Likes

We decided one very nice day to head out to Annapolis. It was fun. Pete and I are lucky that the kids enjoy historic sites/cities as much as we do. I know some adults who have to drag their kids to places like Williamsburg. My kids ate it up. The historical building markers are color-coded and they got into trying to see at least one building in each color.


At one historic house's garden


A cicada just out of its shell


On a canon in front of the MD state house


Again at the garden

Katie wants to be a children's book illustrator/author because she loves to draw and she loves kids. She also still wants to be a veterinarian.

Zack still wants to be a scientist and loves all things Egypt.

These are great things. I'm finding it much easier to work in the science and Egypt than the art. There's a good art class Katie could take--several in fact--but it's another place to get her to and what do Zack and I do in the meantime?

I don't want them to do everything together anymore, now they are getting more sure of their likes and dislikes. The scheduling is tough though and it's a hard call on what to say yes and no to.

I'm sure parents with kids of different ages must go through this from the start and I've never envied it. But because I've never really had to deal with it, I'm clueless!

Sniffy

I have a cold in my nose and I'm cranky. Why I've chosen this moment to update the blog, I have no idea. I may re-think it before I hit the "publish" button.

The end of August was CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not here at home, but all around us stuff was going on with friends and family. Lots of phone calls, lots of listening, lots of thinking, praying, feelings too-- gratitude, worry, anger, sadness, shock, awe. The whole deal, you name it.

So, the curious among you are undoubtedly saying--what stuff? I understand. If nothing else, I am the ultimate in nosiness. However, these are other people's issues, circumstances and business and not mine (or maybe yours either) so I'll stick to my own reactions instead.

Some things I've noticed when issues come up

--many people seem surprised I discuss things that are upsetting me with Katie and Zack. Seems to me it would be much scarier for them to notice me on the phone all the time, having feelings about it and then having to imagine what's going on. They have very active imaginations, so I think they would really get going with no facts.

--how nonplussed they seem once I do fill them in

--they ask terrific questions that I know adults wonder but don't dare ask

It's September and that time of year I get asked a million times how "school" is going. I never know how to answer this question without begging more questions, or worse, opinions about what we're doing. The best I can come up with for folks I like is that we don't really do school and try to change the subject. The worst I come up with is "fine." Blech. Sounds too apathetic for words!

The answer is we are doing less school every year and learning more about learning every year too. It's trial and error around here folks. I now have two years of homeschooling to look back on and it's a mixed bag. Some things worked--not that I realized it while it was going on--some things didn't. No schedule and unschooling all the way didn't work for me. Going crazy about everything didn't work either. Having fun while working through a curriculum worked. Being on a loose schedule worked, field trips worked. Some park days, classes and projects worked some of the time. Some didn't. We remain a half-year "behind" in math, which makes sense since we started the curriculum halfway into the year. And yes, we're homeschooling this year. And yes, we might do it right up through highschool. We might not. We might be living in who-knows-where by then so it's a pretty silly question anyway.

In other news, there's this:




Katie showing off the rocket she made for Boy Scouts (honorary member)
Did you think she's wearing a Red Cross T shirt in this picture? Me too. But ofcourse you can plainly see it's a white cross. A T shirt Pete brought back from Switzerland.




The vehicle Zack made from many defunct vehicle Lego sets.
Wearing PJs in the middle of the day?! Yup. That's how it goes around here every now and again. More crazy, lazy homeschooler stuff.



Crossing the "lava" pit in a team-building activity.

Life is grand.

xo

The rest of the summer

Been traveling, visiting, taking classes and hanging around. The summer FLEW.

July brought:
Pete's birthday--we went to an unexpectedly expensive dinner at Fogo De Chao but it was incredibly fun and good.

Phil and Carrie's 25th Anniversary party--and a trip to LI with a side trip to see the Brooklyn Museum and Children's Museum.

Yoga class--for the family, included stories and we did the animal yoga moves to help tell the story.

Police Concert, the VaHomeschoolers Conference, camping and Busch Gardens and a trip to NC to see g'ma and g'pa--these ran one into the other, in not a great scheduling plan on my part. Got the tickets for the concert in Philadelphia and didn't realize I needed to be in Richmond the following day by 8am. After the conference we went camping for two nights and visited Busch Gardens during the day. I thought there would be more for Katie to do at Busch Gardens, since she doesn't ride roller coasters, but even the thrill rides were too much for her. For Zack, it turned out he was too short for most of the roller coasters. We'll wait a few years before trying that park again.

