Tuesday Teatime

Our big discovery: the Butterfly House is free admission the first Tuesday of the month from 9 to 11a.m.

I printed out a page of Caterpillar/Butterfly poems from CanTeach, and we headed on over. I'd never been to a butterfly house before. It was fun. It was a sunny day, and a lot of the butterflies were active.

KidV1 had a theory that if she kept her hand near a butterfly long enough the butterfly would eventually crawl onto her hand. It didn't work out quite as planned; since she was standing still for so long, butterflies began landing on her. None ever crawled onto her hand, though.



We sat on benches in the house, and I read a few of the poems. I realized after we got there that most were about caterpillars, eggs, cocoons and all -- very little about actual butterflies.

We hit up the gift shop on the way out, and made up for our free admission by buying stuff there. What's a teatime without some sort of snack? We bought a box of Buttery Cinnamon Butterfly Shortbread Cookies . After we paid and headed out of the shop we discovered the display of candy-coated insects. My kids are so lucky we found that display after we paid, as I'm always intrigued by the idea of eating insects, and would've bought those instead.

It turned out the new playground in this particular park had just opened up, so the kids decided we needed to try it out. This would've been okay if I had some knitting, but as it was I just sat there in the sun and fantasized about what sort of socks I would knit if I owned this yarn .

Home for lunch (Moms with more forethought had packed lunches to have at the park picnic benches, and made an entire morning out of the Butterfly House, the new playground, and other park attractions; honestly, I felt like crap and was impressed that I was remaining upright during this whole adventure).

We continued Teatime at home, where I found a couple of decent poems. We went up to the top of the playset, high in the air like the butterflies. We took along our cookies, our drinks (Trader Joe's Strawberry Kiwi, served in sippy cups with bendy straws; the butterflies had been served some sort of red liquid, and the bendy straw echoed the proboscis). I read William Wordsworth's To a Butterfly. Then KidV1 and I read Chrysalis Diary from Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices . We had never done that type of poem before, and it was fun.

The cookies were great, by the way. We highly recommend them for a butterfly-themed teatime.

Why Fiber Trends is so cool

About a year ago I bought the pattern for A Felt Flock . I had one of those crunchy moments where I thought it would be wicked cool to have all sorts of wooly, natural stuff in the kids' Easter baskets. I knit 2 sheep, both topside and tummies. And started to realize that I was going to end up felting them late the night before Easter and trying to blowdry them with a hairdryer or somesuch to get them done in time. So, I set them aside for the next year, figuring that surely within a year's time I could get them done.

Of course, all of this must take place in secret since it's actually the Easter Bunny who is filling those baskets, not Mom. Although if directly asked I will admit to slipping a toy in, even felted lambs.

As you can guess, the sheep got set to one side and pretty much languished. When we sort of moved into an apartment/temporary housing last fall I took them along because the apartment had a topload washer (we have a front loader, which makes for trickier felting simply because most felting directions assume you have a toploader). But I never got around to doing anything with them because I frittered away my time on frivolous activities like looking at about 100 houses that were on the market (really, we had spread sheets to keep track of what we'd looked at). Then, of course, we actually moved, the pipe broke in the basement, the dryer overheated, blah blah blah.

And here it is, almost the last possible moment. I got out the sheep parts yesterday, intending to throw them in the laundry with a load of towels. But, wait, why do I have such long bits of yarn dangling off of them? Why are there safety pins stuck in various places, particularly their bottoms? Could it be that I shouldn't just throw them in the washer and then whip them together? I managed to dig up the pattern (you have no idea what labor lurks behind that simple sentence, given that most of the craft stuff is randomly heaped in the basement). I glanced through, and realized that I had left off somewhere in the 2nd page, with miles to go before they were sheep. Specifically, I need to sew the tummy to the body, knit hooves, then "see pattern insert for back hooves, tail, ear and horn instructions".

Ummm, yeah, that ol' pattern insert. The one that I sort of remember being stuck in the pattern when I bought it, but it was in my way while I was knitting so I took it out and put it someplace safe. "Someplace safe" in our old house in its pre-moving state, which is quite different from the house in transit, and hugely different from our house now.

So yesterday morning bright and early I emailed Fiber Trands and asked if there was a way to get the insert. And, you know what? Within a couple of hours I had a PDF file of the insert. Of course, I have no idea what yarn I was using for hooves, or where I would've put it, and I'm uneasily aware that I have no memory of needle size used thus far. And I have no energy in the wee hours of the night to work on this due to this stupid stupid time change which is a stupid thing to for us to do with clocks and only a stupid society would do such a stupid thing (plus allergies this time of year that are putting me in some sort of proto-asthmatic condition, which is making me a tiny bit cranky maybe).

The Easter forecast shows only a 50% chance of sheep at this point. BUT, Bev at Fiber Trends has definitely done her part. She has come through for me.

The weekend featured little knitting content (or, for that matter, sleep) and this post reflects it

On the other hand, some homeschool-related stuff did occur -- Mr.V met a homeschool family in the airport. A mom with 5 kids and possibly another on the way (he couldn't tell if she was pregnant, but follows the rule that you never comment that a woman you just met looks pregnant unless she's actually giving birth at that moment) was coming back to the US after 6 months in Mexico. I immediately leapt to the conclusion that they use Sonlight, and had a tremendous urge to waft around the Sonlight forums looking for someone with 5 kids moving from Mexico to the US. But, of course, I can't get into the Sonlight forums, since we don't use Sonlight anymore. We used Sonlight K for KidV2 a couple of years ago, but those days are gone.

Also, I realize that I'm making all sorts of wild assumptions that a larger family homeschooling while overseas would automatically use Sonlight. It was just that "larger family" and "overseas" tend to be popular profiles in Sonlight.

Then, some things were said in church that made me think about Sonlight. I forget what was said, but I found myself musing about ordering, say, Sonlight 6 ... the thrill of getting all the books together, knowing what we would be studying all year. Oh, the fantasy of it all, that we would suddenly transform into one of those families pictured in the catalog. And to think, the new catalog is on its way here, even as I type this.

The reality is that if I ordered it we'd throw out their schedule within about 3 weeks. KidV1 would run off to her room with all of the books that look interesting and read them immediately. She would refuse to have anything to do with the rest. They'd whine about the science not being what they're interested in. And I would totally loose interest in the whole shebang within a month. Long term focus isn't one of my strong points. I mean, look at this blog -- I say it's about not just one but two subjects (knitting and homeschooling), and even then I can't stay on topic.

Other things we did this weekend:

Prepped entrance for painting, which involved washing old wallpaper paste off of wall, filling in dings with spackling, etc.
Set up the swingset, which is 8 feet high; the swings aren't attached yet, though. This doesn't bother the cat, who likes to walk along the top of it.
Changed clocks, which I think is really really stupid and should be done away with. Really.
Hung out in the basement when the sirens went off during a bad storm featuring tornado warnings. Mr.V took a bit of a nap, the kids played cards, I picked up Barbies and Playmobil.
Ate a box of Thin Mints. Okay, that was just me doing that. I considered it my contribution to making the house gluten-free. I'm self-sacrificing that way.
Met another neighbor.
Had swarms of kids running through our yard, going down our slide, playing on the trapeze. Okay, actually it was only about 6 or 7 kids, but it lasted about 8 hours straight and they were in constant motion most of the time, so it seemed like more. I'm wondering if this is a foretaste of summer. If so, we need a separate freezer for all the popsicles we're going to need.

News Flash! Homeschool mom blows off most of day , and world does not come to screaming halt without her there to run things!

A few days ago one of those incredible events happened to me -- the sort we all dream about. A trusted adult phoned and said, "Hey, I'm free this week. How about if I look after the kids one afternoon while you go get some stuff done?"

Wow. I blurted out something about going to shop for an Easter dress. This was sort of stupid, because then I was pretty much commited to that course of action. I hate shopping. Then again, I had already thrown away my old Easter dress, which was about 15 years old and long past its prime, so shopping was a necessary evil.

So, I spent yesterday afternoon slogging around in clothing shops. I saw so many tops that looked like photos from Knitty and MagKnits; I kept thinking, "hey, I could make that!" A woman tried to sell me a shawl. Hah. I ended up with a dress that would look better with some sort of little crocheted or knitted jacket ... hmmm.

In the meantime, the kids and Trusted Adult went on a nature walk, then did some art about it. Next, they went to the Butterfly House. Art! Science! Phys Ed! A field trip! An entire afternoon of homeschooling, and I wasn't even there!

Now I'm back in charge today, and so far we have accomplished ... let's see ... pretty much nothing homeschool-ish. Oh, we've run some errands which involved waiting in long lines (sort of a school-ish thing to do). Right now the kids are outside doing ... stuff. Outside stuff. Undirected outside stuff. I think ... I think it might be time to declare the rest of this week "Spring Break".

Tuesday Teatime

We decided to have a birthday party for our cat as our Tuesday Teatime theme. The kids were convinced that we needed to celebrate his birthday sometime in March -- we had gotten him in July and he was 4 months old at the time, hence March must be his birth month (for the record, none of us can remember which year this was, although KidV1 says it was the year we went to Rehoboth for the 4th of July; unfortunately, we don't remember when that was).

