On the other hand, let's just go to D.C.

With only a few days left in Maryland, it was definitely time to pack!  Definitely time to return library books and scrub out the fridge.  Time to put toys into boxes and clean out the craft supply cupboard.

Or....

Yep.  We decided to run back to DC for another day of exploring museums. 

(Most of the scaffolding has come down from the Washington Monument!)

Our first stop - the Museum of American History!

We had already been here to enjoy the exhibits on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Star-Spangled Banner, the First Ladies' Dresses, the transformation of American Food, the Little Golden books (remember those?),and the cool stories that come from A History of a House.  What a great museum!   There were still some exhibits we hadn't seen, including one on the U.S. Presidents, which would tie in with our government studies!

I appreciated the quote that greeted us at the beginning of the exhibit:

 "The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands."  -Lyndon Johnson, April 30, 1964

We also appreciated the large timeline that helped us solidify the facts we had been learning.

And then we stood by some really cool artifacts!!

Here's George Washington's field telescope used in the Revolutionary War, and his writing case:

Some other pieces from George Washington...

 ...including these portraits that hung in the Washington's house in Mount Vernon.

 Here's the overcoat and top hat worn by Grover Cleveland at his first inauguration, March 4, 1885.

 

Marijka was especially fascinated with these moccasins given to Ulysses S Grant from an Indian tribe in the 1870s.  (She just loved our unit on the Native American peoples, and pleaded for her own pair of moccasins for weeks after.  I bought her some for Christmas, and she used them, of course, to practice walking noiselessly through the woods.  When she suddenly became all passionate about ninjas, they worked for that, too.)

 Linnea loved this art set used by Theodore Roosevelt's son, Archie, in 1903!!!

Both daughters liked this doll house that belonged to Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy in 1979....

 ...and this doll from 1829, belonging to Mary Louisa Adams, the daughter of John Quincy Adams!

(At this point, Aidan had already flown through this exhibit with his dad so he would have time to show him other favourite parts of the museum.)

And just so you all can imagine it, here's a picture of Marijka giving a speech as the President of the United States.  A glimpse of the future?   She would be one passionate president, and every animal in the kingdom would be well protected!

As we planned our last day visiting DC museums, Linnea and I pleaded for one last visit to the  Art Gallery.  And I'm so glad our family agreed!  We were able to see an incredible temporary exhibit.

(photo from the National Gallery of Art's webpage - my photos aren't so great)

from Wikipedia

This statue, The Dying Gaul, was created in Rome in the first or second century.

Woah, did you read that correctly?  The first or second century!  Ancient Rome.

And we stood mere inches away, with nothing between us and this work of art.  I love that about this gallery!  There's seldom glass between your eyes and the art - just you and the masterpieces.... and the eagle eyes of nearby security guards.  There it stood, an ancient sculpture, in the splendor of the Art Gallery's rotunda, and the handful of us gathered around gazed in silence.

The last time The Dying Gaul left Italian soil was in 1797 when Napolean forces took it to France!

It came to DC for a few months to finish off the 2013—Year of Italian Culture in the United States.  I'm sure you were all aware that 2013 was the year of Italian Culture in the U.S?  You probably ate lots of pasta to celebrate, right?  You can read more about the exhibit here and here.

We spent the rest of our time making sure we feasted our eyes on the paintings of Renoir....

A Girl With a Watering Can

...and Monet....

The Japanese Footbridge

...and VanGogh!!!!

Roses

La Mousmé

The Olive Orchard

Seriously!!  Our noses came this close to all the masterpieces!

 part of Girl in White

 part of Green Wheat Fields

I could show you so many more photos!  What a gorgeous, gorgeous place!  I highly recommend an evening perusing the National Art Gallery's website (here is their list of VanGogh prints, for example, with photos and information on each ) to learn more! Or you may want to buy one of their books, like we did, so you can regularly ponder excellent art from your living room couch.

In several rooms throughout the Art Gallery, an easel sat waiting. 

Doesn't that look neat?  A simple tool.  Filled with hope, potential.  Oh, to be an artist!!!!

This inspired Linnea as much as it inspired me.  She started saving up her money for an easel, and then received one from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday!

We also scooted through the Air and Space Museum (so cool!!!) and looked longingly into our favourite Museum of Natural History and waved at the Botanical Gardens and then vowed that we would NOW go back to our cottage and pack up. 

It was when I was finally filling up boxes on the cottage kitchen floor that we got a call from the White House.  And what's a girl to do when a call comes from the White House?  Quit packing boxes, that's for sure!  Off we went, back to DC, and as we drove, we called our landlords.  "um... Is there any way we could stay for a few extra days?  We don't seem to be ready to leave yet".