August (so far) had Pete's band recording, a trip to Atlanta for business for me, a trip to Zurich for Pete, NC for the kids and me, Tucson for me for business again, and a baseball game (the Mets beat the Nats--yay).

Somewhere in there we braved the heat and went to the Folklife Festival in DC.

Sadly, while we were in NC, the squirrels demolished the corn field :-(. Katie was quite upset. The corn had started to sprout and the stalks were at least 3' high. We'll try again next year but it was pretty disappointing.

Here are photos--not in order-


Phil, Carrie and the kids at the 25th party


Katie and Zack digging for fossils at the Folklife Festival in DC


Katie helping out at the puppet show at the VaHomeschoolers Conference


Pete taking the 90 degree drop on Busch Gardens' Griffon ride


Katie and Zack at Busch Gardens


Zack, Kate and a friend put on a show at the Brooklyn Children's Museum


It's been a busy summer. Still didn't get all that I wanted to accomplish done. The heat this year was incredible--good thing the president tells me there's no global warming or I'd be worried by the 105 degree heat wave.

Here's a try at putting a video link on this site--it should take you to YouTube

Here's a bit of Pete on the Griffon
bunnies and birds outside my room in Tucson
(Please note that I have pulled the video of Katie's recital--there were 21 views of the video and that seemed too public and uncontrolled for my taste.)
Off to get the house in order and plan our next adventures.

CORN!

The corn is growing! We can see the corn silk poking out from the shoots. I read that cayenne pepper will keep the squirrels away. We gave it a try on the pumpkins and the corn and so far it's working.

Pictures soon but this news was too exciting to wait.

Mostly pictures

So, another busy month with lots going on. Katie had a spectacular wipe-out at a BS bike rodeo. We got her right back on the bike and she's fine. Big scrapes on her knees and elbows--a sign of a good summer coming!

Katie and Zack both had sleepovers for their birthdays. They went fairly well and, aside from the lack of sleep for Pete and me, were pretty low maintenance.


The girl scout sing-along on 6/9. A good time but hot out. There were about 150,000 girl scouts at the event. Katie is wearing her "swap hat." The girls make little do-dads to trade with other troops and they pin them to their hats. She loves this and traded a lot. It's a nice way to meet girls. We met some from as far away as Hawaii!


The corn, zucchini and pumpkins continue to grow. This shot is a bit dated. The corn is a good 3' high now and the stalks with the pollen are up. On the advice of Ivanna, we shook them around to try to cross-pollenate and hopefully get some real corn.


Pete and Zack went on the B Scout camping trip. Here they are, looking sleepy.


Katie had her piano recital and played her song perfectly! She looks way too grown up lately. Her teacher is going off to college next year and we'll be sorry to lose her.


We were in NY for my grandmother's funeral. It went very well. A nice service and lunch afterwards. That night we saw my good friend from childhood, Allison, and her terrific family for a pizza dinner. The next day we were off to NYC. Spent one day at the Brooklyn Museum--check it out if you have the chance, it was great and shares a parking lot with the Botanic Garden. Sadly we had no time to check out the garden, but it's a good excuse to go back. We only had 5 minutes at the NY Transit Museum, also in Brooklyn, but it was enough time to run through the real antique subway cars. (Don't let the terrible Web site turn you off, it's a great museum for kids--lots of hands-on stuff to do.)

Spent the evening in my old neighborhood at Broome and Delancy in the City. We hit Economy Candy and I couldn't resist buying a pack each of the gum and candy cigarettes. Just too evil to pass up.

Next day we spent almost entirely at the American Museum of Natural History, which features a replica of "Dum Dum" from Night at the Museum. I'm sure that section of the museum is seeing more visitors than in it's entire history.

There was also the BS Raingutter Regata right before we went to NY. Katie won first prize in the sibling race.

I got a cap on my cracked tooth-ouch and tonight Pete's band has a big gig in DC--come!

