Home-school Year Begun (and dealing with Expectations vs. Reality)

I started this post after our first week of school.  2013 school photos.

But, didn't write any of my thoughts.   

Thoughts about the year starting off shaky, 

with the expectations we all had about the school year 

colliding with the reality of each day.

But, on a similar note, my expectation of actually sitting down 

and writing out those thoughts didn't quite come in line with the reality.  

The reality that I never did that.

But, here are the photos of the kids, first day of school.

Home * September * 2013 

Kendall.  2 1/2 years old

Moira.  4 years old

Peyton. 5 years old

Gillian.  Almost 7 at this point

Anyway.  So.  There is the record of our school year beginning.  

With thoughts in my mind, but not much written.

So be it.

For the Birds.

I've sort of fallen off the bloggy truck, I guess.
Sometimes I blog in my head.  But, not usually.  Not now days.
These days, the writing isn't flowing too strong.  In my mind or my fingers.
But, even during this down time of the blog, 
I get really encouraging comments like this one - 
"May I simply just say what a comfort to discover an individual 
who really knows what they 
are discussing online. You definitely realize how to bring a 
problem to light and make it important. A lot more people should read 
this and understand this side of the story. 

It's surprising you're not more popular because you definitely possess the gift."

Really?  Thank you, Anonymous!  I feel so motivated.  But, not enough to click on your virility link.

Thank you, though, for your thoughts.

Oh well.  
These days are spent with these hanging around with my kids, of course.  
And sometimes its hard to hear myself think, for all the noise.
Thoughtful writing, not so much.

Speaking of them, I made them hard boiled eggs yesterday and this was overheard, as they peeled - 

Moira (excitedly) - "Can you imagine that mommy was actually cooking baby chicks?!"

Gillian (in gagging disgust) "Mo!  I was trying to be brave to even try this egg and now you are making it even more embarrassing to eat it.  Stop!"

Just funny.  They are funny.

Our yard is in remodel stage.  
Many newish plants that are mainly for the purpose of attracting hummingbirds.
New planters built and and now prep for a new lawn.
My crew works even in surprise rain (on Memorial day!)

Speaking of Memorial day, we had a good weekend of adventures, 

glad for the kick start of summer.

We went to the beach and to the redwoods.  No surprise.  That's where we live.

Big Basin

Lover's Point Pacific Grove

We had another adventure that weekend.  
We collected critters to bring home as pets.  
We now have 5 Parakeets in our dining room.

Yes.  And, I actually love them.
My general philosophy is that animals should not be brought in to a home to live with people.
That is just not my way.  
Not really my actual way, as in the way I live.  
I've had dogs in my house for years.  
But, it is my way, as in, the ideals I personally hold.
Anyway.  Whatever.  We have birds in our house and I love them.
We all do.

And yes.  They are messy and noisy.  
It's okay.  It's like I'm nesting.
I'm a mother bird.  I clean up seed hulls and bird poop with joy.
I even have been sewing for the birds.  I lovely cage cover.
One thing I am concerned about...  Yesterday a bird flew into our house.  
As in, an outside bird.  One which we did not buy at a pet store.  
She just came in.
I was freaking out.  It was hard to get her out.  She kept going for the window in my kitchen.
I only have two doors to the outside.  And they aren't huge.  
What in the world?  Why did she choose to come in?  Did it have to do with Parakeets?
Is that a thing?  Do birds respond to calls from over types of birds?
Just strange.  I was all jumpy and screamy trying to get that thing out.
No wild birds in my house, please!

My guy and I are having a stay at home date tonight.  It's going to be cheesy.
As in, we are going to eat cheese.  
But, also cheesy in the sense that I think we might sit by the bird cage and admire.
That might be fun and sweet.
And, I also downloaded a new album for us to listen to.
Away We Go soundtrack.  Because we love the movie.  And we love the music.
So, I went to iTunes and put it on my computer. 
That sounds easy, right?
Wrong.  It took me about a week to figure out how to use iTunes.
I'm too old for Apple products.  They just don't work for me.
My brain is not wired for it, I suppose.
And that's okay with me.

I'll try to share more news from around here soon.
If I make it back on the blog more often than monthly.
If not, I guess that's okay.  You'll just be really missing out on all this glamour.

Not Quite What you Thought, but Still Good.

My husband had some good plans for me today.
He was going to take us all to one of my favorite places (Ashland, OR)
Then he had an awful fever-filled sleepless night.
We woke up and he went back to bed.
Sick day.
Me in p.j's until noon, when he woke up again & I grabbed a shower.
Not quite what we had imagined.

Instead, gifts from the kids; rocks & flower jars.

Gillian weaves me a daffodil hair wreath.
The 4 children explore the hillside at our sometimes place of residence in Butte Valley.
I sit on the deck in the shade with a cup of tea,
reading the beautiful "Bread & Wine: a love letter to life around the table".
Through the screen door I listen to The Bells of Santa Ynez
playing on a massive record player.
A big, black beetle repeatedly dives at my head,
which is dressed in the a fore mentioned daffodil.
Ants an inch long, thick and juicy looking crawl across the deck boards.
I give the exploring children a serious scolding for some bad choices.
I get kinda mad.
They all have to stay near by now and stay on the lawn.
They chase fence lizards.
I go back to reading.
It's getting hot.  The Daddy wakes up, we move the party indoors.

Now I have my baby, who is not quite a baby anymore, napping on my lap;
totally.passed.out. & peaceful.

Until then she woke up, sweaty and mad.
Water is nice for her, until she decides to slip some of it on me, and some slips on her, too.
Mad again.
Chocolate cookie is nice for her, until she finishes it and has melted chocolate on her hand.
Mad again.
She comes back to my lap and see this photo of her & smiles.
Peace again.

