adventure

Yes, it's been pretty warm, sunny and pleasant here lately... generally vitalizing, feeling like Spring. And then, on TODAY, which is the official first day of Spring, it's been snowing here all day... and it's cold again, and raining now. ;) But, this is normal too, I guess. And I'm not complaining, it's just rather ironic, that one of our mere 3-4 snow days so far this year has fallen on this day, which symobolically marks a passage from cold and darkness to warmth and light... and it's cold, and dismal looking out there. *heh* So, the crew and I have had a laugh over the irony of it.

T is fighting a bug again...;-( And this time, I'm finding myself feverish and coughing too, and feeling just really miserable. So, today we've been loading up on the vits, echinacea, and enjoying cup after cup of hot tea over storybooks. We've all been enjoying the book Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians. N and T are finding these stories fascinating and the math concepts interwoven, along with their inceptions delightful. They can't get enough from the Blue Fairy Book, and their narrations of these tales have been wonderful! They actually compete over who "gets to" tell me which story back first. T had the idea of acting out Puss in Boots, so she and N prepared a little skit for Dad and I to watch.
It began with T dramatically throwing her arms up into the air as she bellowed, "Ladies and Gentelmen... Introducing the cat named Puss in Boots!!" She narrated the entire story, with N playing the parts/saying the lines of the "Marquis of Carabas", the king, and the ogre. It was quite a hoot, and T loved it, exclaiming in the middle of it over what FUN it was. She's already planning more theatre productions... We had some interesting discussions over Blue Beard and Prince Darling,so far favorites of N's. T says that she wishes she had a ring like the White Fairy gave to Prince Darling, and we talked about how our concsiences work, and the similarities. And I've of course read Hansel & Grettel a gajillion times, as it's been T's all-time favorite fairy tale for years, only to be rivaled lately by the Chronicles of Narnia. N and T are thoroughly enjoying their CLP Nature readers, which they read aloud to me. We're learning some interesting stuff from these, and they're so delightfully written. They're also fully engaged in Paddle's adventures lately, listening intently to every part of the journey...

I'm so excited that I was able to *finally* order some of our core AO books (Parables of Nature and Our Island Story, among others) with a portion of our tax return. Up until now, I've been printing off portions of these for our readings. I'll still be doing this with CM's series, and a few others. But my NEW books should be here any day... YAY! And speaking of packages in the mail...

We were surprised by an unexpected ray of sunshine today, in spite of the yucky weather... When I stepped outside to see how my daffodils were faring in the snow, there on our doorstep sat a nice little care package which had come in the mail from Grandma today, and what perfect timing. Thanks Mom.;-) ...very fun. There's paperdolls, puppets and embroidery craft kits in it, new scrapbooking supplies for me (hehehehe), a new pampered chef gadget (always cool), and a book of Sudoku puzzles that looks like fun, but I'm afraid that it'll take more brain power than I'm up to right now.

I know that I've been absentee blog-wise lately. Life has been pretty busy here, and exhilerating, and busy. And on the days that we haven't actually had to BE somewhere, the kids and I have been taking our readings and notebooks outside, onto a blanket... picnicing with tea (or cocoa) while soaking up the sunshine, and the music the merry little breezes are making in my windchimes. We've been learning alot, riding alot, tapping practice has doubled for T and I and tripled for N, and we're reading lots as we're going through the AO Year 1 in 18 mos. schedule, and HOW's Adam to Abraham unit (which corresponds with our Bible readings) simultaneously. I've been having fun planning how we'll do next year too.

T will be in AO's Year 2, and N will be starting in Year 3 (hopefully he'll be able to take on much of his reading independently) as soon as we finish Yr. 1 all together. He'll be listening in on Year 2 as well, I'm sure. I'm thinking that since Year 3's history is a continuation of Year 2's history reads, I'll probably just rearrange our history schedule a bit, keeping us all reading history together, but doubling up on our readings, and continue through each Year chronologically that way for now. My idea is that this will be easier than having the kids in two seperate times history-wise, though they'll be in seperate years for their other readings. They're both reading well enough now, and giving me such lovely narrations that this shouldn't be a problem. And we so enjoy sharing history together. We'll also be doing our Geography and Nature Studies together.

