and we hiked. Let's see. Since Sunday we've hiked to Laurel Falls, plus a couple miles on the Appalachian Trail just to say we did, as well as to Grotto Falls. We also attended an excellent Park Ranger program where the kids collected aquatic life from a stream and examined it.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, but Bud had the camera with him, but here's a picture of Grotto Falls I found on the net.



The falls cascade way down from this point, so there are tons of great rocks to climb around on and little pools to splash in. Unfortunately, I had to be very strict with the kids about what they could do because it was just me. If one of them fell or got stuck, it's not like I could just set Romy down and go get them. So we will go back with Bud and let them enjoy it for real this time!

We picked Bud back up from the airport after his less than fruitful trip to New Mexico (except for a good time with my brother and sister-in-law, the trip was a bust.)

Today we are heading to Splash Country. Waterslides galore!

P.S. They sell shade at Splash Country. Bud is torn about this. In his head that's a crime. I just want to pony up the bucks and have my own cabana. I'll let you know how it all works out. ;)

Edited to say that I am apparently geographically challenged! We are in the Smoky Mountains, not the Rockies! Walking away embarrassed now...

Hey all! We made it to the Smoky Mountains. I am in love with this place! Just a quick run down of what we've done so far, and maybe a picture or two if my connection lasts.

We left DFW on Tuesday last week. We got a late start because Luke sprained his wrist the night before, and Bud was at the ER with him till midnight. Fortunately it wasn't broken. We drove to Memphis on day one, with a couple of quick stops on the way. We pulled off into downtown Memphis, which reminded me a bit of 6th street in Austin. Pretty exciting, a lot of music, but not necessarily family friendly. We grabbed something to eat and drove on to Jackson, TN where we got a room an hunkered down for the night. As soon as the lights were out, Romy started throwing up. Ugh. I tried to keep her clean and settled as much as I could without waking Bud, who had to drive again the next day. No such luck - I ended up sending him out to the car for the big suitcase, because I went through all her clothes in our overnight bag.

The next morning we hesitantly started off on the final leg of the trip. Thankfully, Romy held her breakfast and we didn't have any incidents in the car! We made it to Gatlinburg around 5 in the afternoon. Wow! This little town has a lot packed into it - every possible touristy wax museum/haunted house/circus-type venue is here. All for a price of course. Our cabin is beautiful! Up on a mountain with lovely views of the Smokies. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect place. Luke saw a bear in our yard the first five minutes we were, but no beat sitings since then. We've also seen deer, wild turkeys, brash raccoons, and a snake. All here at hte cabin!

Thursday we headed to the grocery store and got ourselves set up for the stay. In the afternoon we went to the National Park and hiked a nature trail that took us to a lovely little waterfall. There were some historic sites along the way, including an old log cabin.



Friday we went up to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park. They are kind and let you drive to within a half mile of it, and you hike the last bit. It's pretty steep, but doable for all ages. What views! The Appalachian Trail passes by this point and there were some folks there who were hiking it. Very cool.

On Saturday we hung out at the cabin for most of the day to avoid the crowds. We read and snacked, had a Wii bowling tournament, and just gazed at the views. By late afternoon, we were getting antsy, so we made our first venture to Pigeon Forge. Dollywood. I was skeptical. Embarrassed even, of the cheesiness of this locale. All I can say is I was wrong. Mea Culpa. Dollywood is just lovely. Small enough to easily get to everything, but excellent rides in a very family-friendly environment. The food looks really good, too, but we didn't eat there, as we a saw a Cracker Barrel on the way in and we have a special place in our hearts for the Barrel. Did you know there is a little church in Dollywood and they actually hold church services there on Sunday morning? So cool.

On Sunday, we had church at the cabin, ate some lunch and then drove Bud to the airport. He went to New Mexico for a land auction that was cancelled after he got there. Oh well.



On Monday, I took the kids to the National Park and we hiked to Laurel Falls. It was about a mile and a half uphill to the Falls. It was hot and a little tough with Romy in the backpack, but again, a doable hike for just about anyone I think. The falls were spectacular! We all enjoyed getting our feet wet in the cold water and feeling the cool mist all around us. There were several bear sightings in the area, but we missed them. Back at the cabin I made BLTs and we just hung out and read. Oh, and the kids are writing in their journals I gave them for the trip. Not about what we are doing, but silly, ridiculous stories instead. But hey, they're writing.

I'll try to update every couple of days, for anyone who is interested, but also so I'll remember it all!

And here's the GRP. Hiking is exhausting when you're one and you have to be carried around in a backpack all day.

We are schedule to leave on our Smoky Mountain Adventure tomorrow. Bud has one work situation hanging over his head that may delay our departure a bit. We'll know in the next couple of hours if we're leaving in the morning.

So I've got a big list to take care of before we go.

*Pack everyone's clothes - all the laundry is done and we're going to be mostly hiking and listening to Bluegrass music, so shorts, jeans, tees and sweatshirts. Easy.

*Get the car washed. Seriously. Ick.

*Pick-up the Baby Backpack from my friend who is letting us borrow. Romy needs to hike, too, you know!

*Get some new sandals for Peyton. She outgrew hers yesterday.

*Load up the iPod. I think I'm going to listen to In Defense of Food, along with some Coldplay on this trip. Thanks Sarah, for recommending the audiobook!

*Get sheets ready to put on the beds for the housesitters when we wake up in the a.m.

*Stock the fridge for the housesitters.

*Pack up the Wii and our DVDs and my laptop.

*Load up the car.

I've already packed the big bin 'o' stuff with new art supplies and sketchpads for the kids, books, board games, snacks, puzzles, etc. Plus I've done an enormous amount of laundry. I don't like the idea of dirty laundry in the hamper for 3.5 weeks. I don't know why that bothers me so.

