Memories From January-March 2019

January through April were extremely busy months for me, so I didn't take many pictures.  I simply enjoyed the time I had with my family and got through these months.

The spring semester was at least as challenging as the previous fall semester.  People told me I was crazy for signing up for eighteen credit hours.  A good challenge I do like, though.  That go-around, I had six courses (including a one-credit-hour course and one five-credit-hour one), including two that required field experience.  I spent many weeks not only going to a college campus four days a week and taking care of my online courses, but I also was present at our district's elementary-, middle-, or high school for several hours a week.  I had to put together tasks for my psychology clinical course and video myself working with a student to carry out my tasks.  I did forty-nine hours of that, not including the videos I did at home with my Elizabeth, since some of the tasks didn't match the student at school for whom I had permission to film.  Then I put in two rounds of 20+ hours of teacher observation for two different teachers and all the reporting and data I had to compile for those.  I had to compile a large resource file (in a 5-inch binder) for my teacher education class that included several other projects in addition to the teacher observations, plus chapter work.  I had a physical science class and lab that was utterly exhausting to sit through—two hours and forty-five minutes twice a week.

Then I still put it family time, often cooking for my family, always getting the kids up and helping Elizabeth get ready each morning and driving them to school (which allowed for discussion time).  I did Elizabeth's reading with her half the time, while Carissa did the other half.  My sweet, wonderful wife helped so much.  She took over the housework and laundry almost 100% and did so much to take care of the kids.  Although I'd have done the same without her, my house would have been utterly chaotic, and I'd have not done as well without her.  I am so grateful for her and all that she does. 


January
 

The following three pieces of work were things Olivia did in November and December that she brought home in December and January, though I snapped two of the pictures of the work when they were on the school wall.

 

February

It was nice to be able to spend a few minutes watching deer in the front yard some mornings.

March


Olivia's teacher had her class do weaving projects after a lesson on an ancient culture and how they went about weaving.

I've got two more posts planned in order to catch up.  Look for a post for April and May and another post for June and July.  :-)  Coming up soon...

Nice Nature Pics, Rock Painting, and More (Mar. and Apr. 2016)

This was neat to see these two different spider species sitting in our garden tub.  The cellar spider (Pholcus Pholangiodes) was no surprise.  It's all I can do to keep them out. But the fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus)
I didn't much like to think about where it had been before it got into our tub. Cree-py! At this point, though, we've seen so many different creatures in our tub.  Welcome to the woods.  Haha!

It's been sooooo nice to see an abundance of deer again in our yard and across the road, since Atlas has been gone. Atlas is a good dog, but he was not the right kind of dog for our liking.  I love, love, love seeing wildlife, and that dog kept it all away.

This was so neat!  William described what I thought might be a snowberry clearwing that you might remember my identifying in the past.  Trusten took me out to try to find one, though, and I saw this!  I knew it was some sort of moth.  It's abdomen reminded me of a yellow hornet.  Well lo and behold, it's commonly called a hornet moth (Sesia apiformis).  These two pictures are the best I could get of the fast-flying creature.

 Chubby ol' groundhog! (Marmota monax)  I LOVE these pics I got!

I wanted so much to get a decent turkey(s) picture this year.  It was my top priority nature photograph.  Well, technically I did get a "decent" one.  This is it.  I wish it was better.  It was very far away, and I zoomed to the max.  I do not know whether it is female or juvenile.  I don't yet know how to properly identify turkeys, unless it's an adult male.

I just thought this scene in our yard was absolutely gorgeous.  There was that beautiful stormy-blue sky background, all that greenery, and the magnificently beautiful purple irises (Iris sp.).

 This. Color. I'm in awe.

 Mesmerizing.

Remember these mushrooms when not dried out, and they were covered with silken web?

 A tumor or a mutated leaf?

A pair of mullein! (Verbascum blattaria)

 Stars-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)

I always see at least one four-leafed clover.  These were my first of the year, a pair right next to each other.

I didn't buy any plants for my pots this year.  I planted seeds, and Trust and Liv helped me.  I showed them how to add different collections of soil and such that I had in different containers.

My hens-and-chicks that my friend Shana gave to me three years (or four?) had once again outgrown their pot. I moved them to my widest container.  I sacrificed three to five of them, and I had to separate others and spread them out.  They're all doing very well again now.  Such hearty plants!  They're perfect for me.

Dianthus?  I'd have to look this up, but I think that's the name of these flowers.  Anyway, these are offspring of the plant I had last year.  They lived all through winter and then started blooming this spring.  I'm impressed.  We had a mild winter, though.  

I decided it was time for us to paint rocks again.  I got down my collection from a bag that was collecting dust on top of the refrigerator.  I cleaned the rocks and let them dry.  Then we waited a few days.  

This is my male mallard duck.  I have no idea why I used orange for the bill and not yellow.  I will add a white ring around the neck when I get white paint.  

 These were Elizabeth's and maybe Olivia's, too??? 

 Bianca spent the night with the kids, and these two are hers.

This is William's puffin, which will look really great once we get white paint!  He really needed the white paint on there at the beginning.  What a shame we were out of it.  

 Nathan's birthday ice cream cake.  

