Wedjat eyes

I wanted to post yesterday, but I honestly couldn't see the words on the screen. My left eye has been twitchy for the past few months, but it did something crazy night before last. I spent yesterday in a considerable amount of distress and went through a gamut of emergency testing that left my pupils as large as moons and looking like I had wedjat eyes. They told me I would recover my sight in three hours, but six hours later my eyes were still completely messed up. ( I couldn't even see my own eyes reflected in the mirror, so Einstein took this picture for me.)

Today they hurt. A lot. And things are a little blurry. I'm wearing sunglasses in order to type this, and tonight I go back in for some other kinds of testing. There was a bit of a communication break-down, so I'm not even sure what is going on. But I think the doctor said my eye wasn't falling apart, as the symptoms indicated. But perhaps whatever testing I have tonight will tell-all. Fingers crossed.

In the several hours of non-seeing yesterday I was really surprised at how much of my daily activities are directly reliant on sight. Mothering. Cleaning. Reading. Knitting. Mending. Writing. Gardening. And homeschooling, of course.

Right now Sunburst and I have our feet dug figuratively deep into the Egyptian sand. We're talking about Isis and Osiris and Horus... and this wedjat eye, the eye of Horus. It's supposed to symbolize, not just sight, but an agent of action. And that's what eyes are! Everything I do and am is sight-dependent. And not being able to see, even for a few hours, felt completely debilitating.

And it would be. In the hours of waiting and wondering yesterday I couldn't help but entertain the awful thought of "what if." What if I was losing my sight? If I lost my inability to see, you know, how terrible is that? On the extreme end, I wouldn't be able to see the sweet faces of my children again-- or my grandchildren someday-- or my beautiful husband. And how would I continue homeschooling them? We use an arts-based education, and art is at the heart of everything we do together*. Watercolor painting, pastels, crayons, pencils, fiber, clay-- you name it, we make use of it. Not only use, but joy. How do you live without that?

I guess you learn, but I can't imagine the kind of internal damage that does. I knew an artist once who lost his eyesight to macular degeneration, and how hard just being awake must have been for him! The walls of his house were lined with his life's work-- work which he couldn't see! He kept painting, but as his condition progressed, well... you can imagine how that effected the process and outcome of his work, emotionally and physically.

I guess I'll find out tonight what the future holds in store for my eyes... meanwhile, for my sighted readers, here's a bit of our recent Egyptian artwork to tide you over. I hope these photos are in focus-- I can't tell.






*Imagine how hard it would be to teach a child the nuances of drawing with block crayons if you couldn't see? Or watercolors? Oy!

Here comes the sun!

Finally! We've had it in fits and starts the last two weeks-- a minute here, an hour there... not much more than that. And always at 11 am. Ask me how I know?!

Today, however, we've had sun for a couple of hours. We're all rejoicing, especially Sunburst. For the last two weeks she has been painstakingly monitoring the sun's presence and trying to build a sundial. It's not so easy when the sky has been constantly filled with rain and dark clouds and terrible gusts of wind.

It would have been much easier and more accurate to make one on paper, and we eventually will, but I think this way she's learning so much more than she ever imagined. And she's having loads of fun doing it. She opted to make the numbers in cuneiform, as they might have done in ancient Babylon.





Plus, any excuse to go outside and visit the horses is a good one...

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.

Mother's Day surprises

It was a fantastic Mother's Day. The kids surprised me with the sweetest handmade gifts, and I was so tickled by them that I had to share.

Sunburst secretly knit a sea otter from the pattern in this book. She improvised a knit sweater for it and sewed a tiny card onto the front paws. So cute!




Moonshine carved a blue chaffinch with her very first pocket knife. And she only cut herself once doing it. Whew. It's so sweet!





And Kitty Bill, not to be left out, gave me a small cut-out doll of myself-- a mini-me! Sunburst helped him make clothes and glue the hair on, but the rest is all his hard work. The picture on the shirt is him, of course, where I keep him right next to my heart...

It was a lovely day-- the sun came out long enough for Einstein and I to build a small house for our tomato starts, and then it poured rain the rest of the long, lazy afternoon.

Happy Mother's Day

"All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her." --George Washington

I saw that quote earlier today and it just touched my heart.

Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I'm wishing you a wonderful, peaceful mother's day.

A wee bit of sewing (and muffins!)

Though it's still raining, we got a bit of sunshine in the mail this week when our order arrived from Superbuzzy. There's nothing like pretty fabrics to cheer a girl up!

We're all having serious trouble focusing this week. So as an impetus for us all to get our work done, I promised the girls I would sew up a couple of skirts for them after lessons. I've never seen kids work with so much gusto! I might have to order more fabric for our next rainy spell.



I made these from half a yard each, but because of the design layouts, they're different styles. Sunburst helped me pick out the fabrics, and Moonshine was extremely pleased and surprised with her Matryoshka pattern. When Sunburst picked out the mushroom pattern for herself, I had to laugh. After we finished the lower plants, she begged for a break from Botany so we could do more history together. Since that break she has done nothing but talk about plants. I even caught her embroidering fly agaric mushrooms onto a pair of jeans the other day-- and not just mushrooms, but soil and mycelium as well. She is too funny!

