The Hidden Hazards of Crafting and the Beatles

No one ever warned me that crafting can be dangerous!

No, it really didn't hurt going in. Yes, it hurt like crap coming out, although it doesn't hurt at all now. The spot where I got a fresh tetanus shot, however, is still aching. And yes, it was my own damn fault for not putting the needle away immediately after I used it. After hearing  horror stories from ladies in the waiting room, the nurse, and the doctor about sharp objects lodged in flesh, I have no immediate plans to milk this incident for pity. There are far worse things to step on, and it's the grace of God that I stepped on it, and not a precious baby.

On a side note, I am thankful that I had someone very special to hold my hand while I had "surgery". He was wonderful, and barely gave me a hard time about it. Although he wanted to be very clear that I did not have to skewer my little toe in order to see him. A simple phone call would have sufficed. Good to know, baby. I'll try to avoid self-mutilation the next time I want to hold your hand.

Happy Thursday!

Up Where the Air Is Clear

I saw this video a while ago, but I still think it's cool. A father and son attached an iPhone to a weather balloon and released it with the video rolling. Once it descended, they located it with the GPS in the iPhone. Awesome. We are learning about gravity this week, and so it came to mind. Enjoy!

Knitted Scarf: A Project of Firsts

I was waiting to post about this project until I took some better pictures, but I completed this weeks ago and have yet to take any more pictures (surprise! surprise!), so I thought I should just go ahead and write about it anyway.

I had a sort of joke with myself about the fact that I have been knitting for more than a year and have never made a scarf, because that is usually everyone's first knitting project (either that or a wash cloth, which I have also yet to make). This is just one of my little quirks. After about six months I decided to wait and see how long I could go before I broke down and made one. I held out for over a year, but after fine-gauge project after fine-gauge project, I wanted  to relax with some chunky knitting, and decided a scarf was just the sort of quick project I needed. There was never any question about which scarf would be my first: Braided by Susan B. Anderson was the project that I saw over a year ago and said to myself, "I must make that some day." It was the project that pushed me over the edge, from longing to knit, to bravely picking up my needles and knitting.

Here is the link to the Ravelry project page for Braided (note: you have to sign up for Ravelry to see it. It's a free site that is basically Facebook for the fiber-obsessed.)

Here is the link to the free pattern on the Spud Says! blog.

You can see that on the ride side, the ribbing and braid are looser and sloppier than the left side.

I love this project so much that I bought the Spud and Chloe Outer yarn in the Soapstone colorway for it ages ago and have just been waiting for the right time and cooler weather to inspire me to get going. I seriously thought that it would be a cinch to knit and would look fantastic (I mean, I'm now venturing into sweater knitting, for Pete's sake!), but oh, was I mistaken. I completely underestimated my ability to screw up a project. I found the US size 17 needles to be clunky and awkward at first, evenly tensioning the super-bulky yarn was a challenge, and for some reason I could not get the braid right. I finally got it all together about halfway through my scarf.

This is the "better" end.

My tip on this project is to weave in the ends as you go (which I've found is a good idea for any project) so that it's not an over-whelming task at the very end. Ask me how I know that.

I experimented with knitting the tail yarn and working yarn at the same time, and it's held fast and looks okay, but I'm not convinced it's any better than weaving in the ends with a tapestry needle.

However, despite everything, I'm extremely proud of my first chunky scarf. It is deliciously soft and fluffy, and I know it will be so cozy and warm when we finally get our cold weather in January and February. All the mistakes are little reminders that it was made by my hands. Others may make a scarf from the same pattern with the same yarn, but no one botched it up exactly like I did, and that makes it uniquely mine. ;-)

Happy Monday!

Oatmeal: A Busy Mom's Best Friend

I want to take a few moments to wax poetic about one of our favorite foods: humble oatmeal. Not the sugary-instant-processed-packages (which I do not allow in the house), but the good ol' rolled oat variety. How do you like your oatmeal? Our preferred texture is not runny and not thick, but nice and creamy. I make it in the microwave in around three minutes with minimal clean-up. We liven it up with our favorite toppings: real maple syrup or real local honey, real cream, fresh fruits and nuts, or our favorite trick: frozen blueberries. The hot oatmeal melts the blueberries and makes them soft and juicy, while the cold blueberries immediately cool down the piping hot oatmeal to the perfect temperature for immediate consumption. The oatmeal even turns one of the girls' favorite color: purple. We've tried it with other frozen berries, too. Sliced frozen strawberries are best, the whole variety are just too big, or frozen blackberries and raspberries, and all are delicious, but the blueberries are our favorites. Other favorite combos are fresh sliced bananas and walnuts; warm cinnamon apples; and fresh berries and cream in the spring and summer.

