Bike on Water

Bike on water...or along it, to all the beautiful, wild places you did not know were right in your backyard until you saw them from your bicycle. I am still bowled over from the beauty of my morning ride today. 

The Mississippi? A big thing to get across to get to work, an event, school. That's from your car. On your bike? It becomes mystical, magical world of its own, ever-changing, ever alive. 

 

The bike path along the river that winds its way through Davenport, Moline, Bettendorf and Rock Island is like a road through France; a small country with huge landscape and climate changes in a matter of hours. In ten minutes of biking today, I went from mist surrounding the far banks, making the hills appear to be distant mountains as I rounded a bend in the path, then swirling and dipping into the water like the gulls and pelicans along my way, to the sun rising on a jungle-lined section, clear blue water, and suddenly,

Cool Sirop de Menthe Recipe for All That Mint Outside

If but for the squirrels...well, not only the squirrels, there is also the invisible-ish fence I put in place for the dog who chases after the squirrels, over which I continually trip, and the dirt that is all over and has to be replaced and put back nicely and cleaned up after the darling beasts have finished digging up my foxglove, red onions and geraniums yet again. Besides this, gardening is pure joy, especially when I have a day when I can just be out without interruptions. The kids wander out and around, help out when I give them a job...or not, sometimes. 

Today, sirop de menthe is on our minds...it always is in the summer. This is the French equivalent of Kool-Aid;

Da Good Counts Maksh da Good Neighborsh, but the Good Compost?

...I'm afraid my Portuguese neighbor's old adage; "good accounts make good neighbors," as he was giving me change for 5 centimes, or making sure he paid me for a 35-cent baguette, was not one that will hold up to the stench of my newest compost bin. Good compost? Yes, the compost will probably be very nice, if there is not a court-order for its removal before I can use it. As for our dear neighbors to the left; I had really better go ask them if it is a problem for them. Maybe the wind always blows from the north in the summer. Um...in any case, it smells like something died and decomposed in it, and except for its daily hosing down, I am not sure what to do about it.

I have tried every method you can imagine of storing and mixing and using compost. I have battled roots growing down into the ground from plants that really looked dead when they went in, or maybe they were banana tree seeds, who knows.

Cuisine Renovation

I knew my creative energy...or simply all of my energy that was not spent cooking, cleaning and chauffering, must have gone somewhere the past few months. As I was arranging my brand new spice jars, I realized just where that was; the kitchen! It started with an obligatory floor do-over when I realized there was a water-stain slowly spreading outward from the sink or somewhere in that vicinity...like under the dishwasher. Et, zut. New floor:

The desk was removed...to the dismay of the playroom/schoolroom which inherited the contents. Then things really got out of hand. There was this wonderful new space in my kitchen with so much possibility. I asked for opinions. This can be, in certain circumstances, a good idea. In this case, what I originally wanted to know was whether or not they agreed with my husband's desire to suspend out pots and pans from the ceiling in order to make more room in our terribley over-crowded cupboards. Good for the part about creating space. Bad...too many bads. They would block my view to the rest of the house, our pans are seriously ugly. Pure utilitarian. Not copper. We would require new pots. That would need quite a budget. Mmm, but copper pots are so pretty. They need what? Polishing? Ha! I'll take utilitarian, thanks anyway.

Instead, thank you to my father and my friend, Rebecca, for the winning idea, the insane idea. The project in which we turn the hall closet inside out to create a pantry in the kitchen. Easy as pie. The sort in which you convince 4 and 20 blackbirds to calmly crawl into a piecrust while you cover them up with another layer of dough and stick them in the oven. And the miracle, when you are finally finished and everyone is still in one piece, ready to sing...or cook.

Green Again!

Here is the first produce out of our garden this year, this was April 28th. The chives, oregano and thyme simply returned, like the tulips and now the irises. Joy! This is a "bouquet garni" tied up for the soup pot.

And we can finally play, eat and experiment outside again!

 My youngest and his little cousin.

Small Things Yarn Along

I picked up this book while dusting the other day and had a look back through it; it is all about the lost arts of housekeeping. (No, I did not stop dusting to read it...or not for long.) I brought it home when I was a young wife and mother-to-be in France, the country of the spotless and the creative.

I saw it, years ago, as my ideal of making things around me as beautiful and old-fashioned as the whitest, prettiest vintage linens you could imagine. A house that smelled good,
was nicely appointed, and held all of the warmth and welcome of a really happy place. I guess I wanted to be Tasha Tudor years before I had ever heard of her.

