365 days in a Homeschool WAHM's Life

Day 136

2009-09-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday at the park with the homeschool group again.

Day 135

2009-09-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

I took the kids in to have portraits taken today. The results are posted in my Facebook album (it should be a public link), but here's a shot I snagged with my camera phone while the photographer wasn't looking. Funny how different it looks watching the portraits than the results.

Day 134

2009-09-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

The kids really like watching the popcorn pop in my Stir-Crazy! Looks like I got a bit too much in this batch.

Day 133

2009-09-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

Sleeping babes in car seats. So sweet.

Day 132

2009-09-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hanging out in Troutdale with the family. We saw these cute little bronze statues across the street from the city hall, so we had the cousins all sit for a picture.

After we were done walking through the little Old Town section of Troutdale, we went back to the house to load up our gear, then over to the Beverly Cleary park in Portland. We were in the middle of reading Beezus and Ramona so we had to go find the statues of the characters from the books. I love this shot of Sarah with Ramona!

One last picture today... my geek-ness is showing. The odometer in our Saturn VUE hit 091309. Today's date? 09/13/09. I even turned on the date stamp on the camera so you can see it.

Day 131

2009-09-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

Visiting at my brother's house in Portland. He and the kids found a couple little frogs in the front flower bed. The kids were pretty excited!

Day 130

2009-09-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

We headed up to Portland today so we stopped at the Wildlife Safari on the way. As we happened to be sitting watching some giraffes, the feeding truck for the close-up encounters pulled around us. I got some great close-ups! I purposely took a couple with the passenger side mirror showing at the bottom of the frame so you can see how close we were.

I had no idea giraffe profiles were so bony and bumpy!

Day 129

2009-09-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... pancakes! I love my new griddle, it makes such lovely browned pancakes.

Day 128

2009-09-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

A lovely sunset.

Day 127

2009-09-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Bathtime at Grandma's house! Complete with bubble-goatee.

Day 126

2009-09-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

We spent this holiday weekend helping Dana (the one who helped us clear out the spare room last weekend) refinish her kitchen cabinets. They look great, and she owes us a ton of babysitting or decluttering help time! LOL Gotta love the barter system...

Day 125

2009-09-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Costco this afternoon and parked next to this Honda convertible. It was so tiny! I had to have Sarah stand next to it and snag a picture to show how tiny it was. Remember, Sarah is the 4-year-old. Only about 3 feet 3 inches tall. She's taller than the hood!

Day 124

2009-09-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

Another picture of Sarah... I held the camera out and she pushed the button to take her own picture. We were killing time waiting on Daddy and Hannah after church!

Day 123

2009-09-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Sarah drew her own little hopscotch game today. And when I say little, I mean little! Her little feet barely fit inside the squares!

Day 122

2009-09-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

We went to a BBQ at the clinic I work for this afternoon. Sarah seems to really be enjoying the cupcakes they had for dessert!

Day 121

2009-09-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

The moon came up before the sun fully set tonight. It looked really cool with some clouds cutting across it, especially the ones tinged with pink from the setting sun.

Day 120

2009-09-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

This is the view from our church. It's really pretty, especially during the spring and fall. This is just before sunset, looking north, so it's a little dark. I love the way the sun comes across the tree tops as it sets.

Day 119

2009-08-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

We cleaned out the spare room yesterday. (Thanks for the help, Dana!!)

This is the load of stuff I dropped off at the thrift store this afternoon!

Day 118

2009-08-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

The weather has been just crazy this summer. Hot, then COLD, then back to HOT and then cold again! I mean really... it went from 113 one week to in the 80s the next! It really confused my poor Flowering Plum tree. It was so confused, it blossomed a second time!

Day 117

2009-08-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

A friend invited us over to go swimming this afternoon. The kids had a blast!

Day 116

2009-08-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

We went with some friends to the Community Fun Fair this afternoon. Lots of vendors, some giving away free samples. Lots of stuff to look at and do, even if there wasn't as much free as I hoped there would be. I had back to school pictures taken by a photo studio that was there (free), and had the girls' faces painted (not free, but I've always thought it was so cool and never had it done, so we went for it.)

Day 115

2009-08-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today was Park Day again, but instead of yet another picture of the kids playing in the spray park, here's a picture I took with my phone of some very cool cloud formations. The depth isn't great since it was taken with my phone, after all, but it still looks cool. The puffs looked like fish scales all lined up.

