Family Reunion

We had a Dixon family reunion with Daddy-o's family.

6 of Daddy-o's siblings were there. It's always fun to get together (and hard since everyone is spread out--out of these 6, there's 2 in the Bay Area, 2 in the Fresno area, 1 in Oregon and 1 in Utah.)

The kids had a blast, as always. Peanut LOVES playing with his cousins.

All the kids that were there.

Another of our funny cousins--he struck this pose for me when I pulled out the camera. :)

These two--they are thick as thieves.

They stick pretty close whenever they are around each other.

We got to celebrate Uncle Benny's birthday, too.

The kids were all staying pretty close to that cake.

Game time with the cousins.

And running around outside.

It was a pretty short visit, but fun to see everyone!

In Her Element

I'm really glad that at least one of my kids is having the time of their life right now. Bean started high school, and water polo, four weeks ago and is absolutely loving both. Classes, homework, making a few friends--it's all going well--but joining this team has been the best thing for her.

 She has already learned so much about this new sport, and gotten a lot stronger. There is a lot of treading water and swimming sprints in a water polo game, not to mention the physical attacks. Water polo girls are tough! But we've also found her teammates to be some of the nicest girls I've ever met. I don't know if it's the norm for water polo, but these girls are so supportive and encouraging and kind to one another. There are quite a few girls on the JV team who are new to the sport and the older girls, including the Varsity team, cheer them on and really try to lift everyone up. It's such a surprising attitude in what is an aggressive, tough sport.

I've been so impressed with this girl's bravery and determination as she's tackled all these new things this last month. She was a little nervous going into the first practice, and for the first day of school, but she came home from both just bubbling over with excitement. She started making friends right away, has been keeping up with school, practicing water polo 2 hours a day, and goes to seminary (church scripture study class) before school each morning. Her schedule this fall looks a lot different than the relaxed homeschool schedule she enjoyed for the last couple years, and I think she misses sleeping in a little bit, but she is thriving with this new pace of life.

Down to One

I'm not going to lie, it's a little weird having only one child home with me during the day. But Bug and I have been trying to figure out how homeschool with only one student is going to work for us. We've been doing a lot of hiking this fall, which we both enjoy. It only becomes an issue when we realize we have a couple miles to get back to the car and the traffic is getting bad and pick up time for Peanut is looming. We have done some trail running, too.

We've been having a lot of fun with science this year--holding a class with other students has been key to us really digging in and getting to do some fun experiments. It helps that most of the class are friends that he sees regularly already.

And we are still getting creative. Bravewriter has a fun week-long Writing Blitz that I wanted to try with the boys one afternoon. The challenge to get creative with your writing medium led to all types of words written around the house.

My favorite was this warning on the kitchen floor.

It's not all smiles and play time (don't ask about math), but I'm glad I get this time with my boy. It's very different working with just one at a time, and we've had some really good conversations this year. If we only have this year, I'm hoping we can build some good foundations for 

Life Got a Little Crazy

We are still adjusting to the scheduling and life changes that having 2 kids at school has brought to us this year. And of course it is complicated by the fact that Bug is still homeschooling, so it's not just that we have 3 kids at three different places.
This last Thursday was about as crazy as it gets for us these days. I'm so grateful that this isn't every day, but here it goes:

