Last swim meet of the season for Peanut. I didn't get any good pictures, but he finished the season strong with 2 PRs, in the 100 free and 100 breaststroke. We're so proud of him and how he's worked this year. It wasn't easy, but he didn't complain.
I'm almost going to miss the 6 a.m. practices. At least I got to walk around a different neighborhood for a couple of months.
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 ;)
We've had a couple of parties at the pool this week.
Several members came together to for the 4th of July, with a BBQ and swim time. It was actually surprisingly cool which made it feel perfect to sit in the shade near the pool, and not get in, haha. Peanut and his friend who joined us swam, and some of the other adults got in later, but I was okay sitting this one out.
And on Tuesday, we had our Park Day Pool Party. Good turn out and so much fun for all ages.
I'm so glad that we get to do this. It's the best few hours. I can't believe we only have a few more weeks of park days before Peanut starts high school! He's feeling a little stressed by it, too, but I think once he starts, he'll be okay..
It only took us 6 weeks to reschedule Peanut's birthday party this year. He was sick the week of his actual birthday, so we postponed his party. And with the end of the school year and all the prep for church camps, this weekend was the first chance that we had to celebrate.
He had a few friends come to the pool to swim, play some games, and have dinner.
The kids had fun, and it ended up being the best night for it--really warm, but there's so much shade around the pool, it was pleasant in and out of the pool. And there were a couple other families there, too, so it felt like a real community pool. We barely saw anyone all last season, so it was fun to be there when it was being used.
It's a good group of boys. I'm glad he has kind friends.
Peanut's been 14 for awhile now, and it's almost starting to seem normal. In a lot of ways, he really is growing up and it's fun to see the changes over time.
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. . .
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