The Juggling Act

Great Puzzle

2010-07-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

• There are 5 houses that are each a different colour.
• There is a person of a different nationality in each house.
• The 5 owners drink a certain drink. They each smoke a certain brand of cigarettes and also have a certain pet. No owner has the same pet, smokes the same brand of cigarettes nor drinks the same drink.
• The question is. “Who has the fish?”

CLUES
1. The British man lives in the red house.
2. The Swedish man has a dog for a pet.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The green house is to the left of the white house.
5. The owner of the green house drinks coffee.
6. The person that smokes Pall Mall has a bird.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The person that lives in the middle house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The person that smokes Blend, lives next to the one that has a cat.
11. The person that has a horse lives next to the one that smokes Dunhill.
12. The one that smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to a blue house.
15. The person that smokes Blend, has a neighbour that drinks water.

A and I spend hours on this puzzle, but we figured out the answer. Let me know if you want to know the answer.

4th of July

2010-07-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, they are just lighting a snake. We had our usual wild and crazy 4th of July here on our street. It took me years to appreciate this holiday, but I'm now firmly in the pro-4th of July crazy fireworks camp. M has been talking about 4th of July since New Year's Eve, when a huge wind and rain storm precluded our use of the saved fireworks from last year. This afternoon this sign appeared on our fence:

Does this count as Language Arts if you're just (barely) 9 years old?

This used to be old growth forest

2009-10-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Our part of the world is a little short on natural disasters, as luck should have it. Tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, massive earthquakes, floods, wildfires, locusts, venomous snakes, insects bigger than garden spiders--they were all in rare supply in my neighborhood when I was growing up. However, there was one spectacular event that I watched from the deck of my parents house in 1980. Of course I'm referring to Mt. St. Helens.

The news coverage and smaller eruptions leading up to the big event were fascinating and exciting, being a safe distance away but still in plain view. The big eruption itself was mesmerizing, as was the news footage of the gigantic trees lined up like matchsticks, bridges being washed away by mud, cities to the north being plunged into darkness by falling ash. I couldn't believe Harry Truman would just let himself be taken by the mountain. There was another eruption (now I can't remember if it was before or after the big one) while I was watching an old 1950s Vincent Price movie at the Movie House, and they stopped the movie and sent us home. Being up there on the mountain, however, gave me new appreciation for the massiveness of the eruption. Even 29 years later, it looks nothing like any other place in the Cascade Mountains. The amount of ash is just staggering. Apparently the bottom of the valley is about 300 feet higher now.

Anyway, the trip to Johnston Ridge visitors center was well worth the 2+ hour drive. It still looks like a moonscape, with hardly tree to be found.
In this picture you can kind of see where the massive landslide tore up this ridge at 300+ miles per hours and sheered everything away down to the bedrock. (That is Mt. Adams is peeking over the top of the hills in the distance)
Most of the area around the visitors center is on the side of the ridge that was decimated, so we didn't see all the downed trees lined up like I expected to see. There were a few high up on the far hills, though.

And of course there were some signs of life, now that almost 30 years have past:

Botany Lesson

2009-10-22T22:08:00.001-07:00

This is just what I was hoping would happen with this on-line science curriculum the kids are doing through our charter school. M is a really interested in science, and I haven't managed to do nearly as much as he'd like in the past year or so, so I was hopeful that this curriculum would be a hit. So far M has given it pretty favorable reviews, and today after doing a unit on flower anatomy he got inspired do some hands-on science. We went and found a few remaining flowers and cut them to pieces to find all the interesting bits.
We saw some extremely cool sights under the microscope, including this stamen laden with pollen. We used our old trick of putting the camera to the eyepiece, and you can kind of see what we saw. The bits of pollen looked like a bunch of teeny bright yellow insect eggs. Crazy.

St. John's Art Walk

2009-10-22T21:53:00.001-07:00

We went on a wonderful walking tour of window art in St. John's this week. There were probably 30 or so shops that had displays by artists who live in or around St. Johns. I don't think I've ever walked around that neighborhood, and it was lovely. We met several of the business owners along the way, including a 91 year old barber who opened his barber shop in the 1940s. The first ten years were a couple of doors down from the current location. Unfortunately most of the pictures have a lot of glare so you can't see the art all that well, but here is one of my favorites which you can see fairly well.
Notice the little guys at the bottom fencing? It was the window of a fencing studio.

I actually didn't see this one, but I wish I had. Very cool!

There are guided tours of the show this weekend, and then the art is coming down Sunday or soon thereafter. I definitely recommend it.

The Holiday Spirit

2009-10-22T21:34:00.001-07:00

I have learned from my wise family to embrace those holidays I formerly failed to appreciate (i.e., 4th of July and Halloween). These are the go-for-it holidays. The only way to do them is to throw yourself into them. Fireworks until 1:00 in the morning, gorging in junky candy, giving in to all those hedonistic pleasures your never realized were actually so much fun. Needless to say, we are in the midst of feverish preparations. I don't have a photo of the yard, but there are bats, ghosts, and gravestones galore. Also, some mysterious blood appeared on the porch, and I recently found this picture:
Also, A made these adorable treats tonight, which seem to fit the spirit of Halloween. We like to bite they little toes off, and nibble on they tiny feet...

More Not-Back-To-School Events

2009-09-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

We went to Oaks Park today for the Not Back To School day (unlimited rides for $10/kid) and had a great time. I was remembering the first time we went to this event, I think seven years ago. We went with two other homeschooling families and didn't know another soul there. M was just a toddler, and A was afraid to go on anything other than the carousel. We played a game with the other kids we went with and then pretty much just watched the other kids go on rides. I think M went on a kiddy ride that involved motorcycles, but that was about it besides the turn around the carousel.

What a difference seven years makes! A was still not just crazy about the rides and avoided the wildest ones, but she went on a bunch, as did M. The biggest difference, though, was how everywhere I looked I saw kids and parents I knew. It was such a kick to see the younger generation of kids M's age now big enough to run around the park as a gang and go on rides while the parents hang out the shade. Every once in a while you'd run into a parent who would ask "Tell my kid to come check in if you see him, will you?" It felt like we lived in a small town--we didn't know everyone by a long shot, but it felt safe and comfortable, and I knew that if something happened to one of my kids when I wasn't there, there would most likely be someone they did know close by to help them out. At the same time it gave the kids a nice chance to shed their parents for an afternoon and hang with their friends, if they wanted to.

And I love seeing all the teenagers who were just lovely kids--happy, having a good time, and full of positive energy. At one point some other moms and I were watching the kids try out fencing and a gang of 5 or 6 pre-teen and teenage boys say down and shared our table with us. They were doing their own thing, watching the fencers, drinking sodas, and probably just taking a little break. I thought that, knock wood, there would be M and his friends in about 5 years.

Not Back to School

2009-09-08T22:12:00.001-07:00

The first day of school--ah, now we homeschoolers have OMSI and skating rinks and corn mazes and movie theaters and the parks back to ourselves during the schoolweek. Such luxury after having to share them with the masses all summer long.

But wait, this year we met our charter school teacher on the first day of school, so maybe I can't say "not back to school" anymore. We're hopeful the charter school will complement our homeschooling nicely, and it certainly will allow us to take more classes at our local homeschool resource center than we could without it, along with the use of some expensive curricula that look to be quite nice.

I like our teacher a lot--her specialty area is P.E., which is a great fit for me, since I seem to think the fresh air and exercise will cure whatever ails you. And, I actually think she'll be a great fit for A, as another role model in the mold of her wonderful older cousins. Lovely young women who, unlike me, have an awareness of modern clothing and makeup, in addition to being capable, resourceful, strong, and good-hearted women.

After spending some time this morning making muffins, cleaning house, and meeting the new teacher, we spent the afternoon with most of the drama club girls plus our homeschooling cousin. The sun was out, the kids ran around like maniacs playing tag, put on a circus, worked up some kind of dance routine to "Fart and Smell" (to the tune of "Heart and Soul"), etc.. Meanwhile, the younger brothers (except for M, who was here at home) apparently spent the afternoon playing in mud on Sauvie's Island and arrived back to get the girls dressed in nothing but towels and seatbelts. Homeschooling at its best.

Tomorrow A starts gymnastics back up, then Not Back to School day at Oak's Park on Friday. All the signs point to a good year, knock on wood.

Block Party 2009

2009-08-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our 2nd quarennial block party. That is, the second in 4 years, and this one every bit as fun as the first, if not more. We truly have great neighbors. My bro-in-law set up the kitchen, grilled all manner of comestibles to perfection, and made an amazing paella.
Some friends were kind enough to join us.

Things are starting to gear up here. I bet we had about 40-50 people stop by.
The road was painted,

and so were faces.

When it got dark one neighbor brought his fire pit over to our driveway and we built a fire and brought out the instruments. We had about 5 guitars, 2 fiddles, a bunch of drums, a keyboard, a flute, a trombone, an accordian, a harmonica, and an extremely cool bow-like percussion instrument that I'd never seen before. Seriously fun.

What I've been doing instead of blogging

2009-08-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

According to the wise Dave Barry, it's a thin line between hobby and insanity...

You can't see it very well, but the red pair above was my first foray into patterns (it's a diagonal lace). Here is my second attempt, Bamboo Walking Socks:

And my masterpiece in progress, Azure. I just wish the yarn was a little less brightly colored so the pattern would show up a little better.

This weekend was the amazing Sock Summit, where A and I helped break the world record for the most continuous knitters at one time and I laid in the supplies for my next few projects:

...and got some fancy new clogs to show off all my lovely socks, self-horn-tooter that I am!

Happy Garden

2009-06-21T22:24:00.001-07:00

Thanks to D's enthusiasm and diligent efforts this year's garden is our best ever. We've been eating salad out of the garden for weeks, and now we're getting a few more things, too. On Friday we had home-grown artichokes (with a dipping sauce made from home-made mayonnaise and home-made yogurt), and a smoked chicken salad. Chicken was done on the grill in the back yard, and the salad included lettuce, radishes, green onions, nastursiums, and herbs from the garden. And smoothies that included some of our very own strawberries. Delicious! For breakfast yesterday we had a first batch of new potatoes.

We gave a big chunk of space to about our 4th try at a sunflower house. Our previous sunflower houses have been pathetically thin and short, but this year's is putting our previous attempts to shame. Unfortunately I've got lettuce and sugar snap peas and cucumbers growing behind the sunflowers. I'm hoping that by the time the sunflowers get much bigger the peas and lettuce will be done and the cucumbers will have climbed up high enough on the fence to be able to get some sun. Our other cucumbers (that are not behind the sunflowers) aren't looking too good, so I'm afraid these may be our only chance at some home-grown cukes. The tallest sunflowers are about 4 feet tall, and we've got California poppies, nastrusiums, and a couple of little (but much pampered) lupine growing between and around the sunflowers.
And we have lots of our favorite flower, the beautiful poppy. The ones in this patch are so densely packed that they are choking each other out, but they still look beautiful, if you ask me.

Silver Falls State Park, 2009

2009-06-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Yay, I found some pictures of our camping trip on the camera! OK, we stayed in cabins, but they didn't have indoor plumbing, so I think I still get to call it camping. Sort of.

Silver Falls is renown for the stunning views of many water falls, which are easily accessible by hiking trails from the campground. However, I saw exactly none of said falls because I was way too comfortable in my camping chair to haul myself out of it for a hike. Fortunately the cabin area was equipped with considerable natural beauty, plus some carts for hauling stuff from cars to cabins that were heavily used by our kids this weekend.

Seriously, it was a kid's paradise. There was a stream that was about 20 feet across and about a foot deep that ran among the cabins, complete with huge logs fallen across it for bridges, a real foot and bike bridge, and little fish and other critters for catching and examining.

And most important, a plethora of great kids to play with.

End of Year Events

2009-06-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

We have had a huge slew of end-of-year events, which I mostly failed to capture on camera, unfortunately. For the sake of documentation, though, I'm going to run through the highlights.

Here is a picture from the triumphant performance of _Tales of the Tangled Tresses_. Unfortunately I don't have the girls in costume, but this pictures shows at least part of seven of the eight performers. Prior to the performance we had never made a complete run-through, and at the dress rehearsal the day before they were dropping lines all over the place. Plus, we had never practiced outdoors, which was where we were performing it. I was a wee bit uncertain about how it would go. Fortunately it turned out beautifully. There were a couple of dropped lines, which they easily recovered from, and at one point I sent one of the actors out a minute early and kind of wrecked her entrance, but they did a fabulous job and for the most part were wonderfully poised and funny and managed to speak loud enough to be heard.

