Good Stuff

Life is moving along...

April ended with zoo class at the Beardsley Zoo. The younger class did an obstacle course to help learn about habitats, and it looked so much fun to the older kids that a few of them hung around after class to give it a try. They had a great time.

May started with friends being kind enough to help out with a few things. B is prohibited from lifting things over 5 pounds so we needed some help getting the summer clothes down from the loft in the garage and putting the air conditioner in the kitchen window. We had the added bonus of a knitting lesson for B and guidance on how to build the tree fort which I am likely going to end up doing myself. Somehow it feels like pizza wasn't enough of a thank you, but being humble and asking for/accepting help when I need it are some of the lessons I am learning from B's illness. I was extremely glad to have this family visit; they are such great people, I wish our lives ran a little more parallel. I always thoroughly enjoy the times I/we do get though.

On B's last weekend home recovering from surgery before returning to work, we headed to Brooksvale Park to check out some tadpoles. It was really drizzly out but turned out to be a very enjoyable afternoon. Our friend's Dad is the Park Ranger there and it was fun running into them on our walk around the pond. The boys had great fun catching dozens of tadpoles and catching up with their friend, who now goes to school.

The boys have been having oodles of fun with our new webcam. They can talk to Aunt D, and actually see her, (for free!) through Skype now. They talk several times a week and play Webkinz with her while speaking to her. Also, R is having fun being her poker buddy on Facebook.

As the weather is getting nicer the boys are spending more time outside. They and their friends build a ramp/slide into the sand pit which they had filled with water. Basically it was a giant mud puddle that they glided into. They had so an excellent time.

We joined our playgroup for a field trip to a crypt underneath the Center Church on the New Haven Green. We were told the wrong time and got there first, but that worked out fine since the organist was practicing and allowed us to watch a bit. She also spoke to us about the organ. Very cool stuff.

Then we headed up into the church, where our tour guide spoke about the church and how it came to be on top of a graveyard. He was very informative and did a great job keeping the kids engaged. But the really cool part was when we got to go down under the church and see the actual crypt. Very, very cool.

I was glad to find that both boys were interested enough to actually pay attention rather than socializing with their friends as they used to do on field trips. Perhaps they are getting settled enough to participate in more of these things. On the other hand the trip was a reminder of how I hate being on field trips with other families. People just don't keep their kids quiet, and not only does it disturb everyone's enjoyment of what's going on, but it also makes me feel that homeschoolers get a bad name that way, and I hate to be associated with them.

We finally celebrated R's birthday (only three months late) at Laser Planet. We were putting it off till after Disney, then ended up having to put it off till after surgery. That R is such a good kid. Really. He was so patient.

He had a blast playing laser tag with all his friends. Each of the kids also got tokens and played some arcade games. R played played a game where you drop a token in the machine and it drops a ball. The ball lands on a number and that's how many tickets you get. He got 75! Then he added that to the bunch he got last time he was there, and got himself some sweet prizes.

I think all his friends had as much fun as he did. It was weird for me though because this was the first party I didn't have to do anything for. He even wanted cupcakes, so there was no need for me to cut and serve a cake. B and I just sat there for two hours while the kid who works there pretty much organized the whole thing and kept it flowing.

I still get to be photographer though :-)

The week before B's surgery

Hate to title it that way, but that's how it will forever stick in my mind. Fine though, because it was a good one. A really good one.

Monday started at the Coco Key Water Resort; a small water park in a hotel right next door in Waterbury. A homeschooler set up the trip, which I was so happy about, since it is right next door and the boys had been asking to go. We saved a lot of money by going with a group, and the boys had a blast. Turns out some good friends of theirs went too and they got to play for four hours with them.

My mom arrived shortly after we got home. She was on her annual trek home to Maine from Florida, and spent the night. We always love having her visit. And the boys were so happy when she offered to take them to Friendly's while I bowled on Tuesday morning.

