Randomness

Caden has been taking a mixed martial arts class since December. He was sad to start over with a white belt (he was a blue belt in Tae Kwon do). They tested the class last week and he got his first two stripes. He loves this class. There's a heavy emphasis on jujitsu. He's always asking the girls to let him take them down so can he demonstrate for me :).

My parents are here for a nice, long visit. Last week was my birthday and they brought me a cupcake. It's not edible though. My dad carved it and my mom painted it. A true treasure!

My selvage quilt is moving along. I probably have enough to make one more row and then I'll have to put it away until I save up more selvages. I absolutely love it so far.

We finished our 3rd quarter in school. I'm still debating what to do next year. I know I'll homeschool, but there need to be changes for it to be successful. Next week will be our spring break and then we'll go full force into test prep for a couple of weeks and sail through the rest of the year. I'm ready for summer!!!

Trash Makes a Beautiful Quilt

I've been saving selvages (the finished edges on fabrics) for about fifteen months in a big jug. It was finally full and I'm in between projects; so I started a selvage string quilt. Instead of paper piecing, I used dryer sheets as my foundation piecing. I've been saving them for six months. That's a lot of loads of laundry. Not only is this quilt going to be made with what would normally go in the trash, but it's going to smell good too.

Warmth...finally

It's so nice that the kids can get outside to do their school work. This weather is really making me miss our big porch from our last house, though!

My Quilting Projects

I've been busy since Christmas.  Here are the projects I've completed (well, mostly completed).

This is a onesie quilt made for the daughter of a friend.  It's her favorite outfits from her daughters first year.  In hindsight, I would not add the purple strips in the between, but you know what they say about hindsight, right?

The overalls is my favorite block.  I also had sewed bows and flowers I'd taken off the original clothes.

This is a very special quilt.  My mother-in-law's Grandmother gave her this Drunkard's Path quilt top when she graduation from high school in 1963.  It's been stored in her cedar chest ever since.  She gave it to me in September to quilt for her.  I've honestly been a little scared to work on it.  I didn't want to mess it up.  The quilting isn't perfect because there are puckers in the piecing and the borders were wavy, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It had several stains that I was worried about getting out, but after soaking in a tub of oxiclean over night, the whole quilts glows.  

In February, a friend contacted me about making a baseball jersey quilt for her son.  I love how it turned out.  Both this quilt and my mother-in-laws are going out in the mail on Monday. I can't wait to hear their reactions.

And my last almost finished project is my jelly bean explosion.  It still needs to be quilted.  I'm debating whether to use cotton or flannel on the back.  I love how it turned out.  It's my first try at closed cubes.  My next one block wonder is going to have open cubes in it.  Exciting (to me anyway).

The kids have also started working on a bug jar quilt for their science co-op teacher.  It's going to be so cute.  I'm doing cutting and measuring, but they are doing everything else.

On a Beaver Hunt

On a not bitterly cold day (ha) in January, we got out for a family hike at Chris Greene Lake.  We went in hunt of a beaver den Dan and Jaelyn had found another weekend.

The lake was frozen over.  We had fun throwing rocks and listening to the weird boink noise it made. They talked about it on an episode of Outrageous Acts of Science not long afterward.  Kind of fun.

We knew we were getting close to the beavers when we found this tree that they had felled (is that the right word?).

We didn't see any beavers, but they have a pretty cool home.  We were curious to know if beavers hibernate.  One of the kids did a google search when we got home and they do not.  They must have just not wanted to come out to play.

We started with little rocks, but that gets boring pretty quickly ;).  I was the first person to break the ice.

February 17 Snow Day

I'm behind...again.  Today will be a catch up day.

The beginning of February, I remember thinking I'd probably wasted a whole lot of money buying snow pants and boots for the kids.  I probably shouldn't have thought that because we've had a good bit since then.  Since about mid February, we've had snow every couple of weeks.  The kids have loved it.  They built a rather impressive snow cave in the front yard (decorated with a spray bottle of blue food coloring).  They've sled and had snow ball fights.  Gracie is in love with the snow.  It's been such a pain to keep her inside that finally Dan switched the door knobs between the garage door and the front door so she couldn't open the front door anymore.  On a side note, she's now letting herself out into the garage.  She came out to play when I was getting pictures of the kids in front of the house.  The frame by frame is in the slide show.  Enjoy!

