The Accidental Blogger

Thursday

2009-11-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

While Travis and Ed were visiting the orthodontist this afternoon, Katie and I walked over to the field behind our house, right next to the cemetary, to do a little nature study.
Her assignment was to pick an area, one meter square, and note down all the plants, critters, and non-living stuff within it. Picking a good square wasn't easy. She wanted it to include every pretty flower she saw. But finally she did settle on a square.

Then it turned out that even with our book on wildflowers I couldn't identify any of the scrubby little weeds growing in it. And our instructions actually stated, "Do not just put "weed."" Phooey. So we did our best. I think we had goldenrod (of some sort), white topped aster, and frost aster, plus what I rebelliously identified as "grass" and "small shrubby plant." We also had a butterfly, a 2 spotted ladybug, and a large plastic leaf. Plus a spider.

She took good notes & we had a good time.

Then we came home and Katie repaired the seat of her baby doll stroller and played house with Harry. He was surprisingly good tempered about it.

Tuesday

2009-11-03T19:16:00.000-05:00

Today was beautiful. Cool and pretty. I planted my little garden patch with lettuce and spinach seeds. Probably too late, of course, but a friend from church gave me the seeds a few weeks ago and this was the first time weather and opportunity favored me at the same time.

Katie thought she would be helpful by raking leaves, but then Travis came out and showed her that there were more fun things to do with leaves than gather them into neat piles.

Happy All Saints Day!

2009-11-01T16:47:00.002-05:00

Today in church we sang one of the songs in our hymnal which always makes me chuckle. It is just so very, very British -- all I can think of while we sing it is a church full of English children warbling away. But at least everyone knew it, which was more than you could say for the first hymn.
And here, for your edification, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" (#293 in the 1982 Hymnal)

"I sing a song of the saints of God
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God --- and I mean
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right for Jesus' sake,
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
And there's not any reason --- no not the least
Why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still,
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too. "

Isn't that just jolly? And if you click on the title link it will take you to a YouTube video of a church choir actually singing it!

The kids had a good Halloween. It drizzled all day and all evening, but we didn't let that slow us down. Travis dressed as a black cloaked character with a silver, skeleton-y sort of face, and Katie was Hermione Granger.

Travis was eager to carve his pumpkin, but he did not enjoy reaching in to pull out the seeds & goopy.

Katie, on the other hand, does not object to slimy pumpkin goop.

Watching Travis carve made me nervous, but he did it, and finished with the same number of fingers he started with.

Here Ed is giving fatherly advice.

Katie's scowl here is not due to touching pumpkin slime, but because she suspects (rightly) that her daddy is horning in on her picture. Ed loves having his picture taken.So here we'll let him have all the glory.Travis did not give his pumpkin a nose. I don't know why, but judging by its expression the pumpkin was not pleased.

Last Wednesday we got home from a lovely week in Maine with my parents.Mostly the weather was beautiful, if a tad on the coolish side. We got in some beautiful hikes. Above is the view from Blueberry Hill, and also Katie, dressed so as Not to look like a turkey. My mom served us fabulous gourmet meals every night, and wonderful desserts too. Here she is bravely letting Travis sift ingredients together for Whoopie Pies.

And Katie, with a fingerful of Whoopie Pie dough...

My parents and I climbed Hornbeam Mountain. The path up was a bit iffy, but the view from the top was glorious!

During our visit my poor dad was dealing with a defective table saw (actually a couple defective table saws). The saw saga did not have a happy ending, but Katie had a great time helping tighten screws.

My parents took us to lunch at a very yuppie little restaurant in their little town. Delicious and substantial as the lunch was, it still did not fortify Travis and Katie enough so that they could walk the three miles homes without complaining. Fortunately my dad, who drove home, knows his grandchildren well, and met us partway home with the car to give my little wimps a ride home. My mom and I had a much more pleasant walk without them.

Did I mention that my mom made us wonderful meals? We had Beef Wellington, a rib roast, turkey, ham, brisket, etc. So good.

Here Travis is eyeing the Wellington lustfully.

My daddy took Travis kayaking on Long Pond. I have no pictures, but apparently Travis kayaks as though he is playing bumper cars. He says this is how they did it at camp. Katie was too young for kayaking, but tackled her Paba every time he thought he might sit down for a little peaceful reading. He read us half of The Little White Horse, and I am looking forward to finishing it.

A friend of my parents recommended the view from Belgrade Lakes golf course. None of us golf, but it is a beautiful course, and the views were beautiful. (And there was a very sweet yellow lab puppy named Tonka who would have liked to come home with us.)

