Parentheticals

We missed a few weeks - things have been busy. One event that occurred in the interim is our car broke down. Alison was driving the kids to nature group three weeks ago and had just gotten off the freeway when all the dials on the dashboard suddenly dropped to zero. After pulling into a parking lot and ascertaining that we still had steering and brakes, Alison decided to try to drive home instead of trying to figure out a way to safely get five kids in carseats home from Sandy. It was rather terrifying, but the car worked the whole way home. Not only that, we managed to get it to start and more-or-less drive to the car shop the next day. (None of the lights or headlights worked, and it got harder and harder to start up after each stoplight, but we made it.) Apparently the belt that runs the alternator was too old, and it needed to be replaced. They fixed it quickly and it wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been. The Browns lent us a car, so we could send one parent out for...

It still feels like we're just getting back into the swing of things, even though we have been home for weeks now. We're restarting all the kids' social activities: nature groups (three a week!), ballet class from a friend's older sister, library trips, etc. And of course getting the basics of school happening. January is always an exciting time in our homeschool. Every year, we retell the Montessori Five Great Lessons: The Story of the Coming of the Universe, The Story of the Coming of Life, The Story of the Coming of Humans, The Story of Communication in Signs, and The Story of Numbers. The goal is to put all learning into context and make it exciting! We did the first Great Lesson this week, which covers the Big Bang up to the Earth being covered with water. The big hit of this one is always the volcano, which did not explode in a very satisfactory way this year. Alison wants to remember to use a disposable water bottle for the reaction chamber next year. Rea mad...

We missed posting last week, so this post will cover two weeks. Last weekend we went up to Silver Lake for a hike. We saw a moose in the wild, climbed on rocks and trees, took a nap in the woods, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Timmy really wants to go canoeing on the lake. I can't imagine dragging a canoe up there, but maybe one day... The kids did really well, and they hardly complained at all. After going to silver lake, the rest of the week we had a lot of meetings - Alison's calling, Mike's Board game design guild (BGDG), and Alison's writing group each claimed a weeknight. Mike tried to get his "Grab the Loot" game played with 6 players at BGDG, but there were not enough people there for that to happen. He has been preparing this game for submission to a publisher, and it wants some more playtesting at that player count. He is also trying to fit the game into a mint tin for the mint tin design contest. So far it is fitting, but he will perhap...