Road Trip!

Well, technically a mini vacation with a purpose. Five hours round trip in the car. Why? Over the last couple of weeks we lost both of our roosters, the duck and the turkey to a predator. A couple of days ago we found one of our cats that had gone missing. I'm absolutely sure this is all due to a wandering dog. My husband's aunt offered us a solution.

Can you see it? It's sitting on Tamarin's lap. Pyranese. Yes, I know, you're saying, "But Laura, don't you have one already?" Yes, we have one. An adult that came from the shelter and only visits us once every two or three weeks. She says they do well in pairs. This makes sense since Hooch was indeed picked up with a nearly identical dog who was adopted before I got to the shelter. It seems likely that is why he has a wandering problem, he is probably still searching for his buddy.

Anyway, the logic made enough sense to me to load up all four kids and head south for a two and a half hour drive. After seeing her large flock of chickens, quite a few of which were running free, I believe she may be right. She generously gave us a pair of pups from her latest litter. I hope this does the trick for keeping our flock safe.

Can't you tell they are vicious guard dogs? :p I've lost track of what their latest names are. We've gone through at least 20 each today and none have stuck. Among those, Fluffy, Dot, Ann, Nina, Dan, Chloe, Joe, and Charlotte. What would you name these fluff balls?

An Old Fashioned Porch Raising

Perhaps even better than a barn, a beautiful front porch. First find yourself someone that can think in, under, over, and outside the box.

In this case it's my dad with the help of my husband. He's been talking about a porch since we bought this place. I think it's one of those things he truly enjoys. It was fun having to jump in and out of my house for a few days, but it was nice to have a floor finally.

 On goes the roof. Add rocking chairs (they couldn't wait for the whole roof to be on).

It's a great view, can't wait to sip morning tea while checking email in my rocking chair :)

To Blog or Not to Blog...

that is the question. Whether tis nobler to type of those in close proximity under guise or outright.

Pet peeve time!

#1 Call to complain once, I will listen politely and offer sympathy. Call to complain again, I will offer suggestion. Call to complain for the umpteenth time about same subject so I can repeat said suggestion, expect it to come with some attitude. Just quit calling, PLEASE. You are calling JUST to listen to yourself complain and asking about my day as an afterthought is not convincing. (btw if you think this post is about you, wrong, I know for a fact this person does not read my blog)

#2 Did anyone else see the three car dealership owners on the news handing over a check for 30K the day after the tornado? Seriously? The fact that you are wanting publicity for donating money to the cause is annoying. The fact you want publicity for such a small amount the DAY AFTER a tragedy is infuriating. Take your pomp and circumstance and shove it up your @#%.

#3 Number 2 applies on the small scale too. All the normal people out there. Don't give to get recognition. Give because it's the right thing to do. Don't make a scene.

#4 Exclusion. I get it, I'm opinionated. Sometimes, I'm a know it all, but that's because I love to dabble in a LOT of things. I love to share knowledge since I love people sharing knowledge with me. However, believe me, everyone has their vises and you are NOT the exception to this rule.

Ah, that feels better.

Paseo Arts Festival

It's been many, many years since I had been to this arts festival. I remember enjoying it.

I was right.

 There was a small children's area where they could mold clay, make masks and do spin art.

Then there are the two performance stages. We saw all the tap dancers headed for the stage and followed.

It was a hoot to watch the ladies having a ball. I hope I'm that rockin' old lady at their age :)

The girls weren't that impressed with the booths of art which is fine by me. We were still there for two hours and considering it was free it was a win in my opinion.

I've always enjoyed the Paseo District. I miss the open mic nights and there are a few interesting shops down there :) Worth a look.

May 20th, 2013

It's days like this I smile when my children get too loud. When they run across the house pounding their feet so they wake up the baby. When they ask for ice cream and cake for dinner. Yes, you may. May this house never be quiet. May this house always be chaotic. May my children flourish and outlive me.

 And may my husband never be this close to a tornado ever again.

For those not local, if you want to stay up to date on our info these are the main news outlets:
KOCO
KWTV 
KFOR

Please consider donating and earmark your donation for the Moore, OK May 20th Tornado. If you don't note what you want the money spent for then it can go anywhere.
Red Cross
Salvation Army

Touch a Truck

This was cool. It was organized by a nearby chapter of MOMS Club (which I'd never heard of) and it benefited The Regional Food Bank. It sounds like this is something they do every year so put it on your calender for the month of May next year!

 

Firetrucks, cop cars, dump trucks, trash truck, narcotics command center, K-9 units with sniffing demonstration, race cars, public transit bus, electrician's digger, flatbed semi, and an emergency management SUV that the kids got to run the sirens on. We were there for nearly an hour and a half. They had a ball.

