Even though it has been a tough few weeks, there has also been much to be thankful for. Here are some pics of our life going on, this lovely, lovely autumn.
Hiking at a place called King Philip Rock (the name, incidentally, has raised some curiosity about who King Philip was, and finding out has been yet another cool part of this fall):
The tree with the reddish leaves is called sarsparilla, and someday I am going to figure out how to make root beer from this tree.
Here's the view from the rock itself. It's so nice to be above the trees in our very tree-ful neck of the woods!
Here's a preying mantis that hung out on our doorstep for a while one afternoon. He was at least five inches long; I love how he's looking at us in this pic that my Dad took.
I made amazing apple jelly with apples from a friend's tree. Isn't it a pretty color?
We visited friends up in Maine, and one highlight of our visit was a ride in their motorboat:
My favorite bird, the loon. I love how they look, how they sound, and where they live... of course, my family thinks it's because I can really relate to a bird with a name like loon! Heh.
Since this hasn't been a year in which somebody close to us got married in September, we've had to find other ways to keep busy. And we have! So busy, in fact, that getting time to blog about it all has been hard. Here's a sampling of what us Stone Age Techies have been up to:
We visited Plimoth Plantation, practically all by our onesies because it's too early for field trips yet. And, other than getting attacked by the English Village's chickens as we attempted to eat lunch, we had a great time.
We were all fascinated with canoe-making...
And charcoal-making.
Both boys also loved the Mayflower II, docked in Plymouth Harbor.
They were totally nonplussed by Plymouth Rock, however.
"Mom, it's just... a rock." You can almost hear Luke's silent 'WTF?' ... if he knew what WTF? meant.
And then! Oh, we went on a camping trip to Cape Cod, with friends who know what there is to do on Cape Cod. What a trip!
This, and the following pics, are from Fort Hill on the Cape. The lack of houses and people astounded me, I've always thought of the Cape as a place of ice-cream shacks and little tourist cabins lined up, side by each. But no, there are entire acres pretty well undeveloped:
We were all fascinated with the view, but returned quickly to camera-hamming:
Then we went off to Skaket Beach, timed just right to hit low tide:
Notice that, to take this pic, I am standing way the heck off shore, facing the land. The rock has that orange buoy attached because, at high tide, it's totally submerged. I don't know why I think that is so cool, but I really do think it is.
Then, to top off the weekend, we had Flax Pond at Nickerson State Park all to ourselves! And Luke learned how to kayak:
He was so free out there on the water, wandering any old which way he wanted to.
Thanks, Carrie and family, for a great weekend... when we next come up for air, I will be sure to post some pics about our adventures!
These past few weeks, I have been a little shorter with the kids than usual, and find that I need a bit more down-time than normal, too.
Ben helps when he can, and there is always that almighty baby-sitter, screen time; in fact, as the boys get older, this is more often educational rather than true couch-potato vegging.
Even with Mommy-time and TV, though, this in-between season of too cold for fleeces, too warm for winter coats (resulting in excessive whining and less time outside)can be wearing. So, I decided to post some inspiration this week!
In no particular order, here are some quotes, websites, and silliness I've been trying to keep in mind while fighting the early-spring doldrums:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Albert Einstein. What cracks me up about this quote is where I read it - in Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of the Purple Potty People! Author Dav Pilkey is someone that I suspect would have made a great homeschooler, judging from the way he skewers the educational system in these awesome, funny books.
"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire" - W.B. Yeats. When Luke is happily reading Calvin and Hobbes, or whistling a little tune over and over again, when he is just in 'idle' mode or wants to horse around with Owen rather than do anything (that I think of as) productive, I try to remember this one. Because those non-productive times are offset by lots of very creative, productive hours, and it's important to remember that there is an ebb and flow to interest-led learning; he goes by his own schedule. Sometime soon, I'm sure he will have more creative drive and interest, and then we'll be off on the next wild ride - the one after dragons, which was the one after Star Wars, which was the one after Pokemon...
Home Education Magazine; I've enjoyed the free online version for a year or so, and then I was lucky enough to receive a gift subscription this past Christmas. It's a great magazine, lots of interesting, timely things to do with the kids and also content intended to make us adults think about why and/or how we homeschool.
Barbara Kingsolver's great book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and the book's website both get me happily thinking about the coming growing season. They are informative and a cure for cabin fever.
Because you just can't see them too many times, here are OK-Go on treadmills:
