Two Dress Rehearsals, Three Recitals, Six Costume Changes Each

That's what you get when your daughter goes crazy into dance and you hit the end of the season. This week is insane! But, dancing is her absolute joy. So without further ado, here's the fabulous Miss Asa in her first dress rehearsal. Excuse the grainy quality of the photos, I was shooting without flash:

Hip Hop with "Men in Black" (she's the peewee in the center):


Ballet: "Ode to Degas":


Dance Team: "Pop" (she looks so tiny compared to the rest of her team, I just can't get over it! Most of them are tweens and they all sprouted this year, she's still 8))



Her favorite, Lyrical. To the song "Arms Wide Open":


And again with her dance team, "Saved By the Bell":


That's her, front and center in the splits.


So we're one rehearsal down, one more and three performances to go! Wish this stage mom luck (I'm not so good with make-up, buns, and all that stuff).

Kids, Cold, and Camping

We went camping this last weekend with the triathlon team I'm coaching for Team in Training. The idea was to camp out at the lake site and let the team members swim in the lake and bike and run on the actual race course. At the last moment, my hubby couldn't make it, so the kids knew they were pretty much along for the ride with me and that my attention would be divided. And yes, it was also unseasonably cold for June. As we drove through snow (snow!!!) to get to the camp site, I think we were all wondering what we were in for.

Still, the camp site was right on the lake, and my kids are old enough now for that not to be the hazard it would've been when they were younger (and Asa would plunge pell-mell into any body of water, regardless of whether she could stand up or swim or not). And best of all, it had a loop! Luckily, my hubby had found a great hitch rack and installed it on the van, so we could bring the triathlon bikes plus both of the kids' bikes along. I have so many fond memories of camping as a kid, riding our bikes around and around the campground loop, it just gives me such a warm and fuzzy feeling to watch our kids doing the same. Yes, it was cold, but they donned hats under their helmets and warm gloves and I joked that they logged more miles than the 28 that the triathlon team members put in on Saturday.


And, being kids, the cold just doesn't seem to faze them the same way it does us thinner-skinned adults. Remember swimming in the ocean as a kid? And urging your mom to come on in, it really wasn't that cold? Ha! Now I'm the cold weanie and my kids are out there in bathing suits while I'm donning my neoprene. I love this photo of the team ensconced in their thick insulated suits while in the background, check out the kids! By the way, the water temperature measured in at 52 degrees near the shore. Brrrrrr! As for me, having a full wetsuit actually allows me to play in the water with my kids and not get too cold, a nice side-effect of having that triathlon gear.

Sunday was actually sunny and feeling pretty warm at 65 degrees, the kids and I hung out in the campground while the team ran. Asa built fairy houses out of sticks, and Mackenzie spent an hour observing an ant's nest and putting various food articles next to it to see what they would do with them. All in all, a childhood's weekend idyll. Well, except for the cold.

Looking For Stella, That Not Ordinary Teen?

Stella, the very un-ordinary teen, accidentally deleted her blog. But her new blog Not An Ordinary Teen can be found here. I love reading Stella's blog, because she has such a fresh perspective and is right at that magical time in life where you're staring at your whole adult life stretching out in front of you and thinking of where you want to go. Like the world is a gigantic roadmap and all roads are open. As we get older, I think we can start believing that we can only take certain roads, that many of them are blocked off to us. It's good to be reminded that we can always reinvision ourselves. Plus, she's just plain funny and fun to read. So check her out!

The Moments You Remember

I don't usually post about politics on this blog, leaving the ranting and raving to my blog on sustainability issues. But regardless of your political party affiliation, or even the country that you live in, last night was a momentous occasion. It's not often that you stand in the course of time knowing that this moment will be written into the history books. I can remember twice in my childhood when my parents told me to remember a moment, that history was being made. One was the moon landing, and though I was only three I remember it clearly, perhaps because of my parents' solemn pronouncement and the fact that everyone was unaccustomedly glued to the television set. I can still see the room clearly in my head, where people were seated, the fuzzy black and white imagines on the old console TV. The second was when Nixon resigned, and my mom pulled the car over and turned the radio up, and again I can tell you exactly what road we were driving on.

So as Obama began his speech on the eve of his garnering the delegates to clinch the presidential nomination, I uttered the same words to my kids: Pay attention now, history is in the making this moment. Of all the white and "Western" nations in this world, America is nominating a black man to aspire to our highest office. Enough of us (though admittedly not all of us) have moved beyond the issue of a person's skin color, and choose to judge their candidate on his abilities alone. Of course, if Hillary had been the nominee, another kind of history would've also been made. A woman candidate as a major party nominee would've been a first for America, though not for the rest of the Western world. This moment is a living proof that whatever else may be wrong with our country in the moment, we are still striving towards a better world for all of our many diverse citizens.

And all of us, kids and adults alike, will remember where we were this moment, forever.

We Interrupt Your Yogurt To Bring You A Little Brown Bat

One thing about motherhood is that it's very rarely predictable. Yesterday I was all set to make yogurt for the first time from some of our raw goat's milk. Those of you who don't have to feed your kids non-cow's-milk products would probably gasp at paying $6.50 for a quart of yogurt. I gasp too, but goat's yogurt is the only kind my kids can eat, due to a cow's milk allergy. Fortunately, we buy our goat's milk from a local farmer for $7.00 a gallon (you're probably still gasping, but it was costing us $12 a gallon at the store), so I can make yogurt a lot cheaper than I can buy it.

So there I was, embarking on our yogurt-making adventure, when one of the kids hollered out that there was a bat in our garage. A Little Brown Bat, to be exact (yes, that's the official name), and a very cute one to boot. The night before, I had accidentally left the garage door open, so I was thinking he might've gotten closed in there and confused, but then he looked like he might be injured so we weren't sure. Because one of my great mom strengths is that I'm not in the least bit squeamish (and also to protect my kids from possible rabies), I volunteered to corral the bat into a shoebox. We gave him a shallow dish of water in there, but he continued to look lethargic into the evening hours. Once night fell, we put him in his box out on our deck, hoping he would fly away, but no such luck. He was still there this morning. He was looking not very good at all, so I decided to try to feed him some raw milk (figuring he's a mammal, so what the heck). He immediately took to that, licking out hungrily with his teeny tiny pink tongue at my eyedropper, and then he perked up substantially after that.