As an extra treat we made pumpkin muffins from our fall freezer stash. The weather certainly feels like fall, so why not?!! They're packed with yummy seeds, which really makes me smile. I'm trying to be better about writing down recipes as I make them up-- you can imagine the kind of trouble I get into when Einstein or the kids ask for a repeat and I have no clue what I did. So since I remembered to write it down, here's the recipe... with yet another clever title. ;-)

It's Raining Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 c evaporated cane juice
1 1/2 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c oil
2 T water
1/4 c pumpkin seeds
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/2 c raisins

Preheat over to 350 F. Mix the dry ingredients together. Add in the wet ingredients. Stir until just mixed. Bake in greased muffin pan for 25-30 minutes or until done. Makes 12.

Ziggurat veil painting

For our first attempts at veil-painting I chose to incorporate the temples from Ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria. Since this was a time of great expansion, I thought we should expand a little too and try some new art techniques. Not too shabby, I think, for a first try.... though we still have a long way to go.

Tulips

Spring is officially over. We've turned back to let Winter have another go at us... or so it seems. The powers that be came and turned the heat back on yesterday. I didn't request it, but I'm not complaining. It's cold and wet and only threatening to get colder and wetter.

So naturally, Sunburst and I spent some time today admiring the natural order of the universe.... in the vase of tulips on the table.

Amazing things are happening inside these plants. We kind of knew that already, but for grins, we took a closer look. It's all there-- spheres, triangles, star patterns, symmetry... amazing. Stunning. Wonderous. Perfect... except that one of them had 7 petals. We kind of liked that, as imperfection in nature still results in something splendid.









We did a fair job trying to capture them in pastels, though they are much easier to capture with a camera!

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. ;-)

Have you seen Jack-in-the-Green?

Thomas Crane & Ellen Houghton, London Town, 1883


I was just over at A Polar Bear's Tale-- she is always putting such inspiring artwork up-- when this one in particular caught my eye. I had no idea that Jack-in-the-Green was associated with the first of May. To me it has always been a song... still remembered from childhood. And always, it makes me think of my dad.

He and I were blessed enough to see Jethro Tull play live, twice. Though my dad has been gone six years this May, I can still hear him singing along.

I found a nice little video of Jethro Tull singing Jack-in-the-Green, 1982.

May Faire, sort of

Today... nonstop rain. All this week, rain.

I'm so glad we weren't counting on today to do anything special. In fact, we had a pretty awesome celebration last weekend. One of our dearest friends was in town, along with her baby, and the glory of May was already here.

The fields were bursting with dandelions, laughing children, and song. We made daisy chain garlands and dandelion garlands, picnicked in the yard, made a visit to the Goetheanum and castle ruins, and picnicked again by the river. It was a gorgeous and soul-filling weekend, ending with a trip to the Black Forest where we hugged our goodbyes.

There's nothing like surprise visits from an old friend, laughing late into the night, and for the first time seeing her features reflected in the shining face of her child. It was a weekend we'll treasure for a long, long time.

Loving the Saints

You know that feeling when everything just suddenly and miraculously falls into place in homeschooling-- when the kids are truly impassioned and learning and excited, and it just seems so easy?

It doesn't happen all the time. I mean, we regularly have a lot of fun and we learn things and we get excited, but once in awhile we experience these truly golden moments where everything clicks and feels perfect. And in those golden moments every fiber of my being knows without a doubt that we're meant to be doing exactly this. There's no self-doubt or worry or any of those creeping voices that gnaw away at the back of my brain. In those moments there is only pure delight.

We experienced one of those moments last week.

Moonshine started on her Saints block and she couldn't be more delighted about it. I remember Sunburst enjoying her Saints block a few years ago, but Moonshine is just over the moon about it. We're using a few different materials this time around-- starting with Tomie dePaola's book Francis: Poor Man of Assisi. I love Tomie dePaola. I love this book, and now, after reading it, I love St. Francis even more.

Moonshine was so moved by his stories that she started drawing them on her own. For fun. With block crayons. One morning last week she delightedly presented me with this picture:





When your child is so moved by a story that they wander off and draw a picture without you, you know you have something special. What's a mom to do? I brought out her new main lesson book and asked her to paste it in. Then we forged ahead. I took a few days to tell the stories from dePaola's book, and it also carried us through St. Clare and Brother Jacopa. Though Jacopa de Settesoli is not a saint, she's my absolute favorite so far! I don't think a tale of St. Francis is complete without her.



We even made up a batch of her famous "cakes" that St. Francis loved so much. They were so simple and delicious that we've made them three times since last week! I omitted the drying time from what is believed to be the original recipe and used unblanched almonds, just to make them easier. We cut ours into squares and put crosses on them. Here's the recipe that Moonshine pasted into her book:

Brother Jacopa's Cakes / Mostaccioli

1/4 c honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c ground almonds
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 egg white (or egg replacer)

Mix and knead well. Roll out dough between baking paper, and cut into shapes. Bake at 250 F for 20-30 minutes. Makes 18 small cookies.



