Restoration Place

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker ~ #2

Taken through the kitchen window and screen.

Because I can't get enough of this beauty.

 

 And then she's gone.

 

Downy wings in. The Sapsucker will be back...she's found her suet source.

Makes Me Happy ~ Creating My Space

 

This is the top of my rolltop desk. It's where I sit at the computer to read, write, think, and where I organize (sort of) my stuff. Even though there are many areas of my home that have yet to be put in order since our move, I needed to create this small place to give me joy. And it does.

 

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

A female Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker has been visiting our suet, and we're thrilled because it's the first we have ever seen.

The photo is blurry, but I'm glad to have actually gotten a few. She's been getting bolder, not minding if we stand close to the window near the feeder, and ignoring the two cats that peer at her through the glass.

When we first saw her, my mind immediately wanted to identify her as a Downy Woodpecker. But the Downy is chunkier, smaller, and whiter than the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker (to mention a few differences) and now that we've been comparing them as they take turns at the suet, they look very different from each other.

Guess we'll have to refill the suet if we want her to keep visiting.

From There to Here

There...

 

Here...

 

 

...where even overwhelmed with boxes, stuff, disorganization, and trying to find our way around our new locale, tea and reading must go on. It's an oasis of normalcy in this settling in time.

I'll be here cleaning and freshening up the blog, and posting as I can. I've missed this place. For those who left kind comments or emailed in the last few months and never heard back, I'm so sorry and I do hope you'll extend grace. Know that your words spoke life to me, even though I was too stressed and numb to respond.

This long season of relocation -- beginning in February and continuing with our current settling in -- has left me more raw and broken than I could have ever imagined. But I've landed in my restoration place and I am experiencing His healing.

 

This Morning

As I was reading emails this morning before the children awoke, I looked out our sunroom door and responded to an invitation.

I slipped quietly out the front door, around to the side, down the brick path...

  

...and through the gate to the back. 

I sat down on the stone retaining wall by the mossy bricks, under the giant beeches, and read and sipped. I breathed in His presence. 

 

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning."

Hosea 6:3

New Math Curriculum ~ Teaching Textbooks

Not great photo quality -- still trying to figure out how to use my new camera.

After a very frustrating year of math with my oldest child, in the middle of which I asked Karl (math and engineering expert) to intervene and chart a course for her and the other children for the remainder of the year, I was finally motivated to take a look at Teaching Textbooks.

I'm weak with anything beyond basic math, don't know how to introduce new concepts creatively to a child who really needs it, can't possibly convey any sort of enthusiasm for math, and honestly, I don't like it. I'm grateful my oldest can now pop in a CD-ROM, open her math book, and with little guidance from me, make progress and admit that she sort of likes it.

  

Maggie is using Teaching Textbooks 7, Jacob Teaching Textbooks 5, and Katie Teaching Textbooks 3.

I'm one of those home educating moms whose weakness in math has led to trying several different math programs through the years (Making Math Meaningful, Math U See, and finally Harcourt Family Learning Math, but I think we've found something we can all live with for at least the next couple of years.

 

Waving Hello

What do you say after it's been so long, you're weary of this season in your life, you're not sure if you ever really want to blog again (but some people would enjoy it if you would, like hubby, mom and sister, and you could imagine finding joy in it again ;-), you're perimenopausal, you feel raw and are just trying to survive, and can't see what's around the next corner? 

I think it would all sound like one long whine, and I don't know who wants to read that.

   

Beautiful sunlight streaming into our woods and yard recently.

Karl began his new job three months ago and comes home for the weekends (our 135 lb. Redbone Coonhound stands watch over the house in Karl's absence). The house listed nearly two months ago and continues to attract traffic, and we've had some contracts that didn't work out for various reasons (controlled grimace).

 

Exploring in our creek down the hill.
  

There are fresh flowers and birthdays and children running and playing and meals and laundry and getting ready for house showings and loading the dog into the back of the vehicle for each one.

 
 These red-dyed sunflowers make me smile every time I look at them.

And baby ring necked snakes and moths that match dark spots in beech tree bark and all the other normal stuff that makes up this life.

 

  

Baby snake (which I picked up), moth (unidentified), Ben lounging with Pepper,

Maggie sewing on Nana's machine which she brought when she came to visit.

If I can find breathing space, I'll be back. I'd like to clean and freshen up the blog, unless real life intervenes. Until then, blessings to you and yours.

My Head is Spinning ~ Relocation

News: Karl has accepted a job offer which will move us to the greater Hagerstown/Frederick (or even on the other side of the Potomac river in West Virginia), Maryland area. I'm thrilled for him and this new opportunity for our family in that beautiful, historic area, and a little anxious (ok, a lot anxious) about what it's going to take to get this house market-ready. And about homeschooling in some form or fashion through this season of change.

Thankfully, it's only about a two hours' drive from where we live now, which will make the process smoother. Maybe.

If I'm not here much, you can just imagine me scrubbing, painting, purging, and making other preparations for this house to sell. 

I'm already wondering about all the great people we'll meet and connections we'll make in our new area, and excited about all our new adventures there!

Banana Split Muffins

I first tasted delicious Banana Split Muffins at my friend Denice's years ago, in my long-ago Ohio days. She always made the best homemade bread and other baked goodies (and still does, plus lots of other great food). I had completely forgotten about the muffins until recently, when she linked to her recipe (a slightly modified version of her friend's) on Facebook.

With children looking over my shoulder at the recipe and begging to give it a try, overripe bananas on the kitchen counter, and just barely enough maraschino cherries in the fridge, we gave it a whirl. We liked the results.

When the muffins came out of the oven, the children immediately requested Tea and Reading, since we had the "goods" to go with it. Doesn't take much to convince me to delay kitchen clean-up and laundry for Tea and Reading. 

When we made the muffins, we didn't have mini chocolate chips, but we were able to substitute Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, which Maggie immediately volunteered to chop into small pieces. I know why she volunteered. Those things are addictive!

The recipe also calls for mayonnaise, but don't be put off by this. There was absolutely no flavor of mayonnaise in the muffins, only sweet, moist goodness. I added a teaspoon of vanilla, which isn't in the original recipe. Just seemed like it would be a good addition. Next time, I think I'll add some fresh, chopped pineapple. And quadruple the recipe. 

Thanks again, Denice!

Book Week One ~ Discover Nature in Winter

I'm laggardly with the book posts, but I am reading, and surprising myself with all the ways to tuck in a few pages throughout the day.

For the first Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks I dug Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do (Discover Nature , No 6) out of our winter reading basket.

(I thought I would read The Best American Essays 2009 for Book Week Two, but quickly realized I need more than one week to read and mentally process the essays).

Discover Nature in Winter is more than just a nature guide; it's a "discover and do" guide full of lessons about winter (what causes it?) and creature/plant life (what happens to them?) and suggestions for activities to explore winter. I particularly like the winter tree/weed identification sections, insect life, and the night sky. Those are areas I'll delve into with my children during our nature study times.

I own several of Elizabeth P. Lawlor's nature discovery books and consider them to be among the best of our nature study resources.