Einstein and Cheese Puffs

2006-10-03T18:30:00.000-05:00

SAT prep today with Boy. Rather exhausting. He had a good attitude - I just found it exhausting - rigidly observing time limits, not interfering, not explaining, not helping. Very different from our typical learning days, which I guess are sort of like a liberal arts college - lecture, learning together, immersing ourselves in a topic.

2006-09-29T19:15:00.000-05:00

I spent a lovely afternoon with Boy. We did two lessons in AP Physics, several citizenship lessons, a lesson in Introductory Music Theory, and penmanship.

I loved doing the physics with him - he grasped the concepts immediately, and although I was completely lost from the get go, he figured acceleration, velocity, used vectors and all that jazz quite effortlessly. I mean, honestly, I never even thought of the concept of motion in one dimension or motion in two dimensions. Can you comprehend either this equation: = Dx / Dt = (xf - xi) / (tf - ti) or this one = Dv / Dt = (vf - vi) / (tf - ti) WTF? I can't even cut and paste all the characters. So, DH calls in to check on how the schooling is going and I'm just amazed. I'm saying how well Boy is doing and how impressed I am when he's never done any physics before. With his typical nonchalance, DH says "Well, actually, that's not true, hon. His whole life has been about applied physics, he's lived physics in nearly everything we've done, he just hasn't sat down with a textbook." OK, that makes it all clear to me.

2006-07-29T08:20:00.000-05:00

There will most likely be few, or no posts for August. DH and I had originally planned to take the month off and go away somewhere together - you know,we never had a honeymoon. Things are quiet here at home with Jessebear working and teaching full-time, Kyle not getting many hours at the orchard due to all the rain (poor farmers out here) and Abby's babysitting slowing down some. The local homeschool community sort of vanishes in July and August, unlike us, most people take the summer off. We just got the call informing us that my MIL is quite ill and going into the hospital tomorrow, so we are off to Texas to try and help out. Jessebear, the adult, will be in charge and will have to learn about winning over one's charges and not treating human beings like horses. It will be a good opportunity for all to grow and mature - if they so choose to see it as such. Or, there will be typical sibling interactions, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

2006-07-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

We just returned from camping on the shore - which was mostly quite lovely. Unfortunately, there were no warning signs posted anywhere, and while the girls were swimming, they got quite stung by many of these little devils http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_nettle
which is rather funny, because Bubba said it felt like she had gotten into a very large patch of Stinging Nettle. We've never seen any signs posted at the beach or the entrance to the state park, but after we had to get the ranger to come out and bring us some vinegar to treat the girls, posters suddenly appeared at the entrance and at the ranger stations. Since we've come home, we've been doing some reading on jellyfish. Another interesting site is http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/9608/jellyfish/

I must say - it put a bit of a damper on the camping trip. The girls did not feel well so we came home a day earlier than planned. Other than that, though, it was hot, sunny, hot and quite nice.

2006-06-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

Bubba babysat this morning. Boy worked in the orchard all day. Jesse worked at the barn. I ran Bubba around this afternoon after babysitting so she could get all her important errands done. Then it was time to pick Boy up at the orchard. We stayed a bit and picked strawberries. Mmmm, fresh strawberries.

Tomorrow, Bubba works at the orchard. Boy will get a computer day. Jesse will work at the barn. I have to prepare hors d'ouerves for a party in the evening, but I fully intend to enjoy the promised sun in the morning and the afternoon.

2006-06-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

Chess club today! In the nature preserve! So much better than being inside.

Kyle played two games at the same time, and Abby did her Pied Piper routine with the little ones after the games were over. She has Dave's golden touch with children, and mine with animals. It's funny seeing it in action.

They hung out and read at the nature preserve afterwards for around an hour. Pretty day, intermittent clouds, steamy warm. Felt soooo good to sweat.

2006-06-21T15:48:00.000-05:00

My first baby, darling Jesse girl turns 20 today.

Here she is, eleven years ago

And here she is, now

She is strong-willed, self-confident and assured. She works hard and has a way with horses (and most other animals). She is very good at selling, at networking and at writing, although she hates to write. She's imaginative, compassionate and very focussed. She sometimes treats her siblings like wayward horses, but she is mostly kind to them. She continues to be primarily self-taught, choosing to learn on her own, in her own way, rather than in groups and by rote. If she wants something, she figures out how to get it, the right way. She is moral, ethical and tries her best to live by the Golden Rule. She still cuddles up to me, gives me great hugs and sweet kisses on my cheek. Sometimes, after a long day at work, she'll just lean into me, like she did when she was little. She still talks to me, 'tho' less now than she used to.

