Time flies!

It is already August, and I have been remiss about posting for a long, long time.  Let's see if I can do a brief summary of the last few months, and share some photos!

2015 brought so many changes!

Baby J (not a baby anymore) is just about 2 and 1/2, and VERY energetic: constant motion (until he crashes and sleeps, that is).

K- is now a teenager, officially, and everything is done at the teenager mosey, except talking, that is, which is usually at the speed of light.

J has quit the job that had been bringing him down for so long, went to school for a couple of months for trucking, and is now doing long-haul driving for a big company.  He is back every weekend, which is good, but eventually he will go for a driving job that gets him home every night.  The job has its ups and downs, its hurry-pace and its wait-around pace, its uncertainty and flux, its dependency on traffic and issues that are completely out of the drivers' control.  But it pays more than his previous job, and there are many, many job opportunities out there to be had.  From my perspective, J seems happier, so that is good!

K and I finished her 7th grade year, our first one homeschooling, and I am happy with the progress we made.  She has gained so much in responsibility and had time to dedicate to the subject she loves the most - music!  She made great friends in her music program and is looking forward to continuing that this year.  She will also start on a swim team in the fall, and move on to 8th grade work.  She is feeling pretty smug right now, because her public school friends all go back to school this Wednesday, but she won't start until the end of August!

Baby J will be doing some small pre-school lessons with me this year, too, to get him started on the idea of sitting down at a table to do some work.  He likes to paint and arrange cars on a puzzle, and do play-dough, and if he's extra patient, he will sometimes draw on paper.  He always wants to play outside, running around or playing in the sandbox with diggers, or rolling his cars and trains all over the place.  His Legos, though, are still his first choice of play.  Building and rebuilding.  Recently he built a crane, complete with a jib and counter-jib.  If you are unfamiliar with crane terminology, Baby J will educate you!  We have checked out many books about cranes and construction vehicles from the library, and I have learned more about these things than I ever thought I would.  Here he is with his crane:

I am happy to say that I have submitted a piece I composed for flute choir, called "Pirates' Escapade," for publishing.  It has been accepted, and will be release with ALRY's newly published pieces in April.  They are a large company, and I am hoping for some good exposure.  I have another piece in its final stages that I also hope will be published soon, written for hand-bell choir and flutes, with an optional piano/flute arrangement.

Our garden is producing fairly well.  I have many spaghetti squashes, several butternut squashes, tomatoes, and once the hot peppers start coming in, we will be swimming in them.  We have close to 20 pepper plants, and they are just starting to make fruits.  We had bunches of lettuce and carrots, leeks and a few garlic plants.  K planted a whole garden of zinnias, which is attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.  The herb garden is picking up a little (it's not in a sunny place), and I'm hoping to get some cucumbers before they succumb to the fungus they seem to have picked-up.

As a family, we just had a great time in Boone, NC with J's parents and brother and sister-in-law.  Otherwise, at home we have been spending time outside, going to the pool, and trying to make the most of our summer.  If you check out the web albums, you will see photos from our trip, our garden and much more!

https://picasaweb.google.com/107314552530719410110/July2015?authuser=0&feat=directlink

We are Thankful!

What a great month!  It went by fast!  This seemed to be the month to work on projects.

  The Sandbox

I (finally) finished the sandbox.  Why I couldn't find the time to saw 4 seats for it until now, I don't know!  But that was all that was needed.  Here are some work-in-progress photos from August and a finished product with seats!

 

 

K- enjoyed photographing the sandbox with her then new iPod - it does panoramic shots!  Too bad its screen is in pieces at this point...

Baby J has enjoyed the sandbox so much already, seat or no-seat, especially in summer when he could go in barefoot.  It is situated under our carport roof with plenty of shade.

I was exceptionally proud of this - my first "major" wood-working project all by myself!  It's not really that hard, just had to convince myself that I could do it! 2 Cedar boards and a few pieces of leftover wood lying around, plus the sand.  I worked a long time leveling the stones underneath first, then measuring, cutting, and screwing together.  Not too bad!

