Life Changing News

Not sure if it's the allergy medicine kicking in or if the news is finally sinking in. This kind of news just is not letting me sleep.
My youngest stepdaughter came over last night with her boyfriend. I knew something was up when they just had to come over but they only had a couple hours to spend with us. When you have an hour drive, you tend to want to make it when you have a whole day to spend there. She had called me at noon but they didn't arrive till after 6pm or so. Just an ordinary evening in December. Christmas movies on the tv, casserole for dinner, pie for dessert, and Christmas crafts to try out. After all that, she asked us to sit down. At that point only a few options come into your head. She stumbled on words for a bit but then finally said it.

 "You're going to be Grandparents".

Excitement raced through my body. I have two stepdaughters and the oldest is 22. So I have been waiting for this to happen for a while. It's definitely a shock when the soon-to-be 17 year old tells you the news first. I was hoping my younger one would be done with school first. I guess God has other plans. The worry is really starting to sink in though. Which is why I am up at 5am. My mother had me when she was very young and it was an awful experience for her. My husband had a child when he was very young and he too had an awful experience. But I truly believe that those awful experiences where because they were with the wrong people. If you are not completely in love, having a child is very difficult. That is one thing I do not worry about. I know those two are completely in love. It's just going to be very hard to juggle school and work.

And here I thought getting rid of all my baby stuff was going to get me pregnant, I never imagined it would rub off on the girls.

Vegan, Nut Free Peppermint Bark

I woke up at 4 am and could not go back to sleep. We needed bread so I went to my local open 24 hour grocery store. While I was there, looking at all the holiday stuff, I saw the candy canes and was like, Why not? So I bought a pack of traditional red and white candy canes along with 2 bags of vegan & nut-free chocolate chips. I went home and started making peppermint bark. So easy and so good!
Take the candy canes out of the wrapping, put them in a sandwich bag (3 or 4 at a time). I use a meat tenderizer (vegans use them too) and pound out all the canes till they are small pieces. Melt the chocolate. Everyone melts chocolate different so I suggest you YouTube it if you are new to melting chocolate. Once all the chocolate is melted, mix in all the candy came pieces. Mix till you don't see the red and white, and till there is no more smooth chocolate. Once you have your chunky mixture, pour onto a cookie sheet line with parchment paper. You can also scoop into muffin papers or foil. Place in the fridge till hard. Break apart and enjoy.

Autumn 2012

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Purging

So I've taken on the task of going through Wednesdays toys and getting rid of some of them. Trying! Purging is one of the hardest things for me to do. I hate getting rid of things. When I was a child and I didn't like a toy, when I would ask if I could get rid of it my mother would insist I keep it. It was always something like, "But your aunt bought you that" or "That was expensive" or something of that sort that would make me feel guilty for even considering getting rid of it. I find myself having those same feelings towards my daughters things. I have a crazy good memory for where, when, and how much I bought something for.
It's that same reason as to why I cannot watch an episode of 'Hoarders'. I feel sympathy for them, I can relate. The anxiety from seeing something if value to you being taken away. It's not like these things have any large cash value, but when you have a child, you remember them getting these things and enjoying them. And now my daughter is outgrowing them, and getting so big. Where did my little toddler go? These things we have taking space in our house are a gateway to all these precious memories and the fear is that once the item is gone, there go the memories along with them. It's just sad how fast time goes.

The Merida Wig

For those of you that do not know who Merida is, she is the new princess from Disney's 'Brave' movie. I wanted to make a yarn wig because I've always wanted to do that. Plus I figured with the movies popularity that there would be a lot of 'Merida's walking around on Halloween night. I wanted my daughter to stand out a little bit. I never dreamed that this project would take so long! You can click on pictures to enlarge them. Blogger hates me and would not let me put them straight. I used Lion Brand Yarn in DaVinvi super bulky wool and acrylic mix in the dark red shades. Here is their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LionBrandYarns?ref=stream

First I bought a hat, sewed the front up to allow for her face.

Then I weaved yarn in a horizontal weave pattern.

I sewed yarn to the wig in vertical strips.

back of hat/wig. I basically made it so I could loop strands in wherever I needed them.

The wig with hair, with most of the hair. This is 4 yarn balls in, I ended up needing 6 altogether.

Curled it with perm rods, I used 7 different sizes but the smaller sizes worked best. Next time I will not use the bigger rods.

Soaked it in water all night. If you just spray it down it doesn't get wet enough to hold the water in.

Baked it in the oven at 200 degrees for 3 hours. It was still not dry, I was kind of in a rush to finish this before her Halloween party. 

Put it a bag and dryer for an hour. I was desperate and I know this sounds crazy. I filled the dryer with dry towels to help it dry and to protect the rods. I made sure it was on delicate and low heat. I also checked it about every 10 minutes.

