a post about reptiles

Sorry, dear readers.  Summer has sucked my brain away and I just have not been able to wrap it around actually writing a post instead of just thinking of one.  We have been busy with vacation recovery, growing teeth and fluffy hair on the baby, swimming lessons, a Primary activity that required a life size drawing of Goliath, the diaper saga, and some sewing and crafting thrown in too.  You know, the normal stuff– the kind of stuff that makes actually sitting in front of the computer a rarity, especially sitting down to do something productive on the computer.  So today, I’m starting with the most recent stuff and will work in some highlights from my absence in the next few days.

Now, look what we found on our family room floor:

cute turtle friend

It was Friday night after the afore mentioned Primary activity.  We were unloading the car, we were in and out of the house, all the neighborhood kids (and some of our own) were in and out of the house, the dog was in and out of the house, you get the picture.  There was a lot of choas, and then it was time to send other people’s children home to sleep in their own beds and Jonah found something on the floor.  There was a lot of things being said like, “It’s not mine, it’s Holly’s.” “No, it’s Megan’s.” “What is it?”  Barry decided to intervene and help sort things out when he discovered that “it” was a turtle shell sealed up as tight as could be– with a turtle inside.  Ellie (our dog) dug it up in the back yard and dropped in inside amid all the hubbub.  Now, how random and fun is that?  We kept it for a day and learned all sorts of things.  She is on Ornate Box turtle and we know she’s a she because she has brown eyes (males have bright red or orange eyes) and a flat tummy.  We’d get her out of the aquarium to roam around the house,

look what we found in our living room!

and then we let her go– in a place Ellie won’t dig her up again.

 ready for the release

back in the wild

Now if that isn’t cool enough for one weekend, check this out:

hatching gecko! hatching gecko!

We watched a baby gecko hatch!  My brother sent us some eggs thinking they probably weren’t any good, but we could try to see if they’d hatch.  Monday morning we woke to a trail of little rocks across the kitchen counter and an empty egg.  I hadn’t snapped the lid on the container all the way and the hatchling escaped.  (I’m still feeling totally sick about that and praying that it will turn up tonight.)  Later that night, though, Barry noticed a little head popping out of the other egg,

all the way out

and then the whole thing!  Oh the wonders of nature.  We are thrilled with our new addition.  Oh, I hope we can somehow find the other one.  I have no idea where or how to look for it with it being so tiny and nocturnal. I just feel so bad that it got away…

all cleaned up

So, there you have it.  We like little cold blooded animals at our house and are so excited that some decided to come and hang out with us this week.  How’s that for homeschool science?

as July flies by…

July has been a crazy busy month.  Here’s a random listy update:

In Summer Mom-School news we’re going to go with option 3, so we’ll discuss Leadership Education August 1st and then tack on another day in September.

The 4th of July was wonderfully fun and laid back.  We just hung around the neighborhood, ate food, and set off our own fireworks.

Logan made a cake

happy birthday dear America!

Logie made a happy birthday America cake.  Dad added the sparkler.

Our trip has been full of visits with best friends

visiting best friends

visiting best friends

and cousins.

running cousins

Hunter and I were Barry’s cheering section at a mountain bike race at Brundage ski resort in McCall, Idaho.

the spectators

feelin' good!

He won his age category.  I sure married a super cool guy.

at the top

I sure love these mountains.  I guess it’s in my blood, but no matter where I’ve been or how long I’ve been away, the rocks and trees and rivers and lakes of Idaho just feel like home.  There’s no where that can compare.

Attention Summer Mom-Schoolers!!

How are you doing on reading the Leadership Education book? The discussion is scheduled for this Saturday July 11 at 8 am Mountain.

I had planned on doing this from vacation but am running into some scheduling problems. My husband is DYING to do a mountain bike race that morning, so we may or may not be in cell phone range that morning. Also the other Jessica (www.balancingeverything.com) has a surprise family thing that day. So I want to take votes on what to do:

1– Just send Barry to do his race without a cheering section and keep the discussion as scheduled.

2– Reschedule the discussion to 8 or 9 pm Mountain time that evening (which would be Sunday morning for April in Turkey, so that worries me with getting ready for church and everything).

3– Push our schedule back and tack on another Saturday in September so it would look like this:
August 1– Leadership Education: the Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
August 22– The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
September 12– Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire by Rafe Esquith
September something– The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto

4– or push our schedule back and just take out Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire so the schedule would look like this:
July 11– vacation
August 1– Leadership Education: the Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
August 22– The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
September 12– The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto

What think ye?

seeing what happens

The first Summer Mom School discussion podcast is posted over at  the Summer Mom School blog for those of you interested.  It was great to meet and chat with Carol and KateHow Children Learn was a book I loved revisiting.

Jonah has been wanting to make an invention for quite some time.  After rummaging through the garage and basement he knew just what he wanted to make.

inventing

The kids rigged up a pulley off the deck down to the lawn, complete with a bell to ring when things were ready to come down.  Then one day the whole contraption mysteriously disappeared.  I figured they were just ready for something new, but then I noticed a big scrape on Brenna’s shoulder blade.  “What happened there?” I asked.

“Um,” she said sheepishly, “I was standing in the pulley bucket and pulling myself up with the rope.  Then I got so high I didn’t know what to do.  I was  totally stuck.  I held on for a long time, then the bucket tipped backward and I still held on, but finally my arms gave out so I went crashing down on the rocks.”

“Oh, so is that why you guys took the pulley down?”

“Yeah, it was just too tempting!”

I guess it was a first hand experiment in  gravity and that sometimes self control entails getting the temptation totally out of sight.