Do you know TED?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. They now have a great web site on which I can spend hours exploring ideas through their videos of TED talks.

Everyone from Clifford Stoll, to Amy Tan, to Jill Bolte Taylor, to Stephen Hawking, to Michael Pollen holds forth on the subject of their passion for about 15 minutes and I walk away with a whole new view of the world.

You explore the talks based on a number of sort -- most recent, of course, most beautiful, most jaw dropping, most persuasive ... and a number of others.

It's great fun!!

Still the Long Distance Grandma

I've written before about the challenges of having your heart walking around (in the form of your children and grandchildren) on another continent.

I continue to read everything I can get my hands on, and the ideas continue to be focused on the Grandmas who live 80 miles from the grandbabies and are fretting because they can't pick them up from school or babysit for them a couple of times a week. I'd love to be able to record stories and then send the file and the book so the children can hear me read it to them...but I can't read Swedish well enough and they don't speak English!

I'd love to send a package of delightful surprises once a week -- but that quickly becomes very expensive! (A fat letter can cost $4 -- can you imagine how much a pair of mugs and some instant cocoa and a book would cost?!?!)

A few of the books do have some good ideas, but mainly it seems to come back to writing letters. If you don't speak the same language as your grandchildren, then a translator is immensely helpful -- maybe critical. Even though I speak a tiny bit of Swedish, as Bella got older, I felt more and more limited by having to stick with topics I knew the words for. My wonderful translator, Johanna, has been helping me since last June and after a year, I am starting to be able to "hear" how my "voice" sounds in Swedish. I can even pick through old letters and adapt phrases to send short notes between my monthly letters, which increases my ability to be "in touch".

But after a year of chatting about the routines of my life, I find myself getting repetitive and I started to wonder what to write about next...I can only hold the children's interest with planting a garden and canning and building snowmen for so long. I can discuss the books Jack and I are reading, but many of those haven't been translated into Swedish and so they are of limited interest. And always writing about books gets dull, dull, dull. I write about some holidays ... especially the ones we celebrate that Swedes don't.

And of course, when I can get an anecdote out of Grandfather or Mamma or Pappa, I comment on that, but it's relatively rare -- certainly, I don't have an anecdote to work with once a month! (If you're a young parent, please don't put your parents, your children's grandparents, in this position. It may seem of limited interest that your child is on a 'pirates' kick or can name all the numbers up to 20 -- but, honestly, it's the stuff of life for a grandma!)

One thing I have carried away from all of those books on grand parenting, though, is the important role a grandparent has in a child's life. We are the keepers of the family history and our traditional role has been to pass that along. Having a strong sense of history and a strong sense of belonging to one's family grounds a young person, gives them confidence, and helps to protect them from the emotional battering that ordinary life can impose. I am not a psychologist, so I can't speak to the long term effects of knowing their family story has on a child. I can say, though, that if you as the grandparent don't tell those stories, who will? Will you allow your family's stories to be lost forever?

I wasn't able to share much of my family's history with my older children. At 30, I really didn't have much idea myself. In the decades since, though, I have been investigating, collecting, and recording those stories I can find. I started this new project of sharing my family history on Mother's day this year by recounting just a bit about *my* grandmothers for my grandchildren. I also made a small "scrapbook" by folding a few sheets of paper and sewing them together by hand with great big stitches. Then I cut out the part of my letter that was about each grandmother and pasted it, alongside a few photos, into the scrapbook, with comments about what they were seeing in the photos. In November, when my babies will celebrate Fathers' day, I will do the same for my grandfathers. Later, I'll do a book for each of my parents. (I know a lot more about them) and eventually, I will tell the tales I have heard about other ancestors, so those stories aren't lost completely. That's a good start -- but it's only few letters and we'll have covered what I know.

So, I kept looking.

That's when I remembered The Remembering Site! The Remembering Site is a non-profit initiative that lets anyone create an online autobiography by answering a series of questions. It costs $25 for a lifetime membership, and when you're done, you can e-mail your story, print it out at home, or you have have it printed and bound for a reasonable fee.

I started recording my memories there years ago to "someday" have printed as book for my children and grandchildren, but it occurred to me that the memories don't have to be in the form of book! The site consists of thousands of questions that you can use as a springboard in telling your story, and those questions can be used just as easily as a springboard for letters! (I can even paste the contents of the letters into my biography and get the two goals met at once!)

Of course, the rest of the letter can be more chatty and less important and when there is something more immediate to write about, I'll write about that -- but those memories will make the letters worth saving! As the kids get older, the letters will mean even more to them.

I am feeling a lot happier about my ability to forge a real relationship with my children's children... I still wish we could communicate more directly, but I am also working on that. Jack and I are studying Swedish using Rosetta Stone. So far I can talk about being under an airplane or over a horse...but eventually I hope to be able to use it to actually have a conversation. ;)

Blood Root

I managed to ask the right friend, and we have identified our new discovery as blood root.

We missed our chance to photograph it open, because it opened one day and was pollinated and gone the next, but Rod assures me that it does indeed look like the pictures in the books for the 15 minutes it's open.

We've researched it and found that blood root is also called Pauson, Red Paint Root, Red Puccoon, Tetterwort, King Root, and sanguinaria.

It's a perennial, so we can expect it to reappear every year and (hopefully) spread. The root can be used a red dye or stain, and it has medicinal uses, such as in a poultice for sores and excema. It shouldn't be eaten or used in tisanes except by a very experienced herbalist since the proper dose is minute and slightly more than that can be fatal.

Ruled by Mars, and its element is fire. Not surprisingly, it's very protective -- a good thing to have growing around the periphery of our land! The biggest, reddest roots can be used (carried or worn) to draw love or to deflect negativity.

This has been so much fun that I've started exploring a lot of our green neighbors and I am working on Smiffy's Herbal. Not being an herbalist myself, its all going to be very derivative, but it's a start.

We have also hired an herbalist friend, Linda, to come over and guide us on an hour-long herb walk of our land in June. It's an open party, so if you live nearby let us know if you wan to come along. (Linda hasn't said yet how much she charges, but we'll let you know if you voice an interest.)

Germination problem solved?

I may have found another problem I had with germination this year, thanks to my friend, sweet Celeste.

Celeste and Dame and Grandpa John were over yesterday to help close out Jack's birthday week. (We were supposed to go to the zoo, but it was cold and wet and not zoo-like weather at all, so we went to the Dinosaur museum and then came to Chez Smiffy for dinner.) At one point during the afternoon, Celeste and I started talking about gardening, and as she desriberd her new "baby greenhouse" it dawned on me ...

Last year, I used those tiny peat pots, and I put them in a covered lettuce box to keep them warm and damp.

This year I used bigger containers and didn't put them in anything. They may have simply been too cold! So, I plan to rush out and cover the new plants from this weekend and see what happens. (Since I used fairly large cow-poop pots this time I'll need a solution other than lettuce boxes, but I'll think of something.)

Fitness Update
In other news, evidently my walking, though not as regular as I'd like, is enough to make a difference.

Uncharacteristically for me, I was quick and energetic all though the trip to the dinosaur museum! It actually felt good to be striding around. I haven't felt that way since last fall!

As I remember, this was what inspire me to get more regular in my walking last years, so here's hoping.

Thank you notes and kids...

It's that time again ...

With birthdays, comes the writing of thank you notes.

I think that getting into the habit of writing thank you notes is a very important thing for a young person. The younger we start writing them, the less daunting they are.

I am convinced that a part of the the reason so many people think with horror about writing their 'thank yous' -- and then end up postponing it forever, is because no one expects Thank You notes until suddenly, at age 8 or 9, we are handed cards and told that now we have to figure out how to write a formal Thank You notes. If we're lucky, we get a book to crib from.

That's not fair! What should take a few moments and a reflection on the kindness of a loved one becomes a horrible chore. There is a very simple form that makes it easy -- and with a bit of practice, we can embellish the form to make it very personal. But we have to be taught how!

Jack has been writing his thank yous pretty much from the time he could make an impression on paper. His first "thank you notes" were scrawls of crayon on a card to which Mamma added a handwritten "thank you". Then came the elaborate sticker creations to which I added Jack's dictated thank yous.

Once he was old enough to understand the concept (around his third birthday, I think) we started working on form. One day, it will be important to hand write his thanks, but at the moment, Jack doesn't write yet so we're using the computer. Much better to focus on the parts that he can learn reasonably easily and add the others parts as he develops. I never want him to think of this as difficult!

There are several standard parts to a thank you letter, and I coach Jack through each one. The nature of these things is that we do one after another, so he gets to practice what he's (re)learned several times.

First, we assemble the gifts. Next Jack picks one up (and if there were several from the same giver, he gathers all of them in one stack.)

I write "Dear" and I ask him who the gift is from. He tells me and I repeat "Dear Grandpa John".

Then I write 'Thank you for the" and I ask him what Grandpa John gave him, and we write down the name of the gift(s) and I read the whole letter to Jack.

"Dear Grandpa John, thank you for the Winnie the Pooh book."

Next, I ask Jack what he likes best about the gift, and we write that down. "I really like the pictures in this book!"

Then, I read the whole thing back to Jack and ask him if there's anything else that he wants to say...if there is, we add that (this is often moderately incoherent at the moment, but it's his letter. As long as the basics are there, I stay out of his way.)

Then we add another thank you "Thank you so much for remembering my birthday!"

and the signature "Love, Jack"

and we're done. I still do *a lot* of coaching, but because it's easy, we can do all of his notes in a half hour. (Cut and paste the first letter, delete the details, pick up the next gift and discuss it and add the new details...et voila!)

This way, Jack is learning the form for thank you notes, the idea that they're easy and reasonably quick to write -- and most of all, he is learning to think about the people who love him enough to give him gifts and about the effort they put into picking a gift especially for him.

Gratitude is good -- but if we don't express it, it's impotent. Everyone wants to be thanked! It's not hard to do...you just have to know the trick!

Now that he's older, it's time to start reading my own thank you notes to him, so that he can get the idea that once the forms are in place, we can embroider them to make them our very own! I think that birthdays are a good time to start that, because he won't be making an immediate comparison to his own notes like he would at Yule.

Happy Fifth Birthday, Jack!

We had our first barbecue of the season yesterday, in honour of Jack's fifth birthday. Turnout was light -- and we had a blast!

Jack and the beanstalk

In other news, I have a chance to audition my photography to show locally. I have been pondering whether to do it or not and keep coming back to "Yeah, but none of it is 'presentation ready', and I don't want to spend the money...and then be stuck with large, display ready pieces afterward." Of course selling just a few pieces could pay for the printing and matting. Selling a few more could actually turn a profit. But...what's the chances of that? I'm still thinking. ;) But it looks like a few pieces may be picked up for publication in a small homeschooling magazine. That's fun!

The Mothers Day cards are coming along -- two are ready to go, so I guess my muse is back. And to help her along, a friend of mine loaned me an Accu-cut last night. I'm not sure how long I'll have it to play with, but I am, needless to say, immensely excited!

A different friend has lots a lot of weight recently and gave me some of her cast-offs. Thing is, S has far better taste than I will ever have. The clothes are front office-quality and look great (and very professional) on me. Every time I wear something to work, several people comment positively. That has been such a boost to me confidence!

Speaking of work...I'm not sure where the time went, but it's time I was in the shower!

Homeschooling Update

Jack turns five next week, and as his birthday has gotten closer and closer, we have seen all the signs that he's getting more ready for more organized schooling.

His awareness of the world has expanded amazingly, as has his interest in exploring ideas. Rod isn't ready to buckle down to "schooling" just yet, so we're sticking to what I can do on the evenings and weekends, which actually seems to be just the right pace.

