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December 21, 2006
Happy Solstice!
We had a wonderful evening, after all. We ate our chicken soup. We picked at the Yule log cake that was anything but log-shaped. We lit our candles and did our Solstice thing. We opened presents. Everyone is happy.
We're up in the morning early for a loooooooong drive to Texas.
Posted by lynx at 10:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2006
Bah! Humbug!
We celebrate Solstice or Yule as our main holiday, and Christmas secondarily. That is, we celebrate the Coming of Santa Claus, and the spirit of peace, goodwill, and good times with family and friends.
We're traveling for Christmas this year, so Solstice is going to be big here. We're going to open all our Christmas presents on Solstice Eve (tomorrow night), leaving just the Santa presents and a couple of others for Christmas morning. I've got our traditional Solstice dinner ready to go. We've been doing Advent, and that last candle is ready to be lit. Before all that, we need to get packed, and clean the house.
So you know what's happening, don't you?
We're sick. Every blessed one of us except, perhaps, Aidan (it's hard to tell sometimes).
I still think we'll leave on Friday as scheduled - the question is, do our intrepid friends with whom we're staying still want us? We could be bringing more gifts than you bargained for. Oh, and on that note - I'd like to extend an apology to all of the Scouts and their families who came to the pack meeting last night, played with my kids, and ate my cookies.
More pressing, our Solstice dinner is Not. Gonna. Happen. I think I'm going to turn the roast chicken into chicken soup, and save the big dessert finale until sometime in the new year. We'll light candles, sip soup, and open gifts in the most low-key possible way.
The suitcases, though, are not going to pack themselves. I've begged. I've threatened them with Griffin's light-up Harry Potter wand. But no. Nor will the washing machine manage the laundry for me. Hmpf. Labor-saving devices, indeed.
Posted by lynx at 2:52 PM | Comments (5)
December 15, 2006
Solstice/Christmas
BooMama thought it would be a fun idea to do a blog Christmas parade of homes. (I found the link at Dy's.)
Here are our Solstice/Christmas decorations for this year. The living room:
And a better look at the tree:
We're a bit minimalist this year, what with the moving and renting and all.
And for refreshment on your tour, we have our traditional Solstice dessert: Pumpkin Roll Cake. Without the nuts.
For your listening enjoyment I once again recommend Jaiya's Firedance, because it's the very, very best Solstice or Yule music, period. Did I mention that it's the best?
Posted by lynx at 11:02 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 13, 2006
The Gingerbread Man - Gone Wrong
I've never tried to link to a YouTube video, so here goes nothing. If it works, this is the video that Connor, Aidan and their partner made in their clay animation class. They used the Digital Blue Digital Movie Creator.
Not bad, eh?
Posted by lynx at 12:21 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
December 11, 2006
Midyear Check
I've updated The Plan with notes about where we are and what we've actually done, as opposed to what I had planned.
A note about The Plan. I wrote it up. It's my guideline. But I actually look at the thing maybe twice a year. It was good to work out a guideline for reaching certain goals, but in reality I work with where we are, who we are, and what we want on a more immediate basis. Goals are necessary and plans are good, but we don't homeschool so that we can get bent out of shape trying to follow some curriculum to the letter.
I'm an academic overachiever. One of the most important lessons I've learned on this homeschooling journey is that it's better to underplan than to overplan. Consequently I'm pretty darned pleased that we're ahead of where I thought we'd be in some areas. That tells me I'm doing this planning thing right, so far: We've worked, but we haven't stressed. We took plenty of time off, and had plenty of fun along the way.
We're off to our last day of co-op classes, where I'll get to view Connor and Aidan's clay animation video: "The Gingerbread Man Gone Wrong." I'll see if I can post a clip later.
Posted by lynx at 9:55 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 9, 2006
The Benefits of a Classical Education
This morning I asked Aidan to tell me what was happening the last time he read in "Black Ships Before Troy."
"Well," began Aidan, "Paris got killed ...."
"Yay!" Connor interrupted. "Paris was destroyed!"
And then they both got a light in their eyes, and yelled, in perfect unison: "Paris delenda est!"
Posted by lynx at 9:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 2, 2006
We Had Too Much Stuff, Anyway
I'm from Texas. I don't know anything about basements. Or sump pumps.
Now I know what it looks like when a pump breaks, and your basement is covered in half an inch of water. That's not a lot of water, all things considered; unless your basement contains several cardboard boxes, holding your stuff. As it turns out, half an inch of water is enough to wreck a great many boxes. Especially boxes full of books. Especially when no one noticed the water for hours, so it had plenty of time to thoroughly soak into the boxes.
Really, though, I don't care about the stuff. It's stuff, it can go. I'm irritated about the inconvenience of now having to move everything out of the basement, while the carpet is replaced, and other repairs are made.
The one thing that upsets me is that one of the boxes which got completely soaked was the box full of the kids' artwork. Oh, that hurts.
Update: There's also the inconvenience of not being able to send the boys down to the basement to do their crazy-making running around.
Posted by lynx at 9:31 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack