Happy Wordless Wednesday!
Homeschool beat -what is hip and happening
okay, all that is hip and happening [in my mind]...! Hey, homeschool's cool!
er, not homeschool related, but I have to show you the legs of my reclaimed wood farmhouse table. Sky is experimenting with this yellow first, with a top-coat of white, and then distressing/ rubbing some of the paint off. I'll keep you all posted, because I know you are as excited and impressed as I am! ... I am so excited about my new table, it makes me smile every time I think about it!
I swear, thesis papers and Science projects will make me old before my time.... Meg made this wonderful (hey, I'm her mom-but I think it came out really good!) model of a prokaryotic cell. It's a soda bottle with jello. She scooped out the cytoplasm jello and then laid in a red jello cylinder with a plastic chain inside for the nucleoid. I didn't think it would work! That'll teach me to doubt Meg's creativity! Still, I kind of grit my teeth when it's science project time. Sue me.
So I packed up the car with one jello prokaryotic cell model in a bucket and one hen in a cat carrier on my front seat. Don't ask. Just believe me when I say that it really happened.
Homeschool beat is anarchy beat, [word].
Meg took her hen, Dapples to her Biola Star Biology class. They are studying birds right now. This just happened to collide with homeschool Science fair project day. Because, I live in a constant state of hecticness (yes, I just made up a word) Did this all really happen this week? Yes. Homeschool's cool & happening- [word].
How is your week shaping up, bloggy friends?
7 Quick Takes -Spring Break edition
Hello lovelies! Well, Spring break came and went here at {Home}...way too fast!
~1~
Sky is making a farmhouse table using reclaimed wood. This table will be longer than our current table, so we can fit more Bible College boys around it. Right now we have a smaller table pushed against our table to make it longer. The table-top is made of curly-spalted maple wood and was left out in the open, has water-damage, fungus stains and termite holes. It has so much character.
~2~
I put together a web-page for Sky for his woodworking, he is hoping to eventually sell furniture. It's in the very rough stages still, but it was a lot of fun to help him set it up and share with him my knowledge of working with wordpress, widgets, plugins and blog stuff. [I love talking blogging..love it!]
~3~
Right before we were off for Spring Break, Josie did a report on The Diary of Anne Frank. She also did a timeline project from the book. This book had such a profound affect on me when I read it as a girl. It meant a lot to me to share it with her. We had many discussions and did further research on the internet to help her understand what the times were like for Anne Frank before and after her hiding. Once again, I grappled with describing absolute evil to my kids - and I struggled with the details I held back. Some things I just can't tell me kids about, yet.
~4~
We continued art lessons during Spring Break. Amie and Teddy worked on charcoal tea-pot drawings. Here is Amie's finished work - love it! Art class is ending after next week. I am kind of relieved because gas prices are starting to take a huge toll on our budget. (I will, however, really miss my secret outings for a chocolate chip bagel & diet coke while they are at class!)
~5~
Meg was hired to exercise some horses five days a week. She is so excited, working with horses is her dream job. It was a little tricky the first week, I had to drive her back and forth. I was really glad it was Spring Break because the driving would have added chaos to our day.
~6~
Relief has arrived, though. Meg just passed her driver's license test. She can now drive herself to her job. I am equal parts relieved and terrified. I'm having a hard time with letting her drive off alone. I keep telling myself we were all new teen drivers and survived without incident. >Rinse and repeat...
~7~
Here in Orange County we had dramatic weather shifts from beautiful sunny days to thunderstorms and rain. This messed with any beach plans. The girls fit in a few horse riding/care days at our friend's house. My sister drove up and we spent an afternoon at the Orange Circle instead of the beach. Whew, this vacation week just flew by!!
Did you have Spring Break? How was it?
7 Quick Takes Friday is hosted over at Conversion Diary every week.
the wind beneath her wings
Piano recital-time is approaching. Our piano teacher likes to add a little something extra to these performances and usually assigns some kind of neat extra, like artwork or an essay. }I blame this on the fact that her child is not school age yet, more homework:the gift that keeps on giving for mom. So- for the recital my kids were to compose a little essay to dedicate their performance at the recital to some person, ideal or sentiment. These will be printed up in the little program booklet and the kiddos will read it/ speak it to the audience before they perform.
Let me preface this story by saying I had no preconceived ideas about this assignment, no guesses as to what my kids would pick (my kids always amaze and surprise me with their individual ways at looking at the world/life) and no real desire to delve deeply into it besides making sure it was done and punctuated correctly.
So, I pick up Amie after her last lesson and her teacher with simmering excitement bids me to sit down, takes my hand, and tells me that she has some exciting news about little Amie's dedication....(I have to preface this by begging you to realize that I don't expect adoration, thanks, fawning, etc. from my crew, I am just happy if they follow my directions without grumbling-they are all reaching tween/teen years- we are just trying to survive at this stage. I drive them around, teach them, direct them, sacrifice for them and figure that someday- ten years from now when as a parent they are sitting up at 2 a.m. rocking a crying child who has just puked on them, my children will each, in turn lift of a prayer of love and thanksgiving for me, beyond that...not expecting fanfare...) So, no passing thoughts as to who they will pick- but the way the teacher was acting, the fact that she took my hand...I will admit that just for a teeny/tiny fraction of an instant- my heart leapt a little at the thought that it must be me. Amie must be giving her dedication to me, for the time I spend taking her to lessons, finding her music book, making sure she is clean before she goes, asking her to practice... just for an instant I kind of thought this.
drum-roll please... her teacher told me with great excitement that Amie's performance was dedicated with much love to ~
our dog, Emma.
yes, she is the wind beneath her wings.
this was the only way this story could end, really.
the interview
I've been tagged by the lovely and mysterious Caffeinated OC Mommy for an interview blog-meme. I'm going to be a good girl and blog this before my A.D.D. brain forgets all about it...
here goes:
1) What is your favorite lipstick color? Okay, here is the point, on the very 1st question, even! -where Caff might break-up with me. Confession: I don't have a favorite lipstick color!! I should! I would! Um, but I keep forgetting or don't have time to go on the hunt for the perfect color.
