It was a good day.

We just finished up our fifth week of school, and yet it feels as though about 5 minutes have passed. I am going to document the details of yesterday, because in my brain, that will help me to stop time.

8:55-9:30--Drove Helena to her ballet class. We switched teachers this year, and it's twice as far away. However, this teacher is a mom from school who happens to be a former professional ballerina, AND all of the girls in the class are friends from school.

9:30-10:30--Helena danced, Harper worked on Latin, Hudson read Prince Caspian, and I did a little writing. I have this 5 year diary that I bought on my birthday last year, and I have mostly kept up with it.

10:30-12:30--We ran a couple of errands on the way home. I rarely go to Target anymore, and was reminded why. I was sore annoyed not being able to find things. We also ran into Joann's so Harper could get a birthday present for her friend Susannah, and some new knitting needles.

1-2:30--We ate lunch and the kids watched "Aladdin" (they'd never seen it before. I now have "A Whole New World" stuck in my head). I rested a little, and folded laundry.

2:20-4:00--Hudson's science assignment for this week was building molecules out of candy. We used Starbursts for atoms and toothpicks for bonds. It was sticky and fun. I looked up the chemical formula for TNT, and that was Hudson's piece de resistance.
Then he ate the dynamite.

Helena also made TNT,

 

and Harper made some less explosive molecules.

4-5:30--The Daddy got home, and Harper had to do HER science experiment. She had to test resting heart rate versus elevated heart rate on 3 different people, of 3 different ages, at 3 different intervals. She, Helena, and I went outside and rested and jogged in place, and rested and jogged in place, and rested and jogged in place. Helena's heart beats really fast. Mine and Harper's were almost the same.

5:30-6--Makeshift dinner. Cheese, crackers, and some apples with cookie butter. The Husband had already eaten right when he got home (he skipped lunch. COMMON OCCURENCE) and the kids all seemed indifferent and not really hungry (also COMMON OCCURENCE) Helena disappeared upstairs for an hour, and when she came down, she announced that it was time for me to go and do MY schoolwork.

6:15-7:15--She had been busy! I had to complete an entire hand-written math sheet, (in problem 1, she had spelled Lucy 'Loosy'--I fixed it, and immediately regretted not leaving it), copy a dictated spelling list, and do a Writing With Ease dictation based on a story she made up entitled Bob and His Dog. While it lacked narrative structure and any significant character development, Bob did have a high level of excitement and also silliness. I should also note, that Hobbes the parakeet was sitting on my shoulder, then my head, and also my glasses (not my favorite perching place) while I was trying to be an attentive student. A few weeks ago, we adopted 3 green parakeets from some friends. More on that in another post.

 7:30-8:15--The kids got showered and pajama-ed, and we all gathered on the couch to watch the first few minutes of the "MacGyver" reboot. Only the first few minutes because, disappointingly,  it is clearly not the fairly wholesome "MacGyver" of yore. So we went upstairs and read instead.  We finally finished Swallows and Amazons last week, and just started At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald.

It was a good day.

75, 80

My parents both had big birthdays in August. They are exceptional, and we are so thankful for their continued years with us. This lovely lady is generous, gracious, patient, and she perpetually thinks the very best of us:

This sprightly gentleman celebrated the beginning of a new decade. He's kind, steady, never fails to jog ahead to open doors for ladies, and is quick to laughter:

 

 And many more, you two!!

Back to School 2016

The summer crept and flew and just like that, we are back to routines that require Latin instead of swimming. The husband, with the help of IKEA, got our school space fighting trim. Harper got a loft bed with a desk under it, where, as was my Great Hope, she is managing to get most of her schoolwork done independently. She is back in ancient Greece, Helena is with the Angles and Saxons and Beowulf, and Hudson is revolting with the Dutch, so my brain is struggling to keep all of that straight. I just got a book yesterday that is going to help me homeschool from rest, so I am all set. Let's take a quick trip down memory lane. Here is our first year, two years ago:




Then last year:

This year, we took pictures the day before, and I did not require socks or shoes or hair tidying. It's the teeth and the legs that show the change:

 

Colorado 2016: the rock climbing

Before we got married, the husband was an avid rock climber. Then law school and three babies in 4 years and the rest of life happened. When we were planning this trip, he decided the time was nigh to get the kids shackled into harnesses and dangling from a single carbiner from the side of a mountain. So the gear (so, so much gear) was gathered and the rocks were climbed. I was having a little bit of altitude sickness this day, so, much to his disappointment, I did not participate. Instead, I reclined in the hammock, read, watched the girls fish (Harper's longing for a fish on her hook is yet unfulfilled) and took pictures.

