18 February 2013
Michigan

To the Honorable:

Woodrow Stanley
Harvey Santana
Fred Durhal, Jr.
Brandon Dillon
Charles Smiley

Dear Representatives Stanley, Santana, Durhal, Dillon, and Smiley,

You have introduced before the Michigan legislature House Bill Number 4250, a bill that would require home-schooled children to be registered with the Michigan Department of Education.

My question to you: Why?

I understand your concern for the future of the young people whose education is being neglected, but it alarms me that the state legislature now proposes to require home-schooled children to be registered with the Michigan Department of Education, a requirement that can serve no purpose useful enough to justify the enormous cost in precious resources that this state can ill afford. House Bill 4250 can not do what it promises to do while it unnecessarily violates citizen autonomy.

The law [1561(3)(f)] as currently written, requires that for a student to be exempt from compulsory education, the education taking place in the home or non-public school must cover, at minimum, 8 specific subjects. In the event that they are challenged, it is incumbent on the non-public educators to prove that their scholars qualify for the exemption to the compulsory attendance act because they study those subjects outside the public schools.

The law already gives truant officers legal and substantial recourse if they suspect that insufficient education is taking place in the homes of those who claim to home school. If the child will be better served by being forced back into the school system, those responsible are obliged to use the existing truant laws.

Even if they complied with the proposed mandate to register, those families who neglect their children’s education would not be more readily identified simply by registering them with the State Board of Education.
Complicating matters, for every tale of woe about an irresponsible family who neglects their children by failing to educate them, there are a thousand cases of publicly educated children in our state who enter high-school without basic literacy skills. House Bill 4250 amounts to a bureaucratic non-solution to a truancy problem that has been with us since compulsory education was introduced in this country.

I fully agree with you that every child deserves an education, but the department of Education’s scarce resources would be better spent prosecuting irresponsible parents, rather than registering responsible ones. The eager scholar is ill-served when we squander the limited resources we have for the education of the children of this state on the staff and infrastructure that would be required to collect, maintain, and use home school registration information.

As a liberal, non-Christian home-educator, I can assure you that while home-education will continue successfully, as it always has, with or without registration, the already burdened state system will have an insupportable increase in its workload in registering its home-educators and their students.

There is no evidence to suggest that home-education in Michigan is broken. Surely there can be no fruitful end to an endeavor that would burden an already under-funded system with redundant information.

Please reconsider your sponsorship of this bill that flies in the face of our freedom and adds to the already substantial burden that the people of the State of Michigan bear in these difficult times

Misti Anslin Delaney
Parent Educator
MI

To my readers: please feel free to take this letter, make it your own and send it to your own Michigan representative. I will be sending paper letters to Lansing tomorrow.

Carrot Cake
3 cups blanched almond flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoon cinnamon
3 teaspoon nutmeg
5 eggs
½ cup honey
¼ cup coconut oil melted
4 cups carrots, grated
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg
In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, honey and oil
Stir carrots, raisins and walnuts into wet ingredients
Stir wet ingredients into dry
Place batter into 2 well-greased, round 9-Inch springform cake pan
Bake at 325° for 75 minutes, checking every 15 minutes after the first 50 minutes
Cool to room temperature and spread with frosting
Serve

Maple Cashew Frosting

2 cups unsalted cashews
1 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup Grade B Maple Syrup

 

1. Put the two cups of raw unsalted cashews into your Food Processor and blended until smooth, about 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir the nuts that stick high in the bowl back into .

2. Whip cashew butter, coconut oil and maple syrup in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer for 1-2 minutes.

3. Cool in the refrigerator and then whip until fluffy before frosting the cake.

And another discovery

I love Citrasolv. It works amazingly well and it smells wonderful. The problem is, when I have it, I use it for everything, and it’s pretty expensive. (I see that they’ve added a lavendar bergamot scent to their line. Just as well I didn’t know about that!)

I came across a “recipe” for a similar cleaner that is very inexpensive, and almost as effective. If you add a few drops of essential oil, it even smells pretty good.

