Seven Weeks

There is nothing like a baby to remind one how fleeting time is.

I love the baby stretches. I will miss them so much when she outgrows them.

Vote!

Have you voted for your favorite homeschool bloggers?
Voting ends tomorrow, Friday the 19th.

Mt. Hope Chronicles is up for Best Photos and Artistic Content Blog
along with many, many other fabulous and beautiful blogs.
Check them out!

Benjamin West

Harvesting at Windsor

Continuing with our monthly fine arts studies, we are learning about American painter Benjamin West (1738-1820) this November.

Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry (the author of the much beloved Misty of Chincoteague) is a lovely chapter book with delightful illustrations. It was a nice change of pace to have a longer story to soak up and a little glimpse of life in an early American Quaker family. Loved.

The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West by Barbara Brenner falls under my favorite category of books: beautiful biographical picture books. This is one we had to have for our bookshelf! Children will enjoy reading about Benjamin West's childhood and how he became a painter at a very young age in a Quaker family with no drawings or paintings!

This and That

My lovely sister, Holly, has invited the family over for dinner several times in the past month. (She must be taking pity on us poor, unemployed people.) It has been wonderful to be at her gorgeous home, eating her delicious food, spending time with my awesome family. So I'm sharing random photos taken at her house lately. Lola and my mom (doesn't she look young and fabulous?!). The fashionistas on what must have been boot day. Luke stealing a quiet moment on the window seat. Fall centerpiece.

It's a good life.

Putting on a Game Face

Appalachian Spring

I love a great non-fiction picture book, biographies in particular. I found Ballet for Marth: Making Appalachian Spring at the library and had to pick it up. One of Levi's favorite songs is Simple Gifts, and the boys have all loved the Appalachian Spring/Simple Gifts performance on Blast! (a fabulous DVD also available through Netflix) which is the second video below.

Ballet for Martha is a beautifully illustrated story about the collaboration between Martha Graham the dancer, Aaron Copland the composer, and Isamu Noguchi the artist. Together they created the ballet Appalachian Spring. The writing is strong and simple, echoing the themes of the ballet, with additional biographical information and a detailed list of notes and sources at the end.

I was able to find a video of the original ballet (1940s) for the boys to watch. (Oh, for the love of YouTube.)

Six Weeks

Four-Oh

Happy birthday to my most awesome husband and best friend.
I can't imagine living this life without you.

XOXO

Silhouette

It's i heart faces time again. This week's theme is silhouette, and this is one of my favorite silhouettes, ever!

Poppy and Bambi

Ilex, the first grandchild, started calling my dad 'Poppy,' and it stuck. My mom started out as 'Grammy.' Levi could only manage 'Bammi' when he started talking, which turned into 'Bambi.' So Poppy and Bambi, it is. Two of my favorite people in the world with all of their grandchildren!

Playing House

Ever wondered what it would be like to live in 470 square feet? Ask my sister, Shannon, how it's done. (Beautifully, I might add.) They have creatively made use of every single square inch!

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting these pictures of her little 'playhouse,' which I took back in July.


This is the room they created in the center of the house (and now their main entry), connecting the original two buildings:

This is the desk in the fourth corner of the center room. The blackboard folds down to create the work space, and ties up when not in use:

The livingroom/bedroom with loft bed:

The loft bed:

The kitchen:


Charming, isn't it?!

Veteran

My Grandfather, WWII Veteran (photo by my mom, Cheri)

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain divine!

(Katharine Lee Bates)

St. Martin's Day

We love celebrating holiday traditions from around the world. In the past few years, Green Friday has been the kick-off for our celebrations. This year, we've been introduced to St. Martin.

St. Martin was a Roman soldier around 300 A.D. Legend has it that he shared half of his cloak with a beggar in a snow storm. He later had a dream in which Christ appeared as the beggar and Martin converted to Christianity. He became a missionary and was eventually made a Bishop in France.

German children celebrate St. Martin's Day by walking in a procession with handmade lanterns on November 11th. You can read more about St. Martin and the German tradition here.

We tried our hand at making our own 'stained-glass' lanterns:

Orange

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

~Vincent Van Gogh

It has been a long while since I've entered a weekly challenge at i heart faces. But it is Orange week, and I couldn't resist.

Days

11 Days to Vote for the best homeschooling blogs at The Homeschool Post

31 Days to a Better Photo at Life with my 3 Boybarians

29 Day Giving Challenge at 29 Gifts

Something Infinite

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.

~Vincent van Gogh

Loved, Loved, Loved

A whole-family outing at our favorite theater.

(Lola was an angel.)

Green Friday ~ A Fresh Alternative

As our home school heads into the holidays, we tend to stray from the beaten path of desk work, adding activities and outings into our schedule as often as possible. The festive months of November and December are ripe with possibilities.

Pumpkin patches and corn mazes, musical performances of all kinds, unit studies about Pilgrims or early American traditions, Christmas celebrations from around the world (I’ll be sharing more about those next month), our special holiday collection of books and music, Advent reading and activities, and creative giving opportunities all play a part in our broadened studies.

Thanksgiving weekend, in particular, is a special time of family and feasting, and one of our favorite traditions is Green Friday.

The boys and I are ready to embrace the changing seasons and more than ready for a little fresh air. Rather than fight crowds at the popular shopping locations, we head straight out of town for a nature hike-buckets in hands and anticipation in hearts.

Here are a few tips for enjoying a Green Friday celebration of your own.

I'm over at Simple Homeschool, today. Head on over to read the rest.

Read about our Green Friday last year, and the year before!

Family Love

What greater thing is there for human souls
than to feel that they are joined for life -
to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

~George Eliot

The most extraordinary thing in the world
is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman
and their ordinary children.

