Noah writes a poem...

The Setting Sun 
by: Noah Franklin

The setting sun
shows that you've had fun,
and the day is ending,
maybe you've been climbing
or reading,
maybe even doing crafts.
But the day is done,
and you've had fun.

Not just good coffee...

... pretty coffee...

Fire-breathing Dragon for E... Chocolate Flower Blossom for Me

Want your own latte art? Go here:

Gruene Grind Coffee Co.
www.gruenegrind.com
2348 Gruene Lake Dr. Ste. B
New Braunfels, TX 78130

A flock of little birdies...

Two years of teaching a little art class... and this is probably one of the first times I have remembered to actually take photos of the final projects... here they are...

Faith (L) and Hannah (R) - Perfect color selections to use as decorations in their rooms.

Grace (L) and Caleb (R) - this was huge for Caleb, he sat attentively and worked so hard on his bird. He forgot to outline it in Sharpie pen so it ended up lost under the water color, but I was just THRILLED that he was participating happily!

Micah (L) and Noah (R) - Micah just painted over one I had drawn in pencil... he started painting before I could help him outline it. He was happy and busy, so it was perfect.

A little birdie...

Tomorrow afternoon my little art class will meet. I am sometimes a little last minute in getting around to planning my lessons. This time, I had been inspired by a post at Art Projects for Kids and knew what I wanted to do. I am going to have the kids play "follow the leader" and they will need to complete each step as I reveal it.

If there is anything that I have learned from the last two years of teaching this little art class, it is that children need to see an example of what they are going to be doing. So, as I gathered supplies, I also made an example. I hope the children think it is as fun tomorrow as I thought it was tonight.

A morning well spent...

Two years ago we were studying Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (Apologia Elementary Science Series) and we joined some friends who were in a Young Birder's Club to be a hands-on application for learning. We ended up falling in love with being out in God's Creation and learning about the fascinating study of birds - the verses from the Bible about God's care for the birds, and more so us, come rushing into my mind every time we go on a bird walk. Long since we finished our year studying all things that fly, we have remained in the birding group and spent one Saturday morning a month with our birding people.

Our official meeting was last week, and it was fun. However, not everyone in our family is old enough for the actual meeting, so the two little boys stayed at home for some Daddy time. Noah has been complaining lately, saying he hates birding and that it is boring. I prayed about it, because I don't want him to discount an activity all together just because it stretches him, but once I considered that he had attended two years worth of meetings with a relatively good attitude, I decided that when Elliott could be home I wouldn't make him go. He was thrilled to have a morning with Dad and his brothers in place of little feathered friends.

If I had to guess, and I am sure if I asked Noah for specifics, Noah's dislike is not about the birds themselves. He actually gets just as excited about a new find as the rest of us. What bothers him is the being quiet. Since his early days of life, quiet has never been a word to describe him. At 3 years old, we actually were concerned he was deaf because he was so loud, we thought maybe he couldn't hear and was compensating with volume. The walks are also slow. You take your time, usually discussing habitats or things to look for and field markings on what we have seen. Noah doesn't do slow. He is happiest when he is blazing down our street standing on his bike or running laps in the backyard. He enjoys roller coasters that make your stomach flip, they make life go at his speed. When you consider that the expected behavior for birding is quiet and slow, you can imagine his misery.

So, last week was the first time Noah stayed home from a YBC meeting. The girls and I were excited to go and we rode with friends. Once we were there and we met the guest speaker/teacher for this month's meeting I just had to laugh. Mr. Craig is the park interpreter for Guadalupe River State Park, he is a naturalist and really loves birds (he actually has a very special license to band them). And he is loud. And when he goes on bird walks, he moves fast, he even ran up to a little clump of trees at one point, bounding off with excitement at what he saw. One of my friend's girls even said, "We sure are being loud today!" Noah would have loved it!

So, I talked with Craig a little, mentioning my son's aversion to the quiet and slow birding. I couldn't help but smile when he said, "Most real birders don't really like my style, but whoever goes on bird walks with me usually has fun!" I decided that Noah really needed to meet this man! Mr. Craig had done a special bird banding day for our YBC, but this past Saturday was a regular banding event that he does once a month. When I told Elliott about Craig and how I think it would be good for Noah to meet him we decided to make our Saturday morning excursion to attend "A Bird in the Hand".

Noah was first to release a bird. Can you see his smile?

I think he exact words were, "That was awesome!"

Caleb's first bird release, he flew off fast!

Faith has a way with birds... three birds she was able to release, all had to be convinced to leave her hand.

Grace's bird escaped quite quickly...

The teeny-tiny "coffee drinking bird" - a Ruby Crowned Kinglet - one of my favorite birds, a surprise catch in the whisper nets.

Micah got to release my favorite little bird, the bird wanted to stay... I think he wanted to come home with us, he must have heard about our coffee...

