Beautiful Dancers

I'm currently uploading the recital videos to You Tube because they are too large to post here.  Tomorrow I will have links for you, so in the meantime, enjoy these beautiful girls!

Homeschool Field Day

One of the cool things about homeschooling out here where we do is our homeschool group.  We are completely unincorporated and that is what makes us great.  There are no rules, no board meetings, no requirements, no specified homeschool methods...just people who homeschool that want to do things together.  If someone wants to organize a game of frisbee golf or a field trip to the fish hatchery, it gets done and people show up.  One of the best things we do every year (except last year) is Field Day.  This year, our local parks department helped us out!

It was so great to see all the kids that turned out!  There were plenty of friends we've known the whole time we've lived here and a bunch of new friends too!

 These two have known each other since before they were born :D

The kids played a game where they stood in a circle and moved a hula hoop around without unlinking hands...

 They had to run through a field with their eyes closed and NOT kick one of the balls!  Two of my children walked.

 Potato sack race!  And a tug o war, but a don't have a picture of that.  There weren't prizes or ribbons given out; the kids just played to have fun.  That is my kind of field day!

Lula loved the bubble juice...she kept trying to eat it!  That was my clue that it was time to pull out our picnic lunch.

We were there for four hours!  Of course, we had a marathon day and were on the go for twelve hours yesterday (whew).  The kids and I are exhausted from all the fun we had yesterday!

Jack Attack

Jack got this cute little bandage at the vet yesterday.  They needed to reopen his wounds and really clean them out because raccoon spit is a very nasty thing.  What surprised me was that the vet packed Jack's wounds with raw honey instead of antibiotic ointment.  He said the ointments no longer work against the germs and that raw honey is the best antibiotic available!  Of course I've heard that in my crunchy circle, but I never expected a non-naturopath medical professional to actually use raw honey instead of Neosporin!

Jack had to stay inside resting for most of the day, which was really hard for him.  He likes to spend his days patrolling the property and laying in the sun.  We had to take him out on the leash and watch him closely to make sure he didn't chew his bandage off.  By bedtime, we knew we had to just remove the bandage instead of waiting until this morning.  Now he is back to patrolling and making sure the coyotes that woke us up at 4:00 AM aren't around anymore. 

The vet bill has put a damper on our already-tight summer budget, but we would rather have a healthy dog than a septic dog... we'll just eat beans and rice for a few weeks!

Edited to add: Okay, so, the dogs have been driving me crazy all day.  They keep barking at things and I have to go outside and yell at them to stop.  I thought it was because the coyotes were so noisy early this morning and because of the raccoon.  When our dogs experience crazy adventures, they tend to be super-sensitive to things out and about.  Especially when there are coyotes.  And let me tell you, those things were so freakin' crazy this morning we had to shut the windows and yell at the dogs.  Still they kept coming back to our room to whine. 

Finally, Mark got up to take Jack out.  He put Jack on a leash just in case he decided to take off running.  We really can't afford another vet bill this year!  Jack immediately headed down to the pond and pulled Mark right off his feet!  Mark brought him back in the house...and we've spent the rest of the day listening to barking dogs (here and next door) and calling them home.

Imagine my surprise just now when Ian ran in the house, out of breath and excited, saying, "If I told you what I just saw, you wouldn't believe me!"  While he was down at the pond looking for baby ducks, he looked across the water and saw a coyote eating a deer carcass!!!

I guess we now know what the coyotes were so excited about and why the dogs have been so crazy today.  And now that the raccoon AND the deer are gone, we only have to worry about the coyotes.

Raccoon Adventures

I've mentioned in previous posts that the raccoon has been hitting us hard and regularly.  But it won't anymore!  Mark was ready for it last night.

He woke up around 2:00 AM when he heard the raccoon knock something off the shelf right outside our window.  Our cats sleep on the very top shelf and we often feed them up there so the dogs don't get their food.  Mark knew the cats wouldn't knock things down in the middle of the night; they aren't that clumsy.  So he was up and out the door before I could really figure out was going on.  I woke up and headed for the bathroom (ah, pregnancy), where I heard the commotion outside.

Ling Ling

The raccoon was face-to-face with Ling Ling, the world's best cat.  It was trying to get to the cats' food!  The dogs scared the raccoon down a shelf level, but it got right back up when it saw Jack's Jaws of Terror!  This is when Mark called me through the window to bring him The Judge.  It was time for the raccoon to be tried by fire.

"Hey, come on in.  The door's open!"

