School's out!

This school year has been one of the most challenging I can remember. Two years ago, when Jimmy was in second grade, it was particularly tough because I had two miscarriages between November and June, which laid me flat both physically and emotionally for a lot of months. But with Audrey starting Kindergarten, this was the first year with two kids at the school table, and wow, it was a big adjustment for all of us.

Thankfully, I've reached a place where I feel completely confident in both my teaching and organizational abilities, and so it gave me the chance to focus on stepping up my game and really engaging with my children on a new level.

When I gave Jimmy his last journal assignment for the school year, I asked him to write about his four favorite things he learned this year. I'm giving myself the same assignment, so in no particular order, here's what I learned during 2012-2013:

1) Old dogs can (and should) learn new tricks. All year long, I've been coming up against the realization that for so many reasons, I need to stop yelling at my kids. So, with a little help from an amazing gal known as Orange Rhino, I'm doing just that. I still struggle, I still yell, but I'm only a couple months into this new trick and already I'm yelling less. It's making a huge difference for me and my kids. Even better, I dialogue with them about why I'm doing what I'm doing and they're helping me while they see me modeling this willingness to change.

2) I'm the expert on my kids. I'm sure you're thinking, well, duh. But starting out with a virtual academy--while it's been lovely having someone to give us guidance and hold us accountable--has allowed me to defer to others as knowing better what my kids might need or what curriculum might be best or what learning plan we should follow. Over the past couple of years, I've been putting the pieces together and finally feeling like if we had to fly solo (which we may have to do because of legislation in Olympia that will reform alternative learning experiences like CVA), I could do it. I could do it because I know what areas my kids are strong in, what they struggle with, how they learn, and how to teach them.

3) Kids are spiritual creatures. This year I've shifted some of my focus to providing a spiritual touchstone as an integral part of our learning day. For us this means we have a devotional each morning before we start school work. Doing this helps me and the kids to be more calm and centered before we dive into doing stuff that challenges us and trying to get along with each other while everyone is working at the table together. We also created an art area and did a fine arts course as part of our curriculum this year. It was amazing: seeing art, learning about it, creating it. Art feeds the soul.

4) I love my children. I already knew this, but I found I need to keep learning it all over again, every day. Sometimes I get so focused in on what needs to be done--the lessons we need to get through--that I lose sight of the why. And then things get adversarial: when I'm focused on checking off the subjects on our list, instead of tuning in my children's needs and how I can meet them, it's me against them instead of us learning together. If I go on autopilot and forget to be mindful of that overarching feeling of love, it all falls apart. I fall apart.

And now, I'm off to make another list... of things to do over the summer!

A house in order

I've been meaning to post for a while, but having been sick off and (mostly) on since Thanksgiving, something had to give. Blogging was only one of several casualties.

Around the last time I posted I realized I just didn't have the energy to do all the things I wanted to do for the holidays, so it was time to cut my losses and stick to the priorities: 1) teaching the kids their lessons until we (mercifully) hit winter break; 2) making balanced meals; 3) making sure there were clean dishes to eat the meals on; and 4) making sure there were clean clothes to have the meals spilled on. Only slightly lower on the priority list was making Christmas pajamas for each of the kids. Other than that, if it didn't happen, oh well.

The great thing about lowered expectations is I'm seldom disappointed, no matter the outcome. We had a modest but lovely Christmas, scaled back from previous years in terms of quantity, but overflowing with all that mattered.

My favorite thing about this Christmas was that as soon as we finished school on December 14th, the kids disappeared for the following week, holed up in our basement atelier making gifts for everyone in our family (including the cats) out of pipecleaners, beads, string and scotch tape. This resulted in Jimmy's first working invention: a cat toy made out of a single pipecleaner twisted into a ring. Something about the shape and fuzziness is irresistible to both of our cats, who've been chasing them all over the house for the last three weeks.

Simple really is better.