Day 114

2009-08-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Picture to follow soon, hopefully. Tonight was registration at Adventurers and although I forgot my camera, I asked my friend Laura to take photos of the activity I had planned for the kids. We worked on the Ladybug award, and I brought in live ladybugs, donated by Ladybug Indoor Gardens. After the kids got to watch the ladies crawl around in the little tent I had them in, and do a couple of crafts (including a thank you card for the garden shop), we went outside to release some of them. I think Laura got lots of good pictures of the kids holding the ladies, until her camera broke!! Oh nooooo! So then we used Michelle's camera. So again... as soon as one of them emails their pictures to me, I'll add it! Hehehe.

Day 111

2009-08-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't have my camera with me, but the Table Rock looked so pretty as I rode out to Gold Hill with my friend to go to a Scentsy party, I snapped this picture with my phone as we were going down the freeway.

I'm actually quite impressed at how it turned out!

Day 110

2009-08-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

Someone brought fresh corn-on-a-knob to potluck today. Hannah didn't want to just hold it in her hands without a knob to hold onto, so she asked me to jam forks into the ends. LOL

Day 108

2009-08-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

Park Day again with the homeschoolers... see, I told you there wouldn't be much variation in my photos! Here's Hannah with one of her friends, Arianna.

Day 106

2009-08-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

The calendar I'm planning to use for next year came in the mail today. I love all the stickers that comes with it. This will be my second year using the FlyLady calendar. I actually used the one for 2009 all year (so far)! That's new for me...

Day 104

2009-08-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Ever since her nearly-3-week long escapade outdoors, Slinky has turned into a real glutton for attention. I even caught her begging for ear scritches from my Mom, who was babysitting one afternoon last week. Normally, someone who came to visit in our home wouldn't even SEE Slinky until they had stayed for 2 or 3 days. She snuggles with the kids and rolls all over them, unable to get enough human contact.

Day 103

2009-08-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

Friends invited us to go with them Sabbath afternoon to Crater Lake. I haven't been there since I was probably 8 years old. I don't really remember much about it. Since it was a nice day, as well as free admission day, we happily accepted. It was beautiful!

Day 102

2009-08-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today was the day. We were at Costco and I had to buy toilet paper. This is the first time in nearly 9 years that I have purchased toilet paper for our household. We've finally brought the last 24-pack of Grandpa's toilet paper into the house. I wonder how many hundreds of dollars our "inheritance" of toilet paper has saved us in purchases in that amount of time?

Editing to add the full story, just for Ruby! LOL

Ok... Charlie's Grandpa lived during the Depression. They couldn't afford things like toilet paper so they had to use pages out of catalogs, and when those ran out, they had to use corn cobs. He said they weren't so bad when they were fresh, but when they dried out...

So he always said "I'll never use corn cobs again" and every time he went to town (they lived out in the country), if there was a good price on toilet paper, he bought a case, whether they needed it or not. By the time he died in 2000, he had toilet paper stuffed in every nook and cranny of their place. They lived on 10 acres with a huge garage/shop. There were cases of toilet paper stuffed up in the rafters. Stacks of toilet paper in the basement. Everywhere he could store it, there was toilet paper.

My in-laws took a bunch of toilet paper back to SoCal with them after Grandpa died. Twice, they filled from the axles forward, to the top of the inside of the camper shell. Charlie's uncle took a bunch back to Tennessee with him, too. He was picky though and only took the "good" stuff, so he didn't take as much. We packed my station wagon to the brim, front, back and in between. There was barely room for me to sit in there and shift. We piled it up in our garage in a stack about 3 feet deep, 6 feet wide, and 5 feet tall. And that was 10 months after Grandpa had died and Grandma moved back to Tennessee with her son, so we lived in their house to take care of it for a while. So we used toilet paper there for 10 months, plus all the toilet paper that had gone to the other family.

Just last week we finally brought in the last of Grandpa's toilet paper. It's going to be quite a shock to me to have to start buying toilet paper after nearly 9 years!

Day 101

2009-08-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Back at the park again for Park Day with the homeschool group. What fun! It was warmer this week, so the girls were happy to play in the water.

