Reposting a new-to-me craft: Roving

http://www.livingcrafts.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/PRscribble6-300x215.jpg

Roving.  I’ve never heard of it but it looks beautiful.  Maybe this summer I can make a roving cape for a costume.  Too cool!  This idea comes from the magazine Living Crafts.  They have a blog where I found this expert tutorial about how to make a roving scarf.  Roving is died unspun wool, or a wool and silk mix.  No one felted the yarn – it just hasn’t been made into yarn yet… Anyway it’s a neat medium and I can’t wait to work with it.

Check out the scarf tutorial here.  http://www.livingcrafts.com/blog/accessories/pencil-roving-felted-shawl 

Isn’t it beautiful!?!  The photo is a preliminary step in the project.  The finished piece reminds me of batik with soft lines and organic looking variations of color.  Beautiful stuff!

IXL Math: A Review

http://staff.rentonschools.us/che/bartley/images/IXL.gifWe are only one week in so this is not a comprehensive review.  Instead this review is a detailed account and a nice addition to all the other comprehensive reviews out there.  I really went back-and-forth on this as a curriculum choice.  Money is tight and subscriptions are not cheap.  Having two children requires two subscriptions plus a parent account.  After a week I’m more convinced this was a good decision.

My daughter is in 8th grade.  Math has never been her favorite subject.  She is a perfectionist and I was concerned by the reviews that state a 100% is unachievable.  However, she attained 100% in all but one of the 12 skills she has attempted – and she can return to that skill, continue to work on it, until she achieves her goal.  She thinks, “IXL is awesome because we get to see our progress, and it doesn’t waste time explaining stuff I already know.”

On the other hand… My 5th grade son loves mental math.  He has always found arithmetic easy and enjoyed showing off his memorization skills.  In fifth grade math expands beyond memorization and he doesn’t give IXL such a sunny review.  Here I have provided a daily breakdown of his first week with IXL.

Monday: IXL Mastered (100%) U.1 Price Lists and A.1 Place Values – 191 problems.  Made Fish angry.
Tuesday:  IXL Mastered (100%) A.2 Convert between Place Values and U.2 Unit Prices – 131 problems.  None too happy Fish.
Wednesday:  IXL Mastered (100%) B.5 Number of sides in  Polygons and B. 7 Classify Quadrilaterals – 105 problems.  Fish told me he hated IXL.
Thursday:  IXL Mastered (100%) C.1 What Decimal Number is Illustrated and B.6 Which Figure is Being Described – 119 problems.  He stated the importance of FreeRice as a weapon against hunger.  He told me how wasteful it was to do math on IXL.
Friday:  IXL Mastered (100%) B.1 Identify Planar and Solid Figures and V.1 Determine the Ratio – 98 problems.  “FreeRice is so much better than IXL,” he said, “because IXL wastes so much time explaining stuff I already know how to do, My Own Way (!) , in my head.”

It’s obvious to me that he’s learning.  It’s equally obvious that he doesn’t like it.  Furthermore, he is fighting it.  He’s convinced he can continue to perform ‘math tricks’ in his head.  However, he has reached a point where math tricks are not enough.  He was destined to hit this wall.  I’m just glad IXL is the enemy, and not me.

I can see that IXL will help my son overcome these obstacles.  I can see how IXL plays to the perfectionist streak in my daughter.  I am glad we purchased the subscriptions and I think (and hope) IXl will continue to help the kids’ math skills grow.

Sew, sew, sewing: Medieval Costumes

I’m no seamstress but I’ve been trying my hand.  We (me and the fam) are part of a medieval group.  We’re not very historically accurate, as a group, chicks in pants are ok with us!  We play battles with foam weapons and feast together and dress up in costumes to go to medieval and renaissance fairs.  It’s a fun family activity.

So far I’ve made three muslin tunics, three pouch/purses, one under dress, two viking style apron over dresses, two belts, and one pair of shoe toppers.  In the photo, Ch is posing in his green hooded tunic and leather bracer.GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERAMy step-dad made the bracer – he sells bracers and other leather items (purses, belts, wallets, medieval themed, steampunk themed stuff)  on etsy, his shop is called CountryLeatherworks.

Here are the kids in costume at the Medieval fair.  They were made Princess and Knight of the realm. :)

GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERA I have a costume too, but no pictures!   We’ll have some friends over this weekend maybe we’ll get some pics then.

This sewing stuff is not so bad you know.  The last time I sewed was about 15 years ago.  I was only the co-pilot and most of the work was far beyond my experience level.  But as I stitch the tricks and tips grandma taught me are coming back! Thank you Grandma!

How to make ‘safe’ battle arrowheads.

