The Richest of Fare

The Classroom Tree in Spring Mode

2012-02-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well, believe it or not, we are seeing definite signs of spring here in California. Just today I broke off a couple of twigs from trees and took them in the classroom to show the Little People how new leaves were coming out of the leaf buds.

With onset of spring in mind, I spent some time wandering in the Dollar Tree today trying to find a way to make our classroom tree look spring-ish. I wanted it to have flowers (since it's supposed to be an apple tree, after all), but since I didn't give the tree flowers last year, I didn't have anything already planned or stored away for this look.

I went into the store thinking I might look at the bunches of artificial flowers with the goal of pulling the flowers off of the plastic stems and sewing them together on the sewing machine to make a flower garland. However, it quickly became apparent that it would take a lot of bunches of flowers to make any significant amount of garland.

But then at the front of the store I saw them: "Wedding" flower garlands

Each package had 12 feet of garland. Each white flower was separated with what appears to be a piece of clear drinking straw. Now that I think about it, this idea could easy to be replicated at home, but certainly not for the cost of a dollar.

And certainly not for $.50 each, which is what they rung up for when I took my eight garlands up to the cash register.

After school I began to drape the flowers up on the tree. I actually thought I got all eight strands on there, but then after I was finished I found one more strand that I had not put up yet. Then I went back to the Dollar Tree after school and bought 11 more strands. (I was a little worried that they had changed the price to a dollar in the three hours that I was away, but hooray, they had not.)

Here is the tree in the first stage of its spring look. As you can see, seven garlands hardly made an impact on the tree at all, but adding 12 more tomorrow should do the trick.

I wasn't really sure how to string the flowers up so I just randomly tried a few methods as I went along. However, after I was finished I could tell that I didn't like this "wraparound" method shown below...

...as much as the "group and clump" method shown here at the far end of these branches.

So tomorrow I'll be doing lots of "grouping and clumping", which of course are highly technical tree-decorating terms.

As you can see in the picture above, the garlands did have other things on them. They came as both flowers and holographic hearts, or holographic doves, but I went for the hearts. I took them off the garland and then added them to the Valentine's creative art center that was a choice today:

Actually, I almost feel like just the cool silver hearts were worth the $.50 alone. I think I'll take the ones that they don't use on their art and put some of my blank yard sale address labels on them and put them in the writing center for Valentine's Day cards.

So, a tree's worth of apple blossoms, plus over 100 large holographic hearts to use for various purposes for only $9.50. Not a bad deal at all.

#7 and #14

2012-02-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

Here are #7 and #14 with all their glass on:

Here are Abraham and Sarah with baby Isaac. I thought Sarah turned out especially nice with her radiant white hair. And Abraham looks happy, yet appropriately aged with his wrinkles.

Here are the first set of plagues. I love how the person who did this one made the cow - very nicely done. I had trouble knowing what to do for the gnat, so they're made of beads. One smooth bead for the main body, and two faceted, shiny beads for the wings.

More Finished

2012-02-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

Here are the mosaic boards that are recently finished:

My friend Carolyn wanted to write "What Happens Under the Golden Calf Stays Under the Golden Calf" on the altar of this one. But she did not.

After awhile, I took a break from gluing to do some highlighting. Here is how the list looks now:

I'm still not counting how many we still have to finish, but we're definitely getting closer...

Getting the Boards Ready

2012-01-31T22:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I showed you how our Girls' Night Out went last week.

Before I took the boards there, I did a little bit of prep work to get a few of them ready. Mainly I put some face details on, because the faces can be a little daunting to newbie mosaicers. (Yes, I know that's not a word - at least to Mr. Spellcheck.)

First of all, I took a picture of all the boards waiting for transport to the church building...sort of as a farewell to those that were completed and would not be returned. (Sniff, sniff...)

Here are some of the ones that I left up at the building to be displayed in our new children's wing:

Here is Pharaoh just after the application of his angry eyes. I thought this was kind of a nice, serene picture.

Here is another board waiting in the sunlight...

Here is a closeup look of some eye application. Some of the eyes were done with beads, and some were done with little pieces of black. "Small black slivers", as the pencil writing instructs.

Here are Samson's "intense" eyes. Here you can also see what happens if you trace the pictures onto the board with something other than a permanent marker. Remember: waterbased marker + glue = big smeary mess.

I was kind of enjoying this guy as I was gluing his eyes on. He's really a captive being carried off to Babylon, but due to his kind-of point ears, I am fondly thinking of him as Legolas the elf/captive.

I had a little trouble deciding what to do on this Esther picture. As in several of the board, a slight tilt of the mouth or eyes can change the whole personality. And I wasn't sure about Esther. Was she stressed out and dismayed at suddenly being the queen (as shown below...)

...or perhaps was she pleased with it all? I decided to go with pleased, because I'm just a glass-half-full kind of person. Plus I like thinking that she kind of enjoyed all the good things about queenship (queendom) before all of her people became in jeopardy of extinction, etc, etc.

Tomorrow I'll show all the boards that are now finished after the Girls' Night Out (plus a busy weekend of mosaic-ing on my part).

More Mosaics Finished

2012-01-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a "Girls' Night Out" at church last week, and a bunch of ladies turned out to work on the mosaics! Here's what it all looked like:

Here are the squares that were completed when the evening began. I took them to encourage everyone about our progress:

Here are the containers of glass, all laid out for people to choose from:

Here are the ladies working away:

Here is another table of workers...

...and another table of workers! It was a great turn out, and we got lots done. Plus it was kind of like an old-fashioned quilting bee - there was lots of laughing and visiting while everyone worked.

Well, and there were some band-aids. Because as you know, glass is sharp.

I really am grateful that so many people came to help, and I'm excited that we're that much closer to finishing this project!

#25 and #64

2012-01-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

#25 and #64 just got highlighted. We're getting closer!

More highlighting

2012-01-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

#57 and #55 just got highlighted in orange. (All glass on.)

And #7, 45, 41, 22, 20, 32, 40, 30, 18 and 26 just got highlighted in yellow (drawn).

This might be the most detailed one yet. I'm saving it for last. :)

I would like to tell you that this is not my blood above Naaman's head, but alas, I can not.

Beware of the Yellow Snow...Men

2012-01-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Source: makeandtakes.com via Julie on Pinterest

Here is another Winter activity that we did at school this week. I got this idea from...can you guess? Yes, Pinterest it is. I thought these little magnet snowmen were such a good idea that I would try to make some myself.

Of course, I must admit that I didn't actually read the original instructions on how to make these cute little guys. I just saw them and said, "Hey, I've got this." And I kind of did, but in hindsight their way of doing it was much better than mine.

My way was to use a paper punch to cut out circles from white cardstock. Then I drew the little snowmen faces on the white circles. I then used glue to adhere clear flattened marbles to the snowman faces.

Their way was to paint the snowmen faces onto the back side of the magnets.

Reason their way was better: Their snowmen faces were nice and crisp. Mine - not so much, because I at first used a water-based marker to draw the carrot noses (because I did not have an orange Sharpie). Unfortunately, regular marker + glue = complete carrot smudge. Once I figured this out, I drew the noses with colored pencil, which still didn't get a very vivid result.

Then there were the flattened marbles.

Their way was to use smaller marbles. Very cute and concise.

My way was to use the larger size of marbles. Actually, they really are a nice size for the Little People. They just feel more - substantial than the smaller ones.

Unfortunately, I decided to go cheap and get my marbles from the local dollar store. I knew when I bought them that they weren't very clear, but unfortunately, once they were glued on and dry they were worse than clear: they were yellow.

So sadly, my cute little snowmen magnets were now Yellow Snow Magnets, and we all know what Yellow Snow means. They weren't even evenly yellow. They all kind of have yellow streaks running through them, which make them look like they were - well, streaked with, you know - yellow.

However, the Little People most likely do not know about the Yellow Snow, because most of them have never seen snow of any kind. As a result, they played and played with them today.

So remember, follow instructions on new projects, don't eat the yellow snow...and don't make snowmen out of them, either.

Other Winters I Have Known...

2012-01-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

Source: google.com via Julie on Pinterest

We continue to make lots of snowmen and do other winter-type activities at school this week, despite the fact that it still is not like winter at all here. In fact, I don't think it's like winter for those people who have lived here all of their life and are used to warmer winters than what I'm used to. For one thing, we've had almost no rain at all this winter, which even I know is unusual.

All of this led me to a conundrum this morning. I was sitting in the dentist's chair, leaned of course way, way back. The dentist was drilling all kinds of bits of enamel and other stuff off of my tooth, and I was both a little tense and marginally sleepy and definitely disoriented all at the same time. In the middle of this Altered Dental State I began thinking about what we were doing at school that day, and suddenly wondered if I was leading my Little People astray. Well, I think I was thinking about the finished projects that I put up in our room as opposed to the finished projects that the morning teacher puts up. I came to the realisation that she doesn't seem to be putting up any winter things at all - no snowmen, snowflakes, penguins, anything. Suddenly I was worried - could it be that children in (at least this area) of California just "don't do" snowmen? Was I misleading the Little People by introducing them to all manner of winter things that they might never really experience in their lifetime? Was it not enough to always say, "Now, where we live we don't get any snow, but some places it snows in the winter," every time I introduced some cold-weather winter thing? Was my cultural bias created by other winters I have known inappropriate for this part of the country?

It was a true dental conundrum. And in that state, it truly puzzled me.

However, at lunch today I ran it by my co-teacher who has lived in this area all of her life. She was able to confirm that yes, kids here "do" snowmen. That the typical California "winter crafts" indeed do not all involve palm trees with Christmas lights on them. That it is acceptable to do wintery things that yes, they may never experience.

So I will continue, at least for a week or so more. And then perhaps we'll turn to Spring, or even early Summer - to match the weather.

Sensory Bins

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here is our "Giving and Sharing" sensory bin this week, as the Little People got one last "hurrah" with it before I switched it out for a more winter-themed set. They really loved this set of holiday objects. They looked at them, talked about them, and sorted them out into groups.

Of course, there are some downfalls to this type of open-ended exploration. See the white cubes below marked by the red ovals? These used to be cute little wrapped presents, wrapped in the shiny paper marked with the red arrow. It appears that someone thought that there was something good in those little packages.

Of course, on the other hand, look how nicely the kids sorted them out, even in their unwrapped status: Styrofoam blocks in one group, cast-off wrapping paper in another.

Yep - that's when you know that you're putting out stuff that's good for them - when they even keep learning in a state of post-wrapping disappointment. :)

2012-01-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

A large number of nutcrackers were laid to rest today, returning to their towel-lined home in the long plastic red box. This was after a month-plus of exhibiting all of their nutcracker splendor on the living room shelves of our home.

It was a delayed interment, put off for several days as the One-in-charge-of-all-interior-holiday-decorating procrastinated the solemn task ahead of her.

However, it has been done.

In all truth, the little men did not actually enjoy such a dignified resting place as is exhibited in the picture above and alternately, below.

In fact, they were laid to rest more in this manner, which brings to one's mind more of a sad, but space-necessary mass-nutcracker burial ground.

In fact, after the deed was done, this sole limb was found, all alone outside the big red box. Unfortunately, it was unceremoniously tossed in the box with everything else, all dignity set aside.

This was due to the fact that the One-in-charge-of-all-interior-holiday-decorating knew that come next December (or perhaps late November if all went really well) this task would repeat itself, and all bodily repairs could be done before the nutcrackers once again commandeered the living room as their own.

Plus the One-in-charge-of-all-interior-holiday-decorating was tired of it all.

Rest in peace, Little and Big Nutcrackers. Until next year.

#63

2012-01-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

Mosaic #63 just got highlighted (which means it was completed, minus grouting).

Here it is:

63. Paul’s shipwreck

16 out of 65.

Our Digital Scrapbook

2012-01-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

A day or so ago I was out and about in town, on the way to a destination that I had only been to once before. I couldn't remember exactly how far it was to the place where I needed to turn, but then remembered that I had the address in the car's GPS. I entered "previous destinations" and sure enough, there it was. However, I also that many of the other "previous destinations" listed were the fun places that we visited when my family was here for Christmas. It was like a small digital scrapbook, or vacation-memory-prompter right there in the car.

I wanted to take a screenshot of the entries, like I would do on my phone, but no matter how many buttons I pushed at the same time, it just wouldn't take a picture of the screen. So I had to result to capturing the list with my camera instead - but not while driving, of course.

Here is the list and a mini-description of each:

The first address is where we dropped the dog off on our way out of town.
693 S Ocean Avenue is the address of the house that we stayed in.
Nipomo, CA is where Jocko's is - restaurant of excellent steaks.
Monterey Bay Aquarium is - well, just that. We spent a very nice afternoon there exploring all the fabulous displays.
Marsh St/Chorro St is the intersection of a parking garage we were looking for in San Luis Opisbo. We went there one night to experience the SLO Farmer's Market. (Although this particular parking garage was full.)

Palm St/Morro Street is another parking garage address in San Luis Opisbo. We didn't actually go there, though. We found another parking place somewhere else.
Hearst Castle was just that. Some of us toured it, and some of us hung out in the visitor center, and some of us hung out at the beach house.
Hertz & De Luca Jewelry Co - wait a minute. Did we go there? Did anyone buy anything? Is there some Christmas present out there waiting for me somewhere? (Really, I have no idea why that's in there, but I'm not holding my breath on the Christmas present - especially because it seems to be in New York).
Linn's Fruit Bin was a very nice restaurant in Carmel CA that we ate lunch at on the way to Hearst Castle - home of Ollalieberry Pie.
Morro Bay - a beautiful little beach town very close to where we stayed.

Splash Cafe was where we ate lunch in Pismo. They have excellent clam chowder there in sourdough bread bowls.

Avila Beach was just a little ways down the highway from where our beach house was. We went to see the sea lions there out on the pier.

48 S Ocean Ave. was where the rental office was for our beach house.

The other two addresses and just general addresses that didn't have anything to do with our trip.

Fun, huh? There were a few missing from the list:

Cal Poly State University, where we took an impromptu tour of the campus in case any of the younger set in the car wanted to go there. After the tour some of us got to pick wonderful Satsuma mandarins at their pick-your-own stand.
The stretch of the PCH highway between Cayucos and Monterey - beautiful, but very curvy along very high cliffs.
Kettleman City, Ca, where who knows how many people eat each weekend on their way between Fresno and the beach.

Obviously, the list doesn't tell the whole story, but I think it gives a wonderful overview of our fun time together - who needs travel journals when you have a GPS?

Making a List, Checking it Twice

2011-12-31T13:35:00.003-08:00

The time is drawing near for us to start our new phase of Children's Ministry at church. Along with this, we are working feverishly to finish the Timeline Mosaic in order to display it in the new area. I've been carting the materials around to different classes at church to let different people work on it, and one evening this month we're going to have a Ladies' Night Worknight to work some more. As a result, there are mosaic boards in all stages of completion all around. In fact, the sheer number of them existing in some degree of completion makes me feel like we have accomplished a huge amount of the total job.

Of course, this week when I sat down to take a look at the list of stories to be completed, it told a different story.

Below is the list of stories that we are making boards for. The ones that are in the red font are ones that have been drawn on the boards. So, that's 49 of 65 drawn.

The ones highlighted are ones that are completed, with all the glass put on. So that's 15 of 65 created.

The ones with a black line drawn through it are the ones completed and grouted. That's - ummm, 7 of 65 completely done.

