Oob Says More

Oob: I washed my hair!
 (meaning I put water on it so it sticks up)

Because it's Monday!

Oob: Can I have mayonnaise on my toast?

Me: Sure, honey, if you like.

Oob (clutching the jar to his heart): Mayonnaise!!  It's so...precious!!!


Another day.

Oob: Mom, is running around like a crazy person good exercise for you?

Me: Ummmm.  Probably.

Oob: Will you run around like a crazy person with me??

(Judging from how tired it made me, yes, it was very good exercise.)

UPDATE: Extra Bonus Fun from Choclo!

Me: Would you like to watch Curious George 2?

Choclo: Oh, yes!  (dreamily) George is so...glorious.

FURTHER UPDATE:
At pajama time this evening, reported by Mxyl

Oob: Oh, heavens!  Why did I ever join the footsie team?

Poem of the Week

Our home school co-op had a day where kids could do presentations, if they liked.  Klenda presented a particularly creepy rendition of this poem...

HT: Bartleby

Edgar Allan Poe. 1809–1849

84. The Raven

ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'T is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;	5
Only this and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore,	10
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore:
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating	15
"'T is some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door:
This it is and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;	20
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"—here I opened wide the door:—
Darkness there and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,	25
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore:"
Merely this and nothing more.	30
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore;
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore:	35
'T is the wind and nothing more."
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door,	40
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door:
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,—
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,	45
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore:
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;	50
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only	55
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered, not a feather then he fluttered,
Till I scarcely more than muttered,—"Other friends have flown before;
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."	60
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore:
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore	65
Of 'Never—nevermore.'
But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore,	70
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining	75
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.	80
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!"
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!	85
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore:
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."	90
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us, by that God we both adore,
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore:
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore!"	95
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting:
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! quit the bust above my door!	100
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,	105
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor:
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Seven Quick Takes Friday: Clearing out the Camera Edition

 1. What is it with Oob and dressing up?  He told me he had a special costume...and he did! 

If you're curious, he's wearing my maternity sweatpants that my Mom made for me before he was born.

The bizarre short "sleeves" are the pockets!

Oh, and he's got Mxyl's hat on, too, the one my Dad gave him.



2. Fun easy craft project with virtually no preparation?   We love it!

Just turn the kids loose with a stack of small post it notes and some walls.

This time we got a cat (from Klenda), a cross (from Zorg) and a fancy crown for a smiling Jesus (from Choclo).

 They do start falling off the walls after a day or so, but that's still a pretty easy clean up.


3.  It's fall!  Actual, honest to goodness, leaf turning autumn!

Fall is one of my favorite seasons here because we are far enough north to get color in the trees, and far enough south to have weeks of sunny weather in the 70s (low 20s C).

Because we only start getting the cool weather and changing trees in October, I always feel like the back to school "fall" stuff (the schools here start in mid-August) is a cruel joke. But now... it's just lovely weather for a walk to the lake!

Klenda buying popcorn from Mxyl and Zorg

 4. It was Family Fun Night at our local parish.

Wheeee!

Little train-like ride

This involved Mxyl and Zorg selling popcorn for the scouts, and the rest of the Zoomlians playing games and riding on bouncy rides.

 5. At home, Choclo has been building increasingly elaborate Rube Goldberg machines in an epic mash up of his Angry Birds and Dominoes obsessions.

It's great!  It's fun!  It's kind of hard to get into my bedroom...


6.  Meanwhile, outside, Zorg has been working on his obstacle course.

It involves both slack lines, the badminton net, climbing up the tree, and rappelling down, and he can do the whole thing in 90 seconds!

7. The Emperor was cleaning out the back basement (Wahoo!!!), and he came across his old briefcase.  He thought, with its nifty combination locks, it might appeal to Zorg.

Well, yes.

And now my home school has taken a sudden left turn towards formal (but cool).

Have a great weekend!  More fun with Jen!

For All the Frog Fans (and Parents of Frog Fans)

 Or, if you need proof for your portfolio, you can right click, save the picture and print it on your computer.

 If you're curious, we're half way through the frog dissection.

We've completed the worm, crayfish, grasshopper, clam, starfish, and fish.

 After the frog, we'll be doing some individual animal organs: a brain, eye, heart, and kidney.

And, as a grand finale, we'll finish up with three weeks on the fetal pig!

And then my office won't smell like formaldehyde! :)










I think I'll miss doing the dissections, though.  We've all really enjoyed the process (can you tell?) and we are learning an amazing amount!

Happy Birthday to the Emperor!

 Surprise!

We celebrated the Emperor's birthday last week!

