Friday, January 30, 2015

Thursday Friday

Friday
9.30a    - electric company ep 437
9.45a    - outside PE (5x 500ft laps)
10a    - puppy training
10.15a    - pbskids
10.30a    - dragonbox app (algebra prep)
11.15a    - cooking and nutrition discussion
11.30a    - break

12.30p    - copywork
1.30p    - timed copywork, discussion of paying attention
2p    - break

4.30p    - showing mom dragonbox app
4.45p    - break
5:15    - plant care and maintenance
5:30    - done

---------------------------------------------
Thursday

9a    - pbskids
9.30a    - kite building and flying
10.15a    - PE (5x 500ft laps)
10.30a    - break

11a    - dragonbox algebra app
11.45a    - pbskids
12.30p    - Electric Company, ep 386 & 391
1.30p    - done



//She wants to build more kites, told her we need to buy some more dowels and have a good windy day.  We also have to try to give the other puppies away...I have the weekend off.

Finished book two of the Rain Wilds trilogy by Robin Hobb.. on to book three soon.
Need to go back and read the Liveship trilogy.

Really glad for a weekend.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Wednesday


8.30a    - minecraft
9a    - "looming" (weaving)
10a    - break

11.30a    - gardening
11.45a    - copywork
1p    - outside PE
1.30p    - break

4.45p    - mathific
5.15p    - done

She was watching the Canterbury Tales and Frankenstein from her classic cartoons collection.
She showed me her weaving work, which was a good progress from yesterday.
Then, she planned to tape feathers on the back of fabric or paper wings and put her arms in them and fly.  We made it to her plan..and then it became a costume.  She was making a mask for it while I am typing.




I have the second toy plane to finish and hope to send them out tomorrow morning.  She has picked out bits for her own plane, too.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

bits of January (dry beans)

 This is my produce of dry beans from 2014.
I'm still keeping some of the varieties alive..still surprised by others.

We used all the string beans we needed out of the Shackamaxons and Providers while they grew, and I saved the rest of them for dry seed.

The ones I know for certain:
Kenearly Yellow Eye (Steuben yellow Eye) --bush - supposed good for soup beans, still working on growing out enough that survives our land.
Ireland Creek Annie --bush -- new grow out last year, got a half-pint jar grown out from a short row.. very nice.  Will grow them again if we have room.
Jackson Wonder Lima Bean --bush  Mainly grow these for pretty.. didn't eat any.
Provider bush beans - our best provider for green beans.. we always have too many!
Blue Black Shackamaxon beans -- backup longer provider for beans, didn't eat as many last year as usually, made less soups because of less zucchini to go with it.. but they did not fail to produce lots of dry beans.

Tongues of Fire (Lingua de Fuoco beans or Taylor Dwarf Horticultural?) --bush -- these look like a cranberry bean to me, will continue to grow out.
Florida Speckled Butter Peas --climber -- decorative, grew out very well, will continue
Rattlesnake beans --climber -- didn't eat many, they grew okay, didn't save many dry
Bosnian beans -- climber  Nice string bean, green pod with white flowers.   Even as a dry bean the shape, color and the white spot that stays white as the rest of the bean gets orange and black is a telling sign of which is this breed and which are not among the other 'speckles'.

Hyacinth beans (decorative climber) in the cup below, not edible, but pretty purple flowers

Brown speckled Whipporwill cowpeas  climber : I did cook some of the older beans last year, not bad.. very unlike the canned 'field peas' in taste.. very much like them in look, though.  I would prefer the from dry to the canned ones anyday. 

Cherokee wax beans --bush

and three I'm not so sure of:
White climbers - they stay pure white long after they dry...I didn't plant any last year and I still got some...not sure.  They tend to be small and flat, and very confusing which thing they are popping up out of.

White speckled climbers :  These are roundish beans -and have been consistent to form when I plant them (except see above).  They develop a golden yellow to dull brown 'coat' around the back opposite the helium.  I need to plant these again in a place by themselves so I can really see the differences and if there is anything else popping up when I plant these.

