no assembly required

ding, dong...

2007-11-30T19:50:00.000-06:00

...nablo is dead! the wicked, wicked nablo is dead! (just a little wizard of oz humor there.)

national blog posting month has been rough. i've been not in the mood to blog or too busy to blog or too tired to blog quite often in these last couple of weeks. but, i've persevered and blogged anyway - sometimes posting only a picture, but that still counts! i will most likely take a few days (or a week) break to wrestle with my desperately in-need-of-cleaning house and way-too-far-behind holiday decorating. but i'll be back.

and when i return, i plan to catch up reading some of my new favorite blogs (found through nablopomo). i also plan to update my blogroll with some of those blogs. and, of course, (well hopefully) i'll have lots of fun, festive holiday things to blog about.

so adios, fellow bloggers. i've enjoyed reading and blogging. congrats on everyone's nablopomo effort. see ya soon.

another snippet of skylark sings

2007-11-29T22:07:00.000-06:00

a continuation of previous posts (skip down a few days)... more from david albert's wonderful book, and the skylark sings with me...

actively accessing the community has taught ali and meera an important lesson directly contrary to that which they would have inferred from early years of most public school education. schoolteachers are credentialed to be experts in teaching. they may have limited knowledge about, and little or no real interest in, the content of the bulk of their lessons beyond what is necessary to communicate this content to their charges. this is not to say schoolteachers do not have their own peculiar obsessions, of which children, if they are lucky (or especially favored), may catch a glimpse. some few of us have the fondest memories of teachers who were painters, restored old cars, played sousaphones, kept aquariums of exotic fish, wrote poetry, or raised horses. but this expertise is, or is expected to be, peripheral to their teaching, or at least what they are assigned to accomplish in the classroom. and rare indeed is the elementary school teacher who has ongoing relationships with students and their families outside of the classroom, which is why, when it occurs, it is so celebrated.

when, instead of traditional school, one utilizes the community as a flexible learning environment, the whole point is to find individuals prepared and willing to share their deepest passions and most highly developed expertise with our children. ali and meera learned early through personal experience that people make different and varied contributions to the community and that excellence outside of the teaching realm has merit. they don't have to wait for the occasional career day or be blessed with a rare glimpse of a schoolteacher's outside interests. our children have become well-rounded individuals, not because they have learned to accept the fiction that all school subjects (and those subjects alone) should be accorded equal value in their eyes, since they take up the same amount of space on their report cards or count for the same in their grade point average. rather they have been able to sample and experience over time and throughout their own development the richness and diversity our community has to offer. instead of encountering teachers teaching, ali and meera have had serious and sometimes lasting encounters and relationships with scientists and wildlife biologists undertaking research, musicians composing and performing, theater directors directing, poets writing, and astronomers observing, and they have had continuing opportunities to learn from each of them.

this has been hard work. it has demanded consciously expanding our network of friends and acquaintances and carefully evaluating each new relationship into which our children enter. it has meant regularly perusing newspaper and community publications and calendars for potential opportunities, and being willing to call strangers on the telephone and to ask questions which may reveal either our partial or total ignorance. it has dictated an enormous amount of schedule juggling and an ongoing day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year re-evaluation of the optimal relationship between our children's organized and unorganized activities. it has required learning when not to accept "no" for an answer and when to express just the right amount of impatience or indignation to overcome obstacles and cross over boundaries standing in the way of our families unconventional educational choices. and we've had to figure this all out as we went along and as our children grew and changed. as we did so, we had to admit humbly to ourselves that each new solution we found was only tentative, not necessarily applicable to both of our children, or to anyone else's for that matter. we try to keep ourselves open, as we watch and listen.

we made career and income choices that facilitated our homeschooling efforts... we traded off career advancement, some job satisfaction, and income potential for the freedom to be with our kids, and it is a trade we'd make again...

as part of our commitment, but in the final analysis as one of our greatest joys, we've ended up educating ourselves - all of us together - as a family. a critical element of ali's and meera's education has been observing us as role models in the learning process. this is something children infrequently experience in their own parents, and never experience in their schoolteachers, who are viewed as virtually omniscient and never perceived as learning animals... in coming to know our community as our learning environment, we have taught our children the necessity of giving back so that the community can grow and change along with them. it has truly been, and continues to be, an adventure of which we are both honored and blessed to be a part, and we honor our community for making it possible.

holiday hubbub part 2

2007-11-28T23:31:00.000-06:00

in addition to the previously mentioned holiday movie watching, we also love to cuddle up with a good winter-themed book or two. we have a basket of rotating seasonal books in our den. (well, it's there in theory. it's still full of summer books. fall somehow was forgotten.) it's time to fill that basket with our favorite wintertime books (some we don't yet own, but i'm working on that):

gingerbread baby
how the grinch stole christmas!
winter waits
grandmother winter
the mitten
the snowy day
the night before christmas
when winter comes
the shortest day
while the bear sleeps
snow bear
trouble with trolls
owl moon
the three snow bears
snow ponies
winter lullaby
stopping by woods on a snowy evening
winter eyes
the tomten

what are your favorite wintertime books?

holiday hubbub

2007-11-27T23:24:00.000-06:00

we love the holidays! we love cold weather, stringing popcorn, decorating the tree, opening advent stockings, twinkle lights, baking cookies, making cards, hot cider and cocoa, candy canes, and so much more. we also really enjoy holiday television and movies.

i fondly remember holiday cartoons and variety specials from my childhood. i have to say i'm a little disappointed with the current holiday tv offerings. true - there are christmas-themed episodes of my favorite shows. but there aren't really any holiday specials like those i remember from my childhood. so we've taken matters into our own hands and started collecting holiday dvds for our seasonal viewing pleasure. here are some we've acquired over the years:

the grinch who stole christmas
white christmas
rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
christmas in connecticut
home alone (and home alone 2)
a charlie brown christmas
frosty the snowman & frosty returns
the nutcracker (we've got another version, too)
a christmas story
polar express
die hard (nathan considers this a holiday classic)
little women (i consider this a holiday classic)
sonny & cher - the christmas collection
the donny & marie 1978 christmas show
love actually
the christmas messenger
while you were sleeping

holiday dvds i'd like to have:
it's a wonderful life
national lampoon's christmas vacation
scrooged
elf
the nightmare before christmas
trading places
gremlins
a muppet christmas carol
edward scissorhands
santa claus - the movie
home for the holidays
the family man
captain and tenille: the christmas show
planes, trains and automobiles
a christmas carol
the christmas toy

what am i forgetting?

in awe of...

2007-11-26T21:10:00.000-06:00

...the cavalier and the sugar plum fairy:

more skylark sings

2007-11-25T23:11:00.000-06:00

a continuation of this post - and the skylark sings with me

more from david albert's fantastic book (which you really should borrow or buy):

most families we know who undertake teaching their kids at home do so because of problems they or their children discern or have, in fact, experienced in the public school system. the problems are varied and differ from family to family. they include too much competitiveness; classes too large; too much stress; too much reliance on standardized testing; a poor learning environment; ill-equipped teachers; a poor social environment (violence, consumerism, drugs, sex); a disagreement with teaching methods; a lack of attention to religious values or a view of subjects (evolution, sex education) as antithetical to those values or usurping parental roles. ellen and i agree with some of these complaints, and disagree with others. we share our critique of public education throughout this book as the occasion invites and as our experiences warrant.

where we differ from some homeschooling families is that their main objectives appear to be to protect their children by narrowing the range of available experience. as parents, we too strive to protect our children, but frankly we never apprehended the school system as a threat to our children's innocence or understanding. if anything, we perceive the range of educational experience offered by schools - starting with the segregation of children into age-bound classes - as far, far too narrow. this is one of the main problems that our approach to homeschooling seeks to address.

we view our community as a flexible learning environment, as if you'll permit the metaphor, our kids' "learning oyster." to a great extent, the term "homeschooling" doesn't match our actual practice. ali's and meera's education is "home-directed" and "home-evaluated." we do a minimal amount of rote or semi-rote activities around the kitchen table or home computer. but our particular success, tempered with knowledge of our false starts and imperfections, is built upon utilizing, and teaching our children to think of, our community and the larger world as a classroom, teacher, resource center, learning laboratory, and more. the early growth and experiences of ali as a singer, supported in sundry ways by so many parts of the community - from local AIDS ministries to the farmers' market, from fellow choir members to an anonymous benefactor - provide an extended example of what can become possible utilizing this approach.

nutcracker friends

2007-11-24T14:19:00.001-06:00

the little bon bon

2007-11-23T16:57:00.000-06:00

party girl and her baby doll

2007-11-22T20:04:00.000-06:00

day before thanksgiving

2007-11-21T22:37:00.000-06:00

evyn and i have been home a little over an hour or so. we had a long dress run-through at rehearsal today. i am exhausted. we're both sick. nathan bought us orange juice and ice cream - vitamin c to heal our bodies and frozen dairy products to heal our souls. (overly dramatic much?)

i've got laundry and dishes to wash, tights to soak, and (most importantly) an episode of battlestar galactica to watch. oh, and chapters of the newest of the sisters grimm books, which arrived by mail today, to read to evyn.

other than nutcracker rehearsals, we've been... watching the carol burnett show, how the grinch stole christmas, and looney tunes... listening to buffy: the musical soundtrack, carnival of the animals, and famously funny: a collection of beloved stories and poems... eating pomegranates, sea salt flatbread crackers, and newman's ginger-o's... playing with playsilks, world of peter rabbit carousel book, and geosafari frogs undercover... reading the sisters grimm book 5, and to think that we thought that we'd never be friends, and dr. seuss... creating window art and bathroom "kitchen" concoctions.

tomorrow is a much-needed day off from nutcracker rehearsals. we have our non-traditional thanksgiving family tradition prepped and planned. i'll blog about that tomorrow. right now i'm off to watch and episode of bsg. cylons beware!

and the skylark sings with me

2007-11-20T23:18:00.000-06:00

during the last couple of weeks, i've done a lot of chauffeuring and sitting (and really, i do a lot of that normally). as i've been sitting, i've been re-reading david albert's and the skylark sings with me. here's one of my favorite parts from today's read (written about his children, ali and meera):

...from them, we have learned that
a. children understand and, given the opportunity, can articulate what they need to know at any particular point within the limits and natural round of their own individual and unique development;
b. the primary job of the teacher (parent or otherwise) is not to teach but to provide the opportunities whereby these needs can be met;
c. these needs don't wait to be filled: if they aren't addressed adequately and in a timely manner, children become frustrated and will take out that frustration in aggressiveness, recalcitrance, or worst of all, passivity; and
d. no single individual can be expected to meet all of a child's learning needs at any particular point in time. it takes a community, with or without a school, to raise a child.

as our children have gotten older, their interests have deepened, and their studies have become more specialized. this is as it should be; therefore, i have organized this book into rough subject areas to plot the development of their understandings. i am aware, however, that these subject divisions more closely parallel the way ellen and i (and most adults) have been taught to think about education than our children's actual experience. a characteristic of ali's and meera's intellectual development has been the fluid, interpenetrating nature of insights gained. a quick scan of the text finds our kids making connections between evolutionary biology and opera and finance; astronomy and eighteenth century colonial history; music, religion, and mathematics; optics and trigonometry; sociobiology and ethics; and arithmetic, nutrition, and geography. yet, to focus on the subject matter even in this manner is to miss the point. our efforts as parents/teachers are not primarily directed at the mastery of science, mathematics, latin, music, or shakespeare. they are about the nurturing of citizens of the planet who, in abundant recompense, allow us to "borrow from eternity," for children provide us with a glimpse of a future which, at least within the boundaries of our limited physical selves, we can never know.

the end i envision for my children's education is not the mastery of subject matter. it is perhaps here where, more than anywhere else, we part company with the practice of public education. for the end we envision lies not in the amassing of facts or concepts which, in itself, has little more intrinsic value than the accumulation of shoes, baseball cards, or sports cars, but in the responsible exercise of freedom - the freedom to learn, to create, to grow, to be - unfettered by prejudice, their own or that of others, unhampered to the highest degree possible by others' expectations and their own preconceptions, fears, and self-doubts, uninhibited dependencies not freely chosen...

tired little party girl

2007-11-19T10:02:00.001-06:00

bon bon practice

2007-11-18T20:49:00.001-06:00

dayna martin on youtube

2007-11-17T21:13:00.000-06:00

okay, here's the scoop: i've recently been turned on to battlestar galactica. nathan's been watching for the past three seasons. i never bothered - it just didn't look interesting at first glance. then, as the seasons progressed and i became genuinely interested, i figured i'd better start at the beginning and not midway through season two. hmm, midway through season two... that's almost where i am now. and i'd rather be watching bsg than blogging right now.

instead of taking the time to write a real post, i'm going to get dayna martin of unschooling america to (unwittingly) help me. i think dayna makes unschooling very accessible to the average person. here's one of my favorite of dayna's youtube video blogs - she talks about the role of an unschooling parent (see my previous post, the facilitator). you can find her other videos at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DaynaLeighMartin.

dance!

2007-11-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

so you think you can dance was fantastic! almost three hours of electrifying dancing. okay, it was probably just under two hours of dancing and about one hour of not-so-witty banter. but it was great! we saw our favorite dances - the flower and the hummingbird, you can't stop the beat, two princes, neil and sabra's table dance, sarah and jesus's vagabond, sweet dreams, the angel and devil dance, and so much more. evyn watched and screamed and giggled. she was so thrilled to see the show and thinks we should go to more, more, more shows (and we plan to - there is a professional ballet performance of coppelia in the spring and a couple of touring broadway shows that i think we're going to try to see).

speaking of shows... we saw dance alive national ballet's performance of america dances a few weeks ago. the entire show was good, but the final act - contemporary danced to jazz and classic songs from the 50's and 60's - was phenomenal. we also watched a local children's theater company's production of babes in toyland last week.

tomorrow, we start intensive rehearsals for the nutcracker - every day saturday thru friday, with thanksgiving day off. i'm hoping to blog as early in the day as possible so i don't run out of time. we'll see how it goes.

we're so excited!

2007-11-15T11:42:00.000-06:00

no real post today. in just a few minutes, we'll all hop in the car, drive a few hours, see the so you think you can dance show, and drive home. we'll be back in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.

not your ordinary pop-ups

2007-11-14T20:37:00.000-06:00

we love pop-up books! since evyn was a wee little one, we have enjoyed the magic and wonder of pop-up books. of course, we started with your random, run-of-the-mill pop-ups. we've since graduated to some truly incredible works of art. three of our current favorites (check out the fantastic photos on amazon):

castle: medieval days and knights
alice's adventures in wonderland: a pop-up adaptation
dragons: a pop-up book of fantastic adventures

we thought the sabuda & reinhart books (like the castle and alice in wonderland ones listed above, and also including wizard of oz, the night before christmas, chronicles of narnia, jungle book, and more) were the cream of the crop. don't misunderstand me - they are awesome! but we've recently discovered carousel pop-up books. one word: amazing! they're like little dollhouses, but they fold down into books. talk about space-saving! evyn has had hours upon hours of fantastic play time with her carousel pop-up books. thus far we have:

my fairy winter wonderland
my fairy garden
the world of peter rabbit pop-up carousel book (this one is brand-new. we've had it less than 24 hours. half of the pop-up is the macgregor's house and garden. the other half is split into two sections: a small cabin next to a pond and a tree in the forest. there are 13 beatrix potter characters included.)

the ones we want:

harry potter hogwarts school: a magical 3-d carousel
my fairy treehouse
my fairy princess palace (you can get a good idea of what our two fairy carousel books look like from these pictures)
medieval castle
a victorian dollhouse
a victorian village
a victorian farmhouse
princess palace

i am fairly certain that evyn will be getting at least two of these as holiday gifts. i am also fairly certain that we, her parents, will be equally enchanted with them.

and finally, as a little shopping bonus (and since i'm fascinated with paper arts right now), here are some etsy paper finds for all you grown-ups:

mr. squirrel
the white deer
the owl tree
otto conejo
fish head pop up card
paris
sayuri pop-up card
night owl pop-up card
fairy christmas pop-up card
roundbud cutout

shakespeare suggestions?

