Building an electromagnet

The other day, Jim and the kids built an electromagnet together out of copper wire, a nail and a battery. Jim used a drill to wind the copper wire tightly around the nail, which was pretty cool to watch. Once hooked up to the battery, the kids were able to use the electromagnet to pick up random metal bits like this safety pin. While playing, the kids recalled a Scooby-Doo episode where there was an electromagnet used in a junk-yard and were thrilled to find out that huge magnet worked on the same principles as this small one they'd just helped build. They also tried to build a simple motor using magnets and the battery, but that experiment remains unsuccessful. Even after troubleshooting with a multimeter, we were at a loss. Back to the drawing board on that one.

Post Conference Triste, or Where's my Tribe?!

This year after the conference, we were lucky enough to have two wonderful families from Albuquerque visit us at our farm and then again at our in-law's beach house on the Jersey Shore. I have no pictures of them at the farm, though Jenny assures me that she got some good shots and Beth has some really cute ones, but I have some really wonderful photos from the beach. The weather was a bit breezy and chilly, but overall it was gorgeous and sunny and perfect. We spent our days basking in the sun and splashing in the water while our nights were spent drinking too much good wine and eating too much good food (yeah, there goes those 5 lbs I lost at the conference!). Though come to think of it, Jenny and I were really the only gluttons there—and Beth left without revealing a single vice. No fair! I mean, she doesn't even drink tea in the morning to wake up, making my two cups of ultra-strong Peet's coffee feel like speed or something. Sheesh.

Hosting such lovely ladies was a pleasure, and I'm so grateful to my in-law's for letting us have the house for the week! The kids had a blast, I think, and overall, they did a fabulous job playing, getting along, and finding solutions, considering that several of them had been on the road for 3 weeks, all of them had just been to a huge conference, most of us were dealing with varying stages of cold/ fever ick, and space was at a premium with nine people in the house!

Of course, the space on the beach goes on forever, and thank goodness for the wind and waves that allow little
girls to squeal and screech with sheer delight while protecting adult ears! Watching kids on the beach in September is one of my favorite things ever because, for me, there's little else that symbolizes such perfect freedom and joy. They have the whole beach to themselves while other kids are in school, and between the sand and the water, it's just kid heaven. When we arrived at the beach, one of the first things I did was begin digging a hole, and Beth naively asked what in the world I was doing. "If you dig it, they will come, Beth," as Emma and Eli demonstrate. Kids and sand and holes and waves—yup, heaven!

Live and Learn Conference 2007

We just got back from the Live and Learn Conference down in Black Mountain, NC, and it was a total whirlwind blast from the very first day of tie-dying t-shirts with the Smith family to the last night of the dance fever party! So many people put forth so much energy and enthusiasm to make this year one of the best years yet. The funshop offerings are just phenomenal and get better every year, I think.

I love hosting the letterboxing funshop, and the best part of the whole thing is taking the letterbox when we leave and seeing all the wonderful stamps that people have made. Liz's egg drop funshop was a huge hit with my kiddos, and it was the only funshop Sam really wanted to attend. I'm so glad we caught it before leaving town, and it really wrapped up the week for us on a positive note.

One of our favorites was the belly dancing funshop and performance, and I love the photo of my Maryland crew! There were so many other terrific funshops that it's impossible to list them all. Seeing all the kids' faces light up when they accomplish something new and even consoling them as they stretch their abilities and come up disappointed is a priceless part of the living and learning that happens all week long at the conference.

The best part of the conference though are the connections we get to make with such amazing people from all over the world! Getting to meet folks that we've gotten to know over the year online is so cool, and there's never enough time to spend talking and connecting with each and every person. The glow that comes from hanging out with other unschoolers just can't be beat!