I have mentioned before that Jack has been going through a serious dinosaur period. He loves them -- he knows their names and periods, what they ate and how big they were. Huge gobs of facts that he has collected from books, videos, and web sites. I'll admit that the fascination has always puzzled me, but I am old enough now to just accept that that seems to be how little boys work. ;)

Jack borrowed "Walking with Monsters" from the library, then "Walking with Dinosaurs" and Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special" and finally "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts". In the Prehistoric Beasts video, we had a brief introduction to hominids -- a perfect entry point for human history.

I borrowed Walking with Cavemen and bought him the companion book, which added a LOT more detail ($3 used...can't beat that!). Then I showed him my copy of Journey from the Dawn. Next we found Becoming Human, which though very interesting, is not exactly Jack's cup of tea. It's a photo-based documentary that was a little too in-depth a slow for a wiggly five year old. He watched it with some interest once through, but hasn't asked to see it again. I have visited the Discovery Store and found Ice Age Columbus and The Real Eve which both look pretty good and will problem be in Jack's stack of gifts for his birthday.

Frustratingly, I can't find much literature to help us learn about pre-civilized life. I found one called First Painter in the library catalog - - but the book has disappeared. Another was there -- but Anoonka's Answer is about a 13 year old girl, and I have a hunch that it's not going to be the sort of thing to keep Jack's attention. (I checked it out with the intention of looking it over myself. I am hoping I am wrong.) Of course, in running those books through Amazon to create links, I did find more. *laugh* I'll put them on the list, too.

So, that's history.

Using dinosaurs, Jack has been studying comparative measurement (math) using his new tape measure. He looks up how long a dinosaur was and measures that from Dad's desk chair and then compares that with another dinosaur, measured from the same point. Over and over and over and over...

He's also using dinosaur names to examine Latin and Greek root words. (pachy = thick, cephalos = head, etc.)

Since we want to use a Classical foundation for his education, I have also introduced Asterix and Obelix to give him a context for studying Latin. It's not a really literate introduction, but Asterix is available in Latin, so it will be one of the things he can use to practice, once he's finished with Minimus Book One.

It will also give him a context not only for studying Latin, but also for eventually studying the Roman Empire. Eventually. First we will be exploring the first settling of Australia and America, then the Sumerians and Mesopotamians, and on through time.

But of course, all of that is still at the planning and laying groundwork stage.

Mostly, on his own, Jack is obsessing with the Magic Tree House and Magic School Bus books. They're side by side at the library and not far from the Boxcar Children and the Bobbsey Twins. Mostly twaddle, I'm afraid. (Between that and all the videos and computers, this whole homeschooling thing is *not* going the way I had envisioned.)

We do read some really good literature, though...we have read Little House in the Big Woods and a lot of Thornton Burgess stories recently and we are now reading Ronia Robbers' Daughter. I was only familiar with Astrid Lindgren from her Pippi Longstocking stories and so I was honestly not expecting much beyond fun...but Ronia has surprised me by introducing depth of character, complexity of motivation, and some interesting ethical questions. We also have The Brothers Lionheart and Mary Poppins on the stack (though the stack is about 20 books deep, and we may end up pulling something else off first.)

And of course, there is "noticing" almost every day.

And now, abruptly, I have to go and actually keep company with the little man, who wants to show me what he's learning on the San Francisco Symphony's kids website.

Updates

It has been the sort of week that is both too busy to find time to blog much -- and not interesting enough to try harder. ;)
Between endless rounds of laundry, we have been on the run.

Fitness update: I have only managed to walk once so far this week. I have, however, established (thanks, Mark!) that I was 1.8 miles per hour. Way behind the 4 miles an hour I walked as a teenager, but not too shabby for the tired old fart I am now.

Crafting Update: I have been struggling with crafting. Even when I sit down with a very specific design in mind -- one I have made before, things aren't working well. Partly, I think, it's just a lack of creative energy right now and that happens from time to time. Partly, maybe it's my eyes. I have broken my glasses on a number of occasions and I think the lenses are scratched beyond usefulness. I'll see an ophthalmologist for my annual diabetes check and then I'll worry about getting the lenses replaced. Meanwhile, I have two Mothers Day cards and three birthday cards to get made. Hmmm...

Gardening update: I was not sure how much to worry about moon phase in gardening.

Last year, I wasn't specifically paying attention, but I did note that my planting happened at good times anyway. and as I talked about endlessly last year -- my results were astonishing.

This year, Ostara fell in a "bad" gardening moon, but we went ahead anyway. I have complained about the results...we have very few germinated seeds and none of the ones that sprouted seem to be thriving. I tried again under a better, though not ideal, gardening moon and already those plants are much larger than the many weeks older seeds, though not everything has germinated. I plan to try again next week under the 'optimal" gardening moon on Tuesday and see what happens.

I'll update the homeschooling stuff later. Now, I am off to the shower.

Money, money, money ...

You've all heard, I'm sure, that petroleum prices are through the roof and that food prices are sky high and going higher.

Well, as with the rest of the world, that reality has hit home at Chez Smiffy, too.

We have cut and scraped before, and cut and scraped some more. But we're still so tight than anything unexpected means a crisis and that means more cutting.

We never were big on shopping, except books. I am a sucker for books. It looks like my commitment to the library will have to be renewed and I will have to get better about getting back there every week. If we do that, it's free. The Friends of the Library sales are an exxcellent resource, too.

New clothes amounts to socks and underwear and one new item when something we've been using falls apart completely. I can't see how we can reduce that further. We have already cut out all the laundry additives and we use about half the detergent recommended, but I guess we could use a cheaper detergent.

We don't use high priced cleansers as a rule, but I plan to see what I can do with more traditional methods, like vinegar and baking soda.

We dilute our shampoo so that a bottle lasts months, and I make my own skin conditioners. Toothpaste is the most expensive part, but I don't see that as optional. Baking soda get teeth clean, but without my sensitive tooth toothpaste, I'd be in agony. I wonder if we could use cheaper soap. Rod and I have equal and opposite skin sensitivities, so soap has always been a challenge.

We are extremely reluctant to scrimp on the quality of food we eat, but we've cut back on the amounts of the expensive stuff. Instead of meat, we mostly use bone broth and we make two sausages feed three of us for a meal and a pound of ground beef makes three meals. We have cut back on the amount of milk we use. We have been mostly baking our own bread since we can make a $6 loaf for pennies by grinding the wheat ourselves.

In the fruit department, we had gone from 'whatever sounds good' to apples and oranges. Now it looks like we'll have to ration those, too. We had been getting whatever vegetables looked good, striving for maximum variety, but it looks like we're going to have to cut way back on that, too. There are still vegetables within our reach, but not much variety until the garden starts bearing. (I have renewed my determination to raise as much as I can this summer and preserve most of it to get us through the next winter.) I hate to cut into Jack's nutrition that way -- but his brothers survived and so will he. In this case, I think it's temporary.

Next comes coffee. Sad isn't it, that coffee comes after vegetables? But I know we can get cheaper coffee. And I can try to cut back on how much I drink.

We had already cut back as far as possible on the medical expenses, and now it's time to cut the vitamins and other supplements. (Again. Those come and go as cash flow allows.)

I used to be so good at this. Time to learn again, I guess. But now, off to work, so we have *some* cash flow to work with. ;)

(BTW, tone doesn't come through well in writing sometimes...this is all pondering options rather than complaining. I have gotten by on far less, so this is an no longer accustomed challenge rather than a complaint.)

I did it again!

I just managed to walk 1.5 miles again! I feel hot, but refreshed. I think I may be able to maintain this all week -- what a wonderful thought!

Building my hermitage

Things have been strange for me recently. I''m not sure how long it's been going on, maybe as much as a year and a half, but it has become very hard to resist.

As much as I love and miss my friends, as much as I enjoy their company when we're together, I increasingly find that my "perfect" evening or weekend seems to involve spending my time in semi-solitude. Washing dishes and laundry isn't as much fun as socializing -- but when I stay home with Rod and Jack and cook and clean and craft, I end up feeling much happier, more relaxed and less stressed. When we go out to socialize, I generally enjoy myself--and then I get home and the day ends and I feel like I've lost something precious. I think I may be turning into a hermit. It's not terminal. After I have had several quiet weeks, I genuinely enjoy getting together with one or two friends.

Menopause? Just too intense a year? I don't know. But it is wierd.

On the bright side, I managed to get four birthday cards made and three Mothers Day cards ready to be cut and assembled this weekend and I headed out to work this morning satisfied and rested.

Gardening

OK, well it's official.

The crop from my first planting of the year was a flop. Not only have I managed to keep very little alive, but the friends with whom I shared plants are *also* not getting much germination. One friend even reported massive amounts of mold, so that may be the problem. Our house is pretty damp.

Now that it's warm enough to leave the plants outdoors, I am going to run the tubs throuigh the dishwasher and bake the dirt as one friend suggested and then try again. This time, I think I'll wait until I have germination to offer to share. How embarrassing.

Noticing...that spring is here!

Edited to change autumn to spring. Not sure what i was thinking...

The guys and I went out noticing yesterday while dinner cooked.

It was wonderful to see signs of spring everywhere!

And speaking of "noticing", Harmony Art Mom over at The Heart of Harmony has been posting a series of Green Hour Nature Study Challenges since February. She starts out assuming that nature Study has not been a big part of your children lives, and that you know little about it, so it's an excellently easy place to start! She even suggests readings from easily available on the web, so it doesn't turn into "yet another book I should read" on the stack by your reading chair. We started this weekend, and the first lesson doesn't look much different than our usual noticing. Easy!

Hey! Rod made the local paper!

Check this out!

Jack turning five

Jack is just a few weeks away from his fifth birthday, and we have just recently started seeing the physical evidence.

First, he has simply matured physically, so that he very much looks like a five year old version of himself. That's fun to see.

But there have been developmental leaps, too. He has started to have that clear, literal mind that happens at about five which is entertaining in the extreme.

He has started to have "defense fantasies" of a sort that I remember well from my other boys and from my brothers, but but we haven't seen from Jack before now.

"If that dog rushes me, I do this, and I'll do this, and ... Dad what would the dog so it I shaked the stick at him like this"?

But for this Mamma, the single most exciting step happened last night.

At the age of two, children become immensely cautious eaters. Many won't eat anything that isn't "plain". No sauces (except that red nirvana, marketed as catsup) no stews or soups, nothing unfamiliar, where unfamiliar can mean it hasn't been served this week. It's extremely frustrating, though absolutely normal.

We gritted out teeth and got through it. If we served anything "complex", where possible we saved out the individual things and served them separately to Jack. He was aware that he was getting what we were eating, but without the sauce". He was allowed to eat what he preferred first, and then he had to take one "no thank you" bite of everything (on the openly agreed "You like familiar foods best -- but if you never taste them, then they can't become familiar") Then, he had to pick two things to finish completely. (We always made sure that there were at least two things that were both familiar and somewhat acceptable.) Then he could have seconds of his favorite part and dessert, if there was to be any.

It was tedious. I worried occasionally that we were raising my first really picky eater, as one food after another dropped from the acceptable list. Eventually, we also added the rule that 'if you don't eat a civilized amount of dinner, then when you're hungry again in the evening, which you will be, it will come back to haunt you, until it's gone.'

But, rules aside, we tried to ignore what he ate or how much. I made sure that there were at least three of his acceptable foods on the plate, but I served him whatever we were having. In Jack's case a serving being two or three bites. He could always ask for more.

Last night, we did exactly what we've always done -- Rod made Pork Satay with rice and vegetables. He saved out a bit of everything to be served plain on Jack's plate. I put two baby lettuce leaves, two grape tomatoes, and a plain raw mushroom on his plate from the salad bowl. And we sat down to eat.