2007-11-13T18:57:00.000-06:00

evyn has recently become fascinated with william shakespeare. several months ago, we watched the ballet romeo and juliet, performed by the paris opera ballet at the opera bastille. it was choreographed and cast by rudolph nureyev. the costumes were spectacular, and the choreography was innovative. evyn asked many questions about the plot. we talked a little bit about shakespeare and his plays.

months later, we began the sisters grimm series. there are dozens of fairy tale characters in the books, but evyn's favorite is puck. somehow, the subject of shakespeare came up again. evyn was tickled to learn that the author of romeo and juliet had also immortalized this delightful character named puck.

days after our second conversation about shakespeare, we received the american ballet theatre production of the dream from netflix. evyn enjoyed this ballet so much - she kept the dvd for well over a month. (shhhh - she's getting her very own copy next month.) we talked more about shakespeare.

a few days after that dvd was returned, we received ronnie and julie in the mail. it's an insanely cheesy movie that i remember watching about a decade ago. i think it was better then. anyway, ronnie and julie is a modern-day telling of romeo and juliet. we watched it together and discussed the plot, comparing and contrasting it with shakespeare's original.

about a month and a half ago, we stumbled upon two children's ballet books at our local bookstore, each containing descriptions or stories of ballets based on shakespeare's works. at this point, all roads lead to shakespeare and evyn wants more! so...

i need suggestions - movies based on shakespeare's plays, ballets based on shakespeare's plays (which dvd versions are the best?), children's books about shakespeare's life and works, modern-day tales about shakespeare and his characters, etc. please leave a comment and let me know your ideas and suggestions.

here are a few things i've found so far (not necessarily all for evyn, but cool nonetheless):
shakespeare's globe: an interactive pop-up theatre
tales from shakespeare
bravo, mr. william shakespeare!
william shakespeare & the globe
shakespeare: the animated tales
the shakespeare stealer
who was william shakespeare?
william shakespeare's the winter's tale
twelfth night
shakespeare for kids: his life and times, 21 activities
shakespeare's secret

the non-recipe recipe

2007-11-12T19:20:00.000-06:00

i follow recipes. at the very least, i mostly follow recipes. i'm not super-successful with winging it in the kitchen. maybe that makes me an oddball. i'm okay with that. but i've finally found a recipe that's not a recipe. and i must say, i do really well with this non-recipe recipe.

it's called a bakeover. it's from maryjane's ideabook cookbook lifebook. i've made many variations of the bakeover over the years and have been happy with just about every incarnation. here's the recipe (are you ready? - it's really difficult):

take a bunch of veggies, saute them in a pan, dump them in a casserole dish (possibly with some cooked beans or lentils), cover with biscuit dough or cornbread batter, cook at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, and then flip upside down onto a plate or platter. that's it! if you have the right pan, you can bake the whole thing in the pan you sauteed the veggies in. tonight's version consists of onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, spinach, red pepper, black beans and mexican spices with a cornbread topping. mmmmm, yummy. i can smell it baking right now. oh! it's done. time to eat!

the almost drive-by post

2007-11-11T23:14:00.000-06:00

i attempted to log on to blogger about an hour ago. i had a great idea (okay, maybe just a good idea) for a post. imagine my surprise when i had no internet connection. well, surprise is not the right word. between suddenlink's spotty service and our wiring issues, i've come to expect being unable to log on. annoyance is a better word. 10:15 pm and no internet. 10:15pm and no blog post. but it's nablopomo!

i tried to fix the connection outside, since that seems to be the source of our recent troubles. i wiggled the cable. i rigged the cable to stay off the ground. i messed with the splitter. i did a little connectivity dance (which looks much like the african anteater ritual). no cable.

nathan tried to fix the connection inside with a series of hooking and unhooking, rebooting and mumbled cursing. no cable.

i resigned myself to the fact that if i wanted to post tonight, i'd have to load up my family and drive somewhere to steal someone else's connection. i finished eating my very late supper. i watched half of tonight's taped desperate housewives. i waited patiently for evyn to finish her second bath of the day. i thought about what i would blog about in my drive-by post. and then (cue the hallelujah chorus here), it worked. our internet spontaneously resolved its issues and connected!

so here i am at 11-something pm, on the computer, feverishly typing before my risen-from-the-ashes internet connection bursts into flames once again. i don't have time for the post i had originally planned. so instead, i'll end with something i'd planned for my drive-by post. my list of 3 things i'm thankful for, even though my internet does not work:

i have a functioning laptop computer with wireless capabilities.
my family has an odd night-owl schedule, allowing for on-the-fly, late-night trips when necessary.
i didn't almost miss my nablopomo deadline because i was in the hospital, had a tree fall on my house, or for any other major reason.
(i know i said 3, but this one's good too) my husband is sweet enough and thinks my blog is important enough to be willing to chauffeur me all over town looking for bandwidth to steal.

crazy eights...

2007-11-10T20:09:00.000-06:00

... care of sandy at momisodes.

8 things i'm passionate about:

my daughter - who delights me, inspires me, challenges me, and makes me laugh my butt off
my husband who does all those same things plus puts up with my crap and loves my eccentricities
unschooling - i cannot imagine not living the life we live now, which would not be possible without all the heavy brain manipulation that reading and learning about unschooling have required
dance - ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, any type at all
environmental protection
all things russian - i have no clue why (maybe i'm the reincarnated anastasia!)
spirituality (not necessarily religion)
reading - i love, love, love to read

8 things i want to do before i die:

watch my daughter grow into a healthy and (mostly) happy person
finally grow a garden - with plants that actually thrive instead of shrinking back into the soil
convert a car to run on vegetable oil
travel a lot - russia, egypt, china, japan, alaska, south america, africa, europe...
go to a broadway show (or a lot of broadway shows)
meet the dalai lama
experience a real white christmas (in a cabin in the forest with a fire in the fireplace and hot cocoa...)
save someone's life or deliver a baby

8 things i say often:

i love you.
you guys!!!
have you seen the _______?
do you remember where you put the ________?
would it be possible to put the ________ back where it belongs when you're done with it?
ouch!
thank you.
ewwww, that's gross!

8 books i've read recently (these are my 8 absolutely most recently read books):

8 songs i could listen to over and over:

river (joni mitchell or sarah mclachlan or indigo girls)
ne me quitte pas
wild is the wind
here comes the sun (by now you realize i'm a nina simone fan - i also like the original beatles version of this one)
anything by nirvana (say what you will, but it was an important time in my life)
your song by elton john
waltzing matilda
there are just too many to list here - songs from old musicals, classical music, jazz, lullabies...

8 things that attract me to my best friends:

they can laugh at themselves
they can laugh at me
they let me talk (and talk and talk and talk)
they respect my oddities (even if they aren't that strange themselves)
they are there when i really need them
but they aren't clingy
they call before dropping by (i hate unannounced visitors)
they know that chocolate has healing properties

8 people i think should do crazy eights (i'm sticking strictly to people i've "met" or read during nablopomo):

our september trip

2007-11-09T16:44:00.000-06:00

two months ago, we (me, nathan, evyn and my parents) went on a fantastic trip to eastern tennessee and western north carolina. we visited chattanooga, tn; cherokee, nc; asheville, nc; black mountain, nc; gatlinburg, tn; and pigeon forge, tn. we spent a good bit of time in great smoky mountains national park. we came back with a few souvenirs, some new friends, great memories and lots (and lots and lots) of pictures.

i promised that i would write about our trip, but i never got around to doing that. there's just too much to write about - the live and learn conference, dollywood, the gorgeous mountains and forests, asheville, the museums we visited, etc. so i'll post some pictures of our trip instead, courtesy of my dad, our official family photographer (oh, and some that my mom took as well).

here's a list of pictures to follow: 1. contemplative water play at the creative discovery museum in chattanooga 2. bubble fun at the same museum 3. rock climbing at rock city garden at lookout mountain, ga 4. the swinging bridge at rock city garden 5. my parents' van, painted with "black mountain or bust" - the reference to ferryport landing is from the sisters grimm book number four 6. evyn playing by a river (near where we ate at a really cool pizza shack that was right on the river) 7. the view at the blue ridge assembly, where live and learn 2007 was held 8. the awesome porch at lee hall (this is where the previous picture was taken from) 9. a painting done by the kids (and teens and adults) at L&L 2007 10. evyn and nathan on their way back to our room from the swimming pool at the blue ridge assembly 11. the grape stomp at the biltmore winery 12. the footprints after the grape stomp (it's really paint - the grape juice was a pale pinkish color) 13. the geese at the biltmore estate 14. evyn and her balloon bow & arrow (as we were leaving the blue ridge assembly) 15. evyn modeling at an overlook in great smoky mountains national park 16. evyn pretending to be scared as she "falls" over the same overlook 17. waterfall 18. cherokee demonstration at oconaluftee indian village 19. our cabin in tennessee, near pigeon forge 20. cades cove (in great smoky mountains national park) 21. the beginning of fall in great smoky mountains national park

last minute addition: balloon hat madness on the first day at the live and learn conference!

jcb song

2007-11-08T09:35:00.000-06:00

i love that this video keeps making the unschooling blog and message board rounds. watch it. please. you must. it's a great song and a great video.

here are the lyrics:
well, i'm rumblin' in this jcb.
i'm 5 years old and my dad's a giant sitting beside me.
and the engine rattles my bum like berserk
while we're singin, "don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work!"

my dad's totally had a bloody hard day
but he's been good fun and bubblin and jokin' away
and the procession of cars stuck behind
are gettin all impatient and angry, but we don't mind.

an' we're holdin up the bypass - oh
me and my dad havin a top laugh - oh woah
sittin on the toolbox - oh
and i'm so glad i'm not in school, boss
so glad i'm not in school - oh no...

and we pull over to let the cars pass
and pull off again, speedin by the summer green grass
and we're like giants up here in our big yellow digger
like zoids, or transformers, or maybe even bigger

and i wanna transform into a tyrannosaurus rex!
and eat up all the bullies and the teachers and their pets
and i'll tell all my mates my dad's b.a. barakas
only with a jcb and bruce lee's nunchuckas

and we're holdin up the bypass - oh
me and my dad havin a top laugh - oh woah
sittin on the toolbox - oh
and i'm so glad i'm not in school, boss
so glad i'm not in school

and we're holdin up the bypass - oh oh
me and my dad havin a top laugh - oh woah
i'm sittin on the toolbox - oh oh
and i'm so glad i'm not in school, boss
so glad i'm not in school

-

said i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his jcb.
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his jcb.
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his jcb.
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round

and we're holdin' up the bypass - woah
me and my dad havin a top laugh - oh woah
and i'm sittin on the toolbox - oh
and i'm so glad i'm not in school, boss
so glad i'm not in school

i, said
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his jcb.
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his jcb.
i'm luke, i'm 5, and my dad's bruce lee. drives me round in his jcb.

******************************
and if that weren't awesome enough, someone on youtube posted this live-action tribute. again, great song and great video. be patient and wait for the payoff about halfway through. i am laughing my ass off.

for more on this video: jcb music video by munkeehub
for more nizlopi: their website

the facilitator

2007-11-07T09:14:00.000-06:00

over the last couple years, i've had quite a few opportunities to talk with all sorts of people about unschooling - at dance class, at the coffee shop, at grocery stores, you name it. when they hear that evyn is not in school, most people assume that we're traditional homeschoolers. (i'm sure that in their mind's eye they see evyn perched at a little desk or table with her workbooks spread out in front of her.) sometimes i leave the discussion right there. maybe i'm too busy to really delve into the philosophy behind unschooling. maybe i sense that the person i'm speaking with has no real interest in learning about unschooling. sometimes, i correct the mistake and explain that we are unschoolers.

one of the most frequent questions i am asked when first explaining unschooling is, "so you're evyn's teacher?" i've received that particular question at least 3 times in the last 2 weeks. for a while, i found it hard to explain exactly what my role was. i usually said that i was not evyn's teacher - i was just her mom, her partner, etc. then i stumbled upon the perfect word to describe what i do:

i'm the facilitator. (i imagine myself saying that in my best arnold schwartzenager accent.)

that's what i do. i facilitate evyn's experience in the world. i don't teach her. i don't discipline her. i don't coerce her. i spend lots of time with her, learning all i can about her, and doing everything i can to facilitate the exploration of her interests and passions. i don't have a plan in my head as to what specific body of knowledge she must acquire in her lifetime or how she should acquire knowledge. i trust evyn's natural curiosity to lead her in the directions that are necessary for her.

a couple of years ago, evyn was fascinated by ants. i knew that i needed to feed that interest as much as i could. we checked out library books and then bought our own books about ants. some were the typical science books - parts of the body, types of ants, life cycles, etc. a couple of the books were comprised of stories and poems about ants. one book was about math (the ants go marching two by two, ten by ten...). we bought an ant farm and watched the ants build tunnels, communicate with each other, and bury their dead. the ant farm came with a double-sided poster that evyn used to teach her pretend school (of stuffed animals). we watched the movie antz and googled websites about ants. we compared and contrasted different ant colonies in our yard. we saw leaf-cutter ants on a museum trip. we watched them cut and carry their leaves. after about a month or so, evyn was done with ants. we moved on to other things.

since then, evyn's been fascinated with all sorts of things - fairies, dance, culinary creations, water, trees, electricity, castles, music, birds... the list goes on and on. my job is to help her find the resources she needs to follow her passions. my job is to make her world as interesting and shiny and full of wonder as it can be. my job is to open as many doors for her as possible. after all, i am the facilitator. (remember to use your best schwartzenager voice on that last sentence.)

temporary post

2007-11-06T21:41:00.000-06:00

i'm posting this temporarily so i don't miss my nablopomo deadline for tuesday. i'm in the process of writing a real post, but our internet connection is spotty tonight and i don't want to miss my chance to post something, anything. back with the real deal in a few.

edited on 11/7/07 to add: our internet connection completely died last night about 20 minutes after i posted this. so... i'll post today (wednesday) what i intended to post last night.

the temperature's rising...

2007-11-05T21:59:00.000-06:00

... therefore i cannot blog according to my regularly scheduled program. i've spent my last hour of allotted blogging time in the kitchen and on the computer with my kiddo. evyn's been freezing things today - stuffed animals, playdoh, etc. and now she's asking questions about temperature. thus far we've talked about the different temperatures of the freezer versus the refrigerator and why one is colder. we've talked about how the temperature of something depends upon how quickly its molecules are moving. we've played with an oven thermometer and a regular mercury thermometer (man, it sure is fun to watch the mercury rise while rubbing the tip of the thermometer with your fingers). we've watched a brainpop video about temperature. we've talked about fahrenheit versus celsius versus kelvin. cool stuff. or maybe i should say hot stuff! ;)

i'll hopefully be back a little after midnight to make tuesday's post... if not, i'll post later tomorrow.

here's a little youtube fun chosen with our current theme of temperature in mind:

martian child

2007-11-04T21:59:00.001-06:00

nathan and i saw martian child today. we read some good reviews, watched the trailer, and thought it might be a nice (and most likely sappy) movie. it was nice. and it was sappy. i loved it... and i hated it. okay, i didn't hate it. but i was somewhat disappointed by parts of the movie.

there were moments of sweetness and moments of humor, but i never felt the absolutely overwhelming real emotion that i wanted to feel. about 2/3 of the way through, it just kind of fizzled. the movie was at its worst when it focused too heavily on its underlying themes... which i won't get into because i don't want to spoil it for anyone. the movie was at its best when it embraced the weirdness and whimsy of the two main characters - and those parts were pretty darn good!

i found myself wishing that the story had gone just a little bit farther. at one point, the "martian child" was not fitting in at all in his new school environment. there were major trust and intimacy issues involved. i couldn't help but think, "just keep him at home." the new dad (john cusack, whom i adore) was a writer working from home. it was the perfect setup for unschooling. i saw so much of evyn's shininess in dennis (the boy). i wanted so badly for everyone around him to just let go of their preconceived notions and expectations and embrace his shine (see anne o's blog for more about shine). i wanted everyone to join in the martian dance. to find out how it ends... see the movie. or better yet, read the book by david gerrold. i plan to.

sabrina and the knee-jerk mommy

2007-11-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

first, a picture of "sabrina" on halloween - with her deputy star, fairy tale accounts journal and magnifying glass / pen. (scroll down and read the post about the sisters grimm if you need explanation as to who evyn was dressed as for halloween.)

now on to the knee-jerk mommy...

radical unschooling has been (and continues to be) a process for me. i've had to let go of things i thought were "necessary," but were really just the norm - the standard response, the typical outcome. some of it has been easy. no bedtimes - no problem. not regulating sweets - no problem. hours in front of the tv - no problem (well, a bump or two here and there). i enjoy nonconformity. i enjoy watching my child not conform.

over the last year or so, i've read a lot of unschooling articles and books. i've perused many unschooling blogs. i've attended the live and learn conference. i've worked so hard to get to a place where i can honestly, truly, lovingly respect and honor (and even celebrate) evyn's choices. i've opened myself up and attempted to sweep away my opinions and preconceived notions in an effort to be more accepting of evyn's feelings and decisions, especially the ones i wouldn't claim for myself. i try not to steer her in any direction because i think it's the right path. i'm learning to relinquish control. that's hard work for a type-a control freak like myself. but i've accomplished a lot. i really do feel joyful and celebrate evyn's passions and interests and choices.

when evyn was a baby, she was vegetarian by proxy. she really had no choice. as she got older, i thought we'd wait until she was ready to make the decision whether or not to eat meat. as we delved deeper into the philosophy behind radical unschooling, namely trust, i began to wonder when she would be old enough. when she understood that meat was dead animals? when she was mature enough to make important decisions for herself? or was i just waiting until i was sure she'd make the decision i wanted her to make? realizing that i was waiting for the latter was a hard pill to swallow.