Tennessee greasy variant - black and white speckled large beans similar to the Bosnian, but without the white spot or the same shape..they are more flat like the Rattlesnake beans.  They turn dark orange the longer they dry..keeping their speckles under the orange.  They are purple and mottled as string beans - very waxy, with a thick string.  They are fairly good as small string beans, but they are very very late to produce and get thick quickly.  I did not like them as shelly beans (but maybe didn't cook them long enough) and have not tried the dried beans in anything.


I tried to keep the Providers, the black-seeded waxes and the decorative one separate just to make sure...

Tuesday

We said goodbye to our Blaze dog (the largest Great Dane), 11 years old, today...who had died in her sleep. Esme took it as well as she could, lots of questions, tears and discussion.  We had lost a few dogs before in her life, but not something she saw and connected so deeply with. We had waited until after the flea market to really tell her - partially because we needed to do maintenance on the tractor, and also because we didn't want Esme to become terribly upset where we couldn't handle it well and she didn't have something else to focus on.  And then she wanted to see...which was hard, but it made it real.  The last dog was Astro, the stray that the neighbor was scared of but we had befriended..she didn't see any of that...but has felt the sting and the loss since.  Blaze being a natural death scared her some, too...as I said, lots of questions about when she was coming back - what it all meant, if anybody ever came back etc.  She did understand, finally.. she's just been hoping it wasn't true and maybe it would work, she said.  She insisted we had to make a headstone. We buried her in a deep hole made with the tractor on the edge of our property - and put cedar logs on top... but Esme said it wasn't good enough...so we let her choose a board for me to chisel Blaze's name into and put it up there.

7:30 flea market, getting ready, setting up etc, math, exercises
-----Power Pack (begin reading vol 1. issue 44)
We bought some tomatoes and planned to make sandwiches later

8:30 packing up, break, stopping for food
home

10:15 Minecraft exploration, nether castles, portals
----(Daddy was doing the tractor maintenance to get it started and the hole dug)
11:00 burial of Blaze dog - making headstone memorial
-----discussion
11:30 break

12:15p - More Minecraft exploration
12:30p - finish reading Power Pack together
12:45p -  greenhouse operations
---planted marigolds, plant maintenance, the kale had come up
1:00p - Minecraft building throneroom

 



Far from this castle she had taken over in the Nether, she had made a gravestone for Blaze there, as well.

2:00 -  weaving loom, tomato sandwiches
2:30 - done




Monday, January 26, 2015

Monday business day

2015-1-26
9:30 - greenhouse operations,
---plant maintenance - the parsley is up!
---discussion of what someone would be able to buy her plants for
9:45 - discussion of making toys, materials, discussion of patterns, shops, 'make to order' and so forth
---math about supplies and prices
10a  - break to go to town

11:30a - Lowes, making calls, getting card signed for friend who is leaving our store, conversations with coworkers about homeschooling, what Esme likes and doesn't, her new shoes, plans, drawing etc etc...

One lady customer walking by said 'Sick, are we, home sick from school today?'...  We said, no homeschool - this is a field trip to talk to people, ask questions, listen to me make some calls and then go home and do our other things.  She said 'Oh'.. shot her husband a 'really now, would you look at that...' look, but walked on.

-----reading and using the vending machine by herself, 'breaktime'  I offered to pay for chips to split, but she really wanted a drink, found one she could afford (by reading the signs) and paid for it out of her own purse.

-----hard lesson (offer to pay for piece of brass fitting)  She didn't know what it was, and didn't know why she couldn't have it because it was lying on a shelf behind a display in a dust pile.. but STILL...and she tried to lie about not having anything in her pocket, so I pressed the morality of it.  I asked the store manager to price it for her, and made her pay for it.

         Even if it is trash, even if you don't know what it is.. if it's in a store and not yours, don't take it unless you ask or offer to pay for it.  That is stealing, and it is wrong. 

