Eliza Starts Riding

Eliza has started horseback riding lessons. Pink cowboy boots...that's all I have to say about that!! LOL

The Bandit Arrives For Spelling

Signs of Spring

There is a sign that spring is eminent...birds...everywhere. Coming home this afternoon there were at least 20 American Robins feeding on the ground in the backyard. I snapped this shot of the little guy eating. Here is some of what we are learning about robins this week.

• An American Robin can produce three successful broods in one year. On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November. From that point on, about half of the robins alive in any year will make it to the next. Despite the fact that a lucky robin can live to be 14 years old, the entire population turns over on average every six years.
• Although robins are considered harbingers of spring, many American Robins spend the whole winter in their breeding range. But because they spend more time roosting in trees and less time in your yard, you're much less likely to see them. The number of robins present in the northern parts of the range varies each year with the local conditions.
• Robins eat a lot of fruit in fall and winter. When they eat honeysuckle berries exclusively, they sometimes become intoxicated.
• Robin roosts can be huge, sometimes including a quarter-million birds during winter. In summer, females sleep at their nests and males gather at roosts. As young robins become independent, they join the males. Female adults go to the roosts only after they have finished nesting.
• Robins eat different types of food depending on the time of day: more earthworms in the morning and more fruit later in the day. Because the robin forages largely on lawns, it is vulnerable to pesticide poisoning and can be an important indicator of chemical pollution.
• The oldest recorded American Robin was 13 years and 11 months old.
• American Robins eat large numbers of both invertebrates and fruit. Particularly in spring and summer they eat large numbers of earthworms as well as insects and some snails. (They have rarely been recorded eating shrews, small snakes, and aquatic insects.) Robins also eat an enormous variety of fruits, including chokecherries, hawthorn, dogwood, and sumac fruits, and juniper berries. One study suggested that robins may try to round out their diet by selectively eating fruits that have bugs in them.
• American Robins are common birds across the continent. You’ll find them on lawns, fields, and city parks, as well as in more wild places like woodlands, forests, mountains up to near treeline, recently burned forests, and tundra. During winter many robins move to moist woods where berry-producing trees and shrubs are common.
• When foraging on the ground, the American Robin runs a few steps, then stops abruptly. In long grass, robins may hop or fly just above the ground powered by slow, powerful wingbeats. American Robins often find worms by staring, motionless, at the ground with the head cocked to one side. It looks as if the bird is intently listening, but scientists believe the birds find worms by sight, watching for signs of digging. Robins sometimes fight over worms that others have caught. During fall and winter robins often roost in large flocks and spend much more time in trees. In spring, males attract females by singing, raising and spreading their tails, shaking their wings and inflating their white-striped throats. When pairs are forming in spring, you may see a display in which a male and female approach each other holding their bills wide open and touching them. American Robins are strong, straight, and fast fliers.

Name this lichen!

No golf today

Golf lessons have started again for us. This time our youngest is also playing. There is a narrow window between the the oppressive heat, the dreary cold, and the gnats, so we started back three weeks ago. Today was to be our lesson day but the pro called and said he wasn't feeling well. Here is what we did our first week back.

It's Been A While

I'm going to try to bring this blog back from the brink of death! Lots of updating could be done but I am going to just start where we are...

WORK

Ralph continues to work his same schedule and that is a blessing as my job changes with the wind. Over the last 6 months or so, our bed space at the Psychiatric Crisis Unit that I work at has doubled. Then we moved to a new location that was farther from home for me. Next, I was asked to start making psych rounds as well as medical rounds. The most recent change is that I am now taking psych call for a week every other week. This has left me in a state of disorder. I have had a steep learning curve with a lot of new added job stress. This has affected our home school but I feel like the tide is turning and we are all getting settled into a new routine. Working 12 out of every 14 days and home schooling is not the easiest of paths to take.

SCHOOL

We have had our ups and downs in school over the past year. Toward the end of last school year, I had to put my foot down with Alexander and give him an ultimatum. He could either chose to work and cooperate, or I would enroll him in a school outside of the home. It was tough but it was to the point that we come. Now this year he is working and his attitude is much improved. I would have put him in school and it would have broken my heart, but thankfully, he chose to stay with us. As things go, I am struggling with Nathaniel much the same way this year. It is exhausting, but I see progress with consistency and high expectations.

I feel like Eliza has been shorted given all the drama going on with the boys. However, her reading is coming along nicely and her handwriting is much improved.