To Maine and Back (and Why I Had to Fire my Travel Agent)

 JD and I had a weekend get away in Maine. He had to work there Monday and Tuesday, so we flew up early Friday morning to have three full days.  We attended the Navy Ball on Saturday night, and while it was nice, it wasn't nearly as awesome as the fall leaves in their prime or the LL Bean outlet shopping! On Sunday, we drove up to Acadia National Park; although I had never heard of it, I can see why it makes it to many people's bucket lists.

We stopped at the above little coffee roaster shop on the way. Pretty much any time JD sees anything that says "coffee", he pulls into the parking lot. The shop was really cool and the college girl working even showed us the back room where they divide and roast the 150 pound bags that come in from all over the world. Honestly, that business would suit JD just fine, as he already roasts his own coffee beans.

We stopped at the below photo for lunch. I was amazed how Maine seems to keep the mom and pop stores open because they severely limit the big box stores. All the old downtowns had thriving businesses while I feel like we are accustomed to them drying up around Virginia.

The rest of these pictures are from Acadia. Since they are just taken with my phone, I don't thing they are prize winning or anything, but you can see how beautiful the area is.

I kind of entertained myself taking pictures of JD taking pictures more than taking the pictures myself - he did that for me.

The plan was that I would return Monday morning bright and early to resume my very demanding Monday and Tuesday obligations, and JD would return Tuesday night after working two days. While we were eating lunch on Saturday, I told him that I didn't have a copy of my flight schedule. He got on his phone to forward it to me and I could tell something wasn't right since he kept looking at the phone then back up at me. After a few minutes, he told me that he wasn't sure what happened, but I was booked for his flight time on Tuesday night. At that point, he didn't remember if he had done the reservation online or if the airline lady on the phone made the mistake. Once we got back to the room, we spent a good bit of time trying to swap flights, but it was not to be without purchasing another ticket.

So, after about four hours of additional phone time, I had my responsibilities covered for the most part. The big girls accused JD of doing it on purpose, but I know he didn't. He is, however, fired for the time being as my travel agent, but I'll keep him as a husband and travel partner.

The Weekends and the In Between

 It has been such a blessing having Alayna and Nathan here. When people say to me that she must appreciate the help with the baby, I reflect on how much help she is with all my small children. She has also become a common taxi driver. Nathan doesn't love car rides, so he and I happily hang out at home while she shuffles various children around town. At this point, James and Elijah are doing mixed martial arts three nights a week, the girls have gymnastics one and the small guys have to be picked up in the middle of Tuesdays while I remain at CC. We also try to hit homeschool PE one to two times per week at the Y.

Alayna and I both got a break from the routine and went to my church's women retreat in the mountains over the weekend. While Nathan didn't relish the three hour drive, he enjoyed all the attention a squishy, smiley baby brings in a large group of women. Here's a shot of him at the Hawaiian party examining the Hula hoops. 

Every six weeks, we have a Tuesday off from CC. I used this one to take Selah and Bella to Richmond to follow up with the Dr. they have seen since arriving in America. The hospital provided some fun crafts for our more lengthy than usual wait.

Alyssa is working to complete her driver's ed. hours, so she never turns down a long trip that she can drive!

 

On Selah's recent birthday (oops, still need to write that post), I took the girls shopping for clothes and shoes. Elijah was sad that he wasn't included. I told him that he could accompany me on my next shopping excursion. While the hospital run wasn't shopping, he was still disappointed that he couldn't go. So, he and I went on a "date" when I got home. We bought some JUNK cool stuff at the dollar store and then went to Sheetz for fried food, soda and ice cream. We enjoyed dining in and making this awesome lion puppet while we were there. He was a happy boy once again. It really is nice to have a conversation with just one child sometimes without three more interrupting

On the heels of JD working 6-7 long days per week for the last two months, we are heading to Maine for the weekend. I'll post on that next week along with the missed birthdays.

Nathan and CC

 Nathan is fond of our Classical Conversation music; our only problem is the kids arguing over who gets to hold him when we do our review work each day. Today he went to Wal-Mart with his momma and Alei just so we could skip the conflict.

This is our CC review board. I use it all week at home and then take it to the class I tutor on Tuesdays. I always use wet erase markers so the kids don't smear it, but it turns out that Nathan's slobbery fingers can still smear well. He even manages to turn his little feet green or blue depending on the week.

