a place to meet, play & inspire

On the morrow we will be joining Tony & Trudi from our museum science class on a bus ride trip to Boston.  It is about 4 1/2 hours to Boston.  We leave at 5:45 a.m. (groan) and will return around 10 p.m. (double groan).  The trip includes a tour of each of the following:

Museum of Science www.mos.org

New England Aquarium www.neaq.org/index.php

Harvard Museum of Natural History www.hmnh.harvard.edu/  read more »

You have to wonder how things happen some times.  How did we end up searching the Internet for information about music, you ask? We were making up poems.  Such as the ever classic "birdie, birdie in the sky, why'd you pooh pooh in my eye?" and things along that continuum.  Scatological humor works, especially when Mommy does it.  I was explaining how the pentameter of the lines should be equal for this type of poem.  That lead to a quick Wikipedia search to get a better definition of "pentameter" for them.   read more »

Darned if I didn't get stung in the face by a wasp yesterday!  So much for telling the girls that the wasps will not bother them if they don't bother the wasps.  I was minding my own business and the nasty thing flew right into my face and immediately stung me.  The actual sting wasn't as painful as one would expect but the aftermath is unpleasant.  The vision in my eye is blurry and there is swelling all around the sting areaand I've got a tremendous headache and that side of my face aches right down to the bone.  Naturally the event led to a bit of a mini les  read more »

www.openadoptioninsight.org/birth_mother.htm

As the mother of an adopted child, and because of the fond feelings I have for the baby's birthmother, I can't help but share this.

In random order, this is an agenda of what we will do today:  read more »

Where to even begin?  Spring!   The children have gone gangbusters with playing outdoors thanks to Tim and the playhouse he purchased for the girls.  He scrimped and saved his money for a while by selling items on Ebay from both his aircraft and monster model collections.  You should have seen their eyes when the realized it was theirs!  Worth every penny.  It was one of  those rare moments I have as a parent when I applaud capitalism and the acquisition of more stuff.  This was hand made by a local craftsman.  Yay, local.  Yay, Am  read more »

This morning I was not at all in the mood for children, but K insisted on walking up the road searching for vernal pools.  Earlier in the month I explained them to the children, pointed some out as we drove by,  and got a poster which depicts a typical Maine vernal pool.  I tried everything to get out of it but in the end we did it.  It is not one of my prettier moments this trying to squash her desire to seek out information.  It turned out to be a wonderful, interesting event!  There is some snow melt that has pooled in several areas near  read more »

I'll admit that I've been wresting over the idea of enrolling my almost 8 year old daughter into the local public school when she would be of age to enter third grade this fall.

After hearing about this, I am no longer worrying:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/04/01/threat_0401.ht...

Karen drove Kellie yet again today due to me having a migraine of the worst kind. Kellie is taking part in drama classes through our chapter of 4H. She is still dealing with Mean Little Girl Syndrome and comes home thoroughly rattled about being in the presence of one so unkind. I'm trying to think of it as a learning experience that is necessary, this dealing with a rotten person. If ever I can get there, I fully intend to intercede with this child and stop the nonsense. The kid is the reason we quit a couple of years ago.  read more »

Egypt has been a hot topic around here for the past day or two. Kellie surprised me by *wanting* to watch the A & E series we own about said topic. She was interested in the little details and mightily squawked when Tim fast-forwarded past the things he thought would be of little interest. Erin sat in rapt attention at the lure of being able to see a mummified body. Of particular interest to Kellie was the shiny gold jewelry. She wants to have a throne similar to the King's.  read more »