Lesson #17 Last Soccer Game of the Fall 2012 Season

Evie's soccer season concluded in Frankfort KY a few weeks ago. She played really well and although they lost she had a great attitude about it. Evie has been playing soccer since she was 5 years old. She played for the same coach for about 5 years and she was sad when it was time to say goodbye to that team. Her teammates/their parents/siblings ect. had become like family to us and us to them. I was extremely anxious for her when it was time to search for a new team to play with (she had aged out of that league). Not to mention they won almost ALL the time.

I have been beyond pleased and so has Evie with her new team. They haven't won yet, and she doesn't care. She really loves her teammates and feels just as close a connection to them as she did the old team. I would say that the fact that her team is a team of homeschoolers is what has made the transition so smoothly. They are kind and supportive of each other, have great attitudes, and really just love to get together and play. I feel also that she enjoys being around more homeschoolers her own age because they can relate to each others life experiences, just as public school children do. Evie loves practice and looks forward to it EVERY week! I also love her coaches attitude. She inspires me, and makes Evie and I really appreciate her greatly when she talks about trying to reach out to kids, help kids, and just give them  positive reinforcement. We are blessed to be a part of her and her son's team! Looking forward to practicing indoors all winter and the 2013 Spring Season!

Lesson #16 International Festival at the Local Community College

The International Festival day at our community college is something we have attended every year since we began homeschooling. It is a fun day that is extremely educational and diverse, especially for our small, rural town. Some of the highlights from this year for us included Native American dancers, African Drumming circle, fire eating and dancing, an art reception of beautiful fiber arts made from artist own sheep, and the Mariachi Band. We also enjoyed the ethnic food prepared by the college's culinary students, all the booths with info and pictures from different countries and ethnicity, and the displays of "heads" from the cosmetology students who have displays of hair/make up from different parts of the world on barbie like heads.This is an event I know we will continue to attend!

Lesson #15 Enjoying our Woods and taking Mushroom pictures.

Last Friday Evie and I hiked around the woods on our own property. Now Evie really only spends time in the woods during Autumn and Winter. She hates ticks and the heat, so that rules out Spring and Summer for her in the woods...no matter what I tell her she is missing out on! This is our third Autumn on our property. It is truly amazing to watch how nature changes when untouched by human hands. Now the Earth has caused changes through storm, drought, rain, wild growth, ect. but much of our little piece of Earth remains untouched, except perhaps by our feet. We also had a fabulous time searching for mushrooms and taking pictures of all the different specimens we found. It was a beautiful day with my beautiful child surrounded by our lovely and wonderful homestead.

Lesson #14 Celebrating Bread Baking Outside!

Our good friend Steve is a potter and a bread maker. The two really do go hand in hand, they are very similar forms of art. He recently completed his outdoor oven. It is beautiful! To celebrate his accomplishment several friends got together to bake...of course! Everyone brought some sort of bread to bake. It was fabulous. After we had partaken of several types of bread we all began to experience foggy brain from carb overload. Some of the breads we devoured were; rye, beautiful white loaves, homemade pretzels with homemade beer cheese (to die for), stromboli (with vodka sauce), a sausage stuffed bread (wonderful with the cream cheese and homemade pepper jelly on top), Evie's sweet bread, a skillet apple pie, and a lovely creamy pear dish. All cooked in Steve's fabulous oven. We stayed warm by the fire created from the oven. You actually remove the wood/hot coals before baking. So we transferred the hot coals to the fire pit for a great time sitting outside around the fire. Evie's bread was delicious, and she was very proud of it. She made a sweet bread with dried apricots, dates, and walnuts. Since I forgot to take a pic of her bread, bellow is the recipe she used. I had made homemade pizza dough for the kids to make pizzas and there was so much other food they just never got around to it, so the pics of the pizza was my creation with the dough at home. I am sure there will be more baking days and we look forward to it! I only took the one pic at the bread celebration party, and will add a pic of the oven soon.

Evie's Sweet Apricot/Date bread:
 makes one loaf-bake at 350 for 55-65min.

1 cup chopped pitted dates 
1 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 chopped walnuts
2 eggs
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
combine dates/apricots/butter/baking soda
pour in boiling water-stir well and let stand for 15 min.
beat sugar/walnuts/and eggs into fruit mixture
combine rest of dry ingredients and stir into fruit mixture until blended
cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes

Lesson #13 Pictures in the Woods with BFF

A few years ago I took some pics out in the woods on Evie's birthday. I took some of Evie alone and several of her and her BFF Destiny. They have been friends since birth and Destiny is 11 months older than Evie.  Her BFF's mother is my best friend. The girls would obviously be stuck together regardless, but their friendship is a beautiful relationship all on its own. Since the first photo shoot we have taken several shots in the woods. Here are some I took yesterday....they are so beautiful. Also I just have to mention they are both wearing beautiful 5$ Goodwill dresses :) I think the last pic of them laughing is my favorite.

Lesson #12 Bear Wallow Farm

Today we went to Bear Wallow Farm with some friends and fellow homeschoolers. Bear Wallow Farm is a farm that is open during the Autumn only. Fun things to see and do such as; feeding sheep/goats/fish/ducks, observing other animals like long horn steer, emus, pot belly pigs, donkeys, rabbits, other birds and more. Also there is a corn maze, a pumpkin cannon that shoots pumpkins about 3000 ft., and lastly a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch.Autumn is our favorite season as a family and October our favorite month of the year! This is the first of many Autumn fun things!

Evie and Friends

Lesson #11 Art Work Constructivism

Our art work last week was centered around Constructivism-using line and shape. Some of the artist we studied were Tatlin, Vasarely, Mondrian and Kandinsky. We are great lovers of Kandinsky's work. Fun as always, with proportionate messes!

Info for Constructivism artworks:
A modern art movement developed in 1917 by the Russian sculptor Vladimir Tatlin (1880-1938). The aim was to construct abstract sculpture suitable for an industrialized society, and the work pioneered the use of modern technology and materials such as wood, glass, plastics and steel. Constructivism was introduced to Western Europe by Antoine Pevsner in Paris, and his brother Naum Gabo in Germany. The principles of Constructivism were highly influential in twentieth century Western art, although for political reasons its influence in Russia ended by 1921

Watercolor/Acrylic on Paper

Acrylic/Watercolor/Soft Pastel on Paper