A Day Late and a Dollar Short

My plans to write each Sunday fell through this week.  I've been in a bit of the dumps, so I'll blame my lack of enthusiasm on that.  None-the-less, one must persevere.  I'll channel a little Countess of Grantham and do just that.  Have I mentioned that the girls and I have become Downton Abbey watchers?  How can I resist a historical fiction with multiple loveable/hateable characters?  Wouldn't I love to dress that they did then, even if I did have to wear the same thing over and over.  And I do so love it that my girls love to watch it.  We won't let them stay up late on Sundays to watch it, so we have been watching it on the computer on Monday evenings.  While Gwyn likes Lady Mary best, and we all feel bad for Lady Edith, and we all cried for Lady Sybil, I think my favorite characters are Violet for her spunk and Cora for her general niceness and level head.  For all it's worth, Matthew is too whiney for me.

 It finally snowed here.  Not that much actually.  I think we got and inch or two.  Not quite the blanket we're used to, but enough to play in.  We went over to the apartment playground and the girls sledded.  I don't think this hill is meant to be sledded on, but it was the nearest thing we had.  I just had to stand in a certain spot and make sure the girls came down to my right so they wouldn't hit the playground barrier, the sidewalk, or a huge boulder.  They had a blast though.  They also discovered yet another "house" in the "woods".  Next to the apartment buildings are patches of trees with vines and bushes.  The particular vines that grow here make excellent places to play house or fairies or forts.  So that's generally what they do when we go behind our apartment or over to the playground.  The snow made it extra ethereal.  We found bird tracks.  We also discovered what I'm assuming were rabbit tracks in the snow.  I haven't seen any rabbits here, so maybe it is something else.  But the girls had fun trying to track the animal by it's tracks back to it's hole.  I'm not sure what Lyla found, but she insisted that she did not find it's hole, but did find it's den.  Her attention wasn't captivated quite enough to take the time to show me what she meant by this though.  The snowy hill was calling.  

We keep on keeping on with school.  It has gotten more fun as Lyla is learning to read and showing interest in writing on her own.  I don't know if the writing wall supplies helped, but she has been making letters for us all for a few weeks now.  It's often hard to read what she has written, but she is sounding things out and spelling them the way they sound to her and I think that is SO COOL!  I love it! So here's the test - Can you decipher what she wrote is her dream for the world?  She's also "getting" some of the counting games and activities that have her adding, without calling it adding.  Gotta love that sneaky learning.














The girls got to do some neat-o DaVinci projects this past week too.  Jason had taught them about DaVinci before, but I found this kit where they got to build parachutes and an ornithopter and look at sketches of DaVinci's other inventions. Then today we wrapped it all up by looking again at a few of his most famous painting and putting them in a mini-book.  Now we're on to Michelangelo.

So this past week has been good in retrospect even if it felt like a turd in the moment.  I finally cooked a pineapple cheesecake with a flour crust and fresh pineapple glaze that I liked. We played, learned,and dressed the cat. (I think that's a little harmless payback for putting up with a cat in heat in an apartment)  It's Mardi Gras, the Superbowl is this weekend, and Sunday is also Candlemas, so this coming week looks to be full with possibilities.

Happy MLK Day!

What's been going on this week?  Well, a lot of normal, some not, and that's normal too.  I'm still getting those portfolios together.  (It probably sounds like I'm doing it constantly, but it's more like in bursts every few days I do a little)  I did get some photos printed to add to them to show some things we do that isn't pencil and paper.  Like for instance our history lesson this week partially included making our own scrolls.  So we dipped strips of paper in tea to make them look old and after they dried we were going to write on them and roll them up.  I say "were" because we started reading about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks instead and the we all agreed to hold off on the actual scroll making until Tuesday.  That's one of the cool things I love about homeschooling.  My planning has to be flexible and I have to be ready to pursue things that the girls are interested in.  It's not that they didn't want to learn about and make scrolls, but at the moment they were more interested in Civil Rights History - which is cool with me.

 Friday we spent the day at the Maryland Science Center.  Gwyn and Celee got to do a program about possible life in our solar system.  The museum has a suspended sphere that they project 360 images on, so the girls got to learn about each of the planets and two of Jupiter's moons that have ice on them.  It was very interesting.  After that, we were free to explore the museum.  The girls really enjoyed their dinosaur exhibit and activities.  I thought it was neat because there were several hands-on things to do and most of the exhibits were on things found in Maryland.  The girls also got to examine dinosaur skin patterns and footprints.  They also "discovered" dinosaur bones and tried to identify which bones they were.  Gwyn got to lay on a bed of nails.  The other favorites at the museum were the IMAX theater and the exploding balloon demonstration.  The IMAX movie we saw was about polar bears, specifically mother polar bears and the added challenges that melting ice packs brings to them and other Arctic life.  It was really good and the girls weren't scared.  They were disturbed that the ice is melting and that ends up hurting animals, and that male polar bears try to eat baby polar bears when they can't find seals.  But the film did a good job of not sugar-coating anything, but also not showing the gory stuff.  The demonstration we got to see was on the Hindenburg disaster.  The demonstrator told everyone how the hydrogen inside the zeppelin and the oxygen outside exploded when a heat source allowed them to combine.  Then she exploded a hydrogen-filled balloon to demonstrate this.  It was pretty cool.