I like to add either honey or real maple syrup for sweetener that brings more than empty calories. The roots of the maple trees reach deep down into the earth, pulling up trace minerals that are not commonly found in other foods. While calorie-wise, maple syrup is close to sugar, at least maple syrup contains a little bit of zinc, manganese, and calcium! Pick brands, such as Coombs Family Farms, which do not use formaldehyde in the refining process. Raw honey is a good choice, too, because it contains amylases and enzymes to digest carbohydrates and grains, which are hard on the tummy. According to Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon,  honey also does not spike the bloodsugar as severely as table sugar. I always have to keep in mind, though, that a sweetener is a sweetener, and no sugar is "good for you", so I try to restrain myself when adding one, even the goods ones like honey and maple syrup.

Even though oatmeal is a complex carb, it will still get broken down into simple sugars, and according to Diana Scharzbein in The Schwarzbein Principle, it's best to eat all carbs in combination with protein and real fat (not trans fats, which are man-made). That's why we always add real cream to ours, and the kids usually eat it in combination with some kind of protein, usually a scrambled egg.
But enough nutrition talk! Here's how I make it:

Super-Easy Oatmeal

I usually make 1 cup of dried oatmeal at a time, but you can make any amount you want, just cook it for more or less time. Just remember that however much oatmeal you have, you will use twice as much water. Cooking times may vary depending on how many watts your microwave is. I believe ours is pretty high powered, at least 1100 watts. The trick about microwaving oatmeal is to break up the cooking time into smaller increments so that the oats don't boil over and make a huge mess. Play with your toppings and find your favorites.

1 cup rolled oats (not quick cook)
2 cups water

In microwave safe bowl, combine oats and water.

Oats and water before cooking

Microwave on high in 1-minute increments, stirring between each increment, until you reach desired doneness, about 3 minutes.

The cooked oatmeal with honey and cream. Not too thick, not too thin. Delicious!

 If it still needs to cook longer than three minutes, switch to 30-second increments. Sometimes I have to add a bit of extra water to get the consistency the way we like it. Be careful when you take the bowl out of the microwave! It will be hot!

Toppings (the best part!)

3-4 tablespoons real cream
1-2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
2 large handfuls frozen blueberries

Frozen blueberries are our favorite topping

 

The girls love how the blueberries turn the oatmeal purple.

Darling had the bowls all ready

Other topping ideas:
sliced fresh bananas, maple syrup, chopped walnuts, and cream
stewed apricots and figs with honey
stewed apples with cinnamon
fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cream, real maple sugar

Music Monday

As a parent, I'm always on the hunt for kid's music that doesn't make me want to puncture my eardrums with a q-tip. Sometimes it's hard to find that balance of appropriate content and musical satisfaction, especially these days. I like a lot of acoustic guitar, quirky lyrics and a melody that's easy to to hum (my brother calls it "folky girly music"). I just stumbled across an album called Fascinating Creatures by Frances England, and it's just the kind of thing I like. I read her bio on her website, and it's no wonder that I enjoy her music, for she also grew up in the South and now lives in San Francisco! Check out all three of her albums on iTunes, as well as some of her videos on youtube. You can visit her website here and listen to full versions of all her songs.

I'll leave you with a special Monday treat, her video, "Sleepyhead Mommy". I definitely fall into that category! Happy Monday!

Butterflies

We did a two-week unit on butterflies, and I wanted to share some of my resources. There is a lot out there to do!

We used this butterfly unit study and lapbook from Homeschool Share as the basis of our study. 

Videos
I found some wonderful nature videos of the Monarch butterfly here. ARKive is a wonderful site---just be careful as there are some graphic videos of animals mating and giving birth. Best to preview without young children to make sure which videos you want to watch.

Activities
We made this mobile of the butterfly life cycle from Enchanted Learning.

We put out plates with slices of bananas and oranges in the yard to attract butterflies.

The girls acted out The Very Hungry Caterpillar as I read the story

We used these fingerplays here and here from Cullen's ABC's.

Books we read (most from our local library)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons
Waiting for Wings by Lois Elhert
Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries
The Butterfly Alphabet by Kjell Bloch Sandved
From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman and Bari Weissman


Tie-Ins
We used The Very Hungry Caterpillar and this song to learn the days of the week.

I also the The Very Hungry Caterpillar to start a conversation about the importance of eating healthy.

We used this math fishing game. I printed out the symmetrical butterfly  pdf from Homeschool Share and used it as a template. Then I cut out a butterfly in each of ten different colors of construction paper and numbered them 1-10 to play the game. I figured the colors would be a helpful clue for Doodlebug, and once she has mastered the game, I will cut the butterflies out all in one color for a bit more of a challenge.

Question Asking and Answer Seeking

I have to admit it: the more we go into our homeschool, the less structured it is. In this early stage of learning, though, I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Instead, we go outside and observe, do science experiments, get paint and glue on nearly everything, and ask tons and tons of question then attempt to find the answers (sometimes asking questions takes a little guidance from Mommy). I hope that by nurturing this curiosity and teaching them how to seek out information that they will have a solid foundation for research later on.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Darling wanted to know what sound a giraffe makes, and our search for the answer turned up this video from the Blank Park Zoo in Iowa. I thought the answer was pretty interesting, and wanted to share.






We've watched a few more videos from the Blank Park Zoo, and really enjoyed them. I wish our zoo did something like this. Enjoy!