today evyn had her first nibble of meat - a bite of pepperoni pizza. i wasn't with her. nathan called me from dance practice to let me know why they were taking so long. she was playing and eating with the older girls. oh, and she had a bite of pepperoni pizza. thank goodness evyn couldn't hear me - i freaked out! did she know what she was eating? how much did she eat? why didn't nathan talk to her about it beforehand? what if she liked it? (yes, that last thought sneaked in somehow.)

it was a full five minutes before i took a deep breath and realized it's really okay. would i have preferred that she consciously made the decision to eat meat instead of nibbling without knowing? yes. would i have preferred that nathan noticed before she took a bite? yes. but in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? no. will a few bites kill her? no. will having a daughter who eats meat (if that's what she chooses) kill me? no. can i honor this choice as i would honor any other choice? yes. is it more important that evyn have a non-judgmental and truly respectful mom who honors her 100%? yes.

now if i can just get that initial knee-jerk reaction compressed from 5 minutes to 5 seconds... i think it will fade with time... maybe it's in the breathing...

~~~breathing in, i calm my body. breathing out, i smile~~~

a little horace humor

2007-11-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

here's a little youtube fun (for enjoyment, not for feather-ruffling purposes... well, mostly)

tag, you're it!

2007-11-02T00:28:00.000-05:00

i tagged myself via carri's blog. i've never done one of these on my blog. 10 weird things about me:

1. i am absolutely anal about not losing the pieces to any board game. anal to a fault. so anal that my husband thinks i'm crazy.

2. i love the taste of metal. as a child, i sucked on the monkey bars at school.

3. i like chocolate mixed with salty things - chocolate-covered potato chips, bites of chocolate candy followed by bites of movie theater popcorn, etc.

4. i love the movie howard the duck. i think i'm maybe one of ten people on the planet to admit that fact.

5. i thoroughly enjoy plucking stray hairs - mine and other peoples. however, i do NOT enjoy popping pimples.

6. i loathe being tickled. i'm extremely ticklish, but not in a funny way. it actually causes me pain to be tickled.

7. i'm terrified of writing. i was a model english student in high school - great grades, essay contests, student newspaper, state rally, etc. thinking about being grammatically correct gives me hives. so i try to type as fast as possible and not think about grammar.

8. i have magnetic fingers. i can hold 2 coins (quarters, nickels, dimes, whatever) between my thumb and forefinger and play them like cymbals. for a really long time. a really, really long time.

9. prairies creep me out. i enjoy being outdoors but not on flat land that goes on and on and on. i need mountains or trees or something to break up all that space. yards without definite boundaries make me a little nervous, too.

10. i cry at the ballet. i love it that much.

if you're still reading this... consider yourself tagged.

and thus it begins...

2007-11-01T15:09:00.000-05:00

...NABLOPOMO!!!

and how am i starting this year's national blog posting month? under my house, of course.

last friday, we had no internet. we rebooted the computer. we unhooked and rehooked everything (several times). nathan did things i can't explain (because i don't know what they were). we spent quality time on the phone with the suddenlink service techs. we accepted defeat and scheduled service for tuesday. we spent the weekend visiting our favorite wifi hotspots. we even spent one late night stealing (i like to call it borrowing) bandwidth from some random house.

on monday, we finally decided to hook up the modem in a different room (duh!). guess what? it worked fine! so we went snooping under the house to see if possibly, maybe (hopefully) a cable was loose. what we discovered was a piece of insulation, torn from under the house (i'm guessing a cat or possibly armadillo) and draped across the cable. once the insulation was removed, all was right in our internet-deprived world. until today, that is.

i awoke this morning, eager to add my nablopomo badges to my blog. nathan was at a meeting. i had free reign over the pc. and... i had no internet connection. okay, i had a connection, but it reminded me of my 28k dial-up connection from about a decade ago. that was not going to work! i checked the cable outside to make sure there was no insulation draped over it. i turned the computer off and on and off and on. i unhooked everything and rehooked everything. i was moments away from the dreaded suddenlink phone call, when i decided to check outside one more time. and there it was - a puddle of water under our house. (i'll not name any names, you water-faucet-leaver-on-er. you know who you are.) and the cable was running right through the middle of the puddle. once i rigged it to stay off the ground, all was right once again.

so here i am, ready for nablopomo 2007. happy blogging!

puck!

2007-10-24T09:22:00.000-05:00

lately, it seems that all roads lead to puck.

during the summer, evyn discovered a love for chapter books. until then, it was all about picture books. in july, we met harry potter. after harry, we needed other great read-aloud books. so we headed for the bookstore and discovered the sisters grimm. we devoured all four books of that series (and are eagerly anticipating book 5). we're reading books 1-4 again as we wait (again, *eagerly*) for book 5.

since we began the sisters grimm series, evyn has played the part of sabrina grimm (the older sister). she has renamed her stuffed animals various characters from the stories. she has gone on wild adventures in the house and beyond. she even decided to dress as sabrina for halloween. and she has fallen hard for puck. whenever a male lead is needed for any of her adventures, whether sisters grimm-based or not, it's puck (a white teddy bear) to the rescue. what a surprise it's been for her to find puck in other places as well.

the characters in the stories (aside from the grimm family and a handful of supporting characters) are fairy tale folk, or everafters as they're called in the books. there's prince charming, the big bad wolf, the three little pigs, snow white, the magic mirror, jack (as in jack and the beanstalk), little red riding hood, the seven dwarves, etc. puck (from shakespeare's a midsummer night's dream) makes his debut in the first book. titania, oberon and a host of other fairies make their debut in book 4. after reading book 4, evyn had questions about puck and the other fairies. she was familiar with nearly all the other everafters. but who was this puck? and who was shakespeare?

we've had several wonderful discussions about shakespeare, a midsummer night's dream, romeo and juliet (we'd seen a ballet version on dvd a few months back), and more. we've watched the american ballet theater production of the dream (based on a midsummer night's dream) several times. that was purely by chance - it happened to be the next dvd in our netflix queue!

we bought a ballet book we thought was interesting and discovered that our new favorite ballet is included! (as well as romeo & juliet and peter and the wolf... which led us back to the sesame street version of peter and the wolf and a discussion about the instruments used... which led to some improv music sessions...)

our talks about shakespeare and plays somehow connected to a series of brainpop videos evyn watched about character, plot and setting. that led into a discussion of shakespeare's use of humor. evyn asked lots of questions about the comedic elements of a midsummer night's dream and the tragic elements of romeo and juliet. we talked about wording, dance movement, timing, irony... wow! i could go on and on. but i won't. i'll leave you with a picture of what evyn thinks is about the funniest plotline ever...

titania the fairy queen in love with bottom the weaver
- turned into a donkey!
(yes, that's a man en pointe dancing the part of bottom the weaver. a man en pointe is a rare occurrence in ballet. that led to another discussion about the history of ballet and pointe shoes and differences in men's roles and style of dance versus women's... about baryshnikov and balanchine - among others - saying that it is beneficial for men to train en pointe as it stretches and strengthens the foot and makes for a better pas de deux partner... also how men risk injury by dancing en pointe due to their weight causing increased stress on the ankles and feet...)

the fair and the funk

2007-10-17T22:31:00.000-05:00

evyn, nathan & i went to our local "county fair" - it's really a parish fair here in louisiana - last thursday. it was date night, so we got to ride 2-for-1. we had a blast! evyn rode and rode and rode all her favorite rides. the highlight (by far) was the giant fun slide. i think she and nathan rode it 5 or 6 times. the first time was met with a face of horror - i think she was about as scared as she's *ever* been. the second time was met with a face of horror mixed with disbelief. and every time after that was met with a face of pure joy!

we visited the exhibition hall to eat and ended up looking at some of the exhibits. i explained that individuals and schools submit entries to be judged. we saw art projects, photography, quilts, clothing, fruits and vegetables, canned goods, etc. evyn thinks she might like to enter the youth photography competition next year - and maybe t-paw will enter the adult photography competition!

the plan was for evyn to go back to the fair with grammy and t-paw after her nutcracker ballet practice on saturday. but... instead, she got the funk. she was fairly sick for a couple of days (fever, sore throat, vomiting, some congestion). now she feels much better but is still very congested. we decided to skip dance classes this week, but we're going to try to make it to music class (which she is *loving*). and we need to go shopping to find the elements for her sabrina grimm halloween costume. bye-bye funk! we've got business to attend to.

the kingdom... making the world

2007-10-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

nathan and i went to see the movie the kingdom on sunday. it was so violent, yet intriguing in its own way. there were scenes between parents and their children that were heartrending; others that were absolutely beautiful. i had such a deep, visceral reaction to some of the scenes. it was heartbreaking.

one thing i didn't feel: anger. one thing that kept popping into my head: gandhi's quote "we must be the change we wish to see in the world." i kept thinking how peace cannot be created through violence... and that led me to think about what i wish to see in the world... peace, tolerance, compassion, joy, respect, kindness, love, cooperation, creativity... and how my being in the world creates that world... my being peaceful, tolerant, compassionate, joyful, respectful, kind, loving, cooperative, creative... and how if i'm angry, hurtful, intolerant, harsh, judgmental, competitive, disrespectful, or unimaginative - i'm creating a world in complete opposition to the one i envision...

and that led me to think about a book of evyn's that i absolutely adore: making the world by douglas wood. sadly it's no longer in print. but if you can find a used copy for sale or at your library, it's a wonderful book about how everything that exists in the world helps to make the world.

today is the greatest...

2007-10-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

...day i've ever known. i've had that smashing pumpkins song in my head all day. and today was a pretty great day. some may call it typical or average, but i call it great.

i woke up before anyone else and immediately hopped on nathan's laptop. last night was a crazy night in a town near us - i wanted to find out what happened between the time i went to bed and this morning. you can read all about it here. after reading about that tragedy, i decided to browse through some unschooling lists and a couple of blogs (which definitely cheered me up a little). when evyn woke up, i was reading anne o's post about sam. evyn asked me to read it to her (lately, she's been quite interested in what i read - books, blogs, street signs, etc.). evyn thought that sam's apple berry crisp sounded like *just* what she wanted right then. we scrounged around in the kitchen - no crisp fixings but baked apple fixings abounded! so we cut apples and mixed them with butter, sugar and spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg). we put them in the oven to bake. at that point, evyn decided the apples should be dessert and that we needed to quickly make a meal to precede the apples. she wanted scrambled eggs (which she loathes) and black beans on the side (inspired by the guacamole and salsa in the fridge that "would be perfect on some eggs and beans"). so we cooked. we had a fantastic time in the kitchen. we three ate our breakfast and dessert together (evyn skipping the eggs but proud that she helped cook them).

grammy called to let us know she and t-paw would be dropping some things off at our house on the way out of town. while waiting, we started watching the princess diaries. evyn loves to pretend her movies while watching them. for this movie, she set up a car (b/c mia has her first car), used an upside-down visor for a tiara, and practiced etiquette lessons with her stuffed animals. grammy and t-paw dropped off a video for me and an old cell phone and charger for evyn. t-paw has a new phone and offered his old one to evyn (which she proudly and excitedly accepted).

after finishing the princess diaries, evyn and i drove to grammy and t-paw's house to play. sometimes we go to their house and party when they're out of town. translation: we play with toys, watch dvds and eat their food. this gets us out of nathan's hair when he really needs to focus on work. and it's a nice change of pace from our house (and much cleaner). today we watched mickey mouse and clifford dvds, ate frozen burritos, drank chocolate soy milk, and played with puzzles and stuffed animals. i also watched the bbc version of kitchen nightmares (which i'd never seen) while evyn played mail delivery person and bank teller. i signed for lot of packages and deposited a lot of funds (man, i wish those had been real funds!).

we arrived home a bit later than i expected we would. i was tired! nathan and evyn drove to our local coffee shop for food and drinks and an hour or so of fun. they talked with a couple of old friends. they picked up groceries on the way home and brought me a frozen coffee.

at home, evyn wanted some time by herself to watch the cosby show and play on the bed with her stuffed animals. she periodically asked me for help with a story she was writing. she asked me to spell some words for her - others she made up and asked me to pronounce. she laughed and laughed at some of the silly-sounding words she had written. i climbed into bed with her just after she finished her story. we watched a little cosby show together and fell asleep to daddy reading tell me something happy before i go to sleep.

in honor of the soundtrack that played over and over and over in my head today, here's some smashing pumpkins for your listening pleasure. enjoy!

time marches on...

2007-10-01T12:35:00.000-05:00

...and sooner or later you realize it's marching across your face! that really has nothing to do with this post. well, besides the fact time *has* been marching on for us. we've been so busy this summer! and now that i think about it, that's a dolly parton quote from steel magnolias. that's relevant for us because evyn *loves* dolly parton. her favorite dolly moments: 9 to 5, steel magnolias and hannah montana.

we returned a couple of weeks ago from a fantastic trip to tennessee and north carolina. we stopped in chattanooga, asheville, black mountain (for the live and learn conference), cherokee, and pigeon forge (home to dollywood!). we're back in the groove of play, work, dance classes, music classes and nutcracker rehearsals. we're busy but loving it. and we're already planning our live and learn adventure for 2008! i'll be back to posting regularly. (nathan - if you're reading this, remind me to post regularly.)

summer stuff - pre-dated

2007-08-31T12:26:00.000-05:00

i've been missing-in-action as far as blogging goes. i'm pre-dating this entry (actually posted on october 2nd) to the day before we left for our 2 week trip to tennessee and north carolina. we did a lot of fun stuff over the summer that i don't want to leave out. i use this blog to share information and our lives with others, but i also use it to document our lives (my lazy version of a baby book or portfolio or whatever). so, in no particular order, some of the things we did/read/listened to/enjoyed/etc. over the summer:

high school musical, high school musical 2, both cds, high school musical concert tour on dvd - evyn's favorite character is sharpay evans (played by ashley tisdale), which has carried her into a love of the suite life of zack and cody (which happens to air just after hannah montana on saturday mornings, which sometimes features evyn's newest love - dolly parton!)
murder mysteries - clue, private eyes (really cool b/c it was filmed at the Biltmore, which we visited on our big trip), murder she wrote, murder she purred (which i bought for myself b/c i adore the mrs. murphy mysteries - evyn ended up watching and enjoying this murder mystery)
the mystery of biltmore house by carole marsh (which wonderfully connected with our trip to the Biltmore)
harry potter (the first book and movie) and a huge harry potter party at sci-port in shreveport - i bought book 7 at the big party and read it in about 24 hours, with lots of breaks for family time - evyn says she is ready to start book 2 this month
evyn has become a voracious listener after our first reading of harry potter in july. we've since read all 4 of the sisters grimm books and the secret of platform 13 (we're eagerly anticipating the 5th sisters grimm book, due this december). i have done more reading aloud in the last few months than in the rest of my life combined (including when evyn was little and obsessed with board books).
evyn has become sabrina (the 11-year-old heroine of the sisters grimm books). that's her choice for halloween character this year. evyn's stuffed animals have been renamed - now all characters in the sisters grimm books.
dvds and videos - night at the museum, facts of life season 3, cosby show seasons 3 & 4, happy feet, family ties season 1 (which inspired an interest in architecture and architects), oliver (which is one of daddy's favorites - evyn preferred the live version presented by our local children's theater group), cirque du soleil, princess diaries & princess diaries 2, the cat returns, the womb, father of the bride 1 & 2 (our new dvd copies are much better than the ornery old vhs ones), alice in wonderland, robin hood, who framed roger rabbit?, galaxy quest, spaceballs (watched at the live and learn conference with daddy and grammy)... there are so many i'm forgetting...
tv shows - afv, hell's kitchen, so you think you can dance (we're going to see the national tour in a month and a half!!!), fetch!, super why!, maya & miguel, hannah montana, suite life of zack & cody, mama's family (discovered on vacation), designing women (also discovered on vacation)...
evyn had her 6th birthday! we had a small party at grandma & gramps' house - lots of swimming and homemade cupcakes. she got a lot of cool presents - magic book, dvds, books, dance skirts, plan city station, etc. she even had candles in the front yard, care of one of her dance teachers:
new books - it's so amazing!, castle pop-up book, starbright, the adventures of lewis and clark (inspired by night at the museum), knights & castles, a medieval feast, sacagawea speaks (also inspired by night at the museum), a couple of books about egypt and one about evolution, the fabulous book of paper dolls, a couple of dr. seuss books (inspired by a production of seussical the musical done by a local school - we also have the original cast recording cd), a couple of "x-ray" pull-out books - 1 about the human body and 1 about animals...
we visited sci-port and brought home tons of toys and things (okay, really just a few things) - a human body model, astronaut (freeze-dried) ice cream, rocks, a book and a magnet kit. evyn's favorite parts of sci-port: the space walk, the planetarium, the red river gallery and the children's gallery.
evyn got her first real haircut (about 4 inches or so) and went to the dentist (no cavities).
we all went to aunt kate's (nathan's sister) graduation. we met her boyfriend, eric, and ate a very yummy dinner at an indian restaurant.
