in pursuit of wild things

Some weeks are tough and some are wonderful. This week was a mix of both. I enjoyed a few new experience with friends and witnessed my oldest son’s heart-break.

Friday night was an enjoyable night out with friends…mostly. The four of us– Mrs. Cuddle-me, Mama Quilts and Survivor Mom (formerly know as Makrothumia)–went out for dinner which was quite nice. Any meal made by someone else is always delightful! The rest of the evening was spent out at Mrs. Cuddle-me’s place by a bon-fire. She needed to burn a

stump and the rest of them thought making s’mores and sitting around a fire to be great fun. Survivor Mom taught the rest of us how to start a fire by collecting tree bark, and creating sparks with a knife. She even collected tree bark at the restaurant! She explained all about starting a fire and making sure it was “sustainable”. Now, you know why she earned the name change to Survivor Mom. She also told us all about her week at some survivor camp in Ohio where she had to wade through a swamp barefoot and start a fire with material she could scrounge up. Wow! We spent the rest of the evening talking and my friends taught me how to make my very first campfire style s’mores. I may have set a marshmallow or two on fire before I got the hang of it…

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Mayfield cruise in.  This week there were several new cars to look at and a few tractors. One fellow even brought a bunch of riding lawn-mowers. That seemed kinda strange to me…Mrs. Cuddle-me and her fella’s came by to view the cars and then hung out with us for a while.

Late Saturday night and most of Sunday I was ill. Yuck!! I endured the dry-heaves that night and finally managed to keep some water down by Sunday morning. By that afternoon I felt well enough to go to a family baby shower (not really…my head really hurt). I would have preferred to stay home but sometimes you just have to drive on. Sparkles went with me (she loves bridal and baby showers) and she had a wonderful time. She loves social girly events…she is nothing like her mother. I did meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen in ages and enjoyed spending my time catching up with her.

Monday morning the kids were still sleeping at eight which is really unusual. Oldest ended up not feeling well so I called school off and gave everyone a rest day. I spent part of the day cleaning since the house was a bit messy. The rest of the day I played around with Homeschool Planet for a review I have coming up in a month or two. I’m glad to work with the old team again at Home and School Mosaic’s. I’ve missed everyone very much. I still read many of their blogs but it isn’t the same as when we were all working on projects together. I’m only a member of the back-up crew these days but it is great fun to be involved on a project again. While watering the garden we found a huge spider web and a tiny spider. The web was nearly six feet across and eight feet high! The spider was small…maybe only a half and inch big. We watched the spider take down its web…something I hadn’t seen before. Middle boy wrote about it in his “interesting facts” notebook.

On Tuesday we went out for our annual back to school breakfast at Hutchen’s. This year my husband went with us. We put in a half day of school and then went to a friend’s house for fun and pool time. Sparkles got to play with friends she had not seen in a year or so. That evening we went to piano practice and were privileged to meet Mrs. Melody’s new grandbaby! Oh how I have missed cuddling newborns!!! Wednesday was the heart-crushing day for Oldest. His guitar teacher is moving away (all the way to California!) and it was his very last lesson with Bo. He was teary eyed when we said our “goodbyes” and then cried his

heart out once we loaded up in the van. Afterward we stopped by the Post Office to mail our official letter of notification to the school system and then went to Wendy’s for frosties. Thursday was another half day of school and then on to Mrs. Cuddle-me’s for swimming. That night we went to the drive-in to see a movie (How to Tame Your Dragon 2). We were all so tired we decided not to stay for the second movie. My husband took a vacation day on Friday to paint the boy’s room and we stayed in the school room out of his way trying to catch up on all the missed assignments for the week. We did the same today while he finished up the painting and are almost caught up on all the missed assignments. I took a picture of their room since it will never be that clean again…

I am looking forward to a nice quite week…

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

The always eloquent Rea Berg

Sparkles and her kitty

Oldest at the Elkhorn

the rainbow

Middle Boy looking for nature treasures

Fort Boonesborough on Minecraft

Littlest looking for nature treasures

yellow spider in our yard

loving his new read aloud

off the Wild Explorer time

Sarah MacKenzie

Littlest reading a poem

Shark-nado food chain

Sparkles reading a poem

tea for me before poetry tea time