Yards of Moss

My yard has yards and yards of mosses. 

I'm always commenting on this, I know.

But that's because I'm always looking at it and glorying over it. 

Large swaths of green mosses grow out over the rocky hillside our home is built on. 

Each morning looks like a bunch of green cloths, quilts, and comforters were just left pilled up on the ground around the rocks after some wood nymphs and driads fell into a stupor after dancing or something. 

Also, the tiniest and most delicate clumps of contrasting greens and textures grow in, on, and over all the rocks coming right up to our front door. 

I get to live in a fairy garden, basically. 

I don't even have to leave my house to study it's details throughout the day; I just have to walk up to any front window and look while I sip coffee. 

It's a gift from The Almighty, truly, a garden tended for me by the natural processes at work all around my house. 

Moss may be my greatest consolation for having to live in New England, something I am sure is God's will, but something that remains a hardship even after decades, because of the climate and the culture, and something that remains a mystery, because of the hardships. 

Nevertheless, "Where else could so much moss grow?" I ask myself. 

One hardly ever gets "too hot" even in the fullest sun here. Thus the moss everywhere...

So a body can sit for hours with the cool, green moss under her, with the golden sun shining down on her, and the bright blue sky above her...

And I confess, it's a particular glory all it's own.

  

Memory Master Review/ Nature Walk

Adele and I took another nature walk, reciting her Foundations Memory Work as we stepped. Adele is still practicing so she can try to pass the second proof (test) for Memory Masters, which is coming up. It's actually lovely to have something to sing and talk and even laugh about as we walk. 

We saw how the same things along the path have changed since last time we passed. And it's lovely to get distracted at least a hundred times by beautiful things along the way. Her eyes are so much better than mine! 

She found an owlet pellet and we took little sticks and pulled it apart right there on the path. Then she found an empty acorn top to use as a bowl for carrying the bones home. 

This bowl of bones is downstairs now with all the other items in our nature collection. We've got a few shelves in the basement for these "treasures." We've got rocks, shells, birds nests, feathers, etc. And we get more everyday. Sometimes I wonder how much outside can come inside before there's no more outside to bring inside. 

Earlier this year in Foundations, Adele dissected an owl pellet in class. And she and her sister did it at least once a few years before that, too, since CC cycles through the same material in the early years. So Adele could already identify what sort of bones they were. "That's a jaw bone!" she exclaimed, etc. 

I'm enjoying these spring moments with my youngest scholar and naturalist. 

 

Graduation Announcements

We sent out graduation announcements today! For practice driving, I made Norah drive to the post office for the stamps and mailing. I didn't scream or cringe once while she drove us. So either she's getting better at driving, or I am getting better at dealing with her driving. Maybe it's both. On the way home, we went through Dunkin's drive-through for coffee, of course. One must to learn to navigate through a Dunkin drive through for life. And we also went to the new Christian book store in town, where I got her a cross pin for her book bag. Note: Maybe it's not actually a new book store, but we'd only just heard about it. I'm enjoying these moments with my sweetheart before she takes off to college with that old book bag and all its pins in the fall. 

Beautiful Patchwork

The oldest had a tear in her favorite flannel, so she created a beautiful patch with cross stitch fabric and embroidery thread. She's self-taught, basically, using cross-stitch and needlework books and You Tube videos and years of practice on other projects and trial and error. Now it's an even more beloved flannel! 

Reading To Each Other

My middle daughter has read aloud to her little sister for years. They share a room with bunk beds, so the middle reads to the youngest from the top bunk every morning and night. If it's a leisurely day, they will keep on reading on the couch through the day. But today I came in the room to find the youngest reading to the middle! They rediscovered the little book The Gods Must Be Angry, an old Sonlight core book from many, many, many years ago, as they organized their shelves today, so the youngest decided to read it during her daily quiet reading time. But as it started getting good, the youngest narrated a bit of it to her sister, then the middle one asked her to just read it aloud while she did her geography drawings for Challenge A. These moments just happen naturally living and learning together. 

Processing Beeswax

I'm still processing all the beeswax left over from our beehive. (Sadly, our bees died this last winter.)

I'd call processing wax a labor of love, but the only thing I am experiencing right now is the labor. 

I have decided to forgo beekeeping this summer.

I'm a little heartsick and discouraged that our bees died. 

Even so, it will be a real loss not to try again right away, because we get so much joy and wonder upon opening the hive and admiring the bees and their labors. 

But this summer's calendar is already filled up with travel, even more than last summer. 

And I know from my difficulties with traveling and managing hive checks last summer that it will be even harder to do it all this summer.  

We are planning more camping trips, the regular trips to Dwayne's parents and my Mom's, and we need more travel time, especially, to move and settle a beloved daughter in another state. She starts college in the fall. 

So putting beekeeping on hold is probably the wisest thing to do.  

We'll still attend beekeeping club meetings when the times work for us. 

We'll keep learning.

I'm planning to clean and sell my Layens hive. 

I'll also sell some of my excess equipment. 

I may take the time to put a fresh coat of paint on my Langstroth and I'll burn it out, so it's good and ready for the next spring. 

Maybe I'll be ready to order a new batch of bees in one year's time. 

Diagon Ally in Legos

One girl has a birthday in late March; the other has a birthday in early April, so they combined their Lego allowances this year and went in on a much larger Lego set than either would have been allowed on her own. 

Their dad and I were proud of their creative deal-making. 

They explained at dinner last night that they have built approximately one-half of the set since Avril's birthday. Now they will build the second half after Adele's birthday. 

I love their sweet thoughtfulnesses of one another, making deliberate efforts to keep the situation equitable. 

And praise God, they seem to already comprehend the reality that sharing joys makes joy more full for all.