Springtime on the Farm

We had 50 chicks arrive by the 11th of May and hatched out 7 turkeys from 18 eggs we got through the mail. The turkeys began hatching on Friday, the 12th and finished up Saturday and seem to be doing quite well. The kids enjoyed watching the hatching process, running in and out of the room throughout the day to check for progress.


We have them brooding in a vacant stall while dh builds the new coop off the one side of the barn, which will feature a brooding coop and a breeding coop, one on either end, and a central, all-purpose coop. Sam has had fun helping build the coop here and there, using the new tools he received for his birthday last week, hammering, banging, holding, clamping, etc. Life is good.

Baby Bottles, Mammary Memories and Sleep Deprivation

Good god, it's easy to forget what sleepless nights with newborns are like, and thank goodness I never had to sterilize bottles for my wee ones. This past week, we became surrogate mamas to five newborn kitties, and I can honestly confess to having delirious visions of multiple mammaries as all five clambor at the cage, mewing their voracious appetites. Feeding one kitten at a time not only seems unkind but it also rouses my maternal angst as the babies left behind bawl their indignance at fate's cruel twist.

MY babies, however, are having the time of their lives, having five brand new kitties in the house. They don't begrudge too much sharing their mama's time in such a big way. We've been able to read books while I feed the kittens, which is intensively hands-on, as long as the child's willing to hold the book and turn the pages for me, and we've had some lovely conversation time one-on-one as one child or another joins me to sit and chat and admire the lovely little creatures. We've enjoyed our busy role as surrogate mothers, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we ended up with five barn cats, as it will be so hard to let them go! Between the five of us, we've managed to settle on four favorites. Such is mother love.

Gender-bias inherent in Unschooler's Activities

How's that for a headline? This past weekend, the girls all headed into New York City for a lunch excursion at The American Girl Place while the boys went for a hiking adventure in the South Mountain Reservation. Let's face it, sometimes divisions down gender lines are really in the best interest of all, with the fact that everyone actively chooses their preferred activity making all the difference.

As part of Julia's birthday celebration, which comes right after Christmas, we scheduled a trip into American Girl Place for early Spring. My sister-in-law works just down the street from AG, so she's easily able to get us reservations, train and subway tickets and lead us into the city without a moment's thought or stress on my part, and let me just tell you how wonderful this is! Our trip into the city was a girls' outing with Aunt Kim and Gramma, and Aunt Kim came over the night before to do a girls' spa night that included manicures, which went over big! Julia even got a quick makeover while waiting for the commuter train to arrive. We had a wonderful morning of shopping and finished our day with a lovely lunch in the AG restaurant with our new and old dolls! If you ever have a chance to go, I highly recommend restaurant reservations. The food is quite good and reasonbly priced, considering you're smack-dab in the middle of Manhattan.

Emily decided that she, too, would like her birthday celebration at AG, so we did a combined birthday for the girls, complete with shopping and lunch in the restaurant. Jules had been saving her money for this trip since her birthday in January, and both girls got all their birthday presents from myself, their aunt and cousin, and their grandparents. Let's just say, we had a few packages by the time we left! It really was the quintessential Manhattan shopping excursion, topped off by a white-knuckle cab ride back to Penn Station to catch the commuter train back into Jersey--way too many packages to deal with the subway on the way home!

Now, don't the boys look much happier out in the wild, moving and building things? Okay, so the camoflage was a bit over the top, but the boys couldn't have been happier. Sam got to spend the day with his best friends in the whole world--his papa, his cousin and his grampa, while his cousin got to play hookey from school and hang outside. Honestly, I can't imagine a single one of these boys enjoying one moment of the Manhattan shopping trip, though the older two are magnanimous enough to handle it very once in a while for the women they love.

The boys had new hats and shirts for their hike, new insect jammies to wear while the girls did their spa night, and new water bottles and carabiner clips complete with compass and non-working flashlight, which was apparantly a feature. But, what did I expect for a couple bucks in the Target camping section? The guys were thrilled, and that was the real goal. They spent their day crossing streams, creating dams and rock climbing. Ah, bliss!

MHEA Conference

This Saturday, I spoke on two panels at the MHEA Conference, Maryland's state-wide homeschool conference. Probably the best part was connecting with other unschoolers and seeing some old friends from Southern Maryland.