Day 100

2009-08-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Just about anywhere you go in the town where I live, you'll see these giant hanging flower baskets. Anywhere commercial, that is. They aren't in the residential areas. But all up and down the main streets, on the lampposts crossing the bridge, etc. I've seen the little city truck going around early in the morning watering them. They're really pretty!

Day 99

2009-08-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Rogue Valley School of Ballet offered a free Ballet Fair today. They had a Little Princess Tea Party, a ballet performance, and a craft. The girls were so thrilled about the dances - they clapped wildly at the end of each one and were practically vibrating with excitement.

Day 97

2009-08-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day! The camp host offered to give rides around the lower end of the lake on his new pontoon boat. It was so beautiful out, how could we say no? We saw this brightly colored catamaran sailing around as we were taking our tour.

Day 96

2009-08-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

It was really cold up at the lake when we arrived Friday afternoon, but that's what campfires, coats and warm sleeping bags are for!

However, we were certainly glad when Saturday dawned clear and bright. It warmed up nicely without getting too hot. Here's a view from the south-east end of the lake. Charlie and I went on a bike ride down the trail and took this photo while out and about.

Day 95

2009-08-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

We headed out to the lake Friday afternoon. It was cloudy and cold. But we had made our reservations for the church camp-out to be held this weekend several months ago, and come rain or shine, we were going to enjoy it!

This is what the sky looked like as we drove out there.

Day 94

2009-08-06T14:22:00.001-07:00

Today was our weekly park day with the other homeschoolers. Just one week ago it was over 100 degrees every day, even breaking record high temperatures a couple of days. Just two days ago it was in the 90s. Today? It's in the low 70s, which is perfect! But, it's overcast and rainy. Actually, after the beastly heat recently, even the clouds and rain are quite welcome.

Last week we switched our park day meeting place to the spray park where we had the girls' birthday party a few days earlier, due to the heat. The kids had such fun, we decided to go back today. Even though it was overcast. There's a nice playground right next to the spray area, and even better, it doesn't have swings, so those of us with 4 year olds aren't being pulled away from the other Moms with cries of "Mom, come push me!!"

It was kind of chilly and cool, in the 60s, when we arrived, so the kids pretty much opted to play on the playground. We'd been there just over an hour when it started to sprinkle. And then to rain. I always have my umbrella and the two little princess umbrellas in the back of my car, so we got those out. I guess the kids decided that since they were getting wet from the rain anyway, they would just go play in the spray area. With umbrellas. It was great fun to watch all the kids huddling under my umbrella in the middle of the spray park!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sarah from this morning. Click on it to see a larger version!

If you'd like to check out the rest of the pictures - the ones of all the kids under the umbrella are especially funny - please click here!

Day 93

2009-08-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

We stopped by the office earlier today to pick up some paperwork and my cousin's son was there. He's about 20 months old and just the cutest thing. He was happy to walk around with one girl holding each hand and didn't even seem to mind Hannah trying to carry him around.

Sarah, Jareth and Hannah

Day 92

2009-08-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

Slinky got out of the house when Sarah accidentally left the door open 18 days ago. We saw her a week ago and borrowed a live animal trap from a friend and we caught her this morning! She's settled right back into being our house kitty - she's sitting in her usual spot at my feet as I type! You can see by the pictures that she doesn't appear to be any worse for her experience, but I'm taking her to the vet for a check-up tomorrow, just in case.

Day 91

2009-08-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is the side entrance into our garage. All those dark spots are where the hail from the storm a couple nights ago scuffed the door!

Day 90

2009-08-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... biscuits and chocolate gravy for breakfast. A birthday tradition at Charlie's house as he was growing up. He has to continue it on in our family, naturally, and since Hannah had a birthday a couple days ago, he decided to make some. Before anyone says "ewwww", you should know that it's somewhat like a thick, semi-sweet chocolate pudding. It's not made with a savory base, like a meat gravy would be.

Soooooo delicious!

Day 89

2009-08-01T23:32:00.000-07:00

Hannah turned 6 years old yesterday. I made her a dress to wear to church today that coordinates with Sarah's. Remember from 3 weeks ago, Sarah's dress is a pink background, has sleeves, and a ribbon at the empire waist. Hannah's, you can see, is purple, sleeveless, and has the ribbons tied in bows at the top of the 6 godets that are added to make her skirt twirl even more than Sarah's. Oh, and notice the matching handbag! Sarah has one now, too.