When we are headed into chaos with a lot of people and other children I make the girls wear a Road ID. This is something I picked up while I was still doing triathlon. They were cheaper then, plus I had a coupon that got me one for free. The slim bracelet fits children very well.

The Hitchhiker

Tornadoes again this week. Tonight one went through the town south of us. We sat watching the newsfeeds. One station on the television, two on the laptop and another on standby on my husband's work phone. We were pretty sure it was all going south of the town south of us and then for a split second the radar showed the rotation NORTH of the town south of us. 

Nickle and dime size hail was falling as we threw our rough work coats over the girls' heads and ushered them into the storm shelter. I never thought much of hail before, but these hurt. I got thwacked by a couple on my bare arms. 

We weren't down there very long. We realized it had indeed stayed a good amount south of us and we were never in any danger. Not knowing what the rest of the night would bring we left our snack, activity and diaper bag in the shelter for later.

Once it was clear the threat in our area was done for the night I went back down to retrieve the bags. I was merrily chatting on the phone with my mother as I shut my front door behind me. Then I got that creepy feeling we all know..... I did not come inside alone..... I fought that initial reaction to immediately brush my arm. I peaked over the mound of bags and confirmed my worst suspicion.

I had a four to five inch scorpion crawling up my bare arm. I'm not sure how I talked my body into it, but I managed to wait until it crawled onto my sleeve before I threw down the bags as fast as I could knocking him to the floor. I gently squished his head as he stung my boot in desperation. Part of me feels bad, the other part is once again doing the heeby jeeby dance.

Food Wars

Grrrrr...... So tired of the food wars. I used to be happy if I got at least some of each food group into each kid's belly by the end of the day. More and more it's turning into chaos with each kid munching on this and that all day long and no one eating at meal time.

Now Howler is stealing candy from the cupboards and refusing to eat nearly anything that's not processed food. Obviously it's time for things to change.

I printed off a my plate graphic for the girl's to look at as well as the meal plan list that shows about how much they should have of each food group in a day.

Tamarin eats meat and grains all day with a little bit of fruit thrown in. She also takes food from her sister's plates before they are done eating. After the initial fit about not getting dessert if she didn't finish her veggies she seems to have come around. She is at least trying the foods I'm offering her today. She normally turns her nose at any vegetable.

Lemur eats fruits and grains with far less protein and veggies. Today she is livid that I won't let her finish an entire container of strawberries..... *sigh*

Howler eats grains. The smallest bit of dairy and protein with it. Last time I tried to enforce a change in food she ate cheese for two days...... Today I got her to eat the tiniest bit of scrambled egg and a slice of bread (which she normally only eats smothered in cheese or with sugar and cinnamon on it). She refused to eat anything at lunch. She is currently holding the chocolate syrup in my face asking for chocolate milk. *sigh* Cue the tears.

There are these plate you can buy, but $10 is pretty ridiculous for a plastic dish in my opinion. Amazon and Walmart both sell them. I'm wondering if I could buy a clear plate and adhere a printout in some way to the bottom to help remind the girls about eating diversely......

 

Tonight is mashed potatoes, strawberry salad and chicken in balance and without over eating in any particular group..... Wish me luck. I anticipate disaster......

Princess Party

I made it nearly 7 years before one of my children chose a princess party. For those of you who don't know me personally I am the antithesis of princess.

I always have been the epitome of tomboy, but it's important to me that my kids grow up to be their own person so my girly girl got her girly party.

Princess paint party that is. I know there are places to rent and paint, but that wasn't in the budget. So on to the craft store :) $1.29 for each paint palette, about $1.50 for each flat canvas, and primary color acrylic paint $6 each which made one cheap and fun paint party.

The cake didn't come out the way I wanted, but in my defense I was pressed for time. I prefer to use a butter based icing and you have to keep sticking it back in the fridge to keep it from melting. Well, I was working on the cake till guests began arriving. I didn't have time to keep sticking it in the fridge. I didn't get to add any flowers or color/pattern to the sides of the cake. I was lucky to get what I did on it. Oh well, the kids were impressed :)

Art Museum

I stumbled upon classes at the OKC Museum of Art. $15 for a two hour class. That's pretty awesome in the scheme of classes by the hour. Capuchin and I patiently waited through the 2 hour class.

 During the class they made spoon puppets and theater :) Tamarin had a great time.

Along with the two hour class you also get admission for parent and child! $15!! Seriously? What a deal!

There were 4-5 paintings of Venice which worked out nicely since we are reading Papa Piccolo for Five in a Row right now.

