Rock Star

Oh, and my Rock Star Name is

Your Rockstar Name Is...

Fifi Stardust

What's Your Rockstar Name?

So, when you see that on an album cover, you'll know it's me.

Now I Know Why We're Friends

Mother Auma at CM, Children and Lots of Grace, posted this Punctuation Mark Quiz. Now I know why we're friends. She is a Question Mark (makes sense to me) and I am a Comma. I'm pretty bummed, though, because I really, really wanted to be an EXCLAMATION POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You Are a Comma

You are open minded and extremely optimistic. You enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything. You keep yourself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests. You find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time. Your friends find you fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to. (But with so many competing interests, you friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.) You excel in: Inspiring people You get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

This certainly does sound like me, but I really did expect to be an Exclamation Point. I'm somewhat offended. If any of you are Exclamation Points, let me know how I can beat the test, I mean, do better next time.

Galileo

We recently finished reading Along Came Galileo by Jeanne Bendick, the same author who wrote Archimedes and the Door of Science. Both are excellent, well-written books designed to introduce children to these men's lives and ideas.

The girls also talked about Galileo in their science class at our co-op. Below are pictures of the projects they completed. Some of the gumdrops didn't survive the journey home, but you get the picture. ;-)

Disturb Me

Disturb Me

Disturb me Lord to see the plight of millions,
Homeless, starving and fighting for life each day.
Disturb me Lord when I complain about my lack
When I have no idea what lack really is!

Lord, disturb me, so that I can see past myself
And venture forth being Your hands and feet.
Help me to dream big dreams only You can bring to pass.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity,
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love.

~~~Sir Francis Drake

Bald Eagles

It seems we have new residents here at our home on the lake.

We have grown accustomed to large birds of prey in the trees and skies all around us, primarily red-tailed hawks and northern harriers. And a lot of turkey vultures.

This week King Louie noticed 2 large birds flying overhead. They were dark, with white heads & tails. We decided they must be bald eagles, because, what other bird has a 6-7 foot wingspan and a white head and tail? Still, they were too high for us to tell for certain and our brains were hesitant to believe we were actually seeing bald eagles here at our home! Neither of us had ever seen a bald eagle in the wild, and we've lived in Texas all our lives.

This weekend we saw one come back. He skimmed the lake with his talons, grabbed a fish and alighted (Can a bird that big alight? Perhaps that's the wrong word...) in a tree between our house and the lake. Determined to get solid evidence, I cautiously approached him with my camera. I took quite a few pictures. He wasn't afraid of me at all, and let me get about 30 yards away before he flew off. This may be because he was trying to finish his dinner! You can see his lovely fish in his right talon, against the tree.

It is easy to see why our nation has selected the bald eagle as its national bird. They are truly awesome creatures to see, especially in flight. This bird is wonderfully majestic; proud and strong; and extremely powerful. It is unfortunate they are no longer abundant in our land.

I hope you are able to see one for yourself one day, in "real life." They are incredible!

P.S. I do apologize for the mulitple postings here, and the terrible formatting around the pictures. I tried several times, but cannot for the life of me get the text to format properly around the pictures. You'll just have to wing it. (pun intended)

First Day of Co-op!

Yesterday was our first day back at co-op. Our co-op only meets once/week, and only runs 10 weeks in the spring, and 10 weeks in the fall, so we get very excited when it's time to start back up! I get to teach a Shakespeare class to 1st-3rd graders (very fun!) and high school Economics and Humanities, which I co-teach with 2 friends. I also help out in a Cake Decorating class. It is such a blast!

Baloo is taking the 2nd semester of Apologia Chemistry and the 2nd semester of my Humanities class, plus Billiards and Mythbusters.

Padme and Lil Yoda are both taking the second semesters of Extreme Weather and Traveling the American Road, both taught by Grandma Lori, and they are both taking Renaissance Relived, a history/crafts class. In addition, Padme is taking Real Science for Kids (Physics) and Thinking Things (Logic games). Lil Yoda is taking Bird's Eye View (World Geography) and Lego Creations.

They had a great day yesterday, but we were all worn out! We have to wake up extremely early to make it to Opening Assembly by 8:40!!! Thankfully I had dinner in the crockpot so the house smelled yummy when we walked in. The smell alone was soothing! Overall, a very wonderful day. We love our co-op!

Preventative Measures

Each week, the children have zones of the house for which they are responsible. This week, Padme's zone is the kitchen. This is generally considered the most difficult zone, so Padme instituted some preventative measures. When we entered the kitchen this morning, we were met with this sign: