Ok, so when you're a new blogger...and you really like it, you hang on every comment--and I do mean EVERY comment.  Most of mine are from my loving husband or my sweet teen, but I actually just noticed (can't figure out why my comment notification system didn't work) that I had a comment from "Mommy of 2" about an entry about Walking Sticks.  I'm bummed that she didn't leave her e-mail address and that I also didn't notice the comment for THREE WEEKS!!

Here's to "Mommy of 2" if you're still out there:  We now have about 15 walking sticks (after only have 2 left), and just yesterday one of my oldsters died.  I was reaching in  to remove his/her body from our cage (which is a small--5-7 gallons?-- glass fish tank) and I noticed an egg dangling from the back end.  "Oh yeah!" I practically shouted to myself silently, "Don't toss the dead ones too soon...there may be babies there!" 

Keep firmly in mind--I'm NOT a walking stick expert.  We've been caring for these great creatures for about three years now, and so what I say is simply based on my own experiences.  I DON'T clean our walking stick cage.  It started off as an accident of being busy...and then morphed into an attitude of "Well, it seems to be working out this way, so..."  From what I've read, it seems to be that walking sticks take a while to hatch, so combining this knowledge with my realization that a dead parent walking stick can still have live eggs attached to it...I'm inclined to keep NOT cleaning their habitat (other than for removing stale lettuce, eventually removing dead bodies, etc.).  My son's preschool teacher also told me that she read that frequently spritzing the wood chips (or other cage base) with water helps along the "new life" process. 

Mommy of 2--send an update.  Did you get new life in your walking stick cage? 

note:  we use organic lettuce...in an attempt to avoid poisoning our friendly creatures with pesticides.  I always think, "the smaller the creature, the more sensitive."  May not be true, but it works for me.  :)

                    The Exquisite Beauty of Imperfection...

...I just like holding it."

           -Tobias Graefensteiner

                                           CALIFORNIA SLENDER SALAMANDER

"Sally" (temporary moniker until Tobi thinks of 'his' real name) has been a willing participant in several outdoor activities:  boating, scenic tour of the backyard, trucking, and a wild ride on Tobi's Razor (scooter).  While outdoors, Sally also has her own playhouse, where she can occasionally be seen leaping from level to plastic level.  Since a sudden vacation with a 5-year-old boy can be awfully taxing on a small amphibious homebody (formerly pretty darn happy deep in the wet mealy earth), our new salamander is happily at rest (live rest that is) in its new, and more ordinary habitat--complete with neighbors (snails) and potential food sources (crickets, earthworms, centipedes).

Tobi wants to let you know (in case you were worried), that Sally is not poisonous!

Well it's been a wonderful weekend at the house of Graefensteiner. To think they cleaned the out the whole garage just for us LOL!!!!!

Widow, widow, underneath,

To your beauty, I bequeath:

All my wonder,

All my awe,

Acceptance of your fatal flaw.

Does your hunger ever ebb?

Like verve in victims of your web?

You keep the ones you covet near.

So...

Did you eat your husband, dear?

The latest rage among homeschooling moms:  Glitticures

Don't leave home without it!  It's fast, free (except for the miniscule cost of the glitter glue) and easy.  Simply attempt to open a well-aged (think very fine red wine) bottle of glitter glue.  Squeeze gently and WA-la!  Not only will your toes be nicely "glitticured" (patent pending), but also you will have hours of fun finding every last bit of glitter glue and the brittle plastic pieces that go with it.  Cheap fun.

Meanwhile...

A certain wild animal who shall remain coyote-less, er, um, I mean nameless, had some fun behind my daughter's church/preschool.  Of course we benefited from this life-cycle slaughter by turning our grizzly find into a homeschooly archeological lesson.  In case you're wondering, prior to any hands on examination, we did a bleach/water soak:

Test your knowledge of rabbit anatomy (here) and see the brown guy above (here).

Guess What?

Yep!  Our way-late-planted Sunflowers are beginning to bloom.  Yippee Skippee!!  We planted all yellows (supposedly)...and look what we got.  A few years ago, my lovely daughter planted yellow AND maroon sunflowers as a surprise for me.  Could my mixed results have something to do with that?  I don't know.  Remember, I'm a newbie gardener.

