Winter Holidays 2009 (placeholder)

Heyas! Sorry our recent post was such sad news. We actually had a GREAT time over the holidays. But, we came home to a dead computer, so we are borrowing one temporariliy. We still have to unpack, do laundry, sort out and download all of our photos we took during our trip to Utah and Colorado.

Then,......I PROMISE to replace this boring post with a great one about our trip, complete with photos.

Stay tuned!!!!!!!

Love, The Z Clan!

Goodbye Sweetest Girl

Our dear sweet kitty, Penny, passed away on January 2, 2010.

On New Year's Day we woke up to some odd behavior by her, mainly her eyes looked strange and she was having trouble walking. After a long day spent at the pet emergency clinic and a very long night of wondering and considering, we decided that we could not put her through rigorous testing, poking, prodding or long-term rehabilitation. The family decided it was best to relieve her suffering.

To the best of our knowledge, we believe she had a stroke, a rare thing for kitties, but with a purebred (ragdoll), it is certainly possible. She was having trouble with negotiating the left side of her body and we are certain she was blind and possibly deaf on one side. She also did not respond to her name, something she has ALWAYS done since we adopted her.

Goodbye "Pennies From Heaven". We will ALWAYS love you!

)O( The Mama

Feast or Famine.....Part Deaux....

Yeah, yeah.....I know why aren't we posting to our blog more often? Well, the simple answer is.....WE ARE BUSY!!! The better answer is.....we are lazy!

LOL! Actually, we are not lazy, we just keep moving "update the blog" to end of the list and then onto the next "to do" list and then to the next one....and so on....and so forth.....ah, you get the picture. You are also guilty of that, too, hmmm????

Actually, we are enjoying the summer. We adopted a new cat named Penny. We discovered Facebook a while back and that sort of took over all "spare" computer time.

So, this is Penny. This picture is not one of her best, but it shows her interesting markings. She's a purebred Ragdoll cat; six years old with a championship pedigree. She's pretty cute and quite a lovebug. She's a little bit shy around the kids, but tolerates their love and hugs pretty well.

We are enjoying having a cat in the house....oh, did I mention that she is long-haired? Eesh! Forgot what de-linting is all about.

Well, I've got to run....I'm prepping to go the Ventura County Fair tonight, sans kids, to see Huey Lewis and the News! This should hold everyone for awhile, right? Sending much love to all......

)O( The Mama

The QUICKEST Month

Every February I am amazed at how 28 days can zip by in a blink.

I also figured that neglecting the blog just isn't a very good thing to do. Even before and after February, Life moves at the speed of psycho and the blog is the best way we know how to keep everyone updated (including ourselves.....)

Most of you know that the "mama" took a gigantic leap into the thespian category (it's about time since Boy and Girl are both going to be seasoned Shakespearean actors by the time summer rolls around) and landed a very special first role on a stage. Check out the "MAMA" blog, for the full story on that.

Mama also took a new quilt class. This time using a pattern with "points" (which means "triangles"). Here are two blocks that are being made:

(Mama switching to talking in the first person now--)I started out on my usual wonderful sewing machine that really got me started and gave me the room to really appreciate sewing. However, the precision that this particular pattern required was far beyond what my "basic sewing and mending machine" was capable of handling. Part way through my classes, I began to realize that I really needed to upgrade my machine.

I had been thinking of doing this anyway as early as several months after I began quilting and realized that I absolutely LOVE to do it. Literally, for the past year, I have been wanting this machine:


It's a 2008 Heart Truth from Janome, which is a pretty good name in the quilting realm. But the best part is that DS saw how much trouble I was having with getting this quilt together. So.......he gave me the money, just before V-day, to buy it as an early anniversary gift (10 years next week). Isn't he the BEST!? I was able to nab ONE of the final TWO in Ventura County. I brought the "new baby" home on February 13th and spent the weekend playing with it and loving it!

DS is the BEST gifter.