Before I became pregnant with her, I dreamed of a baby like her, but I never dared hope I would have one. The first time I held her in my arms I was overwhelmed with such an intense and fierce love - I did not know it was possible to love anyone that way or that strongly. I have loved raising her, teaching her, living with her, watching her grow and learn. I am so proud of her and I love her so much. I wish and hope for the best for her, for her to find and nurture a good love, to be happy, to give back to this world, to grow and learn all of her days and to spread joy and peace in her path.

Happy Birthday, Jessebear!

2006-06-12T20:40:00.000-05:00

I had to work today, so the children took my cell phone and walked the five plus miles to the library.

It was beautiful today - nearly 70 degrees, sunny, not too windy. The children took back roads so they would not have to walk along the country highway, and along the way, they saw this

And then they saw this

And they frolicked a bit

2006-06-09T17:47:00.000-05:00

More Spring in New England

The little six-lobed plants below are a rather rare wildflower, Bloodroot. it was used by the native americans as a medicinal palnt. When you pick it, the sap runs red, like blood. Of course, we don't pick it as that is illegal. It has beautiful white flowers (should be blooming in the next few weeks).

2006-06-09T17:46:00.000-05:00

SPRING IN NEW ENGLAND

After six and one-half days of solid, often torrential, rain, the sun broke through unexpectedly this afternoon. Abby, Kyle and Julia went on a three hour walk, over thwe fields, through the woods and down by the lake.

2006-06-08T15:36:00.000-05:00

Ketsuka!

Our three white belts, ready for class. It looks like Dave may get tested for his yellow belt tonight - we'll see!

2006-06-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

Chess Club today! It was warm and sunny, so instead of meeting at the library, we all met at the nature preserve. After many chess games were played, the pirate ships came out for some, others trekked down to the pond to see what life they could catch, identify and release. Abby took the youngest ones through the museum after the pond adventure and Kyle hung out with the boys outside. A good day.

2006-05-28T18:09:00.000-05:00

Today was Jesse's first show in over two years. She did quite well, placing first in her classes. Abby was tremendously helpful as groom, and once Jesse calmed down, Jake did as well. It was blessedly sunny and quite warm, so believe it or not, we were all quite happy to be sweating.

2006-05-27T17:06:00.000-05:00

Sunny, breezy, warm today - an unexpected gift. It was supposed to thunderstorm much of the day.

Boy is helping Dad to wash his car. Lawn was mowed, walkway edged. Printer drivers reinstalled.

The girls have just left to go to their first concert - they're pretty excited. Jesse got three of her friends to go along, so there's strength in numbers. They're going to see Montgomery Gentry. I hope it is a good night.

And Jesse has her first horse show in well over a year tomorrow - excitement! Abby'll be her groom and Dave and I will show up to watch her.

2006-05-25T19:00:00.000-05:00

The children had their ketsuka class tonight. Kyle has refused to spar since he earned his white belt and could spar. He has decided to do jujitsu instead of sparring. I am happy he decided not to quit doing the martial arts - I could see what they were giving him.

Today was Abby's day off from babysitting and it was warm and sunny. After many days of rain, we're all a little sun and warmth starved, so they had a day free of seatwork. They frolicked outside, took the dog for a walk, practiced their katas outside and generally just enjoyed being alive.

2006-05-24T16:51:00.000-05:00

Abby went through a stage when she really like the bunny shirts. Now she thinks they are too mean, so she has edited hers.

She and Kyle hung out together and did their seatwork together today. It was so nice to have sun today, for them to be nice to each other and enjoy each other's company. Each day we have together is a blessing.

2006-05-12T19:54:00.000-05:00

No posting recently as it's been a challenging couple of weeks and we've been doing much life schooling. Jesse got in a severe motor vehicle accident last Wednesday. She's extremely lucky she lived, let alone walked away. Abby and Kyle had Chess Club the following day - we were trying to keep things as 'normal' as possible. Abby went to a dance at the local high school Friday, but unfortunately got hit by a nasty flu that night. She seemed to get better on Monday, then both she and Kyle were sick by Tuesday night. They attended their ketsuka classes on Tuesday (before they acknowledged being sick) and Thursday (when they were feeling much better). They've been reading much. Kyle has even been reading fiction! Historical fiction, but this is good for the boy who would much rather read technical manuals, National Geographics or history books. This week has been rather quiet albeit very grey and rainy. We've just been trying to regroup, recover and be grateful. Very, very grateful.

