I haven't been able to blog for the last month. We have been camping and freezing strawberries and blueberries, and having summer fun. Now that life is slowing down, I'm back and eager to start blogging again. While I was gone knitteralaska, a new friend, tagged me. She gave me the following questions to answer. Here I go.

What is the name of your homeschool? Maple Ridge Homeschool

How did you come up with that name? It what we named our property. We live on a ridge, and have a row of maple trees, the only large trees up on the ridge.

Look to the left of your computer monitor. What is there? Nothing right now, but my sketch book was just there. It was open to the list of wildflowers I identified on July 3 on our hike hike up Paddy-Go-Easy Trail, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.

Where do you keep you unmatched socks? On the right hand side of my sock drawer.

What habit are you trying to break? I don't know if you call cooked food a habit, but I am trying to increase the amount of raw food in my diet. I can write more about that in another blog.

What were you doing just before you got online? Reading the Sunday newspaper. I bought it for the garage sale ads, but other then that it wasn't worth much. At the garage sales I found some good books for the kids (some historical fiction, some biographies, and some stories with a Christian focus), a rake for $2, 6 pieces of stemware for $2 that match a set I got at another garage sale. This is good because I have already broke few pieces of the first set. I like to have inexpensive stem ware available to use for my family whenever I wish. They deserve the best! They are wonderful loved people.

I didn't grow up painting or feeling artistic. I did have crayons, colorbooks, so paint-by-number kits and such. We made some crafts, which I enjoyed. I sometimes drew some pictures of whatever interested me. But I had no drawing or painting instruction as a child. Art seemed to be unconsciously promoted as a waste of time and that it was more important to work and have a career that makes money. Who would want to be a poor artist? There weren't any really artistic people in the family that I knew of at the time. Though now I know there are an aunt and a cousin who have done a little drawing and painting. I know I would have enjoyed art classes, but I didn't even get much at school.

Three years ago I signed up to take a watercolor class with a friend at the community college. She quickly had to drop out, but I hung in there and had a blast. I took 5 quarters of watercolor classes for adults through the Continuing Education program. I loved the teacher and it gave the kids some time with their daddy once a week. I would come home so energized and could have painted all night, if I had allowed myself. But I knew the next morning was coming, and the kids would get up even if I didn't want to. I was thrilled with what I was learning and knew I would keep painting and learning more as I could.

This quarter I saw a new class listed: Watercolor Botanicals. It sounded like just the thing for me, because I love wildflowers, and flowers are what I draw the best. I am learning many things and am so glad I enrolled.

I am also happy because I am learning things I can teach my children. I'm happy because they won't grow up without art education. They enjoy painting too. They have both done some of the nicest work. I'll try to post some of their work next week. I

This afternoon, along with the sound of the lawn mower, mowing down that much too tall spring grass, was a new sound. Rum... Rum... Rum. Watch out! Weed Wacker Mama was roaring down the driveway cutting down weeds as faster then she ever has before. And it was fun too!

The weed eater we ordered arrived on Friday. We opened it up and put it together, poured in some gas, and my dear husband pulled the cord just right and made it roar into life. I'm not talented enough to start the thing, but I did manage to convince everyone that I should be the one to run it the first time. I stuffed those little orange pieces of squishy foam into my ears, pulled on my gloves and away I went. No weed in sight was safe. Not even the iris were safe. Though I tried to save them. A few leaves and even a flower stalk got in the way of my test drive. I developed skill as I progressed down the edge of the weedy drive way. My six year old boy followed me with the biggest grin on his face, and his yellow hard hat on his red head, for safety, I suppose, from Mom and the wild cutting machine. He kept yelling, "Oh Mom! You're doing great! Here, get these too! Yeah!" I should have given him his own set of orange ear plugs. He would have loved it.

We wound our way to the mail box, and back round our little orchard, along the fence on that side of the driveway and almost to the vegetable garden. At the point the roaring weed machine sputtered, coughed and ran out of gas. And I decided I had done enough of that today. I accomplished much more then I even had with the old fashioned method of pulling up weeds. I think I'll have to do another tank full of weeding after supper tomorrow, when my big, strong husband is home to start the engine for me.

I have spent the last hour sorting through my computer library of photos from the last few years since we have had digital photography. I had no idea that photos of me are rare, but they are. You see, I'm the one usually behind the camera taking photos of things of beauty, and the the people I love, my kids and my husband. The photos of me that are there are taken by less experienced photographers, so they are cock-eyed, blurred, or unflattering. Also, I was reminded that I love to close my eyes. Yes, most of the photos of me on there are with my eyes closed. No wonder other people don't take pictures of me. I dream of the romanticized photo of me, like those lovely victorian paintings of lovely ladies with perfect children. But if there was one of me like that, it would be for dress up and would not be an authentic representation of me. I love beauty and romance, but I'm really pretty down to earth, and when I am camping, or otherwise feel like it, I even wear my hair in braids. I wear dresses sometimes. I really like them. But on most days you will find me dressed for practical purposes, in jeans. Maybe the flower photo I had up before today was a little more romantic. But I decided to put the real me up, complete with unshowered camping hair, so you know that I don't live a fairy tale life, and so you can meet my fine husband, Sir Henry. I do love camping and nature and the great outdoors. In the photo we are camping at Meziadan Lake in British Columbia, along the Cassiar Highway, on our way north to Alaska. It was my favorite spot along the highway, so it is fitting that it should make it to my web log.

I have spent way too much time trying to understand html today. I graduated from college too long ago (1991) to have ever had a class in html. That was back when we took classes in DOS. Anyone remember DOS? Well I quickly ditched DOS back then and started to use a MAC computer. I've learned nothing even slightly connected to programing or code since then. I often thought that when it comes to computers, I really am still in kindergarten. I have to have everything explained in such simple language. So when I wanted to start a blog, let me tell you, I was more then lost. I thought it would be simply typing something onto a screen and pushing submit, or something like that. I was so very wrong. I had no problem choosing a template, but adding a new entry just would not work. I read the SUPPORT and FAQ page. It didn't help. I found the part about code and started to try to understand, and my mind started going foggy, and felt like it was shutting down. Everything on the screem started to go blurry. I had typed my first entry, but couldn't make it appear. I was so sad. I knew if I waited until Sir Henry came home, he would know exactly what to do. I didn't want to wait, but I had too. And sure enough, he knew just what to do. It worked! I was so happy. My simple words looked so pretty on the page with a heading and photograph above. I was hooked. I am excited to learn more and share more. I never thought I would do this, but this afternoon, after school and lunch was finished, I spent hours at a web site that explains html in a simple way for people like me who knew nothing. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I still have a lot to learn, and I know I will have to go back and read the basics again and again. Thankfully the kids are having a pleasant afternoon. We are kid sitting another 7 year old boy that gets along splendidly with both my daughter and son. They have played legos, raced bikes up and down the driveway, and now they are dreaming about how they might make a candy machine. Why they are thinking of that, I don't know. We rarely ever eat candy. I am happy they are having fun and treating each other kindly.

This is the web page I went to about HTML Click here for the HTML goodies website.

In His Joy,