s/v Lark

Sunscreen Allergy

having a reaction to sunscreen last summer

I think I have finally figured it out! We have been struggling with putting sunscreen on Lorelei since she was born. Her eyes would swell, she would get hives and a runny nose. At first I tried everything that said 'hypoallergenic' or for 'sensitive skin' that you could buy at Target, with no luck. She was still having a terrible reaction. Then last year I tried shopping at natural markets (mostly Vitamin Cottage) and bought natural sunscreens...although some still with fragrance. Again, we still had problems. That was the point when panic started to set in. After all, we have big plans to spend lots of time outdoors in warm and tropical places. I spoke with my pediatrician who recommended large hats and long sleeve swim suits, which I felt was a good start, but I still don't see how our plan works if I can't put sunscreen on my very fair skinned child! At last this year, I bought completely natural sunscreens, no fragrances, no chemicals, NOTHING!! They are comprised of Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide. It works! It leaves her looking a little pasty and white all day, but it works, and pasty and white is better then swollen and hivey. My favorite of the ones I have tried on Lorelei with success is by Goddess Garden and called Sunny Face. I will definitely have to stock up on this before we travel abroad. I have a feeling it is not very easy to find a Vitamin Cottage in Hiva Oa.

Totem made an interesting blog post recently on how they battle the sun while cruising. Behan shared her family history with skin cancer and how it has made them more vigilant in the sun, which I related too. My grandmother also suffered with skin cancer in her old age. I watched the horrific treatment of her having the skin on her face pealed off...and even after that, it kept coming back. It is a fate I hope my girls never experience, so we too will be pasty white cruisers.

In other news, Grampsy was in town for Memorial Day weekend and helped us celebrate Audrey's graduation from pre-school. It was great to have him, and nice not to put him to work the second he got here! We just played the whole time. We swam outdoors twice, went to the carnival and ate out WAY too much.

Here are some recent pictures:

Audrey with her graduating class

like Grampsy like Lolo

Lorelei's 1st carousel ride

carnival rides

5/30

Silly me. I forgot about having put all kinds of thought into steps to take to make this thing happen. I'll have to refer back to that.

We have two danglers now:

Audrey's taken a great interest in butterflies and their lifecycle. She has 5 or 6 butterfly books out from the library, and she's been working on her first independent assignment: putting together a book of captioned butterfly illustrations. I'll leave the details for April to fill in.

So it turns out the reading and writing parts of the trivium are actually four subjects: spelling, grammar, reading, and composition. Well, here's our grammar book for Audrey:

5/29

Lafitte 44s seem like nice boats. Here's some info on them from sailboatdata.com. Bluewaterboats has a nice write-up on them as does Cruising World. Sohcahtoa circumnavigated and is now for sale. What about the teak decks though?

Hull Type:    Fin with rudder on skeg
Rig Type:     Cutter
LOA:          44.33' / 13.51m
LWL:          35.50' / 10.82m
Beam:         12.67' / 3.86m
Listed SA:    967 ftft / 89.83 mm
Draft (max.) 6.33' / 1.93m Draft (min.)
Disp.         28000 lbs./ 12701 kgs.
Ballast:      11310 lbs. / 5130 kgs.
SA/Disp.:     16.85
Bal./Disp.:   40.39%
Disp./Len.:   279.40
Designer:     Robert Perry
First Built: 1978
Last Built:   1989
# Built:      56
Water:        115 gals. / 435 ltrs.
Fuel:         110 gals. / 416 ltrs.

One of our caterpillars has up and started dangling. We got some nice practice with making observations, composing complete sentences about them, and demonstrating penmanship today. Thanks for the links on their life-cycle, Mom. The girls will enjoy those tomorrow.

Here's the workbook for our 1st year history text. I'm really excited to have the chance to learn the ancient history that this curriculum covers, which I never had the opportunity to study. It's a feature of the Classical Education that every four years we cover ancient history one year, the medieval period the second, the Renaissance the third, and the modern history the fourth.

