Outside.....Finally

Iola Trail Run

After letting Emily down by not registering early enough for the Point Bock Run in March, I frantically looked for another race to enter and ran across this Iola Trail Run.  Running a 5K is completely doable for us and the idea of a trail run sounded like fun.  We've just run road courses in the past.  Online registration only because of its "green" nature, organic cotton shirts and the "no paper cups, bring your own wide-mouth water bottle" statement didn't scare us away.  We were up for the adventure.
You can see it was pretty darn cold and windy that day.  What's with the guy in shorts?  Out of approx. 200 runners he was the only one dressed like that.  The rest were sensible with hats and gloves and tights.  No tights for me.  I stuck with something a little less clingy.

All the racers gathered to hear the instructions.  5Kers should keep the blue flags to their right.  15Kers keep the red flags to your right.  Have fun and oh by the way the 15K is really 9.75 miles instead of 9.3 and the 5K is really 3.5 miles instead of 3.1.  I know it doesn't sound that big of a difference and you're right.  However after all the straight up and down hills it was killer.  Anyway in this picture Emily and I are looking confused because the online registration said the 15K started at 10am and the 5K started at 10:10am, but the guy starting the race didn't make that clear so it seemed like we were all going to start at the same time which is what happened, except for the people standing back by the lodge.  They looked up and realized everyone was gone and then started running to catchup.  I learned that tidbit from Warren who was hanging with the rest of the kids to cheer us on.

And here we are taking off on our first, but definitely not last trail run.  About 1/3 of the trail was double wide cross country ski trails, still snow covered.  The other 2/3 was single track through the woods over fallen trees, under leaning trees, straight up hills, straight down hills, over tree roots and grapefruit sized granite.   To put it in perspective some of the 15Kers came to the 5Kers finishline and said I'm not finishing the race, that was the toughest course I've ever run.  Warren got a little worried about Emily and me, knowing we live in flatland and have never ever run hills like this, but we were having a blast.

Emily crossed first.  I just couldn't get any more speed at the end.  Way to go, Em!

When reading the sign, emphasize "ICE" because that's how the day was, icy cold.

Emily took 1st for her age group and took home the cheese.  A delicious cut of Colby from Oak Grove Dairy in Clintonville, WI.  I took 4th for my age group.  Monday morning we went for an easy 2 mile run and discussed our plan to start running Partridge trail and watch for more trail runs in the future.

English Toast?

I was making a quick supper so we could get outside to rake and build a strawberry bed, when Emily came into the kitchen. Here's our conversation.

Emily: Oh, yum, English toast.

Me: English toast? I think it's called French toast.

Emily: English toast, French toast...I knew it was some kind of language toast.

Me: {lots of laughter}

Deer Hunt 2009 Opening Day

The basement was filled with blaze orange Friday night in anticipation of opening day. At 5:30am they all headed down to suit up for the day. It turned out to be a little cooler than predicted, but still a nice day for hunting.
It was incredibly foggy this morning. That's part of the crew that hunts here.

First year hunting - First day of the hunt
She shot two deer. First a spike buck and then 15 minutes later a doe. There weren't many deer shot just a couple other does. She was definitely the #1 big buck killer today. I am so proud of her. Her brother and sister are proud of her too.

Dad thinks it was pretty awesome too.

I don't want to leave you with pictures of deer with their tongues hanging out so here's the cutest boy in blaze orange I saw today.

Grammar Woes

On the homeschooling front we've been just skipping along. Some weeks it can be drudgery, but some can be skippy. It's been pretty skippy here lately, well until now. Emily's working through Language of God Level E for middle school students. It's been a great fit for her allowing us to skip along at a nice pace, but today was a little different; she started on adverbs and the words they modify and adjectives and the words they modify. She did quite a bit with this last year and couldn't wait to complete the last page in May. So this year adjectives and the words they modify has been easily understood. However, adverbs is another thing. So we were doing the exercise together reading the sentences aloud with lots of emphasis on the subject and predicate and then softly saying the rest of the sentence except when I would forcefully enunciate the adverb. We did this a few times until she understood better and then I stopped the enunciating part and she would just pick out the words by herself. This worked great and we survived 26 sentences with multiple adverb/adjective/modifier combinations and still love one another. Yes! Keeping with her tradition she always looks ahead to tomorrows page letting me in on the fun we'll be having with grammar. Today she just laughed out loud when she read the next page's title

More Adjective-Adverb Confusion

Matter of fact the next 6 pages have that title which helps her to realize she's not the only one a bit confused. I always tell her the number of practice pages for a particular part of speech is directly proportionate to the number of kids (in millions) who need more practice. She usually turns away at the point, probably because I forbid her to roll her eyes at me. A tiny part of me thinks she might be rolling them, though, when she turns away.

