And So Goes September

Can you believe its so far into September? My husband could be home tomorrow! We have not seen him for a month, and he will only be home a few days, then gone again. But I shall enjoy him while I can.

Last Monday we had riding lessons for Penelope, and Chena spent some time riding our own horses, then it was off to my nephew, Oliver's bday party. He turned 9! We got him a giant checkers game, and he was immediately challenging everyone to a tournament. Such a cutie. My sister designed a fun party game called "WWOS" or What Would Oliver Say. We all had to answer questions to show how well we knew Olly.

Tuesday the girls had to be in Soldotna (45 minutes away) by ten, to get started with a brand new year of Geography Bee study, at our local homeschool office. Its such a fun group, and the girls learn so much..which is good because I am their teacher and I am geographically challenged. I can lose my car in the parking lot of a restaurant. Hee hee. After Geo Bee, they have lunch, then its right on to Math Olympiads, which is another wonderful program we take advantage of. I went to visit a friend at her gift store, did some errands, and had a lovely break.

Wednesday was the first day of the girls' book club, but as we were about to leave I heard thundering HOOVES (which is never a good sign when you have horses..or even if you don't I suppose!) and the whole dang herd ran right past my kitchen window. With all four horses on the loose, we ran for halters, lead ropes, and Honey Nut Cheerios to lure them in. We got them quickly, but we were too late for book club so we settled for board games and a trail ride.

Thursday was a busy school day, again. I have my classroom pretty well set up, still need a few organizers but mostly under way. I had to buy a new bookcase on Craigslist, or quit collecting books. Since that is NOT an option, I guess I will just keep finding new ways to keep them! We went to a two-day mushroom workshop, called Mushroom Mania, last weekend. So I bought new books from that, and we have been growing Oyster mushrooms in our shower. Great science project..and I love love love cooking with them, so its a win win with garlic and butter on top! That night Chena had her weekly vaulting team practice (which is trick riding on horses, but its the off season so its stretching and gymnastics on a vaulting "barrel")

Friday we had a bunch of friends, fellow homeschoolers, over to our house for the Mushroom Scavenger Hunt. I created a scavenger hunt, then the kids took offf with their clipboards, rulers, and gathering baskets through the wooded trails near our house. We moms went too, and we all had a great time, learning to recognize various species of fungi, gathering, testing, crossing off items on the scavenger hunt list, and examining discoveries. We all went home, did some spore prints (the "seeds" or spores from a mushroom falls onto colored paper and makes a print), and I made moose hot dogs for everyone. It was a really FUN time with our friends. Later we met up with my mom at our local pizza stop, and had dinner with her. Then we hit our favorite icecream shop for swirled cones, and then finally home to watch Bolt with my mom..who had never seen it. We were all tired but could not stop laughing. I love that movie!

Saturday my friend had a garage sale, so I scooted over there to steal all her treasures from her. She is feeling overwhelmed with junk, so like a good friend I brought her stuff over here so that I could feel overwhelmed with her junk for awhile. That's friendship, right?! Actually I found some neat books and things. End-of-season sales are best..just when you think there are no more garage sales. :) We came home and the weather was SOOOO beautiful. I could not go in the house, even though laundry beckoned with its dirty fingers..so I got Mukluk out and did some training with him. We taught him how to do some free jumping at liberty in the round pen, taught him how to accept his new winter blanket, and started initial saddle training. We also clicker-trained him a bit, and then clicker-trained Summer too. It went great. I have been watching training videos to help me with the steps to clicker-training, and its really amazing and I love the challenge! I hope to get all of my horses doing three basic tricks by snowfall: Shaking hands, Nodding head, and Touching targets. Wish me luck....

Sunday was kind of sad. It was Joker's last day with us. After spending over a month with him, we made the hard decision not to buy him. He is a wonderful boy, tricky and a bit wild, but truly sweet and lovable as well. He has some special hoof issues, and we ride too much..he needs to go back to where he is only ridden very lightly if at all. So we all went out on a trail ride, our last one with him. It was a blustery crazy-windy day, but I loved it. The horses were feeling fiesty, and they thought every leaf was out to get them! It put me in high spirits as well, it did! When we got home from our ride, we hitched up the truck to the trailer, loaded Joker, and drove the hour to his farm. We hugged him, said our goodbyes, and then decided to go out for Chinese food, since we were so far from home. I was glad I didn't have to go home and cook, it was just too long of a day and I had to haul the trailer back home in the dark.

And now its Monday again. Wow. Call me nutty, but I actually adore Mondays. I love starting a new school week, getting my "lists" made (so I can ignore them...that's my MO) de-cluttering, figuring out the week's agenda and schedule, etc. We got our school week off with a bang, working on Scientific Classifications, Probability, American Revolution review, Mushroom Spore Print Art, work samples and more. Riding lessons were canceled due to rain, so I made some phone calls to finish up my Pampered Chef show. Then, the sun peeked out just enough to dry its hair, so I decided I'd better take advantage and do my "school pics" after all. I do annual fall photos of the girls in the woods behind our house, down by the lake, by the barn, etc. Chena wanted to go out riding instead, so I just took Penelope and headed out. I had the best time! I love fall photography! I'm not sure how much Penelope would agree, but she gave me over 300 smiles so she wins the award for patience today. I will post those pics soon! :)

Reading back over our week, no wonder I'm tired. Yawn. We are going to play a game of Blokus and eat some popcorn. Its getting dark so early now. I could barely find the Sparrow after Pluto chased her up a tree. I'm not ready for winter...but I sure do love fall.