Wordless Wednesday Meets Thankful Thursday - I Love You, Grandma

I've had a lot of dreams about my late grandmother recently.  They are very vivid, and the first thing I always do is grab her hand and hug and kiss her, because I'm always aware in the dream that she's no longer with us, and this is a rare opportunity.  I can feel her soft, cool skin in my hand and on my lips and her bony shoulders in my arms.  (She was average weight, but her shoulders were always strangely bony.)  She often looks back at me with a knowing look when I do this.  I'm never sad in the dreams, even though I recognize how much I've missed her and how I'll miss her again when I wake up.  (Of course, I'm bawling as I write this...)

I've been thinking about her more this Christmas than in Christmases past, and I don't know if that's feeding the dreams or if that's because of the dreams.  I just feel strangely connected to her right now.  Whatever the situation, I'm thankful to have these moments with her, in whatever form they come.

I love you, Grandma.

Fly, Monarch! Fly!

Let me start by saying how we came to read this book tonight, a story that illustrates what I love about unschooling.

Ellie was playing with one of her ladybug pillows when she started asking questions: "What do ladybugs turn into?  What are they before they turn into ladybugs?"  Well, as it happens, I have a book about the life cycle of a ladybug that I picked up on a recent trip to the library in search of butterfly books, another of Ellie's requests.  I thought this book was wonderful.  Here is more information about it, including my review.

After we finished that book, Ellie insisted on reading a few more library books, including Fly, Monarch!  Fly!  I really liked this book as well - I linked my review, but I like the extras the book contained, like a butterfly sandwich recipe and a craft.  Ellie, of course, was all about the craft, so we did it after dinner.

It was a simple craft: Sketch a butterfly on orange paper, color and cut out, cut out and affix antennae, and affix dots and magnet.  The sketch part was too hard for Ellie, so I outlined her butterfly, but she did the rest, short of cutting out the antennae.

Ellie's is a bit more abstract

I decided mine needed eyes

For the love of writing

I didn't enjoy writing as a child.  I hated it, actually.  Thank you notes, paragraph-long stories, what-I-want-for-Christmas compositions, every essay in school...they were agony.  I never enjoyed writing until my senior year of high school when we had mandatory free writing every day in English class.  Something about writing anything I wanted until a timer went off appealed to me.

I'm glad writing and I finally became friends, but I'd love for my children to enjoy writing from the beginning.  Tonight I read a fantastic article with great ideas for inspiring children to write.  Journaling, letter writing, emailing and postcard exchanging are ways she inspires her little girl to write.

On a related note, I believe in making children write thank you notes.  I do, however, do what I can to make them enjoyable to write so that my children don't come to resent the task.  I also keep the note writing age appropriate.  For example, for a first birthday, I might trace their hand and let them scribble a bit with a crayon.  For the second birthday, I might let them go crazy with stickers.  Actually, that's exactly what I've done with my two so far, but the next child could have different likes and skills.

Mikey just finished his thank you notes for his second birthday.  He enjoyed making them, so much so that Ellie got a little jealous, so I handed her a pile of Christmas cards, thanks to Daddy's genius.  Mikey had to get in on the Christmas card madness, too.  The only downside to all this was Ellie's disappointment that the cards we mail don't come back to us.  Somebody send this poor girl some mail!  :o)

She colored ornaments on the tree and added a star

Ellie noticed that the trees on the cards were triangles, so I gave her a bunch of foam triangle stickers and let her go to town

Hand trees and thumbprint leaves

I saw this craft on Pinterest, or at least I saw each part of it in other crafts.  We had a lot of fun, although the kids' didn't turn out quite like my vision.

Inspired by a rogue print on Ellie's, I added falling leaves to mine

Ellie was so happy when I pointed out her falling leaf that she decided they should all be falling

Poor Mikey's looks like the victim of a forest fire

Spontaneous Fall Crafts

To get Ellie to eat finish her dinner, I told her I'd teach her how to use stencils when she was done.  She's already been tracing her own hand, so I knew she was ready.  She did well, but she bored with the stencil use quickly, as is her style with any craft not including glue, so I gave her stamps.  Still, we had fun.

That's an upside-down Liberty Bell and a star to the left and an upside-down steaming pie to the right.

Ellie asked to do another craft, so I gave her paper to tear and figured we'd do some sort of hand-print tree/fall leaf craft.  I rummaged through my paper pile and found some packing paper that was perfect for a tree trunk.  I traced our hands and forearms on the paper and applied glue to the hand area of the opposite side on which I traced, and we stuck away.  Then I cut out the hands and arm and glued them onto paper of our choice.  An older or more practiced child could have applied the glue and done the tracing and cutting as well.