Recent events

Lots going on, so much so that I don't really have time to write things up here. SO--lists--

I was working all through May right up until the kids' birthday. While doing that:
--the kids finished up their world music class
--the kids finished up a science class
--they did more astronaut training
--Zack went camping with Pete and the Boy Scouts
--Pete went to Huntsville AL for two days
--Pete went some other place for two days
--Pete went to Salt Lake City for 5 days
--we all met in NC to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary

--the whole family went to see my nanny and say goodbye (you can see more about her here)
--a week later nanny died
--Pete went yet somewhere else for two days
--I went to Dallas for work for 5 days
--I cracked a tooth in Dallas
--we celebrated the kids' birthday with the family
--I got things ready for the end of Brownies
--Zack bridged to Webelo Scout
--Katie flew up to Junior GS
--Pete had a show with the band
--Katie and I went camping with the Girl Scouts
--Somewhere in there Piano lessons went on, Zack moved up to Blue belt in TKD, I moved up to green stripe belt in TKD, we covered 2/3s of the times tables, they learned to read cursive.

Next week is the BS bike rodeo, the Girl Scout Sing Along (why not join us if you are or ever were a GS?) and Zack has a sleepover. At some point Katie is having a sleepover and a recital, we have a trip to LI for Nanny's memorial, Pete goes to Cincinnatti and I need to get a crown on my tooth.

So, a typical month.

Here's some snaps:


Zack getting BS awards


Katie camping



Zack bridging to Webelos


Katie and a friend bridging to Juniors

Children of the Corn?

Just planted our cornfield and zucchinis, pumpkins and carrots. We can't tell the difference btw the zuks and the pumpkins though, so not sure how many we will get.

We have a LOT of corn planted. It's a bit late for the seedlings, which really should have been moved last week, but it was still freezing and the wind was incredible, so we needed to wait until we got back from NC.

Tuesday we went on a field trip to Shirley Plantation. It was a fine trip and, since I paid for it so long ago, it seemed practically free. We learned a bit about portrait painting and then had a chance to try some watercolors. Usually they talk about children learning to sketch and paint nature as part of their education, but it was way too windy to try outside.

After the painting, we headed to the tool shed to try out some period games like pick up sticks, marbles and jacks. Then it was off to the main house for a tour. The same family has owned the plantation since the beginning and they still live on the second and third floors.

They gave us a treasure hunt map when we were through so we could learn a bit more about the other buildings around the plantation. It was windy and chilly, but a good time.

We ate lunch in the car and then--off to g'ma and g'pas house for a quick visit. That day, nanny went back into the hospital and it looks like she has taken another turn for the worse. I talked to the kids about it and we all went to see her at the hospital which cheered her up quite a bit. I also printed out some photos and Katie made a card to brighten up the room a bit. I don't think she's very aware of it, but it sets a nice energy there anyway and let's the nurses know a bit more about her.

We spent some time on the beach, but it was still pretty chilly. Didn't warm up until Friday afternoon really.

Katie spent time remembering how to ride her bike and Zack set up all his cowboys, soldiers and police officers on the porch table. I worked and it was nice to have the kids occupied.

It was nice to have some sun--even if it was chilly--and a chance to visit. We'll be back in a couple of weeks for my folk's 50 wedding anniversary, but that will be pretty hectic.

Today is sunny and summery. A good day to get our hands in the dirt and plant those veggies.

The garden

A quick progress report on the vegetable garden:


Here they are our first day 4/1


And sprouting today 4/8

Wow!

Katie is sick with a fever today :-( but wasn't feeling badly until around lunch time so she was able to enjoy her Easter basket and egg hunt. I knew it was time to take it seriously when she didn't want to finish dessert!

Zack, after another bout of stomach flu on Saturday night, is feeling much better. And in another act of prize-winning mothering, a few minutes ago I realized that he'd been in the tub for about an hour and not yet tucked in bed. His hands and feet were very pruney but he seems to have survived the great soak.

Spent the weekend loafing around. Now I have to figure out what to do with my Brownie's tomorrow...

Uh, what was that about the sun....

OK, so mother nature has other plans and we're now expecting about 2 inches of snow tonight.

In the meantime, there was a break in the blustery weather on Wednesday night and we ran in to check out the cherry blossoms. As usual, I forgot my camera and had to settle for the cell phone.

In other news, Katie and Zack spend almost every afternoon playing the the kids down the street.

Katie recently asked me why they have schools if everyone (meaning her school friends) hates going so much. I tried to be tactful in my response.

Easter is almost here and I've been informed that the Easter Bunny ALWAYS leaves cool stuff in the egg hunt eggs.

We started a vegetable garden and are very glad we planted in seedling starters housed in the living room instead of outside in the impending freeze. We are hoping for a crop of corn, zucchini, pumpkins and carrots.

