A Zoo for Trees

That's how my folks described the National Arboretum when we passed it on one of our trips to DC when I was a kid. Now that I live a possible 17 minutes from it (traffic makes a difference), I call it a Beauty Refuge. I don't mean "beauty" as in painting your toenails unnatural colors (that's for Girls' Night), I mean "Beauty" as in "Late have I loved you, ancient Beauty, ever new."

Aquinas tells us that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are all different words describing the same thing: God, the ultimate Beauty, the ultimate Truth, the ultimate Goodness. I had a hard time with that, Dominican though I am. Still, as I go on, it makes more and more sense. In the lab, we referred to the beauty of a discovery as "elegant." You knew you had the true answer if it was "elegant," even if the person describing it had no belief in God. It's funny: even if you deny God, you can't deny the astonishing beauty of His handiwork. It bears His mark and points to infinity - the more you look the more you see.

I live in what is technically a small town, but functionally a subdivision of suburbia. A maze of streets stuffed with houses, almost all of them red brick with white trim. Four stop signs on every corner. It's not a bad place. I bloom where I am planted and I plant where I am planted! Still, part of my heart longs for open spaces, broad views, and expanses of natural beauty which I do not have to weed or mow.

So, once a week in good weather, we pack our art kits and some lunch and head off to the Arboretum. I would say we've been there maybe 30 times, probably more. We still haven't seen the whole thing. We see new things almost every time we go, although we revisit our favorites often. The kids run and play and draw and soak up the beauty til it shines out their eyes. I walk with the Lord and play with the kids and return refreshed, my eyes retrained to see beauty wherever I am.

If you're curious, the picture is Leena in the older part of the Asian garden.

Do Not Call Expiring

Did you know that if you signed up as a phone-solicitor-free-zone when the Do Not Call Registry first started, your registration will expire next June? It only lasts for 5 years. Can it really be 5 years since someone tried to sell me siding during dinner? At any rate, you can re register here.

When Scouts Night and Girls Night Collide

The boys left a little later, the girls started dancing a little earlier... Fun!

Part of Girls' Night is dancing, tea in the fancy cups, and make up of the most outrageous variety. Mxyl asked what the purple goo was for. Klenda explained that it was lip gloss, you know, to put on your lips to make them pretty. Mxyl had to make sure: To be pretty, you paint your lips purple? Uh huh.

Number Playground

With the weather cooling off, we are back to using the blackboard. 30' X 10' and walkable, what's not to like?


Here it is set up as a multi purpose number playground. You may need to click on the picture to see it. If you leap from star to star, you could learn your 7 times tables and catch a departing rocket. If you prefer lily pads, you can hop to your 6 times tables. 5s are on the coins (you have to jump with 2 feet). And 4s are in l'escargot, a French version of hopscotch (hopped on 1 foot, sil vous plait!).

On the side (and hard to see), we have the indispensable number line. Great for adding, subtracting, literal skip counting, and figuring out factors and primes. On a beautiful day, I often think we could home school with nothing but sidewalk chalk, the driveway and a library card!

Note to Oob

My dear, sweet Oob: I love you! You are the sweetest dearest baby possible. You are lovely and delightful. You point to where you came from (God).

But.

You may not stay up past 10 PM.

If you stay up past 10, you may not get up before 5 AM.

If you stay up past 10, and get up before 5 AM with 2 extra wake ups in the middle, please do not look extra cute and perky.

Thank you.
The Management

Home School: It's a Zoo

Yes! I actually took all 6 kids to the zoo by myself and no one got lost! After a week of various animal studies, we had a lovely day at the National Zoo.

Choclo discovered his favorite animal: the giant elephant shrew. Shrieks of laughter as this little fellow darted here and there wiggling his nose (I meant the shrew, although maybe it was a kindred spirit thing. After his first two bouts of darting here and there wrinkling his nose and laughing maniacally, Choclo was confined to stroller quarters for the rest of the zoo). Anyway, it's giant for a shrew, but it's only 8 inches long not counting the tail.

Mxyl saw 2 Orang utans walking on ropes overhead and a tribe of free ranging golden lion tamarins (little monkeys).

Klenda loved the underwater sea lions, the Prezewcki's horses and the maned wolves (the kangaroos were hiding).

