Hanging out in Elk Grove Village, IL

We were supposed to go to Legoland today. When I looked more closely, our coupon was for "after 3 pm" only, and we would have needed to pick Matt up from work by 5, so we didn't end up going. We've been once before and, with as much time as we spend in this part of Chicago, we know we'll get a chance to go again, but I still felt bad about messing up our plans. The kids handled it much better. This morning we hung out in our hotel room drawing, playing Uno, and reading. We walked over to Quiznos for lunch and then went to the pool/exercise rooms. Riley has started the Couch to 5 K running program that I've been doing, so he went ahead and did week1, day 2 on the treadmill. After that, everyone went swimming. Maya loves floating around underwater in her goggles just watching the water moving. She learned, by accident at first, to do underwater front and back flips today and was so excited about that! Seth's learning to swim a bit but still doesn't like water in his face or ears at all!

When Matt gets home from work, we're going to eat and then to the Lego store. Also need to find some crickets to feed Riley's gecko and replace her warming light. The bulb went out as soon as we got here, so we've been keeping our hotel room very warm. Tomorrow afternoon we head to Columbus, OH and the kids & I will be going to COSI there on Thursday. After that, we head to FLORIDA!!!

Maya working on a portrait of me

Morning Snapshot

Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters

Morning Snapshot

Uno

Morning snapshot

Playing & singing

Morning Snapshot

This morning: drawing

Running

Today was day 2 of week 4 for me in the Couch to 5K running plan. My neighborhood is still very snowy, so I went to the local park and arboretum, where the roadways and some of the walking trails were clear. Hoping to take everyone with me to walk there tomorrow morning before we leave for Chicago because it was just beautiful there in the snow!

By day 3 of next week, I'll jog 20-minutes straight with no walking break. I can hardly imagine that, because I'm really ready for that walking break by the end of the 5-minute jog. I'm trying to remind myself that I felt that way about a 60-second jog the first week and trust that it will all flow as I come to it.

Week 4 running playlist

Warm up song: East to the West by Michael Franti

3-minute jog: Lose Yourself by Eminem

90-second walk: Back Against the Wall by Circle Jerks

5-minute jog: Hello Bonjour by Michael Franti

2 1/2-minute walk: Lost Colors by Firehose

3-minute jog: Tubthumping by Chumbawumba

90-second walk: In the Ocean Blue from Charlie the Unicorn

5-minute walk: Hey-Ya by Outkast

Cool Down: I loop back to East to the West, Hello Bonjour, and then the birds singing!

Sweet dreams

Shark's Story Time

Riley's been playing around in his old Halloween costume from a couple of years ago. Mostly they were doing SNL "Candygram" stuff, but here I caught of picture of them trying to placate the shark by reading him board books.

Avatar and Krohn

Last week we went to see the imaginary other-world beauty of Avatar 3D and afterward went to the Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati to see the real-world beauty growing there.
I love that first step inside the conservatory from the parking lot, especially on a grey winter day: the wet, earthy smell, the warmth, the humidity, and all the beautiful greenness! My camera lens steamed up as soon as we stepped inside.

Maya, perched and hissing like the Na'vi girl in Avatar.

An unexpected connection back to the movie. The 2nd paragraph of the sign says, "Beginning in AD 1492, Native American populations were reduced by warfare, disease, and starvation as invaders from overseas displaced the Indians from their ancestral lands."

In case you can't read that flag, that is Mount "Jason Voorhees" that my young horror movie fan made.

Playing in the jungle

Pretending to fly through the jungle on a butterfly (again inspired by the movie)

Reading about the chocolate tree & the "food of the gods" and thinking about plans for the next movie we want to see about some other gods: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Breathing in that little bit of paradise one more time before heading back outside to the cold air and the concrete jungle.

Having a girl's day at the zoo with Maya, who wanted to visit the meerkats

Running & Running Playlist

I got some new running shoes and started the Couch-to-5K running program a few weeks ago. As someone who grew up *hating* running, I can't believe how much fun I'm having with this. Not sure if it's that I'm getting outside in spite of the cold, which always is a mood-lifter in the winter, or if it's because of the very gradual progression and very attainable weekly goals. I am having a blast.

I started week 3 this week. I wasn't doing so well focusing on keeping count of my time intervals in my head, so I decided to set up music to cue me when to switch back and forth between walking and running. It is pretty hard to find good 90-second songs, and my 3-minute songs were closer to 4 minutes, but here's this week's playlist:

Couch to 5K-- Week 3, Day 1

90-second run: Back Against the Wall by Circle Jerks
90-second walk: Trogdor by Strongbad

3-minute run: Lose Yourself by Eminem
3-minute walk: Handlebars by Flobots

90-second run: Gimme Gimme Gimme by Black Flag
90-second walk: In the Ocean Blue from Charlie the Unicorn

3-minute run: Hey World (Remote Control Version) by Michael Franti & Spearhead
3-minute walk: Underneath by Alanis Morrissette

Melting and chiselling ice at the museum center

On our way to the RV show accompanied by The Lightning Thief, Dr. Seuss, and Captain Underpants.

just walked into this - the aftermath of some of the learning going on here this morning. Right now, outside this picture, Seth is playing UB Funkeys, Ri is learning a new song on drums, Maya is putting together a book she made, I'm making lunch, MAtt's waiting for his plane home from CA. Sweet, messy, noisy unschooling life.

Lincoln's Boyhood Home

On our way home from St. Louis, we saw signs on the interstate in Indiana for Lincoln's Boyhood Home memorial. We went to check it out, barely making it there before closing time. Maya was hoping to do the Jr Ranger program there, but we didn't have time for all of the activities. Hoping to get back there again sometime other than winter to do the Jr Ranger program, walk the trail to the home site, and see the working farm.

St. Louis Arch

Maya has been wanting to work on Jr Ranger badges since she saw Bindi Irwin talking about them on her show. She and Riley did the Jr Ranger activities at the Museum of Westward Expansion at the Arch.

The Mississippi River

City Museum, St. Louis

Pictures from City Museum in St. Louis. We were introduced to City Museum as a side trip that was part of the 2005 Live and Learn Unschooling conference and have been wanting to get back there since. It is a wonderland -- a work of art with hidden passageways and mazes and tangles of things to climb through, slide down, and explore.

A few pictures from the 2005 trip:

Maya, 4 years old and Seth, 2 years old.

Riley, at 7 years old, is in the grey shirt. Maya is climbing. The two boys in striped shirts are Mason (standing) and Caleb (sitting), our unschooling friends from Lexington.

Matt climbing with Seth

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Here are the pictures from this trip January, 2010:

On our way up to the 7-story slide.

Taking the 3rd floor slide down to the lobby.

Ri, Maya, and Seth climbing from one of the planes to the tower.

On the wing

Ri, Maya, and Seth

Shoelace factory

Skateless skatepark

In the Art room

Writing with the giant pencil.