So, cat-themed poetry was the order of the day. I kept it light -- no poems about starving kitties wishing they could have warm homes and enough food. I read a couple of selections from T.S. Eliot, of course. A.A. Milne also contributed. Some of the selections were anonymous, including our most popular piece, Training Your Human . I also interspersed some nursery rhymes. KidV2 performed another original composition in our cat's honor -- same tune as last time, different words.

By the way, that cat poetry website was a goldmine for putting this together. We have several poetry anthologies here at home, but I've discovered that the Internet has a wealth of poetry resources.

Our teatime treats were Trader Joe's deli-slice turkey with crackers and cheese. The cat had his turkey served on a china saucer on the floor. He was a little confused as to why he was being given food on the dining room floor, since his treats are usually confined to the kitchen (the kids wanted him to sit at the table like Thomasina in the movie, but I nixed that).

We will be continuing the festivities today since he wasn't given any presents or cards, heaven forbid, mostly because he wandered off after the turkey was gone. KidV1 finger crocheted a string for him to play with. KidV2 decorated a Trader Joe's paper bag. So we have that to look forward to today.

Progress

The bottom of the felted backpack I'm knitting flew along smoothly in a simple stockinette stitch. Soon it was time to pick up stitches along the selvage. The pattern called for 26 stitches to be picked up. Now, it instantly occured to me that this was going to be tricky since I was probably knitting at a tighter guage than the pattern and would therefore have a different number of rows than the original pattern assumed. Wise minds would also point out that I probably needed to pick up MORE stitches in order to retain the proper shape, given that my guage was tighter; this didn't occur to me, however (assignment: discuss the juxtaposition of those 2 statements among yourselves, then vow that you will never ever publicly mention your conclusion).

So, wouldn't that be a cool real-life math problem? You know, the sort of thing a cool homeschool mom would just jump right into. Maybe not even say, "Okay, you tell me what I should do," but do that musing-out-loud that draws the kids into the conversation. Too bad I'm not a cool homeschool mom. Maybe someone else out in blogland can use that idea.

I know it's fashionable to say, "Eeew, math, I don't want to do the math!" That isn't the problem here. I'm fine with doing the math. I'm not fine with getting up and finding a ruler and counting the stitches. Heck, if I wanted to do stuff like THAT I would've done a guage swatch. So I'm focusing on the thoughts that a) it's just a bag, for pete's sake, which is going to be filled with lumpy stuff anyway, so it doesn't matter if it starts out sort of lumpy and msshapen, and 2) felting covers a multitude of sins.

I call this the Rationalization Method of knitting. Knit, make mistakes, rationalize why you don't bother to fix them.

Progress in showing-off-of-knitting: The moebius wrap made it's debut when I wore it to church. During Meet-n-Greet time the woman in front of me turned around and exclaimed, "Oh My! Did you knit that?!" It was really gratifying. Her biggest question was, "Where did you get that yarn?!" Really, the Silkspun would make pretty much anything look swanky. It's definitely a case of the yarn carrying the knitting.

Progress in finding books I need to buy: I took a detour into Borders and discovered that I really really need a copy of Alterknits . I also realized my subscription to Mothering has lapsed after about 10 years -- there was one on the magazine rack that I hadn't seen. It was an odd feeling, like seeing an old friend hanging out with her new crowd you're not part of.

No progress to report on putting up more of the playset. We got out the pieces of the swingset and looked at it. Then we put them away. In the meantime, roving bands of small children were climbing over the parts we had already set up, then running to the playset at a house about a block away. I think they're coping with the lack of swings.

And progress in health? Mr.V has decided to go gluten-free. This is taking up an amazing amount of time, as it involves figuring out new patterns in shopping. Most of my time at Mothering.com has been spent cruising the Nutrition forum.

Random stuff

KNITTING: I've started the Felted Daypack in the Winter 2004 Interweave Knits. I'm making it out of Lite-Lopi. The pattern says to use a size 8 circular, but when I gathered all my stuff together to start it last night I decided I didn't like my size 8 circ. I'm using a size 7 instead. I haven't bothered with a gauge swatch. Stay tuned for disaster when I finally realize why casually switching needles and ignoring gauge isn't a good idea.

LATIN: Some kind soul posted a list of Simon Says commands in Latin on the Latin Classical Ed list. Now I can pretend (fleetingly) to be a fun mom. Well, I can pretend to be a fun mom insofar as teaching Latin is concerned. I'm planning on weaseling out of going to homeschool swim this afternoon, so I'll be retaining my overall No Fun title.

ASTRONOMY: I found this cool site about astronomy observation last night: Star-Hunting Party . I found it on someone else's blog. Whose, you ask? Ummm, well, umm (lowers head, kicks toe in dirt) I sorta forget ... I sorta clicked on it from TheDenimJumper.com, but I forget exactly who it was.

CARDS: I need to go play Old Maid right now. Other pearls of wisdom will have to wait.

Latin

I've mentioned several times here that I really dislike Latin. I've called it boring and tedious. I've written similar comments on various homeschooling forums such as Mothering.com and TheDenimJumper.com.

Yet, a year ago I was telling other homeschooling moms that Latin was the best part of our day. I proclaimed that Latin was Fun, that everyone should give it a whirl.

What happened to change my thinking? You know, I'm not really sure. I think part of the issue is that KidV1 has reached the stage where she knows more Latin than I do. I understand the logic of it better, and can see why we're learning all of these declensions and conjugations, but she actually knows the declensions and conjugations. So I need to either work to learn the stuff myself (eeeew!) or give up, throw up my hands and declare, "It's beyond me!"

Another problem is that we've been using the same curriculum for several years now. We started in Prima Latina, moved to Latina Christiana I, and now are working through Latina Christiana II. I tend to be a curriculum-hopper, flitting from program to program. And Latina Christiana tends to be a wee bit dry when used strictly as written (and I don't know enough Latin to jazz it up like the cool homeschoolers do). So, 3 years of the same ol' same ol' is almost guaranteed to have my eyes roving for something better, be it a new Latin curriculum or a new language (Greek, hmmm, there's a thought).

I decided to purchase Minimus. We've started alternating it with Latina Christiana. You know, KidV1 had said she liked LC and didn't want to change to something else (she has completion issues, a trait that I obviously don't share since I'm willing to ditch things at the drop of a hat). But she really likes Minimus. Cartoons! Silliness! Cats! Mice! I think she even likes the Roman history lessons. She had cheered the day we were finished with the Romans when we read about them in Story of the World (she said she got bored with them), but this stuff is lively and personal.

I don't think we could enjoy Minimus so much, though, if we didn't know any Latin already. Well, if one of us didn't know any Latin, at least. I suppose if the teacher knew what s/he were doing (unlike me) they could make it comfortable for the students, and answer any questions that might arise. As it stands, we puzzle out any questions together.

I'm considering getting Peter Jones' Learn Latin to inspire me and perhaps help me get a clue. But, sigh, I suspect that the book isn't going to spring up and present all of those declensions in charming song and dance while I just nod my head absentmindedly. I suspect I'm still going to have work at it. It's the same problem I run up against constantly -- simply obtaining the books isn't enough, I still need to read them and think about them. I'm like the person who wants the 6-pack abs without having to do any exercise; I want a toned, taut brain without having to do any thinking. I want to be able to flex my translation skills on the beach this summer, lying there in a bikini, reading the Aeneid, my legs waxed, my toenails painted, looking like it's all so effortless. The probable reality is, though, I'll be the one in the old Speedo that doesn't quite fit anymore, who couldn't find a razor to shave her legs or the clippers to cut her unpainted toenails, reading Terry Pratchett.

This has got to change. I must toss off the shackles of slothdom. I must go pump dendrites.

Finished Moebius

Fleece Artist Silk Spun knit on size 10 needles. It isn't yet blocked. It fits snugly around my shoulders -- I knit the applied I cord edging a bit tightly so it would cup in a bit.

KidV1 has already been hinting that she would really really like to have the leftover yarn.

Tuesday Teatime

Last week's Tuesday Teatime was an extravaganza. It's taken a week to recover from it enough to blog about it.

We used weather as our theme. KidV2 was very excited, as weather is one of her interests. I got several hugs and "thanks for doing this, Mommy" before, during and after teatime.

We read poems about weather in general, followed by groups of poems about specific types of weather such as rain, snow, wind, sun and rainbows. We recited as a group, and also recited solo. KidV2 performed an original composition for voice and piano. Other authors included A.A. Milne, Christina Rosetti, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Louis Stevenson. I tried to keep it pretty kid-friendly.

Our treats were also an extravaganza:



Those are Country Choice organic Sandwich Cremes in vanilla (KidV2's favorite) topped with homemade white frosting I had tinted yellow with food coloring. After some experimenting, I did the faces with some food coloring gel tubes we had around. The rays are plain old stick pretzels, broken in half. The beverage is Trader Joe's organic white grape juice diluted 50 percent with water, and given a dose of blue food coloring.

Afterwards, jacked up on sugar and food coloring, the kids went out and played on the playset ... and ended up in a HUGE fight, featuring screaming and hair-pulling and, yes, all-out tantrum-throwing. What a way to end the afternoon.

