February and March 2017. Snow, that's all.

Lots of snow shoveling. We had our turkey visitors a few times. Making paths for the chickens , ducks and bunnies and me making props, with the help of the cats, for my class's Jungle Book play.

January 2017

January began on a somber note. My Mother passed away in the early morning of January 1st. It was sad but also not good, but not bad, hard to say. Mom had already been battling Alzheimer's dementia for a year and a few months and she had never wanted to linger with a devastating illness like that. It was a hard and fast and confusing time from diagnosis in September 2015-to her passing on January 1st 2017 but finally she was at peace. It was so strange, Mom went for a young for her age, busy, vibrant women to Alzheimer's and a fast decline just like that. It was almost like a switch, there were a few little things over the summer but not long. We made one last trip to the nursing home and then closed that chapter. I was so glad that the kids had some nice visits in her final months and a GOOD visit with her on Thanksgiving 2016, she was amazingly like her old self in some ways. Then for Christmas she was failing but we still spent it at the nursing home and that would be the last time we saw Mom/Grammy alive.  It was HARD to visit so often, we went weekly for quite awhile, and it was a close to 2 hour trip. Later when we found a better nursing home it was closer to 3 hours each way but so thankful we visited a lot. We had no idea that Mom would pass only 15 months post diagnosis. It felt so long but I hope for her it felt mercifully short.

What else for January? Snow, keeping busy, snow, work, snow, co-op, snow, animals, snow.

December 2016

I didn't take any pictures on Christmas because we spent it at the nursing home and mom slept the whole time. The kids did get presents though and the pets enjoyed it, especially KitKat it was his first Christmas with us. It was a hard holiday but these photos are fun.

Fall 2016

Tristan is my only official homeschooler this year. Colin is fully independent and almost ready to complete his high school education, just a few little things to finish up this year. Trevor and Hayley have both graduated now. Over the fall we made a good start on our homeschooling as well as heading to co-op twice a week for extra curricular classes for Tristan. I'm teaching drama to elementary students this year. Highlights this fall were science labs, some of which involve being outdoors, which leads to chicken helpers, chicks being hatched on our little farm, harvesting the vegetable gardens and painting the chicken coop.

Sometimes the chickens can help you outside with schoolwork...

And sometimes chickens will observe your schoolwork from inside.

There is a lot of crossover from homeschooling to farming. All good learning. Our first chicks hatched right here were born this fall. So much involved with that from keeping track of which eggs the broody hens have (and not letting them add extras!). To candling for growth, to having incubator ready just in case to seeing chicks born and more. 

This silkie mama hatched two chicks.

Candling an egg to see if a chick is developing. 

Harvest time is a busy and educational time. 

Another homeschool year

Here we are at the 2016-2017 school year. We've just completed our first week of homeschool and co-op and already need to make some changes. Tristan is going to switch his co-op novel writing class for First Aid and CPR and then do the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum at home.  He will of course stick with drama class. They're doing a musical this year. I don't think much could compare to A Pirates Life for Me, which everyone at co-op still talked about 2 years later but they will tackle something quite different this time. The musical is Called Romeo and Harriet. We listed to the CD on the way home from co-op on Tuesday. It's....different! As for the class I'm teaching drama for the younger kids, we will do the play The Jungle Book. I have 20 very enthusiastic 8-11 year olds and our first class was a blast! This week was so hectic, I didn't even take a back to homeschool picture. Maybe we'll call next week the first week and try again! I have some curriculum pics anyway!

Geometry, mathusee

Novel Writing

Physics with some added fun.

What do you want to learn? Colin could use this for Dutch or Tristan for?

Romeo and Harriet?

KitKat and Kilgharrah want to write novels!

Today's visit to Mom (Grammy)

Visited Mom again today. The trip through NH and onto MA was full of all sorts of weather from sunny to cloudy to torrential rains, high winds, falling branches and a bit of hail!  The kids who went along this time were Trevor and Tristan. We had a pretty nice visit, mom was alert for an hour or so and later got tired. Mom was glad to see the boys and loved the fall crafts that Hayley made for her and had a little laugh when I told her the cats helped Hayley make them. One of the highlights was when one of mom's friends came into the room, saw my handbag on the floor and before I could get it from her she noticed and then grabbed out one of the dark chocolate bars I had brought for mom. I so wanted that little old lady to be able to keep the chocolate bar but the aide who came looking for her didn't think she should have it.  She had been so happy with her find, oh well maybe she has diabetes or something. Her husband wasn't there this time but if he is next time I'll ask if she's allowed to have chocolate. It gave us all a much needed laugh anyway sometimes these visits are hard and when mom is not so interactive they can be a little monotonous. We love her and will keep visiting but these little things that happen to give us a laugh are nice too.

We stayed from about 11:00-2:00. The weather had turned very nice by the time we left the nursing home and we were sure hungry. We decided to stop for food and also at the "brick house sticking out in the water" that we often pass en route to the nursing home. Turns out this brick house is a historic site called The Old Stone Church and it's in West Boylston, Massachusetts. We had a little wander through and enjoyed walking the grounds and a little sit on the beach. As it's on the Wachusett Reservoir no swimming is allowed. We thought this would be a nice spot to bring a picnic for a future trip. Further up the road we stopped at a quirky antique and consignment store that had everything from fancy old china to x-box games. We didn't buy anything but it was fun to look around and nice to stretch out legs before the rest of the 3 hour journey.