EKjourney Backup

My deer head is finally finished!  I had a strange vision of crocheting a taxidermy deer head and a dear friend (homonym humor) and I took our girls on a Hobby Lobby excursion and I picked up a paper mache head that would work just perfect for what I had in mind.  After some experimenting, I decided to use my thin sport weight yarn and worked in single crochet stitches starting with the antlers.  It was no easy task trying to wrestle the deer head into the proper positioning on my lap while holding the stitching onto the form and each stitch was a tight squeeze between the previous stitching and the form.  It took me forever!  I had wanted to do swirls and circles but in the end, the straighter stitches seemed to work best, at least for my first attempt!  Then came the tricky part of figuring out how to mount the head.  The paper mache came with no hook or mounting bracket and I was afraid to tape or glue something on fearing the weight of the yarn wou...

As we have started navigating around "Dyslexia", I have realized how little I know, how little people in general know (including teachers, speaking from both my training and Phil's) about Dyslexia.  I think there is a common idea that it means there is something wrong or that dyslexia might be as simple as "they reverse their letters".  I have been reading a fantastic book (well, trying to anyway LOL...both in time and in understanding something complex) called the Dyslexic Advantage that is teaching me so much about thinking processes.   I have heard, "Oh...I am sorry."  I am NOT sorry at all, not in the slightest.  I have children with gifted thinking (and some flip side challenges that come with it), but who wouldn't want to unlock this great potential!!  It is scary and overwhelming for me and I feel unqualified but I have felt some renewed vigor in my mission to homeschool and I am excited to see where this takes us.  I can feel a passion begi...

A journey of learning.... So it all begin when Sawyer was a little boy.  He was late to develop first sounds and had trouble pronouncing all the sounds in words.  I wasn't too concerned, Phil also had speech issues as did many people in his family and this was something that everyone "outgrew".  Nevertheless, we did see a speech therapist (an hour a month was what we were allowed through the Early Education Program, which in my opinion was worthless).  He did 2 years of therapy and we noticed very little improvement until he was served through the public school system at age 5 by a different therapist who used a different approach.  We begin to actively work on "auditory bombardment" (me, saying the sounds correctly over and over and over while he listened rather than him repeating sounds).  At the same time, I noticed that he was having a very difficult time learning the alphabet - recognizing letters and knowing their sounds.  I instinctively, just p...

Phil was gone at a conference mid week for 2 nights so the children and I held down the fort here at home.  I am glad that we don't do this often.  We miss Phil way too much (and life is a lot harder when he is gone LOL). We didn't have time for nature journaling at Willamette Mission Park so I brought some Cottonwood seed pods home at various stages for the children to examine and draw. What is wrong with this picture? (what happens when I try and write upside down). Mother's Day was perfect.   Phil had signed me up to take a macro photography class in Portland but it was canceled so we just spent the day at home working in the garden.  It was lovely and our backyard is starting to resemble a garden rather than a neglected weed pile. I have been studying watercolors and experimenting more with felting.  I am pleased with some of the results and the learning process, figuring out how felting and colors work together.  Before felting After felting (all the r...

The weather has been beautiful so we had our first homeschooling in the park day at Willamette Mission Park.  We invited our friends the Mulkeys to join us.  We did school and then walked down to ride the ferry. I brought everything we needed to sketch lupines in our natural journals and then we ran out of time.  I am finding that when it comes to school, we only get to the "fun" stuff if we do it first.  I have started implementing this at home.  We do Bible together and then we will do nature journaling, science, read alouds, etc.. because if I leave this until the afternoon, we end up skipping it.

We had our last Awanas day of the season.  The children did such a wonderful job memorizing scripture and I was very thankful that Phil, once again, volunteered to be a part of the program and took the children every week.  This definitely has been a sacrifice on his part...coming home, eating, and turning right around to spend the evening leading a small group and being part of the story telling section with presentations to prepare for and give.  The children have loved being part of the program - working hard on their memory work, playing games, and being with friends.  Sawyer was on the worship team this year and had songs and signs to learn as well.  Jubilee was asked to recite her favorite verse in the celebration program. 

Oh, this week we rough!  One of those weeks, where I really could have used a vacation!  One of those weeks when the job of parenting and homemaking felt too much to handle.  I think it was partly because we were still trying to get back to normal and catching up and that challenge was really catching up with me.  I think it was partly because, although the weekend was wonderful, it got the creative juices flowing and then it had nowhere to go.  I think it was partly because Phil had so much catch up work for school and he was preoccupied.  I think it was partly because I was trying to find a little time for some personal recovery - walking, devotions, art...and struggling to implement it.   Working on nature journals Posies on the table and mushrooms for sketching I ran errands Friday evening and took a few side roads.  I always forget how much I love April and May... the flowering trees, the bright greens in the fields and on the newly leafed ou...

Phil competed in his first duathlon the weekend we got back from our trip.  He had signed up to participate in this event before we had even planned our trip so he was unprepared having only been on his (new, given to him by a friend) bike 4 times and had done no running training.  He didn't break any speed records but he did his best and completed both sections and that is quite an accomplishment, all things considered! The race was near the airport, up in Portland, just 4 miles from where I was taking my art class so we treated the morning like a date.  We got to ride up together, Phil checked in for his events, and then I got to see him start before I needed to be at the studio.  After Phil finished, he biked up to the studio and rested in the car (and got us lunch) until we could drive home together. Bikes in the ready. Jogging up to the starting line. Waiting... About to start. First leg, running 3 miles. Phil then biked 15 miles, and ran another 3 miles.

The first week back was quite a whirlwind.  There was much to unpack and catch up on, errands to run, and school routine to start.  I did my best to put things back together and Phil did his best to catch up on work and his Admin classes.  It was hard to be with one another for 18 days and then apart most of the time. I was excited to get an email from Jane Aukshunas inviting me to a class she was teaching at her studio in Portland.  I wondered if I was too busy to take the first weekend back off but Phil quickly rearranged his Saturday plans and my Dad was able to come Sunday and spend the day with the children while I went to the second day of class and Phil competed in his first duathlon, which by happenstance, was only 4 miles from the studio.  So, it all worked out but made for a rather chaotic following week. My work space.   We worked on oil pastel technique and value in painting. Jane shared with us about a class she took up in Washington and had be...