I'm not sure what we're doing for teatime today. There was some talk of wanting a springtime theme, but it has snowed. As a matter of fact, I need to go take the kids sledding right now. I told them whatever we do, the snacks will be more along the line of apple slices and carrot sticks; the junk food has got to go. This has started some meditation on why we like Tuesday Teatime -- do we tolerate the poetry just so we can eat treats? Do we simply like the rhythm it adds to our weeks? Is it all about getting to blow out the candles at the end? I guess time will tell.

By the way, Weaver, your comment reminded me that I have a recipe for homemade marshmallows (which would make a great treat for a snow themed teatime, except I don't have time to make them, and they're pretty much pure sugar and corn syrup). I've never tried it, though. I'd love to see yours, especially if you give commentary on your experiences making them.

Nothing to show for the weekend

Blogger isn't uploading photos at the moment. This means you don't get to see the moebius knitting mid-bindoff. Mostly it looks like a big ratty pile of multi-colored yarn at the moment, so no great loss. The big news is that I *AM* binding off. This should've taken only a day or two to knit, but I've managed to stretch it out to nearly a week. I should've done the bindoff last night while watching Star Trek -- it's an applied I-cord, so more suitable for knitting-during-TV-viewing than knitting-while-reading -- but we started toasting marshmallows over the fire about then. Gooey marshallows and knitting don't mix, and the marshmallows won my attention. It was that sort of weekend.

You also don't get to see a photo of me carrying a Booga bag, wearing a Clapotis and also wearing a Dash headpiece taken off of a cotton candy bag; the photo was taken on Saturday when we went to see The Incredibles on Ice. We hadn't been to a Disney on Ice show before. It was ... different. Some great skating, but in the context of a 90 minute ad for the wonders of Disneyworld. Sorry, but Disney isn't the center of our universe. As a matter of fact, it's so peripheral it's about to fall off the edge.

Other things we didn't do this weekend: We didn't paint the new front door or the new french doors. We did absolutely nothing to the entrance, which has had all of the wallpaper ripped off the walls and is now the otherworldly green of a 30 year old coat of wallpaper sizing. We didn't finish taking down the wallpaper in the bedroom. We didn't work on the playset in the backyard, which still needs the swingset and the climbing wall (if for no other reason than getting the boxes out of the garage so I can park my car in there). I started reading 3 new books, but didn't get past page 50 in any of them.

Today will be different! This is the day I will accomplish mighty things! Children will clamor to learn interesting things, and I will cleverly facilitate their learning! No marshmallows will be consumed!

What we do for science

Right now we're concentrating on science. It's been moved to Most Favored Position in our morning line-up, which is right after we sing. This spot used to be held by Latin, mostly because I don't like Latin and KidV1 does; if it were left to me we would blow it off pretty much daily, so we put it in Most Favored Position so I couldn't weasle out of it. Now that I seem to have simmered down about my general dislike for Latin we've bumped the long-neglected subject of science into that spot.

Okay, actually, we haven't really been neglecting science. It's just sort of been nature study and random trips to the science museum lately.

KidV1 has a continuing interest in astronomy, and KidV2 is always asking questions about the weather. Voila, I found a book that has both subjects when I looked at My World Science . I was looking at the website, called out, "Hey, guys, how about if I order one of these?" The kids said, "Oh, definitely, the one with weather and astronomy." So I ordered the MWS stuff, as well as the suggested resources, and ... put them on the shelf for about a year. We dabbled here and there, doing a chapter once in a while. But that's it.

So, it seemed like it was time to Go Big Or Stay Home (this is the phrase we use around here when we're deciding whether to, say,set up a simple swingset vs. build a multilevel play fort with monkey bars, supersonic slide, climbing wall, trapeze and, yes, a swingset). I took the plunge and ordered Dinah Zike's Great Science Adventures The World of Space . We had used part of the Insect and Arachnid Great Science Adventure a few years back, and, frankly, got sick of all the ditsy little cut outs and crafty stuff; I had decided to never purchase another Great Science Adventure after that. But, here we were, with another one.

But, aha, this time it's different, because ... well, it just is. My World Science astronomy and Great Science Adventures astronomy really integrate well. Heck, it's like they were made to be used together. No need to draw up some elaborate schedule to designate when to read what chapter or when a particular experiiment will be appropriate. No, it can all be done seat-of-the-pants. We can open up the books and say, "okay, let's try using a magnifying glass to melt the coating off of Thin Mints" (which wasn't precisely what the book said to do to demonstrate the power of the sun, but was still plenty of fun; we also tried to toast marshmallows with a magnifying glass, but it didn't work). Or, we can say, "eeew, that sounds dorky and boring; let's skip it and go onto something else."

KidV1 loves the little booklets that you make with the Great Science Adventures, and seems quite thrilled to be making the graphic organizers. She also spends time reading the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, as well as the plethora of other astronomy books that seem to have collected on our shelves. She even fills out the My World Science worksheets. And watches Star Trek TNG, which she claims is easier to do now that she understands more of the space-realted terms like "electromagnetic radiation" (yeah, right. It's just an excuse to watch television, which we usually don't do, but I give her points for creativity in her arguements).

What we have NOT been doing is using the My World Science weather. We read about the weather, KidV2 has been keeping a weather log since the beginning of the year, but no elaborate projects. Yet. We've gone from being a family that doesn't do much science to a family using 2 astronomy programs, and that's enough for now.

More on Moebius Knitting

I was going to post this yesterday, but Alex-the-door-guy arrived bright and early, and immediately got to work ripping out our front doors, which, aside from being icky and wooden were double doors, so we had a 6 foot wide hole gaping in the front of the house. And, since it was about 38 degrees outside, it was just a bit drafty. It was the sort of situation where you find yourself really taking stock of what you need to blog about. Like, right now I should be washing the dishes from last night (since I was quite sidetracked after supper -- more on that later), but I've wandered in here mid-wash with a glass of coffee-flavored Silk (I just discovered this stuff since we moved here; they used to sell Silk latte, but that has disappered; is this the same stuff?). I'm okay with ditching the dishes, but sitting in a cold draft to type on the computer was beyond me.

Sitting around knitting was also beyond me. KidV1 got some knitting done, though. The whole door replacement was quite loud, so the kids decided to listen to a book on tape, and KidV1 knit during that. I think she's making a cape for her sister's stuffed rabbit.

I ended up doing stuff like mopping the floor, sweeping the dead leaves and dropped kindling from the patio, sweeping out the garage, and then, yes, even going up to the master bedroom to removed more wallpaper. It's a nasty business up there, with 2 layers of wallpaper.

Speaking of wallpaper, as Alex-the-door-guy was taking off the door jamb for the doors into the living room (double 6 panel doors, now replaced with double 15-light french doors), he unearthed the original wallpaper of the entrance. He even cut a piece of it off the wall as a souvenir. Wow. Green and golden flowers, marching up and down the walls in stripes. As he was removing the front door we discovered that underneath the ugly parquet floor in the entrance is even uglier vinyl in an olive green floral pattern. This raises the question: Did someone put that floor with that wallpaper? And, if so, what were they thinking?

In the course of putting in the new front door (now a single door with sidelights; we finally have some natural light in the entrance, hurray!) the woodwork was moved over about an inch, which left an unpainted gap. Since the wallpaper has been painted over umpteen times (note: painting over wallpaper is BAD), it was pretty thick and we were going to have to use drywall mud to even out the surface. But when Mr.V got home he started niggling at the edge and discovered that the wallpaper would rip right off. Woohoo! My purpose in life is to rid the world of wallpaper, so I spent the rest of the evening ripping down all of the stuff in the entrance. It was a truly satisfying evening.

Anyway, none of that has to do with moebius knitting, or moebius anything (unless we put a big Escher print in the entrance, but if we did that I'd not choose the moebius; I'd choose something like Cycle ) (for the record, we had a book of Escher prints which I spent hours and hours browsing when I was little).

Fuzzy Galore has a page about moebius knitting here . I do have a quibble, though, in that one may infer from the next to last paragraph that one forms a moebius by twisting a circular cast on. Yes and no. If you completely twist a circular around, you end up with a 2 sided, 2 edged object with a complete twist in it; a moebius has 1 surface and 1 edge, and a half twist.

You can find online instruction on how to cast on a moebius at several sites, including here , but reading through these I picture that first row being tough to knit. Cat Bordhi's cast on is super easy, and easy to knit. Once you have the cast on done and the first row knit (easy if you use Cat's instructions!), moebius knitting can be as easy or as difficult as you would like to make it. You can simply knit row after row peacefully and mindlessly, or you can do lace. Whatever. What's cool is that no matter what you do, it looks tricky and mind boggling.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled dishwashing.

Celebrate!

It's March 14! That means it's 3.14! Pi Day!

And, since it's Tuesday, I couldn't help but think that it would be cool to have a Pi-themed Tuesday Teatime. We could eat pie! Have big pillar candles! Read poetry about math!

I even googled pi poetry (and, yes, there is poetry about pi) and discovered that it's Albert Einstein's birthday today. If you're into this, check out the ridiculously enhanced pi page. Their festivities will begin at 1:59 (get it? They'll have a party at 3.14159, wink, nudge, teehee).

Of course, we won't actually be holding such a Tuesday Teatime since we have already scheduled a weather-themed teatime. And it has been Highly Anticipated all week.

