And then we moved again...

Ugh sorry about that giant picture at the top of the blog. I need to install a photo editing program to get it to the right size and that means finding where I put it when we moved. Yes, we moved again! Hopefully, this time, we are staying put. We have been on one end of the country to another. I like it out here in Cali though. Beach is close by, lots going on. Of course that means there are a lot of people and its ridiculously expensive but its ok.

Our days now consist of 3 big kids going to school, me and little guy at home watching lots of tv. Haha! I'm trying to get some sort of something going on for his learning. He is a pretty smart little guy. I took him to story time at the library for the first time on Wednesday. Today we were driving by and he threw up his hand and then started clapping and said, "yay! storytime!". Guess he liked it! I couldn't believe he recognized it. It was the other side of the building too.

Our pet situation has changed a lot too. Sparkles disappeared, Token died (horrible), we now have a new little dog. He is a little Chihuahua named Poncho. He is very sweet but he is young and taking care of him and the 2 year old can be a challenge. They both are always into trouble and always wanting on my lap.

We have had a lot of change and I think we're still adjusting. I hope to get back into all the things I used to enjoy now that we are settling in.

The barn

Cole and I did a farm unit for our homeschool and I realized we had no play barn. At first I though I might build one out of wood but all my attempts of woodworking in the past have been big failures.  So taking inspiration from www.ikatbag.com I figured I'd build one out of  a cardboard box! It just so happened I had a perfect box for it and inspiration struck as we tried to figure out how to make it look like a barn. Why red duct tape of course! A perfect medium for a 6 year-old. Then we used sticky foam for the trim. It turned out really cute. The baby likes it more than Cole but he doesn't  like much if it isn't a video game. We've also make some cute animals to go with that I'll have to share in a later post.

Pretend

Lets pretend that it hasn't been years since I've written and I'll pretend that someone reads this. Ok? Great!

It reminds me of my childhood journals. I can never quite get over the fact that I'm basically talking to myself and then I wouldn't write for months.  Its really worse in a blog. Blogs are suppose to be read. I guess that I can sort of force my family to read but the things I want to post about aren't really that interesting to them. So I don't know, I guess the best I can do is pretend. I've always been good at that anyway.

Wonder

There is nothing more fulfilling to me than experiencing the wonder of my children. The other day one of the kids spotted a hot air balloon at the park and we all took off running to catch it taking off. I think the look on Cole's face says it all.

Our week... in pictures (and a few words)

Made a shirt...

Seriously, I think this kid is going to be a model. I don't know how he learned to strike a pose but he is a pro.

Cute, sweet, wonderful brothers bonding over video games.
Strawberry picking and jam making. (Forgot my camera for the actual picking)


Playing in the basement with mom. Cole learned how to use stencils and insisted on wearing his favorite piece of mom's fabric wrapped around him. Sagan discovered the record player and mom's extensive collection of Beatles, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan albums.

What I do when I don't have tv

We got rid of cable last week. This may now seem a big deal for some but for me its monumental. Since birth I have been a tv on at all times kinda girl. So its been quite an adjustment but in the end, I know its for everyone's good. Anyway, to answer the question of how I've been filling my time, I make things. Right now, I've been making dolls! The first picture is a set I made for a trade. I'm getting some yummy yarn and I made her some little (4 inch) boyish dolls: a knight, a jedi, and Robin Hood.
Then, I crafted myself into a frenzy making things for my soon-to-be born niece. Not only did I make her a diaper bag and booties but I just had to make her a doll. I bought these dolls already partially made. The heads and bodies were made I just had to put them together and make their faces and hair.
I think she turned out so cute! I love her! I later decided I must also make her a hat and since it was getting a bit crazy I think I will save the doll for her first birthday. I had to box her up because Cole couldn't keep his hands off of her even though he has 3 mama-made dolls of his own.

My next project is scrappy placemats. Stay tuned...

What can bring out the little girl in my teenager

Tadpoles!


