Pine Mountain Wild Safari

You never know what's going to happen when Uncle Jim invites you to an animal park.  In my mind I was picturing a zoo-type environment - even after we pulled up to the premises.  The parking lot was packed full of cars, and all the people walking around seemed regular enough.  I easily convinced myself we were all there to look at the animals - like at a zoo.

I started getting confused when Uncle Jim said we needed to get back in the car.  In my innocence I mentioned something about never having visited a zoo in my car before.  He still chose to let the experience speak for itself, and I found out pretty quickly, being the driver and pulling through the grate and being greeted by a mass of very large animals with horns, that this was NOT a zoo!!

I was definitely taken off-guard when above mentioned mass of very large horned-animals started putting their heads in my window and licking their slobbery tongues all over the exterior of the car.  I had a moment of panick when I realized we were completely trapped.  What was I supposed to do - barrel through and risk running over hooves?  Not to mention all the commotion within my own car since none of the children were buckled and all of us were amazed at what was happening.

Exam Night

I am excited about our first ever exam night.  We are making a big deal about it and preparing by remembering together the things we've been learning so far this year.  We will make a special dinner and dessert, then the kids will begin!!

Here it is (based on an exam from the Ambleside website, though adapted to fit our study).

Ambleside Online Exam Questions Year 3 Term 1

Bible

1. Tell about Queen Esther and the role she played in saving the Jews. (Aida)
2. Tell about why we use a “Jesse Tree” for our advent devotionals. (Benjamin)

Writing/Penmanship

     Copy "The queen went stumping along in one shoe of stone and one of skin.” (Both)

History

1. Tell about John Calvin and his contributions to the Protestant Reformation while in Switzerland in the 1500s. (Aida)
2. Tell about the Bishop martyrs, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer, during the reign of “Bloody Mary” in the mid 1500s. (Benjamin)
3. Tell about some of the most important contributions made by John James Audubon in the field of ornithology. (Aida)
4. Tell about Leonardo Da Vinci and explain what it means to be considered a “Renaissance Man.” (Benjamin)

          

Tales

1. Tell your favorite part of The Princess and the Goblin. (Both)
2. Tell the story of Paul Bunyan. (Benjamin)
3. Tell the story of Davy Crocket. (Aida)

Shakespeare

1. Tell the story of the Taming of the Shrew. (Aida)

Geography

1. Tell about Marco Polo's boyhood. (Benjamin)
2. Tell about Marco Polo’s journey to China. (Aida)
3. Draw the shape of the earth, and show where the hot countries are and where the cold ones are. (Both)
4. Draw North America, and label the Equator, the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Science

1. What is the difference between plankton and algae? (Aida)
2. What kind of animal is Pagoo? (Benjamin)
3. Name at least 3 other animals Pagoo meets during his adventures. (Both)
4. Name and tell about all the birds you see at the feeding station. (Aida)
5. Name and tell about the snakes we’ve had in our yard since August. (Benjamin)

Reading Skill

     Father or friend to select a passage for student to read aloud.

Arithmetic (Questions from your math program may be substituted.)

1.  What number is made up of seven hundreds, four tens and five ones?

2.  What is the sum of 69 + 57?

3.  5 x __ = 35.

4. Skip count by 9’s, 3’s, and 6’s.

Foreign Language

1.  Count to ten in Spanish. (Both)

2. Sing “In Noah’s Arc” in Spanish (Both)

Picture Study

     1. Describe one thing you’ve learned about in art at Master’s Academy. (Both)

Recitation

1.   Recite the poem you memorized for our writing co-op. (Both)

2.  Recite the Bible passage you memorized for our advent service. (Both)

Music

  Play a Christmas Carol on the piano / violin. (Both)

Home Sweet Home

We moved!  Ok, so we officially moved on August 2nd, but I'm just now getting around to taking pictures of everything.  At first I thought I would take pictures after the painting was done and the furniture was all arranged, and then I thought I should wait until we had the artwork on the walls, then I thought I should at least wait until the entire house was clean, and finally I threw up my hands in the air and decided to take pictures of the way things are right now.  This of course means that the breakfast dishes are left out on the dining table, dishes are sprawled across the counter because we are trying to address a small rodent issue, the library is full of the morning's schoolwork, the patio has black-walnut hulls littered around, etc., etc.  I haven't hung hooks or artwork in any of the bedrooms yet, and there are a few more "moving in" things on our list.  But we are not in any hurry, and we are trying to enjoy the process of making our first home reflect us.

