Seven Quick Takes

Go visit Jen to read more Quick Takes.

 

~1~

 

We are potty training Ez. I wasn't ready for this but he started taking off his diaper and peeing on the floor. Potty training it is, then!

 

~2~

 

I'm on the downhill slide in the seventh Harry Potter book. I forgot how fast paced this book is! I have been falling asleep early the last few nights and haven't had a chance to finish up yet, but that's the plan for the weekend.

 

~3~

 

Speaking of the weekend, Superman is out of town this weekend on his first fishing trip in 2 years. He has a 3 week break from school so this was the perfect time to go. What am I going to do with my evenings? We usually watch something together- I suppose I'll be forced to spend extra time sewing.

 

~4~

 

I just finished reading Working in the Reggio Way. It was so helpful for me to read in more detail about projects and how it works in the Reggio schools. It's such an interesting model to build on and I'm seeing real ways to include Reggio practices in our home.

 

~5~

 

Ezra has started calling himself by name in the last few days. He goes around to everyone and calling them by name- Daddy, Mama, Bubba, then proudly pats his own chest and announces "Ez". I love his silly grin when he says it!

 

~6~

 

Ender discovered The Velveteen Rabbit last night. He loved it so much that we read it twice in one sitting and another time before bed. He slept with the copy on his night stand and when he woke this morning he said, "Mama, I think you should know that my Bear-Bear is real because I love him so much."

 

~7~

 

I've spent the week in the studio where our big changes are taking place. I had an opportunity for an expansion that doesn' t add very much time to my work week but adds a lot of great opportunities for the kids in my studio and after much consideration (and a ton of document reading- holy cow!) this week I've decided to take it. I'm excited about adding these classes to my schedule and I think my students are going to benefit greatly. It's a lot of work on the front end, so posting here may be a bit sparse in the next two weeks. The great thing is that once the program is set up it's ready for the entire year. Hooray!

Open Thread

I will be quiet here for a few days. There are about 18 gazillion things going on- it's good stuff, but I need some time to wrap my head around things. Extra sleep would be nice too!

 

While I'm gone, care to leave a few thoughts? What do you like about this space? What would you like to see more of?

Seven Quick Takes

Check in with Jen for more Quick Takes.

 

~1~

 

I realized the other day that I need to start sewing tags into the boys' mama-sewn clothes. Ender has no clue where the front side is on those clothes because I've always told him to put the tag in back! The other reason is that I often make them matching pants or pajamas or whatever and they are close enough in size that  I need a surefire way to know if I'm holding the 2T or 3T. Anyone have suggestions for tags? Maybe twill tags? Ribbon? Something that will wash well and help me out when I'm folding laundry.

 

~2~

 

 I have a new fully functional dishwasher! It came yesterday and it has already been on a test run. I love that it actually cleans the dishes. Now to teach Ezra to resist the urge to stand on the door when it's open . . .

 

~3~

 

Ezra made a curious little Montessori connection yesterday. Ender and I had been playing Uno when the dishwasher guys showed up so we paused our game while I talked with them and showed them to the kitchen. When I came back to the table, Ezra had taken our cards and lined them up- red with red, blue with blue, etc., just like the color box work. He was so proud of himself and to be honest I was surprised that he thought to organize them that way.

 

~4~

 

As a testament to my giant geekitude I am going to confess that I spent an hour or two the other day creating an excel file to track my current crafting projects and projects I've planned for the future. I included notes on whether or not fabric has already been purchased, new skills I need for the project, how long I think it will take me . . . I'm kind of nuts. And the whole point of it is that writing it down organizes it in my head so I can go against the written plan.

 

~5~

 

Ender asked if I might be able to sew some clothes for his teddy bear. Apparently Bear-Bear is tired of going naked, so I've spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out how to do that. I've only been sewing clothing for about 6 months so I'm still only beginning to figure this out. Maybe a doll pattern would save my brain from all the horrible math? 