Mark had me call the dogs back inside.  My Pathetic Doberman, who really isn't that pathetic, is a good listener and very obedient.  Although there was a strange creature invading her territory and threatening her pet, she came straight to me.  Her job is to be my constant companion and protect me over protecting our property and possessions.  Jack's primary job is to protect the property and Mark.  We didn't give them these jobs, they just do them.  So, when I called Jack the Pirate, he looked at me, looked at Mark (who was focused on the raccoon's position), and decided if Mark was ignoring me, he could ignore me too.  Jack dashed off into the dark, following the raccoon's initial trail.

"Were you going somewhere? You'll need an escort."

I went back inside to close the windows.  We didn't want to spook any kids with the noise.  The first shot fired and the raccoon was hit, right in the face.  Instead of dropping dead, it jumped off the shelf and started running.  The next few seconds were terrifying for me because all I could hear was Mark yelling, "No! No! No! Jack, Nooo!" snarling, a loud cry, another shot, and silence..... and then Mark calling for me for help.

The raccoon was dead, but Jack was bit.  It wasn't a bad bite, but he did bleed a bit.  We cleaned him up with hydrogen peroxide and Jack behaved like a good little boy the whole time.  He is mostly up-to-date on his vaccinations, but Mark and Ian took him in to see the vet this morning, just in case.  Mark feels terrible that Jack wouldn't come in and got injured.  But we are so super thankful he was able to hold the raccoon so Mark could get the second shot that brought it down. 

I brought the girls out to see the body this morning after Mark left.  They acted appropriately for little girls that love their dog.  Sweet concern for Jack, bitter hatred and feelings of revenge toward the raccoon--and its family.  That Fiona is a funny girl.  Having an injured pet is one of those memories that never leaves, so I wanted to make sure the girls understood what pests and disease risks raccoons are.  I'm sure the girls will never feed cat food to the cute urban raccoons on their porches when they grow up! 

So, that is what we did last night!  There's always an adventure around here...

Summer Vacation Begins

Summer vacation is in full swing here.  The kids are getting even lazier than they were before and my house is getting messier and messier.  I was at the grocery store and the shelf-stocker was getting rid of these awesome boxes.  I asked him if I could have them and the lids, my kids would love playing in them!  He looked at Lula and Daniel and then back to me and said with a frown, "You gonna put your kids in the box? And put the lid on?"  Oh yes! They would love it!  Oh, haha, not THESE kids, my older kids!

The Idiot Box, complete with Shane (see his eye?)

I have set up a points system where the three older kids can earn up to 16 points for their jobs and attitudes every day.  If they earn a minimum of 12 points per day for 85% of the days I count, then they can have a camp out with a bonfire in the pasture with their friends.  My goal with the points is to develop good habits-like putting their shoes away when we get home and hanging up their towels- and also train them to change certain responses they have to certain sibling stimuli.  The unexpected result of this has been getting to sit down with each kid individually in the evening and talk about their day, how they spent it, and how they felt about it!  So far each kid is barely making minimum... one of these days they will realize that they actually have to put their laundry away and do some academics to earn all their points!

Daniel's dam-na slug (or banana slug)...

Meanwhile, when I'm not trying to soothe my teething baby, I'm thinking about SCHOOL.  And our options for next year.  The state went into the second special session, so we still don't know if we are able to be part of the parent partnership program.  They did inform us that services and lessons will no longer be covered.  This means that our PE classes are not covered, just when we were really starting to love going to the YMCA!  I told my coordinator that I was leaving the program; I wasn't going to do all that lesson plan writing and reporting for just a few workbooks.  She responded (with a little winky emoticon) that I had $1500 worth of "workbooks" (aka materials) ordered for next year and was I sure I wanted to quit?  *sigh* No.  I'll wait... especially since I have closer to $2000 worth of materials ordered and that is just our first semester!  (It's mostly books-good reading books-not workbooks-and science kits-and animation software...)

...and his "carrot" slug (makes sense to call it a carrot slug, right?)

But in the meantime I'm asking myself, "Would I order all that stuff if I was homeschooling on my own? Or am I just buying it cause I can? Would Ian be better off at the middle school next year? Will he be ready for AP classes when he gets to high school?  Should I only report on four classes per kid and drop science for a year and focus more on language arts (which is an important questions because we are supposed to spend equal time on each class, even when one class is a heavier work load than the others)?  And should I start re-writing my classes and purchase orders because I've changed my mind about how we are going to do things next year?"  Time to start working on possible scenarios, complete with curriculum choices and budgets.  My favorite part of homeschooling!

Poor Man's Popsicle

And then there is poor Mark.  He is losing his battle against nature.  He tells me he can hear his dad laughing at him and saying, "I TOLD YOU SO!"  We've lost two layers, two guinea, and had a close loss of another layer, just in the last eight days.  Mark has been really good about getting the turkeys closed up at night, but the one night he forgot to also close the chickens...the raccoon struck!  Mark is so ready to just camp outside with his shotgun.