We'll keep you posted on our progress.

The Return of the Sun

And now I creep back out of my cocoon and join the world. Mid-Feb to mid-March is always hard for me. Too dark and cold out, no holidays and not many activities to join in on.

Plus, it's the time I order the CAT test for the end of the year and I start getting twitchy about whether we've covered everything we "should" have. This year, my obsession is the division I didn't know would be on the test and which our math curriculum doesn't cover until 4th grade. I'm sure it will all work out.

What's been going on?

Katie
--badge ceremony at Brownies, she now has nice new additions to her vest.
--Looking forward to the Girl Scout camping trip.
--Made a pancake breakfast for mom and Zack "all by herself."


Zack
--got his Bear badge in time for the Blue and Gold banquet.
--looking forward to camping with the Boy Scouts and dad.


Me
--working again
--made a last-minute trip to Dallas to check out a hotel, got stuck there for an extra two days because of snow in the northeast. Why my colleague, who was going back to a foot of snow in Boston, got home 24 hrs ahead of me, who was traveling to an airport that never closed and no snow, is still a mystery.
--came up with the Brownie badge ceremony
--NOT looking forward to the Girl Scout camping trip.
--helping out with the VA Homeschoolers Conference coming in July.

Pete
--Working
--a trip to Salt Lake City again for a week

The kids have also been taking a music class with our Friday group. I find the teacher a little glum and talky, but the kids have liked it.

While I was in Dallas, they got their green-strip belts in Tae Kwon Do and are now a belt ahead of me. We all went to see the black belt test, which was grueling! Zack still can't wait to get to that though.

We've started multiplication in our math curriculum and they really like it--but don't ask them, they'll never admit it!

We've been on a few outings now that the weather has cleared up. The kids and Pete went to a model railroad show with the Boy Scouts. We went out to Shenandoah Caverns. Kate and Zack had never been in a cave and Kate was a bit nervous about it, but they had a great time. The site also has a display of parade floats, which are much bigger in-person than on TV!



I remembered late one morning that I'd signed us up for Geomania at National Geographic and we had to scramble to get dressed and into DC. We ended up missing about 1/4 of the program but did get to learn about longitude and latitude, a bit about what Columbus was really looking for and more about maps. It was great to go to the Nat Geo building too. There's a free museum that we will return to when we have more time.

We'll be starting an Occupational Therapy program called Astronaut Training. Originally this was just for Zack but when we got talking about Katie's reversals of numbers and letters and difficulty with left and right, she said to try it with her too. The program is designed to be done with two anyway, so Katie will step in a Zack's partner instead of me.

And now April is here.

Katie wants to start a vegetable garden and picked out carrots, Zucchini (at my urging), corn (really?!) and peppers. We also have a lot of flower seeds. I bought us some seedling starters this time. Last year, the squirrels just followed us down the rows, digging up all the seeds. Hopefully, if we can start them indoors, we'll get a better crop.

Last night we went to a triple feature at a drive-in in MD. All the movies were kid-friendly, so we decided to stay up (very) late and see them all. We saw Bridge to Terabithia and all cried big tears at the end; cheered up with the very funny Meet the Robinsons; and held our eyes open for The Astronaut Farmer--which I thought didn't come off as well as I'd hoped. It was fine, but I thought they could have done a lot more with the idea. All this for $16--plus another $10 for food but still a good value and a DRIVE-IN!

I've been shedding lots of extra stuff through freecycle and setting stuff aside for the upcoming BS yard sale. The house still seems over-full.

The bulbs the kids and I actually remembered to plant in the fall are starting to pop up. The weather is warming and the air smells fresh. That, plus the early daylight savings, has improved my mood considerably.

Hope the signs of spring are brightening up your days too.

Go Speed Racer

It was the pinewood derby yesterday and Zack came in first in his Den and second overall! He was very proud. He gets a medal, patch and will also compete in the big race (many local Scout Packs) next Saturday.

Here he is after putting his car up on the track and then posing with his winning car "The Snake." They're from my cell phone, so not great, but you'll get the idea.

San Francisco

The trip started with a harrowing 4:30am ride to the airport in an ice storm. Upon arriving at the airport, we were informed that it had just closed down. That began an 11 hour wait for our flight to get off the ground.

Kate and Zack were troopers and kept themselves occupied around the empty sections of the terminal and doing some activities I brought to occupy them on the 6-hour flight. By the time we took off, my bag of tricks was empty so I just let them spend the flight watching TV--a plus about flying on Jet Blue.

