Painting China

We got a little behind in school work last week when we took our trip up north...so we spent this lovely rainy day...

Not the best day to leave your boots on the stairs!

...catching up on grading math books and art projects! 

Turtle-themed plate

The activity guide that goes with the history curriculum suggests making clay bowls with air dry clay and painting them with acrylic paints to look like Ming porcelain.  I instead purchased a set of ceramic dishes from the second-hand store and we painted them with porcelain paint.

Some used more paint than others *smile*

 I got "painter's" block right when we started, so I went for the minimalistic style.

Home, household, family, school of thought

The best part of the project was pulling out some of our Ming-style tea cups that are stashed away.

The dark blue set with the gold dragon was brought here from China by a sailor*.  The set belonged to Mark's great-grandmother and Grandad remembered drinking tea out of it when he was a little boy.  This house is located about a mile away from the epicenter of the 2000 earthquake and amazingly, none of the china in this cupboard even cracked.  I haven't decided if earthquakes or being located in my school room is more dangerous!

 *I am not positive on these details, so I may edit later:)

Carving Pumpkins

Many years have gone by without carved pumpkins at our house.  Too many.  I always buy the pumpkins.  And we sometimes paint them.  One year we shot them.  This year we actually carved them.

Evie had two pumpkins: a tiny one from Awanas that came with a little poem about cutting open its head to pull out the sin and a flat pumpkin that she picked out at the pumpkin patch.

Daniel's pumpkin was a "dumpkin" hybrid from the pumpkin patch.  I can't believe they charged me double just because it wasn't a carver.  They should have given it to me free because it was a weed.  But it is cool:)

Fiona had an...interesting face.  That is not how it looked carved however.  My carving man takes artistic liberty with the carving of faces and had a hard time letting the boys do their own carving...

...for safety reasons of course!

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Jack-o-Lantern Smiles

Long-time Friends and New Babies

Corn Mazes in the shape of Washington State

Brand New Shoes (they came clean)

Corn wrestling (see the boys?)

Football in the Rain (with warm cookies and cocoa!)

Farm-raised Dinners

Farm Fresh Milk

Babies...oh, I already said that!

I'll just say it again, I never get tired of babies!

*smile*

Weekends like I had don't come around often enough.  Thank you to the P Family, the J Family, and my two girls and their sweethearts for hosting us.  We love you!

Rain Gutter Regatta and Super 20!

Shane came in 2nd place this year-he has placed every.single.year he has raced.  I had no words of sportsmanship this year, "Come home a winner, or don't come home at all."  (just kidding) Ian came in 5th, which is still great considering how huge our pack is.  Ian's greatest accomplishment was receiving his Super Achiever award:

For a Webelos Scout to earn his Arrow of Light at the end of two years, he must complete a list of requirements that includes earning 8 activity badges out of the 20 available.  Ian earned all 20!  He and his buddy were the first in their dens to finish.  I am so so proud of the work Ian puts into his scouting and how hard he works to internalize scouting values.  (and I hate the way the world reveals itself to him on a daily basis, showing that keeping those scouting values will be a daily struggle for the rest of his life)

Fiona Says

Fiona: I don't want to be all alone with just Daddy while you're gone!
Me: You won't be ALL alone.  Daniel will be here, Evie will be here, Jack will be here, Mina will be here...Ling Ling and Luna will be here...
Fiona: And we'll be safe enough?
Me: Yes
Fiona: Because Dad will have his gun?
Me (chuckle): Yes
Fiona: What if the bad guys have SWORDS?

I'm happy Fiona feels safer with me than with just Dad and his gun against guys with swords!  I am pretty scary.  Daniel is only scared of three things: spiders, monsters, and me.  He said so.

Pumpkin Patch with Friends

H is for Home

In a few days, IJ, Shane, Lula, and I are heading north to visit some friends and family.  This time of year I always remember how hard it was on us, especially myself and IJ, when we moved here. I kept us busy with as many activities as we could handle, all so we could try to meet new people and feel connected and not feel the loss of our close friends.  I called up north Home and this place Back Here for the longest time.  As we prepare for a trip up north this week, we keep getting little reminders that we are now settled.  Twin Firs is Home.