Moonshine also announced last week that she "loves drawing with block crayons" and she's "addicted" to drawing with them. Admittedly, they are difficult at times, but her sudden and overflowing love for them just blew me away.

We've moved on from St. Francis to St. Elizabeth of Hungary. I wish I could say that I loved my resource for that story, but I don't. The more I research her online, the more I realize that the story I told Sunburst, though lovely, wasn't exactly accurate. Nor was the version of St. Francis and St. Clare that I told her using the same resource. It really bothers me, but I'm wondering, should I care? If it moves a child's heart, does it matter if the details are messed up?

What do you guys think? Please leave a comment, as I would really love to know.

Happy 4th Blogaversary!

I missed my own Blog Anniversary earlier this month. That's so like me! Four years though, wow! I'm not sure if I can count the lean blogging years during the move, but I'm still here. That's a sure sign of something. A strengthened will, maybe. Or insanity. Or both.

Anyway, happy four years! And if you've been reading along all this time-- wow! And thanks. If you're a new friend, thanks to you, too! I appreciate each and every one of you, and your sweet comments mean so much!

Here's to another great blogging year! Hopefully I'll say something useful. ;-)

(Celebratory pose brought to you by the lovely, late Freddie Mercury from our recent trip to Montreux, Switzerland. We are the champions, my friends.)

Way down here...

It was a quiet week here. A blah week. My Spring allergies are in full force, and I've had all the get-up and go of a large stone. So it seems kind of fitting that we spent most of it not soaring with the birds, but cruising the forest floor. What delights we discovered there!






Growing up in the desert, I was mesmerized by the magical beauty of the mosses. My enthusiasm for each little leaf paled in comparison to the kids delight when they discovered this moss-covered stump. They were sure this was the exact place where the fairies get married-- services down below and the dance hall reception on top. I can almost picture it.




While we were at it, we explored the lichens, too. They were hard to miss.








This little guy was hard to miss, too. He politely waited for me to snap a picture before he hopped out of sight.




Since we're in the midst of our botany studies, I asked Sunburst to collect a few specimens and put together a moss garden. It's just an old baking dish we've re-purposed with soil, moss, and other items--- bark, rocks, etc. I think it turned out pretty nice...





Sunburst has been poring over it with a magnifying glass. There's so much more to see when you have adequate lighting... there's a whole 'nother world in there! Such fun!!

A bit of Spring cheer!

Just a little brightness inside to help us truly feel Spring. Despite the chilly air outside, the daffodils are gloriously blooming! They really are fearless in the face of the icy wind and rain we've been getting this past week.

We received our new European nature table stand a few days ago, and I'm completely smitten with it. After so many years creating our nature table on a flat surface, this was just what we needed to change things up. On a whim, I took one of our white playsilks and dyed it pink with food coloring and vinegar. It worked very nicely. I heated up a pot of water with about a cup of vinegar and several (maybe 10-12) drops of red food coloring. I just submerged the damp silk into this and let it simmer in the color for about 15-20 minutes. Then I rinsed it out until the water ran clear. -- The cheery color makes me happy!

Knitted eggs, from last year's egg pattern, also made it onto the table to help celebrate Easter. The root children are waiting just a day or two longer to change over though... these little guys are several years old. I have no idea what happened to our flower children, so I'm making new ones this year... fun!! Hopefully they will show their shining little faces in the next few days.

I'm hoping the same for Mr. Sun, the big tease.

Wishing you an Easter morning that's clear and bright!!

Snow!

It snowed last night.

Not like this though. But it snowed. I'm realizing just how ambiguous the whole "goes out like a lamb" saying really is. The interpretive door is blown wide open...

Compared to lions, lambs are assumed to be these quiet, calm, fluffy little things. The lambs on the hill behind my house are pretty loud, actually. Not quite as loud as the wind yesterday, but loud enough that I can hear their bleats and clanking bells when the kids are quiet. It's not so much noise that it would shake the shutters throughout the night and keep us awake, like the wind did, but I think you know what I'm saying.

It's supposed to snow again this weekend. Not like this.



But white, I suppose, like the lambs behind our house.

We walked up the hill and visited with them a few days ago when the weather was lovely. Some of the lambs aren't white at all, and some are a bit mottled. They look more like my garden soil after it had been pelted with hail. The sun was actually shining when I uncovered the garden yesterday. As soon as I went inside the house it started hailing. I went back outside, it stopped. One last trick of the weather... I finally gave up and encouraged the sky to destroy my garden. It's early yet, after all.

And then this morning we woke up to snow. Though not like this.




The snow is just on the hillsides that surround our house. It's dusting the trees and settled in tight between them. The birds don't seem to notice it. Right now they are singing outside my window. Their song sounds something like "Come out and play! What a glorious day! It's Spring!" If anyone should know, it's them, right? But it's not... it's barely above freezing!

Is it possible that they have a sense of humor? After all, it is April Fools.

So, I welcome the snow this weekend. Do you hear that sky? Get it over with, so we can get on with things. Shake out your last wintery white pillow and let it snow.

Just please, not like this...



It really did snow like this in February.