My parents have a stream running through their property, and Katie would happily have spent hours playing in the water, despite the chill. Here she is, inviting disaster by standing on a log.

Actually, both children enjoyed teetering on rocks at the edge of the pond, filling my head with visions of hypothermia.Good thing they're cute.

Here we are, dressed up all puffy.And the kids, perpetually goofy.

And that was our trip to Maine. The cats and Bo seem to have forgiven us for abandoning them.

Saturdays are for Decadence

2009-10-17T11:49:00.001-04:00

I stayed in bed late this morning, reading. Around 9:30 I looked in on the children, who were in the living room watching Saturday morning television. They each had a doughnut this morning for breakfast, and Katie followed hers up with the dish of pudding that she wasn't allowed to have last night for dessert because she didn't eat her dinner.

I mentioned that she was still wearing a fair lot of the doughnut or the pudding or both, but she was undismayed...

Aside from the fact that it was cold, gray, and rainy from Wednesday on, weather which makes me want to hibernate, we had a pretty good week. My Uncle Dave stopped by for a visit on Tuesday and we had a lovely time! The kids showed him all the wonders of Mountain Park (chiefly our new general store), and he took us out to a delicious lunch at an Italian/Greek place in town which had been recommended to me. Then the kids showed him the Wii.

All the fun of a bowling alley without the ickiness of rented shoes. What more could one ask?

He is excellent company and a very good listener. Also a good patter! He left with a very generous quantity of Bo's hair stuck to his trousers.

We hope he comes back soon!

School went pretty well this week. Travis crossed another bridge in Fred, Katie learned all her spelling words, and the usual grammar, Latin, history, etc. was studied and more or less learned. Literature this week was particularly fun, featuring Beowulf, King Arthur, and the gods and goddesses of Norse mythology.

New Love

2009-10-11T22:18:00.000-04:00

We spent Saturday morning and part of the afternoon at our church, serving up food at the "Barbeque and Brunswick Stew" which was held to raise money for our priest's discretionary fund. I think the priest's fund is now pretty comfortable, and we had a good time slinging barbeque, stew, and beans. Katie even got a couple tips for carrying food out to people's cars! And afterward Ed drove us up to a place in Virginia that sells boots and he and the kids waited very patiently while I tried on a hundred pairs of boots and finally bought these lovelies with my birthday money!

For the past three winters I have mostly worn these

with the thickest socks I can find. Fashionable as this look is, I have been thinking for a while now that it would be nice to have some new cold-weather footwear. Since my feet have become increasingly duck shaped with age, finding a comfortable pair of shoes is not an easy task (which is why I have been wearing those excellent sandals pretty much non-stop for the past five years). Thus the trip to the boot emporium, recommended by a boot-wearing friend, in Virginia. And in the end, after sorely testing the dedication of the young and not-terribly-enthusiastic salesgirl, I found my Perfect Boots. They are Fabulously Comfortable. Nice arch support. No sliding around at the heel. And not tight in the toes. I am In Love!

The raised patches under the writing (which says "waterproof") are to cushion the side of my feet in the stirrups. Since I don't have stirrups (or a saddle. or a horse.), this feature might seem unnecessary, but it is good to be prepared, eh?

Finding fabulously wonderful boots was pretty much the extent of my industry this weekend, but I did also manage to get the dog washed. This probably fell more into the category of "self-preservation" than "industry," as he had gotten very ripe. But anyway, now he is much more pleasant to be around. I wanted to get a picture to show how pretty he looks clean, but he wouldn't smile for me.

He looks pretty hard done by, doesn't he? Being bathed makes him feel terribly martyred, but he loves being dried off afterwards so that face he is making is pure drama.

Katie tried to get him to smile (with treats), but he is stubborn.

Harry would have liked a treat, but the last time I gave him one it made him ill. Indoor pets should Not have delicate digestions.

Will Wonders Never Cease?

2009-10-08T21:24:00.000-04:00

The kids visited the dentist today, and, maintaining their record, have no cavities! Given the care with which they brush, this has to qualify as a minor miracle (right up there with the mango, Daddy!). And I am very grateful.

Another thing to be grateful for arrived by FedEx yesterday:

Katie noticed right away that it was still warm! Hot off the press, or hot off the truck, either way, we can hardly wait to read it!

And finally, the cats still like playing in boxes.

A Perfect Day

2009-10-05T20:29:00.000-04:00

"Was this the Best Birthday Ever?" my kids keep asking me.
Yup. It was. The best Ever. With all the love and enthusiasm they've been pouring out on me all day, how could it have been anything else?

