Snow in April

Snow in April.
What do you know?
The temperature's dropped,
and the wind does blow.

Spring has sprung.
Winter is gone,
but weather does not know
time nor season.

Snow in April.
Unexpected. Surprise.
Look out the window
and believe your eyes.

Little snowflakes falling
once again
remind us God's in charge
and not the whims of men.

- written on this snowy Spring day while watching the flakes fall outside our windows

Shenandoah National Park

A scenic view from the Shenandoah National Park (Note the snow in the foreground.).A funny tree - who is he?Deer - up close!Still for a secondWe made it!

Easier? On this day it was icy, slushy, snowy, and muddy. With the children it's a wonder we made it, but we pressed on and did. Good thing we didn't try one of the harder hikes to a fall. We never would have made it on that day.

Shenandoah Valley - February 2009

We took a trip to VA's Shenandoah Valley to see what we could see.

Back from the pool

The fun Harrisonburg's Children Museum

Monticello, home of our third President Thomas Jefferson. A house full of curious items, and a gift shop worth exploring.

Schulyer, VA - a sidetrip to visit Earl Hamner's hometown. The museum was not open on that day so we only got to see it from the outside. To see some of the inside, look here."The Waltons" based on "Spencer Mountain", Earl Hamner's best-seller written about his boyhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here you see his boyhood home.

What we read - February 2009

Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

This series of books is new to me. The children really liked this book, and we kept reading it over and over again. I'll have to look for more at the library.

Pioneer girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson

A very good book, but due to the length I only read it to them once. Too lengthy for the girls right now.

One giant leap: The story of Neil Armstrong by Don Brown

This one I really liked. A wonderful picture book full of information on Armstrong's life. Excellent addition to our astronomy study this year.

Crossing by Philip E. Booth

A train picture book with nice pictures.

Pancakes, Pancakes! and Rooster's Off to See the World by Eric Carle

We have read several of Eric Carle's books but not all yet. Pancakes, Pancakes! was a hit with the children.

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Another of the girls' favorites. We read this one several times.

Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban

Our son's definite favorite. He kept asking us to read this one to him. One I remember reading from my childhood.

Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor

A fun read.

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Another classic, fun read from my childhood. The girls enjoyed this one.

Comets, stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florion

A neat book of astronomy poems that well suited our studies this year.

Growing in faith: Seven stories for children by Helen Caswell

Wonderful group of stories that teach some Bible basics to children.

Fire in the woods!

Yesterday evening I was talking to OBT on the phone and happened to look in the backyard. The woods were on fire. That ended our conversation quick. With the children already happily watching a cartoon, I dashed out the back door with a water bucket full of water. I threw it on the fire and ran back in for the fire extinguisher. Never having used one before, I found that it did not last long, and the fire was still burning. I raced next door to our neighbors' and found their older daughter outside, just having arrived home. I told her to call 9-1-1 and that there was a fire in the woods.

She did and gave them her address. Then I went and let her Mom know what was going on. After that, I raced back home and refilled the water bucket. By the time I was on my way back, my neighbors were coming to help with shovels and a hoe. All four of them started pushing the fire back up towards the grass so that it would not get any further back into the woods and trying to put it out. I unfurled my bucket of water and noting their tools went back to see what we had in the garage.

On my way back, another neighbor and his wife had pulled in our driveway noticing the burning grass and smoke to ask if we needed any help. "Yes, there's a fire in the woods", I told them. I went back in for more water and grabbed a rake too. I told the children to pray because there was a fire in the woods. By the time I got back, I handed my neighbor the rake and doused the fire again with the water.

As I ran back for another bucket of water, OBT pulled in. By then the fire was about out, and the volunteer fire department had not showed up yet. They did, and so did our neighbor's husband, both coming home from work. We found out that the fire started when our neighbor's younger daughter and friend were burning garbage outside and left it. There was a little wind, and apparently the fire spread. Thankfully no one was hurt. Thankfully no houses were hurt. Our house is not that close to theirs. When I checked later to see where the fire had been earlier in the day, I found that the fire had come within about four feet of our house and then moved behind it. Things could have been so different. One of the firemen even commented that he was glad that this fire had happened this week. Last week the weather was much windier, and we had not had as much rain. We are thanking God for His watchcare over us and for good neighbors. We are thanking God that things turned out the way they did. We now have a lot of burned grass in our yard, but we and our belongings are okay.

Snowflake Bentley

Yes, I know it is Spring, but I couldn't resist passing along this website that features the photography of William Bentley. I am amazed and drawn back to the Creator of all things when I read about this man who studied snowflakes. He took pictures of thousands, and the wonder of it all is that no two are alike.

To see more of his work and learn more about the man behind it, go here.

TOG Y1U3 Celebration

We had our Unit 3 celebration recently. It was Greek to me!

Triangular numbers with beans
The food - sesame circles, asparagus (an Ancient Greek favorite), baked fish in grape leaves, and baklava

The books we read

A simple pulley
The children really enjoyed putting this and that in the pulley and raising and lowering it.

A mobile, soap carving, seal, cat mosaic, sieve of Eratosthenes, menu, and platonic bodies

Next - Ancient Rome . . .