...to be continued

Science Fair (or My Daughter Likes to Hang Out with the Scientists Down at the Smithsonian)

Each of our children took a science class through the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's education program.  Marijka studied Ecosystems, Aidan took a class on Rocks and Minerals, and Linnea chose a Biomimicry class that included a science fair.

The science fair took place during our last week in Maryland.  So when we should have been packing up, we were instead buying a trifold poster and building things with popsicle sticks!!

In studying biomimicry, Linnea first learned several ways that humans have copied abilities or designs from animals or plants.  For example, the invention of velcro was based on plant burrs that stick to pant legs and dog fur, and a passive cooling system was modeled after how termite mounds control temperature, and a gecko's ability to climb up walls is inspiring a gecko tape (see here for a video or here for more info, or just google 'biomimicry'.  It's pretty fascinating stuff!)

The students were then asked to choose an experiment that they could do that demonstrated an aspect of an animals' life that could be copied (mimicked!) by us in our society today.  Linnea chose to investigate how the angles found within a spider web could be used to create strong buildings and bridges. 

She created bridges with three designs.  The top two sides demonstrate the angles of a spider web.

She set up each bridge over a gap, 

hung a bucket from the bridge....

and filled the bucket with weights, keeping track of which bridge could hold the most weight.

The bridge with vertical supports only held 11 pounds before it broke (which was still way more than we thought it would hold).  The other two held close to 20 pounds!  It was a fun project.  Linnea often demonstrates engineering-type thoughts (Daddy's genes!)..... and she sure took to the idea of biomimicry.  Neat, eh? 

The class brought their projects to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's main lobby and invited all the Smithsonian Researchers to come and see what they had done.  It was a pretty cool final celebration with lots of fun conversations between the scientists and the children. 

Linnea even found a good looking Smithsonian scientist to pose with her! 

Last Days in Maryland

With many activities filling our time, and occasional snowstorms providing excitement, our last days in Maryland swirled by too quickly.  It was suddenly time to leave.

We gave a tour of the cottage to the next family to move in.  I wish we had it on video.  All members of our family enthusiastically contributed to the tour, providing insights into life in the cottage.  One child exclaimed how horrible the water tasted and grabbed a drinking glass stained orange to prove its potency.  Another demonstrated how the stairs are way steeper than housing codes allow.  Quirk after quirk was shown.  'If you spill something in the kitchen, it rolls down to this corner over here.'  'If you use the microwave when the back porch lights are on, you'll need to flip this fuse over here.'  And you know what?  We were all grinning as we showed off these things.  We were sharing a place that we knew and that we loved and that we were proud of.  And I think our enthusiasm was contagious.  The family left with big smiles and moved in shortly after we left!

Since we had come to the cottage with only the essentials, it was hard to pack.  We brought the things we need and use.  Since we were needing and using these things, we could do very little packing ahead of time.  But eventually, piles began to form.

We had piles like this:

in which our stuff sat confidently under a sign that said, "THINGS THAT NEED TO COME".

But what everyone worried about was a growing pile under the sign "THINGS WE WOULD LIKE TO TAKE BACK TO SEATTLE BUT THAT AREN'T ACTUALLY CRITICAL TO OUR FAMILY'S LIFE AND HEALTH AND HAPPINESS".

To help ensure that the "THINGS THAT NEED TO COME" would actually fit in the van, we packed up several boxes of books and shipped them at the cheaper media rate.

Moving Day

Jon packed and repacked our stuff into the van.  There was fresh snow and ice everywhere, which made it tricky to do this!  In fact, the front door had frozen shut overnight!  See how hard it was for us to leave Maryland?  We literally had to push our way out.  (And pull our way into the van since the van doors had frozen shut, too!)  Jon hauled boxes out to the van, hauled them back, balanced boxes on the front seat for a while....

In the end, the whole "NEEDS TO COME" pile and even some of our "THINGS WE WOULD LIKE TO TAKE BACK TO SEATTLE BUT..." pile made it in the van!  Superior skills!

Then it was time to clean out the fridge, which, thankfully, wasn't too big of a task.  I had been very careful not to have a kitchen cleaning fiasco like last time. 

 There was some leftover wine, though, which needed to be finished.  At 10 am. 

Much to the worries of those around me, my strategy for the rest of our food was to throw it all into a pot of soup.  (Despite how it looks, it was actually really good because the freezer leftovers included meat and flavourful broth.  We gobbled it all up!)




With our stuff packed and all of our food gone, it was time to say goodbye to the little things in our cottage that we had come to love.  

Goodbye to the kitchen storage containers that came with the house ....



