Don’t get too excited (You know you are), because the photos aren’t working yet.

What I’ve done, because it annoys me to see text only posts here, is uploaded an older photo from the media library until (if) we get this issue resolved. In the meantime, I’ve also uploaded more recent photos for my Facebook 2013 album. If the link gives you any trouble, please let me know and I’ll try to fix it.

Friday, Christopher went to Barnes and Noble to meet another homeschool friend for a friendly game of Magic. While he was playing, another guy came along and asked to play as well. Since I was there with the other mom, we sat and talked while the three of them played. Everyone seemed to have fun.

Yesterday, Doug set up the dining room table with a screen for us to play D&D together. It’s something he’s been wanting to do for awhile, use a screen to keep track as he DMs the game. We tried to also use the figures on the map, but it was too hard to keep it aligned with movement on the screen, so we ended up just using the screen to make our moves. Christopher and I got our butts kicked pretty badly during the first encounter, but the second encounter we completely bypassed the whole zombie scenario Doug had set up! I guess we were too cautious after the first one!

I’m not sure what we’re going to do today, but it’s beautiful outside. Have a lovely Sunday!

NO PHOTO YET (SORRY, FOLKS)

So I’m still unable to upload photos to this site, which is annoying, but I guess I’ll just link to FaceBook or something if I want to post a picture.

I forgot to mention that Christopher sometimes takes a homeschool class that’s offered on a monthly basis at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The one this month (this past Tuesday) was on Sports Medicine. They talked about how fast different animals can run, pointing it out on a chart that showed a tree at zero mph and ending with a cheetah. Then they gave a formula for figuring out their speed. Each kid ran thirty feet at top speed, and they timed it with a radar gun. Christopher’s ‘top speed’ was 19mph, way faster than a tree.

The weather is getting nicer every day now, so hopefully he’ll be able to go over to his Aunt’s house soon for swimming. In the meantime, he’s doing well with his swimming lessons!

After a discussion tonight with my dear husband, I’ve decided to attempt to keep this site up to date. I was discouraged before because of problems uploading pictures (the one above is really old, btw, just testing) and problems with the site itself. But I might as well make the best of things; right?

Anyway, today was something I want to commemorate. Tonight, Christopher and I picked up our copies of ‘The Lightning Thief’ by Rick Riordon to give away next Tuesday on World Book Night. This will be our second year participating. Last year, we gave away copies of ‘Ender’s Game’ by Orson Scott Card, and it was so much fun! We were originally going to give away the books at a hospital, but they wouldn’t let us! So we went to the mall and gave away copies to the bored salespeople. It was a lot of fun, and I really think it helped get at least some more adults interested in reading for pleasure. This year, World Book Night coincides with the OAA testing, so I may give some copies away during the tests if it seems opportune and appropriate. If not, we’ll just hit the mall again.

So, tonight we went to the library and met some of the other givers who were picking up their boxes of books. Everyone was nice, and the librarian served tea and fruit. Christopher loved the tea; he even asked her what kind so that I could pick some up to make at home.

When I asked Christopher what he wanted to do on vacation, one of the things he said is that he would like to go to an arcade.  So, before we headed out today, I did some checking and found  an arcade and mini-golf place in Dayton called Rollandia Magic Castle.  We started out with breakfast at Panera and then moved on to a game of mini-golf and then spent some good quality father-son time shooting ninja terrorists.

We made it back  to Yellow Springs to pick up mommy a half hour early, so while we were sitting in the parking lot, we saw several F-16s flying by overhead.

We got back to the hotel early and I took a nap.  While napping, I heard the distinctive sound of fighter planes flying by so I quickly called Christopher and we got to the window just in time to see the three of the Blue Angels flying by in formation low enough and close enough that we could make out the details on the planes.  They were in town for the Dayton Air Show, which, unfortunately, we will miss.

Today was a low-key day.  Christopher and daddy had breakfast at Panera and then went to see The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  We both had a good time and really enjoyed the movie.