Virtual Cranberry Marsh Tour Day 6

The exhaustion has taken its grip on everyone here. My eyes are so heavy as I type. Even though I don't get in on the rigors of harvest, the constant elevated awareness is so tiring. Yesterday I had a tour group here. It turned out to be the best day of the week weather wise. After the main part of the tour I gave them a chance to try the old way of hand raking. I wish I'd taken some pictures but with a baby on my back and my mind filled with harvest info I just totally forgot the camera. The tourists had a fun time hand raking. They couldn't believe how hard it was after just a minute or two. And the thought of doing that all day seemed impossible. Here's a link to some cranberry history. The rake used in the picture is exactly like the rakes we have for hand raking. Notice the picture is from 1874. It makes me wonder when our rakes were made.

Again today I didn't have the camera with me. Between dropping off and picking up kids from the horse stable, preparing a turkey and stuffing dinner, whipping up a batch of ginger cookies and heading to Walgreens for a ton of toilet paper, I never made it down on the marsh at all. Tomorrow 25 mph winds are predicted and even though it's the Sabbath day work will be done. This is one time of year that it has to be done. You never know what way the weather will turn from day to day and best to get the fruit harvested before extreme conditions set in.

My Girls

Birthday Time Again

Grace turned 12 last Friday. We enjoyed a weekend full of celebrations. And a picture says a thousand words, so here goes - a few pics to highlight the weekend.

Trying on her new barn boots, which I absolutely love. I might accidentally wear them now and then.Getting her ears pierced. Did you know that Walmart offers ear piercing as a service. It's about 1/3 of the cost compared to Claire's. It hurt more than she thought it would.

Her first real deer hunt. She's carrying her bow and arrows. Until now she's always sat with Dad carefully observing, but now that she's 12 she can actively hunt. They didn't see anything that night, but earlier in the week Dh shot 2 does. We were getting very low on meat so it was a blessing for him to bring home a couple of deer.

Then Sunday she had over a group of friends. They played with the horses, painted their nails, played a card game and ate a lot of snacks.

And now we get a birthday break until January.

Illness

The title says it all, yet says nothing because I'm just too tired to even think. Grace and DH have been sick since last week Monday. Well, actually Grace started with a cold a week before that. Last week DH started with influenza and finally by Saturday we thought he was turning a corner. Yes indeed, the corner from flu to pneumonia and bronchitis. Grace lucked out having only pneumonia. Both are now on antibiotics and hopefully on their way to recovery. Both doctors said the recovery time is long and not to expect instant results. A full two weeks more is to be expected. Most likely lethargy, headache, coughing, chills. I'd like to add irritability to that list. Them, not me. I can't blame them though, with all the noise us five healthy people can produce it must get quite annoying at times.

Illness brings its own down in the dumps feelings not to mention the weather. Last week we had a few warmer days, but mainly all cloudy. Now this week we started it out with a dumping of heavy, wet snow yesterday. And today it was cold, windy and sunny. The sun generated just enough heat that the roads were wet and slushy. I guess that's what March is all about. But is it too much to ask for a little warmer weather?

The Shoe is on the Other Foot

I am the teacher. I teach math, reading, grammar, spelling rules, phonics rules, chemistry, sewing, baking, cleaning, baby caretaking, morals, religion. Really the list could go on and on. I like being in that position; I like knowing the practical and the trivial material. And I can say with absolute sureness that I do not like not knowing. Learning how to crochet has put me into a position of not knowing, BIG TIME. Grace learned from a friend and is hastily trying to teach me the basic chain and single crochet stitch so that I can be in the know when I attend a women's gathering where we'll be crafting crocheted kitchen scrubbies. I've had a couple of lessons so far. The first one let Grace in on my little secret. She turned to me at one point and said, "Mom, crocheting just takes practice, you'll get it." I unraveled the yarn and tried again forgetting how to even make the beginning slip knot. Again she reassured me and showed me step by step. I clumsily held the yarn and H hook and made another mess of it all. I needed a break. Grace said, "Mom, you know how you feel right now, that's how I feel when I have to do nouns and verbs and predicates and all that grammar stuff." We ended the first lesson. I really thought about that comment. So often I get frustrated that she can't remember the difference between a helping verb and state of being verb or that certain is spelled with a 'c' and not an 's'. For gosh sake I just told her five minutes ago. Why can't she just listen carefully, internalize it and remember? She opened my eyes this week to just how hard it is to learn something new, brand spanking new and for the very first time. I need to remember that my 5th grade knowledge comes easily because it's not new anymore. I've had years (and years and years) of perfecting it. Someday she'll understand grammar and I will, with Grace as my teacher, learn how to crochet.

The Kids Speak Out

(passing by while the kids watched Ant Bully)
Me: So, is this a good movie? What's it about?

Lee: It's AWESOME! I don't think you'd get it, Mom.
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(while sweeping the kitchen floor)
Lou: I like having these new suppertime chores.

Me: Really? Why's that?

Lou: You know when you're barefoot in the morning it feels so gross to walk on the kitchen floor...all the crumbs and sand. Now that I've been sweeping every night the floor feels so smooth...I like that.
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(after a morning of changed up school plans)
Grace: So when do you plan on us doing schoolwork?