...and isn't this lamp fantastic?  I read by this lamp every night. 

 

Ah, yes.  And goodbye to the very stylish placemats.  That are REVERSIBLE!  Gotta love the 1970s.  




My husband, I'm sure, is going to miss this chandelier that jumped out at his head many a time....

And farewell to a gorgeous front yard.....the view that I saw from my bedroom window in the mornings. 

Goodbye, Cottage! 

And we climbed into the van which was full to the brim, and headed west.

Ten Things We'll Miss About Maryland

10. interesting people

I enjoy meeting people and hearing their stories and exchanging ideas.  Maryland is full of intelligent, pleasant people and I'm sure thankful for the many discussions we enjoyed.  There are people with fascinating jobs in DC, and people who travel a lot with the military, and people with small farms.... This was also my opportunity to hang out with the homeschooling crowd.  Since education and curriculum are some of my favourite topics, I've sure enjoyed the fact that most homeschoolers want to chat about these things!  Plus, homeschooling parents are in the thick of learning stuff with their kids, so the conversation often includes interesting tidbits on history, science, art....


9. the very cool ecosystem of marshlands and estuaries

I'm married to an ecologist.  We did a lot of hiking.  We saw beaver homes and blue herons, fish wiers and frogs, jellyfish and water snakes.  We identified tulip poplars, marsh mallow, phragmites and sweet gum.  We hiked past deer and raccoons and avoided poison ivy.  The Chesapeake is a really, really fascinating environment.  So thankful to have been able to explore it!

8. exploring DC - the gorgeous and interesting museums and galleries! 

We ran into DC again last week to squeeze in one last visit to some of our favourite spots.  Linnea and I sighed with contentment as we entered the Art Gallery again.  We got to see several paintings by Vincent Van Gogh!!!  Really!  I could have stayed there for hours.  I didn't know I loved art, but I tell you that the Art Gallery moves me.  It's like the feeling one gets after an absolutely perfect bite of chocolate right when you're totally craving chocolate.  You know? 

I stood real close, where I could almost hear the brush strokes....

7. a weekly Sunday School class for adults that challenges the brain

We're thankful for Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  After each Sunday morning service, there's a big pile of snacks for everyone and then a wide assortment of classes to choose from.  Jon and I enjoyed a class on Ethics.


6. having very few commitments and many quiet evenings

We purposely stayed away from most individual outside commitments.  The majority of our evenings were free!  Jon and didn't have class prep to work on and the kids didn't have homework!  We also had less electronic distractions than before (we only had one laptop to share).  Evenings were spent reading, playing games, sketching, etc.  LOVELY. 



5. the birds!

I love east coast birds!  The osprey were such a cool part of our summer with their nest on a buoy just outside our cottage.  We ate meals on the front porch with the binoculars close at hand.  The cardinals and bluejays continue to keep us company over the winter.   I took this video last week, when a cardinal was just singing his sweet heart out in our neighbourhood.  In the background, you can hear a bunch of red-winged blackbirds.

4. history

I am so thankful that we could not only study fascinating history this year as a family, but also go and experience it.  Within a day's drive, we stood on battlefields, admired old artifacts (like George Washington's writing case and field telescope), hiked on the same hillside path as Thomas Jefferson, wandered the fort at Jamestown, sat in a stone church from the 1600s, canoed in waters once paddled by the Powhatan.... a rich experience.


3. not sharing my children or husband with many people

This is, of course, tied in with having few outside commitments.  I sure love spending lots of time with these people.  I wondered if I'd get sick of them.... nope.

We're not sick of strawberry cheesecake, either!

2. the view out our front door

Last week's sunrise, front yard....

1. being close to family

I love being 'close' to family.  My parents and Ontario sisters are nine hours away; the Florida sisters about fourteen.  This is dreamy close for us.  We spent time with all of them, and treasured every minute.  Here are a few photos from our February trip to Ontario.  (The post of our southern exploration to Florida is almost ready!)

Plenty of snow to play in!

Watching the girls in the snow.

Time with my Ontario sisters! And the
 itty babies that they are expecting!

Time with my mom!

 

Family coffee times and meal times!

Whipping up treats with my Dad!  So fun!
(By the way, if you haven't had a nanaimo bar lately, you should go get one.)

Lots of Opa and Oma time - the way it should be.

We also saw lots of other family and friends as we drove across the country and explored around here.  Such a treat!

As we pack up and prepare to leave the east coast, we just want to shout out, "What a FANTASTIC experience!  So thankful that God led us here!  Thanks to all of you wonderful Maryland people for making this a special time for our family.  We love you!!!!"