We've been playing a lot of board games lately.  I think the games we got for Christmas reminded us how much fun it is to play lots of different games.  Lyla's favorite is Guess Who.  Gwyn is surprisingly interested in Settlers of Catan.  Jason of course likes Dominion.  Celee in general is a spectator in these games.  She prefers to watch and chat while we all play.  She does enjoy the occasional Connect Four Launchers though.  I guess I would still love to play Trivial Pursuit, but no one in this family shares my love for that game.  I particularly enjoy the 80s version, as I possess a wide variety of useless knowledge about 80s politics and world events.  Maybe we should invest in a newer version of cards....
Saturday the girls and I rode the train downtown to see the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade.  It was really fun!  The girls and I really enjoyed all the dance troops and drum lines.  Oh how I miss band!   Why can't a middle-aged white lady play in a marching band?!  Apparently there are my age and older ladies who dance in dance troupes here.  I truly am envious.  Alas, I will have to live vicariously through my girls who all are determined to either dance, play, or cheer in parades one day.  That's fine by me - I had my day in the sun of various Decatur Christmas and Homecoming Parades.

My other project this week has been trying to create a writing/art center for the girls.  I had a over-the-door shoe holder thing that worked great for pencils, markers, pens, tape, stamps, etc.  I could not find a similar thing that would hold sheets of paper though.  And I'm frugal (cheap) so I was not going to order one online.  This worked out well though because I made one.  And I didn't have to buy anything.  I had the fabric, thread, cardboard, and grommets already.  So now the supplies are right there to hopefully prompt some creative juices to flow.  The added bonus is that I don't have to dig through boxes if they ask me for these things, they can get them themselves.   My homemade paper holder/rack isn't the best.  I tend to eye-ball things like this and not really measure anything.  But it works and it's green so it makes me happy.

On a more serious note - A man on the train Saturday got me thinking.  He got on singing very loudly about Jesus and how we can all cheer for the Orioles and the Ravens but we ought to cheer just as fervently for the Lord.  A couple of people were annoyed and left the car we were on.  I found myself embarrassed - I hope this was more at his volume on a train and not in the words he was saying.  I also found myself not wanting to be embarrassed but rather wanting to be a good example for the girls, who I could tell were also embarassed.  I kept thinking, "What am I embarrassed of?  I believe everything this man is saying (singing)!"  Then after we got off the train, Celee asked me if I thought it made God happy that the man was praising Him on the train.  I told her that I couldn't think of any reason why someone praising God wouldn't make Him happy.  So why was I ashamed?  I certainly don't want to be ashamed of Jesus or the sacrifice He made for me.  I don't want there to be a disconnect between what I say I believe and what I act like I believe.  On that train with other people around, they knew that man was a Christian.  And while I don't think we are all led to sing loudly on public transportation, I wonder if people would know I am a Christian as well.  This all carried over into today when during our church's service we sang a song while everyone was seated.  This always bothers me for some reason, but especially when in my head/heart I feel like I should be standing with my arms held high. (Especially when the song happens to have words about standing, dancing, or holding hand high)  But I stay seated unless enough brave people around me stand first.  Why does that fear of what other people think stay my hands!?  In the church of all places!  It's not as if I go to churches where standing and lifting up hands is even abnormal behavior.  I could see it perhaps disturbing other people's worship if I was at a traditional or very conservative church, but I don't have those excuses to fall back on.  It's just my own cowardice.  It's like during these seemingly inconsequential happenings I hear God asking me, "How much do you really want to worship me?"  And I silently answer, "Not that much.  Not enough to draw attention to me.  Not enough for anyone to think I'm weird."  So that's where I am this week.  Confessing and submitting my cowardice to God.  Hoping that He will take it and make something useful out of it.  And hoping, as Beth Moore once said, that I can learn whatever lesson He's trying to teach me on paper and prayer and not through trial.  So thank you Man On The Train, for prompting me to think hard on the kind of worship I can give and what kind of witness I can be.

New Year 2013

 This year started off  aptly for us with a road trip.  We spent our New Year's Eve in Charlotte NC, which is a little more than half-way between Miss. and Maryland.  The girls were happy with this though because they got to swim in a very warm pool and hot tub.  We also stayed up late watching Return of the Jedi before the Ball dropped.  I think this was the first year my girls stayed up for that.  And now we live in the right time zone for it, so we don't have to watch it drop and then wait an hour to celebrate. Anyway, our 1st day of 2013 we put the final 460 miles on the van and made it home.  All in all, the girls and I put a grand total of 3100 miles on the van on our trip.  I'd say that's a pretty good road trip.