There was a crazy thunderstorm here this evening. It dumped a whole lot of hail on us, too. We were up swimming with some friends and the hail went around that area, so my Saturn was saved, but Charlie's car is dimpled all over the top. The hail was at least as big around as a quarter, and there was apparently a lot of it, because we found it drifted up in banks like snow when we got home! Below is Charlie's hand, not one of the kids! And this is about 3 hours after the hail came through, so it had already started to melt.

Day 86

2009-07-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Where there's smoke...

There's a beautiful sunset.

Day 83

2009-07-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

Another benefit of a July birthday when it's HOT outside... we have the party at a Spray Park and I don't have to plan games or activities! We have at least 5 spray parks in the area to choose from, and the kids love it.

By the way... the green smoothie popsicles were a HUGE hit with the kids and grown-ups alike.

Day 82

2009-07-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the big birthday party for Hannah (6) and Sarah (4). Since it's July and HOT, it's hard to plan something that won't melt too fast for their snack. I'm also all about convenience, so I've been doing cupcakes since Sarah's first birthday - this makes our fourth year of that. Last year the icing all melted. Yuck. So this year I'm just doing powdered sugar dusted over the top of the vegan cupcakes I made from scratch. We have a couple of vegan kids that are coming, and others that prefer vegan when possible, and one that we invited is vegan by necessity - he gets really sick if he eats anything that has egg or dairy in it. So, vegan cupcakes it is! All the cake mixes seem to have dairy in them, and 99% of them have red dye in them - we also have someone coming who can't have red dye.

That also brings us to the issue of ice cream. Again, the vegan issue. Popsicles? Sure... but then there's the red dye issue again. And the natural ones are SO expensive! So one of my good friends suggested making my own fruit juice popsicles in dixie cups with popsicle sticks. Hope, you are BRILLIANT! Instead of fruit juice though, we made fruit smoothies. With spinach. Yep, we made green smoothie popsicles! Well, they aren't the COLOR green, because they also have blueberries and blackberries in the mix, and that turns it purple, even with spinach in them. But we still call them green smoothies because they have greens in them. Our girls always insist we not forget the spinach when we make smoothies.

Here's our tray of smoothie cups, ready to add popsicle sticks and toss in the freezer!

Day 81

2009-07-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

A better view of the railroad tie section of the retaining wall. We're attempting to hide the view of the utility junction boxes when we are looking out at the yard from the front door. We'll be adding one more railroad tie on the top; we decided it wasn't tall enough!

Day 80

2009-07-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

We're making quite a bit of progress on our retaining wall!

Day 77

2009-07-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Our church is planning a camp retreat in a couple of weeks so two other members of the social committee and the kids and I went to check out the facility this afternoon. It's going to be fun, and the lake is absolutely beautiful!

Day 72

2009-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

Charlie got the ends of the railroad ties trimmed this evening, so he got started on the block section.

Day 70

2009-07-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the Britt Children's Festival today. This is an annual event put on by the Storytelling Guild. There are more crafts and imaginative displays than we can get through in one day, but we just don't have the time to do more than that! Last year, Sarah didn't want anything to do with the giant bubbles, but she remembered them and asked specifically if we could go over to them today. They have a hula hoop sitting inside a kiddie pool filled with "bubble stuff". When they lift the hoop, it makes a giant bubble around the whole child. You can see she enjoyed it this year!

Day 69

2009-07-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

We went rafting on the river today with a group of friends from church - about 23 of us. One of our friends had a tahiti and let the girls ride with him a while. Here's Sarah having her turn!

When we got home, we got back to work on the retaining wall in the front yard. Here's the section with railroad ties around the utility junction boxes.

Day 68

2009-07-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th Birthday to Sarah! I haven't taken pictures this week because I've been working like mad on this dress that I sewed for her. I didn't even buy the fabric until Monday, and I had the dress finished by Thursday night, in time for her to wear to church today (Saturday).

I also managed to get Hannah's dress-shirt dress finished, along with a matching hair bow!

Day 63

2009-07-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sarah got her hair cut a bit shorter on Friday, too. Finally got around to taking a picture this afternoon.

Day 62

2009-07-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be making another dress-shirt dress for Hannah this week.

