In Other Happenings

Warning: These first couple of pictures are disturbing--no blood and gore, but still hard to look at if you don't like that sort of thing. So scroll past if you don't want to see!

This summer/fall has felt like it largely revolved around Bug leaving us, but we have had other things going on. Starting with the biggest thing--

Daddy-o took a nasty fall off a ladder at work and ended up spending a day in the ER. It ended up not being broken, just a severe dislocation which they had to put him under in order to reset.

The doctor told him he was lucky that he didn't die since a lot of ladder incidents end up much worse. He was about 8 feet off the ground when the ladder slipped down the wall it was balanced on so he had about 1 second to try to figure out how to land to inflict the least damage (and have the smallest chance of hitting his head), and he did fall pretty well, just got his left leg tangled up with the ladder.

Orthorpedic surgeon decided he didn't need surgery, just a boot and physical therapy. Swelling was so bad at his first PT appointment that they couldn't really do anything. Over a month later, it's still swollen, but not nearly as bad. His orthopedist is really happy with his progress (he's walking in normal shoes already!) and has hopes that he'll recover full range of motion, but he's got a lot of work to get there. We're just glad it wasn't his right ankle so he's been able to drive the whole time.

Peanut had an awesome swim meet where he got three PRs, which finally broke through a plateau he'd had for a while. He's got a new coach, and is swimming 3-4 times a week now and it seems to be making a difference.

Property news has been frustrating. There should be a house in this picture on the right, but this is still what it looks like (but at least there was a nice sunrise!) We are waiting on the final permits and they have been sending us back with something to change over and over. We've submitted the final change they asked for, so we *should* have our permits any day now, but I'm not holding my breath.

I couldn't get a great picture, but all three animals were snuggling together the other day and it was just so sweet. We kind of can't believe that the guinea pigs are still holding on. They're both about 5.5 years old which is about as old as they get. We've already started talking about what we're going to have to do for Poppy when that day comes--she'll miss her piggy friends.

Pool time ended with some weird days--Bug's last day of lessons was totally raining. I showed up to swim laps during his break, but there was thunder and lightning, which is really weird for us.

Science classes have been going pretty well. Chemistry is a fun topic with some good labs we get to do this year and a lot of the kids are pretty into it. (and shh. . . don't tell anyone, but I have a couple favorite classes for sure--it's just so nice when they can follow directions and really seem interested in what we're doing.)

Nature hikes have also been fun. We've got a smaller core group this year, but the families are a lot of fun.

We're revisiting some of my favorite topics since none of my current families were around when I first started. So we learned about woodpeckers and returned to the redwoods.

The banana slugs there were a hit. And I had to laugh, but also felt really legit when a random hiker stopped to listed to me when I was talking about the redwood root networks with my group.

I went to see the movie release of the new Taylor Swift album. After missing out on the Eras tour and regretting it, I decided I wasn't going to take any chances. I'm loving the new album, and it was fun to see the making of the music video.

And in other music news, Peanut and I went to the symphony at Temple Hill in Oakland for the Star Wars night.

The music was great and we got to watch a friend from church in her inaugural night as the conductor. 

It was fun meeting up with homeschool friends and pretending that we're still living that life. I think that once you're a homeschooler, you're always a homeschooler.

And finally, I got out for a hike after dropping Peanut off for his Ranger Explorers day today. 

It was a gorgeous morning and I did the new trail which has some incredible views. Also got to hike with deer, watch a white-tailed kite hovering and diving for food, and a red-shouldered hawk take off with a gopher in its talons! All in all, it was a really great hike and I still had time to spend the rest of the day with gimpy Daddy-o ;)

 

Merry Christmas, 2024

Christmas always means good food.

And this year, that included the pretend foods we got the animals.

They must have had some sort of flavoring on them because they all went nuts for these things, which were so cute. A salad bowl,

which they attacked, 

and a piece of cake, equally exciting to them. Plus the ice cream cone and a pineapple. They were all pretty excited about all of them and tore them to pieces.

We spent the morning opening gifts, and eating and talking to extended family.

And then everyone headed down to the church field for a little baseball and Peanut rode his new bike around and I went for a walk.

This has kind of turned into a tradition--whatever outdoor toys get brought out and then there is also batting practice and catch.

And then we had to come back for Daddy-o to make dinner. He loves having a traditional Christmas dinner of some sort, and luckily doesn't mind cooking it, too.

