Old Dale...with DIRT BIKES!

This had to be one of the best Old Dale trips, even if it did only last 30 hours! This is the first time the boys have brought dirt bikes along and they had so much fun.

 Is this a happy kid or what?! He's out in the open! Let's go!

 

 It was pretty green out there for the desert. Dan wouldn't stop and let me take pictures!

 

Check this stuff out! It's run off from an old mining operation above.

It's like a pink clay.

 

The water running off the mountain since the mine shut down has carved this canyon out.

That's about 20 feet deep!

 

Dan taking a picture of his toy hidden in the desert.

 

Two very happy boys. We must have rode for three hours.

Then we raced to be back at camp before the sun went down.

 

This was the best part. The boys could scout ahead and see if the road led anywhere 

or if we would be able to drive it in the bug.

 

 

Milk and cookie time!

 

And then I had time to take some plant pictures. Don't worry, I won't post them all. 

This vine growing all over was pretty cool though.

Even had a minor injury. :)) It's just not a good time if someone doesn't get a little hurt.

Many more trails to explore and places to hike into. We need to go again very soon.

My Nephew's Awesome Birthday Party

Much fun was had at my brother's house! Talk about an awesome theme! My sister-in-law pulled out all the stops! From Wookie Cookies to Millennium Margaritas, this party had everything a newly turned four year old could want!

 

Short tables and coloring for the littles!

 

Han Solo frozen in carbonite! Help unfreeze him!

 

A Death Star Pinata!

  

And a bounce house full of foam light sabers!

We all had fun. The food was great and good memories were made. I'm sure they had a ton of cleaning up to do, but it was definitely worth it.

Finished Reading "Introduction to Arithmetic" by Nicomachus

You can't imagine the feeling I got when I saw the next book on my list was a MATH book! Yuck! But I plowed on and found it fascinating. I'm not going to pretend I understood it all, but there were pieces where I thought "Cool!", or "That's amazing!", or even "I can see where he's going with that." Many of the Great Books that I read, I don't really follow completely but I read them anyway, taking a note here and there, and sometimes just writing "What?!" in the margins. I've learned from experience that I may not understand what I'm reading at the moment, but it is building something somewhere in my brain and days, months, or years later, I will find new building blocks to put on top of the ones I've collected here.

This book was written about 2000 years ago and it was not what I expected at all. I thought I'd find numbers and answers and proofs like I found in my math text books, but this was all words. And the math concepts were related to the world around me and philosophy, so it held my interest.

Here are my two favorite quotes.

"Without the aid of these, then, it is not possible to deal accurately with the forms of being nor to discover the truth in things, knowledge of which is wisdom, and evidently not even to philosophize properly, for 'just as painting contributes to the menial arts toward correctness of theory, so in truth lines, numbers, harmonic intervals, and the revolutions of circles bear aid to the learn of the doctrines of wisdom,' says the Pythagorean Androcydes."

What?! We should understand math to truly understand the world and what's in it? Oh, man! Now I've really got work to do. But it's not actually about the numbers exactly. It's about the relationships and that I can handle. Just don't ask me to multiply and divide in my head!

And here's my favorite.

"For it is clear that these studies are like ladders and bridges that carry our minds from things apprehended by sense and opinion to those comprehended by the mind and understanding, and from those material, physical things, our foster-brethren known to us from childhood, to the things with which we are unacquainted, foreign to our senses, but in their immateriality and eternity more akin to our souls, an above all to the reason which is in our souls."

Wow. Do we need things like a basic understanding of mathematical principles to help us understand the universe and God? After reading other books that show the magic and symbolism of numbers, I say yes. Understanding these patterns shows us the majesty of God, in my mind. It's amazing!

Oh! One more. This one relates arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic to philosophy as well.

"For the realm of the greater there arise excesses, overreaching, superabundance, and in the less need, deficiency, privation, and lack; but in that which lies between the greater and the less, namely, the equal, are virtues, wealth, moderation, propriety, beauty, and the like, to which the aforesaid form of number, the perfect, is most akin."

Just perfect. I hope next time I read this, or something like it, I can understand more of the math though. I have loads of notes, but I don't see how I can write it out on a blog. More drawings than words.

Tom Is 13!

I can't believe he's thirteen. It's just surreal.

 

Here he is first thing in the AM on his birthday.

 

Opening a present from his sister.

 

Me and the boy. I can't believe he is so much taller than me.

 

And this is Jake trying to make him shorter.

We had a great party the following weekend with lots of family.