6:00 Wake up at the house I was dog-sitting at. Let the dogs out in the backyard for a few minutes.
6:20 Rush home to pick up Bean who has a church class before school. Daddy-o had to go into work early so he couldn't take her today.
6:40 Back home. Start making breakfast, packing lunch for Peanut, picking up the kitchen.
7:30 Wake up the boys and begin the battle to get Peanut ready for school. He isn't loving school so this isn't fun for any of us.
8:15 Take Peanut to school. I wait with him in line and while he unpacks his backpack, turns in his homework, and does his attendance check. He gives me a dozen kisses and several hugs before he walks in to the class with his chin quivering (and I walk away fighting back tears pretty much every day.) I hate that this has been so hard.
8:45 Drop the car at the shop to have an oil leak looked at. Since I didn't have time to take a walk this morning, I just walk the 2 miles home.
9:15 Time to battle with Bug, who typically has gotten side tracked and didn't really do anything during the 60 minutes I was gone. I spend the next 1.5 hours picking up the house and prepping for my science class while prompting him to get his piano practice done and get ready for the day. Upside to all this--he does get a lot of reading done during the day because it's usually books that are distracting him.
10:40 Bug and I bike to his piano lesson.
11:00 I bike to the dog-sitting house to feed them their long-overdue breakfast. I have to sit with them while they eat, and they take awhile, so I couldn't feed them earlier. While I'm waiting, I return a phone call from someone from church who had some questions for me.
11:30 Bug and I bike home. I'm trying to help him fit in physical activity and outside time every day, so we usually do this even when I do have a car.
11:45 Quick lunch and shower because I haven't managed to get dressed in real clothes yet.
12:25 First biology class kids show up. They're 20 minutes early, and I'm not even dressed yet so I hurry to get ready and then try to finish last minute class prep, which I thought Bug would be able to help with, but he's totally distracted by friends now.
12:45 Biology Class! One of the highlights of my week. This one felt a little rushed; I'm still learning exactly how much we can squeeze into a 90 minute class.
2:20 Get a phone call about the car, and the $2000 of repairs that it needs sometime in the near future. :P
2:30 I realize that I am not going to make it to Peanut's school in time for pick-up if I walk so I have a friend who's helping with my biology class drop me off on their way home.
2:40 Peanut and I walk home. He's surprisingly okay with it and just talks the whole 20 minutes instead of complaining about how far it is.
3:15 I'm lying on the couch for a minute, trying to gear up for biking over to the community center for Bean's water polo game and then to get my car when a friend texts to let me know she's dropping her daughter off at the game to watch, and I realize she can give me a ride to pick up my car. It's 90 degrees out and I'm done with biking and walking.
3:45 Friend picks me up and we drop her daughter off to watch Bean, and then me to get my van. All fluids have been topped off so it's "okay" to drive (although my car guy warned me that there is always a chance of fire when you have oil dripping on hot engine parts--great.)
4:10 I make it to Bean's game only a few minutes late and get to watch them win their second game this week! Go Granada water polo!
5:00 Home, grab the boys, and go back to the dog house to feed them dinner.
5:30 Boys and I head to the farmer's market to quickly grab pluots from our favorite stand and a few other fruits and veggies.
6:10 Back home, fix a quick dinner, Daddy-o and Bean come home.
6:40 Dinner time. This keeps getting pushed closer to 7, which makes it impossible to get Peanut to bed by 7:30, even though he really needs 12 hours of sleep to wake up on his own in the a.m.
The rest of the evening was that mad rush to do dishes, read with Peanut, start lunch packing, make sure everyone has clothes for the next day, pack up backpacks, work on the laundry, and finally, when I'm ready for bed, I head back to the dogs for one last night at their house.

Luckily, not every day involves so much running back and forth. Thursdays are our busiest day, and there were even some extras in there, but we've had more of this rushing around than I'd like. Kids just mean lots of activities, even if you don't have them sign up for that many things at once.

I like having a record of what our days look like every now and then. I look back at a couple posts I did like this 10 or 11 years ago and it's apparent how different life is now. I can't say which sounds more exhausting. I didn't have to drive back and forth 20 times a day back then, but I got woken up every 30 minutes by a baby some nights. I think it's a toss up.

Gettin' My Furry Friend Fix

This summer, I started really missing Molly, and just having a dog around--a walking buddy, someone to greet me at the door when I come home, that ever-present, devoted pet. (Daddy-o and I have noticed that we do spend a lot more time talking to our guinea pig these days, and he is sweet, but it's just not the same.)

I'd heard ads for Rover.com somewhere and decided to look into it, and the next thing I knew, I had was lining up dog sitting and dog walking jobs. It's only been a few jobs over the last 3 months, but I've met some pretty fun dogs (I told one owner that my kids were ready to kidnap his dog, we all loved him so much) and made a little money. I keep hoping to get a couple of regular dog walking clients and then I'll be set. I'm just glad I have the chance to borrow people's pets for a job.

Sharing My Passions

I didn't think I had enough on my plate this year (hahaha), so I decided to teach a homeschool biology class once a week for middle schoolers. I figured I would do more in depth, hands-on learning with Bug for science, which is what I love, if I had a deadline each week and a group of students counting on me. We have 10 kids in the class and after a couple weeks, I think it's going well. I know that I'm enjoying it, and I think the kids are, too.

It is one more hat I wear each week, and between researching, planning, setting up, teaching, and cleaning up, it does take between 5-10 hours a week, but this is one job I have no desire to give up. I love all the parts of it and love making science a little more fun for these kids. We are going to explore a lot of topics this year, and while we can't go into depth on all of them, I can introduce ideas to them, let them experiment, and show them the concepts in action (last week, we ate sourdough bread after experimenting with yeast). It's a fun part of my week, which I need that right now.

We Can Do It!

Last week, on a field trip, Bug and I got the chance to meet 3 of the real Rosie the Riveters. These women were 3 of the thousands who worked in the shipyards in Richmond during WWII and their stories were so inspiring. I don't know if the experience gave these women their energy and longevity (they are all in their 90s now), or if it is because they had a determined personality that they stepped up to work in fields that were (and still are) heavily dominated by men, but either way, I'm so glad that we got to meet them.