Wednesday started out on an awesome note when one of the women from my women's circle showed up as I was making breakfast, to hand deliver a gorgeous arrangement from Edible Arrangements which my "sisters" had chipped in for. I had only seen ads for these things and wondered how they are, and now I can definitively say that they are awesome. It was absolutely beautiful and the fruit was such high quality and tasted wonderful. (By the way, all those empty sticks once had grapes on them.) And even better than the wonderful fruit is knowing that my sisters are thinking about us and sending us warm wishes. What an amazing way to start out my day.

After Green Street classes we headed to playgroup, as usual. It's so nice that the weather is getting better and we can all spend time outside. I'm so glad R is enjoying himself there again. Last session at Green Street he didn't care about having to miss playgroup, but now he's glad to be back. Me too. I don't talk to anyone at any of the activities I take them to, and I'm finding that I need to spend some time talking to other homeschooling moms once in a while. I need to reminded that I'm not living in a vacuum, I guess.

It was a hard afternoon for me though, as one of the women there let slip about B's surgery to a large group of people. I had told only 3 people at playgroup (the women I actually consider friends) and asked them not to tell anyone else. I wanted to keep playgroup a place of normalcy, but that was not to happen. So now I have people coming up to me asking "Is B okay?" and "How are you, C?". These people are not my friends and I'm not going to suddenly share my life with them because they feel bad for me. I'm really quite annoyed. I really needed playgroup to be a place to go and talk about homeschooling and kids and the weather. I really needed a place to be distracted from our challenges. *sigh*

After a teary-eyed drive home, I was able to put it aside however, to enjoy the rest of our evening. After B got home, and we had eaten our crockpot pot roast sandwiches, we headed out to Roller Magic in Waterbury. E has been wanting to go roller skating ever since Q's birthday in November and we were finally able to get to it.

Wednesdays are so much cheaper than every other night, so the place was crowded. Since everything was cheap I gave it a go. I used to be a great skater about 30 years ago, but this time I never made it off the carpet onto the skating area. If it hadn't been so crowded I could've practiced more on the carpet with friction, and eventually moved out to the skating area, but no such luck. I haven't given up hope though; I will try again. In the meantime I promised E that I would get him there more often. He loves skating and feels we need to go more often so he doesn't have to re-learn it every time. He actually asked for skates for Christmas but didn't get them. Perhaps for his birthday.

Thursday found us heading into New York for B's pre-op appointments. We parked in Bridgeport and took Metro North down to Grand Central. Mercifully, since we had the boys with us, the appointments were held on schedule and did not take as long as we expected. We enjoyed some pizza in an inside plaza where a pianist performed while we ate. Then we headed over to visit Uncle E in his hospital.

The boys were very nervous about seeing him for the first time after his stroke, especially E. We had forewarned them that Uncle E might not know who they are, and this really freaked him out. He was so concerned about what to talk about while we were there. When we got there though Uncle E was still in physical therapy, and wouldn't be back for 1.5 hours. So we cut out to play in a nearby park.

The NYC kids were getting out of school when we arrived. There was a nine year-old who joined us in a game of tag. An unaccompanied nine year-old in the playground in NYC. His mother was in the library across the street. Different world.

Even R was impressed with the difference. He stood on top of the playground, looked at this view of all the kids playing basketball after school, and commented that even though he wanted to live in Manhattan when he gets older, he's going to move out when it comes time to have kids. I'm so glad he appreciates being raised where he is. And I'm so glad that I have had an opportunity to live outside of NY. Although B and I have talked about retiring there.

On the way back to Uncle E's hospital E found, and both he and R agonized over, a dollar under the grating on the ground. They both insisted that if it had been a 10 or 20 that they would have stayed till they figured how to get it out, but without trees and fallen sticks, it would have been a big ordeal.

Seeing Uncle E was awesome. He not only recognized the boys but lit up when he saw them, motioning them over for hugs. It was so great to see him sitting in bed with his legs over the side. It was so great to be able to hug him good and hard!

Uncle E's therapists are very impressed with the progress he is making in his physical therapy. He can go to the bathroom alone now. And he follows conversations much longer now. Boy, it was good to see him so much further along than last time we saw him. It was a very heartwarming and joyous visit. Both of my boys were so glad to see him and left knowing that Uncle E is still Uncle E and is trying his best to fight his way back to us. And they felt great in seeing him so happy to see them. It was a good visit on many levels.