So, we lost a day to the weather in VA, but got into the hotel and to bed to start fresh the next day, which we began on Alcatraz. I was wiped that morning so skipped the view from the ferry to grab a few more minutes of sleep and let the advil work on my pounding head and aching back. It worked! I was able to enjoy the gorgeous weather and the tour. Alcatraz was Zack's favorite part of the trip. The audio tour is great.


That night, we learned the news about Steve and took much of the evening pulling ourselves together while Katie and Zack slept. We took it easy the following day, trying to have a good time but not do too much.

Other places/sites seen on the trip, in no particular order since I can't remember:
Fisherman's Wharf--good chowder, wacky stores and the Bay. Also, a nice walk to Ghiradelli Square where the kids split a banana split and Pete and I had treats too. Yum.

A day taking a walking tour of Chinatown, Pete and I had never spent so much time down there and discovered the Asian Pacific Heritage museum, which used to a a US mint and was the only building the in vicinity to survive the 1906 earthquake/fire. We also went to the Golden Gate fortune cookie factory to see close up how those fortunes get into cookies.


Grace Cathedral, where we walked the labyrinth and got to see the organ player practice. We learned to our great disappointment that you can no longer ride the outdoor elevator to the top of the Fairmont :-( but we did get to chat with their harpist, who played several Disney tunes for Katie and Zack. Katie would now like to learn the harp in addition to the piano.

My birthday was spent in Berkeley in very mild weather. We walked around the campus and with no expectation of being able to get in, went to the carillon. Pete and I have been to this tower at least three time and it has never been open, but this time--yes! It was windy at the top but a great view and a look at the bells and clockworks too. We took a bus ride up the hilly roads to visit the Lawrence Hall of Science--free with our current science museum membership-nice. The afternoon was spent window shopping, which surprisingly, the kids enjoyed. We also ate at Pete's and my favorite place with giant sandwiches and salads.


We spent some time at the Metreon, playing the virtual kicking game in the halls, checking out the gaming store and the PlayStation store, where you can play the games in ten minute sessions.


We took many cable car rides--one to the cable car museum, where you can see the actual cables turning under the street! We also got good use out of our Muni passes, which covered the cable cars, and the buses and trains (except the BART train to Berkeley).

We went to the Golden Gate bridge, but I thought it was way too windy that day to walk across, so we investigated the base of the bridge a bit.

We went to the Cliff House and put our feet in the Pacific Ocean-a first for Zack and Kate and her favorite activity. I found the trash-canless littered (with trash and dog poo-yuck) beach a downer, but we all enjoyed the Sutro baths which are only ruins. They look ancient but are really only from the remnants of a fire in the 60s. OK, kind of ancient but not in the way we originally thought ;-)


We went to the Levi's welcome center which was interesting and they had a fountain outside that you could walk through which we all enjoyed.

The Exploratorium is the best Science museum ever. You can touch everything and we practically did touch everything. It's right next to the Palace of Fine Arts in the Presidio and again, the weather was great and we took our time perusing the Palace and the museum. Again, we were able to use our scince membership for free tickets--wow, that has paid for itself ten times over.

A trip to Golden Gate Park was poorly planned. We stopped at a playground where a local kindergarten was having an outing and the kids got to play with everyone, which they needed. The goal of getting to the Japanese tea garden should have been dropped. Too much walking and we got there too late. We were starving and there wasn't anywhere around to eat. That may have been the day we ended up at a Chinese bakery for lunch, which was quite a find. Fresh, hot out of the oven sponge cake was worth the trip.

The last day was the coldest but still mild and we decided to splurge on the Aquarium of the Bay, where you move through the fish tank and they swim all around you. They took our FONZ membership but it was still pricey. Then we really splurged on Ripley Believe or Not, a wax museum. I am crazy about wax museums, a guilty pleasure, and Zack had wanted to go ever since seeing it on our first day. VERY pricey but a good time and we had skipped splurging for most of the trip.

Dinners were the constant challenge. We skipped the meal on several nights. The only night that really worked out was Friday night. We made plans to meet with our friend Marion and her suggestion worked out great and it was terrific to see her too. But all the other nights ran too late for the kids and were pretty underwhelming. No biggie.

All in all a great trip and all of us want to go back again soon (or, win the lottery and move there!)

