Bird's-Eye View of the Week: Meet the Artists

If we're not getting ripped off by our government in these parts, it's the Weather Shamans.

It was dubbed "Snowquestration" as a play on the recent Congressional stab at balancing a budget that has put so many--including our fledged "robin"---on a work diet through forced unpaid days off. The shamans made lots of promises of monumental adverse conditions--icing, downed power lines, bread and toilet paper shortages. But just like Congressional tactics, it didn't work out as planned.

I was stunned though by how many of my friends were pumped by the vision of a foot of snow dumped on us even as our daffodils have emerged. Seems we're so snow-day deprived that we'll accept it at almost any cost. Most of them sounded like what they really wanted was some weather-imposed family time. Funny. And sad. Needless to say, their kids are educated in the Red Brick Building.

Ginevra de' Benci.  The only Da Vinci in North America.

In our Yellow-Sided Homeschool, the weather PRIOR to the non-event was ideal to field trip to the National Gallery of Art on the Mall in Washington. (THE Mall. No "Five Belows" here.) Our goal was to see as many of the paintings that we had discussed in our co-op art appreciation class that uses "Meet The Masters."  It's such a privilege to be able to easily access originals of some of the world's greatest works of art. And it never fails to impress students to stand in front of the very work they have only seen in books or slides. To be able to see the brushstrokes and sometimes--as in the Da Vinci portait "Ginevra de' Benci"--the actual fingerprint of the artist.

Clockwise from top left: Entering the East Building through the "Multiverse" or as C.K. called it "The Tunnel of Awesomeness"; Calder over homeschoolers; Handy art.

Meet the Masters doesn't limit itself to earlier periods, but brings us artists right to the present day. Fortunately, the Gallery does too in its East Wing building which is devoted to modern art. We had fun  acting out some of the works as you can see!

Clockwise from top left: Marilyn by Warhol vs Mei by God; Waltz of the Georgia O'Keeffe Flowers; "La Scienza della fiacca" ("The Science of Laziness") by Frank Stella and kids who are NOT.

We tried to exit the city ahead of the usual rush (which normally starts as early as 3:30), but alas, everyone ELSE was in a hurry to exit the city ahead of the usual rush which meant that we all still stood in traffic. And just to be the first for bread, milk, and toilet paper.

So Winter Storm "Saturn" was all hot air like its namesake, but I still let Mei have a "snow day." I took on some more bread-baking projects and ended up with two fantastic baguettes and a sourdough boule!  On a sloppy night, it went perfectly with the slow-cooked minestrone from 5 Dinners-in-1 Hour.com.

My First Sourdough Bread.Not my last.

Mei jumped into the first week of her new spelling workbook by Evan-Moor Publishing, Building Spelling Skills. While I was afraid the Charlotte Mason police would be after me for using a workbook, I think they might let me off with this one. It encourages creating a visual in the mind of the word, instructs to spell aloud while touching the letters of the word (multi-sensory), and even uses dictation! And it's not twaddley. OK, so Mei only got a 78, but I have confidence!

While I'm having fun helping little girls learn something I've loved my whole adult life, SEWING, Mei spends an hour in her co-op's Learning Through Games class. She's uber-duber disappointed that she's not taking sewing (she didn't know I was a helper),  but God had it all worked out. While I can teach her sewing any old time (and already have), homeschooling an only child leaves us with limited choices for game-playing.    So far she has played Quirkle and Set. I hope I get some leads on winners (haha) that we can invest in for home.

After Father R and I recover from Mei's hyper  lively friend sleeping over, we can look forward to some spring-like weather for riding lessons. It will be a welcome change. And just think: the farm could have been buried in snow. We'll forgive ya' this time, Shamans!

Got Snow, Saturn, Sequestration or Sourdough? Tell Mother All About It!
Linking up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers , Homeschool Mother's Journal, Collage Friday, Beautiful Family Friday and Hammock Tracks. Thanks, guys!

Bird's-Eye View of the Week: Snow Days: Another Reason to Homeschool

From the looks of posts on Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers' blog  there are LOTS of people's weeks being upended by snow disruptions. I can commiserate. Last year Old Man Winter had the Mid-Atlantic is his sights. Our PS kids lost so much schooltime, there weren't even enough "make-up" days at the end of the year to right the balance. Adjustments even  had to be made for graduation requirements.

Last year. Not to be repeated, we hope.

  At first, our homeschool's plan was to give a "snow day" when the PS closed. But after a couple of times of that, we adjusted to having half-days. This seemed fair since we can get done in about half the time of a PS kid's regular day, so Mei would be able to keep up with her studies and still be free to play with the neighbors who were sleeping in most days anyway!

