Lots of Random Goings On

After such a dry Jan/Feb, we finally got some rain halfway through this month, and it was lovely to see everything wet and fresh.

The almond blossoms have been beautiful. It's fun that we have a park so close to us with a lot of trees to enjoy this time of year. Our homeschool park group has been there this month and I went a couple of times without any kids, just to catch up with friends.

Peanut had a fun 4-H meeting. We haven't made it to any of the project groups he was hoping to do this year, but at least he can go to the club meetings once a month and have fun seeing friends.

And now, in an effort to be a lifelong learner, my fun find this month:

UV flourescence! I watched a lunchtime zoom seminar one day on bioluminescence and UV fluorescence that we can find all around the Bay Area and was so excited to go out and see what we could find, so I got a new UV light (I have a couple of cheap ones I've used in my science classes, but turns out the better ones have a different wave length, and it makes a huge difference.)

And we took the light out to explore one of the redwood parks in Oakland at dusk. We only found the one group of mushrooms (Sulfur tufts) and these little flowers, but a lot of mushrooms and flowers will do this.

The moss on the redwood bark was pretty cool. Redwoods are a lot redder under UV light.

And a lot of plants will glow red--it's the chlorophyll in the leaves. I have no idea what the blue parts are--I still have a lot to learn about this.

Redwood sorrel, which looks very green during the day, is a deep red under UV light. It was so much fun looking for things and realizing how different the world looks if you change the lens you're seeing it through. I've been reading a book--An Immense World, by Ed Yong that explores this concept, too. Living things have very different umwelts, specific ways that an organism experiences the world based on the capabilities of their sensory organs. It's fun when we can get a glimpse into another species umwelt.

All that rain finally got the creek going again. It's already slowed and largely dried up, but it had a few days with a lot of water.

Peanut and I went to the Science Odessey night at one of the local K-8th schools so I could see which community groups had booths there (getting ideas of who to reach out to for my science fair I'm doing in April), and one company had a couple of snakes there. They do research and analysis for a lot of organizations, including East Bay Regional Parks, working with endangered and threatened species.

And then, the next day, I had a nature hike scheduled at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. It's fun that we have an extinct volcano right in the Bay Area, even if the area has been crumpled so the volcano is lying on it's side now and doesn't look anything like a volcano. But there are some cool volcanic rocks to see in the area.

And there were a lot of these butterflies--California Tortoiseshells, I think.

And the real find of the day was about a dozen newts in a small pond on the hike. They were actively mating and laying eggs. We found this one that looks like it's curled around several large clusters of eggs. I've only seen eggs one other time and they were just attached on the side of a rock, but I'm guessing these were laid very recently.

This was by far the favorite stop for everyone on the hike. The kids also found a couple of young bull frogs, and had fun exploring the labyrinth that was right by the pond. I seriously love my job.

Our weather has been unseasonably warm this past week after the rain storms, so while we were working in the backyard on Saturday, I got the animals out for a bit. Our sweet girl, Charkie, just turned 6 years old this past week. Never would have guessed that she'd outlast the other guinea pigs, but here she is, the oldest one we've ever raised.

Luckily she's still around to keep Poppy company. Not sure what we'll do when the bunny is the only one left--I think she's going to be lonely.

We got to finish the day off with an evening in Palo Alto, getting pizza as a snack before watching San Francisco, a 1940's musical, at the Stanford Theater. I'd seen the movie back in college, but it was fun to watch again. And then we got crepes afterwards. 5:30 movie times are awkward for dinner, haha, so we kind of did a split meal with popcorn in between. It had been a few months since we'd been to this theater--it's seriously my favorite.

I May Never Catch Up

Feeling just a little behind around here, and as much as I do want to catch up, I'm having a hard time imagining how. So, I'm dropping in some current photos right now.

Spring fun meets have started again with swim team. Peanut got talked into it (he really hates racing), and dropped several seconds on his breaststroke time! Hoping he'll keep improving his times and realize that it's fun to just challenge himself each meet.

I've been scheduling as many field trips and fun things as I can knowing that this is it for our homeschool life. And trying not to think about that too much because I definitely have complicated feelings around it. We went to the Sulfur Creek Nature Center in Hayward with my nature group, learned about animal skulls, and spent some time exploring the rescued animals on site.

We've been science-ing weekly--my classes are pretty good this year, with just a little extra chaos in the middle school class (I think almost the entire class has ADHD), but we've been having a lot of fun studying ecology and the kids have been getting better about doing their homework so when I assign posters or presentations, we actually have things to look at in the next class! It's the little wins that count. . .

