What, are you yella'? (Week 30)

Yellow belt that is. Yes, much pride is afoot in our house. Leif and Hannah's dojo had it's seasonal gassuku (aikido training intensive and belt challenge) this week. They spend about 4 hours together, learning new moves, practicing old ones, playing outside and in. Then they test for the next level. Hannah has a yellow stripe on her belt tip now, which signifies that she has attended the gassuku, and is working on her yellow belt. Leif passed his belt test and now is a yellow belt. They are both very proud of themselves. We are too!



Also this week they both had their soccer tourney that marks the end of soccer season (why on earth we have soccer in the winter, while the rest of the country has it in the spring, I'll never understand). They got little trophies with their names on them, and they now adorn our simple springtime mantle.



We've had this website on often this week. It is an owl-cam in an owl nesting box up in a tree, in california. We watched the owl eat some so of meal, we guess a squirrel, and we saw one owlet and three eggs as-yet unhatched. Pretty dang cool huh?

We have also all been having a lot of fun with this way cool music site. You click on the little squares and it creates tones in a repeating rhythm. Then you can alter it, unclick some, add some others . . . even Ivy's grooving on it. It's provided hours of creative musical output for all of us.

Speaking of winding things up, the drop-in ice hockey sessions stopped this week as well. It is so cool to see how far they both have come since November. They are quick and confident, and fall with smiles and without getting discouraged. Too bad the rink will now sit empty all summer.

We've gotten back to reading our Ramona Quimby novel. The kids really like hearing about the hijinks of Ramona as told from the perspective of her older sister Beezus. I remember reading all her books as a kid, and look forward to sharing all of them with the kids over the coming months.

We came up with a great April Fools Day prank this year. Since we're renovating our bathroom, and we have all the fixtures piled up in the yard (pretty huh?) we decided to go set up an outdoor toilet in Kit's business parter's back yard. We took the toilet, some TP, the plunger and a magazine, and it was waiting for him when he came home from work. Nice huh?



Sadly, we end on a grim note. This week, late one night, a ravenous raccoon gobbled up all of our pond goldfish. We found severed bodies and guts all over the property. We're working on a fiting remembrance ceremony. I'll keep you posted. Poor fishies.

C

Phew! (Week 29)

All that activity of spring Break can just wear a gal out. I am really looking forward to a change in schedule, though it may not result in them taking *less* classes, but maybe it will still feel *less* hectic and busy? No? Dammit.

We chilled out this week, what with no more skating classes nor soccer practices. Leif and I played many games of Scrabble, and I continued my usual rantings on why the newest Scrabble dictionary BITES because they're now alowing tons of foreign words they never used to allow, just to get the high-point letters and two-worders on the board more. (for example : juku (a prep school in Japan) juju (posessing magical qualities) and japa (to paint wth a black laquer 'japaning').RANT!




Leif spent hours (hours!) roller blading on the street. It's so great to see him pick it up so easily. I'm harping on him to learn to stop really fast, but our street is so long and quiet, how can you not want to glide up and down it smoothly, without stopping?



Leif has recently discovered pesto and asked me to buy some for our homemade pizza night (usually Fridays if you're curious). Then he asked what else he could have pesto on. I suggested some type of bagel and cheese concoction, and a new snack was born. He now makes his 'usual' sandwhich often (bagel, cheddar cheese, pesto and mayo) and has bought basil seeds at the store so he can grow and make his own pesto. Fabulous!

He took his first goalie class for soccer this week. It was a challenge, and he likely will decide to continue with this in April (barring any schedule conflicts).

A new thing for Leif is conversation practice. When strangers say hi to him he does not know what to do, what to say. He feels uncomfortable and on-the-spot so says nothig, which generally gets him more interest from the stranger and thus more silence from Leif. We talked about what people mean when they ask how you are, how're things, what have you been up to? I told him about the practice or concept of sharing a bit about you and asking about them as well (we're talking about friends now, not strangers). That you can say you've been doing some soccer camps lately, and what have they been up to? It'll take much role playing, but he may just get the hang of this whole talking-to-others thing. :)

I seem to never run out of things to tell you about Hannah. This week a patch of warm sun on the dining room floor inspired her to set up her ownbeach area, indoors. Complete with fruit cocktail, beach glass and mural of waves and seagulls (plus the beach chair). Between her busking stand and beach scene the dining room is pretty crowded.