It's so fun having all three of these kids together again. A little loud, and not every moment is full of fun, but overall, it's better than NOT having the three of them home together.

Dinner was delicious! I love this family we get to be with, whether it's for holidays or just every day. These people make every day just a little more interesting.

A Peek at the First Couple Weeks of School

Peanut and I have had a couple of dog check-ins with these two pups. Sophie, the smaller one, loves to play hide-and-seek and we've got her pretty well trained. She's awesome (and Brinkley, after 4+ years of us visiting, still won't come near us voluntarily, haha.)

This one spends a lot of time on homework now, although he also spends a lot of time getting sidetracked and diving deep into things that really aren't required. But the love of learning never stops.

Peanut and I took our read-aloud to the pool. Might be my new favorite spot to read.

Bob is coming along nicely!

We fit in an evening swim with dinner at the pool one night. Probably should have let Bug stay home to get started on his homework, but it was just too nice out.

I got out for an early morning walk, which I haven't been doing much of this summer, and was blown away by all the wildflowers down by our creek, which still has water in it! Unheard of at this time of year. It's really beautiful to see what a wet winter can do for our state. Maybe not quite as wet as last year, but it has made for some different plants popping up, or lasting longer than normal.

Peanut started LAC again--practices two time a week and he says he might do a couple swim meets this year. We'll cross our fingers that he's at least willing to give it a try. But I'm glad he gets the swimming time either way.

School water polo started again. Bug is a captain this year and trying to do everything he can to improve the team. He started a lunchtime club last year that meets one day a week to go over different rules and plays and just help the kids learn the game a little better. They're going to film the games this year and watch some of the footage, too.

First game could have been worse (and would have been if Amador hadn't pulled way back after being up like 15-2). 2 of those 7 goals were Bug. Our team just doesn't have the coaching to dig them out of this history of losing badly to most of the teams in the league (and our league happens to have a lot of REALLY good players in it--the ones who are going on to play D1 polo in college at some of the top schools in the country.)

Love seeing these cute moments with all the animals cuddled up in one part of the cage. I spent 3 hours doing a deep clean on the cage that morning and I think they were all so excited to snuggle into the fresh bedding downstairs in their stink-free cage. I love animals, but sometimes wish we had outdoor pets without cages to clean. Not sure what that would even look like, haha.

And finally, I'll end with this awesome burger that Peanut made for us the other night. He gets a monthly cooking kit and these burgers and drink were from a couple of his kits. He was actually testing out the recipe so he can make it again in a few weeks for some friends he wants to have over. I can't wait for him to be able to take over a night every week all on his own.

We've had some other fun these past weeks, but I'll give those days their own posts.

Halloween Fun

I don't feel like we really got into the Halloween thing this year--costumes weren't very involved and ended up not being quite what we'd originally planned, we never got most of the decorations out, and kids didn't make plans until the last minute, but we did have a couple fun activities, so I don't think it was disappointing for anyone particularly. 

Peanut had big plans for a medieval family costume theme this year and had gathered up the parts for his knight costume weeks ago, but when it came down to it, Daddy-o had to work the Saturday of the church Trunk-or-Treat and Bug wasn't feeling great and came late, so Peanut and I were the only ones who started off dressed up, and we didn't even get a picture. But I did get a couple pictures of our trunk which was a medieval magic shop.

And we decided that every good magic shop needs to have a dragon rabbit. Luckily, no one had any shillings because for some reason, she was priced really low, and I didn't want to let her go.

She was the hit of the trunk-or-treat for sure and had a lot of return visitors.

I was happy to be able to pull out all the Harry Potter potions and my science class skeletons to complete the look.

From what I heard, Peanut had a good time at the party (I was on trunk duty and Poppy sitting pretty much the whole time) and Daddy-o and Bug showed up for the last hour.

And as a total break from tradition, we did not go trick-or-treating as a family. With Bean gone, it doesn't seem like a big deal to further split up the remaining two kids. Peanut and Daddy-o headed out with some friends in the local neighborhood, Bug met up with his friends to go hit up all the neighborhoods they thought they'd get the best candy in, and I stayed home with a pretty bad cough. Not our best Halloween, but everyone seemed happy enough.

 

Couple Last Things

 Bug has been working on his model boat that he got for Christmas. It's been quite the learning experience.

The miniature cannons are so cute, though!

