I was blown away by how I was now on the right road to get home. Just like that! I wish I had looked around and seen what God had wanted me to see. I wished I could have trusted to enjoy the scenery on that little excursion.

We had agreed to meet Annette at the Washington Square library, a small, cozy, if not well stocked branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library. It opens at 1 on Wednesdays, and the babies had a play date with Simeon Glas in the 2 o’clock hour, so we had to make this quick. I had half a mind to make it the downtown library when Annette called and canceled around 12.

I decided to go ahead to Washington Square after all, because it has free parking. The snow was coming down pretty quick and thick, when we arrived around 1 P.M. Xay did his usual–parked himself in front of the computer, while I parked Esteban in front of a crate full of baby toys. Mani and Joy played with puzzles and sorting toys, and Mani found this huge oversized book called Zoo-ology, which she insisted we check out. Yani haunted her favorite shelf–the one which held whole collections of Goosebumps, Babysitters Club, and American Girls books.

I scanned the children’s fiction section for some likely classics. I found a few old Hardy Boys books, which I thought might work, I ran into Frances Hodges Burnett and picked up a book that looked like the Prince and the Pauper. Then I found Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, and Black Beauty.

I picked up a more twaddle-looking book about football as a possible book for Xay. Then I went in the adult room (there are only two rooms in Washington Square), and looked for something appropriate for either Yani or myself. I found 1984. I decided to take the plunge. Then I returned to give the children a choice. Xay could choose between Old Yeller, and that football looking book. He chose the former.

Yani could choose between Tom Sawyer and Black Beauty, which I had started reading to them both as a bedtime story a few years ago. She chose Tom Sawyer.

I knew I was in trouble when Yani had read half her book by bedtime the first day. She finished reading Tom Sawyer on Saturday. Xay just finished his book today. (Monday). That means they each read a substantial piece of classic fiction in under a week! They had three weeks to finish, which is when the books are due. I, on the other hand, am drowning somewhere around page 33 in this thick satirical allegory, which I can scarcely read without falling asleep.

Now I’ve got to think of prizes for this contest!

I have a different reading agenda with Mani and Joy. I got this idea from Sherese. She takes the due date slips from the library and tapes them in a book, and then writes down comments from the children about every book on the slip. She said that way she knows she took the trouble to read them. I don’t keep up with those slips very well, but I take the trouble to sit down with the children every other day or so and write about the books we have read. We don’t limit it to library books, but we do make a point of reading all the library books, so we can write about them. Since September, we’ve read and written about 39 library books. Not bad. . .

In other words, I had wanted to use the My Twin doll, and have her dancing, etc., and I have her dancing with the whole x teem, and other dolls, etc. in the video. I stopped the animation pretty early in the video and moved on to live action dancing, with Mani dancing in one scene, and then playing, and wearing wigs, etc. Everyone wore a wig at some point, and Yani really did a lot of dancing; I did some, and we even got Curtis dancing in the white fro wig at the end. I didn’t do much to it as far as editing is concerned, but I did write Happy Birthday Xay throughout, and put on some credits.

The music was the team Gray! chant, with Yani and Mani’s names taken out. That music has the same drum beat and instruments as draw a brick; it’s just not as wild and free. The video is funny, a little embarrassing, and I’m disappointed because it looks like I didn’t plan it. (because I didn’t plan it!)

The other video projects we did after that were The tragic tale of a girl and an apple, Yani’s first apple film, which I finally edited and put the music I call Daddy Jazz on it. Daddy Jazz is actually the intro music to Woman’s Trip (Karen’s 1994 play), which I scored. This music has a somber enough, cool vibe to it, and it is perfect for the film. We made the title credit long and slow to make the music fit better elsewhere in the film. It goes over pretty well with people when they see it.

We also collaborated on the third x teem movie, the x teem meets the y team. The (non story-boarded) story involved a car crash. First we tried it in the front hall, with the cars falling down the stairs, and a huge y team of dolls rushing to the rescue. This didn’t work at all, and we pared the Y team down to just the dolls that could stand up unassisted. We moved production outside.

This time, we had a couple dolls riding in the big ride on truck, which would somehow crash, and then the broken Brandy doll would fall out, and we’d really play up her legs being separated from her torso, then have the dolls and stuffed animals rescue her, and, substituting the whole Brandy for the broken Brandy, we’d show her all fixed up. Well, it’s hard to make a film without that storyboard, and it seemed like everything was taking too long, and I shortened the whole rescue scene.

We used the Dora doll as the spokesperson for the Y team, since she stands up the best of all the dolls. To knock the truck over, we had Mani roll the truck, Xay threw the big red ball at it from one direction, and I threw the football from a different direction. Yani taped it. It took a couple of takes, but it worked well, the truck landing on one of the dolls inside, and Brandy’s legs flew just like they were supposed to. Before I could do final editing on the film, my studio mysteriously stopped working, and I couldn’t make new music for the movie. I was disappointed, because I’d come up with a special Y team theme, which went well with the X teem theme. Oh well, maybe next time.

So the film just sat for a while, but then in the fall, I revisited it with a mind to finish it. Thankfully, I had put the whole Yanilala piece into the Logic Audio, and had even bounced it back in March, in anticipation of Xay’s birthday.

Let me back up a second.

For Xay’s birthday in ’03, Curtis had planned to finish writing a video game he’d been working on for Xay to play with his friends. The theme of the party was video games. I put the music into the computer for use in the game. Curtis liked the piece, as did the children, but decided it wasn’t right for the game. He ended up not having enough time to finish the game for the party either. I think that’s when I decided to make the video b’day card.

Anyway, I had the whole Yanilala in the computer, and that is a rich composition. I grabbed the development section and it worked with the x teem meets the y team!

The last video effort we made was a big one. We made a ½ hour tv show, Yanila. We decided on the various segments; this has been in my mind for many years now. Yanila has to have a segment where we act out a fairy tale, fable, whatever. It has to have a segment of the ‘making show,’ and other bits, like field trips, go, Mani!, and this particular episode had a Hi, Rufus! segment, featuring our large German Shepherd puppy, Rufus.

