Olive Plants All Around My Table

Monday, March 7, 2016

A Thought for the New Week

Just a thought for the new week, friends. :)

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

With spring just a few weeks away, it's time for our family to be thinking about increasing our laying hen population. Last week, we placed a chick order with Murray McMurray Hatchery. They had already sold out of several of the breeds we were looking for and we had to settle for what they had left. So I called several Tractor Supply Co. stores in our area to find out what kinds of chicks they had.

One store had Silkies for sale. Now, we had never raised Silkies before, and I am not one to just go out and buy chickens without knowing what they're good for...as in meat or eggs.

So I did some research on them: they aren't the best layers, but they are excellent setters and will hatch just about any type of egg: goose, turkey, or duck. And since our sweet little Banty got taken by some devilish critter recently, we are in dire need of a hatching hen. They are also considered the friendliest of all chicken breeds and easily tamed. From everything I read about Silkies, they fit the bill perfectly.

But being friendly and good setters wasn't all that sold me on the Silkies; I read about their history and, according to Wikipedia (I also read other sources that confirm this info), "The earliest surviving written account of Silkies comes from Marco Polo, who wrote of a furry chicken in the 13th century, during his travels in Asia." And Mimi is studying Marco Polo this year in Term 3 of AO! A chicken breed that was probably first documented by Marco Polo?? I couldn't resist. And you can imagine her excitement when I told her. I love it when we makes connections like this. :) Off we went to Tractor Supply!

Now for some photos of the adorable little ones...

According to Mimi, we simply can't have baby chicks without a Lincoln Log house for them to play in. ;)

Oh, and chicks we ordered from the hatchery? They arrived this morning. So that makes a total of 35 baby chicks in our den. We have them right beside the wood stove to keep them warm. Needless to say, it's a bit loud in the house right now. ;)

Have a great day, friends! :)

Monday, February 8, 2016

Nature Exchange #4 and A Visit from Jonas

Hi friends,

Wow, it's been over a month since I've posted anything on here! I have been busy, busy, busy. But such is life around the holidays, then trying to get back on schedule at the beginning of the New Year, then Winter Storm Jonas stopped for a visit. And believe me, it took a while for us clean up after he left. ;) But more on that later.

First, our latest Nature exchange. If you read any of my ramblings on here, you have probably read about our Nature exchanges with my friend Silvia and her family. And you have probably heard me talk about how the exchanges have been such a wonderful learning experience for our family.

Well, after reading my post about the most recent exchange with Silvia and her family, my friend, Celeste, contacted me and asked if we could do a Nature exchange with their family.

Now, Celeste lives in California, not far from the shore. And we live in the foothills of the mountains and are a long distance from any beaches. So the thought of having a Nature exchange with her and her family was an offer we just couldn't refuse!

The search began...we looked high and low for things we thought her family would enjoy, and her family began to gather things for us.

Finally, we had a box full of goodies to send. We mailed it, and not long after, her family's box arrived..

We were so thrilled with all the ocean treasures! There were sand dollars, crabs shells, a crab claw, all types of shells: pacific razors, sea urchins, turban snails, dwarf olives, limpets, and California blue mussels just to name a few.

They also sent various seaweeds and sponges which are so unique!

Have a look at some of the treasures..

A pine cone from a Redwood tree and a sand dollar with a barnacle on it. How exciting to get our hands on some barnacles when Mimi was reading Pagoo! Actually, the contents of the entire box fit right in with the book. :)

Love the ridges on this shell.

A "furry" sand dollar! How cool is that?! :)

After closely examining everything, we decided to arrange the treasures on 2 trays and display them in a prominent place in our house. But where? All of the things that Silvia has sent are on display in our school room. I am happy to report that those shelves are full. :)

So, where to put the ocean treasures? Mimi decided the best place would be on the baker's rack beside our dining room table. We all agreed it would be the perfect spot, complete with magnifying glasses. :)

Mimi has dubbed it our "Ocean Museum". Love that. :)

Since we haven't had much opportunity to do any Nature sketching in the dead of winter, this exchange has provided us with many different things to sketch..

Thanks again for such a treat, Celeste. :)

Speaking of Nature, I mentioned Winter Storm Jonas and wanted to share some of the photos of his visit. It's hard to tell how much snow we got because of the high winds, but hubby estimated 30 inches. For all of my warm weather readers, enjoy! :)

This was only one hour into the storm..

It came down fast and furious..

White-out conditions, but thank the Lord, we didn't lose power. However, we were prepared for a power outage: we had plenty of eggs on hand. Why eggs, you ask? Well, since we heat our house with a wood stove, we could have cooked on it, and would have been eating cooked-on-the wood-stove scrambled eggs for a couple of days, which (speaking from experience) are quite tasty. :)

After about 20 inches of snow, it was time to bring out the snow blower..

Obviously, our playground was a bit deserted that day.

Shoveling snow was done in shifts since shoveling 30+ inches at one time is a bit too much, even for my hard working kids. :)

On the bright side, there was plenty of snow for making snow tunnels..

As soon as Jonas hit the trail, the sky was so blue..

I couldn't help but think of the verse..."The heavens declare the glory of God,

And the firmament shows His handiwork."

~ Psalm 19:1

And then it was time for some sledding, as soon as we made a sledding track, that is.

Going down the hill was a blast!

It's the walk back up the hill that is not as much fun. ;)

Asher decided to take a sledding-and-then-trudging-back-up-the-hill break on the boxwood recliner. :)

We are expecting more snow tonight, but only several inches. My children are thankful that it won't be as much as last time. They aren't big fans of shoveling snow..at least not 30 inches of it. :)

Have a great week, friends!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Tweaking AO (part 2)

Hi friends,

Here it is: the grand finale of my Tweaking AO post. Not that there is anything necessarily grand about it to some people, but after the past several months of barely keeping my head above water (for a refresher, you can read the first post ), small improvements are pretty wonderful in my opinion! :)

What exactly has improved, you ask? Well, I have made a few small changes. The first change we made is with Nature journals: we are not doing it once a week like we used to; we have cut it back to once a month. There's not much to sketch now that cold weather has arrived, so everything is pretty much brown and dried up. Once spring re-appears next year, we will pick it up again on a weekly basis. This change came easily since my children are outside alot anyway, so they are still doing lots of Nature observation, even if we aren't sketching.

Another change: for the month of December, we are taking a break from our foreign language notebooks. The children do their Duo Lingo lessons every day, but no notebook entries for the month. We just needed a break from it. Besides, the children are doing so well with their Spanish lessons (as in translating Hispanic conversations overhead in the orthodontist's waiting room - hehe), I decided a break from the notebooks was in order. :) I am still not sure if this change will be permanent or not. Time will tell.

Also, instead of using the AO recommended Thomas North text of this term's Plutarch selection, we are reading the Young Folks' Plutarch by Rosalie Kaufman. My children prefer that version, and it has shorter readings. And by the way, we typically read Plutarch on Wednesdays, but we didn't read it last week. Usually, I would be stressed out by Wednesday evening at the very thought of skipping a reading, but guess what?? I didn't go into my typical frantic panic! :) I simply decided that last week's reading could be added to this week's Plutarch reading. And since the Rosalie Kaufman version has shorter readings, adding a little extra is no problem. :)

I am also considering studying one poet all together instead of each child doing their own poetry. Still thinking about that one....

So those are the academic changes.

Now, for the other - and probably most important - change: my attitude. Some of y'all were praying. I was praying. And the Lord has been answering, because I am not going into my usual "get it done - no matter what" frenzy as much (*ahem*) if some scheduled things aren't completed that particular week.

And with my personality, that kind of change can only come from the Lord. This get-it-done attitude goes all the way back to when I home schooled my now grown-and-flown children. I almost felt as if I was the home school lesson Gestapo even then. I was so worried about getting it right and making sure they get everything they needed, I was too stressed to enjoy the ride. And I am sure it wasn't a picnic for them either. "Do the lessons! Don't veer off the schedule!" Ugh. Oh, how I wish I would have known back then what I know now. Regrets, regrets....

And when the Lord gave us these 5 younger ones, I was still the Gestapo. Old habits die hard, ya know?

But the Lord is slowly changing me, calming me down, helping me to slow down and savor these moments. And, yes, even enjoy them! Imagine that! :) It has taken me this long to learn this, friends! (Did I mention that old habits die hard??)

And Charlotte Mason's words ring so true today...home education is not just about the books and lessons. It. Is. A. Life.

So a big thank you to all of my praying friends. You know who you are. ;) And thanks to everyone who left a comment on my previous post with suggestions. It was a huge encouragement to hear from all of you.

"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." ~ Proverbs 27:17

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Keeping - Our Science Journals

Hi friends,

It's been way too long since I shared a Keeping post with Celeste at Joyous Lessons.

But as I said in a previous post, I have been a little short on time lately, just trying to get everything to mesh with 5 children in 5 different levels of AO. I will give y'all an update on that post later this week - hopefully...if I have time. ;)

Back to the Keeping link-up....this is our first year of doing Science notebooks, and I have been wanting to share how we do them since my children are loving this method so much more than just reading and narrating. They are enjoying sketching and jotting down important facts. And I can tell by our dinner table discussions that they are retaining so much of what we are studying. They can't wait to tell their Dad all the great interesting things they learned that day. :)

With the 4 youngers, we are doing Apologia's Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day.

Here's how we do it: I read a section from the book. They narrate it back to me, we discuss it together, then we sketch and jot down some interesting facts in our notebooks. What's not to love about that?! :)

Now, here's a peek at some of what's in their notebooks...

we have studied jellyfish...(they did such a great job of sketching these!)

animals that live on the abyssal plain...

whales and dolphins...

and we are currently studying primeval reptiles...

Love Mimi's entry.. :)

Ian, my 16-yr-old, is taking a Human Anatomy course. And he is doing a Science notebook as well. He reads a section, orally narrates to me, then writes and sketches.

Here are some of his entries..

different joints of the body..