First Day of School

I had great plans and high expectations for this day. Some of it happened, some of it didn't, but we've made it most of the way through, and I thought I'd document our day here. I really wanted the day to be special, with a yummy breakfast and lots of fun in store. My breakfast didn't turn out so great - baking gluten free can be unpredictable.

Well, at least my daughter was excited to start kindergarten officially. So what were all these tears for? Something strange was happening with Annika today; she just wasn't acting like her normal happy self. I dispensed lots of snuggles and tissues, and we made it through as best we could.

For math I had planned a few games instead of starting right off with worksheets (I need to get our curriculum tomorrow from school when we go in for our meeting). We had more tears from the youngest player, but then I sent her off to play with dice, so we were able to finish. Grammar was MadLibs for Gabriel and Annika and I worked on some reading exercises from the website that goes with the Usborne Very First Reading series. This series of books is the main tool I've been using to help Annika learn to read this summer. She was interested and motivated, so we do a little bit each day. It's amazing how much she has picked up from our causal yet consistent approach. She also worked on her printing, as I am trying to correct her formation of several letters.

We had lunch outside on the grass, where we found a ladybug and observed hover flies buzzing around.

Being outside seemed to help with the mood of the youngest, and the afternoon proceeded on a more positive note. I am excited about a new geography curriculum I got for the family. It's the Trail Guide to World Geography by Geography Matters. There are several support books and atlases to go along with it, and we'll be able to incorporate many other subjects as we study our way around the world this year. Gabriel has a pretty good handle on basic geography and map reading, and finds it interesting, so we'll work on it a bit each day after we've gotten the other nuts and bolts out of the way. He will be keeping a notebook on his work, with information about the earth and each continent and many countries. Annika will tag along and learn what she needs to learn.

We finished our school day with an art project using some sun print paper we've had for a few years and never used.

I thought we'd better take advantage of this Indian Summer sunshine while we had it. They turned out pretty good. The spaces in the day were filled with Lego building, reading, hula hooping, bike riding, and, after school, a video and a computer game. I had planned to take the kids to the beach for the afternoon, but the peaches I bought last Saturday for canning over the weekend didn't ripen very quickly, and now they all need to be processed. So much for my plans!

Since I wasn't able to get as much canning done this weekend as I wanted to, I took the time yesterday to make a raised bed for the garden.

I had meant to do this last spring, but didn't have much luck finding free lumber until about a month ago. I used a power saw, a drill, and a screwdriver and put the thing together on the fly. I have to say it felt pretty good to wear a tool belt and spend a few hours on a type of project I don't normally do. You really can accomplish difficult tasks if you take it one step at a time and plod your way through them.

On Sunday I spent some time with Annika working our way through a Lego project. We were given some kits from a cousin who outgrew them, and the kids have been playing with them a lot. Annika likes to follow the instructions to build specific objects, so I helped her build a shark. She is really good at figuring out what to do, she almost doesn't need my help. But having me there helps her to feel more confident, I think. She stuck with it for over an hour, piecing it together on brick at a time. I'm so proud of her!

So that's what we've been up to this weekend. Keeping super busy and occupying ourselves with worthy projects. I hope all my friends and family out there have a wonderful start to your school year!

Summer has finally arrived!

Yes, you heard that right, summer has finally arrived here in Puget Sound. No matter that it's just in time for the light to start changing as the sun sinks lower in the sky. That's all in the future - it's warm this week, and we're enjoying it.

Neighborhood Park

We went to the spray park up the street from us yesterday. It's the first time it's been warm enough for us to enjoy it. I was a bit disappointed - it looks as if they have the water on only at half volume or something, the spray was pretty anemic. But Annika had fun, and Gabriel did for awhile. Then they played at the playground, and wouldn't you know it, they both learned new skills.

Swinging on those monkey bars

Gabriel did the monkey bars for the first time, and Annika learned to pump from a dead stop on the swings for the first time.

Swinging, swinging...

So quietly, stealthily even, and they can now do something they couldn't do the day before. Is that how it's going to be, growing up, now? I almost missed it, I'm glad I was paying attention yesterday!

The front garden bed

The lilies in my front garden are spectacular this year. New baby plants sprouted this spring and got blossoms. They are so heavy they tipped over when I watered them the other day. I'm so lazy I can't be bothered to find something to prop them up with. Their fragrance meets me at the sidewalk; I even get whiffs of their scent around the back of the house sometimes! The rest of that plot looks silly, but those lilies, they steal the show.