My sick husband is back in bed sleeping.
The kids smile over cereal for dinner and I sit down with leftovers and a beer.

Ins't this just like mothering, (and really like life in general)?
Things don't go the way we expected.  Then we can look and see the good that is there.
We can be grateful for, enjoy it in the right then.
The good we just saw may pass or change, and then we can look for more good,
and grab on and be grateful again.
Around and around it goes.  Moments.  Opportunities.  Changes.
The good and the bad all mushed up together in this life.
I do love it.
Happy Mother's Day!

Palm Springs with a bunch of Little Kids

We took a great family vacation to Palm Springs this spring.

Mom and Dad had fun and all the kids had fun.  

I know the line -

"There is no such thing as a vacation with young kids; just take family trips."  

While it is true that is was not pure relaxation all the time, 

we still felt like it was a great break and vacation for all of us.

It was a vacation and an adventure trip, all rolled into one.  

It did seem as if we were the only family in the canyon.

That was weird.  But, it still didn't feel anti-kid.  

Palm Springs with a bunch of little kids is a thing that really can work well.

We loved starting the morning with a walk to Koffi Coffee.  

We grabbed fantastic take out at the local Woody's Burgers.

We sat down to eat enchiladas at La Perlita Mexican food.  

The kids still talk about the salsa there.  Lappert's Ice Cream was a tasty 

and eccentric parlor.  

The owner plays chess with buddies in the front, 

and pauses the game to scope ice cream.

Some super good (and high priced) pizza was from Bill's Pizza

We also had a terrible breakfast, but I won't link them here.... 

(Elmer's, I should've known).

It was a super awesome experience for all of us at the Living Desert Garden & Zoo.

We loved it all.  

This garden park is in Palm Desert, towards the south end of the canyon.  

The drive through the neighborhoods to get to the park was pretty fun, 

checking out the mid-century modern styles.

And the Giraffe Feeding!  We didn't have to wait in a line or push through a crowd.
We just walked over and got invited to help feed.  That was sweet!

The plants were amazing, especially the cactus and agave.

We surprised the kids with the trip on the Aerial Tram up to the snow in San Jacinto park.

They were shocked that we got to have a snow adventure on our desert vacation.

This was a first for them and a big dream come true.

The snow was sparse and icy.  But, they didn't mind.  

It was incredible how cold it was up there, compared to the canyon floor.  Brrr....

I wore my flip flops.  That was a bad idea.

This snow guy was found by the kids, not made by them.  

We did manage a snowball fight, though.

The Air Museum of Flying was super cool for us.  

It's small and was a quick afternoon outing.

But, we all enjoyed it.    

Peyton was so cute pushing Kendall around.
Kendall was absolutely in love with the little umbrella stroller.
When I bought my ticket from the front desk,
the sweet old man told me to wait right there,
because he had a carriage for me.  I didn't know quite what I was waiting for.
Ah.  Yes.  Of course, a stroller.
(Would you believe we went on vacation with all the littles,
without even thinking to bring a stroller?)

We were happy at with our stay at 7 Springs Inn & Suites.  We got a two story suite.  

The kids got their own room, and so did we.

We all slept well here.  And enjoyed the daily swims, too.

We think Palm Springs is a great get away for parents and kids.

Some of What has been Happening

I haven't been on here for so long.  It wasn't planned.  Things just happened.  One of which was having no internet connection for 3 weeks.  Many of the other things are now forgotten by me.  We did a lot of normal stuff, just hanging out, being our family.

But, stuff happened, and somehow it meant that I didn't blog for 6 weeks.
Some of the happenings would be -

Um.  During this period my son turned 5 years old!  Peyton is such a cool five year old.  

And we had a great birthday celebration. 

His wish was to go to Golf Land for his birthday.  

We drove over to Sunnyvale, to my childhood neighborhood. 

My parents and siblings and the cousins met us there.

We went to Inside N Out for the birthday request of cheeseburgers afterward.  

Look at this crew!

It was a super fun day.

A few days later was his actual birthday and we had a simple family celebration at home.

Peyton really is such a sweet, crazy, fun guy.  

It would be hard not to love him!

his eyes are super sensitive to bright.  so, it is a hard thing to look at all.those.candles.

His dad's panicked enthusiasm is distracting.  he has to push his cheeks down to keep from laughing.

We also had Hummingbird Days up at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.
Scott was a volunteer guide for the weekend.
The event was super fun for the whole family & Scott loved being part of the guided walks.

We went on a little last minute planned vacation to Palm Springs.  So, that was awesome.

It was a perfect vacation.  (Even though it involved some whining children, some parents coercing children to stay quite in a hotel room and an awful breakfast at Elmer's.)

It turned out that Palm Springs wasn't really a typical family vacation spot.

We may have had only one parent/child spotting, while in Palm Springs.

Any other children seen appeared to be with Grandparents.

And yet, we found it to be a fabulous vacation spot for our family.

I'll post separately about our favorite spots for a kid-friendly vacation in Palm Canyon.

I "ran" in my first race - the "pinkest" race.

Here is our running team, only part of the gals in my family made it to the race.  
But all these gals crossed the finish line.  

We had a blast.  This is us post race.  The real deal.

I took the kids on a little farm tour school field trip at Wilder Ranch.  

We love this state park!  

I want to go back for their next event, April 27th, Sheep Shearing!

Also, during this time, the daddy was traveling overseas for a couple weeks for work.
He went to Amsterdam, South Africa, Kenya, Spain and Morocco!

Sevilla, Spain

Morocco

Morocco

Then my husband came home and it was sweet and we celebrated Easter.
(and didn't get any great pictures)

And now he has finally adjusted to our time zone.
That is something we are all glad about!