I told the kids I would call a wildlife rescue facility if he wasn't gone by morning, so I put him back into the box and into the garage on a shelf and called around until I found the local Bat Lady. She's really gung-ho about bats and said she would come over and transport the bat. Unfortunately, when I went out to check on the little guy he was nowhere to be seen! He had escaped out a hole in the box - apparently anything they can get their heads through, they can squeeze the rest of themself through also, so his tiny little dime-sized head went through the breathing hole and so did he. So the Bat Lady helped me search the garage for the bat, but with all of our camping gear and stuff it was pretty much a lost cause. She suggested going out tonight and trying to hear him scrabbling around, and that might give us an idea of at least which quadrant to concentrate on. For size reference, that's a mason jar lid he's sitting on in the photo. He's tiny! Hopefully we'll be able to find him tonight. In the meantime, check out the Bat World Sanctuary link for more info on these amazing creatures!!! We're building some bat boxes this summer for sure.

And Off to Church We Go

Organized religion and I have had a long and diverse relationship. If you drew it on a map, it would look like two paths that run roughly parallel, but sometimes come right together and sometimes diverge wildly in different directions. I've always felt like a deeply spiritual person, but churches have not always spoken to that spirituality. Part of that is that churches inevitably have to decide what side of issues they will come down on - whether to allow gay pastors or even women in the pulpit, whether to become involved in hunger relief agencies or more political causes (many churches when I was growing up were part of the original Nestle Boycott. So finding a church that

A) Aligns with my spiritual beliefs
B) Has an engaging pastor that gives me reason to think deeply on spiritual matters
C) Has a congregation that is welcoming and warm, and
D) Aligns with my personal beliefs

has sometimes been challenging. I was raised a Methodist, and then when (in the tradition of the Methodist church) our pastor was moved on after a few short years, for someone much less appealing to my family, we jumped ship to the Presbyterian church across the street. As a young adult, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I happened upon a lovely little brick Methodist church in the small town of Monroe, Washington. In true Methodist fashion, the minister that drew us in was also moved on, and by the time we got married in that church, we had another minister. She also moved on so by the time we moved away and left the church we were on our third minister there (I must say, as much as I love the Methodist church, and I'm sure this practice has it's reasons, it causes a lot of turmoil in a congregation to always have to adjust to someone new). Nevertheless, we loved the church and found it to be a wonderful spiritual community.

Since moving here, I haven't really found anything to replace it. I've gone to various churches and even sung in one choir but none of them have stuck. The kids have grown up with spirituality, but no church.

Fast--forward to this last week, when Asa suddenly decided she wanted to try going to church. Part of this is undoubtably motivated by the fact that many of our homeschooling friends are devoutly religious and are involved in very active churches with lots of youth activities. So she hears about that all the time. So this morning we're trying out a friend's church and we'll see how this goes. I have to admit that after so many years of lapsed church-going, I'm loathe to give up my Sunday mornings again. I guess I've come to the conclusion that God speaks to me more on the mountaintop than the sanctuary. More on the beach than in a building. My long runs, bike rides, hikes, and swims are times when I feel closest to the spirit of God. So we'll just have to see how this goes. When your child is asking for something like this, you definitely need to follow through. So off to church we go.

Small Kindnesses

In our backyard, we have eight raised garden beds. Over the winter, we planted clover as a cover crop. But when it was time to pull the clover out, Asa didn't want to because the bees love the flowers so much. So while the other seven beds are now full of tiny plants, hers is a riot of red clover flowers and buzzing bees. I love how thoughtful these kids are, of even the tiny beings here on earth. I love how they take to heart the stories of struggling honeybee colonies and translate that to an action that helps out a fellow creature.

We spent the morning clearing a patch of ground next to our new fenced plot in the front yard. I've bought a mix of flowers designed to attract bees, so we'll plant those there and when the clover flowers have faded, our little friends will still have a welcoming place in our garden.

Untie the Apron Strings, the HMS Freedom is Sailing

I appear to have reached some critical juncture in my parenting life. I didn't see it coming, there was no signpost reading Imminent Demands for Freedom, 10 miles ahead. No warnings. Just out of the blue, my kids want more freedom to do more things. The requests come fast and furious and apparently I wasn't prepared enough to think out the answers ahead of time. This leaves me standing there in the moment thinking "Is it okay if he goes over to a friend's house when I'm not at home?", "Can she really cross the street safely by herself without me to jerk her back by the arm if a car comes speeding around the corner?", and worst of all the recent "Will this kayak turn over and drown both of my kids if I let them paddle out into the lake by themselves?" Of course, in that moment in which a child has asked to do something daring and exciting, the last thing they want is parental him-hawing.

To add complexity to my decision-making task, one of my kids is extremely cautious and one is a risk-taker extraordinaire. Which means that by the time the first one has come to the conclusion that he is ready and responsible enough for a certain freedom, I can usually just rubber-stamp his decision. The second one is just as likely to ask "Can I fly to the moon tomorrow?" as "Can I cross the street by myself?" And I'm not the kind of parent who likes to put unreasonable No's in my kids' path. I want them to have the kind of childhood I experienced: building forts in the forest and riding my bike around town and basically feeling like the world was wide open to me. Unfortunately, I also don't want Miss Risk Taker doing some of the crazy and, I should point out, unsupervised things that I did as a kid. There was a well on our property and we liked to take off the old rotting boards covering it and throw things down it to listen to how long it took before they hit bottom. I grew up in an old gold-mining area and one of our favorite places to play was the "Chinese Diggins", an area of old tunnels with rusted out mining cars and dangerous shafts going straight down into the ground that had been mined by Chinese workers in the late 1800s. As much as I love my folks, sometimes my childhood reminiscences end in my head with the phrase "What the hell were they thinking???"

