MIchaelgiving

Since we had illness in the house the month of September, we were unable to have our annual Michaelmas Party at the normally scheduled time.  However, the children were not to be denied and so we rescheduled Michaelmas to yesterday.  

We had 8 adults and 14 children, requiring the largest turkey I have ever cooked, a huge 20lb turkey; the oven shelf actual sagged a little under the weight.  Chris was hoping that with his special restricted diet this would be the first Thanksgiving/Michaelmas where he actually lost weight, but that was not to be. Our kind friends went out of their way to make an assortment of goodies for him and the rest of us to enjoy, from quinoa broccoli casserole, to sweet potato mint brownies.  As for activities, I really can't tell you much of what the children did during the day; I know they were laughing upstairs and running around a lot outside but since they stayed conveniently out of the way and got along so well I didn't really pay much attention.  Therefore, the adults were free to enjoy each others company and conversation; that touched on a huge variety of subjects.  Sometimes the men and women talked among themselves other times we merged for many entertaining stories.  The sun sets early this time of year so the party wrapped up around 6:30pm with 22 stuffed and smiling people of all ages. 

On a side note, earlier this week the kids helped an elderly neighbor with some yard work, that led to uncovering and eliminating a yellow jacket nest, which led to a gift of the dead queen hornet to present to Aaron our entomologist friend at Michaelmas.

Also, Amber lost her first tooth at Michaelmas and sadly its the only picture I took.

Oh and this strange one of Chomper today LOL.

Salt Shakers

Today was the last of three performances, of "A Christmas Carol", for Jared's new theater group Salt Shakers; where Jared played "Old Scrooge".  He rehearsed a lot around the house, with his dad modeling how to be an old man (too much Mary Tylor Moore more Chris as a kid).

Jared is truly enjoying this great group of kids and teachers.  There first performance was three weeks ago at the church as a sort of dress rehearsal/family event.  Our friends came by to cheer Jared on as Old Scrooge in their wonderful original adaptation.   Click the video below to see his performance:

The second performance was at a retirement home, where Jared also played piano during set-up and Lance came along for manual labor.  Some good friends also came to watch this performance and my friend encouraged the kids to go mingle with the residents.  Lance ended up in a nice long conversation with a couple there; the residents were truly appreciative of this kids coming to perform.

The final performance was for a YMCA after school program at a local elementary school. It was interesting to see the students response to the play, both the invitation to sing and the gospel message intertwined.  

The cast party was held at the home of one of the students families, where we had a nice time of food, fellowship and play.

Can't wait to see how the Spring Semester unfolds.

Fall Field Trips and Projects

In September, we managed one trip out of the house with a new homeschool group, affectionately called GAH.  We went to one of our favorite parks, Yates Mill Pond for an interactive class on pond ecology.  In addition to touring the pond, the children were able to take samples from the pond and bring them back to the classroom to chronicle all the different types of life they had found.

In October, we finally made it to the Mordecai House in downtown Raleigh.  This is the second home in a series of founder home tours.  We had visited his fathers home last year, The Joel Lane House.  The group we went with was so big they had to break in two groups; one taking the trolley tour first and the second (ours) touring the buildings first.  Our guide was very engaging, we learned a lot about the family and their involvement with some of our founding fathers.  The trolley tour after was fun too, getting a quick glimpse and history of many of the other historic homes in the downtown area.

Early November, was our families annual trip to a Corn Maze.  This year we incorporated it with a birthday celebration for Lance's friend Matthew, since Lance had missed his party.  We decided to return to Naylor Farm this year.  Naylor was the farm we first visited when we moved here.  The kids like it best because of the complete lack of rules and oversight, i.e. freedom to do what they want.  This year they had added a neat nerf ball battle fortress, in addition to the maze, duck races, hay ride and corn pit.  We broke into three teams for the maze race and this year Jared and I were the clear winners,  Matthew and Lance second and Team Otto coming in a close third.  On the hay ride, we were all able to pick one pumpkin.  Amber picked one too big to carry but she rolled it to the trailer and got the driver to put it in for her.  The rest of us did pretty good too as you can see.  Our chickens are in for a big pumpkin season.  Especially after the 3 huge pumpkins Titus and I had so much fun picking up on a road side stand last week.  After the hay ride Chris and I took up resident on a picnic table and let the kids run and explore; we joined in from time to time on the bounce pillow and the air fight of course.  We'll definitely be back again next year. 

