It’s interesting how everything seems to come at once. We’ll go weeks and weeks with not much but Piper’s normally scheduled classes and then-Wham!-we seem to be running from one thing to the next. Last week was very hectic due to the convention. Piper and I went to the Ecotarium on Thursday morning before going over to set up the booth. The highlight was getting to see a black rat snake up close. I was going to put a picture in, but it seems that functionality isn’t working right now. The snake we saw was white, but he wasn’t an albino, he was leucistic. Either way, he was not in for a long life in the wild due to lack of camouflage, so they took him. Since black rat snakes are endangered here, they also help out with the research and efforts to repopulate. Friday Piper had Daddy/Daughter day where she went to work with Tim. She really enjoys these days. Normally they involve tons of computer games. This time she was introduced to darts by one of Tim’s fellow employees. She liked it so much they went out and got her a dartboard on Saturday. She even got an outer bullseye when playing on Sunday. On Monday, Piper had a dentist appointment to get her teeth cleaned. Due to past dental issues this always makes me a little jittery, but everything looked great. Yesterday, we went to our last STARTS play of the season about Paul Revere. Once again very well done. Piper’s favorite part was King George. They really played up that he was a little off kilter and it was pretty funny. The Boston Massacre, while very gently done did disturb her a bit. Since Piper had art class shortly after the play, we headed directly to Acton for lunch at O’Naturals, then over to her class where she drew a brook trout. I thought it came out really well and will try to post a picture later. Happily, today the sun is shining again after 3 days of rain and we are free all day long. Piper has been reading all morning so we’ll do the formal school stuff a little later. The week will end with riding lessons and hair appointments. Thankfully next week goes back to normal again!

Well, I survived the convention. I’m just going to say, sales is so not my thing. It’s bloody boring saying the same thing over and over and over and you get the idea. It brought me back to my days canvassing for Clean Water Action and Green Peace. As worthy as I felt the cause was, asking complete strangers for money kind of gave me the willies. And while I know stereotypes normally come from somewhere… Yikes! Let’s just say your average people watcher would have had a field day. I forgot my book on day 2 so I’m speaking from experience. Also had an opportunity to flip through a popular creationist science book. Oh my… I was torn between nausea and a serious bout of giggling. Just so you know, even though Darwin was misguided and had the audacity to leave the almighty creator out of his theory, some of his work was useful. Yeesh! I was surrounded with this for 2 days. Talk about a fish out of water. I do have to say there were plenty of very nice people and the folks at my curriculum were great to work with. Anyhow, it’s over, I fulfilled my responsibilities to the best of my ability, and it was definitely worth my time since I gained a deeper understanding of my curriculum and get the last 3 years free!

PS This quote kept running through my head…

“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.” Lloyd Dobler, Say Anything

One of the really great things about being a parent is getting to read all of the wonderful kid’s literature you missed when you were young. This is especially true of a homeschooling parent because we read a ton of books out loud. One of the books I had missed was Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White. The funny thing is I had actually received all 3 of the E. B. White books in a set for a gift; Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and Trumpet of the Swan. In fact, I loved Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little and being an avid reader read them multiple times when I was young. For some reason, I never read more than a few pages at the beginning of Trumpet of the Swan without putting it down and abandoning it. I don’t know if it was my age or something else, but it never managed to pull me in. When Piper was around 3, she started clamoring for longer stories, and truth be told, with the amount of time I was spending reading to her, I was more than happy to oblige rather than read yet another Henry and Mudge as much as I do enjoy Cynthia Rylant. Enter the problem – most 3 year olds are not at all interested in sitting for hours listening to someone read, especially a book without pictures, so there is a woeful lack of good stories with themes suitable for the 3 and 4 year old set. Thank goodness for E. B. White, Dick King-Smith, and Marguerite Henry! Since there are so few good chapter books in this age range, you pretty much read them all if you have a child that can’t get enough read-aloud so I finally read Trumpet of the Swan all the way through. It is a wonderful, beautifully written story and the language is an absolute joy to read out loud. In fact, it turned out to be by far Piper’s favorite of the 3. She has the book on tape and though I have no idea exactly how many times she’s listened to it, I know it’s a lot. On our Germany trip we took when she was 4 I think she listened to it at least 3 times. A few days ago I had an epiphany, and realized her reading level is at the point where she can read me chapter books! Guess what she’s reading me?

Today is bee day! Tim checked his email and found out he could pick up the package for the 2nd hive any time after 7:30 this morning. Like an expectant parent, he paced until it got warm enough to go pick them up- bees won’t fly until it’s 52 degrees.

(Piper)
I went out and looked at the bees. There was a drone on the outside of the package. I watched the drone. Daddy put his bee suit on and went outside and opened the package. He checked the hive and forgot to check if the queen had a cork in her package. That is important because he could have lost the hive if the queen couldn’t get out. The queen lays eggs.

When I was reading the Trumpet of the Swan outside a bee was chasing Mommy and me. It’s kind of ticklish to have that happen. It isn’t normal to have a bee chasing you. Wasps chase you but honey bees don’t usually.
(Piper Ends)

Hopefully this behavior will cease when orientation flights are over! Wish us luck on getting the new hive established. :-)

Lisa and Piper

This is a package. The queen is in her own little cage in the middle of all of those bees.

If you look closely you can see the drone (male). It’s a wee bit bigger than the ladies.