Drawing on inspiration

My kids inspired some of my writing that had been published by Babybug and Ladybug magazines. I wish I could say they had inspired me to draw and do art more too. I really wish I had drawn a picture of them at least once a year.

Alas, I'm a slacker and could only find a handful of sketches I did of my (very cute…not that I'm biased or anything) sons.

One of the first sketches I did was of Son1 when he was a baby:

And because he slept a lot, I did another sketch of him napping:

Fast forward 14-15 years, Son1 again:

This was of my younger son when he was about 5:

And again at around age 12:

Not sure when this was from:

You can see the details better if you click on the photo to enlarge.

Do your kids inspire you to do creative things? Do tell!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Something creative, something blue

Seems like my kids' friends are so busy with homeschooling stuff that they rarely have time for playdates anymore. Some days, I feel like I have more playdates than they do!

Once or twice a month, I have lunch dates with my girlfriends (now that the boys are old enough, I can leave them unsupervised for a couple of hours occasionally). I got together with my neighbor/friend, Allison, this past week for a jewelry-making/lunch date. It was fun! I got to work on something I never allow myself the time for at home because something else is always more important. My poor writing is sometimes relegated to the same low status on my to-do list, unfortunately.

Anyway, I got to finish off a necklace the string of which had broken many years ago and that I had never gotten around to re-stringing. Here it is, with the matching earrings I made:

Since that didn't take very long, I also had time to make a couple more pairs of earrings. Well, sort of - I didn't bring enough findings over to Allison's house and couldn't put the hook on this pair of earrings:

But, here it is, all finished (and blurry):

The other pair I made was blue. I don't make too many blue things, nor do I wear many blue things, except for jeans. But, I do like the myriad shades of blue:

The kids, well, they do get to see their friends, but often only in the context of their co-ops, clubs, fieldtrips and classes lately. A dear friend of mine organized a field trip to Angel Mounds, in Evansville, Indiana, also this past week. Being the bad mom that I am, I rarely remember to bring my camera.  Luckily, having an iPhone means never having to say "I'm sorry" or going without image-capturing capability again.  So here are some poor quality pictures of a fun day.

A photo of part of the site, with one of the mounds in the far distance:

The kids descending from stairs that go up one of the mounds, supposedly the one the chief had used:

The kids also got to try out some flint-napping, which, predictably,  I forgot to take photos of, and some soil-sifting for artifacts, very similar to panning for gold:

Close-up of ds#1's butt:

Not only did the kids get to play archaeologist for a day, they are also now officially Canadians!  Having jumped through the long, somewhat arduous hoop, of applying for proof of their citizenship (because I'm Canadian), we now have their citizenship cards!

YESSSS! Hubby told them that they will have to learn the Canadian anthem.  ;)

And speaking of kids, we've been trying to find ways to get rid of household pests...just kidding, kids...sort of.  Here are a couple of links for you in case you're also plagued with ants (or some other vermin):

Repelling pests the natural way (via Natural Home and Garden) and Natural Ways to Get Rid of Ants from Your Home from Care2.com. 

Well, I had better go finish writing a story for my SF critique group.  No rest for the wicked.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

It's about time I talked a bit about homeschooling...and take a walk down memory lane

This blog isn't about homeschooling per se, but homeschooling is as much a part of our lives as homesteading...in fact, I would say more so. We've been doing both for almost the same number of years.

So, I'm thinking that I really should talk about our homeschooling, maybe once a week - as a record for ourselves, perhaps, and also as our duty to be proponents of it.

We have been extremely lucky in that, except for a handful of encounters (probably less than 5 in the past decade), we have received only warm support, some glowing praises, and even some admiring envy when we tell people we're homeschooling. I know people who have horror stories.

Naturally, homeschooling isn't for everyone, and you should always go with what works best for your family and kids. We had our reasons for starting to homeschool (gifted for one, special needs for the other), and it's been a great journey so far.

