for good measure. What a fun little backhoe Bob has! It practically fits in his pickup truck. Perfect for this job.
Here's one more photo, of Joy hard at work on site. Every family member plays a role in building a home, you know.