Activities With Children

Are you ready to raise your own chickens and enjoy delicious home grown eggs? This is the last blog post in our series that asks an expert chicken lady about all there is to know. If you missed the earlier two posts, I strongly suggest that you go back and catch up.

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Remain Calm has a nice little roundup of homebrew music applications for use with Nintendo DS - ds music apps [via Matrixsynth]

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On a scale from one to ten this craft is a solid three in terms of difficulty. Meaning if you have a preschooler like I do, he or she will have very little difficulty making these homemade trees.

The false alarm I am referring to is my 6:45am call of serious abdominal cramps and terrible back pains. As an inexperienced pregnant woman I thought, is this it? Is my labor starting? Then I remembered my midwife saying if you take a hot bath/shower and the pain goes away- it isn’t true labor. So I took a hot shower and then went back to bed. When I woke an hour or so later I felt a little better. Whew! No Baby Yet! As I looked around the apartment and the baby’s crib ( full of clean linens,clean baby clothes & other items) I thought- dear Lord- don’t come just yet.. we still have SO much to do!
With that cue, Zach hooked up the car seat and we took some of the other things out of the closet. I even started decorating for Christmas! Yes, this will be by far the earliest I’ve ever started, but I wanted to have most things ready so whenever Hazel arrives, I won’t have too much to do by way of the holidays.We traded (most) of our Harry Potter busts for our collection of (mostly) holiday-oriented snow globes. I hung a wreath and scattered a few semi-neutral winter pieces around.

The new friend I mentioned is this guy:::

(or girl) Zach found in the bushes by our recycling bin. Much smaller than any other kittens we’ve seen around our apt. complex. Z had been feeding and checking on it all day- he said he couldn’t tell how old it was. When we walked back over to it, he was asleep on the paper plate we had fed him on earlier. The plate we used was a cake plate, so can get a visual of how tiny. As soon as it saw me, it ran directly into my arms! It was pretty amazing considering it was hissing and scared of Zach at first.So I carried it back to our apartment and directly to the bathroom. He mewed, we fed him some soft kitty food and Cat’s Milk ( I don’t even want to know). We called a bunch of places trying to find a home for him, but it was 5 on a weekend night- so we didn’t have much luck. After writing emails to friends and family- including this photo in all of them- we got a few replies for possible homes. Then out of nowhere- my parents decided to adopt him. They’ve always had kitties and now have Bean- the one-eye-wonder cat and thought maybe it was time to get another. My mom had such a positive attitude about it- she was grateful they have a roof over their heads and that they could take this little guy in. At one point we we’re scared we would have to raise a 3rd kitty with a baby on the way… he/she is adorable- but kittens are a lot of work so you can see why we we’re so grateful to find him a home. Now we’ll still be able to watch the baby grow and play with him!

Friday I started making these::::



They’re little girl ornaments.You can hang them on a door knob, a tree branch or anywhere you want something sweet. I’ve filled them with a mix of organic lavender or rosebuds and polyfil. Just in time for the holidays!

The Halloween party I planned for- we passed on. My tummy just wasn’t into leaving the house. Here is what I would have worn- minus the yellow stripes

This is where I’ve started sitting and taking cat naps, reading my favorite stories to Hazel and dreaming of when she’ll arrive. The pillow and crocheted rug (!) are both from my dear friend Suzanne, who just moved. I love this little nook. Once Hazel arrives it will be my nursing corner as well.

Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite books to read to Hazel:::

A Child’s Calendar, by John Updike- illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman
::::::::::::::::::
November
The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The loss of her
Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds have flown.

And yet the world,
Nevertheless,
Displays a certain loveliness-

The beauty of
The bone. Tall God
Must see our souls
This way, and nod.

Give thanks: we do,
Each in his place
Around the table
During grace.
:::::::::::::::::::::

It goes through every month. If I am running short on time I read her my favorite months or just the two I think she’ll be born in ( Nov & Dec).
Hope you enjoy it~
Happy Monday
M

As we all watch the raging path of the hurricane, we are praying for the safety of those affected. It seems like there have been so much weather phenomena making an impact recently. And, now one authority is predicting that this winter will see extreme cold.

(My pedicab, pre-foam-addition.)

Thanks to everybody who commented on my first post in this series: I’ve got great feedback, including a hilarious put-down from another local pedicabber (”Luke, Death Cab for Cutie called. They want a photo for the next album cover.”)