My whole crew packed up today to take Evie to the dentist.  She needed her molars sealed.  The dogs were out of food and I wasn't sure when my Amazon Subscribe and Save delivery of dog food would be here.  Since I was going to be halfway to Costco anyway, I decided to go all the way to buy a bag of dog food to hold us over until my shipment arrived.  But then I couldn't find the debit card, so our trip to Costco was cancelled and the dogs would just have to starve another day.  While we waited for the dentist to call Evie back, the UPS man came in to deliver a package.  He saw me and said, "I have a package for you too, can I just leave it at your van?"

Wow.  That's a small town feeling right there, y'all.

And the dogs didn't have to starve!

In the waiting room of the dentist's office, there is a book all about the KP.  It is filled with color pictures about the community and all the fun events and organizations out here.  My three oldest kids love looking at the pictures and seeing familiar places...and faces!  They spotted two friends from Cub Scouts in the book today.

After Evie had been back with the dentist for a few minutes, my little ones got restless.  We walked around the sidewalk to the second-hand store, just to keep kids moving.  Evie's appointment was over so quickly that the hygienist just walked her over to where we were.  There aren't many places I would leave my children, but I love our little dentist office and all the staff there.  After Grandad died and we had our first appointment for cleaning, the receptionist shared sympathies and let me know she had cancelled Grandad's appointments, all without us having to say anything.

After my children were complemented on their behavior by the ladies who run the second-hand store, I rewarded them with a little snack from the market next door (and a coffee for me).  At the coffee stand, the barista knew me by name, asked about the baby and the other kids, how homeschooling was going... and I rarely go there!  It has been at least six months since I've stopped by that coffee place (mostly because it isn't a drive thru).  Happy sigh...I love small towns.

Thank you, God, for these little reminders!

H is for Hatchery

Fiona's letter of the week is H and what luck! We Headed to the Hatchery for a field trip!  I promise, I am not making the letters line up with the activities.  Its just working out that way.  Fiona already knows her letters, but this has been a fun way to reinforce their sounds and where they appear in words.  She complains that she doesn't have any schoolwork, but she doesn't realize that she is living her learning right now.

The hatchery was as fun as it was last year.  We held the frozen dead things.

The big difference this year was the pouring down rain.  And getting to feed the baby coho.

When we climbed up onto the platform around the fish pens, I had a mini heart attack.  I worried that my keys would fall out of my pocket and sink to the bottom, never to be seen again.  I worried that my girls would get pushed in by an over-excited boy and they would sink to the bottom, never to be seen again.  I worried that I would drop Lula over the edge and she would sink to the bottom, never to be seen again.  I walked very very slowly and held on tight!  I breathed easier when we headed inside.

This was a cool machine that sorted live eggs from dead eggs.  The kids got to hold the eggs with little fish inside!  They could see their eyes and watch them swim around, just like Finding Nemo. 

So despite the rain, we had a good time!

Sound View Camp

Mark and the boys had another fun-filled camping weekend with the Cub Scouts.  Mark said, "This was the best one yet!"  He's been known to say that about every camping trip and Christmas, so his life must be getting better and better!  This weekend, they were at Sound View Camp.

The wind was blowing and the water was choppy, but that didn't stop my adventurers from going out as far as they could.

 Ian had better aim all around, but Shane was the one that got a bulls eye. 

One of the leaders built this seat so the boys lift themselves up and down.  It was hard, but pretty cool!

Our boys were able to earn the Fishing Belt Loop-one of the few they haven't earned, believe it or not!  One would think that with a fish biologist as a father, they would have this one already.  Nope. We get the Wildlife Conservation Belt Loop instead.

Mark really is awesome.  He came all the way home (hee hee-we live around the corner) to get his bathing suit so he could lead...

