Christmas Pictures and More

Our Christmas tree was not set up till last Sunday, December 2. Today I managed to take a few pictures of the boys before the tree. They wanted to make faces the moment I had my camera up. Sign.

A few more interesting pictures from last week. The candle was made at Daniel's Cub Scout summer camp at Lassen. The "special effect" was caused by my unstable hands, unintentionally though. 

A new member in our family

Growing up, my sister and I had goldfish and parrots for pets. When I was in middle school, I had begged my mom for a cat because a good friend at school had one and little kittens were so cute. But mom said no. "Too much trouble and too dirty."

My kids have been asking for a pet, a dog or a cat, for quite some time. About two years ago, we took a Chihuahua puppy home but it simply did not work out. Training the puppy, training the kids, and training the kids to train the puppy, was more than we could handle. Besides, I was working outside the home. The puppy stayed with us for less than two months. Daniel named her Jill.

 They still want a dog but "a cat is good too". Recently free kittens were offered to us on several occasions by neighbors and friends. Considering that cats are generally low maintenance, Guibo and I finally said "yes" to the boys, "you could get a kitten if you are willing to take care of the kitten chores". "Yes! We will!" was the eager answer. So, there came  the new member. He came to us by the end of October, and is 3 months old now. Daniel named him Oscar, but we usually call him kitty. The kitten is a very active and playful little thing. He likes to climb. He had broken a Christmas figurine. And we had to rescue him from the back of our refrigerator in the middle of the night because he climbed on the counter and fell through the crack.

The kids love him. Daniel has been very responsible for his kitten chores, although he often shows more compassion toward the kitten than toward his little brother.

It's funny how my views have changed over the years. I can totally understand my mom now. Had it not been for the children's sake, I would not have voted for a cat or a dog. Oh, the things we parents would do for our children. Guibo, who has never liked cats, didn't complain once about the trouble and inconvenience the kitten brings.

The First Autumn Rain

Finally, the first autumn rain came to the valley today. During our morning recess, the kids went playing in the rain. Even with rain boots and umbrella, they got themselves very wet. Oh boy, did they have fun! I didn't call them back after the regular recess time was up. Once upon a time, when I was little, I loved to do what  they are doing... hmm, minus the worm part.

Riding in the rain sure is fun and cool.

A shooting game.  James is supposed to use his umbrella as a shield. 

That's why he got so wet. He was carrying some earthworms in the upside down  umbrella.

Checking on the earthworm collection.

A Trip to the Golden Gate Bridge

The son of one of Guibo's friends in his hometown is doing some training in San Ramon. We went to visit him  on Saturday and took him to see the Golden Gate bridge. Before the sightseeing, we went to Chinatown for lunch. The young man's comment for Chinatown was "it is so much like China". Yes, the smell of Chinese herbs and Chinese food, the crowded small shops, and Chinese characters on store signs. Also the litter scattered sidewalk though. Sign.

The weather was sunny, nearly perfect for San Francisco. I forgot my jacket and luckily was not frozen. It has been years since my last visit to the bridge. The bridge is as beautiful as I remembered. The monument, bridge models, and display are all very nice and informative, although the kids had no interest in learning about the design and building of the bridge.

While driving toward the bridge, we had a brief discussion about the color of it. "It's orange, or orange red, red orange." That's what I saw and what I remembered as well. But everybody else insisted that it was red. How could that color be red?? Before we heading out,  in the gift shop I found little cans of paint on which printed "International Orange". Ha, I was right!

Two incidents worth mentioning. One is James' fear for height. While we were driving across the Bay Bridge, he nervously hold onto his car seat arm rest all the time. "Are you afraid?" I asked him. He nodded. Later he refused to walk onto the Golden Gate Bridge.

Another incident was that Daniel got lost for about 15 minutes. He was taking pictures and was not paying attention when the rest of us going down the trail leading to the sea. Because he is always running ahead of everybody on outings, Guibo and I assumed that he was  ahead of us. It was James who told us that Daniel did not come down with family. Guibo: "Let him be. He will find us at the parking lot." Me: "No, I will go back to find him." Uttering a silent prayer, I ran up the trail. There were people everywhere. Bicycles too. Thankfully, I spotted Daniel's red T-shirt not far from the gift shop just minutes after I came up the trail. He was apparently upset but not panicking. Here's Daniel's account of what happened after being lost.
"I went to the car in the park lot and waited for a while but didn't see any of you. I'm going to go into the gift shop to borrow their phone to call you." That's pretty impressive to me. I should have taught him and James a lesson on "what to do when you are lost" but never did. Seems that he didn't really need it :).

Hair cut day

Daniel's hair is like mine, thick and coarse, and grows like weed, which means that his hair needs to be cut quite frequently. Luckily we have a capable kids hairdresser at home--Daddy. Neither of our boys has ever gone to a barber's shop. All trimming is done right in the kitchen.