Back home again to math, music, Tae Kwon Do, piano, scouts and all the rest and as the snow melts is that a hint of spring in the air already?

Steve, farewell

Before I can write about our trip to San Francisco, I need to say a few words about Steve Finer.

We learned when we got to SF that he had died in a freak accident in September and that word had never reached us. We were looking forward to seeing him during our trip. I had never met his wife or their 2 year-old son and it had been years since he had seen Katie and Zack.

The news was shocking to say the least and so Pete and I dealt with various levels of sadness throughout the trip and it has especially hit me since we've been back. Don't know if I just put it aside for the sake of enjoying the trip or if it got more real since returning to my real life.

Steve was a great guy who took life in great big bites. He wasted no time in going after whatever he wanted. That included a move from Boston to San Francisco, marriage, fatherhood, fixing up old cars, getting involved in the production of a TV show and running his own business. Any conversation about loyalty would always bring Steve to mind. He was one of the most loyal friends with an honest interest in whatever was up for you. He was enjoying his married life and thrilled and awed at being a father. I was never a close friend, Pete was much tighter with him, but I will miss him and miss knowing that this constant source of energy and creativity is now missing.

You can see some about him at:
Art of the Chopper

and here:
Guestbook

and when you have a second, send a little energy or a prayer out to his wife Yuki and son Abi.

And don't waste time waiting for your life. It's happening right now.

--Liz

Day at the Museum

Spent a good portion of the day in the National Gallery. Pete's folks are visiting and his dad wanted to spend some time there. Good idea since it was freezing out and there's a connector to both buildings so no need to brave the elements.

It's great to see the kids in an art museum now. They really give their attention to the work now and want to know more about the whys and stories behind them. Easy in the older works, harder in the modern section.

I also need to reign in my temptation to make everything a lesson. I noticed that Pete and his dad felt the desire to act as art professors as well. That certainly curbed my pontifications today but I completely understand the desire.

Kate and Zack do a good job of ignoring the stuff that doesn't interest them and tuning in to what they care about. If I let them ask, their questions are pretty interesting. Zack thought a self portrait by Gauguin looked like a Picasso. I would have never made the connection myself. Once I got thinking about it, I'd say maybe more like Dali or Miro, but what the heck? He's making connections and that's great.

It was also nice to see what they remember from previous visits and how much they enjoy recognizing paintings they already know.

I'm so jazzed about our San Francisco trip next week. They'll be so much to see and the kids will help me see the city in a whole new way, I'm sure. Plus getting vacation with just the four of us is sooooooo needed.

OK, my hands are freezing. Time to get off the keyboard.

Up and Out

How to get Kate and Zack dressed and outside before 8:30am?

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's going to get warmer this afternoon, so I told them last night that if they wanted to get any sledding in, they would have to go outside early. Lo and behold, they were dressed and out before breakfast.

I love this kind of snow. It looked pretty coming down, didn't need to be shovelled and should be gone by tonight.

Katie needs new boots and snow pants. Really thought we'd get another winder out of the boots, but we've been using the snow pants since pre-school so I can't complain about those!

Great Movie

We just saw "Night at the Museum."

Great movie! It's like this move was made for homeschoolers. It's about a night watchman at the Natural History Museum in NYC. It was nice to see the museum, especially since I was just telling the kids all about the Egypt exhibit. We all enjoyed it and I'm glad we changed our plans from seeing Happlily N'ever After, which I learned was getting very poor reviews and would not have been nearly as good as this one.

All the exhibits come to life at night and the hero needs to brush up on his history in order to figure out how to keep everyone under control. The first exhibit that comes to life makes you feel like it might get scary but quickly reveals its cute outcome.

It was the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon. But, the price was a killer. $30 for the four of us--and that was the matinee price!

That and dinner at IHOP made it a $60 outing for us. It really was a good movie to see on the big screen, but movies just shouldn't be that expensive!

MLK Day today. Not sure what to do with ourselves today. Already noon and we've just been hanging around. Going to surf around and see if there's anything interesting to do.

Hitting the Books

The cold weather is here, but no snow much to the disappointment of K&Z.

Winter means more group field trips (through REACH and another new local group) and more pen and pencil work.

Lately we've been working on cursive. We're using "Handwriting without Tears" and so far like it very much. It helps that there is no real rush about learning cursive, that the kids want to learn it and that my expectations are incredibly low. We do not have a family history of great penmanship, so legible is great!