Our book group friends got here at 8:30 this morning and we had a productive session, with the kids presenting their papers, playing a game with the history cards they are memorizing, having a writing lesson, and working logic puzzles. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me and we all ate cake. (Unfortunately, one of our families, five people, couldn't make it, so there is still quite a lot of cake left.) One of the moms brought me this beautiful jar of cinnamon sweet pickles:

I'd never had cinnamon pickles before, and, to be absolutely honest (though I wasn't with my friend), I was a wee bit skeptical. After everyone left, though, I opened the jar and tried some, and they are delicious! I called my friend right away and told her how good they were, just in case any of my doubtfulness had been apparent. (And now maybe I'll get a jar at Christmas -- they really are yummy!)

My wonderful, sweet parents gave me those glorious stacks of books, and it was a great test of character for me to leave them and do lessons with the kids after lunch. I worked the "it's my birthday" angle shamelessly with the children while we did schoolwork, and they did finish in much better than the usual time, and with more than the usual cheerfulness. And then we went out to dinner at the Chinese buffet. No dishes to wash and very full, happy tummies.

And now all I have to do is decide whether to start on the new Garrison Keillor or the Patricia Wrede which has been tempting me on my Amazon list for several years and is now mine! It just doesn't get any better than this.

I am Loved

2009-10-04T21:03:00.000-04:00

The kids baked me birthday cakes today. That's right -- cake(s). Each had a Vision, and there was no compromise in sight, so I told them that what I Really wanted was two cakes. Fortunately our book group will be meeting here tomorrow, so we will have some help in eating all that sugary goodness!

When I was a little girl I once got my (very long) hair caught up in the mixer. Katie likes the story (poor little mommy!), and here she is demonstrating her version of the way the thing happened (poor, stupid little mommy!). Actually, it was a stand mixer, and I was just leaning too close. But her version is more exciting!

And here is Travis baking. Don't ask me why my kids are posing with wide open mouths.

And here he is, frosting his cake. The frosting part of the cake making got kind of chaotic, with powdered sugar and food coloring flying in all directions. But it all turned out right in the end.

Here Ed and Katie are planning their cake. They worked together, though Ed found that he was Not the director.

Here is Katie's (and Ed's) cake.

And here is Travis's...

That is Gandalf, sliding off the cake on the left. Frodo is in back, and Sam is hidden behind Gandalf. There is a "4" on each cake. Tomorrow we will put the cakes side by side, so they will show all my 44 years, and I will blow both out at the same time. At least, that is the plan. And then I will cut both at the same time and taste both at the same time. Because otherwise one of my children will know that I love the other one better and will be scarred for life. Sigh. It is good to be loved.

A Beautiful Saturday

2009-10-03T20:11:00.000-04:00

Today was just as gorgeous a fall day as you could ask for! I had planned to do some lesson planning stuff, but instead I took the kids to the park and sat in the sun reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor while they played. Much more fun than entering data into Homeschool Tracker! And while I was reading How to Read Literature... I could almost imagine that I would be able to recognize symbolism next time I bumped into it -- the author makes it seem that easy! Problem is, I don't read a lot of Serious Literature. I am reading The Buccaneers to myself and Goody Hall to the kids, and next in our queue is Runaway Ralph. I will give it my best effort, but I suspect that in all of these rain is just rain and a sandwich is just a meal.

We finally had a week of school in which everything I planned on doing got done. Science and all! Katie even did her first week of Prima Latina. The reason we got everything done was that the only history/literarture we had was what didn't get finished last week. Which should be very instructive to me, but I refuse to draw the obvious conclusion and schedule half as much history. And, in my defense, both kids missed the lengthy read-aloud sessions that normally take up so much of our days. The school week ended very happily on Friday, with Travis passing his Life of Fred: Decimals "bridge" to lesson 16 on the very first try and then making a 98% on his Unit II First Form Latin test. We have enough days things don't go swimmingly that I am determined to glory in it when they do!

Dump Cake

2009-09-29T21:06:00.000-04:00

My mom's recipe for "Dump Cake" came in the mail today, and it looked so good that I couldn't wait to try it!

Inspired by the festive cake for dessert, I went hog-wild and made beef stew and homemade crescent rolls for dinner (It was spinach quiche for grown-ups and hot dogs for kids on the menu tonight, but despite rumors to the contrary, I can be flexible and spontaneous! Just not often!) It all looked so good that we ate in the dining room, with a cloth on the table and candles. After eating in the kitchen all summer, the dining room feels warm and cozy for fall.

In other news...

candy corn may be nasty, but they make Great vampire teeth!