So it was with great trepidation that I watched my kids paddle off into the lake last weekend. But what can you do when your oldest, who up until recently wouldn't set foot in a boat (I think he might be the only child in Disneyland history to refuse to get into the Storybook Boats because they were "too dangerous") suddenly asks to paddle around in the kayak by himself, and then after an hour of that asks to take his little sister for a ride??

You can unti the apron strings, throw some confetti, wipe a tear from your eye, and watch the HMS Freedom sail away.

Hear This, Horton

So the movie adaptation of Horton Hears a Who finally hit the cheap seats, which is what we call our local $1 theatre, and we had a rainy afternoon to kill so we took the kids over to see it. In all honesty, I had just done a triathlon that morning, and I figured from the reviews that the movie would be a yawner (it was, though I am a big Dr. Seuss fan, it in no way did the book justice) so I was secretly hoping I might get a little shut-eye in without the kids noticing. No such luck, I forgot to bring my earplugs and movie theatres these days are way too loud to sleep through. But that's not what pissed me off most about this movie.

It also wasn't the terrible dialogue, the ridiculous instead of endearing portrayal of Horton, the meaningless supporting characters (including that really strange floating guinea-pig-like thing that even creeped my kids out, and hey my kids watch Pokemon so take that as you will), or the fact that the only one of the Mayor's children who he wanted to succeed him as mayor was his sole son - apparently none of his ninety-six daughters was worthwhile enough for the job (okay, that did piss me off, more than a little). No, what initially got me was the fact that they set up the kangaroo as the villain of the movie by showing her as an overbearing, underimaginative mom who "pouch-schools" her browbeaten joey because the other kids (shown having loads of fun) are learning to use their imaginations. She repeatedly tells her joey to "go to your room" while she shoves him down in her pouch. And repeatedly berates Horton for leading the other kids astray.

{Sigh}, once again as the media's imagination can't come up with anything truly funny, they reach again for tired stereotypes that they can make fun of. Yes, the secret is out. I homeschool my kids so I can keep them from using their imaginations! That's right, instead of them sitting for 6 hours a day being terribly imaginative studying standardized curriculum that teaches to the fill-in-the-bubble mandatory tests, they're home making sunflower houses in the garden, building boats out of milk crates, dreaming up new robotics designs, dancing to their own music compositions and other unimaginative things like that. Yep, that's why I homeschool them, to crush that imaginative spark.

I guess, as my husband points out, that this is a bit of reverse flattery. If homeschoolers weren't winning all those spelling and geography bees, being courted by Ivy League Schools, and without spending a fraction of the time studying, tromping all over the public school's standardized testing stats, then there wouldn't be any reaction at all to it. When homeschooling was done on the QT by a few brave families trying to squeak quietly by the big wheels of government then nobody cared enough to lampoon it.

Well, I better wrap this post up, I can hear my kids getting creative again in the background and I better go put the kibosh on that, pronto.

So, the Inevitable Has Finally Happened

Mackenzie beat me in chess. He got me on a move I never saw coming. Wow. I still remember the day I finally beat my dad in Othello. I think Mackenzie will remember this day for a long time too. Damn, the kid is good. Of course, the little stinker used his allowance for an online chess tutor, and he's been checking chess books out of the library. He got a fun one called The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Fifty Tantalizing Problems of Chess Detection. He loved the chess problems in there and deducing the solutions, but was pretty distressed over the non-authenticity of the book. Imagine, Dr. Watson calls Holmes "Sherlock"!!! That would never happen in the Sir Conan Doyle books, for sure.

Of Mr. Bean and The French Revolution

Lately, we've been delving into the history of the French Revolution. How did we become interested in that you might ask? Well, it's a bit of a strange journey. It all started with Mr. Bean , a comedic character played by Rowan Atkinson. Our whole family just loves physical comedians: Kramer from Seinfeld, John Lithgow, Jane Curtin, and Kristen Johnston in 3rd Rock from the Sun, old silent movie stars like Harold Lloyd, John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, and of course the imcomparable Rowan Atkinson. From Mr. Bean, we graduated to BlackAdder (I can't believe how many House fans do not know Hugh Laurie from his comedic genius in this series!), and one of our favorite episodes has to be where Edmund is consumed with jealousy over the Scarlet Pimpernel and all kinds of silliness ensue.

So typically, that evolved into discussions of who the heck the Scarlet Pimpernel is, and we checked out the relatively recent A&E/BBC version of the story starring Richard Grant & Elizabeth McGovern, which we've been enjoying in the evenings. That in turn has spawned many discussions about the French Revolution, revolutions in general, disaparity between the rich and the poor, mob justice,

It's always fascinating to me to see what we end up studying, reading up on, talking about, and thinking about, and how we got there in the first place. Often, it can be traced back to something seemingly small or inconsequential. When you keep a curious mind though, you end up in all kinds of fascinating places.

The Title To My Life: A Blog Tag

This is a toughie! Stella tagged me with the following:

1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person that tagged you.
4. Tag five more blogs.

So after much thoughtful almost-midnight deliberation, here's mine:

21530880 Perfect Minutes On Planet Earth

though my hubby thinks my autobiography would be titled Stop and Hug the Trees (that's okay, his should be I Just Got to Talking, LOL.)

I picked this title because that's how life feels to me. Even the moments that suck, even the ones that are sad or frustrated or overwhelming. Every moment here is a blessing, and I know full well how lucky I am in this life.

I'm tagging Jody, Deanna, Dorcas, Seppie, and Jenny

Of Prudes and Pliés

It's Dance Recital Season again, otherwise known as out of the (robotics) frying pan and into the (dancing) fire! As you can see from this first photo, Asa gets to perform in a ballet dance this year, which she is very excited about.

