Fuzzy Love

Cheating Without Guilt

But first up, what the heck?

Um, hello? Spring?

Anyway, we couldn't let TV-Turn-Off week get in the way of movie night, could we? The movie was Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and so we couldn't resist.

Step one: assemble all the household bunnies (just not the ones in the backyard). Instruct them to watch quietly and not get any naughty ideas.

Step two: watch movie (highly recommend - there were a few parts Olivia found scary, but they're really very silly).

Step three: follow up the movie with the "How to build a bunny" extra feature. Realize that they use Plasticine to make the figures and what is one of Liam's favorite things ever?

Step four: bike break!

Step five: feed bunny carrots.

Too bad for TV-Turn-Off week; movie night has become sacred around here.

Some Public Service Announcements

Olivia and I just made a little chocolate cake in a mug! It took maybe five minutes of prep, then three to cook in the microwave. Just think, I had all these ingredients sitting around not being chocolate cake, and now they are. Delicious! Warm melty chocolate cake: try it!

I found the recipe via Nadine at Balkan Style; she and T always have the most lovely ideas. Right now they're having a contest to win a Gratitude Wrap and if you run over and comment you'll have a chance to win. (Here's the origin of Gratitude Wraps; I'm not ready for that kind of sewing yet, but I'd love to have one.)

Guess Where I Went Yesterday?

My first rally! With friends Lisa and Gillian. Some speakers, some chanting, some honking from passers-by. Good clean (and chilly) fun for the cause.

A Walk in the Woods

Have I mentioned before that I love Fall? I do. Summer in low land Colorado is too hot and brown for me and by the end of September I am craving the cool weather that makes the brown make sense.

So when I felt that bit of fall crispness in the air this morning (already long gone, unfortunately), I knew we had to end up in one of our favorite nearby spots that is particularly beautiful this time of year. We spent about an hour poking around with sticks, collecting leaves, and listening to the frogs and crickets. Too bad this spot is so close to home that we really never got away from the highway noise. Ah well.

Liam had full control of our small point-n-shoot (I'm copying Nadine again), and he took all these pictures but the first one. He was so proud to hold the camera and careful to keep the wrist strap tightened and thoughtful about the pictures. The camera also had the side benefit of helping him resist the temptation to poke a stick into every hole. He was hoping for a skunk or a porcupine at least.

And we now know that these holey, twisty, and critter-filled trees are Plains Cottonwoods (thank you 100 Species Challenge and the Arbor Day people). Apparently plains cottonwoods don't live particularly long and then they die naturally; the bark falls off first, leaving behind bone-like limbs on what Liam dubbed "the spooky trees." Since getting back home I've read that old-time Westerners knew never to picnic under a cottonwood with dead limbs and, after seeing a few branches drop, I wouldn't let the kids linger under them either. A few looked like they were going to fall right over. (But who knew old-time Westerners were big on picnics?)

The only damper was Olivia's deep-seated fear of ants (just the red ones). We had an unfortunate incident earlier this year: Liam was investigating an ant hill near his preschool and was slightly swarmed; big red ants crawled over his shoes and up into his pants. I quickly ripped the pants off of him in an in-side-out way and was surprised to find him a bit panicked but untouched; strangely, the ants clamped onto the inside of the pants but not onto Liam. Olivia was there, of course, and now she is the one who remains traumatized. Each time we walked around a bend in the path, Olivia would ask if there were any ants there: "Not the black ones I like black ones I don like wed ones are dere wed ones?" And when I told her again and again that there were no ants here - at least we didn't see any - she'd say, "Oh Mommy, what I gonna do wit chew?" I guess I can't be trusted where ants are concerned.

A Good Thing With a Side of Chips

My friends Jenn and Bill have some friends named Jessica and Charley and J&C have a beautiful and precious not-quite-two-year-old daughter named Tuesday. Tuesday was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in July and has been in treatment ever since (blogged over here). Now, when this happens to someone you care about, and you're thinking that you just want to do something, and a cassarole is nice but surely you could do more than that, and also that there but for the grace of god...well, sometimes it just takes a little creative thinking. And a couple of people who will take action.

So Jenn and Bill hosted a poker tournament. Sixty dollars a head with the money going equally to the family and to cancer research (with a bit put aside for a prize).

Here's what they did: they invited friends, family, and friends of family. They rented tables and chairs, established some house rules, and borrowed poker chips from all over. They made a lot of delicious food and bought a lot of alcohol. And then they cleaned up the house, sent the kids off with a grandmother and opened their doors. I know it was a lot of work because Jenn disappeared all last week (and I'm sure there's more stuff that I'm missing).

Oh, and did you know that if you explain what you are up to and why, lovely companies like Starbucks and local restaurants and so on will donate door prizes to your event? They will and they did. And Mark and I each won a bag of coffee (especially nice because we were all out).

Jenn has mentioned to me a few times how blessed she feels to be a part of this family's life, which is facing such difficulties with such grace. But I also feel very blessed to have friends who see a need and move to help in a big way. Because it's the showing of some love that helps the most (I think) and that's what they did. (Although money is nice too, I'm sure.)

Oh, and about the poker part? I totally recommend Texas Hold'em for Dummies (well, just the first 32 pages, because that's as far as I got); here I am at the final table. I ended up placing fifth, and it's probably fair to say everyone was pretty surprised (especially me). I found that my accidental unpredictability helped a lot, if that makes sense.

But I wish I read the whole damn book.

The 100 Species Challenge

We've started a new long-term project around here called the 100 Species Challenge. The idea is to "collect" 100 different species by identifying plants that grow in your little corner of the world, but we've expanded it to include animals, birds, and bugs, mostly because I don't think I can keep my interest level up through one hundred plants, let alone the kids'. But who knows? We'll see where this idea takes us.

We went to a favorite local park on Friday that has a trickle of a stream flowing under a bridge. Is there any place to play better than that? The kids gathered up handfuls of acorn hats, perfect for little boats, and floated them down the "rapids." The bumpy oak leaves were interesting as well, and Liam held up the leaf to lots of other nearby trees, hoping to find a match and, therefore, more acorns. Our first species!

Two handfulls of acorns came home with us and Liam immediately sat down to draw them and the tree they came from. I supplied the name (and the spelling).

And Olivia put some acorns out for our squirrels (who, I imagine, were pretty surprised).

Through this project I'm hoping we'll all become a little more aware of the diversity around us, learn some new names, experiment with pressing leaves and flowers, make bark rubbings, and go for hikes with the binoculars and our notebooks. And hopefully we will figure out some names other than "hawk" for the many birds of prey we frequently see gliding above us. That would be nice too.

Again With the New Stuff

Well, first of all, I felt this site needed a little change (Stacy's new look got me thinking). Something a bit more exciting and a little less....homemade. I still can't figure out how to replace the banner with my own though...

Anyway, I did some phone canvassing last night. It was new to me, but I figured it had to be less terrifying than going door-to-door and it was. Plus the experience came with oatmeal cookies and lemonade, which always makes things better.

If you've ever considered volunteering on a phone bank (for anybody), it works something like this: a largish group of volunteers met up at a house not far from mine; lots of people also met last night at the county's Democratic HQ, but only so many people can fit in there, so volunteers open up their homes for the overflow (and, thankfully, make cookies and lemonade). The volunteers were from all walks of life: college students, SAHMs, working moms, a retired man who drove up on a Harley, thirty-something men. We were each given a cell phone, a short script, and a list of numbers. The phone numbers belong to Independents, and the point is to see if they need any additional information, the most detailed of which is sent to them through the mail.

Even though I was not the only newbee, I still felt self-conscious enough to search out a spot outside. Watching the sun set over the mountains was beautiful and certainly calming (I love that time of night when everything glows), but I need not have worried; in this day and age of caller ID, few people pick up unless they want to talk. That means I had some interesting and mostly very positive conversations.* But I wasn't alone for long; as more people arrived they were forced out onto the deck with me until we occupied every corner.

The highlight of the night was a long conversation with a man passionate about alternative energy solutions (about which I know next to nothing) that turned into a philosophical discussion about the role of government in our lives. I could have talked to him all night. Not bad at all, really. And I only forgot my name once.

*Although the most surprising was probably when I asked for someone and the woman on the line yelled, "That son of a bitch hasn't lived here in almost two years!!" Oops. Then she calmed down and explained that they were divorced. (No way.)

Bunny!

I've never been able to master the French knot, so her poor eyes are misshapen, I mixed up the arms and the legs, and I could not get her to smile, but Olivia's bunny is a success! Success measured by I don't know what...Olivia's pleasure? Liam's participation in her creation? My desire to make more? Because she looks a bit Franken-bunnyish, what with all my mistakes creative changes.

