A Lack of Sewers and a Lot of Home Videos

So, we're now looking at our fifth day of sewer blockage at our house.

Nice, right?

Barring a city inspection this afternoon in which the city discovers that it's actually THEIR problem (awesome, but unlikely), or another plumbing company coming out for an estimate and discovering that they can fix the problem in ten minutes for a hundred bucks (even awesomer, and even more unlikely), we are yet again in the Slough of Home Repair Despond, where all weary homeowners whose sewer pipes have collapsed at the edge of the yard, entailing a permit to dig up the street, and then DIGGING UP THE STREET, and then putting the street back together, using up a tidy chunk of their retirement funds in the process, slog without succor for a really, really long time. The wheels of progress (and crucial infrastructure repair) grind slowly, my friends.

Okay, that's about all I want to say right now about my life of driving to Wal-mart to use the toilet.

Instead, look at these home videos that my kids made!



It's been a whole new winter activity that they've recently discovered, this acting out skits and videotaping each other. Last week, Syd even brought her camera to our homeschool group's Gym Day to see if her friends like videotaping each other, too. Turns out that they do!

I've been burning the girls' videos to DVD for them, because they cannot get enough of watching themselves being silly. When I was a kid, we had a huge camcorder, but it wasn't used for this kind of silliness; it was reserved for Christmas Day, or our summer road trip, or the school spelling bee. I have some memories of playing with my friends at this age, sure, and the silly, oh-so-serious-at-the-time stuff that we got up to. I wonder, though, how different it will be for my own kiddos, who, when they're my age, can just pop a DVD in to the player (if they still have DVDs then...maybe they'll use a holoplayer?) and see themselves all teeny, dressed all goofy, playing with their toys, hamming it up with their friends.

I would LOVE to be able to see myself like that. Of course, I'd also love to be able to use the toilet inside my own house, though, so what do I know?

The Wind at Work, Paper Airplanes, and Remote Controlled Helicopters

Guess who's 46" tall, plays with toy ponies all day, and will be walking the runway in the 2013 Trashion/Refashion Show?

It's Sydney!!!

Syd is super-stoked, already working on her runway routine, and will absolutely throw a fit when I tell her that I will NOT permit her to wear the clear acrylic stripper heels that I wouldn't let her wear last year, either. I tell you, what's wrong with a nice pair of cherry red Converse high tops?

The down-side of the big news is that one of the dress rehearsals overlaps our homeschool Science Fair, so Syd chose to withdraw her entry, and Matt and I will be playing man-on-man this month--him at the Science Fair with Willow, me at the fashion show dress rehearsal with Sydney.

It turns out, though, that Willow is REALLY interested in her topic, flight, and without another kid's project to focus on, we've been able to double-down on a pretty epic unit study with her. Wind and air temperature, as you may know, are integral to flight, so along with paper airplanes, the remote-controlled helicopter, lots of science encyclopedias, and attempting to figure out what on earth to use to sculpt a kid-sized set of wings,  Willow and I have been working through some applicable experiments in our copy of The Wind at Work, given to Will by the publisher. 

The first experiment in the book is great science on a lot of levels, and Willow picked up a surprising number of new skills doing it. The experiment basically asks you to compare the temperatures of three different elements several times a day over a period of days. This required Willow to learn how to create a chart to record these temperatures--

--to think through how to set up an experiment properly--

--to be responsible for collecting data at specific times, no matter the weather--

--to learn how to read thermometers--

--to record information in a consistent manner (with legible handwriting!)--

--to read that chart for its information--

--and to create a line graph, using a ruler and different colored pencils to record the information on it:

Surprisingly, this last task was the one that Willow balked at. I don't know--perhaps the amount of information to record looked daunting, or she didn't quite understand the purpose of copying it in a different way, or the temperatures all looked similar enough that she didn't see the value in the extra work?

After I persuaded her to actually begin, however, she was immersed in the graph-building almost immediately, and when she finished, it was clear that the line graph presented the temperatures in a much more readable manner, with patterns and trends easily evident: 

And then Willow, who is at heart a reader, couldn't get enough of it. She noticed where temperatures dropped and where they rose, she noticed what elements held a steadier temperature and what elements frequently fluctuated, what element stayed closer to air temperature and what element held the previous day's warmth.

This particular experiment is a build-up to studying global wind patterns, but it also makes just a really cool stand-alone experiment. I've already promised Willow that we can repeat it again in the summer (as opposed to the snow, sigh), and that we can add more elements to compare--gravel, I believe she suggested, and our compost heap, which will lead to an entirely new series of science inquiries, I'm guessing.

As I told Willow, this is real science that she's doing, the stuff of real scientists. "Probably nobody but you," I said, "compared the temperatures of different elements on these exact days in our exact town this week. If anybody ever wants to know that specific information, they're going to have to ask you."

At that, my scientist beamed.

Barbies and Building Blocks

It's snowing again. I knew that there was a 30% chance of snow last night, but when I woke up and saw the white demon littering the ground, and more despicable little fluffy-fluffs spitting down, I barked out a VERY attractive something like "GLAAHGH!".

Fortunately, the day has been well spent. We had baked oatmeal for breakfast, I may have had cheesecake for lunch, which I blame entirely on the white demon, and I have cleverly concealed yesterday's pasta leftovers into tonight's "Pasta Bake," which I think will go over well, and which contains flaxseeds (Shh! Don't tell!). The house is as clean as it's gonna get with two kids in residence--I have a groove for this now, and I feel really good about myself every time I think about it. I forced myself a total of twice to look out the window at the snow and think, "Pretty!". Then I kicked the kids out into it, and they're out there now, chasing each other, their startlingly shrill pony neighs disturbing the neighbors. I have let the power of being an admin this month for CAGW (my boss had a baby! Insert squee here) go to my head. Speaking of my boss, and my friend, AND my half-sister, I cut out WAY too many baby bibs to sew for their new babies, humming happily to myself as I worked in a way that would bring a cold sweat to Matt's forehead if only he'd been home to witness it. I did a mile on the treadmill while watching Call the Midwife; I *almost* want to hop back on just so I can watch some more. I set up the computer for Willow's Magic Tree House Club meeting, then dug out my wedding scrapbook so that she could see our photos of standing next to flowing lava--it was Vacation under the Volcano this month, you know. I made a note in my planner to do some planning/price checking for a future Hawaii family vacation. 2015? Definitely not 2014, because in 2014 Sydney will finally be old enough for the Children's Museum of Indianapolis' Family Dino Dig program in South Dakota. I have been waiting for her to be old enough for us to all go to that program since...she was born, I guess? Miss Sydney has also had a great day, listening to Magic Tree House audiobooks, drawing a cheetah, other assorted animals, and a personalized badge for every member of the family, complete with our age and a personal message from the artist, and playing and playing and playing and playing with her sister.

I've mentioned before how clearly the girls' indoor play has been continually evolving this winter; for the past week, rather than the indoor sandbox or the Wikki stix or the Xbox Kinect or the Legos, it's been nothing but Barbies and building blocks, working together in happy concert:

Both girls love to mine my (overflowing) scrap bin--

--both for costume choices--

--and for crucial dramatic components of the scene in progress:

I have to say that I love watching my reluctant writer muscle those molded plastic arms into those teensy clothes. Yay, finger strengthening!

And yes, that is the Waldorf doll that I spent most of last summer making for her being ground into the floor:

At least it's well-loved.

My Latest over at Crafting a Green World: A DIY Restaurant Log and a Giveaway!

I try to pretend that I'm sick of going to the same restaurant and ordering the same take-out pizza all the time, but really, I just WANT to be sick of it. Really, I adore going out to La Charreada, ordering a margarita on the rocks while Matt orders it frozen, downing my margarita as soon as it comes and then starting on Matt's (he's driving, after all!), listening to the girls order the exact same thing every time ("Beef nachos, please!"), filling up on chips and salsa before my bean burrito arrives, people-watching the sorority girls and frat boys in their matching T-shirts. I adore Family Movie Night with our half bacon, half sun-dried tomato pizza from Pizza Express, the spicy cheese dipping sauce that nobody eats but me (mwa-ha-ha!), the nommy salty breadsticks, the plastic cups that make great paint cups for the kids.

But, of course, there's also the fact that every time an out-of-town guest comes by, we either take them out to La Charreada or order Pizza Express. If nothing else, THEY'RE probably getting sick of it!

Unsatisfied with leaving well enough alone, last week the girls and I made a family project of creating a restaurant log, using supplies given to us by Full Circle Crafts:

I made a card for every restaurant that we wanted to try (THIRTY!!! Considering that we budget one outside meal approximately every ten days, and that we still want to go to La Charreada sometimes, this should take us well more than a year to accomplish), and the girls, as you can tell, put a lot of work into the book with me:

 I really like these pockets that Willow did in Faber-Castell Pitt pens and watercolors:

Yes, buffets OBVIOUSLY deserve their own category:

Many of the "treat" places are, sneakily, coffeehouses:

Many of the breakfast places are townie dives that we STILL haven't visited, and I put the fancy restaurants in the "lunch" category, along with the lunch places, because they're (a little) cheaper then:

Along with giving us the supplies to create this book, Full Circle Crafts is also hosting a giveaway over at CAGW, and I REALLY want you to enter it!

The restaurant log is so far a success. Last night for Family Movie Night (Legend of the Guardians, since Will recently listened to the audiobooks of the first three books of that series), instead of ordering Pizza Express, we tried out Mother Bear's Pizza--chicken sausage pizza, cheesy breadsticks, spicy tomato dipping sauce, and two brownies.

Well, don't tell the kids that there were brownies. There were only two, after all...

Adventures from the International Grocery: Dragon Fruit

We visited an EPIC international grocery in Indianapolis last week.

Seriously, it was incredible. It was the size of a supermarket, but had the same kind of dodgy ambiance that I'm much more comfortable in than I am in, say, Whole Foods. And it had everything. EVERYTHING! I wanted to buy ALL THE THINGS!!!

The girls were as enthusiastic as I was...for about ten minutes, until we realized that the freezing temperature that we were feeling inside the store wasn't just near the entrance, where we'd spent the first few minutes, but was the actual temperature inside the store. It exactly mirrored the outdoor temperature, but since we'd gone to Indy entirely for indoor activities--a memorial service for a beloved great aunt and great uncle, perhaps lunch downtown, perhaps a wander around Circle Center Mall, a visit to an epic international grocery--we simply hadn't packed coats and hats and gloves, just sweaters and hoodies that weren't cutting it in the sub-zero grocery store.

It was really disappointing, since my kiddos are enthusiastic eaters and I'd been looking forward to having them pick out a ton of new foods for us to try, but we eventually settled into a sort of compromise, with me quick-shopping each aisle, Matt quick-marching the girls up and down and all around to keep their body temperatures up, and each of us calling their attention just to the aisles that we knew they'd be super-interested enough in to justify freezing their buns off while they browsed.

And that's how we ended up with an absurd amount of international junk food, a few interesting things that caught adult eyes as we zoomed past, and an absurd amount of very odd fruit, such as this dragon fruit:

I've seen dragon fruit before but never tasted one, as I'm not in the habit of purchasing expensive, exotic things just for my own pleasure. For my girls, however...

Combine that with the fact that Sydney decided to do her Science Fair project on fruit this year, and yes, we did come home with an example of every single unfamiliar fruit in that store, cost be damned.

And then we tasted everything:

Verdict: YUM! The dragon fruit tasted kiwi-ish, but much more lightly flavored (Who knows when or where this dragon fruit was harvested, of course, so I have no idea if it was under-ripe or over-ripe, both of which affect flavor). I really liked the texture and kind-of-crunchiness given by the tons of seeds. Matt and I each had a big bite to ourselves, but saved the rest of the dragon fruit for the girls, who wolfed it all down within minutes.

Fortunately, we all have Jaffa cakes, mochi ice cream, Ya-Cool, deep-fried plantain chips, and lots of other bad-for-us yummies in illegible packaging to subsist on.

Adding Multi-Digit Numbers Using an Abacus

Syd is actually really quick at math, but she gets frustrated SO easily, and so upset when she's incorrect, that we've been developing her skills at multi-digit addition systematically, with baby steps:

1. I had her daily building big numbers using Base Ten blocks for about two weeks, long after it was very, very easy for her. It's a good review!
2. I daily gave her a page of multi-digit addition problems that don't involve carrying, to complete by building both number using Base Ten blocks, physically combining them, and then counting the total. Syd was ready to move on from this activity after just three days, because that's a tedious way to add!
3. Because she found combining Base Ten blocks tedious, I was able to introduce the abacus without a tantrum by saying, "Hey, I do know a quicker, easier way to work these problems. Do you want to see it?" Mwa-ha-ha!