Sleeping Babes, or my house in the morning

Natural History Museum

After dropping Jim at work, the kids and I went into the city to visit the Natural History Museum, arguably our favorite Smithsonian museum. We spent the day wandering through the evolution exhibits, primarily, as the museum was really crowded. We got into the gems exhibit enough to see a few of the large geodes and the Hope Diamond, but turned around because of the crowds. Unfortunately, the Insect Zoo was closed, one of our favorite parts of the museum. All in all, not a terribly successful museum day, but it was fun nonetheless. That's the great part about going so often—short forays are just as fun as longer ones, and there's never any pressure to see or do it all. Combined with the visit to daddy's work, it was a hugely successful day. Well, that's not to mention the three times I got lost while driving in and out of the city. Gawd I hate the GW parkway! I'm so good with everything else and once I get into the city, but we must've seen the Pentagon about 4 times that day! Rather interesting, actually, that we were able to get so close post 9/11—I mean literally in the parking lot right next to the building.

Visiting Daddy at Work

The other day we dropped Jim off at work before heading into the city. His car had died, so he'd taken the truck into work the next day and had an extra vehicle to bring home, so we decided to make a day of it. He is a scientist, so visiting lab is always a whole lot of fun. Emily spent a lot of time in his lab at grad school while I was teaching or doing research, but since leaving campus, we've become very disconnected from his workplace. Adding to that the fact that he's a government researcher adds another layer of security and difficulty to visits, so the kids are always pretty excited when they get to go see daddy's lab.

Making Donuts

The big thing on the farm these days is making donuts on the weekends. Jim found a recipe we could make in the bread machine, though this dough is so light that it really can't be made in advance with the timer.


They're really delicious dipped in powdered sugar while they're still warm. I tried making some glaze, but the recipe I used was a butter glaze and none of us really liked it. Next time, I'll probably try just a simple glaze with powdered sugar and water. We've also tried dipping them in the strawberry preserves I made, but found that it's just too sweet. The chocolate sauce didn't really cut it either.





Somehow there's just nothing better than the little bit of powdered sugar and, of course, fresh berries from the garden. Just ask Sam....




These donuts are best fresh, but they can be reheated in the toaster over the next couple of days and still taste pretty good. We've also discovered that if we add an extra egg to the batter, we can make a fluffier cruller-like donut.

Brainteasers

One of the ways Jim stays involved in the kids' unschooling is to bring home brainteaser challenges for them every once in while. We've had a relatively typical, I guess, back and forth with regards to unschooling, Jim being the consummate skeptic and reluctant practitioner. With time, however, he's really been able to see lots of the learning that goes on naturally and come even to embrace the more relaxed pace our lives.

Periodically, however, he has that feeling of, "Okay, so unschooling works, but what if we aren't offering enough?" So, one of the ways I tried to find a way to honor that concern was to bring home a giant book of brainteasers I found at the local warehouse club.
If Jim wanted to be more proactive, then this seemed like a way to do that while still keeping things light and fun and voluntary for the kids. It's also been a great way for him to feel connected to our unschooling and to the kids while at work.

We'll, it's turned out to be a huge success with some tweaking along the way...like the kids requesting private time to work on the challenge rather than feeling the competition of working on it together, for instance, which took away from the fun of the individual challenge. This is the most recent challenge Jim brought home for the kids, "The Impossible Domino Challenge," and the one that's most lent itself to a blog post. The upper photo was Emily's first attempt, while the lower photo is Julia's solution. After a few tears but shear determination (Jules has the patience of Job, and always has!), Julia was the first to get it to work. Well, actually, this is Julia's second successful building, but the first to stay up long enough to take a photo, and in fact to stay up long enough for her father to get home from work and see it with his own eyes.

8 Things Meme (grumble, grumble)

C'mon folks, I'm a dictionary; I'm really not interesting enough to come up with 8 things to tell about myself, yet I've been tagged twice, so I guess I'll need to try. Ren says she thinks it's ego that drives us to do these memes, but for me, it's more that pressure of not wanting to be the one to drop the ball—similar motivation for dragging myself to do chain letters and other obnoxious pressure-oriented stuff. Oh, and I guess I should link to Ren and Madeline who both tagged me.

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.



1) Well, since I already shared this over at Ubasics, it's a no-brainer: when I was 16 I used to sneak out of the house at night. I'd jump off the roof below my window, put the car in neutral, roll it down the driveway, and spend the night at my boyfriend's house. I was always a bit of a rebel and really couldn't stand being told what to do...or what not to do as the case may be. I'm really not much different now.

