Something for Halloween

Carve a Virtual Pumpkin

Big Cats and Pumpkins... Who will win?

A bit of African fun (SOTW Chapter 29)

In Story of the World we slowly travel around the globe and each event that marked the turning point of a society we follow for a little while and become invested in. Sometimes we focus on the culture, sometimes we focus on the events, and sometimes the animals.

This story was a favorite of mine and I was lucky to have inherited my mother's copy for my own kids. They love it! It is about Anase the Spiderman (Logan calls it "the real Spiderman story") and about how he brought stories to the people of the world. Wonderful symbolism, fun illustrations, and lots of great cultural tidbits.

We have passed the African Kingdoms chapter some time ago (now on 32 and that was 29) but it is always nice to review with a little bit of culture and fun.

And just to get your wiggles out, check out this great video:



How fun is that??

In the Handwork corner

We are all learning to knit!

Apple Taste Test Graph

Fall around here means pumpkins... but it also means Apples! (We do live in Washington, after all.) So we decided to do our own little taste test of all the different apples we could find. Some came from our CSA box, some came from the market, and the rest came from the grocery store. As much as I would love to say we were able to take an apple from our own trees... the only tree that produced any apples this year is not ready for harvest yet. The Florina Apple tree still has green on her apples (they are a dark blush apple with white dots when ripe) and so we will have to add this to the taste test another day.

I made a graph so Cyan could write down our like of each variety in a number between 1-10. I let Logan just do faces as the number system was a bit beyond him.

Our favorites seem to be Fujis, Galas, and one I hadn't heard of before called "Jazz".

After we were done with the taste test, I allowed a little bit of taste bud redirection with a tiny yummy cup of caramel sauce to dip the leftover pieces in.

I think I may have ruined dinner! Eeeek!

Reading Basket for Autumn

In our reading basket this week, we have a bunch of wonderful books for the Autumn season. I have been having Cyan read them to Logan after naptime and they both look forward to those moments.

Grandfather Twilight

More than anything, this book is stunning! There are very few words, making it a favorite for beginning readers and the pictures are beautiful and magical, making it a favorite for non-readers. I included it in the Autumn book basket because it seems to show the earth going to sleep... and this time of year, it can feel as though the days get shorter very quickly.

Too Many Pumpkins

At first, we got it from the library, but within the week I knew we had to own it and add it to our Autumn book box. The kids just LOVE the story! Rebecca Estelle, an old maid, hates pumpkins. But when a pumpkin truck accidentally drops a pumpkin in her front yard circumstances make her adjust her opinion of pumpkins... and create a connection with her community as well. A charming story and a good laugh (and plenty of moments to tear up too).

And just in case that isn't enough reason to go out and see if you can find this book, here is a whole Natural Kids unit study based on this book and pumpkins! Perfect for this time of year. :)

Inspired Sprouts; Pumpkin Corner

Autumn Story

Another adorable addition to the Brambly Hedge series by Jill Barklem, Autumn Story does not disappoint! The harvest time is very busy for the creatures of Brambly Hedge. One day, when out gathering, Primrose gets lost and has a wonderful little adventure. The story includes a lot of harvest activities that we do around here in the fall; gathering for winter, preserving foods, and enjoying hot tea being among them. And just like the other books in the series, the illustrations are amazingly detailed and make me remember fondly the days of laying in the grass, making tiny houses for fairies and mice alike.

The Legend of Spookly, the Square Pumpkin

This is the story that Cyan read yesterday. It is an adorable book about a pumpkin that feels like an outsider because he has a different shape than the rest of the pumpkins in his patch. In the end, he gets to save the day with his difference and enjoys being the hero for his pumpkin patch.

I didn't realise that this book had become a franchise until I searched for this image on Google. There is apparently a Spookly movie, a Spookly website and everything! I look forward to looking for those at my library, but for now, we are very happy just to read the book over and over.

Quotes from Facebook

I have found recently that some of the things I would normally post on here have ended up on Facebook instead. So I decided to move them over. Enjoy the funnies from the past week!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Husband: Who left the flag up on the mailbox?

3 yr old: I did!

Husband: You can't do that buddy. That means something.

3 yr old: Yeah. It means I can reach it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I ask the daughter to bring all of the stuff from around the yard, onto the patio so we can get rid of the garbage and go through the outdoor toys before Winter... what is the first thing she brings? ROCKS. Big fat rocks from all over the yard. When asked what she is doing she says: "But... you said *everything*."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear moonbrained teenage son,

For future reference, axes, hatchets, and hedge trimmers are not lawn ornaments. Weed whackers do not belong on the front porch, and extension cords are not part of our curb appeal. You bike does not get flipped over and left in center the walkway, nor do you get to get angry at your three year old brother for picking up/touching said bike, hatchet, or ax.

Also, wearing socks and flipflops through wet grass is dumb. As is complaining about it afterwards.

Love (your very irritated) Mom (who is now leaving and getting a cup of coffee.)

(God, please help us both live through this year. Amen.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Instant Chemistry

What do you do when you get dry ice in your weekly milk delivery box? Well, you give it to the teenage boy of course!! :)

Instant chemistry lesson!

Tidbits of homeschooling

We have had some drama in the last week with our animals again. It has been a week of extra attention for our remaining rabbit, Sophie, while she recovers from her ordeal (which she is, very well). Cyan and Alex have both been spending lots of time out there pampering her. They give her treats from the garden, pet her while she stays in her cage and made her a nesting box so she can keep warm as the days get cooler.

This morning I woke to a adorable scene. :) Cyan, reading her rabbit a book about a bunny.

I snuck up on her to take a picture. I only got a couple of shots before she stopped to ask me what I was doing, but wow. It was SO cute!

Our Autumn nature table. Logan was thrilled to be able to help me and add candles to the table today. I picked out books to read from the library, and he enjoyed lighting and then blowing out the candles at dinner time. We collected green acorns in the library parking lot today and came home to add that to our new scene.

What a beautiful time of year it is!

SOTW chapter 30: The Moghul Dynasty in India

Craft: miniature of Babur's garden in a pie plate.

The kids filled a pie plate with soil, then decorated with rocks and shells. After that we added some 'quick grass' seed and they sprayed it with my plant water bottle.

It won't be as beautiful as the garden in India, but wow... they sure were proud!

For wiggle time, we played Elephants and Horses. It is a reenactment of the war in India when the Moghul's gained power. In the game there are twice as many elephants as horses, BUT the elephants are slow and labored (have to hop on one foot and have one hand on the opposite shoulder) and the horses are free bodied.

The smaller, but less hindered horses getting ready to start the battle.

One of the larger, stronger elephants.

An elephant in the process of her flag being captured.

Victory dance for the horses!!!

One cute little elephant tried to hide behind the camera mama. It didn't work out very well. ;) They still got invaded. However, the Hindus of India were welcomed into the new empire without any requirement for a change in their religious practices and that was the start of the Moghul Dynasty.

Trying out new things

This last year was a really hard one for us here at the Rose Garden. We have had TONS going on since last summer, and it has been compounded with surprises, both good and bad. Here is a timeline of the last 14 months for us:

June 5th, 2009 Bought our first house!

June 11th, 2009 Moved for the second time in 6 months. (First time Nov 2008)

August 2009 My dad got married (to a wonderful woman whom we all love).

Oct 31st, 2009 A police officer shot for no reason in Seattle (30 miles away)

Nov 29th, 2009 4 police officers murdered in a coffee shop in the city next to ours. (6 miles away)

Dec 26th, 2009 A police officer shot on a call in another city next to ours. (9 miles away)

Jan 2010 Memorials that went along with that.

Feb 10th, 2010 My husband was in a shooting. (Thankfully, no one was hurt this time)

Feb 11th, 2010 My 80 yr old Aunt fell and broke ribs, puncturing her lungs.

May, 2010 We took a three week vacation to visit that Aunt, my mom, and Don's family in CA, just trying to regroup before we settled back into life in it's new state of normal.

And then....

June 13th, 2010 We found out we were having a surprise baby.

September is here. I am already nearly halfway through this pregnancy and the Belly Bean is making it's way known in the world. I am starting to get excited about the new addition, although it was a long time in coming. (I am a very sick, miserable kind of pregnant person.)

The year has taken it out of me. I feel as though I have aged many years in the last 14 months, and I felt an intense desire to make life as simple as possible lately. This summer has been focused on making that simpler life a reality. And my job has been putting aside all of the things I think that should look like, to make the simpler life a reality instead.

In my head, a simple life includes things like home cooked meals, fresh made bread, children reading in front of the fireplace, and a perfectly clean household. This bliss is just a natural state of being that flows from one thing to the next. In reality, I have three crazy, beautiful, and imaginative children that would rather build forts out of every chair and blanket in the house or citys out of Legos across the livingroom than read. My kitchen is repulsive to me as often as not right now and so 'home cooked meals' often means pasta with sauce that I canned last year. Sometimes I have a side dish...

Wracking my brain over how to make this life easier, simpler, and cleaner is a very hard job. It started with getting rid of stuff (as always).

I am not sure how we accumulate stuff. I don't buy much, and I don't let the kids just buy arbitrarily either. I think our stuff multiplies under the beds when we are not looking. Like Gremlins. Lol! So getting rid of stuff was in order.

Another thing I have done is plan more. Rotating dinner menus, scheduled workbox days, and Excel sheets outlining budget plans have made life easier in the long run (although it was a LOT of work!).

We are still in the throws of trying to make the simple life happen. I feel like I have been surfing rough waters of life lately, and yet...

Very few effected the core of what we love and live for in any real way. The shootings were nerve wracking and VERY sad. But my husband is here, and safe with me still. And everything else? I can say it was just too much... but isn't that the luckiest state of being one could be in? Too much to do, too much to eat, too much to choose, too much to fix/maintain? Having too much. Having to choose between all the wonderful (albeit stressful) things to do. That is a blessing and a curse. But so much better than not having enough. I am grateful to live the life I live where these are the choices I get to make. I am grateful for every pound of food that comes from my garden... right along with every time I am not dependent on that garden for all of our food. We are so blessed!

First day of school!!!

This year is starting slowly for us. We have been doing classes all summer long so I am not really starting school (once again) just continuing with purpose. :)

I decided to celebrate the first day back to book work with a special lunch for my kiddos... complete with pencil shaped cookies from a local bakery.

They were a hit. :) Happy 'not back to school' everyone!!!!!