Other events of great import were the end of year gymnastics show and piano recital. A played her solo piece at the recital, plus duets with two of her friends, all of which went beautifully. A bunch of A's friends take lessons from the incomparable Gaye Rumsey-Riggs and various combinations of kids played duets, plus I played cello with a few of them. For a surprise, the whole gang (including me) worked up a 12-hands, 2-piano plus cello version of Pacabel's Cannon that Gaye had the kids play last year ("Taco Bell Cannon," actually). We played it for her at the recital rehearsal and by some miracle managed to stay together without my screaming out "1-and-2-and-" the whole time.

The gymnastics show was the only event at which M was also a performer. Everyone did a lovely job, including a very fun dance number to Michael Jackson's Thriller. They actually did the dance twice--once for each of the two shows they put on. (They have too many kids to fit into one show). The kids were delighted with their plaques and were quite happy with how it went.

Lastly, we had our end-of-year camping trip with the homeschool gang. As always, it was incredibly fun and actually relaxing for me. The kids play non-stop, and we grownups hang around and knit and read and visit and nap and every once in a while made a sandwich or two for the kids.

Whew, so many events, and now next weekend is M's birthday (and his first ever big birthday party), and then a big multi-day family reunion of D's cousins and their families. There will be tons of relatives we've never even met who live all over the U.S. here in town. Should be lots of fun.

Reading Triumph

2009-05-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

M's reading is really improving, but he is not yet a fluent reader and usually doesn't spend more than a few minutes reading any particular book. The only exception is, of all things, _The Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook_ and the related Monster Manual. He often pours over these books in bed before falling to sleep, calling out to A and I to tell him what f-o-r-t-i-t-u-d-e and p-a-l-a-d-i-n and s-h-a-d-o-w-s-t-r-i-k-e spell. The same kid who stumbles over parts of Nate the Great just ran downstairs and read aloud with great dramatic inflection "As you open your mouth with a roar, the deadly power of your draconic kin blasts forth to engulf your foes." Though "reading primer" does not leap to mind when you see these books, I bet he isn't the first kid to learn to read from them.

Math Triumph

2009-05-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

The kids are in a nice space lately. A is so enjoying all of her activities these days, and spent the car ride to chess club today thinking up historic events she wanted to memorize the dates of. She said "My favorite subject is history, but I also love writing and math and geography. The only thing I'm not that interested in is science, and even that is pretty interesting sometimes." She loves math!!!

We've been going really slowly in math lately. It only took us 2-3 months to get through _Life of Fred: Fractions_, but _Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents_ has been quite a bit more challenging. We made it through the first 12 or so chapters when I realized that we had gone too fast. We started over, and again started to bog down, this time around chapter 15 or so.

The chapters are short, and end with 5-8 problems that go over the concepts covered in that chapter and review one or two concepts from previous chapters or from the fractions book. Then, every fifth chapter there is a "bridge" of 10 problems covering everything that has been introduced so far, and you have to get 9 out of 10 correct before moving on to the next chapter. You get five tries to cross each bridge--i.e., there are 5 different sets of problems--and as soon as you get 9 out of 10 on a set you move on to the next chapter. A had a hard time passing the previous bridge and was really not enjoying math at all.

Once she finally passed that bridge, we mostly set _Life of Fred_ aside and did a variety of stuff for math. She worked on Singapore's _Challenging Word Problems_, math puzzles I found on the internet, and the Building Thinking Skills_ Figural workbook. Plus, we did a bit of pool (as in billiards) geometry and a fair amount of "trampoline math," where I threw random math problems at her while she was jumping on the trampoline. I did a mixture in multiplication and division facts; formulae for area and perimeter of a circle, rectangle, and triangle; conversion of decimals to fractions; conversion of decimals to percents; and multiplication and division of decimals by powers of 10. We did these for about 2 months, along with the next 5 chapters of Fred: decimals. Then it was time for another bridge. Which she was dreading. But which she passed! Yesterday we did a very triumphant victory lap, a.k.a. Chapter 26.

Guess What This Is

2009-05-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

M found this outside the other day, looked at it through the microscope, and took a couple of pictures of it by putting the camera up to the eyepiece and clicking. It worked!

Can you tell what it actually is?

A hummingbird feather.

Thing One and Thing Two

2009-05-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Check out my new babies! Having only hats and wash cloths under my belt, these were a stretch for me, but completely worth it. It is just mind-boggling that you can do a couple little motions with needles and a piece of yarn, and the next thing you know you've woven this net that really does hold together. Then, some amazing person figured out a way to do these same basic stitches and have the fabric curve around in a perfect little heel shape! Incredible!

The whole time I was knitting Sock #1 I worried that it wouldn't be big enough around, so you can imagine my delight as it slid right over my heel with no trouble at all. Until I ran into the end of the sock at about the point where my toes start. Because they were too small I was going to give them to A, but as I worked away on the second sock and fell more in love with every stitch, I couldn't give them up. After I finished the second one, I undid the toe of Sock #1. It took about 30 seconds to undo it back to the point where I was going to pick it back up, and over 3 hours to get all the stitches back on correctly. That's more than 3 minutes per stitch, if anyone is counting. But, I managed to get them all on more-or-less correctly and re-finished Sock #1 this morning. I figured that if I had been paid my hourly wage for my work on these socks, plus needles and yarn, they would have cost me about $450.

Now that I've worn these babies all day, the thought of going back to my boring old regular socks is bringing me down. I'm casting on Sock #1 of the next pair tonight.

Second Annual Train Trip to Seattle

2009-04-30T22:17:00.001-07:00

Yay, our internet is working again, so I can tell you about our amazingly beautiful sunny and warm day in Seattle today. First we walked up to Pike Street Market and had lunch and checked out the beautiful flowers and other wares. The tulips were absolutely amazing. Them must have a tulip growing area nearby because they were in great abundance and in a multitude of colors and patterns.

Then we walked up to the sculpture garden, which was really cool except that you weren't allowed to touch anything, which was rather a bummer. Here the kids are taking a little rest, far from any actual sculptures they might accidentally bump up against.

I think they were allowed to touch these, which didn't seem to be technically IN the sculpture garden. How often do you get to sit on an eyeball?
The kids didn't know what this object was until I told them:
Right after I snapped this picture a voice boomed out over a loud speaker "PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THE ART IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN." Yikes! Big Brother is watching us!

Then we walked up to the park around the Space Needle and listened to a lovely band from some Andean country and saw more great sculptures (and climbed on them!). The monorail took us halfway back to the train station, then a quick lemonade stop and back to the station.
We're all exhausted, but it was so much fun, we can't wait until next year's trip.

Plan #438

2009-03-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

M: Remember when we used to read from a bunch of different books, instead of just one or two?

A: Yeah, and we actually used to do spelling and look places up on maps when we read about them?

M: And you used to leave little notes for us with stuff to do while you were at work?

Jeez, we've only been off the wagon for a few weeks, really! OK, we got a little busy with the birthday planning and festivities and schoolwork sort of devolved down to Rick Riordon's Percy Jackson series and a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, and some math a few times per week. But isn't it a good thing that my kids are wanting to get back into schoolwork, rather than me having to drag them along? Isn't it funny, the one thing I've been pretty consistent with is math, and that is the thing neither of them want to do now. How can you not like math?

Anyway, we're going to just do math games on the computer for a little while, and concentrate on some other things. Here is our new plan:

1. Pick back up _Our Island Story_ (history of England)

2. Pick back up _Augustus Caesar's World_ (alternate with 1.)

3. Find a D'aulaire picture book biography or something similar to work through a page or so at a time

4. Do regular stories from Fifty Stories Retold and similar books of tales.

5. Pick back up Sequential Spelling

6. Go through this drawing lesson book we have

7. Look up places in books we're reading on maps/globe/atlas

8. Get a steady stream of science online video sites set up.

9. Find a science book to start reading through, or finish the physics one we were reading if we didn't finish it.

10. Print some handwriting practice worksheets for M with science facts on them.

11. Go to the art museum.

M really wants to do more hands-on science, too, and we decided a little while that Singapore was just not right for us. We had the microscope out the other day and that was a big hit, so maybe I could look for some microbiology--grow some molds and get some pond water and stuff like that. We've done more chemistry and physics than biology (other than nature stuff), so that might be a good way to go. I bet I can find a low-tech growing medium on the internet.

A and I are doing another on-line writing class with Bravewriter and for some reason this one has been harder--not more work, but harder to figure out what to write. I think she's hit on an idea she can go with, now, though, so I'm hoping it will be better from here on out.

Fat Tuesday

2009-02-24T19:28:00.001-08:00

Ever since we went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras many years ago, we've been in love with the whole event and the town. New Orleans had so much soul, and so much celebration with such abandon. This was where we discovered that D has been practicing white voodoo all his life, filling our house with little gris-gris offerings. The music, the food, the feast for all of the senses. I think we've watched every documentary about New Orleans and Katrina that is out there, or at least that is available at our library and local video store.

Here was our homage to New Orleans tonight. The King Cake is ready to decorate, "olive salad" for the muffaletta, with ham, mortadella, salami, mozzarella, and gruyere ready to go.

Don't forget the hurricanes!

Colored sugar for the King Cake (the middle one is supposed to be purple--turned out kind of gray, unfortunately)
And finally, the feast! It looks a little underwhelming in the picture, but it was an incredibly delicious and very festive meal. Party on.

Cat Toys

2009-02-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

We had another lovely day with our homeschool coop today. Just when I'm completely out of ideas, thankfully others come through with fun ideas like making cat toys for the Humane Society. Everyone had a really fun time, including our market research crew:

And finally, some of the gang retires to the front room for a rousing game of cars after a hard day's work with needle and thread:

The latest addition

2009-02-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

Please welcome Radcrab, and his friend purple claw.

Girls, again

2009-02-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

OK, I just have to brag one more time about the wonderful girls I get to spend every other Friday with. They are blossoming right in front of my eyes. Here are a few examples from today.

We are working on a play that has three big roles and five smaller roles, and one of the the girls with one of the big roles has never done a play before, but really wanted one of big roles. I worried that she didn't know what she was getting herself into. Maybe she didn't know what she was getting herself into, but she has totally come through. She has worked and worked on learning her lines. We went off script today and she pretty much had her lines.

And, there is another super sweet girl who kind of shrinks in a crowd--jabbers away in smaller groups and groups that she has a long history with, but has had hard time feeling totally comfortable with this bigger group of girls (who are mostly older than her). Today, however, first of all, the girls were reading tongue twisters one-at-a-time at one end of the driveway while the others stood at the other end and repeated back what they heard--an exercise designed to have the kids speak clearly and loudly. I thought this might be challenging for this girl and gave her kind of an easier one to start out, but she just sang it right out, loud and clear as could be, without any hesitation or nervousness. Then, later when the girls were figuring out what to play, she voiced what *she* wanted to do, perhaps for the first time ever with the whole group. It was amazingly cool.

And, we were doing some short improv scenarios, and one girl in particular was just blowing me away with her comedic acting. She has had plenty of great moments since we've been doing this, but I would have been cracking up if I had paid money to see her--by any objective standard, she was just hilarious.

Also, when we were talking about the roles today, one girl was clearly unhappy with her role--couldn't really see anything funny or interesting about her part, and every attempt to characterize the part in an interesting way seemed to clash with the lines. Everyone could see her unhappiness and wanted to help her figure out a way to make the part interesting. She didn't like any of the ideas she was hearing, but everyone stuck with her and tried to help her work it out. It would have been really easy for her to reject every idea and dig in with her position that this role was hopeless. But, in the end, she didn't. I don't know if she felt that the others were really listening and sympathizing with her, which freed her up to be open to changing her thinking, or if she herself made a conscious decision to be open to thinking about the role differently, of if someone's idea really did ignite some interest for her. But, it was a tough moment for the group and for her, but in the end I think we all felt some hope that she could find a way to make her character work.

And, when they were all standing around eating snacks, one of them made a disparaging comment about George Bush, which was greeted with hearty agreement by everyone but one girl, who didn't think George Bush was such a bad president, and wished McCain had won the election. There was a brief moment of surprise among the rest of the girls, whose households were all strongly in the Obama camp, but they went on with great tact and grace and didn't disparage George Bush or John McCain. Instead they eventually found common ground in their dislike of Sarah Palin :)

I just love the way they put their arms around each other and hold each others' hands and chase each other through the house like maniacs, and just generally feel free to laugh and unselfconsciously and confidently be themselves. On the other hand, they are also developing a really nice sense of awareness of others' feelings, and some real skills in reaching out to each other and finding common ground. A has been saying all week long that she couldn't wait until Friday to see the drama club gang, and I can see why!

Signs of Spring

2009-02-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

What a glorious day. I don't care what the groundhog says--for today, at least, we could pretend that spring is here. My old heat-loving kitty could warm herself in the sun,

it was a perfect day to jump around outside,

and the Red-flowering Current is ready to burst open.

We have a tradition here that the blooming of the Daphne is the official beginning of spring for us, and we celebrate with milkshakes. I can taste them already...