Jack's first bite? Not the pork, not the carrots -- both familiar favorites. He grabbed the mushroom, asked excitedly "What's this?" and *he ate it!* And asked for another!! We gave it to him and tried not to stare as he wolfed it down ... he then proceeded through his pork and carrots. Then he asked about the grape tomatoes -- one gold, one red. We explained that last summer, when they were last available they had been one of his all-time favorite foods. That we had bought packages of grape for dinner and Jack had eaten every one of them before we even made dinner. He carefully cut them open -- and wolfed them both down. When they were gone, he picked through his rice for another slice of pork and found that he'd eaten it all. He asked for more, and I slipped a satay covered piece from my plate to his without comment. He poked at it for a moment, looking unsure -- but I'd given his a taste of my rice and satay earlier...so he asked me to cut it for him because it was slippery -- and he ate every bite.

I have no illusions that the picky eating stage is over just like that -- but this was certainly an encouraging light at the end of the tunnel!

Jack's Book o Dinosaurs

A few weeks ago, I found these odd little puzzles -- 3-D dinosaur bones. They were made by slave labour in China, and so only a dollar. I was embarrassed to do so, but I bought them anyway.

Jack and I poked around with them one evening -- and I eventually declared that this looked like a Dad project.

In the meanwhile, Jack and I worked on a Mamma project. We made a lapbook in which to record everything Jack knows about dinosaurs. We expect it will take a long time to get it all down -- and Jack thinks we might need another book to finish it all. (He may be right.)

Since the puzzle he and Dad worked on was a Dimetrodon, Jack dug out his Dimetrodon model to compare it to the skeleton.

The puzzle is slightly bigger, but we were able to see what bones did what. (And Mamma has her doubts about the anatomical verity of this puzzle.)

We took photos and and pasted them into the lap book, and then Jack narrated everything he could think of about Dimetrodon. (Jack had to help me spell the dinosaur names correctly. He looked them up and dictated the spelling while I wrote.)

And then we were on a roll...so we did Stegosaurus, too!

It was interesting to watch Jack read his book. I wrote down exactly what he said in most cases (a few times he took so long to get it out that I figured out what he meant and suggested an alternative phrasing - - and then wrote down whichever he chose. He rushed off to read it to Dad and I was fascinated by his reaction as he came to the phrases that didn't make sense the way he had phrased them. He stumbled over them, paused and said "Hmmmm. We'll have to rewrite this one", said it in a clearer way, and went happily on! I was so pleased that he neither ignored an imperfection, nor let it dim his joy in his creation!

Quick health update ...

OK, it was gently pointed out to me that I never updated folks on the final outcome of Rod's misadventure a few weeks back. I'm sorry folks, I thought I had. Things got moderately crazy when Al died two weeks after Rod's release and a few days after Al's funeral, our friend Bill went in to the hospital for triple bypass... welcome to middle age, eh?

Anyway, Rod's back in top form again. His doctors have each in turn been sure it was a heart condition and have each in their turn examined his heart from every possible angle. No sign of any heart trouble can be found, beyond some high blood pressure, which he is treating. After many diagnostic tests, it has become clear that Rod suffered a temporary anaphylaxic episode, due to allergy. Best guess -- either his cod was fried in oil (or dipped in batter) that had been contaminated with sea-food, which he knows he's allergic to -- or the "cod" was actually perch. Hard to say with fish and chips - -so no more fried foods for Rod anyplace that might have sea-food or perch.

As to my health, I have been home for two days with pneumonia. I still don't feel well, but my voice is back, though still rough and I am better enough to go back to work tomorrow.

It started out as the flu, as I mentioned a few days ago -- but because I had to push through at work, it took a lot longer to recover than I thought it should -- after a week, I was still getting sicker. When I woke myself up twice over the weekend with the whistling from my lungs, I gave in and went to the doctor on Monday. (Shelley had warned me that this flu went to the lungs very easily...)

I now have an antibiotic, an inhaler, and a steroid to drag along to work with me. This seems like a weird collection, but I haven't have pneumonia for years and I guess the treatment standards have changed. (I was expecting an antibiotic.)

Jack is, of course, in perfect health. What a guy! ;)

Longstanding hassle...

For about as long as I've had kids, the size of kids books has been a bit of a hassle to me. I mean, there is no earthly reason that children's books need bigger spines...except that the current arrangements makes them so hard to read on the shelf!

My older boys, being who they were, were quite happy to pull the entire shelf down in search of a specific book - - or even just to have a browse.

Jack, being who *he* is, is not happy to pull down the entire shelf. He tends to ignore books that are too tightly packed to read easily.

So, we display a few books here and a few books there around the house.

Some in the parlour, which are mainly non-fiction. History, language, poetry, science, music and art...

Some in the office, which are mainly fiction. Largely picture books -- novels live upstairs in Jack's bedroom.

A few stay out on a table or on the freezer when they're in heavy use. That would be all things dinosaur, for the moment.

And the rest languish in closets until they get their turn to cycle in again.

The big question is, can we find a better way? I have seen various ways to display homeschooling "topical" books. The one I like best is the rain gutter nailed into the wall. http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/oliver.html

But that method does require more wall space than we really have at the moment if we are to display more than a very few books at a time.

We tried using more bookends to separate them and that was easier to search through, but it didn't actually display them any better.

I am wondering whether anyone else has come up with any truly clever ways of making the picture book display more engaging and easier to browse. Ideally in away that doesn't require miles and miles of wall space, since we don't have that much. (The serious downside of an open-plan house is that there is a lot of space and very little place to put anything.)

I haven't found much -- but I've decided to head out to the hardware store to price rain gutters. A little is better than none!

But really, does your family have a great idea that might help us?

Happy birthday, Mom!!!

This is my Mom, with two of my five younger brothers, Jeff and Joel.

Amazing, isn't she? She never seems to get any older!

And with Jack, when she was here last Mothers' Day.

Garden update, 19 days past planting

I keep fretting that I am not going to get much germination from this first crop of seeds...but then I remember having much the same feeling last year and eventually almost everything *did* germinate.



However, a little digital assistance points out that I actually have quite a few greens in the lettuce tub (which I knew) and about 12 baby plantlings ... many of which I can't find with my naked eye. (Nor in glasses, for that matter.)