The pattern is from The Cute Book and it took under an hour to make. Once a person got going she could probably whip them out in half that time, but I spent some time on those unfortunate eyes; the felt of the face is now seriously perforated. But the kids love them - they've both spent some time "reading" the book - and now it is Liam's turn for a little mascot, as the book calls them.

And did I mention the materials for that bunny cost $1.25 (I even got the book from the library, although I'll probably pick it up) and I have enough left over to make, oh, at least ten more? Bunnies for everyone!

Making Some Magic

Have you guys seen The Cute Book? After seeing a cute little finished kitty over at Balkan Style, I immediately put the book on hold at the library. There are some adorable projects in there, and they're quick, easy, and take about a dollar worth of materials each. Now both Liam and Olivia want a few little animals a piece (and I'm going to try to make progress on one tonight), but first up was magic wands.

Liam has wanted a magic wand for a while now. Whenever we see sparkly, star-topped sticks in the store (the kind that will break in about two minutes), he starts begging. He is aware of Harry Potter (although I'm not sure how), but seems to think his wand requires a star on top. So I tell him we'll make one. And then we...uh....don't. So the last time I said that, Liam whined, "But we never do!" Ouch. Sorry, kid. So today we absolutely did.

I must say, I do love this sort of project. Liam planned it all out, I got the tools and gave him a little instruction, and he made it happen. Since I had a new pile of felt for The Cute Book projects, it was clearly the right thing to use.

The recipe: draw a star on a piece of scrap paper, hold the paper and the felt up to a window for tracing, cut two per star. Use matching embroidery floss (three strands) to more or less sew the two stars together. Break out the sequins and stick them onto the stitches every now and then. Cover the end of a stick with glue, poke it through the stitches (they were big stitches), and voila!

The pink one is for Olivia; Liam made that one for her. The red one is Liam's; I made it. Liam insisted it be this way so they both got a gift.

When the glue is dry, turn your mother into a sheep!

Baaaaa.

Everyday Math or Fun With Buttons

I have to admit, I don't see much point in some of the homework that Liam gets. He only gets it on Fridays, to be done for Mondays, so I can't complain too much, but I do have a hard time pulling Liam away from whatever he happens to be doing in order to sit him down and have him trace letters or color so many apples or whatever. Perhaps much of the value is in setting a routine of quiet work? I'm undecided.

But he does get another sort of homework that I'm in love with. It's called Everyday Mathematics. I was thinking of sharing some of the activities with you guys, since it's really pretty fun, and then I saw a post about the same darn thing over at Balkan Style and that got me on my butt and posting (thanks Nadine!). Anyway, the whole point of these activities is to, in their words: "provide a variety of playful mathematics activities for you and your child to do together using everyday situations and materials." They think that we should math with our children everyday, just like we read with them. You know how thrilled little kids are when you let them set the kitchen timer? Like that.

Okay, so the first thing we did was make cookies. For homework. (I was all over that). Liam did all the measuring, we talked about cups and half cups and quarter cups, teaspoons, half tea....you get the idea. He set the timer (seriously thrilling) and set the oven temperature. We measured out equal portions of dough and counted how many cookies we made. We talked about dozen. Now tell me that's not fun math.

Or this one: time things. Anything and everything (and I mean everything). If you give a five-year-old a timer you will soon now how long it takes you to get dressed, make breakfast, and go to the bathroom. After a bit, have them estimate how long something will take before they time it.

Then today we sorted. The book suggested laundry, but I need more reason than homework to do laundry (like I'm out of underwear), so we got out our giant box of buttons. There are many ways to sort buttons, and we tried a few, but by color was the unanimous favorite. Liam noticed that some buttons weren't quite this color or that color, but somewhere in between, so our piles turned into a color wheel. And that led to a discussion about how yellow and blue make green (and a little more blue makes aqua) and so on. Lovely! And that somehow led to graphing.

And none of this felt like work, for either of us! Liam came up with his own ideas and we happily followed him down whatever paths he thought up, just to see what would happen (well, not so much with the cookies, but you know). This is the stuff that will keep curiosity and love of learning strong, don't you think?

There are a ton of other ideas out on the Everyday Mathematics web site, if you are interested. They go right up to grade six. Do you guys have any fun homework?