Out of the mouth of babes...

At the dinner table last night, J asked if we could plant trees all around our new house. I explained that our house will be in the woods, so it really already has trees around it.

"No," she said, "I mean trees right up next to the house!"

I explained that having trees too close to the house could cause problems, and suddenly she became wistful. "I like the trees!" she announced, then excused herself from the table. "I need to go draw some pictures of the trees!" She gathered together her small pad of paper and big box of crayons, and went outside.

When I returned home from the homeschooling meeting, she had her finished products on the table. One picture was very obviously the row of pine trees that line our driveway. One I think was meant to be our small maple tree, complete with a few red leaves. The last seems to be an unfinished likeness of the pumpkins on the porch railing.

Just seeing those small drawings lined up on the table brought tears to my eyes. The sentiment, the 5 year old significance behind them was enormous and felt so poignant at that moment. This is the home, the trees, the nature that J has known for her entire lifetime. I am able to see the big picture and look ahead to a new home in a beautiful location, but she is merely seeing change and uncertainty.

This moment served to reinforce to me the most obvious of observations: she is just a child! I realized today that we have already completed one semester of work in Phonics and Math after 37 days of classes. I have been pushing 2 lessons a day once we took a bazillion assessments to find an area that wasn't only review. J is doing wonderfully, and it takes her about 30 minutes to do the work. It flashed through my mind again: she is just a child! Why push her?

So, I continue to learn, and thankfully, I have this sweet, innocent child to guide me.

T

TGIF

Oh thank goodness for an upcoming weekend. With the house (I hope) off the market, we shouldn't have as much work to do this weekend. Hopefully we can move before the leaf clean-up begins in earnest!

We worked hard this week to make today an easy one, and since it was a dreary day, I suggested a trip to the video store for some viewing material to watch this afternoon (in between house showings). J decided that she wanted to go to Recreation Station in Washington. She reminded me that I told the girls that we could go there some rainy day...trust her to remember THAT, but not to wear underwear on a regular basis. It's a pretty nice indoor play area in Washington. We have gone twice...both times free weekends. I called this AM to check prices: $7.00/each for kids and $3.00 for adults...BUT children MUST be accompanied by an adult! J went off the deep end when I told her we couldn't afford to pay that much for an hour's worth of play time, no matter how nice the play area. She was grumpy the rest of the AM and I had to prod her to finish her school work.

Luckily Daddy called after lunch to see how my noon time showing went, and suggested taking the girls to Burger King for lunch and to play. Although I really dislike taking them to "Fomite Land", it did the trick - both girls were happy. That is, until L, who was kid watching, fell off her chair and landed on her head on the tiles. She was perfectly fine, and some very nice gentleman bought her a new hamburger since it went flying and landed on the tiles too.

J is now happily playing phonics games on Starfall...great site for pre-readers and beginners. We have started reading some phonics books my Mom gave me and doing Starfall on Fridays...breaks up the tedium. She also wrote a poem today, inspired by Theme In Yellow by Carl Sandburg.

Theme In Green

-JM

I am sweet and children eat me.

I am called sugar snap peas.

I grow in a pod

Like a Luna moth in a cocoon.

I hang from a vine

People pick me.

I'm a delicious dish for dinner.

That's it from the hill...happy weekend to all!
T

Magic Beans

Just in time for our Language Arts unit on "Jack & the Beanstalk", we found some magic beans in our garden! Can you believe these pods? I have no idea what we are growing, or if they are highly toxic or not. Any ideas anyone?

They must truly be magic because just an hour after I put out our FOR SALE sign, someone called and is coming to look at the house tomorrow! Wow!

T

First Day of School

We now have the first day of school officially under our belts. It wasn't a stellar day by any means...the computer system was down, so I wasted an hour this AM attempting to connect, making phone calls that lead no where, and writing frustrated emails. A friend stopped by unexpectedly (that NEVER happens up here on the hill!). The Realtor came by several hours earlier than planned. Lauren dumped the entire contents of her lunch plate on the freshly cleaned carpets. I saw the school bus letting kids off while we were finishing up our Math lesson...so much for getting done early.

So we made it.

I didn't experience the momentous "first day of school" moment that is so often photographed. Although we worked well together in school, everything felt disorganized and disjointed. Jenna said home school is "great". I'm hoping for a more cohesive 2nd day of school.

T

Bone Tired

It is work week up here on the hill. We have been working hard, neglecting our children and working outside until 6 PM, then collapsing (after a much needed shower). The goal is to have the house ready to sell by next week. We have had plenty of projects that need to be done. The biggest one was to create a patio out of the brick pavers recycled from the front sidewalk that became a flower bed. There were 9 cement pavers under this lean-to originally, about 2 foot square. We dug up sod and lined the garage with them. The lean-to itself has a fresh new coat of stain. I think it turned out pretty well for amateurs!


We used all recycled and found items for the project...and this is all that is left. Interested M?

We have also cleaned and repaired gutters and chimney, repaired the parking area, replaced a deck board and the roofing over the basement stairs, and I am about half done re-staining the deck.

4 more boxes arrived for J today...one is a printer, think the others may be computer parts! I need to clear out my desk to make room for J's school area and rid the study of all these boxes!

Sheesh...I'm exhausted! I am SO looking forward to having a new house where no home repairs are required for many years! (On that subject, we applied for our building loan...red tape because Flood Insurance folks believe we are in a flood plain!)

We are planning on stopping early tomorrow to take in the Greene Co. Fair. Hope you all are well!

T

Christmas in July!

Much to our surprise, the man in the brown truck rang our doorbell this afternoon. Seems he had too many packages to carry in one load. We received 6 big boxes from Agora Cyber Charter School addressed to J. At first I nearly panicked. I mean, this means that school REALLY starts soon, and I REALLY am teaching J this year!

An hour later, J and I sat down to open the brown cardboard boxes. Inside were more boxes! Brightly colored ones...just like Christmas. We opened box after box: "Language Arts K Standard" held a dazzling variety of award winning picture books, some of which are already favorites. "Math K Standard" held a plastic container of brightly colored geometric shapes, and colorful stacking blocks, while a slide whistle, tambourine and CDs were inside the "Music Preparatory" box.

While we're on the Christmas theme...last night, my "craft" table was looking very much like a scene from the Island of Misfit Toys in the Rudolf movie, with broken toys piled up beside my sewing machine. I decide to spend last night after the girls went to bed attempting to repair said items, the loss of which would be devastating to my girls. The biggest success story is the fairy wings, which long ago had begun to shred. I managed to repair them with a pair of old stockings, a glue gun and shiny star jewels. J was so thrilled that she wore them all day.

What fun! Now I'm a little bit excited, and J is VERY excited to do school. (And fairy wings with stars really DO help you concentrate better.)

T