The More Things Change... Or Do They?


William, 14, Alex, Max and Geoff, October 2005... Disneyland

Sometimes I look back and see where we've been. I pick a year and read the archives from this week in 2002 or 2003 or '04, '05, '06, '07. This time I chose October 18-22, 2005. Regrettably, I see that not much has changed. Since then we moved again, but not to our own place. Geoff was in Hawaii again. He did look for a place for us, like he did 3 years ago, but mostly he was there to say a final farewell to a place we had held dear. Happily, the things that cheer and sustain me have not changed... except that they have grown... the children are as enthused and kind, as wonderful to be with as ever. Geoff is still intent on making our lives full and safe. I did wish for 3 hens, and I think we have hens now... is that progress? I'm not so sure.


Alex, 11 years old, upstairs in the TreeHouse

One big improvement is that the boys have bedrooms now. No more bunk bed in the kitchen/dining room/living room. It was cozy. Truthfully, I would be happy to return to smaller quarters if the space were a space all our own. Our zest for pumpkins... pie, bread, cake, roasted seeds, decorations, carving... that has not changed a bit. We still love it.


Maria, 11 months old, at the Wild Animal Park... oh, and Me, 38

We still love exploring in our community and making road trips north and east and south, and as far west as we can get. For all my longing and disappointments about housing, I cannot complain about our adventures. We have been many places and taken full advantage of our homeschool flexibility. I can see missing that, if we ever get tied up in a mortgage and house repairs. I relish the chance to complain about something new.


Max, 7, and Alex with baby Maria

I wonder what they will remember... what they will carry with them, what they will discard.


Remember last spring, when I moved all of the sewing things in to the garage? Alex and I have shared a section of the garage all summer. Surrounded by stacks of boxes, tools and treasures, he and I played and worked at our hobbies. Alex with robots, circuit boards and wires, and Maria and me with fabrics, pens, papers, chalk and thread. It's been a nice arrangement, but this week I am making a whole new mess arrangement. Alex needs more room, and we need to make better use of the odd square footage at the top of the stairs. The house is big, but there are a lot of useless spaces... we do not need a dining room or formal sitting room, or a foyer with pillars, or a landing. Now the landing is a sewing room, or it's becoming a sewing room, and soon the extra space in the garage will accommodate garage kinds of activities, like building robots, making toasters, designing rockets etc... I hope everyone will enjoy the new possibilities.


Alex's entertainment for Maria, October 2005

Our bed is green now. We still share our room with Maria, or does she share her room with us? I still love that quilt... not one that I made.

And now it is time to get William and Alex from school. It's 2008 again, and time to move forward.

Maria is 3

Doesn't the zoo sound like the quintessential destination to mark a 3rd birthday? Doesn't quintessential sound lovely? I have no idea what it means. I can confirm though, that the zoo is a very good place to go when it is your 3rd birthday. Maria, with her raisins in a zoo pail, walked and ran and explored and delighted for many hours... and we delighted as well. William, Alex, Max and I spent most of the cool, gray day, following Maria up and down hills, through trails and to the exhibits of some beautiful animals.


We assume she liked it, mostly. At nearly every enclosure and exhibit she retracted her feet and said, "Don't eat my feet."


So, when Alex and Maria looked at the teeny-tiny marmosets, she said, "Don't eat my feet."


And quite understandably, when we went to pet the goats, she said, "Don't eat my feet."


She liked this activity, being a butterfly in the Children's Zoo. She liked the real, live insects too. I am not going to show the picture of the bird eating spider. Too creepy, for me.


"Don't eat my feet."


The otters like cold, gray days and they were very active.


Most of the animals were active and we got to spend a lot of time enjoying up close visits, especially with the orangutans, gorillas, and a crocodile.








Maria loves looking at pictures. She loves to sit on my lap, or her daddy's and look at Chickenblog pictures. This will probably be one of her favorite posts.


The zoo is a nice place to visit on a quiet day. We took our time, and only rushed when we wanted too... like when we ran to see the elephants and the rock hyrax. Otherwise we sat down and waited to see how long the crocodile could hold his breath. Answer: A long time.


No enclosure was secure enough to convince Maria we were completely safe, so she depended on her brothers to keep her protected.


I had to come back and add this elephant. William laughed and said, "The elephant is the quintessential zoo animal. So true. Thank you son.


And to the very end, Maria admonished every creature: "Don't eat my feet!"


OKay, seriously...

We're Going to The Zoo, The Henry Vilas Zoo

Back to Wisconsin. Like I said, we didn't laze about the whole trip. One day we met Gabe and Betsy, with their children, Griffin and Jordan, at the Zoo in Madison. The free zoo!


We saw bison, lions, seals,
prairie dogs
a badger
an ostrich
a black bear and a polar bear!


We had sno-cones!


We fed goats.


Hungry, hungry goats!


The nice thing about a free is zoo is no one feels pressured to see everything and do everything.


Without the pressure, there's time to sit and reflect, sketch. No hurries. No worries.


Geoff remembers this zoo from his childhood. I love visiting places he recalls fondly. Here's the bubbler he remembers. Bubbler? A bubbler is where water bubbles up for a cool drink. A fountain is where you throw a coin and make wishes. Wisconsin talk... I love it.

Time to check our primate arm-span:

Griffin, age 5 and quite a primate!


Max, age 9... ready to climb and swing!


William, age 16 ... a good sport for his mom. Ahh.


Alex is 13 and also humoring his mom. Thanks son.


Maria is 2 and she's a monkey girl for sure!


Jordan! One more 2 year old monkey girl!

Before we left, we had two bear encounters that were really awesome. First the polar bear sniffed the air from deep inside her lair and then she slowly, cautiously stepped out in to the late afternoon heat.


Max reminded us about a polar bear's remarkable sense of smell and their unique distinction from most animals, they think humans are tasty.


In the enclosure next door we met the black bear. He looked big. Who remembers? One kind of bear will chase you if you run, so you are supposed to stand your ground and another kind you should run from? Which is which? Might be good to know.

There's more Wisconsin to come, like quilts and the football game and tamale pie...

¡Mas fotos por favor!
We were at The Wild Animal Park yesterday for our traditional sledding adventure. I think this is our fifth year of bundling up for cold fun and hot chocolate. This year we brought a school friend, Mitchell. Before sledding we saw elephants, dik dik, pudu, meerkats and lions. The lions are amazing; don't hesitate to visit TWAP and Lion Camp if you are in SoCal. After sledding we made the long hike back to the entrance, where we did Christmas crafts and tried a visit with Santa. Maria loves Santa... well, she loves images of Santa, and Santa dolls and the little plastic Santa by our front gate, but she does not love a breathing, speaking, real live Santa. She cried mightily, until we left the Park, when she resumed her happy "Ho Ho Ho Santa!" song.

Don't look for us in the neighborhood today. We are off to see aunt Becky, Grandma, Julie, Dan and Molly. It's rather spontaneous, but long over due.

Happy Winter to all!