A Chirp magazine has some sort of April Fool's Day surprse in it, so Hannah has been hard at work, and under a cloak of secrecy.





Hannah is struggling with big concepts this week. Multiplication has that 6 year old con-fused. And so it should. It just keeps coming up in life and she is determined to 'get it'. I think her first big hurdle is understanding what 'times' means and then that a number represents a certain amount of things. So I've got my jars of dried beans out and we'e going to tackle it that way. What she needs is to realise what she already knows so she has confidence in trying something new that she thinks is too complicated.

She told me this week that heavy clouds are dark because they are full of rain, whereas the light clear ones just fly by because they are empty. Darned right she is.

This week Hannah, Ivy and I baked Strawberry bars, using jam I made last summer. Divine!



And we found a great pair of used roller blades for her, plus knee and elbow pads.



I've had a good week. The guys came to install the new floors downstairs, and by weeks end I hope to have my studio set up and ready to sew. I'm trying to get into the Moss St Market to sell my wrist warmers and other wooly items. And there's tons I want to make for the kids.

And I got mail (I never get mail):



Both mags I subscribe to (writing on motherhood and a great crafting zine) plus a necklace made from the letter C key of an old typewriter, made locally by another crafty gal. Scrumptious. Just needs a cup of tea and time to read.

And, after a few weeks of running first in canvas sneakers and then in these rubber roman sandal-type things, to tes out the whole barefoot running thing, I bought these:



They are FANTASTIC!!!! I can run anywhere and not fear glass or whatever bits collect on the road. I took them out my first day and ran 6K and it was great. It is so much harder to run barefoot, but not the same kind of hard as before. Before it was heavy-breathing-slap-slap on the pavement, just keep pounding along until you can stop. Now it's a huge mental workout to keep the right form and my legs and feet are working like mad. My lungs are fine, the physics of running barefoot mean less cardiovascular burnout; it's just my legs and feet that burnout from such good hard work. I'm going to aim for an every-other-day run until I'm sure my body can handle it.

After working on and loving my blue first-knitted hat, it is actually too small, as the pattern is for a lovely petite wisp of a gal. So I adapted it for my chock-full-of-brains head, and chose a grey wool this time around. Voila!




Kit and I are up far too late working our way through my brother's box set of The Wire series. What a great tv show. But our bodies cannot party like we did in the mid-90's. We are so tired in the morning. Whenever we find a great series to watch, I both look forward to watching it with him each night, but also look forward to finishing the series so I can get some sleep. The Wire has 3 seasons to go! Save us!

C

Spring Break Part 2 (Week 28)

I've come to accept that I do not fit the 'ideal' mold for a homeschooling mama. I have little patience with my kids, and loathe letting young hands 'help' me with a task I can do to perfection on my own.

So . . . I've signed them up for a week of cooking classes! I believe kids need to learn, from a young age, their way around the kitchen, how to make the basic things in life that they need, and confidence in what they create. I learned these things as a child (thank you Mom!) and thus grew into an adult who can cook for herself and feed others a variety of things. It's a basic living skill that far too many kids lack. I know, because I've met the adults who never learned this stuff. But as I can't bear to teach them myself, or better yet let them loose to explore the culinary world on their own, I chose Spring Break Chef Camp to do it for me. in the meantime I'll spend this week learning to chill out a lot more, so when they are done I can let them show me all they learned, and start sharing the meal-making responsibilities. A win-win no?


Day 1 they made pancakes with blueberry syrup, and the tastiest granola bars I've ever had. Day 2 they came home with these sugary concoctions:



Monkey Bread (think cinnamon bun doughnut holes) and Chocolate Espresso Ice cream cone cupcakes. Yikes.

Day 3 brought forth gross-looking (but very tasty) filled burrito things (think salsa+cream cheese= pink goo), mint chocolate chip ice cream and fruit kabobs.

Day 4 ended with banana chocolate chip cookies and pizza.

Leif couldn't resist getting a few afternoons of soccer camp in this week. he was full of energy from all that baking!