They talked about the initial prejudice that they faced from the men on site, which quickly faded as they saw what careful, skilled work these women could do. They told us about the spirit of unity that existed in this city which went from 20,000 people to over 100,000 in two years time, but was full of people focused on building ships for the war effort so the boys could all come home. 

I think Bug loved hearing about this side of the war as much as I did. After they spoke to our group, we spent a couple more hours exploring the exhibits at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront National Park. The little museum is great and we can't wait to bring the rest of the family out and spend a little more time visiting the various shipyards and the last remaining ship that they built.

I love the chance to learn from people who have been through hard things, and to be able to acknowledge and honor those who have paved the way for my life to be a little easier. 

A Day Off

Bug went to work with Daddy-o today, and with the other two in school this year, that meant I had almost 6 hours in a row(!) to take care of my stuff, without kid interruptions, without staying home from any fun family activities. I haven't had a day like this since we moved here.

And what did I discover? I need a lot more than 6 hours to catch up with everything, haha. I kind of already knew that as I was making my list of things I could do today. It had about 20 different things on it, and that was a conservative list compared to what was running through my head.

Of course, everything took longer than I hoped, but I did take care of a few emails, scheduled a few things like field trips and dr. appointments, worked on the next two weeks of the science class I'm teaching this year (more on that later when I manage to catch up on blogging, which did NOT occur today), ate 2 meals in peace, did four loads of laundry, and took a walk. And then I had the rest of the afternoon with Peanut for a mama date to get ice cream and go to the STEM class at the library (and tackle a couple errands as well, which he didn't mind too much.)

I didn't get any laundry folded (and just added four more loads to the pile, haha), or cleaning or organizing done; I have a dozen blog posts I want to write with hundreds of pictures to go through and had hoped to have some time for reading and/or watching a tv show, but those things will have to be squeezed in on a normal day. I wonder if I my kids were all in school every day, if I would ever feel "caught up". I kind of doubt it (and am sure plenty of people who do have their kids gone all day every day could confirm that.)

But I'm grateful for what felt like a break and a chance to tackle some of the things that are always racing through my mind throughout the day.

Missions #11 and #12

Our trip to Solvang meant we were in a new part of CA, and we got to add two more missions to our list. Daddy-o hasn't gotten to be with us for all of them, but the kids and I have now seen 12. I don't think any of them care quite as much as I do about seeing them all, but I figure we've come this far, we might as well, haha. 9 more to go.

Sunday morning, we made a quick stop at La Purisima Mission in Lompoc on our way to church. We didn't have long at all, and this is one that would have been fun to do a little more exploring.

After church, we stopped by Mission Santa Ines in Solvang before driving home.

We had a little longer at this one to poke around in the museum and see some of the old artifacts.  

I can't ever get enough of the painted ceilings. I think I need to have a painted ceiling in my house someday.

Looking out to El Camino Real.

Danish Days

Solvang, CA--where you can immerse yourself in all things Danish.

We went on their special Danish Days weekend, so the experience was even more elaborate than normal.

Funny story: We didn't realize until just before we left for the weekend that when we told the kids that we were going to Danish Days, Bean was thinking a festival celebrating these delicious pastries, kind of like the garlic festival in Gilroy. When we said that everyone wears their Danish outfits to church on Sunday, she was picturing people in pastry costumes!  Guess the fact that we've been willing to drive hours for our favorite apples, donuts, and custard, it's not unbelievable that we'd drive that far for danishes.

Solvang did not disappoint. I think this may be my new favorite spot in CA.

We started the day with an abelskiver breakfast

and watched some dancing.

Maybe this is the original Fight Song.

We wandered around the beautiful town,

with all the cute features

and beautiful architecture.

So many people in Danish clothing.

There were wood carvers,

abelskiver eating contests, for kids

and adults. This was the reigning champion. He beat his previous record, and only lost because a professional eater entered this year.

There was a parade in the afternoon

that we watched with our friend, Jamie, and a bunch of her friends from L.A. Jamie had the privilege of growing up by Solvang.

Such a fabulous place!

And we ended the night with dinner at Jamie's parents' house with the crowd of friends and family who were there for Danish Days. The evening included great food, fun conversations, and an after-dark tour of the town, Los Olivos, which is the perfect image of small-town life. As we walked around the dark streets to see the local church labyrinth and the old train depot and the flag pole, it was quiet (except the kids with us) and lovely, and felt like the perfect place to let your kids explore and be independent. And this was at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night. Not much going on, which is just my speed. I love a place that you can go to bed early on the weekend and not be missing out on anything ;)

Such a great weekend, which did involve eating lots of danishes.