As tiny as the tip of my little finger. Still...it IS a bell pepper.

Have a beauty-ful day. 

A gentle breeze carried the shiny-black wonder in a circle-like pattern.  Around and around she went with nary a move, nary a twitch.  Creepy, actually.  Strange...to say the least.  Sunbathing in the breeze?  Looking nonchalant so as to surprise her prey with a sudden deadly move'?  My shutter flew with excitement; the perfect hourglass appearing every few seconds with black legs stretched out long and graceful.  Every angle I could possibly imagine--she and the wind accommodated me.  And then, when far too much time had passed without a change in pose, we realized she was not of this world.  Dead.  She had gone off to, um, widower's heaven?

I love these "girls"...these wicked, venomous black spiders.  I've read that they eat their mates...and that suits me just fine.  Not that I'd want to devour mine, mind you. Just that thought it a cool fact of nature.  But then, I also read that it's either not true, or only partially true.  Sometimes they eat their hubbies?  Sometimes they don't? Perhaps widows who eat their mates practice some kind of devil worship or cannibalism?  Birth control?  Could the non-mate-eating ones may be practicing Catholics or Mormons?  Who knows?  "Who cares?" you may be muttering.  Nevertheless, here are a couple of mug shots of my deceased gal (the bottom two), and a couple of her widower? friends she used to hang out with:

Homeschooling has begun for Tobias...and so far I am loving it!  Do I feel perfectly organized and prepared?  Nope.  Am I getting there?  Yep.  Thanks to the help of my dear friend, Teri, our house has a school room; and thanks to my loving daughter, Lori, I have lots of great supplemental materials for engaging learning activities and the theories behind them.  How is it that my own education bypassed the simple wonder of a color wheel?  Did you know that phonics and phonetics are not one and the same (phonetics is a science; phonics is one of a number of ways a child may "solve" words not known as sight words)? Have you always thought that a pedagogy was a stinky, soggy shoe?  Me neither, but still...

Let me say this right off the bat (where does this phrase come from?):  The homeschooling parents I have met thus far are AWESOME.  I'm so stimulated by what comes up in conversation that I have a hard time keeping my ears on one topic/person at a time!  These are parents who have chosen to spend their time educating their children...some are credentialed teachers, some are moms frustrated with public school, and some are moms like myself who have arrived at the homeschooling choice via varied roads. 

And let me also say:  The homeschooling kids I've met thus far are AWESOME.  My youngsters played with their new friends at the park today for the first time.  Three hours in the heat, underneath a play structure in the sand, with about 15 other kids (various ages), and there were no "getting along" issues or the typical disagreements/misunderstandings you would expect in a group of children of mixed ages. 

Ok, so we're two weeks in, this was day #1 of park play, and I really don't know these people.  And so what if I find it easy to fall in love?  In anyone's grade book, I'm bold enough to say that this group of kids and moms would get an A.  Let's hope I can get the same grade while I put my heart and soul into creating an educational plan that fits each of my young ones appropriately.  I might settle for a "B"...except that it's my children I'm talking about...and so, nothing less than an "A" will do.  Truth be told...I'm shooting for the stars...beyond the "A, B, C, D, F" grading model.  We're going to travel to planet Infinium.  Want to join us?

STICKS

and stones may break my bones and words may indeed hurt me, but also sticks (walking sticks that is) do eventually multiply and their eggs, albeit small, are detectable.  See below, which I believe is a tiny egg formerly attached to the final emerging leg of a baby stick bug:

small yet significant blessing to note: my accidentally clean fingernail  :)

LIZARDS

are not all that scary when they are small  and a bit frightening (and a lot fascinating) when they are large

and ready to be re-released (Tobi caught this lovely guy one day prior to this shot) into the wild.  As you may imagine, "Jaws" scrambled rapidly into our neighbors' bushes and I sighed with relief that I would now not need to catch fresh food for two captive lizards.  The following day we let "Lizzy" (pictured above on rock) go as well.  She was not as quick to leap onto her freedom rock...preferring instead to explore the dirt a bit, as if she were incredulous that we were actually granting her immunity (from our arrogant capture) from the crime of being an interesting, educational reptile.  I emitted the second sigh--relieved that Tobias and Kassedi were supportive of our catch and release policy, and doubly relieved that I could stop catching small spiders and other insects, and get back other pressing stay-at-home-mom-pleasures.

