Garden Time!

It is spring, and getting warmer, and time to garden!

My garden is a row of planters on my balcony. It's smaller this year, although that may change if I get more soil for the other boxes (and the plants for them as well). 

I have a small pot of perennials. I grew them last year and left that lot to see if they would return this year. There are several seedlings that are growing well, so that answers that question.

Next is a box of Cosmos plants, grown from seed. They sprouted quickly and are growing well; I've already thinned them once. They likely won't bloom until August.

I have a long planter that I sowed with Pink Queen Spider Flowers that I got at a bridal shower last summer. They took longer than normal to sprout and I was about to give up and buy some plants when some seedlings appeared. Only I'm not sure if these are the seeds I planted (they're not all in the nice row I tried to plant) or some of the perennials from last summer. I mixed some of the old soil with the new, so you never know. Time will tell what's growing there.

The end of the row has a round bowl of tomato plants. They are also coming along nicely and just getting their second leaves. I'll have to thin them when they get a bit bigger.

Today I was shopping and purchased a small pot of purple Balloon flowers. They're pretty and already blooming. I like having some colour while I wait for the others to grow! Also, they're perennials, so they should keep coming back.

I quite like my little garden.

An Update

 Hello world (or as much of it as reads this)....

Why yes, I am still around and writing sometimes! I've just come out of my Very Busy time and spent some time catching up on things that were neglected over the past couple months. And it's finally time to get back to blogging again!

March was mostly meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Such is the life of a homeschool facilitator in the spring. I also started more work for a friend. She does websites and marketing stuff, and I'm learning to run reports for her. It's new and interesting work. It's also fun to tell people that I do tech work now, because no one sees me as a computer person!

The only other event was a baby shower for a wee bit of adorableness who appeared at the beginning on February. She's a sweet, lovely little thing, and growing rapidly. 

March also brought the very early arrival of another sweet baby. He's spent his life in the hospital, but is getting stronger and better and we're all pleased with how he's doing.

April was mostly meetings, meetings, and more meetings! And then, on May 1st, the meetings ended. April was also spring - then winter - then spring - then winter.... But now it's nice out, definitely spring, starting to be summer. 

There were two events in April: baptisms at the church, and a bridal shower for one of my former Sunday School students. I think I'm getting old; the children are all getting married!

Oh -- and one of my former students published a book in April! Miss A. Frose, When All Isn't Right in the World: Letters from Golden West Farm. While it is technically fiction, the stories are based on the real-life adventures of her family. You should go read it.

That's pretty much it. May is moving along rapidly. Every week I tell myself that I'm ready to get back on summer schedule, but there's always something that comes up. It's good though, and I'm starting to feel rested and ready to deal with all the summer stuff (starting in June).

Books

I did not intend to disappear for almost a month! Facilitator meeting months are extra busy and I've been working and tired. Three more weeks and things will settle down again.

For now, two books for the younger generation (preteen age, maybe a bit younger even) that I've been introduced to recently:

Beyond Mulberry Glen by Millie Florence

This was on a list somewhere! It's a lovely story, well-written and engaging. 

From the back: "Eleven-year-old Lydia Green doesn't want anything to change. She lives happily in Mulberry Glen with her mismatched family of a fairy guardian, a philosopher, and twin troublemakers known as the Zs."

Of course, something happens to cause Lydia to leave home and head off on an adventure to rescue the Zs and save her part of the world. The characters are real, the story flows, the danger is growing, and the ending is satisfactory.

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

One of my homeschool students told me about this one; he loved it, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a fun story about 12-year-old Kyle Keeley and a group of friends and/or classmates who are chosen for a lock-in at the new library. The next morning, they learn the the library is also an escape room and they're welcome to stay and try to find their way out.

Some of the characters seemed a bit one-dimensional, but most of them showed some growth through the adventure (others did not, but really, how much growth can you reasonable expect from someone over a 12 hour period?). The children face challenges that could only be solved in the library stacks and, eventually, by working together. It was fun, and full of little bits of book-related trivia.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the story, enough that I'm planning to try the sequel as well!

Spring Meetings

It isn't quite spring yet, but I have completed one fourth of my "spring" meetings as a facilitator. I know that many homeschool boards do their second meetings a bit later in the year, but my board has us do them in March and April (and those of us with many families inevitably go into May for various reasons: sick kids, vacations, injuries, etc.).

So far the meetings are going well and only two families have had to rebook because of ill children.

Highlights:

Small siblings who want to be involved and show me their books or how they are learning letters and sounds.