Yesterday I had to move Alyssa's orthodontist appointment at the last minute to the same time that I teach a Brain Boost class. So, Alayna took Alyssa and I took Nathan (because he doesn't enjoy extra time in the car seat.) A Grandma volunteered to hold him during class and he was completely happy the entire class, then fell asleep on her towards the end. Such a sweet boy!

Nathan is going to have some car seat time tomorrow and he heads into the mountains with his momma and me for our church's annual womens retreat. We will see how that time goes!

Feeding Time

A lot of energy is put into feeding everybody, and every pet, everyday, around here, as you may imagine. Last Sunday, I made a trip to Richmond to pick up the 1/2 of a cow meat that I purchased with my friend, Wendy. As I was leaving from our meat exchange, I stopped for butter and cheese at the local Kroger. Walking in, I was stopped by the sign that said all pumpkins were $4. I don't know if that is more normal, but you can't get a large pumpkin for less than double that around here, so I picked up four. While I was at it, I got some large mums for the same price. I came home to decorate the front of our house, which is a lot more like a large construction zone lately than a home front. I planted the mums and spaced the pumpkins between them.

Within hours, there was a rooster eating the pumpkin and four more waiting in the wings. Obviously the black one is the head rooster because the others weren't even touching the other pumpkins.

The pumpkins are now living in the screened in porch. I do let the chickens eat them eventually, but I like to enjoy them first. See the roosters and the construction zone in front of the garage?

A few days later, Alayna and I, and the children, made a trip to the Amish for apples. I bought 100 pounds for applesauce. Ironically, they sell the apples at the feed store and not the grocery store. The kids got to see the Amish filling the chicken feed bags that we routinely buy.

We made a stop at the Amish farmer's market that they set up in front of the library. We enjoyed some homemade cinnamon rolls before we got back in the van to head to the grocery store to buy 100 pounds of wheat, (100 lbs. seem to be my going amount of everything to buy these days!) 

We bought a few "baby" pumpkins while we were there also; they are happily living with the momma pumpkins on the back porch.

I wish the Amish would sell 100 pound bags of Honey-Nut Cheerios! When they were on sale at Costco, I bought 20 large double boxes; we are down to the last two. It's amazing really.

No Time for Blogging or Fun!

 It's a bit distressing how I don't have time for an assortment of things I would like to do; blogging being one of them. It seems once we start school in the fall, nothing but school gets done. I am currently teaching on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we are up and out of the house on both of those days. I currently have a multitude of therapy appointments on Friday, so it leaves only Monday and Thursday to cover the majority of the at home school work. We attend home school PE on both of those afternoons as long as we are as far as I like in our work.

Saturday morning puzzles

We do have some extra fun distractions right now. Nathan supports the Classical Conversations work because he likes all the music. It's pretty easy having a baby during school time since his momma takes him when he gets hungry or tired!

Nathan turned seven months old just a few days ago. He is sitting well and now we are going to turn our attention to crawling.

Our newest distraction began as a text from Alei that said, "I have a surprise for you."
I replied, "thank you," figuring that it was something wonderful from CVS.
She sent back a message that said, "you won't thank me once you get it."
At that, Alayna said, "it's alive."
I asked Alei, "canine or feline?"
She said, "feline."
Someone had dumped it by the CVS dumpster and Alei spent a few hours catching it from under the dumpster. She is super sweet and loves to be held. Compared to the feral litter of five I brought home last year, this is no big deal. In fact, she already found a good home for her.

 In the meantime, the kids are enjoying being the kitty's foster home.

I actually spent a bit of time outside this morning. We picked and watered our severely neglected garden as well as a few animal chores.

Next on the list is figuring out what to do about the flies on the cow. It is horrible and my greatest pet peeve; they drive her crazy! We have tried the fly spray, but she is scared of it and runs away. I have also put the fly tags on her and the donkey, but the goats chew them off and they don't seem to work that great anyway. Anyone out there have any advice?  

Ben, Mooster and  a salt lick

Nathan

 I need to get the camera out more while Nathan is here. Today he helped me in the kitchen; he was pretty impressed with all the things around him. His favorite was anytime the food processor or mixer ran - he would freeze and stare at it.

 It's kind of a flash back to seven years ago when Elijah sat on the island and "helped".

Nathan is trying more baby food flavors; he likes most of them.

Here's the sweetest picture I've taken. Alyssa was holding him asleep on the couch, and I asked if she could take him into a bedroom so I could vacuum for company that was on the way. She said she'd just lay down with him for a minute to make sure he stayed asleep; they both got a good nap!

