Old Betsy & The Infernos | Our Weekly WrapUp & Friday Funnies, Flops, and Fails Linkup

Old Betsy & The Infernos | Our Weekly WrapUp & Friday Funnies, Flops, and Fails Linkup Party

Our week was full of fixings and endings, but through it all we homeschooled…

Old Betsy sprung a leak this week. Well first she dripped and then she leaked and after my husband tried tightening a hose clamp, she decided to gush and overheat. So Old Betsy got a trip to the auto mechanic to get a brand spanking new radiator and my husband got an unplanned vacation day and and unplanned car rental. Life can be tricky with just one car, but in general Old Betsy is worth it.

Betsy is the name of our car. This car is special, which is why we named her. Before my father-in-law passed away, Old Betsy carried him across every dirt back-road and country highway in California as he visited chicken farms on behalf of the state to test for disease and check on vaccinations. Old Betsy also took him to pig farms and cattle ranches, and out camping and hunting in the fall. We were given Old Betsy at a time we really needed wheels, and that is how she came to live with us.

She is a great car. Reliable and easy to work on. My children are learning to fix Old Betsy now that they are teenagers, but this time round we decided she needed a professional. After all, replacing a radiator mid-week in an afternoon can be a challenge.

This week was a great week for school lessons in out little homeschool.

We had spontaneous poetry writing and dramatic Shakespeare readings. Chemistry and math. The kids finished Dante’s Inferno and are looking forward to starting Purgatory as soon as the book arrives (I am picky about translations and we needed a copy translated by Dorothy Sayers, which is sadly out of print).

We started in reviewing a new Literature curriculum called Characters in Crisis, which is turning out to be a favorite.

A Hero Emerges Through Fire And Saves The Books

We are living downwind of the largest firestorm I can remember, and I am no spring chicken and I grew up in this area so that is saying something. I can remember droughts with no end, and cold snaps, and big earthquakes galore. But never this much smoke across the whole region. And never this much destruction from fire.

In our part of the country, fires are a normal event every fall. The golden hills of California are golden because they are coated with a cloak of dry grasses and dry grass burns easily. I suspect many fires each year are set by stupidity or maliciousness, but there are just natural fires that spring up as well.

My husband has a co-worker, Ed, who spends many weekends in a house that is in the midst of one of the many fires that are burning this week in Northern California. That house was right in the path of fiery devastation.

All Ed could think of was this book collection going up in flames. The house was one thing, but the books – that was a horrible thought.

This, however, is a story of neighborly determination. A story of one man battling the elements to save his spot in the world, and the story of a pile of books that were spared as a result.

One of Ed’s neighbors decided that he was not going to lose his home and so he stayed, in spite of the evacuation order, armed with a garden hose. Every time the front edge of the fire licked at his property or Ed’s property, this neighbor watered it down. He watered both houses and both roofs.

This man, whose name I will probably never know, kept both homes intact all night.

And when the fire had passed by, the sun rose on a neighborhood of two standing houses in a forest of burnt foundations. Those two houses were the only to survive. All the others were burnt to the ground.

This man refused to give up or hand the job of protecting his neighborhood over to an official. Some might call him stubborn or reckless, but this neighbor is a hero. And he saved Ed’s books.

Sometimes you need to spend some time doing something that you really enjoy and for me that is writing my ABCs.

And my two wonderful co-hosts and I kicked off a series called “Blogging Through The Alphabet” so if you are interested, there are some great posts linked up and if you write any posts about something that starts with the letter A in the next few days, hop on over and link up! We will host a new linkup (and a new letter of the alphabet) each Thursday.

My posts from the last week…

https://www.byebyebrickandmortar.com/2017/10/09/10-super-science-classes-homeschooler-10/

https://www.byebyebrickandmortar.com/2017/10/09/ctcmath-family-membership-homeschool-review-crew-review/

https://www.byebyebrickandmortar.com/2017/10/10/brinkman-adventures-season-4-homeschool-review-crew-review/

https://www.byebyebrickandmortar.com/2017/10/12/art-advice-abcs-homeschooling-grace/

Favorite Verse this Week:

Psalm 118:21 “I will praise thee; for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation.”

For this week, Old Betsy was our fail.

If you had a Funny or a Flop or a Fail in your homeschooling life this week please consider linking up here to share it with us.

Did you have a flop or a fail in your homeschool this week? Maybe something happened that was just too funny!

Share it here in my blog hop – let’s show all those homeschooling moms who think that homeschooling has to be that Pinterest-perfect activity ALL the time what homeschooling really looks like!

Homeschooling can be messy and there may be tears, and your laundry absolutely never, ever, gets done! But it still is the absolute best thing you have ever done and the best life you could possibly imagine for your kids and for you, right?!

Places I linked up this post

Drop by and read the posts of some great homeschooling families at this week’s Homeschool Highlights hosted by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break! And read through the great posts at Weird Unsocialied Homeschoolers’ Link Up as well! …and check out the great weekly wrap up posts linked up at The Homeschool Post! …and great posts link up at  Blog, She Wrote , and of course the Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop!