I Love Myself Some Soysage

Soysage meatballs with bread crumbs and parmesan (but not fresh basil--too expensive in the winter) from Vegetarian Times:

Delicious.

Did you know that I don't eat meat? Because I don't (unless we're on a long car trip and I'm feeling vulnerable and there are chicken strips at the Dairy Queen that we've stopped at, but really, how often does that happen?). I also try not to craft with or wear animal products unless they're recycled (I use wool roving, but I know its source, and glue? Ugh, don't get me started on glue).

Even though I loooooong to dye silk scarves with Kool-aid. Does anyone know if there's an animal-friendly fabric equivalent to silk?

You Can't Catch Bupkiss with Your Eyes Closed

The girls LOVE their new bean bags. Very importantly, Sydney loves the new bean bags, and she loves the game that we've been playing on and off again all day: I throw her a bean bag and she catches it. If she can name the number stenciled on the bean bag, then she keeps it; if she can't, then she throws it back (and I tell her what the number is and then throw it to her again later). When she has all the bean bags, she "wins."

It's a good game. We've gone in the course of one day from nearly every digit from 0 to 9 being identified as an eight to only half of them being called an eight. Of course, before you can identify the number at all, you have to catch the bean bag. And to catch the bean bag, it would really help if you opened your eyes.

Which Sydney won't:
Oh, jeez:

Seriously, I probably snapped 50 shots of the baby catching bean bags, and in every picture her eyes are closed.

See?Until...

Success!!!

Will also loves the bean bags, and here are some of the games we play:

• ordering the numbers from smallest to largest and largest to smallest
• mental addition and subtraction
• odds and evens
• two- and three-digit number building
• trying to hit stuff

I made an extra set of numbered bean bags, which is currently living in my pumpkinbear etsy shop. A third set is waiting for the next child's birthday party to which I'm allowed to bring a child's present (nope, not allowed to bring a present to the next party the girls are attending), and I'm hoping to make an alphabet set of bean bags and write a tutorial soon (yet these, I vow, will not be manipulated into serving as distractions for my book proposal revision. I VOW!!!).

And then...umm, would bean bags made for the memorization of dinosaurs, or Dremel bits, or types of legumes be out of order?

We Bow before the Disney War Machine

For a family that does not do Disney, we've actually been doing Disney quite a lot this month.

You know how I love a deal--when I found out that the Humane Society foster program that we already participate in is also participating in the Disney Give a Day, Get a Day program, allowing us to earn three out of four tickets to a Disney theme park (Sydney's too young to volunteer) by doing the stuff that we already do, and that we could therefore use our tickets at Disneyland in California, where Matt's parents live and where an early Christmas, including the much longed-for winter activity of whale watching, would be super fun...well, a trip to Disneyland is critical for American pop cultural context, don't you think?

And as if that wasn't enough...the Family Fun magazine that I adore and receive in my mailbox regularly thanks to my awesome Aunt Pam is also Disney's whore. And as Disney's whore, they always have this page of special offers for Disney crap that I don't want. Except for the offer of a free week's subscription to Disney Digital Books...

Okay, fine:
The site is pretty much what it claims to be, a huge library of digital books at three reading levels--read-alouds (with music and special voices), easy readers, and books with more words per page. Of course, every single book is about some freakin' Disney character, with the Winnie the Pooh and Bambi books being pretty inoffensive. But after the girls went so crazy for the site (tally of books read on the site in the past 24 hours: 24), I just let them read whatever they want--the tragedy that is Dumbo, all the asinine Princess and Tinkerbell books, whatever.

The cool things about the site: the look-and-listen books are easy enough for Sydney to do independently; pointing the cursor at a word in the more difficult books will read it aloud for you, which is good for Willow. The lame things about the site: the navigation in the site itself is kind of difficult, especially for a site that's meant to be used by children; the digital books don't fit entirely within my laptop screen, which is not unusually small, meaning that you have to be skilled enough to scroll or you have to live with the bottom of your book being cut off.

Anyway, it's only a week, and I'll tell you if it turns the girls into princess freaks or if I see any symtpoms in their behavior of Disney's notorious subliminal messaging. Or in my behavior? *shudder*

Bean Bags without Beans

Current work in progress:
Fabric squares stenciled with the numbers 0-9, heat-set and ready to be sewn and filled with beans. And then tossed at a child (the head is tempting, but not the head), who must name the number in order to...earn a point? Toss it back? Keep a tally? Match it to a target? I haven't thought that far ahead. Except to know that a set of alphabet bean bags will follow.

In other news, Willow just came in asking for a ponytail, and as I pulled her hair back I noticed a huge swath of pink tempera behind her ear, crusted up into her hairline like nothing so much as a bloody, scabbed, shockingly severe rash. Since the girls' school still has a nurse coming in every other day to check the entire school for headlice, I am now off to bathtime.

Tutorial: Make Bread Mold on Purpose (Because by Accident Isn't Scientific Enough)

Because life is everywhere.

Because what starts out small often grows large.

Because what happens by accident can also be done on purpose for a purpose.

Because ordinary materials can be used to make extraordinary things.

Because the five-year-old wants to do a science experiment.

1. Obtain, by any means necessary, a slice of bread:
2. Dribble three tablespoons (more or less) of water upon said slice of bread, apparently getting as much water on the newspaper that I'm trying to read as possible:

3. Put the wet bread in a Ziploc baggie (or a glass dish with a lid, if you're fussy about plastics), and hide it somewhere warm and dark. Visit it every now and then.

There, we've done a science experiment. NOW can I drink my coffee and finish the newspaper?

From Her Sketchbook

Things currently on my mind:

1. making 0-9 flashcard bean bags for the baby
2. prepping for teaching my next cloth diaper class at Barefoot Kids this Saturday
3. Must find out what paperwork is needed for homeschooling next year.
4. Should I get tested for a wheat gluten allergy? Or maybe get one of those full-body scans to see if I have cancer?
5. revising my book proposal for an interested agent who has not committed, but who has generously gifted me with tons of constructive criticism and an invitation to resubmit
6. planning our summer trip to Massachusetts--the Boston Community Solar System Trail is, sadly, off exhibit for a while, but will DEF check out Artbeat
7. Must figure out how to cut felt with Cricut without killing Cricut.
8. Crockpot recipe for nutritional yeast casserole?
9. Willow wants to make a pinball machine. Sydney wants to make more cookies.
10. laundry

Things currently on Willow's mind, as evidenced by a long morning laying on the floor working in a lined steno pad:

Santa and His Reindeer, with Happy Moon and Star Funny Person Ice Cream Cone with Lots of Toppings Our New Ceiling Fan (courtesy of Willow's Grandma Janie and Poppa, who taught Willow many new swears in the course of its installation)

I don't know how often I think about Santa or the ceiling fan, but I, too, spend a lot of time with funny people and ice cream on my mind.

Happy Half-Birthday to You

Half-birthdays are always special in our house, what with the half-cake and the cream cheese blended with the last of Cake's mulberry jam to make frosting and all the attendant pomp and circumstance:
But Willow's half-birthdays always tend to be extra-special because they always happen on that one particular long winter weekend when her grandparents, Matt's parents, fly in for a visit with the girls.

And that makes the cake taste even better:
Although the large amount of sugar probably doesn't hurt, either...