   I think the Ambleside Online team even posted on their Yahoo Group site how to share AO with those PS families whose kids were getting woefully behind.

   I also feel sorry for the PS families who just don't know what to do with their kids!

"My kids are driving me crazy!" "My kids are bored!"

 "I'm tired of making cookies!"

 What a shame. When I read these things, I'm thankful that MY "blessing" is NOT bored, and that she does NOT drive me crazy--at least by being home anyway! :-D Snow Days: Another Reason to Homeschool.

      We had a "Surprise Snow"last week that caused a lot of chaos in the area, especially where the Grand-Robins live. Hundreds of thousands of outages and commuters stuck on DC roads for many, many hours, our fledged DD included. So once again, keeping to our routines as best as possible allowed school to continue in the midst of it. Yet we were able to flex and assist family members as well.
    This week's weather promised chaos and then didn't deliver, which can be chaotic anyway. Thus despite  the weather's best attempts to disrupt our educational routines, we marched onward. 

    In History, we've been reading about happenings on both Sides of the Pond. On America's side, from  This Country of Ours we read about Jamestown's beginnings through the Starving Time. I contrasted the horrors of surviving when 5/6ths of the population died--mostly from the results of their indolence---to the rather squeaky-clean site we had visited down in Virginia. Nonetheless, the site's webpage has lots of good teaching tools that we may use to advance our study. On the other side of the pond, from An Island Story is James I of England and the inspirational story of Jenny Geddes who stood up to the King and his "reforms" of the early Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Moral: Don't mess with a Scot, especially a woman!

     Enchanted Learning.com provided us with some quick color-and-fill-in-the-blank maps of Virginia to add to Mei's knowledge of the geography of the area. I've been sneaking in more Geography that way.

     Math was about as much fun as a fall on the ice a unit ago when Mei was confronted with Multiple-Digit Multiplication with Regrouping. Even the name sounds daunting.  She struggled so much with the addition part that she failed a test for the first time in her Math "Career." Testing the ideas of Amy Chua ,the now-famous , or infamous, Tiger Mother, I demanded that Mei work and rework each problem until it was correct. One day took four hours of math alone. I could feel the cold, hard stare of Charlotte "Short Lesson" Mason on my neck.   Whether or not it was worth the trouble, Mei has improved dramatically. She only got one problem wrong on the latest test. Because she is a dawdler and dreamer, perhaps knowing how painful reworking will be, she may be paying closer attention the first time around. Close attention. Now that's something Charlotte can agree with.

  Reading and Life

Mei was inspired by a Reading lesson to make the recipe she had studied. I never

would have taken the thing seriously, but

I'm glad she did. The Energy Bars were delicious and the best part was she made them with very little help from me. Masterly Inactivity. Now Charlotte can even be proud of me!

Art and Nature Study were combined through Harmony Art's Year 3 program through which we have lately focused on the works of John James Audubon. I carefully selected several of his prints to copy and hang in our Powder Room Gallery. These included our State Bird, the Little Auk as mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter,  the Passenger Pigeon, a beautiful bird which we will never see in life due to its extinction, and an American Woodcock so we could see what our English Cocker Spaniel was bred to hunt. (We thought it was house cats and stuffed animals.) Mei created her most successful painting assignment yet of a blue jay from a life photo.



Music  Concluding the week was a field trip to the Meyerhoff to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's BSO Kids Mid-Week concert  performance of  works by Beethoven narrated by the great composer himself! Where else are we going to hear concert hall performances for $6?? 

She liked this because it had a dog in it.

More Art Appreciation  Then we made it a double trip by stopping into the Walter's Art Museum and viewing the Renaissance and Baroque exhibits along with a quick trip through the special exhibit focusing on animals in  Medieval manuscripts. Seeing those books in person is so awe-inspiring! Impossible to imagine the hours and years that would go into the creation of ONE book! No wonder the printing press changed history!





We found a Rafael!



  



Anthing can make a jump,
but watch your step in the
Livng Room!

So with rain on top of snow Mei will get her exercise at the barn and then spend the afternoon riding around her own outdoor and truly  "indoor  arenas".  And that's how you get an education despite "snow days".

So how do you deal with bad weather?











Signs of Spring. Kind of.

