little list

*A big *thank you* for all of your support, linkage love and feedback on Homeschool Style Bytes.

*Celebrating Paul’s birthday. While we’re partying  tonight I’ll be celebrating many things about this amazing husband of mine — especially that I feel like a lucky gal to grow old and grey with one heck of a dude. Quickly approaching 10 years — WOW!

*Finding.. stumbling upon a little magical spot in the hills behind our home. It looks like an enchanted forest. Can’t wait to go back with a camera.

*Meeting cool homeschool families through Briones’ weekly sewing class…and loving that the boys outnumber the girls in that class.

*Grateful for Amy’s help with starting a worm farm this week..and that we are being extra mindful about eating more fresh veggies/fruits because of it. Time to bring back the SMOOTHIES!

Hunting we will go

Today we went hunting for California newts in the Berkeley hills. The rain was falling SO hard and for so long. After a while, we were drenched and the rain just kept falling, and we just didn’t care.

I was brave and took these two pictures under a plastic bag. It was so beautiful out, I wish I could have taken more.

We looked and looked. And looked. We couldn’t leave until we found a newt. And then finally, we did. Whew! We almost didn’t. And dad would have been in big trouble for promising one..

..(we left him there. Not dad. The newt.)

Something new

Hi all. Check out Homeschool Style Bytes – a second blog of mine, not to replace this one here. It’s a celebration of modern day homeschooling! There are SO many of us all around the world doing super creative and extraordinary things with our children and in the community..if the blog can capture just a little bit of that I’ll be *happy*.

He lives

Brownie wants to say thank you to all you well wishers. He’s officially back in business after his harrowing ordeal. He is a miracle lizard!

Doesn’t he have a nice little smile? One day I’ll have to post a picture of him next to a quarter so you can see just how very small he is. He is a fence lizard or blue belly, native to Northern California. Come springtime we will see a gazillion little hatchlings, darting around town. Maybe in a couple of months we can find him a lady friend…

The happiest girls are the prettiest…

                     

 

Wings wide open

The naturalist is the one with a butterfly net, a carefully labeled collection of abalone shells, an aquarium, a miniature museum, two pet boa constrictors, a field diary full of sketches and notes, a worn pair of hiking boots, and quartz crystals from a trip to Wyoming instead of the corner New Age Shoppe. The naturalist makes science rich, beautiful, and personal, rather than dry and remote.
-Grace Llewellyn

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look
behind the Ranges–
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting
for you. Go.
-Rudyard Kipling

Heart Day

The best marriages, like the best lives, were both happy and unhappy. There was even a kind of necessary tension, a certain tautness between the partners that gave the marriage strength, like the tautness of a full sail. You went forward on it.
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Happy Valentine’s Day to you. We plan to visit with friends, bake some sweet things, and then curl up for a late movie. Hope your day is lovely!

Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.
-Ursula Le Guin

A mighty birth

Remember this little nugget of love here? He is Brownie and he is little, roughly the length of a child’s finger.

A few days ago, he ingested something that caused a major obstruction..he was going downhill fast. We took him to the reptile vet (we were so lucky to find one!) and came home with a very dismal outlook and a last ditch effort of feeding him a laxative in hopes that whatever it was, would pass. He was, in every sense of the word, dying in front of our eyes. I know I am a softie..but this little guy really is so cool.

So guess what. The little bugger passed it. ‘It’ being a 3/4 inch beefy wood chip from his bedding. It took 10 minutes to wiggle that thing out..I have never, EVER witnessed such a thing..remember, he is so tiny and the wood chip was half of his torso length. Ugh. Poor guy. It was a mighty birth. Aftrewards he went and collapsed in the corner, deflated and exhausted.

We’re still hoping for the best..but at least we got over a major hurdle. It’s a miracle he’s still alive. Go Brownie!

Today was a perfect day. Perfect company. Perfect kids, and feeling perfectly solidified in our decision to keep our girl out of school. I don’t feel so empowered everyday. Many days, I do. But today, I especially do.