12:30 break to get back in car and go uptown

1p - supplies @ Dollar Tree and WalMart, post office

2p - lunch and association word game (her choice)
-----She would say a word, then I would say a word to go 'with' it, and we would decide if it was funny, a good match or a bad match for the word.  I was impressed by her choice and she had a lot of good ones.
2:30 break

3p - feeding chickens and puppy vaccinations (disc. watching Daddy give them to the puppies)
-----opening comic books that came in the mail, reading Power Pack 1985 with help
4p - break

//She also helped Daddy open a package of ground beef and split it up into six sections and deliver one section of it into a pot for him, which will be our dinner tonight (sloppy cheeseburger). We discussed the hard lesson with Daddy, as well.

She does feel very accomplished for the day, and has put her comic books (with my urging) into a fold-a-file so dogs and cats and other things can't get to them but she can have them by her TV to read.  I really hope this encourages her to read more and want to read about what happens to the four kids in the Power Pack.  We had gotten one issue at a flea market stand last year and she has read and re-read it so many times, amazed at the kids having powers and being siblings.

I have some planes to make tonight!  And we have flea market in the morning.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

New items in the KnitOwl shop

At the KnitOwl shop for 2015 at mariemeyer.etsy.com

It's the time of year I am buying seeds for our garden, and Esme's greenhouse endeavors now, and also getting other items ready for the flea market we go to throughout the year.  Our Blue Black Shackamaxon beans did very well this year, and we will be selling packets of them with some free surprises of other varieties I have been growing.  And the Alien Monster Dolls are back up for sale with the octopi and the planes.  These are made to order toys and I will have to fit them into our schedule to sit down at the machine and make a few here and there.

Seeds:
Florida Speckled Lima Beans (Butter Peas)
Blue Black Shackamaxon pole beans
Brown speckled Whipporwill cowpeas 
and limited supplies of White climbers, White speckled climbers, Ireland Creek Annie, Tongues of Fire, Kenearly Yellow Eye and Tennessee Greasy beans.

What are we planning for the garden this year? 
I have decided to forgo all curcubits and other zucchini other than Tromboncino squash, which I've *heard* the squash bugs don't like.. in hopes of cutting down their numbers.  We will be going forth with the Principe Borghese tomatoes and Black Prince.  And of course.. I can't put myself into a box yet on the beans -- there will be some planted, probably many.. but it is to be determined. 

Friday, January 23, 2015

Friday

Handwriting


One of the hardest things for Esme is handwriting, and spelling.. and put the two together you get frustration and a struggle to accomplish anything.  But, as I tell her, it will only get worse if she doesn't practice.  So, I enforced a half hour of writing sentences today to -reinforce- capitalization, end punctuation and making a complete sentence.  She complained a LOT, and this is what we came out with.  Toward the end she was actually getting a little better... and she made a joke of 'hat' dog when she knew it was the last one.

She insisted it was torture to write anything...and I told her if she wanted to be a grown-up this was a necessary skill.  She had no trouble at all making her checklist yesterday (well, except spelling lemon).. but curled into a ball and fussed at least three times when I corrected her punctuation.  The huge end punctuation is part of a stalling technique to claim she wasn't done with that sentence because it wasn't dark enough.  //ha   She is a character, always has been...

I have to go into work, and Daddy has more school to do with her later.  We spent the rest of my time for getting ready for work getting her hair washed, making lunch and watching snowflakes fall and puppies wrestle.  Her coleus is starting to come up, so I might show her that in a bit and show her to spray water a mist over them in the greenhouse.

//
8:30a    - Writing sentences with caps and punct.
9a     - break

10.45a    - gardening / plant maintenance
11a    - weather observation & discussion
11.15a    - copywork
12.30p    - break

1.15p    - Fractions discussion, time addition
1.30p    - pbskids (codebreaker)
1.45p    - PE (200x jumping jacks, 50x 10lb bench press, 40x 10lb
          deadlift)

2p     - math stretch app
2.30p    - drawing, reading aloud ("Peace and Quiet")
2.45p    - synonyms worksheet
3p    - done

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Thursday greenhouse and more

10:30a     - supply run to stores
                   discussion of science experiment needs
                   supplies for greenhouse, petunia seeds, spraybottle
She kept a little notebook checklist for what she wanted to do/get and helped me check off the items on my list, as well.