The “recipe”? As you eat your winter oranges, tangerines, lemons, and grapefruit, put the peels in a glass jar filled with white vinegar. When it’s full, set it aside for a few weeks. (You may need to add more vinegar as the peels absorb the vinegar you started with.)  The longer it sits, the stronger it gets, so I start a new jar every time I fill one.

After a few weeks/months, pour the now citrus oily vinegar into an old spray bottle, squeezing the oil from the peels as you go, and add 2-10 drops of the essential oil of your choice. Shake before using.

It couldn’t be much easier and I now have a large supply of kitchen cleaner and degreaser sitting in the pantry to last me through the summer and into next winter’s citrus season.

The sun is growing stronger, even as the cold winds continue to blow. The buds of baby leaves swell in response to the stronger light. They serve as a promise that summer will come again.

For most of my adult life, I have suffered red, itchy skin on my arms and legs all winter. Skin moisturizer – the kind with no alcohol — helps, but it can be messy to apply. Especially as I’ve stiffened up over the years – and even more so now that I’m using coconut oil, which melts fast at body temperature.

When I came across the idea of a lotion bar, I was intrigued.  I bought some bees wax and some soap forms over the summer, but it took me a long time to get around to trying the recipe I’d found.

Last week, I finally tried it.  I was amazed at how easy it is!

more…

With thanks to Sarah Fragoso, over at Everyday Paleo, this is my take on her Mexican Meatballs.
(I really want her cookbook! Every recipe I have tried from her site has been amazing.)
For the sauce
1 medium onion, minced
1/8 cup coconut oil
1 pint tomato sauce
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cumin
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
***
for the meatballs
1 pound of ground pork
1 tablespoon oregano
2 tablespoons of granulated garlic
1/2 small onion, minced
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

***
1/2 pound of frozen spinach
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We’ve been home from Australia for three months, and I don’t think I’ve written about one of the big changes that happened while we were away.

Jack has experienced a huge developmental leap. It shows in the way he carries himself, the way he asks questions, and all kinds of subtle ways. The most obvious is probably his approach to his studies. Before we left, Jack whined and complained and tried to distract his father when it was time to get out the books and do school. Once he started, he seemed to enjoy himself, but it was a pain in the neck to get him started.

Rod's niece Jasmine and her daughter, Sienna Lee

On the first leg of our trip, we stayed with Rod’s sister, Ann, who has two young adult sons.  Martyn is in his last year of high school and Hayden has just started University.  From the first, Ann and her sons treated Jack like a big kid — and after a moments hesitation, he responded as a big kid. While we were there, Jack also watched his cousins study hard, and postpone fun things until they had done their work for the day.  This seems to have impressed him with the idea that being a serious scholar is a part of being “almost grown”.

When he got home, Jack showed a whole new attitude toward his work. He buckles down with enthusiasm, and has been tearing through the work I had planned to last until the beginning of next year so fast that I expect we’ll be needing the next unit much sooner than that. (Interestingly, he is also almost ready to start the last books of his spelling and writing “how to” series.  I guess he’s right on schedule.)

But more than that, his approach to learning is also changing. In the “Grammar” stage (from ages 4 or 5 to about ages 9 or 10), kids are keen to know facts. They memorize arithmetic and spelling easily, and they delight in knowing all kinds of things.  As they grow older (into the Logic stage, from ages 9 or 10 to ages 13 or 14 ), they start to want to know more. Not just what, but why and how. Jack is showing signs of moving in that direction intellectually, too.  He get frustrated with books that pleaswed him not long ago.

So now it’s not just a matter of finding “more books” and expanding Jack’s knowledge.  Now it’s time to research the next level — how to help Jack examine the “why”.  This should be exciting.

It’s funny about 9.

A year ago, Jack still did a pretty good “velcro boy” imitation.  Now, he spends almost as much time away from home without us as he does with us. Well, not true. Not really. It just feels that way.

He was at a chess tournament last night from 7 to about 11. (He won all of his games and took first place.)