But, I can privately celebrate all the math-y-ness of the day with a new knitting project:



A moebius wrap. I'm using the directions from Cat Bordhi's Second Treasury of Magical Knitting and Fleece Artist's Handmaiden Silk Spun. It's really wonderfully mindless knitting, just around and around that loooooong single edge. I should be able to get some reading done while knitting this. Now, if I could figure out what to read, since I've started about 20 different books simultaneously. I tend to be monogamous with my knitting, but horribly polygamous with my reading.

Actually, I cast this on last night. DadV took KidV1 to the hockey game (the Blues won! Celebrate! Or maybe just sit in stunned amazement). After KidV2 and I figured out equitable junk food (this is Very Important, as hockey games are reknowned in our household for the availiblity of delicacies like nachos and cotton candy) we popped in our Beauty and the Beast video and I was given permission to cast on as long as it did not hinder my ability to be snuggled-up-with during the scary parts.

In spite of the late night we all had, the kids awoke early this morning and have already donned various dress up costumes. KidV2 has on a homemade Belle dress, of course.

No Knitting All Mud Weekend

Three days of rain revealed that the perk rate of our current lawn is somewhere around "what's a perk rate?" It's a quagmire out there. We went ahead and worked on the playset, in spite of the fact that the ladder tended to sink in several inches everytime we tried to use it. And the kids? Well, the kids thought the mud was a bonus. They rolled in mud. They played mud tag. They left their shoes and socks all over our yard (the neighbor kids did; our kids simply tracked it all right into the house).

I did manage to get a poncho photo:



Lion Brand Homespun knit on U.S. size 10.5 needles. The poncho also doubles as a small blankie you can take to bed with you, by the way. So although the weather has been too warm to actually wear it, it has been used nightly. That bright thing seeming to sprout out of her head is her sister's poncho, knit last year in blindingly bright colors; it can double as a roadside hazard signal.

Things to do today: Return shoes to correct houses. Clean dried mud off of floors. Clean dried mud out of clothes. Research how to improve clay soils. Research rainwater runoff plantings (it's such a "form follows function" area of landscape design; I love it! Why can't interior design be this practical?). And maybe, just maybe, cast on a new knitting project.

Tragic lack of "finished poncho" pictures

I'm not quite sure how it happened that I didn't get a photo of KidV2 in her new poncho. She put it on several times yesterday, although removed it when eating a snack that consisted of Trader Joe's Cocoa Hazelnut Spread smeared all over bananas and topped with ice cream and vanilla yogurt (the snack did end up down her shirt), and left it off when going out to play as it was pouring down rain and outdoor playtime yesterday consisted of wallowing in every mud puddle in the neighborhood.

Random other stuff:

Our adventures in learning about bees continues. KidV2 got stung on the finger, and her entire hand has swollen up like a balloon. We have discussed bees vs. hornets vs. wasps.

The neighbors' forsythia bushes are blooming.

We have just discovered Star Trek TNG reruns on every evening. This is one of the few TV shows I'm interested in watching. The two-part episode wherein they go back to 19th century San Francisco was on. I rationalized that it was good for history, since it occurred right after the 49ers, and science, since the space travel aspect ties in with astronomy. We've watched TV every night this week, and let me tell you, it really sucks up a lot of time. I did manage to handwind some yarn during this.

KidV1 had announced that all of her sweaters are too small. I have until next fall to rectify this. I was going to pull out all of the pattern books to start browsing, but it occurred to me that what she really wants is a Weasley. The challenge will be to find an appropriate yarn. I'm open to suggestions.

Fringeland

It's a gloomy, rainy day, and I am mired in the unspeakably tedious task of making fringe out of Lion Brand Homespun. If you've ever worked with Homespun you know how the ends look frayed and worn almost instantly. So I'm tying a wee little knot in each and every end. I'm hoping this will help keep the fringe from morphing into the ultimate dead-leaf-magnet when KidV2 wears it to play outside. Heaven knows her hair picks up enough dead leaves, we don't need even more on her body.

I am not a fan of fringe-making to begin with, but making all of these knots may put me right around the bend.

Tuesday Teatime

This week we had an astronomy teatime since we are studying astronomy for science.

Our poetry selections were about space and planets. I read High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. and The Star by Jane Taylor. Other poems included Fiona Macleod's The Lost Star, William Cullen Bryant's Hymn to the North Star, Christina Rossetti's O Lady Moon, and an anonymous limerick ("There was a young lady called Bright/Who could travel much faster than light./She set off one day/In a relative way/And came back the previous night."), and Peter Bateson's Nightfall.

The biggest hits were The Star (because it was familiar), the limerick (because limericks are funny; even if you don't understand them, the rhythm seems silly), and O Lady Moon (Rosetti is familiar, plus it's short and a handy bit of knowledge -- it talks about which way the moon's horns face depending on whether it is waxing or waning). The least favorite was Hymn to the North Star ("Thou" and 'thy" stuff? yuck!).

Our menu included Astronaut ice cream, which is the freeze-dried neopolitan ice cream they sell at science museums and Rainbow Resource. If you've never had it, it's ... interesting. A tip -- dipping it into hot tea doesn't reconstitute it into ice cream. I suppose we should've had Tang to drink, but I think the ice cream was enough weirdness for one day. What's funny about the food choice is that I'm on a raw kick right now, trying to up the amount of raw food we're consuming. The ice cream seems like the polar opposite of raw, whole foods. We sort of had the alpha and omega of the food spectrum yesterday.

We used a star-shaped candle we had poured during our Candlemas candlemaking extravaganza, and even the napkins had stars, moon and sun on them.

Of course, KidV2 spent most of the teatime contemplating the idea that we need to have a "weather" teatime. She's quite concerned about what snacks we could have that would be weather-themed. She spent most of the teatime discussing this idea.

I've discovered that it isn't important whether the individual teatimes are successful. What's important is the cumulative effect of doing this each week. There are many reasons for this, but let me share one example: Saturday night I discovered that KidV1 was sitting in her room reading poetry aloud to KidV2. They were looking through Once Upon a Poem , which is full of poems that tell stories. That's something I didn't really expect to see going on in our house -- gathering around to share poetry for entertainment on a Saturday night.

It's History!

Story of the World 3 is done. It's over. Finito. Been there, done that. Close that book, put it on the shelf. Woohoo.

Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed it. It's just so satisfying to finish.

What next? We're going to take a break from history for a while to concentrate on science. KidV1 wants to do more with astronomy. KidV2 continues to be obsessed with weather. And me? I think it would be cool to study bees right now. Check this out:



We had a couple of guys here yesterday to cut down a big ol' tree branch that looked sort of dead and sort of like it might break off, fall 30 feet (this tree is tall!) and flatten whatever kid happened to be playing under it. The guy climbed up, barely touched it with a saw, and it came crashing down. This is what was inside -- yards and yards of old honeycombs. A few dead bees were hanging around, also.

I wonder what the rest of the tree has in it.

Knitting and more

Friday night I worked on the Homespun poncho while we watched a video (Nico the Unicorn -- very cute). Since I was knitting from the neck down, it was simply a matter of making it long enough, so when I got to an okay looking length I bound off and discovered ... the neck is way too big. Oops. KidV2 (who has the same large head/scrawny shoulder physique as I do, which is why I messed this up so bad) begged me to Leave It Alone ("please don't rip it back up, Mommy"). Sigh. I pointed out that in any event, it was currently unwearable since it needed to be blocked and fringed.

Saturday was spent on this:

Yes, we're building a playset in our backyard. We spent all day on it Saturday. It was cloudy and in the 40s, but we persevered.

The decks the kids are climbing onto were shipped pre-assembled. They are heavy. The upper one is 7 feet off the ground. I am 5'3". This posed a problem, especially when I became acutely aware that my weight-lifting program is lacking military presses. Still, we persevered.

We now have the upper rails on. This involved my sitting up on the top deck, cold, exhausted, scared of heights, scared I was going to drop the blasted thing on DadV's head (it wasn't as heavy as the deck, but it was still heavy).

It was a long day. No knitting occured.

Sunday dawned gloomy and cold. As we sat in church we heard the sound of a pounding rainstorm. Hallelujah! We get a day of rest from the playset! So, after doing all the stuff that didn't get done on Sunday (shopping, washing dishes, etc.), I finally sat down and started picking out the cast-on row from the poncho.

Well, first I stuck some double-point needles in the row I wanted to rip to. Then I picked out the cast on row, and unravelled down to my needles. I then started knitting up the poncho, including 2 decrease rows. I cast off when I reached the original length. Tried it on KidV2. Now the neck is too small. Umm, yeah. So I'll have to rip back down, but this should be easy now (I don't know if it's less fiddly to rip back from a cast off row than a cast on row, but it's certainly more comfortable psychologically).

I don't know when this will take place though. DadV is planning on coming home early today so we can work on the playset. And right now we should be doing French.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is a favorite in our house. My parents are big fans, and have spent hours reading the books to the VKids. The kids' favorite story is Too Many Daves from the book The Sneetches. Favorite anti-Dave name? Oliver Boliver Butt, of course.

