I feel like I've fallen off this writing wagon. I've been doing some other writing lately, but that doesn't help over here.

Tonight was the Member-Guest tournament at Hilary's club. I prefer to put the outcome this way: "We won one, and we lost one." Tonight we lost 6-3,6-1, which doesn't feel so good. I felt like I played so-so. Sometimes when you lose, you know that you gave it your all and there were many great points and you were just outdone by someone who has more of her life to devote to this fine sport. And sometimes you just wish that you worked out more during the winter. I felt like I came out roaring a bit, but then it...dulled. By the end of the first set, it felt like we were on a greased slide headed down fast. I wasn't entirely embarrassed by how I played, but I can tell that there's quite a bit of work to be done to get tuned up for the spring. Perhaps I'll give Ken a call and try to squeeze into this clinic at MTC that starts at 8:30 p.m. Lord knows I'm still awake and alive at that hour!

Tomorrow Hokie goes to the vet. I'm worried. I'm worried that the news won't be good about him. He's an old man. He'll be 15 next month, and he is showing it. He has fatty tumors, including a very enormous one sticking out of his side. His paw was bleeding yesterday for some reason (probably just bumping something while it was bitter cold and his skin was dry). He's sticking his feet in his ears and then licking them and rubbing his eyes and then eating the eye boogers. And he's itchy. Poor thing. I have no idea how to get his lumpy, decrepit, achy body into the car. Last time we did it, about 7 months ago, involved a creative challenge of piling up trumpet cases and computer boxes.

I probably shouldn't admit this here, but we have been enjoying the portable library that has arrived at my house. I am helping with the Used Curriculum Fair for the upcoming VaHomeschoolers conference in May, and I'm starting to get donations of items. Specifically, I picked up about 10 boxes of books from someone this week, and I've peeked inside, and there are some real winners. We are quite enjoying them, which maybe isn't what were supposed to be doing--I think we just supposed to be "storing." But nonetheless, I feel like we've been given a treasure chest. They've enjoyed some Marmaduke (I used to love this!) and Peanuts comics. Rutledge is especially fond of a very 80's and very British book about a birthday party where a clown comes and the children play games (non-fiction book). Ollie has read two Boxcar Children books from the boxes in the past two days. I read aloud a fabulous book called _Don't You Know There's a War On_, which correlates well with what I'm doing with the girls in our now-weekly group class (see, I'm not using the C word) on Mondays. The girls are listening to the American Girl book about Molly, the girl on the home front during World War II who worries about her father who is in England, has to eat rationed foods, and goes to a very orderly 1940s school where patriotism and obedience reign supreme. The same material covered in that book is what makes up the story of Avi's book, more aimed at boys. It was probably one of Ollie's favorite books ever. He thinks he might choose it for book club. And it was very endearing--about having a wild crush on a teacher (to the point of kind of stalking her!), about a special friendship during an intense time, and generally about the many emotions of growing up in a war time. Today we read _The Midwife's Apprentice_, a book that I really love. We're really enjoying that one, too, about failure, names, self-worth, learning, and identity. And before that, we finished up _The Secret of Laurel Oaks_, which was decent. It wasn't life-altering, and I still have trouble with books where supernatural things happen or with ghosts or vampires or what have you, but this had a historical element that added some interest and stimulation. Still, it was hard for me to identify well with some of the characters, and it moved a little slowly.

As for me, be still my heart. I am madly in love with Edward Cullen. I feel 17 again. I think I simply miss that crazy in love feeling where your heart nearly stops every time you look at or touch the other person. And this book has it in spades. I know it's not necessarily the deepest book and others have accused that it is "beneath me," whatever that means. But seriously, I think it is a well-written book that sweeps the reader away. The fact that I'm not looking at page numbers, something I *always* do while reading, is a giveaway to me that something is being done right. I am on the second book of the series now, and I'd rather be doing that than writing this (why don't you do it, then, Nancy?). I have to say that the Twilight series is entirely what I don't like in books--it's about vampires, for one. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just typically cannot get into books about things that aren't real (or that I haven't seen...who knows, maybe they are real) or people or animals with supernatural powers (the fast flight, the mind reading, the ESP) or where there's a lot of new terminology or jargon. And I don't like books in series in general. And I don't like books that are too long (like 2100 pages of books about vampires...). But for some reason, and while I am bristling some when it gets a little too "fantasyish" for me, this one has sucked me in. Believe me, I've tried lots of sci-fi and fantasy books, and I never get very far. I know that the whole vampire thing is essential to the plot, but really, the only thing that would make these books better as romances would be to just have everyone be really human. I guess I'd say that I read to better understand the human condition, and for whatever reason, non-human things or non-earthly things in a book tend to undermine that for me. Anyway, Edward can kiss me with his ice-cold lips any day.