The lady who lived in the house before us was an avid gardener, and she loved flowers.  We have been enjoying countless bouquets of fresh flowers ever since we moved in.  Each month something new starts to bloom in some quiet corner of the yard.  I hope I can learn how to take care of them all so they don't die :)

This is the view from the front steps, and the children can often be found with their nature notebooks and binoculars here.  The morning I took these we had seen a group of downy woodpeckers.  I don't know that "flock" would be the right word to use, but there were three or four playing in the dogwoods.  We watched them fly between the mailboxes and the quince trees.  It was a fun surprise.

This is the view from the screened-in porch - which is one of our favorite places to hang out.  You can make out the terraced garden beds out the back.  It was such a gift to move in to a garden-ready home.  The kids each planted their own row and we already have some beans coming up.  I planted greens and cilantro and broccoli, which are slowly popping up.

Off to the side is the bunny shed.  We had 8 when we came, 2 died for various reasons, we "processed" 3, so we have 3 left.  We are still trying to decide how many more to process and how many to keep.  We shall see, but there's a lot of talk of kittens and chickens for the Spring.

This is the entryway.  Both of these prints are so special to me.  The wispy one on the right was made by my talented sister-n-law Charlotte, and the one of the left was bought to remember the baby we lost in early September.  The day before we closed on the house we found out we were expecting another little one, but the baby seemed to be developing slowly all along and finally went to be with the Father around 10 weeks.  I like seeing these pictures right when I walk in the front door, and remembering God's faithfulness to our family.

This picture is from the living room and shows the dining and kitchen areas.  It's hard to see, but the table is a mess and the counters are stacked with dishes that I don't have anywhere to put.  We found evidence of a mouse (or mice) under our kitchen sink, so we are trying to clean up and fill in holes and figure out what to do.  In the meantime, I couldn't bear to keep the pots and pans down there:)

This is the living room.  I love the huge window facing the front.  We often watch the birds come and go from that window.  We've always wanted to hang up our stringed instruments on the wall, and one day we hope to do this on the wall behind the piano.  For now we just have stacks of instruments :)

My sister-n-law Bethany helped organize our art on the mantle.  I'm thinking of collecting some ferns and pressing them and having them framed for over the computer.  This will be a long process though.  The walls are all Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Grey - in memory of our year in Maine.  

After we lost the baby, my Mom, Dad and sister came up to help with the children while Hubry was in Peru, and while they were here my Mom suggested we paint the wood paneling.  Several full days of work later, and the room was totally transformed from dark to light.

This is one of our favorite things about the house.  An old-fashioned pencil sharpener that actually works.  It could use some blade-sharpening, but it is so much nicer than all of those new-fangled sharpeners!

We are using the library as our school room for now.  It faces the front of the house as well, and it doesn't have furniture in it yet (aside from the table), so there's lots of room to roll around in between lessons.

This is the hall bathroom / guest bathroom / kid bathroom, etc.

This is the guest bedroom.  Our first guests (Aunt Bethany and Cousin Caroline) stayed here for 5 weeks and just left us to head back to India on Monday.  It is a bit sad to see the room so empty..

We painted it Benjamin Moore Quiet Moments, and I loved the shade of blue so much I have the same color ready to paint our bathroom.

This is the view of Songbird from the top bunkbed.  I just had to climb up and take a look around :)

We bunked the beds and got an extra twin from my parents so all the kids could sleep together.  They are finally at a stage where they love sleeping in the same room - which is a comfort to them.  It also makes traveling and camping so much easier since they are used to all being thrown together.

The kids' room from the other angle.  We painted it Sherwin Williams Intelligent Grey and I love the color for a shared boy/girl room (not that you can really tell what any of these colors look like with all the glares) :).

This is our little sanctuary.  I really agonized over what color to paint the walls (I knew the royal blue wouldn't work with our quilt), and I love love, love the soothing shade of green we chose.  It is a discontinued Martha Stewart color through Sherwin Williams called Sung Green.  I didn't choose any paint colors that I hadn't first seen on someone else's wall.  I'm just not good at visualizing what a color on a tiny paint chip will look like spread out across a wall.  But color and ambiance is really important to me (can you tell???)

