Time and the Lewis and Clark Old-Time Tent Circus

I haven’t had time to write here in so long.  When I have had the time I have been way too tired to try.  I don’t know how I get so exhausted.  Walking around as if I were in a fog all day long, no amount of coffee changing that.  Things are going really well for our family.  There is nothing at all to complain about, except that I wish I had more energy to enjoy it.

This week Deladis will graduate from kindergarten.  We completed our first official homeschool year with success.  I’m ready for 1st grade too.  We received our curriculum in the mail a few weeks ago.  Deladis will have a blue cap and gown, a tassel, and the whole nine yards!  This year our group will have 5 graduates and we are expecting around 100 visitors at our graduation.  We will be decorating and cooking all week long.  I’m doing sausage balls (my own recipe), a type of cinnamon roll (from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook), and chips with salsa (storebought).  Deladis is reciting the scripture she learned this year, and I’m making a speech on why we decided to homeschool.  I get to present her with her diploma and John will be playing her favorite song “Little Birdie”.  I’m beyond excited, and if I can keep the tears in long enough to get through it, it will be amazing.

Can you believe this was her 5 years ago?

Oh, it goes so fast.  So fast.

I might post the text of my speech once graduation is over with some pictures from the ceremony.

In the meantime, enjoy our family outing to the Lewis and Clark Old-Time Tent Circus when they stopped in Clintwood, VA.  It was a blast.  I was so happy to see people still dedicated enough to devote their life to such entertainment.  It amazed me.  None of these acts were performed with any kind of netting under the performers.  Pretty courageous and awesome!  The performers were really friendly and full of smiles.  I wish we had gotten some better pictures.

The girls loved the clowns best of all!

There were a family of acrobats and clowns. A few generations working together. Awesome!

Deladis always loves the animals.

My favorite was this woman. She did quite a few acts mostly of the juggling, balancing and gaucho sort.

This guy just kept stacking the blocks. It was insane!

The same juggler as before. This time with very large blades. She also juggled fire.

Some dangling from the top of the tent. John loves taking pictures without a flash.

More rope work!

Spring Planting, Eggs, New Hens, and a Bit of Heartbreak

I’ve been holding out on a new post to wait on getting the camera back from John.  He is teaching now and has been doing photography with his students the past few weeks.  It doesn’t look like he’ll be done before too long, so I’m going to post anyway.

We got our spring garden in!  Cauliflower, Broccoli, Lettuce of several kinds, Swiss Chard, Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Shallots, Peas, Italian Parsley, Dill, Cilantro, Rosemary, and Chives.  It felt so good to be outside in the dirt.  There is such peace there in most cases.  The girls were much more helpful this time around.  They are getting older.  All the plants are perked right up and growing.  Hopefully the seed will show sprouts soon.  I’ve been craving good veggies after a pretty rough winter.  It is hard to find good produce in the groceries here.

We also had some homeschool friends give us 5 hens and a rooster in order to make room for their upcoming 4H projects.  There were two little bantams – hen and rooster, and some large mixed breed hens.  The little bantam hen, we called Little Lady.  She had blueish gray feathers along with some tan, and she was so very gentle.  We even brought her in the cabin to eat macaroni and cheese.  I did away with her body yesterday.  The larger hens had pecked her to death.  😦  There was no sign of them bullying her.  She stayed in the coop most of the time, but I thought she was just getting used to things.  After loosing 4 entire flocks, including all the grown diddles from last year, you’d think I’d be over caring.  I’m not.  Well, especially when a hen will let you pet her and will sit in your lap like a dog.  We are getting eggs daily from our free-ranging flock.  They are healthy and roost on the front porch.  It makes a mess, but Lars (our dalmatian) sleeps there with them and keeps them safe.  It would be nice for these new hens to eventually be free ranging too.  It seems we have better luck that way.  I told them though, they better start laying or they’ll be in the pot for killing Little Lady – barbarians.

It is so close to warm here.  We had a week of 70 degree weather and the girls were so happy.  We will be getting new water soon, and I won’t have to take them to my mother’s for baths any longer.  Deladis graduates from kindergarten on May 26!  Our homeschool group has a great ceremony planned and I’m going to cry like a baby.  I just know it.  I ordered her 1st grade curriculum yesterday on sale.  I can’t believe it.  It’s funny that Ivy still seems so small.

I’ll try to get some pictures up soon, and some exciting news.  I hope to start hearing from folks again.  I’ll do my best to comment back as well.  My computer reading time has been kind of limited lately.

Paper Boats

Deladis’s kindergarten year is going well.  We are on a relaxed and spontaneous kind of schedule, though still very regular.  She has almost learned to write all her numbers through ten!  This week we sang songs themed around boats, “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.  We read our Little Jewel Book on water and the counting nature walk.  We worked in the garden, and checked on the little frog pond to see the tadpoles sprouting their back legs.  Last year, I ordered Little Acorn Curriculum.  It was structured much like what we are doing now, but this time it is coming from my head.  Yes, my head!  I am really learning how to teach little littles.  (My formal teaching experience is with 7th and 8th grades.)  I can hardly believe this week in truth.

Thursday we made paper boats.  I looked up a video on YouTube to show us how.

We folded two out of heavy cardstock, and took them to the creek to float.

The creek runs along a little coal seam in spots.

The girls were mighty pleased with the results.

We enjoyed our Thursday so much, we decided to do some splashing in the creek (last year’s Hillbilly Waterpark).  We found one of the remaining wild blackberry bushes in a snake safe spot by the creekbank and Ivy ate every ripe berry there was to be found.  I learned my lesson on being an ambitious blackberry picker last season too.  It was a lovely day, and I took the time to really enjoy my girls.  Kay, from Random Musings From My POV keeps telling me to do that.  You know, I thought I was, but I wasn’t.  I now know what it feels like to truly let loose and do that.  Thanks Kay!  It’s like nothing else in the world.  They are blessings in this life.

Summer is such a great time for learning, and that is the great thing about homeschooling/unschooling, learning happens anytime, any place, any season.  Now, I must be off to enjoy my girls before this day gets away from me. 🙂