The hood dryer was too small. Hahaha.

The finished wig. It turned out great!

Also some pictures of it in action. I did put an elastic strap under her chin to make it fit well. The Winter hat did start to stretch after all that water and drying.

Sheep

I recently visited a family farm. One of those family owned ones with strawberry picking in the spring and a pumpkin patch in the fall. They also have local produce as well as hay mazes and fun thing for the kids.
When we arrived there was a homeschool group there as well. First off I want to say that I have nothing against homeschooling. I think it's totally cool and I have many friends that homeschool or plan to homeschool. That being said, I also feel it is a huge responsibility to be accurate in what you teach your child since you're are their teacher.
This is where the sheep come in. I usually refrain from petting zoos and farms because I do not agree with some farming practices when it comes to the treatment of animals. I have done a good amount if research on all animals used in farms versus their life in the wild. I try to explain some of that to my child when we visit these farms.
This farm had what would be considered farm pets. They had a cage smaller than my bedroom that housed one small horse, two sheep and three ducks. They had the horse on a leash with a saddle, and the sheep had collars and leashes. Basically the owners would get one out at a time for visitors to pet or feed. The horse would give small children rides.
Ok, the sheep. I'm standing there with my daughter next to one of the homeschooling ladies and her daughter. We watched by the cage as the owner walked in to get the sheep out. The sheep noticed this and started darting all over the place trying not to get caught. That's when I heard the little girl next to me say, "Mommy, those sheep are dumb." Here I am thinking how can you think these animals are dumb?? They obviously don't want to be pet by strangers while tied on a leash. That's when I hear the mother answer her with, "Yes, sheep are very dumb animals."
Seriously??? Is this what the world has come to? Where we teach our child that animals are dumb and deserve to be treated like this? Forced to be tied up and live in a 10' by 10' cage? And if they don't like it then they are considered dumb.

Tessellation / Wednesday Won!!

So we've been participating in the Leap Frog online summer camp. Each week they have a photo contest in which you may submit up to 3 photos each week. The photo must include your child with their project. The first week, I failed to remember to submit a photo on time. The second week we submitted our 3 photos but we were outshined by two adorable little boys and their birdhouses. This week I was determined. It was puzzle week filled with worksheets. So as the photos started popping up of dozens of beautiful children and their worksheets, I knew we needed to do something bigger. There was a project that looked different and difficult and in my mind meant that if we could pull it off we had a good chance at winning. And the project began!

Tessellation. A Tessellation is a shape that fits together, like a pattern or puzzle. The activity had two Tessellations that you could choose from, one being a fish and one a bird. Or you could make your own. Challenge excepted! Wednesday's favorite animal at the zoo is the giraffe and I thought, hey, long neck, long legs, I can figure something out. It had to be measured perfectly so that they all fit together perfectly. Once I made the pattern piece, Wednesday said that it could be a horse, and so the idea of making multiple animals from this one design was born. With the pattern I then traced it onto a poster board size piece of paper. By this time we are 3 days into this project. After the paper was full we then put faces and legs on all the animals. It was so much fun to figure out all the animals we could make. There are giraffes, zebras, horses, bunnies, monkeys, pigs, snakes, fish, and random mixed up animals. Oh and Wednesday's favorite animal, the spotted doggie on the bottom. After the animals were done with crayon, she then used watercolor to paint them. It took about 2 hours to paint it all. When it was all finished I snapped a picture and submitted it. We checked today and she won!!!! It's great to be able to show her that hard work pays off. One full week of putting together a fun project and now she will receive 3 games for her Leap Pad! I'm so proud of her for being so imaginative and sticking with it until it was finished!

Original Pattern.

Drawing the Animals

Painting

Painting

Painting the last one.

Her winning picture!

Lemonade Stand

We did a lemonade stand today. Wednesday has been wanting to do this for so long. I put the word out that I was having one to see if any friends wanted to join. Sure enough one of my BFFs wanted to join with her daughter. I was so thankful to include Christina in this. She is a little older than Wednesday, which helped so much. They enjoyed making money. Even though I spent a pretty penny on all the essentials, it was good for them to learn responsibility. Plus Christina learned some math skills as well.

 

 Our Lemonade sign

  

 Our pop sign, we sold just as much pop as we did lemonade.

Our stand before we got the unbrella table out. 

 

 

Wednesday and Christina

 

 Taste test.

 

 Teamwork, these two work so well together.

