A collection of photos, blogs and poetry. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:13:00 -0500 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:13:00 -0500 There was a pottery store Down the road Now it would be trendy Like espresso Yet it wasn't trendy Because some thought The owner was a crochety old man The truth was He was ancient Yet all in the same breath He had more energy Than a million two-year olds And his mind was a swirl of colors Not the usual gray matter   In the store There was terra cotta Blue glaze Boxes, cups, bud vases Flower pots, honey jars Majolica Hand painted daisies   After angels lit And some slunk off The store was raided Hard clay hurled Pieces lay in tiny shards The ancient of days Wept and allowed his son to Enter the store to Salvage the pieces Blood came from The places the pointy Pots pierced So much was broken By the afternoon He lay on the wooden floor And cried "It is finished!"   An orange orb appeared Over the place But more radiant Than the sun was the Son And one by one The pots were pieced together Better than any super glue There were no cracks http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/682902/ Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:13:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/682902/ My son likes astronomy and rockets and so I wasn't sure how he would respond to this story about about a Japanese poet.  He has done well studying it though and even worked with me, hesitantly, to write two haikus.  So now we will have a little more poetry for the blog.  Here they are.   Winter haiku #1   It was cold outside I was walking in the snow Ice cracked under me   Winter haiku #2   Deer climbed down the hill looking for something to eat paws dig crunchy snow   These truly describe the outdoors around our house right now. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/659847/ Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:18:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/659847/ I had it all set up where I would have time to write poetry after my children were in bed at night but my brain just does not want to focus or think at that time of day so I might have to figure out a different time.  I also have gone overboard (better safe than sorry) on internet security and haven't put any pictures of my kids or my whereabouts on my blog.  I'm not sure what pictures to put on right now.  I need to read up more on blogging itself but have not had the time.  So lately it's only been Sister Sara's Life.  The kids have been sick and now I feel like I'm getting it although I have been fighting it with all I've got with the Zicam and salt water in my nose.  My middle child got the "icky sickies" first and I was trying to teach her how to blow her nose while we stayed home from church a couple of Sundays ago.  My littlest one came out of the laundry room and had dug one of the used tissues out of the trash and was trying to do it too.  He has a need to do whatever everyone else is doing.  I was praying he wouldn't get it but he did anyway.  He hasn't been sick very much so this was the first big miserable cold of his life.  So now my brain feels like it's encased in jello (okay does that simile count for poetry?) and don't feel like sitting down to write poetry at all.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/656816/ Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/656816/ The other day I got to go grocery shopping without my young children, during the day, on a weekday.  I go to the same church as a lady who works in the bakery section of the grocery store I went to.  She looked surprised to see me alone.  It hardly ever happens.  I hadn't been to the grocery store in three weeks because it snowed and snowed and snowed.  We just stayed home rather than risking getting stuck out there.  It's been one of those winters where the sight of the sun is scarce and I like to see the sun.  Just now I saw pink on the snow so I ran to the other side of the house to see one of those orangey-purple sunsets over the icy landscape.  Ooh it's good to see the orange over the cruchy cold outside.  Now, back to the reason why I was alone, grocery shopping on a weekday.  This month I am on jury duty and my husband stayed at home and tried to work and take care of the kids while I went to do my service.  I got down the icy hill without too much slippy-sliding and went to the courthouse.  I was one of the lucky 14 to get in the jury box for questioning.  It was a battery case.  The judge asked some questions, then the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney did the same.  The defense attorney, a youngish woman, smiled really big at us as she introduced herself and I smiled really big back at her.  I think maybe the prosecuting attorney saw that and decided I was on her side.  I did not get picked.  So, if you don't want to get picked for the jury try smiling really big at one attorney and not the other one.  After that I did my grocery shopping and got back home so my husband could go back to work. The next day my son started ski lessons at the local ski resort.  It took a lot to get everyone up and ready to leave by 7:30 and then when we were about to leave my son's skis were no where to be found.  He had given them a test run a few weeks ago and then, like I said, it snowed like there was no end.  We were concerned and stressed that he had left them out beside the house and that they were buried under 3 feet of snow. We gave him an earful about being responsible. My husband finally tracked them down in our shop and we made it to the ski place in time after all.  I carried the 1 year old, boots and diaper bag and had the 3 year old tag along.  The child taking the lessons carried the skis.  It was much colder up on the mountain than down where we live and the wind was blowing.  I had images of the younger ones and I hanging out at the lodge drinking hot chocolate but that was not going to be the case.  We got to the lodge to sign in and then the three of us trekked over to the ski school sign to drop the student off.  The younger two came back to the lodge.  The three year old cried most of the time on our treks across the snow.  I got back to the lodge and realized I did not have my purse or keys.  A panicky feeling crept into my heart.  I told some ladies I knew and trusted at the lodge and they offered to look after the kids while I tried to retrace my steps.  I didn't  find the purse so I left the diaper bag and took the kids to find the security person.  We marched back out to the truck and flagged the security guy down.  He had me fill out a form that said he wasn't  responsible for any damage to the truck.  He got it open and the alarm wailed.  I turned it off and grabbed my purse.  Then we walked back to the lodge again.  When it was time to get the ski student I left the younger two again with the friends (they weren't happy) and got him.  Sometimes I ask myself why I don't just stay home.  At least the ski lesson went well. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/643015/ Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:04:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/643015/ In between Christmas and New Year's Day we took one day to finish up Wee Gillis from Five in a Row.  We learned about Scotland and listened to a great bagpipe demonstration from YouTube.  We have a bagpipe band where we live and I wanted to go see them but it just didn't happen.  It is starting to snow and snow and snow.  I am not motivated to try sliding down our driveway right now (I go only if I have to).  Today we talked about the difference between wool (like they wear in Scotland), cotton and synthetic fibers.  We also learned where Scotland is on the world map.  We did more but those are the highlights of our Scotland study.  With Christmas we kind of did a bare bones study but I hope some learning was still accomplished. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/637757/ Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:07:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/637757/ I am taking part in an unofficial poll and contest done by the Homeschool Blogger people.  I think I already answered some of these questions in a previous post.  If this doesn't interest you by all means skip it and read other postings that might be of interest to you. 1.  Why did you start a blog? I've wanted a way to put my writing "out there" so that people could keep up with me and actually read my poetry.  Now I have more incentive to write it because I think it might actually get read here. 2.  What did/do you hope to accomplish with your blogging? I would like people to be able to see what I'm doing day in and day out with homeschooling and other areas of my life and if people like poetry I finally have a place to put it where it might get read. 3.  Have you found that you don't post as much as you did when you started? I just started so I don't know. 4.  If yes, why not? 5.  How important are comments to you?  I have one comment so far.  That's great.  I really didn't expect any.  I kind of wanted a comment from someone I knew and this one was from someone I didn't know but that's fine too. 6.  Do you ever find yourself wishing people would not always leave comments that agree with you? No, I like when they agree with me. 7.  Do you comment on other people's blogs a lot, sometimes, or very little? I comment very little on other people's blogs. 8.  What determines why you don't post a comment on someone else's blog? I pretty much have time to write my own blog.  I don't take time to comment on other people's. 9.  What determines why you do post a comment on someone else's blog? It helps if I know the person. 10.  Do you have more than one blog?  Where? No. 11.  Do you read random blogs either off of random blogger or friends lists? Sometimes. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/635556/ Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/635556/ Wow, I've gotten behind on my homeschool blogging.  I guess I'll just start where I am.  This week we decided to do Mailing May mostly because the lady from the bookmobile brought it and we have it checked out.  Mailing May is a book I've looked forward to reading though because it takes place in Idaho and it takes place in the winter.  We're in Idaho too and our first big snow is starting right now.  It was perfect timing.  My student got to paint a snowman on black paper this week for his art project.  It turned out nice.  We also talked in more detail about Idaho.  It's funny because most people think of potatoes when they hear Idaho but we don't talk about it that much.  I guess we take it for granted because my student did not know that Idaho produced the most potatoes in the United States or that Idaho was even famous for potatoes.  Mailing May is the first of the Five in a Row books that we've done that takes two weeks.  I'm not sure if we'll do two weeks in a row with it or skip around.  We might work on something else and then do it again in January. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/631419/ Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:38:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/631419/ Last week we did They were Strong and Good.  We decided not to do the family day activity for the week and might try to do another week later on and incorporate that aspect of the lesson.  We got off to a rough start because the printer wouldn't work the first day and I was going to do my vocabulary cards.  That didn't work out so we switched to Art day.  We finished the week with my student watching a nice Bee DVD from the Library while eating bread with honey.  It was a nice tie-in for science Friday. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/620529/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:40:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/620529/ This week we studied from the book Down, Down the Mountain.  Sometimes I wonder if my child will make a connection with the books since some of them are from a different time and lifestyle.  I wasn't sure if Appalachia would interest him.  This is my paraphrase of what he said.  "It's kind of opposite for us and them.  We live in the mountains and see the train all the time and we have to go into town all the time to get our food.  They live in the mountains and hardly ever go into town and get their food where they are and they never see trains."  He also talked about us living in the mountains but I never really thought about us being "mountain people" like the Appalachians are "mountain people" because our lives are more entwined with the outside world.  He enjoyed their way of talking and has mentioned several times, once on our way into town, that they would say "We're a-goin' into town."  I was surprised the last time we did an Appalachian theme book The Rag Coat that he really got into it and then he really clicked with this study too.  I thought that maybe this would be Appalachia overkill especially since we don't live anywhere near the region but I think it just reinforced the Rag Coat lesson from the past and if sometime my student ever gets to go anywhere in the Appalachian region he will already have a nice mental connection with it.  Maybe someday we will have to watch a Christy video. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/616462/ Sat, 8 Nov 2008 13:19:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/616462/ Last week's school was cut short because we went to the Seattle area to attend my grandma's funeral.  Her final words before her death were "Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you, Jesus.  Hallelujah!"  I like that. Anyway, we are back to our Owl Moon week in Five in a Row.  There are a couple of web sites where my student will be able to dissect an owl pellet that I think I will try to do.  I might do something a little different and do an owl craft too.  I've heard owls around here hooting at night just like the book talks about.  The next time I hear one maybe we will try to go out and see it; even if it is late. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/610879/ Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:27:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sistersaraspoetry/610879/