Basement Frog

It's a rodent! It's a reptile! No! It's... BASEMENT FROG!

And this explains the dearth of critters in that back corner of the basement recently. That's a healthy lookin' fella, there, isn't it? (I have no idea if this is a frog or a toad, and to be honest, I'm too lazy to look it up. Ok, I poked around a bit. I think it's a toad. But "Basement Frog" sounds cooler than "Basement Toad". Since we don't plan to lick it or eat it, and the boys aren't currently hallucinating or anything, so I think we're okay.)

Zorak tried to catch it and liberate it back outside, but he/she (how can you tell? It's a she - her neck is light colored. Oh, the joy of the internet!) is FAST. I mean fast-fast, and rather agile. So. We still have a basement frog. It's kind of like having our own totem. Sorta. (And don't you love the nasty concrete floor? Someday, we'll acid etch it, now that we know how relatively easy it is to do!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Happy Together!

These two are such a riot. They irritate each other for fun, but they are seldom found more than three feet from one another. They're only 2/7 of the population, yet they produce approximately 90% of the noise in our little compound. And, this is how they learn. (Shortly after this picture was taken, they learned that if man was supposed to use his elbows to play the piano, the keys would be elbow-sized. They thought that was funny.)

We had a productive day, but it took ALL DAY to do it. James was still doing Latin at eight tonight, but he pulled it off and finished in time to have cookies with everyone else. John was still doing spelling around the same time. Same eleventh-hour save. I guess I shouldn't say "was still doing" - I should say "finally got around to doing". These kids like to liven things up with a little pressure now and then. Nothing says, "Yeah, I'm really serious" quite like, "I'll eat your cookies if you don't hurry up."

And no, I wasn't flogging them all day long to complete three conjugations in four tenses and a 100-word pre-test. This was one page. Each. Basic review stuff. If any of you tell me this is what testosterone does to the mind, I. will. cry. okay? Yeah, just so's we're clear, here. ;-)

It reminds me of a joke I need to share with the boys...

A man entered a marathon. His first one, ever. He wasn't fast, and he wasn't much of a runner, but he was determined to do it. He came in dead last, a solid 10 hours behind the first place runner, who clocked in at a little over two hours. Dead tired from running all day, the man slipped into a pub on his way home to enjoy a cold one before heading home to collapse. He hadn't been there long before another man entered the pub with a group of people, and was instantly recognized as the day's marathon winner.

Tired as he was, the man just had to meet this man who could run a marathon in two and a half hours. He inched up to him, introduced himself and offered to buy the man a drink in honor of the day's win. The winning runner asked if he'd seen the race, to which the man replied, "Oh, no, I was in the race. I don't know how you do it so quickly, and still have the energy to go out with friends." The runner asked how the man did in the race. "Oh. It took me twelve and a half hours." Sheepishly, he added, "And I'm exhausted."

The runner smiled, clapped the man on the back and said, "Well, then I think you should be the one we're toasting tonight."

Baffled, the man asked why.

"To be perfectly honest," said the runner, "You must have an incredible amount of fortitude. Personally, I can't imagine doing *anything* for twelve and a half hours!"

... I wonder if they'll get that joke...

Ah, and it's time for bed! Kiss those babies! And smile - it's contagious.
~Dy

Back to School!

Dang. It's a PAIN to get back into a routine! (Yeah, this is why we try to go year-round. I know. Well, *now* I know, anyway. Or remember, at least. I knew there was a point to it...) We did it, but we were all exhausted long before the day was up.

However, the day itself actually went incredibly well. John was up and at 'em early. He finished typing, piano practice and most of his math before James could be cajoled into slinking into the light to join us for breakfast. (James has my Child-of-the-Night genes. He wants to go live with Amy.) The boys enjoyed their first lesson of Meet the Great Composers. They got 80% of the day's work completed. We outlined a GP plan for writing work. AND, the highlight of my day, they didn't forget everything they learned before our break. That's good stuff, right there. That'll get ya through, man.

Smidge drove every one of us nuts with his incredibly non-redirectable enthusiasm. Please, Lord, help him learn how to pace himself. He's going to need that motivation when he's eight and doesn't want to write soooooo much... And while I'm praying, Please, Lord, help me always to enjoy the delight of learning and teaching the kids. I pray that enthusiasm will always be at least a little contagious, and that a smile will always be on the ready. The hardest part of my day was figuring out how to fit in three children at three levels, but that's only a challenge to be met, not grounds for going into hiding. No matter how tempting. I can do this.