Boarded

Look who just boarded the plane on his connecting flight in TX to see his MiMi. Gabriel leaves Tuesday for his South America tour that will conclude around Christmas on the east coast, so Nathan and his momma got a head start east. They will take a trip to Memphis from here at Thanksgiving, but other than that, they will be in Virginia. I do plan on sharing Nathan with his other Grandmothers, but he will love the activity around here.  

Homeschooling the Tribe

Tomorrow will conclude our first official week of school for the year. Legally, I am homeschooling nine children, but only the youngest seven require my every living, breathing second of energy and attention. Since this is my 18th or 19th year of homeschooling, I literally have tried about every approach of homeschooling and have found that my absolute favorite for such a group is Classical Conversations. I enrolled Alyssa in 7th grade, the first year it came to our county. Three years ago I enrolled Elijah, and he, Bella and I attended every week to test the waters of the whole classical approach, while the three girls attended public school and the boys continued in our tradition homeschooling method. Last year, I trained to become a tutor.

This year, I enrolled Alyssa and the younger five; the boys are continuing at the other co-op. I have worked all summer to prepare for this year - both for the class I tutor in the community and to have everything lined up for all my kids at home.

We have four segments to our homeschool day at this point:
1. Our group CC time which introduces and reviews the memory information for the week in seven areas.
2. An online ancient history class through Veritas Press that we do in groups of two to three.
3. Essentials Grammar and IEW writing for James, Ben and Tori with Julia sitting in to absorb what she is able.
4. Lastly, our individual work which encompasses math, grammar or phonics, editing and reading.

To keep it real -
I was unable to take one of those cute first day of school pictures on the front porch this year because I had one child crying in the closet for the first hour of school.

Day two we attended our first CC day. Everyone was smiling and wearing matching clothes, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Day three we were working away and I walked by the camera and snapped just a few pictures; they are a true snapshot of normal homeschooling.

This was group CC time where everyone is together.

They are all completely attentive and following along at least half the time.

This is a realistic shot of Selah - she isn't a quiet child. Tori is.

Elijah showed up at group time with this look; he didn't take it well when I told him that it was going to be a karate-free zone. Although he never stops moving, his little brain is soaking the memory work up.

My biggest challenge is to keep people learning when I'm not home. I have minimized the time away to as little as possible, but it is still a chunk every week. Tomorrow is the first this week that the group has to do without me for several hours. We will see...

Momma Guinea with 8 babies tucked safely underneath

 

I am pretty sure this picture isn't going to win any photography contests, but it is representative of a few hours of work this afternoon. Ben came in this morning to tell me that one of the momma guineas that had been sitting on a nest of eggs in the woods emerged with several babies following her. Since we lost all the babies last year from predators, we planned on catching any mommas and babies this year and keeping them safely in the chicken coop. To make matters worse (or actually helpful), she had a string tangled around her feet that was causing her to limp. Her flying abilities are on the level of an eagle however, and anytime we tried to catch her, she would fly into a tree or the barn roof. Since we had her running, we started gathering babies which was very challenging since they were tiny and roaming in the very high grass and weeds behind the barn (that have now made the "to be weed-whacked list"). Once we collected all eight babies and couldn't hear anymore, we went back to catching the momma. She stopped roaming with the flock and started hiding from us; once we would find her, she would fly off and hide again. After about two hours of this nonsense, James snagged her with a large net after Bella alerted him that she was hiding in the barn stall.

 

We moved her in with the babies, cut all the string off her feet and watched as she gathered the babies under her wing. Lots of work but a happy ending!

 

 

The Rest of CA and Heading Home

 The last day we were in San Diego, we went to visit Gabriel's new ship - the George Washington. The GW has been stationed in Japan for the last eight years and is back in San Diego preparing to make the trip around South America to Norfolk for refueling and updating. Gabriel will be making the trip starting in a few weeks.

This picture was an attempt at showing how long the passageways are; I think it only shows about 25% however.

This is as close as we were allowed to Gabriel's workspace; I love how all the signs are also in Japanese.

 This is Gabriel's previous ship, the Ronald Reagan. It is right across the pier at this point. It's amazing how different it is visiting ships now than when JD was stationed on them before the Cole bombing. There are metal barriors out in the water around the ships that would stop small boats from being able to approach. They also have guards on the flight deck at all times with machine guns. We even went through metal detectors to board the GW.

It really is phenomenal how America launches and lands planes on flight decks; the only other counties with that technology is the ones that we have shared it with.

Elijah driving on the bridge -

I came home to progress on the garage. Today there is much more - roofing and windows are going in.