The Cosmic Boot

2009-01-30T21:04:00.000-08:00

You know how just when you find yourself bragging about something, that very something turns on you? When I was riding home from work yesterday for some reason I was congratulating myself on the fact that my kids have great judgement, as kids go. So what do I see tonight? A comes running through the kitchen with one end of a rope in her hand. The other end is tied around M's neck.

2009-01-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

M: If I had a family, I mean, you know, a normal family, I could really do stuff.

???

This, right after declaring that he mainly wants to be a comedy actor when he grows up. Like we cramp his style? And a more normal family would interfere less with his aspirations to be a comedy actor?

Latest Charlie Pie Opus

2009-01-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

A has been playing with iMovie...

My Birthday Adventure (a.k.a, All's Well the End's Well)

2009-01-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

After weeks of snow, then wind, then rain, the sun came out on my birthday and my homeschool co-op was kind enough to let me pitch our scheduled activity and take them on a hike instead. We went to a nice spot on the Sandy River, where you can run off the trail with a clear conscience, one of my favorite things to do on a hike.

We had a lovely walk to a nice little stream, where we snacked and played and some engineers in the group built a couple of bridges. We succumbed to the siren call of the other side of the stream, where the Sandy River routinely rises and falls, leaving lots of great sandy washes that are good for finding animal tracks and interesting objects deposited by the river.

The only problem with this area we entered is that all the sandy washes start to look kind of alike. When we were walking back, I was afraid we had missed our trail. No problem, though, because the main trail is up on a ridge that was visible, and there are lots of deer trails that lead back up to it; as long as we didn't get too far north of the road, we'd be able to see the main trail. So, rather than risk getting too far north of the road, I suggested we head down one of these little deer trails. As you can see by this picture, the deer trail didn't actually last that long, though we're still all having a good time.
I'm still filled with confidence that we'll find a good spot to get back up to the trail, and before long we can hear the road, so at worst we'll just come out at the road and walk back to our cars. The nice open grassy-sandy terrain gives way to increasingly dense undergrowth, however. And, there is still a fair amount of water left over from the recent rain and snow melt, and all of the little deer trails we try end in a swamp.

It doesn't look like a lot of water, but it deters us, nonetheless. At least, it deters us for about 45 minutes of wandering through the underbrush, until the little ones start to flag, M starts begging in a trembling voice "Mom, can't we please call search and rescue," one of our party has to be at work in about an hour, and the sun is getting alarmingly low in the sky. Time to ford the swamp.

As luck should have it, we found a log that ran from the middle of a narrow-ish section of the swamp to the other side. We loaded the little ones on our hips and backs, waded through the almost knee-deep (and very cold!) water, inched our way across the slippery wet log, then squeezed through about a 6-inch wide trail in the blackberry vines, and HALLELUJAH! The main trail! The big kids declared it our funnest outing ever, and I have to say, it was a great birthday adventure.
Thanks for being such good sports, everyone!

The Mom Song

2009-01-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

OK, I found this hilarious.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

My Christmas Vacation

2009-01-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

I was sick sick sick for about a week and a half around Christmas. M had a stomach bug for two days and then was perfectly fine. On day 3 of my malady I assumed I was over it (I was feeling quite a bit better) so I went out in the snow and finished my Christmas shopping. This was imperative because if I hadn't, M would literally have not had any gifts from D and I. I was pretty tired, but the bus/train schedule worked so perfectly, I hardly had to walk or stand around at all. EXCEPT, I had to wait for about 40 minutes for the last bus taking me the 2 miles from the train to home, and then it took a snow route that ended up letting me off a mile from home. Freezing, exhausted, and carrying a heavy backpack through the snow. Needless to say, it was downhill from there and I didn't really get up again for a week.

Fortunately, the kids took over and did almost all of the Christmas baking/cookie making/cookie decorating. Thanks, guys!! Here are some Peppermint Patty action shots (prior to getting the chocolate coating):

I did manage to get a few cool shots of the snow, though. See if you can find the strands of spider web in this one.

Girlfriends

2009-01-03T23:32:00.000-08:00

I love these girls. We've been doing a drama club this year, which is a continuation of science club from last year and writing club the year before. They are down to earth. They are good to each other. They disagree at times and sometimes get annoyed with each other, but I've never heard one of them say anything gossipy about anyone and I've never ever seen one of them try to exclude or put down another girl (that they aren't related to, anyway). I've heard many discussions where someone didn't like something that was happening, and she made a clear and reasonable request. And others listened to her and either honored the request or negotiated a reasonable compromise. When two disagree, I've heard others try to help them find a compromise or some understanding of each others' positions. I'm just so impressed with how they take care with each others' feelings, and how much fun they have. I hung out with some wonderful girls in my middle school years, and we had lots of fun and I think we treated each other well also, so I know that homeschoolers do not have the corner on the nice middle school girlfriend market, but I suspect it is a lot easier to be yourself and find your own voice when you are free from the scrutiny and judgement so common in middle school. I'm so glad A is growing up surrounded by girls like these.

Optimist

2009-01-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

M: I had a dream last night that I was sentenced to hang. But I died first. It was incredibly lucky.

Before and After

2008-12-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

See if you can detect the difference between these two pictures:

About 6 pounds! Yes, she stayed with us and here she is in her current, obese glory. She is a bather--constantly keeping her and everyone around her shiny clean. She is getting so she can't quite reach everywhere as well as she used to be able to...

Question of the day

2008-12-18T21:01:00.001-08:00

Why does mucus, unlike every other liquid I know of, get thinner and runnier when it gets cold? You'd think it would be disadvantageous, evolutionarily-speaking, to have icicles hanging from your nose.

This crazy weather has had the advantage of allowing us to be home, guilt-free, for five nights in a row (that is, guilt-free because we aren't home because we are flaking out on anything). I do hope we get a window of nice weather tomorrow, though, because A is dying to see her drama club friends, and M has a special outing with Grandma planned (and loafers may be involved, so his excitement knows no bounds). If not, it will be a great opportunity to do our Christmas baking. So far, we're actually not especially stir crazy, but we do miss seeing our friends. If only you guys lived on our block!

Snow!

2008-12-14T21:02:00.001-08:00

OK, OK, I guess they were right about the big storm after all. Who'd a thought? I do wish I would have picked up a gallon of milk last night, at least!

Quiz:

What is more fun than a snowy day?

Answer: A big outdoor fire on a snowy day!
Until you fall down and wind up with a gaping 3/4-inch jagged tear across the under side of your chin. M did that, not me. I'm sure he would have had stitches if I had felt safe driving, but the little band-aids seem to be holding it together. And, it didn't really bleed that much, given the size of the gash. Since M had been playing outside for a good couple of hours at that point I think it was kind of numb and maybe didn't have a ton of blood circulating at the surface? Anyway, he'll have a lovely scar to show off.

Check out this snowball--it was there for a full minute before I got this picture

Improvised Dinner

2008-12-13T22:49:00.001-08:00

I went to New Seasons with a dinner idea in mind, only to be thwarted by the masses of people there--stocking up for the big storm, I guess. There were no regular-sized carts left *at all* and the meat counter was a solid mass of people. So we had dinner from the "pantry" tonight, that is, improvised with the materials at hand. If you are in a similar pinch, here are a couple of ideas...

Lemony rice:
Olive oil
1 c rice
2 c chicken broth
zest of 1 lemon (or 1/2 of a dried up lemon in the back of the crisper box plus a lime)
1 grated zucchini, which was getting on in life and needed to be used up
1 grated carrot
2-3 cloves garlic
Parmesan cheese (1/4 c?)
juice from aforementioned dried up 1/2 lemon, which was actually surprisingly juicy

Saute the rice in the olive oil until it starts to get a little brown. Add the zucchini, carrot, and garlic and stir around for a couple of minutes. Add the broth, bring to boil, then simmer like you normally cook rice (12 min or so?). When liquid is absorbed, stir in lemon juice and Parmesan and let sit for a couple of minutes. Very tasty. This is also great (even better, actually) with orzo rather than rice.

Broccoli with Pine Nuts:
Olive oil
Pine nuts (1/4 c? or walnuts or whatever nut you like that you have on hand)
4 c broccoli florets
2 cloves garlic
salt
2 T broth
2 T white wine (or substitute rice vinegar + a little sugar if you have no wine)
2 T Parmesan cheese.

Saute the pine nuts in the olive oil until beginning to brown. Add broccoli and garlic and stir around until the broccoli is nice and bright green. Add a little salt if you'd like (not too much because you'll be adding Parmesan later), and then the liquids, and steam for a few minutes until broccoli is done. Toss with Parmesan.

Add a smoothie and a little loaf of freshly baked no-knead bread (thanks for the idea, RedMolly, I'd cut this recipe out of the FoodDay months ago and never tried it). Voila! All stuff scrounged from the supplies on hand.

Memories

2008-12-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

When I got on my bike today this great feeling came over me. It's Friday for me; I have strong healthy legs and it felt great to use my muscles pumping my bike; the cool air felt great on my cheeks. Suddenly, I was 8 years old, riding my fantastic bike with the polka-dotted banana seat, wearing my favorite purple shirt and a zip-up-the-front sweatshirt, feeling the cool fall air on my cheeks.

You know the great thing about a childhood free of major trauma or dysfunction? It is the deep well of great memories you have at your fingertips. The feeling you get when all is right with the world and you are just cruising around on your bike, enjoying being alive and well. The smells and sensations that can trigger these good memories, the feeling that you are strong and well and could run or ride your bike forever. The feeling of being in the middle of a big, loud, chaotic family gathering--that these are your people. That you have people.

I remember one Thanksgiving gathering at my Grandma and Grandpa's house when I was probably 6 or 7. My older cousin Jenny got a call from her then boyfriend (and future husband), and the tiny house was packed with people and so loud I couldn't imagine how she could hear what he was saying. Her face lit up with surprise when someone said "Steve's on the phone!", and with a big smile on her face she took the phone and crawled under the kitchen table. She was under the table, laying down with her feet propped up on a chair, relaxed and happy as could be, smiling and laughing and talking to her boyfriend. This is the first inkling I had that maybe it is a nice thing to have a boyfriend. Not that I wanted one, but maybe it would be nice, one day. These images are so sweet, and what a wonderful gift to have these kinds of memories waiting in the wings, to be brought back by some momentary smell or sight or sound.

A (Brief) Glimpse of the Promised Land

2008-12-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

So I've been jogging (I call it running, but let's be realistic, it is jogging at best) 2-3 times per week for a few months. I had big plans and a 4-day-per-week running schedule figured out, but I haven't quite been able to make that happen. Needless to say, my aerobic capacity is improving at quite a slow pace, and I still can't even always make it 2 miles before having to stop and walk.

Back before kids I used to run a lot, and was in the lovely state where I looked forward to running, and was bummed out if I had to miss a day. I even had many pretty exuberant moments running through Forest Park. I can't say I'm feeling especially exuberant when I'm running (jogging) these days. In fact, I'm pretty miserable the whole time.

BUT. Today I was jogging and busy thinking about something at work and I suddenly realized that I had passed my 2-mile marker and I was actually feeling pretty good! Of course, within about 10 steps I was gasping for air and dragging myself miserably along and had to stop and walk, but still! It felt good for a minute! It will feel good again. I'm within striking distance of enjoying jogging, I just know it. With Christmas vacation coming up, maybe I can make some faster progress and get to that point where I don't have to talk myself into it every time.

Score!

2008-12-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Today we had our holiday event at work, which is always lots of fun, the highlights of which are the silent and oral auctions. As I was perusing the Star Wars video tapes, ceramic knick knacks, rooster clocks, and John Grisham novels, my heart skipped a beat when I saw a K'nex set with no bids on it. I think K'nex are pretty cool, but my determination to get those K'nex went far beyond "pretty cool." Let me back up to two Christmases ago.

I bought 3 packs of K'nex that covered 3 or 6 of the basic machines (I forget if there were one or two machines per pack). It was a teacher pack that included physics lessons for later elementry grades, and this was going to be the kids' big joint gift, plus it was going to be our science curriculum for a little while. The box arrived and I managed to sneak it in the house without anyone seeing it. I opened up the box and pulled out and fondled the K'nex boxes, aquiver with anticipation about how much fun they were going to be. Then I carefully hid the box. Carefully, as in really well hidden. Not as in, taking great care to remember where I hid it. To this day, $60 worth of K'nex are hidden somewhere in this house. I'm thinking of them as my retirement plan, now that my 401k has mostly disappeared: by the time I find them they'll be collectors items--pristine condition, original packaging, never opened!

So I bid on the K'nex at the auction, and then as the end of the auction drew near I used every obnoxious silent auction tactic I could think of to make sure I got those K'nex. I hovered over the sheet and badmouthed K'nex, I told everyone my sob story as proof of how I deserve to win those K'nex, and if someone actually made it through my gauntlet and bid on them, I outbid them again as soon as they were out of sight. And yes, I did actually win the K'nex. Now, having spent $71 on K'nex, there is a 1/2-way built K'nex roller coaster sitting in the front room. Take that, K'nex gods!

