My kids’ story: both needed vision therapy, reading is hard work, and they’d rather dance or juggle a soccer ball than read most days.

Yesterday’s story: Since we returned from our holiday, I’ve let Tias read shorter, easier books rather than picking up where he left off with A Cricket in Times Square.  I believe in what I call ‘on-ramp homeschooling’: just like you don’t just make a left turn and hit the highway at 110kph, you don’t hit the books full-throttle.

Tias spent a while yesterday morning ignoring my call to the table to do our Canadian Geography.  He was busy wrestling our foam roller and getting out some anxious fidgets.  When I returned to the room 20 minutes later, he was curled up with a Geronimo Stilton book.  “Can I trade reading for some of my other homeschooling?  I want to see if I can read a whole book in one day.”

It wasn’t a book in a whole day.  It was 2 hours.

I stood on a chair, singing a made-up song to celebrate his achievement while dancing.  He walked away, astounded that I’d do such a thing to him.  (I believe he’s secretly pleased that I did it and that I kept going even when he wasn’t in the room.)

This is such a big boost to his confidence.

And mine.

And balm to a worried homeschooling mother’s heart.

______________________________

I’ve written before about the Geronimo Stilton series.  I think it may be one of the top three series of books out there for children intimidated by reading.  Rather than a crowded landscape of little black armies of words marching across a page, the books present well-spaced text that is dotted with words in colours and fonts that seem to dance on the page.  “Come play with me,” they seem to say.

Tuesday Night Cowl

Pattern: free on Ravelry

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease chunky

Don’t be fooled by how uninspired and lumpy the cabling looks when you work it and when it’s flat. Put it on, though, and it folds and layers like it’s been professionally styled.

Podsters
Pattern: free Ravelry download Podsters

Yarn: Smooshy in Nightwatch

Excess
Pattern: Excess, free download

Yarn: Stroll Sport in Baltic Heather

Then there’s the Hitchhiker I finished before we left in a rich, purply Malabrigo.  Somehow, it seems to belong in the Blue Period.

Would I knit myself a navy v-neck or scoop-neck pullover right now if I had the yarn?  Yes.  Yes, I would.  Perhaps it’s a good thing I don’t, since I am in the process of reknitting the sweater for my father that turned out to be too large.  (And I gave it to him in May.  It’s time to get this going.)  But I am simultaneously knitting a blue sock.  The Blue Period isn’t over.

So when he read about the Goofy Challenge in a magazine about 14 years ago, I knew it was only a matter of time.

Goofy, you see, lives up to its name.  You run the Donald Duck half-marathon on Saturday.  Then you run the Mickey marathon on Sunday.  And for doing both, you’ve lived up to the challenge of the Goofy Race and a Half.

I planned to run the half with him, keep him at my easy (for him) pace while helping him save his legs for the next day.  The idea became much sweeter when Sandra decided to catch the madness and run her very first half-marathon with us.  (There is no vaccine for adventure once you start.)

Bedtime.

Seriously.

The Disney races start at 5:30, and to get there with all the crowds (over 25,000 participants alone), you need to get up at 3:00. In the a.m.

I alternated reading and laying in the dark til 11, at which point I began to sleep fitfully. The good news (ahem) is that I now know that whether you’re waking up earlier than usual or far earlier than usual, your body and mind are about the same amount of astonished and annoyed.  Waking up for races will just always be a stunner.  So that’s good to know.

They say Disney is magic. They are. The convinced more than 27,000 people to get up at an insane time to go for a run. And then people did it again the next day. That’s magic.

Post Race:

Yes, we wore our shirts and medals for the afternoon. It’s the only time you’ll do it, so you might as well. Shout it, you earned it.

IHOP for our post-half-marathon feasting

then a walk and some more feasting: Cold Stone Creamery

yummmmmmmm

Then we all got up at 3:05 again. Because even though they didn’t have to, the kids are awesome enough that they chose to cheer Rainer at the marathon. That was a proud moment for me.

They did this at the half-marathon start, too.  Each wave got a whiz-bang send-off.

up early does mean you get to cheer your awesome runner through the castle as the sunrise hits it

full of bling

a medal for Rainer for doing the half-marathon

a medal for Rainer for doing the marathon

a medal for Rainer for doing them both on the same weekend

That’s Goofy. That’s a happy man.

A whole lot of numbers for our car.

13.1 miles = half-marathon
26.2 miles = marathon
39.3 miles = the Goofy Challenge

It’s one of those things so big and varied that the thought of conveying it here is daunting and I’ve been putting it off since we returned late Friday evening. Four weeks is a long time.

