"Ocean in View, O the Joy!"

It is March, which seems to be the month for making summer plans, that is, if you don't get it planned it March, it might not be an option by the time June gets here.  Our church, for example, opens VBS registration in March.  March is also a time when moving announcements start to build up.  Natalie currently has two friends "moving this summer".  One of the families is not just the family of her friend, but Annalise's, Caleb's, and mine.  We are all crestfallen.

In our transient community (oxymoron, I know), I am never surprised by these announcements and I never find a reason for these people to stay (other than to please me).   It is a difficult place to live, but in the last few months I have begun to feel kind of defensive about it as my own home turf.  Maybe it was the hurricane.  Maybe it's just been a long time coming.

Lewis and Clark are rapidly approaching the Pacific, but we have to cross the Bitterroot Mountains first.  I have almost half of the movie edited and am pretty pleased with it.

Here is a somewhat anonymous picture from the class.  Our grizzly really isn't very frightening, but he will have to do!  The kids really do like dressing up and acting, so that is fun, a few of them are really good at it too.     

We went to Black Point with some friends last week.  One of those last minute outings, it was a lovely day for that kind of thing.

Annalise went on the 4th and 5th grade church retreat.   She had a fun time :)

Caleb and Rob got to go fishing on a boat on Saturday, so all day Saturday I had just the little girls and they not only play delightfully together, they both like to shop, so I took advantage of that!  Otherwise we are slowly adjusting to the time change - did you know that Florida may go to year round daylight savings time?  I don't know what to think about that.

So Miami: Sorry, Miami

This week one of the kids told me that he/she did a certain mean thing because another sibling had done a similar mean thing to them.  Not really satisfied with that excuse, I told that child that blaming other people for their problems will do nothing to fix them.  Naturally, I need the same advice.

Except I don't usually blame another person, I blame a place.  Sometimes this is justified: why is the traffic snarled?  Bloatingly populated Miami.  Why is my neighbor loud?  The un-blended culture of Miami.  Why are my eyebrows sweating?  Hot and humid Miami.  But I get into such a habit of place bashing that I start blaming it for everything I don't like - why don't the water bottles all fit in their storage basket?  Why did something important get lost?  Why are we out of toilet paper?  Obviously because we live in South Florida.

What?  How did that happen?  And the consequence is that I stop trying to improve my habits and stop looking for solutions and just let Miami take the heat.  So I wonder if instead of resolving to blog more often, I need to resolve to rearrange my kitchen, to be more thoughtful as I put things away, to keep on top of basic needs.  And maybe I shouldn't blame everything else on Miami.  I don't have to go places during the worst traffic, so I usually don't.  I could talk to my neighbor about their music (but I don't because that's my non-confrontational culture not blending in).  I can hide inside in the A/C - and sometimes I do.

Miami is not such a bad place.  Any place can become a tedious place to live and sometimes that tediousness is our own discontentment fanning a flame of resentment.  And that, to quote Forrest Gump, is all I have to say about that.

So our co-op group resumed last Friday.  The China class was a breeze - the kids were dolls, they loved the chopsticks.  The Lewis and Clark class was good, but hard.  The classroom is really small, so trying to take video on the room is a challenge, but the kids all think it is a fun idea.  All we filmed was a scene representing the Louisiana Purchase - which is an interesting topic all by itself!  We did the scene as if Napoleon met personally with Jefferson in the United States - and really inaccurate, and I told them that, but some of the reality is going to be too hard to make into short videos. 

Irene has pretty much mastered the balance bike.  She LOVES to go downhill with her feet up.  I love that it is lightweight and easy to store.  And boy is it fast!  

After many years of being told we should enter craft items in the youth fair, this year we are making it happen.  The fair is in March and each of the kids (except Irene) has registered for 12+ divisions so that will keep us busy!

Notice the splint is gone!  They asked her to buddy tape the finger to the ring finger for 2 more weeks.

 Our Venus Fly Trap has flowered:

 I bought this one at Aldi several weeks ago. 

 And we had a very nice rainbow last week.

 My tomatoes are growing well.  One is smaller - bigger than grape tomatoes, but not big tomatoes - and it has lots of little tomatoes already.  The other one is an heirloom tomato and they are supposed to be big.  It has two tomatoes, but a lot of flowers.  Still  moving them once a day so that they get maximum sun. 

Out of My Comfort Zone

Seemingly out of the blue, we got notice from our enrichment group that it had been dissolved.  We have been involved with PEP since Caleb was in K-4 and because of the nature of the group - the moms all know each other, the families all know each other - we felt very connected there.  So it was more than just disappointing that it could end so suddenly.  The reason given was not very defined.  I'm sure there are bigger and dearer things than PEP that have been dissolved in the process and while I'm obviously curious, I know that some things are none of my business.

Over the last few weeks some of the families began to organize a new group at a different  - much farther away - location.  All along I had not wanted to rush into a different group (there are many here) because I wanted to see if something could work out.   There are multiple things we are losing by this move, but my first and biggest pause was the drive.  It is what I sweepingly refer to as "out in west Kendall" - as if that were some distant galaxy.  I do my best never to go there.  But, they asked if I would teach the classes I had planned to teach at PEP and I decided I would.  The balance will be that we won't take the 9am class and I won't teach Botany (More about that later.)

A part of me feels like being bothered by the location is petty, but it does bother me.  It's one of those paper clip locations that you have to pass by and turn around to get to it.  The fastest route is by the turnpike, but I dislike driving on the turnpike and avoid it.  It's in a warehouse district that is industrial and ugly.  And in short, it just isn't my neighborhood.  Did I mention I never go there?

Well that is sort of not true.  The skating rink is not far from there and we've been there a few times this summer, but only on Saturday mornings.  The big girls went to a music theater camp in that area a few weeks ago.

Natalie - Live!  Onstage!

But while they enjoyed the camp, taking them convinced me to back out of another program the same organization was hosting at that location.

What I mean to say is, I don't go there if there is an option even a little bit closer.

But here we go - we are going to join this co-op at least for this year.  It will be smaller, it will be nothing like it was, but I think it will still have some good points.

I am going to teach the class on China like I had planned, but after driving by and casing out the location, I felt like Botany was not happening there.  At PEP there were lots of trees and a lot of land.  This new place there is a lot of asphalt.  So, I'm sure another person could modify the class to be all indoors, but I was really not feeling it, so the coordinators encouraged me to find another topic and immediately I remember Lewis and Clark and our home-made docu-drama.  I don't know how it will all work out, but there is no precedent, so it maybe it will be fine.  I got a Ken Burns book about Lewis and Clark and it is so interesting, I'm really glad to learn more.

In conclusion - our original homeschool group was more than 20 years old, but it was a fragile thing and I was naive to think it would always be around.  But, we aren't really alone and who knows what opportunities we may discover.