The week after Christmas, as I was putting away patterns and flannel scraps leftover from the Christmas jammies, and casting furtive, longing glances at the corner where the new dressform Santa brought me sat in its box, I had an "aha" moment.

One of the things I love about this drafty, ramshackle old house we rent is it is big enough for me to have a room of my own, à la Virginia Woolfe. It's a combination sewing room/office in a finished-off portion of what was once the root cellar, and lately the preferred hidey-hole for Santa to stash the kids' presents. As I was doing post-pajama clean-up, though, I realized that even with all the gifts cleared out it was still an unqualified disaster. I really, really wanted to set up my new dressform and get sewing so I could finish winter break doing a fun project just for me, but before I could even put it together, I knew I had to make a place to put it.

Then it hit me: I am my  sewing room. It is me. We are both a hot mess.

Upstairs my house is moderately presentable. The living room, bathroom and dining room can be made company-ready in 20 minutes to a half-hour, tops. The kitchen, well, maybe an hour. The point is, I keep things functional and presentable up there so life can go on, even when I'm teaching phonics, refereeing squabbles, and dealing with teething babies.

And that's pretty much how I work emotionally, physically, spiritually and intellectually--I do enough on the surface to be serviceable. I have down days and forget to pray or meditate, I get stressed out, I eat too much, I don't get enough exercise--but I'm basically a good person who helps other people, cares for my family, gives back the wrong change the cashier made and tries not to yell at my kids. Too much. In public.

Below the surface, though--down in the basement, if you will--it's chaos. Things are out of place, neglected, haphazard. Boxes and bags and baskets--stacked every which way, filled with mementos, fabric, books, papers needing to be filed. A huge backlog of keep-or-toss. Because of that, I feel like I'm putting off doing the things I want to do because I haven't yet done the things I need to do, and I don't want to live my life in a holding pattern.

After I had this realization, a phrase started echoing in my head: "Put your house in order, put your house in order." We were in Yakima all day running errands on New Year's Eve, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I knew there was a scriptural reference, and finally looked it up (thank you, smart phone). As I read the passage, rather than feeling behind the 8-ball, I was filled with an immediate sense of calm that I could go about this a little bit at a time, systematically, when I had small chunks of time between my other commitments.

As I've said before, I don't believe in resolutions--making the start of a new year an arbitrary time to implement changes--but now is the time for me to put my house in order so I can start living in ways I've been putting off because I had other things I "ought to do"' first.

For the first time in months, I can see the top of my desk. It feels good.

LV-AZ trip, part 2

The second destination on our trip was the Grand Canyon. From Hoover Dam, we drove southeast on U.S. 93 to Kingman, then east on I-40 to Williams, where we headed north on U.S. 64 toward Grand Canyon National Park.

We stayed for two nights at the Holiday Inn Express in Tusayan, just a few miles from the park's south entrance (on the canyon's south rim). When we checked in, the front desk clerk immediately offered us a free upgrade from our economy room with two queen beds to one with a king bed and "kid suite" with bunk beds. The kids were thrilled by the adventure of bunk beds and Jim and I, well, we were thrilled to have a room to ourselves, too. I cannot say enough good things about the hotel staff--but more on that later.

I was the only one who had been to the Grand Canyon before, but it took my breath away again. And again.

Several months before the trip, I had looked at the park's website and determined that the best way for the kids to appreciate the canyon (and be learning while we were there) would be to walk along the Trail of Time.

When they're a bit older, perhaps a hike down into the canyon, or even a mule trip would be fun--but with Joe mostly in a stroller and Audrey being at best a reticent hiker, the Trail of Time was just our speed. We spent the morning of our only full day at the canyon on the trail, which took us about an hour and a half round-trip, not counting the time we spent at the Yavapai Geology Museum before we turned around and headed back.

The trail's a well-constructed geological timeline of the canyon (one long step = 1 million years) with samples of rock from each of the main layers from the Elves Chasm Gneiss on the canyon floor (1,840 million years old) all the way to the top layer, called the Kaibab Formation (a mere 270 million years old).

