So, where have we been? What have we been up to? Why was that same post taunting you each time you came to visit? Good question. Our family goes screen-free at least once each year. We’re all a little too fond of the flashing, glowing lights around here so sometimes we go cold turkey for a week or more and find something else to do. Padawan Learner’s friends have been known to shudder at this activity, but it works for us. In fact, it sometimes works for them too.
We had a pair of brothers spend the night here last Friday and they almost decided not to come when they heard their visit would be happening without screens! As it was, though, they all had a great time. It was kind of a gloomy day when they first got here, but they headed upstairs to play and talk for a couple of hours. Later that night, we ordered a few pizzas and the three of them they played Blokus (greatest game ever) with Dad Windu. They talked and played some more until it was lights out at 11pm. The next morning, I made some pancakes and they pulled out the Sorry game, which they then morphed into some kind of Sorry-like game which appeared to go on forever. Since Saturday was nice and sunny, they answered the call of the wild by the neighbor kids and ran themselves into the ground playing Green Goblin, Base Tag and a game they made up which they called Velocitrator. My understanding is that it involves one kid being the hunter and all the other kids are velocitrators. The hunter tries to kill the velociraptors, which turns them into hunters. However, if a hunter is touched by a velociraptor than the hunter becomes a velociraptor. Whichever group successfully manages to turn everyone else into part of its group wins. They weren’t too hung up on the scientific accuracy of this situation, obviously.
A few weeks ago, PL and I went to a local environmental school for a wonderful nature-based homeschool class. It was gorgeous outside, which really made us happy to be roaming around in the prairie, woods and wetlands. We found edible plants such as Plantain and Yarrow (below). Yarrow was used by settlers to numb their teeth before extractions. We all put some along the gum line or at the tips of our tongues and were surprised by how quickly those areas lost feeling. It sure would have been a useful plant to have when a toothache came along.
We checked out the bluebird boxes and took out any materials from other birds so that the bluebirds could nest. We learned that two bluebird boxes should be placed about ten feet apart, so that the invasive birds can focus on one (which you keep pulling out) and the bluebirds would have the other in which to build. Because bluebirds naturally only live and nest in dead trees with holes of a very specific size, their habitat is all but vanishing as people cut down dead trees when cleaning up their wooded areas. So if you clean the dead trees out of your wooded areas, be sure to build and maintain a couple of bluebird boxes to keep these pretty little birds around. We learned that bluebirds only use grasses to build their nests, so we checked the viewing sides of all of the other bluebird boxes for interlopers.
Above, you can see PL in full Huckleberry Finn mode. I love the rolled up pant legs and straw hat. Below you can see a “ready for eggs” bluebird nest.
Here’s my lovely boy again.
Later we all donned rubber boots, grabbed some nets and small containers and headed over to the wetlands. Our group found spring peepers peeping, lots of larvae, cattails, and some small leeches attached to PL’s rubber boots. As he has a deep and abiding hatred for these little creatures (based on an early-childhood trauma), it seemed only fitting that he would be the only one to whom they gravitated. For the record, I love seeing kids in rubber boots. They’re adorable and utilitarian at the same time. One boy had green boots with big, yellow frog eyes popping from the top. One hip mom had bright red boots, which I coveted.
Last week we all had lunch with Brian, from our Ann Arbor days. It had been over two years since we’d last seen him, which is shameful on our part. In that time, he had gotten married (with his first anniversary coming up this month), learned that men who are married to women in a medical residency program rarely see their wives, and when they do they go on cool vacations such as Banff.
Padawan Learner is still enjoying woodcarving class. Presently he is working on a bowl and is considering a wooden knife. I know, how surprising!
Yesterday we started back up with our formal Dutch lessons. My Dutch teacher always takes April off to travel out west with her mom (who flies in from the Netherlands). Beforehand, though, we got together with Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda and the boys and nearly missed our lesson because time just flew outside at the park!