Today, he is out for the day with his buddy Connor and Connor’s family for Connor’s birthday. I am happy for him to spend time with them; they’re excellent people. Good to the core. He has to learn about the world outside our home, and outside his parents influence. I feel safe with Nerida and Neal being his guides to a first glimpse of that bigger world. they don’t see it quite the way we see it, but they won’t lead him astray.  But I still miss him.

It’s only going to grow from here.

In a few short years, Jack will be headed out to college, and then introducing us to his partner, and then his children. I know this path. I am more ready than I was when TJ and Corey walked it, in part because I knew it was coming. I took the time to enjoy the moments that seemed like they’d never end. Those long nights, walking the baby who can’t sleep. Those days when one more “why” seems like one too much.  When it feels like the mess is forever.  This time, I *knew* how brief that really is, and I soaked in every moment of it.

So…I’m more ready.  And now, so is he.

Playing with his nephews, it seems as though Jack came to realize what a VERY big boy he is.  As far as Joel and Autuma are aware, he will always have been a grownup.  By the time they are the age he is now, he will be an adult. We discussed that after we met the babies for the first time, and the changes started in earnest.

I’m proud of my last son.  Even as I miss those baby feet and the intense need of his younger years, I am getting excited to see the adult he will be.  If he’s half as cool as his four big brothers, we have a lot of joy still ahead of us.  I just hope he’ll stay closer, so we can watch the developments.

By Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

It’s been quite while since I’ve had a chance to be truly still.

Weekdays are always rushed, of course, because the guys have to get me to work and then get about their day. I am up early, but the time is filled with getting my chores done then preparing for work. I rarely boot my computer during the week…unless I’ve forgotten what time and where my first meeting will be.

Weekends aren’t much different, we generally get up and have to rush off somewhere or prepare for guests, so we’re getting chores done and getting ready for the day as soon as our feet hit the floor.

This weekend, however, Rod is doing all the rushing. He has a conference across town, so he’s in for meals and then off again like a shot. Jack is at Connor’s house for a sleepover. I expect him back this afternoon after karate, since he and Connor are in the same Saturday morning karate class, but meanwhile I am on my own in blessed silence.

Today, I got to sleep in until I woke up on my own, and since I don’t have anywhere to be until Monday, I can do my chores as slowly as I like, blog, haunt Facebook, or whatever I want to do with my time.

I do, of course, have several scrapbook pages in progress that I really want to finish up today and several I want to start — and some new techniques I want to try and several (dozen) letters I want to have written before payday…but getting to them is up to me.  Such luxury!

Anyway, things have been going well.  I am now so busy at work that I rarely have time to write letters – which is why they’re this weekend’s project – a good kind of problem to have.  I just have to start focusing on taking a lunch break and writing then.  I’m not sure yet what the changes at work mean, but they seem to be good ones.  At the very least, more to do means the days go faster.

Jack is really really enjoying his soccer class.  (See the photos.) Usually, I am in the woods picking berries when he plays, but this week I didn’t have a chance to change my clothes and I don’t want blackberry thorns to tear up my work clothes, so I played with my camera instead.  I’m glad I did.  Of course, it means we don’t have that gallon of berries this week, but I got to see how much Jack loves soccer and that’s well worth picking the berries later.  I also got these photos — so now I can scrapbook his love of soccer as well as karate.  Good deal.

I have no idea how to gauge how good jack is at soccer (or not), but he certainly plays with great enthusiasm and puts his heart into it, and to me, that means he’s very good.

Rod and I continue our super-low carb detox. (He did the calculations and has determined that we’re eating about 40 or 50 grams a day.)

We’re into month two now and it’s getting easier. For the first several weeks I felt weak and tired a lot. I expected it, because I suspected that I was still a sugar burner. Being diabetic suggests that, as does low blood sugar if I hadn’t eaten for a couple of hours, even though I was undeniably fat enough to live off the “fat of the land” for more than a couple of hours.

Now, I still get hungry, but it takes a long time – 12 or 13 hours sometimes.  And I feel hungry, but I don’t feel a ‘low blood sugar, cranky, don’t want to eat just want to sleep’ feeling.  My stomach growls and my mouth waters and I feel an emptiness in my belly, but that’s all.  I can wait, if I have to and my family isn’t at risk if I have to.

I still try not to let that happen at work, because there are endless temptations there that will make me hurt in every joint and make me miserable for at least three days — but which I find VERY hard to resist when I get too hungry.  Well, I find it easy for a week or two after I succumb and feel miserable because I still remember that it never actually tastes good. I also find it easier if it’s not too prominent.  Unfortunately I have VERY generous colleagues and there are usually open bowls of candy on at least several nearby desks and pastries, bagels, cakes, or something similar on the counter near the water fountain.  I can walk past those for hours, but after a while, if I’m hungry, my resolve weakens, so, I try always to have something in my desk and plenty of food for the day.

As I’ve gotten to be more of a fat burner, it’s gotten easier because I am less often that hungry.

I have been doing some research and have come to realize that while we don’t “qualify” as paleo, we seem to fit much better under the “primal” umbrella.  (Rod keeps trying to figure out why it matters to me that we do or don’t fit under an umbrella, since it won’t have much effect on what we do — we include or exclude foods based on how we feel (and in this most recent case, based on doctors recommendations for a specific reason and a specific period).  I think it matters to me because it’s easier to explain.  I’m bad at regurgitating information on command.  I am good at research.  I’m good at collating the research I do into a well-written white paper/blog post/letter.  But I lose details pretty fast.  Much easier if people I am talking with face to face have general questions to be able to say “research ** on the Internet”.)

Anyway, the primal lifestyle is similar to paleo, but is based much more on vegetables and fruits with meat coming in second place.  Paleo recipes are still a mainstay, but we add more vegetables more often.  I think Rod would be quite content on a strictly paleo routine, but I can only eat so much meat. I got very sick as a vegetarian, but I didn’t actually miss the meat.

Another thing I have come to realize is how lucky we were in the way we approached this. We weren’t looking for weight loss. We were looking for health and we gradually eliminated foods as we discovered that they made us feel bad. We could fine tune according to how we feel, and be happy when it worked to make us feel better.

People who are looking for weight loss would never have persevered the three years it took us to start seeing that.

The extreme weight loss actually took me by surprise and freaked me out to a degree that I “put a stop to it” for 8 or 9 months while my self image caught up. (By eating way too many potato chips – they’re not food, but they don’t make me hurt, either and they taste good. And because they’re carby-liscious, they also slow weight loss.)

Now that we’re detoxing from sugars, the weight loss has started again at about 10 pounds per month as best as I can tell.  (We don’t have a scale, so I weigh myself only sporadically.)  I suspect that when I add starchy vegetables back again in October, if it doesn’t stop, it will slow down. It has to end eventually, and I think I have made my peace with looking very different.

Folks who want to ‘be skinny by next weekend’ spend a lot of effort on tweaking what they’re doing to maximize weight loss and get frustrated that  the weight doesn’t come off faster.  We never went through that.  We got less and less sick, and we were able to enjoy it fully for what it is.  And we still got the (benefit?) of weight loss.

OK, Jack’s home.  Time I went to play with him.  Have a great weekend!

May this first harvest festival bring the fruit of your labours and mark the beginning of a beautiful new cycle for you!

What do you see nurses? . . .. . .What do you see?
What are you thinking .. . when you’re looking at me?
A cranky old man, . . . . . .not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .. . . . . . . .. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food .. . … . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . .’I do wish you’d try!’
Who seems not to notice . . .the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . .. . . A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not . . . … lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . .The long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking?. .Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse .you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am . . . . .. As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .. . . . as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .. . . .. . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen . . . .. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . .. . . a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . ..my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . . .I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . .. . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . .. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . to see I don’t mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .. …Babies play ’round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me . . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future … . . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing .. . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . And the love that I’ve known.
I’m now an old man . . . . . . .. and nature is cruel.
It’s jest to make old age . . . . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . . .. . I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living . . . . . . . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few . . .. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .. . . . .. . . open and see.
Not a cranky old man .
Look closer . . . . see .. .. . .. …. . ME!!

by Dave Griffith

Originally published at Life at Chez Smiffy ©2010 Misti Anslin Delaney-Smith

Before you consider writing your own curriculum

Writing a curriculum, takes time. Lots of time. And a lot of effort, too.

