June Favorites: Good Omens and Good Dragons

In June, Will spent a full 19 days traveling!

Does Will read on vacation, it might occur to you to ask?

Oh, yeah, she reads. This is the kid who can find a book anywhere, from a random, unmanned kiosk near the shave ice stand--

--to what is, indeed, I assure you, the very westernmost bookstore in the United States:

We bought her Good Omens, because she's been longing for it forever but the library's waitlist is ridiculous.

Good Omens happens to be one of Will's favorite books of June. She really likes both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, and they each have another book on her June favorites:



Jane Yolen is another of her favorite authors, so of course she also had to make an appearance in the favorites:



Surprisingly, her other favorite of June was this hard sci-fi novel, very different from the fantasy that she mostly tends to adore:



Here's everything else that Will read in June!



My favorite way to read on a vacation is to find myself a nice, long series, one that will ideally take me all the way through my trip with a single cast of characters. During last year's vacation to Canada, I made my way through the entire Anne of Green Gables and Young Wizards series, and that was with me being the sole driver for over 2,000 miles.

So that's exactly what I did with our family vacation to California and Kauai! I blissfully burned through all the remaining six books of the Temeraire series, even going so far as to BUY one of the ebooks when it became clear that the library's copy wouldn't be available in time--and I rarely buy myself books. Seriously, the last book that I bought for myself was the Laura Ingalls Wilder tell-all autobiography, which my Amazon account helpfully informs me was back in 2014.

Anyway, here are the wonderful, magical, you-should-go-out-and-read-them-all-if-you-haven't-already Temeraire books that I read in June:



I also got sidetracked and read Naomi Novik's stand-along fantasy book, Uprooted, while I was at it.

To prove to you that I rarely buy myself books, we went to a bookshop in California, and while I was poking around I discovered that a journalist had just published a book about the group of Thailand children and their soccer coach who had gotten trapped in a flooded cave last year. Y'all might remember that I'm low-key obsessed with people trapped in caves, and I was OBSESSED with this news story. I followed it diligently, kept updating people who didn't care, studied all the infographics, listened to all the theories, and when everyone was freed I was so happy I cried, because I'd figured there was no way in hell they were going to be able to save those kids.

So this journalist published a book in which he gave a timeline, and interviewed a bunch of people, and walked through all of their decision-making and the timeline of events, and instead of buying the book right then and there, right then and there I logged into my public library's website and put it on reserve so that it would be waiting for me when I got home.

I read it immediately--like, IMMEDIATELY; I didn't even unpack, or possibly even change clothes--and it's just as amazing as I'd hoped it would be. It's also astounding, because every single thing the journalist reports, everything that happens, after every single paragraph he writes, sometimes after every sentence, you think, "Oh, no, this is hopeless. Everybody in that cave is going to die." And it's pretty clear that everyone else involved in the rescue thought so, too, up through the final rescue--I don't want to spoil it too much for you, but they all thought that they'd be lucky if three kids survived the rescue attempt, and yet that was the single best idea they could come up with, by far, so save any of them.

It's terrifying, the more so because it's about kids, but it's okay because it's history and you already know that they all survived. Go read this book, though. It's amazing.



Random YouTube obsession of June include my apparent plan to watch every John Oliver monologue on every conceivable topic:



Will feels the same way about TED-Ed:



Syd's the one who's into watching big-wave surfing videos (summer waves are milder on Hawaii, but she did get in plenty of boogie boarding action!)--



--and Matt, our resident history buff, really likes these histories of various pop culture phenomena:



July is the only summer month that we don't have any overnights planned, and I'm plenty stoked for hot days hanging out in the air-conditioned library, and long nights reading by the backyard bonfire.

I do need to figure out a new book series this month, though, because the kids and I are traveling again in August!

Homeschool Day at the IMA

At least, that's what it used to be called before the Indianapolis Museum of Art changed its name to Newfields, but it takes me something like a decade before I can resign myself to a building changing its name (I've just this year begun to think about referring to the local university's main library by its "new" name, bestowed in 2005, and I still don't think I'll ever call the IU Art Museum by its proper new name), and anyway, the IMA's new name doesn't rhyme with "Homeschool Day," so there you go.

Now that the kids are older, we don't do nearly as many of these "what the hell, might as well go check this place out" field trips as we used to. Mostly, of course, I think that's because we've already done them all, and we're still plenty busy with topic-oriented field trips, places like the local news station when we're studying meteorology, or backpacking hikes so the kids can earn their Girl Scout Outdoor Journey, or even someplace that we study because we know that we're going there, like, you know, Hawaii.

But, you know, sometimes I'm checking my email during the super boring Girl Scout volunteer meeting (yay for free wifi!), get an email from the IMA about their upcoming Homeschool Day, and because the guest speaker is still going on about something or other of primary interest to Daisies and Brownies I check my planner, see that we're free that day, and impulse buy us tickets. Online shopping is a great distraction from a Powerpoint presentation!

I even snookered Matt into coming with us, although I doubt he'll get suckered in again after having to live with my Yes We're Packing Lunch Because Food There Is Expensive rule. You'd think he would have learned after the Art Institute of Chicago Hot Dog Fiasco of Ridiculousness, but his optimism remains unshaken and adorable.

Or he might stay away because of the other thing that always happens, entitled Other People Try to Talk to Us and We Don't Like Them. But if that didn't always happen, miserable as it is, our official lunchtime conversation topic of Name the Most Annoying Person You Encountered This Morning would just go nowhere, and then what would we have to talk about? The art?!?

Don't worry. We didn't talk about the art at lunch on this day, because the docents who checked us in that morning basically made fun of me for not having the same last name as the rest of my family, and there were a bunch of people standing in front of the bathroom door, not doing anything bathroom related, when Will was trying to go, and some woman tried to tell Matt that the whole drawing table she was sitting at was reserved and the docent had to come up and tell her that we could sit there, and then that SAME RANDOM WOMAN told Syd that we weren't supposed to draw with the watercolor pencils, and so then of course Will had to start drawing with them, too, in solidarity.

Yeah, Matt is for sure never coming out with us on another homeschool field trip...

You can also tell that homeschool field trips are old news by the fact that I didn't even bring my nice camera (okay, it's also because once I did bring my nice camera here and I got in trouble and now I'm scared)! My cell phone camera is crap, but I nevertheless couldn't help taking at least a few pictures:

Here, Syd is supposed to be sketching the art, but on this week she was ALL fired up about the ensemble designs she wants for next year's Trashion/Refashion Show, and all of her sketches are of outfits made of trash and related to the seasons. At least it's creative, I guess...

This is always the kids' favorite piece.

 They also like, and are forever baffled, by this one:





The blocks below were in an exhibit on interior design, but look how brilliant they are! They're clear, hollow L-shaped blocks, partially filled with different materials, and someone needs to make them commercially and sell them to me a decade ago for my kids:

No, I apparently don't have any actual pictures of the actual art, although I know that we looked at most of it. I finally understand the point of pointillism now, too, so that's pretty cool.

Great art museums on every corner are where I really feel a lack in our community--sure, we can trek to Indy to check out Homeschool Day at the IMA, or visit the one sculpture trail further south, or keep hanging on until our local university's art museum opens back up after its current remodeling, but I like to think that if we lived somewhere like Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, or, you know, London, we'd be out and about at art museums and installations and exhibits all the time. Is that true, do you think? Do you guys who live in all the awesome places do all the awesome things? Or are there annoying people there who might talk to you, too, so you stay home and sit on your couch where it's safe?

Her Silver Award Ceremony

It's been a while, y'all! Since we last spoke, the kids went to California, then Matt and I went to California, then we all went to Hawaii (lots more on that another time!), and then we all came back home and slept not enough, and at odd hours. I'm sort of attempting to get back into the swing of normal life, so here I am, blogging like a normal homeschool mommy blogger for the first time in a month.

Next I might even go to sleep before 3am and wake up before 11am!

Our Girl Scout council's Girls of Distinction ceremony to honor the highest awards takes place once a year, in June, so even though Will finished her own Silver Award last fall, she had to wait until this month for the official recognition and I swear to gawd, I have rarely been this excited to draw a line under something and get it fully in my rearview mirror. I know I was only the Girl Scout/project advisor, but this Silver Award nonsense has been agony, and so miserably disappointing and frustrating. I would have never been able to predict that after my kid worked as hard as she could to erect something for the community, some members of that community would seemingly work just as hard to tear it down.

Literally. Her first Little Free Library was repeatedly vandalized, and Will repaired it every time, until it was finally stolen, apparently ripped from its post so hard that part of the base was left still screwed down. Will did a lot of troubleshooting with that one, a lot of problem-solving, and finally decided to install a second Little Free Library in another economically-disadvantaged area that appeared to be better-populated and tended, and hopefully, therefore, less prone to crime. That Little Free Library lived for seven months, at least, but guess what we saw when I drove Will to restock it the very freaking day BEFORE Girls of Distinction?

Poor kid. She filled out yet another police report, while I thought silently to myself that at least we could stop worrying about it now. Seriously, every time we drove to check on the damn thing my stomach was in knots. The second we left it I'd start worrying again. And for good reason, it turns out. The Little Free Libraries that Will built clearly weren't sturdy enough to stand up to deliberate destruction, but I don't know what would be, unless she'd made them out of steel with giant spikes welded to them, as her dad eventually suggested.

But even though Will has already earned the award and the project is considered complete, she's still not giving up. Little Free Library #3 will be installed on our own property this summer, right by the mailbox where we can all keep an eye on it. And if this one gets destroyed, too, I am going to burn this entire state to the ground.

ANYWAY... let's forget about all of that, shall we, and focus instead on the lovely Girls of Distinction ceremony. I mean, Juliette Gordon Low herself was in attendance!

Miss Syd was not excited to meet the founder of the Girl Scouts, silly girl, and is giving me that newly-minted teenager "I'd rather be anywhere else but here" non-smile. Disappointingly, for the first time in several years the council chose not to honor top cookie sellers at Girls of Distinction, so my 1,000+ selling girl there, as well as her 1,000+ selling sister, as well as the SIX other 1,000+ selling girls in my troop, were not invited and honored for that major accomplishment. Big mistake, if you ask me, but whatever. I'm just a troop leader who spends my own free time and money working with actual girls, not an administrator getting paid to sit in an office, so what do I know?

My own favorite part of Girls of Distinction is the display area, where Gold Award Girl Scouts show off their Gold Award projects. It's a terrific place for younger girls to get ideas and inspiration (you know who'd really benefit from the opportunity to see these displays? The hard-working and high-achieving top cookie sellers, just the kind of girls that council ought to want to motivate and encourage!), and this year, especially, my own girls pored over them. Syd is at the stage of feeling overwhelmed and intimidated by the scope of the Silver Award project, so it was good for her to see what other girls accomplished for their Gold, and Will is deep into brainstorming for her own Gold project, and found several projects that inspired her, most of them nature-oriented, I was interested to see. One girl's project involved encouraging her community to keep chickens and donate their eggs to the hungry, something that is right up my own chicken girl's alley, and the project below involved creating educational materials on bat conservation for a local nature center:

Will already volunteers with two different children's museums; perhaps there's a potential Gold Award project somewhere in there...

Here we all are, ready to celebrate!

And here's my girl's big moment:

Here's me glad to have that over and done with!

Here's Will dubious about yet one more round of applause:

And here's Syd more than happy to take every souvenir pen at the table and click them all incessantly for the next four hours:

The girls' grandmother flew from California to attend the ceremony with us, and afterwards we all played out and about--

--until it was time to pack the three of them off to the airport and on to California for Camp Grandma. I lasted about twenty minutes away from them before I was sending them photos:

And yes, Matt missed them already, as well:

I guess we'll give ourselves the rest of the month to rest on the laurels of Girls of Distinction, but then it's high time to get back to work; I thought I was stressed mentoring one girl through her Silver Award, but starting July 1, our family will contain another girl working towards Silver, and another girl getting ready for Gold!

An Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party For She Who is Thirteen

I loved Syd's idea for her birthday party this year: an Alice in Wonderland party is sweet and elegant and perfectly-themed for my brand-new teen.

Especially one who loves to fuss with details and make everything as cute as it can be!

Above is Syd's test recipe for her birthday cupcakes. She tried out the cake mix that she wanted (Funfetti for the win!), the color of food dye (she was pushing hard for red but we're flat out so she tested pink, and she was happy enough with it that I didn't have to start the fight about trying to convince her to let me buy powdered strawberries or beets instead of gel dye--yay!), the color and make-up of spots (she tested Skittles and M&Ms, as well, but everyone thought that the piped-on dots of buttercream looked best), the candy caterpillar (sour gummy worms!), and the speech bubble cupcake flag (after she was happy with this basic design she went to Matt, and he had to go through two rounds of submissions before she approved his final digital design).

Here's the final version of party cupcakes!

Syd put so much energy into the dessert and the activities that she let me be in charge of the Mad Tea Party. I never remember to take photos when I'm busy, so this is the solo one that I took of my own party preparations:

It's petit toasts with cream cheese and parsley. It was DELICIOUS!

I also made tiny cream cheese and tomato sandwiches, tiny peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and tiny cherry tarts. I bought miniature powdered doughnuts, chessmen cookies, miniature spinach and ham quiches, and grapes and baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. I made something like the equivalent of two full-sized sandwiches per kid (even counting the kid who I figured wouldn't eat a thing), not counting all the other stuff, and still ended up kicking myself that I hadn't also thrown a big box of Bagel Bites into the mix as I later cleared away completely cleaned-off platters.

An afternoon of Red Queen Freeze Tag and Cheshire Cat Hide-and-Seek is apparently hungry work!

I also didn't get a great picture--shame on me!--of this beautiful bunting that Syd and I spent basically an entire day making:

It's super elaborate, upcycled from an incomplete deck of playing cards and upholstery samples. I used stencils to trace each letter in Sharpie and then painted the outline with fabric paint, and Syd colored the letters in, glued the fabric to the playing cards, and attached the hemp twine.

