School's out for summer?

Is that true?

As a homeschooling family, school is always in session. But our official "lessons" will end soon...Noah has about 3 more weeks before he finishes the 5th Grade curriculum we are using (Oak Meadow). Nim has finished the 1st Grade curriculum and is almost all the way through her 2nd Grade Math book and is reading! It's been a big year in the Carmona's world of homeschooling.

But what really got me typing today is that it is the last day of the Forest Children Program (3 day a week Homeschool Enrichment Program )....hence, "school's out for summer"....... It has been a wonderful year with the program. Nimuae is still the only girl in the program. Lucky thing, she has 7 boys at her beck and call. She does pretty well with the only girl thing, but we are hoping for more girls next year.

David directed a play called "The Great Kapok Tree." Noah was a macaw and Nim a black panther. It was a huge hit....live with musical numbers and a great moral lesson.

ahhh, summer time. Unfortunately, summer now equals bored children. But we always can find a list of chores for any child who complains they are bored. And then I can bust out my old saying, "only boring people get bored." Then they roll their eyes at me and usually find something else to do before I start on an old saying and chore list rampage.

To a good summer vacation...cheers!

I Hope You Dance

Nimuae's Dance Recitals

There have been sightings of our little dancer, Nimuae, all over Black Mountain.

First, she was seen with a gaggle of giggling girls filling elders' hearts with joy at Highland Farms Nursing Home, dancing to "I Hope You Dance."

Then she was spotted a week later at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts Preformance Room dancing to "Tupelo Honey."

(we thought it was funny that the audience sat on the stage while the girls danced on the floor. Then we found out that a few years back, one of the young girls fell off the stage mid-preformance.....problem solved!)

After the preformance on Tuesday, we met the Forest Children's Teacher, Kiesa, at the library. I saw Nim and Kiesa working on the computer together, with whispers and smiles being shared between the two of them. This morning at work, I was suprised to receive the following email in my inbox....

Nim's Dance Recital with a Rose

by Nim and Kiesa

Pink rose, blue velvet leotard

sparkling rhinestones

green stem, prickly leavesa real vase with clear water

The music soars

Tupelo Honey

I Hope You Dance

graceful legs, pretty arms,feet flying, heart fluttering

beautiful everything

in Black Mountain

homestead improvements and random cuteness

The Carmonas and Loomers (aka Loomonas) have seen some major improvements this spring.

One of these said improvements is that of the washing machine of wonderment and ease!

How did we ever make it without this modern machine? Oh yes, I remember.....pack up the laundry of the family of 5 out of the house and into the car, drive to the laundromat 45 minutes away, certainly forget either my money or laundry soap, so abandon laundromat and head to either the grocery store or the bank, back to the laundro, lug the laundry inside, spend 5-10 minutes loading with laundry, soap, and quarters, dry the laundry, lug back out to the car, drive the 45 minutes home, lug back into house....fold and put away....phew. And now, load then hang to dry....all the while listening to bird calls, not judge judy that was always on the laundro tv.

what luxury! here she is......energy efficient and all.....

This next photo shows two major achievements...window trim and screen door...thanks, David!

oh wait, one more achievement, Gita napping!

more window trim...what a difference!

and now for random cuteness.....

first on my list of cute things to bless my life, my little "LiLu"....Lilikoi - so stinking cute- Loomer

and then some more cute photos to bring smiles to many faces......

nature and the flu

We were recently smacked with a crazy windstorm on the mountain. Sustained winds of 25-40 mph with 50-60 mph gusts quickly grates on ones nerves. Luckily, all families, animals, and homes on the mountain made it through unharmed. But our sweet little bath house did get quite a wallop from the top of a poplar tree. No significant damage, really...just some cracked plaster inside the bath house and the loss of one of Kelcey's paintings that used to grace the wall. Many of the plants on the land look a bit "windburned" with curled black leaves. Hopefully a beautiful, rainy spring will bring everything back to life!

After an awesome weekend at LEAF, I started feeling nauseous. It only took a day torn between my bed and the bath house (tree-top safely removed by this time) to realize I had come down with a stomach bug, not just a tummy ache from eating festival food all weekend. One adventure outside to, mmm, how do we say it, toss my cookies, I looked up at the Spice Bush I had been kneeling in front of, and right in my face was this beautiful black snake soaking up the sun on a branches. We love the black snakes around here because they help keep the rodent population under control, but even better for me, they munch on other poisonous snakes!

A few days of feeling awful and I'm back to my not-awful-feeling self. We purchased a new, budget lap top computer last week (thank you, Economic Stimulus check). Now we just need the ol' phone company to provide us with DSL (they keep promising it will be here any day) and we will be in techno heaven!

.

Spring LEAF

LEAF Festival, May 9-11 2008

Black Mountain, NC

Another spring, another LEAF festival. We look forward to this wonderful festival two times a year. We get our fill of world music and dancing. The weather was beautiful and sunny, with a drizzle here and there. Noah met up with a crew of friends (both sexes!) and we hardly saw him all weekend...rumor has it he bought iced tea for a girl! Here are some of our photos along with some of Kelcey's.....

Princess in distress

Ema and Renee taking a break from the festivities

View of Lake Eden and the festival

LEAF parade

Nancy Griffith with broken hand and, gasp, no guitar

Sisters in line for balloons

...isn't she lovely

Gita and "Karnen"...or Karen as we know her

Mother's Day french fries!

kids and parasols

Happy Birthday, Noah!

May 5th 2008

Noah's ELEVENTH Birthday!

We celebrated the big day with a neighborhood party. I had a minor cake disaster attempting to make Grandma's Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Mine just did not want to go upside down. Instead, it wanted to be more of a pinaple whoops side down cake, also known as pineapple crumble. But it sure tasted good! The party was fun...friends, lots of great handmade cards, presents.......not so fun was a nieghbor spraining her ankle on the trampoline.

Post-party, we moved into boys sleepover. Noah invited Banyan and Sava to spend the night. They stayed up way too late watching a movie that was rated "teen" called Bleach (some anime thing that I don't understand). Yes, Noah watched a movie rated "teen"..this is all happening a bit too fast. Blueberry pancakes and the morning free of homeschool lessons...what more could a boy ask for? Add in a bunch of presents (mostly money and gift cards.....he could not be happier) and phone calls from family...what a birthday!

Here he is in all his glory....

ta-da

11 year old Noah.....

Soliel, Noah, Banyan, and Nimuae opening presents