Hiatus....

I've been busy doing things other than blogging.  This school year has been one of tremendous activity and change.  Looking back over the school year I'm not sure where to begin, but at some point I'll pick away at what we've been up to.  In a nutshell, however, we joined a new home school program in our area called 'Classical Conversations', and it was a wonderful, rigorous, wild ride.  I taught a 5th/6th grade class which was time consuming, delightful, and challenging. The challenge for me involved changing from a relaxed, eclectic curriculum to one in which we were accountable each week to have assignments finished and ready to present.  This was true for the programs in which both kids were enrolled, and it was a big change. 

Home schooling has been rather time consuming, but I've been up to other things as well.  At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful user of free programs, I haven't blogged as much lately because I experience Blogger as being clunky, time consuming, and frustrating.  I've been sidling up to the Facebook free trough where you can upload photos in a flash, jot down a few thoughts, and be on your way. It would be great if Blogger could take a few tips from the Facebook 'photo album upload' option.  In the spirit of jotting down a few thoughts, however, here is a snapshot of what's been going on....  (Oh, and the kids hate having their ages as their 'blog names', and have teased me about how their names have to change each year.  OK, I give up.  I'll just call them by their names, Daniel and Anne....)  

Daniel's Classical Conversations 'Challenge A' middle school class.

The grammar school portion of Classical Conversations ended the year with a whole group symphony class for fine arts.  The kids had the opportunity to 'conduct' the 'orchestra'.  

The 'Foundations' grammar school (K-6) classes fill at eight kids.  Teacher heaven.  :-)

Creative pursuits for me......practical gardening.  I love to plant things we use, mostly in their fresh state.  I freeze some items, and can 'specialty' items like jam and jelly.  With our bumper crop of cilantro, I have much cilantro pesto in the works for the freezer.  

May is the birthday rush, with both kids having birthdays, and my dad as well.   We celebrated Anne's 11th birthday with lovely friends and an 'Ugly Doll' theme.  

My dad's birthday is sandwiched between the kids' birthdays, and I decided to stick to handmade gifts for him.  He loved, loved, loved the Christmas jelly, and there were more berries and jelly bag juices from last summer's crops waiting in the freezer.  I combined strawberry jelly bag juice with apple for a jelly batch, and cooked/sieved raspberries and blackberries for a thick, seedless jam.    

We celebrated Daniel's 14th birthday with dear friends and family and, at his request, a homemade 'Italian Cream Cake'.  

Now that the birthday rush is over, we are focusing on end of the year recitals, track club practices, more gardening, and much needed organizing.   In the mix of the busyness, though, I love to clip and dry flowers and dream of more handmade gifts.  

Annivesary

It's my 'blogoversary'.  (I wonder if I spelled that correctly, and if there is such an entry as 'blogoversary' in Merriam-Webster which would certainly be a reflection of our culture and time.)   As of late, I've been busy, distracted and haven't written as much as I thought I would.  A year ago, when I first started blogging, I had intended to write more about home schooling and to share observations from my thirteen year transition from public school teacher to mother, to homemaker, to homeschooler, and the sometimes shock of 'christian culture' that I encountered in that transition.  I had intended to do more curriculum sharing and unit study updates.  I still hope to.  :-)   

A Little Sojourn...

This morning I sprang out of bed, having overslept.  It is Saturday, a day for sleeping in, but this Saturday morning afforded me the opportunity to sojourn, early, to the regional teaching hospital with a few other women, where a Very Sick Friend had been taken the morning prior. I've written about this friend before--about a year ago she was the subject of my first ever blog post.  She has survived, to date, several crises surrounding her failing liver, and this most recent crisis involves her recently transplanted liver.  Her name is Grace, she is valiant, and she is well named.   

Despite the seriousness of our journey, there was laughter, fellowship, and very honest, probing conversation.  In many ways I was the benefactor of two women who felt pulled to travel two hours north and invited me along.  Those two hours were spent sharing, praying, discussing...singing.  I think the latter was the best of all, trying to remember stanzas of hymns, or any song three women from different faith communities shared in common.  We found common ground in the familiarity of 'It Is Well With My Soul'.  I thought for a moment of the story I have heard about the hymn's origin, and felt a gratefulness that one man's response to suffering was a song through which countless others have been bolstered up and encouraged. 

