I'm not sure why I'm sharing this.

Me: I just finished drying my hair and I'm hot. Ugh.
Him: You are hot.
Me: I'm not hot, I'm a crone.
Him: You're my hot crone.
Me: Criminy.

I know. But that's how we roll.

things of beauty

Dos has always been a Hot Wheels kid. I find the "tracks" he makes things of beauty. He works quietly and diligently then races his cars through. You may not be able to tell who is winning, but he never forgets.

an outing

A science-y outing with a homeschool group. Very cool facility. All about habitats. (Pardon the occasional blur. Lighting was tricky.)

I must speak to this.

So some tailwinds blew my way today, unexpectedly.

Uno worked hard yesterday to help his brother earn money for a Skylander character. Today, Uno worked hard (and Dos helped) to earn money for his own Skylander. He scrubbed pots and pans, loaded the dishwasher, spent an hour weeding the lawn, vacuumed the whole first level AND THE STAIRS, helped switch, sort, fold, and deliver laundry, and hauled in the trash and recycling bins. (And did all his school work.)

We loaded up in the van and headed to Wal-Mart where just yesterday he saw the very character he wanted. And of course it was not there tonight.

So we checked another store.

And another store.

And another store.

We called another store.

And another store.

There were tears, but this kid is so unbelievably gracious.

"Thanks for driving me all around," he said multiple times (a couple of times through the tears).

He decided to go to one more store (despite a phone call that yielded another "no") and choose a different character. Such a good sport, good grief.

We walked in. Dos spotted the display. Right in front sat the holy grail of Skylander characters that Uno had his heart set on. (Cynder, for those interested.) The only one we could find in the store.

HALLELUJAH.

Then? Just a few minutes ago at 1:00 a.m. our time? I got a reservation for our summer vacation. I was afraid there was no way I could get us in, but I did. The reservation lady said over 12,000 people called the first day registration was available last year, and that didn't count online attempts. But the lady also told me to stay up and reserve online the very second registration opened, so I did. And I got it.

The place I went as a kid. In the mountains.

A minute after my reservation went through, the website was flooded and a "please keep trying" message appeared. Our confirmation e-mail is safe in our inbox. (I keep checking because I kind of still can't believe it.)

Praise the Lord for tailwinds today.

things

I'm tired. Weary. Sad. Of certain things.

I'm a small yet quietly persistent salmon wagging her way up the river.

I need a tailwind. I WANT a tailwind. A. Big. Big. Tailwind.

Sometimes I think the tailwind doesn't come because deep down I just don't believe it will.

I remember a quote: This ain't heaven, you ain't God, don't be a jerk. I keep coming back to This ain't heaven.

I should probably go to bed now. A wise salmon rests when she's weary.

Pluh.

Oh yes she did.

I walked around in my back yard and took pictures. Again. I know! Such news!

some time outside

Long Erratic Midweek Wrap-Up

Hey, it's not even a Friday, but I a) remembered about this wrap-up concept, and b) have the time and desire to do it RIGHT NOW. On Wednesday! Yes I do.

Sooo well it's been awhile. Basically this:

Until last week (the 27th - 2nd), we did our regular, same-old core/L.A./math schedule.

Yet.

We were wearing thin. On Monday morning, the 27th, I could tell the boys had hit a wall, and I had to admit I had too. So SPRING BREAK!

-Monday: an already-scheduled free recital at the local junior college. Violinist/pianist (local professional artists). Lovely! Except Dos wore his athletic swishy pants and let me say they are not the best attire for concert attendance. Every squirmy move of his was swishified.

-Tuesday: "The Secret World of Arrietty!" Bonus - the only noontime showing was a fork & screen affair, so I shelled out a ridiculous amount of money for lunch too, but it was FUN. Spring Break, right?

-Wednesday: hangin' out

-Thursday: regular homeschool enrichment day class (10:00a - 3:00p). After, we attempted to take Luna (our puppy) for a walk around a nearby lake. It was so windy that we turned back after 7.23 minutes of walking. We learned, however, that a very low center of gravity is preferable in a highly windy situation. Luna demonstrated this with panache.

