Zac's Art Class

Zachary took a 7 week art class and had his first ever art show on Halloween. The art was tastefully displayed with name plates each had made themselves (Zac's is below in the photo by his sculptures). His art teachers provided wonderful refreshments such as breads with dipping oils, blueberry bread and hot cider--oh, and the ever popular chocolate chip cookie (what is art without a cookie? Am I right?) It was fun to see the children of all ages that had worked together each Saturday show off all their hard work. The class was mixed ages, with wonderful teachers from another homeschooling family (their teenage daughters) that lives close to us. Zac had a great time, and learned a lot, as they not only played with the different mediums, but discussed artists as well. If you live in South Bend, and these girls offer another class, I highly recommend them!

The sculpture collection. There is a glazed plate (the indent is his hand, and the whole thing is leveled with glaze), the cup, the owl shaped bank (which the glaze filled in the slot, so it is now for looks only. We live & learn.) Oh, and the Wonder Pets flyboat. (OK, who doesn't love the Wonder Pet's song? I love hearing it, and I LOVE when Payge tries to sing, "What's gonna work? Team work!" but it sounds more like, "uh-uh-uh-uh-eeee--er").

Zac's candle collection. The 'Z', 'A' & the turquoise one are meant for outside. He dug the shapes in sand, poured in the wax, added wicks, and let it set. Then dug them up. The sand will fall apart when the candle wax melts. Two in jars (Halloween themed), and two "free form" wax candles.

Oh, I should turn this one. Eh, turn your head.
These are some of Zac's paintings. At least the ones up at the art show. Others he'd brought home, and we didn't bring them back that night.

Agony!

A long time ago, in a kingdom far away--as in, about 2002 in Moscow, ID, a group of students got together and made a music video to the song Agony from Into The Woods. Of course, right? I mean, what else do college students do with their time? Anyhow, these wonderful friends of mine finally got this video onto YouTube, where it belongs!

A Tale of Two Chickens

Our kitchen smelled of blood and alcohol today. Gross, I know. What a way to start a post. See, about 6 weeks ago, we bought two chickens. Whole, but clean. One chicken we buttered and baked, roasting to golden perfection, eating it for dinner for two glorious nights. The other...

We MUMMIFIED.

Yes, you read that right. We mummified our chicken. See, we've been studying ancient Eqypt, and I just didn't feel that the children grasped the time and effort that went into making a living thing NOT decompose. So, we bought the chicken, mixed together salt, baking powder, and baking soda. This composition mimics the acidic and drying salts the Egyptians used to pull moisture out of the human body. It took many months (about six) to completely dehydrate the human body this way. The chicken took six weeks.

Sitting in salt, at three weeks. You have to change the salt mixture every week (every day at first) as it pulls the moisture from the chicken. Sorry, there's not a weekly update.

Dumping out the bag with chicken and salt in it.

A close up of the chicken. You can see the skin has become stiff and yellowed. The muscles underneath are firm and red. Like jerky, but not as appealing since it's also been rubbed in isopropyl alcohol to kill some bacteria. The Egyptians used fine wines for their kings, but see, I'd rather spend less on my chicken friend here. He isn't a pharaoh that I know of. In fact, He is probably a She. I should probably mention we didn't go all the way and wrap this chicken in linen. Why? I didn't want to. Simple as that. Plus, the real science behind the project is watching the salt do its work. Oh, and people kept asking me what I'd do with it after all that work...I threw it away! Sometimes the process is more important than the end result--kind of like life in general. Now that I'm starting to wax philosophical, I'll bit you adieu.

Perspective

Praying for perspective is a scary thing to do. I wish I would have known that prior to the attempt. I suppose I should have known, it's like praying for patience, which I still don't have the courage to do. I suppose I should just do it and hopefully get it over with, but, like with bungee jumping, I'm just not ready for it.

I've been running late a lot lately, usually do to things beyond my control--like a temper tantrum (OK, sometimes my own and I should control that), a child unwilling to put her clothing on, or events like this AFTER everyone is dressed:



Yes, that is body cream. Nice and thick. So, bath round 2 had to occur before leaving the house that morning. At least I was in a good enough mood to take pictures. Parenting has definitely given me a different perspective on life. I've had to learn to let my children make choices, even when they negatively effect the rest of the family. That's hard to do. Like when one child refused to leave behind a game they were playing, so we all missed the bus, which meant no library trip. The other two were devastated, and we parents were also disappointed. Of course, that child was upset, too. Their choice had made us all sad. I suppose I could have stepped in and said I'd drive us there, but the lesson wouldn't have been as poignant. Ahh, parenting.

However, the most important lesson for me came while driving. I was sitting at a red light, first in line. I'm not usually one to jump the gun, but I do like to get going again. As I was sitting at the light, it turned green, and I completely had a stupor of thought. I was supposed to be going forward, but it was like I forgot I was the one driving for a second. Right as I realized I could go, a car coming from the other direction zoomed quickly past, running the red light. It would have creamed us had I gone when the light turned green. I was grateful for the pause in thought, for the inability to move for a few seconds. Ever since then, I've been wondering...how many times, when things have gone wrong, and set me back, has it been for a good cause--maybe even saving my life? How many amazing blessings have been given to my family that I don't even realize have occurred? Blessings in disguise?

You do get what you pray for, even if in unexpected ways.

My baby is growing up

Here are some pictures from the archives of my phone's camera. She's getting so big.

Happy Halloween! (Well, almost...)

Group photo!

Zach took this one. The Spider Queen returns...long story.

Our adorable new poodle. Thank heaven after just a few hours she turned back into a cute baby.

Mary, who had a little lamb. A nice guy at the ZooBoo called Chayce Bo-Peep after she was in full costume (see group photo), and she REALLY let him have it.

Handy Manny. Now, it's just too bad that his current screw-driver skills are that of taking things APART...

Ham Math

Chayce has started wanting to "do school" like her big brother. She sits with us, listens, and colors. I never really thought that it was doing much in the way of teaching her, until today.
"Mom," she says, "can I show you how I do math?"
"Sure," I reply, thinking she'll be showing me a picture of something related to what we learned earlier in the day. But, I am proven wrong as she starts telling me a story problem, a problem that we haven't covered in Zac's schooling.
"Mom, if my friend has four pieces of ham, and eats two, he only has two left, right?"
"Riiight..."
"Ok, so then, if he eats another one, then he can save one for lunch tomorrow!"
"Yes, good job, Chayce. Where did you learn math like that?"
"Oh, I just know it. Want to hear another one?"
"Mom, if I have two sticks..."

Let's just say that the evening was filled with my jaw a little more agape than I planned on. Little minds. So much bigger than we think.