Bombed.

This picture is perfect.

I feel like the entire holiday season has swooped in and is nearly out.

We have squeezed every breath of life out of this years season.
Probably best year yet.

Yesterday, we chose to start and finish the bomb site trail.

We tried once before, but the rain made puddles,

and the puddles made boys.........

Wet.

So we gave in to the elements and went home.

It was still overcast, but a perfect day-after-Christmas jaunt.

So here's the scoop:

On August 15Th 1945 Japanese bomber Nobou Fujita bombed our forest.

It was an act of retaliation, 4 months after we raided Tokyo.

The intent was to ignite a large wild fire.

I should say there are two scoops:

On August 15Th 2005, My little man rocked this neck of the wardrobe

Just by being born.
Did I mention that his name means

"wooded man" or "man of the Woods"

Indeed his name predestined him for glory in the forest.

Funny thing about our timberlands:

They're really really wet.

Little damage was done,
And nobody was hurt.

Later, Fujita returned to Brookings and made peace.

The kids were massive storm troopers this go around.
They blazed through the woods like it was their own backyard.

Like the back-of-your-hand sort of familiarity.

A new and still unidentified mushroom.

Assuming that 'bright yellow' wasn't a good sign,

I smacked down a "no touching'' rule and shot a photograph instead.



Grandpa joined us for the adventure.

It was a bit exhausting, but he made that trail his victory.

A slog through the forest doesn't brake this old Piep.

Wouldn't do it without a proper walking stick though.

Looks a little like a screaming Nerf football right?

Massive Rhododendron.

Salamander of the woods,

Meet man of the woods:

Pointing out the mushrooms

Some of the trees are indescribably large.

And made us look like like little toadstools.

chainsaw tree branch.

Oh yeah baby.

Myrtle wood trees:

Absolutely breathtaking in person.


Of all the things we enjoyed over Christmas break,

We'll mostly miss having Daddy home.

A Catch All.

I have no stinkin' idea why my blogs won't center anymore.
Plus, spell check doesn't work.
Bare with me here.
Its a joke....... get it?
Let me know...


My computer also has a mountain of viruses.
Its supposed to be better
Meaning I can blog more frequently,
because I shouldn't get booted of the net.
Making me want to throw my computer on the floor.
My 'A' button now sticks thankyouverymuch

Id like to re-cap on the great things I didn't get to post wilst my computer was sick.

1. guess this berry:
Any idea?
New discovery.

How about a Madrone berry?
http://www.superfoods-for-superhealth.com/madrone-berries.html

Looks straight from Mario Brothers right?

I couldn't help but post this creepy picture of my boy in such an awkward light.

Cracks me up.

The homeschool group visited an outdoor wildlife school.

Made complete with a couple of Rangers. The wildest part of this trip was that

I could totally picture Silas as a ranger.

They really liked each other.

Not exactly the dream his Daddy had for his only son. HA!

The theme of the trip was called 'forest needs'

All the things the forest needs to be.... well, the forest.

They gave everyone a magnifying glass.

Pure genius.

Also,

The soccer season came and went like a flash.

Silas was a total leader, and a team player.

Lauren came in like thunder,

Then, after a while, she always ended up playing goalie.

She didn't know that 'goalies' were against the rule for her age group.

And I didn't ever get a chance to tell her.

Also, she loved her time spent on the bench.

Now the hard question is choosing which sport to choose.

Soccer or t-ball?

I'm singin "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" ya know?

Ultimately, its up to them.

Its so great to be able to post past events.

It makes me realize that we actuall DO get out!

That school really DOESN't consume our lives!

We can do COOL!

Bringing poems to life.

My kids really enjoy rhyming.

I thought it would be a great idea to start reading poems
From my favorite books from when I was a girl.
They are a compilation of poems by Shel Silverstien.

The books were given to me by my Uncle when I was young.
He wrote special poems to me in the beginning pages of them.

The funny thing is that as a girl, I daydreamed about being a teacher
And reading these poems to my students.
Then as I got into my teenage years, I dreamed about reading them to my kids.

I would read the books over and over.
Waiting for the day to see what my children thought of them.
Now I can,
And its a real kick in the pants.

On the days we read it, Our afternoon is transformed.
Everything we say
Has on a rhyme to it.
This one is called
"The Tree house"
They have most of it memorized.

The idea of the poem is that the author doesn't want to live in a
Normal, neat and tidy home, but would rather a tree.

This ballad SCREAMS Silas.

After all, his name means "Wooded man, or Man of the Woods"

We made a poster containing real leaves and flowers,

And a real rope for the swing,

Then, little by little, Silas practiced writing the poem

And glueing it on the poster

I felt a huge triumph to walk away, knowing my kids really do enjoy

The poems as much as I do

A tree house, a free house
A secret you and me house

A high up in the leafy branches
Cozy as can be house.

A street house, a neat house,

Be sure and wipe our feet house

Is not my kind of house at all,

Lets go live in a tree house.