Attendance this year was down, probably due to the keynote speaker. Last year was John Taylor Gatto, obviously a huge draw in the homeschool community. The year before that was Daniel Pink, author of Free Agent Nation that drew some really interesting and encouraging conclusions about homeschooling in the new economy. The year previous to that was Susan Wise Bauer, co-author of The Well-Trained Mind, not my cup of tea but a viable homeschooling speaker, nonetheless.

This year, it was a relatively unknown private tutor turned academy head from California who insisted upon referring to herself as a "homeschooler" because she schooled other people's children in her own home under California's homeschooling law. Just not the same. Moreover, her "hierarchy of knowledge" method was downright offensive from my perspective in it's claim that children should not be allowed access to information or opinions without the appropriate historical building blocks. That, of course, doesn't even get into the western cultural bias of her approach that was hugely ignorant of the world at large. Well, maybe the approach itself was not hugely ignorant, but it apparently insists that children remain ignorant of the larger world until they have mastered all of Western history, literature, etc. in order. Only then, perhaps, would students be able to understand contextually and hierarchically speaking the world and all its complexity.

Argh! Enough tirade.

The unschooling panels went well, I thought, and those who attended seemed genuinely interested in exploring unschooling. Parents, especially, seemed glad to have the chance to talk with grown unschoolers on the second panel about their reflections on unschooling and the doors it opened or closed in life after home. The three unschoolers on the panel made some really great points while honestly and objectively reflecting on their experiences. I was able to offer some of my observations teaching literature and writing at Penn State, and suggested parents check out Wes Beach's website, Beach High School--Freedom for Self-Direction for some really great information on a creative approach to highschool transcripts, college and the use of a high school education.

Beer Can Physics and Other Experiments

In the past few weeks, the kids have been discovering some really cool physics experiments, along with dh's help at times.

Of course, we've done the wine glass sound wave experiment and the beer bottle pitch experiment, but we've recently discovered more alcohol-vessel fun for the whole family! Nothing like debauchery in a scientific context to lend it an air of respectability. As we were sitting in the kitchen, visiting and noshing, dh discovered that he could balance his bear can on the little concave lip around the bottom once the right amount of liquid remained to aid balance. The kids immediately joined in, trying to figure out what was helping it balance and retrieving empty cans from the recycle bin to figure out that empty cans didn't work and to proceed filling them with water to test them out. One thing led to another, and eventually, dh and the kids were poking holes in the bottom quarter of the can, balancing and trying to predict which way the can would fall as the water level drained out the hole. What fun!


We had some gorgeous weather recently, which translated into entire days spent outside playing and exploring. The kids took the old garden hose and started trying to rope the tree, creating "jungle vines" to fuel their imaginative fun. Pretty soon, the jungle vines became swings, and before long the kids had figured out how to create a rudimentary pulley system that enabled them to raise and lower themselves by pulling on the hose. Pretty cool, eh? Jules, possibly the strongest climber of us all, could pull herself all the way to the top of the branch--of course it helps that she has a crazy strength to weight ratio, weighing maybe 40 lbs. sopping wet.

Getting My Goat

Or goats, I should say. Two weeks ago, our baby goats "Pumpkin Pie" and "Latte" arrived. They are Nigerian Dwarf Goats, a miniature dairy goat originating in West Africa and characterized as a rare breed that's growing in popularity. Pumkin is a "wether," a castrated male goat, and Latte is a doe. They were born just after Thanksgiving, and Latte will be ready to breed this Fall.

The goaties have settled in quite well and are becoming quite tame, considering they were not bottle raised. We've been feeding them by hand, holding and petting them as much as possible to socialize them to our family. Nigerian Dwarf goats are known for their calm, friendly temperaments, and these two are proving that true. Pumpkin and Latte are siblings, so staying together made the move a bit easier, and becuase goats are herd animals, they need the company of other goats.

Julia has been wanting goats since she met the goaties' dam, Strawberry Flip, a little over a year ago. These goats are Flip's second round of kids, so Jules has been waiting a long time for her baby goaties! Jules feeds them twice a day and takes her responsibility very seriously; she loves going out to feed them and pet them, talking to them, as does the rest of the family. We're all in love with our new additions and look forward to adding some babies early next year!