We took the video camera with us on our fall tour of old one-room schoolhouses that we took with the Glases, and, during one of those days, we found ourselves in the amphitheater over at Celery Flats. The children, Yani, Xay, Annalese, and Linnea, started acting out the Three pigs. Joy and Isaac do brief cameos in this production, while Simeon, Mani and Camilo were nearby, but did not participate. I taped it, and put it in Yanila.

The second segment on Yanila is Mani at swim class. I actually taped Mani doing streamline kick at the pool with Mitch, and there was one other boy in her class that day, Amir(?) Mani has since regressed since this advanced swimming, but this summer at Marken Glen, she started making strides toward good swimming again. Anyway, back to Yanila.

The next segment was Hey, Rufus!, which featured Yani and Rufus running around the back yard playing fetch or something. Then we have the segment called the ‘making show,’ which is what Yani and Xay used to pretend to be doing every time they were in the kitchen. They’d say, “Welcome to the making show,” and proceed to do a commentary the whole time they cooked something, or whatever they did in the kitchen. I decided to finally make ‘the making show, ‘and featured Yani making the Tuesday lunch, which was pasta.

I taped her making orzo, and had her explain that it was pasta that looked like rice. I drew up a rough script; kept turning off the camera to tell her what to say, etc., and taped the show. I had a section there where I said, “today is Joy’s half birthday,” so I must have made this segment on Oct. 21, 2003. We also included our latest film in the show. In order to include this, I had to re-edit it, and it has the audio from the filming of it along with the music. I changed the opening credits of it, too, but I think it works well.

I edited a 30 minute program together with a lot of nice transitions, fades, and credits, and attempted to mix it to a CD so we could watch it on TV. That’s where it broke down; the audio and the video were so off-synched by the end of the show that it was hard to watch. Also, the segments were very tedious by the time we watched it, what with how many times you watch it while making the show, as well as they weren’t well planned to start with.

Chalk it up to big, hairy bodacious idea? We started production on the second episode in November, with Yani showing how to make Thanksgiving plates for the Making Show, but that tape got kind of ruined in the camera; Curtis offered all his editorial ideas, which inadvertently killed the whole project. I would like to revisit this soon.

Meanwhile, we’ve done a lot of other things, very few of which could be considered academic. We had another baby in June of this year. About a month leading up to the birth, and certainly after the birth were taken up with getting the kids on a consistent chore schedule. They ended up taking over all the chores after Esteban was born; some days they even had to draw up their own chore lists, but I could usually do at least that.

I strained my sciatic nerve during the unassisted birth, and I had a lot of pain in my left leg, and could barely walk in the early days. Yani and Xay really pulled together and did an excellent job in keeping the house in order. We got more help with meals from friends this year than ever before after a baby was born, and we continued hosting a small group from church throughout the whole time.

Before May, when the baby was due, and we basically stopped school ca May 21st, the children were writing a paper a week on various topics. First, we had Yani focusing on Kalamazoo history, and Xay focusing on Michigan History. They did several history papers before we moved onto science topics. We started the papers on math right before taking our baby/summer break. We just started school again last week or so, and now we’re back to math papers.

I assessed the children in math last week, and determined that Xay can skip around in the Saxon Math book (Yani had used for 4th) that I’d had him start during the summer. (We’d tried to do a little school in the summer to provide structure, but then swimming started, or something like that, and we ended up spending much less time in the house). Anyway, Xay was doing very well in the math, and needs help with subtraction, so I tested him last week and he did well enough to skip around.

Yani still needs help with long multiplication and division, so I’ll focus on that. She is solid with fractions now, and can do averages, and swimming math well. We are probably going to get her an algebra text book this year, so I want her solid and ready for it when we get it.

Music: We are still plugging away at Suzuki. I went to the music store and bought Suzuki 2 for them, too. Yani has about 4 pieces to go ‘till she finishes Suzuki 1. I went through the 2nd book today, playing through the pieces, and I found that the last piece in Suzuki 2 is the Bach piece from the Anna Magdalena book I’d started Yani playing last year! Her Mozart is also in there! So I guess I had her in over her head, which I figured as much. I like the way Suzuki eases in the difficult pieces, rather than just throwing the kids in the deep water, hoping they’ll swim. I like that approach.

Xay is a few pieces behind Yani. He is easier to teach emotionally, but physically a little harder. ie., he won’t cry and fall apart at a little correction or confusion, but he won’t bend his fingers, and really struggles with the five-finger pattern.

Mani is working on Jesus Loves Me. It seems to be taking forever, but last week, she actually read the color-coded music! We are playing the same piece on the colored xylo-piano and the real piano. On the xylo-piano, she can follow the piece by looking at the notes on the page if I point to each note individually. Then on the real piano, I break the piece down into three-note units, and she is able to copy these with much concentration. But when I try to get her to play the piece on her own, she just plays the first 4 notes, not really in rhythm. I don’t know when she’ll get it, and she tends to take 1 step forward, 2 steps backwards. It is maddening!

As far as science goes, we haven’t really started this. I am interested in naturalism still, a la Charlotte Mason a few years ago, and we know the names of our trees in our yard, and I have studied which are the best plants to put in the yard, etc. It looks like we are too shady to fool with any flower but impatiens. I’ve had other flowers with varying degrees of success. Yani is becoming an expert in gross things, having read Oh, Yuck!many times over for fun.

Bible: We finished Joshua two weeks ago, and I started off our first school day with a test on it. The children did very well, with 98 and 97 percent passing on their tests. We have just started the book of Judges, and are pausing to dig deeper right away. I wonder when we’ll finish the OT at this rate? Anyway, the children are also supposed to be reading for 15 minutes a day on their own. Xay is finishing up Acts now, and Yani is on a chronological read-through schedule. I think she is still in Genesis?

Reading: right now, they are finishing up some of their summer reading. Xay is reading The House on Pooh Corner. He is still young enough for the cookie program and the Pizza Hut program, which starts next month. Yani is too old for both. I know I must institute a reading contest, but we are running so hard I can’t see straight.
Yani is in: basketball (3x a week), swimming, (4x a week), youth choir (once a week rehearsal, once a month performance), and children’s choir, (2x a month rehearsal, once a month performance), and she has voice lessons 2x a month. She is trying out for a musical tonight(!), which would mean Monday nights until April or May. What are we getting ourselves into? Anyway, basketball will be done by winter, and then maybe we can relax a minute. I want her out of the children’s choir by then, too.