All the closets were super dirty when we moved in and looked like they had never been painted.  Since the previous owners lived here for 40 years, you can imagine how bad they looked!  My Mom, sister, and friend Melanie tirelessly painted rooms and closets the day before our furniture arrived.  Then Hubry ripped out the old wooden shelving in our closet and re-did it with so many more shelves.  I love the way it turned out, and I eventually hope to do the same with a few of the other closets. The house doesn't have tons of storage space, so having lots of well-placed shelves in the closets can make a big difference.

This is the happy gang taking tea on the screened-in-porch.  We love this space and imagine adding hooks for hammocks and swings and strings of lights, and, and... But really, we love it just the way it is!

There is also a nice open space downstairs where the kids can play and warm themselves by the wood-burning stove, but I forgot to take a picture of that...

We are so thankful to have such a lovely place to call home, and love how close we are to the mountain trails of Kennesaw National Battlefield. 

First Day of School

 

Our first half day of school was a few days after we moved into our new house, and our first full day of school was on August 10th.  It is a new stage to have all three children officially students together.  Songbird is in the upper rotation at Masters Academy on Mondays (3rd-6th graders), while Bro and Raindrop are in the lower rotation (K4-2nd graders).  It's been fun to see Raindrop get excited about her day and have the same teachers as Bro.  She is definitely starting to feel like one of the older kids.

The other days of the week we continue on with our Charlotte Mason inspired Ambleside Online curriculum.  It is much more of a reading list than a true curriculum, but I always get so excited about the books we will be reading together.  We just started Holling's Pagoo - which tells of ocean life through the adventures of a two-fisted Hermit Crab.  We are also reading MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin.  For history we are beginning with the Reformation, and I got pretty teary-eyed when we read about Martin Luther from Trial and Triumph the other day.  No one is perfect, and I know he had his issues, but his passion for getting God's word into the hands of everyone in their own language is inspiring. 

Songbird has decided over the Summer that reading is her favorite subject (after years of struggle), and she often finishes her read alouds in the same day she begins them.  I love all the facts and pieces of information she picks out of this and that book.  She is a story girl, and we always knew that reading would catch on in her in such a way at some point.  She stills complains about writing, though her passion for creating stories is contagious, and I think she will be a beautiful writer one day.

We also started a new genre of story last week - the American Tall Tale.  We read the story of Paul Bunyan, and though I found the constant exaggerations tedious, the kids loved it.  They even asked the next day if we could read another "Tall Tale."  We'll also be adding longer biographies into our schedule this year - including Marco Polo and Da Vinci.

Bro is a math and science boy and loves to figure out how things work.  Since I don't know a lot about how things work, I hope he has ample opportunity to grow these skills via his Grandfathers :)  He also loves being in nature and discovering new types of caterpillars and butterflies.

Raindrop is excelling in coloring inside the lines - something neither of the other two could do until they were much older.  She begged to have her own math and handwriting books, and will often ask when it's her turn to "do school."  Her sister has been helping oversee her math lessons, and reading a story or two to her everyday, while Bro helps her with her alphabet.  I love seeing them take on this responsibility, and she loves the attention.

It's always a challenge to figure out how to organize our time best, and how to handle having different grades and workloads all at once.  This is especially a burden for the oldest child who always has the most work to do.  But every year homeschooling has become more of a rhythm, and I am truly enjoying the gentle pace of life.

FOUR

 

Our little Raindrop is 4! The week we moved into our new house (more on this to come), we celebrated 4 years of life with Raindrop. She has been such a refreshing rain for our family - bringing a depth to our lives.

The morning I went into labor we went to Home Depot to buy some stepping stones to solve a perpetual sandy front porch issue. After working all morning laying the stones, we received a phone call from my Mom that my Grandma, who had been in and out of consciousness in the hospital, was awake and very alert. She handed my Grandma the phone and everyone had a chance to talk with her, sing songs to her, love on her. After ending what would be our last conversation ever, we went into the house for a little rest time.

While the kids were sleeping in their rooms, Hubry and I were reading quietly on the couch. I looked up and saw a beautiful, glorious rain - the kind of rain that seems completely refreshing. Even though the rain was falling steadily, the sun was shining brightly on the world. It felt like a promise.

During this rain I noticed my contractions were coming every 5 minutes, so we called our friend to come to the house and left for the hospital. A few hard hours later our Raindrop was with us. We named her after my Grandma, who passed away a few days later. I love remembering her life, and celebrating my Grandma's life together.

