Books! So exciting!

I've been getting lots and lots of boxes of books in the mail lately.  I love books, especially in the fall, when the crisp scent of decaying leaves and apples and smoke remind you that it's time to wear wool, and snuggle in, and learn some new stuff!  I'm especially excited about the Dauphin's new books this year.  He's starting the Veritas Press Omnibus I curriculum.  I'm excited for several reasons.  First, it's academically rigorous, interesting, and engaging.  Second, it comes with a cd containing lesson plans, reading lists, grading recommendations, and a full text with sample answers inserted.  Third, I'm excited to read and discuss all these great books and ideas with my son and my husband.  Fourth, it's got a solid Biblical worldview, but it doesn't hesitate to deal with real issues.  Fifth, all the books look really impressive on the shelf, like we're super educated, hyper-literate and sophisticated people... fun to pretend, isn't it!?

My husband also ordered a bunch of books for our own benefit, and the one I've been reading, and kind of blown away by is Already Gone, by Ken Ham.  It's largely an ad for his Answers in Genesis curriculum (which by all accounts is pretty awesome), however, it raises some compelling questions about the young people in our churches and why so many leave after high school.

Finally, I ordered some really cool books on Newton, Marco Polo, and Leonardo DaVinci that have really interesting text, and fun, engaging projects for kids as they're reading along.  Great for reading over a Term and letting kids pick projects as they're interested.

School planning is going on swimmingly this year.  I took every spare minute for like two weeks and got the year scheduled by week number for all the kids in school this year, and that is: wait for it..... 5 kids schooling actively this year.  The Dauphin is in 7, Prairie Princess is in 5, Mini Me is in 3, Little Engineer is in 1, and my little Baby Jane (I'm giving her that nickname because she looks so much like my Grandma Jane), is starting to learn to read and write... yay!  I love my planner.... I am not infrequently found holding and petting it and looking through it's tabbed and color coded pages with a vague smile on my face.  I've never pulled off planning an entire year before, I usually just plan the first six weeks and hold onto an insane hope that I'll plan as the year goes on... which I do not do well, and certainly not for all the children!!!  This feat of super home school mom organization didn't come without a cost... the kids were so neglected (benignly, of course!) that they began to turn feral... it was a little like Lord of the Flies around here!  And the house looked, literally, like it had gone through a tornado, and the baby, no, toddler, has taken to becoming a muralist, and decorated every possible surface with crayon, pencil, and occasionally a pen or marker...

It didn't take long for him to trash the new, perfect house.... did it?

Aaaaaand, I only did like 2 loads of laundry in the time I did the planning, so the children were fishing through their dirty laundry hampers for clothing to wear.  Under no circumstances are any of you to think that I have it all together.  I do not!!!  But I do have The Book: a beautiful, organized, color coded, and Microsoft Excelled book to pet and hold and try to live up to.

Opening Ceremonies

I have successfully tied up some loose ends here at Contentment... I finished my brown cardigan in time for my trip to Texas next week... I even got some pics today, which I, of course, will share... We've started our luge track here at the house.  OK, it's a sled track, but we're calling it the luge track.  We've worn ourselves out packing snow.  I mean, we all came in and collapsed and I still think my rear end is a bit frozen.  Still, it's fun, and the sun is out and the day is beautiful and our road is finally not closed!  Of course it's supposed to snow again Monday.  We better get it finished and start sliding!

Also, did you know that 11 women in Olympia, Greece who represent 11 vestal virgins light the torch with a parabolic mirror before the Olympics?  Cool, huh?  Can one make a parabolic mirror at home?

Well, instead of that, we lighted our own Olympic Torch with the sun... we tried and tried to light it directly, but had to resort to lighting a match with the sun and a magnifying glass!!!  Then we lit the candle.    It counts! ..... It Does!

Olympics Fever!!!

It's been snow, snow, and more snow around here!  It snowed so much it filled up the cattle guard and the cows thought they'd traipse right out of their field this morning to look for forage.  My neighbor's son called and gave us a heads up, so I thought I'd just roll out of bed, wash my face, get dressed, and see what's up out there... Or what's out up there... hard to say when I've just woken up.  Aaaaaanyway, I'm not packing... I'm procrastinating because I'm trying not to think about moving when the stupid Bank of America won't hurry up and tell us if we can have that house or not!  (Ranting... anger problems, apparently).

Instead of packing, I'm planning a unit study for the Winter 2010 Olympics.  It's fun!  I've found that my kids are rather weak in Geography and so the Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to get those world maps out and start learning about countries and where they are while we watch the competition!  Also, my oldest is studying Ancient Greece right now and so we're working in the Ancient Olympics, too.  Also, Canada, snow, and, if I can manage it, engineering a snow apparatus outside, while there's still snow to push around.  I think the Little Engineer will enjoy that.

We've really been inspired by the Olympic Motto and Creed.  I guess I'll just go ahead and post them ;)

Motto:  Citius, Altius, Fortius (Swifter, Higher, Stronger)

Creed:  The most significant thing in the Olympic games is not to win, but to take part.  Just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle.  The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

Soooo, we've been setting ourselves some goals for this Olympic period, which is, as of now, 20 days.  I'm going to work on my abs... by working them out 4 times a week on our pull up bar.  Also, I'm going to try harder to work out, yoga or pilates, 4-5 days a week.  Aaaaand, I'm rereading Raising Godly Tomatoes

Finally, on my pursuit to challenge myself for this 20 days, I've decided to compete in the Ravelympics 2010, which is a competition on Ravelry, one of my favorite ever sites, where one can get almost anything a fiber freak like me needs for inspiration.

