Foreign language study

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.