Sweet Raindrop, you are a gift. You are full of gentle compassion. You are quiet and reflective and notice everything going on around you. You are also extremely talkative - sharing freely from your heart. You love to play inside games - cards especially. You love to play with your dolls and imagine intricate situations with them. You love to go shopping with me and help me cook - especially when chocolate is involved :) You started school with the 4 and 5 year-old class and have been a very eager student. You love your brother and sister and look up to them immensely. You are full of light, and we treasure you!

Love, Mama

cool daddy-o

artistic direction and videography courtesy of aunt b.

Eight

Dear Songbird,

You are my strong girl!  You are quick to notice an empty bird feeder and refill it with seed.  You take account of new buds and sprouts and are constantly assessing the state of the yard - bringing little reports of the plants - which you know by name.  You can not hide your excitement for life springing up in the natural world around you.  You love the animals and walk with them as your friends.

As of late you have been using your early-morning energy to bless our family with made-from scratch pancakes and waffles.  It is strange to sit in the living room beside Papa and read together while you joyfully labor in the kitchen cracking eggs, turning on the gas, flipping, and singing.  I'm not sure how long this phase will last, but it has been a blessing!

You are constantly asking how you can help - washing dishes, carrying things to and fro, and showering us with your joyful strength.

You have a very specific vision for how your life will look when you grow up, and I love seeing Bro and Raindrop listening in awe to how you will have a farm with lots of animals (that you do not eat), a house with one room and no electricity...

You are also quick to worry, and I say to you, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it - if we ever do."  And you say, "what if...what if...what if..."  I pray you will grow in faith to see that no matter what happens in the little futures of everyday life, Jesus will be with you there!

I love you, my strong girl!

Mama

Thirty-Five

The day was busy and full.  My main task was sorting and separating all the artwork from the year and choosing which pieces from which students should be displayed at the museum on Saturday.  We have about 45 students, and wanted to choose around 20 pieces for each of the 8 displays, which meant that over half of the students' work was not chosen for any given category.  Yet, we wanted to make sure that the students were more or less equally represented.  It was like putting together a giant puzzle - trying to juggle which artwork was "the best" and which student needed more pieces displayed.  On Thursday we will take the chosen artwork and weave them together to create a beautiful display.

I have been thinking a lot about the essence of things.  For instance, what makes a piece of art more beautiful than another piece of art?  Or what makes a house or a city feel like home?  What makes  community spring up in one place but not in another?  How does loneliness get a foothold even in the midst of deep, enduring joy?

A few months ago Hubry and I went on a walk during my free hour at school.  It works out perfectly to have a Monday afternoon "date" in this way because the kids are all in class, and the school is walking distance to the Kennesaw Mountain trails.  We had recently heard the news that he would not be considered any further for an interesting job prospect, and yet we weren't feeling "at home" where we lived.  And so the walk was a prayer walk - a time to beg the Creator to make straight paths for us, to help us feel connected, to show us where His heart was breaking in our city - to make us feel at home when we did not, and to give us many, many, many opportunities to help others to feel at home.
Though these same prayers had been prayed many times throughout the past year-and-a-half, something tangible started blooming on that walk - in those prayers.

Yesterday Hubry came to my school again to have a free hour birthday walk.  As we moved through the shade of the trees, I heard the creation echo that He is here, right here in our midst.  A deep gratitude settled over us as we remembered those prayers from a few months earlier, and gave testimony to God at work in our lives.  In just a few short months, Hubry has made some significant connections with other local men, we have decided not to apply for other jobs but to stay put for a while, we have started looking for a house to buy, and we have had several opportunities to help others feel at home.  God is no more with us now than he was before, but this has been a season of seeing some of those long-felt prayers answered.

It is also a season of waiting.  Waiting to see how he will answer other prayers, and trying to be faithful in thanksgiving, and patient in longing.  At the end of my hardest day, when I try my best to complain about my lot, His goodness is so overpowering.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places (as a roommate of mine used to quote in college).

So how does it feel to be 35?  I would say there is a steadiness to it - a grounding.  Options are closing, and I am feeling more and more comfortable with myself - this shell where I get to live out home and community and longing and patience.  And in general, there is an overwhelming sense of gratitude.  I am so thankful for my husband who is my best friend and the love of my life, and for my children, who sprinkle my days with joy and chaos.  I am thankful for friends, and family and even weeds with little purple blossoms.  I am thankful for the baby birds in the yard and the mothers who drop worms into their mouths.  I am thankful for eyes to see beauty and a heart to drink it in.

Magic Candles and Birthday Balloons

We went to the store for 6 balloons and came back with 10.  All the ladies of the store kept giving everyone balloons and wishing Bro happy birthday.  It was so sweet.

