A Week of Posts

There are several ways to tackle a 7 Quick Takes Post -- today I will do a quick summary of the posts that I didn't get the chance to write over the course of the week.

1. Even if it weren't for my Lenten discipline of staying off of the computer when the children are awake, I would not have been online very much this week. For the first time in the children's memories, March has felt springlike in New Hampshire. We have spent every possible moment outdoors enjoying the tropical temperatures. For those of you south of Boston, anything above 40 degrees qualifies as "tropical" in our minds. For comparison's sake, here is a picture from last March and a picture from yesterday:














2. Of course, there is a reason we call this "mud season."
   
   Any volunteers to help me keep up laundry over the next few weeks?
   
   
   


3. We have also been very busy learning about saints this week with two important feast days. In addition to cooking a boiled dinner for the extended family, we learned about Saint Patrick, shamrocks, and the trinity on Tuesday. We colored this shamrock and talked about how the shamrock can be used as an analogy for God in three persons. We also sang a cute "3 in 1" song sung to the tune of "Frère Jacques." On Thursday we reread a few nativity stories from the children's Bible and colored this image of the Holy Family in honor of St. Joseph's feast day.
   
   
   


4. I never got around to posting this week's Unplugged project or last week's art gallery picture. Here are both:


We marbelized paper by dripping colored oil onto water, then floating the paper on top. Amazing effect, but very messy project. We used syringes instead of droppers, and my fine-motor delayed child had a very difficult time. That child, however, is the one who has asked to repeat the project, so you may see more oil-slicked art in our future.




5. I never posted books for the week either, probably because I was reading too much! Over the past week I have read The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Nourishing Traditions, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and started in on Against Medical Advice: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery. I probably owe y'all a good book post soon.




6. In place of "Works for me Wedensday," here is my tip of the week: To make rolls, mix up your favorite bread recipe, then divide into small balls after the first rise. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then form into miniature boules. That's it! When I make rolls for salmon burgers I use Easiest French Bread, and put some kosher salt and rosemary sprigs on top of each roll. (Yes, yes, I read Nourishing Traditions and I am still using processed flour and farm-raised fish. I am trying to eat naturally, really I am!)
   
   
7. And finally.... This week's art gallery:

Unplug Your Kids - Clothing

When I saw that this weeks's Unplugged theme was clothes I wanted to make one of these mini-clotheslines or this matching game.

But I wasn't quite that motivated.

I went with a simple paper matching game to reinforce numeral recognition


Match the numeral on the shirt to the number of dots on the pants.

Visit Unplug Your Kids for lots more creative "clothing" ideas.

Art's Beautiful Byproducts

Although ecological awareness has led us to reduce the number of disposable products we use, there are a few clean-up jobs reserved for paper towels in our home. Not because they do a better job, but because the result is beautiful.

Moisten a paper towel, scrunch it up, and then clean. Use some elbow grease. This is a project all about process,but the product is still pretty impressive.

In addition to wiping magic marker from the calendar wall, I also make beautiful "tie-dyed" towels while the children watercolor.

No matter how many times we explain the rinse-between-colors rule, Cousin P mixes up the paint colors. No harm -- so long as we soak it up right then, his paints stay good-as new. The cloth at right was done with watercolors.

Simple, pretty, practical and fun!

Visit Unplu Your Kids for more wrinkled fun, and join us next week as we think of something creative to do with clothes.

Unplugged Electricity

This week's Unplugged theme is float.

We managed to make a balloon float with no water at all.

No helium, either.

How did we do it?

Static electricity.

After completing this impromptu experiement, Agent 004 and I read a few articles online about static electricity.

Maybe tonight we should try to light a light bulb using a balloon?

It's Not All Fun in the Snow

We did spend most of our daylight hours this weekend skiing, but sometimes we are squares*.


There are things that need to be done, ya know?


Here is mr warillever disposing of the Christmas tree:

We also dumped the cold ashes

and lugged firewood.

We didn't have time for many art projects, but we did spend a lot of quality unplugged time together, and isn't that the point?

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This week's Unplugged theme was "Square." Since my husband and I are chronically unhip, I figured that anything we did with our kids would fit the bill. Click over to Unplug Your Kids to see real "sqaure" projects.

Being Thankful

As in past years, we have spent a few minutes a day throughout November noting what we are grateful for.

Inspired by other bloggers, I have previously attempted to paint a "Thankful Tree." That has failed spectacularly every time. This year we went simple. Very simple.

