Spring portraits

It's the colors I wanted to catch, and and the train sweater—I already know there's no catching the years, no way to stop time. The smiles, the action, the heart of the boy, were all extras I was lucky enough to catch. I'm still finding my way around the new camera, which comes with so many more options than the old one that sometimes I miss the shot while I'm figuring out what to do next, but this is user error and the camera can't be blamed. The longer lens has a slower, touchier auto focus that is leaving me a bit frustrated, and the pictures also show darker posted here than they do in my editing program or iPhoto. These things may or may not be user error—that's on my list of things to find out.

Spring green

When I realized that Easter was due to come very, very late this year my first thoughts were of beautiful green grass and warm sunshine, and how wonderful those things would be for photos and egg hunts and general spring enjoyment. The snow that we got just a few days ago made me skeptical, but both yesterday and today dawned warm and bright. The smell of spring is finally in the air, and that beautiful bright green really did add to photos after all.

Actually we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful spring weekend, and late is better than never. We spent yesterday in downtown Ann Arbor at a used book store closing sale (sad), and then in the yard and gardens doing a little clean up. Jon even mowed, and Calvin and I enjoyed the warm afternoon with books on the deck. We dyed eggs the natural way.

And today, the generally accepted day of spring celebration, was a little cooler, but just as pretty. We spent they morning with family, brunching at the old train station and walking around the new afterwards.

We'd made a spring basket for Calvin, filling it with a few of his favorite things, like Legos and books, and we spent the afternoon resting and enjoying those things. I took portraits with the new camera, something that didn't go as well as I might have liked, but it is a learning process. I have to edit the rest of them, but I'll post them tomorrow.

With rain, but relative warmth, on the docket for this week we soaked up as much of this weekend's weather gift as we could. And we are hoping that this week's wet and warmer weather will bring with it an explosion of leaves and flowers. We're ready.

What homeschooling means to us

Propping the encyclopedia open with the crayons while sketching your own volcano, using The Microscope Book as support under your paper. Why not? It's kind of like the kids in the Sideways Stories books who threw the computer out the window to learn about gravity. It really does fall as fast as the pencil, they say, and the book really does work well as a desk. There is a message in there somewhere, but it will take longer than I have right now to type it all out clearly, and besides that I think most everyone will see it for themselves.

It's just that when I came downstairs from folding laundry this morning to find this happening all of its own accord, it was like seeing an illustration of the world I had imagined and sought. And then I laughed, because not only is it wonderful, it's also got its own flavor of humor. Gosh this is fun.

Reminders

We began a new adventure today. We put the middle ages to bed over a week ago (although I only just posted the finishing touch today), and we've been exploring Spain a little, but other than the connection we have to people who are there right now, and Calvin's near obsession with Don Quixote (which really had more to do with knights than with the country), Spain as a subject just isn't imagination grabbing. Then Calvin talked me into a new book yesterday, Dinosaurs Before Dark, and I figured we'd be going further back time. As it turns out, dinosaurs are interesting, and the volcanoes are even more so. We made a special library trip today to pick up armloads of books and a couple of videos on both subjects and he spent most of the afternoon immersed in volcano studies. One of the books he picked out is an earth science experiments book. I can't wait. I've had my vinegar and baking soda stocked up and ready for a while now. Maybe even years.

And today was the first day in well over a week that made me want to get outside. It was even warm enough to sit on the garden swing and read. We discovered that flowers are coming up, the trees are budding, and the deer have been visiting. I'd guess this means they're hard up for food, since we are not right next to the woods and they only rarely come out this far. Thankfully everything we have looks un-nibbled. Don't look too closely at all the weeds and whatnot. They are just those yearly reminders, one of those nagging reminders of work that must, absolutely must get done. At least it is enjoyable work, but unfortunately it requires two hands.

Checking the rain gauge—we got upwards of an inch of rain over the past few days.

And we ventured back out on our neighborhood path today.

And Cookie is thankful that the front door is open once again, but don't try to look through the glass. That's just another of those nagging reminders that surfaces in the spring.

Patience is a difficult virtue

The temperatures climbed all the way into the forties today for the first time in nearly a week, this on the heels of snow, ice, and violent storms, a day each and in quick succession. The weather is being down right weird.

About the word weird, Calvin read a book to me today while we were grocery shopping (this is a fun way to grocery shop, by the way), and in so doing came across the word "weird" which he first asked how to pronounce, and then, before I could answer, said "oh wait, I know that one, that says 'weird.' In this family one just has to know that word." The somewhat elderly lady standing nearby in the squash seemed to find that hilarious. I found it interesting not because he called me weird, but because he was speaking with the sentence structure of Baum's Oz books, but reading to me from A. A. Milne's original Winnie-The-Pooh. I think I prefer it that way around, as opposed to his reading the Oz books with Eeyore-like gloominess or Pooh-like inanity.

I suppose it's a hazard of the hobby. We are, after all, actively reading six books between the two of us, not including the audio book I listen to while running. Calvin is working through the original Winnie-The-Pooh and Dinosaurs Before Dark, and I just started Journey to the End of the Night and The Monk in the Garden, plus the Prose Edda, and I am still reading Oz aloud. Quiet times are a whole new joy now that Calvin is reading so independently.

We're also still traveling through Spain to some extent, and today we got a picture from the actual travelers of a fantastic castle they just visited on the road to Barcelona. Perhaps if we box ourselves carefully enough we can join them?

And my hand is continuing to heal, but what they say about age and healing is true, and the going is slow. It has taken me a half-hour to pick out this post with the working fingers I have, which is why I've stuck to mostly short and sweet as of late, but I've missed writing, so here I am. It's the little things I miss the most, like fluid typing, adept chopping for dinner preparation, and painless driving. That being said, it has been a real treasure to see just how helpful, how willingly helpful, Calvin is by nature. I have a pretty fantastic husband in that manner, too, and it really can't be long now, can it? I guess you can count that as two things I am eagerly awaiting—spring and usable fingers. Patience is definitely a difficult virtue.