Halloween Fun!

Who needs haunted houses when you have a dad who calls his 14 year old daughter to the door and scares the life out her with this beast...

This is a beautiful 15lb striped bass that Ed brought home for dinner.  It is not so beautiful when you don't expect to find its gaping mouth greeting you at the door.

Here is as about as gruesome as we get on Halloween -

The stomach contents of the bass. 

 We were all pretty amazed at how many little sand eels this fish ate! 

Blech.

We are usually much more into cute on Halloween.....

I really hated to admit it but Aidan was a very cute Wizard and he will not be happy that I said so!

Our handsome Robin Hood. 

The ever adventurous Pipi Longstocking.

A mischievous cat. 

 There was a great debate over who was cuter - Hannah or Mewster.   Mewster is the perfect looking Halloween cat who needs no costume.

The original mischievous cat!

Thanks to a well stocked dress up box and bits and pieces from Halloween's past - the only thing we bought new this year was a black shirt for Hannah's cat.  We were also grateful for the loan of the Wizard hat.

Halloween 2010



New baby chicks! 

We've been pretty busy.  Life is full of comings and goings so it seems a little crazy to bring keeping chickens back into the mix of daily life.  But when the girls were younger they had the experience of marveling at wee baby chicks and I wanted that experience for Christian and Aidan too. 

Isn't she sweet? 

It was just wonderful to get the call from Ed that the post office had called his cell phone to let us know that the chicks had arrived.  The boys and I eagerly jumped in the car and took the drive to the post office.  We were all smiles as we asked about the "peeping package" that was waiting for us.

The boys are so gentle with the chicks and the older girls are of course delighted with them too.  We initially had them set up in the house with a heat lamp where we could keep an eye on them.  Out of the 25 chicks only one did not do well and had died within a day or two.  But happily all the others look well and are already feathering out nicely.

What began as the sweet trilling sound of baby birds soon became much louder - especially at night - with the flapping of wings and very loud chirping!  They have now been moved to a bigger bin with hay in the outdoor shed.  They still  have their heat lamp and seem quite cozy.  It won't be too long before they are moved to the coop. 

The boys will be responsible for the bulk of their care - Aidan and I go up together in the morning to add or change the hay, change their water and give them fresh food.  Christian goes up in the evening to give them fresh food and water.  The boys are excited and willing to do their tasks right now - we'll see what happens when the temperatures start dropping!

We are looking forward to our own fresh eggs again this Spring!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

First Fire - not quite yet.

For many, many years now we have heralded the first day of Autumn by kindling the first fire of the season in our wood stove.  We have done this for about the past 12 years now and believe me there were years when it was tough to hold out until that first day of Autumn came round on the calendar.  Early September mornings can have quite a nip in the air to them, as memory serves.  But that has not been the case for years...more often the weather is still very warm and only the smallest ceremonial type fire is lit to make sure all is well.

Despite the calendar, this year our annual "Blessing of the Hearth" will have to wait.  Not only is it really warm...too warm to think of lighting even a small fire....80 something degree hot... there is this other small matter....

See the problem?  This past summer the big project was sprucing up the woodstove area......

                                                                              Before

                                                                                After

Isn't that looking so much better?  There is still the trim to do and of course we need an adapter to make up for the gap between the pipe and the chimney.  If we can swing it we might even be purchasing a new wood stove to take advantage of the tax credit that runs out after this year.  We love our little Jotul wood stove but it is a bit too small for our home.   A little tip - when shopping for a wood stove make sure you ask whether the heating space per square foot is based on *open* space or *partitioned* space.  Our stove would be just the right size if we had no interior walls!

I just hope that everything will be place before it does get really cold!

September is here again.

For the past 5 years or so we have gone camping the last two weeks of August.  It is always a wonderful trip but I am invariably shocked by that first glance of the calendar when we get back and I see it will be September...ummm......in two days???  My fuzzy beach brain starts to turn its wheels amid the leftover grit of sand that pours from every person and article of clothing that comes into the house.  September...September....Oh....September!!  SCHOOL days...right...we've got to start something that at least resembles something school-like, right?   Well...it's not Labor Day yet.  So we wait until after Labor Day weekend which gives me time to begin the mountains of laundry and the unpacking and deal with all the other ramifications of an extended camping trip. 

Ok we'll start Tuesday, Sept 7th...but that is Katie's Birthday!!  Start school on Katie's Birthday? No I couldn't do it; especially since there won't be any real presents to open as every penny Ed and I can scrape together is going to pay for Katie's trip to England with the Youth Orchestra this summer.  Her birthday request - a ride to daily Mass - that I can do.