I was never such a big fan of The Sneetches, by the way, mostly because the book contained the story What Was I Scared Of? with those pale green pants with no one inside them. Oooo, I was afraid of that story. It gave me the creeps. Do you remember when you were little being afraid that if you opened a book to a scary-picture page the scariness would slip out from the pages into your life? That was me.

This page has some fun activities based on Dr. Seuss books. I especially like the idea of making turtles and stacking them up a la Yertle the Turtle. Links to other ideas for Cat in the Hat hats are at the bottom of the page.

And, speaking of children's books, did you know you can read a children's literature review online? I am addicted to book reviews, so I was thrilled to find The Edge of the Forest .

Signing off now to go read to the kids.

Tuesday Teatime

I was reading about Sewing With a Plan last week, and decided it was time to start Living With a Plan. I was going to start Knitting With a Plan, Cleaning With a Plan, Homeschooling With a (better) Plan, and, by golly, having Teatime With a Plan.

Our first Planned Teatime was going to be yesterday, Shrove Tuesday. I dutifully found appropriate food ( Shrove Tuesday Buns ; no fried dough items here, as I was afraid I'd set the kitchen on fire).

But the weather did not cooperate. It was sunny and warm and the kids wanted to be outside. They wanted to have their own Plan, which was a fairy teatime. So, they dressed in fairy wings and flowers, took a picnic cloth outside, and awaited my arrival with Pink Tea (Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger) and warm weather treats ( Citron Givres from Trader Joe's).

We read For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry, by Christopher Smart, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully (I can find tons of links to the poem itself, but no illustration of the actual book). It's part of a longer poem entitled Jubilate Agno. I think the poem itself was a bit hard for the kids to follow, but the illustrations brought it together for them.

So often in homeschooling (or parenting, for that matter) it's important to have a plan, and it's also important to be willing to abandon it. My kids teach me that lesson over and over.

Craft round-up, with some homeschooling thrown in

Here we have some of what was accomplished this weekend. I started a poncho for KidV2 out of pink and purple Homespun yarn. I'm not using a pattern, so have already ripped the whole thing up and restarted. Alert knitters will note that yes, I am using hair elastics as stitch markers. KidV2 had originally said she wanted a sparkly poncho, but when we looked at yarn she decided the sparkly yarns were just a wee bit scratchy (we have tactile issues, so we're constantly balancing the need to wear sequined, glittery things with the need to wear super-soft things; it's tough, let me tell you). Homespun has some sheen, but is still soft. So far this has been my most pleasant experience using Homespun, which is a nice surprise. Usually this yarn drives me nuts, but so far I've had no problems.

A friend sent 2 pairs of purple socks for the kids(only one pair shown). She had purchased them and added this crocheted edging. It looks like she used some sort of ribbon as yarn, and had strung on some cool purple beads before she started the crochet. I'm pretty sure she found the directions somewhere online. These instantly supplanted the glow-in-the-dark socks DadV had brought home from his last business trip as Most Favored Socks.

I got my 47 inch circular needle so I can start my moebius. Woohoo. I ended up ordering it from Knit Picks . I figured their postage cost was about equivalent to the fuel cost of driving around trying to find one locally. When we lived in a small town I was very careful to support small local businesses; somehow I'm having trouble with it now that we are in a larger community. Sad but true.

I also ordered that big skein of Color Your Own merino from Knit Picks, since it didn't bump up the shipping cost on my order. I have a vague plan involving socks and a pot of dye. It will obviously have to wait until poncho and moebius are done.

And I got my copy of A First Book of Knitting for Children from The Silver Penny , which had a fantastic price on the book. She shipped it first class, too, so it was practically instant gratification. And the book is every bit as good as Knitsteel had said. The kids were instantly picking out projects to make.

Of course, I must emphasis that this is what happened over the WEEKEND. Monday the weather turned fantastic, so we did a suitable amount of homeschool **, then the kids went out to play while I cleaned the house. It was glorious to open up all the windows.

**What a suitable amount of homeschool means:

One of the squirrel family went out to gather nuts, and learned multiplication in the process. Exciting stuff! Later on we (KidV2 and I) drew a huge clockface circle on the driveway and practiced skip-counting up to 12, drawing the patterns as we went. For the record, you can make hexagon (connect the multiples of 2), a square (connect the multiples of 3), a triangle (multiples of 4) and a couple of lines (multiples of 5 and of 6; she chose 6). Then you can yell, 'That was fun! Can we do it again?", much to Mommy's surprise (I love geeky stuff like this, but I'm startled when my kids do).

We also sang our usual songs (Gaudeamus Igitur, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Naranjas Dulce). KidV1 reviewed Latina Christiana II chapters 1-5, and translated a short passage from Latin to English. We read about the Alamo in Story of the World 3, and also read a Josephina book from the American Girl series (how convenient that Story of the World is able to use those American Girl series as supplements, since my kids love them). We listened to The Easy French CD for lessons we are currently working on, and used the phrase "c'est chou vert et vert chou" more than really necessary (literally, "it's cabbage green and green cabbage", a similar US idiom is "six of one and a half dozen of the other"). KidV1 explored the wonders of indefinite pronouns (fortunately she excels at grammar, because discussing indefinite pronouns when it's gorgeous out and the window is open is hard); she also did some lessons in Singapore 4B, which she bangs out easily after years of RightStart. Somewhere in there we worked on Spelling Power; KidV1 practiced the words by spelling them out on the driveway in sidewalk chalk; she wanted to ride her scooter over the cursive letters, but hadn't written them large enough, so she walked them instead.

That's what a stripped-down day of homeschooling looks like at our house these days.

Too distracted to post

My sister-in-law passed out in a restaurant yesterday. They've got her hooked up to monitering equipment now; apparently when she passes out her heart stops. So far no one knows why this is happening.

The Things We Do for Love

Since we are doing squirrel-based math, could I please make a puppet or some sort of little squirrel toy for use during math time? Please? 'Cause it would make the math even more fun.

So I found the roving and the pipe cleaners, not to mention some acorns we had gathered last fall:



The pattern is from Making Fairy-tale Wool Animals by Angelika Wolk-Gerche. When I started out I had visions of making 4 squirrels -- one for each process. I quickly got over that. For one thing, this took most of my brown roving. Maybe I'll mess around with making up a pattern for wee little needle-felted baby squirrels, and this can be the mom. THe babies can be in a lighter brown.

And, for the record, the neighbors were out while I was sticking a little squirrel-toy in the tree for picture-taking. It was a labor-of-love for you all here at the blog, though, so I persevered. However, I didn't persevere that much, since I didn't want to make too big of a spectacle of myself; that's why the picture isn't really clear.

Since we are doing so well with our squirrel-math, I decided I could go ahead and sell RightStart A , since we won't be finishing it. (Actually, that's a lie. I wanted to buy a knitting book from a place that takes Paypal, so I was trying to think of something I could sell, and happened to think of the RightStart book, and rationalized the decision with the squirrel-math thing. It sounds so tawdry to say I sold my kids' school books to pay for knitting stuff, though. And, we really and truly don't need Level A anymore, as KidV2 is ready for Level B.)

February Homeschool Snapshot

Every morning we sing:

Gaudeamus Igitur (we've been working on this song for nearly 2 months now; even the 6 year old knows most of the Latin);
All Things Bright and Beautiful;
Naranjas Dulce (I found music for it in the Cante Cante Elefante! volume from Naturally You Can Sing ;
and sometimes we sing and dance to Sur le Pont d'Avignon.


We are memorizing:

Pansies by James Whitcomb Riley.


We are almost finished with Story of the World 3 . Hurray!

We are currently listening to Beowulf read by Seamus Heaney on CD.

Socks

Have you noticed that Interweave Knits publishes a sock pattern in every issue? I have a subscription to IK, so plenty of sock patterns are in my home library.

For that matter, most of the knitting books I own have at least one sock pattern. I own a lot of knitting books.

I also have 3 books devoted exclusively to sock knitting.

Every sock I've ever knit has been from pattern I've found for free on the Internet. Go figure.



These are Fancy Silk Sock for Women , from a book by Nancy Bush I was sorely tempted to buy. Now that I've knit a pair of socks from it, though, the urgency has passed.



Knit out of Lorna's Laces. I chose blue because I thought it would go better with jeans. For some reason it didn't occur to me that I don't wear jeans. I wear black yoga pants 95% of the time.

I did the pointier toe -- decreased down to 8 stitches, then gathered up those 8. This was a mistake. I have very flat toes; I should've stopped at 20 stitches and done kitchener stitch. I wanted to see what the pointier toe looked like, though. Considering that I probably won't be wearing them much, I decided not to rip back and rework the toe.

Side note: the cat is relieved that I finally moved from the good sunny carpet spot so he could take a nap. Poor baby, he's been up since at least 5:30 AM, which is when he came to wake me up.

Tuesday Teatime

I was walking through the grocery store yesterday afternoon and suddenly realized that I had not made A Plan for Tuesday Teatime. I happened to be in the cookie aisle, discovered a national brand on sale, bought some ... so, our menu included hydrogenated cottonseed oil and "natural flavor" (which I always assume is some excitotoxin that will do permanent neurological damage). Yum.

We also had Celestial Seasonings Rasberry Zinger tea, the preferred tea of girls who are striving to maximize the amount of PINK in their lives.

