I’d rather be watching them fish
On a warmish winter day last week my cousin called to say he was taking his kids fishing, did mine want to go too? So we loaded up the kids, poles, and dog and met them at the pond.
It’s nice to remember that this day was just a week ago when this has been a week of cold and now rain.
My cousin and I remembered the times our Papaw took all of us cousins fishing on that same pond. And we remembered where we learned all those cuss words we know as he untangled lines, put worms on hooks, kept dogs from getting hooked, watched some close calls while kids almost got hooked, and removed a few fish from lines.
I mostly sat back and watched.
The two three year olds had a good time playing with the worms.
I brought my little girl’s worthless rod and reel and I just put a cork on the end with no hook. She was so determined to catch a fish. She whipped that line in the pond over and over again, frustrated that her sister was catching fish after fish and she was getting nothing. I would have felt sorry enough to fix it for her if the fear of getting hooked didn’t hold me back.
They brought their puppy too and the dogs had just as much fun as the kids. At one point all the kids and the dogs were running across the hills, it was both hilarious and sweet at the same time to see six kids and two dogs running, laughing and crying.
We can’t wait to go back and do it again.
The Shoot Shop
This weekend I completed one of my personal challenges for this year, I photographed a birth. It was so scary and so exciting. And now I’m working on another new scary and exciting thing. Ruthanne and I are going to teach a how to use your camera class. She’s really putting it all together, I’m just going to show up and help (and represent team Canon). But sometimes, for me, showing up can be a challenge.
It’s a class for beginners using a digital SLR camera. Maybe you got one for Christmas and you really want to know how to use it. Maybe you’ve had one a while and you want to use it better. We’re going to go through the basics and do some practice shooting so you can work with those new settings and discover just how awesome you are.
Tickets go on sale Valentine’s day and you can purchase your ticket using your Paypal account.
You’ll get the whole scoop, directions and such, after you purchase your ticket. If you have any questions you can email me at mail at melissastover dot com.
Painting the Elements
When we started chemistry this year I almost bought a poster of the Periodic Table of Elements several times. I always talked myself out of it because they were so plain and boring. I was really sad that Flowerpatch Farmgirl wouldn’t give me hers. I heard she was selling everything. Can I have it for $5 Shannan?
When you can’t find what you want, make it yourself. Well, we tried anyway.
We did that experiment recently with the soda and the Mentos. I bought two cheap sodas in case we wanted to do it twice (but it wasn’t that thrilling). So the drink left on the bar now has a new name. The three year old calls Sam’s soda “science coke.”
“Can I have some of that science coke, mama?” Cracks me up. It is the cutest thing ever.
It may be the new reason I homeschool so that my 3 year old knows the word science.
Don’t worry. Everyone got a chance to paint. Even these two patiently waiting in the background.
We made it all colorful, without regard to any kind of rules or key. We like it that way.
We had fun and we did it ourselves. We used oil pastels to write the abbreviations then painted over them with watercolors.
We’re happy with the results.