2) Despite being a wild child, I have this incredible dose of Catholic guilt. In and of itself that may not be all that interesting except that I'm an atheist and was raised entirely without religion of any sort, well besides having to say grace at the dinner table. I have this major confessional streak, and I can't seem to release things until I've confessed them and tried to make amends. Maybe this is some kind of past-life residual thing.

3) I'm incredibly loyal and excellent at keeping secrets...except when it comes to gift giving. I have absolutely no will-power when it comes to waiting to give people gifts when I think they will really like it—the excitement is just too much. And on that same note, I was a terrible snoop as a child when it came to Christmas. I used to wait until my mom was out of the house, and then I would slit the tape on the presents under the tree, carefully unwrap them to see what was inside, then put new tape exactly on top of the old tape so no one would know. Of course, I was always disappointed Christmas morning when there were no surprise gifts—I could never understand why my mom didn't hold a few back.

4) I squeal like a little girl. No really, I do. I'm highly startle-able and excitable, and I squeal; it just pops out of me involuntarily. Sometimes Jim will chase me around the house, and I get all worked up like I'm about 5 years old, which of course just cracks him up. I have an overly-developed fight or flight sense.

5) I was supposed to get married once, and I called my wedding off 6 days before hand and went to spend the summer at the beach where Jim and I met. Jim and I have known each other since we were kids, and that summer something just clicked. Truth be told, he was a large part of the reason I called off the wedding. *eg* Though I had really just been looking for an excuse for a while to end a bad relationship before getting in any deeper.

6) I once spent 6 weeks backpacking around Thailand and China and signed up for the Peace Corps, but that was all part of that bad relationship, so the Peace Corps thing got called off along with the wedding, and I went to grad school instead.

7) I have a huge scar up the side of my right shin from a bike accident when I was 13. I had more than 70 stitches in multiple layers and was very lucky that the pedal missed my muscle when it ripped open my leg.

8) My first word was "flower," and I've always been a gardener at heart. I used to love spending time at my great aunt's farm, sleeping in the loft and riding in the wagon. My heart has finally found home here on our farm, and I feel myself putting roots down deep into the earth. This fulfills that part of me that has always felt unanchored, adrift, unconnected to the world as a child of adoption. My family is my world, and I'm finished this silly meme just in time to go outside and milk my goat.

I'm tagging:

Robin,  Cheryl,  Karl,  Leanne,  Wendy,  Stephanie,  Arun,  and Christy

I'm a dictionary...

Knitmoka, took it from Crystal, who got it from Mary, and damn if they aren't all really interesting people!

I, on the other hand, am a dictionary...

You're The Dictionary !

by Merriam-Webster

You're one of those know-it-all types, with an amazing amount of knowledge at your command. People really enjoy spending time with you in very short spurts, but hanging out with you for a long time tends to bore them. When folks really need an authority to refer to, however, you're the one they seek. You're an exceptional speller and very well organized.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Camouflage Sam

Meet "Camouflage" Sam: he's a popsicle-stick figure that Julia made for her brother, and he's been on many adventures. He's been stampeded by chickens, held on for dear life as he ran through the pasture attached to a dog collar, and he even got snuffled by a pig. Em took the picture of Julia, Sam, and Camouflage Sam on the right. Emily and Julia have been having quite a fun time together, making a whole civilization of popsicle-stick figures clad in naught but pipecleaners. I have a lovely yellow dress and saucy red shoes. I like that about me. It took camo for Sam to become interested, but become interested he did! Camouflage Sam was his best buddy for at least a week, going everywhere with him.

Philadelphia Adventure

We had a blast on our trip to Philly! While there, we saw the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute, though of course no photos were allowed. The exhibit was wonderful—at least twice as big as the recent Pompeii exhibit we visited in Mobile. A solid gold sarcophagus of either Tut's mother or grandmother was on display, and it was truly phenomenal, as was the small canopic coffinette of Tut himself, a glimpse of which you can catch for yourself at this brief National Geographic gallery of the exhibit. The kids were fascinated by many of the objects we saw, especially what was likely the young Tut's royal chair. One of the neatest things is being able to look back at some of the original Carter photographs and recognize items we saw on display like this dummy folding stool. Of course, the rest of the museum was loads of fun as well, and we explored electricity, air and flight, the body and, of course, the heart, and we also enjoyed the IMAX film Mysteries of Egypt.


