Home Spun Vignette #7

It's That Time of Year

I will be doing vignette comics this week. Especially since I didn't really think about the comics until Sunday. Yep, it's that time of the year.

Time to make the Christmas cards.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving, but it did seem to sneak up on me, as it has for the past few years. I started to panic because I've spent most of November trying to think up my card designs and every year it gets harder. I try not to use designs from past years because there isn't much thought involved in recycling old artwork. To be honest, on some level I must enjoy the challenge that comes with agonizing over the cards.

So Friday was spent thinking. Thinking while trying to read. Thinking while checking emails. Thinking while playing computer games. (It's a process.) Finally I just folded up a couple of pieces of paper and sat down and sketched. The cute card came easily, as it usually does. The spiritual card featured heavy rubbings from the eraser end of the pencil. I always have a harder time expressing my spiritual side. It's a more intimate, personal topic for me, something that is very important to me. I want to express myself, but at the same time I don't want to offend anyone. At the same, same time, I realize I don't always look at the world the way others do, so it is always a gamble to set my imagination loose on an unsuspecting world.

Anyway, after staring at my paper for a while, I decided on a design I envisioned a while ago when I was thinking about angels and how they might appear. My husband liked it, but he tends to like most of my work. That's why I keep him around. I'll post the cards later in the season, once I make a dent in my Christmas card list. And bake cookies. And drive everyone to their things. And I think I have a birthday somewhere in there, but I'm trying not to think about that...

It's that time of year.

Home Spun comic strip #420

Happy Thanksgiving!

Home Spun comic strip #419

Compare this strip and the last strip (#418) and there you have my life.

The Element by Ken Robinson-A Review

I know I've been a bit quiet lately, other than posting my comics. I was reading a book I requested from the library. I'm not the fastest reader, so if it is something I'm really interested in, I try to finish it before it is due. I've had too many books that had to be returned without renewal because there were more holds on them.

Anyway, this weekend I finished reading The Element by Sir Ken Robinson. The book is a wonderful extension of his lecture in the TED talks series. I intend to buy a copy of it to share with my family and to highlight and dog ear and write notes in the margins. It is that good.

The Element is about finding your passion (or passions). It is about living a more meaningful life by finding what you are meant to do and doing it. The book is filled with anecdotes from people who are doing what they love, either as their chosen profession or as a hobby, and living happier lives because of it. Through these stories, Ken Robinson instructs his readers about how to find their own element, as well as the obstacles to the element. Of particular interest for me was the section on standardized tests. I live in an area where high stakes testing and SAT prep courses are the norm. I was recently pointed to this article in the NY Times (HT Malia Li'i Kula) which shows a disturbing trend toward testing 3 and 4 year olds. I have always looked down upon testing but tend to be in the minority about it. Robinson's history of the IQ test and the SAT affirmed my opinion and I now feel well armed for my next debate on this issue. Aside from my usual concerns about undue stress caused from overtesting, I can point out how Alfred Binet, one of the creators of the IQ test, designed the test "exclusively to identify children with special needs so they could get appropriate forms of schooling."

Relating this book to my own life, I know I have been lucky to have many opportunities to follow my element, even as my Element kept shifting and changing. I have always been an artist, drawing on whatever scrap of paper was available (even the margins of my school notes) but my art also traveled into the realms of performance when I started juggling. I followed this new passion to a juggling club in the city (finding your tribe is important for nourishing your Element). This led me to my soulmate, and then to becoming a mother, which I believe was another significant Element for me. Homeschooling satisfied my teaching passions and led me to a new group of artists within the homeschooling community. And all of this led me back to my artistic roots as I began my comic strip on homeschooling.

Robinson's writing is always engaging and often so funny I was reading parts of the book out loud. It is a hopeful and enjoyable read. As homeschooling parents, I believe we have better opportunities to discover our children's Element and to help them follow their passions. A fulfilling life: what a wonderful gift to give to our children!

Home Spun comic strip #418

You may want to wait until Wednesday's comic before commenting on this one. Not that I don't appreciate your comments, I love hearing the feedback! It's just that this is a two-parter.

What are we doing today? I get this question fairly often. And since our routine tends to be anything but, the answer is always different. My life is many things, but it is never the same old thing.

Home Spun comic strip #417

Home Spun comic strip #416

Home Spun comic strip #415

Homeschooling parents. We're a talkative lot. Put us together in one place and we can chatter on. I think this is because we spend so much time with kids we crave adult talk. Especially when those adults have an idea what we are going through and love homeschooling as much as we do. When you tell a homeschooler you are tired and burnt out, they never suggest putting the kids back in school.

Home Spun comic strip #414

I know I am very lucky that Chase looks up to his big sister. She has convinced him to read way more books and series than I have. Now that she works in the library, I think his reading has improved by leaps and bounds.