Mardi Gras Madness

Phat costumes for Fat Tuesday! The girls decided to dress up for our Mardi Gras celebration at the last minute. Can anyone say "German engineering in the haus!" The girls had a blast, though they looked more like they were headed to a rave than to Bourbon Street. We had a delicious New Ahlins style meal--cajun shrimp etouffee, rice, black beans and cornbread. Mmmmmm-mmmmmm!


The girls, however, are not the only ones with a distinctive fashion sense in this family. Not to be outdone, Sam's dressed up in his pjs reminiscent of a Seussian style, accented with his Daniel Boon hat. Golly, my kids have style! Gotta love the free spirits of unschooled kiddos! This picture was taken a few weeks ago, but I just had to find a way to work it in to the blog somehow.

Catch that Train...

The following represents a series of conversations that occurred over our Valentine's dinner. I wanted to take the time to type it out because I (and many other unschoolers) often talk about all the learning that goes on just by having cool conversations with our kids, and this seemed like such a great example. This one was rather heavy on my interests, but we're just as likely to have really cool discussions that are heavy on science--dh's field of interest--or anything else for that matter.

Hanging out with the kids while having hors d'oevres, we began talking about loads of things that led to a really cool series of discussions throughout the rest of the evening until we finally wrapped up over strawberries dipped in chocolate sauce. Many of these topics were very cursorily covered, at a level the kids could grasp and as the result of questions they asked or attempts to illustrate the topic with an example they'd be familiar with, but nevertheless, we created and reinforced loads more connections on our grand unschooling dot-to-dot!

See if you can catch this crazy train...

bolting food--new puppy

Pip from Great Expectations, Oliver Twist--recent commercials--Dickens, serial publications, Industrial Revolution

Child labor laws, current poverty level across the world

sweatshops, illegal aliens, Men in Black--opening scene

American wealth, unable to fathom poverty

"full fathom five thy father lies" --Shakespeare, Donne or Hopkins--look it up because I can't remember which--it was Shakespeare, but GM Hopkins' "Wreck of the Deutschland" was the other poem I was thinking of

Master and Commander, sea measurements, Mark Twain

dirty limericks in which dh always tries to rhyme "Hohakas" (don't ask me why, except he's from NJ--reminiscent of Hackensack?)

iambic pentameter, trochaic meter

Tyger, Tyger--one of the kids' favorite poems--Little Lamb, William Blake

innocence vs. experience

Christian mythology, garden of eden, tree of knowledge, fall from grace

All of which ended with a really deep discussion of whether we'd choose knowledge or painless obedience--guess which we all chose? ;)

Recent Projects

Julia's ATC Swap Series "Valentines Forever"

Emily's ATC Swap Series "Snowfall"

Danielle's ATC Swap Series "Typeset"








As part of an Imagination Tribe ATC swap, the girls and I made 26 Artist Trading Cards each. We began with a poster board canvas, which we painted and then cut into individual cards. We worked with acrylic paints coated with a clear shellac. Jules focused on mixing her own paint colors; Em focused on different brush strokes; I worked with a texture-technique using plastic wrap. My cards featured two textured layers of paint, a gold-foil alphabet letter, and several alphabet add-ons--stickers, rubs and metal letters. We had a blast creating these and are looking forward to the next mini-trade and a collaborative ABC book trade coming up.

The kids each received a plaster model kit for Christmas this year, which they had fun mixing and painting. Emily got a T-Rex skeleton, which she pieced together like an archaeology dig. Jules got a cast of several different butterflies, and Sam got a NASA kit with a cast of a rocket, sattelite and the space shuttle. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of Sam's creation. They had fun mixing the plaster, pouring it and painting it with the paints provided.

Chinese New Year

In celebration of Chinese New Year, the kids and I went into Chinatown in D.C. Of course, the beautiful, warm weather we'd been having gave way to real January weather for our trip, but the restaurant was warm. While Chinese food is one of our favorites, this was the first time the kids had been out for dim sum--a great way to sample different Chinese foods! The girls were content with white rice while Sam devoured an entire order of pot stickers by himself. The green onion pancakes and spinach dumplings I had were delicious! The wait staff was very kind, picking rice out of Em's hair and bringing me several vegetarian dishes to try.