Of course, there is no indicator here of mosaics that are almost finished - of which there are quite a few. But they don't count, and they don't get a colored font or a highlight. So sad.

Sigh.

Sorry - have to go - I have to go glue on some glass.

Red Font = Picture Drawn on Board
Highlighted Red Font = Picture Drawn on Board
~~Highlighted and Cross-out Red Font~~ = Picture Drawn on Board

~~1. Creation – part 1~~
~~2. Creation – Part 2~~
~~3. The Fall~~
~~4. Noah and the Ark~~
~~5. Call of Abraham~~
~~6. God promises Abraham a~~
~~Great nation~~
7. Isaac is born
8. Jacob and Esau
9. Jacob’s Ladder
10. Joseph’s Coat
11. Joseph and his brothers
12. Moses in the basket
13. Burning Bush
14. Plagues – part 1
15. Plagues – part 2
16. Passover
17. Parting of the Red Sea
18. Pillars of Cloud/Fire
19. Golden Calf
20. Ten Commandments
21. Crossing Jordan
22. Fall of Jericho
23. Samson
24. Gideon
25. Beginning of the kings
26. ~~David and Goliath~~
27. Solomon builds temple
28. Elijah and Carmel
29. Elisha and Namaan
30. Hezekiah’s Two Prayers
31. Esther
32. Exile and Destruction of Temple
33. Daniel and Lions’ Den
34. Rebuilding of Jerusalem
35. Birth of Jesus
36. Jesus in the Temple
37. John the Baptist Preaches
38. John baptizes Jesus
39. Jesus tempted
40. Calling of disciples
41. Sermon on the Mount
42. Zaccheus
43. Feeding of 5,000
44. Jesus calms a storm
45. Jesus walks on water
46. Lazarus Raised
47. Palm Sunday
48. Cleansing of Temple
49. Jesus Arrested
50. Last Supper
51. Garden of Gethsemane
52. Crucifixion
53. Women find Empty Tomb
54. Road to Emmaus
55. Ascension
56. Pentecost
57. Peter escapes from prison
58. Saul’s Conversion
59. Paul Escapes in Basket
60. Dream of Clean vs. Unclean
61. Jerusalem Council
62. Paul arrested
63. Paul’s shipwreck
64. Letters
65. Revelation

Yes, It's Me, the ESW

2011-12-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

Source: eatliverun.com via Paige on Pinterest

My sister-in-law and I have bonded over an elephant seal. Not to say that we stood over an elephant seal and shared a pinky promise. Nor did we expose and then resolve any long-simmering differences through the result of arguing about one. Rather,we shared in an elephant seal birth experience. From afar - thankfully (see above).

This bonding happened on a beach outlook area near San Simeon, California. My brother, sister-in-law, and their two kids had flown out for Christmas and we were touring up and down the Central Coast finding fun things to do. Which was not hard on the Central Coast.

Our little family had seen the elephant seals before, but not during this particular season. In fact, we were at first a little afraid that there wouldn't be any on the beach at all this time of year, but in fact there were plenty. I read on the website that late December was the beginning of the birthing season, and sure enough, after some searching amongst the beach-dwellers we saw three little calves sleeping in the sand happily. This brought to me the idea that we might actually be able to see a female give birth right in front of us.

So I sent my mind to looking for signs of elephant seal labor. I peered at all the females carefully, watching for signs of any distress or discomfort. And actually, all of our other family members had already walked back to the car before I actually found one. Actually, it was really kind of hard to tell about the labor thing at all, because in general, these animals make all manner of awkward, rolling-type movements and sounds that could be taken as discomfort pretty much most of the time, anyway. But finally I saw one that looked a little extra discomforted, and I told my sister-in-law (Jana) that I thought that one was actually in labor at that very moment.

"Hmmm," she said, noncommittally, which in hindsight I take to mean that she was a little doubtful of my elephant-seal-in-labor pronouncement.

But I watched and watched as she acted in ways that the other females were not - and then a noticed a sea gull coming to stand right by her back flippers - waiting patiently. And then a few other seagulls came and tilted their little seagull heads to the side expectantly, and knowing the nature of how those things work in the world, I was pretty sure of what was happening.

Her back end away from us, so we didn't get the blow-by-blow of the birth, but of course that was convenient, considering that my five-year old niece was watching with us. It was the perfect distance to see in general how it was happening, but not get too overwhelmed with the details. And actually, the mother was quite helpful to turn our way at the end (in a wiggling, labor-like kind of way), and we saw the baby seal emerge quite clearly.

And then it was seagull chaos. They flocked the baby so quickly that I was concerned that it would be harmed, but the mother stood over it and bellowed at all of them to tell them to go away. (Which brings to mind the tip that if you are ever at this beach and for some reason want to see a newborn calf, just watch for the seagull swarm. Wait until the clear, and then voila - a new baby.)

After it was all over and the baby was nestled between the mom and a male that we are only assuming to be the dad, Jana called me an elephant seal whisperer, and we went off together all aglow over the miracle of birth of an elephant seal on a beach in California. (Actually, she did not call me an elephant seal whisperer, but I am secretly thinking of myself in that way. Which is really not a very glamorous title, but that's okay. I still might put in on my resume or put the initials on the next name tag I fill out - ESW.)

This event was only one of the fun adventures that we had with our family over Christmas, and hopefully I can write about more in the coming days. Although few perhaps can compare with the elephant seal birth.

Source: flickr.com via Robyn on Pinterest

I Both Love and Hate this Clip at the Same Time

2011-12-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

This is SO how it is with the Little People these days...

Gingerbread Houses

2011-12-10T08:48:00.001-08:00

This week was Gingerbread People week with the Little People, and that turned out to be lots of fun. We didn't do gingerbread people last year as a theme, but I found lots of gingerbread ideas on Pinterest and other places.

We culminated the week with making gingerbread houses, which of course were not really made of gingerbread, but rather from graham crackers. (We did, however taste gingerbread cookies and graph whether we actually liked the taste of gingerbread. Surprisingly, most of them did.

I was going to go with the traditional "frostingglue graham crackers on milk cartons", but I was not excited about the whole idea of collecting the milk cartons and then cleaning them before using, etc. (The only mental picture I could summon when thinking about it was a bunch of used milk cartons and several bottles of bleach, which wasn't a really good combination to me at all.)Fortunately, I saw a great idea a friend at church had for making gingerbread houses in a much easier way and decided to try that.

You still use graham crackers of course, but you don't actually build any kind of cube with them. Instead, you cut the tops of the crackers at an angle, as shown below. You just do this with a regular sharp knife. (According to my friend, you really need to use "real" graham crackers, meaning Honey Maid and not the generic ones. This is because the generic ones are too crumbly and just - well, crumble when you cut them.)

I used a cracker that she had cut as a pattern, and then cut mine.

I was cutting enough pieces to make 25 houses, and since 25 X 5 = 125, it was a lot of cutting. I started out cutting one or two crackers at a time, but of course, it wasn't long into the process before I decided to start layering them up and cutting a bunch at once. Because why cut two at time when you can cut eight at a time?

However, when I did this they didn't cut straight and got all cattywampus on me, and of course that will never do. (Although, in truth, if I were going to assemble them myself I would have just cut on them some more to make them work. Of course, all of this recutting might have made the house about two inches tall, but we would assign those houses to those height-challenged gingerbread people in the world. However, since I was handing them off to a helpful parent to be assembled, I felt that they needed to be straight and well-cut.)

To actually make the houses, you take five cut pieces and frostingglue them together, as such:

Then you take two rectangular graham cracker pieces and frostingglue them on like this.
I was thinking about peanutbuttergluing this model together for clarity, but then thought - nah. (Although that would have killed two birds with one stone, because I did end up eating peanut butter and graham crackers for lunch that day.)

I did use the royal icing recipe with the meringue powder in it, because my friend said that was the only way to go - that regular icing just wouldn't do.

Of course, when I finally got done with this long cutting process, I of course had a bunch of cut-off corners and rejected cattywampus pieces left over. And a whole lot of crumbs everywhere, which can be good or bad, considering your perspective. Bad if you're in charge of cleaning. Good if you're a dog.

However, despite the lengthy process (and I didn't even have to frostingglue them together), they turned out to be very hardy little houses for the kids to decorate. And they had a great time.

Here are some of their completed houses:

The "heavy on the roof and moderate on the front" design:

The "heavy on the roof and heavy on the front" design:

The "heavy on the roof and stockpile the ground for later" model:

All in all, it was a great project for the Little People, and hopefully we can do it again next year.

Where the Winds Have Names

2011-12-07T20:45:00.001-08:00

Remember last week when I posted that it looked like it was going to be a windy day at school? Well, it was a very windy day. Windy enough for us to remember it for a long, long time.

Of course, these winds even had a name: The Santa Ana Winds. Apparently here in California the winds have names. Or rather, here in California they have distinct weather patterns that have names. At this moment I'm trying to remember any specifically-named weather patterns that I've come across in other places that I've lived, but at the moment none come to mind. Such boring, nameless weather I've experienced before living here.

But I digress. I could tell it was going to be an interesting day when I found the back door propped open to our classroom when I arrived. This was because the wind was blowing at such an angle that if you opened up the front door a even a crack, the wind caught it and slammed it full force against the side of the building. Then everything in the room would swirl around dervishly, making a complete and total mess. We were quite afraid that the force of the door could crush any small children standing by the door (waiting excitedly to please, please, please come in and start their school day), so we opted to only use the back door that day. Which completely threw the Little People off, I'll let you know. We had to call the whole day Backwards Day to allow their little minds to come to terms with coming in and out that door all day. It was like they didn't even know what to do once they even used that door. Like, "Hey.....what cool classroom is this?"

On the way to the cafeteria I was debating whether we could even go out on the playground. This was mainly because lots and lots of dust and debris were flying around. Even the tree out back was sending showers of pine needle shrapnel on us. However, after lunch it wasn't blowing the stuff around so much, so we staggered on into the playground. We didn't get out any toys - we just let the kids get blown around for about ten minutes. It was like they were the toys, really. Plus, the playground is enclosed with a fence, so the worse that could happen would be someone being trapped up against the fence a foot or two off the ground like one of those barrel/centrifuge rides at Six Flags. As it was, they loved being blown hither and yon, and we laughed about the coats and lunch boxes being blown up against the fence a foot or two off the ground like - well, you know. It was at the point where someone fell out of the bottom of the slide and her boot blew away across the playground that we decided that it was time to go inside.

From that point on we just watched the windy day from inside our room - with our hair all knotted and messy from being out in it for just a little while.

All in all, it was very memorable. As I mentioned, I don't think anyone will forget it for a long, long time. Whether they remember the name of it or not.

Windy

2011-12-01T09:48:00.001-08:00

(I actually wrote this Thursday morning - but then half of it got deleted somehow (which was very frustrating) and then I didn't have time to finish it before school...)

Well, it is very windy today here in Fresno. All of the beautiful fall leaves are swirling around like a giant leaf snowstorm. While I am sad to see them fall, I also still think that Christmas lights and fall leaves don't quite go together, so it will complete the holiday look to have them down.

Speaking of holiday lights, Christmas has once again thrown up on our neighbour's lawn. You might (or might not) remember that last year she was very slow in getting her decorations up. So slow, in fact, that I began to fear for her well-being. However, this year they were up when we got back from Thanksgiving, and then a few days later the work crew came back and put some more up. I like it - it's festive, and it makes it easy for visitors to find our house.

Our family is rather minimal on our outside Christmas decorations. Perhaps the main reason for this is that by the time I get all the stuff up inside, I am weary and am daunted by the outside lights task. However, I do have a "dream" Christmas lawn scenario.

I have seen these little penguins around here in there in our neighbourhood. They have several varieties, but I like this standing version (although in this picture it looks like he has blue teddy bear ears, which is a little strange). What I would like to do is get a lot of these little guys for the front yard. A lot like a flock, or a bevy, or a herd. Then I would like to stand them all up in the front yard of our house, like a strange army of penguin minions on the hill of our yard. I don't know why, but that just sounds like a fun way to decorate.

However, considering that this guy alone was $45 on the Target website, I doubt my big decorating plans can happen any time soon. It would take a lot of after-Christmas clearance shopping to make the penguin swarm happen.

Anyway, off to take care of the Little People.

Stay vertical, my friends, and hang on in this wind.

Taking a Little Thanksgiving Break...

2011-11-23T20:03:00.001-08:00

Hello, all. I am currently taking a little Thanksgiving break from the blog. Not that there is nothing to write about when I'm not daily with my Little People, but rather because I am just taking a little Blogging Nap.

I'll be back on Monday.

By the way, Happy Thanksgiving.

Source: melondipity.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Turkey Hats

2011-11-19T08:43:00.000-08:00

This week we made turkey hats to wear Friday for our Harvest Party/A - Z Potluck. Now, I have to admit that this is true craft project, and not my favorite type of art project for the Little People. Usually I try to stick to the projects where they can create anything they want. However, these turkey hats are very cute, and the parents love them. So, I just put them in the "Following Directions" art category while the kids make the faces, and then end up putting together most of the project at home.

I did, however let them choose any color of pom poms they wanted for eyes, and while the parents might wonder at this, I think they turned out wonderfully.

Some of the kids went for brown or white pom pom eyes. (I added the Sharpie pupils later.)

However, some kids branched out a little bit. We had "alarmed" orange eyes:

"Stressed out/Been Dipping into the Eggnog" Pink Eyes:

"Have Pink Eye Must Stay Home" Pink and White Eyes:

And mismatched "Turkey Lurkey" eyes.

Ahh, so cute, so parent-pleasing, and yes, still a little bit creative.

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

And so the Worm Fun continues. We have discovered worm after worm on our playground these past few days, an accomplishment that thrills our worm lovers to no end. Of course, I am beginning to suspect that the multitude of worms is coming not from rain, but instead from the moisture that is coming from the sprinklers that apparently have been running every single night in an attempt to grow in a large bare patch on the playground. As far as I can see, no grass is coming from this moisture - just lots and lots (and lots) of mud. And in my opinion, a large bare patch on the playground is much less evil than mud everywhere.

Anyway. Every day one of us sits with the kids and digs for worms. Well, one of two of us dig for worms. One of my coworkers has so far shown no interest at all in digging for worms. And that's okay. She's more into Duck, Duck, Goose, and other those organized games that I have no interest in leading. And that seems to work out just fine.

In the face of so many worms, we have had to instill some Worm Care Rules. In fact, we've had to extend our rules beyond "We do not clutch the worms tightly in our hot little hands" and "We do not put the worms in our lunchboxes". Now we have the "We just let the worms wiggle as they please around in our hands or in our cups - we do not pick them up with our fingers and stretch them out to see how big they can get." Along with this we have the "We do not deafen the worms by yelling at them" rule. Yes, I have one little girl who seems to have a fascination/repulsion relationship with the little guys. She will hold them, but mainly she likes to put them in her little plastic teacup (a sand toy) and watch them. And when they do something she doesn't like, she yells at them. She'll lean over so her mouth is right by the top of the cup and yell at the top of her voice: "HEY! WORMS! HEY, CUT THAT OUT!" And then she'll lean back and look in sweetly to see if they have cooperated. But alas, they have not. Because if those worms had ears to begin with, they are now completely hearing impaired.

Fortunately, these Worm Care Rules have cut down on any overt worm abuse and hopefully will keep the SPCW off of our backs. Which is a good thing, because I imagine that our Worm Fun is going to stretch (no pun intended) far into the days ahead.