Wednesday?  Well sure but we have a scheduled violin lesson in the morning and Choir starts in the afternoon.....Thursday?  YES....we start Thursday!  Well...sort of... I mean we are trying to clean up the house so Katie can have a friend over for a sleepover this weekend...I have an appointment Friday....I at least clean and arrange the Festival Table which displays new treasures from Cape Cod as well as some old favorites in honor of The Nativity of Blessed Virgin under one of my favorite Marion titles - Star of the Ocean.

This is our homeschool life in September....the activities that have been left off for the summer creep back into the schedule.  We are still outside everyday basking in the waning days of summer.  We are reading our latest read aloud, Swallowdale - a great fit for this last month of summer.  The calendar is already filling up and by the next Monday the math books are out once again....

A Seaweed Sunday

Can you tell we've had a bit of trouble with weeds in the lake this year?  Generally the weeds are kept down by lowering the lake in the winter to allow cold temperatures to kill off some of the weeds.   We have all kinds of theories as to why the weed growth is so bad this year -

Very warm temperatures?
Too little rain?
Muskrats nibbling the weeds so more float to the top?
Some combination?

Or maybe it is some kind of cycle - when my husband and I first drove back and saw the little lake - which was very near the little house we were about to buy - we thought eeww - no one could possibly swim in THAT!  The little body of water was choked with large mats of weeds.  But we quickly found out that the lake is generally very clear and great to swim in.

We use the lake a lot and don't mind giving it a little extra TLC this year.  You wouldn't believe the amount of weeds being taken out of that lake right now - and not just by us - other neighbors are taking turns on weed patrol as well.

The photos are from a Sunday a few weeks ago when we were all actually home - together - for the whole day!  Late in the afternoon the whole family launched kayaks and armed themselves with rakes.  I took charge of the wheelbarrow and transported barrels-full of weeds to a near by spot where we dump leaves.  Everyone helped - willingly even - and had fun!  Strange way to spend a Sunday afternoon but somehow it worked.

We are home now and getting back into the swing of things but I hope to continue to journal the rest of our Florida trip.  We have one camera that is currently missing - and Hannah took her camera with her to a friend's house this evening...so I'll be adding pictures as I find them!

Island on the road....Day 4

Easter Sunday!

Yes, the tell tale red egg that signifies a visit from the Easter hare was spotted quickly as two boys emerged from the camper -

The red egg!

Hmmm...I think all that's missing is the Wolf suit

.

We had a nice breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, citrus fruit, bacon, and toasted crossiants.  This camping toaster is actually one of our favorite pieces of camping equipment.  It was a gift from my sister-in-law and family and I have to admit that we were skeptical at first but it works great!  One of the great things about camping is that you can bring special little items that can make a meal feel homey - like my sicilian orange spread. Yum!

I was a little worried about Easter clothes being presentable for Mass.  I had ironed everything, placed the clothes on hangers and then carefully spread them out on the beds of the pop-up under the bedding.  Once we arrived I could hang them up and I think we all managed to look pretty well for campers.

Easter 2010

Mass was beautiful at the Cathedral Basilica of St.Augustine.  After Mass the children all enjoyed their first ice-cream cone after our traditional lenten sugar fast.  And later that afternoon....we were on the beach!   The only thing that didn't get planned out so well was Easter dinner - hot dogs over the campfire.  Oh well, there were no complaints.

Island on the road....Day 3

Saturday was the last stretch of driving through North Carolina, South Carolina, and a bit of Georgia before we reached sunny Florida!  We were very grateful that the weather was pleasant and the children all traveled very well.  I passed the time getting ready for Easter morning in a pop-up camper.  I wasn't sure your typical Easter baskets would travel very well so instead I printed out some paper baskets from The Toymaker

I printed a bunny basket for each child.  For the girls I chose the pretty little egg basket from the same page and for the boys I picked put the Chocolate truck.  I printed them before we left, along with tape, scissors, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, and thread.  When I had all the baskets cut out I started making butterflies.

We rolled into the campground around 7:00pm.  We are pretty good at setting camp up quickly and we were all settled by bedtime.  The children were tired from traveling and went to sleep quickly.  I set up a little corner of the camper for Easter morning.

A surprise waiting for the children

But I know the big question on Aidan's mind as he difted off to sleep...would the Easter Hare find us in Florida??  We'll see!

