My Kids

 Sugar and Spice and All that is Nice

Slug, snails, and puppy dog tails

The End is Near

We are creeping up on the end of the school year!  A few days ago I felt discouraged, now I feel that last boost of energy that helps us finish strong!

Can you guess who got treated for fleas?

We have finished science (easy) and history (just today).  Shane and Evie are finished with math, but Ian has one more week and one more test.  I quit enforcing language arts workbooks right about the time I left my teacher's guide out in the rain (whoops), but the kids do have to read every day.  This is easier for some (Ian) than others (Shane).  Ian can read anywhere, any time, any noise level.  Shane figured out he needs to close himself in the quietest corner of the house to concentrate.

Daniel's first non-spider picture: Me and him.

Our catch-all electives class is easy to close out, but we are definitely keeping our YMCA membership through the summer.  Now that Mark has discovered both Taekwondo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he is hooked.  Yesterday we packed up the B-dub-V (big white van) and the whole family spent some time working out, taking PE classes, and swimming!

The boys that clean their bones (RIP Roosty)

And just as soon as we have completed our school goals for the year, I start to feel the panic of reality...if my kids don't have schoolwork, they become unproductive and start decaying into chaos.  Quick! Time for a summer school plan!  Each kid will have to do math, reading, a physical activity, and study a subject of choice every day this summer.

Mark on the ten acres

As for schooling next year, we still don't know what the future holds.  The special session ends in one week, so hopefully we will know then what direction we will take.

Lula falling asleep on a walk

It won't be the end of the world if we lose our funding...just the end of another chapter in our homeschool story!

Ape Caves

Let me start this post by saying, I never want to visit the Ape Caves.  I wouldn't mind going and visiting the site, but actually going under ground into these tight spaces with my children might send me into a state of panic I could never recover from.  This was Ian's first Boy Scout camping trip where parents weren't required.  Mark would never turn down a chance for a mountain adventure and brought Shane along as his buddy.  They came home a day early so I am really looking forward to Ian getting home today.

It's a good thing Mark went too, because how could Ian possibly survive if he can't even tie his boot properly?

This was the tent that Ian shared with his friend.  How the two of them fit inside that tiny tent with all their gear is a mystery.  I know they had a great time talking late into the night the first night. 

There are two caves: the upper cave and the lower cave.  Only first class and above could explore the upper cave, so Ian was restricted to the lower.  Since Mark and Shane weren't part of the troop, they could do either (they did both).  Ian did have a bit of a problem with the fact that his younger brother could go where he couldn't, but Mark reminded him that he was there as a Boy Scout and he needed to follow the Scout Master's instructions.

The picture above shows Ian crawling out of the inner sanctum of the lower cave.  You have to crawl through this tiny space to get in and out.  Mark wasn't able to fit wearing his backpack, so he left it behind and picked it up on his way back out.  Our boys had cheap headlamps, but this is a place where you want to have a good headlamp.  You don't want to have to take it off and shake it to get it to turn back on.  And you definitely don't want it to go out. 

The picture above is Shane standing under the sky light in the upper cave.  There were signs posted that the upper cave was not for small children.  Shane kept asking if he was considered a small child, but Mark reassured him that if certain older scouts he knew could make it through the upper cave, Shane would have no problem.  He later told me that he wouldn't take Evie, so Shane is on the lower end of Mark's confidence scale.

The view looking up through the ceiling.  This is the only point in the hike through the tube where there is natural light.  Mark said if your light goes out in the upper cave, you would be in serious trouble.

 Mark and Shane under the sky light.

The pictures above and below show the exit of a lava tube on the Two Forests trail.  The link will take you to more information about the formation of the lava tubes.  I think coming here would make a really cool geology field trip!

From what I gleaned off the trip itinerary, the boys are heading to the visitor's center at Mt. St. Helens today before they come home.  I hope the clouds burn off for them.

The Zoo at the Zoo

Mark is awesome.  When he puts his mind to a task, it gets done.  This morning, he got up early, butchered seven chickens, and took us to the zoo. 

But the zoo was a zoo!  The worst days to go to the zoo are 1) the first sunny day after several rainy days 2) any day in Spring because of school field trips 3) right after a new display is installed and 4) Fridays.  The worst time to get to the zoo is right when they open because that is when the school buses get there.  All four of the worst case scenario criteria were met along with the opening time.  The parking lot was FULL and the zoo was expecting 2300 school students, plus all the people in their cars!  What were we thinking? We almost left, but since it was the last day of our membership, we persevered and went in.