New Mosaic Pictures

2011-11-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Due to a large overhall to the Children's Ministry area at church, we are picking up the speed on the Mosaic Timeline. Of course, considering that this has been a two-year project, I would say that it's time to pick up the speed a little.

I've posted some new pictures on the Mosaic Timeline tab above. You can also see them here.

His Bags Were Packed and He was Ready to Go

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

Oh, the things these Little People say. Today I heard such interesting things during our Small Group time. I read a book about Thanksgiving, and we talked about what it means to be thankful for something. I then asked them what they were thankful for.

Actually, I was surprised at their quick answers. One said right away they were thankful for their family. Another said they were thankful for their toys and stuff. One said they were thankful for their two cousins. "Oh," I said. "I thought you just lived with one cousin." "Well, Dan and Rex," he answered. Dan is in fifth grade. Rex is a dog. He's two." Oh, well, okay then.

But the funniest to me was the little girl who said that she was thankful for her cat. "I had a fish," she explained solemnly. She then shook her head in a flabbergasted kind of way. "But it ran away from home, just like the other one."

Oh, ran away from home, did it? I had no idea these fish were so clever.

Then again, at least it didn't pop.

The Lesser of the Two Evils

2011-11-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a "Choose the Lesser of the Two Evils" day, playground-wise. Despite having three Little People out sick, our class was still bursting with energy, and when I received the news that the playground was really muddy, it was a true quandary for me. On one hand, we could have skipped the playground altogether and gone inside and had extra center time or perhaps even watch a video. However, my experience with this is that it never turns out as good as you might hope it would. First of all, even on the coldest, rainiest days the kids rarely ever snuggle up and sit quietly to watch even the most entertaining movie. They talk. And move around. And comment about every scene. And argue. ("I'm Buzz Lightyear!" "No, I'm Buzz Lightyear!") And on and on. And if you go straight to extra center time, it's always way too long, and all that unspent energy manifests itself in a veritable plethora of frightening and hard-to-handle ways.

So, you could see why I was against that option. However, the second option was to sanction some of the playground as "okay" playing space, and sanction some of it as not. (I'm not sure that's the correct use of the word "sanction", but you get the idea.) Of course, that idea was a little shaky to being with, because if there are two things that just don't mix, it's four-year olds and invisible boundaries.

Of course, anyone that knows me know that I chose the "Limited Playground" option. I just couldn't stand the thought of all that wildness inside, so we went for option #2. Much to the dismay of my coworkers, I'm afraid. They in general seem to be colder than I am most of the time and seem to ~~romanticize~~ appreciate the "watch a movie" scenario much more than I do. Plus, one of my coworkers came to school obviously feeling really poorly today, so I'm sure she would have enjoyed the indoor sitting time.

Unfortunately for her (and most of the Little People that want band-aids for every mysterious or otherwise invisible injuries), I am largely unsympathetic to these type of things. I suppose it's a character trait that I really need to work on - you know, to be more sympathetic in general.

But I digress. Yes, we played outside. I did try to create some visual boundaries by lining the grass area with cones, as well as by stringing some crepe paper banners around the forbidden area. Some of the Little People did quite well with these boundaries. Some were completely oblivious and wandered out into the mud - multiple times. Wood Chip thrower drove his bike into the mud at least twice, and then wondered aloud in an amazed fashion as I pushed him back to the concrete, "I got all muddy!" And some of the others just embraced the possibilities of it all, running and breaking through the crepe paper as if they were the winner of the Little People Mud Marathon.

But we got through it. And we had a rather peaceful rest of the day. Which was worth a little playground chaos in my book, hands down.

W Week (As Well)

2011-11-14T08:59:00.001-08:00

I mentioned in one of my last few posts that last week was "F" week, and that we did lots of fun "F" things. However, by default it was also kind of "W" week, as in W for Worms.

One of the Little Peoples' favorite things to do on the playground lately is to dig for worms in the wood chips. They get their heavy-duty shovels and hoes out and dig great big holes looking for the little creatures. Unfortunately, given that we get very little rain here for around nine months of the year, the worms can be few and far between. However, now that we've officially entered the "Rainy Season", we have found a lot more of them.

In fact, one day last week was such a plentiful worm day that all the hunters had at least seven or eight apiece. (Not all of the Little People hunt for worms, of course. Some just turn their nose up in disdain, and some act like they really would hunt worms if they could, but they just can't. "I'm allergic to worms," one girl told everyone last week.)

One of our biggest Worm Hunters clutched his catch in his hand for quite awhile on Thursday until we asked him to show us and discovered that he was tightly squeezing a whole tangle of them. We then encouraged him to put them in one of our plastic bowls for safekeeping. Of course, then we had to watch carefully at the end of playground time to make sure that he actually put them back in the dirt - although bless those little worms' hearts, I would imagine they're still in that bunched up ball shape even now. (We learned from his mother that two days last week she found dead worms in his lunch bag. He, of course, insisted that the teachers said it was okay for him to take them home - hopefully she realized that that was not the case.)

So, it was F week and then again it was W week. Considering the rain we had over the weekend, it will probably be W week again this week, too.

As long as we can keep them unsquished and out of lunchboxes, I think that will be just fine.

F is for Fish

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

This week was Letter F week. That means that we talked and talked about the Letter F. We had Letter F Show and Tell. We talked about things that start with F. Our theme this week was Food, so we talked about that, too. We made Fingerprint Fishes and we Fingerpainted on Foil. All and all, it was great Fun.

We did have several out this week from sickness. In fact, my entire class could have been poster children for the health department and symptoms of the common cold, as every one of them was either stuffed up, sniffling, or coughing greatly. No fevers, though, so that just meant that most everyone came to school and sniffled and coughed - everywhere.

On Thursday we had only sixteen, which gave us more of a chance to talk to everyone and hear their interesting stories. Like the one from my little Wood Chip Thrower.

Of course the story came as I was talking about the letter F and what starts with F, and one of these was fish.

"I had a fish," he said. "But it died."

"Oh," I said. "That happens sometimes."

"Yes," he continued. "It died - and then it popped." He paused solemnly. "My mom said I fed it too much food."

"Yes," I said, trying hard to keep a straight face. "That happens sometimes."

So there you have it: Fish die. And then they pop - sometimes.

Yard Sale Treasure

2011-11-12T15:19:00.001-08:00

I had a little time this afternoon to work in the garage, which is always a good thing. Usually that means sorting out bags of things from school into their proper unit boxes, as well as putting the empty bottles and boxes and cans and plastic lids that I've been collecting into their proper collection containers. Today it meant sorting out several boxes of fun stuff that I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago.

Now, I can almost always find something to use with the Little People at any given yard sale, but this particular sale was a preschool teacher's jackpot. Mainly because I have been working on providing more sensory activities for my kids this year, and therefore have been looking for things to put in themed sensory tubs. Like this one, that I used for fall:

However, fake flowers and pom poms and little plastic doo dads can really add up, even when purchased at the dollar store. That's why finding these type of things at a yard sale is so exciting.

Here are the boxes that I was unpacking today:

Out of these boxes I got things for Valentine's Day (including working heart lights):

Halloween:

Easter (although I may use the eggs to make snakes on Letter S Week:

Winter:

And lots and lots of Christmas things. I got these things, as well as the box below that is just full of silk Christmas flowers and ornaments:

Plus some other miscellaneous things that could go in several categories:

All of these things plus two pair of jeans (for the baby quilts) were just $20. Which, in my opinion, is a steal.

I'll Pass on the Cake, Thanks

2011-11-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

I have been reminded of something this past weekend. Well, not really reminded, because I've known this all along. It was more of a confirmation. And that something is that I just don't do well running around from one activity to another.

