We're finished with Geography!!!  Last geographical area covered: Pacific Islands:

So, I'm downloading some photos today and I came across some I had never seen before.  They were taken last night according to my camera....which doesn't lie.  And they really explain a lot about why it was SO hard to wake up the almost-17-year-olds this morning.

Exibit One:

Rosie looks on in disaproval.  Her people should not be up at this hour - an hour which happens to be 10:31pm

And here are the two culprits who have taken over my kitchen and MY camera!!

Apparently they got hungry

And decided to have a little snack

With MY waffle maker!!

The final result.......at 11:20 PM!!!

Learning happens all over the property.

Inside.....

On the back deck.....

And on the front porch...

Getting ready and trying to ignore moms with cameras!

 Getting the makeup on.

Ready to start!!

We "celebrated" the first day of May by working outside.  Rachel and Beka raked and cleared out the drainage ditch, Sarah mowed the meadow [aka: our lawn], and I attempted to break through the rocks to plant three forsythia bushes.  I only got two planted before I realized that I need a more heavy-duty pick-ax to get through the rocks out here.  So the third forsythia bush is waiting patiently on our driveway until I get up to the hardware store.

I also had to deal with yet another Eastern Ribbon Snake [what is it with this snake that follows us from state to state??].  This one, however, will not be bothering us again thanks to Sarah and the lawnmower.   The snake carnage is now at the bottom of the hill in the woods.

It's a beautiful day out here - lots of flowers blooming!  A perfect May Day!

It's hard to believe but the school year is actually winding down.  I've been using a geography program with my younger two called: "Children Around the World", which was a new program from Winter Promise.  It was supposed to be for younger students and I thought I would really have to "tweak" it to keep my 12 yo's interest.  Not so.  I have no idea how anyone younger than 10 would be able to understand everything!  It really got into the history of various countries [Japan was especially long] and I found myself having to edit what I was reading "on the fly" [so to speak]. 

Each Tuesday night we've tried to have a dinner from the country we've spent the last week studying [the geography weeks run from Wednesday to Wednesday thanks to when I can get to the library to check out the books].  Last night we had a dinner from the African country of Madagascar.  It was pretty good and will probably be something we'll have again.

Today we move back into Asia and start learning about Saudi Arabia.  Finding books on that country has been next to impossible in this area!  I don't know why our library system only has two children's books about S.A. but they are all at the northern-most library [naturally] in our county.  So we're treking north today to find out about the middle east. 

It's taken a lot to get used to living out here in what one would consider "the country".  Driving half and hour to go into town.  Waiting in line at the post office while the person in front of you chats with the postal clerk about a mutual friend and his troubled offspring.  Having a DMV office in the back of our local grocery store.....these are all things you can expect when you live in the boonies.  Here are two items from our local paper, The Rural Virginian:

First Stoplight Comes to County

              ~and~

Squirrel Starts Brush Fire

As you can see - we live a dangerous life out here.  So today, my oldest and I went over to check out the new stop light.  First we went to the main street of our town - which is actually the county seat.  "Main Street" was all of one and a half blocks long and a narrow little lane.  We did make one circle around the courthouse and, yes Dad, the DAR had sent a canon for the courthouse square!  Eventually we actually found civilization.........in the form of a CVS.  It's all over from here on in - - CVS has discovered our little town.  And because of that, a stop light was deemed necessary.    If only it had been because of a Trader Joes....

Hey, what happened to spring????  The birds are still outside, singing and fighting over the bird feeder.  The daffodills are still blooming and now we've got cherry trees in bloom - very beautiful.  But the weather!!!!!  Chilly.

Our field trip today is to our state capital.  Not to actually see the capital, mind you.  No, something much more important.  We'll be visiting a dance store to get the girls outfitted in new tights, new leotards and [most important] new pointe shoes for Beka.  I actually thing her feet have stopped growing and now we can get serious in finding shoes that really work for her.  Afterward we were going to go down to River Park, but I'm thinking that probably wouldn't be a popular choice today.  So, just for Rachel, we'll head over to Borders and browse the bookstore. 

It is a beautiful day out here - if only the temperature would climb a little [a LOT]!!

