Letters from Pemberley

CA State History Road Trip, Days 1 and 2

Mar 11th, 2018 by ECM

More pictures to follow next week, when we get home to my computer and editing software, but I’ll try to pull up a few photos on Derek’s computer every night!

We’re spending spring break on a road trip across California to learn more about the culture and history of this state.

Road trip books read thus far: Zia by Scott O’Dell (sequel to Island of the Blue Dolphins, a great look at life for Indians in the CA missions), By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleishman (about the CA gold rush)

Yesterday we drove up to Hearst Castle in the pouring rain. No zebras were visible.

Then in the morning we went over to the beach, where hundreds of elephant seals were hanging out.

Then we drove to San Juan Bautista to see the mission where Vertigo was filmed! Note that the infamous tower was a prop.

Then we drove into San Francisco, where we’re staying for a few days. We’re right up on Fisherman’s Wharf, and tonight we took a stroll along the Bay to get our bearings. That’s Alcatraz in the background–we’re going there on Wednesday!

Posted in California, Homeschooling | 1 Comment »

A Story by Susie

Mar 7th, 2018 by ECM

Once upon a time, there was a lion called Lionel. He was a king, but he was only three. When a big lion came, he hid under his throne. Big Lion looked all around, and he said, “Oh no, where’s three year old Little Lion? I’ll look under his throne.”

Fortunately, Lionel had a little door under it, so he went into it and went downstairs in the attic, where he had an emergency bed. He slept there until Big Lion gave up and went home. Then his whole kingdom came to celebrate with lots of Lionel Cookies, which are meat cookies with chocolate chips on them. Princess Leah said that they should have jelly cakes, so they made jelly cakes. After the party, the kingdom went home.

And they lived happily ever after.

Posted in Homeschooling, Susanna | 2 Comments »

Schoolwork with Costumes

Mar 5th, 2018 by ECM

Math is just easier sometimes when you’re wearing a costume.

Posted in Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna | 1 Comment »

Susie’s Big Girl Quilt

Feb 25th, 2018 by ECM

I started this on Superbowl Sunday 2012, intending to have it done for when Susie moved into a big girl bed out of her crib. But she moved into a toddler bed and then shared the full size bed with her sisters. Finished it a mere six years later, just a month after she moved onto the top bunk (and a twin sized bed for the first time in her life!) after getting back from Iowa.

Amy Kidder helped me pick out the initial fabrics at a quilt store in TO on our first Superbowl Sunday in California. The color scheme and 30’s flour sack prints are supposed to coordinate with Elizabeth’s big girl quilt (the stripe fabric was actually extra from her quilt!). The blocks are supposed to make you think of Black-Eyed Susans (Susie’s “theme” flower, for obvious reasons). I started the quilt years ago and then just packed it away in my bloset because it was sooooo much trouble getting everything out to sew while we lived in that tiny house in TO. I pretty much forgot it after Janie was born. But in packing up our house for our renters last summer, I rediscovered the pieces of the quilt. I brought everything to Iowa, left my sewing machine up and my blocks planned out on the carpet, and worked on a block every time Derek and I put the kids to bed and watched Veronica Mars. Cammy and Grandma helped me pick out the sashing/border and backing fabric in Columbia this Christmas, they helped me arrange the blocks, and then I started and Grandma finished piecing the top together before sending it off to be quilted by Janet from church.

Now onto Janie’s quilt, which is going to be scrappy (no trips to a fabric store required), paper doll pattern-themed (Brenda gave me a sample block to use years ago, so I just have to go through my stash and find it), and full-sized (because Janie’s going to be sharing that bottom bunk with one of her sisters for at least 10 more years, and we don’t need another twin quilt)! Now that the girls are big enough to help, maybe I’ll get the next quilt done faster.

Posted in Sewing Projects | Comments Off

Coronado with the Cullens!

Feb 21st, 2018 by ECM

Clare and Paul are out in San Diego for a family vacation, so the kids and I spent Monday with Clare and her crew down on Coronado Island! Natalie and Chris came down for the afternoon, too. Back in college, Clare and Leah and I had this grand plan of how we were going to live in the same town, on the same street, and our kids would all be friends, running in and out of each other’s houses. Leah and I got a tiny taste of it living only an hour apart this fall, but the Cullen and Muller kids had never even met until this week. As expected, they were instafriends. Susie and Mary started playing the moment they saw each other and didn’t even pause for introductions for several minutes. Can we say future Mauck roommates?

Kindred spirits. Does this surprise anyone?

Clare had apparently regaled her girls with tales of my braiding prowess, so of course everyone needed to have a matching braid for a pajamas photo shoot. Not up to the standards of our infamous (to our children) Backstreet Boys, American Girl, Point of Grace, Workin’ on the Railroad, Sweaters-and-Pigtails, or Gigantic Lollypop photo shoots, but not everyone can be as cool as we were at age 19.

Not every college sophomore is cool enough to recreate an American Girl outfit and go have a photo shoot somewhere in public. Sixteen years later, this picture still makes me really, really happy.

And who knows how many more kiddos will be on the couch by the next time we meet up?

Posted in Elizabeth, Friends, Janie, Musings, Susanna, Tommy | 1 Comment »

Tommy at 11

Feb 17th, 2018 by ECM

This kid is a full-on tween now. I won’t embarrass him by detailing all the physical and emotional changes going on (note: this privacy thing is an adjustment for me!), but he is definitely not a little kid anymore. Lately I’ve been giving him some extra responsibilities (running into the grocery store to pick up a rotisserie chicken for a last-minute dinner while I stay in the car with the girls, ordering me coffee at the in-store Starbucks while I’m shopping), and I think he enjoys the chance to do more grown-up things. I do feel like a lot of our relationship right now is me nagging and reminding him to do his household tasks, though, so we’re a work in progress.

For his birthday, Tommy requested waffles for breakfast, a low-key nerf sword-and-gun party down at the park with the boys on the pad, and Daddy’s homemade spaghetti for dinner. In addition to the eleven books that we gave him for turning 11, he got even more good books from his sisters and uncle. That should keep him occupied for, oh, a week or so!

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I instagrammed our AZ visit, but there were no pictures here until now

Feb 16th, 2018 by ECM

I pretty much switched to instagram for pictures of the kids last semester while we didn’t have internet access, but the ads are starting to annoy me, so I really do intend to move back from my phone to my camera and post here. Look what else was on my camera card! Pictures from our time with the Millers! How much longer are we going to be able to take couch pictures lined up in age order (I think Isaiah must have been in bed already at this point)?