evyn's year-end dance revue (recital) went well. she spent countless hours this summer watching all 3 performances (she was in 2 of them) on the dvd. ev had 4 weeks of workshops (2 afternoons per week) at her dance studio. she *loved* them! she's back in fall classes now - 2 jazz classes and 1 tap/ballet combo class per week. dance is her favorite thing in the world.
evyn attended a few camps this summer: zoo camp, art camp & gymnastics camp. zoo camp was okay, art camp was difficult (she didn't like being away from us but wanted to "stick it out" - so nathan and i both visited the camp several times a day to help her get to her classes and sit with her at snack time - she's very proud of all the projects she completed), gymnastics camp was terrible (ev made it through half a day and wanted to leave. she did not choose to go back for the rest of the week and decided not to take gymnastics classes this fall.).
we had 3 movie nights at grammy and t-paw's house. 1. harry potter (#1) after reading the first harry potter book. we made chocolate pretzel wands, cockroach cluster treats and troll snot punch (ginger ale and lime sherbert floats). 2. private eyes before our trip 3. alice in wonderland before our trip (b/c we knew we'd be visiting the creative discovery museum in chattanooga for the alice's wonderland exhibit).
evyn and nathan attended a cd release street party for a local band that nathan has done work for. i think they also attended a drum circle and jam session at tipitina's music co-op (where nathan sometimes holds design workshops for musicians).
we've had interesting conversations about racism and civil rights. some of that came up after watching our new tom and jerry cartoon dvds (which includes a disclaimer that evyn asked me to read to her). some of that discussion continued after we saw the movie hairspray with grammy and t-paw (we bought the cd and have been singing and dancing to all the great music). and the discussion continued a month or so later when we watched videos about slavery and civil rights on brainpop. and given our proximity to jena, louisiana, the conversation has continued.
speaking of brainpop... evyn loves it! her current favorite videos: anything to do with human reproduction and babies, the harry potter one, fractions, cleopatra, anything musical, and body scans. on brainpop jr.: hibernation, money, losing a tooth, reading (esp. the main idea, setting, and character videos), fractions, calendars, and parts of a clock.
we went swimming at grandma and gramps' a good bit (but not nearly enough). we're going to make a conscious effort to go more often next summer.
evyn spent lots of time at jump n jive (an indoor inflatable jumper place) with grammy and t-paw. jump n jive is one of her favorite places to visit (along with the playspace in our local shopping mall and the big bookstore).
evyn has been playing video games with daddy. the current favorite is oblivion. i just asked her what she does in the game oblivion (since i'm clueless). her answer: she dresses her character, gets food and eats it, explores houses and buildings, rides horses, etc. cool!
besides all that... evyn has been playing. and playing. and playing. coloring, drawing, cutting, painting, dollhouses, tying, sewing, sculpting with clay, designing houses and diagrams, cooking in her kitchen, selling things in her store, imagining battles, playing with dolls and puppets and stuffed animals, with only hearts club dolls, driving cars and trains... her imagination is fantastically active!

my apologies

2007-05-07T09:47:00.000-05:00

i haven't blogged in quite some time. my laptop is wonky (i so love the word "wonky"). i have to hold the screen at a certain angle to read anything - otherwise, all i get is vertical lines. and i mean hold - twist, turn, torque - at just the right angle. we got back from a lovely trip to texas last week (i'll post all about that soon). upon returning home, i discovered that i couldn't access my blogger account. obviously, i figured that out! i'll be back (possibly this afternoon) to post pictures and details from our trip.

urgent note to my parents

2007-03-26T13:21:00.000-05:00

we received a shipment of new playsilks and books a few days ago. included were the following: someone i like, my daddy is a pretzel, celtic memories, first morning and the wild swans. someone i like is a book of poems about people. here's one i really enjoy:

urgent note to my parents
by hiawyn oram

don't ask me to do what i can't do
only ask me to do what i can
don't ask me to be what i can't be
only ask me to be what i am

don't one minute say "be a big girl"
and the next "you're too little for that"
PLEASE don't ask me to be where i can't be
PLEASE be happy with right where i'm at

inspiration from little einstein

2007-03-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

if you've watched the little einstein videos, you might know the song "we lost our baton" set to the tune of the morning mood suite from edvard grieg's peer gynt. i'm sitting in our den, playing on the computer (specifically, ordering natural insect repellent) while evyn is outside, dancing and singing to the same tune:

i lo-ove my plants, yes i lo-ove my plants, oh i lo-ove, i lo-ve, i lo-ve my plants

the plants she's referring to are the wonderful knee-high weeds in our backyard. yes, our backyard looks like an abandoned lot (we like to think of it as a meadow). in addition to the plants, she lo-oves the world, the sky, the tall trees, herself, her family, everything, outer space and the neighbors. oh, and her future hamster. i lo-ove listening to my little girl sing about being so in love with the world. i'm all warm and fuzzy :)

i hear with my little ear...

2007-03-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

"you hit me in my boob."
"i have little boobs." (very matter-of-fact)
"ouch! ow! owwwwwwww!"
"that's the last straw."
"we're captured."
"run! ruuuuuuuuuuuuun!"
"jump over it."
"we better hurry...."
"hide, evy, hide."
"elroy, no!" (okay, not his real name, but you get the idea.)
"you're mean!"
"stop laughing!"
"you make me mad!"
"stop that. now!"
"noooooooooooooooo!"

cue joni mitchell... three children dissolve into absolute peace and quiet. lol.

ah... green!

2007-03-19T07:54:00.000-05:00

everything is turning that wonderful spring green color. the grass is growing taller. there are tiny flowers everywhere. our pin oak tree is sprouting new leaves. the dogwoods and azaleas are in full bloom. birds are chirping. spring is definitely here! we'll be celebrating ostara this wednesday through the weekend. i bought the sweetest little springtime gifts for evyn's ostara basket from etsy. ah... it feels wonderful!

evyn's got a circus thing going on. we rented cirque du soleil: quidam from netflix. it was a big hit with all three of us. the acrobatics are just astounding! evyn was so impressed... and determined to "work super-hard at gymnastics" so she can join the circus someday. she painted her face every day for a week (and painted our clown mama and clown daddy faces, too). we've got a new show in from netflix - the journey of man - but haven't watched it yet. she'll be so excited this weekend when we go to a live circus show (i'll blog about that next week).

another new thing around here: family ties. the first season was finally released on dvd. evyn loves it - just like she loved the facts of life. it's so nice to be able to share all these tv shows that i enjoyed as a kid with my kid. we've got 3 other new movies (that are, of course, in heavy rotation): flushed away, robin hood (one of nathan's all-time favorite animated movies) & peter pan.

evyn and nathan had another daddies, daughters & doughnuts day at our local children's museum. they decorated kites and tried to fly them (there wasn't quite enough wind to fly them really well). they played in the museum with another dad and daughter. afterwards, they went for pretzels and lemonade at the mall.

evyn visited the optometrist for the first time last week. nathan and i both wear glasses. as do my parents. and nathan's parents. and nathan's siblings. and all our grandparents. and most of our aunts and uncles. so... we decided evyn might need to be checked out periodically during childhood. she was thrilled! she loves to visit doctors and dentists and such. wacky kid - i know! well, not so much. it is all new and interesting to her. she asks so many questions. she wants to know what each piece of equipment does and how it works. the optometrist was very patient and answered each of evyn's questions honestly and respectfully (i hate it when people try to talk down to kids or dumb-down their answers).

and the last thing i want to blog about (for now): seussical the musical. a local private school had three performances this past weekend. the show started off slow... and i worried that maybe we hadn't been so lucky to snag our three last-minute, cancelled orchestra tickets. but by the 4th or 5th song, my worries evaporated. the show was fantastic! the songs are catchy - i'm thinking of ordering the cd. evyn's been singing and dancing around the house since we saw seussical (which is nothing new - now she just has a little additional inspiration).

moments

2007-03-04T23:19:00.000-06:00

we had a lovely weekend! nothing astounding happened, but it was lovely nonetheless. it was one of those weekends filled with sweet moments - nothing earth shattering but wonderful all the same. we all woke up together yesterday and today. we lounged in bed, tickling one another and blowing stinky morning breath kisses. we hugged and cuddled and snuggled under the covers.

yesterday, we watched for a few minutes as hundreds of crows (at least we think they were crows) pecked around in our backyard. then we watched as they all flew away, startled by some unknown sound or movement. evyn and i tried to take pictures of some in flight.

yesterday was a special day for evyn. she got her first real bike, chosen a couple of weeks ago and purchased by her grammy and t-paw. here's a photo of evyn in front of a mirror, checking out her new helmet. (she really does like the helmet - even though her expression at the exact moment of the picture suggests otherwise.)

(that's my bathroom at my parents' house.
you gotta love that 70's floral wallpaper and that "antique brass" doorknob.)

zoo day

2007-03-01T13:27:00.000-06:00

we had the most fantastic day yesterday! nathan worked in the morning, but he cleared his afternoon schedule for a trip to the zoo. we were practically alone! there were a few other families there, most with very young children. more seemed to be arriving as the day grew later. we said hello to all our favorite animals. i got a little bummed over the caged animals (there's an older section with very small cages - it's just so sad). evyn led our way using her map (very reminiscent of this picture, taken a little over 2 years ago).

we rode the train. and we left with a new stuffed puppy (now named callie). afterwards, we headed to the mall for a quick bite to eat, home to get dressed and then to dance class (nathan and i visited the bookstore during evyn's dance class). at home, we played and watched movies and ate supper and cleaned up the den. i am loving this new home life!

the teddy roosevelt connection

2007-02-26T15:24:00.000-06:00

i'm babysitting right now and haven't a whole lot of time to devote to this post. but something interesting happened a few days ago, and i just felt the need to put it in writing before i forget. the three of us went to see night at the museum about a week ago. nathan and i had already seen it and knew evyn would love it. she did! a few days ago, while reading zara's hats, evyn recognized teddy roosevelt. we talked a little about the story behind zara's hats and about teddy and edith roosevelt (i didn't even know that teddy roosevelt's second wife was named edith). evyn noticed that in the illustration, edith roosevelt was wearing a hat with a teddy bear on top. we talked a little about the story behind the naming of the "teddy bear." From there, we've talked about other people/animals/things evyn saw in the movie: the huns, mummies, lewis & clark, sacagawea, dinosaurs (and how it would have been nice if dinosaurs really played fetch), african mammals, cavemen, etc. I cannot wait to get this movie on dvd. It's a fantastic jumping off point for zillions of discussions (oh, and it's really fun and entertaining).

spring has sprung!

2007-02-21T09:46:00.000-06:00

it is a glorious 64 degrees outside my back door. i can hear birds chirping and singing. there are thousands of tiny yellow and white flowers in our backyard. it feels amazing. (and to our northern friends - i'm sorry. and i'm not gloating. i'm just so very excited.) ostara is on its way. i cannot wait to start spring crafts and decorating. i also cannot wait to start spring cleaning (no one who knows me will believe that last bit, but it's true - i want all the clutter out of the house).

valentine's day is over. evyn and i made adorable valentines for her dance class and a few family members. mardi gras is over. we had a fantastic time at the local children's parade last saturday. our good friends - the jetsons - were there with us. the weather was a bit chilly and windy. evyn's been sick for a couple of days, but she seems to be doing much better.

no, i have not found my usb cable. and my threat to buy another was, well... an empty threat. luckily, i can count on my dad to take plenty o' pictures. so here are some from nathan's jumping-ship, pirate-themed, semi-retirement (or at least now working for himself, from home) party:

the guest of honor (looking particularly insane)

my other little pirate (with her 2 best buddies, judy & elroy jetson, behind her)

the castle that nathan played with as a child (and still plays with).
it's under siege by playmobil pirates.

the jet-black skull & crossbones cake.
everyone had pirate-y black teeth after the cake was served.

the party was held at nathan's parents' house. i think everyone had a great time. i know we had a blast! and we're having even more fun now that he's home almost all the time (aside from client meetings and such). we've been playing and goofing off and running around town together. we went to a movie yesterday - in the middle of a weekday! life is good.

waiting... searching...

2007-02-16T07:52:00.000-06:00

i've been putting off posting until i find my usb cable for my camera. i really want to post pictures! alas, i've not yet found it. but this weekend i will. or i'll buy another one.

oh, gotta go. kids are here. time to babysit...

pregnancy, pirates & steve martin

2007-02-06T13:49:00.000-06:00

i took a reeaaaally long posting break. there was just so much going on around here, with my dad's retirement and nathan finally deciding (and having enough clients and projects) to leave his soul-sucking job. i keep thinking of all the great things i should've been blogging over the last couple of weeks.

there's music - singing and dancing of all sorts happening. we watched grease: you're the one that i want which led to evyn asking to watch the movie grease. that led to conversations about high school, jocks vs. geeks, and other things. we've watched singing in the rain several times (evyn's tap song for this year's dance revue is singing in the rain). evyn watched the king and i - the first time she's watched the entire movie. when she was younger, it was too scary (according to her). she was very much interested in the costumes and style of dance in the movie. we googled "thai dance" and found a couple of cool websites (including this one: www.banramthai.com).

and there's pregnancy. evyn is very interested in how embryos and fetuses develop. she's also interested in the process of birth. she's spent long hours looking through my old nursing textbooks while watching the magic school bus: human body. she and judy jetson have been "birthing" stuffed animals. they've always enjoyed pretending to be pregnant (with stuffed animals wrapped in playsilks tucked under their shirts). but now they've gotten into the messy business of birthing their babies. the inner playsilk must be red ("because sometimes babies are bloody, mom") and the babies are often delivered via cesarean section (by "slicing open the belly" with a pretend knife). i've explained that most babies are born without their mothers being "sliced open" - but evyn prefers to birth her babies in the same manner as she was born.

then there's scrabble. we spent almost an entire day playing with scrabble tiles. evyn filled sections of the board with tiles and then asked me how to pronounce the words she'd created. luckily, she's kind enough to throw lots of vowels in with the consonants to make pronunciation a bit easier. (a year ago, she'd have strung 15 consonants together and watched me spit all over the both of us trying to pronounce the words.)

next, ice skating. evyn's always enjoyed watching ice skating on tv. about a year ago, she really enjoyed watching the skaters at an ice rink in houston. last weekend (i think it was last weekend?), there was a skating competition on tv. evyn and i watched. evyn also experimented with "ice skating" around the wood floor alternately on board books and playsilks. she asked lots of questions about the judges and scoring (which i answered to the best of my ability).

oh! let's not forget steve martin. evyn has some sort of curious penchant for steve martin movies. over the last couple of weeks, the following movies have been in heavy rotation: father of the bride, father of the bride part 2 (which ties into the whole pregnancy fascination), cheaper by the dozen and cheaper by the dozen 2 (another link in the pregnancy chain). she's also a big fan of parenthood (yet another movie to tie in with our pregnancy theme) and three amigos.

and one last thing - pirates! we watched finding neverland a week or so ago. i think that triggered evyn's (forgotten) pirate fascination. there was a period of pirate-love a year or so ago that has returned. so much so, in fact, that nathan's "retirement" party is being planned (by evyn) with a pirate theme. we've got lots of ideas - watching pirates of the caribbean and goonies (and maybe the princess bride), black balloons, yummy food and a playmobil pirate ship (that nathan played with as a child). oh and a paper pennant streamer! so much to do...

weigh anchor! hoist the mizzen!

weed

2007-02-05T17:04:00.000-06:00

sweet pea is growing like one. (oh, you thought i was referring to something else? naughty!) evyn's grown over half an inch in the last month (and almost another inch in the 4 months or so preceding that). she's been eating like a horse.

we've been playing and cleaning and reading and cooking and crafting and such. i have pictures to post but need to find my usb cable first. we've been attending dance and gymnastics classes (and finally got to observe a hip hop class). we've been planning for our trip in september (to the live and learn conference and to northern georgia and western north carolina). i've spent hours upon hours looking up things to do in that area. i've been coveting items on etsy and reading crafty blogs. evyn has been immersed deeply in her world of make-believe. our favorite pottery painting studio closed its doors. our favorite coffee shop has been closed for almost a week because the owner's mother passed away rather suddenly. my dad retired from a job he's had for 31 years. there was a big party. nathan is finally leaving his job to focus on his own business. there will be another big party (this one pirate themed). we're finally about to live our dream - living and working and playing together all day, every day! it's all very exciting (and hectic). i'll post later this week, hopefully with pictures.

have a wonderful week!

thumb wars, etc.

2007-01-18T12:33:00.000-06:00

so much new and interesting stuff has been happening around here. nathan's been getting a fair bit of web design work. people seem to really like his web-based portfolio. i've been pretty much focused on getting healthy again. i'm trying to take care of myself better - eating well, taking time for long baths and hot tea, incorporating immune-building herbs into my daily routine, etc. okay, so those things aren't so interesting. it's evyn who's doing all the cool stuff:

thumb wars - she just learned a couple of weeks ago how to play thumb wars. and she totally kicks butt!
fingerprinting - evyn scribbles with a pencil on a piece of cardboard, rubs her finger over the scribbles and then uses a piece of clear tape to capture her fingerprint.
woodkins - we discovered the wonder of woodkins over the holidays. grandma (nathan's mom) cut extra scraps of fabric for evyn to play with. yesterday, evyn and judy jetson (my best friend's daughter) played for hours with the woodkins dolls.
