Callie loves manga; specifically "Fruits Basket". She has been reading her books for most of this vacation; she brought 13 with her. She was on the computer today, but she was still reading. She found a site with the "Fruits Basket" series online. Brent has been enjoying himself with his cousin, Grace. He is learning what it is like to be the older sibling. Grace wants him to snuggle, shop and have tea parties. So cute. Maybe he'll see his older sister in a different light now.

We have learned a lot about ourselves on this holiday. First, we are no longer Washingtonians. We feel out of place here and have missed our New Mexican home since we left it. We also learned that friends and family are important and making time for them in our lives is essential. We have learned just how much we have changed since we left. We feel completely out of sorts with the pace of life here. Our friends and family remark how much they have slowed during our visit, and we still feel that everyone is in a hurry! We had planned to do a bunch of shopping during our return to civilization. But strangely nothing appealed to us in the malls. My daughter got bored after the first few stores and we didn't finish the mall. Turns out we really didn't need stuff. We just thought we did. We hardly got anything at all. Our perspective is different now; I like it better.

Yesterday we watched the IMAX movie "Everest".  I was hoping at the end to understand why these climbers risk their lives, but at the end I was still struggling.  Though I respect their choices.  It was very interesting to watch and very personable.  I thought they did an excellent job.  Callie and I actually teared up a couple of times.  Truly an amazing experience for the climbers.  

Every month or so I have been running into roadblocks with homeschooling.  I find myself frequently asking myself  "Did the kids learn something today or did we just complete the checklist?"  I remind myself that homeschooling was my kids idea and the purpose was to give them a safe environment that encouraged their love of learning.  

I am going through older folders and scanning them into the computer.  I came across this picture of Callie that I love.  She has always loved reading and dinosaurs.  

Keeping the kids on task this week has been quite a challenge!  Next week should be next to impossible.  We don't leave for Seattle until Thursday.  I really wanted to count at least Monday and Tuesday as school days.  We had one day this week that really didn't count.  This is our first trip back, so I understand the kids excitement.  

This morning we released a butterfly.  Sadly there was only one left.  Last night Brent found that our resident killer had found a way to get to the butterflies.  We had moved them and surrounded them and tried our hardest to keep them alive.  Our other cats have never been like this.  

Well our butterflies have hatched.  We had to wedge their habitat into a shelf because JB was playing with it like a kitty toy trying to get the prize inside.  Despite it's secure location, the cats still wait for any oportunity for a meal.

The cats are actively involved in the homeschool process.

This morning I come into the living room to find all the cats huddling around something on the floor.  I assume it is a spider and look to confirm and it is one of the ants!  The industrious little guys had built a hill over their water dish and climbed out the watering hole!  There were two, one I was able to save and put back into the habitat using tweezers.  The other?  Murderous cats!  This was a group effort; they swatted it to death.  We had to plunge pencils into the watering holes to secure the ants and move the water dish.  They are trying to use their mighty ant powers to remove the pencils, so we check them regularly.

These ants apparently didn't think we were very good tunnel builders.  They have filled in most of the starter tunnels we made and constructed their own.  They have even used a slivered almond as a roof to the main entrance.  This happened all in one night.  

These ants are busy.  It was amazing to see how fast they started working on tunnels.  They checked out all the "starter tunnels", then began working on side tunnels to connect them.  

The ants arrived today, actually they probably got here on Saturday, but we didn't go out there till today.  I wasn't sure that any would actually be alive.  It gets pretty cold at night.  The package warned to keep from extremes in temperature, too late.  We didn't obey the "Open Immediately" either.