Menu Plan Monday 11/7/11-11/13/11

Review of last week:


Meaty Monday: Slow Cooker French Dip with fresh fruit and veggies
Delicious as always!  I forgot to mention we butter and toast the rolls and then add caramelized onions and provolone cheese for those who want it...I prefer no cheese.

Tasty Tuesday: Simple Slow Cooker Picante Chicken (I always add extra veggies to the slow cooker) over rice with fresh fruit
Hit with the big one and hubby as always.  I didn't feel like chopping veggies, so I cooked up garlic green beans as a side.

Wild Card Wednesday: Mommy and Daddy are eating out before Bradley class with theBowmans; kiddos are eating organic chicken nuggets, green beans and fruit
Ended up sharing the nuggets.  They were good!  I love Earth's Best Organic.

Spaghetti Night: Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter only with green beans, since hubby doesn't like asparagus, and without Parmesan, since the big one (Ellie) and I aren't supposed to have dairy
Pretty good.  I added a splash of balsamic vinegar at the end because it wasn't strong enough for me.  Hubby ate the huge plate I served him and said we could keep it on the menu.  I decided to add browned, cubed chicken breast, and I'm glad I did because that's all the big one ate.  The wee one loved the green beans.


Free-for-all Friday: Leftovers if we have any, freezer raid if we don't
The neighbor kids were touting their tacos, and Ellie and I thought that sounded good, so I made some.


Now for this week:



Wild Card Monday: Organic Chicken Nuggets and fresh fruit for the kiddos while Daddy and I eat out before our Bradley class

Tasty Tuesday: Eating out after Ellie's swim class

Meaty Wednesday: Sprite roast (beef roast, packet of onion soup mix, can of cream of mushroom soup, can of Sprite, slow cooker low all day), mashed potatoes and cauliflower

Spaghetti Thursday: Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta (recommended by Jessie), honey butter green beans (saute beans in butter until just browning, remove from heat and stir in honey) and fresh fruit

Free-for-all Friday: Yummy leftovers!

Menu Plan Monday 10/31/11-11/6/11

Meaty Monday: Slow Cooker French Dip with fresh fruit and veggies


Tasty Tuesday: Simple Slow Cooker Picante Chicken (I always add extra veggies to the slow cooker) over rice with fresh fruit


Wild Card Wednesday: Mommy and Daddy are eating out before Bradley class with the Bowmans; kiddos are eating organic chicken nuggets, green beans and fruit


Spaghetti Night: Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter only with green beans, since hubby doesn't like asparagus, and without Parmesan, since the big one (Ellie) and I aren't supposed to have dairy


Free-for-all Friday: Leftovers if we have any, freezer raid if we don't

Spider Web Weaving

Today we wove our own spider webs.  I would have preferred paper plates and yarn, but I don't have paper plates, and string was handier, so our webs aren't so fancy.  I cut notches in the cardboard, making them triangular to make them easier for small hands to control.  Ellie got frustrated pretty quickly because she thinks there's a right and wrong way to do everything.  Mikey doesn't quite have the skills to do this, so I had him point to where he wanted the string to go.

For the spiders, I frantically grabbed whatever was near (pom poms) because the kids were getting antsy.  Apparently I need to stock up on spider-making supplies.  Eh, well...we made fuzzy jumping spiders apparently.  At least I found the small googly eyes before bed; the kids were about to riot.

I didn't wait for the glue to dry before taking pictures, so ignore the extra white around the eyes.

Ellie's I'm-done-with-this web and color-controlled spider (so unlike her)

Mikey's I-prefer-red-orange-and-pink spider that we accidentally glued on the wrong side

My rainbow spider with different color eyes

5-a-day books

A preschool blog I follow and love introduced me to the 5-a-day book plan.  When I found out about the 5-a-day book plan, where you read the same five books every day for at least a week, I knew it was perfect for our family.  I love themed story times, and anyone who's ever had a toddler or preschooler knows that children love to read the same books over and over and over and over and over...

Since Ellie is obsessed with spiders of late, I choose books about spiders this week.  I also had to include books containing spiders, since our library is surprisingly light on children's stories about spiders.

The three story books in this picture are The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, Itsy Bitsy Spider (my kids love books that can be sung and songs made into books) and Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin, which is very entertaining.  I'm also reading "Little Miss Muffet" from a treasury of stories and poems.  I added Fuzzy Bee and Friends to get to five books.  Yes, I'm desperately in need of more spiders in our home library.  The three books featuring pictures of real spiders are just reference books we picked up while seeking out stories.