While my project was begun on a lower-end machine and that still presents a lot of challenges, I am now planning to finish it. (More details about that on Mama's Blog

Another, very sad event took place at the end of February, really the beginning of March.... My Uncle Harvey passed away. Here is a very small part of his life:
"Walking in Multiple Worlds"

Daddy continues to work hard and hunt gophers. The kids continue to play hard and grow their brains (here's a few photos on that):

and life is as grand as it can be out here in the West.

We miss you all every day.

)O(
~The Mama
MNMS

Yes! We are STILL HERE!

I can not believe it has been more than six months since our last post here.....We've done A LOT! Black Belts for Mom, Dad and Boy in October....the holidays.....quilting projects....family adjustments (not the immediate....nobody panic)...wondering about the state of Countrywide/Bank of America.

I've picked up the responsibility of Chair for California Homeschool Network's Legal Rights Advocacy Committee.....I am also running for a seat on the Board of Trustee's for CHN.

We bought a new car--2007 Kia Sedona.....unexpected right before Christmas (on the Winter Solstice to be exact) because Frankentruck was pissing all kinds of fluids at every turn.

We continue to live quietly wondering who Countrywide/Bank of America will decide to keep on their payroll lists (hopefully MY husband!!!!!).....

Lots of things.....none of them Earthshattering or really important enough to have neglected blogging......just.......Life.

)O(

Whenever Schooling

Sometimes it's hard to believe that time flies by as fast as it does. The "school year" ended mid-June for most public schools in this area. It also seems that a lot of homeschooling families also choose that time to "break" for the summer. Perhaps those that "break" are actually home schooling through the public school districts Independent Study Programs.

EQL Academy (that is our private school) is a "year round school". We take "breaks" whenever we need them. Since we are constantly learning all of the time, we don't feel the need to count only certain activities, times of the day or days of the week as "schooly".

These photos were taken as the kids were learning about physics. There was a question about reflection (what makes mirrors) and then why they couldn't sit comfortably on the top of the couch. Traditional lessons? Hardly. Fun and laughter? ..... TONS!

If our children embrace the love of learning, they will outstrip us in every way possible. Their success will be endless.

Speaking of success....I'm off to teach us all how to compost.

)O( Mama

Video Killed the BlogStar?

I figured out how my nifty little "EnV" phone takes videos. I have a 512MB card in the phone and can store LOTS of photos and videos. So, here's a video of Poodle in one of her "shows" for her dance class. It's an informal recital for the parents. It's less intimidating than the other dance studios that perform their recitals in a HUGE auditorium in front of a few thousand people.

So, let's try this. I'm not sure the sound quality is that great. But....here it is!

~~Mama )O(

Happy Toes!

Poodle and I had a pedicure! Well, I had the works. Poodle just had her toes painted for the very first time.

I'm not much of a "girly" girl and when my friend told me she used to be a pedicurist (?) in her life before hubby/child/homeschooling and then offered to give me a pedicure, I simply could NOT say no!

Ah, it was heaven. We 21st Century "homemakers" rarely have moments to ourselves, let alone take the time to do our nails! Helping each other out is a great trade-off. While I was having my relaxing reflexology pedicure, our children were all playing Scrabble!



Now, we are ready to hit the beach!

~Mama )O(

Happy Children!

..in a grocery store in the middle of the day. I just love these four! They made a game out of things. And they are so cute, too!

ARRRGH! There be pirates about......

Ahoy, There!!!.......

Today we attended the Spring Ojai Renaissance and Pirate Faire near Lake Casitas. It was wonderful. Sunny, but cool with a lovely breeze off the lake which turned into a gale by the time we headed home.

But a good time was had by all...including our baby pirates. Observe them scouring the land for booty!




At the Faire, which consists of bawdy adult humor and is aimed at adults with lots of dubloons to spend, the kids get "treasure maps" when they come in. They hunt around for booths that have a special flag with certain characters on it (one has a merman, another has a unicorn, another a pegasus, etc...) and then they ask for a stamp for their map. Once they get all of the stamps, they return to the scene of the map handout and are directed to the treasure. They can rifle through the chests and pick out any treasure they wish.

For the second year in a row they both picked the same thing; a Pirate of the Carribean kit consisting of a telescope, eye patch and nifty sword.

Well, they are very cute baby pirates.....

