Aloha Friends

Chris took the day off today to go with us to the "Aloha Safari Zoo".  We hadn't been there in quite a few years. We hoped it hadn't changed in a negative way.  We were so pleased to find out it had actually improved and expanded!

First we were greeted by very friendly Chinese Geese.  We then worked our way back to the Safari Train, through a new petting zoo area full of various types of antelopes.  

I've never been someplace where you could pet the antelopes.  Also in the barn were some local baby ducks that had moved in to apparently keep the fly population in check, much appreciated.

The safari ride went well, lots of neat animals to see, though we learned we'll sit on the other side next time to see some of the animals easier.  That ride dumped us out at the giraffe feeding area, ironically the giraffe was named "Titus".  As we ambled along past the brown bear, Amber and Titus hid under the umbrella of one of the many peacocks on property.  Then there were, tigers, lemurs and snakes, oh my!

Next the kids got to hold a snake, wash a tortoise, pet a lizard and Titus caught a rooster, of course!  For a family that likes to touch this is a field trip we will schedule again.

Today is a Good Day to Die... figurately of course

Almost three months to the day we were finally able to have Lance (and now Jared and Nathan's) birthday party! During the wait the boys had worked hard to beg wood and pallets off neighbors to build their first official airsoft "building" on the island.

The hoard arrived at the house at 9am and fighting began at 10am.  With small breaks in between the battles continued till 10pm at night. This fight was the first encounter in which role restrictions were enforced. In our contained jungle arena, there had been a history of over-shooting and "hosing" that limited movement and made strategy negligible, turning each fight into a full-auto standstill in past airsoft battle days. Everyone that came this time was a little skeptical about the restrictions at first (many of them had never turned their weapons to semi-auto before) but quickly warmed up to the hard fought battles it created. Cries of "MEDIC" and "HIT" rang out all day long with teammates struggling to drag their wounded comrades to safety. The height of the day was the customary "King of the Hill" turned to "King of the Fort," where each team in turn crawled around the tiny bunker trying to survive just a minute more to outperform the other team. The day ended with Lance alone blowing through 10,000 rounds as a machine gunner, with Jared and Titus going through 4,000-4,500 rounds each as riflemen. And Chris went through a woppin' 700 rounds as a designated marksman.*          

The party was a complete success, no one got hurt including my husband who join the fray as a gift to his sons.

*Written by Jared and Lance.

Back to NOUNS!

June has started with a renewal of activities and frankly life.  I like the meme that said "I miss people, places and things...basically I miss nouns!"

June 3rd was our first trip back to the YMCA pool.  We weren't sure it was going to open and then I wasn't sure if we'd want to go back if it was too restrictive.  Thankful the pool remains the oasis it was for me last year.  The kids are safe playing around and I can sit quietly in the shade reading my book.  Their only requirement is that people keep the chairs in the groups of two within the taped off areas six feet apart and that we wipe them down after we are done, I can live with those rules. Yay!  A glimpse of healthy normal.

Redline reopened this week for "Summer Camps" and Titus took over Lance's membership.  He did one session inside and one outside.  At the outdoor session Amber and I got some exercise as she scooted around the walking path and I walked, which was fun.  Playground was still roped off but we played some cards at a picnic table till he was done.  Titus is doing really well working and listening, this training is going to make him more of an athletic beast than he already is.

Lance on the other hand finally started Canes with Spring Training at "Ting" (two weeks later than planned) a field only minutes from our house, instead of hours, bonus.  He didn't get to meet any of his team members (they were at training in Virginia) but he was on a baseball field again and that made a happy boy.  As a bonus, I got to watch him play as well!  It was a bonus because parents weren't suppose to be in the stadium but when I was dropping him off I noticed a few parents sitting down.  So I crept in myself and so it continued, parents sitting far apart from each other but slowly creeping in to enjoy watching their boys play.  Who would have thought watching your kid play baseball would be a clandestine activity but then again who would believe any of this would have ever happened.

June 8th Jared started his week long class "Theater of War" online.  He learned a lot of fascinating things throughout the week and therefore so did we all, as Eugene shared with us each night the highlights.

June 8th Lance and Jared finally got to say their final good buys to their favorite Writing teacher as she came by to visit and drop off their final papers.  It will be weird not seeing Penny every week in the fall.  She is a marvelous teacher and an incredible Titus 2 friend.

Using the model from Redline of holding "Summer Camps" instead of lessons, TaeKwonDo opened in person as well.  What a relief, the kids just weren't getting much from the zoom lessons.  Though while we were gone the stuff animals got a little too comfy watching "Bear in the Big Blue House".  Chris gave Grizzly a stern talking too, then the kids curled up with them to relax a bit :-)  (Idea stemmed from the previous night's dream idea of "If you were a stuff animal that came to life when people weren't around....what would you do?)

Horseback Riding started up again too on Friday, for Amber and Titus.  So nice to see Polo, Henry and of course Britton too.

Celebrating Jared

Tradition is to have a big bowling party for Jared's birthday but none of the alleys are open right now, so we went with a bit more of a subdued celebration.  

However, the confetti tradition lived on!  By request Jared played his favorite game "Memoir '44" most of the day, got pizza for dinner and watched his movie of choice.  We have plans to celebrate with friends once social gatherings are allowed.  

Its hard to believe he is 15 years old!  How has the time passed so quickly.  He now tops Lance in height (though Lance is in denial),  I keep telling him to stop but he doesn't listen.  This past year he has not only grown in height but skills as well: archery, theater, and stop motion.  (Check out his youtube channel J-Rod Studios)  It has always been clear that God has big plans for Jared, what they are may not be clear yet but its clear it will have something to do with his incredibly theatrical skills (in theater and online), his crazy memory (Pete the Baseball Stats Guy) and fascination with history, particularly WWII (Eugene - Play and Pause all you want to know).  His parents are just glad for the gift of having him around and watching him grow, such a beautiful young man inside and out.

Honoring Memorial Day

Today we gathered with friends to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, that we may live in freedom.

Here was the schedule of the days celebratory activities: 

• While everyone ate pizza we read a book about a lady who worked hard to do all she could during WWI called "The Poppy Lady"
• After the reading, we made paper poppies from card stock and pipe cleaners, while listening to the "1812 Overture"
• Next we moved to WW2 and read about "Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot", this is a true story of a young lady living in post-war Berlin.
• After the reading we made parachutes out of napkins, thread, and green army men; then dropped them off the top of a ladder to to a chalk target below.
• Our last book covered the Vietnam War and was called "The Wall".  This book was the somber lead into the rest of our ceremony
  

For this part of the day we invited out neighbor Frank (a veteran) and his wife, Mary, to join us.  We dedicated this part of the day to Spec. 4 Phil Marcoux, killed in Vietnam.  

• We started with explaining the meaning of all the items on our make-shift "Missing Man Table" and told the story of the miraculous survival of the table at the Fayetteville Memorial during Hurricane Matthew.
• Then we explained the history and meaning of the 21 gun salute, followed by Lance, Jared and Mac shooting off airsoft guns in "21 gun" unison.
• Next, I handed out a copy of the words to "Taps" (though no one sang), and explained the history of the song.  Then we stood to a recording of it played.
• After Taps, Frank and Jared did the flag folding ceremony and I explained the meaning behind all 13 folds.
• Next I tearfully read of the what would have been said as the flag was presented to the widow/mother of Phil Marcoux, had this been his real ceremony.
• Chris then finished us up in prayer.
  

Scripture says that there is no greater love than to lay down a life for another, today we did a little to make sure the children in our care remembered those whose love bought and kept the freedom they enjoy.

Sandlot Baseball and Chicks

Apex finally opened their baseball fields, only to groups of 10 or less but its a start.  That has led to quite a few games of Sandlot baseball lately.  Even Titus and Jared have joined in on the fun.  Not sure how people will react I've stayed in the park for the sessions but we've had no problems.  At one of the parks, I didn't even realize what a nice path they had to walk around the lake.  Holly and Amber scooted it the first time and I walked while Amber scooted another time.  It was also the first time I'd seen a lot of the mom's since the lock down, so that is a bonus as well.

Then today we picked up our new chicks, 8 Goldens.  We went back to Goldens because of all the breeds we've tried, they were the most personable and at the same time velosoraptors.

We have never gotten them as day old chicks before but this year, with nothing better to do, people are starting-up keeping chicks and we actually had to pay for them 6 weeks ahead of time and they were sold out shortly after being announced.

Updated Chick Photos from 5/28 (They are growing so fast):

Swapping Gas for Plants

Since we moved here nearly seven years ago I have tried to be practical in my plant purchases; only buying things that produce things we can eat or that help said plants grow stronger and pest free.  Then last fall I started to buy a few plants for beauty.  Probably because last fall we joined the JC Raulston Arboretum.  Since then we have had a lot of fun at family and educational events.  All this time at the arboretum brought back my love for the simple beauty of plants.  Then there was the FREE plant event for member in the fall.  What a hoot, everyone lines up around a big circle of plants, when the whistle blows everyone got to grab on plant and go back behind the line till all the plants were gone.  Thankfully, I didn't run into any cane wielding members I'd heard about while chatting with older members in line :-)

All the above led to me making the executive decision during shut-down to use my freed up gas money in my budget to buy plants (after I first used it to buy books, but more on that later).  It's good to be an accountant sometimes, that way you can justify expenditures in an official manner.

Our backyard was eroding away; despite a myriad of grass and even clover seeds over the years.  This picture was taken in the fall, as winter progressed even the weeds died off, it was a muddy mess.  Therefore, back in February we finally bit the bullet and laid down sod(in only two hours with the help of our friends), this created a wonderful backdrop for my new canvas.  We are still in awe of seeing green in our backyard.

To start to fill the canvas, my first purchase was still practical, 7 new blueberry plants (Climax, Premier, TifBlue, Centurion, Brightwell, O'neil) from Rabbit Ridge Nursery.  Since we were in lock-down we called in our order and thought we would just swing by for a pick-up.  "Swing-by" is a bit of a stretch as the nursery is a 45 min drive each way but we had time.  What a nice surprise it was when we parked said "Hello" to the owner Fred, he recognized us and he walked right over excited to tell us all he had been doing since our last visit.  Visiting Fred isn't shopping, its a field trip and I was so glad Amber had tagged along.  I learned about how I had been pruning my blueberries wrong, how to better plant the new ones and about the new fruit trees he was experimenting with in his person garden (before selling to the public).  We had a great time.  Amber did learn the hard way not to tease a rooster but other than a few scrapes she was fine.  I learned everything they said about roosters was true and I'll keep to buying my chicks (The rooster wasn't Fred's it had showed up a week ago and was pacing around his hen house, when Amber tried to catch him while I was paying for the plants).

Now we had blueberry row planted (on the fertile soil of the old chicken run), I thought to myself we need something prettier back here..... So Amber and I again went on a plant adventure, this time to the State Farmers Market.  There we were happy to find many of my peeps.  We bought a rhododendron, hydrangea, three azaleas, and three frost proof camellias (the last three types to mirror the lower tier plants I bought in the fall).

In January, we had to remove a huge White Oak from our front yard, which really changed the landscape of our front yard, ie. much more sun.  Chris didn't want to plant another tree that could potentially shade our existing blueberries on "Blueberry Hill", so we decided to plant more blueberries in its place.  That led to another trip the following week to the State Farmer's Market, Lance came this time and we picked up six more blueberries (Snow Bell, Premier and Star) and some variegated hostas to add a splash of color to the backyard.  After splitting some lirope, (we had on property) the bed was done.

I got another treasure that day, a North Carolina native honeysuckle.  These don't have as strong a smell as the traditional Yellow Japanese variety, but I love adding as many natives as I can to the landscape; the red stems and flowers can't be beat.  Hopefully the vines will cover the chicken fence someday with flowers.  In re-doing the landscape, we also had to re-do the chicken run to go around the backyard, as the chickens were way too efficient at digging up plants and mowing the grass.

Next, my neighbors kindly shared their extra plants with me.  I got a muscadine to grow behind the blueberries on the fence.  Someone who was moving gave me a five gallon bucket full of day lilies, which I planted next to Blueberry Hill upfront.  Another, gave me five containers of her extra Leten Roses, which I planted in shade around around the yard.

My latest purchase this week finished off the backyard.  Due to the shut-down the arboretums in-person annual plant sale/fund raiser had to cancelled.  However, they decided they could do it online for members only.  It was race to the computer to order your plant choices, I was slower than some so I didn't get all my choices but I got plenty.  Lance and I planted all the shade plants in the backyard yesterday and now the backyard is complete.  The phlox filled the Beast with an unexpected beautiful smell.  I love all the variety of textures.  When I showed Chris our efforts at the end of his day, I was giddy at the transformation of the backyard.

The front yard is still a work in progress, but we hope to get it picture ready soon.  Wish I had better before and after photos.

Happy VE Day! - Don't Let them forget!

Jared just read this email to me that he wrote to his friends today, "lest they forget", I'm sharing it with you all for the same reason:

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the allies: the British Empire, the Soviet Union, the United States of America, and others. After around 6 years of war (1939-1945) the struggle in Europe was over, the allies now turned almost complete attention to the Japanese Empire, which would fall around 99 days later. It took 6 years and a horrifying tens of millions of troops, but the evils of the Third Reich were over, finished, never to be seen again.

It all started on June 28, 1919 when...wait, 1919?! Yes, that’s correct. The treaty of Versailles’ terms for Germany were so harsh that the economic situation in the Father Land was horrific. People needed wheelbarrows full of German Marks just to buy a loaf of bread. Children use them as kites and they were also used to replace firewood they were so worthless. In fact, by 1923, 250 million Marks equaled only 1 US dollar! With everyone wanting to end the hardships, it was no trouble at all for Adolf Hitler to gain power, promising to return glory to Germany.

Fast forward to 1939, on September 1, 1939 German and the Soviet Union invalided Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany, and thus WWII began. The German war machine tore throughout Europe, using the extremely affective blitzkrieg tactic, and within months all of mainland Europe (except Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland) were flying the swastika. The only country left was England, and lucky for them, Winston Churchill had just become Prime Minister. Under his leadership, Britain defied the overwhelming German force, first with Dunkirk, then the Battle of Britain, and finally the Blitz (heavy German bombing of British cities, mainly London). But they couldn’t last forever, they needed help, a BIG help. Thankfully, one was coming, though in a tragic way.

What was it you ask, well...this happened.

Yep, you guessed it, the Japanese surprise attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Four days later, the USA declared war on Japan while Germany, an ally of Japan, upon hearing the news declared war on America. The Axis powers would soon find out that they had awakened a giant!

Two years passed, mainly with fierce fighting in the pacific theater, but we’re focusing on Europe today, in which Germany and the Soviet Union were fighting in Russia, the British and their commonwealth forces along with US troops were fighting in North Africa. Joseph Stalin grew impatient, he wanted the other allies to launch an assault into mainland Europe, so as to distract the Germans from him and also so they could close in on Germany from 2 sides. The US, Britain, and the FFI (the French Forces of the Interior or French Resistance) began planning two operations, Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily and later Italy), and the more famous Operation Overlord also known as Operation Neptune (D-Day).

June 6, 1944, The allies landed on 5 different beaches along the Normandy coast. The US landed on Utah and Omaha, the British on Sword and Gold, and the Canadians, who were still a commonwealth of Britain, landed on Juno. After those landings, the allies pushed farther and farther into Europe, with the Soviets coming from Russia, and the US, Brits, and French, from France. The following months included some of the most well-known battles in history such as the Battle of Normandy, the battle of Arracourt, the Liberation of Paris, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge or the Ardennes Offensive, along with many more famous and forgotten battles and skirmishes on the road to Berlin.

Today, we celebrate German high command surrender shortly after Hitler’s death 75 years ago. I will never forget the things our ancestors did to protect our freedom and defeat a truly evil empire.

Lest we forget. God bless America!

"Cavemen" Paintings - Otto Style

Today for ancient history we took a virtual tour of Tour of the Lascaux caves in France, which inspired a cool art project.  

Using the Actual drawings from the cave as a inspiration:

We took paper bags from the grocery store inside of them out to uses as our canvas.
Pencils were used to lightly sketch out the outlines of what we wanted to draw.  We also traced our hands, as each paper was to be signed with a hand print (in the spirit of the Lascaux cave paintings). 
Chalk pastels were used to get that "spray paint" look of the cave hands by scribbling outside our outlines and blurring them with our fingers
Oil pastels were used to color in the rest.  If you want to be as authentic as possible, use neutral colors and highlight in black.  About half of us did, and half of us didn't*.
Finally, to get that cave wall appearance....simple crumple, munge and wrinkle the paper over and over again.  This also smears some of the colors giving it a more realistic cave painting look.

This was a really entertaining project for everyone and simple to do.




* Lance chose to do an "air strike in caveman times"

Jared did "patriotic" dinosaur

Titus went authentic with a buffalo hunting scene

Amber did an elephant near a palm tree and pond

Holly and I chose to emulate the horse room (though I added a bull for fun)

Ending Early

Salt Shakers will not perform this year, which is sad on many levels.  The kids were just days away from performing and had put so much work in before everything shut down and this is the last season of the troupe, they will never have a chance to perform together again.  I am currently looking for a new troupe or maybe I'll have to create one, we'll just have see.

Here are some highlight photos of the TCC Co-op we were in that ended this month.  I was teaching High School Chemistry class, in which Lance was a student.  Thankfully we had covered all the required materials before the shut down and only had to do one virtual class before cutting the class short and giving the final exam.

Titus was taking an American History class, where he did lots of neat crafts, projects and a great presentation one day.  When co-op was in session Titus became quite the pool shark during lunch.

Amber had a Science course where they did lots of experiments and met many interesting animals.

Lately, Amber and Titus have been continuing their study of the Natural world around them, in our backyard.  Most recently, they found this beautiful dragonfly and some neat pond creatures in the creek.

Gardening is getting very popular right now.  My neighbors have been offering free plants, daylillies, liropia, rose of sharon and even some extra hot pepper seedlings.  The yard is really shaping up.

A professor from Texas and former teacher at the Air Force Academy offered a free virtual College Physics Class that Lance started the first of the month.  The class meets twice a week for instruction and assignment.  He teaches in a very Charlotte Mason style and Lance is thoroughly enjoying the class.  The book you could read online for free but I got Lance a hard copy, its called....wait for it...."College Physics".  A very creative name don't you think?  It's so big I think it could be classified as a lethal weapon.  I'm glad I hadn't decided on a Physics curricula for the fall yet, now I can just check the box.  As a bonus, Chris has really enjoyed talking to Lance and discussing his physics assignments, its very cute to watch them nerding out.

Even a "college student" needs a break, and as there are few places one can go.....Lance took Titus and Amber fishing today.  One lady walking the trail asked him "Are they both yours?" Oyeevey!

Continuing Tae Kwon Do virtually has been really, really hard on the kids.  What they like most about TKD is the relationships they have with the Masters.  Thankfully, Master Kim made their day today by at least dropping off their new belts in person and allowing the kids to give him a hug.  That was a huge spirit lifter.

Goldfish asked their employees to take pictures of what they are doing during the quarantine.  Lance and Mac got together to do their photos:

Signs say "Will Work for Goldfish" and "Need job"

Another thing we have been working on is finding more family board games, Carcassonne is our latest favorite find.