-Friday: Poor Dos woke up and barfed. I was thankful that we had no big plans for the day. He felt much better Saturday.

Also peppered throughout the week were their P.E. and Strings classes at our neighborhood school (where they attended through 1st and 3rd grades). In all, it was wonderful to just relax and be.

Currently:

This week ended up rolling in an unexpected manner.

Monday: Ready to resume our regular programming, I was met with two children moaning for "Chemistry! We want to do chemistry! Waaaah!" Seriously. Major whining (for chemistry?), so I thought to myself, "Okay!" I have a chemistry curriculum for kids but I quickly realized that it was too much for Dos. I ordered a more appropriate book for him, which should arrive soon. Meanwhile, Uno and I have had fun discussing the periodic table of elements, atomic numbers, atomic weight, etc. This kid fascinates me. He'll work math problems incorrectly because he fails to notice operations signs and can hardly remember what 6x3 is (sometimes), but he'll nonchalantly grasp things like atomic weight and how to figure the number of neutrons in an atom. As if this is just no big deal.

Anyhoo:

Enough with daily reportings. This week Uno and I have worked on chemistry, and both boys have worked on math, including these two fantastic sites. We've kept up our history/geography and read-alouds that include "The Lewis and Clark Expedition" by Neuberger, and "The Story of Eli Whitney" by Jean Lee Latham. I've laid off the language arts for this week because

(drumroll)

while I love Sonlight for their history/social studies/geography/lit cores, I do not love their language arts program. It's not bad! I just want something more efficient and to the point. (I must interject: they have recently changed the program, so I can't speak for what will be available in April.) After exhausting myself with research, I sprang for the Institute for Excellence in Writing program. Good grief it's pricey (thank you, tax refund), but I think it's what I've been looking for: a solid program that a) teaches me how to teach structure & style, and b) teaches the boys how to write. Long story short, I want to watch the dvd seminars before I jump in. Mashed up with vocabulary lessons, grammar lessons, and spelling, we're covered. (That sounds like a dreadful amount of work, but it's not. We keep things effective but sane.)

And I need to do some math planning.

Now I'm tired of writing. You're probably tired of reading.

On that note, have a great week/end!

confession or something

Okay, so here's my problem. I utterly want to run screaming when my thoughts alight on the concept of dinner. Now you may think, "Oh, honey, everyone feels that way," and I understand. I do. But I actually run screaming. I rarely fix dinner. Sometimes hubby fixes it (he's a great cook but doesn't have lots of time on his hands), and sometimes I do, but that mostly involves heating up a frozen pizza/chicken nugget/etc., slicing some fruit, and plopping baby carrots and ranch dressing (laden with soybean oil - egads!) on a plate. Every time.

I can already hear the voices advising me to cook ahead! and make friends with my crock pot! Etc.! But seriously, there's like a force field around the stoval area and I can't do it. I've tried and tried and tried and it never sticks. It never even takes.

Oddly, I have no problem fixing breakfast or lunch. No problem. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, whatever = dandy. Basic kid lunch fare and home-made chicken salad (or leftovers) for me = just fine.

It's dinner. Breakfast and lunch are simple. Dinner (with all its social, nutritional, familial facets) seems freakishly and prohibitively complicated to me.

Maybe someday I'll figure it out. In the meantime, I just had to get that out.

(I am aware that therapy may be in order here.)

I seem to have had

an unusually good run of things followed by mysterious doldrums. I suppose this is the pattern of things. Sometimes we decide to rest without our permission.

I am finding this odd lack of sailing winds very curious. I think I'm finally old enough to understand the wisdom of just going with it rather than trying to understand or do anything about it. I'll just get out my oars and row. The sailing winds will return sooner or later.

