We Demand Tribute

Today we dressed up as ancient Celts and went and sacked Rome!

It was awesome.

And by, "we" I mean the three students. Someone has to maintain decorum. Also, Pixie said when we started that I could be a captured prisoner...but 10 minutes into it I was Boadicea. Again, Awesome.

After decorating our Celtic brooches, pinning on cloaks, and painting faces, we were ready to set off on our pillaging adventure that would eventually take us to Rome (where the money is!).

Allow me to introduce our warriors:

Pixie, with eagle eyes capable of spotting a vulnerable village from miles away:


Bud, the leading scout with a fierce roar:


And Wombles, when I asked him to look fierce:



After crossing the channel (street), we were off into the woodlands of Gaul.



Good thing there was a local water supply to refill our casks!


I did break character long enough to forbid them to actually drink it.

Here, Pixie spots a village.


Demanding tribute!


Richer villages paid two M & Ms each. If the Visigoths or Vandals had been there first, we only got one. Poor villages.

As we neared Rome, Bud found a pool with polliwogs. Good thing he'd worn his boots!


Actually, not such a good thing, as by the time we had reached the Alps he was complaining of blisters. As he explained, "Rubber shoes hurt after a while." But there's no going back when you're already to the Alps! (Plus I don't know that Wombles could have navigated the steep downhill return). I had socks on with my sneakers, though, and we made camp while I removed my socks and donated them. And actually, they were J's socks, since I didn't have any that were clean and sporty and white. Ah, the hardships of war. Not to make light of real hardships of war.

Moving on.

There it is! Do you see it? ROME! At the top of the hill (or seven)!


They were afraid. They were very, very afraid. And we partied with M&Ms like it was ...380 AD?



We did other things today, like math and spelling and phonics. But my guess is that none of us will remember that part very well.



PS Lest you worry that I am training up little imperialists, after we received the payload from Rome Bud was ready to return home the way we came to give the money back to the poor villages. Apparently "pillage" is not a concept he can absorb yet...and I can't WAIT to get to the Robin Hood era later this year!

Week One is Done!

Actually, we're two weeks in, but whatever.

Whoo-hoo! We have gotten off to a great start in our school.

My kindergartner gives me spontaneous hugs and kisses and tells me I'm "the best homeschool teacher in the world."

He also is very excited about beginning to read. Three letter words, watch out! Bud has you all figured out.


My second grader exhibits just the right combination of malaise and enthusiasm. We've discovered the 14-book Oz series, and she's a library addict. We've started a writing program this year, and she loves it.

All the enthusiasm of a fresh start!

Wombles is the first kid to grab his notebook and supplies and get to the table for "school," which mostly for him involves covering entire sheets of paper with his new markers. I occasionally give him an age-appropriate sorting activity, like with the math teddy bear counters. It keeps him occupied for a really long time.



And guess what else? WE EVEN HAD P.E. LAST WEEK! Here are photos to prove it:




So what if a neighbor stopped by and thought it looked like Calvinball. We're working on the basics, man. We'd been playing 15 minutes before I realized they didn't know you actually had to have the ball in order to tag someone. It was pretty hilarious.


This week in we're on Beowulf (Bud: Bear-wolf) and the ancient Celts. Tomorrow they get to paint their faces blue, but I'm thinking they're a little young for Braveheart...

Four weeks from now, when I am totally burned out and thinking that homeschooling this year is the dumbest thing I've done in a decade, could someone please send me a link to this post? Thank you.

What's Better than Butter?

I'm looking for help on this one.


Does anyone else have this problem? What is the matter with me?

And this is just a shelf in the freezer (not counting what was in the fridge). Can anyone help me with an explanation?

Some possibilities:

(1) Due to Cuatro's influence, I eat butter on absolutely everything.
(2) Anytime butter goes for less than $2/pound, I buy out the store.
(3) Due to Cuatro's influence, I eat butter plain. Three times a day.


That's all. I look forward to a possible diagnosis (and remedy?). For now, though, I have to go and make some caramel. Using a stick of butter, of course.

Football Season

Just a quick note to say we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Yet.

Today was the first Saturday of college football, and we were happily all ready for it.


Wombles has his jersey and is so thrilled with it. When I went back to Georgia last week to visit Cupcake and the Sugarplum Fairy (my adorable new niece) I picked up some red-and-black. Wombles was thrilled, but wanted to know where the pants were....Bud got the full football outfit (helmet, pants, everything) for his birthday an Wombles wants to be like him. Oh well, it's a start!

Even Pixie, who never wears T-shirts, ran to get in on the action:


My little Sweetpea! How I love her.

And that love has nothing to do with her proclamation yesterday: "I'm more of a Georgia fan than I am an Irish fan." It may have been in the moment. It may have been hasty. But coming from a little girl who said, "Go Irish!" before she said, "Mama" (seriously), it was a tectonic shift.