The snow is still everywhere , but has decidedly retreated. Whenever we pass a bit of turf, we yell, "Grass!" The walls of plowing that gave our driveway a tunnel effect have now flattened to almost nothing. You still can't find the entrances to parking lots easily, landmarks are obscured, and crossing a mounded median half-blinded still takes guts, but it's manageable.
The retreating snow, gray and dingy, now reveals the war wounds the landscape has received. Lawns bordering neighborhood streets are maimed by the gouges of snowplows. Whole sections of curb are reduced to chunks of gravel. Mailposts everywhere are bent like matchsticks. Mailboxes themselves are reattached with whatever is at hand: rope, duct tape, Christmas lights. One enterprising neighbor created a whole new delivery system with a plastic snaplid shoebox stuck to a broomstick. The ugly side of a snowfall is made known.
But for us, there was indeed a welcome result of the melt-off. While walking the dog past MeiWei's friend's house, a round, blue, bucket-like shape was rearing. Looking closer, I saw the Ultimate Sign of Spring: The Boot!!!
Yes, the boot that Meiwei stepped right out of at the height of some blizzard or other two weeks before had emerged, sodden and encrusted but still
more beautiful than a crocus. Surely spring must be on its way!

No Manliness, PLEASE

Father R is probably sitting in the 6-12" zone, but may be as far north as the 1-2 FEET zone. Not to mention hurricane-force winds, downed trees and closed highways. The challenge now is convincing him he does not have to prove his manhood by attempting to come home in this.
Please, Father R, wherever you are, enjoy the hotel hot tub and STAY PUT!!!!!

AccuWeather.com - Weather News Snow Map for the Northeast Blizzard or "Snowicane"

Snow-icane

So there's this monstrous storm building up in Texas and heading for the Northeast. It seems so strange that it's not going to be taking us down for a beating, but attacking someone else instead. I almost feel cheated on. Now I know winter has driven us crazy.
Nonetheless, we are being included because Father R is at a conference in NJ where they are predicted to get 6-12". Natch he drove the less-war-worthy sedan when he could've taken on Ma Nature in his 4-wheel drive pickup tank. It may not have looked very professional at the meetings, but he'd have had the last laugh.
Here's the map:

Snow-verload, part 2

Back at home, we were prepared but facing new challenges. The lights went out temporarily and we thanked God and Father R that we had a generator. We kept in frequent contact with my parents an hour away. Father R had brought in supplies while in their neck on Monday so we knew they were supplied.
    I tried to maintain some routine in MeiWei's life. We couldn't afford to keep taking snow days along with the school system (who will be going until July it seems). While she worked on a map of--no kidding--Hawaii, she giggled about getting wet. "I knew it couldn't be rain because it's snowing!"
   I looked up and found drops coming from the ceiling.  Father R was concerned, but was busy with the plow.  When all was quiet and I was making lunch, I was alerted to a tapping sound nearby. Now the drips were coming from the middle of the room.   Snow piling up on the balcony over head was blocked and melting into the house!  First one, then two, then three pots were lined up on the floor. Father R came in and immediately headed for a ladder and a shovel. I tried to squelch the idea of going up on a ladder in a blizzard, but he  wouldn't be stopped. Thankfully, he got down the offending blockage  without harm and the leaking stopped.
    The doors on all sides began to be blocked and finding a way for the dog to relieve himself presented a new challenge. Dad R had shoveled a path early on but it had filled up. And opening the slider onto the deck brought in snow-filled gusts.
   The front door, protected in part by the porch roof, provided the only means of "escape" for the dog who still had to wade around ankle deep for a spot and ended up choosing the doormat.
     We expected the snow and wind to let up by nightfall, but it maintained the same pace. The radar showed us to be on the southern edge of a rotating ball of clouds spinning in place over the Mid-Atlantic.  We had played the board games we bought in prep for more cabin fever, had dinner, talked and read weather news until there was nothing left to talk or read about.
   Then Dad got the idea.
    He "double-dog dared" MeiWei to walk all the way out to the "potty patch" that he had just dug in the yard for the dog---in bare feet.   For a piece of chocolate.  And she agreed if he would do it too.  And he did. So Tai and I laughed and grabbed cameras and watched their Polar Bear Stroll.
    Then Tai was dared and she did it. And then MeiWei went out three more times. And I didn't and was accused of being a "wooss" and I agreed to that.
    And it snowed for another hour after everyone went to bed.
    And Baltimore has a new all-time, since 1884, record of total yearly snowfall of 74.5 inches. And it's only mid-February.

Snow-verload, part 1

The rumors became fact. Accuweather.com proved worthy of its name. First eight inches, no ten-twelve inches...no, 18-20...oh, we'll just have to see what we end up with but it'll be really bad, ok?
Act I was as you would expect from a first act, rather fun and exciting, a nice introduction to the play.
Act II is when the plot turns sour. And so did this storm.

