The Sinister Scribe

We finally had just enough sun today to get the measurements for the Noon Day Project we are participating in. Yippee! I get the feeling that much of what we are doing is beyond his understanding. However, today when we were taking the measurements he had an “oh wow!” moment when he found he could literally watch the shadow of our meter stick move. It was neat to see how much it moved in our 10 minute increments. We were supposed to measure every 2 minutes, oh well. The 10 minute measurements were much more impressive.
So we calculated our sun angle. I am sure I didn’t explain that part well enough. I’m having to overcome areas where I know “what” but not “why.” It is challenging! Next week we will try to do our calculations using data from a class in Iran along with our own.

For one reason or another, it has been a light week lesson-wise. I swear every time we have a situation like this I have to really crack down on him to do his work. He gets really whiney and lazy. Makes me worry about our summer session. I don’t want to stop everything completely for that reason and others. We’ll still have morning routines, daily exercising, household chores and pet care but I think we will continue with the hour of free reading time, typing lessons, drawing time and weekly (or bi-weekly) library trips. At our last visit to the library I discovered they had a great selection of DVDs! We have one now about the “backyard microcosm.” There is very little narration but the shots of insects going about their lives is way cool. The music is pretty good too.

I haven’t gotten much further with lesson planning. Hopefully, now that I have the pillow issue solved, I can get cracking on it! I’ve been trying to use Homeschool Tracker Basic to set it all up. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you do recurring assignments (like free reading time) You need the paid version for that. So I have to do them one at a time. I may just do one month in it and have my usual lists of assignments by subject done. Then I can enter month by month from my lists to print out the weekly assignment sheets. If I still think it is useful in 6 months, I may buy it. The biggest bonus I can see with this program is facilitation of transcript creation. You can also plan at the course level with the paid verison rather than just assignment by assignment.

Tomorrow morning we are off to join Dad at Tan-Tar-A. The laptop is effectively dead so I won’t be online until we get back sometime on Friday.

For not planning to do much, we sure had a busy day.

My priority was to replace the pillows for Bob and I. Bob slept on the one I had gotten recently and had trouble sleeping with it too. It is just too firm. So off to target we went to get them with a quick stop by the Crocs kiosk. Man are these things comfy! I’ve been wanting a pair for a while.

After that we hit the library. The “Learn Latin” book was available as was “Perseus and the Minotaur.” I am wondering if I can’t pull together a beginning Latin course from the latin book and thinking I’d like to own the Perseus book. I like the layout and presentation of the Perseus book with the “Ask the storyteller” blerbs.

Realized after we’d been at the library a while that today was the “Meet the Pets” day. So, Sam finally got to touch a real live hedgehog, an African Pygmy Hedgehog to be exact. Of course he wants to own one more than ever. *sigh* I have to admit they are cut little buggers and aparently “chirp” when they are happy. Even though we are no where near being able to own one, I encouraged Sam to continue learning about them and not give up if it was something he really wanted to do. Maybe he could somehow get involved with hedgehog rescue…?

By the time we left the library, it was nearly one so we stopped at Sonic and ate lunch. I had my first soda in a long time. (root beer) By the time we got home it was nearly 2 and time for “quiet time.” I think Jessie is starting to wean off of naps. I’m letting her take a book into bed when she asks. If she doesn’t sleep, then I let her get up in an hour. Eventually we’ll just have quiet time in our individual rooms with books. Need to see about getting bean bags for the kids rooms so they have a comfy reading chair. I’ll just take the rocker from Jessie’s room and put it in ours. Or maybe I’ll start taking naps then. LOL!

This evening I went to the local SnB. Haven’t been in a while. It was nice to talk with Amy and get going on another Harry Bear for Reb and her new baby. I want to put together a bag (recycled sweater one maybe) with the teddy bear, lanolin cream, lotion and some other goodies.

Ok, I’m off to bed. Bob is leaving for Tan-Tar-A conference tomorrow. We’re going to join him on Thursday for a bit of spring break like fun. (Kinda why I wanted to get he crocs now.)

I’m not sleeping very well. This may sound crazy, but I think it has something to do with my new pillow. I got a firmer one thinking it would help my neck but not only does my neck feel worse… I can’t sleep. Or it could just be my obsessiveness over next year’s assignments. I may see if I can get another, softer one today and see if that helps. If I don’t get sleep soon I won’t get those assignments/curriculum set up! I’d really like to have that done so that I can have some downtime too. *pout*

Yesterday was not fun. Our upstairs toilet lost its seal when we tried to clear a clog with the “plumber’s helper” in the master bath. The effect was raw sewage pouring through the air vents onto the carpet and TV. Oh, and backing up into the tubs too. It is cleaned up now but things are discombobulated still. Bob tried deep cleaning the carpet. It worked but it also loosened the carpet so that it now has wrinkles in places.

Today has been rather relaxed. We’ve not done much in the way of assignments but we did spend lunch over at Sam’s friend’s house. His mom, T and I got to talk about curriculum. (Finally someone who doesn’t consider that a dirty word!) We seem to have similar outlooks on things. I hope to have many more talks with her.

Tonight is the “end of reign” party after the business meeting for the shire. I’d like to go to both but I want sleep more. I don’t think I am going to make it, but I could be wrong.

Tried some Splenda this weekend and it caused more of an exema reaction than good ol’ sugar! Big bummer. I was going to make some cookies with it but now I think I will give it away to T. I could swear I’ve tried it before with no problems, but twice this weekend I got an immediate reaction from it.

I’d better get dinner into the crock pot. If I do it now it may just be ready in time!

Ooh! And it is starting to thunder!! *snooooorrrrrrr* As if I didn’t want to go to sleep as it is.