11:30a     - groceries, shoe comparison shopping,
                  math during checkouts, self-checkout
12:00     - home, break
1.15p    -  Kahn Academy math, subtraction, equating, word problems
1:45p    -  break
2:15p - Greenhouse operations, dirt, transplants, planting
She helped make dirt.  For a kid who has been head-to-toe in mud often, she seems to have acquired a strange distaste for dirty hands.... We transplanted the geraniums - having her make the pots and transfer one whole by herself.    Then, I had her prepare three four-part pots for the petunias and plant the seeds - but there were only nine seeds!  So she chose some Kale.  She watered and made labels reading off the packages.

2:45p - Minecraft discovery...summoning command, some reading involved...she was upset we couldn't summon a skeletal horse.  We did summon ender crystals and dragons and other horses.
Juiced a lemon with the real kitchen juicer to paint on paper to test a science experiment she saw

3:45  - break
4:30  - clothes care and maintenance, discussion
5     - done

//She checked out Gary's Mod again for her free time, trying to remember how it all worked.

Notes
Her attitude was some better, today.. I only had to remind her to do what she was doing about half as much as usual..   When she first woke up she thought we were going to clear the rest of the garden and till it all today.. but was sad when we said the weather was turning for the worst and there were other things to do today.  She was close to excellent in town -even though we were making a 'rush' of it compared to days we go to the library and playplace for our town trips.  She did complain about making dirt, and did argue a lot about doing the online math, but then saw that her Avatar grew again.. so that was better after that.  She has been somewhat upset this week because of the puppies being sold from this litter, and missing them... but she has done such a good job with socializing them that we have tried to stress how much better dogs they will be for their people as her work well done.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Tuesday Wednesday






11.45a    - candle making (Science AND arts and crafts!)  apparently perseverance on this one, too (read on)

We tried to make dipped candles - but ended up with just prepared wicks because our pan was too shallow.  I thought that might happen... went on to Plan B, and prepared three eggshells by putting holes in the ends and blowing out the yolk and white into a bowl.. she liked that step.  Then we ran the prepared wicks through them and put them in a holder.  BUT - the wax was too hot, and the eggshells not very dry, and the styrofoam holder container melted and let the wax out onto the wax paper we had lined the surface with.  So, we got some sand and put it in a bowl, and rescued one of the eggs that way - getting at least small dome-shaped candles.  It wasted a lot of wax.... but it was a good learning experience. She really liked watching her crayons color the wax, and seeing the 'state change' between the block of wax, melted wax, and cooling wax hardening up on the spoon again.  I ordered some tin molds to use next time, and we talked about what went wrong and what we did get out of it.

12:45p  - puppy outside training



1.30p    - garden clearing / seed harvesting
 She helped me pull tomato cages and t-posts, used a pliers and cut and wrapped up strings of wire, looked for dried bean pods and sundried tomatoes still clinging that might have seeds in them.  We stacked 6 bricks and the tposts and cages away from the garden and talked about what we needed to do to make it ready for the tilling machine, and why we didn't want any wire in the garden.  She told me what she remembered about last year's tilling.. and played 'karate chop' in the dried tomato vines.  She built a 'tiger trap' out of grass, sunflowers and cornstalks and then showed me how it was supposed to work.  The two black puppies rolled around, followed us at our heels and one of them even brought Esme a stick to add to her tiger trap and then acted all happy she had helped.
2:30p    - break

3p      - lake walk, nature discussion, PE games

We walked to the lake and played hide and seek in the long grass, saw a tiny baby fish in the water (really odd for January, but it was 50 out) and ate lunch, which she had helped prepare.  She forgot her sandwich at home so she had to eat part of mine - which wasn't her favorite thing...it was entirely new to her (tuna and avocado, she had packed bologna, but not in the bag she had put everything else in!)..she ate half of it reluctantly, but did eat it all.  We played frisbee and hide and seek.. then walked home.  There was lots of talk about where the sun rose and set and what it meant about what time of day it was now...argument, and discussion about time of year/day, temperature, sky etc.