As I mentioned in an Earlier blog post, Cathy is attending the Antioch Writers’ Workshop at Antioch University Midwest in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  I’ll let Cathy tell you more about her experience in the writers’ workshop over on her blog at Ganymeder.com. We decided to spend the afternoon walking around town.  Yellow Springs is a charming town with a flower child feel.  We had a lot of fun but the heat and humidity was pretty bad and we had to call it quits early.

After Yellow Springs, we went and checked out a game and comic store called Bookery in Fairborn, Ohio.  Christopher had a lot of fun browsing the various games and comics.

Today, we went to the Boohshoft Museum of Discovery.  This is the sort of hands on Science Museum that Christopher (and Daddy) really loves.  We started with a stroll through the space section, then went and played with some water wheels and locks.  Christopher climbed a net and took the plastic slide down with, and without, a blanket to see if he could increase the amount of static electricity he generated.  We then went upstairs where Christopher got to play in a mock landfill and pretend to be a garbage man?!?!?!

We spent the rest of the time at the museum seeing the various planetarium shows and exhibits.

Christopher finished the book that he bought yesterday (that’s right, a 300  page novel in 24 hours).

Today, while mommy was at her writer’s conference, Christopher and daddy went to Olentangy Indian Caverns.  This was something that we have been looking forward to doing for a long time.  We arrived pretty close to opening and bought tickets for a guided tour of the caverns.  We had about 30 min to kill before the tour so we browsed in the gift shop.

The caverns were very interesting.  They were carved by an underground river and used by the Native Americans of the area for shelter and council meetings.  Lots of cool stories of bandits, etc.

After the tour, Christopher and I bought a fossil bag and an emerald bag and hit the sluice for some gem mining.  We had never done this before but it was a lot of fun.  We found some shark teeth and other fossils as well as some fool’s gold, and a bunch of pretty purple, green, and clear gems.

Christopher quickly made friends with the goat and sheep that freely roam the property.  We left and made it back just in time to pick mommy up for lunch.

update: We finished the day off by going to Half Price Books where Christopher found a book called Nightmare Academy which he hasn’t been able to put down.  The book was at a good price so we grabbed the sequel as well.

While Doug is reorganizing our webpages, the articles and especially photos will be available off and on. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

In the meantime, here are the 2 most recent pictures I’ve taken. We posted them on FaceBook in honor of Towel Day- the day fans choose to honor Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by conspicuously wearing a towel all day long. If you don’t understand the significance, it helps to read the books! haha

There’s lots going on now but not much to say. Christopher has 2 more weekends of flag football before he starts soccer. Next month he has Summer Camp (which he’s looking forward to), and this is the last week of school!

Have a nice day, and Bye for now.

There’s plenty of new photos in the gallery for April and May, but I’ll highlight a few here. Things have been pretty hectic around here until this week. Christopher’s been playing flag football on Saturdays, and next month he’ll start soccer and also spend a week at Summer Camp. He’s also had a lot going on for school that threw a wrench in our schedule- OAAs a week or so ago, plus every 2 weeks he goes to a Homeschool Class. He had his first ‘Kids Who Write’ meeting at the Library.

Now that he’s approaching the end of the school year, we’ve been able to take things a little easier. He only has a few subjects left, just a few lessons in each subject (not including Music and Art), so we’ve been able to expand on them and have a little fun. For instance, a few times we’ve watched Shakespeare movies or movies as adaptions of Shakespeare plays, then discussed them, and I’ve been able to count that as Literature. We’ve worked on practicing his soccer moves in the driveway in the afternoons -P.E. We baked a cake together, talking about measurements in detail and how to convert them (how would he double 3/4th of a cup? What would that equal?), and whether what happens to the dough in the oven is a physical or chemical change – Math and Science. That sort of thing. It’s fun!

Towards the end of April, Autumn and I went to see ‘A MidSummer Night’s Dream’ in Cleveland. The production interpreted the play as taking place in the 60′s, so there were lots of hippy jokes and slapstick. It was hilarious! I had asked Christopher if he wanted to go when we bought tickets, and he said no. Then the day before he changed his mind, but it was too late. So as a consolation gift, I bought him a William Shakespeare Action figure. He loved it! The next day, he had him fight the Hulk with his mighty quill (mighter than sword). Of course, we all know that Will won.