James had a good groove going until he made the mistake of not at least looking like he was engaged in something. At that point, I begged him to take EmBaby out of the room. Somewhere. Anywhere but right there beside me, whining at me to mooooove. Ironically, when I was done working with Smidge (I forgot how hands-on the littles are in their lessons! If you're currently inundated by small children who cannot be left to their own momentum without grinding to a screaming halt, believe me when I tell you it gets better. But, also believe me when I tell you that you'll either have to keep having children yourself or borrow someone else's small one in a few years before you'll actually feel like it got better. It slips up on you so slowly that you don't realize how independent those kids have gotten.) ...anyway, by the time I had Smidge squared away, James and EmBaby were happily building things out of stuff and couldn't quite be interrupted at the moment. *grin*

I'm going to have to find a way to get it done without losing momentum or ignoring the Small Ones. If anybody has suggestions, please fill me in!!

We enjoyed a light supper of pasta, salad and steamed squash. Angel Hair is the *ultimate* summertime pasta, since it only takes three minutes to cook. The kitchen can't heat up before we eat. SCORE! Then, in spite of the fact that it was still hot-n-sticky out, we just had to have dessert out on the balcony. The kids made me laugh. They spent half the time looking for shapes in the sillhouettes of the tree canopy against the evening sky. They spent the other half wondering what else we could put in the ice cream. Zorak and I just sat there, feeling quite stable and secure, smiling at one another as if we shared a warm, fuzzy secret. It was nice. A nice first day back.

Tomorrow, trash day (aren't you glad to know that?), library day (I think this is EIGHT WEEKS RUNNING! Maybe seven. Enough to lose count. That works for me.), and hopefully some general purpose loafing (it is, after all, still summer...)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Let them eat cake!

Well, perhaps not cake. (Too hot to bake.) But how about ice cream?

It was a lovely birthday weekend. Not the most exciting, as birthdays go, but we're not exactly thrills-a-minute people. (Shocker, huh?) The boys did bring out the surprise ice cream maker. Smidge feels vindicated, and none of us pointed out that he blew the "secret" twice since the last big spoiler. He's such a funny kid.

EmBaby is enthralled with it - carried it around everywhere. The biggest surprise was that all the pieces were still in the box by the time we got around to making ice cream. We used Aunt B's psychotically easy, yet rich and dreamy recipe: two quarts half-and-half, two cans sweetened condensed milk. Pour into ice cream maker. Turn on. Lick the milk cans clean while the ice cream blends. How easy can it be? (OK, we made up that last one. I don't know if Aunt B licks the cans clean. But we do. It's good stuff.)

Since we (a) procrastinate horribly, and (b) are impatient (yeah, talk about irony), we didn't have time to harden it before bed tonight, so we ate it like they serve at a certain expensive-yet-yummy ice cream parlour. I would mention the name, but after listing the recipe, there'd probably be a lawsuit for libel from associating the two. The boys had cookies folded into theirs. Zorak and I ate it straight up. This might make August bearable.

Since the big boys just couldn't shake the disappointment of my knowing what they got me, they talked Zorak into letting them get something else. Zorak warned me that it's not quite a bowling ball with "Homer" written on it, but it's close. They bought a DVD player for the little TV in our room. I can see what he meant, although I do think it's pretty cool, and it'll be nice to be able to watch movies back there, now.

The balcony is now, technically, if you aren't too concerned about the effects of gravity and siblings on your smallest children, usable. We promised Smidge we could have breakfast out there. After we put the kids to bed, Zorak showed me all the hot spots to keep Em away from - there are no stairs, for one. And other little details that won't stop us from wallowing in the piney goodness that is a non-scary balcony. (Yes, even with gaping maws leading to certain death at either end of it, it's now far less scary that it's previous incarnation. WOOHOO!) He plans to work on the side planks tomorrow, and we should be taking the baling wire off the kitchen door. Yeah, buddy, we're movin' on up in the world!

Tomorrow, we start back to school. I'll let you know how that goes.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

thbbth.

(Can't think of a title.)

Thanks for the encouraging words on the balcony - that's been All Zorak, man. He has really put so much of himself into it, and it's just beautiful. Then, typical of his wonderful nature, he just had to go and be all noble and sexy the other night, on top of it. The boys had been wondering who should be the first to step onto the finished balcony. (Asked in whispered tones - this place holds some serious awe right now.) We'd figured Dad, since he'd worked so hard on it. Before bed, when I was telling Zorak, he shook his head, "No. No, I think the kids should go onto it, first. They're the ones who had to go without, who had to wait, while I worked on this. Plus, they put a lot into it, too. They've earned the joy of being 'The First' to use it." Oh, man, this is why we have FIVE children, people. He is awesome.

