In Our Cozy Home This Week – No. 102

So here’s my week.

We were sick. We nursed our colds. It’s now Friday.

To add a bit more detail, Caroline ended up with an ear infection. She is doing better now that she’s been on antibiotics a few days. And this is much better than the walking pneumonia she had last year at this time.

Remember when we did the hibernation homeschooling several years ago? She just seems prone to ear infections and fall sickness. Thankfully we broke the cycle that year, but every fall we seem to lose a few weeks to sickness. David and I only have colds and we seem to be on the mend.

On the plus side, our backyard and deck are so pretty right now. The leaves are changing. Our pumpkins and mums from the orchard outing look wonderful. Our fall pansies are glorious this year. I need to take some pictures. The flowers are huge and colorful, and the plants overall are just lush. They love this cooler weather and we’ve definitely had a cooler than average fall since we potted them.

This Week’s Artwork

Today is another Albert Anker work called Kinder bei den Hausaufgaben (Children With Their Homework). It’s an oil on canvas from around 1900.

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t already done a bio on Anker because I know I’ve used his paintings multiple times. Alas, they were before I started discussing or even noting the artist. I’m not going to take the time to scroll back through 100+ posts and find them, but I know they are there.

Albrecht Samuel Anker (1831 – 1910) was a Swiss painter and illustrator who has been called the “national painter” of Switzerland because of his enduringly popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss village life.

During his studies, Anker produced a series of works with historical and biblical themes, including paintings of Luther and Calvin. Soon after returning to Ins, though, he turned to what would become his signature theme: the everyday life of people in rural communities. His paintings depict his fellow citizens in an unpretentious and plain manner, without idealising country life, but also without the critical examination of social conditions that can be found in the works of contemporaries such as Daumier, Courbet or Millet. Although Anker did paint occasional scenes with a social significance, such as visits by usurers or charlatans to the village, his affirmative and idealistic Christian world-view did not include an inclination to issue any sort of overt challenge.

Albert Anker’s work made him Switzerland’s most popular genre painter of the 19th century, and his paintings have continued to enjoy a great popularity due to their general accessibility. Indeed, as a student, Anker summed up his approach to art as follows: “One has to shape an idea in one’s imagination, and then one has to make that idea accessible to the people.”

There is more to read if you click over. You can also see many of his other works.

Homemaking

I kept up with the laundry and that’s about it. I didn’t push myself to do much else around the house. There are quite a few things that will need to be done today and tomorrow.

Homeschooling

We didn’t do anything this week. Caroline watched a few documentaries, but that’s about it. She was not feeling well and I couldn’t talk without coughing. So we will just chalk it up to a mostly lost week and move forward. Such is life. Depending on how the day goes, I may try to sneak in a few things today and tomorrow, but I’m not sure. We’re all getting better, but none of us are close to a hundred percent.

Work

I did some cleaning up on my website and reorganized a few things. I moved all the Gifted/2e category posts to be subcategories of Homeschooling (Gifted/2e Homeschooling) and Gracious Christian Parenting (Gifted/2e Parenting For Christians). I eliminated the Gifted/2e top level category because I don’t see myself writing about it on a regular basis. When I do write about it, it will be in the context of either homeschooling or Christian parenting so it made sense to move them.

The gifted/2e world is not really my tribe. I was in the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum for a few years (while it still existed) and I never really fit in as a Christian. The people were kind to me overall, but there is a lot of hostility toward Christianity in the gifted/2e world so it felt a bit like walking on eggshells. I’m sure it’s even worse now with the rise of the entire gender thing. (I know instinctively without even looking into it that it has probably become a huge topic in the gifted/2e world.) Anyway, it made sense to remove that as a top category since I’m not adding much content there. I definitely did not want to remove that content from my website. There are some truly important and helpful posts in those two sub-categories.

There’s more I plan to do when my sinus headache is completely gone and I can really focus.

Anyway, that’s my week. I hope yours was healthier and more productive! What was up in your home this week? I hope you’ll leave a comment.