Summer Schedules, Father's Day et al.

     OK, so we had our first week of full-on summer.  I vacillate between loving the summer vacation and well, not hating it, but feeling that I can't cope.  In the mornings I wake up full of hope and optimism; by 5pm, I've had it. 
     I am a structured person.  What I mean by that is that I need structure in order to thrive.  I have to have a to-do list, I have to have goals, I have to have a vision of what it is I am trying to achieve.  And, in my mind, I have to be able to connect my immediate actions with my longer-term vision.  Otherwise I get very, very grumpy.  So, you can imagine that having a family of small children has not been an easy ride for me. It's all about slowing down and 'smelling the flowers' and that sort of stuff.  I do realize that smelling the flowers with small children does have connections to longer-term goals.  I also realize that being grumpy with children pretty much undermines all the good that one is trying to do with them, so I try to keep my frustrations in check.  But, the bottom line is that the summer is a potential disaster zone for me.  There has to be structure, or there will be trouble.
     So, structure it is. Goal number one is to make sure these kids get outside on a daily basis.  I can't stand the whole laying-around-in-an-air-conditioned-house-while-its-sunny-outside business.  In that sense, living in England for so long was probably a good thing for me. It's never really that warm in England, and most houses don't have air conditioning.  So I never got paranoid that we weren't using the summer to its full potential.  What potential, I ask you?
     Anyway, so I have decreed that we will go on a hike every day.  Oh, the moaning and the groaning which I have had to endure from every corner.  The problem is that, unlike England, it gets very hot here in the day, and you really can't go out and do strenuous physical activity after, say, 10am.  So, that means getting up early to go on a hike. Now, the kids have two things to complain about every day!
     Yet, we can't hike all day.  We're home by 10am.  So I have decided to work on one of my long-term vision thingys as a parent:  teaching my children Greek and Latin so that one day we can sit down and read the New Testament in Greek for our family scripture study - plus ancient Greek texts, of course.  To this end, I have started teaching Samuel and Georgiana ancient Greek.  I have had better success with this than with the daily hikes.  The kids LOVE IT.  Even Eleanor and Verity, aged 7 and 5, are asking to learn Greek.  We have learned the Greek alphabet, and already the kids can recognize the English equivalent of certain Greek words.  We are using this book,

Greek to GCSE



which I recommend highly.  Even if you don't know ancient Greek, which I don't, you can still teach your children a lot about the language from this book.
     After we do our Greek, we move on to learning Latin.  We did the Cambridge Latin Course for ages, but, as much as I love it, the kids aren't really motivated by it anymore.  So, for the summer, we are reading a verse or two from the New Testament in the Vulgate, and translating it into English.      
     After that, I try to do some classical music education with them. I have rather strong opinions about music, I'm afraid.  I think that pop music is shamefully over-emphasized, and we don't do nearly enough to expose our youth to classical music.  So, we just listen to one piece of classical music and learn a bit about it.  I have this great book for kids called Mozart and His Famous Operas, which I bought when I visited Mozart's house in Vienna a few years ago.  It tells the story of a few of Mozart's operas, and comes with a CD which has selected pieces from those operas.
     In the afternoon, we try to make headway on all the many projects we have going around here.  We have tons of stuff the kids need to organize and put in their scrapbooks, tons of pictures we need to scan and put into digital photo books.  The kids are also going to learn how to make tie quilts this summer.  There is a charity in San Diego that accepts baby blankets to give to poor families who have just had a baby.  I want the kids to get involved in serving in the community, so we will start with making these simple quilts.
     Of course, there is the day to day stuff we have to do.  This includes running errands, shopping, etc.  On Friday I took all the kids to the mall to shop for summer clothes.  We got there before lunch, and didn't get home until 8pm or so.  It was traumatizing for all of us.  Today Verity said to me, 'Mom, I don't ever want to go to the mall again.'
     Sunday was Father's Day.  We tried to make it special for Tim.  To me, making something special means doing something special with food.  Food is my love language, I'm afraid.  It always has been, so at least I'm consistent.  I remember making a three course meal for my parents when I was 12.
     Anyway, he was presented with a rather large breakfast in bed.  Here's the menu.

     We went for a French theme.  I had made some French apricot jam a few weeks ago, and bought a sourdough bagette, and then I just planned the rest of the menu around these things. I have to make a special mention of my Provence-inspired museli, though.  Dried figs, cherries, apricots mixed with pinenuts, pumpkin seeds and almonds, with a hint of ginger.  48 hours later, and I still cannot stop eating it.

     The requiste Father's Day picture:

    
     And the requisite out-take:

  
     Then a neighbor offered to take one of the whole family:

     Dinner was roast lamb stuffed with rosemary and garlic with a saffron lemon gravy, parselied new potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, peas with mint, green beans, and yorkshire puddings.  Dessert was the ever-popular raspberry/cherry chocolate trifle, requested by Daddy himself:

     We then ended dinner with a cheese course, consisting of manchego with a rosemary rind, camembert, toscano, havarti, and a blue cheese, with chilli jelly and white fig spread.  Star of the show:  the white fig spread.  Awesome.

