November

DH and the boys are out in a blizzard to pick up his mother and brother from the airport.  I am sitting in a quiet, clean house, noting the snowfall and drinking tea.  And frankly I'm soaking up all the normalcy I can before Christmas jumps in.  It's a refective time so with that here is a bit of a reflection on the last month of life.  

We enjoyed Denver's Night at the Museums at the beginning of November.   This year we went up to Golden to explore the American Mountaneering Museum and the Astor House with friends and their amazing kids.  Amazing because they have a great story.  And amazing because they just are.  

B took part in a three part physics co-op wherein they built towers, bridges and containers for the egg drop.  He did pretty well with his design.  It didn't break from the fall from a second story window.  Of course, some kids in the group were disappointed that they did so well so they did end up breaking a couple just for fun. 

We studied sheep.  Yes, sheep.  We thought, too, about shepherds.  It was a two week unit study and one thing I most enjoyed was reading to B from Scouting the Divine by Margaret Feinberg.  Sometimes we assume that kids won't understand our "adult" spiritual formation books.  But Margaret writes so accesibly that B tracked right along with her and we both were reminded of what the Good Shepherd does for us daily.  This little craft was so cute and easy for S to make.  And it was so much more fun than gluing cotton balls to paper like he's done sooo many times in Bible class.  

We began to be Thankful.  S made a little thankful tree.  The crafts you think are overdone (i.e. ahem...gluing cotton balls to paper to make sheep) they end up loving.  He said what he was thankful for and we wrote his thoughts on leaves and taped them to a branch.  I think his favorite part was hacking the branch off the felled limb in the backyard.   And on the computer is tenmarks.com which is B's math curriculum for the year.  He and I both love that it's all online and includes instructional videos.  Plus I love that it's only $10 a month. He's doing really well, and if he's ever stuck I just watch the video with him and help him work through both practice and graded problems.  I can even set up rewards for him and pause the program (like I did for Christmas this week).  He's halfway through his year but he's 3/4 of the way done with math!

 We took a little break. J was off the whole week of Thanksgiving and we were lucky enough to find a little condo in Estes Park to rent for three days. It was out of cell phone range and had no internet access.  Perfect.   We played games, walked through downtown and watched the glassblower for a long time, enjoyed their community-wide free Thanksgiving Dinner, took in a movie and tried out their skatepark.  Perfect.  Oh, I said that.

We don't have many traditions at the holidays, but since moving to Colorado we've been to see the Littleton Christmas Tree Lighting every year. So, after returning from Estes Park we went to cute little downtown Littleton yet again and froze and watched as the wind blew all our candles out.  But it's still fun.

October Catch Up

October came and went.  It was busy and good and mostly normal.  My least favorite day was when S ran over his finger while sitting on a skateboard.  We're still waiting for that fingernail to fall off.  It's barely hanging on.  I did not take a picture of it and you're welcome.  

My favorite days were the two afternoons that dh and I had lunch dates.  I love, love, love that all three boys on are in classes all day on Fridays.  Originally I thought, "Yay, I get a day for me!"  But then I discovered that even better than that was to have a day for my marriage.  Whoa.  So good.  

Additionally, I made a little cash to go toward our summer trip to India by selling more kids items at the Just Between Friends, Denver sale.  If anyone feels like donating to that cause, let me know!  For you locals, I'm going to do the Spring JBF sale too and I'm accepting your in-kind donations so I can sell them.  Let me know if I can take your kids' stuff off your hands.

I've started mentoring an amazing young seminary student recently and now I've added another young woman from our community. I'm loving this season of life wherein I feel comfortable with who God made me to be and am actually stepping out and trying to fulfill what I think that looks like.  

We've been doing plenty of school and I'm rejoicing that we're finally in a groove that's not too restrictive.  On Tuesdays we take our work to a coffee shop.  On Fridays, like I said, the boys take classes away from home.  And I'm trying hard to protect all the other mornings to keep them designated for getting our work down.  We've had several co-ops with our local group and a couple more are coming up in November. 

Other than that, here's a few snapshots of the month:

 A little board breaking in tae kwon do.  

A little home repair on the rotting fascia boards (this is a before picture). 

Some sequencing with S. 

 Making mummies as we studied Ancient Egypt.

B's living history museum at Options.  He was Jackie Robinson and his other classmates were Sally Ride and Amelia Earhart.  Martin Luther King, Jr. showed up late.

Snow storm #1

Museum Day with a Robotics class (and real mummies!)

J's Lego creation: a giant Ninjago minifig. 

Our harvest carnival outing. 

Snow storm #2: this morning!  I just finished shoveling the driveway.  Fall in Colorado is all about upper body strength between raking leaves and shoveling snow.  I'm still questioning why I maintain a gym membership at this time of year.   But my resting heart rate just clocked in at 50 so I think it's doing me some good.

Do Not Be Afraid

We have always been a part of co-ops and homeschool groups for two reasons.
1.  P.E.
2.  Art

My oldest son hated getting his hands messy, always needed to know where we were going, refused to use color and rushed through everything.  Aside from the first couple of years when he was very young, I eventually determined that unless it seemed enjoyable to turn a lesson into a meltdown, I would simply not do art with him.  Instead, I farmed it out to other homeschooling moms to have the "pleasure" of exploring J's creative side during the classes they volunteered to teach.  Sorry, mom friends.

As a result, art has essentially sat dormant for a while. I tried to find ways to expose the boys to it in non-messy, linear ways.  We looked at masterpieces and learned about artists and I have always had them drawing (lots of stick figure art going on over here).  But that's essentially been my maximum effort.  Because the terror of the art lessons of the past has never left me, I don't even get out the paints unless I'm really throwing caution to the wind.   Sorry, Charlotte Mason, but we don't do nature notebooks.