Every little girl should get to don at least one sugar plum fairy outfit and dance around a stage while the parents ooh and aah, and this has been her dream for lo these many years - ever since this first dance recital of hers at the Parks-n-Rec ballet class for toddlers (she's curtsying on the right):


We went up to Portland for the "Dance Magic" dance team competition this week as well. Boy did that event make me appreciate the woman who runs her studio even more than I already do! For one thing, I really appreciate her "no tummies showing" rule. All of our studio's dancers wear a leotard under their costumes, and in general their costumes are cute, cool, and not revealing of an undue amount of body parts. I've never really considered myself to be the prudish type, but there's something distinctly unnerving about tiny Jon-Benet Ramsey-lookalikes in leopard-skin bikini-top costumes shaking their booties at the audience. I have to admit I did get a little creeped out by some of the costumes and moves - things that look appropriate on an older teen just look so WRONG on an eight year old.

















But the girls from our studio had a terrific routine and they did simply great! Asa came off the stage beaming from ear to ear and saying that she has never felt so intense on stage, like she poured every little bit of her into her dancing (her words). She truly loved it, and it was great to watch her perform with her wonderful dance team. Now we've only got four more recitals to go before we hit the summer!

Inspired

Ever since we've gotten back from the FLL World Festival, Mackenzie has been working with the robot. Inspired by a team that used the ultrasonic sensor, he hooked one up to our 'bot and wrote a program that navigates around the house by sampling the sensor and if it encounters an obstacle it backs up and turns in another direction. It does have a slight problem with stairs (going down), not unlike my kids when they were small.

It's one of the greatest testimonials to the wonderful competitors at the World Fest that the kids came back so energized and inspired. We will be presenting our experiences to the Eugene Kiwanis group next month, and are also planning a public presentation to get more kids and potential coaches involved in starting up their own FLL teams. Mackenzie has already been talking with younger neighborhood kids and he is thinking about mentoring them as a JFLL team as well. Exciting stuff!

We're Back, Many Amazing Tales to Tell

There were 81 teams at the World Festival from the 11,000 FLL teams around the world. Our team made friends with teams from the Northwest that were on our airplane (big wave to the Gothic Lawn Gnomes and Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies, who were awesome!) an all-girls team from Saudi Arabia staying in our hotel, and the team from Mexico that had the pit table right next to ours. All of these teams had won their region or country's championships to get there and they were not just technically incredible (!!!!) but wonderfully nice kids. It was such an amazing experience, we're all still processing it, but I will put up a slide show as soon as I can make it through the 600 photos I took and cull out some great ones. To walk up the ramp into the Georgia Dome with these kids and compete on the floor with teams from all over the world was just incredible, and made all the hard work of the last few weeks really worth it.

There were also over 300 teams of the high school age robotics championships (working with much bigger robots, some the size of small refridgerators!) and the kids were really impressed with them and are excited about future opportunities as they get older as well.

And We're Off

There's a pile of suitcases in the entryway, I'm praying I haven't forgotten anything important, praying even harder that the TSA will let our robots through in our carry-on luggage, and can't wait until we're on the plane and underway. Miraculously, both kids are already asleep after much excitement this evening. It should be one for the memory books, for sure.

World Festival, here we come!

Overheard...

Spring has most definitely sprung here with beautiful weather over the weekend, and lots of time to enjoy the sunshine, the sprinkler, and a tandem family bike ride (along with 4 straight days of robotics practice!). And while I'm at it, here's a few funnies from around here lately:

When the kids were arguing, I overheard Asa telling Mackenzie very loudly "Oh, go back to your own beehive!"

On another day when I was the target of her wrath, I got "I'll remember that when you're old and you need me, mom."

On another afternoon, I overheard Wayne asking Asa to do something she apparently didn't want to do. After she didn't answer him, he asked her again, then asked if she had heard his request. She replied "I'm having a silent moment."

I was in the kitchen one day when I heard Mackenzie gasp as if he'd been burned by something hot. I looked over and he was carrying some apparently dangerous object to the counter at arm's length and I overheard him saying "At least it's got a protective shield on it!". The object in question? A pink (oh, the horror) crayon, one of those twistable ones in a plastic casing. Apparently, he's become allergic to the color pink. Maybe now's not the time to tell him he used to dress up in sparkles and fairy wings...

But probably my favorite quote from recently was not from one of my own kids, but one of their friends, who I will mercifully refrain from naming here....

"I've always wanted to mooselip a teapot!" Background story, a friend of mine from Alaska used to call it "mooselipping" if you drank straight from the milk carton or other bottle or pitcher, so that's what our family calls it.

One Step Ahead of Total Chaos

We leave for Atlanta in a week and one day! Having just got back from D.C. last weekend, and having a ton of stuff to do as the coach of a Team in Training triathlon team (a position I took on when I had absolutely no idea that our kids would end up going to this robotics World Festival thingie), and having our usual activities and homeschooling and all that, I feel like I'm just one step ahead of a gigantic rolling 8-Ball. I know once we get to the World Festival, it will be a total blast. The kids are very excited about meeting other teams from around the country and around the world, and they've been working very hard on their robot.

That's one thing I'm always excited and impressed with about our team. They're never content to just rest on their laurels, they're always trying to improve. When we won the Regional Tournament, our robot's top score was 230 points. We mostly won on the strength of our research project and our 100% teamwork score. At State, the kids had added programs and totally re-worked our table run, and the robot scored 290 points, which they were extremely excited about. Of course, the team that won state managed a whopping 400 points, wow. This last couple of weeks they have been working hard to implement two new missions, and that brings our best table run up to 325 points. We all know we won't be in the league of some of the incredible teams at Worlds, but I am very proud of them all for continuing to improve on their robot's performance and on the number of missions they're attempting. They are awesome!