    

We arrived at the hospital to find Grace, amazingly, lucid and able to receive a few visitors. This was not necessarily our expectation, as we thought we might do nothing more than give Grace's husband an encouraging hug and then pray--in the waiting room.  I watched these two women attend to Grace, check on her husband's needs, so benevolent, so real.  We talked a bit about life, visitors, and songs.  Grace likes hymns.  Then, we sang.  We  sang 'It Is Well With My Soul', and this sweet, Very Sick, very yellow woman, Grace, sang along.  After a bit, we gathered a lunch for her husband, greeted Grace's out of town family members flocking to the hospital, and left. 

We were home before 4:00, and yet it was such a profound time.  I am blessed, humbled, and grieved by the whole experience of today, what has come before, and what may follow.  I am the benefactor of these women and their wisdom, perspective, benevolence, intuitiveness, and ability to balance self protection with reaching out.  Today I was the student on a field trip of life, and when I came home a bit raw and hopeful, this is what I found....   

The $86 Remodel

Five and a half years ago, we bought our house.  It was ugly, neglected, repossessed, and had been empty for almost a year.  The roof leaked.  The bathroom floor was rotted and had to be rebuilt.  The story of Our House is a long story, one for which I am very thankful, but I'll stick to The Cinderella Room.....

Tucked down a hallway off the kitchen is, what we have referred to as, The Study.  AKA 'The Cinderella Room'.  It has been where all of the mismatched, odd furniture has been 'sent'.  You need it but don't really like it, so you have it go sit by the fireplace and be quiet.  :-)  This room has been our school room.  Two of the four walls had cedar paneling.  The kind that was glued on board by board.  Individually.  At one point we thought we would take it down, but arduous paneling removal was a low priority after reroofing, bathroom repair, window and door installation, exterior painting of the Rather Tall House, etc.  The Cinderella Room was a light sucking vortex with the only window being a large north-facing sliding door.  There was no overhead lighting.  The dark, cedar walls literally absorbed the indirect north sunlight and lamp light, even full spectrum lamp light.   El Professor, who believes that anything worth doing on the house should be 'done right', felt that we should sheet rock over the paneling, texture, and paint.  I knew that on the priority list of Necessary Projects,  this meant the light sucking vortex was going to remain as such.  

The summer before last I convinced El Professor, who believes that any work done on a house should be done right, that slathering light paint over the cedar paneling would create a light, barn board effect.  He was skeptical.  Cedar bleeds through paint and takes several coats to successfully cover.  We painted one cedar wall.  Several coats later, the room was lighter.  One wall remained.  

This fall, as my the-day-after-Christmas-birthday approached, I informed El Professor that I would simply LOVE, love, love a gallon of paint to tackle the one remaining, light sucking, very ugly, cedar paneled wall in The Study.  Maybe we could paint the fireplace, too.  I had this idea that the light-sucking-vortex effect could be conquered with  lighter 'barn wood' walls achieved by painting the cedar, and then hanging artful, old windows with glass that would reflect the meager light from the north facing window.  El Professor was open to the idea, and the $86 Remodel began. 

The fireplace was so ugly that I have never bothered to photograph the kids' Christmas stockings, which I lovingly sewed,  hanging up.  The whole thing was awful.  

The beginning of several coats of primer.  It took several coats before the cedar quit bleeding through.  

After the wall was sucessfully painted, El Professor put the awful, cedar beam/mantle back up. Awful.  This is where 'the accidental' part of the remodel began. I had been rallying for a total redo of the fireplace as a part of this wall painting project.  Initially, El Professor had simply set out to repaint the wall and humor me with the window hanging idea.  End of Project.  The cedar beam awfulness, however, convinced him that more needed to be done and he agreed to a fireplace redo as well. As a matter of fact, he decided the whole adventure could become his birthday present as well. ( His birthday is exactly a month after mine.)  We headed to our favorite recycled building materials mecca and began The Hunt for a new mantel.   The fun centered around redoing The Cinderella Room by hunting for fun salvage and keeping the cost to a minimum.

The recycled building materials covered area and lumber yard is a Treasure Trove.  The kids love it there. 

Old windows galore.....on the day I purchased these  they were two for the price of one. 

El Professor found this weathered beam chunk behind a stack of wood.  Cost of the new mantle--$8

I should have photographed the process....He had to bolt a 2"x4" to the wall and then carve/chisel a 2"x4" space in the backside of the mantle, ultimately mounting the mantle to the 2"x4" on the wall.  Impressive.  Even if it's salvage, he likes to do things right.  

