Sheet Slinger

Okay, so where have I been the last week and a half? Well, we didn't get to bacteria. Instead we got a hands on lesson on viruses.

"Mama! I wanna do school!"

"Here, have a work sheet." 

Now, picture me flopping onto the couch with a zombie type groan.

It started with the kids last week and just when I thought we were out of the woods. WHAM!

We all have coughs that sound like we are throwing up bodily tissue instead of phlegm. No one will want to be around us for weeks. We missed co-op. I missed outings with friends. I want to cry in my cup of tea and beg this weekend to be over so I can feel like a person contributing to society again instead of a grouchy, loud mama barking orders to be quiet or I'm going to get angry.... and believe me, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

(btw, 10 points if you get the joke)

So, to catch you up on the last week and a half, there was the state fair (the day the older ones got sick)

Some of my nieces entered things in the fair so we had to go see. Now, Tamarin can't wait to enter something in next year's fair.

Then we got the two Pyrenees pups fixed.... yeah, I'll spare you pictures from that or the pitiful looks they've given me over the last week. I am the vile betrayer and it will be awhile before they let me forget it.

There was also zombie baby

This is my favorite form of painting. Washable paint meets Twister mat. I only had yellow and red. HAHA. When I turned my back someone had pulled out a bunch of the old art projects to "touch up" I'm sure. Capuchin had a good time helping. When I took her to clean up they decided to use it as a slip n' slide instead..... It's a miracle someone didn't break something.

This helped the older two forget the woes of being sick obviously :) Then the younger two began to feel ill not long after this. Sick infants pretty well kill every moment of the day. You can't do anything.

Sick mamas are a little bit worse than sick infants :p Once I came down the whole family paid for it. The children become feral, eating anything accessible. Especially if it is coated in sugar or salt. Your spouse purposefully buys the worst possible junk food to win brownie points with the children who have spent the day with the evil hag hiding under the covers. The autoplay feature on netflix becomes your new best friend as you count the seconds till your spouse gets home so you can finally sleep.

So yes, that just about sums up my the last 10 days of my life. Cranky children, cranky mama, but we all seem to be on the mend now. No learning. Just life lessons this week. The strays dogs killed another 5 chickens. Our pig disappeared with no visible exit from his pen. Only one of our incubated eggs hatched and he was unable to stand so I gave him to a more experienced chicken handler than me. It's been kinda rough, but looking forward to next week. Back to life as usual.

Coffee Flavored Lemonade

Most everybody knows the saying, "When life gives you lemons..." Well, instead, life gave me coffee grounds. It's been a whole summer since I've gotten out our coffee maker. When I pulled out the coffee can I forgot for a moment it's a pop top, not a screw on lid. D'oh. 

After my initial thought, crap. I thought this could be a good sensory experience. I hollered for the girls and sure enough they had a great time writing in it,

burying their hands and feet in it,

and finally burying their plastic animals in it and getting each other to find them.

Last night when I swept it up they whined about keeping it. Even Howler who took a while to come around to it. It has a distinct texture from sand or flour which we have done before. This is a toy to remember.

They found it entertaining enough that I thought I'd share since many people are going to be pulling out their coffee makers for the cold weather. What better way to use last season's coffee grounds before throwing them to the plants.

Lava

This is how we ended week 5, talking volcanoes. Yes, if you are keeping track I know we are supposed to be ending week 6, but we've taken a few days off after getting burnt out on the first few weeks of school.

Do over! We are starting over at the beginning. We talked about the formation of the earth focusing on volcanoes this time. We read:

The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History 20-23. We also watched the corresponding episode, Magic School Bus: Blows It's Top.

I saw this picture on pinterest of a volcano in a mug. I thought I'd try it.

I broke a few crayons, stuck them in the bottom, covered with a bit of sand and filled the mug with water. I wasn't sure how to heat it so I went safe. I put it in a pan with water just covering the surface of the pan. The melted crayon escaped the sand and they got to see how it hardens once it hits the water. I think my flub was breaking the crayons. If I had formed a funnel of crayon it probably would have burst through more volcano like, but they still got the idea.

We also went the traditional route. I got excited when I found this Volcano Making Kit since the mold is reusable! As long as I can find it, we can use it again next year! Yay!

Another day and a paint job later:

So ends our talk about volcanoes. Next week bacteria......

Visual Schedule

One thing the occupational and speech therapists have both been encouraging me to do with Howler is a visual schedule. The OT (occupational therapist) even offered to make us one if I would just give her our schedule. There are expensive programs for making these things (which I figured she was going to use). Nope, she just took clip art off the internet.... I thought.... I can do that.... and I can do that better than she did....

All I did was search free clip art on Google. That way I could pick out pictures that I knew she would understand. The only one that was difficult was nap. They were either schoolroom mat pictures or bedtime, but buried in there was a usable one. I taped the pages together and laminated them. One for each weekday.

It does seem to be helping with her expectations. Any time she heard us discussing OT or ST (speech therapy) she would get excited because she thought we were going (even at 8 o'clock at night). Now, I can take her to the list (which is velcrod to the wall) and show her what is next today.

The older ones are having a good time keeping me on schedule. As soon as we're done with one thing they rush over and tell me what's next. I keep trying to explain to them there can be down time to play or do other things in between everything, but they aren't buying it :p

So there you go, it only cost me the ink and less than $2 to laminate. No $100 program needed.

A Tale of Two Bags

What does one do with two bags of mixed veggies from their Grandfather?

Well this person made salsa. About 12 tomatoes, 7-8 peppers, 2 onions, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 cup vinegar, and some BIG splashes of garlic. It's not too spicy, but not too sweet. More like a relish than a true salsa since it's missing the heat factor, but pretty tasty.

Then I made my Grandma's crispy okra. 1/2 cup cornmeal, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp pepper. Cut up the okra and shake it about till the tops and bottoms are covered. Some of it sticks to the sides, but not much.

Put a little bit of oil in the bottom of a pan and cook on medium heat (stirring occasionally) till each piece has at least a bit of crispy brown on it :) Even if some pieces are a little black they are still wonderful.

I'm trying something I've never done before and freezing the bulk of it to use later. We'll see if they turn into mush.....

Little House on the Prairie

I picked up this house about two years ago at a garage sale for $5. It was missing a shudder and had two holes in the roof. It was incredibly sun faded, but for that price if they played with it for a couple of months and we threw it out, it would have still been money well spent.

I seriously thought about trashing it when we moved. I intended to, but someone helping us ended up loading it anyway. Meh, I'll trash it later, I thought.

Then I saw this on pinterest. Which put me to thinking..... I could do that.... but our cozy coop still looks new.... dang it.... But it got me to thinking about our crappy little house on the prairie which had still managed to avoid the trash heap.

Five cans of Valspar Plastic Spray Paint later and.....

Voila! Our new little house on the prairie :) It was so easy, just a cheap $2 plastic drop cloth and two coats of the paint. Now I just have to bide my time till the cozy coop needs a paint job.....

My Family Tree

We made a family tree yesterday. First we read Me and My Family Tree.

Then I used one of these templates (because they are easier on the ink than some of the others I found) and all the wonderful head shots of family members off Facebook (using Window's snipping tool) to help the girls make these:

They had a fun time cutting out faces. The only casualty happened to be a picture of me. There was something both therapeutic and disturbing sweeping up an old mutilated effigy of myself. I hate selfies so I refuse to update my picture. Since I am always the one with the camera pictures of me are few and far between. Anyway, they had fun even though they butchered Momma.

I'm planning on making a basic family timeline of the last century as best I can. (Mom, Dad, count on a bunch of phone calls from me this week.) Then the following week we will begin our main timeline starting with the big bang..... I just have to find the wall space......

Craft Day!

We got a couple of nifty craft things this weekend. A set of knitting looms and a rubber bracelet loom.

I wasn't sure about the bracelet loom since it looked complicated, but cousins have been covered in them. They are having a great time making the different patterned bracelets. I thought the round looms would be easy. Go figure, I got it switched.

I love the look of concentration on her face working on a hat for her baby sister. I couldn't sleep last night so I stayed up making an example. The hat on her head is my first completed knitting task. I'm proud.

Needles have always been too complicated for me. It may be due to a lack of coordination on my part or the fact I've always got little hands groping at whatever I'm working on :) This loom thing though. I can do that!

At the end of the day, Tamarin gravitated toward the bracelet maker. She has been revisiting it on and off all day. Last I heard her count, she has made 11 bracelets.

She told me tonight before bed that she is ready to move on to a more complicated pattern! That's a big deal in this house since she tends to want to repeat the things she finds easy instead of moving on to the next level.

I'm going to have to search for more items to make with the round looms.... We only need so many hats......

Do you have a favorite create it kind of craft you do with your kids?