Sunday Funny

I sat on a bench while Mr M and the kids explored the gift shop and visitor center

Before we headed home from Great Smoky Mountain NP, we stopped to turn in River's Junior Ranger packet at the visitor center. After he got his pin, Mr M took the kids to look around the gift shop.

Ocean found a stuffed elk (they've been rebuilding the local herd of Smoky Mountain elk), held it up, and exclaimed "deer!"

Mr M: "no, it's an elk."
Ocean: "no, it's a deer!"

Mr M commented that Ocean would fit in well with the Japanese. In Japanese, elk is "big deer." Back when we were in language school he had a big discussion with one of his teachers about what an inaccurate statement this is, but it didn't change anything- there is no word for elk other than big deer.

Weekly Mileage #78 and Very Busy Week

little boys being silly while I sit with my foot up. yes, I'm using a cooler- it's just the right height :)

Last week was a super busy week. All our classes started and we had multiple doctor appointments scheduled. Thankfully I have some good friends who generously drove us around to everything.

Monday a friend and I dropped the boys off at their first day of preschool, then dropped Sunshine off at her co-op. A couple hours later another friend and I picked up the boys, then later in the afternoon, Mr M picked up Sunshine.

Tuesday Mr M drove us to and from music lessons.

Wednesday a friend picked us up, then dropped Sunshine off at nature class, then drove the boys and I to my orthopedic appointment. Then she drove us to Ocean's hearing test. She also picked Sunshine up from her nature class in the afternoon.

Thursday the friend who drove us around on Wednesday drove us to Sunshine's orthodontist appointment. Yes, she is a saint.

Friday another friend drove us to and from what I thought was Ocean's more in-depth speech evaluation, but was actually just signing the paperwork to do all the evaluations (ahh, the joys of working with the public school system). Afterwards, Mr M dropped us off at a local park for , and another friend drove us home.

Saturday I realized we needed a few things from the grocery store, so I decided to drive to the grocery store a mile away and see how it felt. I took the boot off to drive, then put it back on when I got out of the car. My foot felt fine, but walking around was tiring. Mr M was at drill Saturday and Sunday and not able to drive us anywhere.

I had arranged for a friend to take us to church on Sunday, but after Saturday's little outing I decided to just drive myself. Moving car seats in and out of vehicles was getting old. Taking the boot on and off is much easier.

The results from our various appointments:
It took an hour of waiting in the orthopedic doctor's waiting room before we could go to the exam room- why tell me the appointment is for 10:15 if I don't get seen until 11:15? The boys did great, but they were getting very restive towards the end, which I totally didn't blame them for. The x-rays showed that my foot is healing, so I've got the boot for at least 4 more weeks. We'll see how things are then, and go from there.

Ocean has fluid in his right ear still. His speech receptors are a little low in his left ear, but lower in his right ear. So his hearing is still muffled and he probably can't hear if we whisper in his right ear. We go back in 6 weeks to re-test everything and see if there's any changes. Based on those results we should be able to move forward with tubes if he's still got fluid in his ears. Re-testing establishes a baseline of what his ears are doing.

Sunshine needs two more baby teeth pulled. She's got some very stubborn teeth that just won't fall out, which is making her crowded mouth even more crowded. I'd hoped she'd be ready to finally get braces, but no dice.

The boys loved preschool and it even inspired Ocean to be more motivated to use the toilet. This past week he's been wearing underwear with fewer accidents, which is nice. We potty trained back in December and January, and he has no problem pooping and peeing in the potty, but he just couldn't be bothered to stop what he was doing to use the toilet.

The boys only go to preschool one morning a week, which gives me a couple hours to get some work done all by myself- writing, sourcing, whatever I need to get done. I'd wanted two mornings, but by the time I realized I needed this, there weren't any openings on Wednesday mornings. Even just a few hours is nice, though, so I'll take what I can get.

No mileage again last week, but I want to try riding my bike this coming week.