Our plan was to stay overnight at the Hotel Windsor, just three blocks away, and finish the museum the following day, and we'd planned especially to come on a Wednesday because the museum has extended hours. Unfortunately, best laid plans often do go awry, and the museum was closed for a private event on Thursday! Gathering ourselves and the four free IMAX tickets that were our consolation prize, we headed over to the Academy of Natural Sciences to spend our morning. We had considered but ruled out a visit to this museum in favor of spending more time at the Franklin Institute, but apparently the universe was sending us a message. Although much of the museum was a replay of the taxidermy displays we saw on our trip to Cabela's, the butterfly room was loads of fun and in many ways the highlight of our trip. Sam thrilled when he showed the curator one of the butterflies ready for release. The staff in the butterfly room was absolutely delightful, and we really enjoyed our visit overall. Not a wasted day in the least.

Whirlwind trip

I realized that I haven't blogged yet about our big adventure. Time being at a premium this time of year on the farm and all. We had a wonderful time down south, which began with a great visit with Ren Allen and her family. Unfortunately, I didn't get a single photo, but Ren did, so I'll post when she has a chance to send them.

Once we arrived at my mom's place on the Gulf Coast, we we joined up with some good friends from Albuquerque who met us there. We had glorious weather and loads of fun on the beach and at home. One evening, we sat up much too late and drank too much beer on the screened in porch. The kids were having so much fun, and we were all quite content. Sam was out picking jasmine flowers for the girls to make into leis. They must've been at it for about 2 hours! The adults, of course, were laughing about our sweat shop conditions, but the kids were really focused and intent upon their project.

During the week, we visited the Mobile Children's Museum The Exploreum where there was an exhibit called A Day in Pompeii with several of the body casts and artifacts. The kids were fascinated by the exhibit, though I thought it was a bit small. Em's favorite part was learning about religious worship in Pompeii and the variety of gods and goddesses from different cultures; Sam liked the cast of the dog. We'd watched the Discovery Channel dvd Pompeii: The Last Day before we went, so the kids and I had a sense of what we were going to see. The kids had the most fun in the permanent exhibits, however, which included a lab set-up by Ciba with several experiments the kids could choose. Jules is doing the tornado experiment while Em and Sam are playing with architecture and earthquakes.

On our way home, we stopped at the Lovejoy's to enjoy a fabulous house concert with Amy Steinberg. She puts on an amazing show, so if you ever have a chance to see her in concert, do! The kids had a blast hanging out with other unschoolers, and they were really looking forward to hearing one of their favorite artists. As Sam says, she sings "from her heart." Sam got to hear his absolute favorite song, "Exactly," before he fell asleep in between sets. I couldn't believe he actually went to sleep on the Lovejoy's living room couch! What a gift because I was able to enjoy both sets before needing to head back to the hotel with the kiddos. Of course, I managed to leave my camera on the emotional way out the door with tired kids and sad goodbyes, wishing we could be surrounded by such wonderful folk all the time. But, that meant I got to enjoy the Lovejoy's company one more brief time, as they kindly stopped by the farm to hand deliver my camera on their way home from Hershey. Man, what service!

The Earth Farm Song by Sam

Time is big;
Love is big.
You can have your own world right in your own hands.
You just need to focus.

Time is love;
Time is god.
You’re bigger than any god.

Time is time.
Heart is heart.
Time is heart.

Heart is soul.
Fire is fire.
Fire breathes;
Fire’s bigger than flames

Fire is heart.
Smoke is gas.
Smoke is deadly, sometimes.

Heart can be soul.
Strength is wood.
Heart is love.

Scared of the dark?
Dark is not to be afraid of,
That is where love lies.

Life is the life.
Love is stronger than any goddesses or gods.
Zeus cannot be stopped,
But love can stop him,
Time can stop him.

When they work together,
Love and time can stop anything.

We are love.
We are made from our moms and dads.
We started out as a dream,
And one dreamed us.

We are love and time.
We can hold time right in our hands;
We just need to focus.