Maybe that's not so bad after all -- it just *feels* like a lot more than three weeks. I hope to take advantage of the waxing Cancer moon this weekend to plant the next round, since so far I only have about 1/3 of the plants I want for this year.

Help the bees!

Bees are responsible for Every Third Bite of Food!

As you may have heard, we have had an alarming die-off of bees in the last few years. The bodes very, very ill for all the plants and animals on the planet.

From the great sunflower web site:

Bees help flowers make seeds and fruits. Bees go to flowers in your garden to find pollen (the powder on the flower) and nectar which is a sweet liquid. Flowers are really just big signs advertising to bees that there is pollen or nectar available – though sometimes a flower will cheat and have nothing! The markings on a flower guide the bee right into where the pollen or nectar is.

All flowers have pollen. Bees gather pollen to feed their babies which start as eggs and then grow into larvae. It's the larvae that eat the pollen. Bees use the nectar for energy. When a bee goes to a flower in your garden to get nectar or pollen, they usually pick up pollen from the male part of the flower which is called an anther. When they travel to the next flower looking for food, they move some of that pollen to the female part of the next plant which is called a stigma. Most flowers need pollen to make seeds and fruits.

After landing on the female part, the stigma, the pollen grows down the stigma until it finds an unfertilized seed which is called an ovary. Inside the ovary, a cell from the pollen joins up with cells from the ovary and a seed is born! For many of our garden plants, the only way for them to start a new plant is by growing from a seed. Fruits are just the parts of the plants that have the seeds. Some fruits are what we think of as fruits when we are in the grocery store like apples and oranges. Other fruits are vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers.

"We need to know where are bees are doing well and how parks, gardens, natural areas and all sorts of habitats effect our bees” says Dr. Gretchen LeBuhn, the Sunflower Project’s Queen Bee. “Once we identify where bees need help, we can start improving their habitats!”

To get as many groups of individuals in your community to participate in The Great Sunflower Project, share our project with other gardeners, nature centers, other kids, and anyone who would like to stop and learn a bit more about our helpful friends.

Not just any sunflower will work - - the projext will send you seeds for sunflowers native to your area.

So, plant a sunflower, count your bees, and make the world a little better place. For bees and for you.

The flu

I have the worst flu I've had in years. This week - -the second of the two weeks each year when I don't really have the option to stay home.

You see, I am the audit manager for my department and we have two of our annual audits in April.

Yuck.

And I'm sure the auditors and the folks being audited are just thrilled. I am taking tons of vitamin C, zinc, elderberry, and everything else I can think of to slow the germ spewing, but it sure ain't pretty.

As I say...yuck.

(The guy up there? He's Sunshine, a western lowland gorilla from the Detroit zoo. He was always my favorite -- he always looked so griumpy, and yet I observed him to be astonishingly gentle.

Sunshine died of the flu a few weeks ago. I probably won't.

Welcome to Michigan...

Outside our North window on March 27 -- 8 inches of snow.

On our south facing wall on April 7.

Even the lilacs to the North are getting into the act!!!

Not all of our baby plantlings are doing well....

But some are doing GREAT!

A note from Jack: One baby plant looks like it failed, because its leaves are at its trunk I think, I saw it.

Once, a great pit bull scared me out of the yard when I was building a snowman. It was far away to safety but I escaped, and when it was all clear I went inside. That day, the gate was open and now we keep it closed. Another day, when I was inside, the pit bull again almost went into the gate, but I was inside and then he threatened Dad! And he was still growling and barking!! Then the dog headed home. Twice.

Hey! We're published!

The Homeschool Diner's Guide to
Homeschooling Basics
Family Matters


When your parents don’t support your decision
to home educate your children

We'd all love our parents to support our choices (parenting choices,
especially) whole-heartedly. When we make the decision to home
school, we would love for our parents to see that we are doing the very
best thing for our kids and share our enthusiasm.

As both grandparents of two and parents to a four year old, our
experience suggests that blanket support of that kind is pretty rare.
Conflict with our parents over parenting decisions is something many --
maybe most -- people face. Sometimes our disagreements are about
school decisions, sometimes about discipline, sometimes about nutrition,
or television or ...well, you name it. If it’s a decision we have made, our
parents can find something wrong with it.

See the rest here

Maximum Nutrition Gardening

I got some of my garden plants started a couple of weeks ago, and I am now enjoying watching the lettuce and tomato babies peeking up out of the soil and blinking at the sunlight. It brought to mind a post I started last year when I was exploring this whole "how to garden" thing, and I thought I'd finish it up, finally. A year has passed and, oddly enough, the post morphed from what it was. Funny thing what a year's experience can do, isn't it?

When I first got interested in gardening, a little over a year ago, my goal was to provide my family with the highest possible nutrition. I had read that current commercial farming methods had resulted in the reduction of nutrient value (according to the FDA) of various fruits and vegetables by an average of 40%. That's pretty alarming! It means that at a time when, because of all the competing manufactured foods, we are having to work harder than my mother's generation did just to get fresh fruits and vegetables into us, we are also benefiting less from them.

I looked into why that might be and discovered that commercial farming typically returns to the soil only three of the nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) that plants need to grow and be healthy. The micro-nutrients are gradually removed from the soil by the growing plants and shipped off in the fruits and vegetables. The next year, the plants have fewer of the nutrients available to them. If it's not in the soil, it can't be in the food we grow on the depleted soil, which means that each year, the fruits and vegetables have fewer vitamins than the year before, leaving the soil more and more depleted over time, both of minerals and of the microbes that help to make those minerals available to the plants growing there.

An analogy to this soil depletion may be found in raising a child entirely on fast food. A steady diet of fast food contains the three major nutrients a child needs to grow (protein, carbohydrate, and fat) and the child will grow up without starving to death, but it's completely lacking in many of the vitamins and minerals a child needs to be really healthy.