It took FOREVER, so long that all the other cute and time-intensive party decorations did not happen, but we both love it so much that it was worth it.

Matt did not love trying to set it up according to my picky instructions, but he's a very good sport on party days:

And see? Isn't it the perfect thing to welcome children to their Mad Tea Party?

The tea cups are mismatched ones from all the thrift stores in town, and the children's plates are paper, but the serving platters and saucers are my Mamma's china. I don't remember once eating off of it as a kid, but I adore using it for every possible occasion now that it's mine. When Matt suggested that setting up the Mad Tea Party on the driveway would work better logistically, however (and it would have!), I told him that we had to have it on the grass to give Mamma's china at least a fighting chance.

It all lived!

I should also tell you about the, um, "tea." It was not my shiningest moment. I promise that I started off intending to serve tea. Fruit tea, to be specific. But it was going to be very warm on the party day, and Syd didn't want to serve hot tea. Fair enough, right? I told her we could make iced fruit tea, and offer honey and sugar cubes (in little pots!!!!) to sweeten it, but then Syd insisted that she wanted it pre-sweetened with simple syrup, and I was all, "If you want sugar-sweetened iced fruit-flavored tea, why don't we just make Kool-Aid?"

And so we did, sigh. I swear, ten kids drank something like two gallons of the stuff in a four-hour party. Whenever I brought out the pitcher for refills, I took to asking them if anyone wanted more hyper medicine, and they always clamored that they did, and then they gulped it down and proceeded to prove to the entire neighborhood that it was working very, very well, indeed.

Ah, well. You're only young enough to guzzle Kool-Aid without a second thought for such a little while.

For the craft (because there always has to be a craft!), we recycled a project back from the days when Syd and a pal planned and hosted a party to earn their Girl Scout Junior Social Butterfly badges. As their craft, they thrifted white tea cups and let the party guests decorate them with paint pens. You just have to send home instructions with the party guests that they need to let them sit for 24 hours, then bake them in the oven according to the directions on the package--30 minutes at 350 degrees, for these.

Strangely, I don't remember those younger girls being so, hmm, well, creative as these older girls are:

Thirteen is such a big year, and this sweet kid has already always felt everything so big. You'll never find someone with a bigger heart, and it's my hope for her that her love for and trust in those around her is always returned in kind:

On this day, surrounded by friends, I surely know that it was:

DIY: Rainbow-Painted Pegboard To Organize a Teen Crafting Space

Will can occasionally muscle a puzzle onto the kids' shared playroom table, but mostly it's Syd's domain, held by the simple means of attrition. How can a kid stretch out a 1,000-piece puzzle or a coloring book and her pencils when another kid already has the entire table covered in fourteen different slime recipes, all halfway done and half-spilled across each other? And the one bit that doesn't have slime has Perler beads and polymer clay AND a bunch of paint tubes and a wet canvas?

It's madness, and hugely messy, but Syd adores her space, and spends much of each day at that table, listening to audiobooks or YouTube video tutorials of even more weird crafts, crafting her heart out and happy as a clam.

Last summer, in an attempt to contain at least some of the mess (and, more importantly, to keep Syd off of MY work table as much as possible!), I created a couple of giant pegboard organizers for the walls adjacent to that table.

I bought a small and a large pegboard, and taped them into seven sections--the best thing about pegboard is that you can just count holes to make your measurements. The green stripe is going to be slightly narrower than the others, though. That is never not going to bother me.

If I had this project to do over again, I think that I would have bought real paint. They have these "sample" sizes of paint that you can buy that are like just a cup's worth; those and small paint rollers would have been soooo much easier to use, and I wouldn't have had to do so much taping off.

Oh, well. With the spray paint that I used, I had to tape off the area that I wasn't painting, for every single stripe, and it was terribly tedious:

And it got spray paint overspray all over the driveway, but y'all know that has NEVER been something that I've been concerned about.

I think it turned out quite lovely, even if my poor photography skills mean that you can't see how nice the purple stripe looks. Bossy blue washes out shrinking violet!

Matt mounted the pegboards for me, and the next step of the process involved more purchases than I prefer, and the revelation that there exist in the world TWO DIFFERENT SIZES OF PEGBOARD HOLES. So there we went, returning half our purchases and trading them in for a slightly different size.

We've actually had this setup in place for almost a year now, and while it doesn't look as tidy as I'd dreamed, it does contain the mess and chaos and nonsense and keep it off the table and the floor... mostly:

She's organizing her glitter stash in rainbow order, obviously.

That right there is everything that you need to make slime or polymer clay creations, or repaint Monster High dolls or squishies.

Next up: wouldn't it be nice to organize and contain all of the American Girl doll mess and chaos and nonsense?