Elliott released a Vesper Sparrow

We each got to hear the heartbeat of a little Savannah Sparrow

Craig let Noah put on his little magnifiers to look at some details on the wing... Noah was hooked after this, said he wanted to come every time they do this!

This guy was a freelance photojournalist working on an article for the SA Express News. Craig asked Noah to hand him the White Crowned Sparrow to release.

We had a wonderful family morning together. I was thrilled to see Noah enjoying God's Creation, and I was thankful for God sending Craig to spark an interest in Noah, he was super excited to meet this "loud" birder. And just for fun, the photojournalist took a liking to our little family and interviewed Hannah and I... I can't wait to see his photos.

Gonna try...

... to catch up on laundry (having a broken dryer is really impacting my efficiency in this area)...

... to do a better job of photographically chronicling our life (and not just our birding trips)...

... to spend more time out in the front yard with the kids engaging my neighbors (instead of hunkering down on my cozy couch with my yummy coffee)...

... to say yes more to my children's requests to play, read, create (versus coveting a clean floor or a quiet moment)...

... to wake up earlier (which means I will need to go to bed earlier)...

... post at least one photo per blog (a friend sort of challenged me on this, you know who you are)...

... to pray more consistently for Gospel opportunities (like every time I get in my car to go somewhere)...

... to be more real and not let people think I have it all together (for this you may need to show up unannounced and ask to borrow my hallway bathroom, the reality of that room is rather alarming)...

And how is this for real? This is all from one night where all the children bathed...

Day ten...

I can hardly believe that the last day of this little challenge is here. And over. I stayed up too late last night, stress and coffee, so I slept in until all the children were up. I had Hannah serve breakfast while I hopped in the shower. My mother-in-law came today to oversee school because my friend needed someone to hang out with her at the hospital while her hubby got some business taken care of.

As soon as I got the children going on their school work I headed out to the hospital. I stopped for a coffee and grabbed a salad for lunch, not knowing the timing of the day ahead. Our kids don't have a cell phone, but my techie husband has my old iPhone set up through a Google number so that the kids can text me over wifi. While we do have a house phone, I have found that questions asked over text seem to get to the point faster, if they call me it takes twenty minutes to get off the phone because everyone wants to talk to me.

I got settled in my friend's room and her husband went off to do his errands and we chatted. And played with baby. We shared life, and we laughed as I received texts from my kids about what lessons they had finished and what they were going to work on next. I was impressed that my children used proper spelling and good punctuation on their texts. Makes a Momma proud. :)

After lunch came for my friend, I pulled the salad I had stowed away in my purse and began a new text-a-thon about lunch plans for home. My mother-in-law was making the kids leftovers in a new way, she really is Super Woman. And she gave them fruit snacks in the afternoon, the children were sufficiently Grandma spoiled. I am so glad she could come, the kids have missed her.

When my bedside friend services were not longer needed (a.k.a. my friend's husband returned) it was late in the afternoon. I said goodbye, and laid the baby down to sleep. As I walked to the shuttle for the parking garage, I texted a friend and asked if I could make a pit stop at her house. We had been trying to connect for a few weeks, she has some chalkboards her husband made out of old cabinet doors years and years ago, and I was wanting to take them off her hands. They were home, and just two blocks off the highway on my way back to my house.

What I thought would be a quick stop in turned into an absolutely unexpected precious visit with friends from far away... but that is for another post. :) Eventually, I gathered up my newly acquired chalkboards and headed home way later than I planned. I learned later that I made my kids worry by not telling them of my unexpected delay. Bad Mommy. However, when I got home and shared with them the reason for the delay there were squeals of joy and my iPhone was passed around for proof while they scrolled through the photos.

The kids showed me their schoolwork (which I have yet to catch up on grading), they also showed me some new tricks in the backyard. I realized that I had not been in the backyard recently, so I declared a doggie poopy pick-up for all the children. I should have been more specific with what to do with their gatherings because once they finished they all paraded their full bags into my living room to show me what a great job they did. I quickly sent them back out and we discovered someone's bag had a hole in it. Sigh. We had an indoor version of the pick-up project and then held a hand washing party.

Elliott orchestrated the kids making individual pizzas for dinner. I started working on the lesson plans for our preschool church time for Sunday. Kids showered. Dinner eaten. We all sat down to watch Undercover Boss, and by the end we were all sobbing. Kids played. I kept working on the preschool lesson. Bedtime routine. Back to preschool lesson. Elliott and I firmed up our plans for the weekend.

And that is it... two weeks of how we school in the moment-to-moment. Admittedly, this last week was unusual in some ways, but not in others... unusual that so many things collided into just a handful of days, but not unusual for us to drop our plans to help our friends in need, which is one of my favorite things about homeschooling. Looking ahead to next week, our schedule looks pretty normal... we shall see what Providence brings. :)