Day 61

2009-07-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

(photo taken from up on the roof of my house, of the Eagle Point High School fireworks display)

Day 60

2009-07-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hannah had her first big-girl haircut this afternoon. We went with a cute bob, and she really likes it! Naturally I forgot my camera again, and had to settle for a phone picture!

Day 57

2009-06-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

We went to the Wildlife Safari for the first time today. It's only about an hour and a half away, and we've lived here almost 9 years, yet we haven't made it out there, even though we've driven by a dozen times or more.

It was fun, and thanks to Little Grandma & Papa, we have a one-year membership now, so we'll be back again!

Day 55

2009-06-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

I didn't have my camera with me today. But I had my phone in my pocket, of course! We were looking at a property we are possibly interested in making an offer on when I saw this butterfly on their flowers.

Day 54

2009-06-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

Some friends were camping over at Rogue River this weekend. I had happened to meet Julie on Facebook and it turns out we have a number of friends in common from "back in the day". Since we only live an hour or so away from each other now, and they were camping only a half hour away, naturally we had to meet. Turns out Julie remembered Charlie from various youth meetings when we were teenagers and she came to visit her uncle - who happens to work for Charlie's Dad and attended our church for just about forever.

Our Hannah and their oldest, Lexy (Lexie?), are only about 3 months apart in age and hit it off instantly. No surprise to Julie or myself. Hehehe.

Day 51

2009-06-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

We decided to meet a couple of friends at the spray park before Vacation Bible School today. It's hot!!

Day 49

2009-06-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

We went to the Toga Shop at VBS tonight. The kids got to be wrapped up in Toga cloth, it was too cute!

Day 48

2009-06-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

What a great first night at VBS! We had nearly 75 kids show up, and a lot of their parents stayed, too. This is the "family time" when we divide into groups to talk about what we'll be doing that night (or what we've just finished doing - beginning and ending family times).

Day 47

2009-06-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Our church is putting on a Vacation Bible School starting tomorrow. It's "Paul, Rome and the Underground Church", featuring Paul in the time of the early Christians when they had to worship hiding in caves. We've turned most of the church grounds into Rome, AD 70. I love what they came up with for the potty station! LOL!

Day 46

2009-06-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Park Day! We go to the park with the local homeschool group every Thursday - barring bad weather! During the school year (and especially when it's rainy) we meet for a more structured P.E. style class, in a gym type room at a church a few minutes away. But for summer fun, we just enjoy the park!

Day 45

2009-06-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Not an exciting day. Can you spot the error on this sign?

Day 44

2009-06-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

The new sundresses I made for the girls. Found this fabric on sale for $2.48 a yard and only needed 2 yards for 2 dresses!

Day 43

2009-06-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Sarah opened the door to look outside a little while ago and shrieked with excitement. Apparently the babies are getting big enough to really be wandering around with Mom. I grabbed the camera and stepped outside as quietly as I could, but they still started to move away. I had to zoom out pretty far to get this picture, and unfortunately only managed to get 2 of the babies in the shot - there are three of them again this year!

Day 42

2009-06-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Hannah found a green lady bug today. It was crawling so fast it was all I could do to snap one good close-up!

Day 41

2009-06-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

A quiet day at home today, just doing laundry and such. Charlie went down to work on the VBS set again. Here's the view of the sunset from our back deck.

Day 40

2009-06-13T23:59:00.001-07:00

A friend asked us at church today if we wanted to go with them up to the Rogue River Gorge. This is a fairly narrow channel which the Rogue River races through at incredible speed and force. It's carved out of lava rock and there are a number of places you can see open ends of lava tubes from when Mt. Mazama erupted thousands of years ago.

Charlie wasn't able to come with us, he had to run the p.a. at church for the evening program, so it was just the girls and me with our friends Rosalee and Dana. Kind of a girls' day out. Fun!

We also stopped the Natural Bridge - just a couple miles further down, also made of lava rock. It's a bed of hardened lava rock that the river goes through - the river actually disappears under the rock and comes up a few hundred feet away. We hiked about a half mile up the trail to where we could get right down on the riverbank, when it started pouring rain! We had a great time hiking back to the car in the downpour.

Stopped at the fish hatchery on the way back down from the mountain. The girls had a great time feeding the fish - there are food stations provided where you can buy a handful of food for them for a quarter. We barely made it back to the van there before it began to rain again!