Uncle E has an awesome view from his room. We don't know how he got so lucky, since his last room also had a great view. Maybe it's special treatment for NYC firefighters?

All in all we had a great day. After our commute down to NY I've decided I'm going to come home every night after spending the days with B in the hospital next week. Going "home" to my mother-in-law in Queens every night is not going to replenish my soul the way coming home to Connecticut will. It will mean less time with B during the days, but I've got more than just his needs to meet. Poor E is already showing signs of stress, and that 81 minutes on the train each way will be good alone-time for me. Good time to escape into some fiction, which I have already borrowed from the library.

Friday we had an easy going morning. We had Chinese food for lunch with Nagy Papa and the boys headed home with him while I continued on to bowling. Since another of my three team mates will be out this Tuesday, I didn't want the last one to be bowling alone, so I pre-bowled. I went in and bowled alone and those scores will count towards our scores next week. I probably should have skipped it though since I bowled under my average the first two games. Hopefully my 191 in the third game will win at least one game for them. Hopefully we won't get bumped out of first place.

Afternoon found B and E with the sniffles. I'm so glad that E still responds so well to water. He is learning that baths are a great way for him to handle stress and that somehow life always seems more manageable after one. He is having such a hard time these days as R gets older and is given more freedom that he doesn't share. This evening found him upset that R had gone to the YMCA with is "tween" friends again this week, and he was stuck home. And that I wouldn't do anything special for him since R was getting something special. Look at that face though. That's a relaxed boy.

Today (Saturday) B is in bed and will hopefully bang out his cold in 24 hours the way he always does so we don't need to postpone his surgery. I sincerely hope that E gets over his quickly too, so he can go and visit B in the hospital as planned.

We were scheduled to go see a robotics competition today and I'm disappointed that R decided he didn't want to go since I thought it would be cool. On the other hand it's nice to have a slow non-shower, sweatpants day at home with everyone doing his own thing. E is playing outside, B is sleeping, I'm blogging, and R has ridden his bike to pick up the copy of Twilight that he had placed on hold at the library. I told him he can see the movie if he reads the book. His friends are all about it right now. We'll see if peer pressure works in getting him to read. Taking away audio books for a year doesn't seem to have made a difference, and I'm frankly starting to get nervous.

Wow, he just came in exclaiming what a FAT book it is. If that boy reads that whole book I will dead away pass out. Or wet my pants.

An easy going Independence Day Weekend

We saw some fireworks in Waterbury. Nagy Papa came with us. Here are the boys watching from the top of the car. We really enjoyed the show and the boys went back and forth between the top of the car, and coming down to light sparklers during the show.

The rest of the weekend was lazy for me. Other than a bunch of laundry I didn't do much but watch a lot of Waltons. B got a lot done though; he's not very good at sitting still.


On Sunday we had fun seeing Wall-E. It's rare that B gets to join us at the movies, and he was happy to this time. It was a wonderful movie, that I highly recommend. It was touching and amusing, with a great social commentary. I will say though, that kids under five were asking questions all over the theater, so if you have young ones, leave them home; it's over their heads.

This is one I won't mind seeing again. It ranks right up there with Over the Hedge.

Titanic Exhibit

Today R and I went to see the Titanic exhibit at the Hartford Civic Center. His interest in the Titanic has not waned over the years, and he was thrilled when I asked if he wanted to go. They actually had a homeschool day where tickets were reduced for homeschoolers, and luckily B was able to take off today to keep E occupied. It was nice to have a day for just the two of us.

I couldn't find much online about the exhibit. The page on the Civic Center website is pretty "unappetizing" and I was concerned that it'd be a rip off. But once we went, we found it was well worth it.

When we got there, we were handed two "boarding passes" and were told that we should look at the wall at the end of the exhibit to see whether we survive or not. We went ahead and purchased two audio tours, and headed in.