Anyway, I was thinking I'd post some photos of our homeschooling fun, and since I'm too lazy to scan in photos, and our digital camera-ownership only go back to 2004, I'd start with showing you some photos from that year. Hope I don't bore you too much, but then again, I won't hear you if you fall asleep on the keyboard. =)

We started that year with a trip to Vancouver in January. Here are the kids at the airport, quietly doing activity books.While in Vancouver, we took them to Science World:Back home in our old homeschooling space in the kitchen (they've since outgrown that furniture and have moved into our office space).When not doing academic work, they often read books.We used to participate in a lot of field trips offered through our homeschool group. Here we are at the local newspaper company, getting a tour.Our homeschool group also holds a lot of fairs. This is one that ds#1 did on frogs (bet you couldn't guess) for the Science Fair.One time, the kids decided to build a dummy to warm up their dad's chair until the real dummy (just kidding!) came home.When the Brood X cicadas hit our town, we went over to our friends' farm to feed cicadas to their chickens. We learned a lot about periodic cicadas that year.While perusing our wonderful Farmers Market that summer, we discovered that the boys were the cover-kids for the local arts center! We had taken many class there, and they had featured the kids doing ceramics on their summer catalog.Also that summer, ds#1 tried his hand at photography. He needs a lot more practice, but has taken some rather lovely photos.More photos next time I post about homeschooling!

Ds#1 also took the CAT/5 exam again this past Friday. He'd taken the grade 7 one this past June when he was supposed to have just completed grade 7, but his scores were so off the top of the chart that we really didn't learn anything from it. So, I had him take the grade 10 test this time. Maybe that will show us areas that he could work on in the next few years before university.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Thankful Thursday

I think posting all week last week took the oomph out of me, so I've been quiet on the blogging front. However, it's Thursday yet again.

Before I tell you what I'm thankful for, I want to share a couple of pics:Did we get snow or did we get snow?? This was taken right after I let the dog out so she could accompany dh to take care of the chickens. Notice how she wasn't going to venture into the deep parts? Everybody and their dogs (really) were talking about peanut butter on Twitter for a while - the tainting and other topics. Inspired by Joanna's post, I made my own peanut butter "cups" (they were more like peanut butter balls). They were kind of ugly (like Turtles candy), but very tasty and quite easy to make. (ds#2 made the heart plate...which is for sale, in case anyone was wondering *smile*)

Anyway, this week, I'm thankful for:

1) ds#1 - who is my spell checker/editor and bird ID expert. He'll turn 13 on Sunday - may he always find Scientific American and LEGOs more interesting than violent video games and other unwholesome teen activities. *sniffle*

2) ds#2 - who is my human GPS. I'd be lost a thousand times while driving if he didn't know the exact direction to places. I know it's probably a skill which is a by-product of his ASD (autism spectrum disorder...I get annoyed when people use acronyms they don't explain), but I still appreciate it since I'm directionally challenge.

I believe I'm suppose to pick 2 winners for my giveaway tomorrow. Come back for more fun!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

End of an era

Sorry I've not been around much. I think I may have mentioned before that our closest friends in town, J, G, T, and H, are moving back to the West Coast, and this past week has been preoccupied with (in addition to harvesting, swim lessons, and other things) either having them over for dinner or helping them pack and load their moving trailer.

It was pretty tiring for us just helping out 8 or so hours each day for the past couple of days, so I can imagine how utterly exhausted they must be, and then having to drive to the coast from the middle of the country. It's about 5 8-hour days of driving, but that doesn't figure in the extra time when caught in rush hour traffic around cities.

I had been saying to people that even though I was losing a good friend too, I felt worse for our kids because our friends' kids have been best buddies for my boys for the past 6 years. (6 years may not seem like a huge amount of time for adults, but for our younger ones, that's more than half their lives. Ds#2 and H were both 4 years old when we met them.) I thought the boys would be devastated, but either they're emotionless, or they just don't fully realize the impact this move has on their play lives. They had tons fun on their last day together, as usual, but said their good-byes in the carefree manners of kids.

I think, now, however, that I feel worse for me. I was more torn up by G's moving off than the boys are about T and H moving off. G and I had tons of fun together. We agreed on a lot of things and we complemented each other well in areas where the other was lacking. Sure there were times when we butted heads, but that made her more like a sister than a friend: we actually bickered and teased each other mercilessly.

There are other friends in town that I like a lot, and am very grateful to have them as friends, but what made the friendship special with JGTH was that the parents played together as nicely as the kids played together, and the parents like the other family's kids. Maybe we're fussy people, but it's rare that every single member of the two families not only like each other, but get along well. I think of some of my other friends in town that I consider to be dear friends, and while we all like each other a lot (parents and kids), in my opinion, the kids don't have as much in common, and therefore don't really play together.

OK, enough of this "woe is me" whining. Next up, I'm going to do Suds to Love's meme, and also one from Meg's blog. And maybe someday, I'll do the Thursday Thirteens again. :)

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)