We are reading more regularly at bedtime, with the early nights. In the middle of "The Dawn Treader" right now. It's our third Narnia book as we are reading them in the order written rather than in chronological order.

Math work has tremulously (on my part) begun again. In light of last year's freak out, we are going to do one page a week from the curriculum and use the computer games, board games and real life to fill out the rest of the week.

I also want to work in at least one science experiment a week, but haven't done that yet. Katie has been getting a good deal of science at Brownies, but Zack is feeling the lack of it in his work.

In other interests, Zack is all martial arts all the time and is giving his new punching bag regular beatings. Katie is using her new American Girl art set to learn more about colors and enjoying the paper dolls that also came with that kit.

I have been mesmerized by the new slideshow screen saver feature on my new computer. It plays random photos from my files for about 25 minutes and it's wonderful but is eating my time up like crazy!

Pete is currently on his way home from Provo.

And that's us today. Pete's on the phone, so I'm off!

Holiday time

Lots of running around coming up as the holidays near.

I was up with a busy head at 5am today. Never a good idea, but I just couldn't help myself this morning!

Today is basically my last day at work on a marketing job I've been doing the past month. Lots of loose ends to wrap up and a report (and invoice-yea!) to write. I've been working since October and the kids have been very patient as I've been glued in front of my computer for hours on end.

So, today, work wrap up, Tae Kwon Do and a commitment tonight. Possibly some Christmas shopping.

Friday--Zack sees his OT, Katie has HS play practice and Zack has a b-day party that evening which we need a gift for.

Saturday--Katie has a piano recital and the HS Christmas play and party, which we need to bring food to.

Sunday--baking! And Pete's band has a show that night (thejetage.net).

Monday--Brownies

Tuesday--TKD and Scouts

Wednesday--Piano

Thursday--TKD belt tests

Friday--potluck TKD belt ceremony and Gma and Gpa come

Saturday--Church pageant rehearsal for Katie

Sunday--Christmas Eve!

Well, that's plenty to do but now seeing it all in one place I can see that there will be time to finish the shopping, bake the cookies, shop for and wrap the presents and buy and cook the food--oh yes, and Clean the House. Also, to watch Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, The Santa Clause, and the Grinch. And to read our many Christmas books.

and then Santa will come and we will unwrap and then catch a flight to Boston to see Pete's clan.

A little sprinkle of snow wouldn't hurt either--as long as it doesn't happen on any flying days. I have my drugs all ready for the flights. :-p

Hope you are filled with the spirit of the season. Happy holidays however you choose to celebrate them.

Peace.

Here I am again

Did you think I abandoned the blog?

Well, pretty much for the last month. I was working on an event--90 days worth of work in 30 days--and it ate my life. We are now radical unschoolers, I guess, since I haven't done any "formal" lessons since October. Not that we're particularly formal as it is, so it wasn't this grand step off the cliff, but still, there wasn't much of a plan for giving up structure all together. But--that's life and here we are.

I need a list of what the heck we've been up to. It makes me feel better to keep track. Wait a sec while I pull out the calendar.....

OK, the last update here was Oct 20--wow, it really has been a whole month.

That weekend we planted trees at a park in Arlington as part of our church Working Together Weekend. This was the first time we've been able to participate and it was nice to get out there and get muddy. The ground was VERY hard. Our family was able to plant about 4 trees.

Katie and Zack took out and read every fall/Halloween book we owned. Then they had to clean up the big pile of books.

Some time that weekend or early the week of 10/22, I noticed a terrible smell coming from Zack's room. I realized that it smelled like animal marking. Spats (our old cat) did a lot of this when I first got him, so I know the smell really well. The only attic access is in Zack's room and that meant something was probably living up there--YIKES! Wednesday, the exterminator came and it's only mice. He threw a bunch of baits around the attic and it should be all handled in a couple of months. I still had this great enzyme spray that we used to clean the rug when Spats was so sick before we put him to sleep. While the guy was up there, I used his ladder to spray all around and the smell was gone by that evening. That spray is great!

Friday, 10/27 was Boo at the Zoo. In the rain. Kate, Zack and Pete had a great time. I had a wet time but that was fine.

We didn't do a lot of the things we normally do for Halloween--my favorite holiday. No time to go to the Corn Maize, pumpkin patch or Cox farms. This year I barely got all our decorations up. We did add a nice witch to our collection and we got pumpkins at a school fundraiser. Carving happened the day before Halloween and I had candy and pretzels already bought for the event.