Wordless Wednesday

Handprint Spider and Crayon Resist Web

Ellie has been obsessed with spiders lately, probably because spider decor is everywhere this time of year.  She has been asking many questions, so I decided to focus on spiders this week.

I love handprint crafts because their little hands grow so quickly.  I got some inspiration from the many handprint spiders I've seen on Pinterest, and I gave the spiders and webs my own spin, no pun intended, based on the supplies I have on hand.

I have construction paper, googly eyes and glitter glue, along with crayons and watercolors, so our spiders are festive and our webs rectangular.  First, we drew the webs on white paper with white crayon and then painted over them with lots and lots of very wet watercolor.  The paint doesn't stick to the crayon, and Ellie sure tried to prove the physics wrong.  Mikey needed more help with drawing the web, so you see a giant asterisk on his that I drew holding his hand.  Neither child cared much for looking at one color for too long, so their webs are - well - what's another word for festive?  Ellie seemed to feel sorry for me when she saw that mine was not "rainbow."  The wet construction paper takes hours to dry, by the way.

While the webs were drying, I traced the four fingers and palm of one hand for each child on black paper.  I folded the paper and cut out the hand, yielding eight finger-shaped legs.  I then cut out ovals for the bodies.  I helped the children apply glue to one of the palms and press the other palm onto it.  Then I helped them apply glue to the other palm and place the body.  I applied the glue for the eyes because they aren't quite good enough with the glue yet.  They very capably affixed the eyes, though, both kids!  I let them go to town with the glitter glue, but - thankfully - the glues were low and hard to get out.  Mikey wanted to affix eyes to all his glue marks, but I convinced him he wanted to be able to see the colors and glitter.  When we got home from swimming class and dinner, I helped them glue the spiders to the webs.  I placed books on the spiders so they would dry flat.  Ellie insisted on hanging the spiders in the family room first thing this morning.

Appreciating the Red-tailed Hawk

We see Red-tailed Hawks almost daily because they prefer deserts and agricultural areas, in both of which we live.  They are easy to confuse with Common Ravens when they are silhouettes soaring above, but if you can get a good look at the shape of the wings, you can tell the difference.  This website has good pictures of both that will show you the difference.

I get a kick out of these raptors because they are actually very goofy.  Not only do they look goofy when they sit on street lights like pigeons, they like to yell at people in whose yards they are trying to hunt.  My parents had a juvenile that sat in their trees screaming at anyone who came outside, usually in the morning.  As it got older, it would squawk at us while waiting for bunnies and mice to put down their guard.  We were even lucky enough to see it dive for a mouse 20 feet from us, catch the mouse and then, lucky for the mouse, drop the uninjured mouse from its talons.

The monogamous Red-tailed Hawk may breed for life.  The last link below talks a lot about their courting and breeding.  Mating season is in the spring, so I'll try to keep my eyes open in a few months and see if I can catch any images of their dance.

Fun trivia: When you hear a raptor's cry on television, regardless of which bird is depicted, the call is usually that of a Red-tailed Hawk.

The first picture you saw in my post about the Baylands.  The second was also taken at the Baylands and represents well how I usually see these birds: sitting and waiting.  The others I took at Veterans Oasis Park, about which I will post another day.  One flew not ten feet above my head, but my silly camera wouldn't focus, so I missed the shot.  Still, we could see every feather.  It was really cool.  Below the pictures I've included some links if you'd like to learn more about this wonderful bird and see some great photos.

Update: These last three pictures have been called into question because they look like a Turkey Vulture.  While I admit they do, I also admit to a great deal of confusion.  At first glance in person, these birds looked different than Red-tailed Hawks, but I honestly couldn't see them well because of the sun.  The sun was above them, and every bird that flew over me, including the White-winged Dove, looked like a black silhouette.  The reason I concluded this particular bird was a Red-tailed Hawk was because he did a fly by.  He is the one who flew right over my head and was most definitely a Red-tailed Hawk.  Now, I have done some research into Turkey Vultures, and these pictures do appear to be of a Turkey Vulture.  So I will say this: if this is a Turkey Vulture, he and the hawk are masters of illusion.  My eyes never left this bird as he circled and eventually flew over my head.  So take it however you want.  It may be a tricky Turkey Vulture; it may be a poorly-lit Red-tailed Hawk.  This birding business is all about learning more about God's winged creations, anyway, right?