Bowing lilies and geraniums

And I don't even remember where I got them - perhaps from the first neighbors we had when we moved in here, who got evicted and left me all their plants to take?

Beautiful moth

We have also had our regular and some irregular moths appearing lately. I love this one, it's the faintest pastel green color. Someday I'm going to take a moth class and learn how to identify them. Or not. maybe I'll just start drawing them and appreciate them that way. Or just keep taking photos. So many things to think about!

Vacation and Reentry

I feel like I have spent a lot of the summer going away and coming back again. This time it was harder than usual to get back into my routines, because I spent a whole week mostly relaxing. No cooking, no cleaning, only one load of laundry (!!!) and lots of sitting in the sun, chatting and knitting. I even got a few hours each day to myself to think, read, write, and enjoy nature. You see, the kids and I were fortunate to go with hubby's extended family for a reunion at a most unique place. Holden Village is an old mining community that was acquired in the 60s by the Lutheran Church and turned into a retreat center. It's very remote, and takes most of a day to travel to and from.

First you take a boat up the long Lake Chelan. No roads go into the area.

Then, you get on a bus for the ride 11 miles up into the mountains to the Village

There is no cell phone service, no land phone line, no internet (except for that required by the Village for registration and business purposes.) They prepare all the food, guests sleep in the lodges that were the old dormitories for the miners. There is programming you can attend, or not. There is a kids' program each weekday morning, built-in babysitting. And it was sunny all except for one day! The kids played hard all day, I went for a long hike without them (thanks Grandma for watching them), and spent a lot of time sitting around.

Deer roam through the village daily. They are used to people.

Railroad Creek runs next to the Village. You can just see the mine ruins on the hillside in the distance.

I took a hike to Hart Lake. Of course, it was the only day of the week that it rained. But the waterfalls and flowers were spectacular.

The color of Hart Lake is deep teal green. Lovely!

The views from the vicinity of the village are breathtaking. You just have to ignore the tailings piles.

Indian Paintbrush were in full bloom - red, yellow, orange, pink.

Lovely penstemon all over - big and small varieties.

Gabriel enjoyed a new journal he bought with his own money. He spent a lot of time writing and drawing.

I found it tough for a few days to get back into all the work that comes with being home and raising children. I wanted to rest from all that resting (the travel day home was tiring). But now I think I'm back in the swing of things, cooking and cleaning, catching up on laundry, decluttering. I need to plan the kids' school for the next semester, which starts after Labor Day here. I'll have two officially in school now, so I need to figure out how to fit Annika into our day. I have a sneaking suspicion it will involve being more structured, but we'll see. Hopefully I can figure out how to work Kindergarten and Fourth Grade together as much as possible.

It's finally sunny here in Puget Sound, and I am enjoying the warmth. I've picked several pints of raspberries to put into the freezer for the winter.

That's about all I have in the garden this year, except for some chives and rhubarb. Maybe next year I'll get my raised beds built and planted and have more crops, but you know, summers are so busy it seems tough to add gardening into the mix. Oh well, I enjoy what I did do, and the raspberries are fabulous!

From earlier today, a quiet moment in between.

I have been seeing hummingbirds more lately. Today one visited our clematis. I'm not sure what it was looking for. The plant is a mass of brown stems and withered leaves. Fluffy seed pods cling to the branches like discolored cotton balls. The hummer poked its beak into several puffy seed balls, but left disappointed. There are green shoots growing, but they are only a few inches long. It always surprises me how early this plant buds out and begins growing, but it seems impervious to frost.

Not much in the clematis to attract a hummingbird

The light and shadows have been changing all day. We'll get a sun break, then dark clouds will pass over and a cold, soaking shower will fall onto the saturated ground. At one point there were even snow flakes mixed into the rain. It didn't last long, of course, and soon was sunny again.

Detail of sunshine on tree bark

Groups of juncos flit through the trees in the back corner of the yard. The sun glints off their white rear feathers as they move form one branch to another. The sun makes the yellow and grey lichen shine on the tree branches. Combined with the freshening red of the dogwood stems, the effect is brilliant.

