Daddy took Kei fishing today.† She has never been fishing before.† When I was her age, I had fished hundreds of times.† Daddy had a catfish pond in Moulton and we fished all the time.
She was so excited last night when he called.† She immediately pulled out her Visual Dictionary and started looking things up.† First she told me she needed waders.† I assured her that they wouldn’t be fly fishing so those were not neccessary.† Then she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to “wind up the thingie” if she caught a fish.† I told her they would probably go cane pole fishing.
When I woke her up this morning, early, she said, “The early Kei catches the fish”.† LOL
They left about 8:00.† She had the best time.† First they stopped and got crickets.† She took a picture and it looked pretty disgusting to me.† She said the lady assured them “They have just eaten and will be all big and full.”† She refused to bait the hook, not because of the ‘ick’ factor, but because she wouldn’t kill anything, even a cricket.
How Yucky!
She caught 3 fish and was over the moon.† She was bubbling when she got home and told me all about her adventures.
Kei's 1st Fish
This is another reason I love Homeschooling.† Random, wonderful field trips/learning experiences.
A couple of months ago, we were invited to a “Tadpole Rescue” at Heather’s house.
We came home with 1000’s 100’s of tadpoles.
Every day or so we would check on them to see if anything was going on.† One by one by one they died.† Until we had 5 left.† Then, a couple of them developed legs and we were so excited!!† Last week I was showing one of the neighborhood kids their progress and there was a little bitty frog.† We were all jumping up and down and shouting, [easily amused, remember?]† Kei †was so happy.† She has ALWAYS wanted a dog or cat, but HEY! A frog will work just fine, thankyouverymuch.
We got one of Kei’s bug holders and put it in there with some water.† Kei named her Lillian and for the next few days she was besotted over this froggie!† She enlisted the neighborhood kids to find flies for her.† Yes there was a sandwich bag filled with dead flies on my patio.
Then, we woke up and could not find Lillian.† She was not in her container.† Now there was no way that I could see for her to get out so I searched that sucker for 30 minutes.† We took out the rock and the water, no Lillian.† Kei was devastated.† She insisted that I immediately say a prayer for Lillian which I did.† She searched all over the house for this frog that is probably Ω” long.
It was Sunday morning when we made the discovery of Lillian’s strange disappearance and Kei said she was going to ask her Kid’s Church teacher to pray for Lillian. †When I got her after church she was outraged.† I asked her what happened and she said, “I told the teacher and she said, “You can get another frog”. As if!!† I tried not to laugh and told her we still have 4 tadpoles to watch for.
Well after we got home from Daddy’s, Kei was picking up the container to do something with it and she started screaming, “Lillian is back, Lillian is back!!”† That dang frog was in the container!!† I still don’t know where she was hiding.
So now, we have a pet frog.† And Kei loves her.† I mean, LOVES her.† She took her outside today to get her ‘exercise’.† Good grief!† She just came in and said,† “Lillian is probably one of the smartest frogs ever! ” Then she proceded to tell me about Lillian jumping over a blade of grass she put in the container.† She is trying to teach the frog to be a high jumper!!!† She will be world famous!† The Jumping Frog of Morgan County!
She is cute, isn't she?
Little things mean a lot when you are 9.† I wish we could all hang onto that magic longer…
I don’t know if it’s a homeschool thing or not.† I find myself loving things I never even cared about.† History in general, science, country life.† I have thought about it a lot and I think that Homeschooling is just a gentler, slower paced life. There isn’t so much hurryhurryhurry. I mean, we don’t even use an alarm clock to wake up.
We went to a covered bridge today. Our first one.† It was in Cullman and we loved it.† I found a really cool site with all the covered bridges in the USA!† Maybe we can explore them all!† Well….probably not.
It was 10 degrees cooler up there and we had our trusty Garmin which Kei has named NIA. I love that thing! I used to freak out about getting somewhere and then trying to get home but with the push of a button she takes us home! We don’t always agree on the route because I know all the little shortcuts but we get along very amiably.
And best of all….all it cost us was the gas. Which is VERY important these days.
Today at the library they had Mooo Day.† Kei wanted to go so we headed up there.† I had to drop some Ebay things off at the Post Office anyway.
It was packed when we arrived.† So I had to parellel park!! I haven’t done that in forever.† I did very good thankyouverymuch.