Jimmy and Audrey each had their own favorite rocks.

The kids also enjoyed getting occasional glimpses of local fauna.

Best of all, the entire length (1.6 miles) of the trail is paved, which made it easy on the feet of even our littlest hiker.

After lunch and some souvenir shopping, we drove east along the south rim via Desert View Drive, trying to find a good view of the Colorado River for Jimmy.

We stopped at several turnouts along the road, but Desert View and the watchtower proved to be the  perfect vantage for Jimmy to get his elusive view of the Colorado meandering along the floor of the canyon.

We had no idea this idyllic drive in the lovely light of late afternoon would be the last time everyone would feel good enough to enjoy the scenery. Within a half hour, Audrey lost her lunch in the back seat of our minivan.

Thanks to some good Samaritans in the parking lot of the Grand Canyon General Store, we got bleach wipes and a chamois to clean up the first few waves of puke. One of the store employees suggested Audrey might have altitude sickness, which he said many visitors experienced because the altitude at the south rim was over 7,000 feet above sea level. He gave us a roll of paper towels, which we layered on Audrey's seat for the drive back to the hotel. I improvised a barf bucket from one of the kid's plastic trick-or-treat pumpkins.

By the time we got back to the hotel, Audrey had used the pumpkin several times, so Jim herded the boys upstairs to our room and I kept her with me so she could get some fresh air while I cleaned out the minivan. Fortunately, our parking spot was right in front of the open door to the hotel laundry services room, and one of the laundry ladies noticed our plight and came out to see if I needed help. With her limited English and my limited Spanish, I managed to explain what happened and ask for some cleaning supplies. She gave me everything she had access to, including a big handful of washcloths, some shampoo, disinfectant, a box of Kleenex and a roll of trash bags. She also let me come and go to the utility sink to rinse out the washcloths and then put them in a big rolling laundry bin.

Thanks to that lovely laundry lady, I got the seat and carpet well scrubbed. Then I carried Audrey back up to our room, gave her a bath and put her to bed. Later, the front desk staff connected me with the housekeeping manager, who loaned me a nice big bottle of Febreeze so I could attack the minivan and beat back the sick smell for our six-hour drive to Tucson the next day.

So, if you're ever at the Grand Canyon and need a place to stay that will take good care of you (when you're barfing or otherwise), Holiday Inn Express has got you covered.

Back in a routine

In the two-and-a-half weeks since I last posted, we:

• started the school year (Jimmy in 4th grade, Audrey in Kindergarten)
• hosted our cousin Aidan for five days
• celebrated Audrey's birthday
• wore cowboy boots to the county fair
• kicked off soccer season
• went on a field trip to Thorp Mill
• stayed overnight with friends near Seattle
• returned to regular cub scout meetings

In between all these goings-on, I've been trying to find a new normal--staying on top of housework by having the kids help, carving out time to exercise and take care of myself, baby-proofing everything now that Joseph is walking (and yes, my kitchen is still gated off while I contemplate the daunting prospect of deep cleaning and locking down everything below three feet high)--all while figuring out the trick of homeschooling two kids at once.

Surprisingly, I've been feeling mostly successful at all of this. We've had the requisite amount of griping about piano practice and math worksheets, but overall, school has been fun and Jimmy's self-direction has allowed me to spend the time with Audrey that she needs. I've made a lot of progress on taming my short temper. My house has been cleaner more consistently than I can ever remember it being before. In the afternoons, I've even had a few hours between helping the kids with their chores and putting Joe down for naps to cross off a few extra projects on my to-do list like cleaning out closets and getting rid of baby gear we no longer need. Just yesterday I made up a triple batch of laundry soap and a batch of dishwasher detergent, too.

Today is bread day.