5/26

I learned from Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Started Sailing that a well-maintained diesel should run for about 5000 hours before needing a major overhaul and that the engine in a recreational boat runs on average 200 hours per year. Vigor also says that one should run the diesel for 10-15 minutes at full throttle under full load every time it is started.

The caterpillars arrived for our butterfly habitat. We'll observe and graph their progress over the next weeks as a vehicle to introduce graphing and documenting observations. We'll give some thought to questions like how many legs the caterpillars have, what happens to the extra legs when they become butterflies, what that peanut-buttery goop is that they eat, and write down our findings.

Here are our Singapore Math books:

5/24

I've been reading Inspecting the Aging Sailboat and picking up some interesting tidbits. Here's one that I'd never thought of, though it's blinding obvious when you think of it: evidence of water below a port indicates a leak that will need repair, while evidence of water below an opening hatch means only that a wave or some rain came in before someone could get it closed.

Here's one of the new books we just got. We're fired up about the classical approach for Audrey and this book is a sort of meta-curriculum for it by a couple of very smart women.

5/22

I'm really struggling with what to say to the blog lately. The purpose of this exercise for me is to be accountable for taking concrete steps toward our goal each day. I realize that at this point I am primarily reporting on the day-to-day experiences of selling a house and teaching my kids. These are steps we are taking in support of of our goal, but they don't really seem to constitute concrete progress toward getting a boat and casting off. I intend to renew focus on those concrete steps, in addition to forging ahead on reducing our burn rate and educating our kids. Stay tuned for lots of exciting stuff.

5/20

We've got all sorts of learning materials coming. Our core will be reading, writing, and math based on The Well-Trained Mind. For reading, we have lots of graded readers and Audrey has been making fast progress. For writing, we'll have The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons.

More too, but bedtime now.

5/19

Oh boy, oh boy.

So we had another open house today, but no one really came. The showings have tapered off. Well, I guess we'd better settle in for a long slog. It will be good practice for us to maintain the habit of keeping things tidy, and in the meantime we'll get to continue to enjoy all the things we love about the place.

5/16

Audrey read her first level 1 book today without help (Fancy Nancy and the Mean Girl). Very exciting...

5/15

Audrey's doing great on reading. Highlights for today included "persuade," "dreading," "unfortunately," and "speechless." Good times!

5/13

Another showing, another "no." Not a happy day.

5/12

I ordered up some samples of the Sonlight curricula. Of course I'm not really into their theology, but they do seem like very well put-together packages.

I'm still digging the Westsails!

This 32 survived The Perfect Storm after her crew abandoned her.

S/V Fiona is a 42 which has sailed a quarter million miles as of October 2012. Here are some really interesting videos shot aboard Fiona. Captain Eric says she's slow for a boat but fast for a house.

I find these boats very attractive. Here are some specs:

Westsail 42 (Crealock)
Long Keel Cutter
LOA:        42.92'
LWL:        33.33'
Beam:       13.00'
Listed SA: 948 ''
Draft:      5.67'
Disp.:      31500 lbs.
Ballast:    12000 lbs.
SA/Disp.:   15.27
Bal./Disp.: 38.09%
Disp./Len.: 379.80
Water:      300 gals.
Fuel:       200 gals.

Here are some 42s and 43s (CC version of the 42) for sale today:

1976, GA, 85K

1976, SC, 69K

1976, CA, 85K

1876, MD, 85K

228

5/11

I did a bunch of research on Westsail 42s. It seems like a really amazing boat.

5/10

Big day for boat shopping online.

5/9

We had that showing today, and we have another scheduled for Monday morning.

Audrey is a reading machine these days. Mom reminded me about graded readers and we do have some so we pulled them out. We told Audrey that when she can read a book all by herself then it's hers and we'll write her name and date in the cover. That's been pretty motivating. She's scored Mittens and Scat, Cat! and is working on The Too Big Tutu.

Still waiting on our Susan Wise Bauer books. They actually haven't even shipped yet.