How it All Started

I am supposed to be writing a speech. A short one about homeschooling and what it is, and to introduce myself. It is for a panel on education. I've never been on a panel. All I have to do is remember why we began this journey.

That's easy; it all started in France with "la maternelle," or public school at age 3. It was a good fit for my daughter, the teachers were caring and wise and patient. She learned to say very interesting things like "caca boudin," which roughly translates to "sausage poo," and the whole class waltzed in sweet ball gowns and tuxes made by one of the grandmothers, for the end of the year program. This, despite the fact that the entire class had come down with chicken pox in the last two months of the school year. The teacher/headmistress was desperate; "forget the two-week quarantine, I have to teach them to WALTZ!"

A Little Nostalgic...

...for the days when I was homeschooling five kids, making candles, taking hikes, having all the time in the world and not knowing it.

Immerse yourself in the joyful chaos that is the gift of today.

Sled, Experiment, Build

February is always the month where spring starts to sound like a really good idea that is really far away. I love the winter though, and there is not quite enough snow and cold here anymore. Here is a tribute, then, to what can be done when homeschooling in the winter months, with or without the snow.

Remember the Elephant Toothpaste Experiment I told you about a week or so ago? Here is what it looked like in my driveway:

A Journey Through Time in Rhythm and Rhyme

This is it, the one poetry volume you need from pre-school to high school and beyond. It contains a beautiful selection of classical poetry as well as poems and verses you may never have heard before. There are ballads that last for pages on end for older children to learn, finger-plays, blessings for meals and teachers and everything in-between; a Wordsworth, easy to memorize and digest, poems about trees, about parts of speech and numbers.

Because, did I mention? It is written for use with a Waldorf curriculum through all the grades.

January Lesson Ideas, Fun Experiments and Encouragement

When the weather is dismal and energy levels inspire more to crawling back under the covers than to deep study and hard work, the homeschool blues or dropping it all seem to be the only options. Courage, fellow homeschoolers, the season will soon be turning and you will be glad that you have persevered and finished up the lessons you intended to complete before the weather turns beautiful again and outdoor adventures beckon. You can do it!

Think of:

All the books you ever wanted your kids to read. Make a list, start with your very favorites, and curl up for reading time, out loud or individually. We are into the second book in "The Wrinkle in Time" series for one of our read alouds. Another is a history series that they are all enjoying; "A History of US," by Joy Hakim, Oxford Press. I take advantage of the lack of enthusiasm to venture out in the winter months to spend lots of time reading, and a little extra on writing and doing math. 

Science...move on to an experiment once a week. The Waldorf method is to do the experiment one day, not discussing it, just letting it sink in until the next day when it gets explained, analyzed and recorded. Some fun online resources:

Home Yoga

With a wicked snow storm assailing our eastern coast in the U.S. and the ground in the Midwest converted to a frozen tundra, not to mention the air that turns boogers to icicles, the urge to leave one's home for anything has dwindled away to not very great at all. It is the time of private yoga once again. 

My favorite online, free resource for yoga video workouts of all levels:     Do Yoga With Me

See below for how to use a yoga video.

You don't necessarily need a season for a yoga home practice, but for me, this is when it all begins again each year. 

Happy New Year 2016!!!

I wish you a joyful, peace-filled, healthy, prosperous new year, from my family to you and yours. May the light of a hundred suns shine gently upon you, filling your days and mind with happiness, fresh ideas and love. 

I write to you with a brand new pair of eyes today; or rather, the left one is new, the right one is adjusting to the cataract operation that altered the left. I have been away from the screen, from reading, from exercise, for what seems like a string of eternities, but has really only been since Tuesday last. 

In the interim of the holidays and surgery, there has been so much going on.

Christmas Joy is in the Air...

...and I love it all; the Solstice, the dark, the candles, Yule, Santa and the manger waiting for Baby Jesus. The tree is up, there is chocolate bread baking in the oven, cookies made and it is 22 degrees, so it is feeling more like the holidays are almost here. 

I am not writing with news of great lesson accomplishments or new break-throughs in teaching. A big, bad cold has wound its way through each and every child the past week and slowed things down, except for the oldest who was in the middle of finals at college. 

No, today I am writing to pause and give thanks.

St.Nicholas and Christmas Crafting