ballet - evyn has missed a few dance classes, what with holidays and sick days. but she's back in action! in the meantime, we watched the dvd from her nutcracker performances in november. we also rented the paris opera ballet's version of romeo & juliet filmed at opera bastille. it's fantastic! we (all three of us) thoroughly enjoyed the production.
hip hop - this is evyn's newest dance fascination. she likes the music and the movement. she's a big fan of the gap commercial featuring common. she likes to "shake her bootie" to the music. nathan and evyn have spent some time on you tube watching other gap commercials and tap routines by bill "bojangles" robinson, gregory hines, savion glover, etc. evyn's been invited to watch a hip hop class at her dance studio. the hip hop classes start around age 10 - she's excited to watch a "big girl" class.
jimmy buffett - evyn and i have been listening to my older jimmy buffett cds. i have no idea why i start re-listening to all my old jimmy buffett stuff after the holidays - it happens every year. maybe i'm wishing for warmth?
daddy dates - evyn and nathan had another daddy date at our local children's museum. they played a father-daughter version of the newlywed game with the other dads and daughters. they won the game! woohoo! i'd like to say it's because they know each other so well (since they do), but i think it also had something to do with evyn's las vegas-style dice rolling. i think she rolled a six every time. they hung out at the museum afterwards. i believe they spent most of their time doing scavenger hunts in the train room (finding certain things among all the miniature people and buildings and trains and trees and such).
the symphony, dahling - evyn went with my parents to a piano and violin concert at our local performing arts center. she slept through most of the first half but woke up after imtermission. she seemed to enjoy the music and the time spent with grammy and t-paw.
music - evyn's spent plenty of time playing her toy piano and with a basket of smaller instruments. oh, and her baritone ukulele. (as i type, she's watching a reading rainbow episode about the symphony while playing her toy piano. oh - now they've got stomp on there. cool!)
trip planning - the trip planning continues. we've gotten brochures from colorado, north carolina, tennessee & georgia. while evyn wants to visit colorado in the next couple of years, she'll settle for a trip to the live and learn conference in september. we're pouring over brochures, maps and websites trying to figure out where and what else to visit while we're in the smoky mountain area.
neopets - i played neopets for an entire day (well, almost an entire day) to get enough points for evyn's much-desired baby paint brush. evyn is now the proud parent of a baby peophin. read my last post to find out how much fun evyn's been having at the rainbow pool.
happy feet - we went to see happy feet - great music, great dancing! evyn got a stuffed mumble - she takes him everywhere and sleeps next to him every night.
gifts - of course, evyn's been playing with all her holiday loot. it was a relatively tame year for gifts, but we still managed to get quite a bit of stuff. here are some of the favorites: sequoia tree play set, elephantastic game, the nutcracker ballet theater, spiral drawing, magnetic play theater, origami book and papers, new markers, in the country game, and a few other art/craft type things. she also got a few great books: fairy tales, ms. frizzles adventures: imperial china, heather has two mommies, we're riding on a caravan, one odd old owl, classic tales of brer rabbit (we have the 3 folkmanis brer puppets to act out the stories!), the snow bear, the wild christmas reindeer, welcome to the world...
battlefield 1942 - evyn loves to navigate the game battlefield 1942. she doesn't actually play the game - she enjoys just driving/walking around and figuring out where things are. nathan's a happy camper that his daughter is a game-girl now. (until he figures out that evyn's taken over his computer with no immediate plans to give it back.)
for others - evyn and i worked on a birthday present for someone we admire online (i read the mama's blog and evyn likes to look at the pictures of the children). we're not naming names until the present is received. we gathered together a few special items and talked about how to package them. we made pencil rubbings of a few of the items - that was fun! i painted the container and packed up the box. it's now safely on its way to maine.
and besides all that... we're well after much sickness. we're feeling good. it's cold here (finally!). evyn's been doing a lot of role-playing, singing, dancing, acting, etc. in short, we've been having a grand ol' time.

word cloud

2007-01-15T09:43:00.000-06:00

we're on the mend! evyn and i are both feeling much better. nathan didn't really get as sick as we did, but he seems better, too. i should be back up to full blog posting speed within the week. (the house needs a thorough cleaning first - and of course that did not take precedence yesterday. playing neopets like a maniac in order to buy evyn her much-desired baby paintbrush was way more important! come on - have you seen a baby peophin? too cute!) in the meantime, here's a word cloud for you (created at snapshirts.com):

edited to add: evyn's current fascination on neopets is going to the rainbow pool and "coloring" all the different pets. i watched her today as she clicked on the various words to color the different pets. i wasn't testing her, so i'm not sure what other words she recognizes, but she does know these: baby, blue, cloud, faerie, fire, rainbow, red, skunk, white & yellow. cool!

happy new year!

2007-01-03T11:19:00.000-06:00

we're still here. we're just sick. again. this is our third round of upper respiratory infections in the last 5 weeks or so. the plan for this round: take lots of time to get completely well before resuming any of our post-holiday "regular" schedule. so, no dance or gymnastics practice, no running errands unless absolutely necessary, no playing with other kiddos. we're trying to focus on good nutrition (low-sugar, lots of fruits & veggies, lots of warming soups and teas), immune-building herbs and foods (echinacea, elder flower, red clover, garlic & onions), and lots of rest and relaxation (which includes naps any time we feel the need, warm/hot baths, steam therapy & warm compresses). our new year resolution: to get healthy & rebuild our immune systems. happy new year!

just for fun, here's a picture of evyn playing in the snow a few weeks ago. no, it doesn't snow in louisiana (at least not often). this was snow that a local church had specially made for the kids (and adults).

daddies & gingerbread

2006-12-21T07:48:00.000-06:00

i guess all i needed to fix my wireless connection was to blog about it. presto! i'm back in business.

a couple of weeks ago, nathan & evyn attended a special "daddies and daughters" class at our local children's museum. the mission was to make the most wonderful gingerbread house ever. the staff already had the pieces baked and assembled. nathan & evyn were responsible for decorating the house. here's our spectacular (and now slowly melting) gingerbread house:

that blue paper towel covered with powdered sugar is either a boulder or a bush - i can't remember. and the popcorn garland hanging on the playstand is waiting to be strung on the tree.

it'll be a couple of days...

2006-12-20T20:08:00.000-06:00

...before i'm back. the wireless connection on my laptop is on the fritz. i really don't like using nathan's computer - because i have to go to the opposite end of the house from evyn and all our fun, crafty stuff we've been doing and because i have to boot nathan off to use this computer. i've been taking pictures of the cards and snowflakes and gingerbread house and... you get the idea. i'll be back to blogging when my laptop is fixed (hopefully by friday or saturday).

happy solstice! merry yule!

new words

2006-12-16T10:51:00.000-06:00

a few days ago, the three of us (mom, dad & kiddo) were in the car. to avoid parade traffic, we took a route we normally don't. we passed by the old masonic children's home (which is now the grand lodge). it's a lovely little campus with several beautiful buildings. a few of the buildings have fallen into a state of disrepair. as we drove by, i noticed one shabby looking area and mentioned how sad it was that the old buildings weren't better cared for. "look, the windows are broken and the covering over that walkway is buckling under the weight of all the stuff that's fallen on it." the response from evyn after a few seconds of thought: "mama, i love it when you use new words... buckling - i like that word." she'd never heard the word "buckling" used for anything besides shoes and belts and such. i was so proud of myself for using a "new" word!

i am...

2006-12-15T08:35:00.000-06:00

...the worst mother. ever.

i just fed my child olives and feta cheese (with a side of chocolate soy milk) for breakfast. in my defense: 1) it's what she wanted 2) i'm sick (snot relapse) 3) i'm tired (b/c i couldn't sleep last night due to snot relapse).

o, goddess of health, please let me go back to sleep and wake refreshed enough to finish making our holiday cards. and goddess of parenting, please help me to be the mother my daughter thinks i am (namely one who will think of something more creative than just olives and feta cheese for lunch).

picture pages

2006-12-11T22:56:00.000-06:00

i finally got some decent pictures of evyn's latest endeavors. my dad took these pictures (from the audience, without a flash - at least on the nutcracker ones). he takes wonderful pictures. there are some of the nutcracker performance and the senior company dancers in the parades that are just beautiful! (of course, i'm a bit uncomfortable posting those b/c they're not of my kid.)

evyn (in the center) as a mouse.
(the picture is grainy b/c the light was so low for the mouse scenes.)

evyn (again in the center) as a bon bon,
just before running back under mother ginger's skirt

baby, it's cold outside!
evyn marching in her first parade. it was in the lower 30's that night!

thankfully, it was warmer sunday for evyn's second parade.
i think it was in the upper 60's.

shiny & happy

2006-12-08T23:20:00.000-06:00

the first of our two holiday parades was tonight. it was very cold (lower 30's), but everything went well. we dropped evyn off at the designated spot, then met my parents and found a place to stand. by the time evyn's group reached us, she was very cold and tired. a sweet dad (turned out to be someone i knew from high school) carried her the last few minutes of the parade. she was so happy to get in the nice, warm car. we drove to the coffee shop to get drinks and then headed straight home. i was worried that maybe it was too long of a parade or maybe too cold for evyn. but while we waited for nathan to come out of the coffee shop, she assured me that "it was great! really, really great!"

i wish i had photographic proof of tonight's fun, but i didn't take a single picture. i'll have to wait to see what great shots my dad got.

sadness

2006-12-06T23:15:00.000-06:00

i'm feeling a bit better now and thought maybe i'd post something tonight. but i'm just too sad. i've been following (along with lots of other mama bloggers out there) the story of the kim family over the last few days. here's the comment i left on amanda's blog:

I find myself so affected by a family I don't even know - not even through online groups or message boards or anything. Sometimes I feel like all this technology separates us in ways I'm not quite comfortable with... and then something like this happens. People from all over the globe are brought together to share in great happiness (when Kati & the girls were found) and now in great tragedy.

My heart aches for this mama and her 2 little angels. And, in a way, I'm angry that I can't to anything to ease their pain. I've felt so useless all day long... I guess the best thing I can do is hug my husband and my daughter tight and let them know how much they mean to me. I never want them to question that.

it's the most wonderful...

2006-12-04T09:56:00.000-06:00

...time of the year. and, for me, my most un-wonderful time of this year. i still feel really awful - thus no post last night. but i can see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

yesterday was evyn's final parade practice before the two parades this weekend. we used an old (like pre-1995) video camera to tape part of the practice. i used that camera to tape evyn when she was a baby, but we haven't used it since then. this was the first time she got to use it herself. and use it, she did! now she's got a video fascination in addition to the already existent photography fascination. when we have the money, i think we need to invest in a digital camcorder. grammy and t-paw sweetly offered to take evyn to their house after parade practice so i could get some rest and clean up a bit. while there, she helped them decorate their tree. it's a completely different experience from decorating our tree. grammy and t-paw use colored lights and lots of ornaments collected over the years. we use white lights and all-natural decorations (popcorn garlands, pine cones, dried orange slices hung in front of lights, etc.). i'm running a little late on decorations this year, so here's a picture of last year's yule altar just for fun:

blah humbug

2006-12-02T23:19:00.000-06:00

blah humbug! that's how i feel. blah. yucky. snotty. icky. i'm still sick. (or sick again - i'm not sure which.) so... i spent most of the day in bed. evyn played by herself or with nathan. she also spent a lot of time in the bed with me. we watched several interesting things on tv:
it's a wonderful life (evyn's 1st time)
animusic 2 on pbs
celtic woman (also on pbs)
rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
white christmas

evyn and i coughed, snotted and sneezed a lot. we ate soup and drank hot tea. end of story.

the advent stockings

2006-12-01T23:02:00.000-06:00

hopefully this'll be short & sweet. i'm dog tired and my very sore throat is back with a vengeance. my warm and cozy bed is calling me...

today was another slow-ish day. evyn's still sniffly and has a bit of a cough. i thought i was much better this morning, but went on a slow, downward spiral throughout the course of the day. we talked a lot about traveling and vacations. last night i requested brochures from several towns in colorado. i had an email this morning regarding one request. they're sending us brochures, but in the meantime, we can look at this. evyn and i read through the whole thing this morning (okay, we mostly checked out the pictures). we talked about things that looked cool to her (rafting, horseback riding, trains, snow and denver - b/c it has interesting museums). we also talked about other places she'd like to visit - the renaissance festival that we drive to every spring, the houston museum of natural science (b/c they have a live frog exhibit opening in a couple of months), and the live and learn conference next september (where we can also visit her auntie and uncle and go see the biltmore estate).

i spent about an hour and a half (while evyn played and watched pbs kids) looking up charities on my laptop. nathan and i have a holiday tradition of not buying gifts (and asking not to receive gifts). instead, we donate to charities in honor of our loved ones and ask that they do the same in return. great ideas have just fallen into our laps in years past (last year was hurricane katrina relief and new orleans charities). if you have any suggestions for great places to donate, leave me a comment.

evyn and i spent the latter part of the day (and into the early evening hours) working on our advent stocking garland (inspired by soulemama). we made ours from paper, glue, staples, ribbon, brads, paint & stickers. i think they turned out great (especially coming from the hands of my oh-so-non-crafty self). i would only change 2 things: 1. i'd use ribbons to tie them up instead of ornament hooks (which i might actually do when i'm not so frazzling tired) & 2. i'd buy a thicker cord to hang them on (in my defense, michael's was seriously lacking in the cord department). evyn opened her first surprise - a beaded ring - shortly after we hung them up. here are the pictures (pardon the terrible lighting):

nablopomo is over...

2006-11-30T21:50:00.000-06:00

... and it's been a lot of fun. i've "met" some interesting people who blog about various things (kids, crafts, politics, religion, music, art, etc.) i'll post a list of new favorite blogs sometime in the near future. but for now, i'm going to try to keep up the daily blogging - at least for a while. i always find it interesting to read about unschoolers' daily lives. so i've decided to do a little "week-in-the-life" project. starting tonight, i'll post each day for a week. maybe it'll be totally boring. or maybe we'll get abducted by aliens or something equally interesting. you'll just have to tune in to find out. without further ado...

we got a bit of a slow start today. evyn and i are both still sick. nathan was at work most of the day (according to him, it was boring but not bad). evyn and i started our day by playing dora the explorer chutes and ladders, eating breakfast & watching pbs kids (until our cable went out - we switched to an overdue dora video from the library). ev figured out that when you add your spinner number to the number of the square you're on, you end up with the number of the square you should move to. yeah, i know - basic addition. but it's cool to see those little light bulb moments.

i washed, dried & folded lots of laundry today. i also picked through our clothes and found several things to donate to goodwill. evyn played with the dora game pieces for a while. then she styled her own hair in front of the medicine cabinet mirror. i wish i'd taken a picture of her crazy hair with all those barettes in it. we had a snack of chips and salsa and orange juice. evyn helped me call fedex to attempt retrieval of the package being held hostage by our neighbors. i spent a couple of hours on the computer (reading email and of course blogs, checking myspace & looking up local events over the next couple of weeks). evyn played in her kitchen - the one gramps made for her. here's a picture taken a few years back:

we watched the ups man walk past the den windows. we checked for a package, but found nothing. a bit later, evyn & i decided to check inside the carport. our fake tree arrived! when we came back inside the house, evyn found one of suki's claws on the den floor. she told me how cats lose their claws (which developed into a story about birds molting). we talked about evyn's gymnastics and jazz classes today and decided to skip gymnastics (she's still coughing and a bit snotty). evyn watched a bit more pbs kids and played with her geodes and mummy while i talked to a friend on the phone and finished up more laundry.

evyn pretended to be a mouse for a while - there was a battle and treasure hunt involved (flashbacks from the nutcracker?). after being mortally wounded, the mouse decided to play with her baritone ukulele for a bit. it desperately needs to be tuned. rain started falling and wind gusts began to blow. we watched the leaves fly off the trees and the raindrops splatter against the den windows. we checked the weather channel online for this afternoon's forecast. it got up to almost 80 degrees yesterday. tonight it will get down to the lower 20s. wow, what a change! we talked a little bit about weather patterns and watched the radar maps on the computer.

we got ready for jazz class and rushed over to the studio. i met nathan for coffee while evyn was in class. when i picked her up, we decided to go to michael's for holiday project supplies. we're now back home. we ate nachos for supper and set up our new artificial tree (pre-lit, woo-hoo!). evyn seems to have fallen asleep while waiting for me to post this blog entry. i'll scoop her up and into bed, brush her teeth & probably read a story or two. goodnight all.

edited to add: i completely forgot about our discussion regarding colorado. on the way home from michael's, we talked about cold weather and snow. this led to a conversation about louisiana's almost total lack of snow (ever!) and how much it snows in places like colorado. evyn wanted to know where colorado is and why it snows there. i tried to explain where colorado is located and promised to show her on a map and our globe (yes the vintage one with the USSR on it). i also told her that colorado is where nathan and i got married 7 years ago. here's the proof (grainy scans of photographs from our pre-digital days):

hugging outside the courthouse

on the staircase of the restaurant where we had our wedding breakfast
