Maple snow candy, leg warmers, and other randomness...

We made maple snow candy and it was amazingly delicious.  There are directions for it at Rosina's blog.  I have wanted to try this ever since reading about it in the Little House on the Prairie series.

I also finished a knitting project.  Hooray!  They are wool leg warmers for Sylvia made from Patton's sock yarn. Now I've started on a pair for Ayla, as these were originally meant to be hers.  Simplest pattern ever... I used size 3 double-pointed kneedles and loosely cast on 50 stitches.  Knit 10 rows of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing, and knit the rest until they were almost as long as desired (in this case 12").  Knit another 10 rows of the ribbing and bind off very loosely so it doesn't pinch the thigh at the top.

For Ayla's, I have used a slightly finer, softer sock yarn and only cast on 44 stitches.  They look like they will be the right size for her this time.

Here's some other random pictures from the last few days...

...just 'cause they're so sweet...

 ...playing Mythmatical Battles with Papa (Yes, she cut her own bangs again.  I encouraged her to look in a mirror this time...;-)  

...and more backyard snow play before it gets really cold out.

pajama party at the children's museum

hedgehog petting

water measuring

camera-strap chewing ;-)

 

star gazing

looking at the moon 

looking at Jupiter

...which led to watching Journey to the Stars all snug in bed later.  Good night.

Happy birthday, Dakota!

One of Camille's best friends, Dakota, is turning 11.  Since we're cake crazy around here lately, Camille wanted to make her a "money cake".  We started with a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and then Camille made a large million dollar bill out of fondant, with Dakota's face on it.  Sylvia cut out and helped decorate gold and silver fondant coins to surround it.

Sylvia and Camille worked together to make a screen-printed T-shirt for Dakota as well.  They got a kit for Christmas that came with stencils and fabric ink and was quite easy to use.

L-O-V-E

 Happy birthday, Dakota!  We are lucky to have shared eleven trips around the sun with you, and hope for many more!

ramble about strong emotions

OK, so I'm exhausted.  Camille had a big fit, screaming "I hate you!", throwing a paperback book at me, and generally freaking out at a homeschool event today (Martin Luther King Jr birthday party).  This type of thing happens when she's been overly busy and out of her comfort zone a lot.  I knew this week was pushing it, even if the plans we had were mostly of her choosing and/or fun events for the whole family.  My philosophy is that children in general (and Camille in particular) need more love, more understanding, more kindness when they are feeling out of sorts.  These are the exact moments when it is harder to find reserves of more positive energy in ourselves.  Throw in the added pressure of being in a public place and my two other children who may be needing my attention and it can be quite difficult to know what to do and how to do it.

I offered to take her home if that's what she needed, but she wanted to stay.  So, I took her to a quiet part of the building and held her and comforted her.  Ayla sat at our feet, and Sylvia was (thankfully) being entertained by another mom.  Once it had all blown over, she happily went to play with the other children.  

Conventional parenting practices would have us believe that "coddling" our children leads to them being "spoiled" and that we just need to "put our foot down".  What I believe is that modeling (and living with) an attitude of kindness and trust will show our children that we respect them (and show them how to respect others).  Plus, can one put one's foot down and make those strong feelings go away, or even the expression of those strong feelings?  I seek to help my children work through strong feelings without shaming (or punishing) them for it, and I trust that they are doing the best they can.  Surely, no one wants to throw a big fit in public for the fun of it, but even full grown adults don't always know what to do with strong emotions, so how can we expect our children to "behave" when they are overwrought (whether we understand the cause of it or not)?  I was showing her kindness by giving her extra closeness and comfort.  I was modeling kindness towards the other people by finding a quiet, out of the way spot to minimize the disruption.  I'm content with the way that I responded to her needs and emotional outburst, but now I'm exhausted.  I think I should go have a lie-down with baby Ayla if I'm going to allow myself the same need for gentle kindness when my emotions are all stirred up...

If you have read through my whole ramble and you feel so inclined, leave me a comment and let me know...
What do you do when you have been care-giving all day and you feel in need of some care yourself?

sledding at Indian Lake

I once again have a camera!  It's a little digital point-and-shoot and I'm quite happy with it.  I haven't figured out how to manipulate all of the different settings yet (and I still need to buy a memory card so I can take more than 7 pictures without having to delete), but here's some shots from our day of sledding with fellow homeschoolers.  It was overcast, but not too terribly cold.  With a fire pit and a little warming house with a woodstove, it was quite a lovely spot.

I would like to own a DSLR camera someday, but with limited time and a limited budget, I'm just happy to have my own camera again!

connections

Our family is part of an Earth Scouts group with other homeschoolers.  This week our group is having a birthday party for Martin Luther King, Jr.  Each scout was asked to make a project of their choosing about someone who is a worker for human rights.  Camille and I talked about different possibilities and settled on the idea of a small poster about Cesar Chavez.  She did a simple line drawing of him and wrote a couple of sentences, both copied off of the Enchanted Learning website.

I love that we are able to focus on the experience and enjoyment of learning rather than the end product.  The poster is fine, but the discussion leading up to it was great.  We talked about migrant farm workers, strikes, boycotts, and labor unions.  Then Camille made big connections between this and the book we've been reading, The Omnivore's Dilemma; Young Readers Edition.  I love it when one great conversation with a 7 year-old can connect human rights, ecology, nutrition, and consumer choices!  During this whole discussion, Camille was jumping on a mini trampoline next to the computer, so we can tie in physical education too, right?  ;-) However, if Camille had not wanted to make this poster and only wanted to go to the event and eat cake, I would have been fine with that too.  For me, this is the beauty of unschooling, providing opportunities, opening up to many different possibilities and seeing where they lead us, because I have no doubt that learning happens.

sleeping Ayla sketch

Last night, I was lying in bed thinking about why I like  blogging.  I have always liked the idea of diaries and journals to document my life.  When I was a kid the diary with the lock and key and little lined pages never quite worked out because I was always more prone to drawing, sketching, and doodling than writing in words.  The pretty cloth-covered journals seemed equally enticing as I got older, but also lacked the visual element that I enjoy with blogging.  Also, blogging provides a virtual audience, much like my imaginary anonymous reader that I always had in my head while writing a Dear Diary entry, and thank you to all of you who do take the time to visit here.  Well, lately taking photos has been a great way for me to interpret my family's life, but my camera is dead. (I ordered a new one and am eagerly awaiting it's arrival!)
So, all these rambling thoughts led me to wanting to do a sketch.  I haven't been inspired to draw much more than a "Mama, can you draw me a frog with this green marker?" kind of drawing, since Camille was very little.  So, I hopped out of bed at midnight found a box with some old charcoal stubs, and pastels, and lovely art-y pencils and grabbed a piece of computer paper and sketched, what else?, my sleeping Ayla.  I'm quite pleased with it, though she shifted positions a couple times just to give me a good challenge :)

 When I went to dust off the scanner, hasn't been used in a year or so, I found this sweet fairy that Camille drew when I was pregnant with Ayla.

While unschooling my children and supporting their creativity, I sometimes forget to support my own desires to create something that is not "useful" in some manner.  My creativity these days has mostly been channeled into knitting, photographing, playing, cooking, and drawing green frogs.  It feels good to create something just for the sake of it.