The perfect end to a fabulous day... a gorgeous rainbow split the sky. I especially liked how this photo came out with the tree in silhouette in front of it.

Day 39

2009-06-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sarah, what do you have in your hands?

Ohhh I should have known. A roly-poly! We are completely inundated with these little guys this year, and both girls are totally enamored with them. I should have waited 5 minutes to take the picture... Sarah had about 10 of them in her hand!

Day 38

2009-06-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

We're helping get ready for the upcoming Vacation Bible School that our church is putting on in just over a week's time. The theme is Paul and the Underground Church in Rome. It's going to be so cool! Anyone in the southern Oregon area is welcome to attend! It should be fun for all ages. For more info, click here.

Tonight I went down to the church to help Charlie do paper mache cave walls.

Day 37

2009-06-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Fun with sidewalk chalk...

"Sarah, the Rock Star", by Hannah, age 5 (6 next month!!)

Day 36

2009-06-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

Not watching TV makes for a lot more imaginative games than we had before - and we didn't have a shortage of it even then! The TV was background noise for a good 80% of the time, but music makes even better background noise and isn't as distracting to the imagination!

Here's Hannah, with all her dolls and stuffed animals lined up at the edge of a blanket. She's the teacher and they are all her students.

Day 35

2009-06-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

Sarah the fire-fighter. Just an at-home day today.

Day 34

2009-06-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Gluten-kabobs! We used the recipe for the gluten ribs I posted a couple weeks ago but instead of cutting it into rib shapes, we just cut squares out of it for kabobs. Yum! Red, yellow and orange bell peppers, onions, whole mushrooms, fresh pineapple chunks, brushed with teriyaki sauce and grilled. Mmm...

Day 33

2009-06-06T23:28:00.000-07:00

We went to the coast this weekend. It started out as fairly overcast, and then the other beach we went to when the sun came out wasn't really a pretty beach, just a long straight stretch of sand. I'll post the pictures on my main webpage, but just this castle for here.

Day 32

2009-06-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today was day 3 of "we watch too much tv - no more!" For the past 3 days I've restricted the kids to no more than 30 minutes per morning and 30 minutes per afternoon. I remember one summer we spent at a babysitter's house who had kids about our ages. She restricted us to that limit and it worked well. So far they've been watching Wilbur on Discovery Kids in the morning, and Word World on PBS in the afternoon. They've been playing with their blocks and really getting imaginative. I think this was their attempt at creating corrals for their toy ponies and other small animals.

Day 31

2009-06-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

My beauties...

Day 30

2009-06-03T20:10:00.001-07:00

Rain on my window. Seems like there's a song about that, but I can't think of it right now.

Day 29

2009-06-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

The kids went out into the backyard today and came running in, breathless with excitement, to tell me there was a frog in the pool!

The thunderstorm last night had dumped all kinds of tree debris in the water, and the frog seemed to like it - it would swim over and hide under a leaf sometimes. They wanted to keep the little guy, but I told them we had to wait for Daddy to come home. Thankfully, the frog had made his way out of the pool before Daddy got here and hopped off. Phew!

Day 28

2009-06-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

I have never professed to being good with plants - particularly house plants. I've managed to kill almost every one I've ever had. Right now I have one pothos that is going on two years now - that's got to be some kind of record for me!

A bit over a year ago, my mom gave me a tiny little start of an aloe vera plant, in a yogurt cup. It was maybe 3 little stalks poking up out of the dirt, about 3 inches tall and no bigger around than my pinky finger. Apparently this aloe likes my north-facing kitchen window, because it's gone crazy. It's got branches two inches thick and a foot high. I've had to re-pot it twice, and right now it's in desparate need of splitting into multiple pots. I've got a bunch of yogurt cups ready to go, just need to get some potting soil for them.

There's a calla lily peeking in on the picture on the right side. I've had that since March. So far so good, but we'll see!

Day 27

2009-05-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

Lots of things going on today that could have produced the photo for today's entry. A birthday party at the Railroad Park, another birthday party at the Spray Park... But the last one I took outside in the yard before coming in the house was the jackpot winner as soon as I snapped it!

I can't resist showing you the sunset from just 10 minutes earlier than the shot above, though. Gorgeous!

