Well, I brought in some laundry that had finally dried out on our patio this evening (it can take a couple days when it is really raining a lot here). I began folding the shirts and then out popped a pretty big spider. She was over an inch with her legs and she held onto my pants and would not budge when we tried to put her in a cup (maybe she had been in a cup before?) and finally I walked with her still on my pants outside and coaxed her off near some leaves and she ran away. When I went back inside and finished folding the laundry, I found a large pillow shaped egg sac! on my sweatpants that had been outside drying. Ack. I hate this kind of thing. Obviously, she knew where her egg sac was and didn't want to leave it. Silly human, always up to knowing better. So I went back outside! and looked around for her but it is dark and even with a flashlight it is pretty hard to find a spider on a patio with a bunch of fallen leaves about, even if she was large and bulbous and brown.

Ugh. So I put the egg sac back outside and am wishing hard that it is a type of spider (because I couldn't figure out which kind she was) that doesn't guard its young or stick around with them after they have hatched AND that she might still be able to lay another egg sac.

I hate the idea of getting in the way of someone's creation like that. I know it was an accident and my intentions were so obviously not to separate her from her egg sac- I have never intentionally done any harm to a spider. Ever. Still, I don't feel great about it and feel like my queasiness of having her sitting on my leg hampered my own um connection. So that is that. I really need to check the laundry a little more closely!

birds,teeth,books- what more?

The kids and I just got back from the Ridgefield Bird Festival in Ridgefield, WA. I thought it was going to be sort of all in one place, with music and activities and bird activities kind of all together. It turned out to be spread out all through Ridgefield, WA, which is a smallish town about 14 miles from Portland. There is a Wildlife Refuge there and this is the area that we ended up in and it turned out to be a lot of fun and totally unexpected. We drove through a four mile loop over the course of about 45 minutes and saw some amazing birds. People are not allowed out of their cars during this time of year except at a few designated blinds where the Audubon had scopes out for viewing. They also handed out bird bingo sheets to the kids which made it a lot of fun for them and really got them excited about finding the birds. We saw Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Harriers, Red Tailed Hawks, several kinds of ducks, coots and maybe a Crane, although I feel a little unsure about the crane sighting. My favorite was a giant Red Tailed Hawk sitting out in the middle of a field. I see Red Tailed Hawks up high in trees around here quite frequently (and am excited every time!) but have never seen one sitting so contentedly in the middle of a field, surrounded by grasses. I was glad to have my binoculars!

Samuel lost another tooth today! That is two in the last couple of weeks, with a couple more loose ones to go. His mouth is really changing and there are large spaces around the teeth that haven't fallen out yet, to make way for the bigger teeth that will eventually come in. Eva is desperate for her teeth to fall out and seems discontent when I tell her they will when they are ready. It looks like such fun and we do seem to talk about it a lot. That front tooth of Samuel's was commanding quite a bit of attention because it was hanging in there kind of lopsided for several days.



I am reading In Defense of Childhood by Chris Mercogliano. It is wonderfully supportive of really honoring self-direction in children and assuming that children will internalize what they learn, that they don't need to be bribed or punished or coerced or tricked or graded or even praised into learning and growing and thriving. That these tactics actually get in the way of natural learning and that much of the stress surrounding learning found in schools today is counterproductive to real learning. Great fun to read and thoroughly eye opening, with much literature and science behind the words.



Eva



Samuel and Eva, bunny and care bears



Samuel and Eva, check out Samuel's teeth with all the spaces

More about unschooling...

I found this link on a list I am, a local unschooling list, actually. There is a lot of information and inspiration here about unschooling, if you are interested.

Here's a quote from Unschooling America

The basic principle of Unschooling is that humans are born to learn. Just like breathing, we learn throughout our entire lives without anyone making us do so. Learning is pleasurable if it is not forced on us. The goals of Unschooling have much to do with freedom, respect and trust. The true freedom, respect and trust that all humans deserve, including children. Without freedom of choice, real learning can not happen easily or authentically. Unschooling gives your family the gifts of a free, joyous life together where real learning happens all day, everyday!

Her article Why Unschooling Doesn't Come Naturally is worth reading.

We had such a lovely time last weekend visiting friends up in Olympia, WA. We have been missing them this past year as they spent some time living in the Czech Republic. It was great fun to see them.



Samuel and his good friend Bob!

We went to a salmon festival and got to get up close to the salmon and touch them!



A Chinook salmon



These are the ladders they have built to help the salmon swim up stream easier



Samuel and Bob at the festival in front of a giant salmon! See the people dressed up as salmon in the background!

Our Lovely Park

This is Commonwealth Park, the park we live close enough to walk to in just 10 minutes! It is gorgeous, with a lake, trout, nutria, ducks, geese, hawks and great blue herons. We went there today for a play date.





Here is Eva on the slide...




Ta da! Eva with one of her favorite animals, Chicky.

The kids have been enjoying wood fires to roast marshmallows outside. Eva discovered the charcoaled remains of some of the sticks and drew some designs on our patio area and then both of them decided to decorate some large pieces of wood that have been lying around. One thing led to another and they set up a balance beam with the decorated posts. While one walked across the other tooted on the horn.



Samuel walks, Eva toots



Eva walks, Samuel waits to toot



Funky fire shot. The heat changed the lighting. Samuel has learned how to set up a fire and is lighting it here.



Every picture has a story and this one is no different. This is our dog Jack and he is sitting in the front seat of the car because there is nowhere else to sit. He is determined, however, to go with us on our errands this day. Frequently Jack will run out of the house and jump in the car whether we plan to take him with us or not. He loves to go with us and to his credit, we do go fun places like the Arboretum often and we usually take him when we go. This day, however, was more about errands than trees, although one of the errands was to the recycling center, which is about trees if you take the longer view of things. Once Jack has jumped into the car and decided he wants to go with us it is a real challenge to convince him to come out of the car. He is quite dogged that way. And so this picture is taken with me and the kids laughing hysterically as we try and get him out of the car and you can see that he has hunkered down into the front seat and does not intend to budge. We got him out eventually- this time!- but he was not happy about it! It has happened in the past where I have not been able to get him out of the car and have just taken him on our errands with us. On this day, however, there was a not a free seat in the car. And Jack does not drive, although I am sure if he did he would take us to the Arboretum daily.



Here is Eva in the left over pieces of yarn from the sweater I have been working on. She said, momma isn't is lovely?

to market to market

Eva and Samuel



Eva and Tomatoes



Just Tomatoes



Wow! Have you ever seen so many tomatoes!



And Peppers!



And Flowers!