For a while now I've been wanting to stop purchasing store-bought bread, but I haven't been happy enough with how my own bread turned out, so I've been experimenting and tweaking my recipe and methodology. I got my original recipe for three whole wheat loaves from my mother-in-law, but found that my bread always seemed to turn out too dense and low. Through a lot of trial and error I've discovered a few things:

1. My kitchen is drafty, which means it is usually too cold for the yeast to grow, especially during winter and spring. I can mitigate this by turning on the oven and leaving it slightly open while the yeast is proofing to warm up the room.
2. Using exclusively whole-wheat flour (along with any additions like oats or flax) makes for very dense, heavy bread, which means that it won't rise as high and will be more crumbly. So now I use all-purpose flour for half of the flour content, and sometimes add in a bit of ground flax or oats--but a little goes a long way.
3. Recently I figured out that refined sugar, even in small quantities, aggravates my arthritis, so I've switched to using honey, which makes me hurt less and the bread more moist.
4. Our family eats about four loaves of bread a week, so if I wanted to bake only once a week, I would have to readjust my recipe.
5. My friend Carol, who used to have a bread business, told me that adding some baking powder helps get a bit more rise during baking, so I started doing that, too.
6. My kids love my bread. Both Jimmy and Audrey have said, "Mom, your bread is waaaaay better than bread from the store." The fact that Joe eats more of it than he throws on the floor is his own ringing endorsement.


Chicklegirl's Wheat Bread

5-1/3 cups warm water
1/3 cup honey
5 tablespoons active dry yeast (I buy the bags of Red Star brand at Costco, which cost only slightly more than a few packets purchased at the grocery store)
5 cups all-purpose flour
6-7 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seeds or rolled oats (optional, exchange for 1/4 cup of the flour)
1/3 cup olive oil
5 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Mix yeast, water and honey together in bowl of stand mixer. Proof for 15 minutes, until bubbly. Add other ingredients and mix together with two or three turns of the bread hook. Let rest for 10 minutes. Knead with bread hook for 10 minutes. Turn dough out of stand mixer bowl into larger metal bowl, then cover with a tea towel or cloth to rise until double (about 30 minutes, depending on if your kitchen is drafty--the warmer, the better and faster the dough will rise). Turn dough out onto lightly floured counter top and divide into four equal parts. Form parts into loaves and place in greased loaf pans. Let loaves rise until they round up above (but not overflow) the rims of the pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. Makes 4 loaves.


Tonight, I'm trying a new recipe for peach jam made with honey.

Summer time (and the livin' is easy)

It's finally summer break. And a good thing, too, because Joseph is teething and I've had a hard time getting up early to get school going. Over the past two weeks, he's been cutting four new top front teeth. When I ran my finger along his gums to massage them, I found a lump on the bottom, so it appears there's a fifth tooth on its way in another month (give or take).

What this means is those easy nights of one or two feedings that I'd finally gotten used to are over (the only constant is change, right?) Starting Monday, we had three straight nights of misery. Joe would wake me up between 3-5 times a night crying inconsolably (Baby Orajel has its limits, and I'm not into using homeopathic teething tablets since they apparently contain belladonna--who knew?) So I cuddled Joe up in bed between me and Jim, and every time he'd cry, I'd just roll over groggily and nurse him till he fell asleep. Not ideal, but better than the alternative.

Now that those four teeth have all cut through, the fussiness is starting to subside. Joe only woke up once last night, so everyone is feeling a lot more chipper this morning. Now I can actually get something done with my mornings!

Here today, flan tomorrow

For the past year and a half, we've been using La Clase Divertida for our Spanish curriculum. Due to state budget cuts, CVA won't be offering it as approved curriculum next year, and I confess I'm a little sad to see our time with Señor and Señora Gamache come to an end. Despite the low-budget video production values, Jimmy and Audrey both look forward to watching each lesson and then doing the activities that go along with it--especially the cooking lessons.

This year we made torrijas (a sort of Spanish "french toast", and a huge hit with everyone), paella (not as much of a hit, so I ate the leftovers for lunch for about a week), and finally, flan. I have to say, the flan was actually the easiest to make, and the video instructions were quite helpful, since the written recipe in the teacher's manual was sketchy at best.

