May | 2006 | The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

Say Anything

I have noticed that many bloggers have their entries go without comments. What’s up with that? Everyone likes to be validated and in this medium, getting a comment on your blog is the only way to do so. I have gone for days and days not even having one comment. I feel like I should be tapping the microphone saying, "Is thing on?"

I am just as guilty as anyone of drive-by blog reading: reading and enjoying but not commenting. So what prevents us from commenting? For me, it can be a matter of time. I enjoy reading my friends’ blogs with a cup of hot chai in the morning. But all too soon, the demands of the day are calling me and I have to get off the computer. But really, how long does it take to type, "what a great idea," "good luck," or "great pictures!" Sometimes, though, someone has written something that is truly thought provoking and I’d like to comment, but need some time to formulate my thoughts. In these cases, maybe it would be nice to write, "Very thought provoking. I’ll comment again when I have given it more thought." So I have decided to try and leave a comment on any entry I read. I challenge you to do the same! Just let someone know you were there and enjoyed what they wrote. Offer a note of encouragement, tell them they made you laugh or just thank them for sharing their insight. Just say anything! (And start with me!)

This is a sad one…

feel free to skip it if you need to.

We have now had Bip for one day longer than we had Rebecca. I was getting him up from his nap, snuggling with him, enjoying his sweet, happy self and thinking that he is almost exactly the age Rebecca was when we last saw her. Then I did a little math and realized that he is one day older. I looked over at a picture of her and just started to cry. I miss her so much! It is so unfair and I didn’t sign up for this and I don’t how we are going to live the rest of our lives without her. I just hugged Bip and cried. Silly boy thought I was laughing and laughed back at me. Then he gave me a big old bear hug back. Later as I spent the day with him I kept thinking about how much I would have given for this one day with Becca, and the next and the next.

Sometimes our days are normal and go about our lives. Then it hits me – Rebecca died and we are anything but normal. Life doesn’t just go on. We have to make a conscious effort to survive and on good days, we can move from just survival to living.

I hurt for our children. Boo, who has the biggest heart and has had to bear things that no child should. Pumpkin Girl, who I don’t think remembers Rebecca anymore. I think she remembers the pain mostly. And Bip, sweet little boy, our Joy in the Morning, will never know her on this earth.

And to add insult to serious injury, the Army came up with their first settlement. I think they left off a zero.

So I am in a sad place today. But I am comforted by the prayers of so many of my online friends, both on my moms board and the Sonlight Forums. Tomorrow will be a better day.

"Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning."
Psalm 30:5

Fiber Arts Projects

With Bip in bed (and asleep!) by 9:00 last night, I got in some good knitting time. When Phil isn’t here, I rummage around our video cabinet for a good movie I haven’t seen in awhile and pop it in. Last night I found "Amadeus." I had forgotten how much I love this movie! I don’t even know when the last time I saw it was. (Boy, that was all sorts of bad grammar.) Anyway, I watched it until 11:00 when my eyes got too tired and I thought I heard the baby squawking. While I watched I worked on a poncho for Pumpkin Girl from a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern. She calls ponchos "pom poms" and pom poms "poom pooms." I have no idea why. She helped me pick out the yarn at our local yarn store‘s 2nd birthday party. She sat at the back table eating this gi-normous sugar cookie while I explored all the worsted weight yarns. She didn’t like the yarn I had picked out for said pom pom (errrr!) and this time I wasn’t taking any chances. I walked around the bins holding up skeins for her to judge. "This one? This one? How about this one?" She shook her head sweetly no each time, looking up at me with her big eyes from behind her cookie. Finally we found one. Just to make sure, I continued through the yarn, this time having her compare colors. "Which do you like better? This one or this one?" Finally she selected something very nice, but not in a color I would have expected. I thought she’d go for the pinks and purples, but she chose a green/blue/purple combo. I didn’t even look at the price, bought 6 skeins and headed back to car where the boys were waiting.

So now I’m working on the "pom pom." It’s done on circular needles, around and around and around. You make 4 increases every other row, just to keep you on your toes. So as a beginner knitter, I have gained the useful skill of being able to identify an increase stitch in my knitting. This is useful because I can never remember if I’m on an increase row or not as I pick up my knitting each day.

I also broke my cardinal rule of never having more than one fiber arts project going at once. I just got so tired of working on Bip’ sweater. All that I have left to do are the sleeves, but I have to start each one in 2×2 ribbing and I always lose count and have to rip it all out and start again. What I need to do is find some quiet, uninterrupted time (does that even exist?) to start both sleeves past the ribbing and then slip one onto a stitch holder to wait. Then I can continue the mindless stockinette stitch for the remainder of the sleeve without worrying about needing to drop everything, except stitches, LOL, to attend to somebody else’s minor emergencies.

So being bored with the sweater, I started a crochet project. Actually, that one was time sensitive and I finished it up quickly. That’s a story for another time. Embiggened (it’s a word!) by my success with the crochet project, I started another one. This one is almost done but I had to put it away because the recipient was visiting us last week. I can’t mention it any further because this person reads my blog. I’ll reveal it in pictures after Christmas.

