10.13.09
Busy, Busy
Busy playing computer games
Busy playing Little House on the Prairie. Can you tell which doll is Laura and which doll is Mary?
Busy with Autumn themed crafts
See my tree mama?
Busy driving a submarine
Busy spelling with the letters O-C-T-O-B-E-R
Busy making an army fort. Yes, that is a fort, Gabriel has such a wonderful imagination.
We also finished up reading Little House on the Prairie…next up, On the Banks of Plum Creek. Yipee
10.12.09
24 Pounds
Look ma! Snow! In October to boot. Yes it snowed, nearly 4 inches, but it all melted off by the end of the day.
Obi getting Jacy
Zion seems to think that he can drive his car in the snow. Silly boy.
Promise and Jacy did a bunch of Halloween crafts. Promise and me also did a couple chapters in a new life science book we found for free. You can find the Lab of Mr.Q here. The Life Science book is F-R-E-E. It is super cute. The word definitions were a bit hard for Promise. Like matching the word up to its meaning, and the crossword puzzle, but she enjoyed the activities that we did.
And onto the 24 pounds part :O
There is my Gabe and Promise trying to cut the pumpkin up. We carved on earlier in the day and got this one just for eating.
Pull pull pull!!
Got it 
Gabriel took this one of me cutting up the pumpkin so we could boil it and make it into puree. I think he has a good eye for photography. Aren’t my bowls purdy? Vintage pyrex. It took me 3 hours to chop, boil and blend all that pumpkin. In the end, I got 30 cups of pureed pumpkin. Only cost me $3.99 for the whole thing. The pumpkins are priced by each, not by pound. So we got the biggest one we could find. 16 cents per pound…not too shabby.
So far, we have made 2 batches of roasted pumpkin seeds. One was seasoned with chili seasoning and salt and the other with soy sauce. The latter was my favorite. The flavor was amazing. We also made Baked Pumpkin which Jacy declared is even better than pumpkin pie. Gabriel and Promise didn’t agree. It was very rich and tasty. I think today, we might make actual pumpkin pie.
09.28.09
New Goal
I am going to try to be a more regular blogger. I really should try to get something in on a daily basis, instead of this once every other week think that I have been doing lately.
I guess I can start with some recent finished objects
Up first, is a single Dashing fingerless mitt. I used a Russian bind off that came reccomended from Wendy Knits, but i think it is a little loose for me. I will make the 2nd one to match, but try a sewn bind off if I make another pair.
Yarn : Berroco Comfort
Next up is a cardigan set I made for Kaya (Promise’s American Girl doll. I used A Very Easy Cardigan pattern except I skipped the buttons. The skirt was of my own design. I cast on 80, did a twisted rib band for about 1/2″ for the waistband. Then in stockinette, I increased using a M1 between every stitch. I could have gotten away with casting on less stitches and increasing a fewer amount of times, but it still turned out rather cute none the less. It also has a crochet chain drawstring because I find that easy to make than an elastic waist band. Plus I like the way the bow in the front looks. This is going to be a Christmas present for Promi, so don’t tell.
I’ve made a few others things, but they need to be photographed, but over all, that has been the majoirty of my knitting. Oh, I have been working on a pair of Marlene socks. This pair of socks have been full of twists and turns, and I am not even talking about the ribbing. First of the color sun bleached out, then I dyed it really bright, now the foot part shrank. They are going to be another Christmas present for Promise now. I think the one turned out pretty. I am about 40% done with the 2nd sock and will most definitely be making more from this pattern. The yarn is Peace Fleece DK sport btw.
Onto some homeschooling updates. We are still reading Little House on the Prairie, but over the weekend I lost my copy of the book. I guess I will have to borrow a copy from from the library tomorrow. We also have watched the first half of the Little House on the Prairie mini series movie. Not the one with Michael Landon, but a new version made by Disney. I got it thinking it was the TV series, but we were pleasantly surprised while watching it. It starts out with them getting ready to leave Pepin. The 1st DVD ended with the Indians coming to the homestead when Pa was out hunting; such a cliffhanger. Hurry up Netflix and mail our next dvd out. We will wait to get the tv series since I think that show is set in South Dakota and we haven’t got that far in our books yet. Besides we are number 12 in line to get it at the library. Could be a long wait 
On Saturday, we went to a neighborhood family fun day at the park near Mamo and Papa’s house. It was really fun. We ate lots of food and played in a raffle. The kids had a blast playing on those blow up bouncing things. Zion went down the giant slide over and over and over. A representative from the library was even there giving out free books. The kids each took two a piece. I love free books; best kind of freebie ever.
09.25.09
Music Class
My kids are having a pseudo music class right now. They are downstairs playing on our keyboard. It has a function where it will play a song on its own. Promise is ‘playing’ the keys and singing along with the melody. Except, rather than using the words to the song, she is singing “turtle” for each of the notes. Come to find out, Gabriel’s stuffed turtle was the one playing the piano. Jacy was playing the drums too. They have a whole band down there.