More Snow

In an Attempt

In an attempt to get the dog out of our bed, I've started putting Gracie back in her crate at night. Having her in our room started out well enough but she's decided she'd rather sleep in our bed instead of hers. Unfortunately she isn't adjusting well to her crate again at night. She wakes up at 5-6 every morning and starts barking at us. In an attempt to make us all happy, we are going to try Gracie in our room, but in her play-yard. Only time will tell!

Breakfast of Champions

Yum! I recently attempted to make home-made biscuits. They turned out so well, I've made them several more times. It's becoming a Friday morning tradition. Allie helped this morning so she got to pick the cookie cutter. Star biscuits taste just as good as round ones :).

Snow

We got our first good snow of the winter last night. It was about 5" in total. The kids weren't happy that I didn't give them a snow day from school, but they are happily outside playing in it now.

Impressive Allie

Allie is such a big helper. I hardly ever have to empty the dishwasher anymore. This morning while I was getting ready, Allie was busy taking out the trash, emptying the dishwasher and washing the last few dishes from last night by hand....without me asking her to do anything. When it comes to school, she has the best attitude and usually finishes her work an hour before everyone else. Her good days make up for the moody tweenage monster that sometimes takes her place.

Sent from my iPhone

My Latest Project

My Jelly Bean Explosion Quilt is ready to start assembling. I've been looking at it for weeks, trading this block with that one here and there. It's time to get it done, though, because (yippee) I have a paying customer to make a quilt for and I need my wall :)!

Finally...a Playground

We were so spoiled in Abingdon. The playgrounds were phenomenal. Unfortunately, we haven't found playgrounds like that since. I've asked several neighbors about playgrounds around our new home. No one knew of anyone. Dan found this one for us, conveniently located between our house and the library. If you ever want to visit, just head for the dump. Go through the main gate and take the first left. I don't know why anyone would build a park here. It's not easy to find, but thankfully we did. It's no Abingdon Giraffe Park, but it'll do.

MMA

Caden started martial arts again in December. He is loving it. Dan found him a mixed martial arts gym. No more boring Tae Kwon do for us. Dan sent me these pictures a few weeks ago. Just what every mom wants to see...her sweet, little boy learning to choke out an opponent.

Jaelyn's Paper As Caden's Inspiration

For journal writing yesterday, Caden wrote a story modeled after Jaelyn's story modeled after 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea :).  Getting him to write is like pulling teeth so when he brought me two pages without a single complaint, I was very impressed.  I've left his grammar and spelling mistakes.

     One day I was on a dive for the tiny yeti crab.  I knew I had to go to the bottom of the ocean to find.  A yeti crab can breath under water, go in extreme heat, and eats bacteria.  Soon I got to bottom of the ocean.  It was pitch black so I had to turn my light on.  It seemed that I din't need to because a huge wall of light started coming words me.  As it got closer I saw it was a school of fish, but not any fish.  They all had little balls of light on them.  It was a school of hungy deep sea anglers!  They all started nipping, and putting holes in my submarine.  Soon I would die.  The was to much water.  Whene the water reached mynas I took a deep breath and asked myself, "why does there have to be so much water."  Then they made holes big enogn to fit through and had a midnight snack.

Allie's Aurora Borealis Report

Aurora Borealis by Allie

The Aurora Borealis is a breath taking light show in the Polar Regions. The red, blue, green, and violet colors are all fluttering like the waves of Heaven’s Ocean in the night sky. Aurora was the goddess of the dawn and Boreal is Latin for north. The southern lights are equivalent to the Northern Lights but are called Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere. The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights have made people fear and wonder what causes these lights for centuries.

          The Aurora Borealis is caused by solar flares from the sun that travels 18 hours to get to our atmosphere. The gases in the ionosphere mix with the solar flares and create the great colors in the sky. Oxygen atoms give off red and light, and nitrogen molecules give off violet and blue light. The Aurora can also surprisingly happen on planets like Jupiter and Saturn.

          Northern Lights can be seen in Greenland, Alaska, Iceland, Northern Canada, Coast of Siberia, and Northern Scandinavia. The best time to view the Northern Lights in the northern hemisphere is from September to March and they are best seen near midnight. Rarely are the lights seen outside of the Polar Regions.

          There are many myths explaining the Aurora Borealis. In Scotland people have reported hearing battle cries of their ancestors fighting in the war. Scientists have tried to record the cries but have failed. Canadian Eskimos believed that the lights would bring good weather and bountiful hunting. In Scandinavia, the lights were a welcome omen for fishermen to haul in large catches of fish.

          The Auroras are beautiful light show near the Polar Regions. Their power and beauty just makes me sigh. I wish I could see them in real life. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.    

