dashing through the desert

After two days of death defying painting acrobatics Jay and I took advantage of our day off together via a bike ride to Gold Canyon. I was hoping for a nice sunny ride but the chill and clouds prevailed so we bundled up and wiped the dust off our wheels. Our biking muscles quickly reminded us that we hadn't had the bikes out in quite some time.

brave

fish creek

 After giving thanks that our hike was finally over, we piled back into the truck and drove an hour up and further into the mountains to check out a trailhead we want to try on another day. We arrived at the golden hour and my shutter finger was busy as I hobbled stiffly on sore tootsies a little way up the trail. The momentary pain was well worth the beauty I was able to capture.

 Jay walked a bit further while I took pictures 

then let Lily run back to me by herself...

I love that look on her face. She is such a happy hiker.

After checking out the trailhead and the end of perfect light we drove down to Fish Creek at the bottom of the canyon; dirt road, hairpin turns, and not much to speak of as far as guardrails is concerned. Not a drive my mother would have enjoyed.

While I walked to the middle of the bridge to shoot the moon Jay talked with this young couple who had been rock climbing. We ended up giving them a ride back to their car at the trailhead while they shared amazing stories of their rope adventures in the canyon. I think I prefer to keep my tired toes safely on the soil. Thank you.

 

 

A perfect ending to a perfect day.

first water

 Jay, Lily and I took advantage of the extended Thanksgiving weekend to check out a new hiking trail. The majority of our hiking has been to the east of our backyard view. This time we headed west, just a couple of miles down the road, to First Water Trailhead. Our wanderings took us back behind our mountain into a valley of sorts with mountains all around. 

 There were a lot of interesting rock formations and a good view of Weaver's Needle. I was practicing a "better photo" hint that I recently read....that being that photos, in general are more interesting when a human is included. Seeing that I had lots of scenic views and only one human to work with you'll see a lot of Jay in this post.

Time for a break in the shade....
and a yummy trial mix someone clever threw together.

The day was lovely and perfect for a march around the desert. By the end we figured we covered around 9 miles. As we turned to head back we crossed paths with this lone hiker...finally, someone else to photograph! She seemed please to have people to talk with and stuck with us for the remainder of the trail. 

The day was lovely and perfect for a march around the desert. By the end we figured we covered around 9 miles. 

paint day

After painting the trim around my front door, 

I painted my hair.

storm

Natale is learning up a storm these days. 

When she arrived on Monday morning I handed her my "fancy" scissors and scrap paper to keep her busy while I organized school materials and lesson plans. She made a rabbit and then proceeded to write on its belly.

We are working on our third book (Modeled after Cookies Week by Cindy Ward) called Lily's week. I found a cute cat themed scrapbook kit that we are using for the story. When the book is finished our book celebration will include dog shaped cookies and a doggy play date for Natale's dog and Lily.

We are also writing the creation story to go along with Natale's watercolor paintings. 

We try to always finish our day by writing in Natale's Learning Journal, a kind of diary of one special thing that happened each school day.

After our calendar work this week we counted the days until Natale's  birthday in January, then cut colored paper strips, put them in AABBCC pattern order, wrote 1 to 17 on the strips and stapled them into a chain so Natale can keep track of the number of day's until her birthday.

Durung Hanukkah we spent several afternoons making Hanukkah gifts. Natale made a list of the people to whom she was going to give bookmarks. She crossed off each name as we wrapped and tagged the gift. I did have to wonder if I wasn't creating another list-dependent personality.

Another day while I was busy with something in the kitchen Natale used her white board to make a procedure chart for herself. The photo makes it a little tricky to read but it says: 

we r goon to do u project frst we goonto cot papr

nao we r goonto do u defret project

These are the kind of things that pushes a kindergarten teacher's delight button.

love

Jay's been working out of town a lot recently. 

I'm happy I have have Lily to keep me company.

time for socks

It has been chilly in Arizona this past week...time to pull out the long pants, sweaters and, yes, even socks. There have been a couple mornings when frost has been spotted on the rooftop and snow on distant mountain tops. 

Lily starts out the morning with her jacket but if the sun comes out you can find her belly-up taking a sun bath.

day six, a rainy hanukkah

We heard news that there was a big storm headed across the Pacific Ocean early this week. The clouds rolled in yesterday afternoon. Overnight I listened to the wind blow. The morning was wet and chilly. Funny how it startles me to open the curtains and not see the mountain.

The sun battled with the clouds in the afternoon creating some interesting photo ops.

lemony tell you...

about the 6 lemons ripening in my yard.

hanukkah gifting- day four

 Last week after the Russian dance recital I printed several of the best dancing photos and we turned them into bookmarks for Natale to give as Hanukkah gifts. Today, after a productive morning of schoolwork we headed to the store to pick up supplies for more gifts. After reading Betsy's blog Natale decided she would like to try the Kisses melted onto pretzels. Although they were suppose to be simple we managed to mess the whole batch up....I think I left them in the oven too long and actually baked the chocolate.

Thankfully we still had plenty of afternoon left to make Warm Mixed Nuts with Rosemary as well as start on our hand soap making for tomorrow's gift. After labeling and wrapping a jar for her mother we delivered a second jar to our  neighbors. 

Happy day 4 of Hanukkah!

happy day three - hanukkah

The Hanukkah greeting at my front door.

ruby day

Most days my lone homeschool student shows up with a smile on her face and a hop in her step. There was one morning recently, however, that the proverbial "wrong side of bed" attitude arrived instead. The main factor seemed to center on the cute new denim jumper. Apparently it was extremely irritating to wear. Instead of happy hopping there were tears that morning. 

I was running behind that morning and, as is the privilege of homeschooling, was still in my jammies. I suggested to Natale that I too could wear a denim jumper and we could be twins. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when the thought hopped into my head....Ruby the Copycat! I quickly shared my idea with Natale and she was off to create flowers, modeled after the flowers on her dress, to add to my jumper. 

Ruby is a much loved book from my years in public school. It is one of the books I never tire of reading. In the book Ruby, who is good at hopping, wants to be like Angela. She copies everything Angela does including pinning painted flowers to a sweater to make it match Angela's. You can guess where this is going...for the remainder of the day I wore hand-colored flowers pinned to my jumper. Natale's jumper was no longer uncomfortable and it turned out to be a hoppy day.

hanukkah night two

Happy second night of Hanukkah. 
I saw a veggie hanukiah on facebook and thought I'd try to create my own for the Hanukkah party we are going to this evening.

playing with mud

My self-portrait 

taken during a post-rainstorm walk 
around the neighborhood.

first night of hanukkah-

Happy First Night of Hanukkah

a window a day...

After discovering an alternative to painting the whole house back in January I finally started in earnest my task of painting the trim on the house. I have a goal of painting one window per day which works well will having Jay move the extension ladder for me. I'm pleased with how much better the painted parts look but a little intimidated by the height of the roof trim.