Charlies First Piano Recital

Jane's First Cello Recital

Books Books Books

I found this picture on my camera. I love when the kids do that.

"You might discover the secret at dawn, a morning like all other mornings, The sun climbs over the edge of the earth and begins to fill the world with light and warmth. It touches your cheek with a golden ray, and you say softly, simply, "Thanks. Thank you, sun, for the gift of a new day, for all its choices and challenges, for all the beauty that it brings.

You may find the secret when you hear a bird sing and feel grateful for the gentle music of the skies, for flash of wing and brightness of feathers, for the good company of graceful creatures who dance upon the wind."

~ The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood

Douglas Wood is my new favorite Children's Book author. The writing is beautiful and quite thought provoking. No One But You is my favorite but I also like Old Turtle and The Secret of Saying Thanks.

This one is from Old Turtle:

"I...I wanted to ask a question," answered the Little Girl. "Where I live, the earth is sore, and people are suffering. Battles are fought, over and over again. People say it has always been this way and will never change. Can it change, Old Turtle? Can we make it change?"

Old Turtle spoke. "The world you describe is not the world that has always been, Little One."

Then Old Turtle told of how the people had found the broken truth, and the suffering it had caused. 

"It is because it is so close to a great, whole truth that it has such beauty and that the people love it so," said Old Turtle. "It is the lost portion of that broken truth that the people need, if the world is to be made whole again."

"But where is he missing piece?" asked the Little Girl. "Can we put the truth back together again?" 

"First, my child," said Old Turtle, "remember that there are truths all around us, and within us. They twinkle in the night sky and bloom upon the earth. They fall upon us every day, silent as the snow and gentle as the rain. The people, clutching their one truth, forget that it is part of all the small and lovely truths of life. They no longer see these truths, no longer hear them..."

My second new favorite author is Demi. Her books are well written, historic, interesting, and the illustrations are unreal. I can't believe I don't know these stories better- like Alexander the Great for example, is fascinating. These are the books we've read so far, but we have a stack to get through still (Mother Theresa, Muhammad etc.)

I LOVE This Kid

"Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart."

~Winnie the Pooh

Best apron ever. Thanks Jods.

My kids are Uno junkies, and Ezra happens to be awesome at Uno...

...except for when he eats the cards.

He looks way too grown up in this one.

I've never taken this long to get a baby book done :0)

Thanks for the album Momma.

Uncle J

Jared telling me about seeing The Staves open for Bon Iver:

Me: Were they good?

Jared: "Yeah, it was like Stevie Nicks times three."

Fossil Day

I'm going to be lazy and just copy this excerpt from a friends blog about our homeschool fossil day.

...And for field trip we went to this amazing dinosaur extravaganza put on by the homeschool organization... 

…We were taught by a real palaeontologist, and he showed us a T-Rex tooth found right where he was teaching us!  He also showed us imprints of mammoths that were found right here, and a copy of a sabre tooth tiger's skull."

I posted a while back about this embroidery Jane made for Grammy. Grammy put it in this pretty oval frame and hung it in her bedroom. I think it looks so good!

Glorious Sping

We had a few hot days so we went down to one of our favorite swimming holes. I love that I have country kids. They'd rather swim in a freezing cold river with tadpoles and all kinds of creatures, than go to the regular pool. How did this happen? I am such a sissy and I don't like getting dirty either. I really notice it when we have friends with us from the city and their kids don't even want to step on the dirt in their barefeet and my hick kids are digging and rolling and relishing it.

 We went to the Birds of Prey Centre and it was worth the drive! We had so much fun learning about the birds and seeing them so close up. It was beautiful weather and I love having an entire Saturday free to just spend together as a family. 

  Feeding the ducks is always a highlight for the kids.

 After the Birds of Prey Centre, we went to Broxburn Farm. I love to walk around green houses and see all the colors and smell all the herbs and flowers. Charlie bought me a basil plant with his own money. It's my favorite thing to smell.

This was a candy corn plant. Can you see the candy corn flower?