You Don't See That Every Day

Spring break. Sleeping in. No lesson plans. No grading. Yes, this homeschool mom takes a spring break when the schools do, especially since I have three in school now. But even before that we would take a break around the same time so that we could play with friends; although we would usually wait until the week after to go anywhere! The first day of break was a Friday and I was the one who was gone all day while the kids stayed home! I had errands/shopping to do all morning and then after lunch I headed to Corvallis. Because that is where The Basketball Games were being held. We were able to get tickets to the first and second games of the NCAA women's basketball championships! And our OSU women's team won both games! They were exciting games and fun times with my Mr and later with my girl who swims (but also enjoys basketball) The rest of the week was a much needed rest. I took the girls shopping one day. We rarely have time to go when they are in school, and after-schoo...

So it's not officially the first day of spring, but here in Oregon it is the first day of sunshine after weeks of rain - it screams SPRING to me. So we promptly went to the farm. (Mostly because we were out of wood and it gets kind of cold in the house when we don't run the wood stove.) The field trip today included: Running across the fields - they aren't planted yet, and they weren't too muddy, so the girls explored a bit today; Cutting daffodils - one of my favorites; Riding on the trailer while Grandpa drives the tractor. He almost let me drive one of the tractors and then decided against it. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Loading wood into the pickup to take home (and yes they helped unload at the end of the day too); Helping Grandpa with the burn pile - always fun to watch; And a peek at the beautiful snowy mountains. Mt Hood looked gorgeous today, and we saw Mt. Jefferson peeking out too. I love going to the farm in the spring!

Whomever decided to "change" time probably never dealt with a toddler who is used to a schedule. I would gladly live in a state that did not observe this daylight savings time idea. However, since that is not the case, yesterday morning I was up an hour earlier than I usually am, and  I got myself off to church to teach the six students who's parents managed to get them there on time. The rest of my family was still asleep when I left the house, but that's because none of them went to bed at their bedtime. Some of them stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. That had more to do with the events of the evening than anything else. Saturday night was the school's annual Black Tie Dinner, and this year The Girl Who Swims went to it with a group of friends. We spent the day, (it seemed like the whole day), getting ready - first we had to buy shoes, but then my other daughter needed a haircut. So then I spent time at the salon waiting for that to happen. When I ...

My uncle died last year, and as what comes with death, the cleaning of house commences. My aunt and cousins are going through things, downsizing, cleaning, parceling out family items. My parents received a box of items from my dad's side of the family. I have numerous pictures and such of the family history that I have been trying to organize for years now, so my mom passed on the box to me. And what a treasure! I spent some time this afternoon looking at letters from my great-great uncle to my grandmother, letters written in 1921 on paper from that year. Names that I didn't recognize mingle with names I have heard of. Letters from Germany were in there, notes from family written in 1948. I took German in high school and college, but I could only make out a few words. The handwriting is exquisite in the German letters, so beautiful. There were a few photos of unknown to me people. It made me want to dive into my family history boxes and sort more. History has always been a f...

The season went ... swimmingly. The Girl Who Swims made it to the 5:30 am practices each day without complaint. Ok, maybe a tiny bit of grumbling on Sunday nights, but not much. She swam fast, and far. Last week was the Districts meet. This girl placed 6th overall in the 200 IM and 7th in the 500 freestyle. Pretty amazing for a freshman. Only the top 2 go on to State, so we figured she was done for the season, and she made plans for sleeping in. Until Sunday night. We got a text from her coach. They needed an alternate to go to the State meet with the Girls 200 relay, and our girl was their pick. So one more week of 6 am practices (and, yes, that half hour made enough of a difference to mention it!) and then she gets to go to State this weekend. Either she will sit on the sidelines and cheer for her teammates, or she will take the place of one who can't swim for some reason that day. We are so proud of this girl who doesn't realize just how much potential she has.

Spending time in the car gives me plenty of quality one on one with my kids. Now that The Boy is driving back and forth to school, I don't spend much time in the car with them. The drive to swim practice at 5:30 am doesn't count, because I am only awake enough to grunt or speak monosyllabicly. This weekend the three younger girls spent the night at their aunt and uncle's. So I headed there on Monday to pick them up. Which meant I had the radio to myself on the first half of the drive. But on the return drive, the child in the front seat with me took over. And I was ok with that. I learned some new music lyrics; I learned what she likes to listen to; and I heard my youngest child singing "wish I could turn back time to the good old days." That made me laugh! What are good old days for a five year old?! I found that I don't mind some of the 'new' music that my kids listen to. They don't always get 'my' music when I turn on the 80s radio st...

Things get a little crazy here in Oregon when the sun comes out.  It's like gold to us and we stream outside to partake of the riches. My daughter drags out her shorts and tank tops and tries to sneak past me to the outside. (But even though it IS warmer, I still make her wear pants and socks and shoes and t-shirts.) I haven't gotten in the habit of taking my camera everywhere but you'll have to trust me that we had a beautiful walk on Sunday out in the sunshine. My sister and I took the younger girls to the park while the boys stayed home and watched a football game. The older girls finished up their homework and then watched their dad , er, I mean, Peyton Manning play football. (Side note to those not on Facebook: my husband has been told numerous times, often from complete strangers, that he looks just like Peyton.) So we walked on the park trails, and then we drove to another park, rode the carousel, and let the girls play on the playground. As the sun went down,...