But Next Time, Ed would prefer the Pastries of the Spirit

2009-09-27T18:33:00.000-04:00

For the past few Sundays, the kids have been discussing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.") in their class while Ed and I do our Bible study. As a special activity, the mom in charge arranged for the children to provide the food for the coffee hour after the service. Actually, she provided the food (I did offer) and the kids cut it up and arranged it prettily. It was fruit, of course, and there were also baskets on all the tables of paper fruits which the kids had cut out and colored. The front of each paper fruit lists a gift of the Spirit, and the back has a related Bible verse. The kids were so excited when the service was over and we could admire their work! They eagerly handed me one fruit after another, saying "Here, Mom, you need Self-control, Peace, Patience, Love, ..." They know me! It was very nice, but Ed, who feels the need for something more substantial than fresh fruit after a couple hours of church, would have been even happier if the symbolic fruit had been goopily couched in a Danish pastry.

Lucky

2009-09-26T21:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday the kids and I joined our book group in helping the Friends of the Library set up for their yearly book sale. The entire meeting room was filled with boxes and bags and carts full of books of all sorts, and we worked for several hours sorting them into categories and setting them up neatly for the sale. There were quite a lot of volunteers (probably a few more than was strictly necessary), and it was mostly pretty fun! Of course, there was loads of rubbishy fiction, but there was also lots of better stuff too. A friend beat me in finding DK's Human, and also Animal (actually, I own Animal, but in a smaller paperback edition, but I really coveted Human for $1!), but I found a few, namely, Roverandom, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Miss Marple: the Complete Short Stories, and Eats Shoots & Leaves. We mostly kept the kids busy straightening books on the children's table and carrying books around to where they belonged, but they did do some unpacking of boxes before we discovered that there were a surprising number of photographically illustrated naughty books in among the donations. Who'd have thought? I'm afraid that Travis was still marvelling at how very naked the people in one of the books he had discovered had been several hours later. I guess I can check off "human sexuality" from our studies this year.

Some petty dictator had made the rule that no books could be sold to volunteers or anyone else until the sale Officially began at 8:00 on Saturday morning, so I drove back to the library this morning to buy the books that a friend and I had stashed under a table (and, technically, we weren't allowed to stash books either, but as there were boxes full of books under all the tables, we didn't think it should matter if one happened to contain only the books we had chosen while working!). I retrieved our books and paid for them, and then one of the librarians (the very nicest one) opened the library proper and retrieved a stack of school books for me which I had forgotten to bring home yesterday. Driving home I noticed that my watch was gone. I'd have driven back and looked for it, but it was pouring rain, the library parking lot was packed, and I wasn't sure that I had put it on when I left the house in the morning. When I got home, though, it was gone and I knew that I had put it on in the morning. At 10:00 I called the library, got our favorite librarian, and told her what had happened. And she had found it! I was So pleased.

This evening we went to the roller skating rink for the birthday party of one of Katie's friends. The kids haven't skated since we left Florida, and we didn't skate often there either, so it took them awhile to get the hang of the thing (and I can't skate at all). The wheels on Katie's skates could be tightened, so that she didn't slip around so much, but Travis's skates couldn't be tinkered with. He spent a lot of time like this:

and this:

Fortunately the rink wasn't terribly crowded, so he wasn't run over any of the times he was laid out flat on the floor. Katie did much better, since she was going more slowly. By her count, she only fell four times. Eventually they both were going around pretty well (in a very slow, tentative sort of way).Katie looks a bit grim in the picture but told me on the way home that, "This was the best Saturday ever!" Travis's dazed expression may be due to having walloping his head on the floor, but he seems back to normal now. I don't know about "the best Saturday ever," but it has been a very fine day.

Midweek Assessment and Regrouping

2009-09-23T23:02:00.001-04:00

I scheduled a fair lot of history/literature reading this week...

Plus these...

I knew getting it all done would be a challenge, since in addition to our book group on Monday morning, we also will be spending Friday volunteering at the library's yearly book sale (partly as a thank you to the librarians for letting us use the meeting room, and even more in the hope that they will continue to let us use the room regularly).

So I spread out our reading assignments over 3 and a half days (Monday morning was spent doing memory work, composition, presentation of papers, logic, and art lessons, so it isn't as if the kids are slacking off then, just in case you are worried!) and hoped for the best. Monday went fine, and also Tuesday (I spent two hours reading aloud on Tuesday, not counting the hour + I spent reading A Little Princess aloud before bedtime. TOG may wear out my vocal cords!). And then Ed reminded me that Travis had an orthodontist appointment today. The orthodontist's office is an hour away, and the wait time in his office is generally a couple of hours. I sent Travis off this morning with a tote full of lessons, but without much expectation that he would do them, so I was disappointed but not surprised when he came home after 1:00 having only completed his chapters in King Arthur. He came home with this...

though. (The retainer did not actually come with vocabulary cards clipped on. Those were a Travis addition.