And, appropriately, there’s been a call for data. So here’s what I’ve got:

• 
  Here’s the exact analysis I sent to the City of Austin prior to my 4th meeting. (2.7 MB pdf) Not meant to be a conclusive, authoritative, automobile-worthy, or even well-formatted analysis, this was meant to show I’d put at least a little thought into the strength of the cab. The Telespar appendix mentioned in the analysis is available here.
• Here are the pictures, as provided to the city before my meeting.
• Here’s a brief examination of how other manufacturers describe their pedicab wheels and an article about a recent accident that involved a cheaply-made but commercially-available pedicab, provided to the city on 8/21.

To address some safety issues raised, it’s useful to look at the style of pedicab in use by many other Austin pedicabbers: also no brakes, and attachment to the bike by a single bolt. There are even 20+ home-brews of this style on the Texas capitol’s streets. And, to be fair, I would estimate half of the licensed pedicabs are the far-fancier (and more expensive) 3-wheeled versions (one company making these, and another.) And good luck finding any materials analysis, even to the low level I’ve provided, from any pedicab manufacturer. It may exist, but the city certainly hasn’t sought it until I came up.

So, if I may conclude this post by being overly general:

• One ought to judge product quality not on the presence of a fancy marketing apparatus, but rather on the quantitative properties of a product.
• DIYers much smarter than I are developing important products, and early versions won’t always look pretty.
• Both consumers and makers miss out by labeling anything factory-made as safe and anything home-brewed as sketchy.

As always, any comments appreciated. Including put-downs about my pedicab, so long as they’re at least as funny as the Death Cab for Cutie one:)

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To succeed in homeschooling, it is in your best interest to get involved with other homeschoolers. You should join a homeschool network or group near you. For this reason, I have decided to give a full listing of homeschooling groups throughout each state.

You may think a Marx Generator is a device for spitting out strident communist rhetoric, but it’s actually a type of high-voltage circuit for spitting out HV pulses.

This is probably one to put in the “Don’t Try this at Home” or “Touch = Die” file as we are dealing with current here that can kill. Nice photos of the pulses.

Build a simple Marx Generator

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• Build your own Marx Generator

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I know, how original a title. Even though I work from home, I like the weekends. This week has been blah for my tummy. I just haven’t been inspired enough or had enough energy to do too much.

I’ve been knitting and finished my first super- soft baby blanket or lap blankie. After using 3 skeins each, I still ran out. So there is a funky stripe at the end in a soft angel hair in orange & tan- but I’m pleased with it.

(Before the stripe was added)

Yesterday, Jasper and I watched from our kitchen window as two little stray, black kittens ate a plate of food. They can’t be more than 3 months- totally black. I think there are 4 or 5 in total with a mom. The whole complex gives them food, because it does take a village to raise kittens.

Last night as we listened to Barack Obama’s speech I stitched the curtains for the changing table. Well I got through the 2 side panels. The two front are pinned- but I need to cut & stitch them up. The bright yellow matches perfectly with a stripey rug we picked up at Ikea on sale awhile back. So I guess yellows & oranges are in our sleeping future!

Speaking of an Ikea future, I think we’ll try to make a trek there tonight to get the crib and a few extra little things, like lampshades for the bedroom night stand lamps. I hate to get rid of something that works just for an aesthetic reason. So I thought getting matching lampshades would tie our un-matchy lamps together- yet we don’t need to buy new lamps.

Today I am determined to make applesauce. I have a big Pyrex bowl full or organic apples- waiting patiently. I also have a basil plant that has been getting kinda agitated by the heat, so I have that sitting on a chair in the kitchen. Seems it is time for a big batch of pesto ( without the pine nuts). Maybe I’ll add a little bit of almond meal.
Here are a couple of new items soon to be
available here

The pin cushion is made from a recycled cashmere sweater. It had a bunch of holes, but I managed to salvage enough for this. Blondie, you may have seen before. I’m happy with how her little blonde highlights came out. Lastly, the coffee cuff. Inspired by project runway- it has soft fleece with scissors,tape measures, needles & other sewing finery along with a patch of colorful safety pins and a vintage piece of measuring tape.

For inspiration I’ve been reading through archives,
here. After listening to this podcast I was so delighted to hear a story I could relate to. So I’ve been enjoying her entries and the adorable photos of kids & crafts.

Another bit of inspiration was found in this issue of Hallmark Magazine.

A woman tells her story about becoming more aware of the environment,what her & her family eat and the overall quality of life. My favorite quote of hers is
“It’s the beautiful, messy wild life experience that I want to give my children.” -Rebecca Barry

To that I say Hell Yeah! Have a great weekend- experiencing your own

messy, thrilling life.
xo