Complete Joy

It's interesting to see what can make your child happy.  For my daughter, it's books.  When I come home from the Goodwill book store with a book she's been wanting or even a book from a new series that looks interesting, her eyes light up and I get a hearty hug and a big thank you.

It's been a while since I've gotten a reaction like that from my son.  You see, he likes to program computers and build or fix electronics.  I don't really know much about those, and I certainly don't feel comfortable ordering something along those lines so I always leave that to hubby.  

Today I got a reaction from my son and it really made me happy to see him so happy.  I asked my son a few months back if there was an instrument he wanted to learn and he said violin.  There just so happens to be a local orchestra made up of homeschoolers, so a couple months back my son went to try out a violin as well as a couple other instruments (all stringed). 

Someone is just a little happy

After lots of contemplation about the commitment it would take for the next school year, he asked me to sign him up.  He's been begging me to get him the violin now even though classes don't start till late August or early September.  I've been pricing things online and found that the place recommended by the group leader had a "blemished" violin kit in my son's size for $39 less than than the kit I had been looking at.  The violin itself was a model one above the one I was looking at which means I got a better quality violin for $39 less than the one I was going to get. 

And the blemish?  In addition to the neck being lighter than the rest of the violin (see pic below), there are 2 small places (smaller than a pea each) on the back of the violin where the clear coat is missing.  Otherwise, it's perfect from what I can tell.

I actually like the color difference

Macschooling

I'm sorry this is so late in coming.  I went looking for pictures that apparently I don't have.  Rather than make you wait further, I figured I'd post what I could.
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In a recently (for me) post, I mentioned that my son has become quite the tinkerer.  I wish I could say he's gotten this joy and talent from me but I admit it's mostly from his father.   Yes I can come up with some interesting solutions to problems (and patterns for knitting), but my husband... well, he's awesome when it comes to such things.  In fact he was hired at his new job to help fix electrical and computer components rather than just replacing them.  To say he to tinkers is an understatement.

In fact, for at least a week after I met my now-husband, I knew his as MacGyver.  As in the guy from the TV show.  Why?  Because when he started working at the summer camp we met at, he had a Swiss army knife and used duct tape to fix things.  Since then, he has upgraded to a Leatherman knife and he uses other things besides duct tape as well, but the nickname still works for him.

I've asked my husband how he learned to fix things.  What I was told was that when he was growing up he started out by going through people's trash looking for electronic things for parts.  He would take parts from various "broken" pieces of equipment that he found and he would get one item working.  He also fixed Walkmen for people at his school (for a fee of course).  During college he worked at a computer store fixing and assembling computers.

So, it came as no surprise to me when my husband came home from yard sailing with a broken Billy the Bass for our son to mess with.  I WAS a bit surprised however, when my son got it working in less than an hour.  Since that day, my son has started going yard sailing for the sole purpose of finding things to fix or use for parts.  He was given a circuits kit for Christmas a couple years ago and he's even mixed parts from that with parts from "real" electronics in order to make new things.

I am a firm believer that hands-on learning is the way to go for many things in life, and this is no exception.  Thankfully, I have an electrical engineer in the house to help make sure our son doesn't hurt himself while tinkering.  If any of my local friends have any broken electronics, contact us before throwing it out.  I MIGHT know someone who would like to play with it.  :-)

Son watching Daddy fixing our washing machine

Son looking at the "broken" electronics panel from our new fridge.

Light-band son made from the broken panel from our fridge (Mac[Gyver]schooling at it's finest)

Wonderful Day + 1 = a 180?

Yesterday was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable days I've had in a LONG time.  We went to church in the morning and neither kid gave me a hard time about going to their class.  Not only did I hear a good sermon, but I was reminded of all the sacrifices that our military make for us (appropriate for this time of year). 

After church, we had a light lunch and then hubby took a nap while the kids watched a movie.  This gave me some alone time and I knitted, read a little, called my parents, and just had some alone time.  After all that, hubby grilled some smoked steak (yum!) for dinner.

After dinner we got to roast marshmallows for S'mores for the kids and I made myself a cherry campfire pie.  After that, I had to work off some of the food, so the kids and I went for a walk down to the Indian River to play some Red Light, Green Light.  While there, I called my in-laws and the kids got to talk to their Oma and Opa for a bit.  We ended up back by the river at dusk in order to try to see another fireworks display (we saw one on Saturday that lasted 30 minutes long).  Unfortunately, it was so far away that most were hidden by the trees.  Yet the kids took it well.

