the soul of sunday

In all the excitement around here, I almost forgot Sundays!

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but here it is.

Here is the soul of my Sunday.

A warm flow from the furnace.

Shedding the outgrown, straightening the usable and new.

The hum of the dishwasher.

The clicking of zippers against the dryer walls.

Chug, chug, chug.

Warm, warm, warm

contentment...

Home.

Life is good.

Halloween

Jakub wanted a party.
A Halloween Party.


And since much of our local population is "otherwise occupied" on Sundays, many people opt to celebrate the big day on Saturday. We don't much care either way, but it happens that The Cousins are among those that choose the Saturday option, so there you have it.


So a party. Saturday night.

It looked like glow sticks

and frozen carbon dioxide

and spaghetti and meat-a balls-a for dinner (and the trimmin's, of course)

and floating bubbles

and magic puffing, smoking bubbles

and a mad scramble for shoes and socks and costumes and trick-or-treat bags


and finally we were off.



we didn't come back until the only parts of the Littlest set (there were three of them) that were even able to operate were their still-nimble fingers and their candy-working jaws.
But that's why I always remembers to bring the wagon.

A Happy Halloween to everyone!

wednesday, plus

In which there is plus one Little,

plus one ginormous tellie
plus one suddenly-larger house.

So life started out on Wednesday regular enough...

snow play.

FOOD : 25 Amazing Projects
from the chapter on Farming, Past & Present,
we learned about climate, how things ripen, super-sized farming, robotic produce, and genetic engineering.
From the Food & Cultures chapter,
we learned that between 1845 and 1852 the potato blight caused what is known as "The Great Famine". By the end of the famine, almost a million people had died of starvation, and another million had fled Ireland. During that time the population in Ireland dropped from about nine million to just over four million people. (!!)
in I Want it! Food in Demand, we learned that it isn't known where for sure the coconut palm tree originated, as coconuts float, and have drifted in ocean currents as far north as Norway. And we read about the benefits of buying locally.
And we learned what foods are in season during which month.
very interesting!
(if you haven't done so, and would like to, visit here to put your name in the hat for the drawing for the book.)

making a Godzilla book

Madeleine

zoo tycoon
(his current love)

a circus / daredevil / talent sort of show
(by Madeleine)

homemade chicken noodle soup


damn that's good. :)

leapster love.


computer play....

and about that time it came to a screeching halt.

I heard from my Dad, who lives 1200 miles or so away, that he's bringing us a very precious package to look after for about a month while he recovers from a major surgery.

His name is Jakub, he is three years old, and he is my nephew.

So... you know.

Not only does that mean the whole family will be gathering 'round our place to properly ooh and aah over our little family member whom we've not yet met, but that we have to make room in our heads and hearts and home for little Jakub, too.

And once he gets here (today!), of course, we have to fill him up with so much love and joy that he won't mind too much being miles and miles away from home and his beloved Papa. (We're from the south. That's pronounced Pa-Paw. With a "oh") in there somewhere before the w. :) )

So that's why we've been missing.

At the same time this was happening, our friends - my good friend, Julie - called to ask "Do you want this giant television, still?" and here's how that went...

I've been thinking that a television downstairs would be very, very nice.
I've told you lots of times that our downstairs (the Rumpus Room) is just basically a cheerful storage room.
But lately I've been thinking that since over half of our play space is about to be shut off (as winter comes), it sure would be nice to have that room be an option. (uh - think Quiet upstairs, too. :) ) And it is an option - only my children won't go downstairs because they've been afraid to be down there by themselves. (mysterious footsteps and creaks and groans and all).
So I had the idea that maybe if we put the wii and a tv down there....

So now we have this huge tv and the wii (which means netflix) and a new vcr/dvd player down there.
And I don't have to worry about little Jakub while I'm otherwise occupied (cleaning), because he can play Thomas and tracks and build with legos and wooden blocks and make zoomorphs and hammer on the cobbler's bench and build with zoobs and play with gears and vrrrr with trucks and he won't be down there by himself because my two are now (so quickly they have adapted!) perfectly content to play and live downstairs. (The toys that I imagine he'll be most interested in all live downstairs.)
Ha!
A little serendipity at work, hmm??

So they'll be here in a very few hours -after over a day's straight drive- and my sister (who is sharing watching over and loving little Jakub with me) is coming into town from up the road a ways with her family and my mother dropped in last night to say she'll be here and to ask what I'm making for dinner for everyone. ???
:)

So!
Life happens.