The Smithsonian.... Without Kids

It's kind of like a banana split without the banana. I spent last weekend in Washington D.C. by myself. I went for a triathlon coaching seminar, and just couldn't find an airfare low enough to bring the kids along. Wandering through the mall, the monuments, and spending an afternoon at the Smithsonian by myself was a little eerie. On one hand, it was kind of strange and wonderful to have a whole day where the only influence on my time was what I wanted to do (I even took a little break with a paperback in the middle of the afternoon - oh my!). On the other hand, it made me realize how much I love sharing things with my family. Being in the Smithsonian by myself, well it was cool, but I couldn't help thinking how Asa would love the animal exhibits, or Mackenzie would be fascinated by the section on asteroids. I only stayed a couple of hours and then wandered on.

One thing I did love was that I got up very early on Friday morning and went to see all the monuments at sunrise, by myself. That's something I wouldn't have been able to drag the kids along for anyways, and it was a very moving experience. The sun rises behind the Washington Monument and fills up the Lincoln Memorial with light. There was no one else around and I spent a good amount of time with Mr. Lincoln overcome by emotion. This monument is one of the most awe-inspiring places I've ever been on the planet. The sheer size and scope of it, Lincoln's words on the wall, and his statue that looks like it is ready to stand up and walk forth, it is a very powerful place. When it's crowded with people, it is still impressive. But when you can stand there in the hush of dawn and watch the sun fill it with golden light, and read Lincoln's words, which still echo forth in the issues of our day, well that is something else altogether.

So now that I'm back, I'm both grateful for the time spent on my own, and doubly appreciative of the small people that I get to share my world with on a daily basis.

Young Chefs

Remember those corny "Happiness Is...." cards and posters from the 1980's? Well, I think happiness might just be a kid who is starting to enjoy cooking. Mackenzie wanted to make his own cornbread to go with the chili I was making for dinner. I wrote out a recipe card for him that was much more legible than my regular handwritten one. He has always been very sensitive to sensations and sounds, so a few years back we replaced all of our wood-handled spoons and rubber scrapers with plastic-handled ones that don't bother his sense of touch. Likewise, I bought some plastic measuring spoons because the tinny metal spoons scraping together drove him nuts. He told me that he used some rubber gloves when he cracked the eggs, just so no egg slime got onto his hands, too. I remember all of these kinds of things being a roadblock to me when I was learning to cook. My mom never quite understood why the sound of a knife on a wood chopping block just set my teeth on edge, or the feel of the wooden stirring spoons really bugged me. Luckily these days there are alternatives available so he can enjoy cooking much more!















He had a few mishaps with flour and other ingredients, but in the end he turned out a very nice tasting cornbread. And of course, to ensure his little sister would want to eat it, he dyed it green (her favorite color). Yummm!

Kids and Politics

When I was 11 years old, President Jimmy Carter was inaugurated into office and I remember being very interested and excited about the whole process for the first time. I wrote him a letter about recycling and Oregon's bottle bill (wow, some things haven't changed, I was an environmentalist even at that young age!) Now my son is 11 years old and we have one of the most exciting presidential races in history going on, and he is becoming very interested in politics as well. He really wanted to go hear Barack Obama talk on Friday night when he came to town, so at 2:30 we headed out to stand in line with our friends. 9,000 people packed into the basketball arena at the U of O, with 3,000 more outside that didn't make it in (ever see a line that's literally a mile long? We have now!) Obama's talk has been the fodder for our mealtime conversations in the last couple of days, and it's wonderful to have kids who are interested in what is happening in our country.

















There were times during the 7-hour wait to see Obama that I questioned whether or not this was going to be a worthwhile thing. After all, that much waiting in line is about like taking a trans-atlantic flight with the kids. They did have friends there though and could run around a bit until we got inside. At 6:30 though, we were seated in the bleachers and still had 2 1/2 hours to go. They held up admirably though, Mackenzie put in earplugs and often had his hands over his ears (especially after Obama started speaking and the crowd went wild at times), and Asa almost fell asleep by the end (around 10:15), but walking out to our car in the dark Mackenzie exclaimed "Obama really rocks! His speech was amazing!" and I couldn't really put it any better.

More photos from the Obama Rally are here on my other blog.

15 Minutes of Fame

Every day that goes by with this robotics team, I see what an amazing experience it is for our kids. It has been opening up whole new vistas lately. This week, the team was invited to give their research project presentation to the supervisors and managers meeting of our local utility company. There were about 75 people there, and they were wonderfully supportive and interested in what these kids had to say. A local TV station showed up and filmed and interviewed the team members, and they put a spot on the evening news. The kids were all very impressively self-composed, though we all talked about how nervous we were afterwards. They did great, and came across with their usual enthusiasm.

















A man from the utility company is helping the kids with adding a cost/benefit analysis to their research project, and I think he will be a wonderful contact to have as the team goes forward. He came to our practice last week and gave the kids some great feedback on their project. As the next year's theme is also energy-related (global warming), I feel that we've forged some connections that will be really helpful to the team in our next season as well!

Up For the Challenge

We had our first robotics team meeting yesterday, looking forward to the World Festival next month. The kids were raring to go! Not content to rest on their laurels, they want to tackle even more of the mission challenges, and add in a cost/benefit analysis for their research project. A man from our local utility company's education and outreach program visited our team meeting yesterday. He's willing to help the kids with the cost/benefit analysis, and the team will also be doing a presentation at the utility company next week! They are also going to be one of our major sponsors.

So far, we've raised about half of the money that we need to get to the World Festival, with three sponsors of $500 or more, and a bunch of people contributing smaller amounts. It's wonderful to see the kind of support that can come out of your own community for an opportunity like this for the kids. We've also heard from many business owners, friends, and family about their own interests in the fields of engineering and sustainable energy. This opportunity to go to the World Festival is expanding the kids' world in many ways - allowing them to do further community outreach than we ever had planned for the team initially. Also, at the world festival, they will have an additional "Alliance" mission challenge, where they will be paired with several other teams from different places in the country or world. What an incredible opportunity for them to get to know team members from different places! I'm sure you can tell from my overabundant use of exclamation marks that I am very excited for our kids and for the team over these amazing possibilities that have been opening up before us.

