My Latest: Drawstring Backpacks, Slime and Sidewalk Paint, a Double-Sided T-Shirt Quilt, and Much, Much MORE!

It's been quite a while since I've updated you on my paid writing, and that's because I've had so much of it!

I substituted as site director for Crafting a Green World over the holidays (and yes, of COURSE Matt had to call me Director Finn), which means that for a while, I was writing five times a week, sometimes literally with a piece of pumpkin pie at my elbow. Fortunately, this was the best time to have the extra work, since Matt was on his vacation, as well, and with him playing with the kids, it wasn't too stressful to sneak off regularly and get these posts up:

a round-up of crafts and recipes related to coffee

a tutorial to make drawstring backpacks

You cannot have too many of these, by the way. They make organizing for extracurricular activities so much easier.

a Top Posts of 2014 round-up

a round-up of holiday upcycling options

a review of 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids (the kids made slime and sidewalk paint)

Giving the slime a haircut is always fun.

a round-up of chia seed crafts and recipes

a tutorial for making a double-sided T-shirt quilt

 a crafty recipe round-up

a round-up of altered container projects

a melted crayon ornament tutorial

 and, finally, an essay on the future of computer learning and the service industry

That was a lot of writing, right? Congratulations to me! 

Anyway, the other day, Will was pitching a fit about having to brainstorm topics for a personal narrative that I'll be requiring her to write next week. She didn't want to brainstorm topics; she WANTED to play half an hour of LEGO Marvel, but she wasn't allowed her last half-hour of screen time until after she'd finished her schoolwork. The only thing left on her work plans, however?

Brainstorm topics for a personal narrative.

After the huge temper blow-up, which thankfully took place in her father's company, not mine, she appeared in front of me, teary-eyed but belligerent, and I pulled her into my lap to quietly chill out for a while. After some chilling, she again expressed her desire to have her half-hour of screen time; I assured her that she had only one assignment left to complete before she could do that. She expressed her desire to NOT write a personal narrative; I assured her that she did not have to write a personal narrative today. Rather, she needed only to brainstorm a topic for a personal narrative to be written in the future. She asked why she had to write a personal narrative at all; I explained that much practice in composition is required before it comes easily, and that she will want it to come easily, so that she can focus on all that she wants to communicate one day. She said something along the lines of "how/why/what do you know about it, anyway?"

I looked at her in bewilderment, amusement battling with a bit of horror, and said, "Child, do you not know that your MOTHER is a writer?!? This is what I do all day when I'm not actively engaging with you. Writing is my JOB! Not even to mention--I used to TEACH writing, to COLLEGE STUDENTS! And you used to come with me sometimes! To my WRITING WORKSHOPS! Did you never wonder what was going on there, all the 18-year-olds in a classroom, me at the front of it talking to them, them asking me questions, me answering them? I was teaching them HOW TO WRITE!!!"

Once I had successfully made the child understand that I am a reliable authority in the field of composition and its instruction (mental note: must get my diplomas framed and hung to point out to them when they're acting belligerent about academics), the conversation resolved, the child finished her brainstorming, I praised it, and she actually promised me that she would not throw a fit at all next week about any part of the process of writing and editing a personal narrative.

I should have made her write that down and sign it, because I can guarantee you that she will throw a fit, likely at every single step of the writing and editing processes, but there was no time...

After all, the kid had a half-hour of LEGO Marvel to play!

My Latest: Toys and Black-Market Drugs

a tutorial for making bendy yarn (they work just like Wikki Stix!)

an essay on post-Apocalyptic drug hoarding and the concept of community

a tutorial for making toothbrush bots

and an essay on iFixit and the Right to Repair

Coming up next week, I'm thinking about homemade buttons, food art, and household repairs!

My Latest: Vacant Lots and Kids Working with Tools

an article about Chicago Selling Vacant Lots for $1 to Urban Gardeners

a round-up of some of my favorite DIYs suitable for kids

a tutorial for a kid to make a scrap wood stomp catapult

and another tutorial for a kid to make a PVC pipe sword

As the kids have rediscovered the books and kits and toys they'd forgotten about until everything got boxed up and moved and unboxed (like Christmas! Every day!), they've also remembered how much they like these big projects that involve lots of tools and noise and paint and mess. Now that we have a driveway big enough to support multiple simultaneous projects (at one point on Saturday, there were sidewalk chalk, three different furniture painting projects, scooter play, and two chickens all on the driveway at once, with room to spare!), and a garage big enough to easily put away and store tools and half-finished projects (my days of lugging that work bench across the house and up a flight of stairs every time I want to use it are OVER!!!), woodwork becomes a lot more fun. The kids discovered that their fingers are now strong enough to press down the nozzle on a can of spray paint, Will has been happy to help me sand endlessly, Syd is nimble with the removal of furniture hardware, and both can be pointed at the primer and a piece of furniture and simply left to it.

And when they're home with me tomorrow, I plan to introduce them to varnish!

My Latest: Poop and Libraries (and the Antique Furniture Hiding in My Outbuildings)

for Insteading, a discussion of humanure composting and wastewater gardening

and for Crafting a Green World, an article about a little kid forced to shut down his Little Free Library

Here on the home front, there's not as much unpacking going on as you'd think--can't really put things away when there's nothing to put stuff ON, or IN, you know--but I've got a dresser half-painted in the garage and my lockers half-painted on the driveway, and the card catalogue also out there waiting its turn, and tomorrow evening, perhaps, before we walk across our yard to go watch the new Transformers movie at the drive-in (I'm torn about letting the kids watch this one--on the one hand, I think it'll will be too scary and too long for them, but on the other hand, I didn't let them watch X-Men with us last weekend, and you can't let kids live next door to a drive-in and not let them go to ANY of the movies!!!), I'm going to take Matt on a tour of the old garage and the even older general store, and point out to him all of the antique, unfinished wooden storage units that I want him to move inside for me. 

Namely these--

behind the egregious photo of my stove--toy shelves for the living room and children's bedroom?

MASSIVE dresser with tons of these little drawers that just sit on the shelves--wants to live in my bedroom and hold my pretty things?

feed bin? Super gross right now, but could hold a hell of a lot of fabric all nicely folded and out of sight

display shelves from the general store--maybe these would be better toy/treasure shelves, given the kids' insistence on displaying ALL THE THINGS

And I haven't even been into the attic yet! It requires bringing a ladder in from the garage, which I'm not up for, but the kids and Matt did it once. The kids tell me that there's a fire truck up there, and Matt says that there are Christmas decorations from who knows when. 

I'll check it out when I've got the downstairs sorted...

My Latest: Sewing for Big Kids and a Battle Royale

a round-up of free sewing patterns and tutorials for big kids

a discussion of the Japanese dystopian novel, Battle Royale

and a write-up of the pajamas that I sewed for Will out of a vintage Dr. Seuss sheet

That genuine smile of Will's... you don't often see it in a posed photograph. I've got tons of candids of her, tons of photos of her intent on an activity, tons of her gamely posing with artwork or national monuments, etc., but if you ask her to smile for your photograph, she all of a sudden can't seem to figure out how her face works. Does one smile by stretching one's lips and raising one's shoulders? Baring one's teeth and widening one's eyes? Stiffening one's spine and gritting one's teeth? My strategy when I need *something* other than a blank stare is to chat with her while blasting the shutter a million times a minute, flipping through the images later in search of a usable, if not necessarily smiling, expression. Syd's strategy is a little more direct:

And that's actually how I got my shot!

 If only one could have all of one's photo shoots done while turning cartwheels:

That's a pretty workable shot, actually--not a lot of detail, but you can certainly see the garment as a whole!

My Latest: Zombies and Your Old Sports Gear

a review of the Pentagon's actual Zombie Preparedness Plan

a round-up of DIY projects that upcycle old sports gear

and a tutorial to make a tennis racket butterfly net

To my delight, both kids adored their spring tennis classes. Although we're hopefully to move away from the beautiful park across the street, and its many tennis courts, soon, I'm nevertheless eagerly anticipating many, many more tennis games with the children in my imminent future. These classes that build real, useful skills, and contribute to the enjoyment of everyday life, are my favorite type of extracurricular. I hope that the kids' ability to ice skate well, ride horses safely and confidently, play softball and tennis (must add soccer and basketball to their skill set at some point), build a slab or coil pot, start a fire, turn a cartwheel, act in a play, and swim like fishes will help them to have very, very happy lives.