7qt: Car Sadness and Taco Happiness

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This is what happens when some teenager fails to verify that he has a green arrow instead of a plain ol'green light before turning. Yay for not being at fault, I guess, but boo to not having a particularly drive-able car (the driver's seat belt is locked up) while everything gets sorted out.

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My plan for tomorrow was to go to the farmer's market to get plants for my garden, and then take the boys to Free Comic Book Day (there will be Stormtroopers at our store!), but the other car is occupied, so I guess I'll stay home and sort through stuff for next weekend's garage sale, instead.

Anybody want a bunch of '90s era Praise and Worship CDs?

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In my purging mood, I also hid pretty much every toy with over a half-dozen pieces. I don't want to get rid of the puzzles and blocks entirely, but the fact that they are no longer getting dumped and abandoned has increased my sanity sevenfold, even as the hallways fill with boxes as I hunt for things to sell off.

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Bean's bedtime book for the past few weeks has been "Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner". For a wonderful exposition of why you simply must read the books, see Kathryn's wonderful post. Meanwhile, I've been reading Milne's poetry to the boys on-and-off during the day. If you have yet to discover When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, do pick them up. There's a bit of Winnie-the-Pooh, but lots of other fun imaginitive tales and musings from Christopher Robin's nursery, along with doses of those tiny delightful naughtinesses that every child needs from time to time. ("If only I were King of Spain,/I'd take my hat off in the rain./If only I were King of France,/I wouldn't brush my hair for aunts.") Milne just got kids, man.

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Next on the docket is Charlotte's Web, presuming it arrives. The tracking info looks something like this. But at least it's finally admit it was missent, so... progress!

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Is anyone else's garden on a super late schedule this year? Because I'm starting to think that last year's tulips just decided not to be perennials. At least it's going to be a good year for the lilacs.

Also for the dandelions...

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Sangria not optional

It's grilling season, and pork was $1.39/lb at Sam's, so it we made the family favorite Tacos al Pastor this week. If you use the guajillo chilis, they really aren't spicy at all, so it's a great family recipe, especially with the pineapple (except both my kids refused to eat the pineapple. Weirdos.) The epiphany I had this time was that the sauce is only enough to braise 3 lbs of meat at a time, but you can do as much as you want in batches (You'll probably want to skim some fat at the end, though). So there's another batch in the freezer for a day when it's too hot to simmer anything for two hours, but perfect weather for a quick sear on the grill. Yum!

Find more Quick Takes here!

Hungry Caterpillar Lacing Toy

I always fall down on my resolution to hand make more of the boys' presents, so, even thought it meant pulling a couple late nights and being okay with some flaws, I was pretty pleased to be able to pull this project off for Peanut's birthday. (With apologies for the unintentional alliterations!)

It helped that the initial investment was super low (twelve pieces of 25-cent felt, a quarter-yard of cotton batting, plus odds and ends that I already owned). I find it a lot easier to get the planning phases of a project rolling if I've already got the materials in hand.

To make the pattern, I found the images from the book online, pulled them into Illustrator and created outlines of each. I made a mock-up of the pattern layout so I wouldn't get everything printed out only to find I'd scaled it too big for my sheets of felt, and then squeezed the pattern onto a few pages and printed.

The pieces are three layers quilted together; a layer of batting, (optional, but gives it a nicer feel in your hand) trimmed about ¼" smaller so the edges don't show and sandwiched between two of the felt pieces. I learned along the way that it's much better to cut the holes in all three pieces before assembly. They're a little less stable on the sewing machine, but it's almost impossible to get that hole cut nicely through all three layers otherwise.

Some of the pieces, like the caterpillar and the cherry pie, got details appliqued on before assembly, and some, like the watermelon and the lollipop, got details hand-embroidered in with embroidery floss. I did this after assembly because I had lots of road-trip time to work on it, but beforehand would probably make more sense.

