Hands On Nature

Every Friday we take a hike around the lake at Look Up. Some days we take our nature journals and draw what we find and some days we just walk. London loves sketching what she sees and usually fills up ten pages of pencil drawings of mushrooms.

This week Mosely discovered a worm - or "wormy" - and carried it the entire walk. She wanted to take it home so she could "play" with it at a comfortable place. She wouldn't allow anyone to endanger the worm's life and she carefully carried it until, at nearly the walk's end, she saw a fish in the water and suddenly tossed Wormy to the fish, who promptly ate it. "Fish don't say thank you, Mom," she told me.

These Things Have Happened Today


1. Piper Finnian stood up, walked two steps, squatted down and stood back up.


2. Mosely and Bergen and London played on the swingset for an hour, happily, peacefully and joyfully. They even all held hands as they walked to the house.


3. London has mastered dividing items up into correct numbers and sorting by number.


4. Bergen discovered that if you shove your entire fist down your throat, you throw up. "Throat-up" he calls it, somewhat appropriately.


5. I cleaned up the throw-up that Bergen discovered at the base of his throat.



6. I sold the exersaucer on craig's list.


7. Riley finished most of her schoolwork early so she could work at the lodge - hence the reason her discoveries are not highlighted. Plus, she seldom makes herself throw up and her footsteps are not as milestone-worthy as a baby's. Sorry Riley.


8. Mosely kept her adorable braids in even through her nap.


9. The wee kids and I read two books together and explored the idea of buoyancy (pencils float, match box cars do not. legos float, hairbrushes do not.) They even pronounced the word correctly.


10. Piper Finnian shoved all of her peas, cheese squares and cheerios onto the floor at lunch. They fell beside her toast and eggs already on the floor from breakfast.

Little House in the Big Woods

School started this week.

Riley began eighth grade, London started kindergarten and Mosely likes to declare that she is in preschool.

Homeschool is a challenge. I don't get to put my kids on a bus and go have that second cup of coffee or read that magazine that came in the mail yesterday. My house is littered with textbooks, science projects, magic markers and glue sticks.

I am not even trying to imply that everyone should homeschool.

But for us, in this house, the good ultimately outweighs the bad.

London Eli is learning her own phone number and I get to watch her practice making phone calls. Riley sits at the kitchen table stringing together batteries and copper wires and creating some experiment to learn about atoms. And she ends up fascinated by her discoveries and I get to see that look of marvel on her face. She walks into the kitchen to tell me some curious fact about Marco Polo that she had never known until that very minute and I get to be surprised with her. The little ones and I cuddle up to read The Trumpet Swan by E.B. White and they beg for another chapter of this novel. They love hearing about Sam and the cygnets (who knew that's what baby swans are called?) he is befriending. I watch them as they play together and they are reenacting scenes from Bread and Jam For Francis or Streganona and I laugh!

I know that if these five kids were at school from breakfast to nearly dinner, I would miss them. I would miss this. I would miss the fights over the box of Cheerios, sure, but I would also miss the tender moments ...... a crack of thunder scares Bergen and London holds his hand all the way from the playground to the house ...... Mosely claps her hands over her face and teaches Piper Finn how to play peek-a-boo ....... Riley helps London choose a special skirt for the first day of school and even offers to flat iron London's hair ....... Bergen sits on the floor and draws his classic crayon version of "Night on Bald Mountain" .......

I really don't want to miss this. I don't care for coffee anyway and I'll skip the magazine articles. Instead I'll teach the kids how to throw a baseball, dance to "Viva La Vida" one more time and give extra scoops of ice cream on doctor appointment days. I'll discuss The Hobbit with Riley and read E.B. White novels until my throat is dry. I want to know the people that live in my house. And I want them to know me. And for us, this is what that looks like.

Little Bear Has a Birthday Party

Piper was pretty excited about her birthday.

We traveled to the farm to celebrate Sweet Willow's turning ONE!

She looked surprised when everyone began singing, but she didn't lose her cool.

When she saw her cake she just stared at it for a while. Eventually she began eating it, first with her fists, then finally her face (see photo below). In fact, this gradual move from watching to fists to face took so long that only the true fans of Finn stuck around to see it occur! (hehehe)

I think slurping may be most effective. Yes, I'll just stick my face right here and breathe this sugar castle in.

And this is what it looks like after the slurping.