Island on the road.....Day 2

Most of Friday was spent driving through Virginia.  As we got closer  to the mountains we appreciated the scenary as we've been watching the Waltons on DVD's from Netflix.  Hmm....we all wondered where Walton's mountain might have been.  We expected to get to Grandpa's house around 2:00pm.  But the GPS seems to calculate the arrival time based on the posted speed limits of the roads being traveled.  We all wondered how on earth these twisty curvy roads could be traveled at 55 mph by any vehicle let alone one pulling a pop-up camper.

As we watched the GPS add more and more minutes to our destination time we did enjoy the land of Christmas trees!  The boys were busy imagining which hills would be best to sleigh ride on.

Finally we get to Grandpa's!  We haven't seen Grandpa in over five years.  In honor of Good Friday we had a fish and chips dinner with hush puppies.   The beautiful smokey mountains were in the backdrop. 

We went to sleep to the sounds of peeping frogs and a babbling brook.  We were up the next morning and on the road again but we were all very happy that we got at least a brief visit with Grandpa.

Island on the road........destination St. Augustine, FL


We're ready!

All packed and ready to go!

Crossing Dingman's Bridge takes us out of New Jersey and into Pennslyvania.

Dingman's Bridge

The plan was to make it through Pennslyvania, Maryland, and West Virginia before stopping at a Virginia campground for the night.   But....before we made it out of PA we got the news that the campground in Virginia did not accept campers after 10:00pm.  We were not going to make it.    Ok plan "B" except that we did not have a plan "B".   That was the first insance that we were all glad Ed brought along his netbook.  We stopped at some point in West Virginia to find a hotel.

A family seeking shelter for the night - will there be room at the inn?

YES!  We found a hotel in West Virginia that included breakfast in the morning.  Next stop - North Carolina to see Grandpa.

We're almost ready.....

Well...sort of...there's still the actual business of getting everything into the pop-up camper but we are getting there.  I am trying not to dwell on what we will be missing here at home as we attempt to take our road trip in these last days of Holy Week.   I did recently purchase Lingua Angelica which has selections that are appropriate for Holy Thursday through Easter.  I also have The Beloved Son to play as well.  Of course I'll try to sneak in some of these selections between listening to stories on CD. We are well armed to battle the many hours of driving with  -

The Lightening Thief

Book 2 of this series we started on a different trip

and Book 3

These should be good for about 25 hours of driving time and just in case..we've got one more The Hobbit.

And speaking of being armed and ready, apparently Aidan has big plans for our trip to Florida, here are the items on his very own packing list -

Wallet

Tiger

Panther

(I think it is a leopard, I suspect Aidan thinks of him as his own personal Hobbes)

Wind up LED lanterns

Circle-a-word book

sketch pad

Glow-in-the-dark book

And last but not least.....

his turtle back pack

Upon examing the contents of the backpack this is what I found:

Aidan's alligator catching kit

Yes, Aidan plans to catch himself an alligator,  hence the need for a large carabineer and old clothesline.  The screwdriver is in case he loses the key to the alligator's cage.  The caution tape is in case the alligator escapes.  And of course the small tape measure is to measure his alligator. 

The other items are simply what any boy might need to enjoy any trip - a harmonica, cars, flashlights, pencil, and a phone.  After negotiations (as in Mama saying "No, you can not bring that") we decided that the broken flashlight and old hand held house phone would stay home.

Back to packing....

It is really feeling like Spring.  The temperatures have been so mild that we haven't had anything but a small fire in the woodstove for days.  The turtle has been spotted on his favorite log, the Spring peepers have been heard peeping, the coltsfoot has been spotted, and the robins are quarreling in the yard!

We are in full swing cleaning and getting ready for a big trip over Easter to Anastasia State Park.  But I  will be back for the opening of a new forum that will  help us Encourage One Another in this endeavor to parent and educate our children.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Although...when you have a bagpiper in the family it is more like Happy St. Patrick's Week!  The weekend before and the weekend after St. Patrick's Day are big parade days.   This year the first parade Hannah was scheduled for didn't go too well - after standing in the rain for 45 minutes the parade was cancelled due to the threat of wind.  But since everyone was there and assembled why not play a set or two?

Here's a nice shot of Hannah at the that appeared in a local paper.

But apparently - the police officers who were trying to reopen the road to traffic were...less than pleased...with the band taking matters into their own hands.  There are even  rumors that when the parade is rescheduled the band may not be invited back.     Good grief - where has the world's sense of humor gone?  Or how about a sense of adventure! Or spontaneity! 