 AND a big thanks to Sarah for getting the Melwood sign in place!!!!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Somehow I missed the crocuses this year......but all the daffodils are in full bloom.  And down in Richmond the trees have blooms on them.  The weather is temperate, the breezes, if not warm, then something close to it.  And yesterday I spotted an Eastern Bluebird hanging out in our neighbor's yard.  All the rain we've recieved in the past few weeks has taken us out of "drought conditions" [though we are quickly reminded that those conditions could return at anytime]

I'm listening to a CD of Shakespeare music that I picked up in California [thank you, Mom and Dad for having a membership to the Huntington Gardens and their great bookstore!].  It's very light and airy and very appropriate for spring.

And with spring comes [ta, da, da datadaaaaaa!!] gardening!  Yes, it's time to battle the elements and the backyard and plant some stuff.  My goal for this year is to find tough plants.  You know - the kind that will grow no matter what.  Plants I can't kill.  Fortunately I have two very good books.  One is a book my mom bought me years ago: TheGarden Primer by Barbara Damrosch, and the second is a book my Aunt Ann gave me for my birthday a few years ago: Better Homes and Garden Complete Guide to Flower Gardening.  Between these two books I *should* be able to find some tough, good-looking-yet-hard-to-kill plants!

THis article is for anyone who thinks nothing good comes from California:  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080306/D8V7UBJ80.html

It seems a 14yo boy at South Pasadena High school has taken it upon himself to clean up his town by starting the No Cussing Club.  And for this first week of March it is "No Cussing Week" in South Pasadena - a charming town full of nice people.  A town that, incidentally, separated from it's larger neighbor to the north in 1888 partially because it's residents were unhappy with saloon trade in Pasadena [shameful!!].  It is truly, a lovely town.

I think I can safely say I grew up in Hollywood.  No, Hollywood isn't an actual place, it's part of L.A., but any of you who grew up out there [and there are a few of us] you know what I'm talking about.  It means growing up in an area where the billboards are all about the movies.  It means checking the Calendar section of the LA Times every day to get your news - before you go to the front page [if indeed you ever do read the front page of the Times].  It means hardly ever venturing onto Hollywood Blvd because that's where the tourists go.  And, in our family, it meant that once a year Dad got gussied up in his tux and headed out to pull an all-nighter for the Today Show. 

 Yes, it's Oscar time again!  Last night Sarah, Beka, Rachel and I got all gussied up in our comfy clothes/pjs and sat ourselves down in the living room to watch this salute to "Hollywood's finest".  {A-hem, a-hem}  Because it starts so late on the east coast we actually watched the Red Carpet walk this year.  The dresses looked [for the most part] lovely - thank goodness the classic look is back and we no longer have to look at half-dressed women.   The men, however, seemed to still be going for that half-shaved retro-Don-Johnson look.  It looked dumb in the 80's....it looks dumb now.

So onto the show.  I can sum it up in a word: Yawn.  I have seen many, many Academy Award shows - this one takes the Oscar for Most Boring Attempt in Entertainment.  I know the writers have been on strike but, c'mon!!!  What WAS that opening monologue about?  Well, I did hit the mute button during the political endorsements.  I can get that from CNN, thank you.  But the rest of it - blah, blah, blah.   And what about the big opening number?  I know it's cheesy but it's usually fun!  And if they were going to have montages throughout the show [you know, to make up for the lack of writing due to that writers strike which, FYI, is over!!!] why not make them good montages the way they've been in years past??  The musical numbers were pretty good, but who decided to have Amy Adams sing "Happy Little Working Song" without her happy little workers?  There were plenty of backup dancers and extras for three other songs [though the song that acutally DID will the Oscar kept it nice and simple] so would it have killed them to beef up the first number?

Watching the Oscars I got the feeling that everyone was pretty much calling it in, last night.  There were a few exceptions in the acceptance speeches - a few emotional people - but the biggies seemed to be rather blase [Oh gee, we just won for Best Director and now they're calling us back out for Best Picture - ho hum...]  The classiest, most Oscar-like moment happened when Honorary Oscar-winner Robert Boyle took the stage and gave a beautiful acceptance speech [and notice they didn't dare "play him off" with the music].  Thank you, Mr. Boyle for reminding us how it used to be.

I think the best way to summarize last night's show would be to say it ended before midnight back East.  That is, by 9pm in the West folks were heading out to the post-Oscar parties.....which were infinitely more entertaining, I'm sure.  As for my father, the tux is gathering dust in his closet [that is, if he hasn't given it away by now] and he is no longer required to pay any attention whatsoever to the Academy Awards.  If my mom had her way last night they were tuned into PBS, to watch Elizabeth Bennet get her man.