He thought it would be so convenient to have his cards handy while he worked on his composition. After taking the pictures I explained that, clever as it might seem, the retainer wire is not to be regarded as a handy carry-all. Anyway, what with drama about the retainer and all, we didn't get any history/literature reading done today. So, rather than spend the weekend trying to play catch-up I have decided to do what we can tomorrow and finish up this week's lessons next week. Which will allow us to focus on math, grammar, composition, Latin, science, and memory work tomorrow and an hour or two on Friday and then have a nice weekend.

She Will Have to be a Very Exceptional Girl!

2009-09-22T19:50:00.001-04:00

Travis planned his wedding reception today (while he was supposed to be working on a composition, but that is another issue entirely). The menu is rather mindboggling, as is the list of activities (dancing is Not on his list!). He even has the guest list, which consists mostly of family and the members of our homeschool group. I asked if he had picked a bride, but he said, "No. I'll decide on that later." Thank goodness!*

And, for the curious, here is Travis's wedding reception menu:
Lobster,
Champagne
Rocket ship cake
Cookies
Pie
Cocktail Weenies
Hawaiian Punch

and also:
Ice cream
Chips
Ham
Fried chicken
Steak
Shrimp
Fried Shrimp
Pizza
Bread pudding

and for those who are still hungry there will be:
Biscuits
Ham Salad sandwiches
Barbeque
Cole slaw
Lo mein
Chinese chicken
Egg Rolls
Wontons
and
Salmon

But receptions aren't just about food, are they! Travis plans for his guests to enjoy a pinata, a water slide, and bungee jumping.

I think you can see why the bride is barely an afterthought at this gluttonously happy event.

*He does like girls, but in a mild, occasional sort of way. They are interesting, but just not in the same class with Video Games, Television, or, need I add, Food. Which seems about right for eleven.

Maybe I am a Feminist After All

2009-09-19T18:12:00.000-04:00

Last night we watched Annie Get Your Gun. Actually, first we tried The Gondoliers, which I wanted to see because we memorized The Duke of Plaza Toro, but we couldn't understand what anyone was singing and the kids left, so we moved on to the next movie (yay Netflix!). The kids and I really liked the movie. So did Ed, right up the the point, about ten minutes in, where he fell asleep. The songs were just Marvelous. And then we got to the end, where Annie deliberately threw the shooting match, so that her jealous, insecure twit of a boyfriend would marry her. Everyone burst into joyous song as she rode into happily ever after with her prize of a man. No irony. No hint that maybe she might eventually find it a little annoying having to hide her abilities in order to keep her husband from pouting. I was Outraged! I had to explain to Katie Why this was so Wrong. How any man who was threatened by her abilities would be a total dope and completely unworthy of her affections. I think she thought I was kind of overreacting, but she agreed never to throw a shooting match in order to please a man.

Today Katie was interested in bugs. Some days they make her shriek, but today she was feeling science-y. I punched some holes in the lid of a pickle jar and she went out and caught bugs. Here she is with her favorite:

His name is George, and he is a grasshopper. Here Katie is giving him a nice hug.

Before releasing him back into the "wild," she wrote a paper documenting her observations.

She asked me how to spell camouflage while I was thinking about something else, so that spelling mistake is my fault. All the others are hers. In case you can't read some parts (what with the interesting spellings and complete lack of punctuation), here it is again:

"The Grasshopper,

by Katie Campbell

The grasshopper is licking his hand. It

has a good grip. It eats grass. It hates

water. It has camouflage. It can grow up

as big as a foot." (Lord help us!)

Field Trip Friday

2009-09-18T20:10:00.004-04:00

We went to see a Civil War reenactment sort of thing at Allison Woods, in Statesville. We've been planning to go for a while, but it's been raining all week and I wasn't sure we would go (Ed says wars should be cancelled when the weather isn't fine.). Well, the weather wasn't nice this morning, but we went anyway (today was the free day for students and their families -- a big draw for us!).

It turned out to be mostly homeschoolers in attendance, and not huge numbers of them. I guess it was the weather, and maybe tight budgets have cut down on public school outings? Anyway, the rain stopped after the first hour or so and we got to chat with the reenactors and didn't have to deal with crowds.

A friend of ours asked General Longstreet about his biggest regret of the war. His response was fascinating, and would have been even better if only we could have enjoyed it sitting down! He treated us to a detailed description of what went wrong over the three days of battle at Gettysburg, with frequent detours into background information so that we could properly understand things, and how differently things would have turned out if only General Lee (standing beside him and piping in with his own comments from time to time) had listened to his advice.
(We arrived early in the day -- so early that the Generals Lee and Longstreet had not yet put on their uniforms. So here is Longstreet later in the day, looking rather spiffier.)