2006-04-28T20:13:00.000-05:00

Rather quiet day. Sunny, cool. Abby and I left early to feed the horses we are watching for Christine. Abby picked the stalls to make it easier on Jesse tonight as she will have to feed Christine's horses and clean their stalls, feed Al's horses and feed the black cat - all after working half the day at the barn she manages and the other half day at the toy store. Abby got dropped off at her Friday babysitting job where the children were in the process of getting their hair cut. She said they were so adorable. Dave and Boy spent most of the day repairing Uncle Mike and Aunt Paula's computer so they can take it home with them when they come visit Sunday. They'll be awfully happy - they've been computerless for months and thought it was a lost cause - but we have Dave, so there is hope, always!

We had a treat, Kyle, Abby and I - a nice lunch out with Dave. After we got home, Abby and Tombo fell asleep on my bed while I tried to plan out the menu for the next two weeks - but their sleep rays socked me, too and I had a little nap. How decadent!

Jess just got home a little bit ago and the three white belts left to set up for the tournament tomorrow. It'll be Dave's first tournament - we're all excited. Jess has to work, but she'll be there in spirit. I'll join them there after I feed horses, so I think I'll go bake something for their breakfast tonight. Hmmm - muffins or oatmeal cake?

2006-04-27T20:02:00.000-05:00

Dave, Bubba and Boy had Ketsuka class tonight. Boy got tested - we knew it was coming, you just never know when it will be. He scored high and got his white belt! So, now there are three white belts in the family. Bubba and Dave had good sparring matches. Kyle will be able to spar when his equipment comes in. I'll post a picture of all three as soon as he gets his gi.

2006-04-26T19:57:00.000-05:00

Boy turned 15 today!

Half boy, half man, all loveable.

We enjoyed a quiet celebrationtonight. His aunt, uncle and cousin are coming down Sunday to celebrate, so he'll get another birthday cake and some spoiling.

2006-04-25T15:03:00.000-05:00

It was supposed to rain today and be cold - but we got a reprieve - at least until tonight, that is. The sun started weakly poking through the clouds about 8:15 this morning, then it grew in strength. By the time I had to drop Abby off to babysit at 10 it was starting to get warm. We looked at each other and decided that we would go groom Spencer and Cherokee. While she babysat, Kyle did his math and a chore or two, I did some laundry and rode the bloody exercise bike (IhateitIhateitIhateit) and then just after noon we met Bubba at the barn. She cleaned and organized the barn because its dissarray offended her, Kyle curried and brushed Spencer in the barn (because Spencer was terribly jealous that I was grooming Cherokee and would not stop nibbling me all over, pulling my hair and rubbing up against me. Believe me, you really feel it when a 16 hand 'teenage' horse rubs up against you). While Kyle paid some attention to Spencer, I used the shedding blade on Cherokee, then curried and brushed her. She was a very happy horse and her white positively glowed while her black was nearly black - no longer mud-soaked brown. As I sit here and write this post, the lovely scent of horsey mud is rising up from the bottoms of my jeans. I am gritty and dusty and it feels lovely.

After the horses were all clean and the barn neat, Abby and I free lunged them. How they loved it - they did not want to stop! So, they got an extra long workout and then came over and blew all over us. And then, because the flies were so bad, we sprayed them. After some initial panicking, Spencer settled down and let Bubba spray him all over. Cherokee, who would not let anyone near her with a spray bottle, let Bubba and I sweet talk her and let Bubba spray her legs, belly, back and neck. We felt it best not to spray her head, so Bubba sprayed it into her hand and then rubbed it on Cherokee's face, into and around her ears and her forelock. We praised the mare and she arched her neck, clearly proud that she had been brave enough to endure this terrible torture. And then we had to praise Spencer again, because he got jealous that Cherokee was being praised.

I wish I had brought the camera with me - it was such a beautiful time.

2006-04-24T15:03:00.000-05:00

Monday. Grey, cold, wet. Uck. But, the warm weather last week and the torrential rain on Saturday have forced Spring's hand. Fruit trees are just breaking into blossom, the maples have popped their flowers (for those of you who don't live in the Great Northland, most maple trees blossom before they pop out leaves). Some of the grass is even starting to green up in places, and some other trees and bushes are beginning to pop their buds. It is looking less grey and a little more green here. One's heart begins to swell with joy as the green comes.

Jess was to be alone at the barn today, and the vet was coming, so she brought Abby along to ride Jake. Give the chubby quarterhorse his workout. And, if she plays her cards right, Abby will help out. That big sister/little sister dynamic. Gotta control it - and it's hard when you're the oldest and you know everything. Just spoke to Abby and she sounded happy (yippee!). She said "I forgot how fun it is to ride!" Well that's good. She may be moving beyond her tendency towards perfectionism - which means her riding will improve if she relaxes. Good, good. And no acerbic comments about big sister. Good, good.