Xay is in swimming, which is getting increasingly hard to get to with all the other activities right now. He’s also in children’s choir, and has a weekly playdate with William.
Mani is in children’s choir, and I’d like her back in swimming, maybe after basketball season is over.

Joy and Esteban are just along for the ride. Wednesdays are our park days. We go with a nice sized group of people, and want to keep it up even after the weather changes, only we’ll do indoor type activities. We’ve already done the museum on a wet day, and we went to the orchard last week. )

We just got back from our first big bike expedition. We rode the 1 ½ blocks to Martin Luther King Westwood (MLK) elementary school.

First I took down all the bikes that were hanging up—four total; Joy’s was already down. I assembled the bike buggy for Esteban, and put air in Yani and Mani’s tires. Mani had a panic attack at the thought of riding down the driveway, and, after riding partially down the driveway sat there crying until I physically pushed her down the hill, and she had her right foot dragging the ground, shedding more cheap plastic off her $3 white sandals.

Joy and Xay were already down the street; Yani was somewhere else—the house?
I had been making mental calculations since the pregnancy how it would be to take our bike expeditions with one more small child. It frankly didn’t compute. I technically have enough equipment to carry Mani, Joy, and Esteban, but it won’t work out that way until Esteban can sit up. Until then, I carry him in his car seat in the bike buggy. There’s no room in there for anyone else after the car seat is situated.

So, I knew we’d have to spend the summer getting the babies (When I say the babies, I mean Mani and Joy) up to speed on their bikes.

That has been easier said than done.

Mani has these bouts of hysteria when she even thinks about going down our slightly inclined driveway. Then she puts on the brakes after every two pedals or so. . . it is an exercise in patience to go halfway around the block and back. Joy chugs along like the little engine that could. . . until she just stops, a frown on her face. Sometimes she’ll say, “My can’t, mommy,” or “My need help, Mommy,” but usually she doesn’t say anything, and I have to guess.

I had on my summer academic agenda to have Mani and Joy practice riding their bikes daily. Also easier said than done. I usually can’t go out with them, either because I’m nursing the baby, or, in the early days, I could barely walk because of the sciatic nerve injury, or we might be running somewhere else. If Yani and Xay take Mani and Joy out to ride their bikes, they come back right away, riding even less than the ½ block I take them.

So, today, when we had an uninterrupted stretch of time, I said, ‘come hell, or high water, we are going to ride our bikes somewhere today.’

The kids were concerned that MLK was under construction all summer, and wouldn’t be available today. I reminded them that school starts soon, and they should be done with construction by now. “Let’s just go and see, ” I said, “and if they’re still doing construction, we’ll go to Fray’s Park.”

So, anyway, with that kind of optimism, we started out on our adventure. Yani materialized just in time to help ride with one of the babies. She started out with Mani, who had gotten two houses down (if that) and started crying and resisting. I told Yani to ride with Joy, and I turned around to talk to Mani. “Here’s what we’re going to do, Mani,” I told her. “You and I are going to go back home, and you’re going to take a nap, or, you are going to stop crying and ride your bike.”

She chose the second option, and she started really riding. I watched as she rode past Yani and Joy, and up the little hill past Mel and Joy’s house without having to stop or get a push. I told her she was doing well. I also told her she could do it, I know you can do it, that kind of talk, and she got more confident, but just to make sure, she asked me, “Am I doing a good job, Mommy?” I replied in the affirmative, and we had a nice conversation.

I noticed that only one training wheel was in regular contact with the ground. Mani had complained about her bike leaning, but she was able to ride it fine. It reminded me of Yani. “When Yani’s bike was leaned like that, she kept falling over, so we took the training wheels off,” I told Mani.

I looked behind me and couldn’t see Yani and Joy at all. They slowly came behind the horizon, and Yani was riding, saying, “come on, Joy.” I, being well practiced in the snail’s pace one must maintain behind a small child on a bike, told Mani to stay right there, and I’d trade places with Yani. Xay, meanwhile, was circling at the stop sign at Coolidge and Haskell. We were using him as a guide.

So, I switched with Yani. Joy was slow, but determined. “Hi, Mommy,” she greeted me. “Hi, Joy-Joy.” I stopped pedaling, ready to help Joy get started if necessary. I watched her pedal slightly backwards, and then start herself forward. Her bike has no brakes, and was rattling unlike I’ve ever heard it before. She had a serious lean to the right, but both training wheels maintained contact with the street. Xay, Yani and Mani had pulled out into the street by the time Joy and I made it to the stop sign. I could just tell her to follow Yani. That was nice.

After turning the corner of Coolidge and Haskell, we diagonally crossed the street to the sidewalk on the other side of Haskell. This turned the corner to the street at the edge of the playground. We just had to ride down this street to the playground. Both little girls’ training wheels got caught on the uneven sidewalk. (I’m mentally trying to imagine taking them both out of training wheels at the same time. I’d been daydreaming about Joy riding that cute tiny bike without training wheels the whole time we’d been riding together).

Yani and I both carefully helped the girls over the bumps in the sidewalk, until I led us all back into the street. We saw Xay’s bike abandoned at the walking gate to the playground. I deposited the girls at this playground entrance, while I rode around to the front entrance. The buggy is too wide to get in at this side entrance. Esteban was really crying by this point; he started fussing every time I slowed down, so I tried to ride pretty fast to the other entrance to see if it would make a difference. He was still crying when I pulled up to a bench at the playground.

I was greeted by a cheerful chorus of “Hi, Mommy!” The “Mommy, look!’s ” seemed to be flying from three directions. Yani and Mani were together, climbing a tall structure. I looked to see Mani almost fall through the wide bars at the top; Yani, at her side, caught her and righted her feet. Joy was headed to a jungle gym with several slides and tunnels, while Xay ran from bars to sand to swings, and was headed over to Yani and Mani, when I told him to play with Joy. Xay came back with a report.

