Nothing Much

 Not much excitement around here these days as we dove into our school year slightly unprepared and are still floundering a little. But some good things for the year's start:

The girls are taking a professional drawing course this year. And the results are quite impressive!

Another winner course is Chemistry in the Kitchen which I'd been holding on to until just the right year. The readings are interesting and relatable, and the labs consist of baking and cooking. So far we've had fresh bread, homemade marshmallows, eggs benedict, and cheese!

Fine arts certainly have the bulk of our time currently, as writing is a big piece as well. Grace is enjoying the challenges of very narrowly set writing exercises by a Coursera writing diploma course, and is also trying her hand at sonnet writing after studying some of Shakespeare's:

Eternal Choices

Shaking pressure tearing me apart

Separate worlds warring for my soul

Torn between two choices for me heart

Broken spirit longing to be whole

Promises of life and endless glory

Suffering and shame I'd have to bear

Both are present, both sides of the story

Promise these to me, with more to share

Which one should I choose, if what I take

Will seal my fate forever, good or bad?

Tell me, what eternal choices should I make

That when I end my life, I should be glad?

Choose that which will give you life forever

Choose to bow to Jesus, ceasing never

Aiden is enjoying our delve into Narnia, often begging to continue reading, and is improving in writing enough I can set work and expect it done and be readable by me.

So, even though school is spiling into the afternoon now that we have high school courses happening, and our schedules have yet to even out into a smooth rhythm, we're happy with what we've got going.

Now we're Penangites... sort of

 They say, you haven't been to Penang if you haven't been up Penang Hill. 

They say, you're not truly a Penangite if you haven't hiked up. 

It's taken us 2 years to make the attempt, but with some boldness borrowed from friends, up we went last weekend. It turned out to be quite the expedition: 9 kids, 4 adults, hiking for roughly 3 and a half hours, up to an elevation just under a kilometer on jungle trails, roughed in stairs (sometimes nearly a vertical as a ladder!), and concrete paths. We saw some fun fauna and great views, but not much wildlife other than a few monkeys.

It's certainly hard work getting to the top, but there is food and good views and a bunch of things to do there. We ate lunch together, and then one family left right away as they were cold in the cool wind at the top. We thought about trying out some of the activities at the top, but everyone

was pretty done in by the hike up and a ropes course or a tree top walk didn't sound so appealing! In

stead, Grace and Mom hiked back down while the others took the tram down. The Hill is riddled with different trails, and they had a bit of trouble finding their way down when it was discovered that a simple exit at the entry point was not possible. So the best trails were not found, and by the time they got to the bottom Grace and Mom were pretty sore and tired! (Think 40 min or more of walking steeply down hill to start with, and then ending with 30 min of continual stairs...) Mom could hardly walk by bedtime!

There are a number of built up rest stops (it is a truly popular hill to hike! and we pity the workers who had to haul the cement up the trails...) Station 5 is the best kept one, and there is even exercise machines there (though why you would consider a 40 min hike up the hill to exercise, I'm not sure) as well as free hot tea and places to rest.

And, of course, we've spent time at our favorite beaches, scavenging drift wood for fires, scaling new rocks, and trying to capture the fantastic skies.

Mom took the girls to an information meeting of a rock climbing club recently too. Since they regularly attempt to scale rocks at the beach, it seemed like a good place to be.  If we can sort out transport (it doesn't meet close to us at all), each month they will get to enjoy a Saturday of instruction at a rock wall gym, and a Saturday on a cliff face somewhere.

But now we are into the first attempts of school schedule for the year, so these more adventurous outings will have to wait awhile.