Long weekend

We had another three day weekend thanks to Pentecost. After growing up in the states with separation of church and state, these religious holidays always catch us by surprise. Inevitably we forget to do our grocery shopping, and with everything closed down, well... it gets kind of interesting.

My eyes started feeling well enough Sunday afternoon for a little hike in the forest. We went with some friends, and though I have no idea where we ended up, it was amazing. The trail moved upwards between high stone cliffs that had been etched by water probably thousands of years ago. There were little caves at our sides and a small rivulet running under our feet. Someone had meticulously built wooden bridges and staircases leading up over this whole expanse. My pictures don't quite do it justice, but it was really breath-taking.








At the first summit we reached a prairie full of families playing frisbee, sunbathing, and barbecuing. There was even a playground for the kids. Just five minutes more hiking led us to another summit-- a restaurant and a pasture with camels! That's right-- camels in Switzerland! How funny is that!?!





Even funnier, we were told that the Wanderweg, or the trail, that leads into the next village goes through this camel pasture. So naturally we decided to walk on this trail to get a better look at the camels. There was a mama and a baby, so just as naturally this turned out to not be the best idea. The mama chased us and growled. I didn't know camels could growl, but this one did. It was a very throaty kind of sound, and the message was very clear: Stay the heck away from my baby! Still, it was interesting.

On Monday my eyes seemed almost back to normal. I spent a little bit of time in the garden putting yummy starts in, thanks to our gardener friends, and Sunburst managed to scrub the rat cage for the first time by herself. It took her All. Day. Long. Have I mentioned before that she's equal parts choleric and sanguine? She dives head first into a project and then gets completely distracted... I had to remind her what her focus was when I found her hours later walking the rats under our big shade tree, complete with harnesses she had fashioned out of knitting yarn.





I realize these pictures are a tad blurry, but I swear it's not my eyes. Have you ever tried to take a picture of a running rat? I'm sure a few of you have!

I'm off to get my eyes checked again tonight... hopefully all will go well. The pharmacist I spoke with on Saturday thinks that I was having an abnormal reaction to the dilation drops, so I don't think I'll be having those again. Today I can see just as well as before my first exam, and neither the sunlight nor the computer screen seem to be much of an issue for me. You can imagine how much I'm rejoicing!

Thanks again for all your kind words over the last week. You mamas are the best!

Recipe for trouble

2 rats + me = asthma

Sadly, it's true. It has turned out that my seriously bad Spring allergies this year are not actually Spring related. These sweet little rats are causing me all sorts of grief. We're at the point where any contact with the rats (or being in proximity to anything/anyone who has touched a rat) sends me into fits of coughing and wheezing.

This was not what any of us had bargained for.

It's still cold and raining, putting a hiatus on most of our outdoor lesson plans... so our focus has now shifted to allergy containment. Sunburst is pretty upset about the whole thing, as you can imagine. This morning we went around the breakfast table making a list of possible ideas for ways to remedy the rat-allergy situation. One of the kids suggested a solar-powered venting fan. Kitty Bill thought a hermetically-sealed, outdoor, rock cage might do the trick.

While not feasible ideas, they sure are interesting... which makes for a whole new range of homeschooling questions. How could one build a solar-powered venting fan? What's the range of temperature change from one area of a room to another, or one floor of the house to another? And what is an allergic reaction anyway? Is it fair to hermetically seal a rat's cage? And do they make plastic bubbles for people like mom?

The question-making is tireless. Can the same be said for my ability to breathe? Stay tuned.

Songs on Sunday

The rain kept us in all weekend.

We spent most of Sunday singing together and playing music and then recording it. We had such a blast!

It all started when Sunburst realized that her rat Ronia didn't have a signature song. A while ago Einstein, the dad, made up a reggae song for Sunburst's rat Pepper, and all the kids sing back-up on it. It's very cute. But poor Ronia, Sunburst felt, was feeling a bit left out. So Einstein came up with the chords, and Sunburst set to work creating "Redwall-style" lyrics with three verses and a chorus. Here's just a taste:

"If'n you see a rat who's sweet as can be
Who can cuddle like a babe an' seem so free
Eat like a hare an' go like a flow
An' have a belly white as the snow

Yer lookin' at
Ronia, Ronia
Love 'er, hug 'er, hold 'er
Ronia, Ronia..."

We were having so much fun that we decided to change the words around into a birthday song for Einstein's mom. Yep, we're one of those families that will call on your birthday and sing the most ridiculous things just to show you how much you're loved-- our style falls curiously somewhere between the Partridge and the Addams families. (Did the Addams Family ever sing?) Anyway...