Frankly, I think we're all reading more now.

Another Night Visitor

We had a visit from our other skunk two nights ago. We call this one Flame.

This one is slightly larger than Flare. And if anyone is worried about me for walking among skunks, I will point out that these two skunks are very well behaved. As long as I'm quiet and move slowly, they are content to allow me to take pictures. In fact, while I was taking this picture of Flame, Dusty managed to get out the door and chased the skunk. Dusty has been skunked before and should know better, but I suppose you can't blame a cat for being a cat. Not only did she follow Flame all the way around our house, but then she continued to menace the poor thing from the bushes. I eventually got hold of the cat and--after making sure she hadn't taken on any new odors--threw her inside. The fact that Flame did not skunk the cat leads me to two thoughts. Either Flame is incapable of skunking or Flame didn't feel threatened enough by my dim-witted pussycat to stink her. I'm guessing the latter.

Home Spun comic strip #413

Sometimes it helps to have an older child who is very excited about learning games to balance the ambivalent child. Nothing makes an activity interesting as knowing your older sibling wants to play it.

Monday Didn't Get me Down!

Ever have a good day when everything seemed to just work? Those are the days you need to stand on the roof and yell, "What a great day this is! It's wonderful to be alive!" We all spend a lot of time complaining about those impossible, difficult, Alexander style days, so it's important to balance it with some praise for our wonderful days.

I was worried. It was Monday, after all. I planned to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my driver's license. I was braced to have one of those days. And then Sierra wanted to come along. Welllll....OK. But I told her to bring a book. My past experience has been that I give myself plenty of time because you never know how much time you'll spend at the DMV.

Ten minutes! That's it! I was in and out in ten minutes! I was amazed. Sierra didn't even have enough time to read more than a few pages. There was no line. It's an interesting experience to walk quickly through the people corral (Maze? I'm not sure what to call it). In less than a minute I had my customer number and my picture was taken. I was even having a good hair day thanks to an early morning shower and a glob of hair gel. Thank you Frizz-Ease. Everyone I talked to smiled, and I was called up to the counter within five minutes of sitting down. Life is good.

And it gets better. On the way to Chase's class, I spotted a rainbow! Not just any rainbow. At first, this rainbow looked like a bright spot in the sky. I thought I was looking at the sun, but this spot was to the left of the sun. Chase realized it was a rainbow. He also noticed that there was another spot on the right of the sun. These bright rainbow patches stayed in the sky almost until sunset. Here is a picture:

Update: Thanks to Kate for identifying this celestial phenomenon. It's called a sundog! I found information on sundogs or parhelia on this Wikipedia page. There is lots of info on them. I'm glad I know what to call it now!

Then this evening we had a visit from our favorite skunk, Flare. Yes, we named it. It's easy to recognize because it doesn't have much white on it. The tail only has white on the very tip, hence the name Flare. Flare is a pretty docile skunk. As long as I'm quiet and don't make any sudden moves I've been able to stand reasonably close to the animal. I stood in the doorway while Flare rooted around at the edge of the light from our front door. These were some of the best pictures I've gotten. Zoom and flash were on. Flare is used to lights flashing on its nightly visits to our yard. And the pictures came out well for being shots in the dark.

And there you have it. I know it may not be everyone's idea of a perfect day (I'm a crazy naturalist after all), but it really was wonderful. I feel very happy about it. I am very thankful for Monday. I wish all of you a very good day and encourage you to tell me about what made it so great!

Home Spun comic strip #412

Another Frog from Dana Perri

There is a new book coming out by local author Dana Perri in her Think Then Jump series! The Careless Frog will be out in January. A limited amount will be available for the holiday season, but you need to pre-order by November 9. If you missed the review of The Grumpy Frog, you can find it here. She has wonderful t-shirts as well on her site. Holidays are coming! Check it out.

An Overabundance of Responsibility

I just printed out my quarterlies and letter to the school district. Lots of changes this year. Most notable is the lack of a quarterly report for Marina. Not that I'm unhappy to be back to writing two quarterlies instead of three. It's just very different. My first reality check that she is growing beyond me. This is more significant to me than the checks from her first job. I'm no longer responsible for reporting her. I know it probably sounds silly, but this is the first responsibility that has dropped away from me since I started down this crazy path of marriage and parenthood. And I've felt a bit overwhelmed with responsibilities for a while now.

A funny thing happened when I was preparing the letter to my school district. I realized that all of the letters I sent last year listed Marina in ninth grade and Chase in sixth grade. They were in tenth and seventh grades. No one noticed. How odd. Maybe they thought I purposely held my children back a year. Maybe they thought the crazy homeschooler doesn't even know what grade her kids are in. I know, some of you are thinking, "They probably never even read the letter or quarterlies." But I always hope. I'm a writer. I like to be read.

