Our Ben

Sometimes things happen that are too hard to type about. That happened to us recently. We lost our beloved golden retriever, Ben. Ben joined our family when he was a little puppy, Thanksgiving of 1995. He left us on April 26, 2008. We miss him terribly, but have many great memories of the 12+ years he was with us. I hope to post some of the memories of Ben later, it's still a little bit difficult. In the meantime, here's a picture I took a few weeks ago.

Earth Day, 2008

Our family tries to live as if each day were Earth Day. But we're not ones to turn down a celebration, so we try to honor Earth Day on April 22nd of every year. Our annual traditions include reading the book Common Ground and taking some pictures of tree hugging. Last year we hugged some trees in Philadelphia, this year we stayed home. The children did paintings of our planet, then Jacob and Lauryn picked up trash alongside our road. We were surprised at how much we found on a relatively short stretch of our rural road. We were disgusted to see that the majority of what we found were cigarette butts. Yuck. To round out Earth Day, we have Chase in his appropriately colored cast. He has a radial fracture in his arm from a soccer incident. And he has the cast to prove it.

New Science!

I've been a little slack about posting for the past few weeks. Chris and I actually had a few days away, in NYC. It was a working trip for him, but still fun. Did you see us on the Today show? Also, the D&B performed on Fox and Friends.

Now, back to reality. We've just started a new science curriculum. It's from Winterpromise and studies bugs and plants. We thought this was the perfect time of year to start this study, since bugs and plants are everywhere! We have an ant farm and butterfly garden scheduled to arrive on Monday. We'll post some pics of their progress.

Here's a picture of Jacob and Lauryn studying the caterpillars they found in the yard.

Earth Hour - March 29, 2008

We heard about Earth Hour and thought it was a great idea. It started in Australia and basically the idea is to turn off all electricity for an hour. If everybody did this, it would supposedly save enough electricity to light up the entire USA for a year - ok, I'm making this part up because I can't remember what the website said exactly but you get the idea.


I read somewhere else online that turning off the electricity for an hour is actually useless, but I disagree. Our family did it. We set up candles and all sat around the kitchen table. We did not stare at any screens, we focused on each other. We played cards. My 15 year old did origami by candlelight - in the presence of her 4 siblings and parents. If any of you have a 15 year old daughter, you know how priceless that was. So we say, "Hoorah!" for Earth Hour. We're thinking about doing it once a week. That's a lot of origami.

Easter 2008 pics

We had a great Easter this year - a little chilly, but no snow on the ground like last year! We are really enjoying our new rector, Mother Joy Rose. As we go through her first year with us she's doing a wonderful job of melding her traditions with the traditions of our very old church, St. Paul's (affectionately known as 'Piney Parish'). This year for Maundy Thursday, we had a chocolate seder, which was enjoyed by all with the exception of Chase and me since he was really ill with an earache and fever. Easter morning was bright and sunny. After the service, the Rite 13 class, including Reid, continued the tradition of hiding eggs for the younger guys throughout the cemetery that surrounds our church. The first year we were there, I thought that tradition was a little odd, but now I see how fitting it is, the symbolism of new life among the graves - isn't that what Easter is all about?

Spring Break, Arnold Style

Today is the first day of Spring Break for our 2 highschoolers. It's a little chilly, but we don't care - the sun's out and we're ready to be OUTSIDE! We also like the tradition of planting on Good Friday. We planted some tomatoes and our first basil plant of the year. They'll spend some time in the sunroom until it warms up a little. Then they'll move out to the deck. It sure did feel good to get our hands back in the earth, though! We are ready for some warm weather.

Pi Day Pie

No description necessary. Maybe I should add that we made this pie 2 days ago.

Calvert Marine Museum

Jacob's Cub Scouts pack had a trip to The Calvert Marine Museum. This is a nice little museum, in Solomons, Maryland - right on the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. It features a lot of marine life exhibits, including our favorites: the skates and rays and the 2 otters. We also had a tour of the Drum Point Lighthouse - you can read more about the lighthouse on the website. The pictures include: Jacob and his friend Adam at the skate exhibit, digging for fossils (Jacob's was a shark's tooth), about to be swallowed by a giant shark (must have been mad about that tooth), watching the otters, and under the lighthouse.