Jimmy and I made the flan yesterday afternoon--cooking while sharing our most flan-tastic puns with each other--then let it sit in the fridge overnight to set up. After lunch today, everyone had a slice and it was wonderfully rich and creamy. Just one more reason to love homeschool.

Bio lab

Since last year we've been trying to observe protozoa for Jimmy's science classes. Two different orders of grow-it-yourself samples from a homeschool science company yielded no results. Last November I threw in the towel and decided to wait for warmer weather, hoping it would help the little critters to proliferate.

Fast forward to this spring, when I got smart and realized I could get protozoa locally at a convenient pond. After one failed attempt to find some on our own, Jim asked a colleague from the storm water department at work if he could recommend a good place to look. His buddy came through with a great spot to sample pond water, and this afternoon we got an eyeful of amoebae and paramecia. Apparently the key is to look for warmer, still water, rather than anything that is cool and moving. Good to know.

No news = good news

I haven't posted lately, mostly because I've been keeping my head down and powering through the last few weeks of the school year. Jimmy (with a whole heaping helping of micromanagement) has cranked out three science biographies in the last three weeks: Anton Van Leeuwenhoek (the first page of three is above), Florence Nightingale and Elijah McCoy. We'll be starting a fourth (George Washington Carver) tomorrow. Only a week until our last day of school!

The other reason is the absence of anything noteworthy to comment on--which is a good thing. I'm at 22 weeks as of yesterday, the baby is kicking up a storm, and--nothing else.

Here's to no news!

Field trip report

Just like last year's report, this is copied and pasted directly from Jimmy's email to his advisory teacher. As before, he typed it himself.


Dear Miss Stevens,

here is my report about my field trip. my mom is going to some of the pictures of my field trip in this email.

have a nice summer

from Jimmy

:-)

On Friday July 9th I went on a field trip to the Pacific Science Center.

I learned three new things there. The first thing is bubbles always want to be round. That is because the air on the inside is pushing out in all directions. You can sometimes make bubbles a different shape by using a wire frame like a cube to make a cube-shaped bubble. Another thing I learned is liquid nitrogen is super cold. I watched Jeff a worker at the Science Center use liquid nitrogen to blast off a soda bottle rocket. I also learned about the owl butterfly which has markings on its wings that look like owl eyes to scare away birds that might eat it.

I saw three really cool things there. My favorite thing was the smell tests. They had bottles with smells inside like peppermint, vanilla, watermelon, pineapple, cherry, coconut and lemon. we had to guess which smell was which and my dad and I both got some wrong. My favorite smell was cinnamon. I also really liked the big white funnel with marbles that went around and around and around until they went into the hole. The last thing that I thought was really cool was the butterfly house. I liked it because there were lots and lots of butterflies. The most prettiest butterfly was the Blue Morpho. I also saw some butterflies in the pupa stage.

On Saturday July 10th I went to the Point Defiance zoo and aquarium.

My three favorite animals were the Lemon shark, budgies, and peacock. I liked the lemon shark because it was huge. Lemon sharks can be up to 10 feet long and can weigh as much as 200 pounds! Budgie is a nickname for the budgerigar parakeet. I got to feed birdseed on a popsicle stick to a blue budgie with a white head. I saw a big and colorful Indian peacock walking on the path in front of me. I took lots of pictures of it. The male peacock uses his fancy tail to attract females. One last cool thing I did was ride a dromedary. a dromedary is a camel with one hump.

I had so much fun and learned a lot on my field trip.

Bread of the dead

I have an on-going love affair with many things Mexican. Mexican oilcloth. Mexican hot chocolate. Mexican history. Mexican culture. Mexican art. Mexican literature. Mexican molcajetes. Mexican music. And, por supuesto que sí, Mexican cuisine. I think my Mexico thing goes back to my BFF in first grade, Susí. She and her family were from Mexico City and she was Just. So. Cool. We spent hours listening to ABBA on the boombox in her bedroom, pretending "Dancing Queen" was all about us.

