Early December

Yep folks, at the end of his 6th month, Mr. Q began to seriously pull up. Now, he's cruising, and frankly can't get enough. He pulls up on everything, everywhere. Nothing and no one is safe -- as one mother at gymnastics yesterday can attest. She looked down to see a giggling, drooling monster happily scaling her jeans. I can't believe my tiny babe turned 7 months on the 1st of Dec. Insane!


Our December is flying past at an unacceptable speed. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with games and a big meal and a lovely walk through downtown Hillsborough, one of the oldest towns in the U.S. We did use the web cam to "hang out" with my family, relieving our homesickness just a bit.




The short days are contributing to an all around funk, though the boys are managing to stay chipper by making lots of crafts and "selling" them in the shops that they set up in their rooms. The library/homeschool room/office is a constant flurry of paper, glue, clay, crayons, and pencils as they make books, statues, paper crafts, and other unusual items. Yesterday, we enjoyed a very inspiring cabin field trip to the Scrap Exchange, a local reuse/craft center. The boys had a blast and came home with a million more ideas.






On the classic learning front, K and G are diving into Spanish. Also, G and A are making great strides in their reading fluency, while K is tackling spelling, his least favorite subject. A strong, fluent reader from an early age, K has not enjoyed the process of spelling in the least, but he now readily admits its usefulness. :-) All are having great fun with math, history, science, and music. In fact, *I* have learned to play three snippets of classical music (including Musette in D), with chords, due to K's tutelage and support. Home learning really does include the whole family!

Music

This morning, K decided to take a break from piano practice to play a duet with Q. It was a very modern piece! Check out the Liberace dos both boys are sporting. ;-) The rest of the day has been a whirlwind of math, origami, art, spelling, and Native American tales. Once R gets home, our Thanksgiving preparations will begin in earnest.


Yesterday, the cabin "field trip" was a board game party in one family's basement. The boys had a blast playing games (Animal Soup, Cadoo, Trouble, Guess Who?, among others) with their friends and the moms. Chinese food was enjoyed by all. Afterward, it was off to G's gymnastics, and back home for game play with dad while mom was at her ESL class.

Here A protests the assumed rules of Trouble:


K and G played a lively game of Cadoo with two of their friends:


Q and his friends played with the big box of blocks:

Chevre

On Monday, we had the cabin field trip to the beautiful Elodie Farms. We met the owner, Dave, the goats (32 in all), their guard donkey, Ed, and their pushy field mate, a paint named Sadie. We were able to tour the milk room and the little kitchen where the milk is pasteurized, made into cheese, and stored until it makes its way to the local farmer's markets, grocery stores, and restaurants. Afterward, the boys and their friends fed the goats sweet tarts, hard bread, and pretzels before we had our own delicious snack of various cheeses with crackers. My favorites were the Jalapeno and Sweet Pepper, while K and G particularly enjoyed the mild soft goat cheese. We weren't able to milk the goats this time as we had hoped because all of them were pregnant and no longer producing. Apparently goats are very, very fertile; it's unusual for them to not get pregnant.

The day started out sunny but cold, and soon became cloudy and very cold, so we didn't stay as long as we would have liked. We did get in some chicken holding time, so all was not lost. Any day is a good day if it includes holding a chicken!

Q is now an officially mobile baby! He is crawling, and trying to pull up, and can make it just about anywhere in the house. It's now time to really baby proof, something I have resisted with each of my kiddos until the absolute last minute. Well, it's officially the last minute! ;-) This week has been filled with lots of tears of frustration as Q tried to reach these latest milestones, and now that he has, he's back to his usual friendly, happy self.

My Christmas spirit is raging, as the boys will attest! We've been singing and listening to Christmas carols, and have rounded up all of our Christmas stories. We have our own plans for Thanksgiving this year, which don't include the Macy's Day Parade (we're saving that for a less crazy year, 2009 perhaps), but do include yummy food, a big bike ride, and lots of games. It's strange to think that we won't be with family this year, but maybe we'll set up the web cam on the laptop and invite our families over that way!