I read more fairy poems. KidV2 specifically asked for "the one about 'we don't go hunting'" (Up the airy mountain/ Down the rushy glen/We daren't go a-hunting/For fear of little men -- William Allingham). It's startling when the kids suddenly prove that they've really been listening to all of this poetry.

I also introduced Pansies, by James Whitcomb Riley. We discussed whether it would be a good choice for learning by memory. I think we're going to go with it.

I finished by reading Susan Jeffers' Brother Eagle, Sister Sky . This was a literature suggestion from Story of the World Book 3, chapter 38 American Tragedies (Trail of Tears, and Nat Turner's revolt). The kids ended up discussing water, and how important it is to keep water clean. I pointed out that the book wasn't exactly in Seattle's own words. I didn't point out that Native peoples have some real issues about the book.

School

We took the day off of school yesterday. DadV was off of work, and spent the day bringing home parts of a swingset/playground. This involved renting a large van, and all of us working together to unload the boxes into the garage. I will probably be giving a play-by-play of the building of this structure. I will try to keep the profanity mild (hey, I know how these do-it-yourself building projects go).

In January I had done a First Grade math block with KidV2. Last fall she kept insisting that she needed some tougher school work, so even though she is Kindergarten age (both by the state law and by the Waldorf standard which says that you should be in the world for 7 Easters before starting 1st grade), we took the plunge. By the end of the 3 weeks she was sobbing that she was growing up too fast. I don't think this was a concious reaction to the math, I did take it as a sign that I was right -- the best process right now is to do a block of First Grade, then take time off for Kindy "work" (fairytales -- telling, re-telling, drawing). We did do a bit of form drawing during our break, some recorder, and some knitting (although now I'm wondering how I'm teaching her to knit without A First Book of Knitting for Children , which Knitsteel mentioned in her blog; I'm so suggestable when it comes to both craft books and curriculum, so when it's craft books for my kids I'm very easy to persuade).

Last week she (KidV2) announced that she is ready for more math work. As an aside, I'd like to do writing with her, but decided that the battle isn't worth fighting given that we're not doing full-throttle First Grade anyway. So, I've spent the past few days gathering supplies for our second math block. I'm using Donna Simmon's First Grade Syllabus , and she suggests using squirrels to illustrate the math concepts. This works great for us, as we are overrun with squirrels. The problem is finding nuts in shells. Argh! Do any shops around here have them? I had bags full before we moved, but didn't feel like moving them; I dumped them all out in the green-alley behind our house for the enjoyment of THAT squirrel population. I think we're going to be reduced to pre-shelled almonds. In any event, I think she'll enjoy this block. If I were a Good Mom I'd be working on little needle-felted squirrels or little finger puppets right now instead of sitting here in my jammies. Hmmm. Getting dressed and getting going on the day rather than sitting here. Hmmm....

A package from Nancy!

Nancy Parson's lives a fairytale life, don't you think? She sells Handmaiden yarn through her Colorsong Yarns website, and all sorts of cool books through her bookstore .

This weekend brought some Silk Spun to my mailbox:



I'm planning on making a moebius wrap from it. I don't have the proper needle. Heck, I'm not even sure if I can purchase the proper needle around here -- I need a 47" circ, which aren't exactly standard issue. Also, after I handled the yarn it occured to me that it's going to be slick to work with. We shall see if this is an advantage or disadvantage.

The colorway is Dragonfly Dance.

The next package from Nancy will most likely contain books. She's got some great new books in. Two of my biggest weaknesses -- books and yarn -- and that woman sells both. It's a fairytale life she leads, I tell you.

Floffing

"Mom, can we get out some flour and do stuff with it?"

"Okay, but I don't want you floffing it around."

"Floffing? What a great word!"

"Yeah, and it's a real shame people never use it, which is mostly because I just made it up."

"Maybe we could start using it a lot. Then people would use it."

I just googled "floffing" and came up with about 90 hits. Google seemed pretty sure I really meant to type "flogging". Indeed, some of the hits seemed like they were typos for flogging.

I also checked at askoxford.com , since I don't have a complete OED lying around (and shame on me, although on the other hand I'm pretty proud that I figured out the laying/lying business in that sentence and didn't have to change the whole thing around to avoid THAT mess). No floffing go on in Oxford, it seems. Or perhaps there is, but they just don't know it.

Around here it's a combination of flying, flopping and fluff. Now you can judge for yourself if you've been floffing today.

Wallpaper

Years ago an acquaintance made a really snide comment about the area in which we now live. He said it was originally settled by the rejects and losers who were too stupid or lazy to continue the journey west.

It's always struck me as a harsh comment, yet I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I wonder if there is some inherited quirk around here that renders the locals incapable of dealing with wallpaper in a decent fashion.

I told Pat-the-neighbor that I was going to start stripping the wallpaper in the bedroom so we could paint.

"Oh, you never want to strip wallpaper! You're better off just painting right over it."

"It's vinyl. Textured viniyl. We can't paint over it."

I didn't get into the fact that painted over wallpaper gets tatty and ragged over time, and is nearly impossible to patch. I didn't mention that I'd heard stories of roaches eating all of the wallpaper paste away right from under the paper (a story that lives vividly in my imagination every time I see a wall of wallpaper). I didn't bring up that mold finds the cellulose structure of wallpaper adhesive a wonderful growth medium, and that putting oil-based paint over the wallpaper surface optimizes mold-growth conditions. No. I just left her muttering about how awful and fearsome it is to strip wallpaper.

So. I started stripping the textured vinyl wallpaper in the bedroom. The upper vinyl layer peeled off easily. Next, I soaked the under layer in hot water (Dave-the-wallpaper-guy in Ohio says to use the easiest methods first, and not resort to chemicals until you have to). The underlayer came off in sheets. Life was wonderful. I wanted to call Dave-the-wallpaper-guy to revel in my success. Dave-the-wallpaper-guy came to our rescue when we were in wallpaper-removal hell in our old house, stripping miles and miles of poorly installed paper; I knew he would appreciate a good removal job.

As I rounded the corner of the room, I noticed a weird flowery pattern appearing on the wall as I wet it. Huh? I stripped the old paper, and revealed ... another layer of wallpaper underneath. An earlier layer of wallpaper which had been painted over and then papered over.

I am stunned. I am disgusted with all of the previous owners of this house. I am disgusted with this community, which apparently consists of people too lazy and stupid to strip the old paper, let alone continue the journey west as our old acquaintance suggested.

And yet, I now am determined to triumph over this damned paper. I may not rest until every single scrap of paper in the entire house is taken down.

Fast and Slow

I'm still reading Adler's How to Read a Book . I've been pondering his statement that: "With regard to rates of reading, then, the ideal is not merely to be able to read faster, but to be able to read at different speeds -- and to know when the different speeds are appropriate."

Ah. Isn't that one of life's great questions? When ARE different speeds appropriate, be it knitting, reading, walking, talking, singing....

I remember grade school arithmetic. I remember that the teacher would write an example of some new concept on the board, such as multiplying fractions. I would instantly grasp the concept, and scurry through my work. Then I'd sit and wait for the rest of the class to catch up. I don't think going more slowly would've been a great help. I was going at the appropriate pace for my learning ability. But the one-size-fits-all classroom didn't accomodate that. That's one of the reasons we homeschool -- so we can choose our speed. I'll admit that I sometimes choose the wrong speed. I'll think the kids have quickly learned a concept, and later discover that they really don't get it. Other times they speed ahead of me, leaving me with a cool explanatory lesson plan and no one needing an explanation. But overall, it's so wonderful to set our own speed.

And knitting? Some knitting really isn't worth lingering over, let's be honest. Last summer I wanted to stage my living room when our house was on the market; I wanted a new white throw for the couch. I whipped one up in a weekend. Definitely not worth knitting slowly. Now KidV2 wants a poncho. A pink and sparkly poncho. A pink and sparkly poncho she can wear while out playing and climbing trees. Definitely not a garment in which I shall invest my heart, soul, and oodles of time (I'm sure it will feel like it's taking forever, though, because hot pink, sparkly, washable, cheap yarn pretty much says "icky to knit with" to me, the sort of thing the feels like knitting purgatory). However, I've knit many things that have been satisfyingly slow -- inches of lace slowly emerging from my needles as though by magic. It really boils down to who is my intended audience. Is it someone who will appreciate the time the item took?

I'm not ending with a big over-arching statement to roll all of this post together. No profound summary. That would entail writing slowly. I'm slapping this out as fast as my fingers will type. I'm not sure that's what blogging should be about, this willy-nilly tumble of half-thought thoughts. I know that I tend to read other blogs quickly. Perhaps it would be more satisfying to linger over both the reading and the writing. I'll be thinking about that for the next few days. As quickly as I write and talk and do arithmetic, I tend to think very slowly.

Why you are glad we didn't move to YOUR town

Because we would put embarassing signs in your yard.

And then we'd post pictures of them on the Internet so the entire world would see them.

Tuesday Teatime

We took a trip to Whole Foods in the morning to get some flaxseed oil and cod liver oil (we're all about essential fatty acids here), so we got some treats while shopping.