This gentleman did a wonderful job of explaining and demonstrating the things that an ordinary soldier might have carried with him. The canteen, in particular, was amazing in the many ways it was used. And that thing at the very front of the picture is his bayonet. According to several of the reenactors, bayonets were apparently used mostly as candleholders. The pointy end stuck in the ground and the part that clipped onto the rifle held the candle. Which seems like a much nicer thing to be doing with it than using it to stick holes in people.

One of Travis's friends bought this toy gun, and very kindly let Travis play with it.

This is a refreshment tent. We brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, like sensible soldiers, but there were some cute children there in period clothing. Unfortunately you can't really see them in the picture.

Although most of the displays were Civil War related, there were people with clothing and weapons from all the U.S. wars represented. There were tanks, jeeps, ambulances, etc., and lots of dogs. And guns of all sorts being fired all over the place. I was very impressed with the dogs, none of whom had nervous breakdowns, the way Bo would have done.

Travis collected a pocketful of shell casings.

Our entire homeschool group (all four families!) eventually showed up (though they aren't all in this picture).

Travis had a marvelous time. Katie had fun too, but this place was hog heaven to a gun-loving, gun-deprived boy. And cannons!

Before we left, we got a picture of General Lee and Travis Lee. And Katie, of course, who is wondering if she will be able to talk her daddy into another bag of jelly beans before we leave.

A Bit Off-Kilter

2009-09-17T20:15:00.004-04:00

It has been a silly sort of week here.
I went to the library on Monday for book group, and it turned out that our group didn't have the meeting room and we were meeting at one of our members' home. Somehow I had completely missed this bit of information, and although eventually I made it to the right place, and in time to lead Prince Caspian, it started the week off with sort of an "off kilter" feel.
Tuesday Katie's piano teacher came to our house around lunch time for Katie's lesson. Which was wonderful, as Katie was delighted to have her lesson on her own piano, and it gave me some time to socialize and talk "shop, " but we were having such a good time that "lunch" took considerably longer than usual. (Still, I'll always be happy to have the lesson and our friends come to us!)
And I have no excuse whatsoever for our lack of brilliant efficiency on Wednesday and today. Can I blame it on the weather? It's been raining, which is fine, but the leaves having been turning yellow and falling off the trees in a most disturbing way. I am Not ready for fall. Even though fall has always been my very favorite season. But it seems as though time is rushing faster and faster these last few years, and if fall comes the next thing you know it will be winter! And Christmas will come, and then a new year. Travis overheard me pouting about all the leaves falling down and kindly went out and taped some back up for me, but I don't think we have enough tape to hold back time. None of this has anything to do with the amount of school work we accomplished in the last two days, but it is bothersome. Growing up in Florida, summertime never had tremendous appeal, aside from the whole "not being in school" thing, but here summer is really lovely.

Moving on...
Katie flooded the downstairs bathroom yesterday. Fortunately Travis walked past the bathroom and spotted the raging waters before they poured down the hallway, so the only damage (that we've found!) was an easily dried lake in the bathroom and another, not so easily dried, in the basement. When I sent Travis to check the guest room closet floor for water, he discovered a forgotten box of favorite toys from Florida (and no water --yay!). Absence having made the heart grow fonder, Buzz Lightyear and Woody have been chatting up a storm around the house (can you believe their batteries are still working?) and bringing back fond memories for me.

Onward

2009-09-13T20:36:00.004-04:00

We had an ice cream social after church today. It was so much fun that we signed up to help with the fund raiser barbecue in October. Add that to the laprugs I'm knitting and the Christmas pageant I'm working on thanks to spur-of-the-moment, warm-fuzzy-feeling volunteering, and I'm starting to think that maybe I should steer clear of "fun" events at church. Anyway, no cathedrals were smashed today, so I really can't complain.

The kids and I went across the street to play this afternoon. I was supposed to get to read my TOG to prepare for the week's lessons, but the reality was that I was constantly responding to "Mommy, watch This!" Which was fine.

I did finish getting our Unit One TOG notebooks together today. They have all the reading assignments, literature worksheets, blank pages for outlining and narrations, biography and vocabulary pages, maps, and craft ideas for the next ten weeks. Actually, several of the weeks are so packed with books that they will take two weeks (at least), so I think we will get thirteen or fourteen weeks out of Unit One. Which means that much longer before I have to get all the books for the next unit, which is all to the good.