After lunch, we headed over to a Chinese grocery and picked up a few things for our own Chinese New Year celebration. The kids each chose their own rice bowl to take home, and I grabbed a 5lb bag of jasmine rice to cook at home. The kids also chose their own mini-statues of Lao Tzu--the lion guardian--that they fell in love with outside the restaurant. The grocery also doubled as a Chinese apothecary, and the man showed us some of the different dried Chinese herbs he was weighing out and packaging.

Dim Sum was definitely the kids' favorite part of the trip, but the metro ride to the Air & Space Museum came in a close second. The museum itself didn't hold the kids' attention in part because we've been there so often, but also because of the lack of hands-on activities. One can only look at planes and rockets so many times. Even the gift shop seemed tired this time around. One of these days, we need to head out to the Annex out near Dulles Airport, which I hear is quite interesting.

Chess Tournaments

The current passion at our home is chess. We've all been playing lots and often have a game going in the background even when we're off doing something else, which we'll pick up, play a few moves, then leave it for a while again. The kids have been learning to play off and on for a while now, and Sam has recently decided to start playing seriously by the rules. As the kids have learned to play, they've alternately played with rules and just played imaginatively, either making up their own rules or playing with the pieces in altogether different ways. We've just always followed their lead. Sam's favorite way to play for a while was with me using the rules of the game and talking out how the different pieces moved while he moved his pieces in any direction, any number of spaces to take my pieces one after the other. He just recently decided that really wasn't a fun way to play anymore once he'd grasped the rules and really wanted to play for real.

Emily got interested in chess a couple years ago, so we got her a computer program called Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster. She played with it off and on, but recently the kids have rediscovered it, and Julia's been playing with it non-stop, valiantly battling King Black. It's cool to watch their critical thinking and problem solving evolve. I've been playing with them either fully or with a handicap if they choose, and they're really getting quite good. It won't be long before they'll be able to beat me pretty consistently, I'm guessing. Even Sam, at age 5, has a really good grasp of the board and can anticipate different attacks and think non-linearly with his knights.

Mean Moms

Someone on the Ubasics list posted this blurb that was circulating and being celebrated on a local list of hers. I re-wrote it from my own perspective and wanted to share it here as well...

Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me: I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home. I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep. I loved you enough to make you go pay for the bubble gum you had taken and tell the clerk, "I stole this yesterday and want to pay for it." I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes. I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren't perfect. I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart. But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say NO, when I knew you would hate me for it. Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too. And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just for kicks, I wanted to write this out as it would look for me....

Someday, when my children are older, I will tell them:

I loved you enough to care about where you were going, with whom, and what time you'd be home and to help you get there, have fun, and come home.

I loved you enough to be silent when you needed me to be silent and to be there when you needed to talk, to give you the space to discover for yourself who your true friends were and to help you pick up the pieces when you were hurt.

I loved you enough to help you pay for the bubble gum you wanted and to make things right when they felt wrong.

I loved you enough to stand by you for a lifetime, to be by your side for two hours while we cleaned your room, a job that would have taken me 15 minutes, but the conversation was too precious to lose.

You learned that I wasn't perfect as we shared our lives together.

I loved you enough to let you make choices even when the stakes were high and to help bear your burden whenever I could.

But most of all, I loved you enough to always help you get what you needed, to put our relationship first and to walk in your shoes instead of engaging in battles.

I'm glad you came to me, because in the end, you've helped me grow and become a better person, so I won, too, in this relationship.

And someday, when your children are old enough to understand the principles that guide this legacy of parenting, I hope you tell them how they helped you grow and become a better person.

What's Black and White and Wiggly all over?

Our new pup, Buddy! After much searching, we finally found the perfect rescue pup for our family. Buddy was found hiding under a trailer and rescued by A Forever Home, the same organization from whom we adopted our older dog, Boo. Sam has been wanting a puppy for some time, and Boo has been wanting a playmate. We found both in this little guy and feel very lucky to welcome him into our family.

We were able to meet Buddy last Thursday, as his foster family willingly drove half the distance to meet us. We all piled in the car, Boo included, to meet this little guy and see if he was meant to be part of our family. The two dogs got along great, and, well, Buddy pretty much stole our hearts. We were smitten!