Nice Try

2008-12-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

Darn! Ever since my blog entry about all the wonderful music we've been playing around here, I haven't been able to talk anyone at my house into playing music with me. I'm going to have to start borrowing random people off the street to play music with me. Good thing my quartet is coming over this weekend. Unfortunately we're reading through Beethoven Op. 59 No. 2, which I'm sure none of us but our diligent 2nd violinist has practiced, so it may be a little hard on the ears. Perhaps not as inspiring to the other members of my household as I might hope.

Oh well, those crazy kids of mine will come around. They'll be begging me to get out my cello any day, I just know it.

Academic Excellence

2008-11-29T12:15:00.001-08:00

At our recent family meeting I was somewhat disheartened to see that "academic excellence" got no votes as a family priority. However, I figured out later that the kids had no idea what that meant. My initial explanation was, you know, being really good at school-type stuff. Huh? These kids don't have any frame of reference for knowing whether they are really great or really bad a school-type stuff, since they aren't really sure which of the stuff we do is the traditional school-type stuff. The main subjects that leap to mind for them when I say "schoolwork" are math and spelling and punctuation (for Anna) and reading (for Mickey). They both mostly enjoy math, but the reason we spend time on these particular language arts activities is because they are my kids' weaker areas. So, when they hear "academic excellence" that sounds to them like slaving away at these topics that are not especially fun and somewhat difficult for them.

It got me thinking. What *do* I mean by academic excellence? Getting straight A's certainly doesn't mean anything in our world. I guess the thing that is important to me is that when they get to high school or college or whenever they enter a more traditional school setting, that they will be able to do well. The earliest I could see my kids going to school is high school, and how much do they really need to know to do well in a typical public high school? Or even an academically rigorous high school? A good grounding in math, preferably with algebra already well under their belt (though certainly many kids take algebra in high school and do perfectly well); the ability to read something, think about it critically, remember it, and integrate it with other things they know; the ability to translate their thinking into writing that is clear and well-reasoned (preferably without a lot of spelling or punctuation errors).

So how do I achieve these goals? By plugging away at math, at their own natural pace, I'm quite confident that my kids will be ready for high school math by the time they are 14. I find homeschooling extremely efficient when it comes to math--you can cover topics for exactly as long as you need to and can capitalize on the times when their math brains are really working.

Being able to read something and think about it critically does NOT come from reading comprehension worksheets, but from conversations about real books and about life in general. Once you learn to read (which A has down pat and which I'm quite confident M will get by the time he is 14), it is the thinking that is important. Actually, the thinking is important from the moment you are alive, and the reading gets picked up along the way. Being skeptical, observing people, wondering about the physical and social and political world, and having conversations about all these things are how kids learn to think critically. Plus, I think homeschooled kids have the advantage of not wondering what the "right" answer is (i.e., the answer the teacher is looking for), but can just come to their own conclusions. There aren't that many leading questions in real life--where someone asks you something because they want to find out if you know some specific thing, so you have to guess what they are after before you can answer the question correctly. In real life, people ask things because they don't know, and if they can think and read, they can probably find out the answer, if there is one.

Writing is tricky, because I am certainly no great writer. But, I write technical reports for a living, and the editors who go over my writing don't change all that much, so I must be reasonably clear and well-reasoned. I may never write fiction, but I can think through what I want to say, and can usually organize and articulate it well enough to get the point across. Fortunately, A does love to write, so if I can just nurture her writing impulse, she may actually be someone who could *really* write. By high school I'm sure she'll be ready for some help from a real writer, but at this point providing the structure for her to spend time writing and editing her writing will get her a long ways. I don't know about M yet, but at the very least, I do think that by 8th grade, he can be clear-thinking enough to be able to get his thoughts organized and written out. Now whether either of their writing will be mostly spelled correctly and with correct punctuation, I'm not quite so positive...

So, really, when I am thinking of academic excellence, I'm not really thinking that I need my kids to be writing 10-page papers on Beowolf or reading Shakespeare in the original at age 11, though I wouldn't object to that. Rather, I think that a steady diet of good books, videos, games, and activities that provide plenty of exposure to good language, history, science, and psychology, and the conversations that arise out of them are the things that will prepare them to be intelligent, thoughtful people. Add in plenty of music, art, and exercise, plus enough math and the mechanics of English and I think that will get us there. I am constantly encouraged by how little I remember learning in grades k-8, and how much I enjoyed and felt stimulated by (and was perfectly well-prepared for) my academically rigorous high school. I was able to spend most of my k-8 years doing the stuff that I loved doing--playing music, playing pretend and putting on plays with my friends, running around outside, reading, etc. These are the things that prepared my for high school. Plus, I did have some good math instruction.

Music Together

2008-11-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm catching a nice strong signal from my neighbor's wireless at the moment so I'm going to seize the opportunity and do a blog entry. (Don't worry, I'm helping pay for the signal--I'm not stealing it!)

We had our first ever family meeting a few weeks ago to figure out what our top priorities are, as a family. Healthy eating, exercise, music together, and art came out on top, so we've been concentrating on those things lately. Since music is my thing I'm incredibly delighted that others found this so important.

I've been changing my mindset about music from having music lessons at the core musical activity to playing with others as the centerpiece. To become a good musician, you need to put in a lot of hours playing your instrument, which is much easier to do when you're having a good time. Also, to learn to play well in a group, you need to play a lot with other people. Fortunately, the very funnest thing about music is being able to play with others. With A, who takes piano lessons, I'm realizing that the drudgery of practice is killing her love of music. But, she does love to play when she is doing chords for fiddle tunes, or playing the right hand melody line along with folk songs or Christmas carols. And, since we've been playing so much, she has not only spent a lot more time at the piano than usual, but she is getting better and better at listening to what else is going on AND she actually got inspired to write a song yesterday, for the first time ever. I'm not saying that music lessons are unimportant, but I'm figuring out that music lessons don't necessarily create a love of music, which is the thing that will really keep you playing all your life.

For M on cello, I'm not that familiar with Suzuki, since I didn't do it myself, but I think I'm taking a philosophically similar approach. I want to start with playing by ear for a good long while before pulling in music or notation of any kind to help him develop his ear and his memory. As long as he is happy playing songs with mostly or only open strings, we'll stick with that. I think I'll introduce the idea of playing a melody every once in a while, on the assumption that one of these times he'll get excited about it and be ready to put up with the difficulty of figuring out how to use his left hand correctly for the fun of being able to play a recognizable song. In the mean time, I have probably a hundred songs I can pull up that involving almost exclusively the notes C, G, D, and A for a bass line (or could easily be transposed to use them). And if we plug away at these songs in the fiddle, folk song, and traditional song repertoire, he'll have a lot of great songs in his ear after a while. And, he can spend a nice long time developing his bow arm and hand, his sense of rhythm, and his listening and ensemble skills. Again, I do plan on hooking him up with a real teacher as soon as he seems ready to practice, but in the meantime I think we can make lots of progress and have lots of fun along the way.

Also, we've gotten D playing with us, and since he likes blues and rock and mainly likes to improvise, he has pulled in a whole new dimension that is great for all of us. The kids don't really know how to improvise yet (not that I'm any good at it, either), but they are hearing D and I playing around with it and starting to get the idea, and every once in a while one of them will grab a drum or something to try to play along with us. Very cool!

Songs of Joy and Peace

2008-11-02T23:12:00.000-08:00

A new CD by Yo Yo Ma. Here is a clip of him playing one of the songs on the Colbert Report. This one must be joy! Or maybe exuberance.

Check out this beautiful song

2008-10-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

In case there is anyone out there who reads my blog but doesn't read Magpie Ima, check out this video. I can't figure out how to embed it, so you'll have to click on the link.

Historic Vote

2008-10-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm just caught up in the hype, but it does feel historic. I believe Obama is a thoughtful and intelligent man of integrity. I trust him to think about the implications of his policies and to place a high priority on the effects on regular working people. I understand that he is pragmatic and probably more conservative than I would like on some issues, but I am truly glad I have the chance to vote for him. Now that I look at the mark, I'm a little worried it isn't filled in heavily enough! If I open it back up and make it darker will it look like my ballot was tampered with and risk getting thrown out? Is it maybe the photo that just looks kind of washed out? Hmmmmm.

Latest appraoch to schoolwork

2008-10-26T22:33:00.001-07:00

I'm swinging back over to a Charlotte Mason-lite/Sonlite-lite approach to schooling. I made a list of 10:00 chores for the kids to do everyone day that they're home in the morning (just basic stuff--get dressed, comb hair, brush teeth, make beds, pick up rooms.) Then on my work days I'm writing a list of chores on the white board for each of them do that day, usually 1-2 household chores, 2-3 school assignments, and practice for A. Overall, I'm trying to hit math in some form 4-5 days per week for each kid, reading 3-4 days per week for M, writing (freewrite, copywork, dictation, or working on a writing project) 3-4 days per week for A, copywork and spelling for M 1 time per week each. I'm trying have them do a lot of this while I'm at work. For history we're going back through the first _Story of the World_ and I'm having the kids listen to the audio (a couple of chapters each week), and we're using the reading list and study questions from Sonlight Core 5 for read aloud. For variety I'm throwing in a grammar CD for M (basic parts of speech stuff, mostly, set to music), geography and math games on the computer, and board games, some of this done as part of their 10:00 chore list. We chose a composer to focus on this fall, Bartok, and I'm just trying to play something of his every week or so. Also, we still read a bedtime poem every night, and I play folk songs on the piano every night while they brush teeth and get into bed.

I'm trying to make sure we go slowly, just reading one chapter of the read-aloud each day and also doing 15-20 minute from a related history book (not a historic fiction chapter book), so we'll spend plenty of time in a few places in history. I'm trying to incorporate the history stuff in the freewrites occasionally, and I think I'll even do the Charlotte Mason thing of having an exam when we're done. I think the "exam" will actually be lots of fun, and I think the kids will also like the closure and will enjoy seeing how much they have learned. And, I hope it will consolidate what they're learning.

Right now we're going ancient Egypt. We just read _The Golden Goblet_ and a picture book about Tutankahmen. We've been looking through a non-kids book with beautiful photos of stuff from Tutankahmen's tomb, plus other Egyptian antiquities, and I'm planning on reading the chapter in that book about the "curse" on his tomb, since both kids were wanting to hear more about that. We're also going through _Egyptology_ and I found one of those "How to draw..." books on Egyptian gods and figures that I've been assigning them to draw. We're trying to be diligent about looking at the map as we hear about different cities and geographic features in Egypt. After a while I was going to have A draw a map of Egypt, and include major cities and landmarks, and have M fill things in on a blackline map.

The main challenge is stay here in Egypt a little longer, and not move on to Rome fully just yet. We actually already started _Detectives in Togas_, our Rome read-aloud, before I had the idea to slow down and spend more time in Egypt, but I'm drawing it out and I figure by the time we're done with it, I'll call an end to Egypt, have an "exam" day, and then we'll really move into Rome more fully.

Of course the list is long of things we're neglecting (art history, foreign language, nature journal, grammar (not that I'm really sold on grammar) and no doubt more that I'm not thinking of at the moment), but at least this feels manageable for now, and as in all things, I'm a tortoise, not a hare, so it suits me to work steadily away making progress where we can and not fret overly about what is not being covered at the moment.

A Dream Come True

2008-10-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

My daughter's wonderful piano teacher has put together two books of simple folk songs that only use two or three chords. Her approach to teaching is to have them learning the finger patterns for the first 5 notes of every scale from the very first lesson. She developed an ingenious manipulative to show them where to put their fingers, and they start out at the piano learning a simple song by ear, and then moving this slider around to anywhere on the piano and playing the song in every key. So, transposing is introduced at the very first lesson.

Another thing she introduces early is how to play the I, IV, and V chords to accompany a song, which are also transposed everywhere on the piano. These folk song books provide the words and the chords, and the kids play the accompaniment and sing along, transposing them into all different keys.

This has been an amazing boon to us, as my son has become interested in playing the cello (yay!) which has open strings that amount to the I, IV, and V notes for the keys of G and D. This means that we can play any of the songs in A's folk song books, with A on piano playing the accompaniment in the keys of G and D, me on violin or cello playing the melody line, and M on cello playing the bass line. This is what I have been dreaming of from the moment I got pregnant! It is so much fun, and it actually sounds really great. M asks to play music almost every day, and A always want to join in also. And, now I've figured out that we can also play out of fiddle books, which have lots of songs that can be played using the notes C, G, D, and A in the bass line. They tend to be longer and harder to remember for M (who isn't reading any music or notation), but we've got the "A" parts worked out for a couple of them, and they sound great!

