2011 Schooling?

So I am getting excited about leaving San Diego. No, really, I am. Whenever I think of the boat, I think, aaaah, I am getting a nicer kitchen with less oven. Of cozy nights playing Monopoly, or Pass the Pigs. Of reading with the family. Or visiting with our boating neighbors. But...

We got great news! We are going to Jordan as a family in May! Yippeee! But now that means we are not only practicing our Spanish for this next trip, but we need to research and learn about Jordan and learn some polite phrases in Arabic. Oh really? So now my curriculum for 2011 looks like a mad woman put it together. Science will be life sciences (cell reproduction and such, genus and families of animals/flowers/insects and such), Spanish (verbs & conjugations, vocabulary, conversational practice), MathUSee 3rd & 4th levels, reading for pleasure, writing an adventure novel for the kids, and podcasts of science and grammar and Spanish, classical literature for kids (Tom Sawyer, The Diary of Anne Frank, Dickens and stuff like that). Can we say that I feel a bit crazed by all this? I hope my sanity returns in time for me to pack it!

Lista, lista, para la vista!

OK, so here is the scoop... we are going to be leaving soon. John came back from Jordan, hung out with us for a week, and then drove 725 miles south of the border to get to our boat and put on some awesome and much needed things on it. A new toilet? Kind of important (although could we have used a bucket for 5 mos. yes??). New compass? Very important. New fish finder/depth sounder? Could have done without but it will make life easier for us, thus kind of important. New flip down flat screen tv with dvd player? Awesome, totally unneeded and yet, well it will make rainy days more tolerable.

So what have I done? Besides waking up in the middle of the night with butterflies in my stomach, wanting to know when we are actually leaving (instead of this hypothetical "we are leaving when we are leaving" junk that we keep saying), not much except, in my head, lists , lists and more lists.

What I want to do for schooling on the boat. What I want for reading for myself on the boat. Is there any other kitchen items that I want for the boat? What I want to see the kids to see on this trip. How to keep the kids in some good shape while we are gone. How to get us from here to there with some fun, good food, and writing in my journal to be able to support the family later on with a book about how much fun we are having... OK is that just wishful thinking on my part?

I am so looking forward to being in the moment on the boat. But I could start right now, instead of living 3 wks from now and just concentrate on today. OK? That would mean washing the clothes, and getting over to Barnes & noble....

new pic of L

We were at the Alvarado Creek during clean up week. Leo is holding up something that you can't see in the picture, but it shows how his face is maturing. Love my family

new pix of T

T with a lego creation

Skyping makes me not a luddite anymore

Well, we skyped John (who left for Jordan on Sept. 28th and will be back sometime in early Dec.) and it is nice to be able to see his face while he is gone. Unfortunately, now my mind was reeling from wanting to go on the boat. I think I am scared of being on the boat, but I know I am excited about going a different way this next time.

The kids are doing so well in swim right now that it does give me pause to leave when we are planning to. Leo is getting muscles in his biceps and his chest is looking square-er. T is dropping a lot of time and should be on her way at this next meet to getting great PBs on short course. I will be officiating.

It is rainy and we have had thunder storms. I would do anything to be all cozy on the boat, reading a book and drinking some hot tea with the whole family around me. Looks like that will happen sometime in 2011. Love my family

being veggie?

Some quick thoughts on what is happening... we took a challenge to be veggie or mostly veggie for 21 days. I made veggie chilli yesterday but put a bit of leftover ground turkey in it. Breakfast was steelcut oatmeal with blueberries, bananas and walnuts, lunch was green apples with peanut butter. Tonight, green beans blanched with lemon juice and olive oil, raw white corn and roasted potatoes with a bit of seasoning on them. Cantaloupe for dessert. Leo was please, he loves roasted potatoes. Teresa was pleased, since she is no longer allergic to melon, it would seem. I was please that they were pleased. I ran into a nice lady at henry's who encouraged us to go raw if possible, and that eating more whole foods would help us tremendously. She said she had lost 20 lbs. on the raw diet and was really just trying to get her allergies under control.

Day 3 tomorrow! I am happy to do the change in diet. Maybe split pea soup for dinner?

ruminations on dogs

So we are going to be accepting a challenge to become vegetarians for 21 days on Sept. 6th. Since I knew we were going to be doing this (and yes, John knows. He actually suggested we go vegetarian for a week, so I know he is good for that amount of time) and Von's was having a sale on rib-eye, I decided to buy some at a good price. What does this have to do with our akita, Kit kat, you ask? I broiled them, and after John finished his (and yes, he chewed it down to the bone, so I guess he must have enjoyed it quite a bit) he gave the cooked bone to Kit kat, who promptly devoured as much of it as she could in as little time as possible. That was Thurs. On Fri. when she went out on her 1st walk of the day, she apparently had some digestive upset (this was told to me by Leo). On her early afternoon walk, she again had some problems. We left to go run some errands while John took an afternoon nap. He awoke to the dog, ahem, as he so aptly put it, "she exploded all over the carpet", which thankfully was a bit of an exaggeration. We ended up throwing out a small rug that was not salvageable, and used up some woolite carpet cleaner on the bit that got on the regular rug.

When we got home, she promptly went into barfing mode, whereupon we rushed her outside. She puked and then squatted some more. Ugh. Poor thing! A few hours later, she had the dry heaves from both ends.

What have I learned from this? No cooked bones and be extra careful with what we feed her. On the boat this would have been a disaster. Here on land, plenty of room to throw her outside. I take that back. On the boat, we would have thrown her on deck and cleaned it off with a bucket of salt water, but still... I am glad that we found out that she is not to be given bones here than on there!

I think about the boat about 10 times a day. What will we do when at anchor? How will school go? Can I fit some stuff on the Nook? What should we take as far as art supplies? What kind of vegetarian meals will I be making there on the boat in Central America? Who will we meet? How long will we be gone?

But lastly, what kind of dog food will I be able to find in the markets? (sighing and shaking my head ruefully)