January...

I never meant to neglect to post, at all!

Here are some highlights from January...

We rang in the new year with friends...

and fireworks... and sparkling grape juice...

Ian has been instructed that he must not continue

to create games that result in his sister having

a shiner:

There has been lots and lots of snow... for months:

And, of course, lots of quizzing:

And, for Grace, lots of 5 question quiz offs...

This is quiz off #4 of the season:

Individual awards at Lela Close...

Seth was 11th, after winning his first quiz off...

Grace was 1st, after winning her 5th quiz off:

And the Team, 3rd Place...

Hannah, Josh, Grace, Seth:

And even some children's quizzing

Caleb's first for the season

(10th place individual, 5th place blue level team)

Ian's first ever

(5th place red level team)

 

 

That's January in a nutshell...  And since the kids are homeschooled we have neither observed snow days nor complained about all the time we have to spend together...

L.

Snow Day...

Well, sort of.  We actually didn't have a snow day like the surrounding public schools, but we did call it quits a little early so we could enjoy the snow.

It was surprisingly nice outside, even though we have tons of beautiful snow, so it made for a really good mix... and hey... it's finally packing snow!

The kids have wanted to make a snowman "family" for years, and they finally got to do it today!  If your family is smaller than ours, you could probably accomplish this with less of a blizzard!

Happy Snow Day:

Miah loved her snowman so much

she just had to give it a hug:

Caleb:

Grace:

 Ian:

Seth:

 We had so much fun today:

L.

Just What If...

It’s a new year.  With the turn of a calendar page, we often imagine that we have a fresh start… a new beginning.  When you stop to think about it, well… it’s actually kind of arbitrary.  But just for the sake of argument, I’m going with it…

So what if I did something every single day, this year, that was worthy of a photograph?  I’ve started projects like this before, and the truth is they usually fall flat around day 12.  But maybe this time will be different… just maybe…

And so, with a renewed sense of hope that I must have dredged up from the deeply hidden inner optimist, I started planning to get the kids in their snow gear and to go build a snowman around 11:00, this morning.  Shortly after 2:00, we all finally made it out the door only to realize that the snow wouldn’t “pack” worth anything and that Seth apparently has no gloves.  I gave him mine.  Who needs gloves if you can’t build a snowman?

We had fun.

And so I give you January 1^st, 2013…  That day when Caleb managed to come in with mild looking frostbite on his stomach, because it is so fun to roll around in the powdery snow you don’t always notice that your pants are falling down…  That day when Miah kept exclaiming things like, “Hey look what I found!  A tree!”… 

It Doesn't Really Get Any Better Than This:

"This snowball is so 'coldy'"
Yep, that's what she said:

 

She thought everything was so funny:

 Ian (AKA Sharkboy):

 Snow Diva:

A couple of good looking kids

with a couple of good looking snowballs:

Hot chocolate is yummy.

Everyone is warmed up.

There is more snow in the kitchen than the backyard.

It’s been a good day.   

L.

My Thoughts on Snow Days…

The truth is… as a kid… I lived for snow days! I mean, really… who didn’t? I had the phone number for the bus garage memorized, and I kept my purple phone by the head of my bed (not a cell phone, mind you… just a good old land line). That way, I could dial the number, listen to the automated message, and if school was closed; I could roll over and resume my hibernation for a couple of extra hours! Later, of course, I would get into all of my snow gear and play outside (most often sledding in my own backyard with the neighborhood kids). Looking back on it, it feels as if we stayed out for hours. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, though, because it seems that my own kids only make it 1 – 1 ½ hours tops… and maybe I wasn’t really a whole lot more resilient. When I was done playing outside, there was ample hot chocolate waiting for me in the kitchen.

This kind of thing happened maybe once a year… The only exception was the true blizzard we had when I was probably 9 or 10. It was a really bad idea to go out and play in that one, because the snow was covered with ice, and I fell and smashed my face in it… I think we got two days for that one…

At any rate, I grew up in Michigan. If you grow up in Michigan and you have a responsible parent, he or she takes you outside when you are 15 and the roads are covered with ice. He or she then says, “Here are the keys… it’s a good day to learn how to drive!” You get into the car, and you are expected to go from 0 to 120 in 3 seconds. You are then instructed to hit the brakes as hard as you can, and if you can regain control of the vehicle, you are allowed to take Driver’s Ed. the following summer. If you crash the car, you are banned from driving until you turn 31. That’s just how you have to do it in Michigan. (And, as a sidenote, this can all take place in your driveway, or at the very most, on your private dirt road, while all of your neighbors watch and shield their children from possible disaster.

Exaggeration? Maybe a little… but I really did learn to drive on sleet…

I also remember countless days, trying to make my way to the school bus and slipping and falling on the ice. It happened every year. It was embarrassing.

Now, I am all for caution! If you are uncomfortable driving on the roads, then by all means, PLEASE stay off of them. I say this for your safety as well as my own. The truth is; I don’t really worry a whole lot about my own driving abilities in the snow… and on the ice. But I do worry a great deal about other drivers. I am an extremely defensive driver in the winter months, because I know full well that not everybody learned to drive in Michigan. It scares me that an awful lot of people think you can drive just as fast as usual over the ice and they don’t leave extra time to brake. These two mistakes are often very costly. That’s precisely why Michigan parents have their children make these mistakes on purpose. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll never want to do it again!