I looked into organic gardening and it looked like a great improvement, but it can still be an incomplete solution. Compost is a great addition to the soil, but too many leaves or too much manure can unbalance the soil with far too much phosphorous and potassium, while if the composted plants were grown on depleted soil, they won't contain all the minerals and micro-nutrients the plants need, either. This might be the equivalent of raising a child on home-cooked meals featuring some processed foods and some fruits and vegetables. This child will be in far better health than the child raised entirely on fast foods, but it still isn't optimal nutrition and can leave the child more susceptible to degenerative disease later in life. I want more for my family.

So, I went hunting for information about how to supplement the soil so that all the nutrients a plant needs for optimal health are available in my garden. If the nutrients the plant needs are available, the vegetables and fruits will contain as much nutrition as possible, meaning that my family will also be nourished as much as possible by the produce we eat.

Now, plants don't need "vitamins" the same way that humans do. Plants use minerals, with the help of soil microbes, to create the vitamins we need. The best way to get the nutrients to the plants is to remineralize the soil by providing a wide range of "soil amendments" so that a wide variety of nutrients are made available.

It's pretty complicated to do it the "scientific" way, with soil tests and brix testing, and PH testing, with the amendments varied for the specific needs of the specific soils and changing over time to meet changiong needs. Eventually I want to get to the point of understanding all that, but in the meanwhile, I tried a scatter shot approach last year, based on the general principles I have learned. I got some astonishing results.

In the year before last, Rod had planted some vegetables. Basically, he put seeds and some baby plants in the garden and kept them watered and did little else. It was our experiment in "what happens if". What happened? Not much. Most of the seeds never grew and many of the plants died before they ever fruited. Probably many of them were lovely salad greens for our furry neighbors, but the ones that survived never got very big and none were terribly productive. They looked sad and listless and droopy. Now, we do have a friend who has used this method very successfully for many years, but our soil was simply not up to it.

Last year, I decided to circumvent the furry neighbors problem by starting the seeds indoors very early and keeping them out of harms way until they were big enough to survive an experimental nibble by the rabbits. (I planted most of them after the six-leaf stage.)

I also added a lot of soil amendments to the garden.

• alfalfa - because alfalfa is a very deep-rooted plant, it brings minerals up from deep in the earth, well below where most plants can reach. It provides many minerals but it also provides a plant growth stimulating enzyme that makes plants sturdier.
• kelp - because sea-weed grows immersed in the ocean, which is a rich source of minerals, it can add back minerals that are relatively rare in the soil, especially iodine and it is an excellent source of "hummus", which stimulates the microbes that keep plants healthy.
• rock dust - this takes longer to break down and I don't know whether it would have made a big difference last year, but it will help to re-mineralize the soil over the long term.
• manure - adds a huge amount of "organic matter" to the soil, which is critical to the happiness of the plants and the microbes who feed them
• bone and blood meals - a ready source of many minerals

I also added an "inoculant" -- a shot of the microbes the plants need. They will eventually find your garden if the conditions are right, but I wanted to jump start them.

Over the course of the summer, I fed the plants "cow poop soup" -- what other people call "compost tea". I put a couple of handfuls of manure and a couple of handfuls of alfalfa in a five gallon bucket of water and let it steep int he sun for three or four days. Then I poured some around each plant once a week. (nutrient drenching)

I also sprayed the plant leaves with a fish and kelp emulsion (foliar feeding) once a week.

The result was a vibrant garden with huge, productive plants and little trouble with pests.

I can't say for certain that the plants were more nutritious than they would have been otherwise, but I can say that while we had trouble keeping up with production, we had almost no spoilage all summer even though vegetables sometimes sat on the counter for weeks after harvesting. (Produce that some friends gave us had to be eaten immediately because it didn't last well.) As a matter of fact, our last butternut squash is still sitting on the counter seven months later, waiting to be cooked --and it has not yet started to spoil. (We ate another one a few weeks ago, and it was still firm, delicious, and quite fresh tasting.) Long lasting produce is said to be one of the hallmarks of nutrient density, so I think we're moving in the right direction.

This year, I'd like to get a brix meter to see whether the produce is actually as high quality as it seems to be. But you know, brix meter or no, this is already worthwhile. By nourishing my plants with the same thought and care that I nourish my family, not only does my family have better, healthier food, but I found out that I really LOVE gardening!!

For more information, have a look at these sites:

Gardening for Maximum Nutrition

High Brix Gardens

They have a kind of "true believer" tone to them that I found offputting at first, but in amongst the hyperbole, I did find a lot of excellent information.

Irony

We live in a small town. It's easy to forget that, sometimes, but really, everyone knows everyone around here, one way or another.

At a healing circle this weekend, a friend mentioned that she had overheard some conversation about Jack that amused her greatly. It seems that somewhere in this town, there are people who feel bad for our poor deprived boy because he's too serious and doesn't know how to be a child. She didn't say who thought that or why they thought that, and it doesn't really matter -- it's just funny.

The tidbit of gossip had to be delivered at some volume, because little Fauntelroy was busy tearing at full speed and full volume around the house with his little friend. They were being very fast, very loud dinosaurs.

We had to laugh.

An open letter to the Michigan Legislature

25 March 2008
Michigan

Dear Representative Clack,

The Michigan legislature has before it House Bill Number 5912, a bill that would require home-schooled children to be registered with their school districts.

My question is: Why?

The United States was built on the principle of individual freedom, and the State of Michigan has fought, from its very inception, to maintain the independence of its citizens from government interference. We, the citizens of the state of Michigan don’t like government intervention unless we can see good reason for it. Have we forgotten young Governor Mason, deposed briefly by federal intervention for purposes of political expedience, who was re-elected in a landslide in a protest by the people of Michigan who, on the same day, voted for the constitution which serves our state so well?

It alarms me that the state legislature now intends to require home-schooled children to be registered with the government, a principle that flies in the face of the freedom of the citizens of this state and can serve no purpose useful enough to justify this violation of citizen autonomy.

For every tale of woe about an irresponsible family who neglects their children by failing to educate them, there are a thousand such tales of publicly educated children in our state who enter high-school without basic literacy skills. For every story about an abusive family who keeps their children home to hide their abuse, there are hundreds of stories of children whose abuse is discovered only when the child is killed, though teachers had reported the evidence to child protective services.