I had to run into the office this morning and punch out some work, so I left Kyle with a detailed list of specific chores and schoolwork to complete before he could turn on The Computer. Although I did initially get a little attitude, when I got back an hour-and-one-half later, I was pleasantly surprised to find a cheerful, happy boy who gave me one of his rib-crushing bearhugs and who had completed 80% of the list! What joy! Yet another surprise awaited me - when I asked him to come along while I ran some errands, he cheerfully agreed! No complaining, no trying to sneak computer time. He wanted to be with me, was delightful company while we were out, very helpful and now that we have returned is finishing his math. What an about-face from Friday morning. Is that like the coolest, or what? I am on Mommy Cloud Nine. TYG.

2006-04-21T16:12:00.000-05:00

Abby went off to babysit her charges this morning and romp in the sun with them. Kyle was resistant to editing his newspaper article, so he, his dad and I had a talk. You know what kind of talk, the kind that takes over an hour, is calm and involves concepts like responsibility, effects, consequences, how choices you make now affect you long term. yes, one of those. They can be rather draining, but they are periodically necessary when you are parenting. It had an effect, though. Kyle quite cheerfully did an edit, then found on his own the punctuation and structure mistakes he had missed and corrected them. And, even better, when Abby got home from babysitting, he was pleasant, cheerful and non-confrontational. Abby worked on her article - it did not take long and did a little cleaning and all was peaceful. How nice.

It was warm and sunny - not as warm as yesterday, but low 60's is still pretty respectable, so I shooed Abby and Kyle outside. Let them soak up sunshine, tramp through the woods, wade in the river and be free. There'll be many more days for seatwork. And some important lessons were grasped today. One can't see them on paper - but they shine through all the same.

We're scheduled to have rain and cold (near freezing temps) for the next four days, so I'm sure we'll all be glad for the sun we got today. The trees are still just on the brink of budding, and the only blossoms are the occasional bulb or forsythia. Soon, though, spring will be here. Soon.

2006-04-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

Today was chess club. We had a good turnout - there were six games going on at once during much of the hour-and-a-half! It was hard for me (and Dave) to be inside, as today was utterly beautiful, sunny, breezy and 74 degrees!!!!!! A veritable heat wave!

Abby went off to babysit after, Kyle and Dave came home and cut up the tree in the river and dragged it out onto shore. When it dries a little more, it'll be cut up for firewood. Heat for next winter.

The three of them, Dave, Abby and Kyle are at ketsu-ka class now, Abby had her first spar on Tuesday, Dave had his first judo lesson on Tuesday, and Kyle is getting closer to being tested for his white belt. They'll be coming home, all happy and relaxed in about half-an-hour.

Jess got home from work a little bit ago and is showering. She's going to go watch her friend Veronica bowl and cheer her on. Exciting social life here in the sticks!

That's about it here - Abby and Kyle have been working on their newspaper submissions most of the week. The submissions are due tomorrow, and then Kyle will be editing the newspaper before it goes to print.

2006-04-19T20:58:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I found a moving charity project for a little girl named Grace, who had luekemia but is in remission. You can find out more at her aunt's blog- Two Wooden Sticks and a Ball of Wool: Warming Grace . Abby is going to join me in knitting 5" squares to donate, so we'll have to take a run to the LYS and get some soft pinks and purples in wool and cotton. We have plenty of green, white and red in wool and beige in cotton, but no pinks and purples.

2006-04-15T19:14:00.000-05:00

Such a nice day. Sunny, birds singing, gentle breeze blowing, lovely fluffy white clouds sailing across a beautiful blue sky. Just makes me so happy to be alive! I got up before Dave, Bubba and Boy - Jesse had already left for work at 6:30 this morning, and kept company by the cats made brunch. It seemed like a good day for muffins from scratch, so I had a lovely cup of coffee while I mixed up the batters.

After I made some spice muffins, blueberry muffins and the evil chocolate muffins, I sat in the sun by the back door, sniffing a spring breeze, eating chocolate and drinking Earl Grey Tea . . . what a good way to start a day.

Then, Bubba and I hung out in the yard, chatting. She had brought out her art pad and pencils to draw but just lay in the sun and talked while I knitted. It was good time. Tombo came by to visit us and roll in the gravel.

We could hear Boy and Dave talking inside about military strategy, then about the game they were playing together online. It got up to a very rare 71 degrees today, and the ground was quite wet as it was melting up. The river was roaring and Bubba went on down and found or woodstove and dock which had been swept away in the big flood a few months back. She took great joy in wading down the river and floating one of the dock pieces back up, then dragging it up onto shore. She plans to get Kyle to help her drag up the other dock piece and the woodstove on Monday, and then they'll trek down the river a little later to the swamp and see if they can find the rest of the dock and our adirondack chairs which were also swept away.