Back story on the turtle. Each of my kids, on pay day (which happens to be Jason’s day off) gets $5 to take to the thrift store and spend any way they want. This past Tuesday, Gabriel picked out this stuffed turtle and he hasn’t set it down since. I am happily surprised at the things my kids choose to buy. Halloween decorations, good quality toys, Promise even got herself a little bicycle for only $4.98 (mama helped with the tax). It is really neat seeing them add up their purchases and deciding which things are worth their money and which things can wait.
eta the turtle pic
09.13.09
Cute Math Book
Math for all Seasons by Greg Tang is so cute. It helps teach groupings and skip counting in a non threatening way. I love the adding short cuts that he has incorporated in the book too. He also has a couple other books that we are going to be looking forward too checking out at the library; The Best of Times, Math Appeal and The Grapes of Math. I don’t even know how we can to check out the Seasons book in the first place. It must have been one that Promise picked out when I wasn’t looking. Happy accident.
While at the thrift store today, I found a great bunch of books and you can’t beat the price of 10 cents each. I got The Jungle Book, Heidi, a couple Pokemon, a Disney Princess book, one about natural disasters, another about lost treasures (has really neat pictures), an Eric Carle book, Peter and the Wolf, and a few about the old west that originally were part of a school library collection. Fifteen books in all with a total cost of $1.50.
09.11.09
Ambleside Online
Lately, we have been following the Ambleside Online Curriculum for year 1. We have been reading the books out a loud together and doing a small bit of the Art Study. The kids really like art work anyhow, so this is a great way to expose all of us to new artists on a regular basis.
Everyone is really enjoying the Lit books, especially Paddle-to-the-Sea. We’ve been reading one chapter daily, rather than one chapter weekly. They really seem to like the Just So Stories and the Fifty Famous Stories Retold. I think they shut off their ears during the daily poetry reading tho 
. We are also reading the Benjamin Franklin book ahead of schedule and added The Little House in the Big Woods as extra reading.
Right now, none of the kids really are interested in independent reading. Certainly not Jacy and Gabriel. Promise will from time to time look at books, but she really doesn’t read the words. She tells me that she likes to look at the pictures and make up her own stories 
:
Daily we have at least one, maybe two “quiet” times during the day (when the baby is sleeping) this is when we do a lot of our out aloud readings. They also have the option to use the computer, color at the table and play outside (weather permitting) No one is required to listen to the stories. Gabriel usually listens from afar. PS from last couple years really squashed his gentle spirit. He is regaining some of his inquisitive nature and even when he doesn’t act like he is listening, he still will ask questions or peek at a picture on the page from time to time.
I really like the books that the AO have picked. It definitely gets us out of our typical book comfort zone. I think, eventually, we are going to need to own a copy of Paddle-to-the-Sea. It is such a lovely story.
09.09.09
Living Books — Titanic
Gabriel has been very interesting in learning about the Titanic, as has Jacy and Promise. Gabriel still has a deeper interest. We have been reading many, many books on the subject. Two of our favorites are Polar, the Titanic Bear and Titanicat Both I would consider living history books because they tell the true story of some one experience on the Titanic.
Polar, is the true story, retold, about a little boy and his bear who were first class passengers on the Titanic. It is written from the bears point of view. There is real photos of the characters throughout the book and the epilogue show more insight into the family in the book.
Titanicat is about the Titanic’s cat. Because, evidently, all ships at that time needed a cat on board. According to the story anyhow. Very neat twist at the end of the story. Both stories end with a mostly happy ending, even though the ship does sink. All the characters involved survive. Except that the boy in Polar, does die, but it is only mentioned in the epilogue and doesn’t directly relate to the story itself.
We also checked out White Star: A Dog on the Titanic, but have not read it yet.
08.30.09
Caterpillar Watch Update
Our 3rd little caterpillar just cocooned himself up today. The other 2 are still just in their cocoons changing into their new set of wings. I hope they both hatch so the kids get a chance to see it
08.24.09
We have a chrysalis
I checked on the caterpillars this morning and the two big guys were hanging upside down, but no chrysalis had been formed yet, but Jacy just called to me that one of them formed their cocoon. How exciting, not 3 hours later and we have a chrysalis. We also have a baby caterpillar. His egg/larva came in the house on one of the leaves accidentally.
Edited to add 9:39am
oh awesome update…Jacy just called to me b/c the 2nd one was cocooning up. We watched him put his chrysalis on. It looked just like he was crawling into a very tight sleeping bag very slowly. So so so cool
08.23.09
Winter Longies #1 Complete
Yay
Yarn is 100% lambswool harvested from an American Eagle Outfitters mens sweater. I decided that I love the color as it. They are such a perfect fit. I am so proud of them. All they really need is a good lanolizing and a drawstring, but they stay up pretty well without one as you can see.
Photographing a toddler is hard work.