Sweet Somethings

K passed his yellow belt test! Woohoo! He was a tad nervous, but felt quite prepared.

G hopes to test for his blue belt in a few weeks. Sometimes, it totally surprises me that two of my boys have entered the big kid stage. Crazy!

A's dental work was a success. It was a difficult experience, particularly for a newly 3 year old, but he handled it well. Hopefully, our dental woes are fully behind us, at least until we enter the orthodontia period.

Q is 6 months!! He is up on his hands and knees, trying to get mobile, though he ends up going backwards as much as forwards. He puts all of his weight on his legs, dashing my hopes that he won't walk for another year. ;-) He's also begging for solids, so he's had a bit here and there of organic banana, avocado, and squash.

We won a year's worth of classes at G's gym! I never win raffles/drawings, so this was a very pleasant, much appreciated surprise, particularly given all of the expenses we've had as of late.

Improv and ESL are going well. One of these days, I'm going to quit stretching myself and just do things that come really, really, insanely easy to me. Like sleeping. Or drinking hot beverages. Just coast a bit, ya know?

Finding Balance

With four children under 8, it's hard to find balance. There are so many great opportunities for each of them that it's difficult to keep us on a sustainable schedule. After pushing myself crazily through the past few weeks, however, I realized again just how important balance is. This week I had a minor meltdown that made me certain that I've been doing way too much.

So, we're paring back. We still have some really fun activities coming up: the state fair, Walking with the Dinosaurs, and a Billy Jonas concert. Overall, though, we're changing our tack from one of "Yes, certainly!" to one of "No" or "Most likely not". We're not throwing out our favorites (like Cabin and Aikido and Gym and Ice Skating), but new commitments are going to have wait until the spring, or longer. One of the reasons that we homeschool is to find our own sensible path -- it doesn't seem very sensible to undermine that with an overburdened schedule.

We need more time to sit quietly and watch the clouds; to read books like The Green Fairy Book, and discuss the Grimm Brothers' very long and interesting lives. We need time to bake spice cookies and make applesauce and cook curry cauliflower and rice. We need time to talk about the elections and what challenges our country is facing now, and what challenges it has faced in the past. We need time for art and knitting and music. We need time to walk and bike and think and talk. Time to breathe.

I think we'll start our winter hibernation a bit early this year. :)

My Oh My

Buy a house and suddenly months disappear from your life. Literally. It's nearly October, and I haven't blogged since mid July. What is there to say really when your life is taken up by boxes, and each day is a struggle to not slip further into chaos?

I can't complain too much, really. We found a lovely house. It's just what we need right now, and the boys are really happy with it, too. We moved just in time to begin a new "school" year. All of the boys' favorite activities are in full swing. K is doing Aikido,ice skating, cooking club, and Friday Enrichment. G is doing Aikido, gymnastics, cooking club, and Friday Enrichment. They are both(along with A) doing piano, tennis, and swimming with R. We also joined an awesome co-op.

As for me, I'm guiding them through the learning process (or are they guiding me?), as well as taking an ESL class and teaching a couple of acting classes for children. I'm participating in an improv group. as well as trying to squeeze in some running and cycling. R has joined a tennis club.

Life is crazy and busy and fun!

2 Months Old

So, Q turned 2 months, and I find it unbelievable just how quickly life changes. There's a great song on the Sleepyheads cd called Turn Around -- it makes me happy and sad at the same time because I remember listening to it when K was a tiny babe, dancing around the living room at our first house with him snuggled in my arms. I really can understand the impulse to keep having babe after babe -- but recapturing that ephemeral experience is next to impossible. It's worth a try, though! ;-)

We spent most of our Fourth of July searching for houses -- we drove past over 30! This weekend we're looking at our top 5. Our weekend wasn't all work, though. We did grill, and do some fireworks, though it rained/stormed EVERY evening. We also spent a day at the Eno River Festival. The boys had a blast, listening to music, playing with clay, finding snakes, using a hand held GPS and compass to geocache, eating hot wings and ice cream (R and I had a delicious veggie wrap and tried some yummy pupusas: corn meal pockets filled with cheese or chicken), and buying cool wooden frogs.


Q at 2 months


A at 2 months


G at 2 months


K at 2 months

Gringo Guac

THE TOOLS

THE AVOCADO

THE LIME

THE GARLIC

THE SPICES

YUMMY!

Update

Forgot to mention below that G has started his invitation only, advanced gymnastics class! There are only three children in his class (including G), so he's getting lots of quality gym time. Woohoo!!

Monkey Jumps

From this to THIS!

Last night, G had his first gymnastics recital. He did a marvelous floor routine (complete with cartwheel and handstand), the high beam, and the bar. He's definitely at the top of his class, and completely full of energy. After his recital, we went to Ben and Jerry's for an ice cream treat -- G chose a large cup of strawberry with rainbow sprinkles. We're so very proud of him!

Bilbo Baggins, at Your Service

Last night was an incredible end to a long and astonishing week. On Monday, K auditioned for and was cast as the lead character Bilbo Baggins in his drama camp production of "The Hobbit". He had an extraordinary number of lines to learn (more than I have had in most of my productions, in fact -- the show itself is 75 pages long), and only a week in which to do it. He worked himself silly to accomplish last night's performance, with 6 hours of camp every day (and no breaks for the star actor, as he was in every scene) and 3-4 hours every night of line work. Honestly, he worked harder and put more time and energy into this production than I have in many of my own shows. He was also 2-7 years younger than all but two of the other campers.

K LOVED doing the show itself, but was thoroughly impressed with just how much work goes into making a show happen. I'm pleased that he was able to see intimately what it is that I do, why I sometimes grumble about the work involved, and why I continue to do it in spite of that. I overheard him tell the director of the camp (who hoisted K to his shoulders while the other campers cheered for him) that he couldn't wait to do the camp again next year. It has been amazing for me to see how much the other children respond to him, too. Everywhere he went all week, he was greeted with enthusiastic claps on the back and excited "Hi Bilbo"s or "Hey there, K"s. He does have a bit of the director in him, though, as he found it difficult to not tell the other actors what to do on stage. We'll have to work on that whole concept of concentrating on the log in one's own eye! ;-)

Of course, I don't have great pictures -- but the show was videotaped, and there are pictures from the dress rehearsals that I hope to receive soon. The only pictures I managed to get before the cast members ran off in their post show excitement and glee to sign each other's scripts and programs were of the curtain call (K coming out last and alone in grand Hobbit style) and the group shot at the end. In all, about 20 children participated.

I'll post better pictures as soon as I get them. It's time for this proud TheaterMom to fold some laundry...

CSA Delight

We're totally loving our fresh veggies! Our "extra" time tonight resulted in a more relaxed meal. We had scallops sauteed in minced garlic, sea salt, and olive oil, kohlrabi greens gently cooked with olive oil and dijon mustard, sliced kohlrabi with grated parmesan and a bit of butter and black pepper, and salad with carrots, walnuts, easter egg radishes,romaine,mesclun, spinach, chopped garlic, sea salt, and lemon. Yummy!!

Beachy

So, we made it to Carolina Beach on Friday evening, but weren't able to get a campsite. Hopefully next time that won't be the case. At any rate, we stayed at a motel along the beach, and went out to swim first thing Saturday morning -- the boys woke us at 6:40 in the morning, so we were able to get ready and out in the water before the swimmers and sun bathers. The fishers were out much earlier than us.

After a few hours at the beach, and just before the sun would become a real issue, we headed to the state park for a picnic lunch, and then to the aquarium at Fort Fisher. After enjoying the cool sharks, jellyfish, etc., touching some sting rays, starfish, and sea urchins, and having some ice cream, and after G decided to leave through the gate of no return about 5 minutes before the rest of us were prepared to go, we moved on to the Fort Fisher historical site. It was awesome to see the boys so excited about the Civil War, and to hear K explain so many things to G. They were able to run off some steam at a park on our way home, as well as take a peek at the World's Largest Frying Pan, and so the drive was relatively quiet.

Tomorrow, K begins his week long drama camp. It will be interesting to see what part he gets, and how the week unfolds. We'll update after his performance at the end of the week!