Impromptu Fun

Sky Meadows State Park - Delaplane, VA

 Wednesday morning there was a note in my inbox - an invite to a ranger-led edible plants hike that was to take place that afternoon. It was dreary and chilly out, but we secured a spot in the group, got school and lunch done and hopped in the van anyway. 

A photo with the kind and very knowledgeable Ranger Vanessa

The kids tried a number of berries and were also introduced to and warned against poisonous berries that look similar to edibles. They ate rose hips, persimmons and autumn olives to name a few.

Snacking at the autumn olive tree

stopping to sample a spicebush

At almost every stop, Jonathan was right up front asking and answering questions. The hike was about a mile and a half over hilly terrain. The kids did great! Melanie only needed to be held on a couple of uphill treks.

The olives were, by far, the best. The kiddos each collected twigs loaded with berries to sustain them for the remainder of the hike. Waiting for us at the end of the trail was a lovely Dutch oven full of steaming spicebush tea. Jonathan added 4 Tbs of sugar to his tea. We went straight to the skating rink to burn it all off. What a fantastic day!

It's been a busy week! Jason took off on Thursday to spend time with the kiddos so that I could pick up a grocery co-op order and do some Christmas shopping in Winchester. Daddy took them for their first meal at a Waffle House. They can't wait to go back! I enjoyed time with some Classical Conversations moms at a moms night out here in Hamilton on Tuesday night.

Today was our last CC class until January. The kids performed what almost sounded like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on their tin whistles for the group. It was very cute. Jonathan can play it very well on his own at home, but his little fingers were misplaced by one this morning. He does not like to be in front of a group of people! It was great fun to watch Jonathan and Melanie perform with their friends. We're looking forward to the break, but I'm sure we'll be excited to get back into the swing of things in January!

Make Up Day & Wood Stove Initiation

 This is what you do when you home school. Chicken bones. I took this photo after giving them a hard scrub. They've been drying on the top shelf of a wire rack in the garage for a couple weeks in preparation for a back yard dino dig. 

 The beauty of this whole gig is that when you have a kiddo who's sick all week and can't get out in the crazy wind, you can still do school. You just can't do any fun outdoor activities. This activity and our weekly trip to the library were the only school things we really missed.

So... now that Mel is almost back to 100%, we dug for dino (chicken) bones today. There were 32 bones, and we found 22 before we gave up. I wonder how many raccoons will visit our sand box tonight?

Got one!

 It was fun! Even more fun to have Daddy with us for a school activity.

 This morning, we all piled into the Taco and headed toward Front Royal to pick up a small electric wood splitter. Jason carried along several logs to split, just to make sure we were buying something that actually worked. True to form, Jason made fast friends with the sellers and we met almost all the pets and people before we left. We stopped to play at an access ramp on the Shenandoah River before heading back to Hamilton to split wood. Throwing rocks and sticks into water never gets old for a 4 & 5 year old, even when it's cold and windy out.

And since it was so cold and windy out, we finally decided to try out our wood stove. It works well and we are VERY thankful to have it. 

Below are a couple pictures Jonathan took with my phone. You can see Melanie putting together little puzzles at the tops of the photos and Jonathan's Cuisenaire Rod math/ reading assignments at the bottom.

Halloween 2015

And here they are! Pictures from Jonathan and Melanie's first Halloween in Virginia. They both wanted to repeat last year's costumes, although Melanie changed her mind at the last minute and decided to wear a leotard I found at the clothing exchange and one of her spring skirts that looks a little like a ballerina tutu. 

carving the pumpkin

 The kids picked a beautiful pumpkin this year at the farm. The farmer on duty said it looked like a Cinderella variety. We received one as a CSA bonus along with some lovely winter squash. This year, I finally took some advice I heard a long time ago and cut the bottom out instead of the top. I have the face pointed toward the wall now and the pumpkin still looks completely intact for Thanksgiving.  Another neat thing about living in Virginia... the nights stay cold enough after you carve your pumpkin to preserve it. No more moldy pumpkins!

getting ready

Sometimes I find myself lamenting the fact that Jonathan and Melanie are so close in age. I almost always discover how wrong it is to lament anything. God knows. He put these two together.

 

spooky!

Spiderman moonlighting as a ballerina

Settling into the Season

There's no doubt about it. We miss Texas. Melanie mentions it almost every day.

Texas is perhaps an acquired taste. 

But we definitely feel the loss of it.

So, I remind myself and my children of all the things we couldn't do in Texas. We did not have second-story windows that we could leave open all night long. We did not have several species of brilliant maples studding our yard. We did not have piles of leaves to jump into with wild abandon. There were no mountainous hikes or kitty cats to cuddle or apples and pears to pick right off the tree. 

Skating!

 Melanie looks a little out of sorts here, but she is already skating better than big brother and shortly after this picture was taken, she asked me to sit down so she could skate by herself. The rink is not at all far from the house and the kids are thoroughly worn out when we get home. I'm thankful we've got this option with winter coming!

On Tuesday, the kids and I volunteered at our local polling place. A friend needed a few extra hands to help distribute sample ballots. For the first time ever, the kiddos came in and watched Mama bubble and submit her ballot. Work tables were set up with chairs. It was the perfect setting to demonstrate to the kids exactly how our political process works. I doubt they have a full understanding, but I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to include them.

Jonathan is quite the little politician. He was not shy at all about asking voters if they needed a sample ballot. Very few could resist taking one from an exuberant four and five year old.

Today in class, the kids dissected (i.e. stabbed and yanked all appendages off) crayfish/crawfish... however you prefer to say it. They had a ball. Naturally, Jonathan wanted to keep his specimen, so it has found a home on a wire shelf in the garage beside a very stinky turtle shell and skeleton that we found on a trail at camp. 

Soccer ended last Friday, so today we had lunch with school mates and played until almost 3 pm at the playground outside. It was so nice just to talk with new friends and watch our children play together in the woods and on the playground. We discussed the cheapest way to acquire fire wood for winter, recipes, curriculum and old movies on a perfect indian summer afternoon. What a gift.

A couple weekends ago, we ventured out towards Front Royal to George Washington National Forest. We took the kids on a bit of a hike. We may have just chanced upon the peak weekend for fall color, and we left with our hands full of beautiful leaves to press. We had some lunch at Five Guys (yum!) and listened to Jonathan complain about the length of the car ride all the way home.

I'll have to save Halloween for another post. It was a good one! Some day I will remember to take the good camera to all our events and have all the pictures in one place. What I will say about Halloween is that, although I love the way it marks the season with festivities and fun, I'm always glad to put it behind us and turn the calendar to November 1st.

Slowly we seem to find ourselves moving into a rhythm in this beautiful new place.  Preparing for the possibility of a hard winter, getting involved in local politics, putting a few more pictures in place on the walls - even cooking some of our old favorite recipes in the "new-to-us" kitchen, make this place feel almost like it has always been home to us.