I'm also all fired up to get some Singapore Math books and have a look at them. I think they'll be good for Lo in about a year too.

And I can't wait to move aboard.

Kindergarten Plans

Educating Audrey has really been on our mind lately. Should she go to public kindergarten, or should we start homeschooling immediately? Today we toured and sat in on a supplement to homeschooling program in Boulder. It was a Waldorf inspired program, and a really fun afternoon. The grounds were gorgeous, the staff was friendly and seemed to enjoy the children. When we got there, we were greeted by one of Audrey's friends, who is a student, she immediately whisked Audrey off to gather eggs from the chicken coop, then they were all climbing trees. Later, Audrey and I sat in on some afternoon crafting. They collected dandelions, and made necklaces, learned a fun dandelion song, and then we learned to needle felt. We (mostly Audrey, but she gave me a turn or two) made a sweet little dandelion fairy.

Audrey and I really loved it, Jacob liked it but has a few reservations. If we did decide to go this route, we would also work on academics at home.

needle felting her dandelion fairy

the finished product

Another thing I have been inspired about lately is healthy eating. I have been trying to focus more on making meal plans ahead of time, and incorporating as many fresh vegetables and fruits as possible. I'm pretty proud of tonights dinner. I made a wilted spinach salad with yellow bell peppers, onions, almonds, and a homemade strawberry dressing. We also put on top quinoa with chia seeds and baked salmon. It was SUPER good. I feel healthier already!

5/8

We have another showing tomorrow. One of these times...

I've been reading up on math curricula and the math wars. Singapore Math really appeals to me in that it uses direct instruction of basic math facts and continually builds. It's presented in a colorful, engaging format which I think Audrey will enjoy. I also looked into Saxon Math and Math-U-See. We'll definitely need to do more research on these.

227

5/7

It's going to be so cool some night to be standing watch in the tropics and watching the bioluminescence in the wake. Maybe one of my girls will be sitting in the cockpit with me, while everyone else is asleep. It'll be a nice breezy night, not too windy, and we'll be sitting quietly watching for fishing boats. We'll have just recently gotten into Mexican waters, and I'll notice it out of the corner my eye. We'll spend the next hour staring at it, entranced. It'll be great.

5/6

It's Sweet Pea's 63rd birthday!

Southern Cross 39
- http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/35547

Spencer 44
- http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatMergedDetails.jsp?boat_id=1875472&checked_boats=1875472&ybw=&units=Feet&access=Public&listing_id=3744&url=&imc=pg-fs
- http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatMergedDetails.jsp?boat_id=2521072&ybw=&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=76246&url=

Dinner tonight: nice fish

Lorelei put on her own pajamas:

The girls took turns as coachman and princess:

5/5

We had a showing today and almost had one yesterday. Here's a bunch of interesting links.

http://womenandcruising.com/cruising-children-speak.htm

https://sites.google.com/site/namaniatsea/nicky-s-page/boat-life---the-kid-s-perspective
(Who knew -- catamaran kids are clique-ish?)

Lesson Plans Ahoy (Second Edition): Hands-On Learning for Sailing Children and Home Schooling Sailors
http://www.amazon.com/Lesson-Plans-Ahoy-Hands-schooling/dp/0982771401

Cruising with Children
http://www.amazon.com/Cruising-Children-Gwenda-Cornell/dp/0924486279/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367812922&sr=8-1&keywords=Cruising+with+Children

http://www.womenandcruising.com/blog/2010/12/6-tips-for-home-schooling-sailors/

http://womenandcruising.com/sailing-families.htm

http://www.mahina.com/cruise.html
Spencer

Passport 42

valiant

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatMergedDetails.jsp?boat_id=2595146&checked_boats=2595146&ybw=&units=Feet&access=Public&listing_id=1634&url=&imc=pg-fs

westerly

nauticat

bowman

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1985/Bowman-Pilot-House-Sloop---Blue-Water-Cruiser-2376393/Rockland/ME/United-States#.UYcvPoI8xuQ

brewer

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatMergedDetails.jsp?boat_id=2571931&checked_boats=2571931&ybw=&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=1707&url=&imc=pg-fs

wauquiez

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatMergedDetails.jsp?boat_id=2557354&checked_boats=2557354&ybw=&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=76619&url=&imc=pg-fs

corbin

hood wauquiez

5/2

Inexplicably, after fighting to break below 226.2 for weeks, and being up to 229 earlier this week, this morning I weighed 225.7. I don't know how it happened, but it just goes to show, once again, that dogged persistence can often bring unexpected success. So I've officially now lost over 45 pounds since August, and when I break 224, it will be 60 pounds since my all-time high in 2004.

We ordered The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home and The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor. Can't wait to get my hands on those.

I've been enjoying the video logs from s/v Delos. They're like MTV Ocean Rules.

225.7

Well Rounded

To add to what Jacob said in his last post, we have been talking a lot about what home-schooling should look like for our kids. I was feeling inspired, so Audrey and I sat down and I interviewed her on her interests. Without much coaching, this kid came up with a TON of things she likes or wants to learn, or do.

Audrey's list of interests:

Cooking (this was at the top and mentioned several times...she really wants to do all of our meal planning and would like me to just be her sous chef)
Dancing
Swimming
Reading
Gardening
Math
Art
Cleaning (whose kid is this?)
Playing outside
Sewing (she wants to try a sewing machine, and would like to make her own dresses...she also mentioned painting her own fabric for dresses)
Science (like what she learns at Wild Bear)
Photography
Sledding (it snowed 18" today, so it is on the brain)
Playing with friends
Dates with Mommy and Daddy (like going to the movies)
Writing and telling stories
Making her own movie
Mountain climbing
Camping
Sailing
Skiing
Yoga
Capoeira (We had a professional painter in the house for a week that Audrey adored, who teaches this, so now she is really interested)
Biking
Playing piano (she also wants to learn guitar, but she said piano first)
Playing with balls

So, I think that gives us some ideas about where to start! My challenge is how to keep Audrey engaged, and excited doing age appropriate things while doing the same for Lorelei. Oh- and keeping my cool and excitement while managing normal sibling stuff and behavior problems.

Here are some recent pictures:

My new favorite! The girls having a sweet sister moment.

Audrey with her buddy Eliza after dance class

Celebrating my grandmother Verna's 88th birthday

5/1

We're getting kind of excited about homeschooling. My research on the Robinson and A-2 curricula led me to The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. There's something incredibly appealing to me about starting out with the trivium -- writing daily, reading great literature and approaching math from addition and multiplication tables. It just makes sense to me. And I love the way that the classical education builds from the trivium into history, logic, rhetoric, Latin, and sciences. I wish I'd had access to logic and rhetoric in school!

But how in the world does this fit in with unschooling? I'm not sure but it seems to me that being well-read, articulate, and well-rounded provides the child an awesome toolset to power their interest- and joy-led exploration. Obviously it would be counter-productive to drag a child through material that makes them miserable, and I think unschoolers make great points about that.

So anyway, I don't know, I'm thinking 3 or 4 hours a day of classical education with lots of time and support for interest-led stuff. Put all that on boat sailing slowly around the world and I think we've got something incredible in the making.

228

4/30

If anyone thought I was bluffing about this whole sail-away-and-eat-lots-of-fish thing, I just want you to know that I've had fish two days in a row. Delicious!

Following the success of our sunflower starts, April, Lorelei, Audrey and I have started some marigolds, lupines, pumpkins and hot peppers. What fascinating discussions we'll have about how the same soil and water produce such different results as pumpkins and peppers.

Here's the brochure Lisa made for us:

We had our 9th showing today (7 were at the open house on Sunday).

227.8

4/28

We had our open house with Lisa today. 7 groups came through, which was great. That's 8 showings in 2 days.

I've been reading up more on the Valiants and the Robinson Curriculum and a related one called the A-2 curriculum, and I've been really getting into video logs of passages like Estrellita's:

I'm really looking forward to watching all the videos from the passage from Hawaii to Alaska aboard Lealea, an Albin Vega 27.

These videos are great for fueling our inspiration. One thing I've learned over the years is that the biggest obstacle to success in a long-term effort is often simply losing interest as the novelty of the idea wears off and an array of a million mundane tasks necessary to realize it comes into focus. So these things are really great.

229, for crying out loud.

Mister Sid's Tuxedos

Audrey reminds of the old man from Forget Paris lately! As we are driving she likes to read off all the things she has time to see. It is really fun watching her get better and better at it each day.

4/27

D+2

Man, I'm falling off the wagon.

Lisa came and took pictures and put up a prodigious number of signs on Thursday. We hit the MLS Friday. We had our first official realtor showing today. The folks were not interested, as they want level land for animals, but we did get great compliments on the house from the realtor, which was really nice and validating.

Audrey's been reading me stories every evening and she's doing really well with them.

I got back to boat research a little today with some exhaustive research on Valiant 40s. I hadn't realized that was Bob Perry's first design. It's a very well regarded offshore vessel, but there was a period from 1978 to 1981 when many of the boats that were built would later develop a serious blistering problem. Of course all the most affordable V40s are blister boats, unfortunately.

I came across the Robinson Curriculum today. It looks really interesting. I like the focus on learning to learn. Of course it's a long way from unschooling, though it seems as if the might be sort of complimentary after all.

I simply must break through 226.

226.8

4/24

D-1.

I've been hungry a lot on this diet, and I'm occasionally tempted to devour my young.

4/23

D-2. We did another showing today. I read some more of Inspecting the Aging Sailboat. Audrey read me a couple stories and we did some number activities.

4/22

Oh yeah, what happened to all that D-n business? With all that snow last week Lisa thought we shold push our listing yet again. So now we're at D-4.

Lorelei and I did some Kumon folding activities today.

4/21

Really not much in the way of moving toward our goal this weekend, other than checking a couple items off the list of things we ought to do while we still live in Colorado: Pike's Pike, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings. We did spend 2 nights as a family in a rather cozy hotel room, so that was good practice for close-quarters family life. And of course Audrey got in her sea-berth practice.

I've been practicing a couple other important skills for a life full of unanticipated challenges, one of the handier being laughing at trouble. I have this image of Dad going to haul in a line and, rather than whatever result was desired, the block at the other end simply falls into the water as the cotter pin falls out due to a missing curly wire. Where I would normally go red in the face and start cursing, Dad just laughs and moves on to working out a solution. I'm not sure if this specific thing ever actually happened, or just lots of little experiences along those lines, but I've been working on emulating Dad's reaction and I'm happy with the results so far. It's so much more empowering to laugh confidently at trouble than to splutter in impotent rage.

4/19

Audrey's practicing for sleeping in a sea berth tonight.

-57.9 since 2004, -45.1 since 2012 @ 226.1

4/18

Audrey finished TYCTR today, and she does indeed know how to read. The challenge for us now is to find material interesting enough to keep her engaged while keeping the vocabulary do-able. She wants to read Anne of Green Gables, but that's got some serious vocabulary. I'm not sure how to proceed on that. I know that she enjoys the story since we've read it twice, and I don't want to limit her, but I don't want to give her something that would be discouragingly difficult. We'll figure it out.

We finished South from Alaska. That's a really great inspiring book.

I've been really enjoying reading Inspecting the Aging Sailboat.

Remind to tell you about the valuable lessons I've been learning about stress, anxiety, and mindset. I'm kinda sleepy now though.

226.5

4/17

Audrey read lesson 99. We got another lead on a possible buyer. Winter has finally arrived.

4/16

We had another showing today.

4/14

Another super busy and exhausting day. I'm too tired to write down everything we did today, but I'm sore all over and we are living in a model home now.

22.69

4/12

Super busy day.