If you have a two year old, you have lots of time to pull together a curriculum.  If you are a newly minted ‘unintentional homeschooler’ at mid-year, this is going to take more time than you can expect to have in the short term. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing — unless you plan to re-enroll next school year. (In which case, grab a copy of the Core Knowledge curriculum. You’ll be fine.)

If you’re thinking this is for the long haul, writing your own curriculum may well be worth your while. It will take time to do the research, but the payoff can be great.

Meanwhile, you’ll want to spend some time “deschooling” researching your options, and learning more about how your child learns best before you start any serious planning. Focus on making trips to the library, museums, and into the community the basis of your child’s education for the time being and explore different education methods as you come across them. Don’t worry, your child won’t fall any further behind than you can catch up.

Once you have a plan in place, there will be plenty of time to catch up. Remember that even the high school valedictorian, even a Ph.D., doesn’t graduate knowing everything there is to learn. The important thing for now is to make learning interesting and learn how you learn best together. If your scholar learns to learn and learns to love learning, there is no “gap” he or she can’t close. If that love of learning doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter what you teach because there will be little learning happening.

On average, families finish in two hours what it takes the schools to cover in six. Really, there really will be plenty of time!
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What an amazing and wonderful weekend!  It’s been hot, of course, and that was a bit of a challenge.  Interestingly, though, we are more comfortable these days at 110 than we used to be at 85.  (I was even able to walk about 3 miles on Independence day, in addition to watching the whole parade standing in the sun — because the shade was taken and I dislike crowds more than I dislike heat.) Increased good health is wonderful!

We spent pretty much the whole weekend getting together with friends we don’t see nearly enough of.  On Saturday, the Star Ladies – as Jack called them when he was three - a group of astrological enthusiasts we have been a part of since before Jack was born threw their annual summer party/birthday bash for the Cancers amongst us. We used to get together with them every week and often more, but life got busy and Rod’s choir and Jack’s karate class are on the same evening they meet so it had been about a year since we had sen most of them.  It was glorious to catch up!

Then today, some dear friends came to visit, bringing their lovely daughter — the first time we’d gotten together since last August! We used to be very close and I have known their daughter since just after she stopped wearing diapers.  We used to get together at least once a month, even though we live about an hour apart, but when life got busy and stressful for both families at about the same time, those visits waned.  Today, we just had a BBQ at our house.  Low key, relaxing, and a salve to the souls of old friends.

It’s late and I want to be asleep, but still, I feel relaxed and contented, like these two days were as long as the month I was away. It probably helps that last week was two two day weeks, but good times connecting with old friends was amazingly refreshiong, nonetheless.

This week should be cooler–in the 80s rather than over 100.  I’m glad.  87 is sounding positively moderate and I’m ready for some moderate heat.  Can you believe that I had to stop crafting because my adhesives were melting and unable to stick ribbon to paper?!?!  I hope to finish that poor page this week just in case the heat returns.

Oh…I recently discovered that I have been neglecting to label my recipes as recipes so they’re not available on the tag cloud.  oops, sorry about that.  I’ll try to get to that starting this week.

Hey, all!

I don’t know whether it’s literally true, but a local paper announced that we were in one of the three hottest cities on the planet one day recently.

Hyperbole or no, it has been unseasonably hot here since shortly after I got back — maybe before that. I have been coping a lot better than I did previously, though days at home are very “not hungry” days. So far, as of 4pm, all I have wanted was an ice cold green smoothie.