I guess all of these thoughts came from the debates I’ve seen going on this week on facebook. I realized, yesterday, that people are starting to get a little upset with one another over whether this stuff is safe to drive in or not. Then it occurred to me that I was probably falling way on the “apathetic about snow and ice” side, and I wanted to share a little bit of background. People who do not feel safe or who do not have experience driving in this should not do so! I value all of my friends, and I would not want any of them to meet a tragic fate because of this weather. However, I do not really think it is treacherous out there if you are used to the snow and ice and know how to handle it properly. That said, I haven’t left the house since Sunday. I have had no need to go out, since the refrigerator is stocked (thanks, Phil), and all of the kids classes have been cancelled all week.

If you cannot avoid going out, and snow and ice make you nervous, PLEASE drive very slowly and carefully, do not hit your brakes hard (you really shouldn’t need to if you’re driving very slowly and carefully), use your lights (even during the day), make sure you’re not going any faster than your visibility allows, watch for other drivers (maybe the very most important), and if you have to pull over and call off, then do it! Although I have heard the argument that some people cannot afford to miss a day of work, I’m still thinking it’s better for your family if you miss one day than it is if you are killed trying to get there and miss the rest of your life!

Realistically, do I think the local schools needed to call another snow day today? No… I don’t. I think this makes the 4th or 5th snow day this year. As you probably know, we homeschool. We did, indeed, give in and take a snow day yesterday, but that has been our only one. We are currently involved in the two weeks a year when I teach for the ITBS. Although I find standardized testing to be quite important; I tend to be able to cover anything we’ve missed in a week or two. But this is a story for another day… probably later this month…

Drive Safe!

Lisa

Why I Dread Snow…

Well… to begin with… let’s just make it clear that I am not really a “great outdoors” kind of person… at least not in extreme temperatures (I have, indeed come to love the outdoors in the spring and fall). There is way to much background to get into that right now, but I prefer my air conditioning in the summer and my heat, blankets (occasionally warmed in the dryer), and fireplace (we have yet to use) in the winter…

That said, I found my 9 year old daughter… at 8:00 this morning… sitting on the couch dressed in her winter coat, hat, thin gloves, and tennis shoes… proclaiming that she was ready to go play in the snow!

Oh yeah… I really did make that promise that we were going to play outside today right after breakfast, didn’t I?

And since a promise is a promise, I told her to get out of her coat, hat, etc, and that we would have breakfast… Then, I proceeded to explore the great mystery of the basement looking for appropriate winter attire for such a snow… To my delight (or maybe dismay… just really depends on how you look at it), I did, indeed, find everything we would need to enjoy our wintery morning… Our plan was to build seven snowmen today. I questioned whether I had either the energy or the carrots for such a feat…

Now comes the part I dislike…

Once I dragged enough gear up to outfit a pretty good chunk of the United States Army… in Siberia… The real fun began…

Grace and Caleb were ready first, so I threw them out in the snow…

Ian was ready next, so I threw him out, too… with a word to his big sister to keep an eye on him…

Seth had a great deal of difficulty finding gloves, but he was also… finally… vanquished to the snow…

And then I had to dress Miah. Miah did not… in any way… enjoy this process. Since I am pretty much obsessed with little baby hats and hair bows, I thought the hat wouldn’t be a problem (she is used to them, after all)… not today. And I thought she was just going to absolutely lose it when I tried to stuff her hands inside the glove like things that are attached to her snowsuit. On this point, I conceded, and just got our her little owl gloves (that, of course, match her hat), which were a slightly easier sell, as long as I kept tweeting like a bird the entire time I was putting them on. It occurred to me later that owls don’t really “tweet”… rather, they “who”… Oh well… I guess I’ll have to re-teach that one when we do animal sounds…

Somewhere during the “dress Miah like an Eskimo” adventure, Grace started screaming at the door that the snow wasn’t “packing snow”… How this was my fault, I don’t know. I guess I didn’t put my order in early enough for packing snow to have it delivered by today. I told her… through clenched teeth… that she had whined for two days to go outside… now she was there… and she’d better have fun or we were never going outside again!

I ran Miah outside and sat her down in the snow, immediately, hoping to snap a couple of good pictures before she started howling. To my surprise, she started looking around in amazement and smiling… I think she likes snow…

It was just about at this point that I was summoned by Grace to look at her snow angel (at least she found something fun to do, after all), by Seth to look at his snow volcano, and by Ian who was under the trampoline… freaking out because his hats (both of them) had been knocked off his head by Caleb. It was very difficult to take care of all of these requests simultaneously, but I think everyone was satisfied… eventually… until someone walked on the snow angel that Ian had created (and none of us knew was there) at which point the distress began all over again…

At which point, Seth was too cold to stay outside anymore…

And Miah’s face was turning pink…

So I sent Seth in with specific directions as to where he should put all of his snow covered things (which he followed… go figure…)

And I brought Miah in and proceeded to pull all of the snowy clothing items off of her, as well.

Many, many requests for hot chocolate were interjected in this process…

Just as I got ready to make the hot chocolate; Grace was at the door freezing to death in the way that only my little drama princess can, so I looked at her and called Ian inside. This sounds cruel but makes sense if you understand that Ian cannot be left outside without an adult or at the very least Seth or Grace!

After that, I called Caleb inside… who was quite distraught that our outdoor time was over (I think he must be our Boy Scout)…

And finally Grace came in…

And now everyone was begging for hot chocolate, so I made it very clear that they needed to play in the living room long enough for me to warm some water up, and I made it… finally… and let me tell you, I needed it, too, because I experienced this whole adventure in two pairs of sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and tennis shoes!

It seriously took us over an hour to get outside!

I think we played for 20 minutes… maybe!

And they want to do this again?

Well… let’s at least hope for some good packing snow and maybe a napping baby?

Lisa