Oh! And this is the first time I've added a timeline to the back to Travis's workbook. On his second cycle through history he is supposed to keep a timeline. I did a (not very well maintained) wall timeline for Ancients, but this year I think he is old enough to get something out of marking the dates himself. The picture didn't come out well, but there are eight pages folded up accordion style in the back of his workbook with a timeline running from 250 AD to 1500 AD. It is divided into decades, each 1/2 inch apart. I am pretty pleased with it.

And here are (most of) our history and literature books for this week.

Tomorrow I am leading the discussion of Prince Caspian for book group. I wish I had Pollyanna instead, as I'm fuzzy on the theme and the main character(s) for Caspian. In fact, I think I'd better go take another look at my notes & see if I can't come up with some clearer ideas on the subject, so I won't look like a complete idiot tomorrow. Our next books are The Westing Game and A Little Princess.

Can You Name This Fungi?

2009-09-12T17:20:00.003-04:00

These pop up all over our yard. Actually, just their very tops stick up above the ground, while most of them is underground. Like icebergs, only different. They become a little more noticeable when their tops split open like a peeled orange. After Ed asked me hopefully this afternoon if I thought they might be edible, I dug some up, cut them open, and googled them. I thought it would be nice if they were truffles (unlikely, but as I've never seen an actual truffle it didn't seem impossible), but I think they are earthballs (Scleroderma citrinum). Not edible. I've told Ed not to eat them.

And here is Bo. Not doing anything special, but he sure is cuter than those mushrooms, isn't he?

Silly Singing Socks

2009-09-07T20:54:00.004-04:00

This was linked on the WTM board today, and I thought it was cute**.

We had a pretty nice Labor Day. We did do school, but I let the kids sleep late and we didn't do all our subjects. After lunch the kids went to play across the street for a while, and it wasn't long before I heard Travis yelling for help. I raced over, and he told me that Katie had crashed on her scooter. I could hear her crying, but it took me several agonizing minutes to find her. I was pretty breathless when I reached her, but was immediately relieved to find that her skull wasn't cracked, her teeth weren't smashed, and her limbs were unbroken. In fact, she was suffering (with Tremendous Drama) from a skinned palm and a skinned knee. We do not seem to be raising stoics.

**For some reason the video doesn't fit properly on my blog. The right side disappears. I think if you click on the video title I will take you to YouTube, where you can watch it without bits chopped off, and then you can go on to watch all the Other sock puppet songs. Where would we be without the internet?

My Poor Nerves

2009-09-06T14:38:00.004-04:00

We had a guest priest at church today. Instead of a sermon, he gave a lecture on the history of church architecture and the symbolic significance of various features of the building and furnishings. He was a good speaker, and I was enjoying his talk very much when he held up a small golden replica of the Cathedral Notre Dame. He handed the little cathedral to the acolyte at the end of the front pew and had her carry it around for every one to see. Then he talked a little more and brought out a little marble version of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence, Italy). Then, to my horror, he called Travis up to carry the little cathedral around the church. And, just to prove that my worries are Not always baseless, Travis Did drop it. I think he might have tripped over a wheelchair tire, but he is so klutzy it could have been anything. I gasped quite loudly and then looked away until Travis had finished walking around and was back in his pew. The lady behind me whispered that it had fallen on carpet, so it was okay. So it wasn't until we got home that I found out that it did break, and that Travis held the pieces together (with shaking hands, according to Ed) while he showed it to everyone. I am torn between feeling terrible that I didn't know, so I could have apologized to the priest (though Ed says he did), and feeling awful for poor Travis, who was pretty upset by the experience. Most often church leaves me feeling refreshed and strengthened, but every once in a while it just wears me out.

Afterward, during the coffee hour, the woman who had sat behind us and commented on the carpet (if only she had been right!) asked if I would be willing to organize the Christmas pageant this year. As she had just generously given me two books I needed for our history studies, I was feeling sort of obligated. Plus, since we only have two other regularly attending families with children, it is my turn to do the pageant. But I have no dramatic talents and zero leadership ability. So I waffled. She encouraged me to take a few weeks and think about it. So I'm thinking. Anyone have a great pageant for six children?

Flashback

2009-09-04T18:29:00.003-04:00

We knocked off school early today and went to Widow Falls. Lessons were going better than they did yesterday, but that's not saying much. For some reason, the kids have been finding math, poetry, history, Bible study -- just about all our subjects, really -- terribly funny. Something about math today (the kids do separate programs, obviously but they are both working at the table on math at the same time because I like to get math over with as soon as possible) inspired them to oink out the theme songs to all their favorite movies. The decline of the Roman empire has been quite hilarious to them. Poetry, which the kids like to act out and recite in various accents, is generally pretty silly, but this week it has been particularly so. I think it must be the cooler weather.