I am competing on the ClubFoot Ravelympics team in the Giant Slalom-ghan event... which means I'm going to try to crochet an afghan in 20 days... 20 days.  The rules say you can't start your project except for swatching before the Olympic flame is lit in Vancouver, and you have to finish your project before the flame is extinguished, 16 days later.  It's sort of a fun way to compete and make projects and enjoy the Olympics all at the same time!  Jeremy drove me to AC Moore yesterday to get more yarn for my brown sweater which is wet blocking right now in preparation for seaming and knitting neck ribbing and button bands.

While we were there, I spotted a sale on cheap o acrylic for an even cheaper price of 2 for $5... I thought about that and overcame my acrylic aversions when I realized the whole afghan would cost less than $30 to make and my kids will ensure that it needs to be washed repeatedly anyway, so acrylic would be a good idea.  So here's a sneak peek of the colors:

I'll be posting updates!!!  The Olympics starts in 3 days!  Are you getting swifter, higher, and stronger?

National Gallery of Art

Most modern art I dislike... OK, well, postmodern art. But I love to look at Mark Rothko's later canvases. Let me clarify, I love the Color as Field pictures before the darkness sets into Rothko's work, cause that dark stuff makes me super sad. I can't wait for the Mark Rothko Exhibit that opens at the National Gallery of Art in May. We visited last Tuesday for a first hand look at Jackson Pollock's No. 1 Lavender Mist, as we've been studying some modern artists in school... Color speaks to me, and large canvases that are non representational are often very emotionally evocative to me... Still, Jackson Pollock is hard for me to understand... even in person, which is quite a bit better than a little pic in an Art book (or online).

I took a couple pictures of the kids in this neat, cosmic, walkway art installation that I'll share...

I had a great time, but I have to say, sometimes it really blows to have kids five and under on a museum trip... It's one of those times we all came home, brushed our teeth and went to bed, bedtime or no!

Little Scholars

Spring is Springing

Have you noticed? It's a big thing for me, you know... We have a follower to the blog! Yay! If you want to follow and be alerted whenever I post anew or whatever, just scroll all the way to the bottom and click "Follow This Blog". School is just humming along right now... of course, I have totally dropped Latin. But otherwise, we're running on all cylinders right now. We should be done with the 3 R's sometime in May, and then, boy howdy, we're gonna farm like we've never farmed before! I'm soooo excited for the garden this year. Not just the food, either, I'm excited for the daffodils and tulips I planted, and the herbs, and lilies, and roses, and lavender I bought for the children. We were planning on some feeder calves, but haven't yet obtained any, and we're putting out feelers for a family cow, but that's not falling into place, either, so we're just focusing on what we CAN do... We can garden. We can tend our little flock of chickens. We can make things at home...

Speaking of that: I've been sewing. I bought some patterns for simple, classic clothes (Common Sense Patterns) for the Prairie Princess. She is such a Luddite. I've finished (except for buttons and holes) a very pretty ruffled collar, long sleeved blouse for her in white cotton with printed golden orangey and metallic silver polka dots. She tried it on after the sleeves were attached to talk about buttons with me:

"Oh, Mommy! I just love it! Especially since it's handmade!" the Prairie Princess gushes, and when I say gush, I mean it.

She's very gratifying to make things for. Really. She talks like she's Anne of Green Gables most of the time. I mean she speaks with all the emotion and emphasis and vocabulary. But she's not really a talkative person. She can't be when she's got two little sisters with "tongues hung in the middle."

Speaking of orange, again... I bought the fabric for my living room curtains. I know, I said I'd let you all give your input, but I couldn't wait. Orange, again. Shocking.

Creative and Organized, is it Possible?

I was perusing Blue Yonder today and lo and behold, she linked HERE

I'm blown away. How could someone have such beautiful artistic sensibilities and still have such a clean, organized space?! It's as though her aesthetic and art have melded into a cohesive whole that I previously thought impossible. It makes me want to just go through everything and organize it beautifully... but perhaps washing the dishes should come first? Geninne's Art Blog is absolutely, fabulously, wonderfully inspiring, and can I just say that I love that she has a homeschool/studio.... That's what I need! I could just chuck the guest room and make that the school room instead of making it share space with the living room and dining room. I'll have to think on that one. I love her mixture of the orangey tones with the blue and brown, too.

OK, so news here is that I've finished baby Ava's matinee jacket and bonnet and am knitting away on the second bootie to finish off the layette. I think that if I was comissioned to make this layette I'd charge $250. It was fun, and the color is a joy to work with; bright, cheerful, and beautiful. But lace in fingering weight wool is VERY time consuming. Still, it's beautiful! See!

Also, I've decided to put up curtains in the living room. I bought cafe rods and ring clips, so now I just have to pick a fabric. I'm sort of waffling between blue and brown and orange... and green.

Finally, don't tell my husband, because he thinks it's silly, but I want to build a birdcage... I mean, not NECESSARILY for birds to live in... I could put plants in it, even fake birds, or a bird mobile, or some paper cranes or something... but I want a birdcage. Not the kind that has bars and scrollwork, but a nice, big one, with a wooden frame painted a color I like with window screening on it... maybe with grass planted on the floor.... Hmmmmmmm.... I'll have to mull over that one a bit more... I'll post pics of the living room and you all can give me opinions about what color curtains to put up, or whether it should be a solid or a print, geometric? and bold or subtle.... Of course, I'll do just what I want to, but I'd love your ideas, anyway!

Book of Days

Now this looks promising! I can definitely see us enjoying using this natural recipe, project, science, and loving each other guide and memory book at Contentment. Over at The Crafty Crow you can get ideas for projects and enter a drawing for a year's subscription to the Book of Days from Blue Yonder. I am! If you don't win, you can buy a subscription online by clicking on "this" in the first sentence of this post.