Warm Sleeves and Impenetrable Hair

One of the funnest things in parenthood is the way the whole world becomes revealed to you through the eyes of your kids. You get to examine everything in new ways, think about things from different perspectives, when you really listen to what they say, to the questions they ask and the observations they make. Even to the words they use. I remember when Mackenzie was very young, he would ask me to "unpeel" a banana for him. It makes perfect sense - you get "undressed" when you take your clothes off, why then wouldn't "unpeeling" a banana mean removing the peel? He would also turn "upside-up" after being "upside-down".

Both of the kids are older now, the cute phrases of toddler hood are mostly far behind us, but they still occasionally surprise me with funny sayings that make me smile. This week I overheard one of them telling the other that it was cold outside and they needed to find a "warm-sleeved shirt". Mackenzie still says "orderwise" instead of "otherwise" some of the time. And he exclaimed in dismay that his hair was an "impenetrable fortress" when trying to shampoo it (I tend to agree - this kid has the thickest hair in existance. He can dunk himself completely underwater and it's still dry five layers down, like some kind of retriever dog bred for cold waters).

I know when the last of childhood's insightful and engaging speech patterns is gone, I'll be just a bit sad. I still can recall the day that Asa first called Mackenzie by his real name. Prior to that (and to all of our befuddlement) she had chosen to call him "Geegaw". I think a tear slipped out of my eye when her toddler voice first said the name "Mackenzie". Then again, I still call my sister by my childhood knickname for her, so maybe there's some hope for a few remnants, at least for awhile.

Bits and Bots

It's been a very busy last few days, trying to get everything booked and registered for this robotics tournament in Atlanta next month (not to mention trying to fundraise the $$$$ to get us there!). Still, we've managed to squeeze in some other fun stuff this week.

We spent yesterday at the Irish Cultural festival. Asa and I took our fiddles and went to a fiddle workshop, and then Mackenzie and I took our new bodhran (pronounced something like BOW-rahn) to a workshop given by this very interesting guy (and terrific drummer). He was very engaging, weaving history and personal experience with technique. While we didn't come away knowing a whole lot more than when we started, we at least got an idea of how to hold the drum and the tipper (stick) and to play a few simple rhythms. While we were doing that, Wayne took Asa to a step-dancing workshop. When Mackenzie and I got there, Wayne was up there dancing with Asa and the rest of the group. It's fun to try new things (and he's definitely a few better candidate to do any kind of dancing than I am, he's got rhythm and I've got two left feet!).

As a family, we've been enjoying some retro TV nights watching old Simpson's episodes, or DVDs of 3rd Rock From the Sun. We all love good physical comedy, and John Lithgow is in his finest form in this show (other favorites along these lines are the Pink Panther series with the incomparable Peter Sellers, and Fawlty Towers with the superb John Cleese, as well as old silent movies with Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the like.

















The weather is getting good, so we took our first family tandem bike ride of the yea, running some errands and then ending up at a park down by the river. The kids look so huge on the playground equipment, especially compared to all of the smaller kids. It's strange sometimes to look at these big independent creatures and think how small they once were.

Amazing News

If you've been reading this blog, you've seen the journey that we've taken this year with the FLL Robotics team that the kids are on (and that I've been coaching), the Solar Dragons. Well, we just found out this weekend that we have been selected to go to the WORLD Robotics Festival!!!!!! We will be one of 84 teams from the 10,000 around the world competing for 3 days in Atlanta, Georgia (I think in the Georgia Dome). I think one of the most exciting things about this nomination is how they were nominated. FLL has a set of “Core Values” that they promote among the kids participating in their robotics program. The values include working as a team, sharing their experiences with others, exhibiting “Gracious Professionalism” at all times, and honoring the spirit of friendly competition. There is a special process by which teams who exhibit exemplary core values can become nominated for a chance to compete at the FIRST World Festival. The Solar Dragons received just such a nomination, one of 12 given out in the world. Wow!!!! These kids are truly amazing.

Now, we just need some very very good thoughts and prayers that we can fundraise the money needed to get the whole team there and register them for the championships. Keep your fingers crossed for us, and if you know any individuals or corporations that might be willing to sponsor our team, let me know (the back of our team t-shirts is definitely up for some sponsors!)

Not An Ordinary Teen

Today I'd like to introduce you to my friend Stella, who now has her own blog. Stella is an unschooling teenager I've been privileged to get to know over the last few years. For just a tiny fraction of a second, I hesitated in calling her my friend, because in the normal way of things parents and other adults aren't supposed to be "friendly" with kids. Since Stella is on the robotics team that I coach, I am nominally in some sort of position of "authority" and we all know from the "experts" that you're not supposed to get chummy with kids, just in case you need to pull out the authoritative role at some point. When we hear of adults who try to be friendly with kids, we think of those icky people who dress and wear their hair slightly too young, and listen to Britney Spears just to be thought of as "cool" (except that kids these days probably don't say "cool" anymore anyways, and Britney, well she stopped being cool a while ago). But, although Stella also happens to be the daughter of a friend of mine, she really can't be described as anything but a friend as well. She's funny and thoughtful and smiles a lot. I enjoy her company and her wit and her fresh observations on life.

It is one of the biggest blessings of unschooling that I get to spend a lot of time with young people and hear their interesting take on life. Especially since many of these people have grown up so differently from the common culture - they have really unique and interesting perspectives on everything. I think being around kids like this is like a daily infusion of hope.

So, just as I write about unschooling from the perspective of taking this journey with my kids, Stella writes about unschooling from the perspective of a kid who has taken this unusual journey herself. I think you will see from her blog the passion that comes when a person is allowed to follow their heart - to dream big, to follow their dreams, to not be constricted by the mandates that take up the bulk of many kids' time (get up, get dressed, go to school, afterschool activities, dinner, homework, to bed). So here she is: Not A Ordinary Teen.