~~Mama )O(

Whack Jobs ....

I have this way cool killer new cell phone. It's an "enV" by LG. And it ROCKS! It takes the most FAB photos! And these aren't even the BEST resolution ones. I got this 512MB card with the phone. I SWEAR! The card is no bigger than one of my fingernails. Anyway, it holds tons of photos. Now that I figured out how to transfer from phone to card to PC......I'm a picture taking fool!

We all got our hair cut recently by Angela, our fashion-ISTA who lives in Grand Prarie Texas. I feel like such a diva when I tell people my hairdresser flies in especially for me.

My hair and Marc's look about the same as they always do. But this was Shan's first time getting a "REAL" haircut. She told Angela that she wanted her hair cut "just like mommy's". Now she has this all new funky personality along with it, too.

Oh Boy! We are in trouble.......

~~)O( Mama

"A Playdate with Shakespeare"

We have all survived another season of Shakespeare. N played three parts in this latest installment. A grand time was had by all and S can't wait for her turn. As always, we have ordered extra DVD's to share with family and friends.

This group of children aged 6 to 9 were absolutely astonishing in their performance and delivery. "Shakespeare" conjuring up the witches for the "Macbeth" portion was uber-fantastic!

Congratulations to all in the Much Ado About Shakespeare programs all over Southern California and congratulations to Rebekah Czarnecki (who is having her baby as I post this!) and family on the arrival of "Linda Lee Rose"....

"A Rose by any other name, would still smell as sweet."

~~ShakyMama )O(

The Farm of the Painted Pony

Riding Painted Ponies




EQL Academy's Thursday field trip this week was to a private farm called the Painted PonyFarm in Upper Ojai.

We had tons of fun! We learned that some chicken do lay green eggs (and they are Polish chickens, so thats a plus!) and that white eggs come ONLY from chickens with white feathers. Growing up in New England, my husband and I recall TV commercials for eggs with the jingle "brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are FRESH!" I have no idea why they used that little silly jingle.

Oh my, there truly is nothing like an egg fresh from the chicken. If we could, we would raise chickens for their fresh eggs. The kids tried to smuggle one of the chicks, but I was ready.

The "kids" milked a goat.
















I was going to milk the goat, but she became impatient and kicked everyone that came near. She also booted over the bucket of milk (it wasn't full). So, I just decided to leave her alone rather than risk a boot from a nannygoat.

After the kids all had their turn at milking, they all toddled after the baby goats who were calling frantically to their "Maaaaaa"'s and then we retired back to the house for goat's milk ice cream made fresh on the premises. Yum (and I am NOT a fan of goat cheese)! Really, though, it was absolutely delicious.

We tried to pet the painted ponies, but alas....they like to bite little fingers.

Our next project is to figure out how to build an incubator so that we can hatch some chicks of our own. We'll have to return them to live on a farm, but the project will be fun nonetheless.

~Mama )O(

Quilting On

Here is my finished quilt top for BabyGirl. She picked out all the fabrics herself. Christmas themed as they are, there is an interesting significance to it which I will share once the entire thing is completed.

~~Mama )O(

This episode sponsored by "Dogfights" (only on the History Channel

"Dogfights" is a program on the History Channel that we accidently happened upon at the last CHN homeschooling conference. Since then, we've seen many episodes, purchased Season 1, learned quite a bit about aviation, World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict and much more. Nicolas and I have been inspired by several episodes, and so we present our tribute to "Dogfights" in Lego of course:

========================================================
Jets
========================================================











Type: Jet
Make: Mig-17 (Russian)
Conflict: Korea (N. Korea)
Armament: 3 Front mounted 20mm cannon
Max Speed: 711 mph at 10,000 ft
Range: 1,290 miles
Ceiling: 54,460 ft

Type: Jet

Make: Mirage-III (French)
Conflict: 6 day war (Israel)

Armament: 2 wing mounted 20 mm cannon, 4 air to air missiles
Max Speed: Mach 2.2
Range: 1,450 miles
Ceiling: 59,000 ft

========================================================
Bi-Planes
========================================================

Type: Bi-Plane
Make: Spad-13 (French)
Conflict: World War I
Armament: 2 Vickers .303 front mounted machine guns
Max Speed: 138 mph
Ceiling: 21,820 ft

Type: Bi-Plane
Make: Fokker-7 (German)
Conflict: World War I
Armament: 2 forward firing Spandau machine guns
Max Speed: 190 mph
Ceiling: 22,900 ft

"California Criminals", Continued........