The weather turned gorgeous for part of this week and we spent hours outside on our street. Throwing handfuls of cherry blossom petals into the air to make snow, riding bikes and rollerblading. Leif found my (never-in-use-anymore) rollerblades in the garage and with 4 pairs of socks, sort of made them fit. Now I am a wobbly blader at best, but Leif took to it with no problems, and then Hannah followed suit. I impressed upon them the importance of learning to stop FIRST, but it mainly fell on deaf ears. As for the kids, there was only one fall, and Hannah recovered just fine. We're going to scope out the used sporting goods store next week for a couple pairs for the offspring.

When Leif wasn't baking. rollerblading or playing soccer, he managed to squeeze some Scrabble games with me into the remaining hours of the week.

Hannah has been rocking out with the newly-discovered recording piano feature. She now either records herself, then when it plays back she accompanies herself playing extra arts of the song, or she dances to the music she's made. It's a really cool creative thing to watch. We were watching Willow last night and afterwards she jumped up and played the theme song perfectly on the first try. Leif was very impressed.

Hannah has been working away on one of her drawing books. It's called Doodle All Year by Taro Gomi, author of such family favorites as Everyone Poops and My Friends. Each page offers a bit of the picture and asks her to fill in the rest. "What vegetables are growing in this field?", "Where is this car going?". It's a great project and she's enjoying herself. In the past she would just whip through books like this, thinking the goal was to complete it, not enjoy and experience it. It's nice to see her slowing down.



As she's no longer enamored with being a pilot for the Snowbirds when she grows up, Hannah is now practicing to be a thief. She's set up a pretend house in the kitchen, using the puppet theatre as a window, and practices sneaking in. She added to the challenge by setting up booby-traps (golf tees) around the perimeter.



In the meantime, she's come up with another way to earn some coin:



Her first busking stand. Combining of course her recent drumming skills with her desire for capital growth.



The supportive audience:



In our Avonlea viewing this week we ran into the Suffragette movement. This tied in perfectly with International Women's Day. I found a book at the library called You Forgot Your Skirt Amelia Bloomer which addresses an issue I've talked to them about many times before. Being a slave to societal norms when you do not agree with them is not worth it. Amelia Bloomer hated the heavy, tight dresses she was expected to wear, that limited her movement and ability to enjoy play and work. Her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton hated that women had no rights, especially the right to vote. In their own ways, each of them changed women's lives forever. Nowadays women subject themselves to such lunacy as high heels that hurt and will potentially mess up your feet and back as you age, never mind greatly limit your movement and abilities while you're young. They spend money on make-up and hair-dye and the *latest fashions* just to look like everybody else. And men get stuck in it too, trying to keep up with what the covers of men's magazines and music videos tell them men should look like. Leif and Hannah run into this often when children argue with them about what a boy or girl looks like. These children actually argue about their gender, disbelieving my kids when they patiently explain that in fact girls *can* have short hair, and boys *can* have long hair. It's such insanity that at this young age stereotypes are already firmly enmeshed in the minds of many. The kids enjoyed this book, finding the logic appealing and the drawings humourous.

Another Avonlea episode dealt with inventions. There is a character played as the eccentric, bumbling recluse who makes 'crazy things' that are often flops. He invents a ringing tea kettle, a plane (that does not fly) and raises bats to learn how they 'see' with their poor eyesight in the dark. He hypothesises that they use echo-location and talks about how useful such a tool could be for planes and boats. Leif did not understand how they could not know about these things back then. I explained how we form a world view based on what we know, and often necessity is the impulse to learn more and to ask questions. It is because we can imagine something that we need or could use that sparks our impulse to make that something, or that a commonly held belief that doesn't sit well with what we think can lead to finding different answers (Darwin). Just as evolution was discounted by so many people in those times (and still today), things that exist today that are commonplace for him did not exist even when I was a kid, let alone in the time of Avonlea. (While I can recall my first CD, my grandfather remembered when ice was delivered on a buggy. Who knows what will be the norm in these kid's adulthood.)

Did you notice what happened at the tail-end of this week? Spring arrived!!!



We took a trip to Vancouver and visited Van Dusen Gardens for some much-needed plant appreciation and family times. It was a blast.

Our first stop was a visit to Nana's bench. Kit's grandmother was the master gardener of the family (a title his own mother is in charge of now) and when she passed away the family dedicated a bench to her in Van Dusen Gardens. Beside the pond, under a tree tree, perfectly shaded to watch the fish and turtles.



