Building the Courthouse Steps

Today we: 

• went to the library 
• ate homemade biscuits 
• checked out WAY too many books (again) 
• drew 
• read 
• played computer games 
• took Sydney to dance class 
• baked whole wheat hamburger buns and ate them with veggie burgers and baked potatoes

 In my scarce child-free time, I: 

• read 
• bought a guitar 
• made whole wheat hamburger bun dough 
• sewed and sewed and sewed more dinos 

The log cabin quilt is probably the easiest kind of quilt to sew, after the one-block quilt, of course, because it doesn't require a template. And if you're not way into precision (which I'm not), sketchy math skills just make it look better. 

The traditional log cabin block starts with a middle block that is a perfect square; since my middle block is made from the picture on the front of a T-shirt, however, my middle block is rarely a square. Here's how I start with that to build a Courthouse Steps log cabin block that IS perfectly square: 

1. You can save some time while piecing if you have some guidelines in mind and prep accordingly. For instance, although I'm building my blocks with strips of various lengths and widths, I know that I want each finished strip to be no wider than 1.5" and no longer than 12". When you add in the seam allowances, that means that my largest possible strip could be 2"x12.5". So I pre-cut every strip to that measurement, and just trim off what I don't need as I'm piecing. To save extra time, I also basically chose that 1.5" width just so that I could cut strips to the width of my 2" clear plastic ruler and not have to measure. 

2. You build a Courthouse Steps block with mirror-image symmetry, so that what you do to one side, you do to the other:
You do top and bottom, then left and right, then top and bottom again, taking turns to build up your block: Obviously, some of the pieces on the longer side will have to be trimmed to be narrower than 1.5", otherwise you won't be able to get to a perfect square AND have the same number of pieces added. When you're done with one block, repeat (can you figure out how I messed this one up?): And repeat again:

And then go do something else, because piecing gets tiresome.

Our First In-School Homeschool Field Trip

It's a little silly to be doing so much homeschool stuff while the girls are still, you know, in SCHOOL, but I do like figuring out some workable strategies and activities ahead of time, and I like that we're meeting other homeschooling families and getting the community vibe ahead of time, and the daily digest from the homeschooling group that we joined is always stocked with a TON of awesome stuff that we want to do! I've already had to miss out on a farm tour and two ski trips, so I was NOT going to miss out on this morning field trip to the IU Art Museum.

It's a great space, because the galleries are small and, in the mornings, at least, not very crowded--VERY important to kid-friendliness, because huge expanses seem to invite running in a way that smaller rooms do not, and it's much more relaxing to be able to hold a conversation without using your whisper voices. We enjoyed mosaics--
--and masks--

--and the guards here, unlike the guards in the Indianapolis Art Museum, for instance, were very friendly and approachable. I did get chastised, AGAIN, for taking a photograph (when will I learn about temporary exhibits?), but a couple of guards chatted with the girls, and one even came over to point out to Willow that, in her rambling little monologue about a sculpture she was examining, she had actually guessed its title--it was very Montessori-like, perhaps is why.

We did meet several other homeschoolers and their moms, but--and perhaps this is very homeschool-like?--as soon as we all entered the first gallery we scattered and I didn't see most of them again, at least on that trip. The organizer also handed us some pretty awesome scavenger hunt stuff, but--and perhaps this is very homeschool-like of us?--we basically just did our own thing with sketchbooks and photographs and wandering, and didn't do the hunt, at least that time.

But we did do the gift shop, of COURSE. One postcard for each person and, as an extra treat, an IU Art Museum coloring book--how cool is that?

I assure you, Sydney's representation of the museum is dead-on.

Working on the Dinos

Thank goodness! The SUN was out today! The sun was OUT today! The sun was out TODAY!!! And...wait for it...the temperature hit 55 degrees! Sitting outside for three hours on a park bench while the girls played, pushing the occasional swing, taking a little hike down the creek bed--this was exactly what I needed today. I then had the energy to do a load of dishes, and feed my children lunch, and straighten the study and the kitchen, and make dinner.

We had vegan beans and franks. I ate vegan beans and franks! I am DEFINITELY cured.

The timeline for my Craftster dinosaur swap has just this minute begun to seem very protracted. Um, why am I basically making three quilts at the same time? Well, because I want three dino quilts, and I'm not sure how much dino fabric I have to parcel out. Still, the dino deadline is fast approaching.

Here are the new dinos to add to the collection:

Yeah, that last one is crooked. I'll figure it out later.

Sydney Shines

Phew! Nothing like a nasty, mid-week stomach flu to take a person off of the grid for a while. No email, no Facebook, no housework, no book work, no craft work--it would be quite the refreshing break, if I didn't still feel about halfway this side of death.

Willow, fortunately, is fully recovered now, but she and I were both struck ill at almost exactly the same time, and were both VERY unhappy girls for a couple of days. Matt did as much as he could within his work deadlines, even skipping his drawing class when it became clear that I was NOT going to be able to cope, but Syd, my pampered, spoiled, sweet little baby of the family, was not only left to her own devices quite a bit (something that she is not used to, what with having a constant sister-in-crime at her disposal), but was also needed to help out quite a bit, and she made good.

While I was barely able to move, myself, in the next room, Sydney kept Willow supplied with water, dry cereal, Netflix, and plenty of snuggles:
I staggered into the room during one interlude to find Willow sound asleep leaning on Sydney, with Sydney still watching their movie and absent-mindedly stroking Willow's hair. When she saw me, she said, "Momma, can I get a blanket to keep Willow not cold?"

By Friday night, at least, Willow and I were well enough to be planted on the bleachers at the ice rink, holding each other up and swathed in blankets from home, while Matt handled all the preschooler-corralling so that Sydney could shine in another capacity:
The smallest skater in the Spring Ice Show may not have remembered her choreography, or consented to wear her costume (in the car later, Matt was baffled as to why Syd started to throw a tantrum when he tried to put on her duck outfit. I said, "I can guess. Sydney, was your costume pretty?" Sydney, from her carseat in the back, shouted, "NO!" Mystery solved), or even stayed upright for the entire time, but she does claim that she could see me in the darkened audience, waving frantically at her.

And I could not be prouder.

Today is Tuesday

Today:

I wandered bleary-eyed and fog-headed into the kitchen, whimpering for coffee, which my Matt made for me, because he is kind.

I set the girls up with a lemon reamer, two glasses, and a bowl of halved oranges past their prime on a table covered with newspaper. They were thrilled.

Thus, I was able to nearly finish my mug of coffee, and to read almost all of the newspaper, before being pestered.

I answered many emails, a chore that I find annoying.

By the time I finished, I had more emails in my inbox. I will ignore those until tomorrow morning.

I bullied the girls into clothes, packed a lunch, and off we went to the library.

Ms. Christina read LOTS of books, including . The girls have been singing "Zoli, zoli zoli!" all day long.

Ms. Christina also helped us make a drum from a can of coffee and half a balloon; a guitar from another can of coffee, three rubber bands, and a popsicle stick; and a telephone from two paper cups, a length of yarn, and a toothpick broken in half.

Lunch at the library consisted of an apple and carrot and cheese stick each, and a Ziplock bag of popcorn to share. A nice (and nosy, and lonely, likely) little old lady asked me if that was my childrens' snack, and when I told her that it was their lunch, she asked, "Oh, are you vegetarians?" What was I supposed to have brought--hot dogs? I just said yes, because I ALWAYS agree with strangers. It makes them stop talking to you sooner.

We came home with our own copy of Lizard's Song AND Lizard's Home. We have read them often since.

After dropping the girls off at school, I measured the width of the Parents' Library bookshelf, so that I can make it a beautiful sign. It is exactly two feet wide.

Matt blatantly stole Catching Fire from me, even though I'm the one who made him read The Hunger Games and requested the sequel from the library. So instead I'm reading the second Gregor the Overlander book. It's great. I read a couple of chapters while eating last night's leftover potato curry and injera bread. Teff flour=yum.

I do not want to do this, but I cleaned out the refrigerator while listening to podcasts. Gross. And we also have no food.

I uploaded some new favorite photos to my pumpkinbear Imagekind gallery, and spent WAY too long playing with previews. But doesn't my photo of Rose Hill Cemetery look extra nice on rag paper, with two mat boards, and an ornate metallic frame:
Yeah, that's $300 worth of nice.

Now, the greeting cards I could actually afford to buy for myself:
Isn't that cute? Now, who do I know who's going to turn four this spring?

I also uploaded some vintage Smurfs colorforms to my pumpkinbear etsy shop:I scanned these at a crazy-high dpi, and sometime in the future I have a date with these and the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop. And then I'm going to insert Papa Smurf into all my photos.

I picked the girls up from school, fed them granola bars, and chauffered them over to Sydney's rehearsal for the Spring Ice Show this Friday night. Her class is performing to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." Sydney is going to be a duck.

Sydney fell down on the ice and threw a fit, so we got to leave early (secret yay!). At home, the girls played outside while I cooked macaroni and nutritional yeast nacho "cheez" from . LOVE that book.

Discovered that the girls had pulled chairs out onto the driveway, and were sitting and watching the traffic. Such cute little redneck kids.

Ate dinner, read books, went to the park after dark. The girls were beside themselves at the adventure of it all. See-sawed in the dark for a very long time, forced to alternate the Zoli Zoli song with See-Saw, Margery Daw. Secretly was listening to ipod at the same time.

Pajamas, toothbrushes, first chapter of Little House on the Prairie. New Moon soundtrack in the CD player.

In a moment, will fold and put away laundry while watching Grey Gardens. Will work on book proposal. Will wait for Matt to come home.

Or will just fall asleep.

WIP: The Dinosaur Log Cabin T-Shirt Quilt

That's an unfortunate mouthful. However, it is a T-shirt quilt--well, the center of each block is a T-shirt panel, with quilter's cotton prints pieced around it, so it's a kind of T-shirt quilt hybrid, perhaps:
And it is a log cabin pattern--Courthouse Steps, to be precise. It's not a perfectly traditional log cabin, because none of the pieces are necessarily the exact same width and I've not paid much attention to the values or the diagonal, etc. (you would not believe how difficult it was to figure out the simple math for this, although in our defense, when Matt and I were trying to work it out, we were enjoying a couple of nice glasses of sangria and we had two extra children running around the house--hence the sangria), but it is symmetrical:

And it is DEFINITELY dinosaurs. I can't even tell you how long I have been "working" on this quilt. I redid the pieces that I tried out originally, because they were awful, but I am super-proud of how everything is turning out this time. These hybrid blocks will likely be interspersed with log cabin blocks made solely of cotton prints, but I haven't gotten that far in my head yet.

I'm just going to roll with the momentum that I've got so far, and good luck that the whole damn thing doesn't get put away again for another year. Thank gawd the kid still loves dinosaurs!

Why We Brush Our Teeth

The littler little spent Saturday in bed, feverishly watching television, unhappily missing her Spring Ice Show rehearsal, and barfing every now and then for good measure, which left me and the bigger little to our own devices for most of the day.

Poor Will doesn't know what to do with herself without a sister-in-crime, so she got to have a LOT of Momma time (a little more Momma time than the Momma who's not used to having a bored kid hanging around her feet might necessarily prefer, ahem, but what's a Momma to do?). A LOT of board games:
A LOT of helping Momma sew:
A LITTLE bit of sewing on my own:And a LOT of time for long-lived science projects:Yep, it's your typical Egg in Vinegar project, but it's super-cool and was a huge hit in our family's five-and-a-half population bracket. Along with a couple of other projects that I haven't introduced yet, I used this project to demonstrate why we brush our teeth twice a day.

An eggshell has calcium in it, just like our bones and teeth do (Technically, an eggshell contains calcium carbonate--CaCo3 instead of Ca--but since calcium carbonate is used as a calcium dietary supplement I'm treating it as "calcium" for the sake of the kindergartner). Calcium is what makes our bones and teeth hard, and it's what makes the eggshell hard, too. Vinegar is an acid. Acids are also in juices and lots of foods. The vinegar's effect on the eggshell is a demonstration of the effect that acids also have on our teeth, if we don't brush those acids away very often.

You will need:

• egg
• glass cup or jar
• plenty of vinegar

1. Put an egg in a glass container.
2. Fill the rest of the container with vinegar.
3. Let the egg sit for several hours in the vinegar. We ended up letting the egg sit for about 18 hours, total, although Willow took the egg out periodically to play with it.
4. Pour out the vinegar--

--and notice how the acid in the vinegar has dissolved the calcium eggshell. Sure, the egg is bouncy, but Will didn't really make that much of this. She was mostly interested in handling the egg and looking at the mostly dissolved eggshell, and then she accidentally dropped it down the sink there and it's gone now, and I hope it doesn't clog the drain.

Willow LOVED this experiment. I let her repeat it again immediately, and she was able to set it up entirely by herself, and this time she set up TWO eggs in TWO glass jars, so I suppose that if one drops down the sink again, we'll still have a spare for bouncing.