Zorg got to see a young tiger walking around and 2 lionesses playing in the water.

Leena liked the elephant training session and the waterfall with turtles.

I got to nurse my small mammal (Oob) in the small mammal house. It's what mammals do.

The best part, for me, was that I had gotten the art kits together in time: each kid got a spiral- bound hard-backed book of drawing paper (probably 6 by 8 inches) and a case of colored pencils. There is something magical about the shift from casual viewing to really seeing that happens when you try to draw something. Plus, all the lovely pictures made great souvenirs and visual aids to explain the day to the Emporer.

Additional home school points: We talked about all the places the animals came from and learned all the countries in Asia which have elephants. We read all the signs and maps (they have lots of interactive exhibits). We memorized the 4 times table (how many legs on 6 Komodo Dragons?). We built muscles pushing the double stroller up the big hill (the entire zoo is built on one big hill! My advice, if you go there: park at the bottom and walk uphill in the cool fresh part of the day, down hill in the hot and cranky part of the day!).

Jailbird

We've always liked having at least one striped baby suit so that when they get the BIG N (for Never Napping, thank you Mr. Sendak), we can put them in a jailbird suit. Oob is a mighty cute jail bird.

Fashionistas of Zoom

ng r
On a positive note, the Dreaded Clothes Switch does bring out the fashionistas. Klenda is modeling her self designed "Cute Suit." Even more stunning in person, I assure you.

Zorg is reading in his own fashion statement.

Behind her you can see a faux tiger skin nailed to our living room wall. What you are missing is the faux lion skin nailed abpve it and the 2 faux marble columns on either side of the couch.

The Emporer assures me that some wives would be displeased if they came home and their husband had nailed faux animal skins on the wall. True, he doesn't usually take such an active hand in our interior decorating, but he fashioned the best possible back drop to our play about Croesus and Solon.

No stuffed animals were harmed in the making of this play.

My Favorite Chore to Dread

Alas, all the little Zoomlians were shivering in their shorts. It was time for the Dreaded Clothing Switch (that would be "switch" as in a hazel stick across the back of your legs).

Time to measure all the Zoomlians, to discover they are, er, zooming up by 1 1/2" - 2" each in the last 6 months. Time to figure out sizes and haul out the clothing bins.

I keep all the kids clothes (well, not the ones in current use) in about 30 of the 18 gallon Rubbermaid bins stacked in a row in the back basement. They sit across from the row of comic book boxes, eying each other to see which will ultimately win out and dominate the entire back basement -Bwahaha! I think the clothes may be winning, since I also have a number of odd garbage bags of clothes here and there, too.

The bins are much better than the cardboard box system I had used and much better than when all the clothes were in odd garbage bags (frequently with several sizes and genders in one bag). I really really TRY not to do that anymore since that way lies madness. I'm not sure how it keeps happening...

Anyway, today is my day of triumph since I have 6 dressers full of clean, usable, seasonable clothes. This will be followed by a night of anguish as I try to put everything away in the correct bins and get them all back to their neat row.

All this is not what I dread (much). What I dread is putting away the baby clothes. Can Oob really be in 6-9 months already? And Leena's clothes are worse! She will be too big for these next summer. I may never be given another little girl to wear them... At least with Mxyl I know Zorg will look great in them soon. Or Choclo. I have a hard time picturing Oob in Mxyl's clothes.

I have 6 kids. How many people get to have 6 of them? 6 babies to hold and snuggle and nurse. 6 first smiles and first belly laughs. 5 first steps and first words and first knock knock jokes. 4 first words read, first day really and truly potty trained, first writing their names. It goes on and on, opening into ever wider worlds of first robots built, first bikes and kites and trains. Ever wider, ever farther, all and each a bittersweet gift of God.

It seems trite: They're getting so big. The time goes so fast. I remember yesterday when they each were so small. Gee, you have your hands full. But it's all true and I am thanking God for every moment here and now with my hands and my heart full.

Mxyl

I am Mxyl. I think this planet is pretty weird but I like your technology. I like to make useful gadgets like robots.

On Zoom I had a spacecraft that was so fast it could vanish into thin air. It looked like a flying saucer.

I like Earth because I love exploring new places. I love to visit Google Earth to explore.


Earth is fun!