Doesn't sound too big a deal, I guess, but it certainly takes us well out of our groove!

Hopefully we'll have time to pop in soon. With lots of embarrassing pictures of the family.
[grin] Just kidding.

morning

snow.


so...
tracks.
before full light.


and snowy angels.
and dreams of snowmen.


and her purple corduroy snowman dress.


and hot cider
in her snowman mug
and hot coffee for her mama.


and it's funny how a few days past
I was a bit anxious about the loss -
losing the light.
losing the free.
losing the warm breezes sweeping the house.

and then we all looked out last night,
to see the rains turn to snow
(which tells of more than just this day, certainly)

...
and then I found myself closing the door,
and turning the lock.

and the furnace kicked on,
and the yellow light from the pumpkins and ghosties hanging at the top of the porch
glowed through the door's glass,
and I turned and looked at my family,
all settled in the livingroom,
ready for Together.

and everything was aglow
and everything was warm
and everything was... love.


and I knew, then,
that it was going to be quite alright.

tuesday

Math Animals (with Maddie)

drawing

lookin' over our new games

snuggled up, reading first two chapters of Corydon & the Island of Monsters

tidyin' up

zoo tycoon

clifford

Totally Tut


jumpin' jacks on the indoor trampoline

started on FOOD : 25 Amazing Projects. read the first chapter, which was a little about the way ancient peoples got, farmed, and then stored food.
now we have big plans to do all four of the projects for this chapter - ancient hot chocolate, marshmallows, dehydrated beef (jerky), and then we'll "Flood the Nile". very cool, so far!
(if you'd like to be entered into a drawing for a copy of the book, leave a comment here.)

Maddie designed a "Junior Dinosaur Ranger" program
while Trev made himself a grilled cheese sandwich.

Thomas and tracks

Fraction Whirl (Trev's choice)


jumping jumping jumping indoors

Math Animals (with Trev this time)

lecturing (Trev as the Orator)

girl scouts!...
and zoo tycoon while that was goin' on.

art. (Maddie returned.)

watching skiing in India
and serious snowball sport in Japan

hot cocoa

family time - Trev chose Math Animals again.

indoor jumping

rain

collecting the last of the tomatoes and peppers

cutting and pasting

The Addams Family
(love netflix)

more indoor tramp jumping

more cutting and pasting

research

mazes
workbook play (Madeleine, of course)
dot-to-dots


aaah,
the snow's here, now.

and goodness, i'm ready to put this list to bed for the night.

i would imagine we'll be here tomorrow.

same bat time.
same bat channel.

munday

indoor trampoline jumping
(three cheers for grandma's gift!)

stilts

finishing Spiderwick Chronicles 1

fractions game

totally tut
super fun!

indoor jumping
and jumping and jumping

pbs

pumpkin carving

final plans for halloween costumes

zoo tycoon

library loot
Hip Hop for Kids - School House Hop
The Adventures of Perseus
Corydon & the Island of Monsters
Corydon & The Fall of Atlantis
Lost Landscapes: Utah's Ghosts, Mysterious Creatures and Aliens

swingin'

rasslin' on the trampoline
(dang it's cold out there - 44 degrees!!)
and jumpin'
and slidin'

intro to The Munsters

snuggling and puppy piling

art

and

The Addams Fam-i-ly.

click click

Fractions Game

Fractions!

When I was offered goods from CSN Stores, I opted for games again.
Why not? :) We love games, lately.
Today we received Foam Magnetic Fraction Strips from Educational Insights.


It's not a game, rather just fraction strips.
No matter.
We'll make one up!

I'm sure many of you have created this same sort of game with or for your children, but here's how I did it.

I just used dice and made cards.

Since our pieces contain 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5/, 1/6, 1/8, 1/10, and 1/12, I made our cards accordingly.
Two each of:

1/2
1/3
2/3
1/4
3/4
1/5
2/5
3/5
4/5
1/6
and 5/6

To make the game friendly for Maddie, I put little dots at the bottom of the card so that she might understand the concept more easily.

Our game involves using the dice to see how many pieces we may choose,

and we put together what our card says.

The first point must be made with the fraction the card reads.
Example : 1/3.
The bonus points would then be made with two 1/6's, and/or four 1/12's - whatever is equal value to your card.
You may keep your extra pieces to stockpile and save for the next time, so if you roll a four, and your card reads 1/6, you may choose three extra tiles to use in the future (you can keep them until they've been used) -

and you may also take pieces from others if someone else is holding the piece you need!