I hope my next post will be from Gatlinburg. We shall see.

We are getting ready to take our Great Smoky Mountain Adventure, so I'm trying to get our schoolyear mapped out before we leave. When we get back it'll be birthday party, birthday party, school. So here's the plan for my 5th and 3rd grade students. HOW IN THE HECK DID THAT HAPPEN?

Luke, the rising 5th grader has the following on his agenda

Math U See, Epsilon and into Zeta, and for the first time, we will be supplementing with Singapore Math - getting close to the Pre-Algebra years makes me want to be sure he his thinking about math from different perspectives, hence the supplement

Grammar Growing with Grammar 5 - level 4 worked fabulously for this guy, so we move onward

Spelling Power



Writing - I've struggled here and I think we've finally hit on an approach that will work. Luke will be working through Susan Wise Bauer's new writing program, Writing with Ease. He will work through Level 4 in half the time recommended in the book, polishing dictation and written narration The narrations will be across curriculum in history and science. At mid year we will move from that into Writing Tales 2 or Classical Writing Aesop B - this to be determined. Also, see history.

Latin - Latina Christiana 2, Luke's favorite subject

History - Luke will be listening in on SOTW 3 with Peyton, then reading through Kingfisher's Illustrated World HIstory (the out of print one). He will outline Kingfisher, keep his own timeline, and do mapwork. Plus we'll throw in additonal reading for fun.

Science - I am excited about this! We wil be doing Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry with a coop. We'll meet once every two weeks to go over a chapter and do labs, leaving time in between for additional reading and going through the Critical Thinking and History supplements that are designed to correlate with the history text. I do not think I can explain the joy I feel when I think about my children learning about atoms and matter and then studying about the history of the periodic table! And alchemy! It is this geek's biggest dream come true I tell you!

Oh, and did I mention in this coop, I am the 5th and 6th grade teacher? I think I am going to LOVE it. And the other amazing and fabulous thing about this coop is that though I am the teacher, every third meeting the kids will do a lapbook which will be led by Someone Who Is Not Me. The kids get to be creative, I don't have to get the glue out. Someone pinch me.

Arts - We are giving Handle on the Arts a spin with their 4 week mini-course to see how we like it. It covers art, art and music appreciation, architecture and drama. If we like it we'll get the longer course. If not...shrug.

Literature - we will read books! Lots of books. Good ones. I don't know which ones they are yet, but we will read them!

For Peyton, my upcoming 3rd grader, it's not too different.

Math U See Gamma and into Delta, with Singapore math supplement

Grammar - First Language Lessons 3

Spelling Power

Writing - Writing with Ease, Level 3

Latin - Latina Christiana 2 - This is where I fear her path and Luke's will diverge. This may just be too challenging for her yet. I don't know if I want to just slow Luke down so they can stay together, or if I want to split them up so Luke can keep going at the nice pace he has established. We'll she how she does with LC2 after the review weeks and then decide.

History - Story of the World 3, with narrations and activity guide

Science - Peyton will be in the same Chemistry coop, but will be doing RS4K Chemistry PreLevel 1, she'll do the other stuff with Luke on our home days, but be in her own class at coop

Arts - Handle on the Arts - see description under Luke

Literature - see description under Luke

Finally, for Bible, I'm considering Kay Arthur's How to Study the Bible for Kids. If anyone has thoughts on this I'd love to hear it.

If you homeschool, what's your plan for the year? I'd love to hear it.

Hedgeapple...Horseapple...Osage Orange...Maclura pomifera




The view of the Bois d'Arc tree in the park right in front of our house (it's the tree right in the middle. The kids love to pile up the horseapples, throw them, line the railing on the front porch with them, hit them with a baseball bat. A golf club will work, too.



From Wikipedia: Slang terms for its inedible fruit include monkey brain, monkey ball, monkey orange, and brain fruit, due to its brain-like appearance. Love that!


I also have some basil. I planted A basil plant three years ago. I have never replanted. You can make good pesto from this.




Two down, ninety-eight to go!

Labels: 100 Species Challenge

My blog friend Sarah has started what she is calling the 100 Species Challenge for all of us who would like to get a little more up close and personal with the plant life in our backyard. The gist of it is that we are supposed to become familiar with 100 different plants within walking distance of our home. It's kind of a loose challenge, as there aren't any deadlines or that kind of nonsense. Because if you are on a deadline with nature, chances are you are going at it with the wrong attitude. Stop and smell the daisies, will ya?

Anyway here are the rules, as posted by Sarah (so when it says "I" that means Sarah, not me, okay?)

The 100-Species Challenge

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant's home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears. My format will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of information I'd like to know. (See below for an example.) This format is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts. This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two--"camillia" if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge. You can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like. I'm planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

Amy again. I intend to have my first entry up early in the week. I'll give you a hint, though. You can play baseball with the fruit of one of our first specimens. It might be messy, but you can do it.

Labels: 100 Species Challenge

One year ago this morning we sat at the breakfast table joking that if the baby was born that day we'd call her Doodle, as in Yankee Doodle. Of course, that was three weeks before she was due, so we certainly weren't expecting it to be the case.

A year later, we don't call her Doodle, but we sure do love this baby girl. She is the missing piece of this family that we didn't even know wasn't here yet. But now she's here at home, where she belongs. And our lives are all the better for it.

Romy loves to snuggle and she's got a delightful sense of humor. She can stick up for herself. Romy likes to be outside, as long as one of her people is there by her side. Romy loves music and singing and dancing, and she loves to read a book as long as she can turn the pages.

Happy Birthday, Romy. we love you so much!