Oka Kapassa: Return to Coldwater

Friday was a wonderful day full of learning.  Luci and I joined some homeschool friends (and a horde of local fourth graders) on a field trip.  We went to Spring Park for the Oka Kapassa festival commemorating the time Indians spent in Tuscumbia during the Trail of Tears march.  During that forced exodus, the Native Americans stopped in Tuscumbia before moving further west.  Generally they were treated well by the North Alabamians, and this is honored every year by a gathering here.  There is singing, dancing, and demonstrations of Indian life as they "recollect Tuscumbia," as Creek Indian Chief Chilley McIntosh desired.  His full quote is,

"As long as our nation remains upon the earth, we will recollect Tuscumbia."

Luci wanted to dress the part.  She had some money to spend and I was very surprised that she did not buy some jewelry...there were some lovely beaded necklaces and bracelets.  My girl chose a bow and arrow set!

Playing in the dirt with Mamie

Okay, Mom, I want to go play now!

This one cracks me up.  I wondered how the true Indians there would react to Luci's outfit, since most of what we saw of female dress resembled Laura Ingalls Wilder's outfits rather than Pocahontas'.  Didn't have to worry.    Here is a Poarch Indian man taking Luci's photo because she looked so cute "and Indianish, Mommy.  I look Indianish."

The reason for the gathering:

I just had to snap this one:  The woman walked up, using her walker, and took a photo with her cell phone.  The boys are always teasing me about my cell phone, saying that mine is one "that old people use.  It's like those jitterbug phones, Mom!"  My phone is not quite that bad.

But maybe it is for old folks...because this lady's cell phone is identical to mine.  Sigh.

Luci and Kenzi posing with two hoop dancers--Grandfather and Grandson both danced, and the girls were impressed!

Working with clay

My Indian maiden with Montana, one of our homeschool friends

Throwing a hatchet!

 

Loved this vignette

The ladies had noisemakers on their legs--this woman had traditional noisemakers.  I could not tell what they were made of.

But this woman's were easier to figure out--tin cans!  The noisemakers weighed up to 15 pounds per leg.

Luci, Kenzi, and others with the dancers. 

Really gorgeous!

Statue commemorating the Trail of Tears...one of our homeschool friends asked his mother what the statue was for, and Luci told him the story.  A proud mommy moment!

My favorite shot of the day:

Silly Songs

Heard today in the van...

Luci and JT arguing, Luci singing, ♫ The hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the foot bone, .... ♪

JT:  Stop!

Luci:   ♪ Fruits-fruits, fruits and vegetables, Fruits-fruits, fruits and vegetables... ♫

JT:  Mom!  Make her stop singing about fruits and bones!

Me:  You both have until we get home to solve this, or there's no tv, no computer, no video games after schoolwork is done. 

JT & Luci discuss, and then:

Luci:  I'm so sorry, JT.  How about I sing a song about how much I love JT?

     ♪ ♫ 

     I love my JT!

     I love my JT!

     Wherever I go, nothing keeps meeeeeeee

     From loving my JT!
     ♫  ♪  ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪

Rain, Glorious Rain!

Tropical Storm Lee came our way.  It was not as vicious as Hurricane Irene, thank Goodness.  But up here, nearly 400 miles from the Gulf, we managed to get 7.41 inches of rain during the past two days.  SEVEN and nearly a HALF inches.  It all came in a nice, soaking rain, too--not horrendous flooding that seven inches would usually make. 

Totally made up for the previous lack of rain. 

And the heat wave has broken!  We've had 90* and higher (with humidity through the roof) nearly every day since early May.  Today's high was 62*.

Wish we could send some of our rain to Austin, Texas. 

Field Trip!

Blogger has been acting wonky...totally ate one post and messed up another.  So here I go again, fingers crossed now hoping I get this one posted.

Luci had a Daisy Scout outing last Saturday.  She was so happy to wear her new "I ♥ being a Daisy" t-shirt.  The outing was a bust--they went bowling, and Luci experienced her first Mean Girl episode.  :( 

Friday I took JT and Luci to the Space and Rocket Center.  We met up with a few other homeschool families, and came up with a plan for the next few trips we go on:  To meet with the families for lunch, but keep our own schedule at the zoo, museum, Rocket Center, etc, since we have kids in the largest age-span.  It is hard to keep everyone happy when your kid wants to do one thing and the group is not interested and thus wastes most of the visit dragging you to places that your kids have seen before and then the "good stuff" (according to JT) gets missed.  Luci is at the age where she would rather visit with her friends.  She does not care where she is, and she ends up learning very little about wherever we are.  So splitting from the group is good for her, too, education-wise.

Luci promised to not be scared of the rockets and to stand next to one to get her photo taken.  This is the one she chose.  It looks big, but in comparison to the rockets around it, it was small-ish for a rocket.

See how happy she is, pointing at the rocket?  See, Mama?  I did it!

JT's an old pro on the climbing wall....

 and we got Luci up there for the very first time.  I am so proud of her.  She was scared to death but made it this high up:

and afterwards, hugged JT tightly! So I took a picture because this almost never happens. These were taken with my cell phone, which explains the bad lighting.

In the Apollo trainer...

and next to the real thing!