 Beef pepperoni (I slice summer sausage) and mushrooms

 SO good!  Taziki's Greek restaurant recipe for their chicken lemon soup.  I ran low on liquid.

One Saturday we ate at a friend's restaurant and then went driving down Butler Hollow in Seligman.  I wanted to go down there.  

Nathan was engaged, talking to his friend Dave the electrician.

How I wished I'd taken my camera!  Ugh!  But I didn't, so these blurry pictures are what I got.  This is how much of the road that got washed away.  Then the picture below shows what is to the right of this.  You can see people on four-wheelers driving down there.  We were in Nathan's truck and took a muddy route on the other side of the road and came out on the other section of the road.  This is more damage from the December flood that washed out a great deal of our yard and the bridge on the highway (that they're just now fixing, as of May 28). 

When Bianca spent the night, I took them all to the park before taking Bianca back home.  They were thrilled.  Poor Elizabeth did not want to leave.  She loves sliding.  She enjoyed swinging, too.

 William got buried in the sand!

 Girls playing with puzzles in optometrist's waiting room.

Wow!!!!!  I'm actually CAUGHT UP!  FINALLY!  Ok, so in a few days I will post May's post and then just review what we did for school and what summer plans and fall plans are. 

Until next time...

July 2015: Creek Flood and Play, Tadpoles and Other Creatures, Family Reunion

I sure wish I would have finished my late winter through late spring mushroom identification for this year already and posted about it here, but alas it's not completed.  But I know that's ok.  It's perfectly ok. :-)  It will get done when it gets done, just like everything else.  So if it's out of my planned order of "perfection," it's no big deal.  In the meantime...

Here are my hand-selected pictures from our fantastic month of July 2015.

Creek's Flood and Subsequent Water Play

 Girls watching floodwater from their bedroom window (July 7)

Oldest three posing in front of creek, later the same day.  I'm holding Elizabeth's hand.

The next day (July 8) was a day full of adventurous play in the creek.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the creek was so beautiful.  The sky was beautiful. The air felt pleasant. The kids were delighted.  I was very content and filled with joy.  :-)

Nature's Finds

Common whitetail skimmer dragonfly, male (Plathemis lydia)

Do you see the hummingbird?  One day I'll get a stunning shot of a hummingbird.  Just wait.

Wild turkey (Meleagris gallipavo), in the Galliformes family

Three-toed box turtle, female (Terrapene carolina triunguis) 

I rescued these tadpoles.  They were found in water that was super-heating in the sun.  Many had already died. I believe I saved most of the living ones.  Two died after rescue.  I later counted nineteen.  Those nineteen all lived until release.  I wanted to keep two back for the whole metamorphosis to adulthood, so the kids could see again.  They loved when they learned about the frog's life cycle and got to see the metamorphosis from tadpole to adult frog.  I kept these and cared for them and fed them for over two weeks, and then I had to dump them in our neighbor's pond at the edge of our property lines, right as we were leaving out to go to a family reunion.  I was afraid they might not live while we were gone for two nights and three days.  I only regret not taking another picture at the end.  They had grow quite a bit larger and were already sprouting their hind legs!

Polistes carolina (one of two types of red paper wasps)

This was neat.  Nathan and I have a bedroom window screen with a hole, so some red paper wasps made a nest between our screen and pane.  The girls and I enjoyed watching them each day.  It was a fascinating way to learn how the wasps operate.  When we first noticed them, they started with two or three adult wasps, and there were maybe two to four holes that were sealed.  We watched over time as developing pupae finished their transformation, emerged as an adult and joined the others in the work of building the nest bigger and bigger.  The fun ended when Nathan was doing something around the outside of the house (I don't remember) and decided to exterminate them.  :-(

Miscellaneous Fun 

Look who it is, looking out my bedroom window! It's Dinosaur!  I was so tickled to go into my bedroom at one point and find Dinosaur sitting in the sill, looking outside.  I suppose Elizabeth figured that since she loves to look outside, Dinosaur must want the privilege as well.  :-)  This made me smile so big.

Here's the beautiful girl who loves dinosaurs.  Nathan and I still had visits left at the tanning salon, and we always took turns staying with the kids and going in to tan, and on this occasion, Elizabeth and I were having a little fun while waiting.  This is a small sample of all the pictures I took.  LOL

My chillins! :-)

I can't rightly remember what Elizabeth was upset about.  I think maybe she'd forgotten her toys or was wishing she could play with one of Trusten's and Liv's?  I'm not sure, but usually when I shoot pictures of them crying or whining or whatever, and then show them what they look like, they usually laugh and cheer up.

See the transformation occuring?  There's a bit of a smile.

 Family Reunion

A lawn mower train!  LOL The little kids loved this.  Even William took a ride, though.

Liv with cousin Layla, Elizabeth with my sister and cousin Laney, and the boys in the front

 Such a content and happy baby girl

The family reunion was nice.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, though.  I was too busy either talking or keeping up with kids, both mine and my sister's.  We took turns taking little girls to the bathroom, hunting a child down, and such.  :-)  She had her sweet Laney to nurse.

Well, there you have it.  Those were the highlights of July, besides cool mushrooms we saw.  I'm keeping all those back for my last of four collective mushrooms post.  After that I will include any mushroom pictures in the other posts, aside from any special posts I may decide to make in the future.  

Until next time...