(because, yes, we got married at 8 o'clock in the freaking morning)
back row: my in-laws, my dad, my mom & nathan
front row: my ex-sis-in-law, brother-in-law, me & sis-in-law

snowmobiling with our families after getting married
(i love this picture because we look like the bad guys in a 007 movie from the 70s
- check out those helmets)

a view of the continental divide from our snowmobile trip

after hearing how cool colorado is, evyn decided she definitely wants to visit. she asked how long it would take to drive there vs. flying. she asked if the snow is always there, or if it's mostly in the winter. i answered her and also told her i could email the department of tourism for brochures and information. that led to a discussion about what tourism is and how people plan trips to interesting places. after all this discussing (cars are the best places for talking, yes?), evyn asked where we were headed. i told her we were headed home. "but, mom... i thought you were gonna take me to colorado!"

music

2006-11-29T20:32:00.000-06:00

nathan and i aren't particularly musically inclined. well, nathan is more so than i - he can play the piano a little and (i think) read a bit of music. i cannot play any instruments - also can't read music. and, i don't really have any desire to. don't get me wrong - i definitely enjoy and appreciate music. and i have a great sense of rhythm. but that's about it.

from an early age, evyn's shown a definite interest in music. over the years, we've purchased plenty of quality instruments for her to "play" with. we try to involve her with lots of musical activities - hearing bands play, going to musicals and concerts, watching dance performances... she's also enrolled in dance classes. one problem (at least from my perspective): i think she'd enjoy more of an opportunity to spend time with musicians. there's a cool guitarist/singer/probably player of other instruments unknown to me who works at our local coffee shop. evyn has watched/heard him play with his band and has a great relationship with him. we're planning to get him to help us tune evyn's baritone ukulele sometime soon. i'm trying to figure out other ways to give her a chance to play music without actually taking lessons. most of the teachers i know are very strict - i need to find someone who would be willing to just let loose and have fun with her. we do have a local kindermusik class for 5-7 year olds - it's supposed to be completely non-pressure fun. maybe we should check out a class to see if evyn's interested? from the online description, it seems very structured and a little "schoolish," but it couldn't hurt to watch a class. anyone have any ideas and/or advice?

sick bed toys

2006-11-28T17:35:00.000-06:00

i've been in bed almost all day. evyn's been here beside me - but playing, not sleeping. i thought it would be cool to list all the toys i find in bed with me now (and ones right at the foot of the bed) to give some insight as to what she's been doing while i've been sick. (in addition, pbs kids was on the small tv in our room almost all day.)

color-coded handbells
the handbell case
handbell cards
wooden mama cow and calf
a string of fake pearls
a butt-ugly scrunchy (like this but hot pink)
a water globe (purchased at one of evyn's nutcracker performances)
an old globe (mine from the mid-80s - with the USSR on it!)
a basket of musical instruments (drum, tambourine, harmonica, various clackers, rainstick, cymbals, xylophone, etc.)
2 books: winter waits and tell me something happy before i go to slee p
a small glass bowl holding tiny turquoise stones
a couple of gift bags
an ornament given to her by one of her nutcracker friends
an elephant humidifier (which has provided evyn with both "steam" and "mist" today - something to do with dragons and castles and such)
and an old detangler bottle now filled with water

blogging from bed

2006-11-28T13:47:00.000-06:00

i hate being sick! i'm a big baby, and i know it. there was a time in my life (in my school years) when i welcomed being sick. it gave me a much needed break from the world and an excuse to cuddle up in bed to watch old movies. since being pregnant and dealing with 3 months of constant morning sickness (and i mean constant - if i was awake, i was puking my guts up), i can't stand to be ill. i've got things to do, people to take care of... this sucks. it's our 2nd round of crud in the last week. and i'm ready for it to be over! i can't even speak at this point. i'm contemplating removing the section of my throat between my ears and my shoulders. (and i'm a little pissed that we won't be able to go to the tree-lighting ceremony being held downtown tonight.)

now that i've gotten that out of my system... i've really been enjoying NaBloPoMo. i haven't read through even a third of the participating blogs yet, but maybe the list will stay up long enough for me to finish by the end of the year. at some point, i'll post a list of my faves on my other blog (because i try to keep this one limited to topics involving evyn and/or unschooling). i just thought of one (and only one) good reason to be sick. i'll have a chance over the next day or two to read through many more blogs. that's a tiny bit of silver lining.

big, fat fake

2006-11-27T22:31:00.000-06:00

i love the holidays. i love the decorations, the weather, the food, the music... i love it all. i never end up doing nearly as much crafty stuff as i want to, but it turns out wonderful anyway.

growing up, my family never had a real tree. well, until i was a teenager and demanded one. i think it all started with my grandma. when she and my grandfather built their house, she picked out beautiful white wool carpet for the living room. that year, the first and last live christmas tree graced that room. my mom remembers picking cedar needles from that carpet for years. the following christmas, my grandparents bought an aluminum tree and a light wheel.
by the time i was a child, the silver tree had been replaced by a more authentic-looking fake. but we still used the colorwheel to light it.

in our own home, we've had a holiday tradition of driving to a tree farm to find the perfect tree. we bring it home, make sure it's straight and decorate it with white lights, popcorn garland, dried fruit rings and hand-tied bows. unfortunately, our cat also decorates the tree. so this year we're breaking tradition and buying an artificial tree. and strangely, i'm not upset. i'm actually a little relieved. i won't have to keep the cat away from the tree. i won't have to worry about the kiddos i babysit playing with any prickly branches. i won't have to remember to water it several times a day. here's a picture of the tree we picked out. i think it's remarkably realistic (for a fake).

we've decided to send it back if we hate it (it's satisfaction guaranteed). and if we like it but feel the need for the real deal, we can have two trees next year - one "safe tree" for the den and a "real one" for the living room.

ahhh...

2006-11-26T22:11:00.000-06:00

i've got a little time to breathe. not much - we need to be back at the theater early in the morning for the last 2 performances of the nutcracker. nathan and i actually got to watch today's performance (versus helping behind the scenes yesterday). it was wonderful! i can't wait until evyn sees the dvd. the girls (sorry - and boys) had so much fun. evyn exchanged a few gifts with her closest pals. she brought a card (which she wrote herself) for the artistic director /choreographer /instructor. she gave a rose to the professional ballerina who danced the part of the sugar plum fairy. after a partial set strike (only part of the set is needed for tomorrow's school performances), we had a huge cast party. evyn is already planning for next year.

on a side note: evyn learned 2 new games this week - duck, duck, goose and telephone. she's never really played group games (other than board games or card games). the older girls completely took her under their wings. when evyn required explanation or clarification of the rules, they never belittled her or made fun of her in any way. i'm so glad we got to experience this with such a sweet group of girls (sorry - and boys).

the nutcracker

2006-11-25T23:48:00.000-06:00

it's finally upon us! weeks and weeks of practice have led up to this weekend. tonight was ev's first performance of the nutcracker. everything went very well. nathan and i were mouse parents (translation: it was our job to make sure that all the mice were dressed and made it backstage on time). i'll blog more about our nutcracker experience after tomorrow's performance. here are some pictures taken by evyn and her friends over the last few days:

evyn in the hallway between practices (photo taken by her newest best-bud)

freshly costumed and waiting to scurry onto stage

little bon bons waiting for their call

sometimes i question

2006-11-24T23:17:00.000-06:00

i believe in everything unschooling stands for. i know that my daughter is her own person and fully capable of deciding what is and what is not important to her. i know that if she's interested in something, she will want to know more and will work to find ways to learn more. i know that we're happier as a family because we unschool. i know that we're less sleep-deprived and less stressed than other families. i know that we have lots more time to pursue our own interests (evyn's current one being dance).

and knowing all this, i still question myself. i wonder if there's something i'm not doing right because evyn doesn't follow the herd. shouldn't my five year old be able to get in a single-file line and follow directions? will they laugh if she can't read? or if she doesn't know the rules to the latest board game? what happens when she asks who barbie is? (not kidding - this one's already happened.) i worry that we've made her abnormal and that she won't fit in.

then - right when i'm questioning myself so much that i start to rethink this life we've made - evyn amazes me. she coos sweetly to someone's baby sister while the rest of her group of kids runs wildly around the room. or she sympathizes with someone who's gotten hurt. she spontaneously reads a sentence. or starts multiplying in her head (she can't subtract, but she can multiply.) she takes direction from her dance instructor with the maturity of someone twice (or three times) her age. or she involves herself in a serious discussion with an adult - something most schoolchildren normally shy away from.

times like that make me incredibly proud to be evyn's mother. times like that make me trust that we've chosen the right path for us. times like that make me certain that my daughter doesn't fit in and that she is abnormal. and at times like that, it's 100 percent fine by me.

happy thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T10:38:00.000-06:00

happy thanksgiving, everyone!

i'm not sure exactly what this t-day holds for us (due to our recent tummy yuckies). evyn's feeling better and has stopped throwing up. she swears she's ready for our traditional thanksgiving festivities. we'll see how it all pans out. here's what an average thanksgiving looks like for us (warning: it's not all that traditional):

we start our day in bed watching the macy's thanksgiving day parade (which we're doing now) and eating a crazy-yummy breakfast like chocolate chip pancakes or something similar (which we're not doing now). then we move on to either the dog show or a good holiday movie. at that point we're still in pajamas and still eating yummy, though not traditional, food. sometimes we play board games and/or read books together.

then we move on to a trip to the movies to see whatever great holiday/ pre-holiday movie is out - or (if we're lucky) a double feature. and yes, we continue eating lots of yummy food (popcorn!). we're often still in our pajamas at this point (well, clean pajamas with brushed teeth, deoderant and combed hair). our pajamas are sweatpants/yoga pants and t-shirts, so we don't look completely out-of-place wearing them in public.

we then head home to watch whatever holiday offering is on tv (this year, white christmas) and play games and eat more (yes, more) yummy snacks. the only parts of traditional thanksgiving i miss are the nap (which we never seem to have time for) and the leftovers (b/c leftover snack foods are not really considered leftovers).

stomach flu, part deux

2006-11-22T18:22:00.000-06:00

i'm too busy taking care of a very sick little girl and feeling crappy myself to post much. please cross your fingers for us or send some virtual health vibes our way. evyn missed today's ballet dress run-through. we're hoping she'll be better for the full dress rehearsal on friday.

did you know that there's really no such thing as the stomach flu? true "flu" (influenza) is a respiratory infection. if you're interested in reading more (which i highly doubt, but i'll share anyway):

surprising facts about the stomach flu
what is stomach flu?
vomiting info from dr. sears

updated info

2006-11-21T19:01:00.000-06:00

i just added a wikipedia link and a youtube link to my post from november 14th.

minus the rainbow

2006-11-21T14:51:00.000-06:00

we've got a stomach bug.

'nuff said.

just enjoy them!

2006-11-20T22:01:00.000-06:00

so this post is basically a rant. sorry.

i'm tired of parents not enjoying their children. over the last several weeks, i've had the opportunity to watch plenty of parents interacting with their children - at dance and gymnastics practices, parade practices, halloween events, department stores, etc. i've also had the chance to listen to many of these same parents talk about their children. and i have a question. why does it seem like so many parents find so little joy in spending time with their kids? why have children and then not enjoy being with them?

i love being with my daughter. no, it's not a constant love-fest. yes, our ideas and opinions often clash. but i truly enjoy spending time with her. and i don't feel the need to chastise her in public. sure parenting is hard sometimes, but it's also incredibly rewarding. i want to look at these stressed-out, frazzled, and sometimes down-right angry parents and tell them to just breathe. close your eyes, take a step back & breathe. and then take a good look at your child(ren). they are wonderful human beings. they thrive on love and attention. they're not accessories that can be discarded on a whim. they're not innately rotten, and they're not stupid. they are your equals, not your puppets. you can learn as much (or more) from them as they can learn from you. you have a huge responsibility. treat them well. and take the time to enjoy them!

pins in my pants...

2006-11-19T21:14:00.000-06:00

...and glitter in my bra! it's not as kinky as it sounds. (darn it!)

i've been helping with set decorations for evyn's ballet performance. my latest project - ornaments for the giant christmas tree. i pinned approximately 1200 iridescent gold sequins to a bunch of styrofoam balls coated in glue and gold glitter. (told you it wasn't kinky.) the ornaments are years old but now look nice and fresh and sparkly. judge for yourself:

before

after

this process has left me with 2 very sore fingers and a house full of glitter. i've found glitter in the carpet, my hair, our bed - and yes, even my bra. I'll bet the cat has glitter in his fur. i stuck the straight pins in the wrinkles of my sweatpants to help speed up the process (hence the pins in my pants reference). poor nathan had to do all of the telephone answering, food-making and evyn-tending because i wouldn't stand up for fear of stabbing myself in the leg.

the last couple days of rehearsals have been a blast! it's like one big party. the girls get to see each other every day for practice and get to spend down time playing games and talking. evyn's planning to bring her camera with her tomorrow to take pictures of her friends. she's also planning to ask for telephone numbers of the girls she's closest friends with. she's a little sad that rehearsals will soon be over and nervous that she'll lose touch with her new friends.

erase your memory

2006-11-18T22:24:00.000-06:00

edited to add (for NaBloPoMo): the time on this post is when i started typing. i finished within 10-15 minutes and saved it as a draft. after checking my spelling and such, i tried to publish to blogger several times but couldn't. my laptop has a wireless connection. when i was trying to publish, my connection speed was 1.0 mbps. that's probably what the problem was. so i'm publishing now (in the wee hours of the morning on november 19th) from my draft. this knocks me out of contention for a prize, but that's not really why i'm participating. i'm happy that i've had a reason to force myself to post every day. i think it makes me a better blogger and more likely to post regularly after NaBloPoMo. now back to our original programming...

when evyn was little and did something she wished you hadn't seen, she'd say, "you didn't see that!" in a very commanding voice. (correction: she would say, "don't see that!" or "don't see me!") it was almost like she thought she could make her actions disappear by telling you they hadn't happened. now she's older and realizes she doesn't have that particular super power. so when she says something or does something she wishes you hadn't heard or seen, she'll instead say, "erase your memory!" she also uses that phrase if someone spills a secret that she wanted to tell.

a couple of nights ago, nathan came home from work as usual. at some point, something was said or done that required evyn to tell him to erase his memory. i don't know if it was her idea or a game he was playing, but he erased all his memory. he could remember how to walk and talk and such, but he couldn't remember who we all were. he couldn't remember where he was or the names of anything. he didn't know what anything was used for or why things happened (like why objects fall down thanks to gravity).

thankfully, evyn felt the need to help nathan adjust to his environment. she spent about an hour leading him around the house. she told him the names of various objects and what they did or were. she introduced him to me and suki (our cat). she showed him her favorite toys. i'm pretty sure she taught him how to do a few important things, like how to work the tv and turn on lights. i'm happy to say that nathan has adjusted fully to his new (at least to him) environment and is functioning well in his role as father, husband & website designer. (he sure relearned those computer skills quickly!)

a very special bear

2006-11-17T17:10:00.000-06:00

so... evyn and i were using skype to talk to nathan while he was at work. suddenly, the air around us became, shall we say, quite odoriferous. evyn wrinkled her nose, waved her hand in front of her face, and said, "daddy, something stinks. i think someone farted." when we realized that nathan had us on speakerphone (with his coworkers listening and laughing), we tried to blame the offense on polly the polar bear. evyn said, "ummm... i think it was polly. you know, polly's a very di-stink-tive bear." wink, wink.

uh, no, i'm not gonna out the real culprit. but you know what they say... she who smelt it dealt it. ;)

i blew a fuse

2006-11-16T23:44:00.000-06:00

we live in an old house. not incredibly old - 1940's old. the wiring's been updated, but some circuits still get overloaded easily. today i was running a space heater, charging a cell phone, making coffee and running my laptop on one circuit. i blew a fuse. actually, i tripped a circuit. of course evyn wanted to know what had happened and what i was doing to fix the problem. i answered her as best i could. then i remembered the plan! more specifically - the electrical plan that nathan's dad made for us when we bought the house.

evyn and i spent a good, long time looking at the plan (in her words - the map). we talked about the different circuits in the house. we talked about how electricity works and why circuits overload. we talked about the plan itself - how it shows us different rooms and features of our house. we talked about grandpa's job (because he's a drafter and created the electrical plan for us). then evyn took the map on a treasure hunt, using it to navigate her way around as if she'd never been here before. we got at least 2 hours of fun out of one circuit overload!

my conundrum

2006-11-15T22:35:00.000-06:00

a good friend and i were talking about how unschooling actually takes much more time and effort than people imagine it would. you have to have access to all sorts of resources. you must be willing to look things up, answer questions or find someone to answer the questions you can't answer. you need to provide an interesting and rich environment with plenty of opportunities for exploration. that last part - about providing an interesting and rich environment - is where my conundrum lies.