Today however is looking like it will be a very different kind of day.  The kids are already fighting (Over a book.  Should I be happy it's at least about a book?).  We've also been dealing with a sewer problem the last couple of days and it would appear it's coming to a head today.  We are the lowest sewer spot on our row of campers so every time another camper empties their tanks it ends up pushing sewage up out of our spot.  We haven't been able to empty our tanks for 2 days now because of it.  We didn't have any problems before the weekend so we think the extra people this weekend are causing it.  Yes, most of them are leaving today, but we are at 90% capacity this weekend but on Thurs the campground will be at 100% capacity because of the shuttle launch.

As I type, one of the maintenance guys is snaking the sewer hole and adding a new PVC pipe (the one there was broken).  If they can't get it fixed we're going to try to move sites today.  The smell of the sewage is getting worse and I haven't been able to do dishes or take a shower since yesterday for fear of overflowing our tanks. 

If they do get it fixed, I'm going to have a lot of dishes to do (followed by a nice long shower of course).   As someone who doesn't like doing dishes, I must admit, the reprieve is probably part of what made yesterday so enjoyable.  I guess life is now back to normal for a few more days.  Sigh.

A New Day

A couple days ago, I complained about all the things that had been going wrong with the camper recently.  Well, thinks have brightened up significantly since then.  The camper is no longer giving us grief and the weather has cooperated in such a way that we've been able to enjoy the island.

When we sold our stuff in preparation for moving (to Australia or to the Southern US), Jon and I decided to sell our bikes.  We had used them maybe 2 or 3 times since we'd bought them and we didn't want to store them.  The last couple days we've regretted that decision a bit.  You see, Sanibel Island is a bike friendly location.  There are 27 miles of bike trails on the island and they take you all over.  So we decided to rent a couple bikes for us.  Although our daughter can ride a bike, her endurance and control are not as good as we'd like for the trips we want to make, so we also rented a pull-behind trailer for our her.  It has made the last couple days SO much more enjoyable.  Yesterday, we were able to go down to the beach and collect a few shells.  As we were about to leave we saw 2 dolphins swimming not too far off the beach.

Last night, I was able to ride alone for 30 minutes or so and it was just what I needed.  It had been so long since I'd gotten in any really good exercise and it felt GREAT!  Not only that, but it was nice to have some alone time (no fixed address means no babysitters, which means no dates or much alone time for Mommy).  My only complaint is that the seats on rental bikes are AWFUL!   My bum is a bit sore from yesterday, but that did not stop me from taking the kids down to the beach again this morning.  Gotta take advantage of being here while I can.

I can certainly see why people love living here.  I could get used to this.  I just wish I could afford it.

Weekend Joy

I think it's safe to say that everyone in the family had a wonderful weekend. On Friday, my younger brother went skydiving for the second time.  What made this special was that even though he was diving tandem (attached to someone else) he's been working as a parachute packer for long enough that the dive instructor let him track the altimeter and determine when to open the chute.  It was also special because he ended up diving through hail.  Not something he chose to do mind you, but certainly something many people can't claim to have done.  As proof, he's looked like he has measles ever since (it is going away slowly though). 

My father, husband, and son had a blast attending a robot competition on Saturday. Not only were they able to watch the competition, but my son was able to drive a small robot for a while and they were also able to talk to some of the competitors about the work they did.  They even found out that my son can join a team in 2 years (he's VERY excited)!

My mom, daughter and I had a good time while the guys were gone on Saturday playing games, going to the book store (my daughter LOVES books), and McDonald's playground. I also learned that my daughter likes to help in the kitchen with more than just baked goods.  Bonus to that: she tasted a food she's refused in the past because she helped make it. Score 1 for Mommy!

Today, the weather started out a bit gloomy and colder, but by mid-afternoon things had warmed up a bit.  Hubby ended up working on the camper and the kids spent hours outside playing with a homemade parachute (inspired by their uncle of course).  Tomorrow's weather looks like it will be even better, so I'm sure we will be out there with the parachutes and working on the camper yet again.  And I'm looking forward to it.