Experimental

All over my house it seems we have science experiments going.

 We have our growing hut.

A bean seed.

We are trying to watch transpiration on a houseplant.

And we are testing to see if plants need light.  

This plant apparently doesn't because it's been two weeks and it only has one yellow leaf! 

What's next?!

This Stage

For six months I made it a point to cook.  

Mostly for my own sanity, to feel 'normal'.  

So I was constantly making mini versions of meals I make, or making a dish and freezing half, or buying meat and putting half of a marinade and the meat in the freezer.  

It was worth the effort. 

 I don't even think we averaged eating out once a week.  

Then I noticed the gas line on the grill that takes the gas to the other burners was constantly on fire.  I'm pretty sure it is leaking, so my go to dinner plan of  grilling stuff was taken out.

Then I was just annoyed.

 Not so much of cooking but the dishes and clean up. 

 It was dragging me down.

So this is what the rest of this deployment will be.  

 Frozen dinners.

The first time I asked Nate if he wanted this tv dinner or another, he exclaimed right there in the aisle, "WHAT IS THAT??!"

Not in a good way.  

He was appalled.  

He said,"MOM! No! I want  something healthy!"  

It made me happy that he didn't even understand this type of product at the store.  

I told him it was short term just until Dad gets home.  

So this is our reality.  

And it's great because there are no dishes!

But it is very sad that our fridge is so bare.  Just sandwich stuff and fruit.  

I really hope Dave gets home quickly, because it's starting to gross me out a little.  

And I do miss cooking.  

Just not the dishes. 

Moment of the Week

 Warm Days.

 

Dog haircut. 

That perfect moment when our botany leaf hunt ended up on the first day of fall.

Finishing our second botany lesson.

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If you know the calendar year has 52 weeks.

Half of that would be 26 right.

6 months.

Dave has been gone for six months.  

Deployments don't include travel and turnover time.

Mean trick isn't it?

We will just wait longer.

A Mini Mite

Besides being an orange belt in karate you may or may not know that Nate has taken skating and hockey lessons the past several fall/winter/springs.  

Here he was at his first skating lesson. 

Look at our little baby!

I've mostly stayed home during skate lessons. 

I sew usually.

I go from time to time, but it's a great time for me to be alone, which I need.  

I spend a boatload of time with my child.  

It's something Nate and Dave do together. 

Dave even takes care of the gear, trading outgrown skates and helmets in. 

 It's nice to not be responsible for any of this..... 

Listen though I'm not a bad mom!  

I deal with the karate gi, and tie the belt like a pro now.

I'm pretty sure I know all of lesson plans 1 and 2 and I'm pretty sure with the million hours I've spent in the dojo I could pass my orange belt test.     

Or at least escape a mugging.

 

This was Nate at his last lesson in April.

I took this picture, because I had to take him to his last two classes after Dave left.

Getting all of this gear on was a JOB.

I'd rather tie a gi any day!

 This year Nate will be playing in the local league.

Rushmore Thunder they call it.

They play at the Thunderdome.

Sounds serious eh?  

Games, practices, raffle tickets, the whole organized sport thing. 

They haven't started making the ice yet. 

I'm praying Dave will be home before it's ready.

I want to hand this hobby back to Dad.

Today though was the equipment rental day. 

I had to do it.

What do I know about hockey gear?  

NOTHING!

Words I heard that I faked knowing what they meant...... 

breezers, compression shorts, cup, mouth guard, neck guard.

I am not ready to take my little baby boy to buy a cup!

But I was told I don't have to worry about teeth getting knocked out, at this age they just have to wear the mouth guard so they don't bite their tongues.  

Right.

So I handed over my deposit and my rental fee (20 bucks seems very reasonable)

Everything was put into a bag larger than my child.(included in the rental!)

I've crossing my fingers this was the only hockey responsibility I have.

(I'll happily spend my Saturdays watching the games.)

Hurry home David!!

If they try to bump you from the rotator tell them, "No I gotta get on this plane! Hockey starts soon and my wife doesn't know WTF a neck guard is or how to pick out a cup!" 

Moment of the week

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bragging rights for a .18 win for my team

Week 4 

air dry clay

Our monk supper, lentil soup, bread, and apple cider (Nate had milk)

I see 10

Light Box Project

Our science curriculum started off the year with a project to build a light box.  I was really wishing it happened later in the year, so Dave could be here to make it.  The directions were to use a box lined with tin foil with a light socket inserted in the top.  I was already imagining my paranoia over the fire hazard.  I also kept thinking back to the growing racks we had in Mrs. Brown's fourth grade classroom, and I wanted to do something more like those. 

