Eileen on Him . . . at least, I try!

A Little Morning Homeschool Gratitude

I'd call this "Reason No. X Why I Love Homeschooling," but I've long since lost count.

It's nearly 8:30 in the morning. The other kids in this town are already in school. Yet here I am, calmly perusing the internet, savoring one more cuppa, while my children are still asleep. It's time to wake them up, though; this morning we have horseback riding lessons and library time, followed by a picnic lunch at a nearby playground.

Do we get a lot done academically around here? Sure. I'm actually pretty proud of the results we get in our little corner of the home school world. But it's on our own terms, at times we choose, in a manner that causes us as little stress as possible.

What's not to love?

Bluebirds!

It really is true -- if you build it, they will come!

Junie B. has been working on a notebook about New York State this year (stay tuned for some great "invented in New York" recipes!), and the bluebird is New York's official state bird. 

I've never seen a bluebird in my entire life.

So we decided to take a chance and put up a couple of bluebird houses back by the pond.

That's all we did, honest!  What is it about a little wooden box with a hole in it, stuck up on a pole?

We still haven't seen the birds, but check this out:

The nest is very deep, and it's hard to see inside it.  This picture was taken by holding the camera inside the box, directly over the nest, with the lens pointed down into it.  Neither the nest nor the eggs  were disturbed.

Now, I won't believe it 'til I see the birds for myself, but that nest and eggs sure look like the work of a bluebird!

Stay tuned!

A Few Good Bluebird Links:

How to make a bluebird nesting box

Do's and Dont's of attracting bluebirds

Bluebird nests and eggs

Bluebird song

Happy Birthday, Unka Noney!!

About a year and a half ago, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, requiring surgery, chemo, hair loss, the whole nasty works.

(artistic license taken by young Taz, then age 5, who was especially taken with her "short hair")

A year later, she's happy, healthy and, so far!, cancer-free.

And it's her birthday! Looks like we've got plenty to celebrate (and it's Friday the 13th -- same as the lucky day upon which you made your grand entrance into this world, isn't it?  Not that I was around to witness that or anything). 

Happy, happy birthday to my big (er -- guess that should say elder, you skinny thing) sis! 

What a treat to be able to say that!  :)

A Perfect "10"

My little Junie B. isn't quite so "little" anymore.

She's all of 5 feet tall ... and all of 10 years old!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

I love that you enjoy cooking and sewing and drawing and playing board games and singing, and I love doing them with you!

I love how helpful you are, with keeping up with housework and laundry (and your crazy little brothers) any time I ask.

I love that you are getting into nail polish and lip gloss and playing CDs to sing and dance with your friends.

I love your sorta funky, sorta preppie, sorta girlie-girl taste in clothes, and the wild way you wear your hair after a braid.

And I love that you still love to play with dolls and dressups and playdough, and to snuggle up together with a good book!

And oh, how I just love you!  What a wonderful 10 years it's been!

"We're so glad you came to live at our house!" :)

Wordless Wednesday: Outside My Window

Beautiful, Smart and at the Top of Her Game

Top of her class, too -- meet our local high school's Valedictorian, Class of 2009!

 

How truly blessed we are to have you in our family.  We're sooo proud of you, S-2!!!

Milestone: Extraction Via Jellybean

First lost tooth!  My little boy is growing up! :)

That tooth is especially significant.  When he arrived from Korea at just shy of 8 months old, we joked that Taz had come "accessorized" with two teeth.  (The other one is loose, too.)

(The jellybean was Junie's idea -- she recommended that Taz put a jellybean on his very loose tooth, then pull out the jellybean.  Heh -- it worked!  Who says candy is bad for your teeth? -- as long as what you want is for your teeth to come out ...) :)

Do You See What I See?!

Today was a beautiful, snowy day -- the perfect kind to throw away all other plans and head outside to study snowflakes (and a little physics, too -- my little ones are always ready to go sledding)!

I've been excited to try this snowflake preserving activity ever since Montessori Mom pointed the way last week (for some reason I'm unable to open http://blog.montessorimom.com/ but I'll update with the link if/when I can.  Her Snowflakes post was on Jan 3, in case you want to try connecting directly).  So we took the glass out of an unused dollar-store picture frame, grabbed a can of clear Krylon spray out of the closet and headed out to the barn!

I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but I can't say that our efforts resulted in "delicate white plastic snowflakes" that can be "carefully stored."  However, the snowflakes did adhere to the spray-coated glass, and when dry, left a few study-able snowflake imprints!

We don't own a "real" microscope (let alone one with photographic capacity), but we do have a little  mini-microscope (30x power -- I think it came with a kit).  We were so excited to actually be able to see snowflakes on our glass that I decided to try to take a picture through the eyepiece.

I'm actually rather amazed at the results -- check these out!

About That Carousel I Mentioned

Carousels are a very big deal with us.

Because The Chief and I met in front of one, almost 12 years ago.  (The meeting went exceptionally well.  Hence today's celebration!) :)

Junie, Taz and I spent a little time this week on little "carousel" projects in preparation for today's big event.

I downloaded pictures from this carousel coloring book sampler, and printed both a regular and a mirror image of each one the children chose to color. (There's also some great links about carousel history and construction, if you're interested!)

Then we colored them with cra-pas, decorated them with glitter and sequins, pasted them front-to-back on cardstock, and hung them from ...  the ceiling fan!!  (It is so silly and adorable that it actually made me cry!)  (Well, that and the fact that today's our 10th anniversary.  I'm sentimental like that.)  They've been airborn (on low speed) all day, dancing and twirling  as they fly, and I smile everytime I look at them.

Yesterday, Taz, Junie B. and I baked two chocolate cakes -- one in a tube pan, and one in a bowl.  We put them together last night with fudge filling, and then today we frosted and decorated it to make a cute carousel!  (The animals came from the kids' toy collection, and the poles are cut-up birthday candles.)  We're just so pleased with ourselves over how this came out!

Anyway, it feels a little like Christmas around here, with all the decorating, baking and celebrating. The Chief even took the day off from work!  We're having a wonderful time sharing memories and fun with our children.

"Our" time comes later.  I'm so excited to be having an "at home date night!"  We don't ever really do this -- partly because we're usually so dead tired by the time the kids are all settled, it's hard to even think about.  But no excuses -- tonight, we're night owls!  I can't wait.

Wordless Wednesday: Big Sister, Homeschool Style