K's Pillow

K- learned how to use a sewing machine this month.  This was part of homeschool project week.  She learned how to thread the machine, chose cloth, measured, marked, pinned and stuffed a pillow.  I helped her with the black embellishments, because they were tricky and more than she was ready for on her first time sewing, but I imagine next project she will be ready to do on her own!  Here are some action shots:

Hmm - can't find the photo with the finished product, but this is close.

 

The next day she went back and sewed a small yellow square pillow and stuffed it, and that will be Baby J's Christmas present from her!

Music

I was fortunate to find time to finish writing 2 pieces of music recently.  One is an arrangement of "Of the Father's Love Begotten" for handbell choir and flutes, and the flute choir piece I've been working on is set to record in January.  Feels good to be done with something, yet always a nagging feeling that perhaps I should edit more, or change something else... Time to tell the voices in my head to stop and move on to the next piece!

 

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed visiting with Uncle J and Aunt J for Thanksgiving.  I baked some pies, and K- made a chocolate pie.  Here we are rolling out delicious crescent rolls (at least, I think they were... of course, I couldn't eat them)!

 

  

Baby J

Oh, he's growing up so much.  He is talking in sentences most of the time now.  "J- go in your room" when he wants to get into his sister's room.  I showed him our neighbor's Christmas decorations on their porch, viewed through our front window, and he said, "Go to Christmas house, get candy!"  Halloween is etched deeply in his mind!  So many cute and fun moments with him, whether it's tumbling around with Daddy on the bed or running around the yard or zooming down the driveway hill on his little car, he is on the move all the time.  He has learned how to pop games in and out of the Wii and the X-box (they all look like cds, so I'm sure we'll find all the wrong formats in the wrong players after a while), and enjoys running his little cars and trains all over anything that looks like a road or track, including backs of couches, toilet seats and other people's bodies!  Daddy lets him watch t.v. and movies sometimes, so occasionally he will climb on the couch, recline on pillows and say, "TV - turn on!  Cars, Airplanes!"

Baby J and his trains

Daddy and Baby J, caught playing together

 

We squished together two small tables and linked his train station up, hours of fun!

Riding the good old car outside through the dirt (the car was mine when I was little)

Sliding into a huge leaf pile!

Playing with leaves

 Here we are on the way to or from the library:

It's one of his favorite places to go.  We bike there sometimes - he loves to ride bicycle, too.  In fact, it's hard to think of anything he's not enthusiastic about.  Except bed time.  He used to be a good sleeper, now it takes him FOREVER to get to sleep sometimes.  Talking and jumping and bouncing his crib across the floor.  Whew.  He can count to 4, ask for things he needs, and of course, loves to "help" with everything we do.

And now on to December!  We are looking forward to visiting family and wish we could visit everyone every year.  Hope everyone is well and staying healthy (as I am currently battling the flu).

Cheers!

Halloween 2014

 

Happy Halloween!!

 

As usual we waited to the last minute to work on our costumes.  How does one make a Dalek (from Dr. Who) in half a day?  Well, we figured it out.  You don't.  Our crazy contraption of cardboard strung together with zip ties and coat hangers attached to a hula hoop was an awesome idea, but a big FAIL!

 

 

Since we needed a plunger for the costume... who can resist? 

 

Baby J decided to be a Dalmatian, and we created a fire truck for him!!

 

Too cute!

 

We met up at a friend's house - even Dad dressed up!

 

 Here we are - Dalmatian riding in his fire truck, with Mom as firefighter!

Baby J loved trick-or-treating!  He even said "trick-or-treat" a few times, but mostly latched onto the basket of candy and would not let go!  He loves the "M's" (m&m's).

 

We braved the 42 degree windy weather - it felt so suddenly frigid after warm 70+ degree days just a day or two ago.  Baby J was a trooper!  He walked a lot of the way, and didn't even get scared when a giant skeleton figure (probably 12 feet tall) was walking around spooking everyone!  K- enjoyed spending the evening with some friends from school.  And we were all happy to get home, warm-up and sleep after a long day!

 

Marching toward October

And summer is gone already.  We had some great summer visits with family - a trip to PA, OKC and J's parents came to visit for a weekend!  We are enjoying the gorgeous fall weather!