The first "room" was set up to suggest the docking area. Here we saw artifacts having to do with the outside of the boat, including the only piece of rope they have been able to retrieve. They also had big murals depicting people planning and building it.

So we stepped up on board and entered a hall which was set up like the hall would have been in first class, with doors and beautiful carpeting leading the way down to the next area. They had great sound effects too, with what sounded like a crowd cheering the ship off. The hall led to an open area with dozens of artifacts depicting what traveling in first class would've been like. It was fun to read about Margaret Brown who we knew about from the movie The Unsinkable Molly Brown. And as students of "Titanicology", we really, really loved seeing all the genuine artifacts that they pulled out of the water.

Next was another hall which depicted third class. We saw a tiny room with two bunk beds in it, and got to hear what it would've sounded like down in the bowels of the ship, so near the motor. After that was one of the boiler rooms. They had a huge chunk of coal which they had retrieved from the site, and rows of furnaces where the coal was inserted (this was actually ingeniously presented with a short row elongated with mirrors). This is the room where the exhibit began to present information about the crash. On the end of it was a "wall of ice" which people were invited to touch, and thereby understand that most people died from hypothermia rather than drowning. (I had to swipe this photo off Google Images, since I actually adhered to the no picture-taking rule.)

The room we arrived in next started the focus on the retrieval efforts; a bunch of items in cases were in the middle of the room, and along the walls were those same items in photographs as they were found at the site of the wreckage. R especially liked this room. Finally we learned about the people on the ship. Along the walls were written the stories of various passengers, and below each story were artifacts connected to that person. It was really fascinating. They actually had vials of perfume from someone going to the U.S. to sell them, and holes in the exhibit so we could smell them!

Also in the last room were a couple of large panels telling stories of people specifically connected to Connecticut, and of course, the large wall where we could take out our "boarding passes" to find out if we survived. We were glad we both had.

It took us about two and a half hours to walk through, and we were really sad when it was over. Since they did not allow photographs, I was really disappointed not to find postcards in the gift shop. (Why doesn't anyone sell postcards anymore?) All they had was a book about the exhibit for 15 bucks. I just wanted a few photos so I passed and bought myself a pencil. R was thrilled when I treated him to a piece of coal from the ship, which even comes with a certificate of authenticity. It was 20 dollars for a piece the size of a marble, but totally worth my boy's excitement at owning something which was actually on the Titanic. (Heck, I still treasure my piece of the Berlin wall.)

I have to say that this exhibit was phenomenal. It was so well conceived and executed, and truly involved all the senses, which helped make it so memorable. It brought the story alive in a way that all the DVD's and books have only done in a way that we now realize was superficial.

After finishing up the exhibit we walked around "the city" a bit, looking for a place to eat. We decided on The Green Papaya Cafe, where we had some excellent Thai food. I enjoyed Drunken Noodles (spicy flat rice noodles stir-fried with chicken, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, bell peppers, snow peas and basil leaves), which almost blew my head off in a wonderful way, and R enjoyed Thai Traditional Fried Rice with Chicken (Jasmine rice stir-fried with egg, onions, peas, carrots and scallions).

We had such a wonderful afternoon together. It was so cool to spend time sharing my son's passion. How blessed I am to have been able to do so.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day was wonderful. Everyone got up early to make their cards since Saturday had been such a busy day and they couldn't get to them. (I had spent several hours alone at the Scholastic book sale – ahhh.) They brought me my cards and presents in bed.Every year each of my children paint a ceramic tile for me. I look forward to the day I have enough to surround a mirror with.

I enjoyed a yummy breakfast of eggs, tater tots, bacon and english muffins, compliments of my loving spouse. They had even bought me my own 1/2 gallon of orange juice with lots of pulp, since I'm the only one who enjoys it that way.

After breakfast I dragged everyone back to our king-sized bed where we watched an episode of The Waltons. It was hard to keep B from doing anything around the house. The man needs to learn how to relax.