At the tail end of March, the 2nd Appellate (Headache) District decided to throw out it's very controversial decision that caused such an uproar at the start of that month.

Here is excellent commentary regarding these events by John Stossel.

So, we are all waiting until June for the decision of the court.

In the meantime, it's EAU (Education As Usual).


~Mama )O(

It is Finished!! ...

I became interested in quilts recently when a friend asked for help in completing a quilt that was more than 40 years old and had been pieced together completely by hand. The quilt was donated to a church organization for purposes of an auction. In keeping with the spirit in which the quilt was created, it was decided to completely finish it by hand. So, one day, my friend brought a bunch of needles and thread to our homeschooling park day and we had ourselves a little quilting bee.

Pretty soon, I found myself wanting to make a quilt of my own. So, I signed up for a beginner class, picked out some pretty radical fabric and proceeded to begin.

I discovered that sewing is very relaxing and I love creating these great works of art that are also functional and warm.

This is the back and an example of the quilting.

This is the finished product.

While I was working on it and trying to figure out what I would do with it, N asked if he could have it. I thought that was appropriate, my first quilt for my first born child.

So, "The First Spark" was finished the day after his 8th birthday.

Of course, my girl wanted to know where HER quilt was! Once I explained that I could only work on one at a time, she then rifled through my fabric stash (I've been collecting fabric for several years just because I like many different fabrics and use them for decorations), picked out some that she liked and then informed me that we needed to go to the fabric store to find some others for her quilt.

More to come.....

~~Mama )O(

The Essence of "Privacy"

My good friend, Tammy, was featured in this video clip from CNN today regarding the homeschooling situation in California.

What is frustrating for most of us in California is the insistance that the law has "always been like that" (meaning that parents cannot choose to homeschool their children without a teaching credential). It's simply not true. Many are using the private school option which does not require teachers in a private school to be credentialed. There are plenty around here, in this Hollywood area bedroom community. Expensive as hell...and wouldn't you know it? Not all the teachers are credentialed. The "authorities" better go after THOSE schools before they come after mine.

What does a credential prove anyway? That one is adept at "classroom management" or that one is an expert to spot abuse at home? What about all the credentialed teachers that do the abusing? I am not trying to devalue a teaching credential. Several of my aunts and my cousin are credentialed teachers. I'm just saying that it is not necessary in order to enable EVERY SINGLE child to be educated.

Public school is but one CHOICE. Our family chooses private school, our own private school. So, to the government I want to say quite loudly....BUTT OUT!!!

Despite what is being reported, erroneously most of the time, this fight is NOT about the interests of the child. It's about government control over a parents right to freely choose what is in the best interests of their children.

Since when does the government get to butt into our lives and tell us how to run our families??

Abuse will be happening regardless of whether a child is in a public or private school.

Jumping off of my soapbox now.

~~Mama )O(

The Pace of Today

How did I spend the beginning of this week? You can listen here .

In case anyone is wondering, we are just fine out here. We haven't changed what we are doing. And we won't. If our freedom to choose our children's education ourselves, then we will move out of the state.

~~Mama

Legal Firestorm in California

The really juicy stuff I posted to my other blog. For now, I'll give you the Reader's Digest version of the latest "firestorm" in The Land of the Fruits and the Legal Nuts.

A trio of moronic, ancient and well-used-past-their-prime Appellate Court Judges have suggested--No, I'm sorry--blatantly stated--that it is unconstitutional for parents to home educate their children.

Yeah, I know. And you read that right.

You can go to my other blog to read my rant. However, be warned....you may learn things about me you might not otherwise have known. Like that I am fond of four-letter words and have a mind of my own. But then again, most of you already know that.

In the words of Bon Jovi--"Have a Nice Day".

~~)O( The Mama