I drove several hours on Sunday to pick him up from the rescue's adoption event, and he slept the whole ride home. By the time we got back to our farm, he was ready to play and he's been playing ever since! He and Boo have had so much fun romping in the snowy pastures, and the kids have adored playing with him despite all the puppy nips. Mr. Buttons, our kitten, however, has been slower to warm up to the notion of having this bundle of kanine energy in the house and continues to give him a very wide bearth. A border collie/spaniel mix, Buddy is full of life and is very smart and eager to please. He's learning quickly and promises to have plenty of energy to keep up with this high energy crew.

EARTH SCULPTING

I spent the weeks surrounding my birthday building a new pond. I missed the pond I built at the old house, and I wanted something larger here to attract wildlife and help mask traffic noise. We moved the existing pre-formed pond to the back garden to create space next to the patio for a larger fish and wildlife garden, and now we have two ponds in our backyard. The birds can splash in the smaller pond in the back or wade in the pebble beach of the new pond, and we've already had a frog come to live in our new pond!

Sam, who is my wildlife and nature buddy, helped a good bit throughout the process. His papa bought him a shovel just the right size, and he helped me dig some of the hole. Jim helped dig the holes as well with this pond--unlike the one I built at the previous house. Thankfully, too, because hardpan piedmont clay is much harder to dig than silty bay clay! Of course, I had to choose an exceptionally dry summer to begin this project, as well. Our Massey-Ferguson tractor, or "Big Red" as Sam and I call it, helped tremendously. Dh was able to move most of the rock for the pond in the front end loader.

Here, Sam helped me dig the lower pond, and he enjoyed testing the depth and level for me with the carpenter's level and the yardstick. Dh and I worked with the mattock, sledging the dirt away bit by bit to get the level deep enough to over-winter the koi. As I worked, that song "I owe my soul to the company store" looped through my head. Pretty good work out though!

Once dug, the pond needs an underlayment to protect the epdm liner from punctures; we reused the carpet padding we ripped out when we got new carpet. Emily helped me roll the padding out in the yard and check carefully to be sure all the staples had been removed. I crawled around several times on my hands and knees, squeezing each part of the padding between my fingers. One rogue staple could be a fiasco! Piecing the padding together was a bit of a puzzle, but it made a great, if somewhat bulky, underlayment.

Next step was to spread out the flexible liner, which is incredibly heavy and definitely a two-person job. The weight of the water helps conform the liner to the shape of the pond, and the biggest job is to tuck and fold the liner as the water fills so it looks as smooth as possible.

I finished laying the stone on my 35th birthday, and it was the best present I could've received. I thoroughly enjoyed the process from start to finish, and I'd learned so much from the first pond I built. Although this pond is about 1000 gallons smaller than the old pond, I think it's a prettier pond as a whole. Of course, the landscape I was working with was entirely different this time around, lacking the natural slope of the old yard. I ended up designing kind of yin/yang upper and lower ponds that nest together nicely. The bottom pond has a bog garden off the back side, which Sam and I plan to fill with carnivorous plants in the spring. This waterfall is significantly lower than at the old house as the grade was so flat, so I made it wider in order to maximize the sound.

All in all, I'm incredibly pleased with the result, as are the kids. They have their sitting ledge again where they can dip their toes for the fish to nibble. The surrounding landscaping is coming together, and I was pleased to find a trumpet creeper vine at Lowe's this fall--a native flowering vine that the hummingbirds love. Sam and I plan to place a mister within the rocks so the hummers can frolick. Yes, the vision is coming clearer.

2005 LIVE AND LEARN CONFERENCE

This year's conference was amazing! The number of people there, the energy and excitement and interest--it was all totally overwhelming and awesome. This was my second year attending, but the first year the kids came, and they had a blast doing the funshops with their dad. The balloon shapes and craft funshops were two of the favorites from what I could gather. There were a couple that I really wished I could have attended with the girls--the ATC funshop and, of course, Henna by Brenna.