     Afterwards we played card games until it was way too late.  The children were very loud, but I tried not to complain.  I know these sorts of things are the stuff of memories.

Grandma Comes to Visit!

 

     Last week, Grandma Hamilton came to visit!  It was most exiciting.  However, on Memorial Day, which was the day before she came, something unexpectd happened:  Eleanor crashed on her bike, and fractured her lower right arm.  She was going on a bike ride with Daddy, somthing that hardly ever happens because Daddy is very busy.  We had to go to a park, which was a few miles from our house, for a church BBQ.  Tim decided to take Samuel, Georgiana and Eleanor on their bikes to the park, and then I would follow on later with Abigail, Imogen and Verity.  Less than a mile into the bike ride, Eleanor was going very fast down a hill, ran into a parked car on the road, and went tumbling off head over heels.  She ended up with her arm in a very pink cast:

 

     My mother came the next day.  There was lots going on because it was the last week of school for the kids, but we tried to show her a good time.  We took her to the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center, which tells the story of how the Mormon Pioneers were drafted by the US military to fight in a war against Mexico.  The pioneers ended up walking from Iowa down to Santa Fe, and then over to San Diego.  They built a road along the way, which would end up being a major route across the southwestern United States.  Anyway, the center is beautiful and the whole thing is very nicely done. 

Grandma, Nelly and Verity with a Mormon soldier at the Mormon Battalion

      The next day we went to a little town called Julian, which is up in the mountains in northeast San Diego county.  It started as a mining town, and it is still very small and quaint.  It's a sort of swanky wild west town.  They still have a mine there that you can visit, so we went with Eleanor's home school on a field trip to the mine.  First, the girls panned for gold, and there were real gold flakes in the silt they were sifting:

Then, we went on a tour down in the mine itself.  Our tour guide was straight out of a wild west movie.  He had a long white beard and a broad-rimmed hat. Here he is in the 'hoist room':

There were many tunnels, of course, it being mine:

Out of the mine, we got to see an old mine cart, just like in the Indiana Jones movie:





 

     After the mine experience, we went returned to the front of the mine, and saw this antique merry-go-round.  I had never seen the kind of animals on a merry-go-round that this one had, so I just had to share. 

 

 

First, we have a fish.

 

A pig, named Ruby

 

A hare, just like in 'The tortoise and the hare'.

 

And a frog

 

     Then, we explored the town of Julian.  Here are a few pictures, just to give an idea of the place:

 

Main Street, Julian

Apparently Julian is famous for its apple pies.



This sign says it all, don't you think?

 

     We had fun exploring the little shops.  I got some homemade soap (I'm a bit obessed with that stuff for some reason), some hot pepper jelly (another obsession), and the girls and I were sure to visit the old-fashioned candy store.

     On Saturday, we took my mother to the beach.  Although the beach is about 45 minutes away, Tim insisted, because apparently my mother has only been to the beach about four times in her life.  So, here we are.  The kids had a great day. The water was incredibly warm.  Even I was comfortable with it.

 

 

     On Saturday night, I took my mother, Imogen, and Georgiana to see Abigail's end of year chior concert.  It was all Broadway music, so it was fab.  Abigail sang a little solo; she sang the beginning bit of 'Anything Goes.'  She was also in a song from Moulin Rouge.

 

Moulin Rouge Song

 

Abigail on the red carpet!
 

     The next week was the last week of school.  Imogen, who is finishing 8th grade, had something called 'Promotion'.  Apparently it is a ceremony to mark the end of junior high, and send the kids off happy and confident into the high school. 

     Promotion is new to me.  We didn't do it when I was a teenager. And then I moved to England, so I missed out on lots of developments here.  I don't think its completely necessary, but it is a nice gesture.

     Here's Imogen on her Promotion day, looking elegant as always:

 

 

 

      And, now, school is out, and summer is here!  My kids have never had a long American summer vacation, so this is all very exciting.  They are either going to love it, or die of boredom.    Watch this space. 



The Mad Month of May

     It's the lovely month of May.  Mostly, that means I am one exhausted mom.  End of year school trips, plays, parents evenings, track meets, shows, award nights - the list of events that I am supposed to attend goes on and on.  It's fun and heartwarming, yes.  I am happy to support my children.  But I have spent a lot of time in the car lately, which makes me feel frazzled and unbalanced.

     To kick of the end of the school year season, Eleanor (age 7) had a school trip to the San Diego Zoo.  Eleanor is enrolled in a unique home school program which is administred through a school called the Mountain Valley Academy.  She has a teacher, and a class, and she goes to school for two days a week.  The other three days she is at home with me.  The teacher assigns all the work and supplies all the materials, and I choose when and how we do the work.  It's a fabulous arrangement.

