Exploring Life In The Grit Of The Earth
Posted in Home Schooling on Aug 30th, 2010
We started school today… Kaia is now an official second grader and Leif began his pre-pre-pre K studies. (He he, ok, so he ran around grabbing pencils, walking over workbooks, and sitting on Kaia. I did read him The ‘A’ Book, though!) I like the schedule I have mapped out for this first semester. On [...]
We just finished downing a huge batch of Butter Beer while watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Yes, I did forget about the huge snake at the end, but she had no problem with it. In fact, she pulled out a ‘magic book’ from her book shelf and started looking up the magical [...]
Posted in Mothering on Aug 26th, 2010
We got home from the hospital yesterday evening had dinner and all went to bed. Kaia’s still sleeping soundly! Her leg will take some time to heal, but she is doing well. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers!
Posted in Mothering on Aug 24th, 2010
This is the copperhead (don’t proceed if you are snake squeamish!)
Posted in Mothering on Aug 24th, 2010
This past Sunday night, Kaia was bit by a copperhead snake. We think it wiggled it’s way under our screen door and over to the dining room table. When Kaia ran over to the table to look at something on Toby’s computer it bit her ankle. While Toby fought the snake and finally chopped it’s [...]
Posted in Home Schooling on Aug 21st, 2010
Kaia and I have been taking time this week to get her prepared for starting the second grade. We’ve labeled and decorated folders, picked up some books from the library, filled her art box and refreshed her nature kit. I think I’m more excited about school starting than she is I’m also trying to [...]
Posted in Mothering on Aug 16th, 2010
Before I get to all the vacation pictures, I have some great news! Tomorrow, Toby starts his first day working for RedHat! He’s at a two day orientation in Raleigh, but after that he will be working from home! Yay! No moving!!! He’s really excited about the new projects and the team of people that [...]
Posted in Mothering, Organic Gardening, building our home on Jul 31st, 2010
365 eggs plums peaches tomatoes green beans eggplant cucumber squash (yellow and zucchini) mint black berries red raspberries blue berries And I put up 5 quarts of ‘mock’ apple pie filling, 5 pints of cucumber relish and 4 quarts of green beans. My counter tops are covered with squash and cukes! I need to do [...]
Posted in Mothering, Organic Gardening on Jul 8th, 2010
Berries, herbs, and fruit (YUMM!) And Smiles!
Posted in Home Schooling, Mothering on Jul 2nd, 2010
As part of our summer curriculum, Kaia asked to learn more about the gods and goddesses. We’ve been taking our relaxed time reading through mythology stories, coloring pictures, doing crafts… But today, we brought it all to a close. We started the morning by designing our togas and decorating ourselves in gold. Then we broke [...]
Posted in Mothering on Jun 24th, 2010
This evening, my baby girl turned seven!!! I can’t believe she’s so big! Seven seems like a major number for some reason. She’s had a wonderful week of parties, cakes, outings, and fun, and it doesn’t look like that will stop until next week! It feels so wonderful to be a mother to this amazing [...]
Posted in General, Mothering, Organic Gardening, Sewing, building our home on Jun 21st, 2010
We’ve had a great spring here on our land. Things have felt really productive. But, I have to tell you, we are beat! I wake up in the morning, jump out of bed and get going. Laundry, taking care of the animals, garden care, kitchen clean up, etc. all comes before breakfast. Most nights I [...]
National Doughnut Day! This is not a holiday to be skipped or ignored! Now go out and celebrate!!!
Posted in Home Schooling on Jun 3rd, 2010
Kaia is really enjoying the projects we are doing from Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors! I have to admit…. I’d kinda like one of these head dresses for myself! Tomorrow is her last official day of first grade! Wow! Calling her a second grader just makes her sound so old!! I can’t wait to start [...]
Posted in Home Schooling, Sewing, building our home on May 31st, 2010
The 2 year old roof. Spots are filling in pretty well. I think I’ll give it one more year and then plant a few more things if needed. I absolutely love all the color on the roof right now. It’s like a patchwork quilt! And the yard is coming along, too. After 2 years of [...]