MEANWHILE

We have "house guests": actually that's not quite accurate, we have soulmates staying with us, and here is a picture of one of them:  my son's best friend, Rachel

Toodles for Now...

I so want to write more now...I had an evening filled with lovely revelations about life's priorities and other lofty matters, and yet the kids are clamoring for my attention, and (as you know) that is the most important thing I can do at this moment.  So...goodbye for now my invisible cyber-friends.  :)

Returning from my habitual Saturday morning workout I was greeted with, "Well, I have good news and bad news."

"Who died?" I responded to mein Eheman-my German/American husband--referring to our recently captured creatures:  Nibbles, Chomper, and the other unnamed small tobacco worm caterpillars; Lizzie the baby Lizard; our seven Walking Sticks and our remaining three cats. 

"I'm sorry Baby," my husband said, "the birds are eating your caterpillars."   (THE BAD NEWS)

"That's great!" I responded with not the slightest hint of impending tears over the loss.

You see, I have been thoroughly enjoying the chartreuse creatures who love to eat my tomato plants.  They're so ugly they're gorgeous, and their rapacious appetite for our tomato leaves exceeds even my own voracity.  And I love the way they grip the leaf they are eating; wordlessly letting the world know that no creature, human or otherwise, will be sharing their food.  See how much we have in common?  So it should come as no surprise that we eventually gave the green chompers their own tomato plant to munch.  Each time we found a new friend, we transferred the little (or big) guy to it's new home--equally green--equally delicious. 

The problem was that word must have gotten out, because I was finding 1-3 new caterpillars daily and was having trouble finding time to brush my pegs, do laundry, feed the lizard, etc. due to the difficulty I was having in locating these camouflaged cats.  And the reason I couldn't just squish them?  God's creations?  Sure, but that makes me a hypocrite since I daily, easily and willingly swat and kill flies in my kitchen.  I'll just admit it:  I like bugs, arachnids, reptiles and other multi-legged creepy-crawlies (silverfish and cockroaches excepted).  And the fact that our two youngest children like them too makes eliminating the cute caterpillars impossible.  NOW...if nature takes its course and the birds decide to hunt for food on my kids' tomato plants and on the one that specifically belongs to the "cats"?  My response is, "Thank you Lord for your miraculously crafted world...and for helping me effortlessly show my kids the science of life, the life cycles of our favorite creatures and critters, and for sparing me the time-consuming process of daily tobacco worm-watch".

(THE GOOD NEWS)

Tobi had bravely captured a large lizard (or possibly even a skink) while searching for small crickets to feed Lizzie the lizard.  Indeed good news (but I must admit that feeding such a large lizard, as well as creating a large comfortable habitat for her, was going to add to my already over-full creature-feeding-schedule).  So you see...the "bad news" was actually the good news and the "good news" was, well, good news too.  After all, creature-love does entail caring for them.

Words cannot express...

the joy of seeing her children & grandchildren smiling.

Words CAN express the shawe (shock & awe) of watching a

horn worm munch a leaf faster than Superman dons his costume.

Capturing Tobi's realization that his flashlight's beam

bounced off the glass, captured its own image and gave

it back to him--ultimately in quadruplicate! 

Credit for technically inaccurate description:  mine

Credit for image:  Tobi (who noticed it with glee)

Homeschooling was our focus today (simultaneously and mostly-happily ensuring that the four little ones were well fed, well-watered--it's hot today--and smiling more than frowning).  Lori brought her materials (she's a teacher) and we compared the CA standards to what Tobi has already mastered.  And now I have a (borrowed) box of INCREDIBLE materials from her...and we will get together again to complete my son's IEP soon.  I'm beginning to be more excited than nervous about this incredible Odyssey we have begun. 

And I cannot adequately express my gratitude to an amazing daughter who has carved out space in her over-flowing life and her gigantic heart to help me.  After all, she and her husband are managing dual teaching careers, obtaining dual masters degrees, and dueling two children (humor intended). 

It seemed only fitting that we end the day with barbecued S'Mores...which were far too sticky, far too messy, far too sweet, and far too much fun!