Miscellaneous Updates

Okay, this will be a whirlwind update. ;-)

My nephew, Ethan, was born on August 24th! We think he's absolutely adorable, and are still in shock that there are now 5 boys. Eek! It's horrible that it took me a month to post that!

The gender pool may change in May, though, due to this:



Also due to the above, I won't be signing up for kickboxing once we move, but for a membership to an indoor pool instead. Ah well, spring will be here soon enough. Also due to this development, I'm shaking the dust off of some of my personal projects, including the one woman show that I mentioned oh, about 30 blogs ago. I found a cool storytelling guild in my new area, and they're having a festival in November and a weekend workshop in late winter/early spring. Yay! I do come back to everything eventually, it just takes me awhile sometimes because I get seriously sidetracked (by life and my own self). Of course, I often just change my direction when my parameters of existence change. Journalism school is something that I wanted, but I wasn't willing to stay here just to finish it. Some may call me a flake (for good reason), but I prefer the term "dabbler". Hopefully, my children will be more grounded and have more direction. ;-)

Speaking of moving, we're doing that in about a week because, hold on to your hats, the house is sold (pending inspection and appraisal, of course). We were going to head out soon regardless, but this development allows us to breathe a little easier as we go. This also means that as soon we arrive in our new state, we will be getting a new vehicle!! Woohoo!! We haven't decided yet just how "new", but since we intend to have this one for as long as possible, we don't want something more than a couple years old. I'm just pleased that I managed to keep the current one for a full year longer than I said I would when we bought it (grumbling during that year notwithstanding).

I *think* that's everything. If not, tomorrow is another day.

K's Birthday Dinner

We had K's birthday dinner tonight. He chose grilled salmon, twice-baked potatoes, steamed broccoli with Romano cheese, yeast rolls, iced tea and birthday cake. We played the game Sand Castles. It's a cool, cooperative board game in which everyone works together to build the sand castle before the waves come in. His birthday cake was chocolate with lemon-coconut icing, in the rough shape of Hogwarts Castle (I don't recommend googling Hogwarts Castle in order to see what the castle really looks like, as this is an artistic interpretation):



A good time was had by all, but especially the birthday boy, who managed to blow out all of his candles in one breath!

Homeschool Pictures

We took our "school" pictures today. If there's one ritual of the traditional school experience that I like, it's the yearly fall photo. Ours was a "successful" photo shoot today. I won't put the pictures that we've chosen to use on here, but here are a couple of the outtakes just for fun:

Fall Reflections

A friend was talking about fall and how much she loves it, and I just have to agree. Fall is absolutely, hands down, the BEST season of the year. Apples, crisp air and jackets, colorful leaves, pumpkins, hot chocolate and apple cider, soup and pies...Yummmy and gorgeous.

Fall also happens to be our season of birthdays. From August to October, we have 10 birthdays in our family and near immediate family. My oldest just turned 7, a fact that along with the naturally reflective season of fall, causes me to look back.

My great-aunt was born and died in fall (October), and fall was always when we visited her in the woodsy/artsy house that she and my great-uncle designed and built themselves. When the air grows cooler and the trees start to change, her spirit moves closer to mine.

This fall, however, I've realized that I've allowed my own insecurities to overcome my desire for a change of spirit. One thing that I want more than anything is a spirit of generosity and goodwill, but my progress toward this is being thwarted by a gradual decline into judgment and intolerance. I've always been secure in my position of tolerance for all viewpoints and most personal, non-harmful choices, but lately I've found myself being bitter about the choices others have made. So, I've decided to make a list of affirmations and say them daily, both to affirm my own choices that I believe in, and to develop a generous response to the choices of others.

I truly believe that the only way to make positive changes in this world is to share with the world a strong, generous, and loving spirit.

On a completely different note, we're having my 7 year old's birthday dinner tomorrow night, and we're making a Hogwart's castle cake for the occasion. Since he's started reading the series on his own, he's become even more interested in magic, wizards, dragons, and the like. I earned some points with him (heehee) by finding a black hoodie sweatshirt with silver dragons on the front. Yay! And just to prove that magical, mystical fairy tales and such can peacefully coincide with a belief in G-d, he's also learning the ten commandments on his own. I had a little trouble explaining the one about adultery without making it sound like talking with a person of the opposite gender who isn't one's spouse is bad. Hmmm...

Apple Works

Apple Works is this great little orchard, farm, and petting zoo near Trafalgar. They serve killer apple chicken sandwiches on the weekends, and all kinds of delicious apple goodies. The apple slushies were particularly yummy on a hot day! The petting zoo had mules, donkeys, peacocks, goats (who could climb a "cat" walk stretching over the various pens), sheep, a calf, and the largest llama I have ever seen.

The boys really enjoyed the live guitar music while we had chicken sandwiches and apple cider. We headed over to the petting zoo, picking up some poison ivy on the way, then back to a little barn with a great slide. They made their way through a maze, and then rode the little train (ds#3 INSISTED, :)). One more trip to the petting zoo, and then into the shop. Aahhhhh, the sweet, delicious first apples of the season. We chose our apples, our cider, and a couple of slushies for the road. Mmmmmm!!

Okay I lied

I often do. ;-) But today's post will not be about Apple Works, though I promise that's coming soon. Instead I wanted to post this:



A friend exercised creative license to create this unique piece of walking art. Luckily it's washable -- if my children had done it, they would have used black Sharpies. LOL

Frescoes

Okay, so here are two of the frescoes. Ds#1 is demonstrating the agony the Cretes must have felt when their island was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Or perhaps he stubbed his toe as I snapped the picture.

I feel like a real homeschooling family now that we own a HUGE container of Plaster of Paris (haven't had any in the house since before ds#1 was born), and large bags of leaves, dried ragweed, acorns, and twigs.

We hung out in the backyard this afternoon, reading Robert Frost (I found my copy of his poems downstairs last night), and talking about the wind, rain (and lack thereof), and the fallen leaves.

We're so sad to be leaving our good, dear friends behind, but I can tell that the boys are anxious to get involved with another homeschooling group, and to start their extracurricular activities again. Looking back over the past several years, it amazes me that my once resistant-to-leave-my-side-for-a-second kiddo is the confident nearly 7 year old who will go anywhere and do anything without me.

Tomorrow, I'll post pictures of our trip on Sunday to Apple Works, a really cool orchard in Trafalgar. The boys had a blast, especially since Dh was able to come along.