Me: (dumbfounded)I thought we were doing school.

Grace: (accusatory)You and dad are always harping about education and how important it is and then we spend an entire morning painting, watching Redpolls, reading about St. Valentine, memorizing Valentine poetry! Where's the math and spelling and awful grammar? I don't feel like I learned a thing today.
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(while coloring with a four year old)
Me: What color should I color the horse?

Ray: DEAD!

Me: What color for the bananas?

Ray: ROTTEN!

Me: What color should the house be?

Ray: ON FIRE!
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What She Won't Be When She Grows Up

Grace: If I'm ever a math teacher, I'll need a whole bottle of Tylenol on my desk.

On Poetry and Atlases

In our normal school schedule this week lined up as an off week. However, with field trips, quilting days and turkey hunting next week I opted to do something a little different and actually have school this week. Grace and Lee are focusing on Language Arts and Map Skills. So this week has been a little more intense concerning those two subjects. The kids are excited to move through the lessons and be that much closer to the finish line, however, it entails some pretty in depth work in some areas.

Today was one of those in depth days. Grace had to write poetry, probably her least favorite thing in the world to do. The word poetry brings her to a panic, whether it be reading, reciting, memorizing or writing. First she had to write poetry based on opposites starting with morning and ending with night. Then she made one up about horses starting with take the horse out and ending with put the horse back in. Things were going smoothly until she was instructed to write a 4-6 line rhyming poem. Her negative vibes were so intense I found myself actually sweating as she scribbled unrelated misspelled rhyming words onto a torn piece of looseleaf. I asked her to take her negativity elsewhere. So she took it about four feet away and huffed and sighed as she wrote. Well after we both calmed down and I directed her to a few children's books of poetry and coaxed her into writing, this is the finished product.

Her pants are blue
and so are you.
Her shirt is yellow
makes me think of lemon jello.
Her shoes were blue and white
her smile so bright,
made me think of golden light.

Not Dickinson or Poe, but we were both happy with the outcome, so much so that she actually plans on reading it to dad at supper.

Next up... Atlas work. Pair a serious, perfectionist, extremely literal nine year old boy with a Map Skills workbook and Scholastic Atlas and the outcome.....? Well, let's just say I wouldn't want to repeat this day. Of course the workbook only wants him to color in 5 general climate zones for the U.S. and the atlas includes 12 different climate zones. The workbook calls it a Land Use map, the atlas, an Economic Industry map. Too many discrepancies, too many countries to look up in the Index, too many everything, according to him. But now the work is done and he is in total glory trapping muskrats.

A Hands On Kind of Day

Grace and Lee put the finishing touches on their Wisconsin History reports. The flag was colored, the handwriting perfect, topography map legend completed. They kissed it and called it good. Then came the fun part; make a cake the shape of Wisconsin, frost and sprinkle it with rivers, trees, high points, etc.

They were a little disappointed in their placement of the Wisconsin River, but in the end they were pleased and had total fun working on the project. We ate "Wisconsin" for lunch.

Later in the day Grace and Lou made 60 Minute Mini White Bread to go along with my Easter week favorite, Split Pea and Ham Soup.

Happy Birthday Grace

Grandma, Subway, Presents, Birthday Cake.......qualifies as a birthday in my book, even if celebrated the day before the real birthday.

Choir Camp

Grace began Choir Camp yesterday, which is a big commitment on my part. Each day this week she needs to be in Marshfield from 2:45 - 4:45 pm. Which means we have to leave at 1:45 and don't get home until 5:30 - 5:45. And as we travel in a pack the rest of us need to find something to do while she is singing her heart out. A quick search of the Marshfield Visitor Center gave us a list of places to go and there is always grocery shopping to be done, too. While we were shopping at Target and then dodging the sheets of rain at the Wildwood Zoo, Grace was singing about animals with 30 other kids. It's an annual program run by the Continuing Education program at UW-Marshfield Center. Three age groups of kids meet for 2 hour choir practices and then give a final performance on Friday night. This year's musical is A Carnival of Animals and as Grace said yesterday, I can't wait to go back tomorrow, I made a new friend named Rachel and my teacher is really nice. It must be going well and I'm glad they are allowed to bring home the songbook. She's singing the lyrics all the time, reading time that's fun and useful. It's hard to get Grace to read just for fun. She's not a nose in the book kinda kid. She's a, I made a new friend, I'm going swimming, when can I go___________ (fill in the blank) kinda kid. So anytime she has to read, as is the case in choir camp, it's a bonus.

Plans for our week include:

*visiting Jurustic Park

*swimming at the local pool

*shopping/looking at Fleet Farm (Lee's pick)

*playing at the castle park

*stopping in at Thimbleberries (used and rare book store) (my pick, of course)

*Foxfire Botanical Gardens

Strawberry Season

First we picked these

Then we bought this
Then we did this
End Result: 26 half pints of cooked strawberry jam and 10 half pints freezer jam

I Totally Agree

Grace: You and dad need to go somewhere so we can have a babysitter.