 

~6~

 

I caught a link on yahoo yesterday to 100 things that our kids either won't know about or will think are completely antiquated by the time they're old enough to care.  They include things like card catalogues at libraries, VHS tapes, looking things up in actual dictionaries, encyclopedias and phone books, etc. Some of these sound "old" to me already, so I'm pretty sure my kids will never have heard of things like rotary phones and answering machines.

 

~7~

 

 I have read this post to begin my morning every day this week. I know it's an older post, but it's fresh and timely for me. It also led me here, another daily stop this week.

 

July Goal Check-In

1. Plant a garden this year and hopefully end up with edible produce. We've had strawberries and loose leaf lettuce and spinach out of the garden. A crazy squirrel has made off with most of the tomatoes (Brian compares my relationship with this squirrel as "caddyshack-ian") but I'm still hopeful we'll have a few! We had the first of the peppers last week. Mmmm. :) 

2. Eat at-home prepared meals only for a week. We've been so close to this almost every week this summer, but either Brian or I end up having a mid-week "let's order pizza or chinese" thing, and that ruins the streak. The big deal though is that I've been spending a lot of time in my kitchen and we're mostly eating homemade- definitely a big step in the right direction.

3. Read 20 fiction books this year. I've finished 7 books and I'm in the middle of book 9- Kushiel's Scion. I've decided that the answer to my obsession with books the thickness of bricks is to read 2 at the same time, or one big book along with a few middle readers or YA books, so I just started Farmer Boy as well.

4. Start Bible memory with Ender and build it into a habit. I need to be more consistent with this. It's really all on me- he has an amazing memory and I'm the one that forgets to pull out the box each morning. The box now has a home on the kitchen counter. I'm the queen of Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

5. Keep my nightstand area completely clear for 30 days except for vitamins, Bible and 1 current book. This hasn’t happened yet, but it has definitely been closer! The night stand currently has 5 books (all that I'm reading- 2 fiction, one non-fic, my prayer journal and Bible), the baby monitor, kleenex, the camera and water . . . and about 80 pens and pencils. Weird how stuff like that migrates to my side of the bed.

6. Keep/Toss/Donate 15 items each day for 30 days. Finished in January/February!

7. Move systematically through the house to declutter and re-organize. I've been doing pretty good at maintaining lately, and I finished with the kitchen earlier in the month. I'm trying to get things done in the laundry room now- the room that hold our washer and dryer, 2 laundry baskets, the vacuum, the pantry and all the assorted stuff that doesn't really have a home. It looks terrible.

8. Drink water. Make juice an occasional thing and soda a rare thing. After 3 weeks without any soda at all in June I had my first yummy taste of Dr. Pepper one day at lunch and then couldn't get to sleep that night until 1:30 A.M. I didn' t think too much of it until I had soda again a few days later and had the same problem. Without soda? I'm in bed between 10-10:30 and asleep without a problem. Since Ezra has been getting up at 5:30 for the last month or so the extra sleep has proved useful! So no soda for me. I've been drinking cranberry or grapefruit juice in the mornings and water the rest of the time.

9. Move to using as many fresh ingredients as possible in our cooking. Whenever Brian and I have decided to make diet changes the answer for our family has always been to make sure we don't purchase the things that we're cutting from our diets and to make very available the things that we want to have more of. We've been eating almost obscene amounts of fresh fruit and veggies this summer and I have purposely not bought anything pre-packaged. I have had to stay well organized with my meal planning for this to work, but it has been so worth the extra effort and extra time in the kitchen. Ender really likes to cook with me and I will never tire of the boys asking for more grapes or apples or broccoli.

10. Re-evaluate my goals every 3 months. I haven't checked in on this since late March, but I think we're keeping up okay. There is still work to be done here!

City

This summer I'm only teaching 3 afternoons a week, so on the other days I've been able to enjoy a quiet nap time with Ender while Ezra sleeps. We usually spend the first hour or so on Montessori work and we read together.