Then we set out for the hedge maze.



Somewhere in there my children cavort and yell.



I could not get enough of the bits of spring poking through the skeletons of last year. This tree was covered in dry cones, and one branch held these wee beauties:



Hannah tried to carry all the things she found home with her, which made her walk with a limp due to the huge branch she carried, along with cones, leaves and dried flowers. I told her we'd take pictures instead. These fairy-wing-like leaves were everywhere.



While in Vancouver Leif and Al took in a Vancouver Giants hockey game. Leif came home FULL of and-then-this-happened stories. It was great.

On the ferry home Leif and Hannah tried a bit of photography.

Taken by Hannah:






I guess our plans to give the kids the crappy point-and-shoot and save the very expensive fancy camera for ourselves didn't hold. We never stick to these rules we aim to impose. At least we slack off together.

Taken by Leif:





On our return from Vancouver I had a very special parcel in my bag. before we left my mom handed me a box I hadn't seen in decades, that I had completely forgotten about until I saw it. And then the memories came flooding back. Life is so funny like that isn't it?



When I was a kid my mom and I decorated a branch together for Easter. I remember looking forward to it, and en joying playing with what went where, and it becoming 'my' thing to set up. I am so happy to see all these lovely old decorations again. Thanks Mama.



So I sent Hannah out to fetch a branch (she came back with really odd ones) and we got to work setting up our tree for Spring.



Then I got out the crafts the kids have made over the years for Spring, all in time to welcome in the Equinox late on Saturday night. They've blown eggs and then coloured them, felted onto them and crocheted holders for them.



I also have hens they have knit or sewn. They are such wonderful creations. What shall we make this year?

In recent discussions the kids and talked again about how Easter is a Christian/religious celebration, tying in the the pagan symbols for spring and life with their own beleifs about Jesus' life and death. We don't practice cHristianity and we do celebrate the seasons, so why not celebrate the arrival of spring with the much-anticipated egg hunt? So we did.






Kit and I have been working away at the front yard, moving plants and debating what should go where. We are leaning towards evergreens and I have seen many a Japanese-style pine or juniper that I really like. How we'll incorporate it all is yet to be decided, but pics are coming soon.

I've found a horrible, terrible, damned addictive crafting site, and I spend any free minutes scrolling through it, bookmarking ideas for things I'd like to make once our basement room is finished (my crafting studio is getting a decent chunk of the real-estate down there). In the meantime I've been working on things I can make with sweaters that I shrink in the wash. These are my latest, wrist warmers for all us folks who hate the 3/4 length sleeve found on far too many women's shorts and sweaters.



There you have us, full of chocolate and sunshine.

C

Spring Break Part 1 (Week 27)

Spring is coming! And what better way to celebrate it than a plate of animal cookies baked by Hannah?



A lamb, some pigs and a duck. Awesome!

Spring Break is always fun because there are lots of great camps to take advantage of. This year our district has 2 weeks of break, so this week the kids did soccer camp. Leif and Hannah were both signed up for a morning half-day camp, and then they were invited to join the afternoon camp if they wished. They did! So they each did 6 hours of soccer each day. Insane! They loved it, even when it poured and SNOWED!

When Hannah wasn't playing soccer she was playing around on the piano. She's been listening to Chariots of Fire and has picked out the notes on the piano. Now she plays a medley of that and Harry Potter, Sar Wars and The Sound of Music. Then she discovered our electric piano has a memory function, so she can play a tune and then the piano plays it back to her. To her dismay, even if she yells out her songs, the piano does not record her voice. :)

Hannah and I played with mirror-writing this week. Hannah began of her own initiative, spelling TIK TAK TOE backwards on a piece of paper.



Then she read it in the mirror.



Then we got crazy with her name. It's such a great name.



At Hannah's drum lessons she had a substitute instructor. He showed her how she can think of beats like syllables in names of fruit. PEAR is one whole beat, APPLE is two 1/2 beats . . blueberry, watermelon . . . it was cool. I'm hoping to sew her a satchel so she can carry her things around with her, and that includes her drumsticks, so she can drum out beats anywhere she goes.

She enlightened me this week with her explanation of odd and even numbers. That they must be divisible by 2 or they are odd. I love the stuff they dish out while I'm driving.