This is truly a great way to start the cello. For one thing, the cello we have is too big for M (we have a 3/4 size and he needs a 1/2 size), so I don't really want him to start fingering just yet, since he'll have to use poor finger positioning in order to get in tune. It is kind of iffy even to bow open strings on a too-big cello, but I just have him use the part of the bow that is right for his arm length, and set the end pen low so he's bowing at the right height (but there is no way to make both the left and right hands hit at the right height at the same time with this too-big cello). And, even if we had a right-sized cello for him, it is better to work on each hand separately, since there is so much going on in each hand, and they are doing completely different tasks. It is too much to try to do them both at the same time to start out. When you're just playing by yourself, it quickly gets quite boring to just play open strings. But as a member of a string band, a kid can be happy for quite a while with open strings.

Reading Slump

2008-10-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Remember when you used to end each day by snuggling into bed with a great book? How enriching and relaxing this ritual was? Some of you may still do this, but, alas, I've joined the bleary, red-eyed ranks of those who go down only after exhaustion overcomes the pain of jabbing earbuds. What have I become?!

True, I'm up on Anderson Cooper's take on the stock market roller coaster and I know how to handle a bear attack, being caught on an erupting volcano, how to spot Lion tracks, and how to catch piranhas, if I'm ever desperate enough to want to eat one (and in a jungle). I've learned how to make an LED fan sign, to convert a hot glue gun to a web-making machine, to make an amplifier from an Altoid tin, and a gigantic smoke ring machine from a garbage can. I've learned all about the amazing Science Museum they've been building in San Francisco and caught every Wired Science podcast in the past month, but I'm only about 40 pages into my book that I've been reading for at least 2 weeks.

I think part of the problem is my approach to finding books--that is, randomly picking books of the fiction shelves whose titles or book covers grab me. I've thought that I just wasn't fiction mode, but it occurs to me that maybe I'm just not reading great fiction. I've found some great memoirs on the New Arrivals shelf, but there hasn't been anything new there for a while that has really appealed to me. So I'm turning over a new leaf. Tonight, thanks to Worducopia and Wacky Mommy I have 15 books on hold at the library. Adult fiction, young adult fiction, memoirs, biographies. Surely something will grab me and help me tame the electronic monster that has taken over my bedtime ritual!

Yikes!

2008-10-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm traveling to Maryland for work in November, as I do occasionally, but it turns out that rather than tag along after my boss while she does all the presenting and paying for taxis I'm going to have to go all by myself! Make two fairly large presentations without her! Figure out how much to tip the taxi drivers! Figure out how to use the hotel iron without it spraying water all over my shirt!

OK, I'm a big girl, I can handle this. I'll just have to find some kind of polyester shirt that won't wrinkle.

Hoyt Arboretum Tour

2008-10-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

We went on a third walking tour with the incomparable Peter Chausse this week, and this one was just as great as the others. I've lived in this city all my life and been to the Arboretum literally hundreds of times, yet I learned and saw all sorts of new things on Tuesday. He covered wildlife, history, and art along the way, and even got the whole group to be silent and listen to the sounds around us for a little while. Not an easy task with 13 kids holding plastic bags in a graveled area.

Check out the amazing root system on this tree. The picture doesn't do it justice, unfortunately.

And the bark on several of the trees we saw was just beautiful.

Trip to the Columbia Gorge

2008-10-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

We spent a beautiful couple of days with Aunt Teen and Uncle Carl this weekend in the Columbia Gorge. We hiked around their place on Saturday and then had a nice dinner at their house. After dinner we played a board game and then the kids watched Andy Griffith episodes while the grownups got to hang out and visit. On Sunday we took a short hike near the mouth of the Klikitat River. Apparently you can sometimes see bald eagles during the salmon runs (which are now), but we didn't see any on Sunday. The spot was just beautiful and well worth the trip there even without any bald eagles. The only thing that slowed us down were the burrs.

Foreign language study

2008-10-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here is M demonstrating his mastery of a rare and complicated dialect. We can thank our strict adherence to Charlotte Mason principles for this brilliant translation effort, no doubt.

Just what the doctor ordered

2008-10-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have been on vacation this week, and it has been a great relief to everyone in the house to have me home. Like many families, mom is the backbone of the family, and things seem to fall apart when mom is (I am) gone to much over too long a time period. This week everyone has had an outing or two (or three, in the case of dad!) alone with me, and the pent-up need for mom-time seems to be more or less satisfied. At the same time, we've passed around a cold, which has kept us home a little more than usual, which has also been a good thing for getting everyone feeling right with the world again.

I haven't quite met my goal of jogging every day of vacation. In fact, I haven't jogged yet, and don't see it happening in the next few days, but I am very inspired by my brother-in-law's completion of the Portland Marathon last weekend. If I'm remembering correctly, he started jogging in January of this year, lost 50 pounds, and ran two half-marathons and one full marathon by the first weekend of October! He actually had some really good tips for me that I think I can put into action, but not until I'm done with this cold. Nevertheless, it has been lovely, sleeping in until 8:00 or later, getting one-on-one time with everybody, eating some delicious dinners, playing cards, and watching a few more movies than usual. Very lazy and luxurious. Next week I'll get serious about jogging!

Greek Dinner

2008-10-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

No, we didn't make it to the Greek Festival this weekend, unfortunately, but managed to celebrate Greece anyway, with some of our homeschool friends. We had an amazing Greek feast, and some of the kids dressed up as their favorite Greek Gods (and these kids really know their Greek mythology, so these are seriously informed choices) and we shared tidbits we'd learned about Greece in the past month or so. The menu wound up being pita bread, hummus, kalmata olives, spanakopita, lamb pastitsio, a lima bean dish whose Greek name escapes me, beet and feta salad, Horiatikia salad (cukes, feta, sweet peppers, etc.), baklava, koulourakia (like sugar cookies), and Greek coffee. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures until after much of the food was gone, but here are some of the remains:

The kids played scatter and some acting/pretend games and impressed me tremendously with how well this big group of 10 kids ranging in age from 5 to 13 could play together in the tiny space of our upstairs. There was plenty of thumping, exuberant shouting, and swords keeping the enemies on the stairs at bay, but an amazing lack of voices raised in anger or frustration.

Hike in the Gorge

2008-10-05T08:42:00.001-07:00

We went on a beautiful hike to Horsetail Falls a few days ago with our homeschool friends. It has some stretches with big dropoffs near the edge of the trail, which feels quite treacherous with a group of excited kids, but it was just beautiful and so much fun. The highlight of the hike is where the trail goes behind this waterfall:

Here is part of our gang looking out at it:
And the happy crew towards the end of the hike:
A perfect way to spend a mild fall afternoon.

The next generation of unicylcers

2008-10-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

I just imported everything from the camera and came across this picture of my nephew:

Wow! Notice the crutch in the lower left? He figured out how to ride the unicycle by using his crutches (left over from his broken leg last winter) to help him get balanced. I saw him out there with the crutches a week ago or so, but I never saw him go on his own. Now it looks like he's go it! There is even a video clip of him going for about 10 or 15 feet. My sister and I rode unicylces when we were kids, and we've had some unicyles hanging around our houses which the kids occasionally pull out and try to ride, but this is the furthest anyone has gotten on it. Yay!

The fruits of my labor

2008-10-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

My moonlighting job from this summer is now online! For a fascinating tutorial on systematic evidence reviews, follow this link and click on Systematic Review Module. OK, maybe "fascinating" isn't quite the right word, but it looks pretty snazzy, don't you think? (Not that I had any input on how it looks)

Oregon Garden

2008-09-12T21:42:00.001-07:00

We had a beautiful day at the Oregon Garden today. The sun was shining,

the garden was full of interesting and clever sights,

and beautiful paths leading off into magical little spaces.

We started off with a tram ride hoping to find our friends,

and who should appear at the second stop to board the tram? This was lucky because the place is big and it would have been easy to miss each other. Being there with friends made the day even more fun. A especially is in a place where she would like us to do everything with our friends. When we're back home and her legs are so tired from running around that they are sore, I know it has been a good day.

The garden is really well done and since today was a special homeschool day they had activity stations set up all over the garden, which were lots of fun. M liked the flower dissecting one best, and A liked the crafty one where you could make a stamp of animal tracks. She made one of animal tracks and then made a second one that said "Caution." A warning for her brother? General advice for the world at large? A self portrait in one word? Anyway, it was definitely worth the drive.

Lost Tooth

2008-09-12T21:39:00.001-07:00

Here's M's showing off his (second) lost tooth, and the grown up teeth that are well on their way into the space.

Quilting with Grandma

2008-09-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

Check out this beautiful quilt that A made with her grandma! They've been working on it for months, and A is so proud of how it turned out. They original idea was to use it as a picnic blanket, but I don't think we want to get this wonderful piece covered in mud and grass stains and food stains. It is being put to very good use on the couch and our fancy new bean bag chairs, and A takes it upstairs every night to bed with her. This took a lot of work--I'm so impressed with how she stuck with it, and with how pretty and functional it is.

Peer Pressure?

2008-09-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

I think of myself as someone who is more-or-less immune from peer pressure when it comes to fads and fashion, but maybe I'm not so immune after all, as evidence by two recent purchases. Did I really need to spend $20 to get a water bottle that won't leach scary chemicals into my water? It is kind of alarming how easily I can justify spending $200 on an iPod (It will help me run farther! I'll be able to use my exercise and commute time so productively! We'll be able to download all sorts of great educational material from iTunes U to listen to in the car!) I got a little extra money because of this extra job I did this summer, and the idea was to put it toward paying off the loan for re-doing our bathroom, but it seems to burning a hole in my pocket...

Mr. Perfect Robinson

2008-08-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we gave up on Swiss Family Robinson about 1/3 of the way through. When we all started hoping that the hero would get attacked by a wild animal, it seemed better to take the higher path and just quit reading it. If I had to suffer through one more amazing stroke of luck or McGyver-type invention that Mr. Robinson was praying would work, though never so bold as to believe it would, and then have it work better than he ever imagined, and in fact turn out to be a perfect coconut picking device as well as building crane or whatever, I think I would have thrown the book in the fire. And it's a library book, and I *really* don't want to have to pay for it, of all the annoying books.

I just couldn't take any more displays of Mr. Robinson's encyclopedic knowledge of tropical flora and fauna and all their uses, or hear one more amazing stroke of luck. The ship was stocked with provisions for a whole colony for a year! What luck! The island is packed with useful and delicious plants and animals and fresh water! There is a little boat stored away inside the hull of the ship that is undamaged! What luck! When the sons aren't working like slaves because they *so* want to be cooperative and helpful, they are engaged in games of strength, endurance, and skill to help them become better hunters and builders! Isn't that special. And every time they come upon an animal they kill it or imprison it. Lovely. By the time we quit the only thing keeping us reading was the chance to snicker about their ass and their pinnace, which we heard quite a lot about.

Back to Basics

2008-08-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

We started out the summer gearing up our academic homeschooling as we have for the past couple of years, since most of our regularly schedule activities don't go through the summer and we have more time to do that kind of stuff. Then I got this moonlighting job and began working more than usual, and we are on our fourth round of evening swimming lessons, and now we've gotten sucked into the Olympics.

It is nice to break with the normal routine (such as it was), but after a couple months of little routine, I'm ready to get back some of the basics we've let go this summer. First, I need to get back on top of a housecleaning routine. My and D's laundry folding routine has fallen apart since we've all been watching the Olympics together and there are now little bodies where the folded clothes usually go. Swimming lessons have put a kibosh on making good dinners and we've been living on quesadillas and sandwiches. Since we aren't having people over here every week or two, things like sweeping and decluttering and cleaning the bathroom are really slipping. The kids and I spent much of Sunday cleaning house, and I was reminded again how cooperative my kids are about helping clean up. I'm sure it feels good to be productive and be contributing something useful to the household, and it can be pretty fun to all work together.

Tonight we took the night off from watching the Olympics and actually spent a couple of hours doing a little schoolwork and having a nice long read-aloud time. Before that A and I were looking over our schoolwork checklist and found that it is out of date, even though we just made it at the beginning of the summer. Funny how things are constantly changing. We seem to be much more into reading and literature than history and science at the moment.

We're reading _Swiss Family Robinson_ and a compilation of "rascal" tales, and the vocabulary and language are really satisfying. We've been reading more modern fiction in the past year or so, and have read some wonderful stories, but we are all really enjoying the slow pace and richness of our current read-alouds. A started doing an online book group that is a bit of a stretch for her, but so far she is keeping up. The books they'll cover this year include some great literature, old (Jane Austin, Charles Dickens) and new (Chaim Potok, Theodore Taylor). One routine we've mostly maintained and that we all really love is a bedtime poem. It is the perfect way to end a day.

D.I.Y.