Why yes, that is a new fence around the raised bed!

Deer have always been a problem out here.  Grandad loved to watch them "proink" around the pasture, but he didn't have precious fruit trees to worry about.  Or tender young tomato starts.  Well, he did once upon a time, but he gave up and let nature take its course.  The day we transplanted our tomato and pepper starts to the raised bed, the deer ate the tops off each plant.  Then Mark installed an invisible fence made out of fishing line.  We heard somewhere that deer don't like fishing line because the run into it and can't see it so it spooks them and they leave.  He flagged the middle strand so people and dogs could see where it was.  The bottom strand was high enough for Jack to run under, but not for Mina.  She learned pretty quick where she could get in and out of the orchard...but so did the deer!  They just followed the line until they came to an opening and they gobbled up our pear pollinator!  So Mark closed all the gaps.  Then we saw them walk right up to the line and jump right over!  And they got through the invisible fence and ate every single veggie start (and came up to the porch to eat our others)!  So, back to fencing we go.

Invisible fence around the orchard

Why a deer would want to walk all the way to our house, jump over fences, risk being chased by dogs, and nibble our trees and plants when there is a huge forest full of tasty wild green things is beyond us.

Summer is wearing me out.  I'm ready for school to start again.

Teething: What a Pain!

Lula cut an upper tooth about a week ago.  Now she is working on the other one.  One little corner of the tooth just popped through, so just a few more days of fussing!  We can make it, we can make it...

Don't take my picture.

Finger chewing (I can't chew on Mama's anymore)

Don't take my picture!

I said, don't take my picture!

DON'T take my PICTURE!

"DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!!"

Ahhhh...frozen yogurt!

Much better!

 (for now!)

Going Wild

I really need a vacation.  Summer vacation.  I am so totally on summer vacation.  There is a part of me that is so excited to put together some unit studies to do over the summer, just to keep the kids from spiraling out of control...

"DOG PILE!"

...but there is another, bigger part of me that just wants to take two weeks off and do nothing but hang laundry to dry in the sun.  So I'll just call the next two weeks an unschooling experiment.  We will see how much interest-driven learning they get done.

Shane's snake-he made a "nature video" about it

We took an afternoon and went swimming down at the pond.  While there, the kids on paddle boards saw a large accumulation of rough-skinned newts.  "Look, those two are mating!" we heard.  Mark and I can't help it.  When our kids point out mating animals, we snicker.

The New Pet (ew)

Shane and Evie have "rescued" tent caterpillars from drowning in the pond (why???) and put them in jars.  They have been very good at making sure the caterpillars have fresh leaves.  Evie's is starting to make a cocoon!  Daniel was very cute when he shouted, "I want to see the ra-coo-coon!"  Raccoons are on our mind lately!

This bird crashed into the window and needed a minute to catch its breath.

We lost a layer last Saturday night and then a guinea a few days later.  The raccoon is getting inside the chicken coop at night and just pulling the birds off the roost.  I'm surprised it got a guinea; those things are HARD to catch and they never sleep!  We've been closing up the hens and the turkeys every night now, but yesterday Evie accidentally let all the chickens out of their yard...  and one naughty hen decided to roost in the carport.  The raccoon grabbed it, right off the shelf!  The shelf is right outside our bedroom window, which was open, so Mark and I heard the commotion and the hen was saved!  The creepy thing was I had just visited the bathroom and heard the raccoon on the shelf moving around when I turned the light on.  I thought to myself, "That sure is a noisy cat! They usually aren't that clumsy!"  The raccoon sat on the shelf, completely unafraid of us or the dogs.  Mark wanted to shoot it, but there was no way he could without shooting the house, the windows, or the cars.  He scared it off with the BB gun instead.

"When life gives you lemons...share them with Lula!"

Lula cut a top tooth two days ago and now she is working on the other one.  She has spent the last four days fussy, fussy, fussy!  I give her a dose of painkiller before bed because I am really liking the whole sleeping all night thing.  She is also walking all over the place!  She will crawl if she has to, but she prefers to walk.  She can even dance while standing! The only way to make her happy when she is cutting teeth is to take her outside.  She loves to watch the chickens and play with my clothespins.

The girls' recital is coming up quickly and I have to figure out how to make their hair pretty!  I put rag curls in again and they were cute.  But once Fiona pulled out her curly pony tails and ran around in her bathing suit, she looked a lot like Hermione Granger:

Which is an improvement...I used to think she looked like Jack Black when she was a baby!

So, the kids are running wild and we are really enjoying ourselves.  The weather is cooperative.  It's a good time to just snuggle up and enjoy my children again *smile*