Leif played soccer, soccer and more soccer. When he wasn't playing soccer he was playing outside with us, or watching hockey on the computer.

We were listening to the radio and a story came on about baby boomers, immigration and minorities (I'm sure we all heard that story this week) and Leif asked all about it. So I explained the concept of generations, and what the baby boomer gen is, why it is called that, and how od they are now and what that means. Then explained why immigrants can help in the hole booomers are leaving in the workforce, but too often they are relegated to being underpaid cab drivers. Again, a great car chat.

I introduced a new idea to the kids this week. I told them how Earth Day is in April, and tha I had an idea that they could earn an Earth Badge, similar to their embroidered swim level badges. I told them they need to find a way to measure energy we use or waste we create in the house, and then see if they can find a way to reduce that amount. Create an experiment and hypothesis to test your idea and carry it out. I'm getting a bunch of books and DVDs from the library on this topic to give them the info and ideas. I hope this is a success.


And how are our birds you ask? Well, for days we've watched the two house sparrows bicker over real estate. He wants the bigger house he can fit into, she the smaller one she feels is safer. It's so funny to watch them debate it day after day.



And finally, a male Red House Finch has discovered my kitchen sink window feeder. But if I move in the kitchen he flies away. It's tricky.




I hope your last weeks of winter are not wearing you down, wherever you are. :)

C

And Aubrey makes 4 (Week 26)

Can you feel the love? I can. This is what Hannah made us for Valentine's Day:



We're continuing to hang out with our fab cousin Aubrey this week. The kids have been great at helping me take care of him and keep him safe and happy.





We went to the Lego Exhibit museum this week, an annual event. It's part of the Sidney Museum's regular exhibits. The kids favorite part is not the Lego though, it's the heritage school room set up, where they pretend they're in school like on Road to Avonlea.



We've had alot of good talks because of Avonlea. How their lives and houses worked (pumps for water, no fridges or bathrooms) how society was (women as property, women can't vote, religion ruling their actions and beliefs, alcohol and gambling).

We watched videos of road families, which means families who sell their homes to live on the road together in motorhomes. It's a lifestyle called Roadschooling and it looks pretty fabulous. The kids interviewed in the videos commented on how silly it is that schooled kids they meet always ask them the same things. How old are you, what school do you go to, what grade are you in? Leif and Hannah could really identify with that, they get it all the time. And then they get asked "If you were in school, what grade would you be in?" I remind them that it is just people's way of trying to make connections, just like the adults who ask them if they're excited about Santa or if they wish they were in school (eep!). But it does point to the way our culture has everything so boxed up, everything and everyone in tidy categories. When confronted with kids who are not in school and don't believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny, they do not know what to talk to them about. Just like adults who turn away from me after they ask me what I do for a living and I reply that I stay home with my kids. It's a real conversation-ender. Sigh.

We built hundreds of train tracks this week, as Aubrey is a real train lover. Here is Leif's gravity-defying creation:




Leif's soccer team has been focusing on passing lately, and during their last game we noticed that they were too focused on passing, and forgot to try to score. So this is a shot from behind the opponent's net, as Leif held control of the ball, and I yelled 'SHOOT!' as a gentle reminder that he was still allowed to try to score. He did, and it went through all 3 burgundy players, over their goalie's shoulder, and tucked right in to the corner of the net. Score.




We went clambering over the rocks at the ocean this week, after Aubrey went home. We hiked and jumped from one beach to the next, and saw Oyster Catchers and tiny fish. Then I snapped this shot to show the kids why plants are the seat of life's beginning, that they made and make the oxygen we need. All in a tiny tidepool.



We've discovered a new much-loved play area near our house. We can bike there and we are hidden from the houses yet there is tons of space to roam around. The kids played pirates and then some wierd animal game. Even though it was a place accidents could happen, they all stayed together and kept each other safe. I hope we can make time to go there every week.



After that we biked on to Aikido, where the children met Numata Sensei, a 7th level black belt Sempei from Japan. This was a really, really big deal. He has practiced Aikido for 40 years, and gave them a demo of what he could do, both with his hands and with his sword.



Hannah volunteered to do a demo of children's aikido, and was very proud of her role.



She has asked if she can move up to the next level of instruction, and we patiently await her Sensei's reply. She is very keen on Aikido.


C