We made 2 Halloween pies and Zack and Katie made decorations for our Friday homeschool group's Halloween party. We also made a mystery box of eyeballs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The party was terrific and a nice break from the work-grind for our family.

Here's what our Halloween decorations and costumes looked like:
A disappointing turn-out for Trick-or-Treating. Have to wonder if going house to house is a dying tradition. Too bad. I love to see all the costumes.

I had to work wall to wall the following week but we did get to Tae Kwon Do and Piano lessons. We skipped HS groups and one planned field trip :-(

11/6, off to Florida for my event! The flights were cheap enough for all of us to go. Katie and Zack were excited to fly again. I got my usual drugs, so I was ok with the flight too.

K&Z went to camp our only full day at the resort. They had a great time and the bad weather didn't spoil their vacation at all. My event went well and Pete was able to work from the room reasonably well.

We got back on Wednesday and the next day Pete headed out to Paris for his company's annual meeting. We were all going to go, but it didn't work out. Just as well since Pete was tied up most of the time anyway.

Other things I remember but don't know when exactly we did them--
We took out the Dr. Dreadful and Easy bake oven and the kids made some goodies; we had a play date with a family and the mom also cuts our hair--which was desperately needed; we ate too much McDonalds; the Boy Scouts went to the Navy Yard and also did their Scouting for Food drive. We tried the mentos in coke experiment to reasonably impressive results; played LOTs of board games; did one chapter in the math books; started reading the Story of the World (or just read more of it, I don't remember when we started; Zack almost finished one of the computer games that covers the whole 3rd grade curriculum; Katie took up sewing. Katie decided we should make kites one day. Lots of designs were tried but we had a hard time getting past a spinning problem. There was a Girl Scout dance last Friday.

All in all, we kept pretty busy.

I hope to be more regular in updating this but never can tell what the coming priorities will be.

Wow, who's out there?

Have you noticed the nice little map on the sidebar? It counts up how many hits this blog gets and where they are from. I just noticed three new dots, one in Europe (ok, I am STILL awful at geography and won't know exactly where that one is until I pull out the globe), one in So. America and one in Washington state. Pretty sure I know who the US one us, but who are the rest of you? And the dot in India.

Please leave comments! (Even you local folks!) I am always dumbstruck that anyone is reading this thing.

My schedule has been packed and I'm hoping to stay home today and spend time with just us. May even pass on our Friday group today. We are all wound up and I feel like we've hardly seen each other.

I'm working and either have had a phone to my ear, or my butt in front of the computer all week unless we're at an activity. Pete has been working or running around. Nights that he's been home, I've been out and vice versa. Katie and Zack have been mostly doing their own thing, when I'm not running them off to something.

We will all be going to Florida while I'm working my event. Pete will also work from there but we should get some time together, especially on the last day when I'm done and I think Pete plans to take the day off. The second day we're there, the kids will go to the resort's camp. I haven't decided if they need to go all day, but probably. Not entirely happy with that but I'll be working and Pete will get cranky with them while he's trying to get work done in the room.

I did survive my first Brownie Meeting as leader. It was insane. We had 10 Brownies, a parent with each and several siblings. There is a ton of paperwork for parents to fill out the first night. Next Monday's meeting should be a bit calmer. I'll have one parent and two older GScouts to help and only Brownies to deal with. I'm actually not sure what all my helpers will be doing but it's nice to have the help.

Pete is off to Chicago with the band Sunday-Tuesday. He'll be off to Paris the day after we get back from Florida.

Never a dull moment.

And the miracle of homeschooling is still going on around here. Katie continues reading chapter books on her own. Their addition has markedly improved. They are building things and making up stories. The only complaint is that they are not getting much time with me. I'm also seeing a lot more bickering amongst all of us and I think it's a sign of stress.

So--much as I hate to miss it, we will skip Friday group today. I will also skip the Smithsonian Teacher night tonight and we already missed the members preview of the Zoo's new Asia trail early this morning. And we'll have a very nice day and take care of ourselves and our house.

It really is fine to do this. It's just my social anxiety about not showing up that everyone will forget who I am. I really am a million times better with the group dynamics thing than I used to be, but it does creep up on me, especially when I'm stressed. So, time for another dose of deep breathing and getting out of my head. :-)

Also, time to get off the computer.

May you have a serene day too.