 

Jaelyn's Creative Writing Squid Assignment

Jaelyn's life science class was assigned a project based on a passage from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where Jules Verne exaggerates seeing a cuttlefish.  Jaelyn was assigned the giant squid.    This was a collaborative effort.  She's much better at writing non-fiction reports than creative fiction.

The Giant Squid by Jaelyn

I am going to the deep, dark Hatteras Plains in my bright, yellow submarine to find an elusive Block-Nosed Giraffe Fish. I am so deep in the North Atlantic Ocean that all I see is a foot in front of my submarine light. Then, I spot a glow coming towards me. As it heads closer it’s blinding me like a solar beam from the sun. I am getting more scared. This thing looks like a giant squid on MEGA steroids. It’s the size of a battle ship. I see eyes the size of a hot air balloon staring into me like black holes from outer space. The next thing I know there are thirty tentacles all over my submarine. The suckers are the size of dinner plates with hundreds of daggers on each one puncturing holes in my submarine. Ink mixed with the frigid, salty water is slowly spilling in. It is suddenly pitch black and silent like time has been paused and then I hear a crushing metal noise as his giant beak snaps down like two iron anvils tearing my submarine in half. I take my last breath of air thinking “and I never even saw a Block-Nosed Giraffe Fish.”

Exaggerated	Unexaggerated
Glowing light as bright as a solar beam from the sun	Like a blue glow stick
Size like a squid on mega steroids or the size of a battle ship	30-44 feet long
Eyes the size of a hot air balloon or black holes from outer space	The size of a big persons head
Has 30 tentacles	8 tentacles
Suckers are the size of dinner plates	2-3 inches
Teeth on suckers are like daggers	Like miniature shark teeth
Ink is pitch black	It can be black, white, or a mix
Beak tore my submarine in half	It isn’t that strong but is strong enough to eat a sperm whale

Our Week

We've been working hard in school in the last week.  The kids finished their science reports.  I'm surprised by how much we are enjoying geography.  The curriculum is a little lame, with just a few questions to answer each day, but the kids are having to use all sorts of resources to find the answers. Yesterday, we used our wall map to find the name of the sea between Canada and Greenland (the world's largest island, in case you didn't know), an atlas to find the name of the plain that runs through North America, and we used google to find out what Canada's main industries are.  Caden and Allie continue to do well in Math.  Jaelyn is struggling with percentages.  Our math curriculum isn't a mastery curriculum where you beat a topic to death until you can do it in your sleep.  Instead, a topic is introduced and you do a small amount of practice and then review all their previous topics.  It's continual review.  It was good for Jaelyn last year so she didn't forget things, but it's taking her a long time to grasp it.  Maybe working 30 of the same problems a day with each new topic would be better???  We use IXL to reinforce language arts.  I'm thinking about adding a math subscription for Jaelyn as well.  Everyone has about 30 more lessons and then we'll be done with our math curriculums.  I think we'll go ahead and start on the next grade level.

Here's Caden's report on Tsunamis:

Tsunami by Caden

     A tsunami is a giant wave that means, “harbor wave” in Japanese.  Tsunamis are so big they can destroy entire cities.

Tsunamis are not regular waves. They are caused by tectonic plates rubbing together, underwater landslides, avalanches, or underwater volcanic activity. These violent movements create a giant wave known as the tsunami. The wave can travel over 1,000 miles, and when the tsunami comes into shallow water the waves gets closer together and can rise over 100 feet high. They come in as a series of waves called a wave train. Tsunamis are normally in the Southern, Pacific, and Indian Oceans because of all the tectonic plates.

We have had tsunami warning system since the 1940’s.  Scientists made a new system because the old system was faulty.  There where many false alarms. The new one has a buoy attached to a tsunameter. The tsunameter on the ocean floor detects the tsunami under the wave. Japan has the best tsunami warning system in the word.

I Love Thursdays

Thursday is by far my favorite day of the week. The kids probably agree, if we are only talking weekdays, of course. The kids love CHESSIE, our science co-op. They have gotten to do things I would never be able to do with them. Allie and Caden got to see, touch, and look inside sheep lungs, a heart, and some sort of animal brain. Jaelyn has dissected a worm and squid and had thankfully gotten over her squeamishness by the time her life science class got to the heart and lung chapter of her book. They also really enjoy the time to play with friends. We are severely lacking in social opportunities.

As for me, I love those 4 hours of freedom. Today, I spent it at Panera working on report cards. Some might say I was having a parent teacher conference. Lol.

Who needs to smile today?