So, last Saturday he went to flag football, which he loves…

Then after we dropped Doug off at work  we went to Free Comic Book Day at Heroic Adventures in Massillon. My friends Nikki and Joe were there dressed as Superman and WonderWoman, plus we got free comics (of course!). Then we drove to Canal Fulton really quick to Toys Time Forgot and met Darth Vader and one of his minions- I mean Storm Troopers. Then afterward, we picked Doug up for dinner and went to Land of Cran in Canton for one last stop for Free Comics. I was even able to pick up some Doctor Who ones!

I’ve written several more short stories and poems, and started submitting my work. I’ve gotten a couple rejections but lots of feedback. One rejection said that if I edited slightly I could resubmit to the magazine, so I did. I think I’m starting to get more into the groove of submitting my work.

That’s about all for now. We still have schoolling to do today, so I’d better go.  Bye for now.

Thursday, April 15 , 2010.

It’s been a busy month for us. Bonnie is still recovering from her gallbladder surgery, but hopefully she won’t need to keep going back to the doctor too much more. Doug has been working hard, as always, and has been getting steadily healthier. Christopher has been writing fiction stories about once a week, and almost 2 weeks ago Doug set him up with his own blog to post his stories (http://www.therussellfamily.org/~monsterbat). On Friday the 2nd, I tweeted a link on Twitter for his first #fridayflash story. He’s gotten a ton of favorable comments and lots of encouragement. He’s very excited about posting his fiction!

For Easter, everyone had a nice time. Christopher got a big basket filled with a football, candy, a notebook, bubbles, and toys. After we went to Autumn and Bonnie’s house for lunch, he searched their house to fill another basket with candy and toys. Later, he hunted plastic eggs too!

Everyone enjoyed their meals, and we spent the whole afternoon there. Christopher got to play a videogame with Aunt Autumn, shoot hoops with mom, and towards the end we all played a quiz game. Everyone had a great day.

Christopher will start Flag Football this Saturday, since he was unable to go to the first game last week (he was sick).

He’s also started a Homeschool Class that teaches Art, Music, and Soccer once every 2 weeks.

We went to our Poetry Reading at the Massillon Public Library on Monday night. Christopher was brilliant and made everyone laugh with his funny poem. I’ll reprint it here.

Lightning of Heaven

Lightning is like a pole of fire
reaching down from heaven’s sky,
and when I see of course I climb it,
And then I ask, “Where is (pi)?”

I also won the (Adult) Poetry Contest! I was really, REALLY nervous. I’ve never read my poetry in front of anyone before, but Doug put me at my ease as much as possible. My hands and voice shook, but it must not have been too noticeable because everyone seemed to enjoy it. Here is a copy of my poem that I read, “notebooks.”

notebooks

my shelf is filled with beautiful journals i’ve never written in
dust covered but lovely just the same
the papers were never marred
by pencil
ink splotches
stains from food or drink
they are pristine
except for the dust
nothing ever seemed good enough to put down on the pages
or i’d dedicate a notebook to a single subject
but nothing was ever good enough
to stain the perfect pages
so most of them stayed blank
and sat on my shelf
safe and dusty
i wonder what i would have written
if i had dared to ruin them

now that i’m older
and wise enough to know i’m not
i don’t care if the pages are pristine
i dont care if they aren’t the way i envisioned them
all i care about
is the feel of the notebook cover
pliable and soft in my hands
watching the ink glide over the creamy surface of its pages
i choose all colors that i think are beautiful
that way
whatever mess i make
will be a lovely rainbow

they are my notebooks
my mess
i wonder what pleasure i missed
by denying myself so long
the pleasure of failing

*
The contest was judged by a Professor of Poetry. There were over 180 submissions. I still can’t believe I won. And after I heard him perform his own poetry, I’m completely relieved that I didn’t have to read after him. He was incredible.

That’s about all for now. Hopefully Christopher’s Flag Football will go well on Saturday. He’s doing really, really well in school, and next week he goes to take the OAAs (Ohio Achievement Assessments). The OAAs, from my understanding, are the tests resulting from the No Child Left Behind legislation.

Have a great day!