i like things. i like to save things that might have a future purpose. i like interesting and odd things. i like books and maps and dvds and old photographs. i like costumes and decorative things. i like posters and old t-shirts and funky lamps. i like old calendars and cds and strange musical instruments. i like sandra dodd's idea of a museum-like house.

what i don't like is the clutter. i don't like boxes stacked high and jumbles of papers and closets overflowing. i don't like messy kitchen drawers and toys on the floor and books piled on the couch. i don't like being unable to find something i need or want because there's too much other stuff in the way. i don't like having a house twice the size we need just to have storage space for all our stuff.

we're homebodies. we do plenty of things outside our house, but we really treasure the times we spend together in our home. so i feel like home needs to be an interesting place, strewn with all sorts of goodies. but when does "all sorts of goodies" become too much junk? how do i balance evyn's (and our) need for a rich environment with my need for less clutter and less time spent cleaning? sure, i could try to organize more efficiently. but that doesn't change the fact that our house is a much bigger one than we need. i love the idea of a smaller home, but it's just not practical without a major purge. hmmm... what to do, what to do?

free fun

2006-11-14T23:11:00.000-06:00

well, almost free fun. yesterday we made goo. goo consists of corn starch (approx. 8oz.), water (approx. 3/4 cup) and a little bit of food coloring. goo = hours of fun for mere pennies. i admit that i was skeptical. how can colored, watery corn starch be fun? well, my friends, it is! and it's as much fun for mom and dad as it is for evyn. goo is technically a fluid, but it's a very solid-y fluid. (that was super technical sounding, no?) anyway... goo is fun. now run and make some!

yeah, i know this picture is totally unremarkable. goo is nothing special to look at - it's the texture that's so groovy.

more info from wikipedia - i lifted this from someone else's blog
and a cool video about non-newtonian fluids

i'm really tired. did the post about goo give me away? i'm much too tired to come up with anything interesting to type. so, going with the theme of free fun, here are 5 websites just oozing with free fun:

where's george?
levitated
line rider
peturo
the scratchpad

rainy days and mondays...

2006-11-13T23:32:00.000-06:00

...always get me down. okay, not really. that was just a little carpenters-love. in our house, we love rainy days. especially cold and rainy days. those are perfect for snuggling and reading and old movies and popcorn and hot cocoa and puzzles and board games. and, since we have little to no drainage on our property, it's perfect weather for puddle-stomping. you can see by this picture that we never even bothered getting out of our pajamas.

the following picture isn't the best ever, but i had to post it (based on sheer ham-quality):

and just for fun, i'll share the carpenters-love: rainy days and mondays

it's all about unschooling...

2006-11-12T00:22:00.000-06:00

...because unschooling is all about life.

a friend asked why my blog posts, which are supposed to be about unschooling, aren't actually about unschooling. shouldn't i be discussing the ins-and-outs, the hows-and-whys of unschooling? well... at first i did. when i started reading about this interesting concept called unschooling, i thought only about the learning. how evyn would learn. how much she would learn. where she would learn. i didn't think about teaching at all, but i definitely thought about learning.

as one continues to investigate unschooling (through other blogs, email lists, messageboards, etc.), something interesting happens. at least it happened to me, and i've read about many people's similar experiences. you stop thinking about the learning. well, for the most part. unschooling becomes so ingrained into your thought processes and your everyday life that you forget about it. you've read so much about the fact that learning is completely natural and happens all on its own. here's a quote from john holt's how children learn that emphasizes this concept:

By nature people are learning animals. Birds fly; fish swim; humans think and learn. Therefore, we do not need to motivate children into learning by wheedling, bribing, or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do - and all we need to do - is to give children as much help and guidance as they need and ask for, listen respectfully when they feel like talking, and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest.

after that idea sinks in, you begin to think more about just living full, joyful, respectful lives together than about any learning that's taking place. the learning's still happening, but it goes mostly unnoticed. until, all of a sudden, she can count! when did she learn that? she can read! how did that happen? she knows our telephone number? and how to tie a knot? and how to make her own sandwich? she can add and subtract? and she knows 2 fives is 10? wow!

so maybe this blog doesn't discuss the merits of unschooling or why we choose to unschool. maybe there's not a lot of profound rhetoric to be found here. it's just a simple blog about our simple lives. but is it still a blog mostly about unschooling? absolutely! because average, everday life is unschooling.

tiny dancer (and a bus)

2006-11-11T23:04:00.000-06:00

today was a total dance day. we were up by 7am, getting dressed by 8am, and on the road a little bit later. ev had parade practice at her dance studio (she's marching in two christmas parades) and then two ballet rehearsals for the show she's performing in. afterwards, we visited the coffee shop and went on a wild goose chase. or more accurately: a wild bus chase. we're trying to get a handle on the local bus routes/schedules so nathan can start riding the bus to work a couple of days a week. the transit information on the city's website is sorely lacking. so we drove around town following city buses. at home, my exhausted daughter and i fell fast asleep in our warm, comfy bed while nathan worked on a website. now nathan's fast asleep on the warm, comfy futon while evyn and i play.

and why is my dear husband thinking about riding the bus?
1) the bus picks up about 2 blocks from our house and drops off about 2 blocks from his office. (translation: it's incredibly convenient)
2) it seems senseless to drive one person in a gas-guzzling car when a half-empty bus makes the trip every hour or so.
3) he likes to ride his bike, but that's just not practical for him every day.
4) we might be able to sell one of our cars if we can utilize public transportation more often. this means decreased gas and maintenance costs, insurance on one less car, more space in our garage & a little extra cash in our pockets.
5) it might be nice to have a hassle-free ride to work (versus dealing with other drivers). and reading or listening to music on the bus sounds like fun.

learning, learning, learning...

2006-11-10T21:54:00.000-06:00

...keep those kiddos learning! (no, not seriously. i just have that stupid rawhide song in my head.) this morning was one of those unschooling super-learning times. thanks to tara of coloring outside the lines, i recently learned about something called brainPOP. then i stumbled upon brainPOP junior. evyn loves these sites! so far we've only watched the videos. we haven't even checked out the activities or games or anything else. this morning we watched clips about the following: soil, rural vs. urban communities, allergies, time, money, teeth, and (most importantly) human reproduction. a few months back, evyn was extremely interested in a book we checked out from the library: it's so amazing! the book is all about puberty and reproduction and families and such. that was also her main focus today. once she stumbled upon the videos about babies, motherhood & fetal development, she watched them each at least three times.

after she tired of brainPOP, evyn decided to watch volume one of bonjour les amis. she repeated some of the phrases and sang along with the songs. after she was done with her "french lesson," she helped me make lunch and clean up a little. we talked about our busy schedules for the next couple of weeks and planned some fun things to do this weekend. evyn played with her stuffed and wooden animals for a couple of hours. she learned how to make an olive sandwich (a staple for me during childhood). don't get too grossed out - i only get cravings for them once in a blue moon. daddy came home with coffee and chocolate milk. evyn watched parts of the wizard of oz and is now watching one of her all-time favorites, father of the bride (the newer version), and playing with an old jack-in-the-box. she's a huge steve martin fan. i'm on the computer listening to the rain and wind outside. and i'm about to tie a headdress and cape on my lovely daughter. goodnight all.

live and learn conference

2006-11-09T05:14:00.000-06:00

we had every intention of being at the live and learn unschooling conference in albuquerque this past september. but, nathan had his hours cut at work. we just couldn't swing the money. we're a little more settled now. and i'm sure we'll be even more financially ready when the conference hits asheville, nc next september.

i'm totally stoked because:
1) it's a shorter drive for us this year
2) we've got lots of time to plan and save
3) we were already planning a trip to north carolina b/c nathan's brother and his girlfriend moved to asheville & we haven't visited them yet (we were planning a spring trip, but autumn sounds equally wonderful)
4) we might make it a big family trip with grandparents included
5) and last but definitely not least - i really want to meet and hang out with other unschooling families. there are no other "wacky" families where we live. imagine: liberal, vegetarian, non-christian, unschooling, environmentally-conscious, AP people living in a relatively conservative area of the bible belt.

i noticed just a few moments ago that the live and learn conference website has been updated to include information about the upcoming conference. check out that link <------ for more info.

retro junk

2006-11-08T23:57:00.000-06:00

i'm just barely making it in time for NaBloPoMo & it's someone else's fault again. (i really don't mind - i love that she's getting so into the computer.) this time, evyn's been hanging out at retro junk watching intro videos. retro junk is a site devoted to intro videos from 70's, 80's & 90's television shows (and also movies and commercials from the same time periods).

edited to add: nathan introduced ev & me to retro junk. i think he remembers at least 70-80% of the shows from the 80's. why don't i? did i not watch as much tv? here are some intros that evyn watched for shows that i didn't know existed:

shirt tales
ghostbusters (the site says that the show is in no way related the movie)
freddy's nightmares (wtf?)
beetlejuice (there was a beetlejuice cartoon? i would've loved that!)
silverhawk (which, in my defense, looks like a "boy show." i'd have never watched a boy show at 10 or 11 years old. luckily, i've moved beyond that stage & eagerly encourage my own child to watch girl shows, boy shows, baby shows, adult shows, and everything in between.)
it's punky brewster! (when did punky get animated?)

and here are some i did watch and had forgotten about:

kids incorporated (k-i-d-s, yeah! that stacy ferguson was such a cutie.)
muppet babies
jem and the holograms (sadly, at age 10 i thought jem was punk and emulated her for 3 straight halloweens calling myself "punk.")
the snorks (total smurfs rip-off)
my two dads (i had such a crush on chad allen.)
degrassi junior high
life goes on (again, another chad crush - this time chad lowe)

mia rocks!

2006-11-07T21:32:00.000-06:00

evyn got these mia games from grammy and t-paw last christmas: mia's science adventure, mia's reading adventure & mia's language adventure. ev really hasn't shown much interest in any of them... until now. i played a little of the science adventure last night and a little of the language adventure just a few minutes ago. they are fantastic games! the animation is wonderful. the activities and puzzles are fun. i really enjoy and recommend these games. oh (and more importantly) - so does evyn.

it's mia's fault

2006-11-06T22:31:00.000-06:00

well, i don't really have time for an ordinary post. someone has been playing mia's science adventure on my laptop for hours. okay, it's an hour-and-a-half before midnight here. so i guess i could come up with something. but... honestly, i'd rather watch the episode of studio 60 on the sunset strip that i taped earlier. so goodnight all, and pleasant dreams.

yule or winter solstice?

2006-11-05T19:07:00.000-06:00

now that samhain/halloween is mostly over (shhh, don't tell - we haven't carved our pumpkin yet. maybe it'll be a pumpkin with a turkey carved into it?)... it's time to plan for yule. or winter solstice. or yule. we've only been celebrating sabbats for the last few years. until now, we've called our december sabbat yule. but we had a conversation tonight about whether the three of us like "yule" or "winter solstice" better. the consensus seems to be that we actually prefer "winter solstice."

so we're starting preparations for winter solstice. there are many things involved in those preparations - i'll post a bit more about those as we get closer to december. so far, the only thing i've done is buy almost all of evyn's gifts. that's right folks - i'm almost done with my shopping! evyn is the only person we buy gifts for. oh, and a couple of other sweet little children, too. for friends and family, we have an annual tradition of making charitable contributions in their honor. last year all of our donations were to charities either in new orleans or related to hurricane katrina relief. i guess we need to figure out which charities we'll donate to this year...

edited to add a few terrific yule/winter solstice resources: suite 101's celebrating yule article, circle round, celebrating the great mother, winter solstice celebrations for families and households

our perfectly imperfect day

2006-11-04T17:19:00.000-06:00

a couple of weeks ago, we had a rotten day that became an absolutely fantastic day. i forgot to blog about it, so i guess now is as good a time as any other.

evyn was extremely excited because she was going to her best friend's birthday party - complete with hayride. well, we think the little brother of the best friend must've gotten jealous of his big sister's big day. he decided that sickness, fever and a trip to the hospital sounded like just the thing to cancel a party. evyn was a tiny bit devastated. grandma to the rescue! we got free tickets from grandma to go see the stage version of charlotte's web instead. the show was fantastic! afterwards, grandma took evyn backstage to meet the actors. that was very exciting! daddy talked with a coworker of grandma's about possibly creating a website for her. the lot of us had an interesting discussion about cultural opportunities in our area, the arts in general and a local mayor's race. evyn and i played an acting game on the front steps of the performing arts center while this discussion took place.

as we walked away, we talked about what a great day it had been. little did we know it was far from over. on our way to a coffee shop, we realized that a local church's annual pumpkin patch (not actually a patch - just pumpkins for sale along with decorations and some games to play) was open. we stopped to buy a pumpkin and ended up having a conversation with a couple of ladies about retro holiday cartoons and movies (the grinch, peanuts, frosty the snowman, etc.). they were surprised and impressed that evyn liked all the great retro holiday cartoons.

as we were getting into our car with our fat pumpkin, nathan's little dog ears perked up. nathan: what's that sound? me: what sound? nathan: oh! it's an ice cream truck! me: again, what sound? he and evyn took off across the parking lot in the direction of the non-existent music. he practically dragged her across the lot on her very first "ice cream run." (he's very proud of the fact that they ran for it "just like when (he) was a kid.") once i realized that there was indeed an ice cream truck (i swear nathan must have dog genes in there somewhere), i got in the car and drove across the parking lot to get in on the action. the three of us sat on the curb and ate our ice cream bars. then, we spent about 20 minutes throwing and stomping on acorns. acorns are such a gorgeously yummy orange color on the inside. that color reminds me of my childhood in the 70's.

about this time, the sky was getting a little darker and the air was wonderfully crisp. we continued on towards our original destination for coffee and pastries. we talked and laughed and had a great time. i don't remember exactly what we did when we got home. i think evyn watched her charlotte's web dvd (again, animation from the 60's and the 70's is the best!). nathan probably got some work done on somebody's website. and i probably washed dishes and/or laundry and watched a show i had taped earlier in the week. then we all cuddled up together and fell fast asleep.

doing school

2006-11-03T09:17:00.000-06:00

today i remembered to tear off last month's calendar page. we have a new family calendar this year: mom's ultimate family fridge calendar. it's different than previous family calendars in that the pages are paper (so you can easily write in pencil) and the squares are nice and big (for writing lots of information). and the pages tear off, not flip up, to reveal a new month. each month has a cute border at the top with bears (at least i think they're bears) participating in seasonal activities - in the pumpkin patch, playing in the snow, at the park, flying kites, at the beach, picking apples, etc. the first month was september, which showed the bear children at school. since we received our calendar in october, september got torn off and put in the recycle basket.

well, this morning evyn noticed that october had been torn off. she looked at november's border for a few seconds and exclaimed, "mom, look! they're doing school!" i stared for a moment in utter confusion. i was thinking that september had been the "school month." and these bears were just sitting inside talking, reading, playing board games and video games, etc. then it hit me - that is evyn's school. we've talked about the fact that, for us, daily life is our school. so she saw the one image in the whole calendar that showcased plain ol' everyday life (at least as far as she's concerned), and concluded that those bears must be "doing school."

the cobra

2006-11-02T01:05:00.000-06:00

the cobra
Originally uploaded by kaytee_did.

we had our county fair a few weeks ago. (okay, you got me - in louisiana we have parishes, not counties. so it was really our parish fair.) evyn enjoyed the exhibitions and the petting zoo. but she absolutely loved the rides, games & food. she's gotten so daring over the last year or so. she eagerly rode the full-sized ferris wheel - twice. the only reason she met the height requirement was because she was wearing her rain boots. she rode in the water boats, played games, went through the house of mirrors, and even rode the small roller coaster - twice! i admit i was worried as she and nathan got on the coaster. i thought she might get scared and want off. i knew my fears were unfounded as i watched her come around the first curve - arms in the air and squealing with delight. she even talked her grammy and t-paw into taking her back to the fair to ride everything again. that's when this picture of evyn and grammy riding the cobra was snapped.

asian princess

2006-11-01T20:26:00.000-06:00

Asian Princess
Originally uploaded by kaytee_did.

halloween was such fun! we had 2 full nights of trick-or-treating and saw all 4 grandparents. i'll post more details later, assuming we all wake up from our sugar comas.

here's the fantabulous halloween costume. i don't think we got a single picture of evyn smiling because "asian princesses don't smile!"

edited to add the details i promised:
we went trick-or-treating at a local university on monday night. that's where the best pictures were taken because t-paw had his fancy camera (of course - he'd never dream of missing an evyn photo op). ev was a little skittish at first, but she quickly warmed up to the idea of trick-or-treating - especially when she realized how much candy was involved and how many compliments she was receiving for her costume. at the end of the night, evyn won a prize in the costume contest. there was no 1st, 2nd & 3rd - just 3 winners overall.

