Sunday, February 26, 2012

Ordinary week

I don't have a single picture from this week.  But if I did I would have pictures of blossoms on the trees and daffodils on the hill, the girls riding their bikes back and forth on the driveway following a very well thought out travel system (to avoid collisions), the girls hoola-hooping, the girl's and I sorting and organizing seasonal clothing to put away the fleece and get out the lightweights, me at the computer trying to capture a lot of thoughts and learnings in my journal, us at the Poetic License play by the girl's older friends followed by dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant with Dana Solomon and her delightful sons, Geoff and I with a man who recently joined the church at the temple for the first time, me out visiting people with our valiant three sister missionaries, Tennie getting in the car and without taking a single breath asking to turn on the radio and then switching around stations looking for the best song, me taxiing girls to and from art, drama and writing classes, me meeting with our contact at the charter school signing roll sheets and handing in samples of the work, watching Adele take an interest in reading for the first time, us finding piles of chicken feathers after a raccoon ambush and losing one chicken to the raccoon, losing one chicken to raccoon injuries, and nursing another injured chicken back to health, Geoff surrounded by a mountain of tissue as he fights off a cold, and then of course the girls writing stories, drawing ream-loads of drawings, doing math worksheets and lessons, and all of the myriad of activities of a typical week of homeschooling and home keeping.

Life as usual.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Dillon Beach

Some acquaintances we have here in Auburn (our kids are friends) offered us the use of their beach house in Dillon Beach.  Just driving to Dillon Beach is a vacation.  It is like a quaint Sunday drive through English countryside with rolling hills filled with cows and goats, and adorable little cottages and barns here and there.  We contemplated becoming ranchers just so we could live on the hillside looking over the ocean!  It was spectacular.


The weather was wonderfully sunny but with the exceptions of a few mornings the wind was biting cold.  We did get out, though.


We love to explore the rocky tide pools at the beach so a post wouldn't be complete without starfish photos...



We borrowed this starfish for a few hours to paint it.









Despite the frigid water Geoff introduced Tennie and Ceci to surfing.  The waves were perfectly small to get used to the balancing on the board, and the lessons were short to help them get used to the feel of wetsuits and being cold!

 I love Ceci's shadow in this picture

Ceci

Tennie




The path to the beach

I took a few pictures of the beautiful beach house.  It was so relaxing and comfortable!



The master bedroom with views of the ocean from every window

Thank you to our wonderfully generous friends!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Art publicly displayed

Dana Solomon, the girl's art teacher, secured a wall to display her student's work at the town's favorite yogurt shop, Tango.  The girls seemed very excited to go and see their art on the wall, but I think they were more excited about getting Tango...



(Tennie's salt rub painting)

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Our own atelier

Last week I was browsing through the BYU Alumni magazine and discovered an article about a family living in France whose mom is a well-known blogger.  Not much of a blog follower myself I hadn't ever heard of her blog but was looking for some good French nourishment, and her blog didn't disappoint.  On the right side she has links to some tour posts through her farm house in Normandy.  My favorite was the art studio.  In my dreams I have an art room like that!  

Recently Geoff created our own atelier (studio or workshop in French) in our unused greenhouse.  It is make-shift and hardly like that amazing French studio, but it is perfect (minus an occasional spider that sends the girls screaming).  The girls and Geoff have been spending hours out there since it has been cleaned out and set up.