While some of my friends thrive on this kind of busy lifestyle, it seems to suck the life right out of me. In fact, it just proves to be a tried-and-true recipe for weariness and frustration in my life. Take this last weekend, for example: Start with the basic ingredients of a 2-day holiday boutique, an all-day band practice and competition (with attached parent volunteer duties), early morning praise team practice, two Sunday afternoon events to attend, plus Sunday night youth group, and oh - a husband out of town. Throw in a few emotional tablespoons of staying up extra late a few nights getting my boutique items ready, getting everything there at the very last minute after work on Friday, and then throw in a few cups of disappointment over not doing as well on my items at the boutique as I had hoped. Sift in some extra needed vigilance to make sure the teenagers are doing what they're supposed to be doing over the weekend, and not doing what they're not supposed to be doing. Frost this thickly with a statement from the family financial manager that current family finances are dictating that I must find a full time job. Which most likely means going back to school to complete my California credentials while trying to find any full-time teaching job that is available in this very poor economy. (Which of course means that I would be leaving my Little People teaching job, which is a job that I truly love.) Mix those all together and throw them in the oven over a very short span of three days, and you've got one big, lopsided Unhappy Cake on your hands.

Unhappy Cake is not the type of cake that I want to start the week out with. I would rather have Energy Cake, or Contentment Cake, or Nap Cake. But the fact is that sometimes you just have to deal with the cake that life hands you - or sometimes you just have to pass on the cake and move on to something else.

No cake for me, thanks. Unless it's Nap Cake.

Capes

2011-11-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across a great way to make capes for the Little People. Of course, I discovered this on Pinterest, because I still can't seem to pull myself away from that site.

Anyway. Here is how you make super-easy capes for Little People:

1) Buy a man's t-shirt at a yard sale. I got mine for 25 cents, which I thought was a steal.

2 )Lay the t shirt down on the table, front side down.

3) Using scissors, cut from the side seam of the shirt up to the collar.

4) Stop just as you reach the right and left edge of the collar, as shown:

5) Then open up the shirt as shown, and continue to cut around the collar.

6) Discard the rest of the shirt. Or recycle it.

Voila! You then have a very easy and cheap cape.

7) Take the capes to school and let the Little People love them.

However, in your frenzy of cape-making, don't forget these two small details: First, you will want to snip the front of the collar of each t-shirt with scissors and add Velcro to fasten the cut collar together. If you do not, the longish cape can get caught in the wheels of a tricycle and pull on a child's neck, causing no small amount of neck redness - not to mention huge visions of liability issues to swarm before your eyes.

Also, don't skimp on the pink capes. One is not enough. In fact, is better not to put them out until you have more than one pink one. Or perhaps a purple or yellow one, as well.

So there you - easy capes for the Little People.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Locke

2011-11-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

I brought Mr. and Mrs. Locke home from school today to introduce to you. Not the real us, mind you, but the play kind.

At the end of every school day while waiting for their parents, the Little People play with these rubbery/gummy type people that represent a wide variety of cultures and abilities. Not long after the school year started I started hearing them refer regularly to two of them as Mr. Locke and Mrs. Locke. I'm pretty sure my associate teacher named them thus, because the kids can't even seem to fathom that I actually ever leave the classroom, not to mention that I have a husband and kids somewhere else.

Fortunately, these two figures are in high demand. I hear them saying, "Where is Mr. Locke?" or "I want to have Mrs. Locke." Which is of course way better than seeing Mr. or especially Mrs. Locke fly across the carpet as someone tries to get as far away from them as possible.

Anyway, the other day I decided to figure out which of these characters were the ones that actually represented us.

Mr. Locke was easy:

Not a terribly bad likeness, actually. Although my Mr. Locke always wears very nice shoes and non-scuffed-up pants.

Now, Mrs. Locke I had more trouble with. All things considered, I'm guessing that the one they think looks most like Mrs. Locke is this one:

Obviously, there are more differences with this one. Besides the fact that she is visually impaired and I am not, the other things that come to mind is that I would never wear pink pants, and she sadly looks kind of - plain - to me.

She is also quite clumsy. Look, here she is after she fell off of the bench on the front porch into the flower basket full of spider webs:

The one I wanted the Little People to think looked like me is much cuter. Here she is:

She is obviously much prettier. But she also is not without her issues. For one, she seems unable to stand up by herself, which led Mr. Locke to lie on the ground behind her to hold her up. Kind of like the wind beneath her wings - except more like the support behind her heels. Which is all very endearing until you remember that she's not actually me.

So, as I mentioned, a Mr. and Mrs. Locke kind of like the real things, but actually not at all.

I suppose that as long as they're not throwing us across the carpet in disgust, it's all good.

Spider Web Report

2011-11-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems like ages ago, but we did actually make our spider web treats at school. Naturally, the kids just loved them. My original plan was to make enough pretzel web bases for everyone to make one to eat at school and one to take home. However, it became quickly apparent that this was going to take way too much time. Plus there was the logistical problems of keeping enough of the white chocolate heated up and ready, which took multiple trips to the microwave, which slowed everything down. Of course, you don't want to cook the chocolate too much, because then it gets all hard and crusty - kind of like old, dried up toothpaste. You also have to watch out to make sure that the chocolate is not too hot to hold for the kids, either. That can also be a deterrent to good web-making.

All in all, we got through it all just fine. In general, it just reminded me that it's always better to do cooking projects at school when we have all of the teachers free to help, or at least one parent volunteer there. Because it gets hectic and messy and crazy, but of course the kids are just excited, and they ALL want to make their spiderweb RIGHT NOW, and I feel like I spend most of my time just shooing/ordering them to GO AWAY, that I will call them when I'm ready for them. Which is not ever very fun - at least not as fun as you would think making chocolate spider webs would be.

Live and learn, of course. Here is one of the child-made webs. (Notice the little spiders drawn onto her fingernails - it was "Spiders on our Hands" Day, as well.

Here!

2011-10-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

If we are calling attendance in the blog world today (and yesterday and Monday) I would holler "here", but that would be about it. The past few days I've had a combination of Parent Conferences + Teacher Evaluation + Finishing Boutique Projects. So, let's just say I am present, but am working on some homework at the moment. I hope to be back tomorrow.

I the mean time I will leave you with this, which has had me looking at all statues in a whole, what-would-it-look-like-if kind of way:

Source: tanglewashere.com via Julie on Pinterest

Spiders

2011-10-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

I've been having a little spiderweb-making session at home this morning in preparation for school today. I of course got this idea on Pinterest. Here is the pin itself, with the link to the instructions:

Source: momendeavors.com via Julie on Pinterest

I thought this was a fun idea, so I decided to include it in this week's "Friendly Spiders" festivities.

I could see right away that the pretzel webs would need to be preassembled, since I thought it would be tricky to add the webbage without some sort of stability. (Actually, I really just imagined the scenario of a well-meaning Little Person brushing up against the pretzels while piping on the web and knocking the pretzels awry. Then I repeated this mental picture in my head 21 times and decided to preassemble them.)

Therefore, I piped out a thick center of white chocolate to the wax paper and then added the pretzels. I started with six pretzels, but quickly moved to eight. The chocolate firmed up pretty quickly, and then I could stack them in my containers for the move to school.

In fact, here they are, ready for transport.

Despite the fact that today is a little cooler, I still intend to shade them in the car and to not tarry on the way, since some strong sunlight could wreak havoc on their Web Stability.

After I got the webs ready, I started on the spiders. The original website suggested raisins as a possibility as spiders, but I found that I didn't like this option. Mainly because the raisin on the web didn't really look like a spider. Well, perhaps like one of those spiders you find in the corner of your garage - dead and all rolled up in a spider ball. Which was kind of a gross mental image, really.