There was a cow there but she didn’t look like she was having too much fun.† It seemed to be geared toward younger kids but I did learn something.† Cows have 1 udder and 4 teats!† I have always called them udders.† They spoke about cows and milk and let the kids pet Daisy.† Then they served them ice cream!
There are several cool things planned at the library for the summer.
After we left we went to the Post Office and then stopped by The Farmer’s Market.†† We love the Farmer’s Market!† I got some green beans called rattlesnake beans, peaches and plums.† When I lived in California there was an awesome Farmer’s Marketthat we went to.† They had things I had never seen before.† It was so cool. I would love to take Kei there!
We spent delightful days at our friends new house at Smith Lake.†† The house was incredible.† Over 7000 sq. feet, on the lake front and beautiful.
I could stay there forever and Kei had all the rooms assigned as if we lived there by the time we left.† Complete with a homeschooling room of course.† An amazing house.† Imagine waking up, walking into the kitchen and being surrounded on 3 sides by floor to ceiling windows with a lake view.† The pool was great and Kei worked on her divingskillz.† She stayed in the water for hours and hours.† I swear she is part mermaid.
It was just what we needed.† Of course I got horribly blistered.† Why is it I lather Kei in sunscreen and then half way put it on myself!!!!?????
We always try to do things that do not cost money since we have none.
Kei is reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.† She is loving it.† We are actually doing an online Unit Study with other HSers.† It has been a blast!
Kei In Narnia
Kei and some of her neighborhood friends are keeping the sidewalk beautiful!
We went to Cathy and Kaitlin’s swimming Thursday.† We had a blast soaking up the sun and listening to Dr. Horrible.† Cathy made the best food!† We had chicken spaghetti, black beans and a corn casserole that I have to have the recipe for.
Kei and I woke up Saturday and she just had to do something! She wasnted to go letterboxing.† I tried to get her to wait until we, hopefully got a GPS, but she wanted to do it now.
So, we hopped in our car and took off to Falkville.† Of course I went the long way around because that is the only way I was sure of.† The first place took us to a cemetary with these cool directions:
From I-65 take exit 322 (Falkville-Eva). Go west (toward Falkville) on highway 55. Turn left at the Love’s truck stop onto Douglas Rd (.1 mi.). At the end of Douglas Rd. (1 mi.) turn left onto Piney Grove Rd. From Piney Grove Rd. find the outdoor resting place of hundreds. If you come to a “DEAD” end you’ve gone too far. Go back. Park.
Find the loneliest “Dad” at the front (NE) of the lot. Have a seat facing the sleeping souls and give your regards to David. You will find yourself looking at a fallen giant, which is where your treasure awaits.
When we found it we were both so excited!† It is so cool reading the notebook to see who all has come before you and where they are from.
The next place was also in Falkville, so after a stop at Love’s Truck Stop [I just adore truck stops!] we were off.
This one had really cool instructions:
When driving the great 65 that cutteth the east in half, if thou dippeth below the Mason-Dixon line into northern Alabama, thou wilt come to exit 322, Falkville/Eva. Thou can makest a quick detour off the ribbon of blacktop onto highway 55, and turn west, toward Falkville (small town USA). When thou cometh to the second road on the right (Culver Road), turneth right there. A short way down this road, watcheth for a place where the young and old can cometh together. Pulleth into the lot where the old folks roam, and the children play. Pulleth to the North end of the lot, and thou wilt find the twin dining area for the old folks at home. Yon box is not there. Skirteth this area and droppeth into a shallow ditch. Climbeth out of the ditch on the other side. Thou wilt see a cluster of three trees, one with a curly trunk. Looketh in that spot to find thine treasure.
Please rehide this box very well, as one box has already disappeared from this area.
Everything went smoothly until we actually saw the container.† I was reaching for it when I felt FIRE on my feet.† I looked down and there were, honestly, thousands of ants on my feet.† I kinda freaked out and went screaming.† Thankfully my fast thinking child grabbed her water bottle and a towel we brought and drowned those suckers.† But…the pain!† I had tons of ant bites.† All in all, NOT an enjoyable experience.† We got all the ants off me and my sandals and got outta there.† We did find a really quicker way to get to Esthers though!
We love just getting in the car and driving, Kei especially.† But I am so directionally challenged that I always get lost.† Today after church we were over at my Daddy’s and my sweet brother brought us an early Christmas present.† Our own Nuvi!!† Adventure here we come!
