What's Up Wednesday

(Peanut has this whole script that we have to say each night, called the nighttime words, and it ends with "I hope you have a . . .[Marvelous Monday, Terrific Tuesday, What's Up Wedensday, Thrashin' Thursday, Fabulous Friday, Super Saturday, Sweet Sabbath Sunday]

Today started out beautifully and just got better from there. I was up early enough to catch the sunrise on my walk. I've always liked my a walks in the quiet, early hours, and it's just gotten better through this quarantine. This hour is just what I need to start the day.

Today was a gorgeous day and perfect for picking blueberries. We went out to Jessop Farms, just like we do every year. We did miss being with friends, and no one was crazy about wearing the masks that the farm requested (and then, as we were leaving, we noticed that pretty much none of the other customers were wearing masks. Apparently the valley doesn't really believe in masks. But we'll still do our part and show some respect for the workers there are the farm who have to interact with so many of us.)

The blueberries were gorgeous as always (and delicious, too!) I'm pretty sure I picked fruit in another life. It's a very satisfying activity for me and I could have stayed for hours, but Peanut had an 11 a.m. art class, so we had to get going with 10 pounds of berries.

We stopped by the RV storage facility so Peanut could do his class in Daddy-o's office, and then spent a few minutes playing around. 

Too much fun at work, for sure!

By the time we got home and had lunch, everyone was tired and had a hard time getting focused on anything we needed to do. Bean and I were happy with the interruption of visitors who stopped by with a birthday present for Peanut, and then hung out talking with us for over an hour. 

Eventually, we had to get back to schoolwork, science class prep, science homework, chores and cleaning. So much real life stuff getting in the way of some good quarantine living. Although, I think the boys are living a pretty good life.  Peanut built the Lego set he'd just received and Bug had his bi-weekly D & D zoom meet-up.

The evening ended with dinner out back, watching our scrub jay visitor poke around the lawn for his hidden acorns. I'm feeling very connected with nature these days. This jay comes by pretty much every afternoon and evening while I'm outside and doesn't seem very afraid of us at all.

What's Filling Our Days

We finished the 3rd book in the Vanderbeekers series last week (can't wait for September and the newest book!) and decided we needed to make Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Cookies in honor of Mrs. Vanderbeeker's popular cookie--SO GOOD! We found a couple different recipes and ended up choosing one based on the candies we were able to get ahold of the soonest (Daddy-o had to run to Home Depot on Saturday and they had Milk Duds at the checkout.) I think we'll try the one with caramel candies next, just to compare, because, you know, we're scientific like that 😉.

Sunday, I went out for a walk and saw this Cooper's Hawk, which then proceeded to divebomb me twice as I walked down the street. A neighbor came out and showed me where the nest was and told me this is the 4th year they've been in her tree (and told me she has been scratched by the talons before, so she wears a hat when she comes to get the paper!)

So, of course I had to bring the boys on Monday to look for the bird. We looked in the nest, but you really can't see anything because of how high up it is.

We visited the nearby tree I had seen it in and found lots of bones beneath the tree. Definitely where it eats--probably rodents from the look of the bones, but I read that they mostly eat small birds.

Then, just before we left, we finally spotted the bird, sitting quietly in the next tree, watching us. I'm hoping we can get back often and see the babies when/if they hatch.

Bug spent a long time playing with this erector set a friend passed on to us now that her boys have outgrown it. I think the screws make it a little more frustrating than playing with Lego.

But he did build a pretty cool car.

And a peek into the Indiana Jones play--which required hats, guns, and a lot of falling down. 😂

Bean has been working hard to finish up her last few assignments. The school came up with a system to rank classes as Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3, with each one being associated with a different level of work in order to pass (they aren't doing grades for this final trimester--just pass/fail). Bean has two Tier 1 classes, which have 4 essential assignments, including some sort of final. Everything else is optional (and Tier 2 has even less required), but Bean has been trying to actually learn the things that she needs, especially in her math and science classes which will help her with next years classes. She spends way too many hours a day staring at that computer screen and can't wait to be done. Only 1.5 weeks left!

The boys spent all their free moments between zoom classes on Tuesday working on their satellites for science class. A little scientific knowledge, and a whole lot of creativity.

Peanut did a class on bioluminescence which was kind of fun since so many of our friends have been seeing and sharing pictures of the red tide in southern California this past month.

The art part of the class looked fun, so I jumped in with him to paint jelly fish. 

We had our final meeting with our charter teacher and will officially be done next Tuesday, but that doesn't really mean anything for us.

Bean and I went to drop off things at a couple of her friends' houses, and then completely lost track of time and spent 2 hours talking at the second house, which is also the home of one of my friends. It was good for both of us to connect with friends.

Tuesday night was movie night, and Peanut chose another Indiana Jones (and also learned that Indiana's real name is Henry, so now he's even more obsessed.)

That's pretty much the excitement of the past few days.

First Day, 2019-2020

First day of school for this girl--10th grade.

She was excited for school, as always. She has art this trimester, which gives her an hour of creativity to look forward to every day, along with Chemistry, Spanish 2, World History, and Biotech. She's looking forward to a fun start to the year.

And even though it's a little arbitrary, we're counting it as the first day for everyone (even though our charter technically started last week, and we aren't really planning to start full-force until after Labor Day--it's definitely a soft start today!). Bug is in 8th grade--last year of middle school, which is a little shocking, and sad, for me.

And this little Peanut is in 3rd! I'm so glad that he decided to stay home with us this year. Getting woken up about an hour after he would have been up if he was going to school made his day.

I'm excited to have both of them around. We've got a lot of really fun stuff planned for this year, which I'm sure I'll get into in the next few weeks.

But for this first day of school, we went to Brentwood and picked peaches.

