a week and a half of Js

Posted in it's cool to school by ElaineMarie

i have been a little unorganized around here lately. that’s how things usually get about a month into it. We started with the letter J a week and a half ago but since i was being a lazy bum we had to kind of extend it a few days. Here’s our learning as we go:

the week(s) included: books on jazz and josephine baker, cutting out jewelry from a lovely little junk mail magazine to create a jewelry box (momma liked helping with this one. shiny things!!!) we took in some jazz inspired art at CMA, broke out the trusty old solar system puzzle to learn about Jupiter. Darla is already familiar with Zeus so that was a big help in explaining the history behind Jupiter’s name. We colored some jelly beans and pasted them in a paper basket. We listened to Elton John a lot. She helped me draw pictures of J things, like Jack and the Beanstalk and our friend Jeff. Our french vocabulary word was jaune so we went through life pointing out yellow things. i’m just trying to keep it simple over here.

we had lots of jam & jelly and spent time with our favorite little J girl, Joni.

as you can tell, all of this kinda gets collected as we go along. I don’t really sit down and do lesson plans, per say. I just see what life provides us. I try not to be too formal. Sometimes I wonder if I should be buying work books or home school curricula but I think we’re doing ok. I like to be inventive and resourceful. I like to turn our junk mail into learning experiences. I can find more than enough materials at the local libraries, and my favorite, FAVORITE place for buying books is at the goodwill. So many barely read books are discarded and resold for less than a dollar. In my mind there is no need to spend a fortune on these materials at such a young stage.

This is just what works for me. creativity, flexibility and very loose boundaries are what i need to be a good teacher. I tried to have set lesson plans and it just made me frustrated and learning wasn’t fun for either of us. now we just learn as we go. isn’t that how it really is in life anyway? you learn as you go.

we will now pause for our “learn as you go, learn as you grow” commercial break.

concert bragging

i recently went on a concert ticket spree while planning our summer so i thought i’d share. here’s a list of upcoming shows at which i’ll be groovin’:

The Black Keys – ok, i done grooved to this one last night but if they are coming through your town on this tour then you should get your moneymaker to their show. they are better than ever, hard to believe, and i’m sure their ticket prices are only going to keep going up. if you want to see them then just go NOW.

Andrew Bird

Jonny Corndawg

We Were Promised Jetpacks

Feist

St. Vincent

Nelsonville Music Festival

Forecastle Music Festival

not too shabby for the first half of the year….

5Mar2012

it’s been a month

Posted in Momma Needs a minute... by ElaineMarie

we’re one month into this work tour for mike. how many more we have left is yet to be determined. do i really need to roll out the same old information that i’m tired, stressed and overwhelmed at times? well, yes, i do. because ya know what i like? sympathy.

the truth is i’m all of those things but every time we go through this it gets a little easier. some of the life changes we’ve made – moving to a new, safer ‘hood, enlisting the help of a babysitter 1-2x a week, deciding to enroll darla in preschool in the fall (the thought of which i hold on to dearly like sweet, sweet nectar from the gods) – have made a world of difference to my single-parent existence.

but honestly, how have so many women throughout time raised so many other human beings on their own? i’m actually one of the lucky ones who has help half the year.

if you know a single-parent, will you do me a favesie and be extra nice to them today? tomorrow? always? they need it more than you may realize. mmmkay thanks!

5Mar2012

weekending 5.0

Posted in let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

i love weekends with my girl especially when it contains the following:

girlfriend movie night viewing of pride + prejudice, free columbus opera performance, fun fair at local middle school, 3 trips to the library, columbus museum of art play date and running into more friends, cousin play date for darla while i came home and got dishes, laundry, floors cleaned, hair done and nails done. and by done i mean clipped. that counts as done for me.

the cherry on top of this busyness sundae was the Black Keys show last night. i’m sore from head to heel.

more weekends like this one please.

face painting at fun fest

look what she chose, daddy

oh ok, i guess we’re wearing this now

snow flakes in all of her hairz

activities at CMA. look at that girl stacking! for too long i have sat by as other children stacked their items neatly while darla discarded items willy nilly. now our day has come. there are signs that the girl understands order in the world.

*obviously i have never really been concerned about her lack of stacking

woooo Spring Break CMA!

pretty little birdie house she painted with our babysitter extraordinaire

3Mar2012

why’s it all cold again and stuff?

Posted in kiddie-do, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

today we had little pellets of sleet punctuating our car ride conversations. it’s hard to believe that just days ago it was in the 70s. i’m posting some more of our sunny pics to help me remember.

willow the goat

i’m including this pic again because i love it so much

monkey bars. i know it looks like she’s in distress but she was loving it. trust me.

counting pine cones and if this picture had audio you would hear the nature lecture i was receiving about the pine nuts inside that birds, squirrels and humans really enjoy. love her.

who’s ready to skip march and head straight on to april? anyone?

