More About Me

+JMJ+

Thanks for stopping by my space here!  I'm Celeste, and my husband and I live in the suburbs in Northern California with our crew:

Vincent, 17 (high school senior!)

Gianna, 17 (high school senior!)

Catherine, 14 (9th grade/Form 4)

Xavier, 13 (8th grade/Form 3 Upper)

Bridget, 12 (6th grade/Form 2A Upper)

Clara, 11 (5th grade/Form 2A Lower)
Andrew, 8 (4th grade/Form 2B)
Justin, 7 (2nd grade/Form 1A Lower)
Damien, 6 (1st grade/Form 1B)
Emilia, 3

and Matthew, who will be 1 in January!

Once upon a time I was studying to be an English professor; now I'm a homeschool mother grateful for the philosophy of Charlotte Mason. I spend any spare time I can carve out reading, writing, nature journaling, enjoying good picture books with my littles, and dating my husband of twenty years.

I'm a traditional Catholic. You can read all about my conversion story, but put simply: I grew up as a "Bible Christian" going on missions trips to convert Catholics. In college, I converted to the Catholic Church myself and married a cradle Catholic. Two years after that, we discovered the Traditional Latin Mass together, which led to our deciding to homeschool and raise a big family. I'm in a completely different place than I ever expected and couldn't be happier about it.

We homeschooled for many using AmblesideOnline's booklists with some tweaks to suit our family and faith. A few years ago, I joined the team at the Charlotte Mason Educational Center, a non-profit collaboration of parents and teachers dedicated to putting the philosophy of Charlotte Mason into practice. I love my work at the CMEC and put most of my extra energy toward supporting the member families and thinking through Mason's ideas alongside them.

I use this blog as an educational notebook of sorts: 

to narrate my reading of Mason's vision of education

to track our weekly nature study outings

to log our life in snapshots and talk of this and that

to chart our current reading

to discuss our education plans, scheduling methods, and home routines

to share how we live the liturgical year
to host a place where we can share our CM-style notebook-keeping

and to share ideas in managing a homeschool and home with lots of children.

And as a final note: in this space, I share the JOYS of our home-educating life. As my children get older, I want them to be comfortable with what I have shared here, so I choose to focus on the things I love about life and lessons. Be assured that some of our days are chaotic and do not go quite as planned! Those days do not usually make it on to the blog. ;)

Please feel free to contact me at joyous lessons (at) gmail (dot) com. You can subscribe to my blog via email or add it to your favorite RSS reader -- just check the sidebar for subscription options.

Want to read more? Find me on Instagram or check out the other places you can "meet" me online.

(And by the way: this blog began as a group blog--my dear, in-real-life friend Angela and I wrote here together.  Her life took a different tack many years ago, so I've been blogging here solo for a decade.  But you'll occasionally see an old post pop up with her name on it!)