I'd been wanting to do this all summer, but just didn't get to it, so it was time to seize the day. For once, procrastination paid off. The orchard we stopped at was selling all the u-pick peaches for $1/pound because it was their last week they'd be open and they needed them gone. We got 50 pounds of peaches to dehydrate, bake with, and eat! And they are delicious!

We stopped at a couple different farms, for pluots and Asian pears as well, and the boys made friends with a cat at the first one. Spending a couple hours outside, and listening to science podcasts on the drive, just felt like the perfect start to our year of alternative learning.

School's Out!

Last day of school! No more teachers, no more books. . . except and we all love teachers and books. And we do plan to keep learning this summer and reading lots of books.

But final exams are over, homework is over, spending all day in a classroom is over.

Peanut ended up having a good year. Mrs. J. was amazing and we are so grateful for her kindness--she was a good fit for this boy and his first year of public school. He learned a lot, and then decided he'd rather homeschool again. :)

Bean, on the other hand, had a fabulous year and loves school. She will not be coming back home ;) She finished strong--straight As for the whole year, while playing two sports and attending early morning seminary. Can't ask for more than that.

Our Little Peanut

The year is winding down and Tuesday, we had two events for Peanut--school recognition assembly where his teacher recognized his good attitude this year. I'm so glad that she acknowledged his efforts at doing some hard things this year. School wasn't an easy transition, but he did it!

He also received a medal for his reading. I am not a huge fan of the AR program and don't really care about how many points he earned, but I am glad that he is a proficient reader now because both he and I are happier that he can now go grab a book and read when he needs some down time (often!) And this kid LOVES to read these days. He has made his way through 30+ Magic Treehouse books this spring, as well as many others. And I catch him reading my things over my shoulder (gotta be careful!) all the time. :)

That evening, he had his last (and first) pack meeting for Cub Scouts for the year. Being the over scheduled, distracted parents that we have been the last couple months, we didn't remember to work on his Bobcat rank (which would have taken all of one day to do--oops) so he didn't get any awards this month, but we will do some work this summer so he can start the fall with a bang!

And I don't think he really minded because he got to help with the flags and then they had a really fun activity making stomp rockets.

It's amazing that the amount of air in a 2L bottle can send these FLYING!

I'm not sure who had more fun--Peanut, or Daddy-o, who soon became the "stomper" for a lot of kids who wanted to see theirs reach new heights.

Just a piece of paper and some fins. (This one is Bug's design--the Yellow Donkey, of course.)

End of Year Swim Party

Peanut's grade spent the morning at the community center pool for their annual swim party. It was a pretty chilly day, but most of the kids didn't seem to mind.

Peanut, however, does not like being cold, and he got cold after about one lap around the pool. 

He spent most of the morning wrapped up in his towel on the grass. I think he still had a fun morning, but the actual pool time wasn't a big hit, haha. We are so ready for some hot summer weather.

Book Fair Week

One of the favorite weeks in schools everywhere--Scholastic Book Fair week! Peanut was so excited to pick out books, and then came home and promptly spent the whole afternoon reading all three of them, haha. Hope there is some re-read potential in them.

We went the next night to the family night to help the school get to their goal of reading 300 books that evening (but considering there were only a dozen families there, I don't think they quite made it). But Peanut loved meeting Dog Man, and I think he enjoys the chances he has to share school with us. It's been a big year for him, with a lot of tough parts, but I'm so proud of how he has stuck it out and worked hard at everything in school and is doing an amazing job of learning and making friends.

In-n-Out

It's a pretty lucky day when you get to go on a field trip to In-n-Out.

And an even luckier day when you get to go with this fun group of second graders. I was happy this one was on a day that I could chaperone.

We got the behind-the-scenes tour--where we saw the stretched they begin with each shift, so they don't get injured from all the repetitive motions.

And we got to see all the supplies and hear about how they keep things fresh. The manager told us stories about the first In-n-Out and its founders. (Know why there are crossed palm trees in front of each restaurant? This story explains it.)

But the highlight of the tour according to most of the kids: they got to make their own fries!

And then they got free food. Who doesn't love that? Any field trip that ends with food is a good one.

Peanut's Day

Crazy hair day at the elementary school--I had flashbacks to some of the pictures we got his first year:

He always had the best crazy hair because he had so much of it!

As well as Crazy Hair Day, Wednesday was also their weekly morning meeting with the whole school where they hand out that week's Stingray Star Awards. Each teacher picks a student to be recognized for being Scholarly, Trustworthy, Accepting, or Responsible. Peanut got the award for his class this week for being trustworthy. He told me later that he did something the day before, but couldn't remember what it was, haha. Oh well. It was nice that he was recognized. :)

Almost, But Not Quite There

We saw the forecast for a chance of snow mixed with the rain this a.m. and I was SO hopeful--hoping for a miracle of an actual snow storm that would close down everything for today. Pretty much unheard of, but a girl can dream, right?

Instead, we got cold weather and snow-topped hills behind the green all around us. Beautiful, yes. But still a Tuesday that felt like a Monday because we were at the Monterey Bay Aquarium all day yesterday. Instead of a snow day, I've got one kid home sick, one off at the testing that he abhors, and one who was late to school and alternated claims that he hates himself for being late with the declaration that he would NOT be getting a late slip but would sneak in without anyone seeing him the whole way there. There's no big consequence for HIM for being late (I, on the other hand, will be getting a nasty letter this week because of his tardy/absent record, which isn't even that bad, but they are sticklers, apparently. But I'm a stickler for the value of fieldtrips and celebrating family occasions, so we'll just keep being absent here and there.)

And while it is seeming the most winter-like we've had this year, the trees are blooming like crazy--last week was most definitely spring-like weather. That's what we get for not having real winter--

bi-polar seasons.