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/id
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/red-tailed-hawk/
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/lifehistory
http://www.peregrinefund.org/subsites/explore-raptors-2001/hawks/redtail.html
http://www.desertusa.com/aug96/du_hawk.html
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-red_tailed_hawk.html
http://www.hawkmountain.org/raptorpedia/hawks-at-hawk-mountain/hawk-species-at-hawk-mountain/red-tailed-hawk/page.aspx?id=460

Backyard Birding

I recently signed up to "Celebrate Urban Birds" through The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in an effort to learn and teach my children more about our winged neighbors.  We enjoy backyard birding because the birds become so familiar.  We have yet to make our yard appealing to a variety of birds, but we are not wanting for variety if we venture out our front door.  We have, in fact, a resident Greater Roadrunner who occasionally runs alongside us on walks and often perches like a pigeon on less-than-dignified objects.  One day I found him on a storm drain.

Bounding through the Baylands

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to spend a couple days with my very best friend who I haven't seen in two and a half years.  Since she and I (and our husbands and children) are tremendous geeks, and proudly so, we knew a trip to the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto, California, would be perfect for our families.  Although we didn't get to see the Golden Eagles and Burrowing Owls we'd hoped we would, we still got a nice show.  I don't have much to say other than we'd be there every week if we lived there.  I will share some of my pictures.  The trip completely rekindled my love of birding that I'd abandoned in high school.  If you are in the area, be sure to stop by and give yourself a couple of hours, at least, to explore.

Red-Tailed Hawk
Needs no words

Gorgeous White Pelicans preening and stretching

and fishing

Before we made the drive to Palo Alto, we spent a few days in the San Diego area.  Even though my obsession with birding had not yet been rekindled, my love of photographing nature was alive and kicking (wow, that's a lot of metaphors), and I got a couple of shots of birds I don't see every day, if ever.

These first two are a Brandt's Cormorant that was diving and resurfacing so much and so fast that I had a hard time getting a good closeup, but it did stop to rest on a buoy.

If you've never seen a pelican up close, you don't realize how big they really are.  The Brown Pelican has a wingspan of over six feet.  This one made the loudest splashes every time it landed!

At first glance, thanks to the light, this Rough-legged Hawk appeared to be a Golden Eagle.  Another birder, who drew my attention to it in the first place, thought so, too.  Even though I was slightly disappointed to find out it wasn't when I blew up the picture, I was still excited to find out I saw a bird I've never seen before.

P.S. I gave picture captions a good test today (I normally just type them manually under the picture), so let me know what you think of the format.

Update: God's gift to me (and the surfers) this morning

The dolphins came back while I was brushing my teeth.  I thought I'd seen four fins by the pier before, but I only saw three going to and from the pier.  This time I saw three go to the pier but four go back.  I also got a good view of the dolphins (more than just the dorsal fins), and I discovered that they were Common Dolphins.  I got a couple pictures showing the light markings on their sides.  This is probably the best, though I admit it's still not that good.  :o)

How littles learn

Mikey found a dried leaf and set out to break it into as many pieces as possible

What experiments have your littles conducted?

Crayon Art Canvas

Thanks to my latest obsession, Pinterest, and my ruthless muse, Jen, I have hundreds of new craft ideas I must produce. Among them are - well, were - these wonderful crayon creations:

The rainbow is totally Jen's fault.  It's one of the first things she showed me on Pinterest and something she's already done, thus propelling me forward.  The flowers are Andrea's fault, again with the help of Pinterest.

Here's the tutorial for the rainbow.  You can see where Ellie started talking to me while I was gluing the last of the crayons to the canvas (on the right).

The flowers were a for-sale item on Etsy, so it was up to me to create this one.  I attached the crayons with hot glue and melted them with a hair dryer, ensuring I had both long and short drips.  I created a template for my flowers, but you could use silk flowers or whatever means of flower making you prefer.  In case you are completely without ideas or just in love with my flowers, here's how I made them.

First, I cut them out, being sure to vary the shape a little for each one.  Be sure to cut the slit to the middle.  I folded the longer side of the slit over the shorter side and used tacky glue to close it, holding it for a minute or so with my fingers until I knew it wouldn't slip.  This way your flowers pop out of the canvas.

Finally, I put a dot of gold glitter glue in the center of each one to add dimension.  I deposited a generous dollop of hot glue on the canvas and put the point of the flower in it.  It dried in no time.

The rainbow will go in Mikey's room, and Ellie requested the flowers go in hers.