We all got dressed then and headed out. First stop: Sweet Claude's for ice-cream. Yum. Then we headed to Sleeping Giant State Park, where we walked the Tower Trail; a park maintained trail which leads up to a castle on the top of the mountain. B really likes the idea of hiking since he enjoyed it during our vacation, so I thought it would be fun since I had heard about the castle. I am pathetically out of shape. It took us 50 minutes to get to the top. From the top of the castle we could see all the way to Long Island Sound. Well worth it. Next time we'll do it when the park isn't so crowded though.

We took 30 minutes to get back down, practically running, since we had a dinner reservation in Southington I really wanted to make. And we did, exactly on time. We ate at Manor Inn, which is too expensive to eat at often. We were all bummed to find a special Mother's Day menu, since Chicken Parmesan wasn't on it, but the veal was just as good.

On the way home B and I got to talking and something he said reminded me of a movie I hadn't seen in a long time. So we stopped in at the video store and ended our day watching Dennis the Menace together. It was just as funny as I remembered it and the boys thought it was hilarious.

What a terrific day. I hope, if you are a mom, that your Mother's Day was as wonderful as mine.

The last week in April / First Week in May

I've been spending time "journaling" about our vacation to the Smokies and expect to post that soon, but in the meantime I want to take a little time to catch up on this past week, since it involved some really good stuff.

Monday we went to Homeschool Days at Old Sturbridge Village. We have a membership to the place, but have never participated in their HS days, which they have run about every three months this past "school" year. Well, we all agreed that it was excellent, and look forward to returning to the next HS day.

They actually run little workshops which are about 50 minutes long, throughout the day.

Early in the day R took a Woodworking workshop where he made a boat, which he is thrilled has a string on it so he doesn't lose it, while E took a workshop about different games of the 19th century. He said it was ok, but didn't like being the only boy.

After that they both took "Print" where they got to work an old fashioned press and also made marbleized paper. They were happy that a friend from playgroup was in that with them too.

A break for lunch came next, where they got to run around in the lunch building, which is normally for school kids, with the several playgroup families who had also come for the day.

We took a break from workshops after that, and while session three was running, we headed down to the sawmill which we are thrilled is up and running again. Seems like it's been getting worked on forever. R said that it wasn't as great as he remember though. He did have an excellent time with the blacksmith, who actually permitted him to go behind the rope and pull the bellows. He also got to shape a nail, while E and I ran around in circles out in the rain. (Okay E ran, I watched.)

We didn't have time for much else (which was just as well, since it was raining) before our next session. The boys took a "Home" workshop together, wherein they got to make butter, and pancakes over the open fire. This was another class in which friends participated too.

I have to say the HS day at OSV was way better than I expected. Their Education Building is beautiful and open; really quite well conceived. Plus all the instructors were really terrific with the kids and didn't expect classroom rigidity. And they were all fine with the parents hovering about.

We really can't wait to do this again in the fall when they continue.

Tuesday I gave haircuts to the boys and Nagy Papa. After that we did a few errands and ended the day with R's soccer practice.

Wednesday we spent the afternoon at the playground with our playgroup friends.

Thursday we went to our classes at White Memorial. I'm so glad i found those classes; both boys really love them. R is disappointed though that the friend he made will be participating with the next age group up for the rest of the year, so was not in his class this time, and will not be for the next time either. He said it was still fun anyway.

E's class is from 9:30 till 12, and R's is from 1 till 3:30. Luckily it's broken up with time spent with friends though. E's best friend Q, and his sister C, take the morning class with him, and between that and the afternoon session we've spent the last few times at their family's restaurant having pizza for lunch.

It was a very long day. We had to go from White Memorial to our local library (which we have switched to Thursdays since so many preschool programs happen on Wednesdays and parking is impossible) and then to R's soccer practice. E and I dropped him off and came home. I had a quick snack and B walked in just in time for me to leave for my monthly womyn's circle.

Friday was a day like never before. Before we had gone on vacation, E was complaining about something or other, and said he wished he could be in charge. So I told him to pick a day sometime after we returned from vacation. Well, Friday was that day.

It was pretty funny, because B had actually decided to work at home on Friday, without having realized E was in charge. I spent quite a bit of time laughing at him Thursday evening, but E actually gave him a break and left him home get his work done.