My son and daughter love the Hunger Games and because of it, all things archery.  These arrows are ‘safe’ compared to the practice tips used at ranges and under adult supervision.  I made this one so the kids can practice outside while I study.  Yay!  We’ll be making more but this is the first one, and if you couldn’t tell, it’s argyle for my daughter.  She said, “We are so capital.”  Oh The Shame!  arrowheads

When the chips are down drink this cocoa.

MochaI found the end of my emotional rope.  Last week, all of it, was bad.  Saturday, was the emotional outpouring of the bad week + numerous other stresses.  I’m still low but feeling a wee bit better.  It’s great how a little bit of laughter (especially the kind aimed at oneself) can speed that bouncy ball recovery.  So in the spirit of my improving mood I thought I’d share a quick mocha recipe.  It’s so easy.  You’ll love it!

  • 5oz hot water
  • 3+ oz coffee
  • 2 tsp baking cocoa
  • 2 Tbs dark brown sugar
  • splash of milk (optional)

Put the kettle on to boil.  Put coffee, cocoa and brown sugar into your favorite mug.  Just before the water whistles fill your cuppa.  Stir well.  If it’s too hot douse with milk.  Breathe the chocolate steam and let the cocoa help sweeten your day.

Back to Homeschool

tiny owlThe kids and I are back in school.  Monday was easy as pie.  We all worked together at the kitchen table.  Some moments were even idyllic. :) But it was overall, a typical day.  Refocused Fish five million times to keep him on task.  Preemptively checked the rolling eyes of Keek.  Read and re-read the introductory paragraphs of my literature book while fielding questions entirely unrelated to the tasks at hand.  Hid my biology text from the children who were looking for anything to do that wasn’t class work.

We woke earlier than usual, on purpose, because I have an on campus lab once a week and we’re practicing.  It’s not really early, nor is it a major adjustment to the kids’ sleep routines.  Two days under our belts and they are both tired, or acting that way, at 10.  A whole hour earlier than a week ago.

Finally hit a good stride with curriculum planning.  I plan and make a year ahead then piecemeal the tasks as the year progresses.  It’s been trial and error for a while now.  We’d try one system for a quarter then change – looking for something better – with the next quarter.  I think we struck gold with this one!

Keek is happiest writing her own daily plans and picking her own required reading from the books on the shelf.  She arranges the tasks in the order of her choosing, from a weekly ‘to do’ list provided by me.  After she makes her day-to-day planner she asks me to review it.  At that point I take her required reading book, that she chose, and divide into x pages per day.  Each book is different but I aim for a comfortable minimum. She’s currently reading Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.  She reads about 40 pages a day depending on chapter breaks.  She is free to read more and to read on weekends too.  Usually she’s got her nose in other books though!  She arranges her tasks in the most unusual ways.  I would never organize my workweek the way she does hers.

Fish likes daily breakdowns on weekly lists.  Each day is listed by name and date, tasks by subject, single spaced, in the same order as the other days.  He likes to see a week at a time and to skip a line between days.  He also insists on listing Saturdays and Sundays.

tiny owlAfter all the planning and tweaking Fish finished all his schoolwork by 10am yesterday.  So I added a spelling book to the list.  Today he was still doing school work when I cooked dinner.  It wasn’t the spelling.  It added maybe 20 minutes – tops.  It was the procrastination.  Today Fish was all about a catalog that came in the mail.  The catalog company sells ‘wet floor’ cones, exit signs, sanitary tissue paper toilet seat covers, industrial paper towel rolls, and the like. Fish was in heaven.  He poured through the catalog yesterday afternoon. It really sparked his imagination.  He kept talking about it today; asking questions about opening a general store.   …grr…

So glad I’m almost done with college.  I love learning new things and getting the feedback college provides and I will enjoy the accomplishment after I’m finished.  But I’ll be even more excited to resume self-led studies this time next year!

Killing the Mold Mildew Monster

So last week our master bathroom toilet overflowed.

Ew, I know.

It was overflowing for some time before we noticed too, some hours before we noticed.  The floor had a couple inches of standing water and the master bedroom carpet was sloshy.  The bathroom air vent had swallowed about 20 gallons too.  How do I know?  We used the shop-vac to suck out the water from four different air vents.  We had to dump it into the bathtub – repeatedly.  But hey our carpets, the air vents, and the bathroom floor are shiny clean!

The scary thing about this kind of water mayhem is the sneaky water that you can’t find.  The kind that soaks into the sheet rock – seeps into the padding – sinks into the subfloor.  We have delicate noses here too… I have a terrible mold/mildew allergy.  Pirate and the kids all have sensitive lung and bronchial airways so bleaching is out of the question.  Mold would literally kick us out on our snivelling behinds!  So, determined to keep the house (lol), Pirate and I vacuumed as much as we could, towel dried as much as we could, fan dried as much as we could and then, exhausted, we slept.

