Just To Say

Eight

My boy turned eight on Monday.  We celebrated the day with biscuits and gravy for breakfast, a trip to the batting cages, hot dogs for lunch, grilled steaks for dinner, and a family movie.  Telling the story of his birth is really about recounting my triumphs; twelve days past the "due date" and no pain medication of any kind.  He was nearly a pound and a half bigger than the girls when he was born and his square and sturdy back testified to the strong boy he'd become.  He can recall nearly every thing he hears and his laugh is always heartfelt and full of joy.  I'm so glad he is a part of our family!

Yarn Along: A Day Late...

I'm a day late in joining Ginny's Yarn Along this week, but I wanted to post pictures of Audrey in her finished Milo.  I used gifted yarn and larger needles than the pattern called for, so I didn't follow the pattern precisely, but I'm glad it will still fit her next fall and winter.

Audrey's cute little pink soaker is from Sloomb.

(I absolutely love cloth diapers and wool covers!) 

I have some fun yarn waiting for just the right projects.  Decisions, Decisions...

My son and I are reading Poppy by Avi together. I'm also starting the parade of books for next homeschool year.

Are you working on something?  What are you reading?

Thanks for stopping by!

Tidbits

We only have eight days of school left!  I am excited to be so near the end of our school year, but we have a busy stretch of events coming up in the next few weeks - Jack is turning eight and needs a birthday party and a baptism planned.  

Today, I am also trying to organize the summer; swim lessons, piano lessons, when to be at home, when to shop (which will hopefully carry over into the next school year - ugh, because I don't have a "market day" yet and our pantry has been bare lately,) when to PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR, because although I am pleased with my rough schedule for next school year, I still have all the nitty gritty to do, all the books to read, and all the lessons to plan.

EEK!  I'm feeling really overwhelmed right now.  I kind of want to crawl into a hole and hide, BUT I know I have to get these things done and the only way to do that is to ... DO that.  Oh, and the laundry, the laundry...

In other tidbits...

I'm really thinking about signing up for this, or at least checking her book out from the library.

I'd like to cast on for this sweater because I already have some cute yarn.

Well, I must get on with doing things.  Wish me luck!  Have a wonderful day!

 

Chimpanzee

I took the kids to see the movie "Chimpanzee" yesterday.  My brother told me about it last weekend and I thought it would be a perfect fit for our homeschool because my fourth grader and I are discussing primates.

The kids enjoyed it immensely, and I must say I was fascinated.  I loved seeing the chimpanzees in action - watching them crack open nuts with rocks, watching them interact, care for their babies, and make nests in the tree tops.  I don't think I've ever looked closely at a chimpanzee, either.  When the chimp-baby Oscar stretched his hands above his head, his little rib cage looked positively human.  

There were some intense sequences, with rival bands fighting, but there was no gore.  The most gory part was learning that chimpanzees eat other monkeys - and watching them hunt for one.  That was a bit unsettling to my children.  

Chimpanzee is narrated by Tim Allen and I thought the script was comfortably casual, informative and interesting.  There was one time he called one of the chimps an "idiot" that seemed a little out of place in my opinion.

I did like that as the credits roll you see some footage of the videographers. 

It was Audrey's first movie.  She enjoyed the popcorn and nachos most of all, but found the "monkeys" pretty interesting.  The only sequences that seemed to bother her were the ones that included chimpanzees doing their "Oo, oo, oo, oo, AH, AH, AH, AHHH" thing.

Have you seen Chimpanzee?  What did you think?

 

May Days

These May days are beautiful, and look who completed her rough subject schedule for next year. 

What is filling up your May days? 

Farm Country

Jack finished a block on farm animals a week ago last Friday.  We read stories from Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson.  (You can read the entire book for free by clicking the preceding link!)  The stories were cute, informational, and had a good unstated morals.

We wrapped up the block with a field trip hosted by our local Waldorf homeschooling group to see baby animals.  There were baby goats, piglets, a lamb, a calf, and some full-sized animals.  We met some new friends and had a terrific time.

That's Em's hand stretching for a touch.  The baby goats were darling!

Have a nice day. :)

Learning Through Art

In our Waldorf inspired home school, I try to use art as a vehicle for instruction.  Our artistic endeavors include drawing, painting, sculpting, singing, drama and any other art inspired medium I can use to give our subjects depth.

Right now, my fourth grader is in the last half of her "Man and Animal" block (aka zoology.)  We have been using Dennis Klocek's book Drawing from the Book of Nature as a source for drawings to supplement our lessons.  I have been very pleased with the results of trying his techniques.  It has been very fun for me to learn right along with Emmeline.  Here are some examples of her work.

Jellyfish

Squid

Here is a picture we tried painting during our study of amphibians.  

Emmeline's rendition.

Using art as part of our academics seems to be making Emmeline more observant.  After we finished painting our frogs, she looked at mine and told me it looked more like a toad. She was toad-ally right!

Happy Thursday!

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday I got a NutriMill!  It's a grain grinder.

Now I can make breads and pancakes and waffles using my own fresh wheat flour.  Yay!  Now I can have food storage that we actually use and rotate through, too.  Yay!

The NutriMill will grind all sorts of grains and beans, but I've only used wheat so far.  There has been a little bit of a learning curve for me.  The first time I used it, I didn't have the flour bowl all the way in place and flour came flying out all over.  Oops.  

If you look at the photo above, the sign on the lid also says it may be a bit "sticky" and hard to open the first few times.  Um, that was an understatement.  It took five minutes and made my forearms bulge like Popeye's.  The flour is pretty, though, and feels very fine to the touch.

I think using fresh whole wheat flour will take some adaptation in my recipes.  I tried to make orange rolls on Saturday.  After adding the required amount of flour, my dough was still runny so I kept adding, and adding, and adding.  Needless to say, the orange rolls were rather small and heavy.  On Sunday morning I made waffles.  I put in the required one and three-fourths cups fresh whole wheat flour, but added one-fourth cup white flour.  The waffles turned out really well! 

Is it weird that I'm bothered that my waffles are only 87.5% whole wheat?

I've only had my NutriMill five days, but so far I'm very pleased with my purchase.  I bought mine on Amazon, but it's less expensive on the Bosch site (with free shipping, too.)

Do you grind your own grains?  What adaptations to you make for freshly ground wheat?  Have a terrific day!

My First Milo

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along today!

Milo is the name of a sweet little sweater vest I've seen around the internet.  The pattern was well written and it was very easy to knit.  Best of all, it had instructions for sizes ranging from newborn to age six!  I opted to do the Aran Braid in my accent strip, but there are five other cable patterns included in the instructions.  It was my very first cable knitting!

Robinson Crusoe is our family book.  It's wordy and the vocabulary streches us a bit, but everyone is enjoying it so far. My favorite thing about the family book is that my husband is the reader. I think the kids hear enough from me throughout the day!

What are you creating and reading right now?  :)

"The Purple Smell of Lilacs"

Smells

by Kathryn Worth

Through all the frozen winter

My nose has grown most lonely

For lovely, lovely, colored smells

That come in springtime only.

---

The purple smell of lilacs,

The yellow smell that blows

Across the air of meadows

Where bright forsythia grows.

---

The tall pink smell of peach trees,

The low white smell of clover,

And everywhere the great green smell

Of grass the whole world over.