I'm also supplementing with the TruthQuest American History for Young Students literary guides, which correspond nicely to AO's years 1-5. I may throw in one of TQ's Age of Revolution guides when N gets to Year 5, but we'll come to them again in HEO's Years 9-11 anyways, so maybe not. I also plan to incoorperate HOW's units into our studies where they correspond with our AO studies. Sorry for rambling on about it all, boring I'm sure...but I've been planning long-term, as you can see, and am enjoying setting my sights on our goals... seeing some results, and just having a long-term goal that I feel settled and confident about even! LOL

So, I've been buried in booklists and excel spreadsheets of late. I also finally cleared off some bookshelves, and followed through with posting a bunch of old paperback books to the Paperback Swap site. I've either already read them, or just don't want some of them (given to me/inherited somehow) and have been meaning to get rid of them for a long time. The same afternoon I'd posted them, I had numerous requests and have already mailed off 5 of them, and traded them for books that WERE on my wishlist, which I found listed there, and are on their way to me now. How cool is that?! It's a great club, and if you like to read alot, and don't mind cycling through paperbacks, then you ought to check it out. I'm also finding lots of nice paperbacks at the library sales to post for pocket change (so that I can earn points for the books I want).

Lately we've been spending alot more time at the farm where N and T take their riding lessons from a dear friend of mine. She's been such a blessing in our lives. We thought some time ago that we wouldn't be able to continue with riding lessons, due to their expense. But she, seeing N and T's genuine love for horses and riding, suggested that we barter for their lessons. And thus began what has become a most rewarding relationship for all of us. Last summer I helped her with her annual week-long summer horse camp (for her students), teaching the Bible class and heading up all the arts and crafts times. I've also been doing some gardening for her lately, we've taken over feeding their horses when they go out of town, so they don't have to pay someone else to do that now, and the kids are doing barn chores, and helping with general farm property maintenance to help to pay for their own lessons. Chris has even contributed lots of his time to helping Mark with some large projects that he needed help with. I actually am enjoying this arrangement much more than when we were just paying $$ for the lessons, we're really getting so much more learning, and Jennifer says we've blessed them in ways that they needed.

We've now going over to the farm about 3x a week (unless we're feeding and doing the daily barn chores for the owners while they're out of town, as this weekend). We're there for anywhere from 2-4 hrs. each time. It's so worth it though, we're learning SO much and I think the kids could live there, they love it so much! LOL The mare there is going to "foal" in the next few weeks, and we've been invited to come and watch (we'll probably be camping out in the barn one night, waiting) and we're getting to see and feel the baby kick, watching the Momma's utters fill up, learning alot about horse behavior and just enjoying a spectacular hands-on nature study!
Last weekend was our first "Pray and Play", which is something that Jennifer's planning to do with her students one Saturday a month. It's very much like a miniature horse camp day. We had it from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. During the first hour, we read, narrated and recited 1 John 3:18 together, closing with prayer. Then all the kids tacked up and rode in the arena until lunchtime. They all shared their sack lunches outside in the sunshine... and then tacked back up, and rode some more! It was a gloriously beautiful day.

N and T share their Monday riding lessons time-slot with another boy, who is a year younger than N. His Mom is Sarah, and she owns the pony that N rides and loves, Frosty. Anyways, we've become friends in the last year, and N and T were so excited that Miss Sarah had invited them to trail-ride her ponies and horse back over to her house after the "Pray and Play". They helped her clean tack and shave her newest pony, while I helped Jennifer clean out her flower beds. It was a full day for all of us.

Chris has taken N to his first tap practice of the week... he has tap 3x a week now (until May)! T and I are practicing 2x a week now too. But tonight, we're not making it... too puny I'm afraid.

I'm going to go and curl up with the kids in bed now, and watch The Appalachians on pbs.

So, there you are, all caught up with us for the most part. I hope that you are all doing well, and I look forward to catching up with you soon as well.

Oh yeah, just to brag a little, my last batch of challa bread redeemed my perceived lack of bread making abilities (3 batches of bread that didn't rise is very disheartening!), it was yummy! I used the same yeast, just let it proof/activate for a good 15 mins. before mixing in any flour, etc. And our Sabbath dinner was a delight, which blessed us all. May you find rest in our Messiah today~