Come on, Mom!  The shuttle will take off soon!  I thought this was cool, walking the walk, but Luci was not impressed.

Catching Up

Saturday I got to go (ALL BY MYSELF) to Huntsville, to participate in a fun fund-raiser for Love Without Boundaries.  We painted this, at My Spirited Art, and most of the proceeds went to help pay for an orphan's surgery in China. 

 

John entertained Luci all day, much to Luci's delight.  They ended the day eating a banana split at Trowbridge's.  Mom and Dad, do you remember eating at this soda shop a week or two after Bryan was born?   Nothing has changed since we were there together!

The results of our apple experiment from last week:  The apple on the left was in the salt mixture and shrunk considerably.  It is terribly humid here lately, and I wonder how this would turn out in a drier area.  We were trying to replicate part of the mummification process used in Ancient Egypt (it is so much drier there). 

We started a 3-D human body for Luci, to go along with our study of human anatomy.  JT is studying a harder version (high school level) and Luci listens along and then we do something more appropriate for her.  This model shows the "skin" made of pantyhose on the upper body.  We'll attach organs, bones and muscles as the semester proceeds, and end up with "skin" on the bottom half as well.  Luci thinks you can't tell which one is her!

This is the book we're using for the patterns.  Weaver's 3-D Body Book is available at AOP.com.  It's only $5.  Can't beat that with a stick!

Payin' for Your Raisin'

Isn't that what it's called when you have a child who is so much like you were growing up?  You know,  a snotty, sarcastic, know-it-all lovely, endearing, precocious child?

Well, I have one of those.  Maybe two.  More on one certain child in a moment.

Remember the hamster named Fluffy, who lives in a pink cage, and is a MALE?   He spent a few days this week not doing much at night (they're nocturnal, which made Luci very not-happy since he plays while she sleeps).  I thought, uh-oh, he's probably dying.  Who knows how old he was when we bought him?

Luci began making funeral plans for Fluffy yesterday.  Then we spent the day at the park with friends.  On the way home, I called Bryan and asked if Fluffy were still alive.  After poking the poor beast, Bryan said he was, indeed, among the living.  Luci and I made a detour to the pet store to get tubes to add to the hamster habitat --because you know they don't call it a cage anymore.  It's not politically correct or something.  As if the animal cares.  I had told Luci that we'd get add-ons for the cage habitat on payday.  Payday was three weeks ago, so since the critter was still moving, we got playthings.

Turns out he was just bored with his cage habitat.  Maybe he was rebelling because he was in a PINK cage habitat.  Whatever the cause, he is happy now, and acting healthy again. 

Okay, you stayed with me for the hamster tale so you get rewarded with finding out which kid is like me, the I-wanna-wring-his-neck-sometimes kid.  It's JT.  God bless my parents for letting me live out my teen years. Now I know why they sent me all the way from Idaho to Arkansas for college.  Because their hands could not reach my neck from that distance.

JT knows everything.  I mean, EVERYTHING.  He's read through the Alabama Department of Public Safety's driving manual once, only because we forced him to before getting his learner's permit.  So now he knows all about driving safely, even though he's only gone as fast as ten miles an hour in the local school parking lot.  He corrects me all the time!  Me, Safety Susie!  I mean, I am a good driver and he's correcting me?  (See, we're both know-it-alls.  John is nodding his head.  My parents are shouting, "Amen!")

But the clincher was yesterday, when both boys were trying to be in charge of adding on the hamster's playthings...pushing and shoving and insulting each other as only teen brothers can do (hey, wait, that's what Tom and Charlie were like, why am I getting to pay for their raising??).  Then Luci gets in on the insulting thing.

Don't miss it, now, here's the JT-is-just-like-his-momma part:  He corrected the grammar of one of Luci's insults!

I was rolling on the floor.

This is for Uncle Tom

Yes, there really is an Uncle Tom in this family.  The kids have an Uncle Sam, too.  What can I say?  My parents were pretty creative back in the '50's.

Tom (one of my big brothers) is very good at folding little bits of paper and making something fantastic out of them--also called origami.  So, Uncle Tom, this one's for you.

We got another installment in our Little Passports geography study. (I am not impressed with the contents of this program--way too little for the money.  I don't recommend Little Passports.)  This month's country was Japan, which happens to be where I was born.  The gift included was a little origami set.  These are Luci's first attempts.

Kitty Cat

Butterfly

Not really flattered about this...

Luci likes wearing my nightgowns (those t-shirt looking things, nothing slinky here) for bedtime.  Fine.  I don't mind.  I really think it's sweet that she wants to wear them.

Except for the comment tonight:

Look, Daddy!  Don't you like my nightgown?  

Yes.  Maybe someday you'll be tall enough to wear that without tripping.

Yeah!  But now, if I fall off a cliff, it can be my parachute!

I want to do an Experience!

Um, I think that would be experiment, Luci.

JT peeled the apples with his handy-dandy pocket knife.

One apple was covered with a salt and baking soda mixture.  The other is our control.  In one week we'll see what happened.  Replicating some of the mummification process with these apples.

My favorite line in the experiment's directions:  Set the bowls where they will not be in your mother's way.