2008-08-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

We have this stroller that still works perfectly well but that we don't need anymore since our kids are past the stroller stage. And, I've been wanting a bike trailer for grocery shopping. You can see where this is going. The maiden voyage:

Heaven knows, I'm not picky about how things look, but I think we'll have to work on this one a bit before I take it out on the open road. Don't worry mom, we're not going to pull kids in this!

A Miracle Occurred...

2008-08-03T17:17:00.001-07:00

We actually managed to do a craft today. Glue guns and all.

Seriously Beautiful Houses + Modern Farming

2008-07-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

Check out these amazing houses.

Oh, and this slide show, too.

Darn, I just noticed that the last several books I've added to my list of grown-up books aren't on there. I must be forgetting to click on "Add to List" or "Save." And now I can't remember the titles and authors!

Free to Good Home

2008-07-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

This sweet kitty showed up at my neighbor's house crying and crying for someone to let her in. We finally let her in, and she has not so much as sniffed at the open door since we did. She has no desire to go anywhere. She is a funny kitty. We took her to the vet and found out that she is about 7 months old and in good health but with no chip and hasn't been spayed. She was the mellowest cat I have ever seen going to the vet. She walked right into the carrier and just sat and looked out the door the whole time. She fought hard when the vet gave her shots and looked in her ears and stuff, but until then she was completely unfazed by the whose experience.

Something seemed a little off about her, but we couldn't put our finger on it at first. She was healthy, yet she seemed unusually mellow for a 7-month old. Also, she would get scared and cry when there weren't any people around, but she didn't really want to be petted. She was smart enough to figure out where the food and litter box where and to catch on to the cat treat routine, but would cry and cry when she was out in the little room where we keep the cat food and couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of there. Well, if turns out that she is deaf. I clapped loudly a few feet away from her and she didn't flinch.

I've been checking Craigslist and looking at posters on telephone poles to see if anyone is looking for her, but if no one turns up I think we're going to try to find a home for her, since our other cat is totally freaked out about having another cat in the house. So, let me know if you're interested in taking a very sweet, deaf cat. She'll be hard to say goodbye to, though, I'm getting pretty attached...

Learning Styles

2008-07-21T22:10:00.001-07:00

I've been working on this teaching module at work, and its got me thinking about how people learn things. A's piano teacher once said that when she is learning something new, she has to see the big picture, and how the specific piece she is working on fits in, before she can take in the information.

I'm the opposite. I'll take some basic outline of the big picture, but I really learn by taking random pieces and working with them until I start to see how they fit together. If someone gives me the whole pictures, all neatly laid out, I can't really take it in. The process of struggling with the pieces and figuring out for myself how they fit together seems to be central to the acquisition of the information. Otherwise, it just doesn't stick. I've been wondering lately if this is because I don't have a great memory, but I have good analytic skills. I can't remember information if someone just tells it to me strait out, but if I have to spend some time trying to figure it out, then I have a much better chance of remembering the details that I pick up along the way.

I'm trying to watch my kids and see if I can figure out if that are parts-to-whole people (like me) or whole-to-parts people (like A's piano teacher). I can't really tell. At this point in their lives, it seems like they are more into basic physical skills and facts acquisition, without a lot of actively trying to figure out abstract things. They have much better memories than I do (fortunately), and I think are generally more balanced than I am in the way their brains work. I'm great at some things and really awful at some things, but they seem to be more consistent across cognitive skills. I have a very even temperament, but a rather uneven brain, now that I think about it.

I love to identify dimensions along which people differ, and I guess most people are probably somewhere in the middle on this dimension, just like others, so I shouldn't rush to try to categorize people at one end or the other. But, it is worth keeping my eyes open to how my kids learn, so we can figure out what works best for them. It is useful to have some insight into how you learn.

It's Too Darn Hot

2008-07-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

Check it out--a bicycle made out of zome, courtesy of A:

We're playing hooky from park day today because, in the words of Ann Miller, it's too darn hot! We had to do some running around this morning and everyone was very droopy and red-faced by the time we got home. We had actually planned on skipping park day to do a drop-in back handspring clinic at our gymnastics gym, but, again, it's too darn hot for that. We were also planning on doing an all-comers track meet tonight at the park where the kids are taking swimming lessons, but our mission to find tennis shoes for the kids failed, and anyway, it's too darn hot. I'd like to try out my fancy new running shoes that I got today, but it's too darn hot. It actually isn't as hot as it could be, but spending the morning in the car with no A/C kind of did us in. And anyway, I'll take any excuse to quote Ann Miller.

The One Who Hears the Flushes

2008-07-11T21:46:00.001-07:00

A: sthva; ;asdljv sdjerkcvpdm cocamv'pfl (i.e., something in a made up language that I cannot reproduce)

M: I know you just peed.

A: dfjkwe cerm d;fej vfoame vcal;m (ditto)

M: Do not lie to the one who hears the flushes!

We had a relaxed, kicking around the neighborhood kind of day today. After we went to the library we walked over to our neighborhood locally-owned barber shop to see if they could cut my and M's hair. The first spot with two simultaneous openings was in 2-1/2 hours, so we just hung around and killed time going out to lunch, going to Tuesday Morning to finally buy a table cloth so I don't have to put sheets over table-like objects when we have people over to eat anymore (yay!), etc. M got his hair cut by an older ex-military man who gave him the "Air Force officer's" cut. Looks snazzy! And it will be so much easier to side-breathe at swimming lessons.

Tomorrow A has her 5th grade testing (we only have to test for grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 here) and she is beside herself with excitement. I guess you get excited about tests like this when you don't have to take them all that often. She did really well on all of her 3rd grade test except for the mechanics of writing (i.e., spelling and grammar), and I won't be surprised if she again comes out low on the mechanics of writing. We've actually been working on grammar and spelling quite a bit, but the sad fact is that I fear she inherited my bad spelling gene. If it wasn't for spellcheck, I'd be in big trouble. In fact, half the time I don't even actually see the difference between my spelling of a word and the version spell check is suggesting, but after I click on "replace" the little dotted red line underneath the word disappears, so apparently some changed has occurred.

Work, work, work, Part II

2008-07-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

I have indeed been working like a dog for the past month or so (hence the lack of blogging), and we've been a touch grumpy around here. But, everyone is happy at the moment and I actually managed to get caught up on all the immediate stuff at work, and in fact can't move forward on most of my projects until others do their pieces. Ah, the luxury! Even more important, today I had one of those days where it was really clear to me that I get a lot out of my job.

I'm in the most fun part of a review, where I'm just learning about the field, figuring out the lay of the land, developing the protocol. Another woman is starting a related review at the same time so we've been working together to try to keep our methods as parallel as possible, for lot of good reasons. Our collaboration has been a great help to both of us. It has saved us both time and undoubtedly smoothed our paths for our reviews because we each brought up issues that hadn't occurred to the other, and that were good think through. This afternoon we had a 2-hour meeting with our boss and some other team members to hammer out the details of our inclusion/exclusion rules and it was fun and stimulating. It is so great to work with this group of smart, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and fun women--the debates were lively and thought-provoking and useful and good-natured. I left work full of energy and feeling productive, competent, and well-respected by people I respect.

So, I may complain about having to work at times and sometimes it feels like I have too much on my plate, but more and more I see that in many ways I truly have the best of both worlds.

Seven years old!

2008-07-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely birthday weekend recently, in which M's current obsessions (science and fancy men's wear) were fully satisfied. Unfortunately I don't yet have a picture of his fancy new velvet vest (thanks, Grandma!), but I'll get one up soon. M is just a happy fellow, blessed with an even temperament. Here's what life is like in M-land...

Park Day, Finally!

2008-06-17T22:17:00.001-07:00

After being rained out for the first two park days, we finally got to kick off our summer homeschool park day. What a lovely day--so many delightful homeschooling parents and kids, and so much fun to see some families we haven't really seen since last summer, and it was also great to meet a couple of new moms. I love how families are getting connected and the network is getting more intertwined all the time. One set of families is doing campfire together with their boys, and another coop has sprung up in the past year. And it was so cool to ride up on our bikes and see several families-worth of bikes lined up against the rail. Life is good when you find yourself surrounded by such great people.

Proud Gymnasts

2008-06-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

We had our last end-of-year event this Saturday, which was the kids' gymnastics show. When I signed them up I was grumbling about how much I had to pay for the trophies, and where we'd put another bit of useless junk in our tiny house that already seems crammed with stuff. The show was incredibly fun--from the tiny 3 to 5-year-olds proudly showing off their forward rolls to the wonderfully strong and skilled bigger kids. The thing that was really surprising, though, was how proud my kids were of their trophies. They carried those things around all day, admiring the way their names were written and how heavy they are, worrying about leaving them in the car when we went into the grocery store, wondering if they should take them over to their cousin's house to show them or if it would be better to bring bring the cousins over to our house to see them. A said "Getting a trophy makes me feel like someone has recognized how good at gymnastics I am." Is that not so sweet? If they go on to do this show every year and get more trophies, no doubt the magic will wear off, but what a memorable day it is, when you get your first trophy.

Robert Dudley, Jr.

2008-06-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

Hair style inspired by the actor playing Robert Dudley's son in the Masterpiece Theater production of Elizabeth I the Virgin Queen.

Great 2-part series. A was glued to it, but M was in and out, more interested in trying out the hairstyles than the actual movie. Not too gory, though the kids did close eyes and plug ears several times when things got dicey.

Work, work, work

2008-06-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

I was offered a chance to do a little moonlighting this summer, for really good pay, and after going back and forth about whether I really wanted to, last Thursday I committed to doing the job. I'm really, really hoping that this is going to be a 2-3 month job, no more than 50-60 hours total, and at the end I'll be able to make a big dent in paying off the loan we got to refinish the bathroom and help pay for our new (used) car. I really hate being in debt, and with the price of groceries and gas and everything else going up, it is a good time for some extra cash to fall in my lap. Nevertheless, I'm moping around and feeling sorry for myself, and it will be hard for me to rest easy until I'm mostly done with the job.

When I was on the phone with the person hiring me I tried hard to sound enthusiastic, but I can't help feeling a little sick to my stomach at the thought of spending more hours at work. All the people involved in the project seem like they will be great to work with, and I don't think the project will be all that difficult, and like I said, I really want to pay down that loan. I'm glad I'm not unemployed, and I'm glad I don't have a job where I normally have to work more than 32 hours in a week. But mostly, I'll be really glad when this extra job is behind me.

Honeymoon

2008-06-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend A made up a schedule of what she thought we ought to be doing for schoolwork. Day 3, we're still in the honeymoon phase. The pleasure of checking off a box makes it all seem fun. The great thing is that A made it up herself, of her own accord. So it is heavily weighted in favor of things she wants to do and that allow her to use her brain to learn in a way that is satisfying for her. She gave herself several language arts assignments each week (work on an essay, freewrite, vocabulary on FreeRice) and geography (on the internet, using our talking globe). She has herself doing more math on the computer than in the Singapore workbook we're working through, but that is totally fine with me. Anyway, I'm delighted that she feels such ownership of her education; this was one of the goals of homeschooling. Also, a new chart is kind of like rearranging the furniture--suddenly everything looks so much more interesting!

Art Museum Excursion

2008-06-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

Since we're downtown most weeks for church now, I bought a membership to the art museum and we've actually managed to get there quite a few times. This morning before church we went on the Portland Art Museum's interactive kid's website and found some great games that are based on some pieces in the Portland Art Museum collection. We made a list of a seven pieces that came up in the online activities and were going to try to find them. I naturally left the list at home, but we remembered that the first pieces on the list were two 19th century American portraits done in contrasting styles so we thought we'd just look for them and the statue of Grant out front and take a quick look at the featured exhibit of works by Klaus Moje. His fused glass pieces were incredibly beautiful and I'm delighted we got to see them. It would have been well worth the trip just to see his stuff. Plus, I splurged and bought a book of 500 glass art pieces that we've been oohing and aahing over.

Despite searching and searching for the two portraits we set out to see and the statue of Grant, we never found them. You'd think they'd have the portraits in the room of early American portraits, eh? Well, they probably do, in the Portland, Maine art museum, which sponsored the website we went to this morning. What is it they say about the best laid plans?

Walking Around and Doing Stuff

2008-06-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

M was going to the bathroom after reading and before toothbrushing tonight. A and I were waiting around in the kitchen discussing the events of the day. Our conversation went on and on, and pretty soon we heard some thumping and rustling from the bathroom that didn't sound like going-to-the-bathroom noises.

"M, are you just about done in there?"

"OK, OK, I'll finish up."

"What are you doing in there anyway?"

"Oh, just walking around and doing stuff."

Walking around and doing stuff? In the 6 square feet open for walking around in our bathroom? Here's the evidence:

Yes, that is a mirror sandwiched between the seat and the lid. Turns out he was hoping someone would pee on it, not noticing it was there. I guess he's not that impressed with our powers of observation...

