Park Day, Finally!

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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...