Posted in Mothering on May 24th, 2010
I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time picking up shoes around the house and it’s all because of this guy: My Little Dude! He seems to have a bit of a shoe fetish. From the moment he wakes up til he hits the bed at night, he usually has a shoe near or [...]
Posted in Home Schooling, Mothering on May 19th, 2010
We had a wonderful 4 day weekend visiting my sister in Atlanta! We spent lots of time seeing the sites and just catching up. Our first full day there we went to the zoo. This poor giraffe really wanted to eat the trees that were just out of reach. Can you see its tongue reaching [...]
Posted in Home Schooling on May 9th, 2010
One of the things I was worried about when deciding to homeschool Kaia is that she would feel that she missed out on some of the fun things that big schools offer like going to school games, prom, and year books. Now, I laugh about those things, but back then, they were a huge deal. [...]
Posted in Home Schooling on May 7th, 2010
Last week, were were able to enjoy a day at the Biltmore House during their Homeschool Festival. They put this on twice a year and it’s lots of fun. Their focus this year was Farms, Flowers, and Food. We made terrariums, listened to a stories about farming, learned to make peanut butter, made leaf prints, [...]
Posted in Home Schooling on May 6th, 2010
Kaia and I have been working on the concept of symmetry in math for the last few days. We’ve looked at the symmetry of shapes, objects, foods, etc. We talked about how our bodies are symmetrical (one arm on each side, one leg…), but thought it would be fun to see what it would look [...]
I love, love, love this fabric and how Kaia’s new dress turned out! It’s a really simple pattern by Heather Ross, and it was also my first time working with elastic thread (fun!). The pattern is actually for adults so I altered it for Kaia. Isn’t it sweet! I’m definitely going to be making more, [...]
Posted in Mothering on Apr 22nd, 2010
You HAVE to check this out! It looks like so much fun! Kaia is always talking about how she wants to get more mail and I tell her she has to send some to get some back. Well, now’s her chance! I use to have lots of pen pals when I was a kid. Then [...]
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling on Apr 18th, 2010
One thing I really like about homeschooling is going on field trips! (OK, I know that I could go on field trips even if Kaia was in public school, but it just seems like more fun when we get to design and plan them ourselves!) She just finished up her solar system and prehistory studies. [...]
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering, Sewing on Apr 13th, 2010
I’ve been wanting to make Leif this doll for a while now. He’s so into taking things apart, pushing buttons, pulling levers…. I thought he’d enjoy it. It was a lot of fun to make! If you want to make one for your favorite little explorer you’ll need: fabric for the body (I used an [...]
Posted in Home Schooling, Mothering on Apr 11th, 2010
We are wrapping up Kaia’s Prehistory studies this next week and she has been begging to do a dinosaur dig. I got this kit because it looked like it was pretty good quality and the tools (which are metal) could be used again. The kit says it can be ‘hours of fun’, especially if you [...]
Last week, my father-in-law passed on boxes of sewing goodies from his mother’s stash (so, that would be Kaia and Leif’s great-grandmother)! She was an avid seamstress and had some fabulous stuff! Look at this: There were 4 boxes of lace like this! This is just begging to be the hem of a frilly dress [...]
Posted in Mothering on Apr 4th, 2010
Don’t worry! This sand is new and contains no coprolites!
Posted in Chickens/Ducks, Home Schooling, Knitting on Mar 30th, 2010
Let’s start our morning with some daredevil antics! Don’t see anything wrong with this? Let’s look again: Then off to a sweet farm tour where we enjoyed some fabulous home made jellies and ice cream, and I scored an angora fleece from this guy: Then we spent the rest of our day enjoying the beautiful [...]
Posted in Mothering on Mar 21st, 2010
I am SOOOOOOOO happy that spring is officially here, and right on cue, the weather has been glorious! We took advantage of the warm air and bright sunshine these last few days and put up our tetherball court! That’s right, you heard me! I could SO kick Napoleon Dynamite’s butt! The ball is just an [...]
Posted in Home Schooling on Mar 11th, 2010
Kaia and I have been busy planning her summer and second grade curriculum. No, we won’t really be doing much ‘real’ school work during the summer, but she has asked to learn about certain things, so we are planning ‘camps’. Mythology, Weather, and Mapping camps. She will also be attending a couple of camps outside [...]