Let the baking begin

We started the pie yesterday with a number of local organic pie pumpkins, baking, pureeing, and draining them overnight. The smell of Thanksgiving all through the house...two days early.

So why, then, did I spend all of today thinking that tomorrow was Thanksgiving Eve?

Thanksgiving Eve. The biggest pizza night of the year. Even bigger than the Super Bowl. We had lasagna.

We started our day the usual way—with some reading, some exercise, then heading to swimming...only to find that the swim bag did not contain a swim suit. It happens to the best of us. Reschedule swimming, pick up the last couple of things at the store, lunch, and let the baking begin.

Calvin was a big help this year. He cracked eggs, he measured all the solids, he added all the liquids, he handled the mixer and ran the grinder. We baked the pumpkin pie, froze the leftover puree, made the cranberry relish, then drew mammoths, rhinos, caves.

Jon was home early—early enough to take Calvin to the swimming class make-up while I made lasagna for dinner and did the mountain of dishes we'd already created. And the house still smells like Thanksgiving.

The mammoths, rhinos, and caves were probably my favorite part.

Fire and ice

I have no pictures from today—it was too dark and dreary.

We watched it snow from the comforts of a house warmed by our newly installed, very efficient furnace. And thanks to the new thermostat I was also able to see that while we were a cozy 68 degrees inside, it was a chilly 32 outside. The snow makes Calvin giggle.

For a meaningful juxtaposition we spent the afternoon mapping the journey taken by our earliest ancestors—the journey that started in a desert-like Africa and spread to the rest of the earth during the rising and falling of oceans. If this inquiry into our past has taught me anything it's that there really is some good TV out there. To BBC, National Geographic, and PBS, I thank you.

We discovered The Incredible Human Journey, a series of BBC specials on the human migration out of Africa. We watched it in small bits we could find on YouTube and we've only watched the first of five episodes so far, but Calvin loved it, and we'll be watching the others in due time. We also used a variety of book and internet sources to map the possible migration and create a timeline of human evolution (like watching Beringia disappear,or some of the graphics on this college syllabus). I have yet to make the neanderthals out of felt. We'll see how that goes.

There was also piano practice, and another section in math (and I ordered the next book because he's only five lessons away from finishing the first), some playing with Legos (the farm had to be put into winter mode), some playing with felt, and a lot of playing "caveman" all over the house. At one point I found a variety of items piled up in the middle of the floor over which the little boy was striking two imaginary rocks.

And so we have fire.

On to the Neanderthal stage

Jon and I were just talking the other day about stages. Ever since Calvin was born I've found myself longing to hold onto stages of life—not so much "the baby stage" or "the toddler stage", but the "diapers are easier and I don't want to have to potty train" stage, or the "I feel safer with him in a crib and can't imagine him in a real bed" stage, or even the "I'm not ready to let go of the baby monitor" stage (and that was just last spring).

What we were talking about a couple days ago was how Calvin has defined each stage for us, as long as we were listening, and how letting him do so avoided any stresses for all of us. Just about the time I was worried about potty training he came downstairs in the morning and said he was done with diapers. Not much later he asked us for a "big boy bed", and just last spring he came into our room when he needed us at night without my needing to hear him on the monitor.

It hasn't just been with standard milestone stages, either. About a year ago he decided to learn to read and promptly did so, and this spring he decided to "study math" so he could play Monopoly. He goes through all kinds of stages—physical, mental, emotional (right now I'm enjoying a new "cuddle mommy" stage), some being obvious, others a little more subtle, but if we listen carefully he's giving us directions every step of the way.

We've been making our way through prehistory, and as in love as we were with the creatures of the Carboniferous, then with the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic, and now with the prehistoric mammals of the Cenozoic, with each step I've dragged my feet, reluctant to leave the beloved behind. This morning I came downstairs, still groggy with sleep because I'm the slow one in the morning, and was presented with a "cave drawing" by a little boy who was letting me know that it was time to move on to our study of early humans and their path into recent history from there.

He asked me for a family of Neanderthals, their cave, and a fire, all out of felt.

And so on we go.

Tomorrow, since today we spent mostly running errands or playing in the sunshine.

Sunny Tuesday

Our days now start closer to seven in the morning rather than eight, a blessing in disguise thanks to the time change. I really love the extra hour in the morning, but does that mean I can force myself to get up on a regular basis? No, but that time change sure works wonders. Calvin started his day at the piano, and being earlier means he can spend that time with his dad, which is great since piano is something they like to do together. I started my day with coffee and a crossword. 

By nine we were busy researching mammoths—woolly mammoths, to be specific—and the next thing we knew it was almost noon. That's a lot to learn about woolly mammoths, plus I made him one out of felt (the population on the downstairs Cenozoic timeline is growing) while he filled out an animal report form on the fuzzy guy. The boy has a thing for mammoths these days. Along with penguins and indricotheres and...

In looking for more information on woolly mammoths we came across a great online guide to the La Brea Tar Pits, and that entertained us for quite a bit longer.

We watched Becoming Human (ep. 3) over lunch, then wandered outside to rake leaves, toss the football (he's getting pretty good), and pester the cat through the window. Plus we found some confused raspberries on our bush.

Pirate play and creativity, more prehistoric mammals on the felt line, and after dinner he read to me before bed because we can't seem to find the book that I had been reading to him. Where is that black hole in the house?

Just one day

We made a list in this morning of things we wanted to accomplish. We make lists a lot of mornings. Today there were so many things on our list that I think we were busy crossing things off from then until dinner, and even then we hadn't finished.

We both started with journal writing, then on to the piano, and finally we colored some Prehistoric Beasts.

Today was the last fall story time at the library and while we were there we searched for some books on early humans and cave painting. We found surprisingly little, but brought home what they had. Thankfully we already had one fantastic book on hand—First Painter, by Kathryn Lasky—that my mom had kindly checked out from her library for us (which we finally got to around bedtime).

Then, as we drove into the garage the sun came out, so we put on our warm things to head out for a walk and some nature collecting. We have been looking at the lessons in BFSU (B-2 and B-3) that deal with classification of things, recognizing the attributes of living things, and identifying the living as belonging to either the plant or animal kingdoms, so a hike with discussions of this kind was on our list.

When we got home we drank tomato soup from mugs and ate cheese and apples slices while we watched the second episode of Nova's Becoming Human. This is a series we stumbled upon thanks to Netflix recommendations and we've really enjoyed it. Lunchtime today was our third viewing :)

After lunch a little more piano, a little math, some geography worksheets, some Legos, some BFSU list making, some more fall leaf decoration making, and even some playing in the snow (snow!). Then finally some dinner making. Well, for me some dinner making, for Calvin some Highlights reading, since his new issue came in the mail today.

And even though we didn't get to everything on our list (more a problem with being over ambitious than with being lazy), we enjoyed what we did do so we'll count that a productive and successful day.