Baby J is almost 20 months old!  As he rounds the corner towards becoming a two-year-old, he begins to express his opinions quite clearly: "NO!"  and "No, no, no, no, no....!"  Yes, it was inevitable that the sweet baby should become a stubborn toddler someday.

 

 

He is still very sweet, though.  He loves reading, being outside, making car and train noises, and "me-moh" (music).  His favorite things to eat are "sazzos" (sandwiches) and pizza, but he still eats generally anything - lots of fruits, veggies, plain yogurt with frozen blueberries, "guaco" (guacamole), even kale chips!

 

Everyday he learns more and more words.  We are sad that some of his cute words are disappearing in favor of the real pronunciations.  But at least "car" is still "Drrrnn-da," and it makes a "voom" sound.

 

He asks to "see, see!" when he wants to be picked up and see what's cooking in the kitchen.  He likes to draw with crayons and paint, pour rice through funnels, press buttons on the "pi-no-no" (piano), and incredibly, he still helps with unloading the dishwasher.  I love that he talks to me at bedtime about things he has done throughout the day, and sometimes actually asks for things he thinks about without any visual reminders (that I can see, anyway).  Two days ago he asked for a ham and cheese sazzo, and occasionally he will ask to go for a hike! 

 

Here he is on a trail at Percy Warner Park.  Without any prompting he walked down the trail and said, "hike... fun!"  He rides in a backpack most of the way, and when he gets restless, he gets to walk the trails.

 

 

 

This year K is home-schooling with me.  We have completed 7 weeks so far, and accomplishing some great things.  We do our best to arrange meet-ups with her friends from her former school, and she is also involved in a homeschool band and choir.

 

Her biggest excitement this year has been a One Direction and 5 Seconds Of Summer concert over the summer, and more recently she actually won tickets through a radio station for an Austin Mahone concert!

 

     Here she is getting ready to go!

 

 

 

K took some photos of a Daddy-Long-Legs during our recent hike. 

She enjoys the super-macro function on the camera!



J went on a chump car racing trip last weekend to the track at Sebring, FL.  Google apparently has created a storybook of all the photos for me... I am slightly creeped-out!  Another whirlwind trip complete with a 12 hour drive to the track, some last-minute car repairs and very little sleep!  Great that he could combine it with a visit to his parents!

As for me, my free time (not much!) has been spent composing a flute choir piece.  I am at the rehearsal stage with the flute choir, and making edits.  So excited to record and get it published!

I have been working on cleaning up the gardens and getting compost going.  J and I planned a compost bin, I cut the wood, and he put it together; I can't wait until next spring when there's a bunch of good compost to add to my garden!

Between lesson planning, teaching lessons here and there, taking care of Jake - I find it hard to keep up with photos, but I finally have added to the blog and updated the web album!










Sleeping "on" a big mattress

here is a quick pic snapped before Baby J awoke one morning in PA. He crawls off the mattress in his sleep :-)

Summer Fun.

 K went to Camp Widjiwagan again this year.  She did the advanced climbing courses throughout the week, which included walking tightropes, climbing a super high rope ladder with wooden "steps" that got wider and wider until almost 5 feet apart (did it in 5 minutes!), and a leap of faith from a huge pole.  This picture was from one morning when parents were invited to climb with their kids.  K did the hard route, and made it look easy.  I did the medium route, and was surprised that it wasn't as physically difficult as I thought.  Just don't look down!

Baby J and I are finding fun things to do outside this summer.  Went to our friends' house and played in a wading pool, on their swing and slide, and of course, toy cars!  Check out the shades :)

                   

 

 Oh the joys of driving.  Steering wheels.

Hazard lights.

And don't forget the radio.

Turn it up, it's Guns n Roses!

Photos from Jesse's camera.

The mosquitoes got him one night, right above the eye.  

Take little bites, Baby J, LITTLE bites!

He has learned to open our kitchen door.  Which leads to the basement.  Which leads outside.  Which is where he wants to go.  Always!  Time for safety handles.

Self-feeding smoothies is always a messy ordeal... but on the upside, he is getting spinach or kale, cucumbers, coconut cream, lots of colorful berries and/or peaches, and no sugar - just bananas to sweeten!

Playing on the couch.  Second best to bouncing on our neighbors' huge trampoline.