Tomorrow is the spelling bee. I'm going to attempt to be a Homeschooler Who Bucks The System by doing what parents of brilliant homeschoolers almost never do: trying to put my 5th grade children in the 2nd-3rd grade category. Trust me, their spelling skills are right there. This may make some people feel that I'm trying to give my guys an unfair advantage, but believe me when I say, this is only putting them into a situation where they'll be able to have a crack at participating in a competition. I hope all goes well.

We have generally been laying low with the cold weather. School is on a roll. Ollie will finish Saxon 5/4 Friday, and his next book should be here for Monday. He is very excited. This is the final big push on reducing fractions, least common denominator, least common multiple, improper fractions, and adding fractions with like and unlike denominators. Then its smooth sailing for a few weeks as 6/5 reviews the past few books for several weeks. Ollie is beside himself knowing that very soon, his math will only take about 10 minutes a day. I'm just going to let it go, happy that he's really happy about math now. Overall, though, I think things are going well. They both eagerly start their work as soon as they get up in the mornings, even getting themselves up earlier so they can get a leg up on it. Much of the time they have done ther independent schoolwork by 10 a.m., which leaves the rest of the day for going out or their own pursuits.

Last week we went to Pocahontas State Park for an Outdoor Skills class series that will be happening twice a month through winter and spring. We used to do a Roots and Shoots class there and went through many sequences of offerings through the park, so it is nice to be back. Frances, to my surprise, is probably the one enjoying it the most, even though I didn't sign her up. This coming week I'm going to do my best to allow her to stay the whole time, instead of having her leave with Rutledge and me. The first week they talked about the CCC, the history of the park, and ways of making observations. Next week will include a longer hike and more focused topic. Some of my fondest homeschooling memories so far are of children climbing all over the fence at Pocahontas or chasing each other in the woods with big sticks or sitting around the campfire there.

Tuesday we will be going to Pamplin Historical Park, which is a Civil War living museum. The program sounds fantastic and fits well with what we have been studying this year in history. We haven't totally made it to the Civil War in our chronological progression, though we had some interludes when we went to the Museum of the Confederacy in the fall and when we read some of our Sonlight books out of order. We just read _The Red Badge of Courage_ last week, so that also gave them a little extra background.

Yesterday we spent the early part of the day watching the inauguration coverage and talking about past presidents, large crowds, security, and who all those people were who got to be up at the podium (especially Aretha Franklin). It was very, very moving. I repeatedly find myself teary-eyed not only when I'm watching the actual event itself (over and over and over...it was on incessantly for the rest of the day), but when I hear reports on NPR or hear people talking about how much this moment means to them. It truly does feel momentous to me and a proof that democracy does work. We had read quite a bit on the NPR website and some other resources linked from the Illinois Association for Gifted Children website (not sure why I suddenly got this email, but whatever...) about things like the oath of office and where it came from and then various "firsts" that happened over the years at inaugurations (first photographed, first in Washington, DC, first made a movie of, first using a Catholic Bible, etc.), and then we have been reading a short book on fascinating stories about things that have happened in the White House and some back issues of Cobblestone Magazine about the birth of political parties and about the office of the President. I wish we somehow could have been closer. I kind of wish I had a more thrilling and perhaps memorable "Where Were You When..." story to tell. But we were holed up at home on an ice-cold day, drinking our hot chocolate, I had just been to the dentist, and we were crowded onto the ottoman watching Barack Obama repeat back the oath and all the fanfare surrounding it. I know I was far more into this than the kids, especially than Walter and Frances, but hopefully they will have some mental snapshot of the moment.

And my last little tidbit is that I am challenging myself to be gluten free until my birthday, in about 6 weeks. More on that later. But it is proceeding about as one would be expecting it to at this point--mistakes and slipups, but lots of learning about how life doesn't have to be totally upside down for this to become a new normal way of eating. There is life beyond xanthan gum and 7 different flours for every recipe. I'm sucking down an Amy's Lentil Soup as I write this, so I'm not feeling particularly deprived at the moment.