The First Polar Bear Swim for Pack #222.  It was like 38 degrees outside!  He gave the three boys who were brave enough (and who had parental permission-there were other boys, but they couldn't get in the water) a motivational speech before entering the water.  It went something like this:

"When you start to feel you've made a mistake and you hear a voice that tells you to go back, ignore it! Keep going!"  He later told the parents...

...that this was good for the boys.  It was good to be cold and uncomfortable because when they are Boy Scouts and are on their 50 Mile Hike and their pack is wet from the rain or they are tired, they can dig a little deeper and go a little further.

A is for...

Fiona's letter of the week is A.  A is for...

...Annelid
The boys have moved from habitats in biology (finally) to the different phyla.  For some reason, the creator of our curriculum has the logic level (5th through 8th grade) study the phyla from most simple to complex.  The grammar level (1st through 4th grade) is in the opposite order.  Why? Why can't they just line up and make my life simple?  Well, I just made it line up.  It's not like Evie and Fiona read my teacher's guide and see we are doing things out of order.  We started with worms.

We now have a worm farm in our school room.  I knew that jar would be useful for something.  Their experiment asks, "Do worms mix dirt?" Seriously? Any middle-schooled aged kid who grew up watching Curious George and The Magic School Bus already knows that! But we are proving it with colored sand, so that makes worm farming fun.  We are supposed to be dissecting worms, but they aren't here yet.  On a whim, I made:

Worm Bread, which was actually Pilsbury french bread-just pop the tube and stretch the dough.  I wish I would have thought of this on Monday.  Tonight I decided I needed to have Fun Food Friday and make something that relates to something we've studied during the week.  I was going to make Dirt Cake with gummy worms, but I'm not going all the way to the store just for gummy worms!

A is for Abacus Math
Evie is using RightStart Math instead of Saxon this year.  This program focuses more on mental math, hands-on activities, and games for basic fact memorization.  It took me awhile to get used to the format, but Evie is really enjoying it.

A is for Active
Daniel sure gave me a run for my money this week.  He was very very very active and needy and bossy and sassy.

He insisted a pan was warm although I told him over and over it was hot.  "It's hot!" I would say.  "NO! It's WARM!" he would yell back.  He touched it. He burned himself.  I said, "See? It's hot!"  He cried, "Yes, it's hot! Ow, ow, ow, I'm burned!"  His imagination took flight with the development of a fear of monsters.  He sees monsters everywhere and naps and potty-training have suffered as a result.

A is for Autumn
The weather made a sudden change to normal this week.  We've had over an inch of rain since Monday and I can hear a torrential downpour as I type.

We are supposed to go pick Apples with the preschool group tomorrow, but the forecast is for...rain.  I'm not sure I'm going to be up for standing in the rain with Lula.

A is for...Annoying
Some annoying things this week were the arrival of a MOUSE in my "caterpillar room" (also known as Daniel and Lula's room)!  Thanks to Jack, the cats spend their time up high and out of reach, leaving the mice free to range where they wish.

Also annoying, the state of my school table at the end of the day.  But a messy school room table is a busy school room table, with lots of learning and creative fun.  So I won't complain too much!

Flag Football

IJ and Shane are playing flag football for the next eight weeks.  It's part of their What Every Boy Needs to Know regime.  They had their first game today and didn't do too bad considering they've had only two practices.  But what do I know? I'm the girl that faked illness to get out of football in PE.  All I remember is that you are supposed to catch the ball like it is a meatball sandwich: bring it lovingly to your side and don't spill the meatballs!

I love this picture of IJ because he is floating in the air and you can see his untied shoe lace flying out behind him.  I wonder if flag football is harder than tackle football.  In tackle football, you run and crash into whomever is holding the ball, but in flag football, you have to run, stop, and carefully grab the flags and tear them off without pulling the guys pants down.