The following morning I woke with the hint of a headache but Pirate and the kids were ok… maybe it was just the weather.  I double checked everywhere and found not a drop of water!  As the day progressed so did my headache and there was no stopping that freight train.  I could smell the mold by bedtime and camped on the couch.    :(

The next morning pirate could smell it too – just barely – in the bathroom itself.  We went through all the motions again and lifted the carpets to check the padding and subfloor.  Everywhere was dry.  But then we found the culprit.  The sheetrock had started to swell.  Just the littlest bit.  Luckily the kids were elsewhere and we could tackle this with our undivided attention.  We scoured the internet looking for something – besides bleach – to shrink the swollen sheet rock.

At last Pirate stumbled upon a plausible solution:  Rubbing Alcohol. Turns out rubbing alcohol is a bleach killer. We bought three bottles at the dollar store and two, medium-sized, empty spray bottles.

rubbing-alcohol-cleaning spray bottle

We swapped the spray bottle lids with the alcohol caps and sprayed everything.  We sprayed the floors, under the carpet and two feet up the walls all around.  Low and behold – it worked.

FABULOUSLY!!!!

Within hours any trace of smell or of headache disappeared!  By the following morning everything had returned to normal.  So for an eighth of the cost and no demolition we killed the mold and mildew monster! Now you know the secret and if you’re ever in need, you can use it too!

Happy New Year Underwear Girl!

So the cousins are over and something funny inevitably happens every time they visit.

This time they were looking for Minecraft songs on YouTube.

One of the songs has a Victoria’s Secret ad tacked on the beginning.

underwear girl Without hesitation the oldest of the boys  – ten – pointed at the screen and blurted out,

“Underwear Girl!”

The three boys burst into giggles and Keek, driving the computer, rolled her eyes and said,

“OMG, really?”  Then she joined in the laughter.  May your year be full of little funnies just like that.

Bonne année et bonne santé!

Really Yummy Easy Cookies

I made some cookies yesterday with a new recipe.  They turned out delicious!  It’s an adaptable recipe- you can add any number of things to it or eat simple cookies sans chips! The small recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F or 163 degrees C.

1 stick unsalted butter meltedHoliday Cookie Base
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar packed
1+ tsp vanilla
1 egg
1.5 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
——————————-
Optional:
5.5 ounces of any of the following
ande’s mint chips
butterscotch chips
heath bits
white chocolate chips
chocolate chips
walnuts
almonds
granola crumbles
dried coconut
dates
raisins
cranberries

Mix butter and sugar first then add everything else one item at a time. Slowly add flour – 1/2 cup at a time. Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake +/- 13 minutes. My oven is a bit uneven so at 7 minutes I rotate the cookies for even baking. DELISH!

Honey Crusted Irish Brown Bread

DSCF5114See those crusty bits??  Don’t they remind you of pie crumbles?  Mmm, they are delicious!  This is my twist on your basic Irish Brown Bread.  It’s a simple recipe to start with – with only two added ingredients: honey and apple butter.

Irish Brown Bread is similar to Irish Soda bread, the difference being whole wheat flour.  Because the bread utilizes the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar there is no need for yeast.  It’s a quick-bread with no kneading or rise time.  The honey crisps the top and the apple butter moistens the middle for extra yum-factor.DSCF5115  See the apple butter vein running through it?  Nom nom nom …  I don’t want to mislead you though, this isn’t a sweet bread.  To make it sweet you’d have to add a cup (or more) honey or sugar or molasses, oooh, or brown sugar – yes that would make for a very nice sweet bread.  Then you’d have to adjust cooking times too… oh that’ll have to be another post.

So here’s the recipe.

Pre-heat oven to 450.
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups buttermilk (or 2 and 1/4 tsp. vinegar then fill the measuring cup to 2 1/4 cups with regular milk)
extra flour for dusting
Apple Butter
Honey

Mix everything in large mixing bowl. Use your fingers to place (don’t mush) half the dough in the bottom of a well floured bread pan. Slather that half of the dough with apple butter, to cover. Place the other half of the dough on the apple butter. Coat with honey, be generous.  The unevenness of the crust is beautiful and allows the honey to seep into the top layer of your bread.  Very tasty.  Bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.  Turn oven down to 400.  Continue baking for 35 minutes.  Check it.  If it sounds hollow when you thump on it; it’s done.  If not – cook in five-minute intervals until done.

Heavenly to eat with hot tea.

Hope you enjoy it!

Happy Holidays!