Day 26

2009-05-30T23:50:00.001-07:00

We went back to the Avenue of the Boulders today - a group of 15 of us this time (we had 13 last week). I had hoped to show the pools and waterfalls with the rock waterslide to my brother, SIL, and niece who are visiting from Portland. How sad that just one week after we were there, that part of it was all dried up!

We decided to walk down the other way to where Mill Creek Falls is located. It was so hot and muggy, even being by the creek. We all cheered when we heard thunder rolling and started to see flashes of lightning while we were sitting on the cliff across from the falls. We made it back out to the cars just as it started to rain.

The lightning flashes got bigger and brighter as we drove down the hill toward home - and it rained so hard we couldn't see! It was like driving through a touchless car wash at high speed. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lightning, but it's kind of hard to do that while it's pouring down rain and we were driving down the road. So this picture of the falls will have to do!

Day 25

2009-05-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

I was out in the yard early today - earlier than I would normally even be out of bed for the day - to talk to a rep from the phone company about the utility pipe in our yard. I had to run back in to grab the camera while she was talking to Charlie - the turkeys were out!

A couple minutes later I saw this young fella wander over. I know I've posted pictures of the deer already, but this one was only about 50 yards away from us, calmly nibbling on the wildflowers.

Day 24

2009-05-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Today was our park day with the homeschool group. Sarah didn't want to leave and sat on the curb and cried.

Day 23

2009-05-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

Another day of nothing special going on. Just working, playing with the kids, making sure they're fed and well sunscreened before letting them out in the yard, etc. So I decided to go into the field next door to our house and take a picture of some of the wildflowers / weeds growing there.

This bug looked interesting. A Google search tells me it's a Trichodes ornatus, commonly known as the Ornate Checkered Beetle.

And I liked how this flower looks sort of like a dandelion gone to seed. I haven't had any luck with Google telling me what kind of flower it is yet.

Edit: Thanks to my friend at 365 Days of Me, I've determined that this is the seed stage of the Achyrachaena mollis, known commonly as Blow Wives. Thanks!

Day 22

2009-05-26T20:21:00.001-07:00

Nothing really exciting going on today. So here's a picture of Sadie for you to enjoy. She's my baby, I guess. She's in my lap within a minute of me sitting down on the couch. And she loves to nuzzle and lick my hair. She gets all snorty and snuffly and rubs all over my head, as if it were made of catnip.

Day 21

2009-05-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day! Today I went over to the Veteran's Cemetery where my Grandpa is buried, to take a picture of all the flags out. They mark all the graves with miniature flags on Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and I think Fourth of July. Today's picture is of my Grandpa's grave marker, with the flowers that my Mom and Grandma placed there in his memory.

Actually, I'm posting two pictures today. I really liked the way this one turned out. I love how the focus on the flags goes fuzzy as they get further away from the camera. All the people in the background are waiting for the ceremony that is held every Memorial Day. There was a bagpiper playing old military songs, they fire off a military salute, and the F18 jets do a fly-over at one point.

Day 20

2009-05-24T21:11:00.001-07:00

We live in a really patriotic small town. We have a Veteran's Cemetery here, and lots of historical interest in the area. There's a neat tradition here called "Avenue of the Flags" where the main streets are lined with American Flags leading the way to the cemetery. Each flag is donated by the family of a deceased Veteran - the flags are the ones that were draped across the caskets. One of the sections I like best is the historic covered bridge. Originally built in 1922, it crossed the Antelope Creek, 12 miles up the road. In 1987 it was moved to downtown Eagle Point, and has since served as a safe walkway for children crossing the Little Butte Creek to get to the local elementary school. Both sides of the sidewalk leading to the bridge are lined with the flags, which are put up for all the national holidays that are specified as appropriate to fly the flag.

Day 19

2009-05-23T23:47:00.000-07:00

Today was another beautiful Sabbath day. We got together with some friends after church and lunch, heading up to Avenue of the Boulders at the base of Mill Creek Falls, outside of Prospect. It was a nice easy hike, especially compared to last week's hike up Table Rock, and it wasn't nearly as hot - 72 degrees instead of 92. Yikes.

Part of the water has carved out some neat little pools and falls among the giant rocks, and one rock in particular was quite smooth. It makes a great little waterslide. The kids, and even a couple of us adults, had some fun sliding down the rock, even though the water was frigid! And it was so smooth and slippery, even on the camera's sports mode, Hannah blurred a little, she was flying so fast!

