Locks of Love

Last week LMS got her hair cut. Unlike me, the Little Miss was successful in donating her hair to Locks of Love. It makes a difference if you have a competant, experienced hairdresser (I didn't).

The last photos of LMS with long hair.

We put her hair in two ponytails, and then cut it (this is what my previous hairdresser couldn't manage to do). It's pretty short, but great for summer and the hot, humid weather we get here.

The first day she waffled a bit about whether she liked it or not, but now she likes it.

Several months ago we started talking about cutting her hair and donating it to Locks of Love, and we talked about her hair being used to make wigs for little kids who don't have hair. We have an adult friend who wears a wig (only on Sundays, she wears hats the rest of the week), so LMS understands the concept of wigs and why they would be needed. She thought it was a great idea to help out other kids. Isn't she a cutie?

she posed herself in this one :)

Adoption Progress

Yesterday we had our individual interviews with our caseworker and today we turned in the last of our extra paperwork and had our home study!

Next week we'll finish our required training and we'll write our letter to birth parents and put together our profile. After that, I think we're done with everything and will just have to wait for our approval and then we'll officially be waiting to adopt.

Being close to being approved is just a bit surreal. It's hard to believe that 10 years after first talking about adopting sometime in the future, that sometime is almost here.

Square foot gardening

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I recently read All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, which I borrowed from some friends. After finishing the book, I will be buying a copy for us so we can make good use of it. Mel gives very clear instructions on how to successfully build, fill, and plant a square foot garden, as well as the reasons for why he does things that way.

We're hoping to get our yard landscaped (fill dirt brought in, yard leveled, retaining walls constructed) this fall, which is why we didn't worry too much about whether our garden worked out this spring/summer. Which is good, since it's *really* struggling. Reading about square foot gardening gave me a good idea of where to put our garden, how to organize it, and how to successfully grow produce. I think even with my propensity for killing plants I should be able to keep a garden alive and producing :)

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Thinking really ambitiously, I'd like to combine square foot gardening with winter harvesting. Mel talks about extending your harvest a bit in the square foot gardening book, but I'd like to take it further, like Eliot talks about in his book. We'll need to build a greenhouse first, so we won't start the winter planting right away.

Have you tried square foot gardening or winter harvesting?

First 5k of the year

This past weekend I ran my first 5k of the year. I haven't run any races since the Disney Half Marathon in January, so I was excited to finally run another race. I've been patiently doing my physical therapy since December, and it has paid off. I was able to run the race without my knee hurting (yay!).

I'm a bit out of shape since my training has been limited to minimal treadmill running with no incline, and the course was hillier (hilly-er?) than I expected, so I ended up with sore calves and thighs, but there was no knee pain.

Mr M was at drill so I ended up pushing LMS in the jogger the whole race. I'm going to start her on a 5k training program, but she wasn't ready for this 5k. I was just happy they allowed jogging strollers in the race, since that meant I didn't have to find a babysitter for LMS (such a hassle).

In any case, despite being out of shape and pushing LMS up multiple hills I managed to finish the race in 39 minutes and 23 seconds. The last 5k I ran was the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, and I ran that in 32:44. I was almost 7 minutes slower this time, but I'm completely ok with that given my current level of fitness.

There was also a short kids race that LMS participated in. Isn't she so cute?

 at the beginning

at the finish

LMS always appreciates a good finisher's medal. The shinier, the better :)

This was the second race I've run while pushing LMS in the jogger, and I've realized a few things. Mainly, some people are just dumb. There were a couple people that came from behind me, and ran so close to the jogger that I had to veer away from them so as not to hit them. Really? They just went around me- they knew I was there- they couldn't have given us some space?

On the other hand, if I come up behind someone, I do need to be aware of how much space we're taking up. However, if you're as short as I am, it can be difficult to see the front tire, and thus not run into someone. Extra vigilance is required :)  Though it's really only an issue at the beginning of the race- once everyone spreads out it's not so bad.

I have my eye on a couple races to participate in the next few months, but need to hammer out our schedule before committing to anything. Are you running any races this summer?

Trampoline

We finally got a trampoline for LMS. My parents and Mr M's parents have trampolines that LMS has used, but since moving out here she hasn't had much opportunity to jump on one. The one we bought has a safety net all around (very nice!) which makes all of us feel more at ease about LMS jumping on it.

We may eventually dig a hole for the trampoline to set in, but that would be a lot of digging, with lots of rocks and tree roots bound to interfere, so I'm not sure if that will actually happen.

LMS loves jumping on the trampoline.

She even convinced Opa (my dad) to jump on it when he was out here recently for a short visit.

 

None of my pics are that great, since even on sports mode it's hard for my little point-and-shoot to take good action shots. Still not sure I can justify the money for an SLR camera though.

Our backyard is slowly evolving into a "fun" backyard :)

 

Do your kids like trampolines?

Spring soccer

Since I ended up being the head coach and Mr M was only able to attend one practice and one game, we don't have many pics of LMS playing soccer this season. We did get a few though.

 playing with her braids while she waits for the ball to come to her end

As stressful as it was (I felt like I had to always be there, sine it was hit or miss if the assistant coaches were able to be there, which is how I ended up as the head coach in the first place), it was good to see the kids making progress in understanding the game and actually playing positions. Their days of flocking after the ball, while cute, are about over.

At the end of season pizza party, LMS ate raisins and applesauce while everyone else ate pizza. I felt bad for her, but she didn't seem upset, which was good.

LMS with her trophy

The kids learned a lot and I'm excited to see the progress they make in the fall- as I watch from the sidelines :)

The Well Trained Mind Seminar

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A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to a homeschool conference that included a seminar presented by Susan Wise Bauer. Since we're using the Well Trained Mind curriculum recommendations, I jumped at the chance to hear her speak.

The topics were:

* A Plan for Teaching Writing: Grades K-12
* A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the Middle Grades
* A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the High School Years
* Homeschooling the Real (Distractible, Impatient, Argumentative, Unenthusiastic, Non-Book-Loving, Inattentive, Poky, Vague) Child
* The Well Prepared Student (High School): How to Get Ready for College
* Teaching Students to Work Independently

Some points I took from each talk:

I was mostly interested in the first Plan for Teaching Writing talk, Homeschooling the Real Child, and Teaching Students to Work Independently, but the talks about middle and high school ages were also helpful. I was able to get a good long range view of what to aim for over the next 12 years.

The first Plan for Teaching Writing talk gave me a good idea of how to integrate grammar, spelling, writing into our schoolwork. The next two talks were good things to keep in mind for the future.

Homeschooling the Real Child was quite interesting. Susan gave several descriptors of different types of children- purposeful, immature, single-minded, multi-talented, independent, and creative. At this point, the one that most applies to Little Miss Sunshine is "single-minded", which didn't really come as a surprise, since Mr M and I have frequently commented on her one-track mind :)  Susan then gave several strategies to use in dealing with our children. This was very enlightening, and gave me some great ideas to try with LMS.

Despite high school being years in the future, I actually took a lot of notes during the next talk about the well prepared high school student. Great things to keep in mind as we press forward- how to prepare for standardized tests, how to prepare a transcript showing coursework completed, and so on. She divided this talk into three sections: the practically well prepared student, the academically well prepared student, and the emotionally well prepared student- all things that need to be addressed over the coming years.

We're very much in the "Parent at Elbow" stage of schooling , but we will be working towards teaching LMS to work independently, so the last talk was of a lot of interest to me. In a few more years, we'll start moving into "Hovering Parent" stage, and then gradually become more and more hands-off. Susan gave some great ideas for teaching children to eventually be independent self-starters, starting in the elementary school years, and I can't wait to start using them! Of course, that will be just in time to start over with the next kiddo (hopefully- this isn't an announcement or anything), but it will make it easier to only have one parent-intensive kiddo in school at a time.

All-in-all, the time and money spent to attend this seminar were very well spent, and I'm glad I was able to attend.

Have you ever had the chance to hear Susan speak?

Identifying poison ivy

So, I've recently realized that older poison ivy vines don't neccessarily follow the adages that I learned at girls camp: "leaflets 3, leave them be" and "the leaves look like they have a thumb". And of course I learned this the hard way: I currently have a raging case of poison ivy that's spreading all over. The rash started emerging Saturday night and by Sunday night I realized it was going to be bad enough that I'd need to go to the doctor for more ointment and meds. I've had one brush with poison ivy already this spring, but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, since Monday was a holiday, I had to wait till Tuesday morning to call my doc for an appointment.

Poison ivy vines- big and hairy with leaves that don't look like the smaller posion ivy plants on the ground.

It actually ended up being a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone appointment, since we found out over the weekend that we all need to fill out risk assessments for TB as part of our adoption process. Grrr. We thought we had everything taken care of and then the state went and changed things and there's more we have to do now. Most of it is just little nit-picky stuff, but there is more paperwork too: the TB risk assessments, proof of auto insurance (really??), and our driving records, along with more things to document around the house.
Anyway, back to the poison ivy. Did you know that poison ivy vines can have clusters of little berries under the leaves? I didn't.

I thought they were some sort of grape vine, so took off my gloves to cut them off the trees that we built LMS's tree fort on. Definitely *not* the smartest thing I've ever done.

 big, hairy vines on several of our trees- they've obviously been growing  there for quite awhile

Despite using poison ivy scrub in the shower and using 97% rubbing alcohol, the oils are in my system, the blisters are out en masse, and I'm itching like crazy. Ok, it's actually getting better now, since I've started taking the prednisone. I took it last year, and while it does have some side effects, the itching blisters that spread all over are more than I can handle. Seriously. Sometimes I just want to start scratching and never stop because it itches so bad.

While we were working outside we saw several ticks (some of them crawling on us)- soooo icky. Ticks are unnatural creatures. Between them and the poison ivy, I rembered why I don't spend as much time outdoors as I would like. It's seriously hazardous to my health, even when I'm trying to be watchful and aware.

Does poison ivy love you as much as it loves me?