 

Ass Hat

 

Pumpkin pie and sparkly pink candles!

 

Testing out the chest protector!

I tried to get a good video of Tom killing the pinata...but all I got was this.

Playing "Catch up" for October

October is one of the busiest months for us. Between birthday parties and 'back to school' activities, I don't know if I'm coming or going! I know you're thinking, "But you homeschool! What 'back to school' activities?!" New things start up like group organized field trips and shows for homeschoolers AND the weather is really cooling off, so we tend to start scheduling more outdoor activities...and then there are the birthdays!

I'm driving down to my Grandpa's house each week and sometimes the boys come with me. I've been taking Grandpa's videos and converting them to DVD's but my computer died (probably from over work). Dan got me a new one, which was very nice because my laptop was too slow for the DVD making really. But that meant that I was out of a computer for a few days. Eek! But now that I've got the new one up and running, I'm back to work on the DVD's and my blog and photos. It's crazy!

I signed up for "Liberty Classroom" and have been downloading lectures to listen to on the drive to Grandpa's and back. It's awesome. The lectures are interesting and start loads of great conversation between the boys and I. There's a suggested book list at the end of each one, so now my "to-read" list is even longer than before.

I'm still reading my bible every morning. It's good to start with that every morning. I make notes about prayer requests, what I'm reading, insights, and praise reports. I am still working through "The Great Books" series. Right now I'm on "Introduction to Arithmetic" by Nicomachus. I thought it would be incredibly boring to read, but these books written 2000 years ago are not like modern textbooks. It's a conversation or thought process and explanations of ideas. It's fascinating to read. AND for my evening book I'm reading "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. 

The first week of October, a friend of ours traded tractor work on our yard for Dan's old 914. So...here are some pictures of that!

 

That's it...for now! I'll leave you with this short clip. I've got to go out and get them riding more!

 

Finished reading Books 2, 3, and 6 of “Nicomachean Ethics” by Aristotle

I'm not a fan of Aristotle right now. It's hard for me to read for some reason. I feel like it may be the translation I'm reading though. It's as if he uses the same word to describe a word. Virtue is a virtue that all can achieve by practicing virtue, that kind of thing. But here are some of my favorite quotes from what I read this time.

Book 2 was about virtue. “the virtue of man also will be the state of character which makes a man good and which makes him do his own work well.” See?! I have a vague idea about what that means. I think, in another a part he is trying to say that practiced virtue comes from within, it's automatic. It's when you have the knowledge about what is right and wrong and choose the right.

Here's one part I really did like. “For instance, both fear and confidence and appetite and anger and pity and in general pleasure and pain may be felt both too much and too little, and in both cases not well; but to feel them at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way, is what is both intermediate and best, and this is characteristic of virtue.” Right! This is something I can sink my teeth into. It makes perfect sense. We can have too little or too much fear, but to have the right amount, at the right time, and about the right things is the goal.

Book 3 was about courage. This was good too. It's stuff we don't really think about much but maybe we should, so that we are better at recognizing what is real and what is pretended. He talks about the difference between courage and cowardice.

“One might rank in the same class even those who are compelled by their rulers; but they are inferior, inasmuch as they do what they do not from shame but from fear, and to avoid not what is disgraceful but what is painful.”

This one caught my eye because it's something we try to do with the kids. I don't want them to behave kindly and politely because they fear punishment but because they know what is right and have that virtue in them. We want them not to steal things, not because it's the law and they will go to jail if they don't, but because it is not virtuous to take what is not theirs.

Book 6 was about wisdom. The difference between political and practical wisdom. You can look at a room and measure it and then measure the furniture and know that it fits. But experience will let you look at a room and look at the furniture and know it will not fit or look good in the room. It's two kinds of wisdom, book learning and experience, both are needed at one time or another.

That's what I got out of these books...this time. I'm sure I'll read more and read it again in the future and get more from it. That's what I love about going through the great books. Even if I don't fully understand everything I'm reading, it will come around again after I've read something that gave me more insight, or I'll read something else that will remind me of something I read today and give me that “a-ha!” moment I was hoping for.

I'll have you know that I'm not the best typist and I'm even worse right now. I cut the very tip of my pinky finger off with a vegetable slicer and I'm typing without it. Dumbest move ever...but it is a pretty impressive wound to my sons! I'm so blessed. Jake helped me dress the wound and then cleaned up the mess while I recovered my wits on the couch. They've both been helping cook and do the dishes and such. They are such sweet babies!