BRO is 6!

Bro turned 6 on Thursday!  It was so sweet to stop as a family and give thanks for this son of ours.  He is careful and detail-oriented, competitive and justice-focused, extremely silly, and an all around passionate boy.  And... he is FAST!

We brought popsicles to Kilometer Kids to share with his teammates, then came home to a dinner of squash-tomato soup with blueberry coffee cake.  I always love seeing what the kids are going to choose for their special dinner and dessert :)

We love you, son of our right hand!

Ladybug Eggs

The kids actually saw the ladybugs mating, and then watched them lay the eggs.  Then the kids marked the tree with a knife as a sign "not to bother the eggs."  Hope all the animals and birds catch the meaning :)

DC: The National Arboretum

On Saturday the weather significantly warmed back up, so I decided to drive the kids over to the National Arboretum - just on the outskirts of town.  They were really craving some green space, and even though the ground was saturated from the rains the day before, they played and played and played in the gardens and open fields.

One cool thing about the arboretum is that a pair of bald eagles are currently nesting in the park.  We didn't get to see the actual eagles, but we did get to see their nest (from quite far away).

We waited at this fence a good while to see if the eagles would return to their nest.  Alas they did not.

The kids favorite part of the arboretum was the bonsai house.  They couldn't wait to tell Hubry all about the tiny trees so beautifully tended.

The entrance to the bonsai room

Songbird practicing her photography skills

"Mom, take a picture of me by this beautiful rock!"

Finally we meandered out to the original columns of the National Capital.  The Capital building required new pillars in the mid 1900's, so they eventually decided to move the old ones to a grassy meadow at the National arboretum.

DC: The Museums

On Friday, after the morning snow had subsided, we decided to take a taxi down to the museums (with our double stroller in tow).  We did this in part b/c of our miscalculations from the day before, and in part because Songbird had thrown up the night before, and though she was feeling much better she didn't quite feel up to walking.  So she got to see the museums from the comfort of the stroller :)

Our first stop was the National Museum of American History.  I have been there a few times before and really love it.  I love walking through the transportation section and seeing whaling boats and scrimshaw (all things that we read about in Seabird).  I love Julia Child's kitchen, and all the real artifacts that real people really used.  The kids liked it, too, but they were eager to move on to the next museum which promised dinosaur bones and animal skeletons.  So after a couple hours we called it quits and moved next door the the National Museum of Natural History.

I have to admit that it is truly amazing to see so many "stuffed" animals and animal skeletons.  We've been going through the Burgess animal book classifying mammals for school this year, and we saw so many of the animals we've been learning about.  It was fun to let the kids name the animals they were seeing and to put what they've been learning into practice.

Alas, I forgot the camera on this day, so we only have the pictures from our mind's eye.  Since the rain stopped by evening, we ended up walking back to our hotel.  It was a much more pleasant walk with all the kids along for the ride.

DC: The Mall

The day we went to the National Mall was a bit of a miscalculation.  We thought it would be nice exercise to walk to the Mall from our hotel, and then walk around and look at all the monuments.  The main problem was that it was a 40 minute walk to the Mall, and a lot of walking once we got there, and we had chosen (poorly) to only bring the umbrella stroller with us.  After hours of walking, somewhere just past the White House, the kids (and maybe the parents, too), started getting really cranky and tired. But we did end up making it back to the hotel - eventually :)

Not the best shot of Hubry, but we didn't take many photos this day, so it made the cut :)

Off in the distance you can see the Washington monument.

Washington DC: Smithsonian National Zoo

DC is very different from Williamsburg.  We were staying in the middle of the city, everything was busy and noisy, and we had to walk through crowds to get to our meals and anywhere else we wanted to go.  Hurry and I love walking through crowded cities when it's just the two of us, but it's definitely a bit more stressful with three littles in tow!  The kids did an awesome job overall, and aside from one night of throwing up (by our eldest who never gets sick), and one morning of snow, everything went pretty smoothly.

Since all the Smithsonian museums and such are free, we wanted to try and do as many things as possible. Our first day in the city the kids and I went to the zoo.  We got there around 11:30, left around 4:30, and aside from a quick lunch break were on our feet walking the entire time.  And...we just barely had enough time to see everything.  It was very well laid-out, and we especially enjoyed the reptile and bird houses.

The next morning in our hotel room we did some nature notebooking, and this was my attempt at a peacock :)