The Sinister Scribe

We made the first leaf pile of the season and the kids jumped right in.

Today was a lot of fun. We attended the MU South Farm Showcase. The South Farm is a 1400 acre facility that does more than I could explain here! We petted horses, pigs, sheep, calves, baby chickens; saw a dog training demo (learned a couple tips there); briefly saw a weather exhibit and ate tiger ice cream. Pretty neat place. Lots of very nice and knowledgeable people.  Of course, I forgot my camera so no pictures.

Sorry for the horrid photo. I finished this yesterday night and didn’t get a chance all day to get a shot outside with it.

The instructions are found here at Heart Strings Fiber Arts. The yarn is Pitter Patter by Baby Bee in Angel white (Hobby Lobby brand I believe). Knitted on US #3 DPNs. The resulting fabric is a lot like chenille. Oh so snuggly soft. If it wouldn’t take fer-bleedin-ever, I’d knit meself a blanket or something out of it.

I changed the ears a bit from what the pattern calls for. I knew they had to be just right to bring out the personality of this yarn. I knitted 14 rows before beginning to decrease. Then, before attaching them, I folded the base in half. It really helped them stand up I think.

The tail is the i-cord variation sewed into a cap-like spiral, stuffed with a little yarn bits and sewn on securely. With this yarn, the sewing just disappears like magic!

So I’m going to have to make a few more of these. This one is for the neighbor’s son who turned two on Tuesday.

Sorta forgot to post this earlier this week. I’d made these beeswax tablets a week or so ago to use in our Latin lesson and finally we got around to using them. I used the directions found here. It reads “Samus sum optimus sum quod curro” which (I believe) means “Sam is the best because he runs.”

The original idea for the sentence came from one of the Minimus worksheets from the Teacher’s Manual he completed. I had him write it here using the Latin alphabet. I was very pleased that he chose the ending he did. He is (and should be) quite pleased with his running progress. I am considering making him a shirt with that (in Latin) on it.

It has just been one of those weeks where I don’t feel like I’ve had a chance to come up for air…

Monday morning my mom went into the hospital for a look at her heart and ended up with 3 stents in there after angioplasty was performed. She’s recovering well but it is disturbing (for me) to think that not too long ago she would have had to have a triple bypass!

Monday afternoon I thought Sam had been kidnapped. Seriously. For ten minutes at the park I could not find him. I yelled his name near all the likely places and got no response. Thankfully he and his friend were found sitting on a park bench, chatting away. They were just close enough to the road, on the backside of a small hill, that they couldn’t hear the frantic cries of two moms. Needless to say we have some new park rules in place.

Tuesday… must have blacked out… don’t remember anything.

Wednesday I went in to have a filling removed. An old metal one. Turns out that tooth had cracked underneath it so a quarter of said tooth had to be removed (and rebuilt) along with the filling. I was fine until the numbing drug he injected (clear up to my brain I swear!) began to wear off. Then my body just wigged out and I ended up in bed around 7pm. Thankfully my handsome prince was there to save the day and wrangle the kids. Have I mentioned how wonderful he is lately?

Thursday my son fesses up to having a crush on a girl in our homeschool group. I knew he did but it was nice to have him tell me. Said girl gave him a peck on the cheek today at the park too. Gah! I am sooooo not ready for this.

Friday…. is going to be better…. easier, right? Please!

Wow! The weather has been sooo nice. Cold but not so much that we can’t leave the windows open all night. Makes me want to knit socks. LOL! I’m STILL working on those darned blue ones. *sigh* Though I’ve taken a break and started on the second Hooray-for-Me glove. I did the first one… oh… ummm….. last year! And I’m trying hard not to start some of the patterns found here. Especially the one called “Bob.”

Had a fantastic turnout at Recess today. Hi MomaKohl! For once I didn’t want to leave either. LOL! The kids REALLY didn’t want to this time!! So we stopped on the way home to get some frozen custard. Mmmmmm….  can you say brown cow!

