Plumfield Moms
We are sisters in Christ who became friends over a shared love of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, found especially in good and great books. Our primary vocation is that of marriage and motherhood, but we feel a secondary call, as educators and homeschool moms, to walk with families who are seeking to help form souls who are capable of responding to the vocation God has called them to. Our objective is to form our children and grandchildren to the best of our ability, and in so doing share what has been meaningful to us with others that it may encourage them and lighten their burden. As homeschoolers, classical educators and Christians, we have a passion for the ancient Greek paideia and the loving education of Louisa May Alcott‘s Plumfield (from her novel Little Men).
Episodes
![Book Review: Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers by Kevin T. Ford](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
5 days ago
5 days ago
Fans of The Green Ember and Mistmantle will be delighted with Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers by Kevin T. Ford! This new middle-grade fantasy series starter is beautifully written and tells the kind of story that we love being inside of while reading and want to return to once we are done. Not only does this exciting story have interesting world-building, lovable characters, and beautiful language, but it also builds well and is accompanied by lovely illustrations by Michael Genova.
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/lepunia-kingdom-of-the-gallopers/
![Our Reading Life: July 2024](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog14312154/July_c57wjc_300x300.jpg)
6 days ago
Our Reading Life: July 2024
6 days ago
6 days ago
Welcome to our July 2024 episode of Our Reading Life where we chat with our dear friends, Tanya Arnold and Sarah Kim from Biblioguides about our reading lives. We are so glad that you are here!
Tanya’s References
Let’s Play Math by Denise Gaskins
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Sarah Kim’s References
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Glowrushes by Robert Piumini
One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome
Sara Masarik’s References
Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers by Kevin T. Ford
The Green Ember Series by S. D. Smith
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
The Keeper of the Hidden Books by Madeline Martin
Diane’s References
Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse by Maggie Fergusson
A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart
General References
Biblioguides
Semicolon
Book Review Roundup
Mighty Networks
Shelf NotesShow Notes: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/our-reading-life-july-2024/
![Reflection: Straight Paths for the Lord](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
7 days ago
Reflection: Straight Paths for the Lord
7 days ago
7 days ago
"Not everyone was willing to listen to John’s assessment of their sin. Many were disappointed that the news wasn’t more spectacular. This wasn’t what they had been hoping for. Where was the mighty king coming in a procession with his servants, his throngs of followers, and his army to set his people free from Rome? Those whose hearts were too crooked and rocky to allow them to agree with God and turn completely around missed the fact that their king had indeed come."
![Our Librarian Life: July 2024](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/ep-logo/pbblog14312154/7_Jul_bi7cd3_300x300.jpg)
Wednesday Jul 17, 2024
Our Librarian Life: July 2024
Wednesday Jul 17, 2024
Wednesday Jul 17, 2024
Welcome to our July 2024 episode of Our Librarian Life where we chat with our dear librarian friends, Kristi Stansfield and Sherry Early, about our reading lives. We are so glad that you are here!In this episode, we chat about what happens when everything suddenly changes - whether it is from a need to close for a while due to renovations, injury, or something in another part of our lives that causes major upheaval. Check out the Show Notes here: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/show-notes-our-librarian-life-july-2024/
![Book Review: A Mathematician's Lament](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
Monday Jul 15, 2024
Book Review: A Mathematician's Lament
Monday Jul 15, 2024
Monday Jul 15, 2024
“The first thing to understand is that mathematics is an art. The difference between math and the other arts, such as music and painting, is that our culture does not recognize it as such.”
There is an astonishing amount of power and truth packed into this 140-page book. If, like me, you feared and resented math in school because it made you feel stupid, perhaps you will understand why Lockhart’s lament almost had me crying by the end of the second chapter. Crying for “what if?” What if I had had even one math teacher in school who had loved mathematics as an art and taught it as such? What if even one of my teachers had given me time to explore the beauty of patterns and have ideas about them? What if, sometime in my twelve years of school, even one teacher had believed, “Being a mathematician is not so much about being clever . . . it’s about being aesthetically sensitive and having refined and exquisite taste”?
![Reflection: God Can Garden in Wagon Tracks](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
Saturday Jul 13, 2024
Reflection: God Can Garden in Wagon Tracks
Saturday Jul 13, 2024
Saturday Jul 13, 2024
"Paths, wagon tracks, and roads are fit for their intended uses but are difficult places for vegetation to grow. Reclaiming them for growing things would take back-breaking work. But if God wants hard-packed earth to produce fruit, it will. Just because a place looks like barren desert to me doesn’t mean it would be the least bit difficult for God to grow a garden there if he chose. “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
![Reflection: In Whom Do You Now Trust?](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
Saturday Jul 13, 2024
Reflection: In Whom Do You Now Trust?
Saturday Jul 13, 2024
Saturday Jul 13, 2024
“For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ‘Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.'” (Isa. 8:11-13 ESV)
![Plumfield in Person: Why Libraries?](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
Wednesday Jul 10, 2024
Plumfield in Person: Why Libraries?
Wednesday Jul 10, 2024
Wednesday Jul 10, 2024
"Through a series of extremely fortunate events, over the past nine months or so, I have become acquainted with several women scattered around the country who run private lending libraries. The ones I know are homeschoolers or former homeschoolers who collected good books for their children’s education and edification. At some point each of them began to share books with other families. Along the way they developed their own process. Each has her own method of storing books, cataloging them, shelving them, and lending them.
These women are not trying to duplicate the public library any more than homeschoolers are trying to duplicate public school. There is no formula for the “right way” to open your own lending library. It starts with a desire to fill a need.
We’ve been so immersed in our current system that we believe we’ve always done it this way. Often, the first response is to hasten to a board meeting expecting to effect reform within the system. That could happen. But we also have the option to repossess our freedoms and reinstitute our institutions."
![Book Review: Team Burger Shed by Tavin Dillard](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Book Review: Team Burger Shed by Tavin Dillard
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Team Burger Shed by Tavin Dillard made my reserved and faintly aloof husband snort and then laugh out loud. And I wasn’t even reading it to him. In fact, he was sitting on the couch reading his own book while the kids and I were talking about Tavin Dillard’s latest antics in the chapter I had been reading. I reached for my phone and turned on the audiobook to play a section for my boys. Before I knew it, I was laughing at my husband, because he could not resist laughing at Tavin. I don’t know what else to say… this book makes my daughter roll her eyes, me groan, my boys fall over themselves laughing, and even drew my otherwise reticent husband into the fun. I have concluded that this is a quintessential boy-humor book that is fun for the whole family. Even if half of the fun is just laughing at those who think it is hilarious.
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/team-burger-shed-by-tavin-dillard/
![Reflection: Dressed for Action](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/14312154/PlumfieldMomsLogo_skhzpw_300x300.jpg)
Saturday Jul 06, 2024
Reflection: Dressed for Action
Saturday Jul 06, 2024
Saturday Jul 06, 2024
"Peter later elaborates on this. “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). “Preparing your minds for action” is one way to translate the Greek words that mean, “girding up the loins of your mind.” Picture, then, gathering up extraneous thoughts and fastening them out of the way, preparing your mind for exertion.
The book of 1 Peter is full of instructions for inspecting the readiness of our minds. Be holy as He is holy. Purify your souls by obedience to the truth. Love one another earnestly with pure hearts. Live as people who are free yet as bondservants (doulos) of God."