We set a budget of $40, which is actually way more than I would spend on a given day, but since he was in charge he felt that responsibility should come with an endless supply of money. So yeah, a budget. I explained to him that the most I ever spend on myself (other than clothing) is an occasional CD for $13. So he could spend $15 on himself. Well of course, the whole rest of the day was planned around how to spend the rest.

Ready?

He made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. I pretended to be him and first thing ran downstairs and started jumping on his trampoline, which really cracked him up. Then I watched TV all morning until he started yelling at me to get dressed because he wanted to "get on with" his day.

He did have a few things which needed to be fit into his schedule. So he wrote one out. First, we went down to Hamden to pick up our raw milk. Then we stopped at the library to pick up videos. Then to Stop and Shop for groceries.

After dropping all that off at home, we went to McDonald's for lunch, where he made us order off the dollar menu. Then we went to the mall so he could spend his money on a Webkinz.

We came home and watched lots of TV. When E is in charge they could watch as much as they wanted.

Dinner you ask? Well, I'd have thought he'd definitely want Chinese Food or Hometown Buffet. But he didn't have enough money left after his Webkinz, so we had Reese's Puffs. Yes, sugar coated cereal. For dinner.

He had soccer practice at 5:00 and when we got home he plopped himself in front of the TV for a good long time. He actually went to bed at 11:07 after I warned him that he'd probably be afraid to be the only one in the house awake, so he'd probably want to get to sleep before B and I turned in. He just did not want the day to end.

The next day when I got up I asked him what he was doing watching TV (they have to earn TV time now, by reading). He explained that "yesterday I gave myself some free TV time for today". That kid.

He asked when he could be in charge again, and I told him not for a long time. He did not make sure we had eaten any vegetables during the course of the day, and he did not do the laundry he needed to do; he is not so great at being in charge. He shook his head sadly, but understood; "being in charge is hard".

Tuesday is R's turn...

The first week in April

Okay, so we are officially into the second week as I post this, but we've been so busy! So I'll just summarize some highlights of last week.

Monday of last week was so long ago that I can't really remember what we did all day, since there is nothing on my calendar. The evening says "7:30 Senor Pancho's with L" though. I had a nice time visiting over margaritas with my friend.

Tuesday morning we saw Growing Up A Slave, a live production at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford. From the Bushnell website:

Growing Up A Slave was derived from slave narratives transcribed by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s. Three characters share their dramatic accounts of slave life, their food and eating habits, clothing, religious and superstitious beliefs, music, the auction block and the dire consequences faced by runaways. Throughout the accounts, the spiritual resources of these oppressed people pulsate. The human spirit triumphs. Appropriate for grades five and up.

Often theaters will abridge shows for schools to bring kids to see in the daytime. This is exactly what this show was; it was also offered in the evening at a higher price. Typically I would spend the money to see the full program, but this time around I thought that they might water it down a bit. Wrong. They talked about a girl defending herself against a rape. That definitely went over E's head, but I think it's time to start talking about this sort of thing with R (age 11).

Overall the show was quite good. They left time at the end for students to ask questions. I was surprised at how little "grades five and up" actually know about slavery. We have been soaking up knowledge about it since Martin Luther King, Jr. day in 2007. We've been spending extra time on it recently since we plan on stopping at a real Virginia plantation, and The National Civil War Museum, on our drive down to the Great Smoky Mountains for our vacation.

This week we also watched a video from the library about the US civil war. I don't remember exactly what it was called, but it was a perfect 30 minute summary of the basics; exactly what we needed. I also took home several books from the library on the topic, and R chose out this one for us to read together.

That boy really does love ships; I knew he'd choose this book from the library basket. I only wish that during our drive to the Smokies we were passing closer to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA so we could go see pieces of one of these fabulous ships, called the Monitor. Luckily it's only about 40 minutes from Colonial Williamsburg though, so we'll eventually get there.

Wednesday brought playgroup, which was fun as always. We were happy that indoor soccer is over and we had a week off before outdoor starts. That evening B and I (the boys stayed home with Nagy Papa) went to the CT Homeschool Network Take Action Forum to discuss and learn all about SB 162, and what we should be doing about it. I left there feeling a lot better about what I need to do. More on that another day.