“There’s two things, mommy,” he began. “First, Joy had a stinky.”
That’s why she had run off on her own!
“The second thing is, that jungle gym is breaking.”
“What do you mean, breaking?” I asked.
“The floor thing is bent, and it is old.”

It appears that the MLK playground, once so new looking, in fact, it had looked brand-new he we moved in the neighborhood in ’99, is now looking very worn.
Yani declared the whole place a raggedy ghetto playground on our way out.

We didn’t leave before I’d tried out my old monkey bar/gymnastics skills. I scrambled to the top of a bar and the spun around it on my belly. Several times. I haven’t been able to teach my children this useful skill; nor can I even get them to figure it out for themselves. Xay complained that his shoes made him get sand in his eyes. I knew it was just an excuse to take off his shoes, but I didn’t protest when he took them off. He still kicked sand in his eyes. Yani tried, and pronounced her 12 year-old body too stiff to accomplish such a task. I must resign myself to the fact that they are not me, and move on. (Until next summer, when I try to teach them to do it again).

For the trip home, Xay decided to race us. He took off and was home in no time. Meanwhile, Yani rode with Mani and I rode with Joy. We went down the little back street that runs beside the back entrance to the playground. It is so remote, it is more like an alley than a street, and yet at least two cars passed us as we tried to get our little caravan going.

Yani and Mani were struggling to get on the Haskell street sidewalk when Joy and I made it to the corner. I decided it would be easier to stay on the street, especially since we had to cross it to get to the stretch of Coolidge that would take us home. Joy protested, trying to follow her sisters. I convinced her that my way was better, and shortly thereafter, Yani and Mani got off the sidewalk to cross the street. Phew!

On the final stretch home, Yani and Mani got way in front of us. Joy was having trouble with her bike. The rattling I’d heard on the way to the playground was getting louder, and she even fell over when I pushed her to get her started. I reached down and tightened her training wheel bolt with my hand. It had gotten loose enough to almost fall off. We were making steady progress home when Joy promptly stopped in the middle of the street. She had a frown on her face, but she wouldn’t talk about what was bugging her.

I found myself pushing her a little to get her going, just to stop a little further down the road. I started wondering who this child was. I was musing about how I was here alone on the road with the two Gray children that are the most mysterious to me.
Around this time, Xay turned up, looking for us. He had been home for quite some time, and wondered what was taking so long.

Then I looked up the road and saw Yani talking to Joy Rutherford. Mani and Joy call her Big Joy, despite the fact that she is barely bigger than Mani—and she is 9 years old. I said, “Look Joy, it’s Big Joy!”

Joy-Joy, (we call her Joy-Joy when Big Joy’s around), said, “Oh! Where Big Joy?” I pointed, and I have never seen this little child move so fast as when she saw Big Joy. She went as fast as her tiny legs could carry her on that brakeless bike. And we caught up to them pretty soon, Joy calling out, “Big Joy!” the whole time.

Big Joy graciously saw Joy-Joy home, while I rode ahead and congratulated Mani for making it all the way home.

Mel and Joy had joined us by now, and I surrendered all the children to the tree in the yard. The tree is a subject for another story. Esteban and I retired for a long awaited nursing session.

We went out today, and I’m amazed at the changes since Monday. If you’re not actually studying your environment, it looks static, but if you take the time to look closely, you can see that it is dynamic. I decided today that I would write a journal, too.

Monday: we went outside ca 10 AM. Xay had a play date with William Morrison in the 11 o’clock hour scheduled, so we tried to get some school in before he left. The air was damp, temperature moderate. The babies (Mani and Joy) each had on a Tommy Hilfiger short-sleeved dress with bare legs, and the big kids and I each had on a short-sleeved shirt with long pants. There was still dew on the grass. Dandelion seeds floated through the air like fat snow flurries, and it was such a contrast to the warm weather.

We noticed our neighbors’ landscaping, lawns, etc., and observed that our own grass was really growing long and unruly in some spots, while a clover patch in the front had died. Curtis’ weed treatment of that nefarious patch had left the grass in that small area depressed, while we had grass seed and crabgrass seed growing in other areas of the lawn.

We also noticed that squirrels had dug up and eaten some of the bulbs I’d just planted in front of my office window. I had just planted those last week! But it looks like the dahlia bulbs were left undisturbed. I hope so.

The Birchmeirers and the Brodes have pansies by their doors. For the first time, I noticed that the tree that the Brodes have dug a big hole around and shown off with garden stones, bricks, or whatever, is a flowering tree. It looks really set-off and pretty. They have nicely trimmed evergreen hedges behind this tree, and a tall, full hedge nearly blocking the front door.

The Vendervilles’ tulips were still in full bloom and beautiful on Monday. Their (spirea) bush hasn’t begun to flower yet, but neither has ours. I’m wondering if it actually will. The Brodes have turned their side yard into a ‘native plantscape,’ and it was looking pretty weedy Monday. So far, it’s mostly dandelions, along with the huge dandelion patch next door to them, at Curtis’ professor’s house.

We actually moved in for a closer look at the Rutherfords’ house. Their grass is impressive, but I was more drawn to the flowers this year. I remember the flowers looking pretty scanty in previous years, but it is nice this year. They have little colonies of fuchsia and lavender flowers at the base of some of the their trees, and around the house. They have a slight ammonia smell, with almost evergreen looking leaves. Yanni and Xay drew these for a later identification. They also have several small trees with white flowers.

In the Rutherfords’ back yard, I noticed a rhododendron that was almost ready to bloom. The buds were up and poised to open, if only there were enough sun. . .

Wednesday: Today I noticed that the Vendervilles’ tulips are starting to lose their petals. The rest of their landscaping is on the verge of flowering. They won’t fool me by all this green right now. I know by late summer, she’s got nothing but color over there. I’d like to watch it start.

The Brode’s native plantscape has some red and purple blossoms in it now. I want to identify them from the wildflower field guide I checked out yesterday, but haven’t had a chance yet.

I noticed the same bush at Ryan’s house that I’d noticed Monday; I forgot to mention it, and I want to look that up, too. I’d mistaken it for a burning bush last year, and bought one for my yard. My burning bush is still green, and as I recall, didn’t do much burning last fall.

The Rutherfords’ yard has subtly changed. The rhododendron in the front yard is at the bud stage, but the one in the back yard has started to bloom! The surprise is that the buds looked dark pink, but the flowers are light pink. I could swear I remember the front yard one having just the dark pink flowers last year, but will have to wait and see his year. I found out that the white trees are flowering dogwoods, and while sitting in their back yard so Yani could write, I observed tiny white flower petal fragments raining down. We thought it could possibly be pollen, but I am used to having some kind of reaction to that, so I wasn’t so sure. I also noticed a different kind of flowering bush beside the house. The almost dead blossoms were purple and a little puffy, or spiky in the center.

We ventured a little further than Rutherfords’ today, and caught a whiff of a sweet smelling scent in the air. We went across the street to see if it was a dogwood, but that barely had a smell. Then we found a bush with tiny white flowers all over, and indeed, the smell came from that.

We walked home through the Christiansons’ walkway, and made it home. Talking with Yani about preparing my flower bed for tomorrow’s flats, I caught a whiff of that sweet smell again. My nose led me to that mystery tree in the back. I determined to find its identity in the field guide during Joy’s nap. Well, after careful consideration, including taking the book outside and comparing the picture to the tree, I determined that it’s a Fringe Tree, or Old Man’s Beard. Its description in the book is as follows:
Slow growing to 15-20 feet. Multitrunked and rounded. Showy clusters of fragrant creamy white blossoms in late spring. Dark waxy green leaves turn yellow in late fall. Smooth gray bark. Showy blue fall berries attract birds.
I’m not sure about those berries, though. I think this tree does red berries. Perhaps the answer lies further in the field guide. .

5/13/04 This morning I looked in the tree field guide again, and identified the mystery tree as a Russian Olive tree! What gave it away was the close-up of the flowers. The flowers on that fringe tree were completely different from the sample I’d brought in from the yard—not to mention the leaves were different. Here’s the description of the flowers we have from the book:
The creamy bell-shaped blossoms give off a very strong sweet fragrance and are nestled among the silver new leaves in late spring.

Then I looked in the encyclopedia section of the guide, and it tells me that there are 45 species in this genus, which includes evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs. The fruits are described as single-seeded and berrylike. That is what I remember from a couple of years ago, when we first discovered this mystery tree. Good to have the mystery solved, but want to check back in the fall to be sure.

Just returned from walking our usual ½ block. It is lightly raining, so we sped up the explore. I had the camera with me to take pictures of mystery flora and fauna for later identification. The Rutherfords’ front yard rhododendron has one beautiful fuchsia bloom at the bottom, but those on the front and sides have yet to open. The hostas are all looking fuller throughout the neighborhood, and the Vendervilles have a new flowering development in their front yard. I took its picture, so hopefully I can ID it later.

Upon re-entering the house, Yanni plucked a sprig from the chokecherry in the front yard. She shook it to get the rain off, and some of the tiny white flower petals fell on Joy’s head. That’s the answer to yesterday’s mystery—what was that tiny white stuff raining from the trees yesterday? Chokecherry blossoms. To which Yanni replied, “Chokecherries are a pain all year round.”

By the way, I was never convinced that those were chokecherry trees. I remember studying them two years ago, and coming to the conclusion that they are actually wild black cherry trees. They really fit the description. The actual berries, which, thankfully don’t fall every year, are nuisance enough for the chokecherry name to stick around here, though.

5/14/04 This morning we just beat the rain around 10:30. Taking our usual path, the first thing I noticed was the smell of blossoms in the air. Our wild black cherry tree is aromatic in the front yard. I then started looking at other trees that I thought were cherries and I noticed that the Venderville’s tree doesn’t have the same flowers as ours, and that new neighbor across the street has a tree with the same flowers at the top, but not at the bottom.

The Brodes have a tree that is covered with blossoms, like ours, in their back yard. I also went in closer to examine the Brode’s pansies. They have solid color ones as well as the two-color variety. They are very pretty, and they are complimented by a whole selection of other flowers and bushes by the front door. The native plantscape beside their garage is sporting new flowers everyday, and I am not able to identify them.
Not much change at the Rutherfords’. Their front yard rhododendron still has just the one low blossom, but the backyard one is now in full bloom. Despite my pictures and my field guides, I was unable to identify either the mystery flowers by their trees or the purple flowers by the back door. I think I’ll just ask Mel. Their backyard dogwood tree is now raining flower petals. The yard is covered in the thick white petals, which Yanni said looked like snow. Joy walked around just as one was blown off the tree, and she tried to catch it. I regretted not having my camera then!

5/17/04 We have concluded our week for the ‘naturalist paper,’ but I don’t want to stop observing, etc., so I’ll talk about today. I picked up four flats of annuals from Gay Deering, of the swim club on Friday. I was itching to get them in the ground all weekend, but didn’t have the time until I just took it this morning.

After Maureen picked up Xay, I took the girls out to plant with me. I’d managed to get in a row of marigolds around my bulb garden last week, so I was done with that, at least. Today I had to do the backyard flower bed and the window boxes. At Yani’s suggestion, I took the garden weasel and dug up the bed. I don’t have any new mulch, but I didn’t let that stop me. It took to the weasel very well, and I only turned over one root that needed cutting. Before the weasel, I forgot, I dug up all the little trees and weeds and grass trying to grow in the bed. After the ground was tilled, it was very easy to dig holes and plant.

 I just wasn’t sure of the pattern I wanted. I got some coleus, for the first time, as well as multi-colored impatiens. Yanni had suggested I plant the coleus around the outside, and the impatiens in the middle. I had thought of alternating each plant in rows. We decided to go with Yani’s plan. Half a flat of coleus did the trick, but we needed more than half a flat of impatiens.

I am splitting the flats with Mommy, so that could have been a problem, but she said I could take a few more if necessary. It is hard to plant too close to the tree, because of the huge roots, but we did the best we could, and when we were done, it looked pretty neat. I am hoping for a bushy bed this year, and I am still not sure how many flowers equal bushy. I will probably have to go to Meijers to fill it in. . .

In the front yard, we started the window boxes. We got pansies for the first time this year. They were already robust in the flats, and very pretty. I noticed that they don’t have the variety of color that I have seen at the Birchmeiers and the Brodes, but they are still pretty.

We decided to dump the dirt from last year’s window box treatments, and to fill them with new potting soil. We didn’t have enough potting soil to support the flowers, though, so we ended up filling in with the old dirt. The boxes are pretty small, so they were full, and we had plenty flowers left over. I decided to plant them in my new ‘bush bed’, by the hose.

 I didn’t want to put them directly into hose traffic, or in the middle of the chrysanthemums, so I made a little arc of them just beside the mums. I was almost done planting these when I remembered that I was supposed to put them over in that bed by the driveway. Oh well, that means I definitely have to make a trip to the Meijer garden center!

Anyway, while we were working on the window boxes, Jan Christiansen came by with Lilly. (Lily is her little dog). We’ve been seeing her everyday that we are outside now, and she is very friendly. In fact, we’d seen her while working on the back yard bed, too. (She is our neighbor behind us, who encourages us to walk through their yard to get to Mel and Joy’s).

Anyway, she told us two good nature stories. One, is that they cut down the big ‘junky’ tree from their front yard, a sassafras, and have replaced it with another tree of which I can’t recall the name (alder?), and are planning a new gardening project for that part of their yard. Will love to observe what they do.

Also, she said they had some real morel mushrooms growing by their pathway, by their garage. She’d said that her husband had gone morel hunting up north (?) to no avail, but found them at home! They’ve already eaten them. They are black mushrooms, she said. Anyway, she said she thought they had come from the new mulch they’d bought to put in that path by the garage.

Yanni is planning to do this week’s paper on mushrooms, so maybe we can add to this information later. As we were out in the yard, a breeze blew a wave of helicopters to the ground. Seems like a new seed/petal, something is blowing in the wind daily.

6/14/04 Well, I was right about the Venderville’s yard. Here it is a week away from the technical beginning of summer, and their yard is full of beautiful flowering bushes, container gardens, flower beds—everything is in bloom! Her snapdragons tempt me to try them, but they do get much more sun than we do. Case in point: her daylilies are all in bloom, and her spirea and that other bush like we have have been blooming for quite some time.

Good news in our yard: our spirea burst out with beautiful light pink flowers, and our mystery bush (another type of spirea) has also started to bloom—darker pink blossoms! The coleus and impatiens in the back yard bed are looking pretty good. Maybe a few more trays will yield the bushiness I’ve always wanted back there.

I’m thinking of planting impatiens and or begonias in the front by the hose. The pansies there are not blooming any more, and it is a full shade area, what with the cherry tree there. I think impatiens will look nice there; just have to figure out what to do with the hose. We have that caddy, but can’t use it without that little extra hose part that is missing in the basement. More on that later.

The Brodes have the most gorgeous vegetation over there! They have a bunch of pink bushy flowering things, kin of like the white mystery thing over at Venderville’s, that Janet has promised to give me some when she divides them. They do look like they spread, so that could be good. Their native plantscape is also looking beautiful, so good things come to those who wait. . .

11/16/04:  Well, garden season is over, but I’d like to finish the story of how our flowers did this year. I ended up with a bushy bed in the backyard, after all! I don’t know how many trips to the garden center did it, but I think that backyard bed is a 3-4 flat bed. . .

The flowers in the window baskets died, and I replaced them with pink wave petunias. I was very pleased with how they held up all season. . .
I did end up planting both begonias and impatiens by the hose. I think it was only one or so begonias; Mani picked that one out; other than that, it was red impatiens, like I’d wanted in the back yard a few years ago. I also planted a winding row of dusty miller.
I’d bought a whole flat of dusty miller, and I used some of it to fill in my marigold border, which had started to flag by summer’s end. . .

. . . and three dusty miller plants made their way to the back yard to fill in the coleus part of the impatiens bed.

I had bought two stand alone orange zinnias for the stoop, but they died during Esteban’s labor and delivery period.

The last big effort I made was in the large bed in front of my office. I bought hostas and daisies, and a few new bushes. I planted a couple new spirea bushes, and another evergreen bush to even out that look.

By fall, the mums were big and bushy, very beautiful. I just pruned them last week, and they’re still in bloom. My burning bush turned completely red! And it has berries, too. Actually, all the little green (non-flowering) bushes in the front have little red berries. We have two boxwoods, two yews(?), and that burning bush.
I was really pleased with all my gardening efforts this year.

My son, on the other hand, who had never been to school, except for that ¾ of a year in preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, had no problem grasping the concepts of math. We’d spent a lot of time playing math games together, and only got a workbook to teach him how to write his numbers. Years of trying to teach him to read, however, left us both frustrated.

My daughter had somehow learned to read without any interference from me or school. So I knew what Holt was saying was true, but I didn’t know where to go from there. My friend Miriam is successfully homeschooling her four children without curriculum, but when I mentioned Holt to her, she didn’t answer with an aha moment. She is very in tune with her children’s learning styles, having read Cynthia Tobias’ book about learning styles. (How They Learn) It took me a while to track that one down, but I finally found it at the Portage Library, and devoured it.

Edna, at our church, has been homeschooling her teenage children for many years, and she hipped me to homeschooloasis.com. There I found references to delight based learning and real life learning. I found a link to lightthefire.com, and found out about Charlotte Mason. I have her whole original series, which I am slowly working through. I decided to start out the year with some of the ideas from Terri Camp from the Light the Fire website, and Charlotte Mason.

Instead of starting the school year out with brand new workbooks, we started with new five-subject notebooks. One of our subjects was the continuation of our summer project, where we attempted to find and rate every playground in our area (Kalamazoo/Portage Michigan). We kept going to playgrounds until October, when it got cold, and we got down to one car. Then we made a rating system of the playgrounds, and made graphs of our rated playgrounds.

There should be an article on the website about the playground project. We also have a writing section where the children are copying the rules of civility that my husband downloaded for us. Xay, who is in 2nd grade, is copying the rules from the white board, while 6th grade Yani writes them down as I dictate them to her.

