National Gallery of Art field trip.

The wonderful Jillian Mazur took her advanced elementary students to the National Gallery of Art for an end of the year field trip.

Here is the grand entrance with its grand steps and columns.

Much of Washington DC's architecture looks like something out of Ancient Greece.

It was neat to see which pieces the children gravitated towards.

Also very encouraging to see them so engaged with the pieces personally.

That is what makes Jillian so amazing.

She draws them into the work and engages them into the lives of the people who created the pieces.

Their appreciation for the work changes substantially with this understanding.

All day you heard different children exclaim, "Monet!!" or "Oh look, it's a real DaVinci!" or "Rothko!!"

This was very exciting!

To see actual works of VanGogh and to see the student in action!

There are set ups all over the museum for people to study the paintings and learn the style of the artist by attempted mimicry.

The girls were excited to see Degas, "Little Dancer of Fourteen Years" sculpture in real life.

Notice the bronze sculpture has a satin bow in her hair and a fabric tutu.

A fountain between the East and West buildings.

Alexander Calder had a room filled with his mobiles and strategic lighting.

Such a wonderful day.

Making butter.

 We tried making butter by filling a small mason jar half full of whipping cream and shaking it until it became butter.

The girls began to diligently shake their containers.

And shake.

And shake some more (beginning find the shaking tedious at this point).

Still shakin'!

But it was all worth the effort in the end! 

Oh and look who are busy growing up!

A short, but rich, meeting with friends in June.

We got to meet and snuggle with this little miss.

She is a very centered and calm baby.

Isabella was very responsible and assured while holding her.

Tables make great hiding spaces.

Proud, loving Papas and a couple of worn-out toddlers.

Told ya!

A lovely June weekend.

We stopped by the Gallery Shop to see the Garden Club's floral arrangements based on the art in the gallery. 

This is the brilliant rendition of one of Josh's pieces.

Then we took a trip up to Blue Moon Rising.

The girls were excited to see tadpoles.

This staircase railing is made from an old long vine.

The children were so excited to see the living roof.

Summer evening meals on the picnic table are something we look forward to as the weather gets nice.

Also, so delightful with our friend Gabriel's homemade root beer!

Chives on Dad's cheesy beer bread.

Yum!

Give this girl a bowl of blueberries...

and she looks like a blueberry zombie!

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