Sunset came to quickly for us who are sun-starved, but we can still hear the birds calling every now and then as they go to sleep. The Great Horned Owls are nesting, so they are calling, and we get to hear the screeching of amorous raccons along the riverbed. The foxes are also barking, so the sounds of life are all around us - a lullaby I enjoy. Except for the racoons.

2006-04-14T20:48:00.000-05:00

Bit of a challenging week - but a very successful unschooling week. We've had major computer troubles, so we've completely rebuilt and swapped around all the computers - well, not Bubba's (and I say we loosely, as I have been mostly Step and Fetch It and running the office because compared to Dave, Bubba and Kyle {the resident geeks}, I am rather computer illiterate - although to most of the moms I know, I am rather geeky - life is contradiction). So, we've been flashing the BIOS and reformatting and wiping and reformatting and removing hard drives and installing harddrives and installing video cards and sound cards and then partitioning drives and reconfiguring and wow, I am getting worn out just typing this. But, now, success.
The computer at the office is all set up and operating perfectly (yes, that is a bit of an euphemism when one is dealing with the Evil Empire, Microsoft) - we took the old HP bought in 2001(read obsolete) (which used to be the office computer until the power supply died several months ago) , replaced the dead power supply, swapped out the hard drive from the newer computer (which used to be Kyle's - Kyle having gotten a new computer when we needed to take his for the office when the HP died), brought the newer computer home and put the hard drives from the 2003 Dell(read obsolete) (which used to be our home office computer) into it so it would be our at home work computer. Then we took the Dell and set it up for Jesse, as she has been computerless (and very vocal about that situation - 'tho, to my annoyance, has had no interest in putting any of her money toward remedying that situation - clothing, ice cream and anything horse being much more important uses of her earnings), but Dave, ever the Dad, felt badly for her and wanted her to have a computer. I'm sure that the many evening arguments between the girls over whether or not Jesse could push Abby off of her computer so she could look at pictures of saddles and boots and read online comics had nothing to do with his decision. And you may wonder why Kyle and Abby have their own computers? Well, Dave feels that they need to be very familiar and comfortable with them as they would be severely disadvantaged in their adult lives without that knowledge base. He feels the future belongs not just to the computer literate, but to the computer savvy - which makes that rather large luddite part of me shiver - but, I have learned to trust his instincts, which almost always turn out to be eerily accurate. And to that end, they were very involved with the formatting and wiping and hardware and software swapping and loading and deleting and all that. Kyle, at points was running the formatting completely on his own. Abby has no qualms about opening up her cpu, removing one video driver and installing another one. And, they both have figured out how to hack into their own computers to do things like remove parental passwords set up so that the computer can't be used until seatwork is done (which infuriated me, but made Dave very happy - although he never let them know it) or to figure out just where spyware or BHOs (browser hijacker objects) were hiding after failing to remove them with the cleaning programs. So, that took up the last four-and-one-half days and quite a large chunk of the nights as well. But, knock on wood, all systems seem to be running well. I just have to get my desktop shortcuts and email account set back up on my user account on my computer (the work at home and spousal sharing computer).
One would think that children having their own computers would lead to them spending extremely large amounts of time - too much time - on them every day and doing nothing else of value. I, at least, was very concerned - but keep in mind I was also the one in this relationship who wanted to get rid of the tv when I got pregnant with baby number one and remove all refined sugar from the house. I lost on both points because of Dave's overwhelming logic. After the first week of what seemed to me to be non-stop computer usage, the children lessened their time on the computers substantially with each passing week. Many days go by without them ever getting turned on. They do a lot of research on them as we have a very small country public library. Abby is quite thrilled that she can find entire books online which she cannot get at our library (like the complete Grimm's Fairy Tales). Yes, there are days where Kyle, a typical teenage boy, would like to spend the entire day gaming as well as days like today where Bubba, engulfed in the seemingly bottomless enoui which comes with being 16, spends much of the day drawing on the computer, but those days are not that often. They are more likely to be found outside or practicing their katas or reading or cooking then on the computer. And, I guess, at the heart of it is also my belief that they will have to learn to manage their time, their responsibilities and their resources at some point in their lives - and if they figure it out now instead of when they are thirty - well - that'll be good for them. Because, in the end, I think most parents want their children to have a better life than they had - and that does not necessarily mean financially. But that's a discussion for another time and this post has been more than long enough.