Bible study is a continuation from our evening studies where we are slowly working our way through the Bible. We are now in Numbers cpt.3. The children take notes on the Bible reading for the day, and sometimes draw pictures and diagrams. Lately, we are doing Bible math, adding up the men in the army of Israel.

I started out the year teaching typing, but now the children are doing their own typing in email. We are still doing piano lessons, but they are much relaxed from the beginning of the year. The children are making progress in piano, and they are developing their ears as well.

Lately we have started doing kitchen chemistry. Yani is particularly interested in this. We are finding out about all kind of mundane kitchen chemicals, like sodium bicarbonate and starch, and we get to eat a lot of our experiments.

We have also started making short animated films, which you should be able to view here. So what we’re doing is looking a lot more like delight based, or real life, or unschooling.

Xay has math workbooks, which are sitting in his desk until I say he should do a unit, and Yani’s math book from last year sits in her desk. We started trying to finish it, but I don’t think that’s the way any more. We found some good websites for math, and I’m looking for that math/science connection, because she’s passionate about science, but I’m not sweating it so much anymore. Sometimes I think that the delight, etc. is more mine than theirs, but they don’t complain. We’re kinda feeling our way).

 3/4/03: Today we finished Numbers 2. It took us three days to go through this chapter. We have a graph of the camp, with the Holy Tent in the middle, and the Levites around that, and four clans, comprised of three tribes each, to the North, South, East and West of the Holy Tent. We added up all the men aged 20 and up of these clans, excluding the Levites, and our figures equal those in the Bible. Yani added it up correctly the first time(!) while Xay and I had to go over his figures to make them come out right.

Then we had chores to finish before we could do science. The children had to finish cleaning the kitchen, clean the classroom, and water the plants. After that, we did several short experiments from one of our experiment books. The first one was about salt. We painted pictures with salt saturated water colored red and blue, and let it dry to see what would happen. We’ll talk about the results tomorrow. Imani took part in this, too, but Joyous was napping at the time. Next, we burned two matches together to see if that would make them stick together. It didn’t work, and I didn’t want to try again. We’ll have to do that another time.

Then we made foam with baking soda, vinegar, and soap. Xay couldn’t keep his hand out of it, but didn’t want Mani to put her hands in, too. Then we lit a candle and put it out with aluminum foil. The results were dubious. Yani thinks it went out because she touched the flame with the foil. We tried it twice and it seemed to work the second time.

Then it was time for lunch. Imani takes a nap after lunch, so I have the big kids watch Joy and read during the time I put Mani to sleep. I instituted a reading contest on Friday, so they have something to read. I bet them I could read Emma, Anne of Avonlea, Little Men, and Call of the Wild before Yani could read Betsy and Tacy Go Down the Hill, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Captain Underpants, and, or before Xay reads Captain Underpants, and The Boxcar Children. They are not racing each other, just me. I got a head start on my first two books, but am now trying to read three at a time. I figured this would get us to read our library books without endless renewals, plus be fun. I have to come up with awards.

Anyway, Imani went to sleep pretty quickly today, while I read Little Men in the bedroom. I went downstairs and nursed Joy and read Emma. Yani was making fudge, watching the baby, and reading her second Betsey Tacy. She’s already read two of her books, and Xay has read one of his!

We then went to the basement to work on Xay’s woodworking project. He got a woodworking kit from his Grammy for Christmas. It has three projects, and we’ve finished the first two—a tool box and a corner shelf. The last project is a treasure chest. Yani and Xay like to skate in the basement while the wood glue dries. We got the base of the chest made today. Then ‘school’ was basically over.

3/6/03 I’m already a day behind! 3/5/03: Yesterday we didn’t get much done in the name of ‘school;’ it snowed 6 inches the night before, and we spent part of the morning shoveling the driveway and the walk. I promised the children a reward of cocoa and watching the American Idol tape from the night before.

The child who’d watched the babies (while the other child was shoveling snow with me) was watching Sister Act 2 with them, so we were already doing that video thing. We finished the driveway right before Praise and Worship time, so we went and did that before the reward. Then we did the reward, which threw us off our regular schedule of Bible study and science, etc.

We did Bible study, but not science. The children decided they wanted a picnic on the family room floor for lunch, which they prepared themselves while I was upstairs on the computer. When I came down, I discovered that they had decided to finish watching the movie. All this video viewing took the sting out of our decision to block the Disney channel the night before.

As it worked out, there was less TV watched this day than had been the case when they were still watching the Disney channel. We got back on schedule during Mani’s nap, and we read for our contest. Xay has lost his Boxcar Children book, and has had to spend reading time looking for it, and then reading books that are not in the contest.
Yani, on the other hand, is almost done with her four books. I am still slogging away at Little Men upstairs while I put Mani down for her nap, and Emma downstairs, while nursing Joy.

After reading, Xay and I filmed the second episode, or sequel to his film series starring the x teem. This one was called the rescue, and it stars his large red Power Ranger. Xay even has a brief appearance in the film. Then I sent the big kids upstairs to clean their bathroom.

When Curtis came home from work, I was still fumbling with the editor trying to get rid of all the numerous mistakes in this film. He updated the Adobe Premiere software for me so I could edit the film frame by frame. I was unable to do this in the Microsoft movie maker software that I used to edit the other two films we’ve made. Before putting Mani to bed, I came down and spliced the film and removed most of the hands that aren’t supposed to be there. I still have more editing to do today. . .

3/6/03: Which brings me to today. We finished Numbers cpt 3, where they counted the Levites, and told where the various Levite clans camped. We revisited our chart of the Israelite camp to update the Levite information. I think it’s fascinating; the children are less than thrilled. They have to take notes anyway. I’m hoping they will be relevant to them later on. I hope that I am working towards our objective of pouring the Bible into the children. They should be saturated in the WORD.

We are also striving to eat five fruits and vegetables a day, and since tomorrow is grocery shopping day, we’re pretty low on fruit. I told the children I wanted to see them eat vegetables other than at dinner time, so they had vegetable snacks while I took a phone call.