Part of my field trip initiative involved setting up a few homeschool ski days at Dodge Ridge.

And, on the second one, I decided I was done sitting in the lodge waiting for my people. My last time on a snowboard was 7 years ago, and it was pretty painful. After breaking my ankle, I figured I was done. But I've been doing a lot of strength training and balance work for the past year (with a break in the fall while we were on our trip), and was feeling pretty strong. And. . .

I still remember how it's done! I was pretty nervous for the first run, but by the bottom, I felt like I had it. I'm not doing anything crazy these days, but I can cruise down a blue run with no issues and it felt pretty good. And it's fun to be out there with my family. Now I've just got to get Peanut skiing on harder runs and we can explore more of the mountain. He's kind of a speed demon, but if we can get him more comfortable with his turns, I think he could handle the steeper stuff, too.

We've used the van both times we went up to the snow. It's so much easier to drive up the evening before and not have to get up at 5.

And we stay nice and cozy in there, despite the cold temps outside. Dinner, family movie, and then a solid night of sleep before a day in the snow is pretty awesome.

Peanut has gotten back into 4H since we returned home. He's doing the cooking project this year and we're all enjoying the monthly dinners he makes. Last month was tacos in homemade tortillas--yum!

We've also been pretty busy with our nature hikes. 

I've got a solid group this semester with about 6 families signed up for the whole package, and then several others who are coming as many weeks as they can. We had 22 kids on one of them!

These are still my favorite classes and we've had some really fun topics this semester.

Some of the kids get really into it (and then there are still the ones who just want to talk about their imaginative worlds for 2 hours with their friends--I think as long as they're out in nature, it's all good.)

Peanut falls somewhere in the middle--he wants to do whatever the topic is, but some of those conversations are just too alluring. I've been impressed with his nature journalling each time, and let the rest of it go.

And the weeks when we get to really explore are fun for everyone.

Found a couple newts on one of our February hikes.

And lots of mushrooms, of course. It wasn't the best season because we didn't get enough rain in January, but there have still been some good ones.

And finally, a property update. It's getting green over there, things are blooming, but the house is slow. It should be right along the right side of the property here.

But we did get the buildings cleared that we needed to, and they've come out to do testing for our septic system, which means we're making progress. Just not sure how much or what the timeline looks like from here. I'm cautiously optimistic that we might be able to move over there by the end of the summer. We shall see how it turns out. . .

It's Not All Christmas

Real life has still been happening, even as we approach the holidays. I taught my last nature group class at a local park--we learned about erosion and weathering.

And then we hiked down to the creek where the kids could see examples of erosion that have happened around here.

They spent the next hour making dams, bridges, and getting wet--not in the plans, but pretty much how it always goes when they're near the water.

Peanut had his first 4-H horse project meeting. They got to meet all of the horses on the ranch where the project will take place. He's excited for when they eventually get to ride.

Poppy has been busy with important work, haha.

Daddy-o and I snuck in a date night (and proved that we still can't take a good selfie.)

I am a terrible bowler, but it was really fun to go do something more than just get dinner, which is our go-to date, and even those don't happen all that often these days. Life with older kids is still so busy.

Peanut and I also had our last Nature Group hike--Rock City at Mt. Diablo, which was the perfect follow-up to our class the week before. We got to see great examples of weathering and erosion in the wind caves and rock formations.

We had a beautiful day for a hike.

And a good turn out for mid-December! I'm so grateful to be able to explore nature with these silly kids.

And this location is so fun!

Nature is awesome.

And finally, Peanut had the 4-H Christmas party. We made cards for the veterans, cut snowflakes, did a Christmas bingo, and ate too many cookies. Now he just has one more swim practice and Bug has one more day of school, and then, we're officially on holiday break!

 

Local Celebrations

This weekend kicked off the holiday season for Livermore. Friday night was Deacon Dave's opening night--complete with a small parade, speech by the mayor, and Deacon Dave throwing Holy water at the crowd. It all feels a little weird, but also so fun to have this quirky night. We didn't actually go through  the display because of the crowds, but we'll be back.

On Saturday, Peanut spent a chunk of the day working on the 4-H float in preparation for the Lights and Sounds parade downtown.

Then he got to ride on the float that night and wave at the crowds.

It was a really nice night--made for some fun parade watching. We've only been one other time, our first year here, and it was SO cold that night. But Daddy-o and I walked around and got some pizza after we dropped Peanut off and then joined some friends to watch all of the entries. Both high school marching bands and color guard were there, along with local businesses, and clubs and scout troops. 

And now the month of Christmas has begun!