I smashed that little slab that the excavators left lying willy-nilly behind the house a couple years ago; reinstalled all the light fixtures I had taken down to convert from gold finish to bronze; stained the baseboard and shoe that Matt the handyman installed yesterday; cut and installed the last deck board; installed a bunch of faceplates, some of which have been missing since the painting, others since we moved in; replaced a couple outlets; fixed a door jam we'd modified to install a baby gate; fixed the heat lamp in the bathroom, which had been missing its cover since the painters were here; touched up the kitchen and front door paint; and stained the upstairs door frame. April also passed along that gigantic tube TV we've had since Girdwood.

Tomorrow the trash hauler will come to remove our refuse pile from all these projects, and we will clean the garage and girls' rooms yet again; reinstall some trim pieces on the stairs; install some trim prices on the garage; put up the last pieces of staging art; clean the pellet stove; and install the last of the catches in the kitchen.

226.7

4/11

D-5

Matt got some plumbing and lighting installed. We got the dining room show-able. Audrey read lesson 96 and was disappointed not to forge ahead to 97.

We have probably our last agent-less showing on Tuesday.

226.5

4/10

So yeah, we had 7 people and 3 dogs at the house today. Melissa and Keegan mostly finished, though weather ruled out re-staining the deck. All the new paint looks awesome. Matt the handyman made good progress, installing the new vanity top downstairs, wall base and overhead lights in the garage, and coat hooks in the mud room. Tomorrow he'll install tub and sink fixtures and baseboard in the kitchen.

April and I have so far gotten (and kept, more importantly), the kitchen, office and upstairs bedroom show-ably clean. Another 8 boxes of stuff and 30 gallons of trash went out the garage.

Audrey read me lessons 94 and 95 today and I had to disappoint her by saying goodnight before she could read me lesson 96.

227.3

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

What have we gotten ourselves into?! If we weren't already so invested in all of this, today would have sent me running for the hills. It started with waking up feeling sick, I think what Jacob had last week has gotten me. Then the painters painted over Lorelei's mural, and I had a total sobbing break-down in front of everyone (I'm a pretty sentimental person), and because the girls rooms were being painted today we had to skip nap time. That led straight into a trip to Home Depot with two exhausted girls that melted down in the aisle over some spilled raisins. I had lots of stares (and a few truly sympathetic looks) as my 5 year old threw herself on the floor in front of the bathroom fixtures. Then at Cost Plus Audrey accidentally pushed the emergency exit door and the alarms went off, calling every employee plus a few customers to see what was going on.

To top it all off we only have 2 episodes left to watch in the TV series The Tudors and we haven't been able to watch for a week because we are so busy cleaning and staging. I'm going to try for a little positive thinking straight out of The Little Engine that Could...I think I can, I think I can...

we did have a little fun this week. The girls and I went to Yoga at Shoshoni Yoga Retreat

and music class

4/8, 4/9

We're so ridiculously busy that I'm having trouble finding time to blog.

At D-9, we're spending each evening getting a different room to final show-ability along with restoring show-ability in each room we've previously done.

In the meantime we have new roommates, Melissa and Keegan, the capoeiristo painters, who have been spending the days here with us since Thursday. Tomorrow, Matt the handyman will be joining the 6 of us and our 2 dogs here at the house for a couple days of odd jobs.

226.6

4/7

Another big work day on the house -- April went through her closet and dressers and reduced their inventory again by half. I took all the gold lighting fixtures out to the driveway and, despite the oncoming blizzard, spray painted them "oiled bronze," and changed the gold tub fixtures to "brushed nickel" likewise. We took everything out of the pantry, threw half of it away, and will put the rest back tomorrow once I install the new pantry storage thing we got today at Costco.

We also picked up a new vanity top and tub fixtures for the downstairs bathroom. So now that bathroom is getting a new vanity top, vanity faucet, medicine cabinet, vanity light fixture, shower fixtures, towel bar, and is getting painted, and having the shower doors replaced.

Audrey read lesson 93 and we did another simple addition lesson. She picked out a new book at Costco and spent the entire drive home reading us pony stories.

D-10

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