Jason took the kids on a wood gathering expedition on the little patch of woods next to our neighborhood. 15 minutes later my 13 year old daughter came bouncing through the door saying, "mom! guess what we found? tadpoles!" She was just oozing youthful exuberance. Its been a long time since I've seen that kind of excitement in her. I loved to see it again. I walked back there with her and sure enough 100's of freshly hatched tadpoles in puddle in the road. I'm guessing leopard frog but we'll see when the ones we brought home grow up.


Of course, I didn't actually get any pictures of her and the tadpoles. Such a bummer.

Cole and I decided to study frogs this week. So far we've done a lot of frog crafts and we were lucky enough to get a pretty cool learning kit from the library on metamorphosis. This worked out perfectly because we just got done learning about butterflies and we watched them grow from an egg to a butterfly. So there is lots of metamorphosing in our household lately. Seems like the kids grow as fast as the butterflies did. Today a neighbor told me Cole looks like a little boy and not a baby anymore. sigh.

What's been keeping Cole busy lately

He has spent almost the entire day today at his little desk coloring and stickering. Stickering is not a word but is should be.





My mom bought this really cool Brio building set about 800 years ago from a garage sale and we finally brought it out for Cole. He really enjoyed hammering. My mom finds much better stuff at garage sales than I do.

And I can't forget his favorite activity which is harassing our little cat.

This weeks theme-Space

Sagan went to "space camp" this week. Not the super cool one where you get to ride in rocket simulators but one put on by the local school district where they shoot off rockets and watch videos about space. Lots cheaper. Anyway, I figured space was a good theme for everyone. We are a little behind however and I'll have to post more pictures of the activities when we have actually done some.

Canning time!

So a few weeks ago Cole got ahold of some of my jelly jars. Surprisingly, this post doesn't end in disaster! No, he actually did the cutest thing with them. He stuffed all his play food and had a canning session of his very own. How cute is that? And what a brilliant way to store his play food. I canned pickles. Three different kinds of pickles at the same time which was rather confusing actually. I'm surprised they seem to have turned out ok.

Thirty days of {blank}

I guess its a thing going around in the mommy blogging world. I stumbled upon it the other day and it was so coincidental because I had been planning to do a month of wearing skirts. Why skirts you ask? I grew up with a mom and an older sister who took much care with their appearance. I cannot tell you how many hours I have waited for these two women to get ready SO WE CAN JUST GO FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! So I guess its just a form of rebellion that I could care less what I look like. Sometimes I leave the house without brushing my hair. I never wear make-up and lately I am usually in sweats. So, I figure wearing skirts will take me so far out of my comfort zone that I will be forced to take more care in my appearance. I will have to think of what I can wear with a skirt. I will feel silly wearing a skirt and not brushing my hair. Plus my husband is very fond of skirts and that's always a plus.

Long Time no "See"

I am currently somewhat overwhelmed homeschooling 3 children. My older 2 are out for the summer but we decided to work a lot with them to get them up to speed. They are not happy. Unfortunately, this has really made me slack on Cole's side of things which is too bad. I need to pull together some new and more challenging activities for him and I just can't get motivated to do it.

In other news, I'm going on a big decluttering binge. I'm determined to let go of a lot of stuff even if its painful. I need to tackle the basement. yuck.

This weeks preschool theme-My body

This week we are doing a theme about our bodies. I printed out a body puzzle from Kidssoup. We are also building a train picture and putting Cole's picture in it. I think for the more Montessori side of it we will try doing a lot of sensorial activites. One thing I have planned is doing kool-aid playdough because apparently the kids can smell it. I am also hoping to get some dressing frames done. Cole has been very interested in dressing himself lately (finally) so this will be timely. I also have a handprint kit that we will do and maybe for an outside activity we will trace our bodies and decorate them in chalk. I'm still researching some more activites to go along with the theme. Pictures to come!

A cool garage sale find

I found this little German preschool activity at a tag sale for a few cents. I have no idea how its suppose to be played because the instructions are in German. There are four larger cards each with four pictures and then individual cards that match the picture. There is a card for activities that take one hand, two hands, one foot and two feet. Anyone want to guess how you play? Cole just likes to place the cards in the right spot. I just like the adorable pictures on the cards.

Finally!

We have been reading The Wizard of Oz together for what seems like forever. I'd been planning all the activities we would do when we finished. I had the movie from netflix for weeks and so it was so nice to finish the book and do all the things we had planned. We made tornadoes and hung them from the ceiling, we made amazingly yummy rainbow cupcakes and we all enjoyed the movie.

Our next read-a-long will be one of the Little House books.

Rainbows! *Day 2*

I'm not really sure how long this whole rainbows project is going to take. Right now we are tackling a little tv addiction with Cole and he is very unmotivated to do anything "school". So I'm still pondering possible solutions to this problem. I know one helpful thing is to recruit the older kids to help or play along. This is what I did the other night to get him moving on the rainbow project. He is about half-way done now. For this step of the project he has a glue stick and his little bits of rainbow colored paper. I thought he would love to glue but he was more tolerant of it than anything. He did pretty well with the concept of putting the colors in the right spot on the rainbow. I told him when (if) he completes his rainbow that we will hang it up along with the pictures the big kids colored that night. He was slightly motivated.

Brown Bread

I made this recipe for brown bread right off the box of vital wheat gluten with some minor substitutions and some slightly less minor mess-ups. This turned out so yummy especially for an all whole grain bread. It wasn't bitter at all and had a good texture. Well, it would have had a better texture had I not screwed up during the rising process. I accidentally stuck it in a too hot oven to rise. Not really a good idea. Here's the recipe:
2 1/2 cups warm water
1Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup molasses (I love molasses!)
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
1/4 sesame seeds
1 tsp sea salt

1 to 1 1/2 cups additional whole wheat flour
Combine yeast, molasses and water. Then add dry ingredients. Use additional flour as needed. I needed using the dough hook on my mixer for about 10 minutes. Let rise in a bowl until double. Punch down and shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 9X5 loaf pans. Let rise about 45 minutes (not in a hot oven ;) ). Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

This recipe originally called for 1/4 cup Millet flour which sounded expensive and I didn't use it.

Rainbows! *Day 1*

We are reading The Wizard of Oz together so I decided to design some craft activities for Cole around rainbows. I realize that rainbows have nothing to do with the book but since our project will culminate in the watching of the movie I figured it would work. Cole used to really like cutting so I cut out strips of rainbow-colored construction paper that he could then easily cut into small pieces. I made little construction paper boxes so that he could also practice color sorting. We could then take these small pieces and glue them to the appropriate place on the rainbow. Well, since he is 2 he of course decided that he is no longer interested in cutting especially if mommy would like him to do it! So I did have to help him finish cutting. Oh well. I guess on the upside he did enjoy the color sorting aspect of it. I guess he is just done with the cutting phase for now. I imagine that once he develops a little more he may get interested in cutting more exactly. He is not there yet though.

Tomorrow-day 2 of rainbow making.

First try at Montessori

I haven't really done the research yet but I have been interested in Montessori since before I had kids so I felt confident that we could make a beginning. I set up a tray with polished rocks from the dollar store and a couple of cups from my cupboards. He has been transferring rocks for almost an hour! I've decided to do mainly one activity a day to start. He has the hardest time with stopping and starting and I don't want to push it.

I did check out a bunch of books from the library. I also looked through their amazing variety of learning toys. I think when we need a change or run out of stuff at home it will be such a nice resource.

Later this afternoon I'm planning to go to the dollar store to find a few things. Then, hopefully this week I'll get a shelf organized for him.

Oh! I love this hat!

My mom wanted me to knit her hat. So she picked out the yarn and to be honest I thought it was a little wacky looking. When it got here I started to doubt even more. Parts of it were spun tight while other parts were completely untwisted. I wasn't sure how well that texture was going to work with this cute pattern I wanted to use. The pattern is from here: http://i-like-lemons.blogspot.com/2008/01/button-tab-hat-pattern.html But I love how it turned out. What an awesome pattern and the best part is its free! And I got to use one of my vintage buttons! I hope mom likes it. I'll be sending it to her for her birthday.