When the pieces are used (bonus pieces included) you place them back into the initial pile for re-use.

If you like the idea of "Winning", you could say whoever is the first to a particular amount of points (one point for each correct fraction made), we agreed upon 14.
You could alternatively have score sheets with circles, and the first one who uses up at least one of each denominator wins - halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, etc, wins.

I liked this game - it's a tangible way to see how numbers and sizes fit together - ie common denominators and similar (but different) proportions.

Trev likes it, too.

Cool.

sunday

continuing on....

the soul of sunday

what does yours share with you today?

a saturday birthday

dark clouds

rain

perfect breakfast

sunshine

a garden visit

a gathering

creating

dark clouds revisiting

rain and rain

warm, cozy socks

mulled cider

candles

laughing

running

jumping

loving

living in jammies all day

stories

~ in the Still ~
(er... that was mama)

hot cocoa

flushed cheeks

picnic in-the-livingroom

cake

favorite dinner

bliss

birthday wishes

it's not every year that the garden still lives at the end of october.

and it's not every day that a girl has a birthday.

today i had an idea that i'd like to create something beautiful for myself - as well as create something of my self.


so i headed out.

after perusing my books, and making my lists of things i wanted, i got my favorite scissors (that i save for just such purposes) and my gathering basket.


into the gardens, then.


a birthday seems like a good time to gather herbs for a bit of wishing, doesn't it?

i'm a potions and notions kind of girl, so it quite suits my heart and mind.


let's see, here... a little catnip for attaining beauty.
beauty is a good thing to shine, and share with the world, hmm?

oh, courage. we'll snip some yarrow and gather some sweet pea pods.

ground ivy for divination.

friendship - being a better friend is certainly something on my mind of late - we'll have a few extra bits of sweet pea for that.

happiness - catnip, lavender, st. john's wort, witch grass (aka couch grass. it comes in handy for some things!)

healing is always a good idea... we'll take some lemon balm, dock, ivy, peppermint, rose, rosemary, spearmint, and thyme.

love - well, now that's certainly an important one. lemonbalm, catnip, chamomile, columbine, peppermint, and witch grass.

luck - certainly if there is such a thing, i'll take it - rose.

for strengthening mental powers we'll add grape and rosemary and spearmint.

for money and riches we'll gather and add bergamot, blackberry, chamomile, cinquefoil, clover, dock, grape, honeysuckle, honesty, and sweet woodruff.

lavender for peace, of course.

tomato for prosperity.

i'm awfully fond of purefications (especially on new-beginning sort of days), so we'll add chamomile, lavender, peppermint, rosemary, and thyme for this one, too.

st. john's wort for strength.

lemonbalm for success.

sage for wisdom, of course.

since we're talking wishes, we'll have some sage and a sunflower.

rosemary for youth - seems like a good idea to maintain my youthful self.

i got out a special cloth that i only use every now and again, and set to work.

at the center of my first project is the sunflower - for my wishes.


sweet peas, tomato, st. john's, rosemary, lavender, blackberries, spearmint, catnip, and sage.

wishes for me, wishes for my world.

when the rain stops again i'll go out and gather long lengths of grapevine, and start making a wreath. many of my herbs will find their way drying in the wreath, and the rest of what i've gathered today (and my mandala bits) will be dried and then placed in a large jar.

who knows what it will be used for.... tossing a handful over a fire when thinking upon personal renewal or rejuvenation.
carrying a stuffed tiny sackfull with me for a day when i'm needing a little extra courage.
sprinkling over a candle's flame during a special meditation.

silly, i guess, to some.
no matter.

to me, it's a delicious medicine for the soul.

thursday love

art in the sunshine

learning about the moose (elk to europeans) and then the White Bengal Tiger-
this time studying and learning animals through zoo tycoon

meditation in the sunshine

Godzilla

(and Godzuki)

we pulled into the planetarium
(Mama's practical answer to Maddie's request that I take her on a trip to Outer Space)
about two minutes late for our movie.

Maddie said to ditch the idea, and to move on to The Dinosaur Park (and museum).

so with a promise to return, we did.






"She drives me crazy! I want to eat her head."
and she does,
and he does.
but they also love each other fiercely (as they also tell eachother a few times a day).
and would be lost, if not for the other, I think.


* * *
mostly when we head several miles away from home,
it just makes sense to make a day of it,
so we visit other favorites, as well.

today it was the nature center -
probably our last Explore there this year.








from a bird blind







to home
- as the sun went down -
for more of our favorite things.

life is good.