The Fun of Puzzling Out the Map of Africa

(older puzzle pics)

We successfully finished the whole puzzle of Africa! It is so fun for us to work on learning all the countries of Africa. Today we tested ourselves on at least south and central Africa, seeing how many of them we could write in on a blank map by memory. John and Morgan did great! I had fun too.

Now we just finished making flash cards for all of Africa and the countries's maps. Fun.

Christmas Trees and a Tattered Green Elf

Christmas trees hold so many memories for me.

I used to stare for hours at the huge Christmas tree that resided gloriously in the front of the small hometown country church when I was a kid. The decorations on it were antique probably, brought over by early German, Swedish and Norwegian immigrants. Fluffy cottony angels. Rolled up parchment music scrolls. Fragile glass ornaments. Whimsical fan ornaments that you could blow air into the bottoms of to make them spin.

Our home tree had some similar ornaments, like the blowing fans, but it also had many rustic home made ornaments. The usual clothespin reindeer from grade school years. Occasional popcorn and cranberry strands. Hand strewn tinsel.

But my two favorites were the gingerbread men and an elf. The chubby gingerbread men, we baked and decorated, then hung on the tree from string. My brother, sister and I loved to lie on the ground beneath the tree. Staring up at the blinking lighted branches, blowing the swirling fan ornaments, we would then lean up and munch the lower-hanging gingerbread people. Soon there would be only some tiny gingerbread heads, hanging forlornly from the bottom parts of the tree.

This little green elf is my other favorite. An old salvaged piece from my childhood tree. I'm not sure how I got so lucky to keep him. Now each year that my own family and I set up our tree, the elf has a place of honor. First he is unwrapped carefully from the rest of the ornaments coming out of the purple plastic Christmas bin. The kids ooh and ahh with me. "It's the elf!" they exclaim, knowing that it is special to me. This year, the kids decided that it was my turn to place him in the tree. Standing up, surveying the tree, we looked for the perfect spot. He couldn't usurp the Nativity ornaments --since Jesus is the main point of Christmas, definitely! Suddenly, there was the right spot. Hidden inside a hole in the branches, nestled up against the trunk the green cloth elf took his seat. His legs are worn and barely stay attached by tattered green threads.

Ahhh.... We turned off the house lights, sat under the Christmas tree, and savored the beauty and peacefulness. Jesus came to earth, and we celebrate his coming each year. This is but one small part of it.

Africa Maps and Glowing Saturday Mornings

Ghana, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, Togo... We have been studying Africa this month in geography. Taking a section of Africa at a time, we worked at learning the countries' names, flags, location, and even the capitals, partly. West Africa, North Africa, East Africa have been worked on, now we are moving onto South Africa.

How can I even begin to do justice to such a large diverse continent in just a month's time, in only two-three days a week? We have fun coloring in and labeling the maps though, and trying to color in the fun flags. Now, we find ourselves recognizing more flags and seeing similarities between countries' flags.

A few weeks ago, we had one day where we studied the illegal production and trade of coal in Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), the issues surrounding that, as well as the recent massacre of one of the mountain gorilla families there, and we enjoyed the diversity of the pygmies of Democratic Republic of Congo. Interspersed with all of that, we followed up-to-date BBC world news coverage of the violence in DR Congo and surrounding countries, the resulting refugee migrations, and the marauding militia groups back and forth across country borders. Tough issues surround the thousands of beautiful people groups and landscapes of Africa, and this is just one area, and only a few topics.

We're doing about a continent a month.

Baby D grows bigger each day. He is 5 months old, and can roll across the floor. We laugh at watching his progress over time. "Look where he is now!" we chuckle, marking how far he has rolled. He rocks beside me in the swing now, examining some rings and talking to a bear.

Snow piles up outside, and the nights are dark quickly. Cheery Christmas lights line houses, fences and trees as I drive to a friend's house to pick up her daughter for a playdate with mine.

Saturday was a shining, yellowy day, with sunshine pouring into my south-facing deck window. The whole house was warmed by it, and glowed with light. Don't you love the the light reflected through the aloe plants?