Thursday we headed up to White Memorial for our monthly class which has resumed now that spring is here. I have a very good friend who has been very sick and I was thrilled to see her again after four months! We had a great time catching up, and E was just thrilled to see his best friend Q again. The younger kids' class was first and they headed out to the woods with a checklist of things to notice.

After that we went to my friend's restaurant for some pizza and blue soda, and I returned R in time for his class, which he says was the best one yet. They used microscopes and I have been told that we absolutely have to get one ASAP. (OK, I have put that on the list for when we return from vacation.) Here is the drawing of what he saw under the microscope.

Thursday night I had my womyn's circle, which is always rejuvenating.

Friday we had a full day of TV watching. Another fun thing we plan to do on our vacation is stop by the Davy Crockett Tavern and Museum. So we started out with Shelley Duvall's version, which E loved. Then we moved on to Disney's version which both boys got a kick out of. I figured it would be fun to start with the tall tale, since not many people know much else. But we at least waited for B to get home to watch the A&E version, so he'd know the real facts too.

This one E refused to watch. He's only seven, after all. R really enjoyed it though, as well as B and I. It was nice to have all facts filled in. Surprising though, that the Disney version mentioned Crockett's standing up against what would become the travesty of the Trail of Tears, while the A&E version said nothing about it. We'll get the facts at the museum. It was cool to see some of the museum staff speak on the documentary. We are going to see if they still work there when we go.

Over the weekend the boys all had lots of fun while I mostly stayed indoors making all the reservations for our trip, and planning fun things for us to do. E started outdoor soccer. And at one point I looked out the window and saw R doing this, which I later found out was him making a boat (notice the headphones for the audiobook). Eventually they took their boats and rode their bikes to the Farmington Canal Linear Park and floated them down the stream there. Unfortunately though, they did end up getting stuck in some brush in the water, and they had to leave them behind. I was glad that they enjoyed the experience, rather than the boats themselves, because they honestly did not seem too upset over losing them.

They stopped at Brooksvale Park where our friends live (their Dad is the park ranger who did the maple syrup thing back in March) and ran into our friends. They hung out and visited for a while and had a terrific afternoon. Weekend actually. I'm glad B loves spending time with our boys as much as I do.

Evidence of Learning

A few photos from the past week...

E and I read a book about magnifying glasses. It contained lots of "try this" things, and we had lots of fun seeing things up close, including our fingerprints, salt, the dots on newsprint and money. We also enjoyed learning how water is convex, and therefore makes things appear larger. Good stuff.

I sometimes get bummed when the boys get presents which find their way onto a top shelf, or inside a closet. We've gotten lots of things which I feel would be great if the boys would only do them. However the gifts do belong to them, so I don't complain when I open a closet and find tons of unused fun things to do. I was happy that one of these things made its way out this week. R made a robot out of coins. First he had me bring him to the bank to get four rolls of pennies and some other change (for a total of $5.26 he keeps telling me), and then he spent time locked away in his room putting it together. Click on it to check it out large; it's really cool.

We went to Brooksvale Park on Wednesday. The Ranger there is the dad of a friend, so it was that much more fun. He does the program for school kids every year and since his mom is part of our homeschooling group she asked him to do one for us.

We had seen a demonstration of making maple syrup at Old Sturbridge Village a couple of years ago, but it's been several years since we've seen a demonstration of more modern methods. The Ranger talked inside for a while, giving a lively history of how it may have been discovered by local Indians, then talked about the different collection methods today, the different grades, and the difference between maple syrup and pancake syrup.

Then we headed outside, where the kids all got to make a tap out of birch wood. The Ranger then passed us on to the woman who is running the sugar shack this year. She brought us out and showed us a functioning tap, and taught us how to tell the difference between Sugar Maples and other maples. (It was really cold out!)

Then she brought us down to the sugar shack, where she showed us how they boil down the sap and make it into syrup. It smelled really good!

