October 17, 2005
I have to admit I haven't been too inspired to blog lately. We had a wonderful visit with Mom & Dad and I think mom may blog about it. I will soon, don't worry. I'm bummed about not having our digital camera. We're using my parents old 35 mm. I took a roll to get developed last week so I should be able to post some photos soon. I'm not as enthused about blogging when I can't post photos.
We've had a rainy week here. Started last Saturday and has rained off and on for a whole week. Yesterday was particularly bad. We had a low key week, returning back to normal after mom & dad's visit. If such a thing as normal exists.
We have discovered a climbing wall at Bates, which is a godsend for our son and his climbing enthusiasm. He literally climbs the walls at home and so we've been making weekly visits to the climbing wall at Bates. I have to say he's doing awesome. You can just see the wheels turning as he figures out what holds to grab onto, where to put his feet etc. He's a strong little guy too and fairly fearless (not always so great). Gotta say, I love him to bits and everything "boy" about him.
We are looking forward to a couple harvest parties this month. Next Saturday is the Bean Threshing at Willow Pond, where we have our farm share. This is such a blast. Then the following week we are having a Harvest Housewarming at our home. We haven't hosted any big parties since moving to Maine, the closest have been kid's birthdays. I can't wait to celebrate with our friends the blessings God has given us. This truly is a thankful season for us. So, I'm busy planning this and having fun doing so.
This week we plan to go to Open Gym, especially considering all the rain. Visit Daddy at Bates (a weekly outing). Celine has her 2nd riding lesson on Tuesday and on Wed morning we take a homeschool tour of a local bakery. I'm going to attempt a firmer schedule with the kids and myself this week as well. Mostly, trying to have a chore time in the morning so that the kids learn to take more responsibility for the daily care of the household. This is a very important aspect of their schooling for us. We want our whole family to work together in the household tasks and for the kids to learn how to care for their own homes. This is challenging for me because it's easier to do the jobs myself. But it's worth is because not only do we want to train our children for their own futures but also meaningfully involve them in our lives. We want our children to feel needed in our family and that they have important contributions to make.
Along that line, Celine has furthered her culinary skills this past week. One of her favorite dishes is fried rice. The kids often help me cutting vegetables & tofu but this time I worked with Celine through the whole process. She chose the ingredients and learned (hands on) how to cook the rice in the rice cooker (we didn't have leftovers to use). Then I helped her cut up the veggies (the onions & garlic) and gave Brienne a few items to cut, she didn't want to be left out. Celine was in charge of the stirring and deciding when it was done. Afterwards the kitchen was a disaster - thanks to Brienne's attempted clean up efforts that left tofu and broccoli bits all over the floor. But Celine was very proud of her accomplishment. As we sat and ate our lunch we all genuinely praised her efforts and later during the meal, in a very uncharacteristic way, out of the blue she told me she loved me. Celine is not very demonstrative this way so this kind of surprised me but it showed us how much she valued the time I spent doing this with her.
This is one of the things I love about homeschooling. The ability to schedule your time the way you want to meet your family's goals and live out your values.
Well, I guess I didn't have a blogger's block afterall. I just needed to sit down and write.
