The Sinister Scribe

Seeing my two beautiful children bubbling with Christmas cheer this morning did much to get me out of my ho-hum-glums. Seeing their faces light up over the toys I made for them really helped too. Even the cat seemed amazingly better today. Though my back was amazingly NOT.

I’ve uploaded pictures from today here. If you go here, you can see a picture of all the things my WDH made for me. He’s even uploaded plans for the yarn swift he made. It is really spiff! Did you see the two walnut nostepindes? The wood grain is so amazingly beautiful. One is going up in the Etsy shop. So if yer interested, lemeno. The other… is MINE!

So, with faith in Christmas spirit restored, I am looking forward to the next one.

I hope yours was as magical.

knit, purl, psso, *mutter to self*, write test, sew gift bag, knit, purl, k2tog

Repeat until Christmas

I’m here, just busy. Head full of fiber fumes. Didya notice the Etsy bug on the left? DidyaDidyaHuh? Started the Etsy shop and am checking every hour for anxiously awaiting my first sale.

Made these yummies yesterday with this recipe. They’re Lucia Buns. Yeah, I know that St. Lucia’s Day isn’t until next week but we were talking about Christmas traditions from other places and we had time. Very easy. We were fresh out of saffron and I meant to use cinnamon but forgot. They were really yummy anyway. This is a recipe I’d really like to play with…. even if it has me running for the benedryl after I try a taste.

OK, to bed with me.

And Happy Thanksgiving.

Our feast today consisted of:

Inari-zushi (like the wasabi tree?)

Chicken-Char-siu-bao

and a Shabu-shabu pot

We are all very full (of thanks) and tomorrow we have a more traditional American Thanksgiving dinner.

Had to make an emergency run to Okieville for my sis and ended up staying for Halloween and my mum’s quickie heart surgery. Pictures of the fun parts of the visit can be found starting here.

I was glad to be able to make the trip. Reason number-the-next-one why I like homeschooling… when there is a family crisis in the next state, you can just pick up and go! No school to notify. No worries about homework backlog (well maybe a little).

I am also equally glad to be back home. Bob and I have not been apart that long (nearly 2 weeks) in, oh, twenty years. Seriously!

So now I’m hustling to get things done so we can start next week somewhat stress-free… create monthly grocery list and meal plans and juggle lesson plans to account for our unexpected “holiday.” Bills were paid earlier today. Gah.

I’m also looking at ways to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. MamaKohl has a neat Gratitude tree going. FamilyFun has several “tradition” ideas. I like the pressed leaf idea for the tree, the “familiar feathers of thanks” and the “Kernels of thanks” ideas. Will have to sleep on it.

I seem to have hit on an art project Sam really likes. These are done with construction paper and an Xacto knife. We talked briefly about complimentary colors and positive/negative space. The ones on the left were done Tuesday, the other two were done today. I’m kinda enjoying this project myself. I wonder if I could do card sized pieces and sell them on Etsy…? I’m kinda proud of my little witch. LOL!

This morning we were treated to a gorgeous sunrise. It was so freaking orange you’d think it was sunset… after a huge fire or something. There was even a rainbow.

After lunch we went on a listening walk. That was Jessie’s idea. We caught a leopard frog. Or at least I think it is. Could have sworn I ran across an entry for a frog that looks very similar… somewhere. The kids climbed the cedar tree. I’m going to make rabid tree climber out of Sam yet. I really enjoyed watching them climb. I think every kid should have a tree to climb.

Read a rather disturbing post today about the NEA (National Educational Association) and their current resolutions against homeschoolers. There is an online petition here that gives some of the details.

“The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. “

There sure is a lot of evidence to the contrary. Colleges are actively seeking homeschooled kids too. The petition link above includes a link to some impressive stats and more information (that I need to read).

Not exactly sure why this NEA resolution bothers me so much. I’ve seen other such things and ignored them successfully. Will have to spend some time thinking and reading more on it. Exactly WHY do I homeschool…? What makes ME think I AM qualified? Stay tuned….

Aragog has come for a visit. I’d like to say we all had fun making this, but the kids just didn’t seem into it until it was done. Then they wanted to attack each other with it. LOL!

Directions can be found here.

What I did differently:

• I used a plastic vinegar jug instead of a gallon milk jug.
• For the eyes and designs, I used sheet foam (’coz I had some already) and hot glued it on.

What I’d do differently

• LED lights for eyes!
• space the legs out more
• wrap body in black feather boa
• Use different colored tape for “knees” for that orange kneed tarantula look
• dimensional fangs