We talked about how sometimes you know where the painting was done by the landmarks. I pointed out the two main buildings on the horizon of two of the Venice paintings. We talked about how the paintings were from different sides of the city since the tower was on the right of the mounded buildings in one and the left of them in the other. I wish I knew what those particular buildings were. Surely the tower is the bells of the cathedral.

We looked at some of the landscape paintings. We talked about what time of day it was and where the sun was even if the sun was not in the painting. She was really quick on this. I was surprised she needed very little lead on it.

We also talked about what we thought was happening in the action scene paintings. Mostly about the emotions on the people's faces and what they might be saying.

All in all it was a successful trip. She enjoyed the class and the walk through. I wish the museum was closer. My sister told me about the Edmond Fine Arts Institute. We might try out some of their summer classes. It looks more real arts instead of arts & crafty which is a plus.

Martin Nature Park

You ever have one of those days where you feel like you are chasing your tail? This was one of those. We woke up ready to head to the zoo. A friend agreed to meet us there. Not thinking at all about the fact it was not only Friday, but a Friday in May, the end of public school year. I drove up on dozens of buses and a long line of cars waiting to get in. I called my friend and we started tossing around alternatives. She mentioned a small zoo on her side of town. Just before I get there we realize the little zoo is not open today. Twiddling our thumbs and trying to decide what to do.....

We ended up at the Martin Nature Park. It is a small park with walking trails among the throng of trees. There are plenty of opportunities to see wildlife, that is if you don't have screaming children with you. If there were any animals to be seen they certainly heard us coming.

There is a learning center with skeletons, skins, snakes, turtles, and stuffed wildlife. What I didn't know until visiting their websites is that they have educational classes most weekends. We may have to go back for one of those.

It's been a couple of years since I'd been there. Last time the girls jumped in the creek. That's why I thought we'd try a different trail this time. We took the wrong trail. That is the wrong trail for strollers and small children. It's the one that features a flower on their map. Warning to those with small kids, it's meant for adults who walk because their doctor makes them NOT for strollers.

It was beautiful though. Lots of running water. We saw a pair of geese with their four newly hatched goslings.  It was lovely when we weren't carrying strollers up and down steep trails and over tree roots. My plan backfired because the previous trail was just fine for strollers. After the flower trail we decided to stop and head back to the playground at the entrance. The mamas needed a rest.

How does that saying go, best laid plans? Yes, that defined the day. At least for me. For Tamarin, "That was a load of excellent fun!"

Reading Eggs

I'd been dragging my feet on the online educational games because of $$. And it's a game, will it keep them from wanting to do our face to face lessons? I knew I needed something exciting to get us all back in the groove after being incredibly unorganized for a couple of weeks. I pulled up Explode the Code Online, but was disappointed to find it didn't have a free trial. Hmmm.... I'd already told the girls I had something new for them to try so I wandered over to Reading Eggs. Ah ha! Two week free trial.

I started Lemur at the beginning. There is an optional test. Tamarin tested out of quite a few levels. I think she could have made it further, but her experience with the touch mouse is lacking.... I watched her take the test. After getting two wrong on accident I started moving the mouse for her.

One complaint I have is you can't retake the placement test. I tried to add another profile for Tamarin, but it would have had to be a different name and she wasn't happy about that. Ergh. Oh well.

The other complaint is one of the recurring games is hard for Lemur to do with a touch mouse. The word fish they have to catch move too fast for her to hit the button in time. Each time she reaches that game, after trying a few times, I have to do it for her so she can move on.

Six days and the girls are still enthralled with it. The best thing is I can plug in the earphones. One of them is working on the computer in one room while I work through the paperwork with the other. I let Tamarin listen to music on the kindle while doing her paperwork.

 

This is wonderful because Tamarin is bad about wanting to know what everyone else is doing. She cannot leave anyone alone. Even if the two of them are doing the same sheet she has to see how her sister is doing it and absolutely will not focus. I think the music might just solve this problem.

There are math games on Reading Eggs as well, but we've not dug far into it. Tamarin tested right out of the math section. Lemur started in the middle and she's done a level of it. It appears to be more videos than games. Howler tried the math games, but didn't get very far. *shrug* She'll get there eventually.

If their enthusiasm remains at the end of this week I might just break down and buy a year of it. Lemur wrote cat today without help. That is definitely a sign of progress.

A Week in Pictures

Sleep deprivation. Can't finish sentence much less blog post.

Teething

 

 Buddha Baby

 Girl with Flower

 A Little Help

 Cold with Class

Happy Birthday!

Lots of talking, online reading games, very little paperwork. Survival schooling. 8:30 - Goodnight!

Angry Birds

 Happy Birds

Angry Birds

Oklahoma, PLEASE make up your mind if it's winter or spring. I don't want these birds in the house any more than they want to be inside.

Don't fall asleep..... I will eat you.