     Theoretically I am all in favor of homeschool but practically I have never been in a position to do it, either because of the particular personalities of my children or because I barely felt like I was keeping my head above water with family life, even with my children in regular school.  But when we moved from England, Eleanor was having a hard time coping with all the changes.  She just didn't feel comfortable in the American school system, and I think she was feeling insecure anyway with being in a different country.  She never wanted to leave me, and she would cry whenever she had to go to school.   So, when we moved to San Diego, I told her I would homeschool her. 

     I was bracing myself for difficulties and frustrations, because I am a very busy person and in general I tend to make things difficult for myself and therefore go around in a state of perpetual frustration.  So I guess I was just bracing myself for life as I have always known it, but the homeschool element was just going to add to it all.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  I felt very supported, because I could ask her teacher any questions I needed and I never felt on my own.  At the same time Eleanor could live life at a more relaxed pace and adjust to all the newness in her own time.  She was ahead of her peers in terms of school work, because she had had a whole extra year of schooling, so she was able to do second grade work instead of first grade work, which helped keep her boredome at bay.

     Anyway, I digress.  Alot.  So, we had a homeschool field trip to the zoo.  One parent had to go with the child, so that would be me.  And we got to pay a special school rate, so we got to see one of the world's finest zoos at a very good price.  I had Eleanor all to myself - or, maybe, she had me all to herself, and it was great.

     They have a great variety of animals, and sadly not all my pictures from this trip are easily accessible.  But here are some highlights.

   

A Mongolian Camel.  Notice he is shedding his coat.  Apparently in the Mongolian desert they experience extreme temperatures of both hot and cold.  So, he needs a very warm coat in the winter, and a very thin coat in the summer.
 



This picture was taken by Eleanor.  I guess this is the view of a 7-year old.

Camels.  Yes.  We saw their tongues.  They are as long as your forearm.
 



A tiger.  Apparently he hides often, so we were lucky to see him play with that big ball you can see in the tree.

Elephants.  They have about 5 of these that I saw.  They keep them in a very large, dusty area with lots of logs and poles everywhere.

A rhino.  His very thick, wrinkly skin reminded me of Rudyard Kipling's story 'How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin'.

 

 

Koala bears.  Apparently baby Koala bears are the size of a thumbnail.

     Later that week, Imogen had her final week of track.  She's in the 8th grade, and although she did do some competitive running in England, this is the first time she has been on a track team.  The 8th grade track experience has not been particularly organized or rigorous, as far as I can tell.  For instance, it seems the kids get to pick their events, something which was not an option for me when I ran track.  So, a few kids run the distance races, and lots of kids run the 100 meters. 
     They had a track meet in Ramona, so I took the kids to watch her in that.  She ran the mile, and I was very proud of her for agreeing to run that race, as most of her teammates seem to eschew long distances.  Here she is, finishing second out of three:

And here she is just off the starting line for the 100 meters:

     The next big event we had was Abigail's performance in The Little Mermaid.  Hours and hours of extra rehersals and driving to and fro meant that I really hoped all this effort was worth it.  Abigail was cast as a Mersister, and she did great!  Her dancing was flawless and she sang with gusto.  She has an incredible stage presence, with a huge smile on her face the whole time.  No self-consciousness there, then!
    After the show, the main characters in the play were outside available for pictures.  Georgie and Verity were brave enough to get a hug with Ariel:

Here we are in the lobby before the show:

 

 

     The next day was Mother's Day.  Abigail had a show, but here is a Mother's Day picture with 5 of my 6 children.  The suit I am wearing in this picture was made for me by my own mother when I was 19, and I wore it to honor her.  Really surprised it still fits!

 

 

      The next event was Eleanor's class production, which was a Patriotic Program.  They sang about 10 patriotic songs, none of which Eleanor had ever heard, I suspect, before having to learn them for this program.  I love my country and I consider myself to be patriotic, but full-blown American patriotism is not something my children are used to. 

Eleanor, reciting a nursury rhyme at her school production.  Practicing those public speaking skills, part of any respectable education in a democratic country!

     Samuel also had a school play around this time.  The fifth and sixth graders put on a production of Mary Poppins.  It was a truncated version, to be sure, but it was still really well done!  Samuel had the part of Uncle Albert, and he was one of the best actors, if not the the best actor in the cast, if I do say so myself.  He has excellent voice projection and good expression when he delivers his lines.
      Then, Imogen had an awards night for her academic performance in 8th grade.  This was a great achievement, since Imogen has come into a completely new educational system this year, and has also had to adjust to not one but two new schools.  So, the fact that her GPA was high enough to attend this achievement night was an amazing accomplishment.

Imogen with friends at her Academic Achievement Night, May 2014