Well, well, well......  The birds are singing, the wind is warm, the windows in the house are open, and the children are playing outside.  Is this really February 5th?  Now, this is my kind of "winter weather"!

The only downside is that Sarah's cat is freaking out and running from window to window meowing his little kitty brains out - why are his people outside?  Why have they not invited HIM to join them??  Why is THE DOG out there????

It's 77 outside!! 

1) The Blue Ridge Parkway - beautiful and close by

2) Four Seasons without being ridiculous.  I fully expect Spring to arrive in March [when it should!] unlike other states....Yankee states.....when Spring may or may not arrive sometime in May.

3) Southern Food.  Need I say more?  No, I don't think so.  Those who don't appreciate Souther cookin' should stay far, far away.

4) Polite Children.  Even in Walmart the moms insist on making their children apologize {"Say I'm sorry to that lady you just ran down with the cart ,or you'll get what's coming to you!!"}

5) Slow Drivers.  All this driving-10-miles-under-the-speed-limit-on-state-roads is probably good for me.  I'm learning to take deep cleansing breaths and repeat the mantra "I'll get there eventually.  I'll get there eventually."

I will not be giving away the ending to any Jane Austen book [though how in the world you didn't know the ending to S&S, Becky is totally beyond me!!  Didn't you see the movie??? ]

Instead I will talk a little about our jaunt through Geography this year.  We're using a program called "Children Around the World".  It's a fairly good program, thoughI have had to do some major "tweaking" to make it fit our family.  It's the first year this program has been available so I think there are still some bugs to work out.  Since I have children on the older end of things [4/5th grader and 7/8th grader] I've eliminated the more crafty items [like keeping a travel journal - neither of the girls went for this idea] and introduced the idea of a Geography Notebook. 

Each week we study a new country - this week is Greece.  For some reason our weeks tend to run Wednesday-Wednesday.  So tonight we say good-bye to Greece with a Greek dinner [lamb kabobs over rice]  {even though it would be tastier and more authentic to roast a whole lamb over a spit in our front yard, for some reason my husband did not go for this idea} and tomorrow we start in on India.  Now here's where the tweaking comes to play.  According to the Instructor's Guide we should be moving on to the USA.  But I'll be covering that this summer with a drive across the US.  Right now I want the girls to learn about China during the Chinese New Year.   To make that happen we have to learn about Asia a little earlier than the guide instructs.  So it's India, Japan and then China during the New Year.   And then we'll head back to the Americas [Canada, Mexico].

So, there you go, Becky - no giving away plot lines.....just getting ahead of you in Geography!

My friend Becky is taking on a personal challenge to read the Jane Austen books before seeing the film adaptation on Masterpiece Theatre.  It is a worthy challenge - - so much better than that gothic stuff she's been reading!  *coughJaneEyrecough*  On her website is a quiz to determine which Austen heroine you are most like.  The answers can be surprising......I know mine was!  

 I am Elinor Dashwood.  Yes, that Dashwood girl - the one from Sense and Sensibility.  Sadly, the Austen novel I like the least.  So now I'm forced to reread this book to try and find out what Elinor and I have in common.  Oh wait.....isn't Elinor the character who broke down in tears at the end of the movie??  Did she do that in the book as well?  I can't remember.  All I *do* remember is that she married that wimp Edward Ferrars.

Hmmmmm.....I think I'd better take that quiz again.

Well, it is a handy thing for a mom to be sick in a household of girls!  Here's why:  girls take care of both you AND their Daddy!

  All week I've been feeling "not right" and on Thursday it hit like a ton of brick.  Bricks, that is, that block up your throat and make it impossible to speak.  All I've been about to do for the past few days is croak at everyone.  My loudest croaking happened when I stumbled upon a certain political figure blah blahing about how corrupt the current administration is and how *hers* woudn't be.........my oldest daughter had to rush into the room, turn off the tv, and scold me about watching news shows when I can't yell.  But that's another story.

Anyway, yesterday I was on mandatory bed rest - mandated by my dh and enforced by my daughters - and spent a lovely day trapped, um......lounging [yeah, that's right] in my room.  I have discovered a few things: 1. There is very little worth watching on daytime tv.  "I Love Lucy" is the best but, sadly, there was no marathon of the show so I only got to watch two episodes before it was over.  2. It is hard to concentrate on a book when your head is plugged up and your throat is feeling like harsh sandpaper.  3. The cats in our house tend to avoid you if you're sick.  Rosie was a good dog and came to lie next to me in my hour of need.  The fact that I had an empty hand that was available for doggy-scratching *might* have had something to do with it but I don't care.  She was next to me.....unlike those fickle cats who fled in the other direction when they heard me coughing!

