Forgive Me, But...

...I'm feeling a little loopy this evening.  This was my facebook update:

It's such a beautiful day. Isn't it a beautiful day? Last night I could hear the frogs singing down at the pond and today I didn't even bother building a fire. I know winter isn't technically half over, but today is a good reminder that spring always comes again! It's such a happy, life-affirming day 

Ami responded, "I'll take some of what you had." and Crystal said, "I giggled at Ami's comment."   I had to defend myself with, "Yeah, you all laugh. But you don't know what I know!"

What do I know? Oh, wouldn't you like to know! I tell you, but first I have to confess that I couldn't remember where I kept the wooden spoons, I have had all sorts of energy for cleaning my house (which hardly ever happens), and I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  Laura knew what my problem was.  She knows that when I get insanely happy like that someone is either pregnant or ready to have a baby.  Hey, I can't help it.  I love children.

Do you blame me?

And Laura was right because she is the one in labor!  I was supposed to go up and be part of her labor support team, but sadly, two of my babies (Daniel and Fiona) have had the flu and I'm pretty sure the flu isn't done with us.  Ian just walked in the door, very very sick.  So I guess I'm needed here more than there.... time for me to get my head out of the clouds and back down to earth now that my older boys and Mark are home from their camping trip...  

New Club Member

We have a new member in the Naughty Toddler Club!

She can climb on chairs and then onto the table from there...

And then she throws everything on the floor.  One would think that if everything were just put out of reach, none of these messes could happen.  Trust me, when you have kids that are older than three, nothing stays out of reach.  I can't even tell you how many times I've told older children to put the scissors away after they are done using them.

She has also discovered dog food is tasty, jumping from couch to couch is fun, and so is climbing out of her highchair.  The best though is hearing me say, "Yuck!" or "Hot!" or "No, no!"  She immediately breaks out her grin and repeats the action, just to hear me say those words again.  Lula still isn't quite out of this phase (she is still coloring on walls and furniture, cutting her hair, and thinking Vitamin D capsules are jelly beans), so won't this be fun? Having two in the club at the same time?

The Copper's Always Greener...

Well, I learn something everyday.  Like, where on earth can you find iron nails? Not just hangin' around the house, that's where.  It drives me crazy when science experiments call for "common household items" and those common household items are not actually common.  Most nails are galvanized, and I knew that, but I was hoping that some of our nails were iron.  Or steel.

Today's experiment was to put pennies (change the "y" to "i" and add "es") in a mixture of vinegar and salt for 30 minutes, remove the pennies, place a nail (and other random metals) in the solution for another 30 minutes, and wait for the copper atoms to attach to the nail.  The result, if the experiment worked, would be a greenish coating.  Lucky for us, I had some other experiments that could go along with this one.

Who prepared the sandwich in the middle of the experiment?

Instead of just one cup with salt and \vinegar, we had three cups.  The first had plain vinegar and the second and third had salt and vinegar.  Our first experiment could ask, which cleans better/faster, plain vinegar or salt and vinegar?  After we pulled the pennies out of the first two solutions, I split the pennies into two groups.  One was rinsed with water, the other half was left with solution to dry.

Not rinsed of the salt and vinegar.  These pennies developed the green coating.

These pennies have been a part of my school room math lessons since Ian started kindergarten math, what, eight years ago?  When we do the project where we graph the years on the pennies, we never find any minted after 2007, which doesn't seem so long ago to me!

The metal items sadly did not develop a green coating, although the paper clips turned black.  From a previous experience where Ian tried to clean his smashed pennies in vinegar and turned them black, we figured these paper clips were made of zinc.  

We left the third cup to sit for a hour (or maybe longer) before we pulled the pennies out.  That could answer the question, will the pennies that sat longer in the acid be shinier?  But the most important comparison is the "no change" option.  The pennies above are a mix of pennies that were not cleaned at all with the long soak pennies.  I can see the difference!

Today's title is courtesy of Ian

Go Play Outside!

The sun peeked out for awhile today...

This is exactly how I felt: much work to do, blank stare outside

I sent the kids outside to soak up as much sunshine as they could before the clouds came rolling back in.

Heidi shouts "Hooray!"

I found a little bunny in my garden, eating old kale!

I told her not to eat the sand, just like I tell her not to touch my hot coffee. Silly girl!

But now it is Friday evening, the schoolwork is done, the required outdoors time is over, and SpongeBob is back on the TV... Here comes another weekend!

I Scream, You Scream...

...we all scream for ice cream, ya know?

I was having a hard time keeping my students on task today.  My efforts were not helped by my lack of sleep the night before.  The moment that completely derailed my day came when Daniel challenged Fiona to punch him in the forehead, as hard as she could.  So she did.  He meant to duck, but ducked about a second too late.  I saw the whole thing; it was hilarious.  When Daniel came up screaming, I sent him to his room.  "You told her to punch you as hard as she can! She did what you told her to do! Quit screaming!"

As soon as Heidi went down for her nap, I pulled us all up by our boot straps and got a chemistry experiment done that I've been wanting to do for years!

We added heavy whipping cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla to a small ziplock bag...

 ...put the well-sealed bag inside a bigger bag filled with ice and shook it up real good for about 15 minutes.  After the time was up, we checked our "ice cream" and found that nothing had happened.  Evie had just read that salt water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water, so we added some:

Don't eat rock salt.  The bag says it isn't for human consumption and to call poison control if ingested.  I wish my boys would have read that before they tasted the salt.  The salt brought the temperature down to 20 degree Fahrenheit, which was just right for freezing the cream.

They shook their bags for another ten minutes and....

...then we had ice cream for lunch!  After that, everyone mellowed out nicely and got the rest of their schoolwork done. 

Bless This Mess

Whenever our schedule allows us, we spend Saturday morning doing a quick clean up.  In the past, we've called it "Saturday Morning and Everyone Pitches In and Cleans the House Day."  This is too long, so I'm going to change its name to "Bless This Mess" Day.  Today I got a glimpse into what it feels like to have a functioning routine and good helpers.

I made a list on my white board of things I didn't want to forget (let me go check it real quick to see if I missed anything...nope, got it all done) and got the kids started.  I also pulled out my camera:

Ian sweeps the floor and Fiona picks toys, dishes, and laundry out the piles

Shane burns the paper scraps that have accumulated throughout the week

Daniel hides until he realizes that if he helps me, he can play video games all afternoon

Captain Mark runs the show from the command center

I took care of the bathroom garbage, kept the kids on task, made sure the kids going to taekwondo were clean and fed, and vacuumed the floors.  Mark picked up all the messes Kai made (he likes to shred cardboard boxes), got the budget caught up, made sure all our computers were running smoothly now that he can remotely access them all from his office, and made his lesson plan for the YMCA. 

I have really enjoyed playing with my camera this week.  I'm experimenting with light levels indoors, which really means I'm trying to see how awful the light levels can be before the picture is terrible and blurry without a flash.  Pictures I couldn't take with my old camera are now possible.  The following three pictures would not have turned out at all:

Breakfast in focus!

Terrible backlighting!

More bad lighting, plus the action of food prep!

The next two shots show the amazing difference between the normal lens that came with the camera and the zoom.  Kai likes to jump for ashes, much like Mina used to jump for bubbles.  I took both pictures from my porch:

Regular Lens: Can you see Kai?

Zoom Lens: Now you can see him!

In both pictures, Kai is in midair.  I love continuous shooting! 

I also ventured out on the ten acres this morning with Mark while he inspected his trees for deer damage.  Those darn deer just knock the protective cages right off the baby trees and strip the bark right off.  As we rounded the corner by Mark's "Huxley Tree" I couldn't resist a raindrop picture:

My camera does have an auto focus setting, but I can also choose what point to focus on.  I was able to pick one raindrop out of all those hanging off the needles.  My old camera thought it was smarter than I am, so it would say, "No, you don't want to focus on raindrops, you actually mean to focus on the trees behind that tree, you silly person!"

I'm really, really enjoying the quality of these pictures!  Ian says, "Your pictures look like they could be on a legitimate blog, like Mrs. Bergeron's," and "That pictures is awesome!  It's almost as good as Mrs. Bergeron's."  Those are the two best compliments I've ever received!

Photo Shoot

My new camera came yesterday!  I've taken over 500 pictures, just getting used to the feel and the functions.  Here are a few of my favorite (I'm still deleting like crazy):

I can't believe I can easily focus on water drops and spider webs!

Daniel said, "Take a picture of the water bottle." Check out the shallow depth of field! WITH a flash!

Dogs in mid air! Action shot!

Another action shot! I opened up a shutter to get a moving picture.

Blurry background, face in focus

Swinging in progress!  Not the crispest shot, but Lula is so happy!

A vole in midair!  The dogs scared it out of hiding and it ran off

And my hero, the one that made it all happen!

I have so many more pictures.  I'm sure I'm going to dream about taking pictures all night long...

Navel Gazing

Guess who can find her bellybutton?  She is so cute pulling her shirt up with a big smile on her face!

Today was our first day of school after the Christmas break.  I have learned a few things in my years of homeschooling.

The first is handwriting books are not busy work that a student can work on while I'm working with another student.  Once a body learns to form a letter a certain way, it is really hard to break that habit.  I have since suspended all handwriting activities for both Evie and Fiona until I am sure they can both form letters the right way.

Always bring an apple to the teacher on the first day.

Second, there is no way I can have a structured day that adheres to a time table.  No way at all.  My life has way too many variables.  I never know who is going to wake up in what order or what mood.  I can't predict a single thing.  Going with the flow and having seven kids and getting everything checked off my list can be such a mind-boggling experience that I don't think I could ever even keep track of what made today successful.  I still have a few things left: Ian needs to finish his math (when I get off my computer), Shane and Ian need to do chemistry, I need to finish installing Rosetta Stone on the kids' new computer, Evie needs to read about Benjamin Franklin, and the laundry isn't quite finished.  And I don't know what is for dinner (I knew I was forgetting to do something)!

It took me four times longer to create this activity than it took Daniel to complete it.

Third, I need to feed their bodies before I can even think about feeding their minds.  We originally planned to put the entire family on a Whole30 for the month of January, but have since changed plans.  We are now just limiting bread and sugar and boosting veggie consumption.  Once we run through our holiday leftovers, we will get more strict.  Nothing derails my day faster than the kids needing to eat breakfast (cereal) and then needing a snack 90 minutes later (toast).  And then needing lunch 90 minutes after that (pb&j).  Fast, convenient food only keeps my kids satisfied for the amount of time it took to prepare.  This morning they got scrambled eggs and a green smoothie and lasted two hours before they needed another meal.  It will take them awhile to get to the point where they are eating Whole30 type meals for breakfast, but I am looking forward to them being able to focus on their schoolwork for a few hours between meals!

The Isolation Table (where Ian hides)

The rest of this school year, I am going to really challenge myself to get things done.  Homeschooling five kids with two babies underfoot plus run a household is not an easy task!  Next year will be even harder (unless I send them to school), so if I can succeed this year, next year won't be as daunting.