So not much “school” got done today. We hit the basics so that’s ok. I am really making a point to enjoy the nice weather and festivals this year. All too soon it will be too flippin’ cold outside.

We’re having a bonfire this weekend to try and get rid of the last of the wood piles. Have invited the ‘Moors and ‘Stones over to join in the fun. Some won’t make it because of the archery event. *sigh* I REALLY want to get involved in archery but dang! I don’t need another hobby! HELP!

OK. Need to finish up some things and get myself into bed. G’Nite!

Sheesh! After the Tomato Fest things kinda got nutz. LOL! Guess that’s what I get for trying to plan too much into one day.

That evening, after the Tomato Fest, the kids and I headed out to Mizzou’s BioBlitz. We didn’t get to catalog anything but rambling around with budding scientists. It was really cool. Jessie immediately glomed onto one lady looking for bugs. There are pictures starting here. The caterpillar on this page was found on a Virginia Creeper and is some sort of hawkmoth I believe.

Then, well after dark, Sam and I went back for round two. We walked around, sporting headlamps, with a couple of bat scientists and another bug scientist. We even got to play with expensive bat locating toys! One had a GPS and scanned all sound waves so it could tell you exactly where you were when you heard a noise and show you how that sound looks. LOL! REally neato! We logged several red bads and large brown bats.

We’d planned on going back for a third session in Saturday morning but I decided that we were overbooked seeing as how there was a wedding to attend Saturday afternoon. As luck would have it Jessie wasn’t her perky self Saturday morning and Sam was kinda off too (been a bit of a flu going around) so I went to the wedding by myself. It was a gorgeous and grand SCA wedding so I got to go en garbe too. I’m really bummed that we haven’t “played” much lately. Gotta do something about that!

Sunday we just kinda hung out and recovered from everything. Kids seemed to be better

The weather has been awesome! Last night we left the windows open and piled on blankets. {{{snuggles}}} I wore a sweatshirt all day today too. Tonight is supposed to be in the upper 40s. Woot! Fall is coming! Fall is coming!!

‘Tis 10:37 pm I’m off ta bed. Trying to be good about that again.

Yesterday we went to the Tomato Festival in Columbia. I never really realized just how many varieties there are. Didn’t see any Zebra green or Cherokee however. Those are the two we have growing on the deck.

There were many different salsas to try and plenty of chips to chomp on. I think that was Sam’s favorite part.

We were interviewed by 2 school newpapers so we’ll see if we make it into one of them. Hmmm… Sam really liked this part too. LOL!

Supposedly there was a maize maze, but no one could really point us to it. LOL! We finally just gave up and left.

Gotta run. Will post about today’s (and tonight’s and tomorrow’s) BioBlitz later.

Pass the Torch has challenged other homeschooling bloggers to blog about their school year resolutions.

What do I want us to accomplish this year. *sigh* I have trouble with “big pictures” so I always balk at this kind of planning. Duhhhhhhh! I have an idea of some specifics (which I’ll list below) but it certainly isn’t comprehensive. Just the bigger issues we’re dealing with at the moment.

For myself:

1. Taking care of myself: Exercise and eat right and primp a little. Get up early enough to do 15 minutes on the treadmill. As far as eating right, I need to go back to avoiding my 3 forbidden foods… sugar, yeast and caffeine. *sigh* I also need to get back into the habit of weekly (or so) home spa day (an hour really) for myself… hair pack, salt scrub and foot soak. I’m tired of looking so haggard all the time!
2. Organize: Be more diligent and consistent with recurring house chores. Specifically start a house chores master list. Nothing complete or final… just start compiling a list of things that need to be done on a regular basis
3. More patience with the kids… with myself.
4. Let my enjoyment show.
   Sometimes I’m so busy trying to get EVERYTHING done that I forget to show the family how much I LOVE what I’m doing. I just need to take time to smile more!