A happy but soggy Piper!

Back at home we've been enjoying selections from A Pot O' Gold: A Treasury of Irish Stories, Poetry, Folklore, and (of Course) Blarney.  We especially liked the story of "St. Patrick and the Salmon" - I bet you didn't know it was St. Patrick who blessed the salmon with the ability to jump.  The story is that much more vivid to us having seen the salmon run this past fall on the Oswego river in NY.

I bought a corned beef at the supermarket - even after I read the label - I am now pretending I just didn't see the "ingredients" at all - in fact I guess I might as well pretend it was completely home cured from a cut of grass fed organic beef - I figure everyone's entitled to their own bit of blarney on St. Patrick's Day - right?

And we thought we made Irish Soda Bread but actually what Hannah made was two loaves of what might be called "Spotted Dog Cake" according to the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.  I am scandalized that this lover of all things *authentic* did not catch onto this sooner.  Well now I know how not to embarrass myself at an Irish Feis if I ever dare enter a "Soda Bread"!

And I have been feeling a little blue lately, a little overwhelmed, a little well...lost.  I have three things that help ease my more melancholic episodes....a visit to the ocean....cleaning...and crafting.  No visit to the ocean but my husband's Explorer is "mostly" clean now and this little fellow has joined our  St. Patrick's Day Festival Table :

A wee Leprechaun

I see that he is missing his hat band - I'll have to fix that - and he needs a bit more curve to his hat - but overall I like him.  I was first inspired by this post at Wee Folk Art but lacking the wooden body piece I improvised with different colored roving I had on hand. 

And of course a post about St. Patrick's Day would not be complete without an Irish Blessing -

May those who love us love us.
And those who that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we'll know them by their limping!
--From A Pot O' Gold (the treasury mentioned above).

Maple Sugaring 2010

The torch has passed from older sister Hannah to younger sister Katie.  We put in our first taps around February 20th.  The ground was covered with quite a bit of snow leftover from our only impressive snowstorm of the winter season.  The first gathers of sap were not fun as the buckets of sap had to be lifted and carried above the snow.  But very soon the snow began to melt - when the trees are tapped you know spring is just around the corner.

Snow covered ground a few days ago.

Katie carrying heavy buckets.

But now the snow has disappeared and the rising tempatures at night mean that our sap flow may disappear as well.  The sap flow depends on the contrasting temperatures of below freezing at night to above freezing during the day.

Today

With the ten day forecast showing temps above freezing both day and night, Katie's first season of syruping may be rather short.  But she will have another try next year.  Katie is using any money she raises from syruping to help fund a trip to England with her orchestra in the summer of 2011. 

I never thought I'd be hoping for those colder temperatures to stick around for a little while but....we have a lot of people who are asking for our syrup!

The big 7th and 8th grade Winter project in our homeschool has become Maple Sugaring - this activity has tied into so many great topics in science, literature, business, art, marketing and more...  My oldest daughter in now a homeschool freshman, the project has been passed to her younger sister, but we found one more opportunity for Hannah.

A friend of mine teaches kindergarten in a local charter school and she invited Hannah to tell the children about her Maple Sugaring experience.  Hannah put together her presentation completely on her own - complete with props and drawings to help the younger children understand. 

Here is Hannah setting up for her presentation complete with a maple tree stump, and jars of sap and finished syrup.

She used the stump and a section of branch to explain how you can identify a maple in winter when you don't have their leaves for identification.

Here is the picture she used to help illustrate how the sap comes up from the roots to the higher branches.

She did a great job presenting the material in an age appropriate way.  She has had several years of experience with younger children - not only her younger siblings - but helping her Dad at a science and technology based summer camp as well.

Aidan and I had a weekend to ourselves and boy did he keep me busy!

We went to the library to stock up on books and pick out a movie.

We made lots of paper airplanes.
Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes

We made Carrot Cake to bring to the pot luck supper -

We went to Mass and the pot luck supper where we had a very nice chat with Fr. who joined us for dinner.

We made pancakes - well Aidan made the pancakes - all by himself.  "I can do it, Mom."   "Umm... Mom can you get me..."  "Mom...I need..." but really he did a great job.

We played many, many games of  Pictureka!  He beat me every time!

We played  Marbles.  Our kitty Curry wanted to play too but that didn't work out so well.

And so much more!  Whew -