Those families who neglect their children's education would not be more readily identified simply by registering them with their school districts, but the education of those children whose welfare has already been entrusted to the public school system of the state of Michigan will be threatened by the addition of one more burden on the local school districts, already understaffed and struggling with inadequate funding. While home-education will continue successfully, as it always has, the already burdened state system will have the increased workload of registering its home-educators and their students.

There is no evidence to suggest that home-education in Michigan is broken. Registration of home-educators achieves no end useful enough to justify this intrusion into the privacy of home-educating families, nor the further assault on the resources available to educate the children entrusted to the public schools. As a home-educator, I can assure you that government registration can represent a significant barrier to home-educating families who may consider moving to Michigan. Home-educators tend to be"can do" people, people who see a problem and work toward a solution rather than waiting for the government to fix it. This is the very sort of people Michigan needs to make its way back from the brink of economic disaster.

Surely there can be no fruitful end to an endeavor that would burden an already under-funded system with useless information, and present one more barrier for the kind of autonomous, enterprising families we need so badly in our state in these difficult times.

Please reconsider your co-sponsorship of this bill that flies in the face of our freedom and adds to the already substantial burden that the people of the State of Michigan bear in these difficult times

Misti Anslin Delaney
Parent Educator
MI

To my readers: please feel free to take this letter, make it your own and send it to your own Michigan representative. I will sending paper letter to Lansing tomorrow.

Representative Brenda Clack is the major sponsor of this bill.
Rep. Brenda Clack
N0798 House Office Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

517-373-8808
brendaclack@house.mi.gov

CO-SPONSORS OF H.B. 5912 are:
(There are 24, you might want to select those who represent you.)

Joan Bauer: 517-373-0826, joanbauer@house.mi.gov
Bob Constan: 517-373-0849, bobconstan@house.mi.gov
Marc Corriveau: 517-373-3816, marccorriveau@house.mi.gov
Robert Dean: 517-373-2668, robertdean@house.mi.gov
Kate Ebli: 517-373-2617, KateEbli@house.mi.gov
Barbara Farrah: 517-373-0845, barbarafarrah@house.mi.gov
Richard Hammel: 517-373-7557, richardhammel@house.mi.gov
Ted Hammon: 517-373-3906, tedhammon@house.mi.gov
Shanelle Jackson: 517-373-1705, shanellejackson@house.mi.gov
Bert Johnson: 517-373-0144, bertjohnson@house.mi.gov
Robert Jones: 517-373-1785, robertjones@house.mi.gov
Kathleen Law: 517-373-1799, davidlaw@house.mi.gov
Richard LeBlanc: 517-373-2576, richardleblanc@house.mi.gov
Gabe Leland: 517-373-6990, gabeleland@house.mi.gov
Mark Meadows: 517-373-1786, markmeadows@house.mi.gov
Fred Miller: 517-373-0159, fredmiller@house.mi.gov
Gino Polidori: 517-373-0847, ginopolidori@house.mi.gov
Mike Simpson: 517-373-1775, mikesimpson@house.mi.gov
Alma Smith: 517-373-1771, almasmith@house.mi.gov
Virgil Smith: 517-373-0589, virgilsmith@house.mi.gov
Aldo Vagnozzi: 517-373-1793, aldovagnozzi@house.mi.gov
Lisa Wojno: 517-373-2275, lisawojno@house.mi.gov

All of them can also be reached at:

N0798 House Office Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514

Edited to remove Joel Sheltrown, who has officially withdrawn his support for this bill.

Happy Ostara!

Ostara, the season of new life.

I was so ready -- no, in need of -- this season this year! The dark season was indeed dark for us and we felt our middle age creeping into our bones a little more with every loss. The return of the light brought with it the deepest loss yet.

But now comes the time of new life -- the planting of seeds and the return of song birds. Maybe even eventually some warmth.

We took Jack to a children's Ostara circle on Friday and he absolutely loved it. They meet regularly at the Sabbats, and Jack wants to join them for Beltane as well. He loves circle, and the very idea of a circle aimed at his age, in which it was perfectly OK for him to dance around inside the circle while everyone was participating in their own way was a dream come true! Interestingly, he had been behaving less well in adult circle of late and I noted that when we celebrated at home later, he actually did much better than he has been. I'd have expected the opposite...

Yesterday started with Jack's discovery of a basket of gifts on his place mat. Since we don't usually use the parlour until later in the day, that took some time. He was pleased to find a CD of Mozart and another of Beethoven, and a Mary Pope Osborn novel (Dinosaurs before Dinner). A little more digging revealed not one, not two, but three dinosaurs! He played his CDs and read the first chapter of the book -- but the title of the second chapter was "Monsters", so he thinks maybe he needs company to read the second
chapter. He has a lot of trouble with books that have much emotional intensity.

As an example, _Five Run Away Together_ by Enid Blyton had to be out away for another time because the The Stick family was just so abusive that he couldn't take it!

Anyway, the chapter called Monsters in this latest find suggested that it might be scary, so we'll read it together.

Eventually he spotted his first hidden (plastic) egg -- and then the day became a flurry of egg-spotting. I didn't hide them very carefully this time -- next time, I think I will. Jack had found all of them within an hour and he ate all the chocolate as he found them. Needless to say, we needed a kite string on his ankle to make it through the rest of the day!

Later in the afternoon, Grandpa John came over and we had our Ostara celebration -- a very perfunctory circle, the work of which was planting our seeds for this year. I got a couple of things planted, but I also spent a lot of time helping Jack with his seeds and helping the guys get the balance of soil and "plant baby food" right. It's not that finely detailed a process, but if you didn't invent it, I guess it's a little weird.

After dinner, we chatted a while, but we were all feeling pretty sleepy so John left early. After a couple of hours, we started to feel more awake and we went off to hang out with Shelley for a while and then we came home and finished up our planting project.

In the end, we got 75 containers planted. A good start. We'll put the carrots and other things that don't want to be tran