For Sam:

1. Decreased frustration with math.
   We’re working on this one day per week he works out of a book called Math Wizardry for Kids and really enjoys it. Today he designed a six sided building and we’re going to try and recreate it in 3D!
2. Increase responsibility for his schedule.
   I think if he and I sit down and make a paper list of daily tasks. Nothing down to the minute. But a start. Still mulling this one over {{{Mull. Mull. Mull.}}}
3. Increase Physical Exercise.
   He and dad already have this one covered. They are jogging together just about every day.

For Jessie

1. Alphabet awareness.
   I’ve been struggling on how to do this with her. Nothing has really stuck so far. It could just be that she’s not really ready or that I’ve just not found the thing for her. Though I may have found something that works today (more on that later.)
2. Schedule awareness
   As I develop one for myself and help Sam with his, I want to create one for her too. Something simple with pictures and few words. She already has a morning routine but again I want to move toward her doing it herself without me there for every step. Not sayin’ I wanna get THERE next week. Just wanna start moving in that general direction.
3. Respect for others.
   A never ending effort. I’d say “struggle” but I’m trying to be more positive in my outlook here. :p
4. More play time with Mom.
   Sounds silly, maybe. But I’m constantly cleaning or working with Sam it seems and I really just need to take time to play with her!!!

I knew better than to go to the library on the first tuesday of the month when they have their FOTL (friends of the library) sale. Especially when the focus of this sale is REFERENCE BOOKS!

Needless to say, I did buy a few. BUT for $23 I came away with quite a haul:

• Wheelock’s Latin Grammer 4th edition: $1
• Webster’s New World Dictionary (hard bound tabbed): $2
• Rand McNally Illustrated Atlas of the World: $4
• Natn’l Geo’s Close-Up U.S.A. map set: $3
• Martin’s Concise Japanese Dictionary: $1
• Quick Guides Etiquette Guide to Japan: $1
• 201 Latin Verbs: $1
• The Word Detective: $2
• NY Times Manual of Style & Usage: $2
• Kids Joke Book: $2
• Board book of Chick stories: $4

Not bad, eh? I have been looking at bigger dictionaries, atlases and maps and so was thrilled to see these. People were snatching them up left and right! I think I grabbed the last ones on the table. I saw one lady sitting in the corner keying in ISBNs into her phone. I can only guess she was checking on worth or something…?

There were even some Japanese partent’s magazines there today! We almost got one but I thought that if we were going to get anything in Japanese, it should be a Pokemon book. LOL!

So far my ability to spot good books to buy for reselling is not very good. LOL! I keep thinking that might be a good way to bring in a little money. Unless I develop a better sense of book worth, I’d better leave well enough alone. I don’t want to end up with a house full of books that neither I nor anyone else wants. LOL!

The Japanese Festival in STL yesterday was so much fun. Sam said the best part was speaking Japanese and being understood! We received some pleasantly surprised looks from our first attempts. Very encouraging. Wouldn’t it be cool if next year we went and spoke nothing but Japanese while there. Sam thought so.

The beginning of the photos yesterday can be reached here. We visited the bonsai and ikebana exhibits inside and then wandered outside to wath sumo wrestling, ice sculpting, kendo and drumming and buy Japanese candies with play Yen. Oh, there was a water fountain you could play in too. That was a wonderful thing as it was nearly ninety yesterday. I remembered to bring waters for us all but forgot things like hats and sunblock. For all that we saw, there was so much we didn’t get to see. By 3:30 we were all pretty worn out and headed home.

Next year, I think I’d like to try getting there before the festival opens. Parking was difficult but thankfully we got lucky and didn’t have to park too far away. I also think it would be fun to sign up for one of the tea ceremonies. ($10 extra) There was also a deal with new garden membershipos. If you signed up during the festival, you got a free 3 day festival pass for the whole family. ‘Course I don’t know if we could survive more than one day at the festival. LOL!

This week promises to be a busy one with many things going on around town. We’re going to try to attend some of them if the temps allow.