Using an abandoned autumn themed painting (use #427 for kids' paintings), I cut out leaf shapes. We wrote our "thankful thing" on the back of leaves, then taped them to threads hanging in front of the bay window. You'll have to trust me on this (since I have no pictures to prove my point), but it looks just like falling leaves inside of our house.

I am grateful to have such a fun way to show our gratitude.

I awarded a few prizes throughout the month.

The Meta-Gratefulness award goes to Agent 004 for "I am thankful for having leaves to write thankful things on."

Agent 004 also wins the Brownie Award for her thankfulness for "Saints" and "Veterans." Maybe she was earnest, or maybe she was inspired by the two holidays we had just celebrated at the beginning of November. A part of me had has a sneaking suspicion that those two items might have been chosen for their assued grown-up appeal.

Cousin F gets the Down-to-Earth Award for realizing that she is most grateful for "dresses," "shoes," "slippers," "Mommy and Daddy" and "loving my brother P."

The Covering-All-Bases-Award goes to me, for writing (on two separate days) "I am thankful for the sun" and I am thankful for rainy days."

I am also grateful for the opportunity to take part in Unplugged Projects, where families accross the world-wide-web share their non-television inspired creativity.

My Favorite Store

I went on a shopping spree this weekend.

For someone that hates shopping, it was a rather successful outing -- I secured seventeen dresses, fourteen skirts, twenty-nine sweaters, forty two winter shirts, six business suits and one pair of jeans.

An entirely new wardrobe, all in colors that I love. And they all fit perfectly.

I'd bring you shopping there, but the inventory has been severely depleted. In fact, rumor is that the shelves will be completely empty by this evening!

I should probably give you some back-story here: When we bought this house we were enamored with the wood floors, tin ceilings and period wall coverings. We envisioned ourselves sleeping in one of the spacious south-facing bedrooms with three windows and a large closet. The children would be accross the hall from us in their own large bright rooms with bookshelves and a rocking chair in each room.

That is exactly how we lived in the summer of 2005. Oh, there were some inconveniences -- the lack of a second floor bathroom meant that trip to the bathroom with a toilet-training toddler required traipsing down the stairs and through three unlit rooms -- but it was nothing that a portable potty chair couldn't solve.

Then the weather turned. Our bedroom, which was so bright and sunny during the day, dropped to freezing temperatures overnight. Those large windows were uninsulated, as were the walls behind the pretty wallpaper. Our poor ancient oil burner was no match for a New England winter. The oil prices didn't make us any happier about the situation, either.

We promptly moved into more humble accommodations -- the "ell" of the house which had been walled and insulated in the 1970s. There are three inter-connected rooms arranged train-car style. Where in our old room we had tin ceilings, in our new room we had sloping walls. In the place of pine floors we had shag carpeting. And there is no antique wallpaper in our new digs, just sheetrock painted pale blue. What it lacked in charm it made up for in convenience though -- we now had a full bathroom, insulated walls, and a close proximity to the woodstove.

So what does this have to do with my weekend shopping trip?

My hanging clothes never made the move from the old bedroom to the Winter Palace. Since my current job requires nothing more than sweatpants and a flannel shirt, I haven't felt the need for easy access to my business suits. When I do feel the need to wear a cocktail dress, I can don a parka and mittens and rifle through my old closet.

But now that I have my very own walk-in closet......
Isn't it great to have a handy husband? He fashioned this out of a previously unused corner of our bedroom. With just a coat of paint, two hanging racks and a carpet remnant, we have our very own bit of luxury in our pedestrian bedroom.

All of his hard work me with a lot of work too -- the fun kind of work in which I got to pretend that I was a fashion model. I tried on every scrap of clothing in the room,
sorting the clothes into
keep,
donate,
and discard.

Once I finish sorting through the sweaters, I hope that I leave enough closet space for mr warillver!
Though I didn't plan this to coordinate with this week's Unplugged project, I'm pretty sure that this fits the "sort-junk-donate" theme! Click over there to see what everyone else is junking and donating.

Muffin Tin Monday Thinly Unplugged

banana, carrots, green beans, banana

pan-fried potato, green beans, carrots, pan-fried potato
sukhariki, broccoli, broccoli, sukhariki

"Sukhariki" is one of the few Russian words in common usage in our household. It translates as "crouton," but we use it more like toast.

This batch was cut thin from the remnants of last Friday's french bread. I tossed the bread with olive oil, kosher salt, oregano and garlic powder. It was baked at 300 degrees for precisely the amount of time it took to slice the vegetables. I don't always bother with oil, and we vary the spices according to our whim.

I hope that the Unplugged families will appreciate my lame attempt at integrating this week's theme -- thin -- into our lunch. Except for the broccoli all of the foods were exceptionally thin.

It is also our first time participating in Muffin Tin Monday. The girls really liked having a new presentation for our frequent "bits-and-bobs"lunch, so we may do this again next week.

Sticky Spider Webs

This week's Unplugged theme is "white."

Of course we used our favorite white art medium -- GLUE!

Using an idea I learned from the fabulous Amber, we dipped string into glue, then laid the strings on wax paper to dry.
Of course, with young children, the purpose is the process, not the product:
There was a bit of a distraction when someone realized that straws fit into the bottom of the chair:

...but we got back on track to create beautiful webs. After leaving the strings to dry for a few days...
... we had stiff spider webs to show for our efforts.

Hard

I've got a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go.
Said it's a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go.
But I can't turn back,
My heart is fixed,
My mind's made up,
I'll never stop,
My faith will see, see me through.

-------Jimmy Cliff-------

It's the hard-knock life for us
It's the hard-knock life for us
No one cares for you a smidge
When your in an orphanage
It's the hard-knock life
It's the hard-knock life
It's the hard-knock life!
-----Annie-----*

Life is hard anyway you cut it
Life is sweet like a berry from a tree
Life is temptation, baby, every single day
Life is hard

Life is funny, I dont mean ha-ha
Its not always sunny when it needs to be
Life is frightening, nothing lasts forever
Life is hard
----- John Mellencamp-----

This week's unplugged prompt had me humming a tune, and it wasn't a pleasant one. There is so much hard in life, why would I want to add some extra hardship to our lives?

Or did that mean hard, like explaining why people have belly buttons, but frogs and chickens do not?**

Oh wait! Maybe Mom Unplugged meant "not soft." That's it! In which case, I will tell you how we spent our Friday afternoon -- working on tactile discrimination. The goal is to find the hard objects hidden among the softer base material.

The classic tactile discrimination exercise is to hide small toys in a bucket of rice. The older child can try to find pennies in a gob of Theraputty. Or, you could set four small children free in the garden and ask them to dig up the potatoes. It is something like finding a needle in a haystack, but a lot more fun.

The children dug and dug. And built mud castles and trenches. And dug some more. After twenty minutes I had a ransacked garden, four muddy children, and a bowlful of potatoes.***

After a "silly shower"**** and dry clothes we boiled up those spuds and had a pre-dinner treat. That is my idea of "unplugged" fun.

Check out Mom Unplugged to see what hard things everyone else did.
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* I've been trying not to sing this song, but it constantly comes to mind. I often sing responses to particularly ridiculous behavior. Whenever the "Not Fairs" start flying, this song immediately comes to mind. It is right about the word "smidge" when I remember how completely inappropriate it would be to sing this to a child who lived in an orphanage once-upon-a-time. Even if (especially since) there were people there who really did care more than a smidge about the kids in their care.

** I think I did pretty well explaining about umbilical cords and eggs. How many four year olds even ask about things like that, never mind comprehend?

*** Don't be too impressed by the bounty of our garden -- they found about two pounds -- but do be astounded by the frugality. The "seed" potatoes came from a bag that my brother accidentally left to sprout in the back of his pantry last winter.

**** Silly shower = a fully clothed shower. For both modesty and mud removal. Fortunately our (only) bathtub is just inside the back door.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We built our first snowman of the season yesterday.

Not our actual snowman

The weather is beginning to turn colder here, but we don't have any snow yet. Just two kids who like doing the unexpected when given the opportunity.

We took a wonderful roadtrip along the Massachusetts North Shore last night, stopping in Newburyport for a fish dinner and Seabrook, New Hampshire to build our "frozen" friend.

The Lamest Unplugged Post

So lame, in fact, that I won't even include photos.

Not at all. The Agents created very cute projects, but this is a lame post because I have no photos -- my camera and camera still won't communicate, and that handy-dandy little external card reader is broken. I bent a pin putting the card in upside. I can't even blame the kids!

The unplugged theme is soft. I asked the Agents what they would like to make -- they decided on kittens and lambs (so far, so good -- they know what soft is). We then chose soft materials. Both Agents chose cotton balls. I chose pink sparkly feathers.

Agent 002 drew a kitten, then glued cotton balls all over its body. He called it "Snowball."