We celebrated with friends, family, lots of silly presents, a dinner out at a really nice restaurant, a viewing of the new SHIELD show, and a pear upside down cake.

And anatomy notes, evidently...

Thank you, my dear Emperor, for enjoying this wild and crazy ride.
 I'm very happy to be riding along with you!

Natural History

The sculpture garden with the museum in the background

 Last week we made it to Natural History -one of my favorite museums!  Since we would only be there one week, we split up so that everyone could see what they were most curious about that day.

Mxyl, Klenda and Zorg went off to see the gems and minerals, and Leena, Choclo, Oob and I started with the mammals.

I have to admit, this part of the museum always make me think "dead zoo."

Still, you can see all the animals up close, including ones that would not do well in our climate.  Here we are with a pangolin.  We love pangolins, but have never seen a live one.

Look at the toes!

We also saw Zorg's favorite animal, a tapir. Unfortunately, this one is fully grown.  The babies look like watermelons with legs!

The closest live tapir that we've been able to find is in a zoo in South Carolina, although it's unclear if it's still there. 
If not, they have them in San Diego, 3000 miles from us. At that point it may be easier to visit Central America!

We also spent a lot of time in their Australian exhibit (thinking of Sue and Vicky!)  Leena's favorite place she wants to visit is Australia. 

penguins!

We all met together in Ocean Hall to visit my favorite animal, the giant squid (as well as all the other marine life).  To my surprise, they had an Adelie penguin there (stuffed, alas). 

Choclo and Oob are both penguin crazy - here I've told them, "Look like penguins!"

It was a lovely visit, and I'm glad we made it before the government shutdown which will close all the museums for an indeterminate amount of time.  I'm just glad that this week we are going apple and pumpkin picking at a farm not owned by the government!

American History

We started off Adventurers with two weeks at the American History Museum!  

We ended up seeing only two of the three floors, in part because some new exhibits had opened up.

There was a very large exhibit on the history of commercial sailing.  I love model ships!

The space dovetailed with their (even larger) transportation exhibit. 

The exhibits are designed to be interactive, so Leena is listening to this statue (in a train station) talk about life as a traveling salesman. You press buttons to hear him talk about different subjects.  There are also lots of boxes and containers to peek into as you see what was being transported when.


Then you get to climb on an MTA subway.  It gives a very good imitation of moving along in the late 1950s/early 60s, while one wall is a movie of riders getting on and off and chatting amongst themselves about various issues.

The exhibit goes from the earliest trains to modern container ships, and includes a 1970s traffic jam!

On the way out, we stopped in on the exhibit showing early forms of generators - very steam punk!

The other week we looked at the Star Spangled Banner, and the military history exhibit which takes up almost the entire top floor.

Poem of the Week

The Apple Tree
(excerpt)

It's the fall, the unfallen apples
hold their brightness
a little longer into the blue air, hold the idea
that they can be brighter.

by Galway Kinnell

HT: Scholarworks (where you can read the whole poem)

We are going apple picking later this week, and that always reminds me of this poem!

Garden, Ahoy!

Before

About that mulch pile...  Back in June I had mentioned that I needed to renovate my big garden.

I have been working on it in my mind this summer, and this month I finally started actually working on it.

8 bins of weeds, 3 yards of mulch, 300 bulbs, dozens of new and transplanted shrubs, trees, and plants, and countless hours later...

After

I'm mostly done!

I still need to work on the path in the center, and I will prune the fruit trees over the winter, but the hard work is done, and at the best time of year for the garden to get a good start.

It's a mixed shade garden with lots of flowering shrubs, grasses, ferns, flowers, herbs, and hostas, as well as a few trees for height.



My gardens always surprise me with what works (and doesn't!), but I'm reasonably confident that this garden will be really beautiful this spring, and grow more beautiful each year.

Planting a garden is always an act of hope!

Talking Like Pirates

 Arrrr!  We did talk like pirates, matey!

Here we have Klenda threatening a nervous Leena.

Leena actually made a pretty winsome damsel in distress!

We had a good time doing map work and other piratey printouts in our Talk Like a Pirate Packets.

I think the favorite was the Pirate Mad Libs.

 Klenda helped with costuming.  She made hats and eye patches, as well as face paint scars.  The scars were realistic enough to alarm some adults!

But, of course, the favorite part of the day was the treasure hunt!

This time they really had to dig for it - in the mulch pile! 

I had buried it very shallowly, but I hadn't counted on the people on the pile shifting the mulch so much.  They actually had to dig quite a bit.  But it was worth it - licorice whips filled with sour candy- mmmm!

It was so much fun that the Zoomlians set up a second treasure hunt for their friends in the Anatomy class!