K loves water.† She loves to swim, to splash, to dive, to go underwater, to just sit with water all around her.† She takes hour baths and uses her mask in the tub!† I swear the kid is part mermaid.
She isn’t able to put up her pool this year and at first she was so sad.† But, being the creative kid that she is, she has made adjustments.
One day she played all day on her Water Slide:
Kei Water SlideSliding
Then she made some sort of train/water track.
Kei Train
Then we went on a Wild Swim with our HS Group.† It was awesome.
Rope SwingChillin' n Relaxin'
Then yesterday she made a Water House.
Water House
Thank goodness the rain has left for awhile because she is enjoying every wet second of the SUN!
Start of the weekend, school’s out, work is finished.
Now…not so much.† I work from home so I am pretty much available 24/7, Kei is homeschooled, the weekend is just the weekend.
But Friday was beautiful!† It has been so rainy and yucky here.† I am so tired of soggy ground, dashing everywhere with something over our heads, wet everything!
Kei made the most of the day.
First, she planted a garden.† Ok Ok I realized afterwards you can’t plant anything in a container that doesn’t drain!† I am going to fix that.† I am new at this “Country Girl” stuff ok?
Then she found what we thought was a lizard but on further research decided was a salamander.† Regardless, she loved it.† She kept it about 30 minutes and then started feeling bad and released it.
Then, she played in the sprinkler. Well she played in 3 sprinklers because she couldn’t make up her mind which one was best!
Then it was time for a little rest.
She spent the rest of the day reading and running around.
Then she insisted on making dinner “all by herself”.† She bakes quite often and is very careful but her dinner was going to involve chopping….lots of chopping.† She begged and promised to be careful so I agreed.† She made me sit outside where I was listening for the sound of fingers being cut off but all went well.† It was a delicious dinner and she was so proud of herself!
We had vegetable stir fry, leftover pasta salad and for desert…Grape and Banana Kabob with whipped cream.
We had a terrific day.† My friend Karen invited us over for lunch and a play day for the kids.† Kei and I had never been to her house before.
Esther picked us up and our 1st stop was the library.† We went to Madison and they have the greatest library.† It was full of “Swine Flu Misplaced Public School Kids” and when we got there Ben came up and said, loudly, “I don’t feel good <cough> <cough>”† He really didn’t feel well but it was a little funny too.
Then we continued on our journey with directions from Ms. Nuvi.†† Even though she and I disagreed a couple of times, she got us there safely.
Karen’s house and land was awesome.† She had a yummy lunch for us.† Pasta salad, bean salad, [which Kei loved and got the recipe for] sandwiches with all the fixins’, chips, Pistachio Salad.† All very good!
Then us moms went out to the front porch to swing and talk and the kids proceeded to play games which sounded very much like someone was murdering them all.† Great fun!
Karen, Esther, Kei, Chan and I went to the pasture and had a BALL!
She has goats…..
and a little calf…
and chickens and the cutest little guineas and a big ‘ole Rooster!
Kei was in heaven!
The cute little calf tried to eat my jeans!† We couldn’t figure out what he was doing.† He started with Karen, then started licking Esther and then me!† My jeans were wet with calf spit!† But my toenails looked GOOD!
As the day wound down, Kei and Chan took their books and went to read under a big tree.† It was right about the time the school bus came by and neither Esther or I could resist such a perfect photo op.
This is why I homeschool.
We gathered up tired kids, lost shoes, lost books, wet clothes and headed home.
A perfectly lovely day.
Thank you Karen,
Kei and I have now decided, we are country girls trapped in the city!
Another beautiful day.† I woke up feeling kinda blah, not really sure why.† Some of it has to do with our very dear friends who are moving I think.
It carried over into church and my eyes kept leaking during the songs.† By the end of the service I felt better but still not my normal “glass half full, everythings gonna be fine” self.
I worry about my job, I worry about money. I worry about Kei and that I will have to put her back in PS.† But I know God will provide, he always seems to.
After church Eddie and Heather took us to eat at this country cafe.† It was delicious food.† Then we went to Daddy’s.† He had spent the morning at the “Dog Days” Flea Market and was just getting home.
His yard looked great! Daddy’s roses are so beautiful.† Momma always loved roses.