Came back down and we did vegetable science projects and made lunch at the same time. One project was to overcook broccoli, and compare it to broccoli cooked for 30 seconds. The broccoli cooked for 20 minutes disintegrated and had no taste. It seemed like a real ‘duh’ kind of project, but they were eating broccoli, so what do you know? The other ‘project’ was making potato soup—again, that book is more a cookbook than a science book, but I followed the directions, and observed that vegetable soup is a similar process to fruit juice.

Meanwhile, Yani made mashed potatoes to share with Mani, and ended up sharing some with Xay, too. Xay made his own lunch, too. Mani helped prepare the potatoes. Joy was napping at the beginning of this, but woke up and was in the middle of everything once it was finished.

My parents came over for a brief visit, since they were on our side of town visiting the Social Security office. Daddy had to get home and grade papers (this is his last semester on the faculty at WMU), and I put Mani down for a nap. Xay still can’t find The Boxcar Children, but he found The Last Days of Eugene Melsner, a book he’d lost before the contest started. He only has a few chapters to read before he finishes this book. I want to add it to the other books he has to read, and he wants it to replace the lost book. I don’t think that will fly.

Yanni will probably finish her books today. She is reading all the time. I have read another chapter or so in Little Men, and took a detour to update this journal before I read my afternoon Emma chapters. Anne of Avonlea is currently shelved. I really want to take it out of the contest, but I don’t think I can do that in good conscience. I haven’t even started Call of the Wild

. . . Read a chapter or two in Emma, Mani took a nap and has awakened; Joy is still cranky from this new cold.

Still snuck some time in editing The Rescue with Xay, started making the music for it and decided to come back to it later.

Yani wrote a couple of book reviews for her website. She finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She has just about won the contest in less than a week! I should have had her read more books. May institute a new one for this next week, involving my reading the same books I’m reading. . . think I’ll call it a day now; I just heard Curtis drive up.

3/17/03: Maybe I should make it a weekly journal. I am finding it hard to stick to that daily schedule. Of note is that both children finished the contest last week. I am still reading Emma and Little Men. I have asked Yani to return to reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Xay is back to reading Farmer Boy.

Yani and I should still finish our books before they are due. That was my original intention of the reading contest. I had underestimated both children’s reading speed. Yani certainly had books that were too easy to read. Xay lost The Boxcar Children book, so I don’t know whether that book would have made a difference or not. I had him read another Captain Underpants book after he finished the Eugene book, just to keep him honest.

I think the contest was a good concept, and I have to get their prizes, and I think I’ll keep these contests up. Yani is capable of reading longer books, and I had suspected I should have had Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in the original contest. Now I’m still racing her, me with my four books, vs her with the one. Wouldn’t you know it? Now she says her book is getting interesting! That’s the real goal here, isn’t it?

Nice warm day today. We started our day after Praise and Worship with our first bike ride since fall. It went off very well, considering we had to get the bikes from the basement, put air in the tires and attach the bike buggy to the back of the bike. It was exhilarating, and the rest of the day paled by comparison.

We have been busy in the Carver Lab, as evidenced by my lack of journaling. Last week, Xay and I made the second film in his X teem series. I know, that is not the proper spelling of what he’d intended, ‘team,’ but he made the sign himself with Microsoft Publisher, and had printed it out as part of his pre-production for the first film, so I thought we should definitely keep it.

The second film was more ambitious than the first, and we used Adobe Premiere to edit it, and then added the opening and closing credits with the Microsoft Movie Maker. I think making the music for these films is very fun. It is very improvisatory, but it has a recurring X Teem theme now.

Yani’s film was harder to find the music for. I used part of my piano concerto for her film, and I haven’t come up with the music for her other version of the apple, which we’d actually taped first.

 I have a storyboard for a video of a song I wrote last year or so, called Draw a Brick. I am scared to start filming that; I don’t want it to look stupid. I ought to at least attempt something that I make the children do, though, so I’ll film it this week.
(note: I haven’t filmed it yet!)

Last week I thought it would be interesting to review slope and slope intercept formulas to determine the height of a hill we like to sled on nearby. I pulled out Curtis’ calculus book to find the formula. One of the disappointments of my academic career is that I never took calculus. I got up to Elementary Functions in High School, but tested into the lowest Math class at UM two years later. I thought I’d missed the calculus mark by a mile, but looking in Curtis’ book shows me that elementary functions was actually pre-calc.

I was really getting into the slope chapter, and thought it would be a good idea to share this with Yani. We read through the first chapter together, and did a few problems together. That went ok; she understood what I didn’t, and visa versa.

Curtis suggested we go through an algebra book first. I feel better about algebra when I know I’m not going to stop there. Anyway, Yani is going through the assessment at the front of the book right now. I am a little nervous. It looks like her multiplication and fractions are not quite up to par for algebra. I hope so. More on this later.

Xay is swimming along fine in his Singapore Math. I really like that program. It is challenging enough for him without being boring or confusing.

Well, it’s later, and Yani was swimming in a sea of confusion with that book. She did ok on the addition and subtraction, but does not know how to multiply 3 digit numbers or do long division. Guess it’s back to the drawing board. . .

Gave them a piano lesson last week—after a couple weeks of a lesson, and strictly enforced practicing. They were very good, and I gave them much more music than they’d had to practice. They practiced last week, but it wasn’t strictly enforced, and it showed in their lesson today. Yani learned the by ear duet I’d taught her, and hadn’t expected her to get in a week, but she’s still struggling to finish the last two lines of her Bach piece that she’s had since the beginning of the year! She also tried to play a Suzuki piece I know I hadn’t heard her play all week, and it was worse this week than last. I used to try those games on my piano teacher. I think she would have preferred integrity to deception—I sure would.

Xay also was ill prepared. He practiced his Suzuki, which was good, but his Music Tree stuff sounded like he was seeing it for the first time. And this after Mani refused to take a nap. . . frustrating afternoon.

Xay’s birthday is Friday, and we’re preparing for his party. As usual, finding everybody’s address and phone number is a big hassle; should have started looking sooner. I’m sure the party will be a success; it’s just not fun planning it. We’d wanted to go to the store to buy party favors today, but what with the afternoon running so late, and swimming tonight, we’ll have to put it off ‘til tomorrow. I hope to have at least called everyone and invited them by then.