We can all be creative
When we see something we like;
We just need to think of it.

We are love.

Vegetables are fruit.
Words are knowledge.
Clothing is our wearing.
We are all love and time.
Time is love.

We are all people of this earth.
We can see anything that’s close enough.
We can see to the Atlantic Ocean.
We can see love,
But we can’t see the heart of the love.

But we know the heart of the love:
Earth’s heart, gaia’s heart is the heart of love.
That heart is invisible.
If they ever see it or find it, the lava will burn them.

Love is nature;
Love is stronger than any force.
Love is nature.
We all love our moms and dads;
We are stronger than any force.

Chinatown

We went into New York City this year for our Chinese New Year celebration—the day after the big parade. We had lunch at a small restaurant called Singapore Cafe. The food was great; the service was great; and the kids really enjoyed the lazy susan table and the tea cups. Sam ate his requisite order of fried dumplings and was happy as a clam. Of course, we chose one of the coldest days of the year to go into the city, and I was concerned that the wind-tunnel effect on the city streets would make the trip unbearable. We layered and bundled, and overall, the cold wasn't too bad. The wind wasn't up, which really made all the difference.

After lunch we walked around Chinatown for a while and ended up at this awesome store in SoHo called Pearl River where we found our own tea cups, spoons and fabulous outfits for the kids. Of course, the kids had almost as much fun on the subway and commuter train as they did in the city, making the rush back meet the train mercifully easy. Here's a photo of the girls in their Mandarin outfits on the way back home in Cabela's, an outdoor/ hunting store that is an experience, to say the least. A 250,000 sf showroom with a 40' waterfall, bass pond and several diorama displays of stuffed animals—like real stuffed, not plush. Seeing the size of these animals was amazing! From black bears to grizzly bears to polar bears, from Icelandic fox to African elephant, Cabela's displays are truly worth seeing if there's a showroom near you. They make a great stop on a long trip—with clean bathrooms, plenty to see and a buffet restaurant. I'd highly recommend checking for locations if you're traveling.

I've been tagged on two different blogs!

Well, I've already lost this post once, so I'll try again...

Here's the dealio—the idea is to tell 6 weird things about oneself, then tag six people, creating a weirdo ponzi blogoscheme kind of thing.

So...

1) I like to play with words like synonym and cinnamon, saying them alternately over and over again until they become jabberwocky nonsense.

2) I frequently dance with abandon in my kitchen, surrounded by three laughing children and two barking dogs.

3) I like to rock climb, but I'm afraid of heights

4) I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

5) I have a bizarre skin condition called "dermatagraphia," which means I can write on my skin and have it show up seconds later exorcist style—I definitely would have been burned at the stake in a previous life.

6) I still sometimes get scared at night after I get up to go to the bathroom, so I race back to the bed and dive in as quick as I can, worming my way as far under the covers as possible, just like I did when I was six.

I don't know if I know 6 bloggers who haven't already been tagged—I think our blog circle is becoming too inbred!

I'm tagging Julie, Amanda, Leanne, Jen, Manisha and Vicki

Television Journey

In the interest of full disclosure, I thought I'd post about my family's radical unschooling journey with television.

I, personally, am not a tv watcher, though I do enjoy a couple of shows, Survivor being one I will admit. I was tv-free for ten years before we made the decision, together with our children, to bring cable into our home back in 2003.

When Em was little, we did restrict her "screen time" to under an hour a day or one movie, though she was so engaged, she didn't think much of it. When Sam came along, and I had three wee ones, all still in diapers, my mother-in-law purchased us a small tv/vcr combo for the living room that I will admit was an absolute godsend! She also single-handedly furnished our entire video library because she clearly (and good-naturedly) felt that her grandchildren were being seriously deprived of television culture.

So, the kids had many videos to choose from, ranging from Dora to Blues Clues to Bear in the Big Blue House. As I began later that year exploring homeschooling in earnest and discovering the wonder of unschooling, which seemed to fit our attachment lifestyle so beautifully, I simply began saying "yes" when the kids would ask to watch something, which still wasn't very often. We moved pretty seamlessly from limited screen time to the kids' free access to their video collection without them ever really noticing the transition.

When we decided to get cable, in large part for high-speed internet access, we simply continued that trajectory—saying yes when asked and transitioning seamlessly once again into unlimited television access. While we enjoyed having television and it enriched our lives in so many ways, I still somewhat resented the $40 extra it cost each month, and we began to look into ways to cut that price tag back, including exploring Verizon DSL over cable, ultimately deciding that we weren't ready to eliminate cable from our lives. Shortly after that, we moved and have continued to enjoy cable for the past year and a half in our new home.

This year, however, in a personal effort to simplify and trim expenditures where ever possible, I broached the subject of exchanging cable for Netflix again. To my surprise, this time my youngest child was completely on board, literally campaigning for the extra $40 a month! Jim, too, was on board with it (my boys are so motivated by their wallets!). The girls, however, were not as sure, and they took a few weeks to consider the option.

We are now officially cable free (though we do receive basic channels, which include PBS and the SciFi channel—how cool!) and very satisfied Netflix customers. The girls finally decided that they'd be willing to give a cable-free/Netflix-enriched life a try. As with everything, we all agreed that none of this was set in stone, that we could revisit and rework whenever.

The thing is, we're loving having more free time and being able to watch such a variety of movies and shows. Part of what spurred the kids' willingness to try this was the fact that we'd missed the whole first season of Avatar because they never really watched Nickelodeon. So, we purchased the first season on dvd as it was released and fell in love with the show. When we switched to watching season 2 on tv, the kids were irritated by the commercials. Then, when it switched from the first two hour-long intro shows to the half-hour show, OMG! all hell broke loose! The kids were devastated and infuriated all at once that their favorite show had just ended after only 20 minutes!

Now, with Netflix, although we're a season behind television and not all shows are available, there are loads of series' available, and the kids are loving being able to watch the whole season. More than that, they love the anticipation of movies on our queue and getting mail—mail is a really big thing.

So far, everyone is thrilled with our decision, thrilled that we have nearly $40 extra each month and thrilled with the selection of available dvds. We may change our minds, and we do really miss Dirty Jobs and Myth Busters, so there are are some downsides as with anything in life. But, for now, we're enjoying our Netflix romance and broadening our interests and activities.

Typical Day

We had one of those magical days yesterday. A day where not a lot happens necessarily, but it all flows so joyfully and by the end of the day it feels so good to reflect on our time together.

In the morning, we read a fair amount. Sam and Julia really love Jan Hunt's children's book, A Gift For Baby, so we read that about three times along with several other books. I did a ton of laundry and cleaned up the kitchen.

Em and I played a really great game of chess, and though she eventually lost, it was a long game. Sam and I played yesterday, and he beat me for the first time, so he was thrilled. At one point during Em's and my game, Sam wanted me to get my queen back—Em had taken it, as had Sam the day before. I don't take back my pieces unless we want to redo a series of moves, but the kids do take back their pieces and have do-overs. That's our current mode of play—we've played differently over the years. Sam had a hard time, but really got a hold of himself quickly. Even though this is the way I play with him as well, I think he was overly identifying with me while watching—it felt like he was playing Em and wasn't able to get back his queen.

Sam began playing his Spy Fox game on the computer and eventually the girls went in and played with him for quite a while. I paid bills.

When the girls came back out to the living room, they built some beautiful creations with the wooden tessellating shapes. Jules made several snowflake like creations while Em was "drawing" with them, making scenes with suns, flowers, trees, people, stars, etc.

We decided to go out into the pastures to check on the piggies who have recently been moved to their own pasture (part of that fence job Jim was working on last weekend). We sat out on the hill in the sunshine for a long time enjoying the warmth and our conversations together, reflecting on our move and how much we love having the animals, thinking about the future, looking forward to baby goaties in the spring.

As we were sitting quietly, I reached over and grabbed a blade of grass and began whistling on it. I know I've done it before, but it's been a while, and I figure the girls will get a kick out of it. They did, so we spent the next half hour at least with me showing them how to get the blade of grass between their thumbs like a reed, Jules getting it, then Em getting it, then the two of them doing it repeatedly to make the turkeys gobble in the next pasture, trying to change pitch, blow a tune—all the while, excitedly saying things like, "We love grass whistling. We need to do more grass whistling!"