As I've mentioned before, one of the things that fascinates me most about Mexican culture is the Day of the Dead. I won't go into the boring details but if you're interested, Wikipedia.com has a good explanation of Dia de los Muertos' history and significance. I volunteered to do a small cultural lesson for our home school group this week, and thought the timing would be perfect to spotlight Dia de los Muertos, which is coming up on Sunday and Monday. And not just because I wanted to bake pan de muerto again (though that would have been a good enough reason all by itself!)

My loaf turned out a bit misshapen compared to the real thing, but it tasted heavenly. Yes, technically the sugar topping made it off limits, but I ripped a piece of crust off the bottom to sample (all in the name of quality control, mind you!)

This recipe is easy, absolutely delicious, and the heavenly smell of the cinnamon and anise seeds when it's baking is divine. I had to fight the kids off after their third and fourth helpings so I'd have enough to take home to Jim.


Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead)

¼ cup milk
¼ cup butter (half a stick)
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast
¼ cup very warm water
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
½ teaspoon anise seed
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar

Bring milk to boil and remove from heat. Stir in butter, ¼ cup sugar and salt. In large bowl, mix yeast with warm water until dissolved and let stand five minutes. Add the milk mixture. Separate the yolk and white of one egg. Add the yolk and the other whole egg to the yeast mixture, and save the white for later. Now add flour to the yeast and egg. Blend well until dough ball is formed.

Flour a pastry board or work surface very well and place the dough in center. Knead until smooth. (I used the dough hook on my stand mixer and kneaded the dough for five minutes, which worked just as well). Return to large bowl and cover with dish towel. Let rise in warm place for 90 minutes. Meanwhile, grease a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350° F.

Knead dough again on floured surface. Now divide the dough into fourths and set one fourth aside. Roll the remaining 3 pieces into “ropes”. On greased baking sheet, pinch 3 rope ends together and braid. Finish by pinching ends together on opposite side. Divide the remaining dough in half and form two “bones”. Cross and lay on top of braided loaf. (Note: I think the form of the loaf varies regionally. I followed these instructions the first time I made the bread, but the loaf I made today was round, with “bones” on top, modeled after some images I found on the internet).

Cover bread with dish towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix anise seed, cinnamon, and 2 teaspoons sugar together. In another bowl, beat egg white lightly. When 30 minutes are up, brush top of bread with egg white and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Bake at 350° F for 35-40 minutes.

Picking up the spare

We started back to school last Wednesday, and just one week into first grade we're already hitting a bumpy patch. As challenging as it is, I'm glad I'm the one teaching Jimmy because we have the one-on-one time and the latitude with our curriculum to take as long as we need to work out the snags.

This afternoon we did a math lesson. I've been using Saxon Math, which I really like because it utilizes hands-on manipulatives and a variety of other tools that engage Jimmy's very tactile learning style. Along with whatever concept is being introduced, each lesson in the second grade workbook has a fact sheet, and each fact sheet has twenty-five problems, which the student has one minute to solve as many of as possible. Jimmy absolutely loathes the fact sheets because he hasn't been able to solve all the problems in a minute, and often doesn't even finish half of them.

I wish I could say it was my fault he's such a perfectionist, but I don't believe it's entirely a learned behavior. Too bad, because then there would be some hope that he could be de-programmed from my terrible example by exposure to a more effective role model, or possibly some day in the future when he's got enough money to throw at therapy. I do honestly think Jimmy came hardwired that way (like both his father and I did), and let's face it: with the two of us as parents, he didn't stand a chance in the genetic crap shoot. The good news is, while we're both still wrestling to overcome our own perfectionism, Jim and I are aware that we struggle with it, and are hoping we can talk openly with Jimmy about our own challenges as we try to guide him to find his own healthy ways to cope.