I will tell you the color I have been wearing the last few months: Raspberry Glace by the body shop. It's a little too dark for me, I look best in a faint blush I think. This color is close, but a bit too dark. I put it on and then blot it down a notch. I am so sorry to disappoint you, Caff! {hanging my head in shame}
2) Betty? or Veronica? Neither, my answer is Amy Pond.
3) What's your best advice for a new blogger? Find your own voice, but don't be afraid to experiment a bit till you find it. Post often (I fail at this! do as I say, not as I do!) share the bloggy love and for goodness sake, no automated music or super busy backgrounds that make my eyes burn!
4) Where's your favorite spot for a date night with the Hubby? Dinner in Old Town Orange and then Barnes & Nobles
5) Why did you start blogging? I wanted to share our daily life, specially our homeschool life- with family. Funny though, I rediscovered a love of writing, made a new love of photography and made many friends online. (the one family member I really hoped to share with has never read my blog, sadly)
6) If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Two places: back to Dublin, Ireland with Sky and anywhere warm & tropical that has the word "Island" in it, with Sky.
7) Any future goals you'd like to share? I'd like to learn how to use my camera and kyak with orcas. {I am currently badgering Sky to take me where I can kyak with Orcas...I'll report back}
since this is a meme, I will be tagging a few bloggers whom I would like to know better. Here are the rules:
1) Post the rules.
2) Tag up to eleven 5 bloggers by posting links to their blogs, and let them know.
3) Create eleven 7 (it's lucky!) questions for the people you’ve tagged.
4) Answer the questions your tagger posed for you.
5)Have fun!
I am tagging-
Julie at Soldier's wife, crazy life
Theresa at Red Oak Lane
Karen at Just Twiddlin
Adrienne at The Mommy Mess
Jenny at Teaching my Baby to Read
ladies, I will email you my questions :)
March photo-a-day {days 23, 24, 25, 26}
March photo-a-day {wrap up post}
{Home arts}
Sky made this cutting board for the sweet friend who lets Meg & Josie ride his horses. The horse in the center was put in using an inlay method - the horse is cut out in pieces, like a jig-saw puzzle and then set into the scooped-out board. It has a back-view of the horse on the other side. The stripes are different types of wood put together to make one whole board. My guy is pretty talented :)
{chores}
-not my chores: this is our neighbor across the street, the photo in my blog header is taken from his yard, looking back at my house. I love, love his poppies. We see him out almost daily working in his yard. His grass is smooth like a carpet. When we first moved in, we kind of raised our eyebrows at each other in fun the first time we saw him vacuuming his lawn with a shop-vac. Who's amused now?? He has an awesome yard. People drive by to look at his poppies. His yard is super awesome because he spends a lot of time working in it. (ours-not so much. We make an effort so we won't make him cry when he looks out his front window....)
{morning}
I captured these wisteria blooms in the morning light. Quite a bit of sun-flare going on, but I like the dreamy look of it.
{motivation}
Emma is quite motivated to get out the peanut butter in this jar. She loves peanut butter! Meg decided to skip stuffing a kong toy with it and just give her the almost-empty jar. It kept her busy for quite a while.
hope you are having a happy Spring, bloggy friends! <3
Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies {a recipe for grownups}
Oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies with more goodstuff {like oats} and less bad stuff {like sugar}
tweaking my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe to include more bulk (oats!) more dark chocolate (for the adult palate) and less sugar had the surprising side-effect of being less appealing to my kids. Which means, more for mom... a win-win.
The recipe:
grownup oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies
1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened (or better- substitute coconut oil)
1/2 or 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (depending on how sweet you prefer)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups oats uncooked
1 cup chocolate chips (bittersweet 60% cacao is perfect for this)
directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine butter and sugars, mixing until creamy, then add in vanilla and eggs, mix well.
In a smaller bowl mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the mixed wet ingredients and mix together. Add in the oats and chocolate chips, mix together until well-combined.
use a spoon to drop rounded dough onto cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown.
These cookies are chewy, full of bulk, not too sweet and the bittersweet chocolate-chips give you the chocolate you crave. Bonus, they will still be around tomorrow to snack on.
You could substitute the chocolate-chips for raisins, but where's the fun in that???
March Photo-a-day {days 18,19,20,21,22}
{Day 18 ~family Day 19 ~grammar}
Okay, "family" kind of stumped me, it's been a while since I've had a photo with all of us in it...so I decided to show you our family art here on these shelves. We've got art work here by the kids and by me. Grammar- here is a lesson I did with the kids on definite & indefinite adjectives.
{day 20 ~view}
a view of my backyard, Annabelle and Dapples like to roost on this bench in the evening.
{day 21 ~Me day 22 ~try}
Me: Dapples was looking for a treat while I was out in Sky's workshop. Try: We traveled to Hemet for Josie's first official saber tournament, she went to qualify for the upcoming regional tournaments in July. This was a small event, just right for getting our feet wet :)
I have gotten so far behind on this photo challenge, eek!y
(you can find the March prompts here, if you'd like to join in!)
How is your March closing? Was march gentle like a lamb or roaring for you?? Mine was kind of roaring!