Discovering in the Woods

 

I think that wondering and discovering in the woods is quickly becoming one my favorite ways of doing school!

Soccer!!!

Lily started soccer for the first time last week!  She is just too precious in her little cleats and soccer uniform!     And, ummm, I have to admit that her coach is rather cute too!:)  Yep, that's right, Joe is her soccer coach!  Her first practice last week didn't go all that well.  Let's just say that it came after a long day of school, friends, library camp and mama forgetting to pack a snack.  I wasn't there, but I believe there were tears, lots of fussing, hunger, and apparently exhaustion...but no actual practicing.  Poor Joe.  He had his hands full last week.  But Lily rebounded for her first soccer game a few days later.

The game was actually a lot of fun. The kids did great (much better than I was expecting) and I really enjoyed all of the other kids and parents on our team! Lily had fun playing and was such a great team player cheering everybody else on. And Eli...we'll he wanted to play too- in fact at one point he got to about center field before I was able to chase him down (I think he's going to be hard to hold back as the season goes on)!:) Lily just finished her 2nd practice...and she practiced (though the poor thing did trip and fall and bite her tongue hard...there was bleeding...but she rebounded and came back and practiced)- I was so proud of her. And my hubby, the soccer coach, did great with the kids! And do you know what else? This mama just got hired to do all of the soccer portraits this fall for our town's rec center (where Lily is playing)!! Looks like we are a full fledged soccer family now!

If you pray for dogs...

I am sure there are plenty of people that might think it a little crazy to pray for a dog. However, I know that God tells us to pray in all things and I know that because He loves us He cares for the things we care for. So...if you are one of those people who would be willing to pray for a dog we could use a few prayers for ours. Our sweet black lab mix, Indy, isn't doing so great. He's eight and a half years old and he has arthritis. Worse than that though is that he has a bone chip in one of his elbows. The combination is not good. It's been about a year now and he's gone through times that have been very bad and there have been times when he has rebounded quite well. Right now isn't such a great time. We accidentally ran out of his anti-inflammatory medication a few weeks ago and he went a few days without it. Previous to that he seemed great...no limping, able to go one walks, etc... but after a few days without the medication his elbow swelled up huge. Even though he's been back on the medication for a while now the swelling is still significant and because he doesn't like to bear much weight on it the joint has gotten really stiff. We just need to get the swelling down so that he can start walking again to loosen it up. We are trying a new supplement in addition to his medication and we are hoping this will help. I know it might sound kind of silly, but he's our baby and other than difficulty walking he is healthy and happy and it just kills me to watch him limp around. So...if you are the kind of person to pray for a dog would you pray that the swelling in his leg would go down and that he would be able to start walking and bending his joint again. Thanks friends!

Spring Break?

Spring Break?  Yes, spring break.  There are a few pictures from this spring and a lot from this summer that I am just now getting around to editing and sharing!  I could just forget about them, but this here little blog is sort of like my own family scrapbook, so even though I am nearly two seasons behind on this one, I don't want to forget about them.

So here are some pictures from our spring break this year...including a beautifully warm (yet still icy) spring hike in Acadia National Park, some time at home, and a visit to the Children's Discovery Museum!

Ladybugs!

I have really been enjoying homeschooling the last two weeks.  The Sonlight material we are using is great (and very simple) and I love all of the hands-on, creative learning.  The routine and schedule has been good for us (though this week we have gotten off the routine a bit and I can see how that's not as good for us or for enjoying school).

One of the best things we did last week was study ladybugs.  Our ladybug larvae arrived in the mail after waiting for them for weeks.  Eli, well, he was so excited that he promptly grabbed the ladybug land dome (where Lily and I had put the larvae while Eli was napping) and dropped it- spreading the ladybug larvae and food all over the floor.  We managed to recover all of the larvae, but not the food.  That prompted us to try a number of things (hunting bugs, honey, soaked raisins) to find anyway to feed our little pets.  Nothing seemed to work and we were quite worried they wouldn't make it.  But.. they were quite active for a number of days (which was fun to watch) and now they seemed to have curled up preparing to go into the pupa stage!  Somehow they must have gotten enough food...guess we'll find out shortly!

At the same time Joe took the kids into the woods and found some full grown ladybugs (BIG ones).  So one day during school we compared and contrasted the ladybug larvae to the adult ladybugs.  The kids loved it (including a friend of Lily's who is doing school with us two days a week)!

And then later in the evening we released the adult ladybugs and the kids LOVED gently holding the ladybugs and letting them crawl around their hands and up their arms!  These are the school moments that I am loving!