When J was no longer schooling at home last year, B and I spent the year figuring out what worked for us.   And then we spent the beginning of this year finding out what worked for him.  He's an auditory/kinesthetic (large muscle) learner.  His intelligences lie in the areas of spatial, body and intrapersonal.  He's essentially an artist when he's not being an athlete.  But he's not the kid who loves drawing and painting, shading, perspective, etc.   He likes the sculpting, the building, the graphic designs, the turning-something-into-something-else kind of art.  He loves to make things and he cherishes each thing he creates.

In the past month he's been busy creating.  And surprise of surprises, I'm actually enjoying the process with him.  Of course, I've always enjoyed art and pursuing creativity.  And now, we've brought it back into our school day.  It turns out that I just needed to do it with the right child.

I will no longer be afraid of the art lesson.

Here are just some of the projects B and S have done in the past few weeks:

• Rice Krispie castles.
• A tile mosaic crown.
• A truss bridge out of Popsicle sticks and white glue.
• Scarab stamps out of baked modeling clay.
• Egyptian wall friezes out of Plaster of Paris

This doesn't include the lanyard helicopters, the countless fuse bead projects, the carving he wants to do of the Sphynx or the paper mache mummies that we'll try to hit this week.    It's exhausting.  It's messy.  And it's no longer fearful.

 
 

And Then We Stayed Home...

Staycations are nice.  Everyone sleeps in their own beds, you don't have to buy ice every day, it's cleaner, and we don't all have to go to bed at the same time.  There's time to enjoy a summer night in the backyard after the kids are in bed, there's space for separate read aloud stories for each child, there's room for everyone's suggestions to happen.

We went out to dinner when we came home from camping and then laid out our schedule for the week:

Tuesday:  Kung Fu Panda Matinee movie and evening mini golf.

Wednesday:  Pirate's Cove Waterpark.  The trick is to go before all the day camps start.

Thursday:  The warmest day.  So we went swimming at our local pool and had A&W root beer floats after dinner.

Friday:  A trip to the nickel arcade and then Krispy Kreme for National Donut Day.

Saturday:  Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. 

We hiked through snow (!) to Alberta Falls.

and enjoyed a walk around beautiful Sprague Lake.

We ate the food we'd intended to eat if we'd been camping and we only spent the cash we had on hand so there are no vacation bills to pay.  (We pocketed the extra to pay for a car repair.)  We read books on the lawn, worked in the yard a little, stretched out that camping laundry all week long, and just relaxed.  Sunday was kept for doing nothing, our tradition of transitioning back into regular life.  We did still clean up the house and do a little bit of work, but because we left town at the beginning and the end it still felt like a vacation.

Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons will always be there. We just know to go at the end of summer now.  So, August 2012 you'll find us there.

Well, We Did Go Camping...

...but this was Plan C.  The night before we were to leave for Plan A, S came down with something that really knocked him askew.  The forecast for the Yellowstone area was going to be down in the 30's at night with snow likely.  So, if he was sick, it wouldn't be the best time to go tent camping.  All of us in one cold tent with one coughing child eleven hours from home... yeah, we cancelled.  Plan B was to stay home a few days and when S was better we'd camp at Rocky Mountain National Park for a few days.  Still camping, still a National Park, but much, much closer and hopefully warmer.

And then S woke up the day were were going to leave and he was FINE.  He's pulled this trick a couple times so he MUST have allergies, but I can't tell the difference until he's over it.  We debated a bit, but after phoning the ranger in Yellowstone and finding out that there was snow on the ground and more to come we still opted for Plan B.  But then our friends called with Plan C and we jumped on it.  Camping with two other families with kids (yay!) and dirtbikes (yay!) out in the middle of beautiful nowhere Colorado.  I'm talking pee-in-the-woods-nowhere.  

It's not the Grand Tetons, but it's Mount Princeton in the Collegiate Range near Buena Vista, CO.  We actually had a beautiful campsite with a stream running nearby, a zero-depth sandy entry shoreline, and rocks and a thirsty Cottonwood to climb on.   It was windy and warm.  Sunburns and drama happened (random Jeep crash in our campsite on night number 1, lost child, vomiting, dead van battery).  But we were so glad to have begun our summer with friends and freedom.  Thanks for the invite, Noy and Dawn!

I Will Not Let February Get to Me: Remember to Celebrate

Midway through February comes a little day of love, like a built-in day to take a breath and remember why we do this: love, intense and never-ending for these little people learning to become big people.  

I spent most of Sunday working on our taxes and when that was finished I decided, spur of the moment, to have a little family celebration.  It is our tradition to have two desserts on Valentine's Day.  So, I made a chocolate souffle to go with strawberries and vanilla bean ice cream.  B & S decorated the table while I made quick, simple valentines with chocolate candies on top for the boys.  Then I went and picked up heart-shaped pizzas.  

Love all of these boys.  

Yesterday, we went to our homeschool group's Valentine Party:  all the bowling and video games you can fit into two hours.  My boys have never had the opportunity to exchange valentines and they were thrilled to find their bags filled with little notes, candies, pencils and silly bandz.  It was so cute.  They also each picked out two pieces of candy to give to their older brother who wasn't at the party.

And that's all we did yesterday.  I didn't squeeze in anymore school work in after the party. I just let the day be the lighthearted day it was supposed to be... remembering sweet moments with my kiddos, enjoying how they are growing, appreciating their strengths.  Celebrating.

Proximity

"We get to place them

in proximity to the divine

and then let the divine

do the supernatural in their lives. 

It's such an honor.  It really is."  

-- Michelle Anthony,

author of Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for Today's Families