3:30       - break

4:15    - reading letter from neighbor about her farm
4:30    - pbs kids
5:00    - baking soda experiments
The PBS games site had baking soda experiment journals - and we tried several of them with a balloon to show the air being made instead of a cork.  She wrote down which were acids and which was a base.

5:30    - proper use of candles, matches
I stressed this was adult supervision stuff, and showed her how to strike a match, light the candle (with something under it) and how to transfer the flame from one candle to another to light more than one.  She did it several times and was very proud of the candles we had made ourselves.  She would like to make more another day and is glad her 'broken crayons came to use'.. her own words, because her teachers hated broken crayons and didn't want her to save any :)

5:45    - done, eating supper and very happy

---------------------------------------------
2015-1-20

This was flea market day, and we had planned to get up very early and take all the puppies.  Esme did a great job getting up when asked, grabbing food and a drink, getting dressed and getting her bag ready to go for the market.  We were in the car in about a half hour including all the packing.

7.30a    - Sitting at the market, doing Math Stretch app, geography discussion with world atlas app.

8a    - flea market (math, socailization, etc), shopped for fruit, toys, made change
We sold two of our puppies at the flea market, as well as her having to watch out for puppies, help attend to them and to people who came to see them, stay in sight and with us at all times, use her bag of 'stashed' food, drink and toys to amuse herself, keep a good attitude and ask good questions as she had them.  She asked me what several things were, why several things were (morning, sun, shadow, dew etc. etc), and talked about memories from flea markets before.  She price-checked a hen for her coop, at 8 to 10 dollars, but had forgotten to remind us to bring her cage so she will have to get that next week.  Then, she bought a large and a small toy, and a bag of apples from the fruit stand.  She looked over ducks, banty hens and chicks, as well as talked to several vendors and their dogs.  Helped pack up at 10:30 to take everything home.
11a    - break (3.5 hours)

2.30p    - pbskids.org
3.30p    - done

+1hr     - scrabble with Grandma

Monday, January 19, 2015

Monday Minecraft...

7:3a    - test on make own cereal,
             questions about what is vitamin D,
             discussion: what does skin do?
             skin vs. fur, nails vs. claws vs. tools : tiger traps
8a     - approximation of time words, 'just past', 'just about', 'quarter to' etc etc.
8:15     - break


9a      - Minecraft building of mansion 'moneybin', trampoline
10a     - redstone piano, ender dragon fight
11a        - more minecraft building
12.30p    - break

1p    - puppy washing
2p    - puppy contact cards
2.15p    - done

Saturday, January 17, 2015

A schedule...

She is planning the perfect day for Sunday

Friday, January 16, 2015

Friday



11a    - Khan Math academy
11:3      - break
12:30 - geography with World Explorer program
1:30 - counting money, library card discussion, charts
2p - break

3:45 - shopping
4p break
4:30 - peel an orange
 planted radishes
 board game / book
6:00 wooden fairy project
6:30 - done

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Thursday Greenhouse and more


 

This is the indoor greenhouse that Mark got for our anniversary.  And, now it is in its home at the top of the stairwell where the light is nice and there is a little space for us to work in.  It will be a few months before it is time to start tomatoes and peppers, so I picked up a few things Esme could plant now and watch over in the meantime.


Esme helped me put some dirt I had mixed the other day into the pots, and then plant some coleus and parsley.  The geraniums were from the last 'greenhouse science' we did, and she measured the biggest one and the smallest one and wrote it on the calendar (in the blue folder) with the seed start dates.

 
Coleus is pretty!
  The seeds covered up with saran wrap to help keep the water in until they germinate in 7 to 14 days.

8.30a    - Gardening, starting seeds, measuring distances
/after we measured the plants, she had to measure herself,and me, and the distance to the ceiling in the room.

9.15a    - writing in diary
9.30a    - discussion of public school
9.45a    - drawing
10.15a    - reading "Charlette's Web" chapter 9
I read - she listened, and kept track of what was happening and guessed at the meaning of words.
--during this time she also played Jungle house with her baby dolls and drew me a very nice black panther with a butterfly on its nose :)  Then I got to the end of the chapter and had to get ready for work.

11a    - break


12.45p    - Electric Company (ep 223, 227)
1.45p    - cooking; measuring spices

2.15p    - done

We'll probably do library tomorrow...

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Tuesday Wednesday

2015-1-14

8am - long conversation about learning, schools, women's roles in other places in the world, work, what it takes to learn the skills for 'society now' (reading, writing, spelling, math), comparison to her public school experience (extension from talk she started last night)...

We discussed she had to find what she wanted to do and tell us - so we could make 'the days not all boring' (which is what she said when I said today was not a town run day) - but somethings took time and others we wouldn't know she wanted to do until she told us (like the weight lifting, or the rollerskating obsession).

I told her she had choices now, in this time and in America (Liberty's kids came into play here, and talk about China, Japan and women in the military), to learn all things, whatever she wants - if she tells us we will help her explore until she finds what she wants to do.  I said she didn't have to learn just carpentry, or farming because her family did that - she could learn anything.  Then she took the conversation by the tail (as she often does) and said she wanted to learn more farming things.. and came up with wanting to milk a cow and learn how many days a chicken takes to hatch from an egg.  I think I have a lead on a dairy goat farm we can go to - but the cow would be a bit tougher.  We can definitely look into the egg thing.  And she wants to help me more in the indoor greenhouse planting things tomorrow morning 'for school'.. she was so happy the geraniums are still alive.  I brought her home some parsley and coleus seeds to plant.

9a    - math worksheet (greater and less thans)
9.15a    - copy poems
10.15a    - PE (250x jumping jacks, 50x 5lb deadlift, 30x 10lb squats,
      100x 10lb bench press)

10.45a    - building birthday card
11a    - wrapping presents
11.30a    - break

12p    - Liberty's Kids (ep 37, 38, 39, 40)
1.30p    - done

---------------------------------------------
2015-1-13

7a    - store & town run, why streets are where they are, etc
8a    - break

9.30a    - copying poems
10.30a    - break

11a    - co-op and bank
11.30a    - break

12p    - pbskids.org
1.30p    - Liberty's Kids (ep 36)
2p    - done

Monday, January 12, 2015

Monday Math Esme says hi to the blogosphere

Esme says 'hi' to blogosphere

hi Zoey my age is 7 and my room is a jungle and I have a tent.
 I made nunchuks last night.

more later!

//Mom added this curriculum record in later:
8.45a    - math worksheet
9.15a    - reading Zoey's blog
9.45a    - Liberty's Kids (ep 33, 34)
10.30p    - break

11.15a    - math worksheet
11.30a    - break

12.45p    - handwriting, copying poems
1.15p    - Liberty's Kids (ep 35)
1.45p    - copying poems
2p    - pbskids.org
3.30p    - done

Sunday, January 11, 2015

project bits

I put the greenhouse together, today - and set some soil out that will hopefully be planted with cabbage and lavendar later in the week.  Our geraniums from our experiment a while back are still going... and we have lots of seed for them if we need to replace them before the season is here.  It won't be here till April - yes, I'm jumping the gun..  but I have a seed addiction...beans, corn..and other things.

Esme did a few of her own projects today - a jungle in her room with vines, a well-drawn monkey, and a temple with gems and a robot guarding them with 'traps'... Then she looked up more goat simulator stuff, sucked me into playing for an hour (we got the statue in the storage container hanging from the crane, very hard even as 'feather goat' - I will try go get it 'regular goat' next time, so we can do the robot quest).. and then she made paper tube nunchuckas with Daddy, and he got out his real ones to show her how to do it with hers.

I sat down at the desk and finished out a few tying of ends on knit projects, repaired a pair of pants and two toys, then played with some plastic canvas to make a little desk organizer thing.  It was nice to get a few little things done...

Now Esme is promising she will have lots to do tomorrow and be in a good mood to do it.. we'll see.

Note to myself:  I should make up a few new planes for the shop, orange and white one and green and white one.  

