laughing Annie

I'm pretty sure there's a requirement that all horse owners must, at some point, post a photo of their horse "laughing". Well, here ya go, my obligation has been fulfilled.

magnadoodling

I don't have much time this morning (we're busy cutting a hole in the side of our barn -- don't even ask....), so since posting J's artwork seems to always be well-received, I figured I'd just stick up some of his magnadoodle drawings from this week. This first is, obviously, our solar system.

I had to bring J in to identify this one: That's Fire Island on the left, Ice Island in the middle, and Lightening Island on the right. Those straight lines across the water path to Fire Island is lightening that is taking the power of water. (I'm just telling you what he said -- Zoo Boy seems to think it makes sense.) Oh, and I asked Zoo Boy where all this Pokemon stuff takes place, and he told me "Pokemon World". So there you have it, in case you were staying up nights wondering.

In case my fellow Holistic Homeschoolers are worried that my kids' heads are stuck exclusively in futuristic fantasy, here's a nice drawing to balance it out -- a castle with a king (and crown) in front of it.



It's all about the love!









And until next time, we'll leave you with this question to ponder.

creativity abounds

J's been on a creativity spree this week. The crayons, scissors, and paper are just flying around here. Over the weekend, I was talking with my friend Kerri (fellow Enki-ite) about how J loved to do craft projects on his own (from instructions he comes across in various books and magazines), but that it's hard for me to draw him into a planned craft activity. She had suggested just continuing to make project ideas available to him, and letting him explore various media on his own.

But in typical J fashion, he didn't even give me the chance to try to locate project ideas to leave out for him to discover -- he went ahead and found his own source. A Children's Atlas provided the inspiration to create map of our neighborhood. Here it is:

It's amazingly accurate, actually. The orientation of our house to to the road is a bit off, but otherwise, he's got our neighbors' and our houses in the right locations and colors, and everything is labeled appropriately. And I was pleased with the mixed use of pencil and crayons -- that's new for him. In fact, I've been seeing him picking up the crayons (as opposed to his magnadoodle) more frequently in general these days.

Here's another project, a paper airplane he decorated. This is the bottom. This is also a map -- I can see some Pokemon details, Fire Island and others. I believe the intent was that the plane would take you to "Poke-land" by following the directions on the map (I have no idea where the Pokemon live or come from, by the way, I make most of this stuff up!).

Here's the top side of the same plane. Again, I see Fire Island, on the left wing, and I believe that's Lightening Island on the right wing (but I could have that name wrong). On both the top and the bottom of the plane map, there are arrows showing the flight path.


Another project (from the Japan page of the atlas) was Origami Penguins. My favorite part of this was how J improvised. We don't have origami paper, which is colored on one side and white on the other, so he took white paper and colored one side black with a crayon, then cut squares out of that paper to fold his penguins out of. All entirely his idea, including making his own two-toned paper and making penguins of various sizes to depict an entire family of penguins. Naturally, the penguins went to live on our frozen winter Nature Table, along with the walruses, seals and polar bears. (Although J was careful to point out that penguins live at the antarctic, while polar bears live at the arctic. But he said since they both live on ice and snow, it was OK to have them together here in our house.)

two months

Yes, two short months ago, Candy Corn was starving in a corn field. Now look at her.

Funny thing about having my camera just hanging around, I never know what I'm going to find on it when I download photos. There's almost always a surprise. Today's surprise was this:

I'm not sure who put the shirt on her, but I sure got a giggle out of seeing our best-dressed-cat caught on film (er, um, electronic media).

Now if she would just learn to get along with Linus and Kismet. One thing at a time, I guess.

the political buzz

It's all the buzz -- the Iowa caucus, the New Hampshire primary, it's all over the news and the radio and the blogs. Up to this point, I've been a somewhat disinterested observer -- let's face it, I've been busy mourning the fact that Al Gore, my personal Super Hero, isn't running. But it seems that I've finally caught Presidential Campaign Fever. The realization came last night when I practically jumped up and down on the bed as they announced Hillary Clinton's unexpected win in NH. And this morning, as I sit down to sip my hot chocolate and check in on some blogs, I see that my friend Kyra over at This Mom has written about the primary frenzy, too. As I was typing out a comment to her post, I realized that I had more to say on the topic than I thought, and decided to post it here instead. And then I get to be included in the buzz, too. Wheee!! I love to feel included!!

Those of you that know me, or have been reading my blogs for any amount of time, know that I'm a liberal. A fairly strong, towards the left end of the spectrum liberal. Not as liberal as The Map Man mind you, but still, I've been referred to as a "flaming liberal" on more than one occasion. It's a label I can't argue with, and that I wear proudly.

Yet, despite freely proclaiming myself to be a liberal, I will carefully point out that I am NOT a Democrat. Oh, I vote for the Dems most times (and have made a vow never to cast a vote for a Republican again for as long as I live), although sometimes I get a "wild hair" and choose an unaffiliated Independent, or someone off the Green Party, or (gasp!) a Libertarian. But for the most part, I vote a straight Democratic line, because I feel that any vote I give to someone else, regardless of how totally rockin' they might be, is a vote not being used effectively against the Republicans. But I am a severe disliker (hate may be too strong a word, but maybe not...) of the power of the two major political parties in this country. All that money, and power, in the backing of their candidates makes it absolutely impossible for the vast majority of GOOD candidates to have even a snowball's chance in Hades to make a run at office. So I remain staunchly Independent and Politically Unaffiliated, but I seek my representation from amongst the Democratic party.