“The world and its complex terrible wonderful webs of civilization are far bigger and older than our nineteenth-century factory-style compulsory schooling system. There is room for all kinds of people–those who love books, and those who’d rather build things and take them apart all day, not just for an hour in woodshop or autoshop. There’s room for those who would rather wander dreaming on a glacier, and perhaps awaken the rest of us with some truthful words in the tradition of Thoreau, Ed Abbey, Annie Dillard. There’s room for those who want to make lasagna and french bread an apple pie all day. None of these callings are better or worse than others. None mean failure as a human being, but they may likely cause “failure” in a dull system that never asked you to be a part of it in the first place.”

-Grace Llewellyn’s quote, an excerpt from her awesome book The Teenage Liberation Handbook : how to quit school and get a real life and education.

The Grainiacs Project

Or, phase one of the Daily Food Guide Pyramid Project. Or, the I Am So Grateful For The Whole Foods Bulk Department Project — because these are ultimately the type of  ’school’ supplies we would prefer to buy.

Actually, let’s just call it the God Bless The Vacuum Cleaner Project.

The setup: We separated out a variety of grains into their region of origin. They were all either hulled, pearled, rolled, and ground…hmm, I’m sensing a new diagram coming on :)

Native American — amaranth, quinoa
Native Asian — buckwheat, millet, rice
Native Near Eastern — barley, wheat
Native European — rye, oat
Native African — sorghum and tef (neither of which we had, but shouldn’t be too hard to find with a little more looking)

We set out four favorite star wars figures, one for each region, and engaged in battles over and under dunes of semolina and china black rice. The precious grains were bought, sold and traded..kernel by kernel. An amusement park was erected and eventually bulldozed..all the while, we touched and felt and tasted the unique textures and variations.

We chattered about random trivia:
Buckwheat is not actually a grain. There are over 30,000 different varieties of wheat. Wild rice is our only native North American grain. Whole grains are more delicious and “All of them, whether tender or hard, thick skinned or thin, die when they are peeled…even as you and I” (M.F.K Fisher).

We chose one recipe to make out of our grains. Pretzels.

And finally, the diagrams, a work in progress.

Soon, we’ll hope to move up the pyramid chart and plan to save the sweets for last (something extra special to look forward to).

Rainy with a chance of snuggles

I *love* rainy days. Granted, we did our share of scooting around today, but that makes coming home and cozying in that much sweeter.

Death Valley

It’s all how you look at it

Here are the beginnings of a new project we’ve been working on.

It started one day when Briones asked me to write down the names in her expansive kitty collection.

Since then, it’s been diagram mania. And it’s so easy. And so fun. Kind of like scrap booking, but not exactly. Surely the closest thing to scrap booking that this momma has done in a while.

We labeled trees in the neighborhood. We have seen the landscape in this photo below thousands of times coming in and out…but this time we really noticed the diverse mix of trees that surround us. Plus, you get to go on an adventure to touch, inspect and smell the foliage.

This one below is my favorite because it shows how in a matter of minutes you can introduce a new way of looking around. Here Briones color coded her toys and other familiar objects into Organic and Inorganic (here meaning materials derived from plants and animals including carbon, and those that are not). Oh, the treasure hunt! Metal binder rings, gypsum walls and guitar strings. Plastic jewels, cardboard boxes and carpet fibers! Perhaps I excite too easily But it’s all here at our fingertips, and your glee will be contagious.

So why don’t you gather up your sleuthing gear and come along with us as we Diagram the WHOLE world. Yes..I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow we diagrammed the fridge. How about the garbage? It’s all how you look at it.

Not just another weekend project

Could this be the year of the chicken? I just finished reading Keep Chickens! – Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, and Other Small Spaces, by Barbara Kilarski and I am feeling myself start to finally buckle.

We certainly would have one gleeful Briones after many months of pleading for a few fuzzy little chicks. Paul would be able to scratch his carpentry itch. I would be able to take pictures of pastel hued eggs. The cats would be entertained. The neighbors would complain. And the speculators could finally nod their heads and say Yep..I always knew them folks were some homeschoolin’ hippies..

Then we’d all sit down and eat the best omelette EVER.