~G.K. Chesterton

My Girl

Ta Da!

I know, I know. I was whining and complaining about taking photos a couple days ago. Then I spent the next two days plotting and planning. Would you believe the weather was GORGEOUS today? In the 70s! PERFECT for a family photo shoot. So that's what we did. Didn't get anything else accomplished, but we got pictures. What do you think of my new header? I'll post more pictures tomorrow, so that's just a taste.

C'est la Vie

One month. I can't believe it has been a month since we brought Lola Colette home from the hospital. My days and nights are running together and flying by. Some things are going really well, some aspects of life could use a little improvement.

Six weeks of awful coughing, non-breathing, non-sleeping sickness took its toll around here. And, of course, it was spread out over a long period of time between the three boys and myself, so the sleep deprivation was tough, not to mention there was a newborn baby in the middle of all that. Leif was last, also ending up in urgent care and home with 3 prescriptions including an inhaler. (I'm beyond thankful (and incredulous, to be honest) that Lola managed to escape without getting sick!)

Just as Leif was beginning to mend, Russ lost his job. Needless to say, life has been a tad chaotic. Routine has completely evaded us. It has been nice to have Russ around more often, but he is trying to work (his own consulting business) from home as well as do other home projects. Current family life looks much different from our usual M.O. The boys think it is one long weekend, and I'm completely distracted by Lola.

School is hit and miss. Again, I'm so thankful for Classical Conversations. We've managed to stay on track with classes and review. I feel that the boys have learned (and retained) a large quantity of quality material. All three of them have benefited from (even if not transitioned smoothly and expertly to) the classroom atmosphere, organization, and regulation. Leif, in particular, seems to excel at learning in a social environment. Though it has been a little tough for me to get everything together and get out of the house with all the children on Monday mornings with a smile on my face, I've benefited greatly from the routine and accountability. I'm so thankful that my mom has been there every week to help, and Russ has made it a few weeks, as well.

I wish (as usual) that there were more hours in a day (& night!). I want so badly to document these early days, but time for pictures and posting is swallowed up with other things. I just want to be like Ariana at My Sweet Chaos. She documents her days in detail (with tons of fabulous photos) even with a newborn, three other children (including a toddler!), homeschooling, emergency hospital visits, multiple classes and activities, and no sleep. How does she do it?!

I'm most disappointed in my lack of picture taking. It turns out I'm a newborn-photo-taking failure. Multiple issues are against me:

1. My technical skills. The lighting in particular is killing me.

2. My house. It is fairly clean (no thanks to me, but to my excellent help, Olive), but really little and full of STUFF. The regular stuff of life (boys, laundry, books, paperwork) and the stuff of un-done projects and to-do lists. Even the stuff that is nice and necessary (furniture, decor) feels claustrophobic lately and looks like clutter in photos. I have no creative options, no blank space to work with. It feels like, here, let's take a photo on the couch again. Or let's shake things up and take a photo on my bed. Again. Wahoo.

3. My perfectionist, control-freak tendencies. Let's not dwell on those...

4. The weather. This combined with #1 and 2 (and 3), is a disaster. My best photos are taken with natural, outdoor lighting. It's been dark and cold (and often rainy). Not possible with a newborn, and even the lighting indoors suffers greatly.

5. My dressing-the-newborn-in-adorable-clothing-failure. Really. Cute bracelets, headbands, shoes? Nope. I don't even get her out of hand-me-down jammies. Seriously. She doesn't like to get dressed/undressed, I don't like to go out of the house, and she spends much of the day sleeping. It seems like a waste to get her out of those comfy jammies.

6. Speaking of sleeping, don't you just love those gorgeous photos of sleeping babies in all sorts of creative poses? How do they get the babies to stay peacefully asleep? Especially all naked like that? Lola sleeps in jammies, swaddled in a pea-green blanket (does wonders for her complexion, not), in her black and gray carrier, with a huge WARNING label right by her face. Charming, huh?

I'm sure I could come up with a few other excuses, but we'll leave it at that for now. One of these days I'll document my real life minute by minute with pictures. It'll be riviting and stylish, I'm sure.

But isn't Lola a doll? I'm consumed with love.

I can't imagine life without her. I could spend all day kissing on her. But as I have other children (whom I love) and a few other things on the dreaded to-do list, I am so thankful that she takes at least two really long naps every day.

She also is sleeping well at night. After three non-sleeping boys, my expectations may be very low, but she sleeps 4-5 hours straight for the first half of the night. Last night she slept 6 hours, nursed for a few minutes, and then slept another 3 hours. Considering the fact that Leif didn't nap for 5 minutes without being held, and I co-slept/nursed him all night long just to survive, I'm in heaven.

Nursing is going well. In a perfect world, I would gather my boys around us while they sat peacefully listening to me read aloud. (P.S. Does it surprise you to know I don't live in that world?) In another ideal world, I would have finished off my reading list for 2010. (Nope. Don't live there, either.) In MY world, I've watched 3 seasons of Psych on Netflix Instant Play. It's my personal brand of Prozac. Cracks. Me. Up.

Oh, lookie, there. It's Lola. On my bed. In hand-me-down jammies. Again.

I don't know how much she weighs. It's an hour round-trip to the doctor's to weigh her, so we'll wait for her 2 month appointment because I'm lazy like that.

Her fingers are so long and beautifully thin. My boys had baby paws. I don't know where she got the gorgeous fingers. Certainly not from me. Now, if she can just get Russ's eyelashes, which all 3 of the boys managed to snag, she'll be set.

She is just beginning to do the sweet cooing thing and giving hints of smiles.

I really must go feed a baby and get everyone in bed. The rest of my ramblings will have to wait.

Super Girl

One Month