2006-04-12T19:01:00.000-05:00

When we put the house on the market last year, we packed out most of our possesions and put them in storage. When the house didn't sell, we brought all those boxes home from the storage area and put them in the garage which had been remodeled into a workout room. Clearly, it is no longer a workout room. unless you count the workout the cats get when they escape into the garage and spend two hours climbing all over the boxes and mewing pitifully to be released - which can not be heard unless one is standing right outside the door, which usually happens after one of says "Hey - I haven't seen the cats for about two hours - have you?" So, keeping in mind there is a two foot clearance the length of the garage for egress, you can imagine how many boxes there are in there. Today, the children and I (then Dave at the end) sorted, shifted, moved and brought out into the driveway all the boxes in what turned out to be, by the end of the day, a vain attempt to locate the Windows XP cd which magically went missing when we were packing out the house. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Microsoft and how much I miss the Apple we used to have before my husband decided to go to law school and we had to convert to the Evil Empire? Perhaps, one day, I will post a sonnet about my hatred for the Evil Empire, but I digress. At any rate, Kyle, being true to his gender said in all seriousness "Just throw all my boxes out" before going back inside to help his father. Being the mother, I could not. The thought of his little wooden trucks and his legos and his fair ribbons being summarily thrown out, never to be shared with his future wife and children saddened me immensely, so I tucked them all back into the garage. Abby kept nearly all her boxes out and as I unpacked all our linens and much of my kitchenware, she went through them, sorting out toys which she no longer wanted in order to donate them to some charity (once we figure out who will take them). She kept up a running conversation with me about all her treasures and how funny it was when she was little that toys were so important and she could not ever imagine giving up any of them, but now, she only wanted to keep the most special. She took pains to put aside a nice assortment for the four little ones she babysits, and she took care to try and figure out what each child would like. I enjoyed this time with her, listening to her, seeing her maturing before my eyes, feeling the sun on my skin, smelling the fresh scent of spring and listening to the birds. It was a beautiful afternoon, I hope I remember it when I am very old.

2006-04-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

Today is mild and sunny - such a nice break after many days of cold rainy yuckiness.

The house is peaceful now as Kyle is doing his math, sharing the sunspot with Otis the dog (AKA Woogie).

Tiger Lilli, Kyle's cat is curled up in a ball on my bed as I do the time entry for the office. Abby was reading this morning, but now she's finally off to take her shower - now that her big sister has, at last, freed up the bathroom. Her cat, Tombo, is sleeping on her bed. Abby is so blissfully happy because we found a volume of the complete Shakespeare at Borders (for 30% off of $19.99 - gotta love that educator's discount and extra coupon).

As this is Jesse's one day off, she has headed off to meet up with her friend Veronica for about an hour, then she'll work a shift at the toy store this afternoon and, at the end of the day, wind up at the barn she manages, feeding Spencer and Cherokee and then cleaning out the barn.

2006-03-21T14:20:00.000-05:00

Overheard this morning:

Abby (while folding laundry): Why does Dad have to have so many fricking dark blue socks? It's impossible to match them.

Jesse chokes on pineapple, spewing juice all down her shirt.

Kyle: What's so funny? I just don't get it.

2006-03-09T13:54:00.000-05:00

<--- The T station

Good day yesterday. Our drive up to Beantown was uneventful. We decided to park outside of the city and take the T in as Dave thought it would be highly unlikely that there would be parking spots or an open lot near our first stop. The 5W!TS was fun. At first, we all looked at each other and thought "This is so lame - we're all too old for this" but, once we got into the "tomb", it was actually fun and the kids did enjoy themselves, although Kyle had to say afterwards for pride's sake "that was so lame". He later recanted, of his own free will.

So, we walked from there up to Back Bay, then took the T up to Union Street and had lunch at the Union Oyster House. I think they have the best clam chowder anywhere. Then, after discussing taking the T out to the cars at night, we decided to take T back to the cars and drive in to the Fine Arts Museum where we spent several hours happily immersed in art. The kids peeled off and Dave and I wandered through the asian art galleries. Abby did not feel she spent enough time with the art, of course. Kyle, typically, was very happy to leave the museum and felt that it couldn't have happened sooner. Jesse, typically, was disgusted and annoyed by Kyle's existence. Kyle leaned too far over an exhibit to look at something and set off an alarm. I had a piece of chocolate tort and a lovely cup of Earl Grey tea to cope with this terrible humiliation. And then we drove home, tired, but mostly happy.

Bubba and Daddy in one of the Asian Art Galleries

Today, we rest and recover. Julia spent the night as we got back around 11:30 PM.

2006-03-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

Excitement reigns. We're taking off to Beantown tomorrow morning, and not only is Julia coming along but we are also lucky enough to have Dave with us as well. The children are so excited!