An abacus is dead easy to use, and almost completely interchangeable with Base Ten blocks, as well as intuitive for a kid who's used to them. We're using a vintage Playskool abacus from my own childhood--

but any elementary level abacus looks about the same.

We call the bottom row the units row, with the next row up the tens, and the next row up the hundreds, etc. At first, to work the problems, I showed Sydney how to simply build the first number on the abacus, using the units row and the tens row, and then to build the second number by counting on. So, for instance, first Sydney built, say, 14, using one ten and four units, and then built the number 34, adding three tens to the tens row and four more units to the units row. For carrying, I pulled back out the Base Ten blocks, and reminded Sydney that every time we had ten units, we needed to exchange that for one ten; it works the same on an abacus, but even easier, since there are no mistakes to be made. Every time you have ten units on an abacus, you HAVE to exchange it for one ten, or you can't continue to add the units!

Syd worked her multi-digit addition problems on the abacus for a solid week--

--quite happily (thank goodness!), and then I said to her, "You know what would be even easier?". I gave her a page of problems that don't require carrying, had her complete the first one the way that she was used to, then used her results on the abacus to point out that you could also solve this problem on paper simply by adding the ones, then the tens. She compared her answer when she did this to the answer that the abacus gave, tried both ways for a few problems, then decided on her own that solving these problems on paper is EVEN quicker and easier, yay!

Syd's now in the middle of her second week doing this, and although I haven't introduced carrying yet, I did introduce longer multi-digit numbers this week. You should have SEEN the fit that she threw when she saw that I wanted her to add a three-digit number to a three-digit number, up until the second that she realized that it was no different, and no more difficult, than adding two-digit numbers.

Sigh.

Winter Play: Wikki Stix

This winter has seemed to last forever. For instance, as I write this, on the morning of March 6, I'm looking out the window at a few inches of snow. To contrast that, check out my post of March 5, 2012. Take special note of Sydney's bare feet, and the green grass behind her. On March 4, 2011, she's wearing capri leggings and sandals. Today, Syd's wearing clothes upon clothes and snow pants and mittens and a coat and a hat, as I boot her out the door to go appreciate what will SURELY be the last snow of this season.

Surely?

Anyway, one benefit of the winter, I suppose, is that the girls, who normally only play with toy ponies, play silks, and each other, have been rediscovering what a bounty of toys they do, in fact, own. In between pestering the cats, Syd has so far spent a solid week obsessed with this giant Wikki Stix set that her Grandma Beck gave her for Christmas in 2011 and that had remained entirely unopened until last Wednesday:

I was only thoughtful enough to photograph this first exploration, but since then, Syd has learned to create three-dimensional figures with the waxed yarn, and has incorporated them into her play dough and clay sculptures, and has made herself (and me!) several pieces of jewelry, and has added them to her toy ponies as bridles, reigns, unicorn horns, etc. We've also had LOTS of conversations about (her lack of) keeping the darned things contained, as they're slightly sticky, which makes them easy to work with, but also makes them stick to the floor, the carpet, and the bottoms of my feet, and they're easy to cut with scissors, which makes them even more versatile, but also makes them the kind of odd shape that gets stickily stuck inside the vacuum cleaner. I've also come across them abandoned just everywhere, from the bathroom counter to the stereo cabinet.

But keep her happy and busy and engaged, they do! And sneakily, now that I know what Wikki Stix do, I plan to incorporate them into our future lesson plans, as well as introduce some other cool ideas:

• practicing cursive letter formation
• tracing geometric figures
• creating window art
• copying coloring pages set under waxed paper or plastic wrap
• writing the signage for our Science Fair display boards

And then, since the rate of Wikki Stix attrition is high (when I find a Wikki Stix in the bathroom, or sticking to the bottom of my sock, I do NOT return it to its owner), I think I'm going to figure out how to make my own.