In other news, the kids are getting restless. Heck, I'm getting restless. We're so not Summer People. Give us a grey, wintery day with soup and bread and a good story and we're happy as clams. (Are clams generally happy creatures? We'll assume they are.) Anyway, it's too hot to play in the afternoons, and it's, well, it's too hot to do anything in the afternoons. So, we'll start back to school on Monday. They're pretty stoked about that, and I am, too. This year, because I cannot quite fathom how we'll put in the time for lessons, with Scouts and piano tucked there in the middle of the week, we're going to go to a full five-day school week. I haven't told them, yet. Figure I'll just slip it in there and wait for them to notice. It seems to work with onions.

Back to the dentist tomorrow. It was kind of nice having the man on vacation, actually. But now it's time to get back to the business of whatever it is we're doing. Weee! This visit won't be too bad, since I don't have to be there at o'dark hundred, and it won't be another four-hour visit. I hope. Didn't plan for it, anyway, so here's hoping!

And, that's about it. Today, truthfully, was not a stellar day. It was a boundary-pushing day. I'm tired, and yet, for whatever reason, the day is not over yet. Hopefully The Stubborn One will go to sleep here, shortly, and then I, too, can get some rest. Although it was a long day, and a tiring day, it was still a good one. Just more the meat-and-potatoes good, instead of the ice cream with sprinkles and uninterrupted reading time good. Here's hoping we can pull together a little ice cream, a little pudding, a little smoothie action, among other good things for the weekend! (Why, yes, I am going with a "soft foods" theme for the weekend.) We all need that, from time to time.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Shhh. Balcony Pictures!

I slipped out there this afternoon and took some pictures, just for Konk, who said she needed some encouragement. Here you go, a little more progress. (If you are new, or don't remember what we started with, it began here, then with more info and pictures as we've worked, posted here, here, and here. There, now you know as much as I do.)

It has upright railings, now, with pretty cross bars. The pickets will go in behind them after we put the deck boards on. That way I can help. (If I tried now, the only thing I'd manage to do is cling to the joists and vomit all over the workbench beneath the balcony.) The eaves will be antique white, like the front, and the gable end will be that same 'sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt... oh, wait, wrong story. Anyway, it'll all match, eventually. The railings will be the same green as the porch. The deck, itself, will be the same as the gables.

And here is a view from beneath the peach tree - you can see how the balcony angles around to wrap around the house. (Zorak asked me to point out that yes, there is another piece of bandboard waiting to go up, there on the corner. The post won't just stick out like that.) The rest of the cross bars are what he's working on in the evenings this week. It's so exciting to look out the windows and see this take shape! That area beneath the front part of the deck will eventually be screened in, with a rock knee-wall and a stone floor, ceiling fans and creature comforts and such.
Actually, as I look at the pictures, I tend to see, not what we've done, but what remains to be done. That's why I don't post pictures very often. I get twitchy. So, I'll just add that we'll be replacing the basement doors. And now I'll quit. But just had to say that. :-)

We asked the boys if we should start putting the deck boards on the front, or the side, first. We both thought they'd opt for the side, so they can use the door from the kitchen to get to the back yard. But, no, all three said the front should be done first, "so we can cook out there sooner!" Ah, yes, food is a priority. Glad to see our indoctrination is working! Muahaaahaahaaaa!

And, I have a question. I think it was Laura who asked if this will be a deck, balcony, veranda, or what. Um, but I'm not sure I know the difference. Anybody want to hazzard a guess? I think I always thought of a deck as being on the ground level. A balcony up on the second level. A veranda having a solid covering or roof of some sort, spanning the full width of the structure and/or wrapping around. So, that makes this an actual balcony, right? Or are my definitions wacky? I don't know, but I'd love to learn!

The kids are getting excited. I think they may decide all this work has been worth it, in the end. (I hope.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

One More Chance

Bah. A friend of Aunt B's and Aunt Jo Ann's lost her son recently. He was 35. Had two young boys. Sometimes, this stuff comes out of nowhere. We get so content, thinking it's okay to be short with our little ones or our loved ones because we're tired or achy or just in a pissy mood. We'll get over it, and do better tomorrow. And while it's good to give ourselves grace and not hold self-flogging grudges, I wonder how often we just don't try too hard to do the right thing because we figure we can fix it, make up for it, and move on -- later. Sometimes, later just doesn't come.

