:: 1 ::
My youngest invented something. He needs new shoes, you see, but he’s hard to fit and I can’t find a place open here in town that sells shoes he can actually wear. Until this week, it’s been mostly cold (for us) and rainy and there’s been a lot of dew on the ground in the mornings. He got tired of his socks being so wet when he came inside from tending his garden before breakfast — they were wet because there are so many holes in his shoes!
Anyhow, he took a couple ziplock baggies and created a pair of plastic socks for himself. He even cut them down so no one can see them when he’s wearing them. He was quite self-satisfied with the whole thing.
This got me to thinking about how the presence of so many luxuries (are shoes luxuries?) means there are a number of challenges we don’t have to face. It can make us weak or soft. The absence of things we are accustomed to (like shoes without holes in them) is painful, but when children solve problems creatively, that ingenuity muscle is strengthened, and I think that means a lot for their futures.
I guess what I’m saying is that when he showed me his ugly plastic socks, my first thought was that he will probably always be fine, no matter what happens.
:: 2 ::
Spring Training registration is still going on!
On of the things I’m most excited about with this is to not think about lockdowns and viruses. I’m in the mood to train in a broader sense rather than focusing on crisis management (even though good principles are also serviceable in a crisis.
Are you coming?
Pro tip: if you sign up to be a Sistership Sophie member instead of registering for this outright, you can go into the membership and watch last year’s Spring Training and then do this one as well, with all of that and more included in your membership! To clarify: if you’re a Sophie, Spring Training is included in your membership with everything else. ♥
:: 3 ::
We got a badminton set. We pulled out the hand-me-down ping pong table (and killed more black widows than I’d like to think about). O-Age-11 is getting desperate. Also, I’m trying to encourage everyone to be outside as much as possible while the weather is still mild. The heat hits beginning next week!
:: 4 ::
This month in 2017:
The habit of thinking is under our care, according to Charlotte Mason. In my experience, some children resist forming this habit. Here’s a synopsis of what Miss Mason had to say about it.
:: 5 ::
Podcast episode of the week:
- Chasing Excellence: 10 Habits to Avoid During Quarantine
- I thought this was generally helpful, probably especially so for families facing lots of change and once. It might feel more discouraging if you’re at home without a job (compared to working from home) but there is a sense in which the advice (like “don’t hit snooze”) is good if you want use some structure to edge out the chaos.
:: 6 ::
This week’s links collection:
- A nicotinic hypothesis for Covid-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications from Qeios (HT: tess)
- I mentioned to Tess that initial theories connecting this virus to air pollution and glyphosate are proving silly and she sent me this epic study where it looks like if you smoke … it helps.
- I had to laugh. This virus is nothing if not unconventional.
- Nearly 25,000 email addresses and passwords allegedly from NIH, WHO, Gates Foundation and others are dumped online from The Washington Post
- Priceless: “Their password security is appalling,” Potter said of the WHO. “Forty-eight people have ‘password’ as their password.” Others, he said, had used their own first names or “changeme.” Only our best and brightest!
- USA Hackers took credit on Twitter and then had their account suspended. They claim they are going to leak “bank transfers that clearly show Bill Gates’s direct hand in controlling the entire narrative of the Covid-19 pandemic.” I will believe it when I see it.
- I noticed none of the news reports mentioned they claimed to also give logins and passwords for the incredibly evil Marina Abramović (who I will not link because I find her horrifying). I wonder why her when all the others were huge organizations and not individuals? Of course, there was that weird brouhaha with the Microsoft ad. Honestly, I’ll trust nothing from Bill Gates until he gives a good reason why we should trust a guy who met with Jeffrey Epstein after he was a known sex offender.
- Did I mention most everyone seems so corrupt and untrustworthy at this point?
- Ps. Your password should never be password.
- ‘I saw men and women crying of hunger’—COVID-19 creates dire situation in Syria from Open Doors
- So sad. And it’s probably going to spread, especially with oil tanking a couple days ago.
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