A bit more~

Recently~ I got asked a few questions I promised to answer and here are my answers:

About photography- I have a fairly good digital, but its a compact. Did you just work on skills until you could get a really lovely, 'fancy camera?

Yup. I saved and saved for my digital camera and in the meantime I used a little bitty digital camera that had been a gift. I really wanted to 'do' the photographs myself....focus them, set the attributes, etc. but I really stunk at it at first. I forced myself to shoot fully manual so that I would learn to do it and I have come this far just by practicing and through trial and error. As I said in the chatbox, though, I have a loooooooong way to go because I toss more photos than I keep. That is the reason why I created Foto Friday here at Renaissance, to keep learning and pushing myself with photography.

If you have a compact camera, you are completely capable of taking extraordinary photographs. The camera will set the settings for you, yes, but this will allow you to focus your attentions on getting great focus, keeping your hands steady to reduce camera shake, shooting from different angles, trying out different perspectives, using the rule of thirds, decluttering your backgrounds, and utilizing light. Here is a post with some links you might like to read. And you know....you could always participate in Foto Friday! ;-)
Secondly- did you get good at sewing by just practicing too?

You give me too much credit. I enjoy sewing but I am no great seamstress. I still find myself looking cross-eyed at patterns and looking up how to do zippers and buttonholes; I still shirk at the mere THOUGHT of adjusting patterns to my own measurements and I have YET to actually create something for MYSELF that is usable . I sewed, yes, for a long time but it was like child-sewing until a good friend (and amazing seamstress) showed me how important it was to iron, iron, iron. Take your time. Rip and redo if necessary and generally taught me what it means to sew well. I am still practicing that to this day and quite frankly, will continue to do so for the rest of my days.

Thirdly, (sorry- there's more!), why did you choose to homeschool? our church is starting a Classical school in 2013, but I still would prefer to homeschool. My little one is only 9 mnths old (I think WAY ahead!), but I would love an enormous brood, and love the idea of us spending our days around our home, and having them with me until they are much, much bigger. The thing is, the school would provide great Classical Christian education. My only real reason for wanting to homeschool is that it just seems right to me. I I want to be able to train my little ones myself. So just wondering what made you lean in that direction?

**** This is a LOADED QUESTION and by answering, I realize I will make quite a few enemies so let me just preface this with the fact that this is OUR decision for OUR family. We emphatically believe that Christian parents have the responsibility to educate their children in a Godly manner but we also realize that homeschooling is not the ONLY way to do this. That said, my answer: ****

Your ONLY REASON sounds like a great reason to me! If you ask me, having a desire to homeschool is a great sign that you ought to at least try it out.

I have often wondered what I would reply if someone were to ask me why I homeschool, mainly because I have SO MANY different reasons for homeschooling that I could probably make the curious persons' head SPIN.

You are talking about a classical Christian education, so sounds to me like you already know the importance of a Godly education and that is primarily the reason we don't send our children to public school. So the question then becomes~ Why do we homeschool instead of sending them to Christian school? Well, sometimes I only WISH we sent them to Christian school (homeschooling can be hard work!) but since today is a good day (hehehe)...

~ I want to be able to talk to, train and teach my children not only when they rise up and go to bed, but while they are walking along the way and sitting in the house. Homeschooling offers a whole lot more of those moments than does sending them away for seven hours a day.

~I would rather have my children use the time it takes going from class to class and waiting for the class to settle down instead to be playing outside, exploring or learning by themselves through play, art, etc. USING every moment, not wasting it because each moment is precious.

~ I want my children to be free to be who they are and not have who they are become measured by peer pressures, bullies, or any outside forces at all. If that means wearing cowboy boots and bandanna, so be it.

~ I want my children to not be interrupted by bells every 45 minutes when their interest is just getting piqued. I want for them to become obsessed with subjects that make them happy~and be able to do so.

~ I want my children to have ample time to learn and grow and BE without being taught at all hours of the day. I am sad that schooling takes so much of our childrens' lives away from them and frankly, ANGERED, that enough is never enough.

~ I want to know firsthand what is going on in their lives and what is being fed to them, even in Christian schools worldviews vary.

~ Unlike even the BEST of school teachers in the very BEST of schools, I am able to adjust education to meet the needs of my individual child by offering more instruction or more challenging material, depending on his/her needs. It would be unfair to expect ANYONE to adjust education based on the needs of an entire classroom.

~ Childhood is fleeting and I love seeing every.single.minute.of.it.

~ Not to mention, we love children and want loads of them (big surprise, no?) so sending them to Christian school would be our financial demise. :-)

Again, these are the reasons why WE thought homeschooling was the best option for OUR family. I am not saying it is the only way to provide a godly education for your children but the way that best suits US. I made that qualifier in BIG font so we are clear and I won't get any hate-mail. I hate hate-mail.


Fourthly, I love your blog so much that I am reading all your archived posts, but they only show the last week or so of each month. Or am I doing something wrong?

Nope. You are not doing anything wrong. I noticed this a while ago but the only way to fix the problem is to create a new template for my blog. This means I would have to discard the beautiful flowers in the background that I love so much, the lovely print and scrolling quote at the top, the beautiful lace and flowers and well-just everything that makes my blog lovely to me. Not to mention, I STINK at technical stuff and am afraid when I DO change it, I will delete my blog or something. So I have avoided fixing the problem up until now. I know I must. But knowing and doing are two different things. The perk in not having archives for the time being? You do not get to see how awful my pictures started out as and how soapboxy I was in the beginning. I like to think I have grown a bit since the start of this blog and it is awful nice to not have to look back at what I once was. (Or have other people see.) :-)

Also~ I have news!

I was featured HERE with last years Easter ensemble.

I was featured HERE with my pillowcase skirt tutorial.

And finally, ever since Google Notebook abandoned me, I have been searching for a way to keep track of all the great ideas/inspirations/tutorials I find on the web. I finally found it a few weeks ago, in Pinterest, which is even MORE great because I can"pin" all the treasures I find around in photographs as well as ORGANIZING them into groups called "pinboards". You can check out my pins or even follow them by going here.

See all the cool projects I have in store for SOMEDAY?

I guess that covers it!