I don't want to go from this world, leaving a story unread, a secret unshared, a joke untold. I don't want "later" to be the lingering word that defines my legacy. I'm not saying I do that. I'm not saying you do that. And I'm definitely not saying this man did. I'm saying, simply, that this news struck me hard, right in that spot where I'm all quivery and vulnerable - that spot that knows there isn't some magic point at which we become impervious to death. Not when we hit one year old and the risk of SIDS goes way down. Not when we hit twelve years old, and can be hired to watch other people's children. Not when our insurance drops for good behavior or statistical improvement (age, marriage, high GPA). Not when our cholesterol levels are low, or our EFA levels are good, or when we're on top of the world and looking ahead. Not even the presence of little hands that need holding can stop death from collecting us when it calls.

And that scares the piss out of me, folks. I don't fear death. I just don't want to go right now. There is so much to enjoy, and I all too often do forget how enjoyable it is. The spitup and crying, the fear of conquering new skills and the absolute conviction of a child that if he doesn't have something to eat riiiiggghhhhhht noooooooowww, he'll never make it the fifteen minutes until dinner is ready... there's joy in that. There's good work in that.

And I want the work to be done well. There's no other job in this world that needs to be done well so much as this one of having a family - spouse, child, mother, aunt, uncle, cousin - people who look to you and depend on you, people who love you and care about you, people who know you love and care about them, in return. We want to do that well. We want to do that now. Not later. Not after another trip to the store, or after the dishes are done. We can talk while we work. We can read before we go. We can always, always, always remember that this might just be all that's left, and we want it to be sweet.
Well, that'll kick a gal out of a funk pretty darned quick, lemme tell you that. So, it's only eleven o'clock. I'm taking my vitamins, and going to bed. Because in the morning, there will be another stack of stories to read, more jokes to tell, and probably more dishes to wash. I don't mind leaving the dishes behind, actually. But the rest, I don't want to miss. Not if I can help it.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Headway

I've got to get pictures when Zorak's not looking, because the balcony is really looking NICE. (It has to be when he's not looking because every time I mention it, he says, "Let me pick up down there, first." It's been, what, over a month now? I tell him you know all about our slovenly construction site habits, and that you love us anyway. But he thinks I'm delusional.) Anyway, I love the railings -- they are very worth the seemingly endless engineering that went into them. Lovely, lovely, immobile railings. I can't reach them, yet, as we have no floor up there, and I don't do the balance beam on the joists bit, but they do look nice as I peer out the kitchen windows and doors. That's something.

We have a riding mower, now, which I think I mentioned. I thought I'd mow the upper meadow today, but that didn't go so well. First, I managed to hit an old rusted somethingorother, although, thankfully, that didn't kill the mower. Unfortunately, my stopping the thing to touch base with the boys about what, exactly, "picking up the meadow so we can mow" means in our native tongue gave the thing an opportunity to curl up and die on its own. Hmpf. I tried jumping it, but perhaps it sensed my fear of bottled up electricity, because it only turned over once, backfired, and then laughed itself into silence while I tried to gather my composure. Stoopid post-partum bladder.

Smidge has announced that he would like, for his fifth birthday, "a bow, some arrows, and that thing you wear on your back that holds the arrows". His wish is Zorak's command, so Zorak has spent his free time (say that with a straight face - the man never stops!) this week designing a NEW bow, just for Smidge. We have the material for a quiver, and will only need to track down buckles. I'm not sure who is more excited over it. It may be a draw. It will be a joy. Good, good stuff.

Smidge also asked when I'm going to put a table back in the school room so that he can start school. Whatever happened to enjoying summer vacation? Weird. And, evidently, working at the dining table or the breakfast bar (my fallback plan) simply doesn't feel "official" enough to him. So now I have guilt. Enough so that I probably must DO something with the school room. Which is fine. It needs it. But it's not coming to me - not the furniture, nor the arrangement.

Neither is the guest room/nursery/playroom speaking to me. It's like the house has fallen silent. (It's probably ignoring me until I get the rest of the trim painted. Who knew we'd get the pouty house?)

Let's face it, nothing's coming to me right now. I have funk. It hangs on me like the stench of fear. Only less endearing. Yech. Gotta shake that off and get moving, or give in and buy a mu-mu and a box of bon-bons. (Guess which is more appealing in the heat of summer? Yeah, this'll be an uphill battle.)

