Anatomy

Tamarin got a lesson on anatomy this week. One morning while Chris was getting ready for work and I was still lying in bed with Capuchin, Tamarin pulled out our copy of Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle. Now, a book like this doesn't have many pictures. It's mostly facts, graphs, feed ratios, breed lists, etc. What photos does it have? Well, the ones that caught Tamarin's eye were in the breeding and calving chapters. The calving chapter comes first. It shows the different presentations for a calf and how to tie ropes to them if they need help getting out. There is a diagram of a person reaching in the rectum and handling the uterus to check for pregnancy. The breeding chapter shows you everything you want to look for in a good breeding bull all the way down to the shape of his scrotum. Yes, I'm serious. Next was castration methods. Oh, yes. Then how to mend a prolapsed rectum and vagina after birth.

By lunchtime my eldest had quite a few new words added to her vocabulary. She asked me so many questions. I thought she may want to proceed into more detail about breeding, but all she wanted was the proper name for the goop (what we had called semen till now) the roosters leave on our hens. Then she found the chapter about illness and was more curious about lancing and draining puss. That's my little Wednesday Adams :)

It was fun to discuss the four chambered stomach with her. The look on her face when I told her they regurgitate their food, chew it some more and swallow again. That was the only thing that was gross to her.

I know most people get the heeby jeebies at the thought of discussing sex and birth with their children. I don't. When I was pregnant with Capuchin, Tamarin asked questions. I explained the uterus to her with a balloon that I then filled with water. I turned it upside down and let the end go to help explain birth. It's part of life and I would much rather they learn about this stuff from me than anyone else. I think it's important to follow the child's lead. When they start asking questions - answer them! You can start with part of the story. When they are no longer content with the answers you gave them they will ask more questions and you can give them more pieces of the story. If you teach them that sex is something to be embarrassed about and YOU don't want to talk about it, where will they go when they have questions? Not to you.

Trebuchet!

This was awesome! It's a great way to get the whole family involved in school stuff. Chris and I had a trebuchet building competition with legos. 

 

Do we have any sets that resemble a trebuchet? Nope. We had to come up with whatever we could with what we had. We would tell the girls what shape and size pieces to look for. I need a skinny one with a single line of 6 or I need a thick one with 2 rows of 3.

Can you guess whose is whose?

The trophy Tamarin made for whoever won the competition. Unfortunately, one of the trebuchets kept breaking so there was no winner.

Tamarin was the score keeper. This is a great lesson in measurements. If she were a bit older it would be a fun way to talk about averages. Since she is young we listed all the throws and discussed which was longest, shortest, if throwing heavy things went further than lighter objects, why she thought this was, etc.

The greatest thing, the kids got to play with them afterwards and it didn't matter if they broke.

This was also a lesson in taking failure graciously. Each time mine failed, I simply said in a cheerful way, "Mama failed! I know it doesn't work that way now, let's try again!" Tamarin eventually said, "It's not good to give up, then you always fail." I think that one might actually hear some of the things I say to her, go figure.

What's your favorite learning game? What's your favorite thing to build with legos?

Shaggy's Birthday!

I had promised Tamarin that we would celebrate Shaggy's birthday on Valentine's day. Then we were all having a wonderful time spewing on Valentine's day. Tamarin reminded me that day that we were supposed to have Shaggy's birthday party and she has continued to remind me every day since. Finally today I consented. We started with a bath and trim for Shaggy. He had to look good on his birthday.

We made party hats and a cake for the dogs. The girls blew out the candle and had a ball feeding the cake to them.

I kinda threw some stuff together for the cake :) It almost held up like a cake, but not quite. The dogs enjoyed it though. If anyone wants the recipe just let me know, but I'm going to keep working on it.

Poor Shaggy was so confused. He is well trained to not eat the food in the house. I don't think he ate much of it, but Duke was happy to help.

I thought I would take advantage of the subject and talk about D again for Lemur. So we read some dog books.


Made a D for Dog while Tamarin read us Too Many Dogs.

Then I made them some dog ears and they spent the rest of the afternoon teaching each other tricks. So they said, what really happened is Tamarin telling Lemur what to do and Lemur being a accurate dog by not listening to a word she said.

They are now watching *D*umbo. We are cooking pizza (*D*ough) for dinner because that's what we do for all family birthdays. We also made one of *D*addy's favorite favorite *D*esserts (recipe below).

Pumpkin Bread
3 C sugar
3 1/3 C flour
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
2 t soda

1 C oil
4 eggs
2 C pumpkin puree
2/3 C water
1 t vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another bowl. Combine the two. Add 1 cup pecans if you wish (I do). Cook at 350 for about 50 minutes, give or take. Makes 3 loaves.

Good day.

Political Thoughts

Time to stick my neck out because these are the thoughts keeping me from being a productive blogger. Chop away, gobble gobble.

Thought 1
Why do they keep referring to this country's debt problems as a football, "They punt it down the road a few months." I get it. America is obsessed with men jumping on each other in pursuit of an oblong pig skin, but it's more like a snowball. It started out no bigger than the size of our hands and now it's the size of a bus. If you continue to move out of the way and let it roll down the hill eventually it's going to be the size of the empire state building. If you think we're in trouble now, wait till then. I wish I could get a political cartoonist to draw that up, a nervous kicker standing beside a football the size of a bus....

Thought 2
Saying you are pro-life and anti-welfare makes a moron.... wait that's not right.... an oxymoron! Yeah.... that's what I meant to say......

Thought 3
A 16 year old in Texas won a case against her parents who were trying to force her to get an abortion. Judge ruled she could continue to use the car her parents had provided for her before they found out about the pregnancy and that they must pay half the bill for the birth.

The comments on the Yahoo article were AWFUL, but besides our society having a complete lack of empathy and morals to match let me remind you of another story I'm sure many have forgot.

Does anyone remember the father that dumped his 11 year old at a "safe place". You know, safe place, where mothers are supposed to be able to drop off their unwanted newborns, no questions asked. He was the oldest of something like 5 or 6 kids and the dad was tired of dealing with him. I can't remember if it was a fire or police station, but he felt the law should apply to him as well.

So, at what age does a child go from, "no questions asked" to "child neglect" then to "old enough to kick out." If 16 year olds can be emancipated why can the parent not emancipate them without repercussion?

In the abortion case people are outraged. They believe the 16 year old should be on her own and responsible for her own actions. But what if that 16 year old's actions directly effected you? What if we were talking about a 16 year old that shot up a school? Who would be responsible then? Should the parents be held accountable? I know the parents of the Columbine shooters were sued and settled out of court. So where do we draw the line? Should parents of shooters be sued when they didn't see it coming either? Should parents of pregnant teens pay for their child's hospital bill?

Don't get me wrong, I have no answers.  Just food for thought.

Thought 4 - this one is said tongue in cheek.
Why don't we let Texas leave the union? I mean, that's a lot of border, let them "defend" it. It might also make a trip there a little more exotic if you had to bring your passport. Plus, I would no longer have to be ashamed to be American due to the news stories coming out of there.

Thought 5 
How the hell can you disown your kid?? Minus attempting to murder a family member I just can't wrap my head around that. Even if they become a pain in the ass!

Skin Sells

This post is about a pet peeve of mine from pinterest. Nine out of ten workout sites advertise with practically naked women. Seriously? I am so tired of seeing a woman with her skimpy tank held up nearly uncovering her breasts and her g-string below her pube line.

**NEW FLASH**
If you really think you are EVER going to look like that you are setting yourself up for FAILURE. Those women are models. Yes, if you had no life, no children, no job, other than working out ALL day and then let people take pictures of you, sure you could have that body... that is if you also had the genetic predisposition and the right metabolism.

At 160 lbs (many, MANY years ago) my ribs stuck out and I was still defined as OVERWEIGHT. If I were to ever achieve the 130 lbs that is supposedly my "ideal" weight, I'd look like death. Now days they have changed it to a range of proper weight unlike the one solid number it used to be, but the highest end of "acceptable" for my height is 154 lbs which I probably haven't seen since middle school.

Are you tired of failing every time you start a new workout regimen and diet? Are you disgusted when you look at the scale and don't see change? Or looking in the mirror and not seeing a difference? What happens when you get depressed about the lack of change? Well, for most people they either slack off believing it's not working or they eat.

Here's a hint, quit focusing on size and weight! If you want to feel good about the work you do on a regular basis change your perspective. Focus instead on ability goals. Make the goal becoming fit instead of a size.

Focusing on size - "I've been working out for a month and I've ONLY lost 4 pounds!"
Focusing on fit - "I've been working out for a month and I went from a 14 minute mile to 10 minutes!"

Focusing on size - "I lost a lot of weight in the beginning, but I've hit a plateau."
Focusing on fit - "I can lift 20 more pounds than I could two weeks ago!"

The number on a scale is such a superficial thing. Forget it. It doesn't matter. You could line up lots of women who weigh the same as me and none of us would look the same. Quit thinking that there is a magic number. Instead be proud of your accomplishments, the things you can do.

I ran half marathons at 180 lbs. I passed people a LOT skinnier than me who looked healthier and more fit than me, but looks are deceiving. Actions speak. What matters is fitness.

I am nearly three months post birth. Pregnancy is not kind to me. I spent most of those 9 months on  the couch. In 2011 I ran half marathons and did an olympic length triathlon. Now, I can't even walk across my property without feeling winded and I'm having trouble lifting the 5 gallon waterer for the chickens (5 gallons is about 40 pounds). Time to get serious about fitness again! I think it's time to dust off my previous blog. Maybe I'll finally reach my goal of a full marathon this year.

Anyone else have a fitness goal they hope to accomplish this year?

Sick Day

Good thing I let them get out first thing in the morning to play in the snow because this is what I ended up with last night.

 

Two miserable little bodies :( I'm thankful that it's not four miserable little bodies. I myself am not feeling awesome, but at least I have not puked.... *knock on wood*. Today we are watching Disney Junior and keeping bowls handy. At some point I am going to have to go clean the stains off Lemur's carpet (red valentine icing apparently taints the entire stomach contents).

Daddy called in to work so he could stay home and take care of his miserable ladies. He's at the store picking up gatorade and orange sherbert push pops right now.

When I was a sick kid I always got sprite and orange pushpops. So that's what I always think of when the girls are sick.

Why do people like to replicate their happy childhood memories for their children? Maybe because part of ourselves is miserable when our kids are sick so we not only want to comfort them, but ourselves as well. I know I can't wait to get my hands on a pushpop :p

Anyway, what do you use to sooth your sick kids? Are these comforts passed down from your own parents methods or all your own?

Are there any other things you remember from your childhood that you want to share with your kids? Chris wants the girls to grow up watching all the classic cartoons he grew up with. When I watch the cartoons from my childhood I'm shocked at how terrible they are :p

Snow!!!

Does a picture get any better than snow in the country? 

 

This is when I wish I had one of those expensive cameras. I'd even enter a pic in the state fair.

Tamarin has learned a lesson about folktales and myths (stupid groundhog). The rest of today we are celebrating snow.


If I can find our microscope I'm hoping I can catch some snowflakes fast enough for the girls to get a look at them. We'll water color some paper snowflakes and call it a day.

On the farm front, look who showed up looking for a meal after disappearing for nearly a week. He may not know where home is, but at least he knows where he can get a meal. No sooner was he finished and off he went again. It makes me sad that he doesn't want to stick around here (even in the house), but at least I saved him from the shelter and he appears to be having a happy life the way he wants to live it.

Hooch is a pyranese mix, probably 4-5 years old. He was in the animal shelter needing an out that day or he was going to be killed. How could I say no to that face? We've had him since August, though he's one of those dogs that no one really owns. He just does his thing.

Why does he look so awful? Well, besides being gone for almost a week he is also scared to death of running water. He broke my toe the day I brought him home and tried to bathe him. Not looking forward to his spring bath........

Busy Week Ahead!

Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, and Valentine's day all in the same week! Ah! I'm writing a planning post because I thought others might have some good ideas to share BEFORE these holidays instead of waiting to post after and waiting a year to use them.

Mardis Gras
Not last year (cause I was busy moving and getting settled) but the year before we talked about Mardi Gras, made beignets and King's Cake. I'm pretty sure this was the beignet recipe last year and this year I'm going to go with this king's cake recipe.



I picked up chocolate coins, I'm going to hide them under their piece of king's cake :)

I thought this article on Mardis Gras was interesting. Explains the origin of some of the practices these days :)

Valentine's Day
I picked up some boxes at the craft store for about $3 each, the girls painted them yesterday, today they glitter glued and stickered them.

We're having a get together on Friday for Valentine/Chinese New Year. So, the girls now have boxes for their valentines. We will be working on a couple of valentines each day this week. I also picked up some flat canvas so the girls can make more durable valentines for the grandparents. I have oil pastels I've not introduced girls to that medium yet. Sounds like a good idea.

We'll try to make some heart garland if we have time. The girls love to staple.

V-day history tid bits
V-day history speculation
But let's face it, it's a holiday created by chocolate and greeting card companies that almost trust florists enough to bring them in on the deceit.

Lunar New Year
On a homeschool board I frequent someone posted about Lunar New Year ideas. I never thought about the fact it's not just China that celebrates new year on this day, there are other countries as well. So I am going to make a point to tell my girls about the other countries too, but due to lack of good books our focus will be on China.

We read the Lucky New Year book this morning. I'm going to have the lanterns hanging and their red envelopes on the table in the morning. Tomorrow I am going to try my hand at sushi.... well as close to sushi as I think the girls might try. I'm making PB&J sushi as a backup - wish me luck.....

 

I got some supplies from the craft store and 

others from the Asian market (on 23rd and Classen for you locals). 

These are our books for the week. I'm also borrowing Ten mice for Tet which is about the Vietnamese new year celebration.


A couple of years ago we did this cut and paste panda.

I can't find the template I used for our Dragon Masks three years ago. It was my favorite, not threatening, but still more authentic than a cartoon dragon.

Wow, flash back to a little Lemur!

This year I'm going to use this one. Just glue to a cereal box along with a popsicle stick for a handle then cut it out. They decorate, glue streamers around the edges, instant parade.

Ah! Flash back to little Tamarin!

We also made these moon cakes... but if I remember right I screwed them up..... I'll try again this year.

Other sites with craft ideas:
Site 1
Site 2

It's going to be a long and interesting week!