Reading to sick kids

This week everyone in the family (except me) had the fever, cough, nausea thing that is going around. Though the kids felt miserable, I have to say that I enjoyed skipping out on scouts, activity days, YM/YW, clogging, and 3 hours of piano lessons this week. Isn't it too bad that it requires a sickness in order for us to stay home,read and eat homemade soup? While the kids were laying around on the couch passing around the thermometer and eating Vitamin C drops, I read aloud to them Sid Fleischman's book- Chancy and the Grand Rascal. It was a wonderful book! Imagine Tom Sawyer, Paul Bunyon, and a touch of something I can't put my finger on, all rolled up in one book. Have you heard of Sid Fleischman? He also authored By the Great Horn Spoon, The Whipping Boy, and Jingo Django. We own them all and they each make a lively read aloud. Try Chancy and the Grand Rascal and see if doesn't make you want to go live on a little island in the middle of the river and raise a chicken to perch on your shoulder. :-)

Worn out

Leif fell asleep on the floor in the boys room one night. If you know Leif, you know this is VERY unusual. Leif only sleeps in his crib, in his bedroom, IF you insist it is absolutely necessary and there are no other options. Otherwise he'd much rather be flushing the toilets, starting the washing the machine, finding my hidden chocolates in the sewing area, sharpening pens in the electric pencil sharpener or playing with knives, thank you very much. :-)

No need to panic

The other day, Heidi wandered in from the backyard and started playing with Leif in the living room. 5 or 10 minutes later, Joel asked her if she had seen Reagan lately. Casually she remarked, "Oh, yah.....he's stuck in a tree. He needs help." We all turned and through the dining room window we could see Reagan's little legs and snow boots dangling and kicking from the branches of one of the pine trees. "Why didn't you tell us Heidi???!" "But I just did!" was her surprised reply.

Quick note to self: If I'm ever hanging from a cliff or stuck on a roof, make sure Heidi knows I want help NOW.........not in 5 minutes, not in 10.....

Kayaking

The weather was so nice today!! With the sun out, the temperature warmed up to the high 30's and there was just a little breeze instead of the gales we've been having. Taylor, Heidi and Reagan all decided it was the perfect day to go kayaking to explore the opposite side of the river. Ever since autumn, when the big fire swept across the plateaus in the west, Taylor has wanted to get a closer look at the burned area and see if he could climb all the way to the top of one those plateaus.

When the kids finished up their school, they worked together to inflate a kayak, Heidi packed them all a lunch and using the red wagon, they carted the kayak down to the river.
At that point, Taylor called me on the cell phone to tell me they were at the dock and ready to launch. I brought them gloves and hats with ear flaps because the breeze was picking up and everyone was all ready getting cold. I found that rather funny because Reagan had originally planned on wearing a bathing suit. :-) My kids always want to run through the sprinkler in April and sometimes I let them, but I told Reagan that asking to swim in the river in February is a little ridiculous!
From the Suburban,I had fun viewing them through my binoculars. I could watch Heidi and Reagan scramble up a ravine and play among the boulders. I could see Taylor crest the top of the plateau and he called to tell me that from that vantage point he could see over a 100 windmills!I also watched a blue heron sitting on a log preening its feathers until it heard the kids and clumsily flapped its wings and flew further down river. I've loved blue herons ever since CJ Strike. They may be geeky, awkward looking birds with their legs trailing behind them as they fly, but I find them fascinating.

On days like this I remember how much I love living near the river. I'm so happy the kids like to get out and explore their big backyard.

Just popping in to say hello.....

Yes, yes.....I know. I didn't start blogging any better!!! Sigh. My apologies. It was just a bit busy around here I guess. What were we doing during these bleak, grey days of winter? Let's see, in addition to 3 birthdays, 2 clogging performances, teaching a science class on Fridays, piano lessons, a Shakespeare feast, helping with Music Fest, swimming at Sligers, and various other sundry activities.......

--We were teaching Leif how to read and write. Since he says "baa baa" for bottle, and "ba" for ball and "WAAAAH!" for all the rest, we knew he was one smart cookie and ready for the 3 R's. Just look at that pencil grip. You know he's going to be a real scholar!
--We created a topographical map of India out of paper mache. It was fun to shape a big gooey mess into landforms and learn about interesting sounding places such as the Bay of Bengal, the Western Ghats and the Ganges river. Torsten enjoyed it too, he just misunderstood and thought I said "growl" at the camera.

--We had a fun India culture day with other homeschoolers, making Indian food, doing crafts and listening to a speaker.
--Taylor made some silly balloon hats for striking silly poses,
---And the kids favorite activity of all: skiing!! I relented and agreed to the normal 6 week program that we've done in the past. Now that we've moved to Hagerman it's added an additional 45 minutes to the drive. But who know if we'll be living close enough to do it next year so what's the price of a 100 gallons of gas compared to the memories being made? :-)
Here's a little movie of Taylor doing a jump on one of his favorite runs: Colt. Taylor is the second skier in the clip.

Torsten's HTML class is finally over!!! Yay!!! I know he learned a lot but the down side was he seemed to be chained to the computer all day, every day. Now I'll have a chance to use the computer to blog a bit more.

Some happenings around here:

Leif is really enjoying himself with our electronic gadgets lately. He adores talking on phones and listening to the ring tones. The kids gave him a phone the other day which, after he got finished playing with it, he decided to throw in the toilet. We walked in the bathroom to find him happily stirring the phone around with the toilet brush as if it were some delicious soup he was concocting. Amazingly enough, the phone dried out and works perfectly! It must be built tight like Taylor's MP3 player which went through the washer and dryer 6 times and survived! Then there was the Dell laptop that Leif danced a jig on. Unfortunately, it didn't hold up as well as the MP3 player and it may officially be dead (unless Joel can perform another soldering iron miracle like he has in the past). And that brings us to the Toshiba laptop which Leif pottied on when he was running around naked after his bath. It works except we have to plug an external keyboard into it. Yes, Leif has certainly added his own wonderful element of baby chaos to our life and it wouldn't be the same without his cute baby face around here.

Torsten, Hailey, Taylor and Heidi started their 6 week skiing program. They love, love, love it! Taylor logs on to Pomerelle's site everyday to see what the snow depth is at the top of the mountain and see what the weather is up there. He even checks Pomerelle's weather report all summer long. Hmmm....sounds to me like he has some Grandpa Pearson genes in him. :-)

When we get the latest pictures downloaded from the camera I'll share some photos of our India activity day, but for now I need to go sweep up the Grapenuts that Leif just spilled all over the floor.....

I'm starting to feel as if I'm stuck in a Christmas time warp around here! I haven't put away a single decoration yet, the Christmas tree is as green and healthy as ever, and just last night the little kids hung up more Christmas lights around the house! Reagan and Heidi were in the garage with me (that's my sewing room now) talking about whether Santa is real or not, while I was working on a project and listening to Christmas music (my "Christmas Cello" CD by Steven Sharp Nelson--it. is. so. beautiful. I'll probably end up listening to it all year!). I guess I was totally oblivious to the fact that they were digging in the Christmas boxes and pulling more stuff out!! AAaaaah!

This weekend I promise to break free of all these Christmas trappings. Otherwise before you know it, I'd find myself hanging Easter eggs from the tree and using the stockings for the Easter bunny candy......