The second hour is project time. I sew or knit usually (or do a little housework if I'm behind!) and Ender works on whatever he'd like. It has been art projects for awhile now, but he took a turn in the last few days. He spent an entire afternoon hard at work on this project, even after Ezra woke up.

 

 

Ender asked to use several things together to build his city. His materials included jenga blocks, unit blocks, and the geometric solids. A few animals were introduced toward the end. He built and rebuilt each section until it was "right" (his word) and he tried several options before deciding which way he liked it best.

 



 

 And, of course, he had to capture his work with his camera for Daddy to see, just in case the city wasn't around by the time Daddy came home. Daddy was able to be home a bit early that day and Mama was successful in keeping Ezra from behaving like a wrecking ball until Daddy got there.

 

Apron-y Goodness

Here are the two aprons I made last week. Apologies in advance for dark picture quality. The light was not so good and the flash made everything all wonky like it always does. So no- our living room walls are not painted "halloween glow orange".



This first one is made from a vintage sheet I found a few weeks back. It's a pretty simple apron with just the one box pleat in the front. I like the little blue flowers- something to make me happy while I'm doing housework.

The second one is made from a "pepper" remnant that I found at Joann's for 50 cents and a few scraps I had left from other projects. Ender especially loves the pepper apron, probably because he helped to work the pedal on the machine. I set it to the slowest speed and he helped me finish off the edges.

We should all thank Superman for the photography because he had a certain look of "more apron pictures???" on his face. Bless the man for not saying a single word.

Seven Quick Takes

Go visit Jen for more Quick Takes.

 

~1~

 

So I decided to undo the sock completely and start over. I'm going to go "toe up" this time using Wendy Johnson's new book. These will be my first toe up socks! Love trying new things.

 

 

~2~

 

We've been having some, um, "lively discussion" around here this week. Ender has decided that he's the captain of the family debate team and that it is his job to quibble on every point. We've talked about what arguing is followed by me stopping him mid argument to say "This! This is arguing!" It's so bad that if you say "the sky is blue" the child feels obligated to disagree- "no, it's actually baby blue." By Wednesday he had caught on that we're not going to tolerate constant arguing and he was tired of me and Superman pointing it out to him. So on Thursday morning when he started his usual "no . . ." and I reminded him not to argue he said, "But I'm not arguing with you- you keep arguing with me!" All a matter of perspective, right? He's so going to be a lawyer.

 

 

~3~

 

Little Happy Dance- I have a new dishwasher coming next Thursday! The last 2 weeks have been like Christmas- well, an icky kind of Christmas where all your appliances die at once and have to be replaced, but I'm choosing to put a good spin on it. New range! New Dishwasher! New garbage disposal! Superman had to wire the range (which was interesting since he'd never done it before. Thank goodness his dad who is an electrical engineer came over to check the work before we turned the power back on!) and he put the garbage disposal in on his own. The kitchen will look brand new before we know it.

 

 

~4~

 

The tent is a success. The boys spend half the morning under there (specifically with all the little animal figures they have) and pretty much cry when I take the tent off so we can eat lunch at the table- even when I promise to put it right back on after lunch is over (which I always do!). Ezra calls it the "bit" and I've finally caught on that that means tent. He starts asking for the tent about 5 seconds after he wakes up. It always makes me extra happy when they really love something I've made for them.

 

 

~5~

 

I'm still on the hunt for a winter project and I came across a spiral quilt book at the library.  Now to figure out if I have the patience for the patterns! I seem to need a fair amount of quick projects to keep me happy while I work on longer crafts, so for now I'll keep drooling over the pretty spirals.

 

 

~6~

 

Speaking of quick projects, I made a new apron late last night. Superman went to bed early (it's been a long week for him!) so I stayed up and made an apron. And cut pieces for another one. And drew a sketch for a third. We'll have a big happy apron sharing fest on Monday after I have a chance to take pictures, okay?

 

 

~7~

 

It has not been a good eating week for me. Oh, I've made sure everyone else ate well, but I've had most of a pan of brownies in the last 24 hours. Yes, I had some for breakfast. And yes, I count it as breakfast food- after all, there ARE two eggs in there . . . If cherry cobbler can count (fruit!) so can brownies!

 

Seriously though, I'm suffering the consequences. Allergies and intolerances suck. And one day I will finally learn that my intense longing for dairy products never leads me anywhere good.

My File Crates

The file crates are ready so we must be ready for school! This is one of Dawn's excellent ideas. If you've been reading this blog for very long you know how much I adore Dawn's organizational style. We're trying out her file crate system this year and I'm really excited about making this work for us. 

 

My modifications to the system:

 

 

The most obvious change is that I have two file crates. The first crate is the one that looks like Dawn's - weekly files divide into hanging files marked for every 2 months starting with July. This is the file crate that structures our week. I put any papers or crafts that we'd like to do in the appropriate week and then we get to them whenever we're able during the week. I also file papers regarding our schedules in there- upcoming events, doctor's appointment reminders and all that go into the file crate.

 

The second crate has 1 hanging folder for each month, and it stores all my seasonal ideas that don't belong to any particular week. I have this crate partly because my mother was an early childhood educator for several years and I have all of her papers and printables that she gave me after she retired. I also have all of MY papers and printables from the years I spent teaching early childhood also- I have more than enough material to do at least 5 years of preschool and kindergarten units! There is no way I can do everything that is in here in one year, but I don't want to lose track of the materials. Organizing this material seasonally allows me to assign it to certain weeks more easily, so it's one of my first stops when I'm planning.

 

I have a page like Dawn's for my menus our weekly agenda and all that, but I also add two more planning pages. One is for the Montessori work each boy will be doing in the next several weeks, and the other is for book orders from our library. I tuck those pages into the front of my folders. It works better for me to sit down and plan out about 8 weeks worth of Montessori work for the boys (what to put out on the shelves each day, which presentations to do, materials needed, etc.). There are things that change on this plan since new interests come up along the way, but it helps me to be organized about having the necessary materials on hand.

 

In the back of the planning file I keep the catalogues I have from places like Lakeshore Learning and Montessori Services. I keep our Parks and Rec activity book in there too since they offer a lot of classes and activities for families. My other planning books are on the shelf right above the one where my crates reside.

 

Thank you for the brilliant idea, Dawn!

Tragedy

Do you know what happens when you leave your half knitted sock on the sewing table overnight?

 

A little boy finds it early the next morning while you go to the kitchen to get him some milk and make him a bit of breakfast.

 

A little boy thinks the sticks are to play with and takes them out for that purpose- which wouldn't be so bad except that he also notices the pretty yarn and pulls . . .

 

and pulls . . .

 

and pulls . . . .

 

 

Good thing he's cute and gives great hugs.

(And yes- I've learned my lesson about leaving my knitting in reach of the 2-year-old . . . )

Table Tent

 

I think it's a success . . . they spent most of the last two days hiding under there with their cars and train tracks.

 

 

This was an interesting project- it was my first time dealing with heavy canvas, so that was a bit of a learning curve. If you decide to make something like this I definitely want to mention the importance of a bigger needle (I used a denim needle) and sewing a ton on scraps to get a good idea of the tension settings you need. The most useful thing you can do is to pin everything. The weight of the fabric became incredible by the time I was dealing with the last side and that was hard enough to deal with without also worrying about lining things up properly as they went through the machine.

 

The idea came from this, but I deliberately kept the design plain- this can be a fort, a house, a cave, a nest . . . whatever the boys dream up this little place can become that very thing. I cut 6 individual pieces (two doors, the back, two sides and the top) to fit the table closely. I cut the doors to overlap by 4 inches so that it is "closed" even when they go in and out several times. I used bias tape on the door flaps (mostly for my younger one to easily recognize the doorway) and hemmed the bottom edge.

 

Musical Alphabet: Part 1

 

Ender has been learning about the musical alphabet for the past week. I made 8 sets of musical alphabet cards (A-G) about 2 years ago to supplement a few of my music students and the cards have become one of my most used games since they are so versatile and open ended.

 

I made the font big enough on the cards so that there were 4 letters on one page, and 3 letters and a blank space on the second page. I printed each set on a different color of cardstock (to help young children see each group of A-G as it's own set) and laminated all the cards including the blank cards. I specifically chose to use the uppercase letters for these cards as a prequel to later music theory when we write major keys and chords using uppercase letters and minor keys and chords using lowercase letters.

 

I'll be listing the games in sequence over the next few weeks as Ender learns the steps. The work should be used in this order and repeated until mastery is shown before moving to the next extension. The first few periods are easy and will be mastered after 2 or 3 times, but later steps can take up to several weeks for mastery. These games are intended for students who already know letters A-G (meaning they can identify them on sight and out of order) and have a fair understanding of what before and after mean. Many 3-year-olds are ready for this kind of work, but some are not. None of these activities are part of any Montessori album I've seen, but we include the cards on Ender's Montessori shelves as a choice during his work period.

 

Part One

 

First, we work on identifying the letters. I lay out one set of alphabet cards in a row, in alphabetical order. I ask Ender to say them with me, starting on A. If your child hesitates anywhere, repeat the process as many times as it takes for them to know the letters in order with confidence.

 

After going through the letter names I hand Ender his own set of alphabet cards (different color) and ask him to line his cards up with mine- A under A, B under B, etc. After he has completed this portion I ask the question, "Do you know what happens after we get to G in the musical alphabet?" And his now-programmed response is, "we start all over again!" So we start with my letter A and say the musical alphabet through to G, then immediately start with his letter A and say the musical alphabet through to G again.

 

 

For the next step, I pick up both sets of alphabet cards and put one aside. I ask him to close his eyes and I mix the remaining set so that the letters are out of order. I lay them out in a row as if they are in order. When I ask him to open his eyes I ask him if he sees that cards are out of order. Ender says yes and I ask him to put them back in order from me, starting with A on the left. If he gets stuck anywhere, let's say on finding the letter that comes after D, I will say, "A, B, C, D . . . what comes next?" to help him see that a problem solving strategy here would be to use the letters he already has in order to help him solve the problem. When he has successfully put them back in order, we cheer and say the letters in order aloud again, starting with A.

 

 

For the last step in this period, I lay the cards out in alphabetical order and again ask him to close his eyes. I remove one letter card, replace it with the blank card and turn that letter card face down. I ask Ender to open his eyes and I tell him, "one of the letters is missing. Do you see where the empty card is?" I ask him to tell me which letter is missing. If this is difficult I will again use the problem solving strategy of saying "A, B, C . . ." and tapering off just before the missing letter so that he realizes that the letters surrounding the blank card give him a clue as to what might be missing. If he answers incorrectly, I'll say, "hmmm... I think I see that letter over here, so it can't be that one . . ." and pretend that I'm thinking really hard about this problem too.

 

 

Once he comes up with the correct answer I show him the letter card that is turned face down, and SURPRISE! He's correct!

 

Seven Quick Takes

 

Go visit Jen for more Quick Takes!

 

 

~1~

Ezra went for his 2 year well-child visit yesterday and we found out he has grown FOUR INCHES in 6 months. He's closing in on his brother again! Ender needs to hit his next growth spurt or they'll be in the same size clothes for awhile! The only concerns for Ezra are the trouble he's had with congestion this year and his speech. He has gained some vocabulary over the last 6 months (I'd estimate he has between 30-50 words), but his speech is unintelligible to most people outside the family and some things we consider "words" are really just a sound we associate with a word. For example, until very recently he said "muh" for "milk" but because he used the same sound to mean the same thing every time we treated it like a word. (He now says mick for milk) His receptive language is excellent, so he's not behind necessarily- just on the lower end of average. We will go back in 6 month for a re-check on his speech, but as long as he keeps acquiring language between now and then he should stay in the normal range.

 

 

~2~

 

After the doctor's appointment yesterday we stopped in at one of my favorite thrift stores and walked out 2 vintage sheets and 2 very cool baskets richer. If you're looking for storage for your Montessori materials or fabric or *whatever*, this is the way to acquire your baskets and trays!

 

 

~3~

 

I'm still working on the table tent- it has to be finished by tomorrow for the party, so guess what I'll be doing this afternoon during naps and tonight after the boys go to bed? I thought I'd mostly finish it last night, but I spent most of the time messing with tension and all that in order to sew on the canvas. Thank goodness my mom doesn't care if I call her after 10 p.m. (as long as it's a sewing question!) So the tension is sorted out and the doors are sewn on- only the back and sides to attach, serging the seams (naptime portion of the sewing) and the hemming, which will take the evening.

 

 

~4~

 

Our new family game? Speed coloring. We all use the same piece of paper and take turns saying "fast" or "slow" and we all scribble fast or slow. There is a lot of color switching between speed changes, and it's important to Ezra that we all use his new favorite medium: crayons. We haven't ventured into markers with him yet, but he will LOVE them!

 

 

~5~

 

Today is a very special day. I'm getting a new stove! I hear that I'm getting one that actually has the same temperature in the back half as the front half so I don't have to constantly rotate whatever I'm baking. And most importantly? Knobs on the top of the stove where little hands can't get to them. Ezra figured out how to get through the knob lock a long time ago, so I'm very excited to not have to gate off the kitchen any longer.

(And in just a few weeks I'm getting a new dishwasher too. I can hardly contain my excitement!!!)

 

 

~6~

 

Ender has been working on learning the letters of the musical alphabet this week and we've been playing a lot of  games with those letters. I'll share some of our games on Monday!

 

 

~7~

 

I think I have a good handle on how I want preschool to look- taking some from Project Based Learning, keeping much of what has already been working for us with Montessori, and adding a few workbook pages in since that's one of the things that Ender really likes. Our day will be set up on trays and in baskets in a traditional Montessori fashion, though there will be some things included that are not Montessori. The first part of our morning will be for this work and the second part of the morning will be for Ender to pursue whatever project he'd like to work on or for good old play time. I'm almost organized to start, so we'll get back to a daily work period either this Monday or the next.

Purple-y Goodness

Want to meet my little friend from over the holiday weekend?

 

 

 

There she is- what a gorgeous purple sock. This is the Claudia Hand Painted Yarn I received for my birthday- 100% Merino Wool, fingerweight in Thistle. I cast on on June 29 and after the inch or so of k2 p2 ribbing it sat until Thursday when we started all the running. We were in the car so often over the weekend that I just left my knitting bag in there so I wouldn't have to remember to bring it all the time. Imagine how much more sewing I'd get done if I could take my machine in the car!

Heard Around the House . . .

Ender, announced yesterday at 9:30 a.m. that it was lunch time, despite having eaten breakfast only an hour earlier. I told him we would have a snack in awhile but it wouldn't be lunch until later. He says, "but it is lunch time. Why else would I have this straw if it wasn't lunch time?" Why else, indeed.

 

***

 

A few nights ago I heard the usual "thump, thump, thump" that means Ender is hustling to the bathroom. He always calls for us if he needs help, but at least he's starting to get used to the idea that he's able to go on his own at night! Well, then I heard another thump, and more and then running back and forth in the tiny bathroom, so Superman went in to investigate. He came back in DYING laughing!

 

He found out that Ender had run out of toilet paper and when he got the new toilet paper he couldn't figure out how to put it on the roll. In all the fumbling around Ender had dropped the new roll into the toilet, fished it out and dropped it in the trashcan, and was using a bath towel to clean up the mess from the floor when Superman walked in. Awesome. At least he was cleaning up after himself!

 

***

 

Whenever Ezra is mad at me, he calls for everyone else to help him. "Daddeeee!" "Meeee-Meeee!" (Grandma) "Bop!" (Grandpa- we call him Pop, but Ezra calls him bop). Of course, I'm the only adult at home usually so no one else comes to his aid. He always looks so disappointed in them!

Corn Shucking

We've been doing an awful lot of corn shucking around here- we've been having corn on the cob for dinner more often than not lately and Ender loves to help. I know, I know- not strictly Montessori, but definitely practical life!

 

First, you have to get all the "green stuff" off:

 

 

Then you have to get "all those tiny little hairs!"

   

Can you tell that Ender leans toward the perfectionist side? He was determined to get every single bit off of the corn!

Two!

Happy birthday to our sweet Ezra. Ask him how old he is and he'll say "dooh!" (two!) with so much excitement he nearly falls over. The child can hardly contain himself! Ask him what he's having for his birthday and  he'll say, "CARS!" so happy he starts to dance. The boy *loves* cars.

 

The party isn't til Saturday, but today is the big day.

 

Happy birthday, little boy. We can't call you baby any longer!

 

Seven Quick Takes

 

Visit Jen for more Quick Takes!

 

~1~

 

My wonderful son Ezra has been getting up at 5:30 a.m. ALL WEEK LONG and waking several times at night. No apparent reason- he's happy upon waking and doesn't seem to need anything. But at 5:30 he is up for the day. The very long day.

 

 

~2~

 

There has been a lot of train building going on around here. The formations change almost hourly and both boys have their own ideas about how things should look. It's been quite the exercise in sharing and teamwork!

 

 

~3~

 

I'm starting to read more about Reggio Emilia and project-based learning. If you want a place to get started Camp Creek is amazing. I've been reading there all week long along with otherReggio blogs. I'm going to have to go back and revise my Educational Influences post from last week!

 

~4~

 

We've had some hard news about Superman's job. The short story is that the new contract is changing from 6 days with 10-12 hour days to 7 days with 12 hour days. Anyone who refuses will have their contracts pulled. On top of that this fall is his senior year and to graduate he's taking 5 classes fall semester and 6 classes spring semester. He was having a hard time with getting his coursework done since they went to the mandatory 6 days a few months back, so now it will be nearly impossible. So we're praying and Superman is looking for a new job.

 

 

~5~

 

Ender started his first project- animals. We have had plans to go to the zoo this morning all week long and when I reminded him of that last night he asked if he could take a clipboard and paper. I told him that was fine and he ran to pack it- he said he wants to write something down at he zoo. I'm curious to see what it is! I'm sure that will be the subject of a post to come.

 

 

~6~

 

The boys watched the movie Ice Age for the first time this week. Ezra is obsessed with Scrat. He laughs hysterically every time that little rat/squirrel comes on the screen and he gestures frantically and cries "Cur! Cur!" (squirrel! squirrel!) and then laughs again. He thinks real squirrels are hilarious too.

 

 

~7~

 

I'll be offline much of the weekend working  on projects, cooking and eating good food, and trying to convince Ender that fireworks are pretty to watch. We'll see if this is the year he can handle the noise.

Project Weekend

Ezra turns two very soon and I need to finish his gifts- pieces have been cut, but I really need to get sewing! The canvas is for a tent that will fit over our dining table, and the Cars fabric and red fleece are for a much-longed-for Cars blankie.

 

The other project for the weekend is re-organizing our poor living room shelves. In the last several weeks they've become stacks upon stacks, and something must be done.

 

 

I should probably do something about my sewing desk too . . .