Jam Session

2008-05-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

I regularly read the wonderful blog of an amazing homeschooling mom with a houseful of musician children. This is the kind of family who goes and plays music for dying members of the community and at nursing homes, among a million other worthy and community-minded activities that leave us looking rather wanting, to be honest. I try not to be jealous, but rather inspired, which I usually am. I do admit, though, that I feel just a twinge of jealousy when I hear of all the amazing music they play. Today, however, I was roused off the couch by the sound of the jam session in my driveway, which has so far lasted for about and hour and a half! I see great things ahead.

Walk Tour of Portland Bridges

2008-05-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today we went on a wonderful guided walking tour of Portland bridges and the area surrounding the river between the Broadway and Morrison bridges. We started at the Max station by Lloyd Center, rode it down to the Rose Quarter, and ended up walking over 4 miles and crossing 4 bridges.

Our tour guide, Peter, was a wealth of great information and stories about the art we saw, Portland history, and the buildings and bridges we saw. It was rather terrifying standing in the middle of the Broadway and Morrison Bridges, but I just kept a death grip on M and tried think of things other than children plunging into the river and whether I should jump after them if they did. (I shouldn’t, since I can barely swim, but I can’t imagine standing there and doing nothing). Fortunately A was happy to keep a respectful distance away from the railing.

We had some really good luck, in addition to the great planning of our tour guide. The weather was actually perfect, overcast and cool--no rain, no wind, and no sun beating down on us. Also, while we were walking along the Eastbank Esplanade, the paddle- wheel steam boat fired up, let out some truly remarkable toots, and headed downriver, where both the Burnside and Steel bridges opened up for it. We also saw a sea lion swimming around in the river. A great time was had by all.

Attitude

2008-05-25T23:11:00.001-07:00

Boy, I really woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I went out for a walk/jog, and only went about 2/3 as far as I usually do, even though it was cool and moist and really quite nice out. When I came back home the kids were full of ideas of things they wanted to do today, and it just felt like a big list of demands. This was purely my own fault, that I felt put upon by these requests. First of all, we do almost always have some activities we three do together on my days off work, so naturally the kids assumed that I was going to do some things with them today. If I want the day off from activities with the kids, I can just say so--no need to act put-upon or resentful.

In any case, I told them to think of what they wanted to do while I took my bath, and we'd figure out a plan for the day when I was out. I laid in the bathtub and felt sorry for myself while they came up with a list full of worthy activities (M: make a crystal, bake something yummy; A: watch a DVD about Queen Elizabeth I, play a bean bag throwing game she likes, do an art project, make a list of places on the map for her to find, and all dance together). I couldn't get interested in any of their ideas, even though I actually checked out the Queen Elizabeth dvd for myself.

In fact, I was tired and grumpy and wouldn't have minded doing any one of those activities normally, but was just feeling buffeted by their "demands", which of course weren't demands at all, just requests. In my head I'm adding all the other things I had to do: make breakfast, clean the kitchen, go grocery shopping, make lunch, clean the kitchen again, make dinner, make sure the kids take baths, make sure A practices, do a little math practice, and I really wanted to go to OMSI to watch the landing of a probe on Mars...). My whole attitude was stupid, though. Of course I couldn't do everything the kids wanted to do and get everything done on my list, so my job was to sort through the to-dos for the day and come up with a plan that would work and that would leave me feeling neither exhausted nor resentful nor neglectful.

It is easy for me to think that I have to do everything, but actually the other members of my household are quite cooperative when it comes to household chores. We actually wrote out a schedule for the day, which made my schedule-loving daughter's heart sing. In the end, the kids each got to do two of the things they wanted to do (M: crystal, making something yummy (Dutch baby for breakfast), A: bean bag game, and the Queen Elizabeth dvd). They also helped by making breakfast, helping with dinner, bringing in and putting away the groceries, and doing the dinner dishes. I got most of the stuff accomplished that I wanted to do, and got to watch the Queen Elizabeth dvd (which I had also wanted to watch, actually) and take a 3-hour nap!

After dinner M took at least and hour to do the dishes, while I relaxed on the couch and tried to read, in between his conversational gambits (covering Dracula (from numerous angles), speculations about whether a really strong metal could disable a metal detector, rabies, speculations about whether someone will someday discover something that goes faster than light, etc. etc.) and A practiced her piano almost the whole time. Talk about diligence. A used to have such a hard time playing with the metronome. In fact, for the first couple of years of piano lessons there was usually absolutely no relationship between the metronome's clicks and the speed of her playing. But tonight she played several pieces perfectly with the metronome, at many different speeds, and switched between clicking on eighths to clicking on quarters. Truly, tremendous progress.

Anyway, today was a good lesson in how my feelings of resentment and being put upon are purely of my own making. I just need to do my job of balancing my needs with those of the household, and I can't get dragged down by thoughts of all the things I'm not doing. I'm doing enough.

Vashon Island

2008-05-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to the beautiful Vashon Island, off Tacoma, WA. We had a fabulous time with four other families from our homeschool group (alas, we were missing 2 families). We stayed at the hostel there, sleeping in teepees and fixing our meals in a kitchen that was in building made of whole logs from the property. We actually had the use of two kitchens, and there was a third building that had a piano in it. The feature that probably got the most use, however, was a huge grassy field--probably 200 yards long and 100 or more wide. A was wishing that Capture the Flag was an Olympic sport because she thought we could put up a credible team (she suggested Zac for captain, by the way, for his calm head and good sense of strategy). At one point they tried wheelbarrow tag, though it didn't last all that long (see above). We spent one afternoon at a beach at low tide that had a tide pool (? I guess it was a tide pool--it looked like a stream but was salty) filled with various types of crabs and little fish and other miscellaneous wildlife. We even found a couple of small razor clams that we got to see live, in action. The kids made a bunch of little pools that they filled with living creatures they collected, along with rocks, shells, driftwood, and seaweed. They probably gathered up at least 50 hermit crabs amongst them all.

It poured rain on the last night, which highlighted the down-side of staying in teepees, but it was actually nice to have something to motivate us to get up and on the road. It is perfect to be able to leave with no regrets that we were going back to our warm, dry house. I'd love to make that trip an annual event, but unfortunately the woman who runs the place is selling it after this summer, and I doubt it will remain the reasonably priced hostel that it is now.

Sunny Skies

2008-05-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

I consider myself someone who is perfectly happy in gray, drizzly weather. And yet, I've been rather grumpy these last couple of weeks, and the grumpiness kind of melted away when the sun came out.

M planned out his agenda for tomorrow and had me write it down for him so he doesn't forget:

1. Run through the sprinklers

2. Bake cookies

3. Lay in front of a fan and listen to a book on tape

4. Make one of the crystals in my crystal kit

5. Go to OMSI

6. Eat the cookies.

If I was setting the kids' agenda, this is just the kind of list I'd want to put together. Sometimes I fret about not doing enough structured schoolwork, sometimes I'm perfectly content doing maybe 3-5 hours worth of structured school work per week, and sometimes it seems like most of the structured work is a waste of time. The thing I repeatedly come back to, though, is that a reasonable amount of structured work is good, and it is good to take breaks from it. When the kids are filling their time with baking, doing science experiments, drawing, writing stories and plays, playing outside, using their bodies and imaginations, living in the physical, natural world or the world of imagination, I'll almost never interrupt them to do schoolwork. But my kids also like to use the analytic/academic parts of their brains, and sometimes they look to me to feed these parts of their brains, and this is when structured school work is just the ticket. Also, there are some particular skills I think it is important to learn (like basic math), so we find a way to fit those things in on a fairly regular basis.

On beautifully summer days like today, after what seems like 10 months of cold and rainy weather, playing with friends, spraying each other with the hose on the trampoline, swinging, watching ants wrestle crumbs along the driveway, and laying around in the shade staring at the trees are exactly the right things to be doing.

A Beautiful Day

2008-05-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yay, I played chamber music (string quartets) today for the first time in about 3 months and it was just glorious. Not that we sounded glorious, exactly, but it was so much fun. And we did have some pretty good moments. Even imperfectly played, the second movement of Dvorak's American gives me chills. My calluses are almost completely gone, and my fingers were the first to give out (cello strings are much bigger than violin strings!) I've got to get practicing again. And, a new violinist sat in for our second violinist who is out of town, and she was wonderful to play with. She is looking for a regular group and is wanting to play piano trios, so I'm going to try to set something up with her, me, and a really wonderful pianist I worked on the Schumann quintet with a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how to squeeze it in, but I've just got find a way. I've improved a lot in the upper registers in the past 5-10 years, and I don't want to lose what I've gained.

My husband and I also played some fiddle-guitar stuff that sounded not too bad, considering I'm a cellist and not a violinist and don't have a very good violin. A little screechy and out of tune on my part, but we had a great time, anyway.

The kids and I cleaned the house like crazy this morning--skipped church to do it. Since we usually have people over every week or so, we manage to clean it about every week, but we haven't had anyone over for several weeks and things were looking pretty bad. This was one of those perfect days when I had time to do all the things that I really wanted to do--played music, worked in the yard, cleaned the house, finished our read-aloud sitting outside in the shade on the trampoline, had a delicious dinner. I guess we didn't get any schoolwork done, but it still felt like a productive and good day.

Something to Add to the Resume

2008-05-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another example of the boundless talent that can be found at our house.

His lips are a little tired by this time of day, but still--don't you just want to scoop him up because he's so darn cute?

Creative Endeavors

2008-04-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, a big burst of creative energy today! I came home to find them deeply immersed in some dramatic scenario involving the usual suspects, Charlie Pie and Smoochy-poo.

Then I came upon a couple of drawings of A's. First one of Mr. B, her beta:

Then one using her favorite canvas...

A wrote another installment in her retelling of the story of how the main Greek gods (Zeus and his siblings) started out, this time from Rhea's point of view. (After discovering that Cronus had been swallowing her children, she wrote: "Whell, you can emagon how mad I was. I stormed away to find my husband. He was lounging in his boodwa! I rushed at him to confrunt him and knoked his boodwa over. I was fuming in my room and trying to think of a way to protect my coming baby when an idea hit me so hard it almost knoked me over." OK, maybe we still need a little work on the spelling) Now A is playing her clarinet and M is drawing dinosaurs. Funny what a little taste of sun will do to a kid.

Idle Parenting

2008-04-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today I embraced idle parenting, to good effect, I believe. The cold and rain was supposed to return this afternoon, but we had a reprieve and so spent the day outdoors. I lied around on the on the porch reading, and the kids did exactly what I'd like them to do every day: built forts, made flower fairies, and searched for bugs. Then the cousins came out to play and they all worked on a play together. A truly good day. Maybe spring really will come to stay some day.

Shrimp Feed

2008-04-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

When we were in Austin one time we went to a seafood place for lunch and the guy at the counter came out and dumped a steaming bowl full of crawfish, shrimp, crab legs, corn-on-the-cob, and red potatoes right on the table. We'd never seen such a thing! It was incredibly delicious and a tradition I could certainly embrace. We wound up with plates tonight for putting butter on corn and for melon, but we still managed to get a pretty authentic Texas moment. But darn, I should have put on some Bob Wills for atmosphere. A great old-time Texas band used to play on Friday nights at our favorite barbeque restaurant and people used to dance Texas-style--even the little kids knew how to two-step. I never want to live in Houston again, but I do get a bit nostalgic about Texas now and then...

Good Luck Day

2008-04-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days when luck was on our side. First, I was late to pick up M from his Sunday school class because I was helping in A's class, and M got scared and thought we had forgotten him and started to cry. Fortunately, his teachers are the parents of a girl in A's class and they knew where I was, and delivered him to me, pale-faced and teary and very relieved to see me.

Second, we bought some clothes for the kids after church and I left the bag of new clothes in the mall food court and didn't discover it until we came home (after a stop at OMSI). I rushed back, with no hope of finding it, to discover that some good soul had turned my bag into the lost-and-found. I'm sure the person who turned it in isn't going to read this blog, but if any of you reading this has ever turned something in to lost and found, let me thank you on behalf of everyone who has even benefitted from such kindness!! It was a huge relief to discover that I hadn't just throw the money away that I spent on those clothes.

Finally, A tried out a new cake recipe for a vanilla cake with chocolate cream cheese icing (thanks for tip, Mariko!) and despite substituting just about every ingredient in some way except for the eggs and cream cheese, it turned out really delicious. As we were eating the cake before bed tonight, A noted that this was one of those days when everything turned out OK, even when you though it wasn't going to.

Trip to Seattle

2008-04-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to Seattle. The night before, as I was trying to figure out what we were going to eat and do for 8 hours on the train, I was wondering why I thought this was such a great idea. But, it turned out to be so much fun, I'd do it again in a minute. A big part of the fun was having two traincarloads of homeschooling friends along with us, of course! We didn't actually know everyone, but we knew about 1/4 to 1/3 to start out and quite a few more by the time we were home.