So last weekend we ran around town collecting what I needed for the thing in my head.

There was a point when I realized I would need quite a few tools, that I thought about how easy the cardboard box would have been.  

But it turned out.  The small shelves were 13 bucks at Lowe's, the light was 10 bucks at Walmart.  I bought a couple bucks worth of chain and it was a success.  

 Lining it with foil was a pain in the arse.  I recently bought silver metallic poster board for a history project and I wonder if that would be better.  I'll wait until the foil gets ripped and really messed up before I upgrade it.  I also thought maybe I could take duck material, serge the edges and then stitch tin foil down on one side so it would drape better and be reinforced.  

Any recommendations would be appreciated.   

Our book had directions to making a good potting mix, but I bought the stuff I have great success with every spring. 

We planted some seeds on Friday.  Herbs mostly.  I haven't found anyplace that still has seeds.  I wanted to get mint and rosemary and try some other herbs, maybe I can find them online.  We planted lavender, parsley and basil. We also planted cosmos.  I am hoping I can get them to grow indoors so if we have an early snow we will have flowers inside to study. 

Nate is pretty excited about having to water and take care of them.

I'll be sure to keep you updated on our success, or lack there of, with this light box project.  

Celtic Warrior Reenactment

I beyond love our history curriculum this year! 

The small book is what I read to Nate.

The big book is FULL of ideas and activities. 

 Inside, each chapter has review questions, additional reading lists, crafts, map work, cooking activities, and coloring pages.

This week we learned about the Celts after the fall of Rome.  How one of the Celtic kings, Vortigern,  invited two barbarian tribes the Angles and Saxons to come to Britain to help him fight to keep his kingdom safe.  These barbarians liked it there and decided to settle.  Some Celts, didn't want to live with these barbarians, so they moved on up to what is Scotland and Ireland.  The Celts that stayed intermingled with barbarians and became..... Anglo-Saxons.  

Seriously.  

I learned so much this week.  

Did you already know all that? 

I had never in my life heard anything about this and I found this very interesting since so many of  my ancestors come from these areas!   

Anyhow, back to what I was talking about-  The activities are really fun.  

We read the story of Beowulf, did our map work, Nate colored a coloring sheet.

We made a Celtic double-headed war axe.

Then we did the Celtic warrior reenactment. 

Painting terrifying blue swirls and marks all over his chest and face.

Isn't he the cutest scary warrior you've ever seen? 

I will print some of the photos from this activity so we can add them to our history notebook. 

After all of this we topped off our week by watching Brave.

Next week we will learn about Augustine coming to England and the Medieval Monasteries.  

I know nothing of these things.  

Do you? 

I do know we are going to make a monk's supper of lentil soup, and a monk's cross with air dry clay.

By the time we finish second grade history I think I will kick ass at Jeopardy. 

Moment of the Week

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The Second Week of Second Grade

 Things went really smoothly this week.  

I'm so incredibly pleased, and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.  

These fun hands on activities seem to make a huge difference.  

I love q-bitz because it feels like quilt blocks.  

Getting into our Botany lessons went well.

History was a piece of cake this week, since it mostly reviewed the Roman Empire, which we learned last year.(Now we start with the fall of Rome.)  Nate gave thinking putty a try while I read to him.  It was pretty much a huge hit.

The workbox system is amazingly helpful for me.  

I can easily get prepared for the next day, and see where we can throw something fun in. 

I feel like I failed at this last year, big time!

I am also finding it easier when I set up the workbox to throw some fun learning toy in there.  

Today the scrunch map was in the box with our geography book.  

Nate thought it was a diaper.

He was pretty impressed when I pulled out the map.  

These first two weeks we have been doing really well on time.  

Finishing with plenty of time to do something fun before lunch, today we did a science activity to demonstrate how nonvascular plants absorb water.  

And he enjoys a daily art activity. (I drew this bunny)

  

Friday we had time to put together a puzzle. 

A successful week.

Moment of the Week

It has been incredibly hot all week, so we've mostly been home staying cool.  

We did stop for ice cream one afternoon.

  And the cherry tomatoes are perfectly ripe.

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Also our second week of school was awesome, and Wednesday Night Live at church started back up, which makes mid week more interesting for sure.  And makes the whole week go by much faster!