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Annika

Living, Learning, Loving...

Interests: Homeschooling, children's literature, organic foods and family farming, fiber arts, pottery, bread and other baking, natural history, ancient history and the list goes on... The next 365 days of this blog are dedicated to "getting my life back" -- after being laid off, being unemployed for a while, working jobs that weren't balancing my life and family. One day I woke up and asked, "How is this my life now?" and the next obvious question was "What do I do about this?" making far less money than I used to, that answer wasn't as simple as I'd like it to be... so the next year is an attempt to journeying back while still moving forward.

Recent Activity

Annika is now following steph@woolythyme

Aug 9, 2013

The Clever Grasshopper (or "Never a Dull Moment")

Once upon a time there was a not so itty-bitty grasshopper who lived by the river. He was caught in the net of a homeschooling 12-year-old and brought home to live a few days in a Cricket Keeper (designed for folks who keep crickets to feed to other pets). In... Continue reading

Posted Aug 9, 2013 at Soul & Season

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First Real Nature Walk in Our New Town

I hate to admit it but my son, who is twelve, has gotten a little lazy about walking since we've been in the city. Occasionally we did still walk as far as we did today but there was more going on everywhere. We haven't had regular nature walks since we... Continue reading

Posted Aug 6, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Welcome Back to Small Town America...

Small town on the edge of being rural... I wish I could say moving was harmonious and peaceful and lacking in all stress but I'd be lying through my teeth and my nose would probably grow out into the next county... But we are here... we have officially arrived. We're... Continue reading

Posted Aug 6, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Tall Ships, Day 2

I was hoping to be up bright and early (I originally set my alarm clock for 6 a.m.) in order to catch the ships in the morning fog - but it was a loud night in our neighborhood and sleep was hard to come by (a reason I look forward... Continue reading

Posted Jul 26, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Duluth Tall Ships 2013

So in working to get blogging a regular habit lots of funny things have happend. First I got a new job out of the blue -- a call on a Sunday afternoon when I was trying to sleep off an overnight health care shift in preparation for another one, about... Continue reading

Posted Jul 26, 2013 at Soul & Season

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The Ongoing Sea-Monkey Saga

So we were down to two... and then we thought we were down to one ("Monster")... but then there were two... and then there were three: Monster, Bitty and Microdot. Now Monster is a Sea Monster, Bitty and Microdot aren't so itty and microscopic, and there's a bunch more that... Continue reading

Posted Jul 18, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Annika is now following charlotte

Jul 8, 2013

Do Sea Monkeys Work?

How many of you tried Sea Monkeys as a kid? I did... but I was really young. It was one of the first things my grandmother did when she decided I was old enough to be developing memory and thus to be learning and be getting attention. Did they work?... Continue reading

Posted Jul 8, 2013 at Soul & Season

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"The Unschool Bus"

One of my Facebook friends just posted on "The Unschool Bus'" status... and the words brought to mind the memory of my older children being little. They had no seeming desire to go to school, but the novelty of the school bus (which was less of a novelty once they... Continue reading

Posted Jul 7, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Windy Day Duluth

After yesterday's muggy heat where we hung out and sweltered, today (although the house wasn't much better) was a welcome change - foggy in the morning, windy in the afternoon. The wind was best down along the shores of Lake Superior -- refreshing, and good exercise both for muscle and... Continue reading

Posted Jul 7, 2013 at Soul & Season

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A Laid Back Fourth

Most holidays since I left the Alaskan bush have been just another day that I went to work. I've worked Christmas, Easter and all the days people like to be gathering their loved ones to them and breaking bread. It made the 4th of July the one holiday I could... Continue reading

Posted Jul 7, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Crystal Growing... Double Oops...

Soooo.... .... yeah. We started that with the best of intentions and then my son was at a friend's house for a few days. The liquid evaporated and we went from looking like a fledgling crystal to looking like some sort of green coral reef in miniature. The worst fail... Continue reading

Posted Jun 29, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Crystal Growing, Day One

My father was a man who loved to be hands on about learning. We often went rock-hunting in New Hampshire and Maine, bringing home large slabs of mica - silver and black, quartz (occasionally in recognizable crystals) -- white, clear, smokey and rose, tourmalines -- greens, pinks and watermelons, and... Continue reading

Posted Jun 9, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Finally a Sunny Day!

Today requires no words beside the title... it finally felt like spring, and looked like it, too! Continue reading

Posted Jun 8, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Inspiration from Portland

Continue reading

Posted Jun 7, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Watercolor Painting with Salt, Take 1 /or/ Special Needs Parenting, Take 2,000,010

I had been looking forward a day off to do this wet-on-wet watercolor painting with salt. Sadly, it flopped in all ways possible. First, the salt didn't react with the painting -- I'm not sure if that was that the paint had adhered too much into the paper already or... Continue reading

Posted Jun 1, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Intro to The Bard - The Merry Wives of Windsor

You would think that having raised three other children to adulthood and already given an early intro to Shakespeare that I'd know to do it. Maybe it's the parenting and educating with special needs thing, maybe (probably) it's that the second time around children seem so much younger than they... Continue reading

Posted Jun 1, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Owl Pellet - Day One

This should probably have been a one day project, but we're going through a changeover process, less activities involving the computer, less bling and immediate feedback. It doesn't happen overnight, much as when you remove television as an option for entertainment. I had never planned on the computer being so... Continue reading

Posted May 26, 2013 at Soul & Season

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... and Spring Leaveth

So... that happened. My favorite Facebook post (because I got back on there during broken wrist recovery and now am re-debating the whole to Facebook or not to Facebook dilemma) yesterday was "Are you kidding me? I have snowflakes the size of tarantulas in my hair!" In a fairly brief... Continue reading

Posted Apr 23, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Spring cometh... the bay side is still mostly covered with ice but the lake itself was clear of most ice, a few straggling bits floating about, still some build up along the shorelines, and still some snow in the weather forecast. Continue reading

Posted Apr 5, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Everything is happening at a slow pace at the moment, even while days seem to spin by much too quickly. I'm not complaining, just regrouping. Spring is coming in, inch by inch (maybe more like millimeter by millimeter), there is more daylight, there is even a little warmth... Saturday it's... Continue reading

Posted Mar 28, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Pepperkakor were part of my family's tradition for years, but sadly I haven't made them in quite a few -- probably not this year either as my cooking and baking paraphernalia is all still up in Alaska. I miss my little julbok and dala horse cookies... and my larger Dala... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2013 at Soul & Season

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Run, Smelt, Run!

One of the things I like to be on the lookout for is free events that encourage creativity and imagination (as well as learning) for my son (in days gone by it was "all my kids" but although the 22-year-old was with me and enjoyed this, it was really for... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2013 at Soul & Season

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And One Step Back...

This was supposed to be the first day of my acute care CNA class, helping to pave the way for my return to Washington state and the next phase of my family getting back the life we feel we left behind somewhere. Sadly, despite my son's valiant efforts to get... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2013 at Soul & Season

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