Finally, they brought us back up to the building where we started, and we all got to sample some vanilla ice-cream with their hand-made maple syrup on it. Yum! The boys had a good time watching this demonstration. I can always tell something is enjoyable because it gets repeated, in detail, to Dad when he gets home in the evening.

The longest cold in the history of the universe

Okay, so that's what it feels like, anyway. I tried to get on with things...
Wednesday we went to The Children's Museum (formerly the Science Center) with some friends. E enjoyed making a giant bubble around him and his friends and R and I enjoyed controlling light intensity while looking through a window to combine our faces. They had an enjoyable couple of hours being out with friends in a place they like to go. And it was pretty easy going for me.

Afterwards we came home and had some dinner before heading off to soccer. That was fine too, since E was busy using up some energy and R also has friends from his team who he plays with to keep busy during E's practices. So I got to sit and quietly read. The building wasn't even as cold as it usually is, which was great since the Dunkin' Donuts I usually go to on the way is closed for renovations.

Yesterday (Thursday) we did some grocery shopping and the rest of the day was spent at home. We had plans to go to a gym day in Hartford, which we have not yet managed to attend, and I'm really disappointed to keep missing, but I pooped out. I did manage to make dinner again though, and afterwards went to my monthly womyn's circle. I'm glad I managed to go to that since next month I will be missing it; it lands on R's birthday.

When I came home my mom was here. She was passing through on her way down to Florida for her two months there. She has a 3.5 hour drive to here from Maine, then 6.5 hours down to Virgina where she picks up a train which can also take her car down to mid-Florida. It was nice to have another visit with her and hear about the Christmas dinner she had with all my siblings and their families in Maine. Sounds like it was very pleasant.

So anyhow, Mom and I visited last night and I apologized in advance for not seeing her off this morning. She had to be out the door by 7:30; she understood.

Today I threw up my arms and totally gave up getting on with things. We bummed around and I stayed in my pajamas all day. I watched some Waltons and did some reading and took a nap. It's so frustrating to wake up every day and still not have this cold over and done with. I probably have a sinus infection - my ears are so clogged I still can't taste anything and hear very poorly. But I feel like I'm so far along now that going to the doctor wouldn't speed it along, so there's no point. It's so exhausting though, and demoralizing!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

A friend called yesterday morning and asked if we were available that evening for a trip up to Old Sturbridge Village. They were having a Christmas in Candlelight event and I was so glad we could join them. So after the boys spent a full day of fun out with old friends, we picked up B early at work and stayed patient through a couple of setbacks which put us in at 1/2 hour late, and were happy to meet up with our friends in Massachusetts!

We got to see some chestnuts roasting on an open fire in the very first building we went into. We got to taste them too - yum! Seems that the chestnuts R found may not be edible, so we got some tips on how to tell, and will check them out again next year. (Gotta love the how the connections keep happening!)

In no particular order, we had an opportunity to make some crafts, which we plan to hang on the Christmas tree in hopes that Santa will fill them up with treats. And we enjoyed some authentic mulled cider, which was better than the cider and cinnamon sticks we enjoy heated up at home.

We enjoyed a ride on a horse-drawn sleigh, which was so much smoother than a typical carriage ride (remember to click on the photos to enlarge them).






A wonderful bonfire warmed up our butts quite nicely, as did the numerous cups of tea, hot chocolate and cider which the general store provided free to members.

We also had the opportunity to visit with Santa, although E decided he would wait to visit the "helper" he knows and is comfortable with at the hardware store today. Father Christmas was also there, but I encouraged the boys to join me outside when he started talking about the history of Santa Claus; no need to fool around with the very firm belief still existing here.




B let himself be coaxed into doing some Virginia Reel dancing, while our friend L jumped right up to join in. The rest of us relaxed and watched:

We came home with a store bought Christmas ornament for our tree, and free ones which they handed out at the tinsmith which are just as beautiful. We had a really "wonderful" evening. I'm so very glad we went. And this definitely convinced me that we need to renew our OSV membership; I had been ambivalent about it till now.

The absolute only complaint about the entire evening is that this photo came out the way it did:







argh.