Unschooling Voices, Question of the Month

For Unschooling Voices blog carnival, the question of the month is: What do you do, as an unschooling parent, when your child expresses an interest in a particular topic and you don't know how to help them in a way that doesn't involve lesson plans and curriculum?

I guess this is a hard question for me to answer, since we have always unschooled. We just do whatever it takes to learn something. We've never used lesson plans or structured curriculum, but I'm not averse to cracking open a book (even one that looks distinctly schoolish) if that's what it takes to help my kids learn something they want to. For instance, I picked up a copy of Cliffs Quick Review (by the makers of Cliff Notes) Basic Math & Pre-Algebra at one time. It has come in useful whenever we've had to do something mathematical that I can't quite remember the formula for - like calculating the median vs. the mean or deciphering statistical mumbo-jumbo. My first reaction to a question from my kids isn't typically to reach for a curriculum, but neither is my reaction to avoid any kind of formal teaching. I think if a kid is interested in something, there are many paths to take to approach that thing and no one path is necessarily better or worse.

When my son was interested in robotics for instance, we bought him the Lego Mindstorms robotics set, and checked out some books from the library to learn about building and programming different robots with the set. Then an opportunity came up for him to take a class from an actual robotics engineer at our local homeschooling resource center. That sounded like a great opportunity, so he went for it. As it turned out, the woman teaching the class knew a great deal about robots, but very little about passing on that knowledge to kids. So while he enjoyed some aspects of the class, it wasn't really what he was looking for. That summer, we heard that a mom who was coaching a FIRST Lego League robotics team was going to hold a small summer day camp with a robotics theme. Both of my kids decided to go to that, and from there ended up being on her FLL robotics team that fall (a year and a half ago). They had an excellent experience working with their team to compete in the FLL tournament. That coach moved away last year and I promised the kids that I would try my hand at coaching the team. As you can see from updates on this blog, it has been an amazing experience for all of us (as well as their teammates).

So in the case of robotics, as with so many other interests, we came at it from many angles - trying our hand at it, reading about it, looking for other resources in the community, people who are sharing their knowledge, etc. I think if you keep an open mind and really put your intention to learn something out there, you will always be amazed by the resources available to you. If not in your own community, the vast experience of the WWW is also at your fingertips. If we had lived somewhere with no robotics experiences open to us in real life, we could've joined forums and online communities and expanded our knowledge that way.

Holidays, Sweet Holidays

I'm not a Hallmark Holiday kind of person, and I don't expect a dozen long-stemmed roses from my hubby like clockwork every Valentine's day, or brunch on Mother's Day (though I'm glad he always remembers to bring home Euphoria truffles - what a guy!). But one thing I learned growing up is that holidays serve to tie a family together, and connect us with the seasons and the circle of the year. It's no mistake either that so many of them happen in the dreariest parts of the winter. My memories of childhood are a wheel with spokes of holiday dinners and red doilies with valentines pasted in the centers, cookie baking and 4th of July picnics by the river. Valentine's Day, with it's focus on love and friendship (and cookies and brightly colored hearts) has always been one of my favorites, not for the mass consumerism pushed by the greeting card companies and florists, but for the sheer sweetness of taking time out to appreciate those you love.

I'm not quite the picture-perfect mom of home and hearth that I'd like to be though. When it comes to crafts and cooking, my talents are thin and disaster often ensues. Case in point, the night before our homeschool group's Valentine's cookie-decorating party had me all Betty Crockered-out, covered in flour and gleefully baking sugar cookies. Being the modern mom, I'd downloaded a recipe for the "World's Best Sugar Cookies" from the internet and was mixing away. There was that little niggling voice in the back of my head that said "Isn't four eggs an awful lot for cookies that are supposed to turn out flat??", but quite unfortunately I ignored it and forged ahead. When I peeked in on the baking cookies, it was to see with horror that they were puffing up like marshmallows in a microwave and no longer resembled hearts in any shape or form. Now if you bake, you'll recall that sugar cookie dough has to be refridgerated for many hours before rolling out, and it was now 8:00 pm.

That is why Valentine's morning saw me rising with the dawn (and the help of my alarm clock and several reminders from my daughter) to start rolling out and cutting another batch of three dozen cookies. All was well that ended well as the second batch (recipe courtesy of the actual Betty Crocker, not some virtual Crocker wanna-be) turned out just fine. The first batch went with us to karate to be handed out to friends who were more than grateful to eat the very tasty non-heart-shaped lumps. And the kids poured on the frosting and the sprinkles at the decorating party, and I realized that it's not really the shape of the heart that counts, it's how much love you generate. I know my kids won't remember me for my culinary talents in their childhoods, but they'll remember the love, sweeter than sprinkles, that drives a mom to rise at dawn and create another family holiday.

Funny she'd say that...

Sometimes when my daughter does something that totally reminds me of myself, I'll say to her jokingly "Sometimes you're so much like me, it scares me."

One thing she's well known for around here is leaving a trail of stuff behind her - clothing, hair ties, fruit peels, toys. The other day, I happened to leave a plate on the table with grapefruit peels on it and she said with a grin "Sometimes I'm so much like you, it scares me."

Exciting News - Robotics!

I am excited to share two things about our robotics team today. One is this video slideshow I made chronicling our entire season so far. You can really see the heart and soul these teammates poured into meeting the challenges of the robotics competition:


The second thing I want to share is that out of 400 robotics teams in Oregon, our team has been chosen (along with another team) to represent Oregon in the selection process to attend the World robotics championships!!! The selection is based on your team exemplifying the "Core Values" of FIRST Lego League:
• We are a team.
• We do the work to find the solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.
• We honor the spirit of friendly competition.
• What we discover is more important than what we win.
• We share our experiences with others.
• We display gracious professionalism in everything we do.
• We have fun!