Olympus Mons

We made a volcano at our house this week. This is nothing new. I've lost count of the number of volcanoes we've made over the years. It's one of Jacob's main interests. This one is combined with one of his other main interests, space. Do you know where Olympus Mons is located? A Hint: it's not in the USA!

Advantages of homeschooling

Here are a couple of advantges of homeschooling: math in your jammies and working with Grandmama.

Thinking Day

Lauryn's Brownie Troop participated in Thinking Day, which was held at the Hughesville Fire Department. It was really a fun afternoon - each troop had a country that they presented to the whole group. Lauryn's was Guatemala. There were 15 or so countries and each group did a really nice job - a presentation with backboard, sample of food, and a craft. Our craft was making a worry doll - I'm thinking I could use about 5 of those - 6 if you count Chris.

Icy day = Motorworks

Finally, Brianna and Chase have a snow day and it's because of sleet and freezing rain. Not nearly as much fun as snow! Chase helped Jacob put together a simple motor, using insulated/uninsulated wire, a magnet, paper clips, foam block, and a D cell battery. After a view false starts, we got all the insulation off the wires in all the right places, and success!

Valentine's Day Bouquet

I was surprised with a package filled with roses and chocolate on Valentine's Day. During our entire marriage, Chris has always been on the other side of the country on February 14th. This is my consolation prize, pretty, don't you think? I would have taken a picture of the chocolate, but, well, I ate it.

Baltimore Aquarium

Today we had a treat. Reid's homeschool class had a field trip to the The Baltimore Aquarium, with family invited along. The trip was a little traumatic for the Mom - given my fear of driving in any city larger than Belton, but I'm sure in time I will forget the mechanical arm at the parking garage that crashed down on top of my car, the complete insanity of the Beltway, and driving through a minor snowstorm. The Aquarium itself was nice, the snow seemed to keep most of the crowds away so we could really see the exhibits. Lauryn spent the day with Miss Emma, Reid was with his science class, and so Jacob and I had some rare one-on-one time. That's why you only see pictures of him! See if you can spot his profile in the greenish picture with the stingrays - they were his favorite part of the visit. I believe he could have watched them for hours.

Lauryn Ice Skating

Here are some shots of Lauryn's first time ice skating. Her Brownies Troop joined Girl Scouts from all over our area for a night of skating and pizza eating at Capitol Clubhouse. Notice that I am not the one helping her learn to skate. I am, instead, the photographer. This is because where I grew up, the only ice was in the tea and I never learned to skate. It sure looks like fun, though!

Enjoy the action shots.

A good way to tell when the Daddy of this family is away is to note how long it is between posts on this blog. We're still keeping busy (and how!) - I just don't have time to post about what we're doing. So here's a catchup post of mostly pictures to show a little of what we've been up to lately.


Here are some pictures of Jacob designing and making his car for the Pinewood Derby. Also, Jacob with his best friend Adam at the Derby.

Here are Brianna and Lauryn in their Valentine's Day pjs. About the only thing I can still make for both of them without one of them saying, 'EEEWWWWWWWW!'

Trip to The Air and Space Museum in DC

Reid and Jacob have been learning about the Wright Brothers and this past week, World War I. We took a trip to the Air and Space Museum on Sunday - I'm not quite sure who enjoyed it most, the boys or the grown-up boy, Chris.

Chris, Reid, and Jacob outside the Museum:


If you look carefully, you might be able to spot the Capitol building in the background of this picture. It was extremely cold! Crowds were light, we were able to find a parking spot right across from the Museum - that's a rare happening on the Mall in DC!


Here's the main reason we wanted to visit, the actual Wright Flyer, the first plane flown by Orville Wright on Dec. 17th, 1903.


Jacob learning about airflow and its affect on a plane:


Jacob and Reid hanging out with an astronaut. Do you know why visitors aren't allowed to touch the front panel of the 'helmet'? It's made of a thin layer of gold and is easily damaged:


More moon adventures:



Do you see Jacob with the rockets?