This is probably how Shane scored a touchdown.  He was running with the ball, felt someone grab for his flags, and stopped running to see if his belt had been pulled off!  I yelled, "RUN, SHANE! RUN!" just like Jenny in Forrest Gump.  He started running and didn't stop until he crossed the goal line...and crossed the end line...and I thought he might keep running until he hit the fence!

Their team won, 24-18.

A Picture is Worth...

...a thousand words.  My words will not number a thousand, but I think a little over a hundred are needed to explain...

...that the backdoor is really hard to open and close.  Sometimes the kids don't close the door all the way.  The dogs know that if they push on the backdoor with their noses, sometimes it will open and they can come inside.  The dogs can't close the door behind them, so sometimes I'm surprised to see the backdoor wide open.  Today I was washing dishes and I saw Daniel head outside.  "Fine," I think to myself, "I'll just finish up here real quick and then go get him and close the door."  A few minutes later, Daniel comes back in the house, opens the towel drawer, and says, "Hands-a-dirty!"  I asked him if he had dirt on his hands.  He said, "No, paint!"  Oh dear.  "What were you doing?"  "I paint-a-house!" 

I think the take home message is two-fold: Make sure the doors are always closed and clean up after a paint job!

Saying Goodbye to Summer

We can turn anything into a hands-on lesson.  This week we are reading Aesop's Fables.  One of our favorite stories is The Ant and the Grasshopper.  Today, while preparing for the upcoming week of rain, Mark had the kids play "ants" and bring in firewood and clear the yard.

The orb weavers are out in full force, a clear sign summer is over.  One spider on the house is so close to laying her eggs, I didn't have the heart to move her so I painted around her.

We've had less than one inch of rain since July.  According to NOAA, August was the driest August on record for our state with no precipitation recorded!  Only 0.03 inches was measured for September!  We have never seen the pond so low.  The branch you see in the mud above is the same one Jack is swimming by in this post.  We call it The Deep Water Branch and non-swimmers cannot pass it without a life jacket.

The firewood that doesn't fit in the woodshed is securely covered (doesn't the paint job look nice?) and I'm sure we'll have our first fire soon.  I've started wearing my fuzzy robe and slippers all day and started shouting, "Shut the door! You're letting the cold in!" (instead of, "You're letting the flies in!").  We made it to October 20th without fire last year, but it is already only 61 degrees inside and we have poor Lula to think about!

This little sweetheart sleeps alone in her crib at night, so she gets really cold!  Last night I made her come and sleep with me for the second half of the night because her little hands felt like ice cubes!  The rest of her was nice and warm because she sleeps in an awesome baby-sized sleeping bag that my friend crocheted for her.  If only Lula would keep her hands inside!

 Mark was seriously focused on making sure everything is ready for the rain tomorrow.  He was painting ("Now I know why this was a $5000 painting job.") covering wood ("If that wood gets wet, it will soak up the water like a sponge and be worthless") making sure the left-behind boots, shoes, clothing, and jackets were brought back in the house ("It looks like the Rapture took place out there.") checking the power line ("It looks like a rat has been chewing on it-that must have been shocking.") AND trying to come up with what he was going to do for Cub Scouts tonight ("Could you make 24 flashcards for me and 6-foot lengths of rope for knot-tying?")  I know better than to get in his way when he gets like this.  I use it as a way to show my daughters what God meant when he created a helpmeet for Adam.

Jack helped by tearing a life jacket into tiny pieces.  I guess I've had it since IJ was a toddler, so I got my money's worth out of it.  But still! I do have other toddlers that could have used it!  It isn't like life jackets expire like car seats.  I just moved Lula up to the car seat I bought when IJ was a baby.  It expired a good four years ago!  Jack's other favorite job is being the chipper/shredder of sticks and other large chunks of wood.

I felt a little sad as I walked around this evening, taking pictures of autumn.  I know summer has been over for awhile, but the weather has been so nice it was easy to forget.  I normally don't like summer.  But this summer has been the best summer of my whole life (so far) so I'm sad to see it go.