At that point, Sam came running out to join us.... One of my great joys in this world is watching my children run through the pastures. It's one of those mental snapshot moments where I just try to burn that image in my brain because it's perfection here on earth.

Sam wanted to know how to grass whistle, but there were too many steps and he got really frustrated and ran off, top speed down the hill. By the time he got to the corner of the pasture, he felt more calm. So, we all hung out for a little while, then went back inside.

At this point it was late afternoon, and Jim soon got home, going outside to tweak the electric on the piggy fence before it got dark. We went out with him and saw the most amazing moon rise! OMG! The moon was huge and full and beautiful, and the sunset across the way was glorious. Em ran back inside to grab some paper so she could sketch the moon. *sigh* What a gift!

We went back in to make dinner—Greek pizza with some spinach we still have growing in our garden!—and Em put on her colonial girl shift I made her a couple years ago (making it just like a mama would have, with lots of room in the torso to grow into and several pin folds in the skirt to let down) and a vintage apron I'd picked up for her at a flea market. She asked for the swiffer duster and proceeded to dust the house. We've recently moved the tv from our living room down to our ever-progressing family room in the basement that we're finishing, so the credenza? (not really a tv stand) is empty and we'd put a few books on it. Em pulled a bunch of our favorite "ology" books down and stood them up to display. It looked quite nice.

After dinner, Sam and I were in the living room, and he went to grab a book for me to read and accidentally knocked three down in a domino effect. Cool! He knocked the rest that way, which made a rather loud bang when the fell down to the floor. I suggested he try it down on the floor to begin with. Sam spent the rest of the evening creating domino structures from books, getting more elaborate with each try.

After watching a few, Jim, Em and I went back outside for a full-moon walk and to double check on the piggies to make sure they hadn't gotten out and had found their range shelter. Yes, they were buried deep in the straw in the shelter, with only their ears sticking out. Cuties. Jim went back in, but Em and I decided to take walk. What a glorious, clear, crisp night! As we were walking back, Em spotted a spark near the hedgerow—she'd discovered where along the fence line the electric was shorting out! Hooray! That discovery will save Jim loads of time and frustration of figuring it out.

We came back in to watch Sam's final big book-domino cascade. Jim got some of it on video, though I haven't seen it yet. If it's clear, I'll probably You-tube it and post it on my blog. Sam, Em and I then snuggled up for a while on the couch to search for domino videos online. We saw some pretty cool ones, which will definitely make it into Connections' Virtual Visit at some point! Jim and Jules were snuggled watching a movie back in our room, and we decided to join them. When their movie was over, the kids climbed into their nests, and we put in Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky to fall asleep to, which we'd held back from returning to Netflix until we get the new round.

What a lovely day! I love our unschooling life!

Changing Seasons

Our bodies are beginning to adjust to the rhythm of the new season, enjoying more quiet time spent indoors by the fire. The girls have once again expressed an interest in learning to sew, so we've brought out the sewing kit and big bucket o' fabric scraps. They've been patiently focused on learning this new skill, mending anything they can get their hands on, including some of their dad's pants. Jules set up a stuffed animal triage center and mended all animals as good as new—some multiple times as Buddy, our one year old dog who still loves to chew, decided to help her out a bit. Even Sam got in on the sewing action, though not with the same singular focus as the girls.


The kids have been having fun helping to preserve, cook, bake and prep our own mixes. Jules made a bunch of jars full of pancake and waffle mix mostly by herself, which we're now able to pull out whenever. The kids also enjoy making monkey bread as a morning treat, which is basically dough balls rolled in butter, cinnamon and sugar, and baked together in a bread pan—a great homemade alternative to donuts.


We've had more time for reading, too, as the kids keep themselves busy sewing or building or creating. Even Sam, who used to get angry when we'd read because he didn't want to listen, has been passively participating more. Time and maturity have helped. We're nearly through the 6th book of the Harry Potter series, The Half-Blood Prince, which I've already read but the kids' haven't.

I love quiet, snuggly days inside—I love the balance of the seasons!

Farmlife

This is one of those retrospective kinds of posts, full of snapshots from our first year on our homestead.