First off, Country Choice Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies (organic, wheat free, no hydrogenated oils). Next, we found some red licorice hearts in the bulk food aisle; KidV1 kept asking why they had a big ol' NATURAL label when the first ingredient was corn syrup ("corn syrup is natural"; "yeah, well, it doesn't occur in nature"; we'll talk about an-natural ingredients later, I guess).

Then we hit the dairy aisle and discussed getting some chocolate milk. Let me tell you, we've had some health-food store chocolate milk that really tasted ... like it came from a health food store, you know what I mean? After great deliberation we decided to try Trader's Point Creamery . Oh. My. You've gotta try this stuff. Really. Go to the website here and see if they sell it in your area. It's like the best chocolate ice cream ever, but in liquid form.

Anyway, we made it home with our purchases, dealt with the plumbers' visit (this is the 3rd Tuesday in a row we've had trades people coming over to work on something; they're starting to feel like family and I should invite them to teatime), finally ate lunch around 1:30 and the FINALLY had our Valentine's Tea.

Which was pretty anti-climatic at this point. We used a heart-shaped beeswax candle I had made during our great Candlemas candle-dipping adventure (I had use a cookie cutter as a mold). I read The Owl and the Pussycat , then some other random poems. We drank our chocolate milk (KidV2 didn't like it), ate our cookies (KidV2 didn't like them), and the kids ate all the licorice hearts. They then went outside to rollerblade in the driveway while I kept pouring myself cups of chocolate milk. Mmmmmm.

Forecast

We predict plenty of homemade Valentine's today.



Showers of glitter, becoming heavy at times. Accumulation may reach all the way up the stairs.

Later, expect plenty of melting chocolate, forming truffles and chocolate-covered pecans.

In view of this forecast, school has been cancelled.

(An aside: My new criteria for a vacuum cleaner is "removes glitter from carpet". This is not something Consumer Reports includes in their ratings. Shame on them.)

Anyone else see a trend?

You are plastic.
Futuristic, milky, and silky, you are willing to go

where no crafter has gone before. You can do

just about anything, with strength agility,

and pretty colors to boot! While you are

good at slipping and sliding out of sticky

situations, remember to stay where and when

you are needed. Don't overdo it on star

gazing when there's earthbound knitting to be

done!


What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, there are 2 trends here. The first is that whenever Olive Oyl does one of these little quizzes I just gotta try it too. The other is that I seem to consistently end up as something fairly unpopular. Only 6% of the people taking this quiz came up as plastic.

Monday Memories

Monday Memories: Did I ever tell you about My College Roommate My freshman year I was assigned to a suite in the dorm. Several girls who knew each other had signed up together to live in the suite; I was thrown in randomly. The most striking member of the group was Leigh Ann. She was a Navy brat, which something I had never even heard of before that moment. She was part Hungarian. She had lived in Taiwan (I had travelled overseas, knew people all over the world, but the idea of a US kid living in Taiwan stuck me as incredibly exotic). She was witty and articulate. We had virtually nothing in common. Yet, within weeks we were finishing each others' sentences. We ended up rooming together for 4 years. The others went their separate ways, but we stuck together through thick and thin. One of my fondest memories is from junior year. I had a long, tedious landscaping design project due. It involved hours of drafting, drawing, lettering. Mind-numbing work. Leigh Ann was in a lit class, and had been assigned House of Mirth . She read most of the book aloud to me while I drew. Amazing. At the time I had only an inkling of the fortitude it took to read long, long passages aloud, sitting for hours, reading, reading, reading while the listener seems to be going about their business. Now that I am a mother of 2 voracious listeners I realize how much work it is (and I thank God for audio books from the library). Eventually Leigh Ann announced, "Listen, I've got to finish reading this for class. You'll have to read the rest yourself." But it was impossible to read it to myself; I needed her voice to bring the characters to life. To this day I can remember precisely how she pronounced "Lily". I've never finished reading the book. Dear Leigh Ann, your birthday was just a few days ago, and I still haven't gotten around to sending a card. But I've been thinking about you and wishing you many happy returns of the day. Links to other Monday Memories    (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below)

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He just said those words I've been longing to hear...

"V'you got anything you wanna get from Amazon so we can get the free shipping price?"

Be still my heart. I must go sort through 117 items on my wishlist for a book to add to Schelling's Strategy of Conflict already in our shopping cart.

Form Follows Function

Really, this seems to me to be an excellent example of form follows function. We need a way to watch the cat across the street. We open the blinds, we place a chair before the window, et voila!



The blankets are useable on the bed at night, or on the chair during the day.

The concept of form follows function was pounded into our heads in landscaping classes. It appealed to my Bauhaus tendencies. Reading interior decorating books lately, I've discovered that it is apparently considered optional by many popular contemporary decorators. This explains why I just don't "get" a lot of contemporary interior decor.

It also seems to be optional in current knitwear design.

So far today we have whipped through singing, Latin, French, spelling, grammar (nominative and objective case pronouns, during which we had to resort to the ol' "well, since you can't figure it out in English, how would you figure it out in Latin?"). KidV1 has been reading aloud to KidV2 (Amber Brown books) and has lured her into a game of Scrabble Jr. I have lifted weights. Later we will go to homeschool swim and drop by the library. It's one of the Golden Days of Homeschooling, the kind I think all the cool moms have on a regular basis, and it's happening in my house right now !

Dreams

Last night I dreamt that I was 12 hours from attaining a BS. In the dream I was going to go back to school part time for 2 semesters to finish up my degree. I was going to take an architectural drafting course each semester, and I really, really, really wanted to take Latin. The text was going to be Henle, and I was eager to go purchase it so I could begin memorizing declensions before the semester began.

Almost a nightmare, eh?

For the record, I already have a BS. I took courses in landscape architecture, and sometimes fantasize about doing more of that type of drafting and design. But I never, never, never wanted to take Latin.

Gratuitous knitting content in honor of the Knitting Olympics

I'm not participating, but this is what I'll be knitting during the time frame.

I decided not to participate for several reasons.

First, I've been knitting longer than some of the knitters involved have been breathing. Yep, I was knitting back when you were a twinkle in your parents' eyes. "Is that because you started knitting at an early age, or are you just plain OLD?" Yes to both. One does not become a Knitting Goddess overnight, you know. So, the point is, I've already knit to insane deadlines. I've already knit all manner of things: lace, cables, intarsia, felted (on purpose and by accident). I've designed. I've probably forgotten more of my knitting projects than I remember at this point. The K.O. just seemed like more of the same.

Next, it would be incredibly self-indulgent. I'd looooove to hide away with my knitting while the kids unschool themselves for a while. Heck, we could even try un-parenting! And meals? Well, there's a Panera's just a couple of miles away, and there are sidewalks and only one really busy intersection -- if they start early they could make it there by lunchtime. See how I'm falling down this rabbit hole of temptation?

Finally, if everyone's knitting like crazy, who is going to have time to cheer on the teams? My favorite group is Team Wales "The Jamaican Bobsledders of the Knitting World". But my favorite button is Sara's in Classical Greek (alas, I haven't figured out how to get it on here; it is soooo cool).

Unrelated note: I'm not sure what that is sprouting next to the sock. I think it looks like a hyacinth, don't you? That's the thrill of moving in the fall -- you have no idea what will sprout up in the spring. That red mulch has got to go, though.

Pausing for a moment to sort out this stack of books

Please bear with me as I try to figure out what's where.

Current active reading:

Tom Brown's Field Guide: City and Suburban Survival next to the bed.

Food as Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa in kitchen on counter; I stand eating brownies while I read it.

Stuff I was actively reading, but it's starting to get buried in other books and knitting:

How to Read a Book by Adler; shouldn't I finish this before reading some of the others? Nah, most of the stuff I'm reading is relatively fluffy. I'll need to finish this before tackling something weightier, though.

The Way of the Scout by Tom Brown. Checked out the library to occupy myself until the field guide came from Amazon. I may return this and try it again later.

Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Ehrman. Mostly read on Sundays when I need to recover from various comments and situations at church.

Creativity in Education by Rene Querido. I'm reading this for an online book discussion which covers one chapter per week. The book discussion is held by Donna Simmons on her yahoo group.

Then there are piles of books I was reading back before we moved. Books I never finished, squirreled away here and there, sort of like the unfinished objects a knitter has tucked into various nooks and crannies. Books I purchased meaning to read, but haven't had time to start. And books I'm actively using (like The Writer's Jungle or Long Lean and Strong or the pile of kundalini yoga books).

I need to find a nice neat way to keep track of all of this. Really.

Tuesday Teatime

Menu: We had freshly made brownies to eat. Beverages were a choice of Celestial Seasoning Raspberry Zinger or milk (current household selections are rice milk, cow's milk, coconut milk) served in a china teacup.

Our poetry book of choice was Fairyland in Art and Poetry by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I read the first few poems, and then KidV1 announced that that was enough -- too much poetry at once was hard to digest. Also, I think the brownies were sending us all into glycemic chock. Plus they wanted to get back to listening to the Matilda book-on-CD they had just checked out of the library.