Christmas Present Crochet Project carefully out of sight for the week, but my hands being empty as the baby was fought over by two sets of grandparents and a great-grandmother, I started work on Pumpkin Girl’s pom pom. I want to keep working on it for a while since I just got started. I’m sure I’ll get bored with it soon enough, knitting, knitting, knitting, around and around and around. Then I’ll go back to the crochet thing, finish it up and then tackle those sleeves.

Still waiting in the wings are a baby hat and blanket for a stamping friend who has been waiting forever to adopt a baby. I should probably start those and get the great cosmic wheels turning in her favor. (OK, I’m not really superstitious of course.) I would also like to knit a sweater for Boo. And hats for everyone. And learn to make socks and…

But for tonight, it’s the rest of "Amadeus" and more work on Pumpkin Girl’s pom pom.

Back to Business

Our two week spring break is over and we’re getting back to business. After the great day the children had yesterday, they were tired out and went right to sleep. In the morning it was cold and gray, so the sunlight didn’t wake them as usual and I found them both still asleep at 8:00 am. Bip missed his morning nap on Sunday then was awake 6 hours before finally crashing. I let him sleep in until 9. So after a slow start, we got our day started.

I was happy to find that neither Boo nor Pumpkin Girl lost any ground during our time off. Even Boo’s handwriting looked good – after some practice- and I think his math has actually improved. I got a chance to try out my new planning sheet. Even though Sonlight’s Instructor Guides are all planned out and printed up nicely, with two children doing some of the same work, but not all, plus doing 4 days of school but using the 5 day plan, I have customized just enough to require a bit more planning on my part. I had considered using Home School Tracker, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. I also didn’t feel like spending money on a plan book only to find it also didn’t fit my needs. I found what I was looking for on Donna Young’s site (plus it seems like one of her children is a CAP cadet). On one side of the planning sheet I have what the children call their "couch" work – all the stuff we read together sitting on the couch. That would be Bible, history, science, read-alouds and readers. On the other side is the seat work. So far, it’s working fine.

Another good thing today was that Bip actually napped, two hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. He was his usually happy self all day. I’m hoping to reset his clock and get him back on a good sleep pattern. He never quite recovered from the switch to Daylight Saving Time.

I have started reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Boo and Pumpkin Girl apart from school time. With the release of the DVD, they’ve been seeing ads for the movie and want to see it. It’s rated PG, so Phil and I will preview it first, but even before that, I want them to experience it the way I did, through the book. I also bought the radio theater production of the whole Chronicles that Focus on the Family put out. I’d like us to listen to them as a family. My mom recently attended a seminar by the author of Companion to Narnia, which she bought me. (that is, she bought me the book, not the author or the seminar, LOL!) He said the best way to experience the books was to have someone read them out loud to you. So thus, the CDs. Boo is really into LWW. I have to read two chapters at a time and he begs me for more, but Charlotte’s attention span won’t stand for it. I’m really glad he’s enjoying it. I really love sharing meaningful things from my childhood with the children and seeing them come to love them, too. Today, as a special treat since Daddy is gone, we popped popcorn and sat on the floor with Nicholas while we read our two chapters.

So there you have it. Not too bad of a day considering we all miss Phil and it was too cold and damp to be outside. Hopefully, tomorrow will be even better.

Venturing into Charlotte Mason

I have been so inspired by how LindaFay’s blog, Higher Up and Further In, about Charlotte Mason education, that I risked life and limb to dig out my Charlotte Mason books from their hiding places. I found them in the bottom box of a stack of 4 moving boxes of course. I became interested in Charlotte Mason when we first starting homeschooling, but didn’t really do anything with the information I had found. In reading the books again, I am reminded at how well Sonlight goes along with CM.

One reason I like Sonlight so much is that it is all put together for me. I don’t have the temperment to research what I want to teach, when to teach it, etc. So even the thought of adding something simple like picture studies to our curriculum is making me nervous. I mean, which artist to study? Which paintings? Where am I going to find copies of the paintings to look at? Then it hit me. We live in Washington, DC – so does the National Gallery of Art. I took my copy of A Charlotte Mason Companion where the author outlines the steps to a good picture study. She even recommends some artists to study. I checked her list against the list of artists featured at the National Gallery and discovered that the museum has a good collection of Mary Cassatt, Raphael, Monet and Renoir. They even have a huge collection of Ansel Adams. So those will be our artists of choice for the next year or so. I plan to have the children study the specific works that are on display at the National Gallery and then end our year with a trip to the museum to see the art in person.

I am excited about this new venture. I like that we won’t be doing huge extensive studies of schools of art, techniques or even of the artist’s lives. We will be reading short biographies, but will mostly focus on just enjoying the art for itself. I believe that Charlotte Mason had her students do picture studies for only 10 minutes a week. I can handle that! Next on the list – nature journals!