Agent 004 chose pink blue paper (the sky), shredded green scraps and glued those onto the background as grass. She glued many cotton balls onto the paper. A Mama sheep, a baby lamb, a cousin sheep, and a neighbor sheep. And then she moved the gluey mass all over the paper as the sheep socialized. By the end she was sticky and her "art" was destroyed, but she had a grand ole' time.

I made a pink flamingo with glittery pink feathers. Maybe I am glad that you can't see our work...

Painting Al Fresco

When it is hot, we bring our art outside.



The kids love to clean up!



For more hot fun, visit this week's "Unplugged Project."

Smelling the Flowers

We have been in San Francisco for the past three days. Mr warillever will be attending a conference this week and we all came along for the trip.

Yesterday was full of urban exploration. We took the Caltrain into the city, a cable car down to the bay, and then ambled around the piers for a while. The kids rode on a carousel, and then it was back to the hotel on BART and a bus.

Our little gearhead (Agent 002) loved the trains, but it made for an awfully long day. As we tried to figure out the logistics of today's adventures we realized that public transit just wasn't going to cut it. We rented a car from the lot across the street. Agent 002 loved that too -- he was enamored with the PT Cruiser we rented.

We started the day with mass at the local parish, then returned to the hotel for breakfast. After that it was off to the San Francisco Zoo. Agent 004 loved the kangaroos; Agent 002 liked climbing the giant spider web outside of the Insect House. I loved seeing them have so much fun. The giraffes weren't so bad either.

Later in the day we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (which the kids knew all about from the book Pop's Bridge) and went to Muir Woods. I was reticent to spend the $10 entry fee charge for a short walk in the woods, but my husband reminded me with a smile that this is why we spent a thousand dollars to fly out here in the first place.

And it was so worth it. I have never seen anything so amazing. Plus it was free because it was after 6pm. I'd show you a picture, but my camera battery had expired by then. I don't think that pictures would do it justice anyway.

So I will leave you with a picture of my Baby Girl smelling the flowers in the hotel parking lot.

What does she think, that she's on vacation?

Snowflake Flowers

The Unplugged theme this week is "old," so I am blogging about an old project -- our Mother's Day "snowflake flowers."

This is one of those rare "original" creations, not something that I borrowed from someone else's blog.

To make the flowers:

1. Trace and cut two construction paper circles for each flower.
2. Make half of the circles into "snowflakes" -- fold the circle in half twice, then make various cuts into the wedge.
3. Unfold and glue the snowflake onto a contrasting circle.

Use strips of green construction paper for stems, then glue paper grass over the base of the stems. The grass is simply a wide strip of green construction fringed by cutting slits through all but a small bit at the bottom.

I love this kind of project because it is open-ended enough for the kids to get creative, but there are some parameters so they get practice following multi-step directions. If you look closely at the upper-right bouquet, you will see that Cousin F made a collage on top of the middle flower; the lower-left bouquet has a beautifully simple flower made with an oval glued onto a circle.

Father's Day Creations

Father's Day was fast approaching, and I had yet to decide on a present from the kids. I was looking for fun, personalized, and useful. And easy enough for 3-year olds to create. Creativity was failing me, and by Thursday I had resigned myself to handing the Dads marker-drawn cards.

But then the internet returned and I saw Mom Unplugged's masking tape decoupage creations. Tape, glue, paint and mess -- who could ask for anything more?

The goal was to cover containers with masking tape, then decoupage that with a tinted glue solution. The result would be a "useful pot for holding things" for Grampy, Papa, the Cousins' Daddy, and all four Godfathers (Uncles Jethro, Jimbo, Ichabod and Mr. R).

I should have taken note that Mom Unplugged did this project with her 7-year old daughter, not with her her younger children. The project requires hand-ripping masking tape, which was difficult for my 6-year old and nearly impossible for the 3-year olds.

Despite more adult involvement than I would have liked, the kids did an incredible job. Agent 004 in particular was very interested in the project. She enjoyed painting layer after layer of paint-tinted glue onto the containers. She experimented with drizzling glue which led to some interesting effects. She also painted subsequent layers in different colors, which was pretty neat too.

Unlike Mom Unplugged, I colored the glue with washable paint instead of food coloring. My reasoning was that it is both cheaper and easier to removed from clothing. I am not sure how different the final result is.

I apologize that there are no process pictures -- my camera was recovering from a night out in the rain. I do have some cleanup pictures however:

There is nothing more fun that cleaning a glue-covered table with shaving cream.