Huzzah! I made it another year and am better than ever.

The last year has been crazy but fun. On my last birthday we were on our way here (and I was 20 pounds heavier)… no jobs, no home, but lots of determination. This year finds me looking out the window of the second floor of my gorgeous home with a huuuge and lush “yard”… all acre-and-a-half of it.

I am very happy and feeling very well loved. I have derned near everything I’ve dreamed of… loving husband, wonderful kids, a home to be proud of and a job that allows me to take care of them all. I love my job! And then there is the family (mom, sis, etc) and friends that have supported me through all my crazy ideas.

This year’s birthday haul included a MagEyes hands-free magnifier (from sis and BIL), books on medieval illuminators (mom), hobby lobby gift cert (son & daughter), Amazon gift cert (DH) and cards from family and friends. Thanks everyone!!!!! To top it all off, DH and the kids are taking me out to HuHot for dinner (Mongolian BBQ)

Well, back to the present… homeschooling lessons (math & grammar) await.

I’m not really sure if I’m done or not. LOL! I think it needs something but I dunno what. I debated about some whitework in the outer red boarder but again… I just can’t decide.
There are parts I really, really like: the monoceros itself, the alternating red and blue. There are parts I’m not too crazy about: the whitework in the big blue boarder, the line filler whitework… ok, I’m just not crazy about the whitework on this one in general. It just is not “popping” enough. *sigh* I really, really, thought I was gonna be happy with this one. Maybe I’ll feel better about it in the morning.

It is amazing how much better this effort at guilding is! With the addition of a little honey, I am able to use much thinner coats of the gum size. Which means it is really flat and much, much smoother. I am a bit embarrassed at how bad the guilding was on the silver hammer scroll.
This guilding is sooo flat!!! Woot! It could still be more even, but maybe that will come in time. Another big helper here… for my birthday, my sis sent me one of those hands-free magnifiers that fits on your head like a visor. MagEyes is the brand. It was so nice to be able to do this with two hands.

The second picture, on the right, shows it with some color. I’ve been trying to apply layers of transparent color rather than glopping on one thick opaque one. On the monoceros body, I applied a thin layer of raw sienna yellow ochre to the areas that would be red and where the shadows are.

OK. Gotta run. The laptop is effectively dead so blogging will be sporadic and short… or moreso than usual.

“The monoceros has the head of a stag, the tail of a boar, elephant’s feet and a horse’s body. A horn four feet long projects from his head. This creature was derived from the Indian rhinoceros.”

Here’s my version all inked and callig’d, based on the one in the Aberdeen Bestiary. I’d originally planned on a horizontal layout with the text to the right of the illustration. Changed my mind on the layout but kept the new beastie orientation. The thickest border band in my version will also have a different whitework design on it. Didn’t care for the dots in the original. It came together very, very quickly. I think I’ve only spend 2 hours on it so far.

The calligraphy is not very good. I REALLY need practice there. And I’m not crazy about how the lines ragged. The last line will have a filler bar but not the others. Just not quite enough space, plus it would look silly if each line had a filler bar.

I am happy with the monoceros though. The legs might be a bit stumpy but not too much. Although I freehanded it, I did use a grid to help with proportions and alignment.

Before I hop into bed tonight, I’m going to get another batch of gum arabic started and add some heated honey to it tomorrow! The inner square, middle band and “m” will be guilded. Oh, and the horn too.

Finally! They are done and on DS’s feet before he grew out of them.

He likes them and says they are comfy. I like that they are done and I can move on to my next knitting project guilt-free. I’ve been working on these for 7 months. Yikes!

And with that, I am off to bed. G’Nite y’all!

Whaddaya think? I like it (especially the picture treatment), but I can’t seem to figger out how to get the second level of categories to show up. I might keep it fer a bit… mebbe.

Later … 

OK. Figured out the categories second level. The sidebar widget doesn’t include them but the standard sidebar does so I just rearranged that manually. I’ll bet if I dig around in the widget files, I can find where to change that. ‘Course I don’t think it is something I’ll do frequently so maybe I won’t mess with it at this point.

The morning was fun. We all got up freakin’ early to cheer DH on at his first 5k run in a very long time. The kids and I colored signs that said, “Go! Dad, Go!” and “We Love You!” I wanted to to tshirts but didn’t have time (or money really). I think it is so cool that he is doing this, both for his own sake and for the kids. I think it is good for them to see. Who knows, maybe some day we’ll all enter a fun run and train together.

During this morning’s race, it began to snow! Really snow! Here’s a picture of how our yard looked by the time we got home (and one of the kids).

By late afternoon, all the snow had melted. Really weird. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60s. That’s midwest weather for ya.
Other things that happened this week (or earlier) that I’ve been meaning to mention:

Our tiger swallow butterfly cocoon ecclosed and flew off into a tree:

We had a really foggy morning:

I love the fog!

Bob made this:

Isn’t it gorgeous!

And I made this:

The idea came from Hello Yarn who found the idea from Paula Hayes. The moss is from the backyard. There are at least 3 different types I can see in there. The rocks are fossils Ilaria gave to the kids. I got tired of taking them out of Kirby’s mouth. They should be safe in there.

I’ve been doing some spinning on the wheel and I think I’m finally progressing beyond the “inch-worm” technique. I don’t know that I’m spinning any more evenly because of it, but it is certainly a heckuvalot faster. The resulting yarn is nicer too… better defined plies and fluffier in general.

Eilidh’s scroll is calling to me, but I also want to do another try at guilding using sugar or honey in the size before doing hers. If it works well, I’ll use gold leaf on it. I am thinking that little piece of vellum that Ilaria gave me would be good for a test like this. Hmmm… wonder if I can get it done before the scribal symposium?