Instead, I went with chocolate spiders. And llet me tell you, the next time you're sitting at a church potluck and someone casually comments to you about how easy chocolate spiders are to make, you have my express permission to scoff at them and disagree. I found them quite hard to make. Especially when I was had the melted chocolate in the cheap sandwich baggies, and new holes kept opening up in the baggie. It is truly hard to add only eight legs to a spider's body with three holes of chocolate oozing out. Because we all know that 3 + 3 + 3 does not equal eight.

The result of the chocolate spider challenge was that I a)changed baggies to one of those heavier Ziploc bags, and b)made larger and larger spiders since they were easier to make anatomically correct. The final result was spiders much closer to tarantula size, which might be alarming to any Little Person if they were made of anything other than chocolate.

However, I suppose that's the saving feature in all of this. They're edible and are made largely of chocolate, so how can I go wrong?

As always, I'll let you know how it goes.

The Apple Tree and the Fall Tree

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is how our Classroom Tree looked in its recent Apple Tree form:

And here is how it looks today:

I kind of wish I had more fall leaves to put on it, but that certainly doesn't mean that I'm going to run off and make some more. Maybe I'll add to it next year.

The next step is the easiest - just take all the leaves off for winter.

Some Lunch Shrapnel

2011-10-19T15:24:00.000-07:00

Remember when I told you that I have one Little Person whose lunch explodes every day as soon as he/she opens it? I have now documented this in digital form. Here it is:

Yep. Lunch shrapnel everywhere.

Back to the Little People

2011-10-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm headed back to the Little People today after sitting in a courtroom for two days being considered for a jury. Despite my appreciation of both the defendant's right to trial by jury as well as my civic responsibility to serve on a jury, I am very glad I was released. First of all due to the nature of the charges (murder of an infant), and second of all because the trial was expected to last three weeks. Three weeks would be a long time to be away from the Little People. Plus, I feel completely wasted after two days of paying close attention to all of the questions they were asking us (plus a weekend of thinking about it) - I can't imagine three weeks of such responsibility.

So today I'm back to paint and playground and Friendly Spiders - and a renewed appreciation of what I get to do every day.

Raggy (& Thready) Baby Quilts

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

After I made a denim rag quilt a while ago for my friend Gay's grand baby (born this past week, by the way), I decided to make a few more to sell at our upcoming Holiday Boutique at church. This is an "upcycled" denim project, so first I had to gather some good-quality jeans to work with. Then I bought the fabric at our local (chatty) fabric store, and started sewing.

I basically assembly-lined them and sewed all five together at once. Once I got them assembled, I started what has proved to be the hardest part: snipping the seams. This is not only a little tedious, it is also very messy. One almost immediately takes on a porcupine-type look during this part of the project, as the tiny little threads stick right onto your clothes.

Unfortunately, this is not the end of the ThreadMess. After I got the quilts snipped I then shook them out (outside), which brought forth a huge shower of little snipped threads. I shook and shook, and the little thread rain just kept comin' down.

But wait, that's not all. Did you know that if you wash four denim raggy quilts close together in your washing machine, the threads will completely clog up your washing machine drain filter? And that you will have to look in the manual to figure out how to clear that up? And that you will have to do that four or five times to get all the thread bundles out of there?

Yes, this is true. From now on I will be washing all of my denim quilts at a local laundromat instead of at our house. Although I might have to utilize several laundromats, because after I wash at one place, I might just be afraid to go back after they have to clean out their washing machine drain filters - four or five times.

Regardless, here are the four finished quilts. Aren't they cute?

I think this one is my favorite so far because of how the green fabric shows up on the denim side so nicely in the seams.

This one is a close second to my favorite:

Here is the one that has not been washed yet.

It has, however, been snipped.

And here are some of the many, many threads out on the grass. left for the birds to make happy blue nests with.

Oh, and one more picture. Here is the dog, lounging outside with denim blue threads in her fur (up by her eyes and on her ears). Silly dog.

So, here's the bottom line on the Denim Rag Baby Quilts:

Me: Happy that they turned out so cute and hopefully happy that they will sell.

Future Owners/Babies: Hopefully Happy

Birds Building Nests: Happy

Dog: Happy

Person in charge of the washing machine at our house: Not so happy.

However, 4:1 is pretty good, at least in my thread-covered opinion.

The Leaves are Almost Ready!

2011-10-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the fall leaves are almost ready to put on the Classroom Tree. Right now there are apples on it, but since we've been talking about fall a lot (and now that we can actually see signs of fall), it's time for the tree to transform. Overnight. Magically.

As you can see below, I have made tucks in all of the leaves to get them ready. My plan is to layer them in groups of two or three and then run them through the sewing machine again. However, I worry that doing that will dramatically lesson the length of leaves I will have to string on the branches - by about one-half to two-thirds, of course.

Well, we shall see. I might do that (layer them) anyway just to cover up the harshness of the bright yellow, which looks a little glaring to me even as I write this.

After I get them all strung (layered or not layered) I will post another picture.

The Chatdown

2011-10-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

I did not even see the Little People today, as I spent my day in downtown Fresno for jury duty. Yes, you are correct, I was also called for jury duty not long ago. And yes, it's still true that you can not take Sharpies in the courthouse. In fact, despite my best efforts, I had one in my purse confiscated today. Well, not actually confiscated. The deputy spied it on the x-ray machine, dug through the vast contents of my purse, and politely asked me to go back outside and throw it away. (FYI: The "best efforts" referred to above were trying to get rid of all my Purse Sharpies before I went to the courthouse in the first place. It was not any kind of unsuccessful effort to wrest the contraband Sharpie away from the deputy. Although that would have made the morning much more interesting.)

Because of the day's events I can not talk about the Little People today. Nor (by court order) can I talk about the court case that I am being considered for. However, I did hear something interesting on the radio on the way downtown today. It was reported by this radio station that now Homeland Security is going to take on a new tactic for traveling passengers at the airport: The "chat down". This seems to be some kind of short verbal conversation between the security people and the passenger with the aim of ascertaining if the passenger seems at all suspicious - at least verbally.

Being a person who likes to for the most part travel in silence (at least while alone), this does not sound very fun to me. In fact, I can think of several places that I go to often just here in town that are already adopting this method of conversation - and I don't much enjoy those conversations, either.

For example, I am lucky to have a fabric store very close to my house, and as I am making several new things for our upcoming Holiday Boutique, I find myself at this fabric store at least once a week. With this increased exposure to these specific store employees, I have experienced more and more of this "chat down" approach.

Recently I was at the cutting counter at this store with an employee that usually doesn't work in that department. I knew this because a)she told me this, and b)I am there all the time. Unfortunately, this was an evening when I was very anxious to be somewhere else, which made the conversation all the more tedious.

It went down like this:

J (me): I'd like two yards of this fabric, please.
SG (Salesgirl): Oh, okay. Let me see... (she starts slowly and carefully spreading out the fabric on the table.) I'm new at this...I usually don't work in this department. Okay...here we go. (starts cutting)
Cuts three or four scissors lengths, and then: "What are you making with this?"

J: A scarf.
SG: Oh! A scarf. (stops cutting). How are you going to make it?
J: Well, I'm going to blah blah blah... (I quickly explain my plan for the scarf-making process).
SG: Oh! Okay. (starts cutting again). There you go. (Moves on to the next fabric and asks how much I want.)
What are you making with this?

J: Um, a bag.
SG: (Stops cutting and looks around conspiratorially) We have to ask that. They make us. It's a way of engaging the customers. Although we don't have to ask everyone.
J: Ah ha.
SG: (Stops cutting, as if this question stops her in mid-cut): So, how are going to make the bag?
J: Um, I'm not really sure yet.
SG: (Cutting again.) Oh, okay.

Next is the fabric for another scarf. This time I just volunteer what it's going to be before she can ask.

SG: Oh! Another scarf. (Stops cutting).
Well, that's interesting. (Rubs the fabric).
This isn't very soft fabric. Doesn't it bother you that this is not very soft fabric? (Remains in a non-cutting stance until I answer.)
J: Um, no. No, it doesn't.
SG: Oh, okay. (Continue cutting).