The Fairyland book does contain our current memory verse, and we all recited it together:

"Where the bee sucks, there suck I.
In a cowslip's bell I lie.
There I couch, when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily....
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

KidV2 had been practicing the poem earlier in the day. It's a tough one for her, containing odd word patterns (also containing correct use of the word "lie" so she will have that blazed into her memory; whereas my own childhood was corrupted by Bob Dylan singing "Lay Lady Lay", which plummeted me into a lifetime of incorrect use of lay and lie). She had to summon up enormous energy to remember each phrase...such energy that the words BURST out of her, and she was reciting at FULL VOLUME.

Today is not going as expected...

Plumbers came first thing in the morning. I thought they'd probably ring the bell just as we were doing something interesting, so we did nothing in particular.

They were here to fix 3 faucets. All 3 had problems with the cartridge (I now know about cartridges and Moen faucets and all sorts of cool plumbing stuff). The home warranty company was willing to have the plumbers fix 2 of the 3. I spent much of the morning on the phone with the company discussing the general silliness of this stance, given that all 3 have the same problem.

So, the morning passed with very little homeschool occurring. It seemed the only way to redeem the day was to go to the library (this is my fix for most ills in life). When we arrived a couple was loading their Newfoundland dog into their car. They graciously got the dog back out so we could see it -- the man explained the differences between their dog and Seaman of Lewis and Clark fame. Amazing.

We then dropped off about 40 library books, and picked out about 20 more. We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home to pick up something fun for Tuesday Teatime, but a fight errupted in the back seat regarding who was knocking over whose books. We don't need more cup holders in our vehicle, we need book holders. Then the box of modelling beeswax fell all over the floor (why do we have an open box of modelling beeswax in here? Didn't I ask that we NOT bring it, since I didn't want to clean it up when it dumped all over?).

Trader Joe's was suddenly crossed off our list of things-to-do, we got back in the car amid tears, came home, cleaned up the wax, brought in all the books (at that point I was wearing a pair of sunglasses off of a Barbie which barely fit over my nostrils), popped in CD 1 of the Matilda book-on-CD, I mixed up some brownies from scratch.

Things we haven't done: any of the songs we usually sing, grammar, French, spelling, fairy tale time, form drawing, weather tree, science. I also haven't lifted weights, cleaned the bathrooms, or done any of the vacuuming. If we get to Tuesday Teatime I will report on it later.

I'm surprisingly calm about this. It must be a function of homeschooling for several years. I have finally, after 5 years, gotten over the idea that I can micromanage our days. All I can do is set a general direction.

Monday Memories

Monday Memories: Did I ever tell you about Our Brush With Fame …. Back when VKid1 was 4 and VKid2 was just a few months old we attended church at 8AM on Sundays, followed by Sunday School. I was usually in a haze of sleep-deprivation, having been up much of the night with the baby. Because of this, I really don't recall much of what happened in that church. I do recall, though, one Sunday morning when we were trying to corrall the kids into coats. The high school youth had apparently had something going on that involved helium balloons, because one of the guys -- Ben Roethlisberger -- was standing there in the entrance with a balloon in his hand. He saw VKid1 standing there, and said, "Would you like this balloon?" She was delighted, of course. I was delighted, too, because I think anyone who does something nice for my kids is a wonderful human being. Other than that, Ben Roethlisberger was barely a blip on my personal radar screen. His parents were nice, his sister was sweet, but he was some high school senior who played football, a sport I really have no interest in whatsoever. These days I pay attention (some) to the football games in which he plays. Mostly because I like his parents, and because he did something nice for one of my kids. Links to other Monday Memories (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below)

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Candlemas: another lumpy experience

Yes, the kids thought it would be fun to make candles for Candlemas, and, yes, they wanted to dip them. Ummm, I know nothing about dipping candles. Nothing. But, who am I to let that stand in my way? I mean, really, someday I need to write a Complete Idiot's Guide to Homeschooling in which the truly idiotic parts will be drawn directly from experience.

Having read many websites about candlemaking, we got some beeswax and cotton wick from Hobby Lobby. I found a soup can that seemed serviceable. I filled a pot with water, put some canning lid rings in it (to hold the can up from the bottom of the pan), put the soup can in, and started filling the can with chunks of beeswax (pried off the bar with a Craftsman screwdriver, which have a lifelong replacement guarantee, although I'm not sure that extends to issues like "covered with blobs of wax"). I was very cautious, not wanting to overheat the wax. Very cautious. So cautious the wax didn't melt. I'm standing there with all sorts of safety equipment (pan lids and heavy towels to smother any flames, cold water to douse any burned skin), and I'm only heating the wax to "pliable" stage, as though we're going to do some beeswax modelling.

After about an hour and a half of this, I finally got over my fear of igniting the entire kitchen and Turned Up The Heat. Okay, the wax finally started getting melty. I tied wick onto dowels, ready to dip. I pictured kids joyfully dipping candles there on the stovetop, and it hit me -- they were going to drip wax all over the stove top. I hate this stove top (which is a smooth top), but I wasn't planning on replacing it just yet. Soooo, I called to the kids to bring over the little table. I figured if I left the can in the pot of hot water the heat of the water would keep the wax liquid (just about every set of directions I had read mentioned using some sort of hot plate; guess what, they're right, but I don't own one and it didn't seem to be the best moment to run out and buy one).

For the record, the wax DID drip all over. All over the pot of water, which was a good Farberware pot. I have an icky old pot to use for messy things, but didn't think to use it. If you're ever in this position (surely no one else is this mindless, though) you can scrape off most of the wax with your fingernail you can use canola oil to clean off the residue. And I'm so proud to say that I resisted the temptation to dump all the (waxy) water down the sink where it would clog the pipes; I dumped it outside on some gravel.

The kids had a great time dipping. We counted 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 to get a dipping rhythm going. They would dip their candles in the hot wax, then in the cold water, then back to the hot wax. When the level in the can got too low to dip, I poured the remainder in a couple of cookie cutters I had coated with vaseline.

I think the kids are expecting this to be an annual event. I wonder how many years it will take until I get the hang of it.



We ate dinner by candlelight last night. The candles are lumpy, but we thought they were beautiful.

Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxslips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

Thanks to Reya for the idea of posting.

Now playing inside my head

Sur le Pont d'Avignon,
On y danse, on y danse,
Sur le Pont d'Avignon,
On y danse, tout en rond.

Except the only line I can remember is "sur le Pont d'Avignon", so I mentally fill in "hum de hmm hmm, hum de hmm hmm" for the rest.

It's in Raffi's voice. I'm not sure if I've ever heard Raffi sing this song, but I have his voice in my head nonetheless.

This has been going on all day.

Tuesday Teatime

Yesterday got off to an inauspicious start. We had a gas leak in the main line coming into the house. Mr. Heating-Cooling Repairman came and sprayed soap on the main valve, where it (the soap) bubbled up like a giant spit bubble, indicating a leak. He set about replacing it, which took 2.5 hours. We didn't vacate the house since the leak was so small and intermittant; as a matter of fact, it was only noticeable if you climbed on a chair and removed the basement ceiling tile near the valve while the furnace was running (as to why we happened to be on chairs with our heads in the ceiling and discovered this fact, well, that's another story). I did spend a good deal of the morning explaining to VKid2 that we weren't going to freeze to death just because the gas was turned off for a couple of hours, and also explaining how a hot water heater works.

Anyway, after Mr. Repairman left with our $75 (the deductible on our home warranty) and the cat came down from the basement ceiling (which is where he hides whenever Scary Contractors come into the house; too bad this particular Scary Contractor was messing with the basement ceiling) we zipped to Hobby Lobby to purchase some items for future projects.

Arriving home, I set out to make cinnamon scones for Tuesday Teatime. I had tried making scones once many, many years ago. It was not a successful venture; I think Mom quietly dumped the entire batch out in the woods behind our house where small woodland creatures used them to build a miniature Stonehenge (and, yes, Mom cracked some joke about the Stone of Scone). Anyway, I was sure this time would be different because I read on the Internet that farmer's wives would whip up a batch of scones as a quick, hearty meal after a hard day's work. Hah! I gathered the ingredients (not easy, since I couldn't find the baking powder; fortunately, VKid1 remembered using it at Christmas and was quite sure we hadn't used it all up, so I perservered with clearing out the cupboard and eventually found it). I began mixing. Then I realized the instructions contained the dreaded phrase "cut in butter". Oh no! I have no butter-cutting-in tools in my kitchen! What would intrepid British farm wives do? I used a couple of dinner knives. The results were ... lumpy. I shaped it into an 8 inch (lumpy) round loaf, as per instructions, and divided into 8 (lumpy) wedges.

Then I set about making faux clotted cream. Let's just say this didn't work, and leave it at that. The kids will have to travel to England someday to have a proper tea with fresh scones, clotted cream, and strawberries.

The scones did taste pretty good, and the texture was lumpy, yet light. We had Twinings English Breakfast decaf served with sugar and milk -- no lemons this week! I couldn't find the creamer, so had to make do with a measuring cup.

We once again read A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard. This time we made it through the entire book, although the cat jumped up on the table right after I read The King of Cats Orders an Early Breakfast -- very appropriate, but very startling. We managed to shoo him off before he knocked over the candle.

In the evening VDad asked VKid2 what she had done that day. She told him we had an English tea with p-scons. It sounded like a cross between "pecan" and "scone" (which I pronounce to rhyme with John). P-scons. I like that.