A Family of Pumpkins Arrived Yesterday

All through school yesterday, we were excited for the afternoon break when we could carve our pumpkin faces. Finally, it was time. School was done, and my husband walked in the door with the pumpkins. What pumpkins! There were four good-sized pumpkins, with two of them being huge! My oldest son (the only son that can talk in sentences yet) gasped and asked excitedly if he could have the largest one. "Yes, take any pumpkin you want!" his dad urged.

Giggling and full of expectation, we chose pumpkins, dreaming of the faces that would emerge, and then saw that they were filthy, coated with black mud. Laughing and brainstorming, we each picked up our orange heads and placed them into the shower.

Much later, our faces were done. My daughter, after sketching several styles of faces onto a green sheet of scratch paper and asking for our voted input, chose upon a "kitty" face. "That was my favorite too," she confided. Hers took the longest, but eventually, all of our faces were lined up outside on the green front lawn. It was slightly crisp outside, so we took pictures quickly, but had fun with several different poses.

Baby D was too small to carve his own pumpkin, so we garbed him in a pumpkin suit and lined him up with us. The hood of the pumpkin outfit kept sliding down over his eyes. Then when we plopped him down next to us for the last few photos of holding the pumpkins up over our faces, he was finally sad and angry. "Let me out," he insinuated. As soon as he was free from his pumpkin suit and was being hugged again, he was happy.

What a fun day!

Smoky Woodfires and Latin Hips

Walking to the mailbox, my daughter and I breathed in the crisp fall air happily, taking in big gulps of it. "Doesn't that smell great, Mom?" she said. I agreed, inhaling deeply, trying to distinguish the various scents in the air. Smoky wood fires, cold fallen leaves on the fresh cut green grass, and an earthy fragrance from the start of decomposing plant life. That combination is one of my favorite smells.

Other favorite smells: wet air and dirt after a rain; my man's cologne; my baby's cheek and hair; hugging my kids.

On a lighter note: my sister and I had fun laughing at ourselves while trying a Latin hip hop exercise class at my Y Friday night. The whole hip rotations of Latin dancing take a while to learn. We laughed while working out for an hour, and then popped into Caribou for coffee and conversation

Bobbing Bottles in an Autumn River

Yesterday the kids and I walked and rode bikes out to the river. My daughter had just read about Matthew Maury, the father of oceanography from the 1850s and his research to chart the paths of the seas. Maury's method was to drop bottles into the oceans, then note where they turned up later, learning more about ocean currents, wind patterns, etc.

Not being by a sea, the kids and I decided to track river currents. We rolled up notes into clean plastic bottles. Then, after romping in the river for twenty minutes or so and splashing in the shallow water, the kids unleashed their bottles, wondering who would find them and call us, and where the bottles would turn up.

Baby D and I watched the wind blow the tree tops around, and took turns bravely dipping our toes into the cold autumn water.

Edit: We heard back from someone who found one of our bobbing bottles! It had gotten several miles away. One mystery: it looked as if it had gone against the current?? How is that possible? Still probing that mystery on the maps.... Perhaps there is another smaller stream that we are not seeing on the map that connects that area.

Wind Chimes in the Evening Breeze

We just got back from swim team practice. The kids that can walk have brushed their teeth and headed to bed. Daughter makes last minute door barricades to stop the cats from shoving her door open and playing in her room at night. A plastic Lego bin lid stands upright as a shield to block her door, and a red velvety pillow acts as a noise barrier for Otta, the second cat, who likes to bang the lid against her door, waking my daughter up. It took us a few nights to figure out this system. :)

Hubby has read up on the next two chapters of C.S. Lewis's book "Mere Christianity" for his Bible study group tonight. They have deep discussions usually that go until close to midnight.

Son heads to bed downstairs but wishes he could stay up until 10 or 10:30, occasionally coming to the steps to try another discussion tactic. Should I let him? What were your bedtimes in middle school? Don't teens need more sleep than even younger kids, medically?

Baby nurses quietly, falling asleep. My jerking one-handed typing wakens him gently, and he quickly eats more as if to say, "No, really. I'm still eating!" ........ He sleeps now, so I transfer him to a burping position, inhaling the scent of his face and hair. Kissing his cheek, breathing his sweet milky smell, my body relaxes even more. There is nothing like it.

The small metal wind chimes, a gift from one of my former youth group girls years ago, sing in the night breeze on my deck.