And on and on it went. Believe me, I felt very "Chatted Down" before the whole fabric experience was over.

So, next time I go to this store (most likely over the weekend) I think I will just volunteer what everything is before I even begin the fabric-cutting process. Or pretend that I don't hear them and refuse to talk at all. And perhaps I will be done with the Chat Downs.

I guess I'm just more of a cut-and-dried x-ray kind of person. Like this morning, with the Sharpie. Because otherwise it might have gone down like this:

Deputy: So, tell me how you feel about Sharpies....

An Open Letter to the Parents of the Little People

2011-10-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents of the Little People,

I would hear by like to make my request known to all of you to start refraining from stopping by Starbucks on the way to school to pick up a Venti-double shot Latte for your children. How do I know you are doing this, you ask? Why, by the way your children were acting at school today, of course. In fact, let me count the plethora of ways I could see this in your child's actions:

1) No one knew how to walk in line today. They were either skipping, hopping, twirling, or generally walking backwards. Some children wouldn't walk at all. Others would walk a little bit, but only if they were far, far away from the other children.

2) No one could stay in their seat in the cafeteria. Every time I looked up someone was in a different place. Two children were leaning out from the chairs at our table and were resting their heads on the table next to us. One child was repeatedly banging one of the fourth graders at the next table with his lunchbox. Several children were wearing their lunchboxes as hats. One child, for the second day in a row, had food in his lunchbox that literally exploded whenever he opened it - there was muffin shrapnel everywhere. (Yesterday it was yogurt residue - strawberry.) One of the most telltale moments was looking up and seeing one child chasing another child around the cafeteria- with a spork.

3) While the playground is usually a place where everyone can run and play, today they would not stop running. Or screaming. Or chasing. Or crashing their bikes together. Or randomly throwing the playground balls over the fence. Or barking.

4) Centers as well were an amazing time. The Home Center alone was a hub of Little People madness. Plastic food representing many different cultures was thrown around at random. Much talking was done on the play telephones - to people who were obviously extremely hard of hearing and very irritating. At one point, three or four girls started beating a baby doll with plates and other kitchen utensils - while laughing maniacally. "Oh, no," I said. "We feed the babies. We don't beat them." To which they answered, truly puzzled, "Why not?"

5) Finally, we got through both Small Groups and Music time, and sent all the Little People on their way. But not without consequences, as well as some general Wear and Tear on the teachers.

So tomorrow, parents, keep away from the lattes. Skip the sugary cereal. Cut back on the Mountain Dews. Or, if these actions are from a full moon, please just bring them back to school - later.

Thank you,
Mrs. Locke

The Leaving People

2011-10-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

I don't have much news today. I did drag myself to the gym this morning, a feat that I am always more enthusiastic about after I complete it. Which reminds me that there are two types of "leaving" people that I have found myself envious of lately. People that are leaving the gym, and people who are leaving the dentist's office.

I just want to be one of those "leaving" people - the "going in" people just don't appeal to me at all.

I Didn't Know We Had That Classroom Job...

2011-10-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a good week with the Little People. One of the best contributions to the week was the weather, which after Wednesday (rain all day) was cool and wonderful. Very fall-ish.

Friday was the school's Fall Carnival, so everything was all decorated around the cafeteria area. The decorations and the weather were perfect for our theme this week of "Fall". (The Little People just don't get Fall as well when it's 100 degrees outside). After our lunch on Friday we walked around looking at the decorated carnival tables, scarecrows, pumpkins and haystacks. We even took a class picture amongst the pumpkins, which is nice because I don't think we're going to the pumpkin patch this year.

After our Fall Tour we moved onto the playground, where everyone was very excited to run around in the nice weather. We were using the much-unused back gate, and while I was trying to get the lock open, the kids started pushing against each other impatiently. Then I heard this:

Sally: Hey! Don't push in front of me - I'm the line leader!
Billy: Well, I'm the Weather Watcher.
Suzie (from the back of the mob): I'm the Light Helper!
Lizzie: Well, I'm the ring bearer.

I stopped working with the lock. "What did you say?" I asked. "Did you say you were the ring bearer?"

"Yep." She answered.

I laughed at this as I finally got the lock undone, commenting to my co-teachers, "She must have been at a wedding recently. But the Ring Bearer? What about the Flower Girl?"

Then we started wondering if perhaps she had been watching the Lord of the Rings lately and had appointed herself the Ring Bearer, but knowing this particular child (and the fact that she's four), we decided that wasn't very likely.

I've kind of laughed about it in my head since then, but at the same time still found it puzzling. Finally, this afternoon it came to me suddenly: She didn't mean the ring bearer. She meant the Ring Beller. Because of course she really was the Bell Ringer yesterday.

She wasn't a Tolkien fan or an Equal-Opportunity-Wedding-Assistant after all. She was a Ring Beller.

Baby Introduction

2011-10-06T09:28:00.001-07:00

Today I bring you an adorable video of our friends Tomas and Martina and their new family.

A True Test

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Source: thatkindofwoman.tumblr.com via Erin on Pinterest

I had a realization yesterday that my Little People have truly passed a "Getting It Together" milestone. I had suspected this for a few days, but this act truly showed it: I let them work with the tools from the shed. This might not seem like such a big deal, but the truth is that these are real, scaled-down tools made of heavy metal. Misused, they are capable of giving any Little Person a plethora of stitches at any given time. (I do feel like I must insert a disclaimer that they are not the tools shown above. I'm a brave teacher, but I refuse to let them loose with pitchforks and saws.)

However, they didn't get the tools without a long lesson on the rules of Tool Usage. The number one rule is to Keep All Tools Close to the Ground. They aren't pick axes, intended to be lifted high above one's head and crashed down into the earth. Hoes are made to carefully chop at the ground from a short range. Rakes are made to scoot the earth over - not pound the earth. Shovels are made to be stepped on, not rammed into the ground. And the brooms - well, they're for the concrete, not the wood chips.

Thankfully, they did pretty well with the tools. They did have a blast digging in the wood chips. They didn't even fuss when we made them fill in the holes when we left, fearful that some of the other students using the playground might fall and hurt themselves. And only one person got whacked in the head with a tool. That sadly was a teacher who was sitting on the ground, looking for worms in the digging site. The site of the injury is still sore today, but I have to admit that my head was pretty close to the ground at the time of the accidental assault.

So there you go. If permission to use real metal tools is not a sign of accomplishment for Little People, I don't know what is.

Math Bags

2011-10-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have a new Pinterest idea that I'm going to try this or next week. It's linked to the picture below, and comes from teachpreschool.org. Basically the idea is that everyone takes some a Math Bag and brings back five objects in it. Then you let the kids count them, and you sort them, graph, them, etc., etc.

Source: teachpreschool.org via Julie on Pinterest

I was at first stymied by the cost of buying a back for everyone to have, since my best source was the Dollar Tree at a dollar a bag. (Because a: I don't have that big of a "Buy-It-Yourself" Teacher Budget, and b: I'm cheap).

However, this weekend I came across nice canvas bags at Michael's for 30 cents a bag. So I bought 21 and fixed them all up with a Sharpie.

Although somehow in the writing this happened:

So, after I go back and get a bag to replace this one, I will send them home with a note explaining about their purpose.

I'll let you know how it goes.

They're Just Different

2011-10-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I almost hesitate to say this, but I think my Little People are really getting better. They still have their wild and crazy moments, but in general I can actually feel like we're accomplishing some things - not just making it through each day.

It's funny how different this class is from last year's. It's been a while (many years) since I've had two preschool classes back to back, so I've forgotten what great disparity can exist between two groups of children so close in age.

For example, this class is much more concerned with each other's business than last year's class was. They're big tattlers already (usually that is an end-of-the-year thing.) