Even More Exciting News

Mumpy and Pa moved in on Saturday!  I can not express how happy we all are to have them here with us!!

I thought we were in for a two week whirl of getting their rooms ready, but when Mumpy started developing some heart problems, that got compressed into a one week tornado of preparations!

But all's well now and we've all been having a great time together!

Poem of the Week: Among the Rocks

Among the Rocks

By Robert Browning

Oh, good gigantic smile o’ the brown old earth,

This autumn morning! How he sets his bones

To bask i’ the sun, and thrusts out knees and feet

For the ripple to run over in its mirth;

Listening the while, where on the heap of stones

The white breast of the sea-lark twitters sweet.

That is the doctrine, simple, ancient, true;

Such is life’s trial, as old earth smiles and knows.

If you loved only what were worth your love,

Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you:

Make the low nature better by your throes!

Give earth yourself, go up for gain above!

HT: Poetry Foundation

Exciting News!

Mumpy and Pa (my parents) are coming to live with us (at least for the winter)!

We are beyond excited to have them, and very glad we did the room rearrangement this summer.

We still have a bit of rearranging to do, but we should be comfortably done with it when they come down the first weekend in October.

That will make 10 of us under one roof!  And we think it's a party now!

Poem of the Week: Paradiso Canto 33

from Paradiso: Canto 33 (lines 46-48, 52-66)

By Dante Alighieri

Translated by Robert Pinsky

As I drew nearer to the end of all desire,

I brought my longing's ardor to a final height,

Just as I ought. My vision, becoming pure,

Entered more and more the beam of that high light

That shines on its own truth. From then, my seeing

Became too large for speech, which fails at a sight

Beyond all boundaries, at memory's undoing—

As when the dreamer sees and after the dream

The passion endures, imprinted on his being

Though he can't recall the rest. I am the same:

Inside my heart, although my vision is almost

Entirely faded, droplets of its sweetness come

The way the sun dissolves the snow's crust—

The way, in the wind that stirred the light leaves,   

The oracle that the Sibyl wrote was lost.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Wordless Wednesday: Fort McHenry

Awesome Geography: China

 China is one of those study topics that's hard because you're spoiled for choice.  We chose to watch Geography Now's China episode!


For our art project, we made slat books from popsicle sticks and markers.  Evidently, the first books in China were made like this (but using bamboo and twine), hence the propensity for writing vertically.




We've all eaten Chinese food recently, so we had tea and Chinese candy.  I had the foresight to order snacks from a number of the countries we are studying this semester.



And our active activity was Mahjong.  We don't have a tile set, so we played it online.

Might be a stretch to call it active, but it was fun!

Biology

We've cycled around to Biology this year in our 4 year high school science curriculum. The cycle goes: Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, and Science Survey (Astronomy, Geology, Oceanography, and Genetics).

This year I have 6 students, including Leena, Choclo, and Oob. 

So far, everyone has been having a great time!

 This week we were working on Cell Biology, so they were making cell models out of jello and candy.  Deliciously educational!

And we were talking about osmosis and diffusion. 

cold, tepid, and hot water

We looked at diffusion as it was affected by temperature, and we set up "skinned" eggs in water and corn syrup to look at how it is affected by concentration.

Poem of the Week: The Chambered Nautilus

The Chambered Nautilus

By Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

Sails the unshadowed main,—

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

Before thee lies revealed,—

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap, forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

HT: Poetry Foundation

Inspired by the ammonites at the Natural History museum!

Happy Birthday, Zorg!

 Zorg is 19!

Pop took us out for Indian food to celebrate, and then we came back for chocolate cherry cake. Yum and yum!


19 Great Things About Zorg

1. He is an Eagle Scout!
2. He sings beautifully.
3. He's really good at gaming.
3. He's a loyal friend.
4. He's always willing to lend a hand.
5. He's very honest.
5. He's really good at math.
6. He's always up for some fun!
7. He can climb pretty much anything.
7. He's very good at puzzles.
8. He tells great stories.
9. He is always overflowing with ideas.
10. He really cares about other people.
11. He supports his family and friends in whatever they are trying to do.
11. He has gotten into role playing games in a big way.
12. He makes great mix tapes.
13. He's rocking the mustache!
13. He's in his first year of full time college, but he's already on the Dean's List.
14. He's really funny, he's always making people smile and laugh!
15. He's having fun with college.
15. He's great at Paladins.
16. He's very friendly, as in makes friends everywhere, all the time.
17. He's interested in being a priest.
17. He always tries to do the right thing.
18. He's a very loving son!
18. He loves philosophy.
19. He loves God!

Seven Quick Takes: Great Hats, Kitchens, and Tea Sets

1. In a mad dash to catch up with my summer neglected blog, I must first present to you this lovely lady in the fabulous hat!  She is my...aunt?  She's my sister-in-law's mother-in-law, and my dear friend.  She has to be the most cheerful and extroverted person I've ever met in my life!  She also has Alzheimer's, a fact that does not lessen our enjoyment of our time together.  We hung out together most Saturdays over the summer, and she helped me decorate my kitchen.

2. We went with a beachy theme for the kitchen!

I love the beach and I love my kitchen, so it's a good
combination for me.

Will I get tired of it?  Given that I found a cephalopod to hang in it, probably not.


3. Continuing in the kitchen, it's hard to say which made me happier: getting new countertops or getting all my cabinets sorted out at the same time, but I'm happy I don't have to choose!

Having kids old enough to sort cabinets for me makes up for the years of lost sleep.

4. August is kind of blah in my garden.  It's just too hot and dry yet humid.  I wilt under those conditions too.

September brings a new surge of flowers though, and I'm really enjoying it!

5.  And speaking of flowers, I decided to try my hand at embroidery again.

I haven't had time to do this for a long time, and I'd forgotten how much I love it.

It's a really nice way to dress up a plain shirt,and fun to do while listening to audiobooks with Klenda while she does her tracing.  We were listening to North and South with this one.



6.  By "tracing," I mean Klenda's art school homework.  She has to trace an anatomy book.

The whole book!

She has a year or so to do it, and she is almost done.  She should finish before her school starts up again the first week in October.






7.  I am loving this tea set my friend Bill gave me.

First because it looks so much like my grandparents' Blue Willow
tea set.

Old countertops!

But more because it is NOT Blue Willow, it's Things Could Be Worse.

It's completely decorated with things that would be definitely worse than whatever is bugging you: giant frogs, plagues of pterasaurs, alien invasions, mysterious tentacles and many, many more.

Here's hoping you have a weekend free from Giant Frogs!  More fun with Kelly!

Awesome Geography: Mongolia

We're finishing up Awesome Geography on our own this semester because our little three family Friday morning co-op got excited about a new project.  More on that later.

I am also excited about that project, but, having failed to finish the first Big Trip, I am determined to finish this one!

So we ended up back in Mongolia!

We watched the Geography Now Mongolia episode, as well as this fantastic music video from The Hu.


We drew horses for art, ate Mongolian beef, and watched The Story of the Weeping Camel.

Wordless Wednesday: Natural History, Gem and Mineral

Two bird nests!