The talent show was wonderful again this year, and I was in total awe at my kids' performance. It was a bit shorter than the private shows they put on for me, but it was a very accurate glimpse into our improv shows at home. I am always so impressed by the unshakable sense of self that these kids--all of them, not just mine--possess, which shines through as they share a bit of themselves with an audience bigger than many of us can imagine. At these moments, the core of who these kids are and the gift of their lives glows so brightly that I just know we've made the world a better place. Not in the future, but right here and now, in the lives these kids lead and the strength they find in themselves.

The size and energy of the conference was, as I said, overwhelming to those of us who are highly sensitive to the noise and controlled chaos of crowds. Dh and the kids spent much of their time either in our room or at a local park, removing themselves from the hustle and bustle of bodies. On one of their excursions, they popped into Borders Books to buy the new Shark Boy and Lava Girl dvd that the kids have been dying to see. Dh brought our dvd player from home, and we were all able to veg out with family movie nights in our room, reconnecting after the day's absence.

Saturday night's excursion to The City Museum was amazing and amazingly assaulting on the senses. There was so much to take in at once, that I found it impossible to focus on anything and spent most of my time there walking around like a deer trapped in the inevitable onrush of headlights. Sam and dh climbed around through the maze of tunnels in the entrance for most of our visit, though we did take some time to explore the upstairs. A sturdier person could easily have spent hours in this amazing place, though we spent only about two. It took about five minutes of quiet car being to bring our voices down to a normal decibel level, having been shouting merely to be heard for the past couple hours. There were weddings going on at the museum and living lofts above--I truly can't imagine either scenario for myself. I would, however, have loved a private tour of the museum when no one else was there to really appreciate the incredible beauty and creativity of the artistic space.

Our friend Ken took this amazing picture of the kids at the arch on Sunday. It was by far the best shot of the kids and the arch that we got--it deserves a place of honor. We had fun at the Museum of Westward Expansion; it was just the right size and perspective for the kids to really enjoy. For about 48 hours, Em planned to be a pioneer girl for Halloween, but that, of course, has changed about 4 times since. Cahokia Mounds on Sunday was wonderful. The kids loved exploring the museum and relaxing to the intro movie, and Em was totally awed by the size of Monk's Mound and the concept of creating an earthen pyramid. Dh and I were talking about how the whole concept was such a product of the plains geography--testifying to the human need to ascend heavenward whatever the effort.

I left the conference on a total high, feeling thrilled and exhilerated by all the energy and potential contained in a single space. So, too, did I leave disappointed at not having more time to make connections and more time to spend quietly talking with people. The break-out sessions were one of my favorite aspects of the conference because they came closest to the intimate discussions I was imagining. There's just never enough time! I've decided that I really need to have each family over to my home individually for dinner so we can have that connecting time I missed. So, everyone start signing up for a weekend! My girls have taken this desire one step further and are seeking an unschooling commune where they can be surrounded by unschooled friends every day! Land anyone?

Wild Wildlife
Snapshots of some creatures we've been finding...

A praying mantis.


The chrysalis of a Baltimore Checkerspot--absolutely stunning to see, which doesn't translate in this dismal photo. This silver and goldish orange spots make it look like a piece of jewelry.


An American Painted Lady visiting some recently transplanted sedum.




The kids and I have been enjoying Animal Planet's new series Backyard Habitat and plan to submit our new yard for certification as a backyard habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. The tv show is interesting and includes several craft ideas for the kids that can easily be done at home. We've been having fun creating and designing several new habitat, having learned lots from our projects at our old home. We'll have a meadow and thicket, brush piles and stone piles, a butterfly and hummingbird garden, and a water garden--all of which offer different habitats for different wildlife species. If you build it, they will come.

TRAMP CAMP

We recently purchased a trampoline from JumpSport, and the kids have been having a grand ol' time on it. They helped dad put it together the night it arrived--what a sport! Dad that is, not trampoline jumping, though that's quite fun as well. It only took about an hour to get up and boinging--the newest verb in our home.


Jumping was only half the fun that evening, as things quickly turned to thoughts of a camp out. Of course, they didn't end up staying out all night--the planning is half the fun. Schlepping everything out is always so much easier than getting it all back in. Sam looks quite at ease--he's considering moving out there, I think. Hmmm...he'd probably miss his computer and the tv pretty quickly though. The peace and quiet just watching the clouds go by, however, might be worth the trade off.