During this afternoon's obligatory fact sheet, Jimmy only finished eight out of twenty-five problems and promptly imploded. Math was our last subject, so I suggested we stop where we were and be done for the day, then corralled him over to the couch for a chat. I told him that I really understood how he was feeling, being angry about not doing a perfect job, and not wanting to even try again because he couldn't do as well as he wanted.

Jimmy responds well to analogies, so after he had calmed down, I told him about what a terrible bowler I am, and that I used to be really grouchy about bowling because I was so bad at it. I didn't want to belabor my point too much but I told him that for me, bowling a strike was like getting a math problem right, while throwing a gutter ball was like getting a problem wrong. He got excited about the bowling metaphor, because he's quite good at bowling, and said, "Well, next time we go bowling, I could help you, Mom."

I said, "That's great. The thing is, on your worksheet, you still bowled more strikes than gutter balls--you just didn't finish bowling every frame." He was quiet for a minute and then he said, "Yeah. And you know what picking up the spare is? That's when I get a problem wrong, and I go back and make it right."

I love homeschool. Because I always get schooled, too.

Field trip report

The following is copied and pasted directly from the report Jimmy emailed to his advisory teacher this afternoon. And yes, he typed it himself.


dear miss gregerson,

Last week I went on a field trip. On Monday I went to the beach at Grayland. At the beach i collected lots of shells. my favorite shell was the crab legs. on Tuesday I went to the maritime museum in Westport. At the museum I liked looking through their binoculars at boats. I didn't get to climb the lighthouse because my little sister was to short. I did get to see a really big lighthouse lens at the museum. it was 18 feet tall and weighed more than 1000 pounds.

on Thursday i went to the aquarium in Seattle. i saw jellyfish and sharks and anemones and lion fish. i liked touching the anemones on their tentacles. then I went on a boat around the harbor in Seattle. it was fun. on Friday i went to the zoo. i saw giraffes and a snow leopard and gorillas. i got to feed a parakeet birdseed on a popsicle stick and ride a merry-go-round.

i had a great week.

Jimmy

Learning can be fun?

Last Tuesday we took a field trip with our homeschool group to the Pacific Science Center. Here are a few snaps...

Oh, and did I mention the work study program is an integral part of our homeschool curriculum? I believe in putting my kids to work as young as possible...

If you think...

...I've been ignoring my blog and my Facebook page, you're absolutely right. Real life has taken over the front seat and blogging has been kicked to the curb. For now.

Just to reward your patience, here are some snapshots from our yearly outing to the Roslyn harvest festival. You can check out the snaps from last year's festival if you want to see how much Jimmy and Audrey have changed this year.

Here's a little recap of what's new with us in October:

Audrey: walking is now her preferred method of transit. She talks constantly—still mostly jabbering, but with a few words like "banana", "kitty", "Mommy", and "Daddy" mixed in. Oh, and she just gave up her morning nap this week, so we're figuring out how to readjust our schedule accordingly.

Jimmy: after taking Columbia Virtual Academy's placement testing, we determined he's between first and second grade in both reading and math, but technically he's enrolled in kindergarten so we don't have to log twenty hours of teaching per week (the state requirement is 10 hours of instruction per week for kindergarten, and at first grade it bumps up to twenty). Homeschool is more work and more fun than both Jimmy and I expected; right now we're studying vocabulary for colors in Spanish, animals in science, vowels and consonants, and writing numbers from 100 to 200.

Jim: got a new job. We're ecstatic because he will soon have a four-block, five-minute walking commute (instead of driving forty-five minutes each way on roads that are very icy in the winter), better benefits, and a higher salary (not to mention what we'll be saving on gasoline!)

Me: got a new haircut and started going to Overeaters Anonymous. I've always had a rather skeptical-bordering-on-derisive view of twelve-step programs, but I'm over that. After just one month, it's already been life-changing. And yes, it is partially to blame for my scaled-back blogging, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.