Note: while I was deciding which pictures to post, I forgot I was also making rice for dinner. I kept smelling something, and kept blaming it on the dog, who was sitting behind me in my chair. While it is true that she sometimes emits Odours Unsavoury, she hasn't really ever smelled like burned-to-a-black-crisp rice. My brain finally made the actual connection, I ran to the kitchen, grabbed the pot from the stove, and put it out on the patio, where it likely continued to burn because it was 104 degrees outside. Then I came back in and noticed all three kids were sitting on the couch. "Did no one SMELL that?" I asked. "Well," said Harper, "I DID smell something, but I knew you were making dinner and just thought that was how it was supposed to smell." My cooking skills continue to be the stuff of culinary legend, obviously.

Colorado 2016: The Beginning

A few months back, I decided we needed to do something about the fact that my kids had never been to the mountains.  There are slightly closer places to make this happen, but we decided to drive the TWO THOUSAND miles round-trip to Estes Park. We left at 4:30 am and got to Colorado Springs about 16 hours later. Then our hotel had overbooked, as we and around a dozen other people discovered together there in the lobby of the Comfort Inn. This was a low point. The husband did some maneuvering, and he managed to get our money back, but we still had no place to sleep. We started frantically calling other hotels in Colorado Springs, but they were all full. Until finally, while we are sitting in the parking lot of this sketchy Ramada Inn (despair was setting in), this magnificent kid named Aaron at the Garden of the Gods Resort calls back to tell us he's had a last minute no-show. We drove up at around 10pm, looking like a bunch of hillbillies, then God in His mercy let us wake up and walk out onto our patio to this this incredible view of Garden of the Gods:

Within about 10 minutes we had spotted several new birds for the Life List (magpies! spotted towhees! a western scrub-jay!) plus baby bunnies were running around everywhere being extremely adorable (especially appropriate because we had listened to Watership Down in the car on the way!) Then it turned out that Aaron had also thrown in free breakfast, and I believe it was the best one I have ever eaten. It was all mighty FINE. This was the first time the kids had ever stayed in an actual hotel, and we had to adjust their expectations that it was not always going to be this glorious.

We met up with my parents (who hadn't made it quite as far the previous day) at Garden of the Gods for a leisurely hike, then got back in the car (this was difficult) to continue on to Estes Park.

Coming up: hiking! fishing! rock climbing! bird-watching! so much gear!

Summer 2016: Audio books and read alouds

We have arrived to the phase of summer in which the day starts with conversations like this:

Harper: Hudson! WHY did you take the binoculars off of my black bird?

Hudson (and me, in my head): WHAT?

Harper: My little black bird was wearing tiny binoculars and someone removed them! I already asked Helena and she said she didn't do it! WHY did YOU do it?

Hudson: (loudly. yellingly)  I DON'T know WHAT you are TALKING about. Stop ACCUSING me!

Harper: WELL! SOMEONE did it. You don't have to get so mad. (she now bursts into a little ditty they made up that goes: "Let's be happy and positive!" It is sung in a very grating tone and never ceases to make the situation much more fraught.)

Here's a list of something more pleasant to listen to:

1. The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh, read by Barbara Caruso (this one is short and made a good companion to Indian Captive, which Harper was reading for her book club)

2. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, read by Christina Moore (this book is thematically intense and I would have had a really hard time reading it aloud without Much Weeping, but the narrator really nails the dispassionate almost stoic tone of the narrator, which somehow keeps things from getting so maudlin.)

3. Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo by Brian Jacques (These audios are more like radio theatre, and the author is the narrator. He has a STRONG Liverpudlian accent, which is delightful, but takes getting used to)

I am still reading Swallows and Amazons aloud, but usually just a chapter a night. The kids like it but aren't really begging for another chapter when I am finished. Hudson and I have been taking turns reading Frightful's Journey by Jean Craighead George. I feel like the quality is not as high as the first two in the series, but it is still enjoyable. As much as I love birds, I am finding that sometimes advocates for birds (I am totally pointing at you, Audubon Society) get a little pedantic and strident with their platform. There is some stereotyping that makes me a little uneasy.

Now, I bring you a quick pictorial summary of the past few weeks. Hudson had basketball camp, got a high fever, missed two days, but made it back in fine form.

 The kids made a few short films with Harper's camera. I believe here they are reviewing scenes from a masterpiece titled "Thugs on the Street." Note Helena's thug attire/Hudson's actual church clothes.

 I had to get a new lens because my old one broke. Lots of practice shots. Helena is usually the only willing subject.

 There have been hours and hours of drawing. These are a few of Hudson's creations. The theme is decidedly WEAPONS.

 

 Their faces have not yet gotten stuck this way. Not from lack of effort though.