Weekly Mileage
    total- 0 miles

21 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

276.16 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
260.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
538.30 miles total

Sunday Funny

While on one of our road trips earlier this summer, I was getting gas in the RV and the car was hitched behind on the dolly.

A random guy stopped to ask if the car had front wheel or rear wheel drive.

Me: Front, I think?

Him: If it’s rear wheel, you’re still adding mileage to your car.

Me: And???   <the lady next to me and I just looked at each other, confused>

I’m towing a sedan behind an RV, I'm not trying to avoid adding mileage- I just wanted a more maneuverable vehicle to drive while camping. Maybe he thought it was up on the dolly just to avoid adding mileage on the odometer?

Arrow of Light Award made with the Glowforge

When I bought the Glowforge, one of the projects I had in mind was to use it to make Arrow of Light awards. I've been cutting them with a scroll saw, which is time consuming and fiddly, and prone to mistakes. You can see them in this post and this post.

After a lot of time (more than I really had available) experimenting, this is what I came up with. I'd intended to cut all the way through the wood, like the scroll sawed ones, but the wood is too thick for that to work efficiently. I like the cutout look, but I like this engraved look as well.

I've used pine in the past, but I used oak this time. I was working under a time crunch, so I didn't have time to try it with pine. I'll have to do that next time. I'm not convinced I like the oak on pine look, but it's not awful.

I only had a few minutes to photograph the award, and the light was fading fast, so the quality isn't quite what I'd like, but you can still get a good idea of how it turned out.

I do love the texture that resulted from the laser repeatedly passing over the grain of the wood.

Anyone in need of an Arrow of Light award?

Weekly Mileage #77 and the Boot

Monday we slept in after a very late night at the hospital. Noon checkout meant we had time to sleep in and still get everything taken care of in time to check out on time. We drove from the Cade's Cove campground to the other side of the park, where we had reservations at Smokemont campground.

After setting up in a nearly deserted campground (loved not having anyone close by), we went for a drive to check out Clingman's Dome. We did the hike last time we visited, but we knew that wouldn't be an option this time because of my foot. Last time it was foggy, this time the fog was even worse. The fog wisping through the trees does look very cool, though.

Tuesday we visited Mingus Mill and the Oconaluftee visitor center. I sat in the car while Mr M took the kids to the mill, but I hobbled into the visitor center, where River turned in his Junior Ranger packet and got his badge. Sunshine did hers last time we were here and didn't want to do it again. I sat on a bench in the visitor center while Mr M and the kids explored the gift shop, the displays, and the historical farm museum behind the visitor center.

the damage: gouged knee, bloodied toe, broken foot

Mingus Mill

Mingus Mill 

Ocean took this picture of River and I working on his junior ranger packet

River being sworn in, Ocean wanting to participate too

the view from my bench in the visitor center

Our reservation was for two nights, but we ended up packing up Tuesday afternoon and heading home, rather than waiting until the next morning. Crutching around with a broken foot was awkward and painful and put an end to our hiking and exploring plans. Add in Hurricane Florence heading to Virginia, and we figured we should just head home.

nice large campsite, and no neighbors near us, it would have been fun to explore the campground, but the rain and my foot put a damper on a lot of our planned activities

The hurricane shifted south, so it didn't actually hit us, but that meant it headed for North Carolina, where the rest of our campground reservations were for. We'd decided to just eat the reservation fees when we went home early, but they were refunded to us because all the campgrounds were closed.

more wispy fog as we drove home

Wednesday morning I called around and found an orthopedic doctor that could squeeze me in that morning. They took some more X-rays, then switched the splint for a walking boot. The doctor said I could start putting weight on my foot and ditch the crutches. It took another day or two before my foot agreed with that, but I've been able to limp around without the crutches for several days now. I really hated those crutches- so awkward to use.

my view for the week

I spent the rest of the week sitting as much as possible with my foot elevated. I spent some time emailing my friends and coordinating rides for the coming week. We missed the start of classes while we were in TN and NC, so this coming week we're jumping into everything with both feet. Since I broke my right foot, I can't drive right now. I'm really hoping I'll be able to drive by next week if I take the boot off (and then put it back on before getting out of the car).

For now, my foot still hurts, so I do have to be careful with how I walk, but I'm so glad to be regaining my mobility so quickly.

Needless to say, I did not log any mileage this week.

Weekly Mileage
    total- 0 miles

21 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

276.16 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
260.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
538.30 miles total

Sunday Funny

As we hiked up a hill recently, Ocean was riding on my back, and thus had energy to spare.

"We're upping and upping!" 

He repeated it later, as we was climbing the hill in the picture above. 

I'm not quite sure if it was meant as encouragement or a statement of fact regarding the hill, but I did think it was funny. First time I've heard up used as a verb :)

Great Smoky Mountains NP

Cade's Cove Explorations

this cutie loves climbing on all the rocks, big or small, that he finds in the trail

River fell and was crying, so Sunshine offered to give him a piggyback ride 

River finally got to ride on daddy's "sneck"

original log cabin

wood hinge

another original log cabin- the board and batten room on the left is the stranger room, where random visitors could spend the night

grain mill at the Cade's Cove visitor's center

this bridge was the beginning of the trail to Abrams Falls, which we didn't do, but need to next time we visit

Meigs Falls

  The Sinks

The Sinks- formed when a logjam was detonated, re-routing the river

there were signs warning about the current and risk of drowning, but that didn't deter this guy and a couple others from getting in the water anyway 

Laurel Falls

view of the Smoky Mountains from the trail to Laurel Falls

cheesy grins at Laurel Falls

Laurel Falls

Some futile attempts at getting everyone to smile while stopped on the trail from Laurel Falls back to the car. This was actually just a few minutes and a few feet from where I fell. The quality of the pics aren't great because it was starting to get dark, but they're still funny.

Seventh Grade Plans

last day of nature camp this summer

Sunshine's seventh grade school year started back in June, when she did some day camps. Eighth grade will start at the same point next summer. She's got a busy year, and we'll see how sustainable it is. We may cut out some classes if things are too crazy.

First, the fun extracurricular stuff (No links to the stuff we did this summer- you can easily search the site or scroll back a page or two to find those posts. I just don't have time to link back right now.)

summer 2018
church girls camp
nature camp
Cape Charles/Chincoteague/Assateague/Wallops Island
George Washington's birthplace

fall 2018
Great Smokies NP & the Blue Ridge Parkway
co-op classes (each semester will be different, with a variety of subjects being offered)
nature class (the same class she took the semester River was born)

winter 2019
ski class (if we can make it work, I want to take all the kids skiing this year- the boys will both be old enough for it to work)
co-op classes
nature class? (depends on the timing and cost of the ski classes)

spring 2019
co-op classes
nature class

other extracurriculars:
weekly piano lessons
weekly hikes
occasional kayaking

And now for the less fun book work:
Science
     marine biology/oceanography/dolphins
English
     I'm still deciding between Well Trained Mind and Good and Beautiful
Math
     Life of Fred
Spanish
     Song School? I'm still investigating what to use- I think Song School might be too simplistic, but it might be a good start... Still thinking about it.
Typing
    Good and Beautiful
Handwriting
    Good and Beautiful
History
     American history
Geography
     We're starting to search out and compile a list of places to go in each state for our big road trip. This will be an ongoing project for this year and next. It will eventually include calculating drive times, finding campgrounds, calculating gas and campground fees, and so on.

We're also doing some courses through The Family School Online. Math, botany, geography, literature, and history, all with a gospel perspective to them. The courses are meant to be taught to a variety of ages, and then you tailor them to the ages and abilities of the children involved. With River starting kindergarten next year (and Ocean most likely insisting on not being left behind), I'm investigating what's out there. So far Sunshine and I are liking the curriculum, and I really like that there's only minimal prep needed on my part.