2006-03-03T18:45:00.000-05:00

Our friend Julia came over for a visit today - we were very happy to see her! She's on spring break from the private school she goes to, so we'll get to spend a little time with the girl we jokingly call our 'adopted' daughter. She was sad when she came through the door and it did not take long to find out that it was because PJ "Kitty" had passed on Monday. The poor old lady was over 21 years old, and she brought a lot of happiness into our friends' lives with her gentle, girly kitty ways. She was always good company, always there to greet you when you came in the door and quite the cuddler. She was the easiest and sweetest pet to sit. She will be greatly missed and I'm certain that she is very happy in the great catnip field in the sky chasing mice and watching birds.

2006-03-03T12:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a snow storm moved in and the state shut down around noon. Yes, that's right, the whole state. We got a total of about six inches - but that is because we are at a higher elevation. I think most towns in the state got quite a bit less. It's nice, though, the way everything gets quiet when it snows - like a thick blanket lain over your world. Out here, in the country, you can even hear the snow falling sometimes. We could, last night.

It's brilliantly sunny, windy and rather cold today - 22 degrees in the sun when the wind isn't blowing. But hey - it's March, and here in New England you know what that means - spring will surely arrive next month - at worst after Easter. Granted, we usually get snowfall on Easter morning, but that's a last hurrah (or a last $%&# you) from Old Man Winter.

So, the spawn are snowshovelling the piddly snowfall we got and the wind is helping by whipping it all around. Otis is also helping by running around like a moron - his usual behavior for snow days. The cats are sleeping in the sun spots - sun drunk and love-y.

Here is Otis, briefly looking noble.

We'll wrap up the last of our seatwork today and Abby has her dance class tonight. Kyle is looking forward to being done with his seatwork so he can chat with his mates in England and Australia while they play computer games together.

2006-03-01T14:47:00.000-05:00

Great. No really. Just after writing the last post, Kyle brings me his seatwork. With a smile. Not one lesson, but three. Completed. In under two hours. Guess that talk about wasting time on worrying about not wanting to do rote work was heard. Boy grew up a little today. No guarantee it will carry past today.

Abby's on her last book of geometry - which is senior level high school. That's good. She has to finish her expository essay this week. And then we get to learn about persuasive writing!

2006-03-01T13:03:00.000-05:00

This is what we used to call a Mexican Standoff when I was a kid. Happens most mornings. See the pain in Tombo's eyes? He just wants a friend to play with. Lilli, however would have absolutely no problem with Tombo just upping and dying one day. Preferably in some painfully grotesque way.

Some days, just getting through the basics is a challenge. Kyle just doesn't want to do his seat work. He's bucking me at every turn. Now, sometimes I can let it go, free him up and figure that we'll attack it another day. But, he's been pushing it since last Thursday - he doesn't want to work - he wants to do his own thing.

Ah well, parenting isn't always easy. It's just kind of funny that he'll expend so much energy on trying to convince me to let him go when just a fraction of that energy could be used to complete the actual work - whether it's a chore like the litterbox or dusting or completing twenty bloody math problems. That would take him TWENTY.BLOODY.MINUTES.

Hmmm . . . kind of reminds me of a certain nineteen-year-old. But, I'd have to say I'd still rather be doing this than working in the law office. Yup, hands down.

2006-02-28T22:12:00.000-05:00

Today, Kyle learned about writing Expository Essays. The actual teaching took about fifteen minutes.

It took him six hours, a nap, another nap, a stomach ache, playing with the cat, playing with the dog, swinging on the chin-up bar, swinging on the weight machine, three meals, oh, and another nap to write it. He really wanted to be on the computer - as in gaming. He was rebeling. But I was patient, I was firm, I was kind. And he sat down and wrote the essay in ten (!) minutes after Dad came home. Didn't have to say a word to Dad or him- he just decided to finish it - and gave me an awfully nice, unsolicited apology for procrastinating. But he gave the essay to Dad to read first. Which meant my editing comments could not be worse than his father's.

But, at any rate, here is his first draft - rather cute:

How to clean the wood stove, it's not hard. The reason you would clean the wood stove is because of creosote, a flammable residue from burning wood, especially pine and other evergreens. It builds up over time and can cause chimney fires if not taken care of. That's why today we have powder and substances that we put in our fires to make the creosote hard and inflammable. Then it gets all clogged up in the vents of the stove and makes it so it can't get enough air.

To clean the stove you have to let it go out by opening the flume and turning the air all the way up. Sometimes you have to open the door(s) to let more air in if it's not going well. Once it's out you let it cool off to a comfortable temperature so that you can safely touch the inside without being burnt.

You will need one thing to clean it, your hands, although a shop vac would help. What you have to do is open the side vents internally and scrape out the creosote with your hands. But before you do that you have to get rid of all the excess ash and coals lying in the bottom, preferably with the shop-vac. Then you make sure all the creosote that you can get out with your hand i.e. the big chunks, are out. Now you use the shop-vac to suck out all the smaller pieces and powder.

