Archive for 'The Anderson Homeschool – Austin'
Oct 30, 2011
Pumpkins were carved.
Seeds roasted in the oven.
The smell of pumpkin soup filled the house.
A fall breeze flowed through the open windows while the kids watched Hocus Pocus.
Tonight we’ll read Goodnight Goon again.
I.love.fall.
Oct 06, 2011
My middle child came running into my office yesterday–dirty, sweaty, out of breath, and talking a mile a minute. The house had been awfully quiet and I figured my husband and the boys were up to something outside, but I didn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about. Then I went out and saw they were digging in a little space in our front yard. Instantly, I realized exactly what they had found.
10 years go, my husband and I buried a time capsule for our future children. We’d been married just a year and hadn’t even started to think about having kiddos at that point, but we had this crazy idea to make a time capsule and decided to go for it. I specifically remember we wrote letters to our future children (we thought we were only going to have two and we already had their names picked out…Tristan and Amerlyn. Thank goodness she came along to fulfill our prophecy). Over the years, I’ve thought about when we might dig up the time capsule with the kids. To be honest, I couldn’t really remember what else we had put in there, but I was *really* excited to read what we had written to our future kids.
When they first started digging, the boys had no idea that *we* were to ones who buried it. They were so wrapped up in the excitement of finding treasure…they were convinced it was at least 100 years old, LOL. I was crushed, however, when I saw that the bag protecting it had fallen apart and the tin was severely corroded. Everything that was paper inside the tin (including several photos, my copy of this book–which was a HUGE part of my life–newspapers, magazines, and oh no!!! THOSE LETTERS!!!!) was ruined. I may or may not have cried a little bit over that.
However, some things did survive…
That’s a Polaroid of my hubby and I when I was in college and there’s my genie watch (I was obsessed w/ all things Disney growing up) and somehow, a little miniature plastic Hungry Hippos game survived, too. There was a bunch of old jewelry (almost all of it was corroded beyond recognition), but the greatest find was our high school class rings!! I totally forgot that we had put them in there and I have spent countless hours searching the house for them over the years, LOL. That almost makes up for the lost letters ;-). They say diamonds are forever, but now I’m thinking it’s plastic, Polaroids, and gold.
The boys enjoyed the time capsule much more than we ever would have imagined. We’ve decided to make another one for our family to dig up in another 10 years. I’m excited to see what they choose to put in there and I *hope* we can come up with a water-tight container that won’t fall apart on us–any suggestions…something besides gold?
Have you ever created or recovered a time capsule? I would LOVE to hear your stories and share them w/ our kiddos (talk to me on Facebook).
Sep 19, 2011
A few years ago, I decided to try my hand at something completely new.
I picked out a small plot of land and made a little clearing.
In that clearing, I carefully planted a few little seeds.
After a few weeks of constant vigilance, life started to grow in my garden.
It was small, but it was beautiful.
It made me excited.
It made me happy.
As with most gardens, a few weeds sprouted here and there.
At first, I was diligent in removing the weeds.
However, after a short time of neglect, they became bolder, more plentiful.
I couldn’t keep up, so I decided that a few weeds were okay.
I told myself that they were natural.
I said the weeds were pretty.
I even photographed in them ;-).
I even photographed in them ;-).
Eventually, I could no longer see my garden.
I had actually forgotten what I had planted there.
The weeds had taken over.
There were too many.
The weeds became the garden.
I didn’t want to go to my garden anymore.
So I started to visit other gardens.
Their gardens were so well-maintained.
They had the prettiest blooms.
They had the best-smelling flowers.
Even the bees liked other gardens more than mine.
I didn’t want to visit other gardens anymore.
I’m a terrible gardener.
Gardening sucks.
**********************
But I still like flowers.
I miss my flowers.
I wish I could dig up all of those old weeds and see those flowers again.
Maybe I should.
Ugh, but there’s too many.
I can’t even face it.
What if I just pull one?
Just one.
Hmph.
That wasn’t too bad.
Didn’t make much progress though.
Tomorrow, I’ll pull another one. Maybe two. I can do three–no, four.
If I can keep this up every day for just a week, I might find what I loved again.
Maybe.
Weeds aren’t that pretty after all.
May 25, 2011
We rode bikes. We enjoyed the beautiful weather. I took snapshots of my kids. I didn’t care that my baby girl wasn’t perfectly coordinated. My middle son learned to ride on two wheels. We added a few more memories to the family memory bank.
Apr 10, 2011
After a week of setbacks and sickness, it’s been nice to stay in and hang with the kids. T-man decided that we didn’t have enough to keep track of in this house and introduced two new frogs/toads (there is debate) to our zoo. Logs has been practicing for his upcoming recital and I’m so proud of him for finding something that’s *all his* for a change. The littlest Anderson has decided that she enjoys cooking and has become a huge help (not really) in the kitchen. And yes, those are mealworms next to the wine on the counter. Welcome to my home.
Mar 14, 2011
On a stay-cation with the family. Will return e-mails, etc. when we’ve had enough of each other ;-).
[Note: Nobody panic. The blog is not broken. As part of a personal journey/experiment, comments have been disabled. Come hang out if you feel like it, take what you will from the posts, and don’t feel obligated to say a single word. I’ll certainly post more on this journey later, but let’s just say I’ve come to several realizations about myself…one of those being that I have developed an addiction to communication. Kind of funny coming from someone who majored in Communications, dontcha think? Wait. Don’t answer that.]
Mar 09, 2011
We’ve had those alphabet cards since I think my 7-yr-old was a baby. Neither of the boys ever really did much with them but perhaps use them as weapons. But she LOVES them…she could do this all day by herself.
Something else both of these two could do all day is paint. Back when the weather first hit a warm spell (which I think was just a few days after it SNOWED), we dragged out her play table into the yard to let them paint. Gosh it was precious…
Mar 03, 2011
I woke up to sweet giggles this morning and sneaked upstairs to find this scene. It was all I could do to hold it together. Reading to her. Just because. They’ve always had their special time in the mornings…I can’t believe this was almost exactly 2 years ago. They are so lucky to have each other.
And of course, my sweet little Logi Bear was still in hibernation.
And of course, my sweet little Logi Bear was still in hibernation.