Our Spring trip to Swallow Falls State Park.

We haven't been to Swallow Falls for two years! Unbelievable.

Kora grabbed some branches and ran down to the Falls.

She was so excited to see a "BIG waterfall!"

We've had a good bunch of Springtime rain and knew the falls would be stunning.

So many trees fell.

Here is a beautiful cross-section of an old rotted tree.

We were all intrigued with the textures both visually and tactically.

Little Gandalf here is always looking to find her perfect staff.

A generous stranger offered to take our picture.

The mist from the falls drew the sap out of this felled tree.

The texture of this decaying tree was incredible.

Designs and color were amazing!

Woodpecker.

Isabella offered Kora a ride.

What a great sister. 

Isabella took this picture.

She really liked this root system.

This whole area was filled with old, old trees and almost all were uprooted during the storm.

There were many new Maple saplings taking advantage of the opened canopy.

Look at that muddy dress!

Tolliver Falls was rushing as well.

Notice the stump in the middle.

Isabella loved the smoothness of the rush of the water over the rock.

A Day of Chocked Full of Friendship

Since it was most likely the last sunny day of the season, we went to the park with some other homeschool families.

There is only one picture because there I was too busy socializing with the other mothers (so yes, I had a playdate too!) but it's a great one. 

One of the aspects of homeschooling I cherish is multi-age interactions.

Here you have youth 4-14 all playing together.

I could go on and on about that but won't at the risk of sounding (and being) very preachy.

After errands, we went to our end of the year soccer party. I have no pictures of that because I was wrangling a pizza greased, cupcake frosted toddler.

I would like to say how lovely it is that people volunteer their time and effort to coach soccer.

I am so impressed with their kindness and patience.

It was also wonderful to get to spend time with some of the other mothers on the team.

Then onto the Felton's.

I love being in and amongst the company you two keep.

That is an understatement but there is no word, font nor color that could accurately convey how grateful  and happy my soul is talking and laughing with the people you bring together.

Without further ado:

Having a hard time, having a snooze.

When I came through the door of Ms. Emmy's daycare, I was greeted by silence and this:

Would you look at that. 

Completely zonked.

Zonked after freaking out and attacking the lovely Ms. Emmy (two year old fists and feet of fury!).

No nap, overtired freak out!!

She was set in the time out chair to settle down and settle down she did.

I love time out.

I personally desire more time out for myself.

I think we should all do some time outs when we are freaking out.

A 5 minute power nap and she was back to her sweet, non-fists-of-fury self.

Lovin' Ms. Emmy, lovin' on Mama, happy girl.

Which leads me to my gratefulness of seeing this posted on Pinterest and some Home/Unschooling blogs:

Make it your Mama mantra.

It really helps.

What 36 year old me would tell 11 year old me.

Middle School isn’t looking too promising huh? Well let’s not focus on the negative, instead, let me arm you with some truths.

Do not compare yourself. You do this all the time and it’s inaccurate to say the least. You don’t have a clue what these other kids are dealing with. You think their lives are better but it’s all bravado and fronting on their part. Most of these kids that look to have great lives are dealing with hell at home. Literally. It's bad for them in a way you can't comprehend. Which leads me to...

Develop compassion. This will help. This is godly. When you look at that one girl, you know the one that everyone seems to adore and fawn over but she’s not particularly pretty or interesting? Yeah, she has like a million boyfriends and they're all hot! What’s up with that? This is the female phenomenon called “a whistle only dogs can hear” which you’ll read in Sassy when it comes out in a couple of years...but I digress. That envy and bewilderment is not unfounded but it is unproductive. Maybe all those boys she’s with are to fill a void in her life. Somethings up, so send that girl some love and compassion. It makes your heart and soul stronger. Blessing people can only improve all situations. Learn to do this now, please, because I still struggle with it to this day.

Trust your instincts. Listen to that still, small voice. Go look up 1 Kings 19:12 (which is a book in the Bible). That’s what you’ve always been hearing. That’s who it is.

Bide your time sweetheart. There is nothing you can do to get out of the crappy town you live in or get out of the crappy school you endure. Spend this time in quiet germination. Have Mom take you to the library and read. No, not V.C. Andrews for crying out loud! Read Stephen King, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis...go get started. Stay up late and watch 120 Minutes and Monty Python and The Young Ones. Cultivate your interests.

And lastly please, please don’t put as much energy into boys as you do. Stop it. Have all the crushes you want certainly (something has to make school worth going to right?) but don’t lament not having a boyfriend. Do not internalize not having a boyfriend as having something wrong with you. Yeah, your kind of goofy looking now but you’ll be quite pretty in no time at all. You will find your husband when you are only 19 and he looks a lot like that boy you and Teri peel out of 6th period to oggle. Yeah, really he does, I’m not kidding. You'll have a really nice life with great friends and beautiful, clever children. You just have to get through the next seven years. Hang tight. XOXOXO

Beautiful Kora

A little story about our chickens.

Lots of our friends are enthusiastic about having a couple of backyard chickens.

As they should be!

It's so much fun.

Once you get their housing set up, maintenance is a breeze.

I thought I would post some pictures and links for interested friends.

I need to say we are very DIY about all this.

There's been a good bit of trial and error.

As of Summer 2012, this is who we have and how they are set up:

We have a small fenced in area off of our garden and next to the playset.

This is Rosetta. She is a Sliver Laced Wyandotte.

She is very independent and not fond of being picked up.

Every couple of days we flip that flat board next to her and the hens can gobble up all the crawly critters underneath.

This is Linda. She is a Black Australorp.

She is very sweet and will actually cuddle up against you like a cat.

This site is great to explain the different breeds in detail.

Right now she is broody (Mama mode) and wants to roost snugly on eggs all day.

The white powder is diatomaceous earth. We put it all over the coop because we are having a war with an ant tribe at the moment. Also we use deep litter method of dealing with our chicken waste.

We get about an egg per hen a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less (especially in the winter).

Josh put this together. He looked at some designs online but just drew his own idea up on paper and bought the things he needed at Lowe's.

You could make your coop fancier or more plain. You could even buy one pre-made but that would be a little spendy.

Next Spring we hope to get more and this coop could nicely keep 6 chickens.

The Urban Homestead and The Backyard Homestead are two books that helped us along in our chicken endeavors.

Pinterest inspiration success #2!

I found this cool nature scavenger hunt on Pinterest from the site mykidsmake.com

So we visited our new friends and had a great scavenger hunt through the backyard and woods.

Kora is taking this very seriously.

Scavengers ready!!

These are all over the ground.

They look like little mud volcanos.

We all really want to know what is making these.

Good job finding "something perfectly straight".

They found everything on the list!

Some very interesting and cleaver interpretations.

They found things I wouldn't have considered or seen.

Who made a nest in our garden?

We noticed a small patch of straw in one of our garden beds.

It was as if a critter had picked up the straw from in between the beds and arranged them just so.

Isabella thought it might be a snake (specifically the one known as Eloise Treebranch that has been spotted before in our garden and compost).

I thought it might be the bunnies I've seen all over our backyard.

Pinterest inspiration success!

I found an awesome craft project on Pinterest that sent me to the blog the art girl jackie.

We all got white tops and decorated them with permanent marker accordingly.

This was such a fun and easy activity to do!

So you're interested in homeschooling....(part 1)

It's fun. It's a good life.

First thing you do is go down to our local Board of Ed. When you walk through the front door there is a desk to your right and (should) be a person there to help you. Just tell them you would like to homeschool your child/children and they will either get you the paper work or send you upstairs and those people will get you the paperwork.
This link explains it further.

Paperwork. No pressure. Just sign a couple of form letters. There will be a part that asks if you will be reviewed by the Board of Ed. twice a year or if you are going through a state approved reviewing agency.
Here is the list of them (religious and secular). For the record, our family goes through the Board of Ed. and have had a lovely experience with both our reviewers. There are pros and cons to each way of doing your review. You just have to figure out what's right for your style of teaching. Which leads me to curriculum...

Step one. How different curricula are structured. Don't be intimidated, this is really neat stuff. Yes, there is a ton out there but pick around, try things out and see what strikes your fancy. You know your child best and really, what's the worst that can happen? You can always do something different when you realize something doesn't work as well as you had hoped.

Step two. Specific curricula. If anything is tricky, this is it (if you are going with a curriculum at all because you can always be eclectic or unschool). There are so many options here and then even more options when you look at specific subjects, it can make your head spin. Many of the families in Garrett County use My Father's World. A couple of families go to this conference to search different curriculum. I think it is one of the highlights of their year!

We are also becoming quite a connected group in the county. We recently had a curriculum swap and will most likely have another before September. There are people forming a History Co-op using "Story of the World" though Peace Hill Press. We have a yahoo group "garretthomeschool" that people communicate through. If you chose to homeschool your child, you will not have to flounder out in no-man's land. You will a very welcoming, diverse, supportive community to connect into.

Here are two great links that talk about unschooling:
Great explainations for the reasons people go the unschooling route.
More links to reasons/descriptions of families unschooling.

I will write another post about what our family does for learning.
And feel free to ask any questions.
:)

Monet mural at Jillian Mazur's studio. Plus the reception.

Seven years later...

2005

2012

Twinkle Toes for real.

"Now I really do have twinkle toes!" (In reference to the Sketchers shoes she has from her Aunt Kymm.)

I understand you can't see the colors but these two pictures just show how tickled she was to get all gussied up!

At the park with cousins.

It's always fun to roll down a big hill.

And be silly with your cousins.

Oh geez...it's the "eyes and face". Bad influence to M, disconcerting to K.

What a wonderful, sweet bunch of kids. Sweet smiles all around!