Putting it all together....

Oh--the project would have come out for much less than $86 had we not had the CRAZY idea that we should, maybe,  paint the fireplace a color.  WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!  Enter, more paint costs to quickly cover up the evidence of a Very Bad Idea. 

Some good friends gave us a futon they no longer needed/wanted....that was the end of the mismatched furniture that had been sent to The Cinderella Room.  They even delivered  and installed it!  Such a blessing. 

A few months ago I posted that I wasn't sure we'd be able to pull the fireplace remodel 'out of the fire', but I'm pleased with the end result.  The room is light and inviting, and we had fun salvaging our way to an $86 Remodel Double Birthday Present.  

There's a reason.......

......why Thirteen was thrilled, I mean THRILLED, that the folks at the local dump gave him a free recycling bin.   Oh the joy!  Apparently, the folks at the dump got a kick out of how thrilled he was.  Some kids long for more conventional things, not to say that Thirteen doesn't have a wish list of 'normal' things he would like to have, but this winter he has been seriously wishing for a recycling bin.  After El Professor hauled it home in the trunk of the Old Volvo, Thirteen scrubbed it out and gave it to his neighbor buddy as a birthday present.  

Why, you ask? 

Thirteen has a little film making thing going on here in the culdesac with two of the neighborhood boys.  His spare time (and his not so spare time as well)  is often absorbed in dreaming up story lines, drawing story boards, and making props.  Enter the Wonderful, Free Recycling Bin.  The boys have been wanting a dedicated prop bin as they have been using an In Use Recycling Bin all winter.  The movies center around the antics of three neighborhood buddies known as BaconhEd (aka Thirteen), Canadian Bacon, and Sausage.  The Canadian Bacon character (who happens to be the birthday gift recipient) hangs out in a recycling bin.  And, apparently, he loved the gift. (Thirteen also gave him a bag of Oreos.)    

In a culture laden with video games and cable, it has been thrilling to see this 'electronic pastime' become a creative passion for Thirteen.  Last week, he tore his room apart, moved all of his furniture into his closet and taped St. Patrick's Day tablecloths all over the walls to create a green screen.  He is now working with an instructor at the homeschool resource center on an 'after effects' program to use with his new green screen.

The film maker at work....

I think the 'Christmas Episode' Thirteen dreamed up is my favorite.  

A Gift

Late last summer, as school started up and fall approached, Ten decided that she was going to get a few more inches onto her long hair and then cut it off for Locks of Love.  Our fun Hair Cutter Lady let her know that her hair was almost long enough, and that when Ten was ready, she would cut and style it free of charge.  She does that for Locks of Love.  She mails the hair to them as well.  Ten decided that Valentine's Day would be The Day.   (We actually ended up going in the day before Valentine's Day.)

A few days prior to The Day, Ten wanted her usually 'wild hair' french braided 'one last time' (believe me, there weren't many times).  She also told several little girl friends of her plan, and had them each say good bye to her hair.  On The Day, she was resolute, even printing some 'short hair style'  ideas off the internet to take to show our Hair Cutter Lady....  

Our poor Hair Cutter Lady could barely speak, as she was recovering from The Winter Cold we all seem to be battling.  

Ten brought along a moral supporter.  They played in the massage chair while El Professor got his hair trimmed.  

When it was Ten's turn she talked about possible styles and shared her pictures.  

Then The Wonderful Hair Cutter Lady gave Ten some encouragement.  

First you make a ponytail....

...then you cut off the ponytail....

...and braid the hair.  You need ten inches.  

Last of all, you get a new style!

It takes 6-8 ponytails to make a wig.  

Check out Locks of Love and view their video clip on the donation process.  

Celebrations....and busy!

Life has been busy!  Homeschooling, a remodel (remember those old windows???), teaching at Classical Conversations, a zoo trip,  sick kids, Face Book distractions........it's been a busy, but full, wonderful month.  Amidst all of the hullabaloo, El Professor turned......49!!!!!!!  We celebrated with a breakfast out, a soup and bread dinner with the 13-year-bible-study friends, and a family BBQ. 

More later  on the progress of the 'salvage remodel', homeschooling, life........... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EL PROFESSOR!