Our team was recommended by the teamwork judges at the competitions to be nominated, and the kids had to write an essay answering six questions about these core values and how our team worked. From this process, they were chosen to represent Oregon. Now their essay (along with those from 200 teams around the world) will go on to the World selection committee, who will choose 10 teams to attend the World festival based on these Core Values nominations.

Please keep those fingers crossed for us! Our team has been simply amazing this year, and these kids have been awesome and worked so hard and are such great teammates. I am so proud of them over this nomination!!!

And the World is Made New For Them

At the library yesterday with Mackenzie, he remarked excitedly "Mom, they put in a whole section just for Greek Mythology - a whole section!" I love how the world seems made new for kids - as if any new discovery was created fresh on that day just for them.

So we wandered about the library, he showed me how to do an Advanced Search on the computer, something I hadn't discovered yet. I showed him how the Dewey Decimal system worked. We went up to explore the wonders of the adult section, this feeling like some kind of rite of passage to me. He found a gigantic book with drawings and text of every airplane every built, I think it weighed about 18 pounds. I pulled out some art books on Picasso and Dali, because the other day when he complained that his drawings don't look exactly like the objects he was sketching, I told him about many famous and wonderful painters who drew things differently and made their own forms of art. He pulled a book off of the shelf called "Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime" that is right up my alley for morning tea reading time, saying "mom, this looks like one you'd like".

Asa has two hours of dance team and ballet on Tuesday afternoons and I love my lazy wanderings with my son during those hours. We spent almost all of it in the library yesterday, riffing off of each other like experienced Jazz musicians, comfortable in our relationship and happy to have each other's company. What more could a mother want? Maybe another four or five arms to carry all the books home!

Robotics State Tournament

Wow, if you have any kids (or are yourself) interested in engineering, technology, or robotics, or just want to be impressed by the minds of young people, find one of these FIRST Lego League state tournaments and go to it. What you'll see is dozens of teams of young people who have taken the exact same challenges and built an amazing array of robot styles, shapes, programs, and attachments to complete these challenges. It was so cool to see how each team approached the design differently. And not just the robot design, but how it went about the missions, whether it combined them, had attachments that worked for multiple missions, or came back to base for attachment changes and sending out again.

The robot table competition was in a big gym, with six tables going at all times. Two of them appeared on the big screen at the back of the gym, which was great because you could really see the details on all of these different robots up close, and how they approached their mission objectives. The kids also thought it was pretty cool that they got to be on the big TV screen.

Our team did really well, with the most exciting moment coming on their first table run. Every one of their robot's ten missions executed flawlessly, with the last mission being accomplished just at the ring of the 2 1/2 minute final buzzer. This gave them a table score of 270, the highest they've ever achieved. Given that some of these programs were written in the weeks between the regional competition and the state championships, they were very excited to have such a perfect showing. Their top score at regionals had been 220, so this was a big leap up. Of course, the other teams here were also all regional champions, so some teams posted scores as high as a perfect 400. Still our team scored in the top 1/3 of all the teams there, and I consider that exceptional for their first time at State.

Their research presentation, teamwork judging, and technical judging all went well, and as usual I was impressed by the poise and hard work that all of the kids exhibited in these intense environments. At the end of the day, they won an award for robot reliability, which is quite an honor. I know the kids would've liked to win some big overall award, but I think they did very well to be there at State and getting an award at all was icing on the cake. Next year, they'll have a much better idea of what areas they need to focus on if they're going to perform even better, but right now I couldn't be more proud!

Fun With Animals

Not much time to write today, the kids big State Championship robotics tournament is this weekend, plus my first week of being a triathlon coach for Team in Training, and Asa has a dance team performance (not to mention I sprained my ankle this week - oh joy!) So here's a little photo journey of some of our fun with our animals this week:

Bandit is a big snuggler, especially when someone's lying still enough to get a nap on their legs:























Garfield in a first tree-climbing adventure:



















I call this one "Fishing For Kittens":





















Bandit in a face-off with our two oldest hens (who look supremely unconcerned):






















Mackenzie holding Foghorn:

Where's Waldo?

For a couple of years now, we've been keeping our eyes peeled for a "Westie" - a Winnebago conversion of a Volkswagon Westfalia van. They stopped making them about five years ago, and they're pretty darn hard to find. When you do find them, they're often ungodly expensive. DH happened to be rolling past a VW dealership and spotted this little gem on the lot. Usually we take a lot more time with car-buying, but he knew it was a good deal, and the van looks like it's hardly been used.
It sleeps four - two down in the folded back seat area, and two up in the "pop top" and I think it will be great for more four-season camping (especially on the wet and windy Oregon coast) and taking to triathlons (where we usually have to find a hotel room). Some friends have had one for years and so we drove over to their house to get a run-down on how everything works (ours is missing its owner's manual, unfortunately!) and to look at how they have it all organized. I remember camping at Waldo Lake (elevation 6,000') one fall with our friends and as we shivered in our tent, looking out at their toasty Westie with the heater and the indoor stove for hot chocolate and thinking I would really have liked to be inside at that moment! Not that our tent camping days are done, I know the kids love having a tent and I really don't mind roughing it in the great outdoors in the summer when it's not pouring rain. But I've packed up the tent in a downpour on more than one marginal fall camping trip, so this will be a welcome addition.



















And my hubby, who after 10 years in the Army developed a serious aversion to camping, will be much more likely to come with us if it doesn't mean sleeping in the tent, so that's a bonus too. We're looking forward to playing cards here in the main part of the van (a table folds out and the front seats swivel around). We were informed that if you own a Westie, you have to name it. So ours has become "Waldo" in honor of my favorite place in the world to camp. My hubby was cracking up this morning as he was ordering an owner's manual online, and the first thing you had to input on the form was the name of your vehicle! So I guess it's a good thing ours has already been dubbed Waldo, he had something to fill in on the form.