The Iditarod has begun! Who are you pulling for?

We have our favorites for many reasons (some better than others) and here they are:

Jeff King and Martin Buser. These guys we have followed for awhile and are always on our favorites list. Superboy keeps an 8X10 of Buser and his dog  K2 in his notebook. Now that the race has begun, the picture is up on the wall.

Lori Townsend: We chose to pull for her because one of her lead dogs looks just like our dog, Cassie. Plus, she is from Willow where we spent a summer, so it's our Alaska "hometown".

David Sawatsky: We like the looks of his dogs, especially one called "Darth". Gotta love a dog named Darth...

It should be an exciting race, whoever wins.

Decided to bag school today and soak up some sun. Threw a couple of horses in the trailer and headed to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for Superboy's first real trail ride. (this picture is Superboy riding at home, not at the Park)

It brings me unspeakable joy to be able to share my love of horses, nature, and our National Parks with my children. Lest you think we did not learn anything this day...

Lessons learned:

1. Things don't always go as planned, but that's OK: the horse I originally was going to take refused to get in trailer. So I took another one.
2. You are stronger than you think, and braver, too: when Superboy's horse, Tommy, freaked out because of a couple of  mules running around loose, he was able to stop the horse, get off, walk the horse until calm, then GET BACK ON!!!! BRAVO!!
3. Sometimes, you've got to let go and trust someone else to take the lead: The best way to get through that tricky patch of loose rocks is to loosen the reins and let the horse pick his own route.
4. Sometimes strength is not what works: Tommy did not want to leave the park. Despite all our pushing and shoving and cajoling he would not get into trailer. But a cookie did the trick!

I'd say these were lessons worth learning. we may do it again next Monday. After all, sometimes you've got to let go and trust someone else to take the lead.

I've been reading alot of blogs lately that discuss the reasons why we blog. Thought I'd go ahead and put in my 2 bits...

Blogging for me started out as a an attempt to hold myself a bit more accountable for what I do in our homeschool. At the time I started I was not as confident about our methods, materials, schedule, etc, and thought if I write it all out in public for the world to see, it would inspire me to do my very best. And it did help.

I am beyond that stage now, thankfully, having gained much confidence over time and trial and error, and yet I keep blogging. Why blog now?

I think now it is my attempt to connect with the outside world a bit. I used to be a school teacher. I connected with the world all day (for way too many hours) and I am glad to be done with that life. But as a homeschooling mom, surrounded by my dear children, books, a computer, and craft projects all day, it can be a bit lonely at times. I wouldn't trade the life for anything, and certainly hope never to go back to teaching public school, but there is one thing I miss, and that is the professional comraderie between peers that I had with my fellow teachers. That sense of shared mission, shared struggles and triumphs, shared coffee breaks and chats around the copy machine. I think that is what I am trying to get back with my blogging, and by visiting the blogs of other homeschooling moms. I want to tell someone (other than my husband) about lesson plans that worked out great, or not, about books that inspire, about all the daily doings of homeschooling. I want to mine ideas from others and share in their ups and downs, get a glimpse of what life is like in other homeschools.I want conversation and batting ideas back-and-forth, and I want it to be with someone who understands, has been there, and is at least a bit like me.Blogging gives me a bit of that.

 I think blogging is the homeschool version of the teacher's lounge. Yea. That's what it is.

Yep. It's so predictable. I have got the blahs big time. So do dc. I know it is just this time of year that does it to me (every year-can I BE any more predictable!?!) but knowing the cause and being able to cure it are two different things. In my defense, there are a few mitigating factors:

1. Throw an infant and toddler into the mix 3 random days of the week, as dd cannot yet afford daycare for my grandsons. She does shift work and it is never the same. Except the time...6am. Need I say more?
2. Both said grandsons having RSV and needing regular nebulizer treatments, tylenol, noses wiped with staggering frequency... Hmmm, can we say "cranky" (I mean me, not the kids, they take it in stride).
3. Coming off two very excellent unit studies in a row-Christmas and Pirates. It's a hard act to follow. World Architecture is our focus right now, and it is going well, but just hasn't quite jelled into a cohesive unit yet (see mitigating factors 1 and 2).
4. The weather pretty much stinks, as usual this time of year, but is unusually stinky this year. Snow one day, 55 degrees the next. Then back to 18 degrees again. Good grief.
5. Husband working night shift (also on random days). Try keeping this mob quiet all day so dh can sleep, while simultaneously trying to homeschool and care for aforementioned grandsons.
6. Do I really NEED another?

So... what is the cure? I'm not sure, but I believe I have found a temporary fix. We are taking what we call a "sanity day." A day when we just read or play or watch DVDs and refuse to feel guilty about it because fighting it is futile anyway. If the weather were better we would be at the park right now.

School is just a bust today, and the weather (see #4) so in order to make lemonade out of these lemons this morning I ditched (pitched) school and suggested ds read his latest library find-some sort of medieval knight thing as usual-while I cared for attached-at-the-hip baby. After awhile, ds pipes up from behind his novel, "I LIKE this day!"

I must be on the right track.

It wasn't much, but we'll take it! (though these two girls thought it put a real crimp in their style!)

We are supposed to get a little more in the next day or so. I hope so. This year has been a real bummer as far as snow is concerned. It has only snowed twice and both time just a dusting and gone by noon.

What is it about waking up to newly fallen snow that never fails to bring a smile to your face? Is it the purity of the whiteness, or the hushed noise level? Is it just that it happens so seldom here and thus is such a rare surprise? I don't know, but it sure seems to affect everyone in my family this way. Do folks in snowier areas feel this way, too? Does the dreamy feeling last as long as the snow lasts? If so, then I'm headed for Alaska.

then you don't have hundreds of them flying around your schoolroom every day, even though you've sucked them up with the shop vac so many times you are now the shop vac ninja.

Oh, and this picture doesn't do justice to the scope of the infestation. Picture it worse. MUCH WORSE. I sucked up hundreds (yes, really) of them-every one I could see- not ten minutes before this picture was taken. Looked up and there they were again.

Anyway, here is little ditty I found that I thought appropriate:

Ladybugs Fly

(to the tune of "Three Blind Mice")

Fly, fly, fly.
Ladybugs fly.
Fly over here.
Fly over there.
They fly up high and they fly down low.
Around and around and around they go.
They fly fast, and they fly-fly slow.
Oh, ladybugs fly.

Yep. And they crawl in your hair and up your nose and they stink.

Not very ladylike if you ask me.

Fly away home!