Day 18

2009-05-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

We continue, slowly, making progress on our front yard. A good section of it has been tilled up and we've figured out roughly how much dirt we need to haul in. Charlie will be borrowing a truck from a friend this weekend - a nice big diesel that can haul 2 yards of dirt at once, and has a dump bed so he can just back up into the yard and dump it where we can just rake it down instead of in the street where it would have to be hauled up into the yard by wheelbarrow.

The bricks you can see stacked up here aren't permanently in place; we'll have to move them to dump the dirt on Sunday. But it gives you an idea of what our wall will look like when it's done!

Day 17

2009-05-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

One of my Facebook friends posted the recipe for these vegan "ribs" made of homemade gluten. Charlie and I recently went to a gluten-making class, so I decided to check out the recipe. It looked easy enough, and it was beautiful weather for grilling, so that's what we did tonight. We do the corn on the grill - in the shucks, soaked in water and wrapped in foil. It's our favorite way, other than in a campfire, of doing corn-on-a-knob (a Sarah-ism that will stick with us for life).

These were so easy to make! Even easier than the gluten we learned about at the class we attended. We will definitely make these again - perhaps with a couple of minor changes. A different BBQ sauce, perhaps. And Charlie thinks some McKay's Beef Seasoning in the flour would be even better.

Day 16

2009-05-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of Adventurer Club for the year. It's been a lot of fun, but I'm ready for a break for the summer! I didn't bother putting the girls in their uniforms - not even the field t-shirts - and it turned out neither did most of the other moms! My two are in pink, right in the middle, during this singing time.

Day 15

2009-05-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

I work from home as a medical biller for two local clinics owned by one Family Nurse Practitioner. Each clinic creates a "batch" for me to enter each day. A batch consists of all the payments from insurance companies or private patients that arrive in that day's mail, as well as the charge slips for each patient seen that day. I enter the payments and new charges and send out bills to the insurance companies and statements to the patients. You can see the black clips that bundle each batch together.

Recently we had a problem with a doctor not turning in her charge slips at the end of every day and the batches piled up as we waited for her charges. Is it any wonder I'm feeling overwhelmed these days?

Day 14

2009-05-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

My phone rang this morning, and I recognized the ringtone as the one I've assigned to a friend of mine. I answered and on the other end I heard the voice of my friend's 4 year old daughter saying "Hello, this is Michaela. May I talk to the kids?"

Hannah is almost 6, and Sarah is almost 4. I don't remember getting personal phone calls from my peers that young!

Day 13

2009-05-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

Charlie got started on the front yard today, even though it was pretty hot. He did some before it got too hot, and is out there right now since it's cooled off quite a bit. He got a lot of rototilling done this morning and now is starting to lay the bricks in their place, even though just roughly for now.

Day 12

2009-05-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

A friend asked us to go walk up Upper Table Rock with her this evening. It was hot this afternoon, so we didn't start our walk until 6:30 p.m. It took us about an hour and 20 minutes to hike up the trail to the top - it's 750 feet of elevation in about 1.25 miles. The view was gorgeous, even though it was hot and that meant haze around the valley. This photo was taken about half way up - we weren't even at the top yet. You can see the Rogue River cutting between the trees there in the middle.

It only took us 40 minutes to get back to the bottom. LOL

More pictures from our hike, including lots of wildflowers, can be found at The Little Zoo under the Photos section, May 2009.

Day 11

2009-05-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

We went to a potluck with the Homeschool group today. It was the monthly meeting, and since it was the last one of the "school year" we just had some brainstorming for possible summer activities, along with a potluck lunch. Since we're the only vegetarians, I made sure to bring something that we could eat but that I thought everyone else would enjoy as well.

Walnut "meatballs" in Apricot Barbecue Sauce - yum! I even had two of the non-vegetarians ask me for the recipe. ;-)

Day 10

2009-05-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

In gearing up for starting Hannah in Kindergarten this fall with homeschooling, I picked up a laminating machine the other day. I placed an order online for the plastic sheets at less than half the cost of buying them locally, and was excited to see how fast the order arrived! I've got two weeks to get my stuff ready for the next Preschool activities co-op, but I couldn't wait to try out the new laminator.