Here is a picture of my husband when he was 6 years old. Oops, I mean, here is a picture of 6-year-old M!

We went to the EMP with Auntie S and cousin M, and ran into some friends on the way to the catch the bus back to the train station. This is the back of the EMP building, if it can be considered to have a back. It was a really amazing building, and it was so much fun to play the instruments they had set up on the third floor. It would have been cool to have other instruments to try besides the ones in rock bands, like strings and brass and wind instruments, though I can see that these would be a lot harder to do, logistically and hygienically.

Having fun with friends on the way up. It was a long ride, but it was amazing how little whining and fighting I heard. A little between siblings, but that was it. It was funny to walk from the other train cars, where it was almost silent, into the noise and chaos of our cars. But it was a happy and manageable chaos.

Homeschooling in Portland

2008-04-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Someone who is thinking of moving here asked about homeschooling in Portland, so I thought I'd share my perspective, limited as it is to the part of town we live in, for the most part, and focused on activities that interest my particular kids.

From what I can tell the homeschooling community is thriving in Portland. There are so many resources and classes and park days that it is really hard to limit your schedule to something that is manageable. I think it can take some time, though, to build a good social network, which has truly been the most important resource of all to us.

For out-of-towners, Portland is divided by a river, and people often tend to look for activities on their side of the river, and there are some (very non-universal) differences between people who wind up on the west side versus those who tend to wind up on the east side. Although this is a gross generalization and many people don't fit this mold, alternative and non-main-stream and sometimes less affluent people often seem to wind up on the east side of town, especially in the urban neighborhoods closer in. The west side has more traditional suburban family-oriented neighborhoods that have less of an "edge," for lack of a better word. East side families are probably more likely to be politically liberal and less structured in their approach to schooling, while west-siders may have a higher proportion of conservative and religiously-based homeschoolers. The homeschooling moms I've met have been pretty universally really wonderful people, whether conservative Christian or unschooling Pagans, so no judgement are meant by these generalizations! My impression is also that the west-side moms may be a bit better organized than the east-side moms, as evidenced by some very long-standing and well-attended events (like Cook Park park day) and a wonderful homeschooling resource center, Village Home. However, more and more organized activities are occuring in and around east Portland, and Village Home is looking for an east-side location and hopes to open up classes in inner-east Portland next fall.

Beyond Village Home, the offerings are rather amazing: classes of all kinds at many community centers around town, fencing, swim team, archery, aikido, OMSI science classes, ice skating, roller skating, rock-climbing, girl scouts, campfire, and much more all have day-time classes/times especially for homeschoolers. Also, one-time or periodic field trips are often arranged, like train trips to Seattle and a tour of the Tall Ships. People frequently post information on smaller classes or events they are offering, such as cooking classes, scrapbooking, dragonology, hikes, and game days. Last summer there were at least four different homeschool park days in different parts of town. One of these routinely had 40-60 people show up, as I understand it, and the one I attend probably had 25-40 people every week last summer.

All that said, I think it can take some time to find your way to the families that will be your main social support system. It is tricky to find a family where the moms hit it off, the kids hit it off, you live in reasonable proximity to each other, and your schedules mesh well. It also appears to me that there isn't an overabundance of teenaged homeschoolers, at least on the east side. Our local homeschooling organization has begun sponsoring several dances each year, and by all acounts these are really fun, so hopefully that will help teenagers find like-minded friends.

Anyway, others feel free to correct or add to my impressions. I think it would be entirely possible to find like-minded homeschoolers in whatever area you wound up living in Portland, and it would be extremely easy to fill up your week with activities. And most of all, I've just found so many really, really nice people among Portland homeschoolers. I just wish I had more time to invest in more of these friendships!

Sibling Moment

2008-04-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

With great outrage: "Even when I clearly expressed my displeasure by shoving him out of the room, he continued to do the Bottom Dance!" A, expressing the joys of having a younger brother.

Outdoor Adventure (a.k.a. Let's See Where This Trail Goes)

2008-04-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

We had our first outdoor adventure of the season today, the first of many this spring and summer, I hope. And I have to say we kicked things off in classic Mom O (that's me) style. We usually do something fun after church, and since it was so beautiful I talked M into choosing nice outdoor spot by the Sandy River where we can climb around on rocks, and this is right by an old caboose you can play on, for double the fun. (We take turns choosing what to do, and it was M's turn to choose).

So we headed out of town--the long way because I forgot about the freeway entrance that is just 2 blocks from the church, and instead drove through downtown and across the river and made my way to another freeway entrance. Then I took what I though to be the right exit, but whoops, this wasn't right, it must have been the last exit. Oh, well, we'll just find a nice hike somewhere along this road, since I know we'll eventually come to an area that has a bunch of hiking trails. Boy, at this point I'm really wishing we had some water and a snack, if we're actually going to go on a hike instead of just playing by the river at the end of a little town. Oh, and it would be nice if we had better shoes for hiking in.

Oh well, I'm sure we'll find something good. We pass one hiking spot and it is packed with cars. No way, let's find something less crowded. Ah ha! A wide spot in the road and a little trial! No other cars, so we have the place to ourselves! I pull over and we all pile out and head up the trail. It only goes about 10 feet.

OK, pile back in and drive on. A remembers a trail around here that their dad took them on last year and we decide we'll try to find it. Success! We see a sign that says Horsetail Falls Trail, and it is only 0.8 miles. Great! We find a parking place, pile back out, decide we're not thirsty yet, so we can handle this short little hike. At least it will be wet at the end (where A remembers being able to go behind the waterfall), so we'll be able to cool down, if not get a drink. A doesn't remember the parking area looking like this, but maybe we're coming at it from the other side? Anyway, not to be deterred, I urge on the team. About 20 feet in to the hike M decides to do a tricky little gymnastics move and tumbles over the side of the trail, but manages to grab a branch before falling all the way down to the road (which fortunately wasn't all that far). That's OK, a small mishap early on can be a good thing if it keeps you out of trouble later.

We climb up and up and up, then things level out a bit and it is lovely being in the beautiful woods. Boy, it sure seems like we've gone more than 0.8 miles. Finally, we hear the roar of water, and come around a corner to a spectacular sight of a stream rushing between two mountains of rock. A little bridge crosses over the stream about 20 feet above the water, with deadly drop-offs leading up to the bridge on both sides! We kind of inch our way onto the bridge, bravely march across, and inch our way up the other side until we get back into zigzagging up another hill. We regroup a bit up there. Well, M is thirsty and has to go to the bathroom in a way that isn't so easy to do outdoors, but he can wait a while. A is hot and tired, but really, really wants to be able to walk behind that waterfall. So we press on since the trail has gotten easier, and we just know we must be close.

Needless to say, we never did find the waterfall you could walk behind. Maybe it was 0.8 miles to the start of the trail that will take you to Horsetail Falls? We turned around after we'd been walking for about an hour, mostly uphill (with no water and bad shoes). I can't tell you how often our outings turn out this way. I like to think I have a great sense of adventure and know how to be flexible when Plan A doesn't work out. In fact, I just take the wrong exit more often that I care to admit, and then the thought of backtracking to get to the original destination seems like a drag, and surely there is plenty of good to be had off this exit, too, right? Thank heavens my kids indulge me these adventures, and we almost always have a good time. And, the kids have another funny story to tell their kids about how Grandma used to lead them on these crazy adventures, even confident that she was going the right way... (or anyway, that this way will be just as good)

R.I.P.

2008-04-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

We'll miss this sweet little fella.

Forget about Pancakes

2008-04-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Why have I been slaving away over pancakes for all these years!? Pour, pour, pour, flip, flip, flip, add oil, pour, pour, pour, flip, flip, flip, splatter oil all over the place, pour, pour, pour, flip too soon and get a gooey middle. Contrast with waffles--pour, put down the top, relax and do you nails for a couple of minutes, ta-da! Perfect little beauties, with heart shapes, no less!

Rock Stars and Hair Models

2008-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

The kids spent the afternoon taking pictures of each other as they jumped off of a chair. Whew, watch out Harvard! Here are a couple of favorite shots:

Channeling Rod Stewert

You know, the weird thing about this picture is that it wouldn't let me edit out the red eye. The resolution here isn't as good as I have on iPhoto, but let me assure you that this is a seriously freaky picture. Notice the buttoning job on the suit coat.

Mom, Get the Hair!

A was frustrated with M because he couldn't get a good shot of her hair flying up after about 50 tries, so her legs were pretty worn out at this point, but I kind of got the hair...

Nineteen Everlovin' Years

2008-04-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my and my husband's 19th anniversary. Yes, we did get married on April Fools Day on purpose, in case you were wondering. D just saw me typing away on the computer and asked if I was writing him a love letter. I'll give it a whirl.

Our 19 years have definitely had ups and downs, but as much as we get exasperated with each other at times, our connection is so strong. We have really different brains--I'm linear, logical, even-tempered, conflict-averse, optimistic, and rather dull. You are none of those things. You are observant, expressive, creative, cynical, and funny. I'm none of those things.

I love watching us at an art museum. In each room I start to the left of the door and work my way around the room piece-by-piece, and tend to like the ones that have pretty colors in them. You go in some totally random order, as for as I can tell, and have very strong opinions about what you're looking at that don't seem to have much of anything to do with whether there are pretty colors involved. I love watching us on bike rides. I pedal along at a steady pace, watching for traffic above all. You speed ahead, then lag behind, looking everywhere BUT at the road and the traffic.

We've found a lot of common ground, too, however. We totally understand each other's basic values, some core personality traits, and of course our feelings towards our kids. And where we differ, we've given each other some insight into how the other half thinks and feels. I think it's fair to say that I've learned to value of creating and expressing, and you've learned to value of critical thinking. Kinda sorta, anyway? And in the end, I'm sure there is no better partner for me. I know that I need independence and I appreciate that you've allowed this, even when you've wanted more connection. I know that I also need a partner who challenges me, and life with you has never been boring. I may complain at times, but in truth, it is what I need. I love the fact that I can still be totally surprised by your reaction to books and movies and events in the news. Without you, my life would be out-of-balance, colorless, and lifeless.

How's that for a logical, even-tempered, and rather dull love letter? Anyway, I really, really do love ya!

On-line Writing Course, Assignment #1

2008-04-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

I'm doing an on-line writing course with A, and yesterday we did the first official exercise for the class. It is designed to illustrate how difficult it is to communicate clearly, and to point out that communication is the goal of writing. We drew simple pictures that we then described to the other person so they could draw what we described. On the first try you see all the things you failed to describe accurately, and then you try again. This was fun, and we came to some useful conclusions (like, it really helps if you give the person an overview of what you're going to describe in detail first), and it showed me something about what is different in the way A and I view the world.

The picture that I drew was just randomly arranged geometric shapes and straight lines--no picture, no story. For both of A's drawings, she arranged geometric shapes into a picture, first a flower and then a frog. I'm not sure exactly what this illustrates, but I see that I'm a "just the facts, ma'am" kind of person--no adornments, little imagination, lots of linear thinking. A is much more tuned into stories and people. For me, writing is about conveying some specific information as clearly as I can. For her, it is about telling a story and bringing characters to life. This is very cool, and I hope I can help her nurture this impulse of hers. The class we're taking isn't focused on fiction, but nonfiction writing is so much more interesting when the writer has a story to tell and is really interested in showing you what the people are like. And, when I think about the non-fiction A has shown an interest in, it has been in writing about real people who have fascinated her, like Louis the XIV and Eleanor of Aquitaine. So I think she'll be perfectly happy to work in the relm of non-fiction.

The other good thing about this class is that the instructor has urged us to make writing our top priority for the next 6 weeks. This will be great--something different is always welcome, and A has been asking and asking to do more writing. So far so good.

Music for the Soul

2008-03-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

A is getting to where she can play chords on the piano to go with fiddle tunes! If they print the chords, and the chords don't change super fast, she can come up with a piano part while I play the tunes on either violin (fun but not so beautiful) or cello (sounds way better, but just not a fiddle). And M can keep a good beat with his drum.

My chamber music playing has really dropped off, to about once every month or two, and on the one hand I really miss it, but I also kind of don't. I don't miss the time it takes out of my week, that is. When I'm playing, I wish I could do it every day, but then when it comes to actually scheduling something, I seem to put if off. I keep telling myself that when the kids get older and I have lots of time, I'm going to devote myself to playing chamber music. In the meantime, there is so much fun to be had with fiddle tunes and folk songs and just simple fun stuff.

So this is my latest resolution--to pull out all our different instruments and try to get my husband and kids to play with me. It is just so much fun. We've got a lot of instruments sitting around this house, we need to put them to more use!