The caterpillar has a piece of pipe cleaner (with the ends folded over so they won't poke through) to make him stiff enough to thread through the holes. A round shoelace connects him to his egg, which keeps the pieces from falling off the other end.

And here it is all together! One is still a little young to actually lace the pieces together, but he loves hearing the story while his brother and I send the caterpillar through the food with lots of giggle-inducing munching noises. As a bonus, the food pieces do double duty as kitchen toys!

Learning Notes: Week of 9/22

This is my first post for the linkup (note: Oops! That linkup closed while I was typing. Hopefully, the "Guilt-free" part includes getting notes in late!), and I'm really excited to have this little push to blog what we've learned for the week! I think a few of these might be from the week before, but I'll keep better track now that I have a reason to.

A bit about us: since The Bean is just going-on-four, our learning is still pretty informal, but this fall I've been trying to move our learning in a slightly more intentional direction. Peanut is just 9 months, and a lot more adventurous than his brother, so the emphasis is on "slightly" for the moment.

On to the notes:

After Dad got home, it became a train derrick.

I finally canned something this summer, for the first time since learning that you no longer have to simmer the lids before you use them. Which means you don't have to fish them out of hot water, which means that the magnetic wand I used to use to do so got bequeathed to Bean. He was excited to have the chance to do a real, live "'speriment," as we gathered together all sorts of things to see if they were magnetic or not. Bean's spoon: yes. Mama's spoons: nope. Gave a preschool version of the scientific method.

Also in science, DH had to drive some people around for work, and thus cleaned out his car for the first time in ... a while, and we found a pair of binoculars in there. Great excitement. Talked about lenses and telescopes and such. For the moment, he prefers to use them backwards to make things small.

He was demanding I read "The Ink Garden" to him at least once a day, so I dug up an illuminated letter online (now linked in my review) and he watercolored away, "painting letters just like da Deeaphane!" He also traced the lines on this constellation sheet, while we talked about the names of the constellations (Note to self: Pull out D'Aulaires' and read some of the stories behind those names).

Tuesday was his onomastico, so his dad got him a book about the popes. Definitely recommended, though I wonder if it's more intended for kids who can read it to themselves than as a read-aloud. The sentences are just a tad stilted at times, so I find myself editing on the fly for a better flow. He really wanted to color "pope stuff" after several read-throughs. So, I put this and this on one page in Publisher and let him have at it. It's all red now, of course, because that's the only color. (PS - I just ran across this very nice Sts. Peter and Paul page, too.)

Wednesday was a bit of a loss. I ran off this number-tracing worksheet (registration required) but his inner perfectionist kicked in and he went on strike unless "Mama can help" (i.e., hold his hand and do it for him). Since he's done similar sheets successfully in the past, I respectfully declined, and it went undone. I did occupy him for a while by getting him sorting tiny pompoms onto these color cards. With tongs from his kitchen toys, even, so it took up a decent amount of time (yay!)

 Thursday: Our very sad garden actually produced something! So, we harvested broccoli and talked about different parts of the plant and what kinds of food come from each. None of this persuaded him to actually eat the broccoli, alas. Food-related learning was not a total loss, though, as he did show us over dessert that he's paying attention to a geography:

Book Review: The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane

Is there such a thing as reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder? Because if there is, I haz it. With this cold snap, my brain and my motivation seem to be returning, finally. So let's ease back into things with a children's book review, shall we?

Out of all the books at the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference this year, The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane caught my eye with the unique style of its cover illustration (the artist uses a combination of papercutting, printing, and watercolor).

The story is one that any lover of the Middle Ages, bright colors, daydreaming, or inventiveness will assuredly delight in. Brother Theophane is an Irish monk who loves God, but gets rather bored with his work in the (monochromatic) scriptorium. He gazes out the window and doodles little verses on the edges of his work (the poems in the book are taken from actual medieval marginalia. Finally, his exasperated prior sends him to work outside.