Zola's

Earlier this year, the homescooling mom's were asked to 'step up' and start planning the homeschooling field trips. I decided to take a couple of turns.
My first thought was.......
Food.
Not only do I love it, but I love to cook,
And especially eat.

Our favorite (non Mexican ;) food comes from Zola's
It is where we take most company from out of town.
And where ALL our pizza comes from.
The kids got to take orders,
And run them down the zip line......

Even Claire got her turn.

We wore so much Zola's advertisement,
We were asked if we owned the place..........
In our dreams!

Lauren in her Z-hat, Silas in his Z-shirt:

Making pizza:

I was talking on the phone with Grandma the other day,

I told her all about our field trip to Zola's,

She laughed.
I think she was figuring a scenario such as this:

10 AM: "kids, do your school!"

10: 15 AM "Kids do your school!"

10:45 AM "Why has nobody done any writing?"

10:55 AM "Who wants some pizza???"

She knows me too well.

No Grandma, this trip was planned ahead of time ;)

Lauren making her Pizza with Eian.

I am the coolest Mom.

My kids told me so.

I'm going to go ahead and roll with that one.

Thanks Zola's.

You helped make me who I am today.

We love you!

Home spun seed starters.

I've finally gotten my idea and plans in line

To do a project that was weeks in the planning.

I would save the news paper, then not have seeds.

I got a hold of some seeds,

and someone had recycled the news paper.

The longest waited part was going out to eat and getting an extra salad container.

Finally, yesterday, my luck changed.

I got to go out to lunch with only my man cub.

News paper was just sitting there,

And I helped a friend move, finding seeds in a forgotten drawer!

This is a great opportunity to start something I don't have to finish.

We will return the plants when they're too big for the terrarium.

I saw this really cool project online and have dreamed about it since. I found that if I label it a "homeschooling project"

Its 100x more likely to actually get done.

These seed starters were made with news paper cups.

Hand rolled by myself,

Dirt shoveled by my boy,

and planted by all Peeps.

Watering our new seed plants with an old baby formula scooper.

I knew there was a reason I kept junk.

So basically, we rolled out news paper and folded the bottoms under,

Planted,

Watered,

and closed up in a clean plastic to-go container.

That's about the extent of our excitement on a drizzly Friday afternoon.

Musings of spring.

Please excuse the absent.

This post has taken me days to load the videos and I fear the loading process has cost me my sanity. I have finally loaded them, and am ready for the best part.

The recap, where I get to swing in the hammock alone, and look back on the pictures in amazement at the wonder of these people I get to play with every day. It is bittersweet in a lot of ways. I look back and realize how long Lauren's hair is getting, how much Silas has improved in speech, and the sweet toddle of my 1 year old that I so often take for granted. Then the hard reality tends to come down on me like a guillotine. How much I have lost my temper, or ignored a sweet request for my company-because I only had one more load to fold or a few more dishes to put away.

I realize that they are not mine. I don't own them like a handbag or a toy dog. I can't keep them forever and once I use up this time-no matter how I spend it, its gone.

Mercy.

Silas has been throwing me though surprising loops lately that make me check and re-check my schedule, and the meaning behind some of the plans. His needs are far different than my own. He thrives on being home. The comforts and familiarity of it is a recharge to his fuel levels. He seems to feel safe and calmer. I don't mean calmer in activity, but in spirit...less anxious and worn out.

I am the opposite. I need daily breaks from the home! I load them up and abandon the homestead for a while. Coming home after a break makes my perspective of things more realistic to what they really are. I tend to come home to find the place in better shape than what I had perceived it to be.

Enough.

This is about Silas, Lauren, and the best bug experience ever.

Enjoy:

How bout them apples?

I forgot to fix the "sucking" end of the straw so he wouldn't eat the captor.

Another good reason to keep things a group effort!

I so enjoy sharing these life experiences with an eager and intuitive child.

They are so responsive and bring so much more to me than I could ever bring to him. Their nature is such that if I decided to never teach them a thing, they would (given opportunity and freedom to) still inquire and learn things in a way that my teaching could never enforce. Free unscripted, hard play time is often the best lesson.

This is the first time we tried out our catcher. Man I love when a thought turns to action, and success comes on the first try!

Here's to the school monster not gobbling up any more time than necessary. Planning and executing. following my own scripted lead and no longer winging it. Looking forward to all the unorganized play because of all the organization I am leaning towards. Raise a toast to more time for imagination and creativity.

This is too much to miss!

New topic

We got this awesome idea from a book we have called

Bug Zoo.

Its all about capturing and creating homes for bugs.

Sweetness.

So last Sunday when we were

dropping goldfish

At grandpa's house,
We found a fuzzy caterpillar.

Thus begins our unit on caterpillars.

Its called a

Pyrrharctica Isabella
So far that's all I know.

And I have also learned to spell caterpillar

(Thanks to spell check).

foodie shapes. houses, building

I got this idea from another blog.

She used mini marshmallows and toothpicks.

We used.... everything we could find.

It was part of the challenge of using up all the fresh produce.

Pumping iron.

The nerd and his atom.

Momma's dream house.