But the lure of headway beckons. It calls. It feels mighty darned fine. Forget the mu-mu (although I may hoard a stash of bon-bons, just for emergencies, of course). We'll beat the beast back, sure enough. Because it feels so very good to be tired at the end of the day for a reason, for a purpose, and know that it is good. Yep.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

What?! Third grade, already?

Yeah, he didn't see that coming, either.

I don't know if this is some post-traumatic homeschooling disorder, or just Mommy Brain at an all new high, but for some reason, John is stuck in my head at about four years old. This has no bearing on reality, at all. He's funny and insightful well beyond his years. He remembers details and makes connections in a way none of my other children do. He's the one in whom I most often catch glimpses of the Man He Will One Day Be -- in his mannerisms, his speech, his thoughtful actions. I glance over at him and *kapow*, I have to do a double-take, because I could have sworn I just saw a 19yo Marine home on leave rather than an 8yo boy sprawled on the couch. Yet, when I sit down to make out the year's plan for him, I find myself stuttering and flailing about, wondering how on EARTH this child can be ready for third grade...

But here he is, and so there we are. Just gotta roll with it. This is our 3rd grade plan for John:

Math: Math-U-See Beta. John took his time in Alpha, and he learned it well. He also spent a great deal of this past year learning math as it applies to carpentry and surveying. So, while he isn't moving into Gamma yet, I also don't feel that he's "behind" in any sense of the word. He'll fly through fractions and decimals, with the practical experience he's already gleaned, and when all is said and done, nobody will ever look at him askew for the order in which he learned his arithmetic and math.

Latin: Latin for Children, Primer A. I think he'll enjoy it this year, and will also enjoy working on Latin through a different program than what his brother is in. That seemed to work beautifully this last year -- took a lot of pressure off John, and alleviated quite a bit of the boys' tendencies toward "education as a competitive sport".

Writing: John's writing plans are similar to James', only geared for third grade rather than fifth. (Funny how that works out, huh?) Imitation in Writing - Fairy Tales. (I suspected there was an order to the books, but Logos School's website is pretty lousy about helping you figure it out. So when the books arrived, I realized John gets "book 2" and James gets "book 1" - I would have switched them, but they're both already attached to their respective plans for the year. However, if you are interested in using this program, it seems that the Fairy Tales book is designed to be used after the Aesop's book.) Italic Handwriting, Book D Again, I went with Italic handwriting this year, because unless this child also becomes a doctor, his current handwriting may find him isolated in a military outpost in Siberia, hand writing ciphers. I don't know, maybe that would work for him, but I'd like for him to have options. Spelling Workout C This has come in, and the boys are both absolutely, positively tickled pink to have a workbook in their hot little hands. Woot!

Reading: I don't have an official list together yet (sound familiar?) However, his reading has taken off this summer in ways that I could not have predicted. I'm glad I didn't have a list ready to go, because I think it would need significant updating shortly. As it stands, I don't think I'll have to work hard to get him to pick up whatever we may stumble upon.

The rest of the materials are things we'll work through together --

History: Story of the World, Vol. 3, with additional readings and encyclopedia work. A little outlining here and there. Good stuff. We'll start up... um, right after we finish up the Middle Ages...

Music: we'll be breaking this up into two segments
Theory: Meet the Great Composers
Practical: Regular piano lessons will continue.

Art: Artistic Pursuits (Got it in. It looks fairly painless, but then, that's how they suck you in. Still waiting for someone, anyone, to start an art co-op class in Morgan County... *hint-hint, nudge-nudge*)

Greek: easy, gentle intro with Hey, Andrew!

Religion:Kids Catechism, Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ for Kids, and interspersed work from Doorposts, Keys for Kids Daily Devotionals.

Still waiting for a science program to grab me and whisper, "Use meeeee, my preciousssss..." (OK, the "my precious" bit is new. I'm starting to get a bit manic about it, alright?) BUT, we did buy a riding mower, so there is hope that I can clear a swath down to the river that'll be wide enough to allay my fears of water moccasins or copperheads sneaking up on us. I've read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and since we do not have a mongoose, I simply do not rest easily around water in these parts.

Yeah. Anyway. Then we can take samples and do a bit of botany, or biology, or zoology. With a microscope. And a shovel.

I think that's it. He's all set, and now, we just have to wrap our minds around the fact that this is third grade... sheesh, where does it go?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy