Lemony Webbles

I got to meet Yoda!

I got back last night from the 10th annual InHome (homeschooling) conference in Chicago. There were about 800 people there, ~300 adults and ~500 children! Wow! They had tons of workshops for the kids (from African Tie Dye to Lego Robotics) and lots of how-to workshops for the parents. My favorite workshops were: having philosophical/Socratic discussions with your kids, going on long hiking trips with kids, and an intro to Brain Gym. The hiking one was really amazing- 2 families, 5 kids, the youngest 7 years old, hiked 10+ miles a day for a month, going up and down mountains 10,000 ft high, and completed the 220 mile long John Muir trail. Wow! The Brain Gym one was also really good. I was introduced to Educational Kinesiology, which is basically moving your body in ways that help your brain work better. Good for organizing, focusing, memory, relaxation, etc. I'm excited to learn more about that.

The conference opened with a performance of Japanese drumming which was a very powerful experience for me. It was so loud and booming that it made my organs vibrate and so of course it was completely captivating. I noticed during the performance that not one child made a peep or even seemed to move. We all sat mesmerized. It's kind of hard to explain the effect in words but I highly recommend going in person to that kind of performance so you can experience it yourself.

After the conference Andrea (my homeschooling friend that I went to the conference with) and I went to the semi-annual Illinois HOUSE Council meeting. (I always forget what HOUSE stands for but it's a large secular homeschooling organization.) She very unofficially represented our local HOUSE group there and, for me, it was the most important part of the whole weekend. I really needed to get in touch with the previous generation of homeschooling moms and that's who I met there. I felt mothered and guided and loved, protected and advocated for and encouraged. I heard lots of helpful stories. Sitting across from me was the founder of HOUSE, very grandmotherly, very funny, sharp as a tack. As Andrea pointed out, she was our Yoda. It was so great to meet our mothers in education. So smart and loud and powerful and organized. I learn so much by just watching people that I want to emulate than by any other means. Whoa! I think I've just been mentored! Cool.

This morning: -9! (-27 with windchill)

Is that some kind of a cold weather CHALLENGE!?! KA-SHING!

I don't like taking my morning walk in cold weather, but, come on. -9? To me, that's so extreme that I have to go out in it just to see if I can do it. I put on my warmest bundlings- snowpants, boots, Arctic-grade parka, serious mittens- and was prepared for battle. I got stuck only once. I had a bit of an asthma attack after trudging through the deep snow in the woods up a little rise. But the spirit of the woods was on my side because a really big hawk flew by just then and distracted me long enough that my lungs calmed down. By the time I got home, I was nice and toasty from the exercise.

Not today, Cold Weather Man!

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Please check out Billy's latest webble post. Extreme (tired) parenting. Cooking with a sense of humor. Two of Billy's many strengths.

Ahh... laughing till I cry. I'm so glad I married this guy.

Blizzard? Fun!

Whee! We've got a little blizzard here! A little drama to make mid-February interesting. Enough to close all the schools, even the U of I, which is unheard of to me; but not so bad that you can't see your hand in front of your face like in Little House on the Prairie. Billy took the big girls out to the woods to play in it. It was a relatively short trip and nobody came home with frostbite or anything close. They all braved it in their warmest winter clothes, as you can see. I was impressed but happily stayed home with Teresa.

Georgia tells me she's sitting on a frozen pond in this picture!

#1

Wow, I just realized that I've been writing in this webble for three years! That's a long time! January 17, 2004 is the webble's 'birthday'. Hmmm, I think that must have been my original winter coping mechanism.

Winter coping mechanism #5

Next time you're at the grocery store, buy some kind of fruit that takes a relatively long time to eat, like a pomegranate or a pink grapefruit or pomelo. Gather your people around the table and make a big mess eating them. Definitely double peel those citrus monsters. Happy points: aromatherapy, color therapy, extra C, people time. I've done this twice with voracious little grapefruit eaters who had me peeling madly to keep up. This coping mechanism inspired by Sarah, Zivar and Heidi, who all do this anyway, no matter the season. Oh, and Maya, in utero, who had me craving pink grapefruit like crazy.

Any movie is better when viewed on a Mac laptop

I recently saw the movie 'Spirited Away', from the makers of Totoro, etc. I loved it. It's a very sweet Japanese anime movie, just right if you want a weird, lightly spooky movie with Japanese cultural references and lots of strange characters. The part that I really loved, though, was the very courageous and pure love between the two main characters, a girl and the spirit of a river (in boy form). So beautiful.

it's about the spiritual life of children

Here's the third in the trilogy of 'movies' of my girls. They're really slide shows, but they have a soundtrack! If I had lots of good footage I would make movies where the people actually move, but until then, this format will have to suffice. This time I used my mom's music. Go mom! You're awesome! Happy Ayyam-i-Ha to you!

The great music is from the imcomparable Susan Engle (in case you don't know who my mom is) from the Come and Sing album that's just been re-released in CD form (as well as Loving Hands and Special Times) with new cover art by C. Aaron Kreader the Great. You can get it here. Makes a great Ayyam-i-Ha present!