Just before dropping Jack off at soccer practice, he said to me, “Mama, I know who the best artist is in the world.”  I asked him, “Who?”  “Mother Earth,” he replied.  “Think about it ~ every tree, every branch.  Each one is like no other.”  “Did you learn this at school?” I asked.  “No, I just thought it up right now” he replied.  Yesterday I had to stop in my tracks.  The leaves were slowly falling off the Black Walnut in the back garden.  Pretty soon it will be bare again.  So much to savor.

The dogs were delighted to have a quiet moment, too.  My most loyal and best friends.

 

Here now

The boys are growing up quickly.  As Landen’s friends have started to loose their teeth, I noticed a bit of envy on his part that he hadn’t lost any.  He is 6.  Last night he asked me what was inside his mouth.   I peeked in to find a tooth coming in behind the baby ones.  He’s excited, but also scared.  As I tucked him into bed, he told me he didn’t want to go to first grade.  “There are things I need to tell my friends and teachers.  I’m not ready for first grade!”  I suggested we contact his teachers and maybe see them (one has two sons born the same week! as both of our kids).  It was bittersweet.

Jack overheard my conversation with Landen and said to me “I’m going to be in 5th grade in the Fall, Mama!  Fifth grade!  It seems like yesterday I was in first grade!”

We felt Landen was ready for a different kindergarten experience.  He had gone to our favorite teacher Steve for 2 years, Jack had gone for 3.  The time felt right for a change.  As much as we loved our homeschooling year, I began to feel that Jack would do better in a group setting with other kids on a regular basis, in school.  It was a hard decision and he didn’t want to stop.   Landen has begged to home-schooled in third grade when the time comes.

But returning to school turned out to be a great decision.   They attended Orchard School in Aptos.  Our family went through a rough summer while I tried to figure out a way for us to move back to the Northwest, where my family lives.  When talk came up over possibly moving, the boys were ok to leave, but they confessed they’d mostly miss their school.

It turns out that we are not moving after all.  We are still working out the kinks, but the idea is for us to have easy access to family and friends up North.  And the dream is to create some sort of *home* away from home that we can go to during the summer and / or winter time for vacations as the kids grow up.  This time of childhood is so fast, we want to savor as much as we can.  And so it feels that the best place for our family to live is here now.

 

Old drafts

Here are a few entries, which never got published.  Sorry if they are a bit disjointed.

Time in the playroom was always time well spent.

The garden got planted with 18 tomatoes this spring.  Boy, did we not know what we were in for!

We got some wonderful green beans, peppers and sunflowers from the *new* garden plot.

Work in the basement continued …

In the meantime, it made for great roller blade practice.

Any trip to Santa Cruz is not complete without a trip to Wilder Ranch.  Jack got to spend every Thursday here all year long during his Riekes Program.

Here the kids were playing hide and seek.  Can’t beat that classroom.

Little brother found a snake !

And an old snakeskin trophy was found in the wood of an old building.

This was the handmade paper the boys made.  Jack used his new calligraphy pen to write a thank you to Nana.

He finished up his poetry book by binding the papers together.

A sweet cornhusk sail the kids made gave this little boat life again.