Making Lemonade

I love lemonade! You would be surprised at how something as simple as making lemonade can be a learning and bonding experience. Have you ever been to a grocery store that has those child size carts? Do you have a child that hates sitting a cart or likes to run away when you go grocery shopping? Those child size carts are a great invention! My daughter has been asking to make lemonade for a week or so. I decided to make this a project. I took her to the store with the small carts and gave her a list.
Lemons
Sugar
Water
Sounds basic, right? Since we had time I had her find the items and put them in the cart. When we had found them all, we went to the self check out where I had her scan and bag the items. The cashier lady was so impressed that gave her 2 stickers. She then pushed the cart to the car, and loaded the trunk.
Later we made the lemonade. Making it was more of a joint effort. And it turned out delicious.

Bird house craft

This summer we are participating in the leapfrog summer camp. This week was all about caring for animals. Not only is there dozens of print out worksheets to do, there is at least one craft each week. This week we decided to do the birdhouse craft. We happened to have everything needed already. I recommend just using things that you already have.
What you will need:
Milk carton (a cardboard type carton works best, soy milk, orange juice...)
Scissors
Stick (we found a stick outside)
Paints, crayons, markers, construction paper, glue, or whatever you want to decorate you birdhouse with.
Twine or wire
Basically, cut a hole that a bird can fit through. Put the stick below the hole and decorate. Some can add a roof, or a window. This is largely up to your imagination.
What I did was I cut the hole, added the stick and painted it all white a day in advance. We used poster paint. I laid a drop cloth down on our outdoor table and let her go to town. She asked me to add a bird and a window and the words "Bird's Inn". We let it dry outside for a few hours and we hung it in one of our trees. Since I used wire for the hanging part I was able to carry a ladder outside and let her hang it. I think she was very proud of that project.

Science projects

Talk about a full schedule. Some people might think I overload my child. But the fact of the matter is that all the summer programs are only available in June and July.
This week she had science camp for four days, 3 hours a day. They did all kinds of things. One of which was to stick a daisy in water with coloring in it to see what would happen. Interestingly enough even I learned something. Wednesday has a thing for mixing colors, so she mixed what looked like all the colors to make black. So of course she was waiting for a black flower to emerge... Well by day four she had a flower with blue stripes and yellow spots. The flower had only picked up random pigments. So, if you ever do this experiment at home I encourage you to mix some colors. I find that a lot more interesting then putting a flower in red water and seeing it turn red. Sadly I did not get a picture of it because by the time it was to be taken home it had broke its stem.
Also in science camp they made volcano. I must share with you this project! Usually when you think of a homemade volcano you think of paper mâché. This was much simpler.
You'll need:
Plastic bottle ( we used a small one)
A strong paper plate
A large bowl
Flour
Water
Cocoa powder
Baking soda
Vinegar
Put the plastic bottle in the middle of the plate. In a bowl mix the flour and water until its a nice dough. Form the dough around the bottle, leaving the hole of the bottle open. After it looks like a mountain then sprinkle some cocoa powder on it for color. Because of the heat I set it outside and once it's dry it's time for eruption! I put a good amount of baking soda on the bottle (the more baking soda the bigger the eruption). Put the vinegar in a container that your child can use to pour it in the bottle. Encourage them to pour it all in at once, pouring it slowly will cause it to erupt inside of the bottle and that is not fun. When it's done, you can pour it out, rinse it out and do it again.
Note: it does not need to be dry to erupt it, some children hate to wait and that's fine. Just know that it will be much more messy, but it should not hurt the volcano.

Frog craft

Since I sign my daughter up for every possible learning class, we tend to do a lot of crafts. Here is a simple one.

What you will need:
* a paper plate
* green paint (marker or crayon)
* green paper (or a paper colored green)
* googly eyes ( or make your own eyes)
* red or pink skinny balloon
* stapler, tape, and/or glue

This is how you make it:
Take the paper plate and have them paint it green. While they are doing that, cut out two arms with hands and two legs with webbed feet. Once the painting is done, glue on the eyes. (if the paint is still wet, the eyes may stick to the paint) Attach the arms and legs to the frog. Staple the tongue to the frog. And done!

Berry picking

I've been noticing lately that mulberries are ripening. One of my many great memories from childhood is berry picking. Wether it was mulberries, strawberries, gooseberries ... It doesn't matter. I do remember that the most fun way is to pick wild berries. The thrill of the hunt as you will. My mother was a master of free adventures.
Today, after I picked Wednesday up from camp, she was asking to go to the park and have fun. I was dreading this request because today is extremely hot and muggy. After we had a snack, it came to me. Berry picking! There's a local park that has wild blackberry bushes scattered throughout the paved trails. So I grabbed a basket and a small food container and we were off to hunt berries. We were able to almost fill our container.
Now, you may be asking, isn't a pint of blackberries only a couple of bucks? Yes, it is. But that is not the point. The point is to teach your children where your food comes from. There is something rewarding about knowing where your food comes from and that you went there and got it yourself. Plus it is a very productive adventure that cost me nothing.