There was quite a bit of flute music going on, too. I've been writing a lot of songs lately to go with Moonshine's lessons, but I've been struggling with finding the time it takes to write them all out in musical notation. Now that Moonshine has really taken off with the flute, she has been delightedly compiling each song she learns into her own music book. This is great fun, and such a joy for her! Except that she has to wait around for me to write them out. Waiting for mom is... well, not so much fun.



My ultimate plan with having Moonshine compile this music book is so I can eventually teach her to read the music that she already knows, like I did with Sunburst. Ergo, it's important to have the songs all written down properly.

Enter the new love of my life-- Finale Notepad. I don't have a ton of free time to sit around and write things out, but I can enter them into this software, tweak and tweak, and play it back until it sounds right. I was so inspired by how quickly this process went, the songs just came flying. The program is easy enough for Sunburst to work on her own. And it's a great way to self-check your own musical writing, at least for me, because sometimes I screw up. It's true. Or worse yet, I make a song up and completely forget it an hour later. I hope that's a sign of a full life and not an aging brain. ;-)

Here's a simple little math song:



Don't forget to notice the clever title. ;-)

Introducing... Ronia the rat

Yep. We're totally and completely suckered in by these creatures.

Our other rat, Pepper, was lonely... she told us she needed a new companion pronto. And how could we resist this cute face?

Sad news

We lost a rat the other day. Sunburst was pretty heartbroken about it. All the kids were. Me, too.

I'm not sure what happened, but I have a pretty good guess. After doing a bit of research online, I think what we thought were initial quirks turned out to be some kind of respiratory sickness. What we interpreted as cuddly and lazy was probably lethargy. All that noise she made when she was sleeping? Probably wheezing.

So she was sick when we got her... and we just didn't know better. Go us! Actually, I wasn't there when the rats were picked out, but Sunburst said that they weren't allowed to handle the rats at the store-- could be a language misunderstanding? It's hard to tell sometimes.

So now we're down to one-- just little Miss Pepper, who truth be told, has been sneezing since we got her. I read online that this is not a good sign either, but she's very energetic... so there's hope. If all goes well with her, we'll have to find her a new rattie friend to play with.

Rat death already... not what I had bargained for. That's for sure.

Eleven... and Rats!

I've been very sporadic about mentioning birthdays on the blog through the last few years. I don't have any good reasons for that... but I aim to do better.

Sunburst turned ELEVEN the other day. Holy cow! I can't believe we've been doing this parenting schtick for eleven years already! It seems like only yesterday she was smearing food in her hair and flushing miscellanea down the toilets.

Now she's a pre-teen and experiencing all the fun that goes along with that-- mostly staring wide-eyed through the windows of Claire's and contemplating new earrings (she got those pierced last birthday). I know she was wishing for a special new pair for this birthday. She was hoping for other typical presents, too-- books, craft supplies, games, and... a rat.

Yep, I said Rat. Disgusting, eh? It wasn't at the top of my list either, but somehow she got it into her head that having a pet rat would be a fine idea. We studied them last year during our man and animal block, though I admit she was already smitten by then. Shortly after that she presented her dad and me a heartfelt proposal detailing how she would take care of a rat if she was allowed to have one. A heartfelt proposal, with drawings no less... how can you say no to that?

We couldn't. I was reminded of something Charlotte Mason said (and I'm paraphrasing here) about how children need something to love. Something to think about, to take care of. Eleven is surely old enough-- why not a rat?

When we got back from the States Einstein took her into the pet store to pick out a rat. It was easy, peasy. One came right up to the glass and made eyes at her. "Pick me! Love me!"

And then the pet store people informed Einstein that, by Swiss law, they had to buy two. Isn't that crazy?! Apparently this Noah's ark-ish law applies to a few other animals, not just rats. Alas, it was not "buy one, get one free."

I present you with our rats: Pepper and Pancake.





Sunburst and her rats have become fast friends. They are extremely tame. They love to crawl around her dollhouse and snuggle with her while she reads. She loves them. She loves to think about them. And she loves to take care of them. And she's already making headway trying to train them.

And me? I had agreed to rats on one promise from her-- that under any circumstances I would not be required to deal with them, including touching them. I was serious. The idea of rats seriously disgusted me. I imagined them running around the house pooping on everything and chewing up my knitting.

But now that I've seen them... they're beautiful. They're sweet. And they are VERY clean animals. I can't help myself. I'm in LOVE... with rats!! Who knew??