Anyway, since I am planning to be very virtuous and hard working this weekend and put together our next TOG unit workbooks, I figured I was entitled to take off early today and play. We got to Widow Falls and, as I had hoped, found that we had the whole place to ourselves! I expect it will be packed over the weekend, but today it was ours. The kids slid and splashed, Ed read the newspaper, and I admired the beauties of nature and every thirty seconds or so reminded the kids to be careful on the slippery rocks. I had planned to take pictures, but when I pointed the camera I found that I had left my memory card at home, in the card reader. Digging through the camera bag, I found the old 16 MB card that came with the camera, which I had immediately replaced with a card that held more than five pictures. Turning on the camera, though, I found that the pictures on the card were old, taken in Florida back in 2004. Of course I couldn't just erase them, so instead of more pictures of the kids splashing at Stone Mountain, here are pictures of my babies back when they were much closer to actually being babies, back in Florida.

And finally, Ed's dad called tonight with excellent good news! His doctors have decided that rather than doing triple bypass heart surgery on him, they will just pop in a few stents! Sounds much better, eh? We are so pleased.

The Tyger, by William Blake

2009-08-31T19:46:00.004-04:00

Katie recited The Tyger today at book group, and did beautifully. I was afraid she would freeze up in front of the group on her own, but she didn't. She didn't do it with as much expression as she did for my video tonight, but it was good.

Since Katie felt so possessive about Tyger, I gave Travis his own poem for today. It was, as another mom noted, a very Travis poem. Here it is:

Why?
by James Stevenson
Why is it...
While other people
Are thinking about all kinds of
Important things...
I am thinking about
What it would be like
To jump barefoot
Into an open box
Of jelly doughnuts?

A Week Well Begun

2009-08-30T20:17:00.005-04:00

After a somewhat choppy end to the week, we finished on a good note. Travis got a perfect score on his Latin quiz, and Katie got one on her first spelling test.
I spent most of Saturday entering math assignments for Katie into Homeschool Tracker -- 227 of them in all, which should keep her going for a while.
Today, after church, we went to the birthday/adoption party of a friend of Katie's. The parents own a small vineyard, and the guests were a fun group. We talked about wine, books, education, etc., and had a really nice afternoon. The kids ran around, played with the goats, and just generally had a good time.

I think it will be a fairly easy week of school, assuming The Eagle of the Ninth doesn't prove to be a very taxing read-aloud. Lesson 14 in First Form is on the second declension neuter, which we already know, and only three of the vocabulary words are new to us. This makes the third lesson in a row which is review for us, which is wonderful since it gives us time to firm up the perfect tense endings of first conjugation verbs. (Actually, Travis has these quite well, but I'm not so good.) All Travis has for composition this week is the introduction and conclusion paragraphs to the essay he started work on last week, plus his writing assignment for book group (which I really should take a look at!). Katie is doing fine with all her work -- still a little antsy about working through a solid looking page of math, but quite willing to write whole pages of copywork and dictation (quite a treat for me, since Travis was not a keen writer at seven). Anyway, I think we will have a fine week!

Hookey

2009-08-26T19:05:00.006-04:00

Because we were volunteering up at the food pantry until 2:00 today anyway, and because we would be driving right past Stone Mountain, I decided that we might as well make today an official holiday and take the whole day off. Or maybe I should call it a field trip? Either way, no academic work was done (though we will practice The Tiger before bed).

The food pantry was a little slow early on but then got really busy. Travis helped load food into cars, Katie filled carts, and I bagged meat. The kids were so voluble in their enjoyment and energetic that I think the regular volunteers were probably relieved that each church in the coalition only supplies volunteers for one month of the year, so it will likely be a while before they enjoy our enthusiastic assistance again. And likewise, the thrill of packing up food for strangers would probably wear off for us too, if it were a regular thing. Plus the fact that it is a 40 minute drive each way. Anyway, instead of going home afterwards we went to play at Stone Mountain.

(There was hardly anyone else at the waterfall, but the couple behind Katie stood out for me because they were clearly a new couple. The young woman was very giggly and clingy. She had an enormous and very ornate tattoo, "Wayne," across her back. I couldn't help wondering if the fellow's name was Wayne, and, if so, if the relationship didn't work out, whether she would only date men named Wayne in the future. It would seem to me that a tattoo like that would narrow one's options considerably.)Katie had a wonderful time collecting water snails and then resettling them in areas with better rocks. She wanted to bring her favorite, Edward, home, but I convinced her that he was happier with his friends and family.