The second field trip of November, was to "Historic Oak View Park" an old pecan and cotton plantation in the middle of Raleigh.  We went with a large group of homeschoolers to tour the plantation.  Ironically, our guide was the same as the field trip we took the to Mordecai House and she remembered us as well.  Titus and Amber were full of answers to her questions and offers of help to run the Cotton Gin.  Before the tour we gathered a nice bag full of pecans (Titus is quite the pecan finder) and visited our friends the Nubian Goats.  All in all we had another great visit to the park.  

As Chris was leaving to take the boys to a travel ball tournament in Fayetteville, the brakes went out on the Beast.  Thankfully, by God's grace Chris was only a mile from home and going really slow so he only tapped the car in front of him.  The break system replacement let to us finally getting around to replacing the broken radio.  To save money Chris did this repair with his three helpers; Titus, Amber and Hunter.  I was very impressed they all managed a successful replacement and we can all enjoy our favorite music in the Beast again.

SEEK Fall 2017

Today, was the final day of SEEK for the semester and the big Family Night Presentations, what a great night!

I am teaching a two semester High School Chemistry class called "Friendly Chemistry" again this year.  I'm really enjoying teaching the class. I like working with the high schoolers.  My Socratic approach to teaching took a few by surprise at first but based on the thoughtful thank you notes I got this year, I'd say its growing on them in a good way.

Lance took Study Hall first hour, which he used to take his weekly Greek Vocabulary tests and socialize a bit.  Then second hour he ran around with his friends in a PE Course.

Jared had the semester of his life!  First hour was a wonderful Drama Class.  He ended up being the spokes person for the class presenting his wax museum presentation of Louis Bleriot (first man to cross the English Channel by plane) to the whole assembly to encourage everyone to attend family night.  At family night he was one of the most visited statues and his friend Nathan had to protect him from too many people pressing his button :-)  Here's the link to the video of the assembly presentation:

Then, as if that wasn't enough, the whole class put on an incredible lip-sync presentation of the "Newsies" broadway play.  They that had the whole house in an uproar of applause afterward:  Here is a picture of the cast, followed by a link to the whole incredible stage show:

Then for second hour, he had an equally engaging class about Architecture, taught in part by my good friend Carey and therefore including his best friend in the mix.  He became a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright by the end of the class (kid has good taste) and gained a real interest and appreciation for architecture.  During the class they did a lot of hands-on modeling and even had an Architect for a guest speaker.

Titus showed how smart he was by taking an Apologia Anatomy and Physiology Class, designed for 5th graders (he's only a 2nd grader).  His teacher took me aside one day and said "Don't ever let him fool you, he's super smart.  He remembers everything.", point noted.  For his other class his took a fun and active PE Class to get all the wiggles out before Anatomy.

This was Amber's first semester taking structured classes at SEEK.  I admit to being a little worried how'd she do but my worries were completely unfounded.  Here first class was "Adventures in Etiquette". I figured why not, it was worth a try and I think she did come out a bit more polished.  However, note that in the Family Night Presentation picture above that she went on stage without shoes, Chris joked he wanted his money back.  People said nobody noticed with her beautiful dress.  

Her second class was a literature and crafts class that she really enjoyed.  It was taught by a mom she knew so I wasn't as worried about his class.  She brought home a bunch of adorable projects.

Fall Baseball

Today, was the season end bowling party for Lance's Mustang, travel ball team.  It worked out nicely that the best friends of our other three children lived less than a mile away so we dropped them off and were able to just hang out and talk with the other adults.

This season Lance received the "Sportsmanship of the Season Award" for....

"Lance battled through illness this season, yet continued to catch behind the plate in very hot, humid, uncomfortable conditions.  Lance never complained and continued to support the Mustangs through the season"

Lance played the first tournament of the season too soon after not completely getting over an illness and that threw him into the worst illness of his life for the next three weeks.  Worst of all Coach Keith injured his back, so the two tournaments Lance couldn't play, Chris had to go and be head coach anyway.  It was a rough month physically and mentally for our family.  I remember Lance saying "I'm glad Anthony got to play on the old Durham Bulls stadium".  Such a good sport but I could see it was a big loss for him none the less (Anthony was his friend who filled in as guest catcher during his illness).  Lance did get to finish out the last three tournaments of the season, which included a huge come from behind third place finish in the Rocky Mount World Series, beating the number one seed (where Lance caught the fall tip for the win).  It's Coach Keith's intent to keep this team together through high school and get all the kids scholarships to college.  That's a high order but we're game to give it a try.

This fall Titus aged up to Kid Pitch baseball; from modified coach pitch.  He now plays on a bigger field and the other players, not the coaches, are pitching.  His first coach in West Raleigh picked him up again for this season with the Padres.  He played a lot of Right Field and made a couple really great plays, getting kids out in the infield.  The Mighty Titus has quite an arm.