Last Thursday was hair cut day. After hair cut and shower, they happened to put on matching PJs. They seemed so fresh and cute that I had to take a picture :).

James' temporary Mohawk 

Too lazy for words...

[Amazing Ourselves to Death] is one of the best books that I had read in the last couple of years. The book description from Amazon did a pretty good job introducing it:

"Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of  entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals."

One impressive quote that I remembered from the book goes like this, "We became sillier by minute when we were watching television." Reading and writing, the kind that require thinking, is work, and sometimes hard work; while watching TV or movie, surfing the internet, twittering or facebooking, on the other hand, it's mostly entertainment.

I don't watch TV and am quite selective in movies. I don't get on my facebook often, with my activities generally limited to browsing and liking other's status or pictures. But still, I find myself becoming lazier and lazier when I spend more time on the internet. It's so much easier to post pictures hoping "One picture is worth a thousand words" than to actually reflect on your life. I recently discovered Pinterest and love it. It seems such a good tool for collecting and organizing useful information and resources because it's so visual, well, it's all visual. It's no wonder that it's gaining popularity so rapidly. However, like the internet, it could so easily become a black hole, sucking in precious time and in the mean time likely making one lazier and dumber. How many hours that I had spend, oh, wasted on Pinterest, forums, Facebook, and Yahoo groups?

Anyway, I intended to simply post a few pictures on this post and felt somehow obliged to justify the reason of my laziness. Maybe because this is a blog not a facebook page?

Red Admiral butterfly "captured" by Daniel in our neighborhood park. 

In the same Small Park

Daniel took this photo. 

Daniel is helping James with his piano practice. James started in September.

September Birthdays

Daniel and James are both September babies, with birthdays only 5 days apart. As always, their birthdays were very low key. We didn't even have a real cake because of all the busyness in September (new school year and cub scout pop corn sell among others). But we had ice creams!

Daniel is 9 years old. He made a tiny clay cake to put the candle on. 

James is 6 years old. He too made a wee clay cake for his candle. 

Besides a small birthday gift for each boy, the whole family went to an indoor surfing place as a treat. Daniel invited Evan, one of his friends from our homeschool group and he was very happy to have his friend there. James has met the minimum height requirement for surfing, but didn't want to go. He had as much fun jumping and running and tumbling on the huge trampoline right next to the surfing room.

It's bouncy!

Hard to remain balanced for more than 10 seconds!

Our School Room

Last year, our first homeschooling year, we didn't have a school room or designated area for schooling. We just did the readings on couches and did math and handwriting on kitchen table. Daniel did have a computer desk as his desk, but he mainly used it for displaying his "treasure". It worked O.K., but having to find books and supplies that were scattered all over the house was neither fun nor efficient.

This summer I finally got my dear husband,  who does not like change at all, to agree on re-arranging some furniture to create a school room. It's nothing grand, and I am still not organized, but it is much better than what we had last year.

The limited wall space is reserved for one IKEA bookshelf and two 10-drawer carts (my students' work-boxes). The big desk in the middle was bought used years ago but had been kept in our master bedroom for piling up miscellaneous stuff. Now it's put to good use. I got the small desk from the office furniture sale in my previous working place four years ago. It was stored in the garage till now. Oh I love all these working surface!

Our old black couch does not look so good in the room, but it's a convenient place for snuggling with good books.

See that basket that sits between the couch and the bookshelf? It holds our library books very nicely.

These two shelves hold Daniel's school books. Top shelf is for history and literature and the lower shelf for math and science.

Pictured above are the two shelves for James' school books.

A proud new first grader and his new math book. 

Working on a puzzle.

 Daniel likes to lay flat on the couch to do his school work, most of which requires minimal handwriting. So writing properly is not a big concern in this position.

Our school room is well lit with natural light thanks to the many windows. Many windows also mean limited wall space, so our maps, timeline, and poster are not in the school room but on the walls of our hall way or outside a bedroom.

First Day of School

We started our new school year (2012-2013) on Labor Day because the principal (dad) said "Why not?".

I made Daniel dress up in his Hawaiian shirt, which he took off right after picture taking. James picked out his own outfit which was Daniel's old school uniform. He loves them and feels proud to be a first grader!

Teacher and Her Students (ratio 1:2)

Our 4th Grader

Our 1st Grader

The Whole Class

Summer Fun

Can you believe it that summer is almost over? We didn't go on any family vacation, but did have some fun time on a few outings.

I'm really bad at the task of timely uploading digital photos to PC. At least it's still summer...

 Day trip to Lake Tahoe. Our family of four and Guibo's nephew who was visiting us from UC Berkeley.

Trip to Six Flags. I was left behind, voluntarily, to have my praying and planning time for the new school year.

By the bank of American River. 

Random moments.