J is handling this pretty well. We'll see if it's just a flash in the pan!

And in case you needed proof that Sugarplum is alive, well, and adorable, here she is with her lovely Mama:


Go, Georgia!

The Roses

I posted on Facebook about the roses that were featured in the "gratuitous eating shot" of my last post, but I wanted to give them a shout-out here, too.

On August 2nd, I woke up and (typical) stumbled out to the kitchen. Actually, that's not typical. Usually J brings me a cup of hot tea before I ever leave our room...often before I even get out of bed. In fact, he probably did it on August 2nd, which means I wouldn't have been stumbling. (I don't know why it makes such a difference, when I'm only drinking decaf, but it does). Anyway, there were these glorious roses on the table when I came out.

And there was this note in front of them:


August 2nd was 12 years from the day we got engaged after J's marriage proposal at a park in Glenside, PA. Which proposal I famously interrupted to say, "Yes!".

I'm living in a fairy tale of the best kind!

So, we took the roses with us when we left on vacation. No way was I leaving them behind in their prime.

More on the vacation later, I hope...

Restaurant for Lunch!

Today we had restaurant day for lunch. This does not mean that we go out or that we order in...although we do those things sometimes, I have instituted a new lunchtime eating adventure for the kids that costs nothing and gets a chore done for me.

We have friends who have a joke after eating dinner: "Do we throw out this little bit of food, or do we put it in the refrigerator and throw it out two weeks from now?"

Restaurant lunch at my house says: "neither!"

To get the appeal of Restaurant Lunch, you have to know that I'm a pretty severe mommy when it comes to food. With a few exceptions, around here you eat what is prepared for you; no short order cooking. In dire cases, after an effort has been made, bread and butter is provided. And there's always snack time rolling around. No one is starving under my stringent rules, but neither am I making three different lunches for the munchkins everyday. No WAY!

So on Restaurant Day, I pull out all of the leftovers from the fridge...the ones that aren't enough for another meal for the family. You know, that one piece of pizza or those two pancakes or even that half a PB & J (leftover ones are GREAT grilled). Then I sit the kids down and ask them to choose from the "menu." The rule is that if everyone wants some of something, I split it three ways. They LOVE getting to choose what they are having, I LOVE not wasting food and cleaning out the fridge. I have only done this twice, but I think I may institute it every week. Today, Pixie had stacked pancake, Pizza Hut pizza, grapes and 1/4 a peach. And was very happy. Likewise Bud, who had stacked pancake, the fruit and half a breakfast burrito. (Everyone wants stacked pancake...) Having fresh fruit to round out the meal helps.

My refrigerator is cleaned out!

Yahoo!

OK, just needed to share my happy moment for the day.

And, the photo is from our recent family vacation. Consider it "gratuitous eating shot". :)

Welcome Home!

In the name of security, blah blah blah, I have restrained myself this week from blogging about the fact that J has been gone since 5 am last Sunday morning. I saw him off and climbed back into bed.

I'll skip the early morning with kids details.

We are all so, so excited that he is coming home this afternoon! We're heading out very soon to pick him up from our local airport--whoo-hoo! The poor man will have been traveling for more than 12 hours. He woke up at half-past midnight, our local time.

Eight hours later he got an actual meal in Dallas (I hope, oh I hope so).

Did I actually refer to him as "poor man"? I think the actual term is "hero." Why the shenanigans and crazy flight times and three connections? To be back in time to spend the afternoon with us. Maybe we'll even get to see Pixie jump off of the diving board this afternoon!

Assuming he can keep his eyes open.

I've been feeling pretty chipper this week. In case you're wondering why, it has everything to do with this:

That's Bud falling in the middle

That, and the fact that probably dozens of people were praying for me. I like to think that many of those prayers were answered by...soccer camp. Pixie and Bud spent the mornings, lunch times, and after-lunch water play times with friends...running, kicking, shooting, tackling, talking, and heading.

Then they came home and had quiet time.

Then we played or whatever until supper.

Then they went to bed.

Repeat. Every day this week.

Wombles and I went to the park, Costco with friends, and the zoo. And the park again. And on a picnic.

Because of church on Sunday, this was the first morning I had them all at home!

So, this morning felt a little hectic, but we had a project. The kids came up with it last night at supper. We started it early this morning!



Aren't they great?


The week went really smoothly. So well, in fact, that I can wholeheartedly encourage J to do this again next year. I do think it's really important for him to be able to continue learning and discussing and seminar-ing with other political theorists, historians, philosophers like he did this week. He sounds energized. I feel not one tiny bit overtaxed, bitter or resentful. It's a miracle!

Welcome home, J!