We've been getting back to normal since New Year's.  We've all enjoyed listening to the random records I have on my record player I got for Christmas.  It's become a ritual almost to listen to music on it during meals, and the girls like to listen to the classical records while they do school work.  The favorites so far are the My Fair Lady soundtrack and Handel's Water Music.
We've tried to get outside as much as possible.  It has been chilly, but we missed the snow.  We did go on a walk down the NCR trail and the girls found frozen snow along the sides in the shade.  They thought it was great fun to try to scrape the snow up.  For some reason they didn't believe me that it would be a bad idea to get your hands wet when it is so cold outside, so we had to go home after a short while.  We've also been exploring the "woods" behind our apartment.  Deer often come right behind our balcony - we've counted 7 at a time before.  So we followed the deer path.  Along the way we found 3 more fox holes, a discarded deer antler, 2 golf balls for Lyla to treasure, giant vines to swing on, and an ivy entrance to "fairy land."

In other news, Jason and I, and now Gwyn as well, have gotten in to playing Dominion.  This is a card game with actions, attacks, buys, treasure, etc.  It's pretty fun and I'm excited that Gwyn likes to play with us!

Celee lost another tooth.  Gwyn is working on one.  My girls all got their teeth late, and I guess they are going to loose them late.  Maybe they'll still have them when they're 80!










I've been busy trying to get the girls homeschool portfolios together.  I have our first review on the 30th and while I keep being told it's not that bad, I'm still nervous.  There's always that fear that someone is not going think that my kids are getting what they should, much less the more than they would in school that I strive for.  I also found out that they are going to look at the whole semester, not just from Nov. 15th when I officially came under the school district's jurisdiction.  So prior to that I wasn't keeping up with everything like physical education and every little art thing we do.  So I'm just praying for some understanding from the reviewer to consider the regulations of Illinois while we were there (none) and the craziness of moving in their judgement of our homeschool.
   The weather was so very nice here on Saturday that we decided it could not be wasted.  We went to try out the hiking at Gunpowder Falls State Park in Hereford.  I had read that one particular trail was good for children, so we took off on the 4.2 mile hike along with Tinkerbell.  It was awesome!  Everything is so beautiful here, even in winter.  We hiked up and down rocky hills, saw moss covered trees and rocks, traversed streams and tree bridges, sketched cool bark, trees, and fungi, found salamanders and other fresh water fauna, climbed "mountains" (rocks), saw evidence of beavers on the trees and stumps, and took in the beauty of the river.  We all got dirty and loved it!  I didn't want to carry Tinkerbell across some of the streams, so she ended up swimming a good bit.  The girls kept remarking that they didn't know she could swim!  The girls were real troopers too.  Lyla got really tired around the last 1/2 mile, but she made it the whole way on her own two feet.  (probably because Jason and I were too tired to tote her!)  I think it helped that we didn't really investigate the trail more than a perfunctory glance at a map before we left, so the entire time we had no idea how far from the car we were.  This was for the best because in retrospect, when we thought we were pretty close to the car on the way back in, we really had 2 more miles to go!  Tired as we all were, everyone agreed it was an awesome time and we all want to go back.... with rain or hiking boots this time.  And to top it all off we home, watched the Ravens beat the Broncos (something I never thought we'd care about) and had oreo pie. Can't beat that day!

A friend asked me if there were any words that God had put on my heart for this year.  There is actually.  And He started putting them on my heart before I knew that there was a "Word for 2013" challenge out there.  As I contemplated what I wanted to do this year, or do differently, or more, or less, I keep thinking of  Submission and Intentionality.  Not submission in some archaic "do whatever your man tells you too" type way.  More like submit my ugly to God.  Give Him my selfishness, vanity, expectations, but also my desires, hopes, prayers.  I want to own up to and submit these things and then allow God to give me peace with it.  I also feel like in the blur of this past Fall, I let the tide of busy-ness carry me along too much.  I want my thoughts, actions, and time spent to be intentional.  I want to have margin in my day to respond to the immediate, whether that be chatting with a friend, playing a game with my daughter, having a long (hopefully fun and silly) conversation with Jason, or responding to a need or witness opportunity.  A speaker today at church commented that you can't always prepare for the opportunities that arise for you to talk about your faith or God or just life, but a discipline of reading and studying God's Word can help prepare your heart for such occasions.  I want to intentionally read the Bible so that I may be of more use to God, so that His Words will be on my heart and lips.  I know I am amazed at what comes out of my mouth at times (not in a good way) and I would love for God's words to come out more than the crazy mess that could splurt out.  So I want to be very intentional in the way that I guide my daughters' education, for them to have the freedom and confidence to be creative and pursue things that interest them.  I even rearranged our writing supplies tonight to be more available and conducive to creative expression.  I am realizing that a smaller space is no excuse for bad planning.  We are here and I can do more to create a home space that is comfortable and energizing.  So that's as close to resolutions as I'm getting this year.  I did join a gym here that is awesome, so that'll do for the usual "resolution-y" type thing.