(See? Reading what I thought looked to be an incredible bore, I gathered some wonderful sailing information that I can turn into metaphor and use for guidance.)

epic

Inconsistent Weekly Wrap-Up

Hello, people (if any of you are still out there).

Two things:
1) Lots of homeschooling moms do a nice, tidy, weekly wrap-up of what they learned for the week.
2) I find myself wanting to chat about what we've done, but I'm sure no one really wants to sit and listen to me ramble on about it.

So.

I now understand the motivation behind the weekly wrap-up, and vow to participate, however inconsistently. There is a good chance that I'll forget about this completely from time to time, then remember again and return with enthusiasm. Fair warning, I guess.

Here I go. (I am so excited to jabber about what we did, and if you don't want to read, you don't have to! Win-win!)

We are completing what I call "Science Week" today. We do "core" work for four weeks, then spend one week focusing on science and other fun stuff.

This year we're using Real-Science-4-Kids Biology text, and we finished the book this week by discussing ecosystems, a.k.a. "the big picture." We read about and discussed the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, etc.), the air cycle (plants and people swap gases), and the food web. Being a "big picture" gal by nature, I love these sorts of topics because there's so much to tie together.

We borrowed four dvds from the library, all of which I recommend: All About Forest Ecosystems, All About Deserts and Grasslands, All About Water Ecosystems, and Bill Nye the Science Guy: Food Web.

Next up is art. While the boys have a weekly group art lesson with a bona fide art teacher, I (having a deep love of art myself) insist on talking about it at home, too. This week we cracked open our copy of 13 Artists Children Should Know, by Angela Wenzel. The title is a bit presumptuous (and there are a couple of glaring typos - ugh!), but the innards are valuable. It contains a general overview of the lives of 13 important artists, including color reproductions of their famous pieces. It's great as an introduction, and it's fun to place the artists into the history we've studied. Each kid chooses an artist each day, and we read/discuss. Now we need a trip to the art museum for an art hunt... (Previously, we have made our way through 13 Buildings Children Should Know, by Annette Roeder.)

I adore words as well, obviously, so this week we've been reviewing some simple word roots and learning a few new ones. This is a great set, if you're interested: English from the Roots Up, set of 100 Latin and Greek Root Word Cards. It sounds a little hoity-toity, but it's really not. I want the boys to understand that sometimes words are like codes to be cracked. They have a history, and when we learn about that history, it helps us understand our modern English language better. We studied roots like photos, biblios, phone, bios, pyro, duo, tele, aqua, etc. Pretty basic - lots of kids could probably guess the meanings anyway. After we review the roots, we play around and think of words to decipher. Okay.

Aaand, er, we finished up our read-aloud, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham. Fabulous. A historical fiction novel about a navigation expert doesn't sound highly appealing, but this book delivers. The boys and I loved it as much as we loved Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes. If you are interested in sharing early American history with your kids via read-alouds, these are wonderful resources. Both were awarded Newberry Medals. Next on our list is Justin Morgan Had a Horse, by Marguerite Henry and Wesley Dennis. Looking forward to it. Sonlight's book list rarely disappoints. (Click on the "Included Items" tab for the list.)

The boys finished their independent readers, The Cabin Faced West, by Jean Fritz, and Om-Kas-Toe, by Kenneth Thomasma. All of their readers are related to the early American history we're studying this year.

We continued with math, mostly reviewing what we'd learned the last four weeks. We use Singapore Math, and I also throw in Sylvan Super Math Success books. The Sylvan books have colorful, fun math activity applications for the topics we're studying. (Dos, in particular, enjoys a good math activity any day.)

On my wish list: The Institute for Excellence in Writing's "Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVD Seminar." I've ordered the $10 overview dvd and hope I like it as much as I think I will. If I do, I'll order the whole enchilada. (Come on tax refund!)

That's all for now, folks. Have a great weekend!

more shape and texture

It was sunny and warm for a bit so we headed to the park. A huge pile of discarded Christmas trees caught my attention, and I was delighted by the many shades of green. (some artificial, of course)