Archive for 2008
Christmas Trees and a Tattered Green Elf
Christmas trees hold so many memories for me. I used to stare for hours at the huge Christmas tree that resided gloriously in the front of the small hometown country church when I was a kid. The decorations on it were antique probably, brought over by early German, Swedish and Norwegian immigrants. Fluffy cottony angels.…
Read MoreAfrica Maps and Glowing Saturday Mornings
Ghana, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, Togo… We have been studying Africa this month in geography. Taking a section of Africa at a time, we worked at learning the countries’ names, flags, location, and even the capitals, partly. West Africa, North Africa, East Africa have been worked on, now we are moving…
Read MoreA Family of Pumpkins Arrived Yesterday
All through school yesterday, we were excited for the afternoon break when we could carve our pumpkin faces. Finally, it was time. School was done, and my husband walked in the door with the pumpkins. What pumpkins! There were four good-sized pumpkins, with two of them being huge! My oldest son (the only son that…
Read MoreSmoky Woodfires and Latin Hips
Walking to the mailbox, my daughter and I breathed in the crisp fall air happily, taking in big gulps of it. “Doesn’t that smell great, Mom?” she said. I agreed, inhaling deeply, trying to distinguish the various scents in the air. Smoky wood fires, cold fallen leaves on the fresh cut green grass, and an…
Read MoreBobbing Bottles in an Autumn River
Yesterday the kids and I walked and rode bikes out to the river. My daughter had just read about Matthew Maury, the father of oceanography from the 1850s and his research to chart the paths of the seas. Maury’s method was to drop bottles into the oceans, then note where they turned up later, learning…
Read MoreWind Chimes in the Evening Breeze
We just got back from swim team practice. The kids that can walk have brushed their teeth and headed to bed. Daughter makes last minute door barricades to stop the cats from shoving her door open and playing in her room at night. A plastic Lego bin lid stands upright as a shield to block…
Read MoreA Brush with Thrush
Last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, baby D and I were battling a brush with thrush. Gentian violet (sp?) was highly recommended to us by a nurse friend. The bright purple-blue stain was hilarious to us those three dosing days. Schooling has been fun this week. We finished “The Call of the Wild,” learned about the…
Read MoreScience Labs and Swimwear
Wednesday we started homeschooling. It was a great day of science, geography, literature, Language Arts and more. For J’s science, we had a cool lab experiment that broke down water molecules and altered copper into copper hydroxycarbonate. (In other words, his end of the copper wire, after being charged with a battery and baking soda…
Read MoreWhisked Away by a Song
Her little red car sped us to the airport. My sister drove, my brother was up front, and I sat in the back. “I want to show you this song,” she told us. Popping in a cd, the mournful, blended harmonies of The Weepies filled the car. The outside air seemed misty, cool, grey. After…
Read MoreBaby is Home!
We just got home with our new son. See facebook for pictures and details! (More secure)
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