This Week

We had our first big snow this week. Trent and Genevieve couldn't wait to get outside on that morning. They both like to eat the snow. Trent has been fairly warned about the dangers of yellow snow.
The kids attended their last day of school, last day of dance, last day of karate, last piano recital....*sigh*...it's been an emotional week. Here's a picture of Grace and Trent with their teacher, "Mrs. P." Grace has taken science classes from this sweet lady for the past four years, and both Grace and Trent had her for once a week kindergarten. She is an amazing teacher and it was a real blessing to have her teach my children.

This weekend was all about spending precious time with family and friends. Oh my...we ate very well! "Grandma" Alice is an excellent cook, and so is my aunt Sue. We went from one feast to the next on Saturday. We were visiting wine country, so naturally, there was plenty of that to go around as well. Let me just clarify though...that is grape juice in Grace's glass.

Both Grace and Trent were thrilled to see baby Oliver, the son of our good friends. We're all very happy that soon we will live in the same city. Trent made this race car for Oliver. Oliver wasn't so interested in that..he preferred the lights on the Christmas tree.
One more week until moving day. I'm not sure if I'll be able to check in again before then, so let me wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Girl

The past few days have been all about the Nutcracker ballet. I never tire of it...absolutely love it! Grace was a gingerbread kid this year, so she got to be silly and do cartwheels all over the stage.
The picture above is Grace with "Mother Ginger", who also happens to be the director of her studio. Below, is Grace with "Miss Elise", her teacher since she was three years old. This was Grace's last performance with this studio. This was the first time I got a little teary when thinking about our upcoming move. I'm sure there will be a few more teary moments in the next couple of weeks. I know that exciting changes await, but saying goodbye is hard.
Derek and I were both in the party scene. Below, is one of my "daughters", also a good friend of Grace's. I have some great photos of Derek in his costume, but he doesn't want me to post them. Too bad, because he looked quite handsome. ;)Here's Grace's dance. She is the one on the left of the first two children who come out.

Update

Hello there. I've limited myself to once a week blogging until after our big move at the end of the month, but I'm missing it! I've worked hard today, so I'm going to treat myself to a little time on the computer and write an update here. Here's what's been happening since my last post.

Monday: The contract was signed for Derek's new job in Kirkland, he gave his notice where he currently works, and we were finally able to let the secret out. We're moving!
Tuesday: Put the house up for sale and worked on getting it ready to show...lots of cleaning and de-cluttering. Felt a little shocked about the drop in value our house has taken over the last two years because of the economy.
Wednesday: Spent most of the day sanding the wood floor in my bedroom...a two year long project that we never seemed to able to finish- until now. It looks great now, but I was disappointed that I wasn't going to get to enjoy it for myself. But look.... the floor above, is what I'll get to enjoy in my new home....in every room! Yes, we have our new house! But that didn't happen until Saturday.

Thursday: Already tired of keeping the house clean at all times, just in case a buyer wants to take a look. A good friend stops by for a visit and mentions a lady we both know, who might be interested in renting from us. Derek and I love this idea, so I immediately send off an e-mail with an offer.

Friday: Potential buyers come and look at the house in the morning. The lady we really want to live in our house comes to look in the afternoon. She wants the house! Must apologize to the Realtor...house is no longer for sale.

Saturday: Celebrating Trent's sixth birthday today! Party @ 2:00, so I get things ready, while Derek takes the quickest trip ever over the mountains to look at a house in Kirkland that we saw on Craig's list. He takes pictures with his phone and e-mails them back to me as he's walking through the house. I love technology. We love the house. I would describe it as "mid-century modern". Derek gets the keys, and drives home...just in time for the party.
Girls night out with "book club" friends; we're planning on going to a hockey game. We never make it, just like we never seem to get around to discussing the books we read. We just have too much fun talking at the restaurant, and don't want to go sit in a cold, noisy arena where we can't talk as easily. I'm going to miss these ladies.
Today: New house is smaller. Get even more serious about giving away as much as possible. Sorting through stuff gets much easier when I remember the advice of a friend..."instead of thinking about what to get rid of, think about what you want to keep". Now, I have boxes and boxes of stuff ready to go to the Goodwill.
Here's a picture of the backyard of my new house. I don't have many pictures yet, just the ones Derek took with his phone. We'll be moving in on Decemeber 26th. This coming week promises to be busy, but with much less stress and uncertainty than this past week. Packing and Nutcracker rehearsals....3 out of 4 in our family will be performing on Saturday. :) Have a great week!

Moving!