Winter Storm Warnings on Tuesday turned to Blizzard Warnings on Wednesday until 7 pm. Those were later extended to 10 pm. Snowfall estimates were ever-climbing and drift estimates were added as winds drove the snow sideways for hours.

The night before I stumbled over to the We-Is market to get more food to last another week (the amount of time we expected to be house-bound) plus, more importantly, some wine. (Had enough of the must-have bread and toilet paper.) I walked the aisles in a stress-induced daze. An enterprising person had shoved a "Snowplower for Hire" sign under the counter's glasstop.

DH got home early and again went into lock-down mode with wood, wood pellets, shovels, salt, and snowblower. It was becoming a routine that was not welcome.

The snow began, grudgingly it seemed, around mid-afternoon. By nightfall a few inches had collected. (Any other year, that would have been noteworthy alone, possibly cancelling school.)

Father Robin suggested that it was going to miss us; this was all we'd get.
But by bedtime, it picked up and snowed in earnest all the rest of the night. By morning there was around 6-8 inches. Then the storm truly began.
Snow came heavily all morning. At noon the wind also picked up, driving the snow sideways for most of the afternoon. White-outs were frequent.
At home, the girls and the dog went out to take video. Father R fired up Ol' Bess the Blower and headed out for another crawl up and down the driveway, harvesting the same "crop" he had spent hours on two days earlier. He found where the dog had relieved himself and blew it to smithereens over a bank.

Unlike the miraculous road conditions the county maintained in Act I, this time, the only thing going by were plows. And not often. By late in the day, even they had been called off the roads because of hazardous conditions.

You know it's getting bad when the plows get stuck.

Snow My Gosh

It began Friday, the 5th. Nobody could really imagine how it would end.


It was predicted to be a "ten-loafer". In this area, where an inch of snow can send the cities into paroxysms of panic, people's anxiety can be measured by how many loaves of bread they will stock up on. (Packages of toilet paper can be substituted.) Three loaves means school will be closed for a day. At five-loaves,a foot of snow and so on. People in the Mid-Atlantic must eat a lot of french toast before shoveling.
This storm prediction emptied shelves. Bread, toilet paper, coffee, booze, you name it. Whatever your priority.
At our house, I had placed a sizable order from Peapod home delivery. My DH had stocked wood in the garage and filled the snowblower's gas tank. We were ready for it. And it came. And we saw. And it conquered. Twenty-two inches piled up in our yard.

The birds went through five pounds of seed in 24 hours. The dog couldn't see over the swath cut by the snowblower. The cat was thrown outside in the morning by well-meaning MeiWei and crept under the deck where he remained throughout the storm. We worried he would be buried alive. (He surfaced at dusk.)

Tai escorted MeiWei to her friend's house to sleepover. The snow was knee deep and took them twenty minutes to walk to the next house a couple acres away.
While playing there, Mei got her boot stuck in a snowbank, pulled out her foot and ran inside in her sock. Upon returning, no one could find the boot. The plow had been through since, completing the burial. We were some of the two dozen exhausted customers at Wally World the next day--one of the few places even open--where we searched frantically for replacements.

Then we began hearing rumors of another storm coming.

"One Inch" of Snow

This is what "one inch" of snow looks like.
Boy, I wish I could get a job as a weatherman.
You're only right 50% of the time, and you still get paid

The view

How "cotton" is grown around here.

  When all else fails, take a bath.

ANOTHER Snowstorm!!!!!

This is sooooo UN-Baltimore/Washington. This is the fourth storm we've had since the first on Dec. 5. It was reported on The Weather Channel last night (before this one even started) that DC was already, like, 298% above normal in snowfall amounts.
And now we're getting another one. Which typically was forecasted to be an inch.
As of 11 PM , it has been snowing for 5 hours and there is easily 3inches on the ground. It is supposed to snow all night. That will be a BIG "inch."
If that wasn't enough, there will be more this weekend.
Probably only an "inch".

I'm Dreaming of a White Super Saturday

"Out of Order"

Our "Super Saturday Blizzard" fell on Dec 19, 2009. A record 20+ inches of snow fell in the Balt./Wash. area, the most ever in a 24-hour period. I had a ball taking pictures of the progress of the snowfall's ever- higher climb up windows and atop deck furniture.

"Lunch on the deck?"

We hope everyone in the sunnier sections of the country patriotically overspent  to make up for the one third of the population who could not shop on this fiscally most-important of days.

God Bless America and Merry Christmas.

(Dont' miss the slide show below for more views.)

"Red, VERY White, and Blue"