I’ll let myself off and simply throw bits and pieces up here on the blog, like this excellent welcoming figure in Cape Canaveral.

:: scents of cinnamon and ginger ::

:: tastes of mint and chocolate ::

:: the warmth of wool mittens ::

:: tunes to hum along with ::

:: friends to hug ::

I’ve already blogged some of our favourite recipes. And I’ve already extolled the bright delights of sugarplums, an unexpected addition to our traditions that was previously only a nostalgic concept.

Today I’d like to share a recipe for a savoury delight: Roasted Eggplant Spread. It’s easy, luscious, and ridiculously low-calorie. (Did you hear that? That was the angel choir.) I’ve altered the original recipe enough to be able to share it here.

Roasted Eggplant Spread

2 medium eggplants
1 onion
15 large or 20 medium green olives
1 bunch fresh basil
1 tsp salt

Cut the eggplant in half, lengthwise and place cut-side down on a cookie pan with parchment paper or other non-stick surface. Skin and quarter the onion and place in tinfoil on the same pan. Roast at 375F for 30-40 min (fork tender). Allow to cool.

Scoop the eggplant flesh into a blender or food processor. Add everything else. Now whirl until it’s not quite smooth – you’ll enjoy a bit of texture in this. Let it sit for at least 30 min.

It makes 6 1/2c servings. Use it as a dip or as a spread it on bread or pitas.

I don’t have a charming photo of this spread because I took a bit of a risk this year and tossed it in the freezer.  The To Do list was becoming a bit of a ‘Suicide by Over-Committing’ list, and so I’ve moved as much as possible forwards on the calendar.  Besides, it’s a roasted eggplant recipe – pretty isn’t exactly the first word that leaps to mind.  Garnish with red pepper and a bit of basil.

“Only one,” she retorted.  “It’s only one apocalypse…”

It’s the time of year when the slant, shades, timing and colour of light preoccupy me.

Instead of a teary mother, it was a quavering voice, sweet and soft.  An older woman.  She had a few questions about the squares.  Her daughter had seen the poster up at the local Fair Trade shop and brought the idea to her.  She was so pleased to hear about it because she is now legally blind and dislikes being inactive.  “Just sitting about isn’t at all my thing.”

She wondered about shipping and the cost of it, so I offered to pick them up and send them along with the shipment of my own that I’ve been stockpiling for 6 months.  Guess how many she had to send.

50.

And since I said I wasn’t shipping mine for a few weeks, she said she’d keep working at it.  Oh, and she’d tell the other women at her support group. “Some of them are 100, but they’re still sharp and they might like something to do.”

I’ve got about 30 of my own, and expect at least a few more from the appeal I sent out to my local homeschool email group. But after that phone call I couldn’t leave it at that and now I want to add at least a few more.  The latest ezine that KAScare put out was particularly motivating.  The photos of people who volunteer to tackle the mountain of squares and the photos of kids just swathed in layers of yarn were just wonderful.  I decided to try my hand at crocheting them because my ‘To Knit’ list is getting overwhelming and it feels like I’m playing hokey from responsibility this way. I am enjoying the way that crochet feels like building with Lego blocks as you build stitch by stitch.

The pattern is the Chain Stitch Square.

Which is just to encourage you in what you do.  I had grand plans to get the posters to all the major churches in town, but haven’t managed yet.  But even the few posters I had distributed made a difference.  Little things really do add up.  Squares really do become blankets.  Posters really do change the world.  Conversations really do spark compassion.

zombie babies eat your brains

If you’re looking for a resource that can help you determine a book’s reading level and interest level, I’ve just discovered Book Wizard.  It also has the Book Alike feature that allows you look for similar books and even set the difficulty level up or down from that book.

The links are to GoodReads.

• The Revealing Story of Underwear
• Animals at War
• Treasure Island*

These first three are Usborne books because I have never found better books to entice my kids when they lacked confidence.

• The Sword in the Tree
• Fantastic Mr. Fox*
• The Magic School Bus chapter book: The Giant Germ

• Charlotte’s Web
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*
• George’s Marvelous Medicine

• The Cricket in Times Square*
• Farmer Boy
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (it was originally meant to be the Borrowers, but I couldn’t find it on the day)

• The Book of Three
• Hatchet
• How to Eat Fried Worms

• Harry Potter
• The Rescuers
• Dark Life (originally meant to be the Narnia book but I had to use it earlier, and besides, I feel that the non-Potter choices are pretty much there for decoration.  Who knows…he could surprise me.)