2Mar2012

friday smiles

Posted in let me let me update ya, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

we’re finishing up a very good week here and looking forward to an equally good weekend. some things that have made me smile around here today:

our flowers of the week darla picked out

watching darla excitedly tear open her invitation to be a flower girl in cousin’s wedding. she’s pretty jazzed.

watching a girl figure out things for herself successfully.

finally getting around to baking this super easy bread. mixed, proofed and baked all in one pot. sooo delicious.

playing dumb so darla can have the joy of the “see food” joke multiple times over.

seeing a practical joke gift received well and messages from friends :)

i’m also thankful for about 4 going on 5 hours of the girl being happy to play and occupy herself while i sort through summer plans, bills and responsibilities that have been neglected. maybe this is my reward for putting aside my duties and crying my way through The Rescuers with her last night.

but mostly i’m smiling about the concert tickets purchase, the friends we’ll be festivaling with, and the family with which i get to spend traveling around this country for one crazy upcoming summer.

F-R-I-D-A-Y! WHAT’S THAT SPELL? FRIDAY!!! commence banging on the side of the bus.

1Mar2012

T week

Posted in it's cool to school by ElaineMarie

we learned about T last week and it was pretty easy. i don’t know if you know this but Ts are everywhere. little miss darla had fun pointing them out …

drawing Ts in sand and on sidewalks

we drew pictures of trees

and got her tricycle out for some trick riding

we communed with the trees on our nature hike

and my favorite of the T week activities – darla “planted” a forest at the creek

we searched for totoros in said trees

we of course took our trip to the tuckers’ and did a drawing of papa tom tucker

she drove her new tractor – my dad’s contribution to T week

and spent lots of time just being with papa tom.

for the record i want a goat in every picture i take now. they make them automatically awesome.

1Mar2012

non-existent day

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

leap day was an excellent day around our household. easy going morning, fun-filled afternoon with friends and dinner with our neighbors. pretty phenomenal.

we went with the burkeybuns crew over to Krema peanut butter factory for sandwiches and shakes. i told darla that since today doesn’t exist it wouldn’t count against our lenten promises. we might have partook in some sweets. but not too bad. here’s darla yelling “jelly!” in my face.

have you noticed that i get a lot of things yelled in my face. eh.

and then on to hours spent outside playing in the park. it was just the loveliest day. thank you leap day. thank you for what your carefree aura brought to our lives today.

and so on to march…

28Feb2012

Tennis

Posted in i dig music by ElaineMarie

i’m still on a sugar high from the sweetness of Alaina Moore’s vocals. Tennis is pretty much the definition of elaine tucker dancing music. there were lots of brady bunch like moves happening at Radio Radio last night.

and guess who scored a signed set list? those young kids can keep their calm, cool and collected routine. it pays off to hang around stalker style. alaina is a tiny little bird that i wanted to create a nest for in my purse. i’m pretty sure i crushed her hand when i shook it. sorry if that effects the rest of the tour, Alaina!

she also revealed the little known secret that she lived in Marion, Indiana for a while. The crowd gave her a hoosier homecoming without even knowing it.

27Feb2012

weekending 4.0

Posted in let me let me update ya, Travels by ElaineMarie

we’re still in indiana and hopefully i’ll have something wonderful and insightful to say about what i wear and how i dance to Tennis tonight – since i never really seem to be able to focus on musical merits – but here are some of our out-of-doors doings from the weekend.

visiting nashville, indiana

a girl’s first chai

grandma love

on our way to the old fashioned nut shop. yummy.

we named him fizzgig.

and i took the girl creeking. it makes me sad sometimes that we live in the city and darla doesn’t get to roam the rural areas i did as a wee one. but, thankfully, we have grandma and grandpa’s. every child needs a creek.

we saw lots of animal tracks, darla found interesting rocks, we looked at trees and plants and all sorts of nature things with the highlight of the visit to the wilderness being that we saw a mink. A MINK, i tell you. it’s the only one i’ve ever seen in non-coat form.

anchor hocking in my creek

she took her socks and shoes off for the full effect. i love her.

and here was the big surprise of the weekend: darla’s very own tractor from grandpa. unfortunately, i think she will have her mother’s driving skills.

lastly, darla’s picture of her Grandpa Tom. do you see the resemblance?

i love our retreats here to indiana. looking forward to our visits again in april when i’ll hopefully be supporting another couple’s birth of an aries bambino. i was joking with Sarah, the mother of my first doula experience, that i will just block my schedule off in april every year and advertise doulaship only for Aries babies. being a ram myself, i’m pretty partial.