Finally, just because they're so cute. . .

One of my dog clients has had to go back to working in the office and traveling, so we've gotten to hang out with her pups a couple times recently.

And we got a 3rd guinea pig! Bandit was one of Tilly's babies, and the family who took her ended up having a child with extreme allergies, so they asked if we wanted her back and since she was our favorite, we said yes. With that many pets, what's a little more poop? Really, it's been good because she seems to like Poppy, which makes us all happy. The other two pigs aren't always that nice to the bunny, so maybe she'll have more of a buddy now.

What 5th Grade Looks Like

We started the year with a little follow-up to our Harry Potter Schooling from last year. The curriculum we were using included several 6-week units that covered a variety of subjects as classes from Hogwarts. We did the Owl Study and Herbology last year, but still have a lot of mini-classes to complete, so Peanut picked a couple he wants to do this year and Care of Magical Creatures was the first one we tackled.

Along with reading a lot of books about mythical creatures, he did several writing projects. For a couple of them, he used the Myth Match book to create new creatures and then wrote up a thorough description of their various traits. He also took notes on a few of his favorite creatures that he read about in some of the other books.

And then he started getting creative. He wanted to come up with his own activities to do for this unit, so he invented the Phoenix pasta recipe and made it for dinner one night.

Doesn't it look like phoenix fire? It was very tasty, too.

And then he came up with edible dragon eggs. Chocolate covered peanut butter eggs.

These were an even bigger hit!

We also made a magnet of another creature he invented--the wildeflyce (flying wildebeast like creature.) All of these ideas, and a couple more, can be found in the Magical Creature Art booklet that he typed up. This boy is never satisfied to just do the projects that are given to him. Everything he reads or hears gets his mind turning and he has to invent his own projects, too. The hardest part is keeping up with all his ideas. We probably only do about 10% of the things that he comes up with, but I think he is finally realizing that that is okay--half the fun is thinking of the idea. Not every single one needs to be brought to fruition. 

In other school news--Peanut started piano lessons this year. We were going to begin last year, but with everything being virtual, we decided it would be better to wait until he could go in person. The virtual lessons worked okay for Bug, but it would be hard to start off a beginner like that.

So far, he's liking it okay. His teacher offers a small candy treat for 5 days' worth of practice, so that helps with the motivation a little.

Science class has been going well. Lots of new students in Peanut's class especially, and I think he's had fun getting to know them. He definitely has fun with the science. And he's been helping out with my youngest class, too. He loves getting to be the "TA" and even made himself a nametag.

Along with being back in the art studio with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. G, we did a little fall art at home. He painted a corn maze with a pumpkin on the path while I did a chalk pastel of a fall tree.

There's been some solo game playing. Being the only kid home all day means a lot of time to fill and I can't be there for all of it. He's doing pretty well keeping himself entertained most days.

There's been a LOT of backyard schooling--at the table, in the hammock, or on a quilt. It just feels good to get outside for awhile each day.

This was our first read aloud novel of the year and we did the Bravewriter Arrow guide to go with it. It was a really great book with some very fun writing.

One activity we did had us pairing random nouns and verbs to see what we could come up with as creative descriptions--Sky swimming, blood moving, and book smelling were my favorites.

Outside time means the animals can get out as well, and they love that. Or, at least, Poppy loves getting out to run and stretch her legs. The guinea pigs like to eat grass, but also seem a little terrified of the whole process each time. They don't love getting picked up, ever, don't love being exposed, don't love being chased by the rabbit, and really don't love being chased to bring back in the house. They spend most of the time hiding in the pink little house, eating grass as fast as they can chew.

We've also started a new program for history. I ordered the CA history curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books which uses novels and picture books to teach about history, and lays out lessons for notebooking about what we learn. We've been really enjoying it and I love the idea of having a notebook full of pictures and maps and summaries of the highlights from CA history.

And, even though I didn't get many pictures at all, our first couple weeks of school involved a lot of games with Rara and Unkie. They spent the first half of September in Livermore at an AirBNB just a few blocks away so they could watch the high school water polo games and hang out with us every afternoon and evening. Peanut and I would finish most of his school by lunch time or so and then they would show up to play games and hear all about what he'd been doing and hang out until bedtime.

I'd say it's been a really great start to the school year. Not that we haven't had some rough days, but for the most part, we're getting a pretty good routine going and finding ways to have some fun with our learning.