tuesday night we went to zoo boo at our local zoo. the line to get in was outrageous. luckily, it moved fairly quickly. the mosquitos were also outrageous. lots of rain + warmer temperatures = a declared state of emergency in central louisiana due to the rapidly increasing mosquito population. maybe in other parts mosquitos aren't such a big deal, but down here they carry west nile virus. this causes a great deal of anxiety for most people. of course, we have healthy immune systems and no babies or elderly in our household - we don't get too worked up about it.

our poor comment-deprived selves

2006-10-27T16:50:00.000-05:00

we know that people read about us and unschooling and all the day-to-day stuff we do. we know because we look at our statistics. but we never (or hardly ever) get comments. i rarely leave comments on blogs - especially for people i don't know face-to-face. i'm more apt to leave comments for friends and family. so is it because the people reading don't know us face-to-face? or because we're really boring? or merely because leaving a comment is too time-consuming? well, nevermind. we know you're here and we appreciate that fact. :)

hit and run blogging

2006-10-09T17:36:00.000-05:00

i just have no time lately to consistently post on this blog. or to delve into anything too deeply when i do get the chance to type for a little while. anyway, here's a little of what we've been up to over the past few weeks:

ev and i had a nice little discussion about water displacement. it started by me getting out of the bathtub. "wow, mom! look how low the water goes when you get out!" thanks, sweetie. we talked a little about water displacement. we played with cups and bowls and made our own mini-tub to visualize displacement. i figured out that maybe mommy needs to work on not displacing that much water (which will probably lead to some interesting conversations about food and calories and exercise and whatnot).
ev had a couple of days of focused plan city play. she really gets into the storylines that she makes up. she's got the roadway and railway, lots of cars and trucks, the gas station, lots of little people, a couple of houses, etc. she doesn't know it yet, but the airport and rescue center are on their way (yule gifts).
there have been a few artistic endeavors - playing with clay and painting. the clay has become food, animals, miniature bowls, scat (ewww), etc. the paintings have been bigger than usual and really vibrant.
dance movies have been popular lately. of course, the nutcracker and angelina ballerina top the list. dance and gymnastic classes are going well. she's having tons fun and learning a lot. grandma and gramps watched part of the last gymnastics class.
ballet rehearsals are going really well. ev's got a little bit of a special part - nothing major, but she was chosen to play a part that takes a wee bit extra bravery (due to being lifted and carried up high) and lots of focus (if evyn is anything, it's focused). at the last rehearsal, ev and nate found a baby squirrel outside the building. they watched (very closely, from what i was told) as it ate and played a bit. evyn named it "chowie" because it was chowing down.
ev's been extremely helpful with dishes and laundry. she's actually gotten a little upset with me for not inviting her to help. when she was 2 and 3, she was very "domestic" - always wanting to help fold laundry or wipe something up or sweep. at 4, that domestic streak all but disappeared. now it's back. i don't know why, but i'm not complaining.
i've spent a little time investigating the portuguese language. i was under the impression that portuguese and spanish were very similar. they are... but not. portuguese (i'm talking european, not brazilian, here) sounds almost like spanish and some eastern european language procreated. i like this! it's still very romantic-sounding. but it also has the closed vowels of slavic languages. here's a good website to learn more. and why am i researching portuguese? we're looking for a "homeschool" name. we are filing with the state as a private school, but first we need a name. i just couldn't get hooked on any cutesy names - dragonfly academy, oak tree school, lighthouse learning, etc. don't get me wrong - i have no problem with sweet homeschool names. there are days when (usually after reading one of the anne of green gables books) that i want to name it something like rainbow valley school. anyway... long story short (too late), i think we've agreed to give our "school" a different sort of name. thus far, the winner seems to be escola da vida (pronounced esh-kola, not es-kola) - portuguese for "school of life."
ev and nathan have been missing their daddy-daughter date nights. when i was in nursing school, they went out at least once a week - to the bookstore or the local bakery or to the grandparents' house - while i studied. nate's been working so much lately that those nights have become few and far between. the "daddy date night" ritual is being reinstituted! they've gone 3 places in the last few weeks: the coffee shop, our favorite bakery and to our annual downtown art walk. they also made homemade pizza last week - yummmmmmm!
a recent episode of sesame street featured american sign language. evyn remembered signing when she was little. she remembered the sign for "milk." she wanted to see the signing time videos she watched regularly a couple of years ago. we went to grammy and t-paw's house to get those and watched one of them. we found a website with the ASL alphabet and practiced our letters while lounging on the bed. i think she enjoys the convenience of our laptop as much as i do.
ev's been "practice fighting" with wall girl. wall girl is a life-sized girl drawn (by nathan) on our chalkboard wall. it is hilarious to listen to these arguments play out.
evyn spent part of an afternoon last week tying knots. she said it was the "homework from (my) pretend teacher at polar bear mountain school." hey, maybe that should be our school name. it would be ironic - we live in a state where it often feels like the armpit of hell and our highest point is 535 ft. above sea level.

starting school...

2006-09-21T10:09:00.000-05:00

...or not. if she were in school, ev would've started about a month ago. i'm selfishly happy that we haven't had to alter our sleep/play/life schedules to accomodate a school schedule. we were checking holidays on the local school board website last night (b/c dance and gymnastics class holidays are the same) and stumbled upon the lunch menus. ev's reaction: yucky food!

summer is almost over. hurray! i truly believe i have reverse seasonal affective disorder. summer is the hardest season for me. i want to stay inside and just hang out. in the fall, i get excited about the cooler weather and the upcoming holidays. fall classes (dance, gymnastics) start. i love the cold weather in winter (it really doesn't get that cold here, though). and spring is fantastic! basically, i should be in a fairly good mood for the next 7-8 months or so.

here's what we've been up to:

fall dance and gymnastics classes started. ev's taking a tap/ballet combo class, a jazz class & a beginning gymnastics class. she loves all three. i think she's having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to gymnastics. it's a huge class with lots of chaotic stuff going on around her. she's never been great with anything she perceives as chaos. we've talked at length about it - she definitely wants to "stay in class and get stronger and better." we've been working on breathing techniques to use when she feels flustered or overwhelmed.
ev tried out for a local ballet production. we've already done measurements and costume fittings. she'll be practicing once a week for the next few months. then, she'll be in 4 performances (2 big ones, 2 for local schools).
ev had her first ballet rehearsal on saturday. she had such a good time. we met a girl who takes both dance and gymnastics at the same studios as ev. afterwards, ev went errand-running with grammy & t-paw while nate & i went to see hollywoodland.
ev thinks the online pronunciation tool at merriam-webster online is awesome! about a week ago, we spent half-an-hour picking out random words to be pronounced.
we're still taking care of our ants. several have died. and, apparently, some ants eat their dead! all the ant books were received well. one has been on reading rainbow in the last week or so. speaking of pbs kids...
ev's been watching a lot of pbs kids. it's a new season with several new episodes of her favorite shows. they've also brought back 3 shows that weren't on during the summer: the berenstain bears, postcards from buster & bob the builder. she misses fetch! and zoom.
we checked out a laurie berkner dvd from the library - ev loved it! i downloaded the songs and burned 2 cds. we've got one copy for the car and the other for the house. she knows all the songs - they're addictive! i've found myself singing them. (and nate - you know you have, too!)
grammy and t-paw came back from their trip with lots of souvenirs. nate & i got t-shirts from cheers and mystic pizza. we also got goodies from the ben & jerry's factory. ev got a ben & jerry's tie-dyed t-shirt, sand from plimoth plantation, rocks from various lighthouses and bridges (she collects rocks), a stuffed kitten (now named princess promenot) & a keychain (she loves keychains - it's become a toy for princess promenot). oh - and we got maple syrup from a place in vermont. yummy! we heard great stories about their trip. we haven't seen t-paw's pictures yet, but i'm sure that'll be great fun, too.
ev has quite a collection of postcards from grammy & t-paw's trip. we're still waiting on a couple. she especially likes the ones with maps on them. she's been playing all sorts of pretend games with the cards.
ev's still very into maps - puzzles, books, postcards (see above), etc. she picked out an 8.5x11 inch laminated map on a recent trip to office depot. it's got a map of the u.s. on one side and a world map on the other side. she totally kicks butt on her world map and u.s. map layered puzzles. she tells stories about the various states and countries as she puts them together. she's been asking questions (which i've answered) about the markings on maps and how to read maps.
we got a cheap laptop for me to use. it's nothing fancy at all. but i can get online without having to go to another room. and i can help type content and do research for nathan's freelance work. and nate doesn't have to kick me off the computer to work. ev loves that i can stay in the same room with her and still get my "computer work" done. and she likes the fact that she can get quick answers to questions.
we checked out the magic schoolbus makes a rainbow from the library. that is one of ev's all-time favorite rentals. she watched it over and over and over for the week we had it.
ev's been taking care of babies and animals. she's been mama to her baby doll and vet to her stuffed kitten. she turned an old computer mouse into 2 things: a pet mouse and a stethescope. she makes special heart and lung sound effects when performing her vet checkups.
ev learned to whistle this past sunday. i think she was a bit peeved that grammy whistled but couldn't adequately teach her how to whistle. it's so hard to explain to someone how to whistle. ev practiced and practiced until she got it. she's been perfecting her whistle for a few days now.
ev and nate watched a cool pbs show about lizards. i didn't see the show, but she seemed really engrossed. she picked out a book online about lizards - my take-along guide of snakes, salamanders and lizards. i picked out 3 more books in the same series. when the order arrived, i pointed out that one of the books was about animal tracks and poop. ev informed me that animal poop is called scat and that people can use scat to track animals and to find out what the animal has eaten.
ev wanted a pet lizard (after watching the lizard show). she asked nate to help her cut out a cardboard lizard and paint it (blue with stripes). if you're one of our regular readers, you know we have a long and proud history of making cardboard things (houses, cars, pets, tools, etc.) around here.
tuesday was talk like a pirate day. monday night, nate told ev about talk like a pirate day and read her a pirate book. when she woke up the next morning, i secretly called nate at work to tell him to call us back and talk like a pirate. disaster! she wasn't ready for it and he probably got a little too excited and dramatic about it. she was scared - she cried and cried. then, she got over it and got into the pirate spirit. later, she called daddy back to talk like a pirate. when nate got home, they took their pirate voices to the coffee shop. shiver me timbers!

cicada's new coat

2006-09-04T16:18:00.000-05:00

nate's been outside most of today - riding his bike to his parents' house and doing yardwork. he cleaned out the carport! if you'd seen the before picture, you'd understand why that's such a big deal. anyway, it looks fantastic. while outside, he found a couple of cicada shells (around here we incorrectly call them locusts). ev thinks they're very cool (but not cool enough to touch). she's a little baffled by the fact that the shell is neither alive nor dead. she wants the "bug" to be dead so she can safely touch it and play with it, but she's worried that the poor creature itself is dead. we talked about snakes sheading their skins and caterpillars emerging from cocoons as butterflies. we talked about endoskeletons vs. exoskeletons. we finally hit home with a discussion of her old coat (which is too small) vs. her new coat. so she's open to the idea that the cicada needed a bigger coat.

other things of interest:

we have an ant farm. and we're all fascinated by the ants. ev's definitely in ant-mode. we watched antz last night (the ants in the farm watched with us). ev has a double-sided picture-filled poster that came with the ant farm. she "teaches class" about ants. we've got 4 books coming from amazon: ant cities, the life and times of the ant, one hundred hungry ants & hey, little ant.
we've been to the local paint-your-own-pottery place twice in the last couple of weeks. on the first trip, ev & i painted a plate shaped like a slice of pizza. she picked out pastel colors. after we painted, we added small blue dots all over the top side. it ended up looking very retro 80's (which is cool b/c we're currently in a facts of life phase - we've been watching seasons 1 and 2 on dvd.) on the second trip, we (including nate this time) painted a small pink puppy dog with brown spots. ev calls her sarah.
we saw the wizard of oz performed by the local theater group. we had a blast! ev thoroughly enjoyed herself. for a couple of days afterward, she wanted to be dorothy for halloween. she's since changed her mind and will be an asian princess/geisha girl for halloween.
ev's still very much into all things asian. she talks about china and thinks she might like to decorate her room with an asian theme (complete with hanging lanterns). we never did get around to having a chinese new year celebration last year. maybe we'll do one next january/febuary. we might also research the chinese moon festival (it's about a month away) and celebrate that.
today while nate was outside, ev and i worked on a book she wanted to make. i printed out a double-sided page with 4 blocks of text. we folded that in half to make a 4 page book. ev drew a picture on each page and signed her name and today's date on the back. the story involves a princess, her 2 sisters, the king and queen, a policeman and a prince. oh, and a castle, a tent and a bush.
we've been at the library every weekend - checking out books and videos. we've been reading like mad - we've got 15 books checked out right now!
we've also been playing board games like mad - max, snowstorm, walk in the woods & growly in the garden.
ev went to the zoo with grammy and t-paw yesterday. i think her favorite part was seeing the tigers (the tigers have babies now - you know what she thinks about babies) and the new piece of playground equipment (a big, plastic, climbable tree).
grammy and t-paw are going on a little trip this week. ev & i will be taking care of the house for them. she's very excited about the responsibilty involved. she's taking her task very seriously. :)

edited to add: i forgot to include that nate & ev went downtown last weekend to watch a jam session at our local music co-op. they had so much fun! ev was the only child there. i think they stayed until 10 or 10:30pm - maybe later. that's one thing that i love about ev not going to school - we can have whatever kind of schedule we choose. we're night owls and can sleep late as needed. i love that our "unusual" schedule gives ev the opportunity to do things that the "average" child doesn't get to experience.

summer sucks!

2006-08-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

we're on a 3 week break from dance class. and we're not leaving the damn house! period! it's frazzlin' hot out there. i'm hoping that when we reemerge in september it'll be much cooler.

random things we've been doing:

playing with a capsela robot named bobby
being princesses (and queens and kings). ev's princess name is princess promenah. one night, several weeks ago, she watched the princess diaries, ella enchanted & ever after. she dressed up in her pinkish-purple "princess dress" (nate bought it at scarborough renfest), a pearl choker & princess slippers. i pulled her hair up with sparkly barrettes. she looked every bit a princess.
we've been going to the library almost every week. we never stay long. ev likes to go to the children's section, sit on the floor & look through several books. she finds 5 (yes, exactly 5) that she wants to take home. then we look at videos and dvds. she picks a couple (lately, bob the builder and kipper) - i pick a couple. and we go home.
she's been playing with her playmobil dollhouse (picked out with birthday money), OHC dolls & frog/shark/human bone books (check out the links - they're really cool).
ev, judy & elroy (yes, i'm still using cartoon pseudonyms for the jetsons) have been using the playsilks a lot. they decorate their pretend home and restaurant. they play dress-up. they make babies (wrap a playsilk or two around a stuffed animal and put it under your shirt - and, yes, they actually birth their babies). they pretend to be mummies.
ev's been really interested in babies - where they come from, how they're born, etc. we checked out it's so amazing! from the library. ev loves that book. i'm thinking about buying our own copy soon.
we've been watching our sea monkeys grow, make babies & die. we've only got 4 adults left. i'm hoping there are some eggs waiting to hatch. i guess if they all die, we'll get more.
i'm waiting for our ants to arrive. i've always wanted an ant farm.
swimming at grandma and gramps' house is always fun. i think we may try to go this weekend.
summer dance classes were a blast! ev's excited about fall dance classes and gymnastics classes.
ev's still into maps and such. reading them, drawing them, following them. she's got a 5 layer map of the u.s. puzzle that's been getting a lot of attention lately. she's totally into making up her own cities/states/countries. while at grammy & t-paw's house, she went on a pretend adventure to the city of chinatown in the state of africa.
she still likes to get real mail (who doesn't?). so, if you're reading this and you know us - drop her a line. she especially likes postcards. melanie sent her one with a photo of the swanboats at the boston public garden. (btw, i found a great website about the swanboats - it has a link to lots of flickr pictures.)
we're already gearing up for halloween/samhain. i think ev's decided on her costume (but i'll give her a few days - she could change her mind). she wants to be an asian princess/geisha girl (kimono, makeup, hair up, etc.). she's very interested in all things asian right now. i'm looking for small kimonos online - any ideas? i love china sprout, but they don't really sell kimonos. i could buy the costume from costume express, but i'm worried it'll be too big for her.
samhain (typically pronounced "sow-in" or "sow-een" - i prefer "sah-win") is my favorite sabbat. i love finding pictures and belongings of our ancestors/deceased loved ones and setting up the altar. i love the food. i love the pumpkins and apples and fallen leaves. aaah... i'm getting ahead of myself - mabon's not even here yet.

pompons

2006-08-09T18:38:00.000-05:00

my research project for today: why are pompons called pompons?

from merriam-webster online:
Main Entry: pom·pon
Pronunciation: 'päm-"pän
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French pompe tuft of ribbons

And if you want even more information:
wikipedia article
mid american pompon
pompon central