Life in Mayberry

May 7, 2006
Lorri
Family Life

It’s been one of those days when it’s just great to be a kid. When we returned from the CCD year-end hot dog party, Boo and Pumpkin Girl came in the front door and went right out the back. That was 6 hours ago. Because of the way our street bends at a right angle and because all the houses on our side of the street have their backyards open on to a big grassy area, the children in those houses have the run of the place. Most of us don’t have fences, but the houses themselves and an adjoining baseball field provide the boundaries for playing. The children are all fairly close in age and a good portion of them are homeschooled. The whole group of them have been running all over the field, up in our yard, in the tree over yonder and back again. My children have come in for the occassional drink of water and potty break and I have seen them with a couple of friends taking a break in the shade of our canopy.

I have met several of the neighborhood moms and like me, they are busy with the demands of managing a home, often with a baby or toddler to look after. Even though we can’t always be right outside with the older children, we all try to keep an ear open for any misconduct, hurt feelings or unfairness. I would say that for the most part, the children get along wonderfully. Because of our large climbing-sliding thing and our playhouse, the neighborhood children spend a good portion of their time in our yard. I’ve listened to arguments start and get settled and I think that most of the bickering I’ve heard was between sibling groups, my own two included. Still, a gentle reminder to the offending party usually takes care of it, though sometimes Pumpkin Girl gets herself too overworked and I bring her in for a rest.

My children have been briefed on a few key rules:

Don’t go into anyone’s house, even if invited.
Don’t eat anything that is given to you by a friend without checking with me.
Stand still with your hand over your heart when the National Anthem plays at 5 pm, then come inside.
Stay together
If you can’t see our backdoor, you’ve gone too far.

So far it’s been working well.

One of the perks of living on a military base is the safety and overall friendliness of the neighbors. I love to watch the children playing, running around without a care. One of the funniest things I’ve seen since living here was a line of knights, dressed for battle, marching single file across our backyard, down to the big tree across the field where another set of young knights (both boys and girls) were waiting. I think every child in the neighborhood was out that day, too.

It might not be Mayberry, but it’s pretty darn close.

Rock Creek Park

Philip’s parents went home several days early and Phil had already taken the time off work so we’ve been enjoying the time with him. Yesterday we rested and took care of a few items off the honey do list. Today we decided to have an adventure to Rock Creek Park. We started at the Nature Center where they had lots of hands-on activities for the children. We learned about water tables, the kinds of animals that live in Rock Creek Park and what they do during each season. They have a working beehive on display, which has a clear pipe leading outside so the bees can come and go. We found a sand table with plaster casts of animal tracks for you to make your own tracks with.

We took a short nature walk around one of the park’s meadows. I learned that a "meadow" is not necessarily a large open patch of greass. We discovered that a "paw paw" is a tree and found a patch of them on the edge of the meadow. We didn’t pick any up and put them in our pockets.

After our walk, we had lunch at the picnic tables. It was absolutely beautiful. Just sitting there in the heart of DC, completely away from the sounds of the city, shaded by trees and listening to woodpeckers (we learned to identify their sound at one of the exhibits) – it almost made me want to go camping. I got over it when a bird pooped on my shoulder. Thankfully, I had packed handi-wipes.

We learned that there was a Civil War site there in the park and another one just down the road. The Park Ranger recommended we go to Fort Stevens because there were cannons there. So off we went.

Fort Stevens is right there in the middle of DC. Here’s an old picture of it:

Here’s a picture of us there today:

Philip and the children pretending to fire the cannon at the houses across the street. Boo is the spotter, telling them when to fire, Phil was signalling Pumpkin Girl to light the cannon.

Phil says we still store ammunition like this, in a bunker with little chimney for ventilation.

When we were finished defending the fort from the rebels, we headed down to Georgetown to see the Old Stone House. It is the oldest house in DC, pre-dating the Revolutionary War.

It sits there on one of the busiest streets in Georgetown, right across from a Barnes and Noble and down the street from a Sephora and Ben & Jerry’s. We drove right by it at first and so ended up parking and searching for it on foot. By doing that we got a chance to admire some of the cool houses in the area.

I found this lantern hanging on the wall of the Old Stone House:

I have an almost identical lantern, but red, in my dining room window.

We had such a good time today, tracking down American History. I think Boo is turning into a history buff. He kept wanting to know what part the Old Stone House played during the "Silver" War. I’m looking forward to Philip’s next day off when we can head out for yet another adventure.

Promotion Day

Event #2, Philip’s promotion, is over. For those of you keeping track, he is now a lieutenant colonel. We had a nice, quick ceremony followed by a reception. Philip gave me a huge bouquet of flowers.

Among the flowers are 2 blue carnations for our two boys, a pink rose for Pumpkin Girl and a lily for Rebecca. That meant so much to me! He really can be so sweet!

Now usually, cakes at promotion parties are decorated with the soldier’s new rank, but we thought we’d have a little more fun than that. Here’s what we did:

And look what was installed on our carport today:

Seeing it in print makes it really start to sink in!

Most of our guests have gone home now and my parents will be leaving shortly, too. Then it’s back to life as usual. Well, sort of. Philip’s off to a conference for the week But the kids and I will be back to school.

Archive - May 2006