Saturday, January 10, 2015

bits

It is the weekend, and I took it off for vacation.  It is our eight year anniversary, and we took it easy all day long.  There was more goat simulator with Esme - lots of quests and watching youtubes to see what the specifics were.  The water unfroze to our bathtub, which made us all quite happy... but Grandma's water is still frozen at her house.

Mark gave me an indoor greenhouse (and I gave him some Amish peach butter, which he says is good), to start our tomatoes and peppers and other things in the next few weeks.  I've located seeds out of our collection that we will try for this year.

I'm looking through bits on Pinterest - so many things that look pretty but there really isn't anything we really 'need' at the moment.  I have a knit blanket I've been working slowly on... a quilt I put a patch on..  We bought some fabric the other day to make a big dog pillow for the couch.

.// Have tomorrow off, too - maybe there will be seed type things then.
Note: There was a very nice nap in the sunbeam through our window this afternoon.  I felt very like our large fluffy orange cat.  Esme said she felt blinded by the sunbeam so she didn't like the idea and kept playing computer -- but it was a little slice of lovely for me....

Friday, January 09, 2015

Thursday Friday

We had a field trip today - although it started out with a very bad attitude and we almost didn't go.  Grandma still needed her town run..and we made some adventures out of our other errands.

2015-1-9

9a    - making porrdige - boiling water, measuring
9.45a    - Kahn academy math
10.10a    - fractions
10.30a    - break

discussion of responsibilities, learning and planning

11     - ballet videos, terms, discussion
11:15     - break to try dancing out of sight

12:3p - Fabric store, exploring, discussion with Grandma
        Merchants Outlet Mall, money, discussion
1p - break

1:3p - Extension Office, 4H coordinator meeting
1:45p - Auto parts store, exploring
2:00p - break for lunch

3p - Tractor Supply store - exploring,
     asking questions about chickens
     money
3:3p - Helping Grandma unload groceries
       Discussion with Grandma, recap about adventures
       recap to Daddy about day (at home)
4p - done

She had some discussion before bed how she was so glad she got to plan her own schedule for the weekend.  And she was upset because she didn't get any gifts for our anniversary...which is tomorrow.  *sheesh*.. I told her she will get gifts when she gets married to someone someday if she gives one in return and decides to do that.  *grump ensued*
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2015-1-8

9a    - Reading aloud (Cake Soup), porridge pot
9.30a    - break

10a    - Indian diorama & discussion
10.30a    - reading aloud, many colored caps
11a        - break

12p    - Liberty's Kids (ep 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
2p    - music
2.30p    - done

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Wednesday Antics


11a    - Reading aloud ("Go Dog Go")
11.25a    - math worksheet
11.30a    - break

12p    - Liberty's Kids (ep 26, 27)
12.45p    - Fractions math
1.15p    - reading aloud (Goldilocks and the Three Bears)
1.30p    - break

7p    - pbskids.org
7.30p    - break

8p    - math problems app (PlusMinusTimesDivide)
8.30p    - reading aloud (nursuery rhymes)

9p    - music
9.30p    - done
read some Spider Man teams up with Power Pack comic book with me

There was lots of whine today, and naps... we hope she's not coming down with something...
It is very very cold outside...temp dropping to 3 degrees... people at my plumbing shop were coming in all day long for things we've been out of since yesterday...

I have some info on an Amish store in a nearby city we might try to do as a field trip on Friday  - gotta ask Grandma if she wants to go that day?

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Monday Tuesday and blue octopus

 I'm at work this week.  Esme got up very early this morning and showed great attitude getting her things ready to go to town.  We are reading Charlotte's Web, and will do another chapter or two tonight after a bit.  Last night after I got home I got into my sewing and reduced the octopus pattern to see how long a smaller one.

 6 inch diameter head and 9 inch original
The blue one is for sale at at the KnitOwl Workshop

Esme and I also tried to make enchiladas tonight.  I know it will take work to 'get it right', but it was very edible.  She ate some - it is like ravioli, but with chicken in it.  I put jalapeno sauce and sour cream on mine and even just one (and a half, because of the edges of Esme's - I made four tortillas worth) was too much food!  I put the other two away for lunch at work.