Yesterday afternoon I gave up and called for my children [they gave me a bell - very handy].  Sarah came in and I croaked out a request for Pride and Prejudice to be put in the DVD player.  Sarah said, "Wow.  You're really sick, aren't you?" as she was putting it in.  P&P is my drug of choice when I have been laid up [illness, broken toe, broken tailbone....whatever] and have no place to go for the next 10 hours. 

There are some things that only time with Mr. Darcy can cure.

Right now I'm listening to a gem of a CD that I stumbled upon last month.  It's called "A Vintage Christmas Cracker" and hails all the way from the UK!    The CD has 47 mono recordings from the years 1915 through 1949.  For example, the song currently playing is that old 1937 weeper "The Little Boy the Santa Claus Forgot".  I can remember my Grandma singing this around Christmas time.  Of course I thought she was making up the words - no one would write a song this depressing.  Nope - it's a real song!

My girls are very tolerant of this musical time-warp [I also have a CD entitled "A Merry 1940's Christmas"].  They have walked though while John McCormack's 1915 recording of "Adeste, Fideles" was warbling through the speakers, but only shook their heads and kept on going.  I place the blame for this Big Band nostalgia squarely on the shoulders of my father.  I have clear memories of our long drives up to the mountain cabin, listening to big band music while Mom and Dad quized us on which instrument was playing.  My brother was much better at that little game than I.  Anyway, now it's my turn to force "classic" music throughout the house.  The girls may chuckle now, but I guarantee that someday they will find themselves reaching for a CD with the name Tommy Dorsey on the front.

Maybe sooner than I think: Rebekah just walked through the music room snapping her fingers in time to "Jingle Bells" played by Glen Miller and his Orchestra, 1941. 

 I think it's time to up the ante, and put on "Jingle Bell Polka".

A long time ago I read that traditions become Traditions when someone says, "But we always....."

Thanksgiving at our house is full of "We always.." moments.

1. Girls wake up and go downstairs to get ready for The Big Parade [Macy's].  {Daddy has usually been up for a while]  They can have their first glass of eggnog for the season.  If I was properly motivated the day before they might even have pumpkin bread to eat.

2. I get up and reluctantly mosey my way to the kitchen.

3. Parade is on.  Girls and Dad are in front of tv.  I am in the kitchen getting the first round of cooking ready to start.  Occasionally I pop my head into the living room and make snarky remarks about the over commercialization of the Macy's Parade.  I will probably even compare it to a far more superiour parade that takes place in Pasadena on January 1st.

4. I am kicked out of the living room and go back to my solitary life in the kitchen.

5. Parade is over [thank goodness].  I suggest putting on "Miracle on 34th Street".  Usually that is vetoed in favor of "A Muppet Christmas Carol" {love that Scrooge!}. 

6. Before any movie is watched I'll ask for the table to get set.  After seeing the finished product I remind myself that Martha Stewart does not live at my house and will not be visiting any time soon.  I should enjoy having my table set and decorated by little girls.

7. I send the girls off to watch a movie and I "tweak" the table a bit {SHHHHHH!!!}

8. Now it's time to wrestle the turkey!  I consult my cookbook one more time to make sure I'm doing this correctly.  Wash. Pat dry.  Rub outside with Bell's Seasoning [turns the turkey slightly green but is oh so tasty!].  Consult cookbook again to make sure everything is correct.  Put turkey in roasting pan and place in oven that has been turned on {that last bit is very important}

9. We sit down and watch "A Christmas Story" unless it is a year that USC has The Big Game on tv.  Then we watch The Big Game.  Or rather, Daddy watches The Big Game and the rest of us read our books, looking up every once in a while to cheer the Trojans on to victory.

10. An hour before dinner I will run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to make sure everything is done at the same time.  Most years this works.

11. Eat.

12. Give the animals their Thanksgiving treat.  They are usually under the table for most of dinner.......just in case.

11.  Eat dessert. 

After dessert it's a toss-up.  "It's a Wonderful Life"?  Board games?  Will we have to track down Sarah, who will probably vanish into her room?  And how long will it take the dog to realise that she isn't getting any more turkey???

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!