In the woods, he again gets distracted by a particularly tempting patch of berries, which gives him a brilliant idea, and the monk's manuscripts are never the same again.

I could hardly love this book more. The Celtic details throughout the book, along with the little poems of the monks and the story itself combine to create an atmosphere that captures the not-at-all-dark exuberance and humor of the Middle Ages.

The story is fun enough to be appreciated by preschoolers, but would (along with the notes and bibliography) also be a great jumping-off point to study the art and history of period with older children. Whomever you're reading it with, I recommend having on hand one of the many Dover coloring books based upon manucript art, because you'll likely be inspired to add some color of your own. (UPDATE: Here are two pages that have some colorable versions of illuminated manuscripts.)

Book Acquisition Mode

For a while, I thought I had it under control. I'd come out of a good used book store with maybe one or two things, if even. Lately, though, the book acquisition has been picking up steam, for better or worse. I blame "The Squirrel's Birthday." (The source of this blog's title, incidentally.) It's been a great favorite of ours, and I wanted to find some of the author's other volumes. And that's how it started:

Hop on over to Half Price Books. They don't have what you're looking for, but you do come out with like-new copies of Milne's poetry for $3 each, so one could hardly call that a waste of time.

Go online to Better World Books, manage to find two of the three books in question for a good price (still AWOL: A Great and Complicated Adventure). Realize that you're going to be near their warehouse that weekend, so you click "pick up in store."

Library covers are a mom's best friend.

Arrive at the outlet with Mom to find a sign that says "Saturdays: $10 box sale!" That's right; fill a box with books for $10. Manage to keep it to splitting one box rather than each getting your own. Get a big stack of paperback classics, plus "The Enchanted Castle," which you're quite looking forward to after reading this post about E. Nesbit's books. (found via Meg's Facebook page)

Visit family for the week. Mom has a few books for Bean, of course.

Books are our love language.

Drop in to church while the homeschool co-op is meeting. One of the moms has brought boxes of books that she is purging. Peruse.

Pretty sure I grabbed more than this, but I'd already shelved them. That's Hans Brinker on the right.

Back at home, go garage saling. Find a box of $1 cookbooks. Prepare to leave with only two, but then remember that the Frugal Gourmet introduced your family to the apple omelet and pick up three more. The fact that I'm Just Here for the Food turns out to be autographed does nothing to help curb your habit.

Tom and Becky, what were you thinking?

Check your email; someone on a listserv with Mom is getting rid of a full set of '96 World Books. Claim them. Be pleased when you find out they're like new, and are the leather bound ones, not the ones that make a picture when they're on the shelf.

Physical media forever!

Speaking of shelves...

Five Favorites: Books for a Long Winter

Sure, it's almost over, but until we actually have an outside that we want to be in, we're going to need a bit of distraction. Here are some books to get you through the home stretch:


Jamberry
An exuberant romp through the berry patch, this ode to all that is fresh and yummy about summer will have you resolving to go Pick All The Berries this summer.

Best read: With a thick layer of jam on homemade bread (because you won't feel like baking in the summer).

Extra Yarn
A little girl finds a magic box of yarn, and proceeds to cover her drab wintry town in color. A simple, silly story in which generosity triumphs over selfishness.

Best read: With the KnitPicks catalogue nearby. Or a good supply of paint chips, if that's more your crafty style.

Little House in the Big Woods
Because if Laura and family could survive winter in a log cabin, you certainly can make it in your climate-controlled abode. And if this picture doesn't make you feel at least a little bit better, I don't know what will.

Best read: With the recipe for snow candy ready to make.

Lois Ehlert’'s Growing Garden Set 
Okay, so I only have four list items, but since the last one is three books, I'm rolling with it. The Bean has Eating the Alphabet memorized, and loves to share his knowledge with everyone in the produce section (even if it's something he'd never actually deign to eat). The other two will have you ready to get your hands dirty and make something grow.

Best read: With the seed catalogue nearby.