That being said, I really WANT to like Obama. Really, I do. I like the way he looks, I like the way he presents himself, and I totally agree with Kyra when she says that he LOOKS (and sounds) Presidential standing at the podium. If I was casting the roll of President in a movie, he'd no doubt be my guy. And if the Dems put him on the ticket, by golly, I'll vote for him with a smile on my face. But, as much as my heart yearns for this country to be ready for this sort of thing, I can't just vote for him BECAUSE of his race (the same way it would be wrong for anyone not to vote for him because of it). And when it comes right down to it, the man is just too conservative for me.

Hillary's stance on the issues falls closer in line with what I want for our future. And beyond that, I feel like the trust factor is stronger with her -- I'm more apt to think that what she's saying is what she means. I find her more approachable -- I mean, just look how I (and most of the public, for that matter) refer to her -- by her familiar first name instead of her surname. I find her more REAL, which to me is a very important "it" factor in selecting the leader of our country (and representative to the world). I'd like to think that it's not JUST because she's a woman that I feel this way about her, that I trust her more than the male candidates, but if I was to be truly honest with myself, I think that definitely plays into it.

But clearly, voting for or against Hillary because of her gender is as lame as voting for or against Obama because of his race. Hypocrisy is a dicey thing!

Given that truly, I think Hillary meets my "needs" better, I'll be pulling for her in the upcoming primaries. I don't get to vote -- they don't allow Independents to vote in CT primaries, and I refuse to register for a political party -- so ultimately my vote will go towards whoever winds up on the Dem ticket anyway.

But I can hope the right woman -- um, er, person! -- winds up there.

the unknown

The Unknown -- sounds mysterious, doesn't it? And look, there's "The Unknown Pokemon", reclining mysteriously on our Nature Table. How'd it get there? I don't know, it's a mystery!!

Now, bear with me, I'm not exactly up to speed with the Poke-lingo. But J tells me this is "Unknown G". Apparently, The Unknown comes in all the letters of the alphabet. Go figure, huh?

Here is Unknown C (on the left, in case your Poke-identification skills aren't up to snuff). It has the power of "Call". J demonstrates this by calling out "Unknown.... Unknown...." in an echoey sort of spooky sort of mysterious sort of voice. And then, other Unknowns come to it! See, right there next to it, it attracted in Unknown J. It went on to attract a few other Unknowns, too, like O, I and N. And together they made...(pause for suspense and mystery!)...JOIN! ooooooooh....

J demonstrates to Zoo Boy and me how Unknown C uses its power to call in our friend from above, Unknown G. Worked really well -- one minute Unknown G was lounging on the Nature Table in a sea of purple, then next -- kazow!! (I don't think that's an official Poke-noise, by the way, so don't tell my kids I said that or else I shall be chastised) -- there it was with the other Unknowns on the play mat. Mysterious, I tell you!

Of course, the very BEST thing about The Unknown is that you can spell words with them. So most of J's writing these days looks like this. Who ever thought The Unknown could be so much fun?

I'm happy to say that my kids have no fear of The Unknown. I, however, am a little leery of it -- I mean, look at it. It's only got one eye. That's just downright... I dunno... mysterious!

old trees

As long as I can remember, I have loved old trees. Living history standing. This time of year they are particularly striking against a winter sky. I took as many photos of old trees on our walk today as I did of stonewalls. In this first picture, Zoo Boy is convinced that an owl must live in this old tree.

The crown of the same tree in the above photo. While it's proximity to the road makes it unlikely that an owl actually lives there, I'm sure this old oak has seen it's share of animal residents -- and human passersby -- in it's day.





An old apple tree at the edge of an abandoned pasture. We've passed this tree many times and I've never paid it any heed. Today it immediately caught my eye, it's dark silhouette contrasting with the brilliant white snow around it, and called out for me to take it's portrait. I will make note of this old tree this spring, and watch to see if it has enough life left to open a few buds, or if it's fate is to remain a skeleton at the woods' edge, a haunting reminder of days gone by.

There is nothing more magnificent to me, regardless of the season, than a mighty Sugar Maple. This old gal is missing a few of her limbs, but she still cuts a bold figure against a pale sky. I never did get a good picture of her this fall in her autumn finery, but now I think it's because she was waiting until winter to strike her most dazzling pose.

Here's an old apple tree that is well past it's time. I'll be curious to see how much longer it remains standing, I can't believe it will be here for many more years, and I wonder how many it had been standing strong and proud before landing in this state. For the most part it is devoid of branches, and those few that remain certainly are no longer bearing leaves even during the gentlest of weather. It's surely been many years since it produced any fruit. Yet there's still life within, as evidenced by the holes woodpeckers leave in pursuit of the insects the tree now harbors.