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Showing posts from August, 2010
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I took Norah to Beardsley Zoo today using a free pass we checked out from the library. Dwayne's parents are in town, so they stayed home with Avril. Pitcher Plants Once Norah found out what it does, she was scared of it. Bear paw cactus Iguana Prairie dog They had these neat little caves... that let you pop up right where the prairie dogs were. Turtles Riding the carousel We saw a lot of animals, many more than are pictured here, but most of them were behind glass or fences so the pictures weren't great. "Mom! I'm milking!" the giant cow Wet from the elephant statue We got a dozen different stones from the gift store to start a collection... and some rock candy. We saved the stick so we could re-use it to make our own.
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Pictured above are the results of my first attempt to can the Roma tomatoes we are growing in our vegetable garden this summer. A good friend with more canning experience came over yesterday and graciously helped me limp through the process. These cans don't look like I expected them to, but then again, what do I know about canning, really? From everything I can gather, their seals appear to be perfect, intact, and the space in the jars isn't air so much as a vacuum... But, to be sure, I am busy talking to all my canning friends about my concerns who are talking to all their canning friends to see what they say about my concerns. I am asking new questions based on my now (limited) experience and reading books and websites and sending photos like this out to experts online, all in an effort to learn as much as I can , no pun intended, to make sure this food is well preserved, but also as fresh as possible and (most importantly) safe for my family to eat. Even with the stress of
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We've been a part of our church, Walnut Hill- Bethel , since we moved to Connecticut and rented an apartment in Danbury several years ago, back when I saw still pregnant with Norah. We have loved Walnut Hill from the beginning and felt sure it was where God wanted us to be. It was unlike the churches we went to before, but in a positive way, because for the first time in our lives, we were going to church with so many different types people from different backgrounds, which meant not everyone had the same story or believed exactly as we did about every single thing, which meant we had to sort through our experiences and convictions to find what was essential and make an effort to do what the Bible commands and "make every effort to maintain unity..." That said, when we bought a house all the way out here in Waterbury, forty five minutes away from the church, we knew the Sunday commutes would be difficult on us, but we felt it was "worth it" to continue being a p
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Are you sure you are homeschooling your kids? Or are you just schooling them at home? "Since warehousing sounds so decidedly negative, it needs a positive spin, a justification. After all, many parents are annoyed, even threatened by the concept that if they have children, actually raising them, is part of the deal. So we assign the added purpose of 'education' to the warehouses. Thus, not only are children being kept apart from community and family (real life), they are forced to participate in schooling - an entirely unnatural and synthetic activity - even though it is merely an excuse to keep them captive." I was reading this portion of Smarting Us Up: The Un dumbing of America and it sickened and sobered me. I can't say I would go so far as to say that every parent sends their kids to school so they don't have to raise them (though some of them do) and that every public school is a warehouse (though we have to admit that some of them are not much more th
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I have been thinking about taking Norah to Howe Caverns . It's an underground cave in New York with a river and stalactites and stalagmites, etc., just a magnificent place to see anyway. But, I was browsing through this book (that my Aunt Patti gave to me years ago. Thanks, Patti.) I turned to this week's entries to see if anything peeked my interest and I noticed that there was project to "Create stalagmites and stalactites!" A quick trip to the store to pick up some fishing weights and cotton string (and some groceries, while we were at it) and we were ready to begin. We cleared a space on our bookshelf, high enough so that the baby can't touch it, but low enough for Norah to easily check the project's progress. After a day, we started to see a little bit of accumulation. We will keep you posted with pictures as this project progresses. After a month or two (or even three), I think we will go ahead and visit those caverns. Hopefully, the cave formations N
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Norah started soccer practice yesterday.
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Dwayne has started doing a model with Norah. I usually have my hands in everything that goes on in her life. I think that's just the nature of being a homeschooling mom. But, Dwayne and I have agreed that I will stay out of this one, deliberately, so that it can be something exclusive that Norah and her daddy share. Norah is always looking forward to working on the model. She can't articulate why, exactly, but Dwayne and I both think it's because spending such concentrated time with her daddy feeds our little girl's spirit.
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We were invited to visit our friends Justin and Denise Loeber at their beach house in York, Maine for a second year in a row. You may remember that I lost almost all my photos from that trip last year , but this year I have several photos to share, thankfully. The beautiful beach house they shared with us. Minutes after we arrived, Norah had salt-water taffy in her mouth. The front porch swing. The view from the porch. The view from the yard. A short walk to the beach. Queen Anne's Lace Milkweed pods Tidal pools They were perfect for Avril to splash around in. At first, it looked like the seaweed was growing directly on the rocks. But a closer look shows what look like tiny black barnacles at the base of each plant. And, from all I can gather about these topics online, I think the barnacles must have attached themselves to the rocks "first" and then seaweed anchored almost as quickly to the barnacles and started growing out from there. The two appear to be one, but I th