 Why was it so crazy?  The new exhibit!  A touch pool full of sting rays!

The zoo staff were actually pretty organized and moved the crowd through the stingray exhibit quickly.

Lucky for us, we went to the zoo a few weeks ago and the novelty of the animals wasn't too extreme.  We went through the exhibits and were excited when the polar bears were play fighting with each other!

This is Fiona eating a Zoo-rito.  Instead of making sandwiches, I packed a jar of peanut butter, a bag of whole wheat tortillas, and a bunch of bananas.  When we were ready to eat, I slapped them together while sitting on a bench.  Tortillas are better than bread because they don't squish.  Peanut butter has staying power.  Bananas have potassium for muscles!  You just can't go wrong there!

Daniel was not a fan of the crowd and noise.  In the polar bear exhibit, he melted down and refused to get off the floor.  He did this without screaming or making any other noises though.  He just looked like the polar ice caps under the hole in the ozone layer.  After he got in the stroller he felt better.

This monkey looked so sad.  So wistful.  Like he wanted to be anywhere except where Shane could talk to him.

Daniel felt the same way.

Last time we went to the zoo, these guys were outside.  This time they were sitting on the window sill, looking at the trees outside the zoo.  *Sigh* Poor guys.

The clouded leopard always looks so much more wild than the tigers do.  It was a good day to see both!

We got to the elephants just in time for a talk from a zoo employee.  We learned that these elephants are older than Mark! Mark just had a birthday two days ago, but the elephants are a year older than he is!

Now Mark is on his way to Mount St. Helens to go camping with the boys this weekend.  And he did it all on just coffee.  I'm impressed!  

Daisies and Bumblebees

 Goofy Boys!

 Go lay down!

 Life really can't get any better...

 Do these really have to fly so low?

 Lost in the tall grass (some grass is now taller than me!)

Finding all the different kinds of bugs on the daisies was really fun :)

Why Shane Can't Borrow My Camera

He takes pictures of the computer screen while he watches National Geographic.

 

Evie can't borrow my camera either.  I caught her video taping Gilligan's Island last night.  Sigh.

Meat

It's that time of year again...

...the eagle has been flying over the chicken yard every day, sometimes more than once, trying to get an order of chicken nuggets from McDownens to go.  We've invested a lot of time and feed into our meat birds and I wasn't willing to share.  Every day we get closer and closer to optimum butcher weight and every day the chances we would start losing birds to eagles and other health issues increased.  Finally, today, we cut those odds down and butchered 11 meat birds.

"Are we going to eat those feet?"

We practiced our routine a few days ago when we took care of five guineas and our mean rooster, Roosty.  Mark and I are getting so good at coordinating the work.  We each have our tasks.  Even the kids work!  We like the have the boys out plucking while Evie takes care of the younger kids inside, but watching three younger siblings can be a big job for a seven year old.  Ian usually gets sent inside to help her out while we keep Shane with us.  Plucking.  And plucking.  Most of the process time for a chicken is plucking.

Less talk, more work, marshmallow boys!  (The air was steamy from dipping the birds in hot water)

Mark's job is to kill and pluck (and tell the kids, "Talk while you work!") and I try to keep up with the pluckers with gutting.  When I'm done gutting, Mark quarters all the birds for storage.  Then he does all the outside cleaning and cooks a big meal and does all the dishes.  The most important job he has is to pick the playlist of work music.  I have one awesome husband, let me tell you!

I gutted seven birds in 57 minutes and 48 seconds, which happens to be the length of the Soundgarden album we listened to.  I'm getting pretty good at gutting, which is hilarious to everyone who knew me in high school and college...when I was a vegetarian.  Yeah, that lasted until Ian was on the way.  I decided there was no way I could eat my daily requirement of protein in tofu every day, so I switched to meat.  Way more efficient. 

We store our meat quartered and vacuum sealed in the freezer.  Now that we have such a large family, one bird no longer feeds us.  This year we wrapped five quarters in each package.  I did the packing while Mark did the quartering-outside; it was so much cleaner that way.  It was nice for Mark to come in after all the quartering and find that most of the chicken was already in the freezer.  Then we cook the remaining carcasses for stock and pick the meat for enchiladas and chicken salad sandwiches (oh, I'm getting hungry) and little snacks for my baby carnivores (Fiona and Lula).  All we have left to do now is eat our dinner of guinea, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  Oh...we can't wait!