Rod has been diagnosed with a systemic fungal infection, so for the next 90 days, starting today, our diet is about to get even more unusual.  Yay, right? Oh well, my pancreas will probably be very happy for the rest it will get from 90 days with no sugar and virtually no carbohydrates.

Really, the big things that we’ll be avoiding are starchy vegetables (carrots, beets, parsnips, potatoes, and winter squash) nuts, and fruit. Well, and the occasional bad habit of potato chips.

Jack isn’t going to do this with us, but he will be more limited than usual because if the stuff is in the house too much, it will be almost impossible to stay strict.  It is, after all, 90 days, not forever.  So, Jack will have a potato or sweet potato with dinner and his usual apples, oranges, and bananas, and Rod and I will have…other things. We can do anything for 90 days, right? And it will be good for my pancreas, right? *sigh* I’m glad it’s summer so there will be lots of non-starchy vegetable options available. I’m not, as you might guess, looking forward to this.

I have finally gotten around to printing some of the best photos from our trip to send to the family. One interesting problem is that I am now getting happy enough with my work that there are more choices than make sense to print — and I am even printing a few in large format.  A interesting new problem, though one that’s been growing in the last year or so.  It’s a cool problem to have really.

And I have whole new vistas opening up to me!  Rod bought me my first tripod for my birthday.  It’s so light that I can (and do) carry it around everywhere I go.  Of course, I have switched from a purse to a gigantic backpack, and that’s how I can carry it.  It lacks class, but it’s practical and while I would rather elegant *and* practical, that doesn’t work for me these days so practical wins.

I have also switched my lunch containers over to glass rather than plastic, which makes my load that much heaver when I walk after work.  That’s terrific for my training (I am in training to walk across Southern Sweden as a retirement gift to myself) but I am finding that the extra weight discourages me from taking the camera out of my backpack and taking photos.   Hmm.  Maybe as I get more accustomed to it, it will be less disabling.  If not, I can start leaving the glassware at work when I walk and double the washloads when I don’t.  I’d rather not, because I want to be able to walk 3 times per week or more and I’ll run out of glassware if I walk more than every other day.  Oh well.  I’ll keep doing this way for a while and see if improved strength makes it easier.  After all, I’ll be loaded down on my walk across Sweden and I want to take photos then, too!

The photos with this post were taken at a trash dump not far from Melbourne, Australia.  My sister in law, Ann, had a photography assignment, and I tagged along.  It never failed to amaze me how much beauty there is in the world, in the places where you’d least expect to find it, once you open your eyes to look for it.

It’s Thursday, and well into the work week. I’m still not caught up at work, but I am enjoying being very busy. It was also very nice to hear my boss say that he know viscerally gets what I accomplish. 

I am still pouring through the over 700 photos I took — plus the many that we got from Rod’s brother and sisters. The Smith clan has a delightful custom of swapping around all the photos everyone took at at event, so I have some of the photos I wasn’t able to catch myself. How cool is that! Trudi is a genius at getting those babies to smile — every shot I took, they’re looking about to cry. She was also there when Jack fed the wallabies and kangaroos and when he cuddled the koala. I was home with a cold that day, and she got some genius shots of Jack and Lisa having fun.

This photo was one I tried based on Ann’s description of Lee Friedlander’s work.  I came home and did my research and realized it’s not even a little close…but I like it anyway.  (I call it “Journey”).  It was taken on the train from Adelaide to Geelong, in the few minutes Jack consented to hang out with me.

Friedlander’s style is far from my own, but I have decided to try to emulate it on my next photo adventure, just for the practice.

But now, I have an early meeting and had better hit the shower.  I hope you have a great rest of the week!

Happy Juneteenth, everyone! You’ve been free for months, you just gotta walk off that plantation.  Thanks, Auntie Dame, for the reminder!

I am still working on the photos I took on the trip.

This is Jack at one airport or another, on the sliding sidewalk.

It works, and I think I like it better in sepia.  I think it makes the motion in the background more evident somehow.  Maybe if I increased the contrast a little more in the sepia version…

What do you think?