Red-twig dogwood, showing its color

The kitchen smells of the cookies we just baked - Gluten Free cutout cookies, a few days late for Valentine's Day. The black-eyed peas are just beginning to simmer, and their smell swirls with the steam from the pot. I know I should wipe down my flour-covered countertop, but I step outside for a moment first.

Rattles and Ramblings

I heard a rattlesnake in my garden this afternoon. At least, that was the first thing my instincts told me when I was out weeding in the back. While I was thinking that, though, I was also thinking that it couldn't be true, because we don't have rattlesnakes in western Washington. Still, I looked around, confused, trying to figure out what made such a distinctive noise. Then, I saw it - hidden in the overgrown grasses was a lone seed pod leftover from Gabriel's poppies.

Poppy seed pod

He had planted them in the midst of the border area that had gotten so overgrown this summer. They bloomed red, splashes of color amidst the grasses and creeping buttercups and other unwanted plants. Some of the pods dried on their stalks, and I had brushed up against this one with my shoulder. The seeds inside shook and clattered against the raspy brown hull. Thus, the jolt of hearing a rattlesnake in my ear. (I've only ever heard one real rattler in the wild, on a hike I took with another gal. I screamed like a ninny that time. Thank heavens I didn't scream today.)

We have had unusual warm weather the past few days. Since when does it get over 70 degrees in November in Seattle? I've tried to take advantage of the afternoons by getting out and cleaning up the yard. Our poor yard has been so neglected the past several years. I'll get one area cleaned out, and then it will be forever before I get back to it again. Today I spent some time weeding the hedgerow against the north fence. Last year I planted some native wild roses and a few other native shrubs. I want more habitat for birds, and I have fond memories of bicycling in the summer down country roads and smelling the amazing perfume of the wild roses. Plus, once they get established, I won't have to water them. I only got about half way done tearing out weeds from the bed, but it looks better than it did.

Half-weeded bed

I was thinking while I was working that I never regret making time to get outside and work in the yard. I had put aside plans for a field trip this afternoon, feeling that I really needed to focus on getting our home together. The kids built little tents for themselves, and ran around with capes on.

There's a boy in that tent

Fly, Girl!

I even caught them cloud gazing. I found a huge snail for them to hold, and we enjoyed the birds and the leaves and soaking up the lingering afternoon sun. Sometimes it can be so difficult to change into my work clothes and get us outside, but it feels so good once we're out there, and the work is satisfying. Sure, the laundry is still piled up, and the dishes will have to wait another day, and I didn't get any more boxes unpacked, but this sun will not be here much longer, and the weeds won't get any better on their own.

Finally, I am well overdue posting our Halloween costumes. Annika was a unicorn, thankfully satisfied to wear her dress-up outfit. Gabriel was a magical kind of pretend bird. I'm pretty proud of the mask, but feel kinda bad about the rest of the get-up. He liked it, though, which is what is most important.

Gabriel's mask (made by me)

The kids getting ready to trick-or-treat

You can't keep this kid out of water...

I was doing some work in the yard this morning, and trying to water the beds. My dear daughter cannot keep out of the water. I finally gave up and told her to get out of her soaking wet clothes and get her swimsuit on, and she was so happy to play in the sprinkler I had set out in the front. Before long she had gotten some plastic containers and was contentedly making "dirt soup," as she called it. I think the plants still got watered, but so did my little angel.

Field Trip to the Science Center

Fridays are field trip days when we can swing it, and the kids requested a visit to the science center downtown. The weather wasn't very good for outdoor adventures, so I agreed that this was a good idea. The Science Center had an exhibit on traveling to Mars, as well as their regular exhibits.

Rock from Mars

We spent some time with the robotic dinosaurs, watched a live presentation about combustion, and soaked up the warmth in the butterfly house.

The highlight for me was watching an IMAX movie about repairing the Hubble telescope, and the pictures it has been able to take. I can't even explain the wonder and awe I felt watching, in 3D, the universe unfold. Galaxies upon galaxies, billions of stars and systems floating around out there. Words escape me at the moment, but trust me, if you have a chance to see this movie, it is well worth the money.

I'll end this post with some photos I took yesterday in the garden. The sun was so lovely at the end of the day, and things are changing so quickly out there with the warmer weather. Enjoy!

The helebores are making seeds

False Solomon's Seal blooming

I'm looking forward to strawberries in a month or two!

Spider babies in the sun

Spring peas sprouting!!