Satori Smiles

Since we are reading Poppy (a book about a mean ole owl) and the fact that Satori started to open her owl pellets, I’ve decided to start our rowing of Owl Moon.

We shall learn about owls, moon phases, bird predators, and more.

The most exciting thing is probably our Owl Puke we examine. Owl Puke has a more agreeable name of owl pellets, which consists of a fuzzy mass of bones, hair, feathers, teeth and exoskeletons upchucked about 20 hours after a bird of prey eats. It doesn’t have to be an owl. There is actually a book I’ve ordered that contains a sterlized owl pellet, tray and chart. Once we get back from our London trip, we will dissect two more owl pellets, this time with gloves and tweezers.

Like I said, Satori opened one up already. Our cats went crazy over this new toy, before I realized they had caught on to what it was. You can see a skull and bones here, and probably feathers and/or fur. Next to it is our current read-aloud Poppy, which right in the beginning features one of the characters as an unfortunate owl pellet.

Speaking of birds of prey, Satori got very excited today when she saw a huge bird! She had me come running with my camera. It looks like a hawk.

We woke up to this today:

It hasn’t stopped the birds, you might be able to see one of the large Stellar Blue Jays in the tree.

We are supposed to get 3-4 feet of snow by tomorrow. Luckily, our neighbor plowed us out this morning before we woke up, although he’ll probably have to do it again.

We are heading to London! Just for a few days, but it should be  a fun experience. More about this later, we only booked our flights this morning.

Since there’s a possibility we may skip Halloween, I thought I’d post a few snapshots I took at a costume party we attended a few weeks ago.

I was hoping Satori wouldn’t want to be a Disney princess this year, but instead, she was TWO Disney characters. She really wanted to be Ariel, but the costume is very restricting, her legs are stuck together.

So for the rest of the party she was Roselle, Tinkerbell’s friend.

Abigail at her turn at the pinata.

Not my best photos, but sometimes you take what you can get.

I apologize I haven’t updated the blog for so long. I haven’t even pulled out my camera for quite some time, these are normally things I do everyday!

Our trip to Wisconsin was a well-needed vacation and change of pace for me. I had been obsessed with homeschooling, surfing WTM boards constantly, buying curriculum, planning out  years in advance, lol. Well all that really needs to be done right now is a few lessons a day. Instead, Mama needed to focus on herself a little bit. I get obsessed with my “hobbies”, before homeschooling it was photography, before photography it was my business. There was no time to think about what’s good for me.

So I’m taking a few weeks off to get some good habits ingrained. I’ve been faithfully working out everyday (twice a day even) and eating very healthy – mostly raw vegan. I was vegan before Satori was born, then just turned vegetarian. For my health, I’m doing a raw foods diet with lots of yummy green smoothies. At this point, I have no problem eating mostly salads for meals. I just found out our neighbor is a raw foods chef (and also homeschools)! I hope to learn a lot from them.

So I need a bit of time to make a healthy lifestyle a lifelong habit, so most of my focus has been on healthy foods and exercise. I’m still doing an occasional lesson with Satori, but I consider this an extended homeschooling break. To my surprise, she has retained everything, and even more surprising, she’s been reading a bit more fluently than last month when we were studying everyday. She hasn’t forgotten a thing, whew!

I’ll be blogging again soon!

David and I hung out with my brother Justin tonight and Satori stayed home with her grandparents. While my mom was at the computer, Satori drew a picture for her “Great Grandma”.

Here is her drawing complete with a “beautiful dress” and my Grandma’s cane. (Great Grandma is nowhere near this wide, but it is a beautiful dress!)

Here she tries to sound out “Great Grandma”, the short-u ending the “grandma” part.

I also have a bunch of “grat” photos from last night, but I want to wait until I get home until I post most of them, but here’s a sneak peek! This is Satori and her cousin Eliana, my sister’s 6 year old daughter. They had a great time together! More photos will be up by Monday!