I can finally tell my secret! It has been a hard one to keep. The house is for sale, and our family is moving to Kirkland, WA (near Seattle). If you're not familiar with Washington state, that's about two hours away from our current home in Wenatchee. We're moving from a smallish sized town, to a large urban area. It will mean a lot of changes for us.
The pictures here are of the house that we're selling. I will really miss this place. I started this blog a week after I moved into this house. I'm happy that I'll have so many pictures and memories from our time here so well documented. It makes leaving behind this home a little easier. And, well...so does the thought of re-decorating a new place. ;) Derek will start his new job on December 15th and the kids and I will follow shortly after the new year. We've wanted to move to the Seattle area for quite some time. Derek has been given a wonderful opportunity to work there, so we're taking it! We haven't found a house in Kirkland yet. That's one of the many items on my seemingly endless "to do" list that needs to be accomplished in the next two weeks.
Needless to say, I'm very excited. But there's a tinge of bitter with the sweet, knowing that I'll be farther away from many people I hold very dear in my heart. Wenatchee is the only place Trent has ever lived, and the only place Grace remembers living in. I've spent nineteen years total here, and I feel an enormous sense of gratitude to this community we'll be leaving.
This new job that my husband has taken will involve a lot of travel. We hope to go with him as often as possible and explore the country in this way.
I won't be blogging as much as usual during the month of December, but I'll try and check in about once a week or so until life has settled back down a bit.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's a little "catch up" post...sorry I haven't been around much. It's been a busy, tense week, but exciting changes for our family are in the air. I'll be able to share more about those soon.
On Sunday, we went to see some sculptures that area 5th graders designed.
Academics were light this week. Instead, we did lots of cooking. In the picture below, my mom is helping Grace and Trent make a Norwegian food called lefse. I wanted school to have a service focus, so we all read Three Cups of Tea. Grace had the Young Reader's Edition, and Trent listened to the Children's edition. I love these books, they're very inspiring.
This was my first year hosting and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. From early this morning, I was busy working on the big meal of the day, so Grace and Trent decided they would make breakfast. Our dining room became a restaurant, complete with menus, and a very cute five year old waiter. I'll admit though, it was hard to be patient and sit for breakfast when I knew how much food I still needed to prepare.

I enjoyed cooking, and even more, I loved eating. ;) I think we pulled it off. There was the mistake of using pure pumpkin instead of pumpkin pie filling in one of the pies, but I caught it before anyone had to eat it, and I did end up having to drive across town to use my mom's oven to get it all done in time, but it all worked out in the end. I hope you all had a wonderful day.

Puppy Play Date

"Who's this handsome fellow?"

"It's my brother, Nero!"
"How have you been...life treating you well?"
"I've missed you so much!"
"We need to get together more often."
"Promise me you'll bring me over to play again soon."
"Deal....let's shake on it."

Fifth Grade Iran Unit

After studying Iran for a few days, one morning Grace came out of her room in her version of the Iranian style of dress. The head scarf didn't last very long though.
Grace is finishing up a three week unit on Iran this week. The above photo is a sample of one her main lesson pages that she did. For each of the assigned readings, she writes a short narrative and illustrates it. We've both enjoyed this unit very much. Often times, when doing research for one of Grace's lesson units, I become so interested in the topic that I'll seek out extra sources, just for me. That's how I came to read Honeymoon in Purdah, a fascinating travel diary that I couldn't put down until I was finished. I'd highly recommend it.
When we're working on a unit, I give Grace assigned readings for her morning work (these are the ones that she writes about in her lesson book), but I also provide as many supplemental books as I can find for her to read on her own during a quiet time in the afternoon. The pictures below show the books that I found for this purpose. You can click on the photos to make them larger if you can't make out the titles or author's names.


I read Shadow Spinner out loud to Grace in the evenings. This was a wonderful story with exciting adventures, a strong heroine, cultural and historical information, and an important lesson about forgiveness. We both loved this book.

Here's the four day schedule we followed for this unit:
* All of the assigned readings from week 1 and 2 come from the Epic of Shahnameh Ferdowsi, which I found in the Fifth Grade Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling book. They're in the public domain and can be found easily through an internet search if you don't have the book. For week 3, I've provided the links to internet sites we used.
Week 1
Day 1- Shah's of Old
Day 2- Feridoun
Day 3- Zal
Day 4- Watch The Little Travelers: Iran...both Grace and Trent(age 5) loved this DVD, and have watched it several times since.

Week 2
Day 1- Rustem
Day 2- The March into Mazinderan
Day 3- Kai Kaous
Day 4- Rustem and Sohrab

Week 3
Day 1- Zarathustra
Day 2- Xerxes, and National Geographic
Day 3- Iranian Food, make the walnut cookies.
Day 4- Movie: Children of Heaven

This was a fun unit, exploring the rich culture of this beautiful country and it's wonderful people. What we did not discuss was current politics. There will be a time for that, when she's older...not now. It was refreshing for me to look at this country that I so often read about in the news, in such a negative light, with a different perspective, to try and see beyond the politics and just see the people.