2015-1-6

7.30a    - Town, shopping price comparisons, observing trains
8a    - break
9.30a    - PE (30x 10lb squats, 30x 5lb leg lifts, 20x 5lb R&L curls,
      30x sit ups, 50x jumping jacks)

10a    - vocabulary words
10.30a    - Liberty's Kids (ep 23, 24, 25)
11.30a    - break

1.20p    - vocabulary words discussion
1.45p    - english grammar test app
2p    - Tynker app
2.30p    - break

Charlotte's Web: 'Summer Days' chapter 6 and on..   Listening, recounting story, discussion

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2015-1-5

9.30a    - Paper Doll construction
10a    - PE (50x 10lb bench, 50x jumping jacks, 30x 10lb squats,
      40x sit ups, 60x 10lb bicurls)
10.30a    - Tynker app
11a    - break

11.15a    - pbskids.org

12.30p    - Liberty's Kids (ep 21 &22)
1.15p    - pbskids.org
1.45p    - Toca Pet Doctor
2.15p    - done

Sunday, January 04, 2015

Corn experiments and toy emergency room

After breaking about half of the dry cobs of last year's flint corn out to kernels, I ran some food processor experiments on them.  We tried to use the old meat grinder, as well.. but it didn't work out well.  After many runs through the machine and sifting out the flour - there was still so little of it and Mark doubted the food value of it.  But, I really wanted to see what it would yield and what it would look like.  We fed the resulting mixture to the chickens for their dinner today.  I think it will be a dent corn type we plant this year - and continue my experiments towards making something pretty and edible, at least edible for chickens.

 I thought the red cornmeal was VERY pretty.
And it was a more 'dent' type corn, so it was easier to get to this stage than the flint corn had been.



And Esme had an 'ER' open for her toys - which had assorted problems.  The frog had a pincer clip on his back, the panda bear had a broken arm, the dragon had a toothache, and the giraffe had a fish glued onto his back where he couldn't reach it (apparently it was distressing for the fish, too)  She put them all in a doctor waiting room and drew pictures of each problem on a dry erase board to decide what to do for each patient.


We played Skyrim, doing the book of Love quest(s) and marrying Lydia, and adopting two little girls.  Esme was very brave killing some wild beasts - so I was brave and went and did a random quest which was almost too hard for our character - but we survived!  There was even a point when we had three dragons attacking in a row, plus a lion and a wolf.  Then we settled down into our new house at Breezehome and she played hide and seek and tag with the children in the town, quite a lot.  She is making some sort of drawing gift at her table for tomorrow and is 'glad you're going to work Mom', because she will be hard at work on it for most of tomorrow... and there will be some squirrel, apparently...or so Daddy says.

Project bits: I tied the ends in the market bag I had made for her swimming/skates etc sort of things at the end of last SUMMER.. and had never done that to finish it.  And I added a few more rows on the gypsy moth colors blanket I have been working on for about a year. 

Saturday, January 03, 2015

Bluebird Dress


We went to the roller rink today (in a different dress).  She met one of our friends there, and she also played air hockey against several boys and really held her own.  Her friend tried really hard and was able to walk and skate a little by the end of the three hours!  Esme was really rocking on her skates - the first time she has worn them to the rink.

When I got home I was looking for a project to finish up on... this New Year has gotten me in the mood to want to straighten some things up and make my work areas and projects more productive and not just scattered turf etc etc..  I sort of finished this blue dress months ago, but I hated how it hung on her waist... just too baggy yet I didn't want to take it in because then there wouldn't be any room to grow.  So, I used some leftover ribbon from something and made long ties.  And then I added a little bluebird embroidery to the side of it just to give it something extra for a reason to wear it.

Trying her best to look 'adorable'

shot of the bluebird embroidery



We had a bit of a scare with one of the puppies - but we think he is eating again and does not look quite so pitiful.  We aren't really sure what was wrong, or if it was just circumstances - asleep at the wrong times to get food etc etc...

Tired... have tomorrow off, too....