Children's writing assignments, full of humor, suspense, and fun. These include book narrations, stories, essays, plays, and graphic novels.

Children who are so pleased with how far they've come in math or reading.

Sharing favourite books with children and finding that we like some of the same stories.

Getting more book recommendations from children.

Being able to encourage parents who are doing a great job teaching their children.

Long bus rides that are perfect for reading!

I am very thankful for my job. I really enjoy it, I get to hang out with children and hear what is exciting them, and I get to help parents as they teach their children. I also like the flexible schedule so I have time for other work and to serve the church family. I am so very blessed.

The Correspondent

Once again I return to the list of "I have no idea who recommended this book" to talk about The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

Seriously: I have so many recommendations from so many people and websites that I'm not sure where I heard about this one or how it made it on my list. It obviously looked interesting enough and it's very popular; I waited a long time for it to come in at the library and there are currently 712 holds on it (I'm returning it this afternoon so the next person can read it).

I really enjoyed the story. It's told in letter form (with some emails) over about 10 years. The main character, Sybil, is in her early 70s when the novel opens. She has written letters all her life and is not willing to give up and make the switch to email completely. Most of the letters are ones she writes, although some are written to her.

As the story unfolds, we learn more about Sybil's life, her past, and her family. We see her interact with other people: old friends, her brother and children, her friend's young son, a customer service rep whom she manages to befriend, and other characters. We start to get a picture of what type of person Sybil is and what influences in the past have shaped her present.

As a bonus, Sybil is a reader and often writes about books, either writing to the authors or sharing "what I'm reading now" with a friend.

The story is not action and adventure, but character and life. It held my attention and I read it quickly, over a couple days of riding the bus (my best reading time right now). I'm very glad that I picked it up and happily recommend it to others.

Reading to the Kids

Today is Wednesday, and Wednesday mornings are for taking care of the homeschool kids while their moms are in the Bible study, and one of the best parts is reading to the little guys (5-6 years old).

Today was a very good day because, after a month of various illnesses, most of my littlest lambs were back. Also, we read 4 books, so they were very happy.

Our books for today:

Ol' Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein

When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Diane Goode

ish by Peter H. Reynolds

My Daddy is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales, illustrated by C.G. Esperanza

The children were full of energy, questions, and comments this morning. There were a lot of requests to see something in the picture, to know who the person was, to know why someone did something, to know what was going to happen.... I finally asked, "Do you know how books work? I read, you listen, and then you'll find out!" But I wasn't actually feeling impatient with them; I was more amused at their chatter.

There were also judgements of the characters ("He's not being nice to his sister"), misunderstandings ("Why did he throw out her pictures?" "He didn't; he threw out his own pictures and she rescued them"), and random thoughts ("I'm going swimming today!").

The best was when we got to the last book, My Daddy is a Cowboy. They had so many questions and comments about the people and the horses and the people who weren't even in the story and the cake in the shop window. Every page elicited more questions and comments.

Then we got to the line where the little girl talks about her daddy telling her stories about his childhood and says, "I listen closely and only interrupt five times to ask questions." 

And my sweet lambs thought that five times was a lot and that she shouldn't interrupt. I just laughed at them and kept going.

Wednesday morning story time is one of my favourite times.

Stories About Coffee

Story 1

Many years ago, I was visiting friends in Niagara Falls one New Year's. My friend's husband was a very important person in organizing the Niagara Falls New Year's festivities, and since one of the sponsors was Tim Hortons, he had a pile of coupons and we drank a lot of coffee. The thing is, until then I hadn't really ordered coffee anywhere that I didn't put in the cream and sugar myself, so I really didn't know exactly what to order. I did know that "double-double from Tim Hortons" was properly Canadian, so that's what I got. I liked it and I've ordered my coffee like that ever since.

I have no idea if I'd like my coffee any differently; someday, I should try a single-single or something. Or a double-single, but I don't know if the cream or sugar comes first.

Story 2

At my previous job, I used to walk part way to work. I was about twenty minutes or so and cut a pile off my bus time (it would be a more circular route otherwise), so if the days were nice enough, I chose to walk. The walk conveniently took me past a Tim Hortons, so I would usually stop in for coffee -- often enough that they knew my order, although the changing seasons would switch it from hot to cold coffee, or vice versa. 

Anyway, one winter day I had my coffee and was walking the rest of the way to work when I hit an  icy patch and down I went. I landed on one knee and one hand, but I held the coffee up with my other hand and didn't spill a drop.

My knee hurt and my hand stung and I was a little wet, but I saved the coffee.