Once it's all cleaned out you have to re-light it and make sure it works. Don't forget to put the vent covers back on. After it's going it's clean and this should really be done every two weeks or so or when the weather permits it. I'm not really an expert though so you don't have to take my word for it.

Now as you can see cleaning the wood stove isn't that hard, it just requires a little effort and doesn't take very long. It needs to be done as well as emptying the ashes to avoid clogging and to maintain performance from your stove.

Abby babysat her four little charges today. How she loves them. They made chocolate chip cookie bars and had a tea party. When she came home, she made us some chocolate chunk craisin cookie bars, using the same recipe, from memory. I was impressed with her remembering the recipe over a several hour period.

Abby and I discussed the upcoming fieldtrips, and as we are going to the FBI Field Office on Friday, she has ballroom dance class on Friday night, and we are going to Bean Town next Wednesday for the day, we decided it was best not to go to Braille Press tomorrow, but instead go in May. Life must be close to sane, or at least an attempt made. And today sort of wrung me out.

2006-02-22T21:11:00.000-05:00

Great chess game with Abby. Ended in a draw. Had each other's Kings on the run for about forty minutes.

Abby and Kyle were competing good naturedly to see who would finish their math first - Kyle won.

Going to study Egyptian tombs a little before our fieldtrip on the 8th.

2006-02-21T17:42:00.000-05:00

Good chess game with Kyle - he beat me!

Chugging along with math and writing.

2006-02-18T01:53:00.000-05:00

Abby, Kyle and I went out to Borders and found a couple of glass chess sets (the chess club was low on sets yesterday). With my teacher's discount, they were $6.46 each! What a steal!

2006-02-16T20:42:00.000-05:00

Chess club met today! Good turn-out. Dave gave a good brief talk on strategy and how peices move. He spent a couple hours last night drafting up several hand-outs for the children.

Abby had refused to go, but now that Dad is going to be there, she's all excited.

They came home, pumped and talkative. Good day.

2006-02-10T17:42:00.000-05:00

We've been discussing foreign languages. Neither Kyle or Abby are interested in learning Russian or Farsi (economically viable) or Spanish ( which I have a base in). Kyle wants to learn German and Abby wants to learn Japanese or Chinese, but has decided that it makes more sense to learn German. I need to do research on language programs, but I think I am leaning toward Rosetta Stone - reviews have it as the best one out there. I know, it's not as good as immersion, but I don't think there's a chance we could go to Germany for a year or so to learn the language. We'll have to settle on cds or computer.

2006-02-08T14:33:00.000-05:00

Nothing exciting here - just going through the usual math and writing, planning field trips, chores, daily life, conflict resolution. Same ol', same ol'.

Waiting to hear back if Julia can go with us on a field trip in March to an egyptian tomb and the art museum.

2006-02-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

Oh, what a lovely day it was! We got a late start because it was requested that I witness some documents for a friend, but we made it to the museum only an hour after opening, so we had five whole hours left to spend there. Abby still felt that wasn't long enough . . .

First daughter decided to join us instead of job-hunting, so, she and Bubba peeled off and toured the museum on their own while Kyle stayed with me. That meant no sibling fighting and a very nice boy keeping me company, reading along with me and actually showing interest. All in all, a very nice time. We were particularly impressed by the way Rodin showed not only the muscles and form of the human body, but by the way he could show emotion in his sculptures.

There was no time for sitting, or knitting, as we spent four hours walking through nearly every exhibit, the spawn showing me some of their new favorites, or remembered favorites from previous visits (we've not visited in three or four years). Of particular highlight were three new things: a mummy; an 18th century dress and an art collection of Edward Gorey's .

Some links for Auguste Rodin: http://www.musee-rodin.fr/welcome.htm (this one has a great education guide you can download - 22 pages!) http://www.cantorfoundation.org/Education/edu.html

2006-02-01T22:12:00.000-05:00

Spent most of the day reviewing math and writing with Kyle and researching material on Rodin. We're taking a trip to the art museum tomorrow to see the new exhibit on Rodin - excitement! I'm planning on bringing my knitting along and peacefully knitting surrounded by art while they complete the scavenger hunt and puzzles I've put together for them. Abby says she would gladly live at an art museum, Kyle is moderately enthusiastic about the trip. Jesse is going to stay home and jobhunt.

2006-01-27T14:40:00.000-05:00

Researching computer language textbooks and learning software. Kyle would like to write game code. Uncle Malcolm is being very helpful in his suggestions and we've found some pretty impressive free online tutorials. It appears that in order to write game code, Kyle will have to learn C, C++, Open GL and Lua. He should probably learn Assembly language as well. Hmmm . . .