Maine State Passport Stamps #5 and #6 and Old Fort Western

When I woke up, I already knew the latter half of this day would be busy with Jubal's Semi-Final soccer game in Windham (which they won) and a Family Movie Night at church. After an early morning text from Meghan G. with a last minute invitation to join her homeschool group for a presentation at Old Fort Western, I knew I would be welcoming my bed when this time of the night arrived.......and indeed, I was correct. So in the name of brevity and sleep, most of this post will be in photo form.

We spent about an hour and a half at Augusta's Old Fort Western, the oldest wooden fort in the U.S. There was some great hands-on learning. The kids enjoyed making a shingle and checking out an old general store but with the late autumn wind nipping at us, we were glad to come into an 18th century kitchen, complete with a cozy fire.













Once the fire was built up, the kids ground their own cinnamon and sugar for some tasty homemade toast as well as stirring some delicious spiced hot apple cider while listening to our guide share about life in 1754.

After leaving the kitchen, we entered the weaving room and all the kids had a chance to add one row of thread to the ongoing bolt of fabric that will be made into some towels for their kitchen.










With the work done, our final immersion into colonial life consisted of some children's recreation: pick-up-sticks, bean bag tossing and a ball &cup. Even over 250 years later, some games are still fun.

Finished with the fort, we picked up lunch on the run and headed an hour south toward Sebago to stamp our next two passport destinations: Sebago Lake and the Songo Lock. It was very strange not to see any other person at Sebago, which is packed in the summer.






Sebago stamped, we drove a few hundred feet down the road to Songo Locks, which was also deserted. Yesterday, while reading Paddle-To-The-Sea, I had been explaining how the Great Lake's Soo Lock worked, so this was a great small scale visual for Atira and Tell.












The Songo Lock also holds a very special memory for me because, in the 80's, my paternal grandparents lived in a log cabin just down the road from the Songo Locks. In 1983 my brother and I stayed with them for a week and in addition to wading into Crooked River, dusting BauBau's nicknack collection, watching the TV-edited Fatso, and (seriously) taking a macrame class, we walked down to the Locks with BauBau to watch the small boats pass through. With one leg shorter than the other, even in her younger years, it was painful for her to get around a lot. She isn't a complainer, though and we never realized her effort until we were older. I'm thankful for the memories of time spent with grandparents on both sides of my family. It's a blessing.

A Bit of Wildlife

Headed home on Route 1 yesterday I saw the stream of traffic ahead of me on both sides of the road shift to the shoulders. I realized the sad reason when I passed, in the middle of the road, a large deer that had just been hit. This morning the boys and I saw a much nicer version of deer in the form of a small herd crossing the road not far from our house. On the way home, after dropping them off, a sharp-shinned hawk landed on the rail of the Bath Route 1 overpass just as my van passed. Then as I left to get Nolan again this afternoon, I nearly ran into our local flock of wild turkey as I rounded the house corner. Both parties were very startled. I love living in Maine.






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Incompatibility

Nolan to Jim:
"I thought all apple products were compatible."


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School, Soccer, Supper

Thanks to Meghan Gillespie, I took Tell to a 4-H hosted homeschool event at the Bowdoinham Library today. Atira was sick, so she missed this week's butterfly theme. Last Thursday they were divided into groups and were required to create a wind boat that would "sail" the length of the table.










It's a shame that we missed the first two weeks of the sessions because Tell thoroughly enjoyed them.

After dropping Nolan off at Karate, the family shot up to Waldoboro for Jubal's soccer game against Windham Academy. Coastal lost, but we still enjoyed the company of Fishers and Hodgdons on the sidelines.

If you must lose a game, at least follow it up with a delicious meal at Moody's next door. While there, I opened my very belated birthday gift from Don. It was a Sumo-sized and themed coffee mug from Japan. I love it!







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I Have Nothing To Wear

I realize that God created men and women differently. This is not news to me. Sometimes, however, we are given glaring reminders of truth we already know. This morning, I heard "Mom, I have nothing to wear." from Nolan. I have also heard it (much more frequently) from Atira. When Atira says it, she is standing in front of her closet, looking at an array of clean, hanging clothes and there is nothing that she feels like wearing or nothing that fits the occasion. When Nolan said it this morning, it meant he was standing in the middle of his room, surveying the floor, which was well-stocked with previously worn clothes and there was nothing clean to wear.


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Maine State Aquarium

Friday morning found us, along with Jen and Asa Hodgdon, arriving at the small octagonal building known as the Maine State Aquarium, overlooking a foggy Boothbay Harbor. Arriving a few minutes before it even opened was a novelty for this habitually late girl.








Once the doors were opened and the Gillespies and Johnstons joined us we entered the large dimly lit room to enjoy the many tanks filled with mostly local marine species. When local lobstermen find oddities in their traps, many times they offer them to the aquarium and so we observed a lobster that was split down the middle, half red and half black, as well as one that sported six claws. An hour into our visit an educational presentation on Maine lobsters was held outside on the covered porch.








The highlight of the aquarium were the two touch tanks where the kids handled sea stars, sea urchins, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, and scallops as well as lightly touching some dogfish and some gorgeously patterned cat shark. The field trip was a fine finish to another productive school week.







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Tie-Dye Time

We kicked off AWANA for the year on Wednesday with homemade ice cream and tie-dying t-shirts. Both were a hit.











Atira opted to have a diagonal stripe pattern achieved with accordion style folds.








Tell and Ben Foreman decided to be Elf Bros and do a Christmas-colored swirl pattern, and even though their colors and design were the same, and the dyes were applied by the same teens the finished products were distinctively different. I couldn't help but be reminded of the uniqueness of each one of us in the human race, the difference being that the creator of the tie-dye design is never sure EXACTLY how the design will come out. Our Creator, however designed us perfectly and knows us intimately. God does not deal in randomness or accidents.













Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.








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