This is shaping up to be another of those years. Hopefully not a four funeral school year(like we had last year), but definitely packed already. Chase is going to be making Confirmation, so I have to make sure he gets in his service hours and writes a paper on his saint, which he hasn't picked yet. He also wants his second degree black belt, which means he has to create a poomse (series of movements), write an essay about where he wants to go from here, and earn patches for completing pretests. He should have been doing the pretests all along, but he insists they didn't tell him. I tried to explain that sometimes you have to track down this information on your own. I think it has to do with "responsibility." There's that word again!

Not to be outdone, Sierra will be making first Reconciliation and first Communion this year. That means I get to go to every meeting the religious education program has to offer. Can you feel my excitement? And then the big days come on May 1 and May 15 (Marina's birthday). That's right! Birthday month! Because of this, I opted to not let Sierra do the dance recital, which will be on May 20 (Chase's birthday). I'm assuming by the end of May I will singing "They're Coming to Take Me Away, HaHa!"

I would love to be irresponsible for one day, but there is too much I'm supposed to do. I've been reading quick and funny books to cope with the overwhelming urge to hide from my life. I found a wonderful series by Julie Kenner about "The Secret Life of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom." The first book is Carpe Demon, although I liked the second book, California Demon, much better. I wrote a review of it that can be viewed here. It helps to laugh. And maybe I'll have less responsibilities next year.

Costumed Capers

I am finally getting around to posting our Halloween costumes. I feel a bit behind, since many of my friends had pictures up the next day. On the plus side, I think I'm about halfway through my quarterlies.

Chase went as Skulduggery Pleasant this year. Skulduggery is the Skeleton Detective of a series by Derek Landy. It is set in Dublin, Ireland and is very interesting. Unfortunately, it isn't as well known as, for example, the Harry Potter series, so most people simply found the costume creepy. I think they thought he was the invisible man or Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas.



Marina knitted his skull mask. And of course, since he was fully covered in a suit, knitted hat, fedora, scarf and gloves, it was a warm night. A warm and wet night. My boots are still drying out from walking around in the downpour.

Sierra threw together a superhero costume at the last minute because we couldn't find wings for her star fairy costume idea. This is why you shouldn't wait until the day to tell mom you want to be a star fairy. But I like the superhero costume. I painted a mask onto her face and decorated it with glitter. I think she could be fighting side by side with the Incredibles in this outfit!

Well, except for the cape...

Marina spent the night at home, waiting for trick or treaters with dad. They had a good time watching Vincent Price in "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." But she will remind you that neither movie followed the plot of the book.

Carnival at The Informed Parent

The 201st Carnival of Homeschooling: Saving Time edition is up at The Informed Parent. Take some time to have a look, there are some interesting ones. Especially, check out Star Trek Homeschooling (next to the yellow clock). Good stuff there!

The (Edible) Globe Theater

As some of you know, our family likes to make edible models from time to time based on some of the things my children learn about. I thought it was about time for a new model, and asked them what they would like to make. Since we were studying the Renaissance this year, I was secretly hoping to build one of Leonardo DaVinci's inventions. Chase, however, was very interested in building a model of Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

OK, not a simple idea, but I figured we would give it a try. I took out a book on the Globe and they decided on what they wanted to use as building materials. I should admit that Marina is not a happy team player when it comes to model-building. She would much rather do these projects on her own so that she has complete control over the process. I can't help but feel guilty for making my temperamental artist share a project, but sometimes you need to work together, even if you know you could do it better on your own. Or at least, that's what people tell me. Next time I'll let her work on something separately. There were arguments over stage building and how best to use shredded wheat as thatching, but they did manage to pull it all together.

In this picture, we thought we were finished, but there was still some unhappiness about it, particularly the fact that the stage roof wasn't peaked. We also had a near accident when our cat Romeo jumped up as I was snapping pictures. Which would have been ironic, when you think about it. I can hear the announcer now, "Romeo destroys the Globe Theater, film at eleven."

Back in the kitchen, I helped them add a few more details in chocolate frosting.

I think it was Sierra's idea to add our little William Shakespeare action figure. Here he is, presenting the edible theater.



A view over the walls...



And a bird's eye view from the front...



Base and walls: single layer round cake cut into an octagon and sugar wafers. Store-bought frosting for mortar. (I'm learning not to kill myself with making all the supplies from scratch, since a lot of times the models get stale before they are eaten)
Windows: chocolate chips (I had bought square chocolates for windows, but I forgot to tell them.)
Columns and corner supports: pretzel sticks and Pirouline cookies
Roof: Shredded wheat.