Wild Colorado in our backyard...

Look who came to visit Monday.   Lego Kid and Hot Dog came running up to me to tell me something had hit a window.  They thought that it was a bird that had been chased.  I rushed over to see a starling hiding under a chair on our deck.  When it recovered from it's collision it flew off.  It got only 20 feet feet before this beauty swooped in and got it.  We felt sorry for the starling, but happy for the ...pretty sure it's a merlin.

I wonder if it's the same one we saw haunting our bird feeders last Friday.   Bird feeders..... I guess of more kinds of birds than we expected.

A January Day

I love Colorado.  We are having one of those winter days that feels like spring.  The sun is shining, it is well over 50 degrees (F) out.  I am loving my home, and feeling loath to leave it.

I should be cleaning and packing for our trip.  Instead I'm lollygagging.  I was showing the boys home movies of other trips, because they asked what it would be like, when Hot Dog checked the mail.  There was a package!  Open it!  Is it for me?

It was an order of magnetic wands.  I'd hoped they'd get here before we left so we could bring them on the trip with us.  In addition to all the cool things you can do with a magnet, they're fun to use in sand so as to see if / how much iron is in the sand.

Instantly their interest in the videos was gone.  Hot Dog and Lego Kid rushed out to the sand box to see how magnetic that sand was.   They're collecting the iron bits in tubs to play with.

I hate spending money, but this is what money is for.  It makes my mama heart happy to see them outside playing, experimenting, and getting dirty.  :-)










I got a deal, and it came 6 to the package.  I'd like to share this good day with you.  I will mail or deliver one of these wands (probably pink or orange) to the first person to comment on this post.

Happy New Year!

Moving right along

This is a new year.  (Thank goodness, good riddance to 2012)  It's also the start of a new adventure for us.  Firelord gets a sabbatical this year.  We are using it to live aboard a sail boat in the Virgin Islands for 6 weeks.  Woot! 

For you, dear reader, that means I may be posting less.  Internet on a sailboat is likely to be spotty.  Also, I may be communing with the fish, or fishing boys out of the ocean.  That said, if you want to keep up with us, I'm blogging about our sailing adventures here, at A Roving We Will Go. 

I could have posted here, at blatherings and bothering, I guess.  But somehow our sailing felt unique enough to merit it's own space.  I may still post here about our trip, as it relates to books, homeschooling or politics, or whatever else I can't shut up about.  The other blog will be to keep our friends and family up on our adventures, to share them with others who might care, and, perhaps most importantly, for us as time goes by.

Wish us safe travels!

May the wind bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.

(misquoting Tolkien)

December's Books

• The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog, by Dave Barry
• Fires in the Mind, by Kathleen Cushman
• A Framework for Understanding Poverty, by Ruby K. Payne
• Aftershock, by David Wiedemer, Robert A. Wiedemer, Cindy S. Spitzer
• The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk
• Hello Cruel World, by Kate Bornstein
• The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, by Judith S. Wallerstein, Julia M. Lewis, Sandra Blakeslee
• Legendary Learning, by Jamie McMillin