Thanksgiving

Thanks Dylan, for the oysters. I tried a shooter this year. A raw oyster with cocktail sauce and horseradish - it was really good!

Thank Seth, - for showing us how to get rid a shooter you've suddenly decided you don't want! And for your amazing garlic mashed potatoes.

Thanks Grandmere, for hosting! The kids love the trampoline.

Thanks Jim, for finding a great new car for us, we all love it.

Thanks Jesse and Grandmere, for the beautiful pies! And Thanks Mom, for the mince pie, I tried it for the first time this year. It's my new favorite pie, mmmmmmm.

Thanks Harvest, for all your kisses and loves.

Thanks Daddy, for your attention.

Thanks Clifford, for carving!

Thanks Nate, for reminding me of all the time I spent carrying your around as a baby, and loving your soft skin.

Thanks, for cousins.

Thanks for the lovely dinner...

And for second helpings.

Thanks Toni, for the tasty persimmons.

Thanks Barb and Jason, for showing up with Junah - Maggy's buddy.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. The leftovers are fabulous. As usual, the pictures tell the story better than I do. We all enjoyed Maggy's first Thanksgiving with her!

Sould Have Gone to McDonalds After All

Last night while running errands after I got off work, we decided to grab something to eat. Fletch, as usual, wanted McDonalds. I, as usual, did not. We went with Applebees.
I ended up with food poisoning!
Not fun at all.

Today...

was my first day at work.
Here are the highlights since I'm too tired to write much:

I was teary a bit all day.
The kids in my class are too cute for words.
I missed Maggy so much.
Pumping sucks.
Running around after 13 kids is more work than two.
I missed Fletch and Jim, conversations, laughter, and hugs.
I feel grateful for the job.
I'm glad my sister is my boss.
I love being at home.
I missed Maggy, missed cuddling all day, and nursing her whenever she wanted.
Maggy did great.
Fletcher was a huge help to Jim.
Two minutes after I left in the morning Maggy's poop and pee ran out of her diaper all over the floor.
Then Fletch spilled his hot chocolate.
Then Jim decided he should go back to work.
Then they settled in and did just fine.
It felt so good to hold Maggy on my lunch break.
We're going to make it.

Maggy In Pictures

The Boys Are Gone

Jim and Fletch left at 10 am this morning for Stanford for an appointment with Jim's doctor. Tonight they are staying over with Kathy in San Jose.

This is Fletcher's first night away without me! I'm still thinking I could wake in the middle of the night to them walking in the door. I'll be so happy when I wake in the morning and realize he did it. I'm so excited for him.

After Jim's appointment they had some time before Kathy would be home, so, they headed to San Fransisco and China Town!

Pictures and more to follow when the boys come back......

Thanks to the Computer Gods....

We did not loose everything when our computer crashed! Really, I need to say thanks to the computer guy we hired, whose name I do not know, He retrieved everything, except old emails and our internet bookmarks.

All we really cared about by the time we finally called him were the pictures. I can't imagine loosing all of them. I don't have to now.

So, a few to share:


Our two Cangzhen Monks



The Scary Jack-O-Lanterns, which I had to carve all by my
lonesome. Jim is not fond of carving, and when Fletch took
one look inside at the "guts" he was DONE. They drew the
faces and I did the carving.

Janie's Gift

I just thought I (or rather my kids) would show you what I made for Janie:

A Cape! Thanks Fletcher for the action shots!

Kindergarten

Fletch has been in "school" for just about a month now. I can't believe I haven't posted about it at all! It's been an experience for our whole family.
We signed up with an homeschooling, charter resource school: Family Partnership.

I lean more towards wanting to unschool Fletch, what I really mean to say is I believe in unschooling. And that is what I would have chosen to do with Fletch and eventually Maggy if it were all up to me, which it is not. While Jim likes the idea behind unschooling, he sometimes views it more as unparenting. He really need more structure and teaching to happen in our homeschooling world. So we signed up.

It's been a bumpy ride already, some stuff we love: field trips, enrichment classes, free curriculum. Some we don't: star testing, weekly homework (for lack of a better word) chart to fill out, worksheets (yuck).

What it's really turned into though is our own form of unschooling while using what we like from Family Partnership. It feels like a good compromise.

Jim found out he loves to read with Fletch. They have read the first four books in the Five Ancestors series and started over again at the beginning while waiting for the fifth to be written.
Jim never enjoyed reading, except magazines and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Saturday, at the library he got a novel, Dearly Devoted Dexter (the books the show is based on) to read for himself!
He also found out that filling in the weekly "homework" chart makes him a bit crazy, so I do it.

I found out, everything doesn't have to be done my way in order for it to work out. Hard lesson to learn. And I'm not really sure I can say I've learned it, but and constantly learning it.

Meanwhile, Fletcher is happy with homeschooling. He doesn't ask to go to school like his cousins and some of his friends do. He proudly tells strangers who always seem to ask about school that his school is at home. And a surprising number of those strangers says, "you are so lucky."

So, a few pictures, with many more to come:

Last weeks field trip to the Morro Bay Nature Learning Center:
(who says homeschoolers don't know how to raise their hands, stand in line, or wait their turn!)

Fletch, sharing his tooth spacer with everyone.

enamored with the big boys.

Fletcher's own water experiment. Notice he donned a jacket, because the bucket doesn't always go fast enough to keep in the water in it!



The praying mantis we found on our window and took in for a day to study - thanks to our public library for the great books!

then we released him

I'm not sure Fletcher won't want to go to school-school some day. Maybe even tomorrow he'll change his mind. I hope not, but I'm keeping an open mind - so is Jim, and I think thats what matters most. We're all in this together.