Twice tagged

Busy holidays! I'm sure there are lots of photos to share but I haven't found the time to even look at them. We've been gearing up for another farm season and trying to finish the shop.

For now, I must oblige two bloggers who have recently tagged me! Katy wants me to write 8 things about myself that others don't know, and Diana tagged me with the Archive Meme.


First for the 8 things. This is hard because I already did 6 things last year. Let's see:

1. When I worked in the reptile house at the zoo, it was all I could do not to stick my hand into the rattlesnake cage *just because I could*. I'd stand there with the cage open and think "I could just stick my hand in there...." I wasn't suicidal or anything--it was just glaringly obvious how easy it would be to do it. You know, kind of like when you are at the symphony and it's a really slow quiet part and you realize how you could just yell out "SUCK IT" or something equally inappropriate.

2. I used to race bicycles (road--I'm way too tall for mountain biking).

3. I can spin and jump on ice skates.

4. I have a bicornuate uterus. That means it is heart-shaped with a deep septum. Both of my babies grew in the left side of the heart. Marmosets and tamarins (small New World primates) also have bicornuate uteri. They usually give birth to twins, carrying one in each side.

5. I've never seen the movie Gone With the Wind. (ducking and running....)

6. As a kid I used to do those logic problems like they have in the GRE for fun.

An amusement park roller coaster includes five cars, numbered 1 through 5 from front to back. Each car accommodates up to two riders, seated side by side. Six people�Tom, Gwen, Laurie, Mark, Paul and Jack�are riding the coaster at the same time.

* Laurie is sharing a car.
* Mark is not sharing a car and is seated immediately behind an empty car.
* Tom is not sharing a car with either Gwen or Paul.
* Gwen is riding in either the third or fourth car.

Which of the following groups of riders could occupy the second car?
.
(A) Laurie only
(B) Tom and Gwen
(C) Laurie and Mark
(D) Jack and Tom
(E) Jack, Gwen, and Paul

Needless to say I did really well on that section of the GRE.

7. If I sleep on my back I get nightmares.

8. I have a crush on Ewan McGregor (shut up Kevin--not everyone knows this yet!)

And now for the Archive Meme:

1. A link about family. This was a really early post but one of my favorites. I have found out since then that the song I printed there was originally written for Rufus Wainwright.

2. A link about friends just has to be about my local homeschooling tribe. These are women who I know I could call at a moment's notice for anything. In fact, I've done it and they were there. I love you guys!

3. This one is supposed to be about me. I think this one is pretty relevant to what I'm doing now.

4. This one is something I love. I just love watching my kids shine.

5. This one can be about anything I want. Looking back, I just love the story about Hank. I still think about him all the time. Someday I'll get another Aussie.

Thanks Diana and Katy for the tags! I won't tag anyone else with the 8 things, because most everyone I know has already been tagged with this one. But for the Archive Meme, I'm tagging:

Mik & Mac
Kevin
Sylvia (with the hope that she'll post something again soon)
Katy
and Jim


Archive Meme Instructions: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you've written. ... but there is a catch: Link 1 must be about family. Link 2 must be about friends. Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are... what you're all about. Link 4 must be about something you love. Link 5 can be anything you choose. I think this is a great way to circulate some of the great older posts everyone had written, return to a few great places in our memories and also learn a little something about ourselves and each other that we may not know. Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least TWO of the people you tag must be *newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better....and don't forget to read the archive posts and leave comments!

Wow, a whole post with lots of writing and no pictures!

Winter Flamenco Recital

We just had our annual winter recital last weekend. This time I sewed myself two new costumes!

Kevin, Beth, and Emma were kind enough to show up to our dress rehearsal to take some video for me. I have several videos of past performances and I use them to see where I'm in need of improvement, but thanks to Kevin's camera skills this one's good enough to share! Keep in mind that this is intermediate level dancing. It's not meant to be an example of great flamenco dancing (for those of you "aficionados" who find my blog through an internet search and want to make a snarky comment about the quality of the dancing). But for my family and friends who want to see what I'm up to, have at it.

Oh, and Kevin IS allowed to make snarky comments. That's part of our arrangement.

Learning happens

All the time!

Here are some of the kids' experiences within the last week. Mind you, these are only the ones I actually managed to photograph.

Eliza has been very interested in painting recently.



Here she is surfing the web. That's right, at 4 years old she knows how to get to some of her favorite bookmarked websites and how to navigate the sites. She doesn't read yet, but she is recognizing several words that help her navigate around. Note that her Pikachus really enjoy surfing with her.



Both kids have been picking up our various instruments regularly and really enjoy feeling them out and making up their own songs. They also like to accompany Chris while he plays and I sing. (Side note--I have started learning some chords on the guitar too! This inspires the kids to want to learn as well.) Scotty likes the bass and the cello. Eliza likes the piano, and both like the guitars.




I was recently given the wonderful gift of my late grandmother's sewing machine and it turns out that it's a great gift for Scotty too! Who knew there were gears and eccentrics inside? Of course he immediately figured out how it all worked and intuitively knew where I was supposed to oil it (I checked the manual--he was right!)





Chris has been busy working on the next phase of his shop. Here he and Scotty are building a wood rack so that Chris can move his stacks of lumber out of the shop and into permanent storage-finally!

A bit of winter

We had a light flurry a few weeks ago. It wasn't until Thanksgiving that it even started to get cold here. With our passive solar design we were still reaching 77F inside the house, and we even had to shut the shades a few times to keep from overheating. But now we have settled into a more average weather pattern. It's been freezing at night for some time now and lately the highs have been in the 40's and 50's. More clouds have meant not as much solar gain, which is hard on our PV system and keeps the house on the cool side. But we still haven't needed to light a fire in the woodstove yet (our only source of backup heat). We're hoping to make it till Christmas this year.

Thanks!

Every year we look forward to Marilyn's annual Thanksgiving feast. Marilyn is Chris' mom, and she's also the best cook I have ever known. She is an inspiration because she creates the most amazing food and seems to really love doing it too.

With Barry's very qualified help, they please the eye as well as the palate.




No wonder we all come back every year!

Play till you drop

We have a couple of new families in our homeschooling group! One night last month one of the families came down to the farm for an evening. The kids played together so well and had a great time. They literally just kept going and going until they all passed out. Here's the aftermath:

OK, I give up

Several times I have tried to update my blog and have been interrupted for one reason or another. I wanted to do a Halloween post and some more farm posts, and now it's past Thanksgiving already and I am so hopelessly behind that at this point I'm just going to have to give you some photos, in no particular order, of our lives during the last month. Go ahead and fill in the blanks with your imagination, and if you have any questions please ask in the comments section!

Here are the photos, uploaded in between stints at the sink with the dishes:






New pets




Halloween park day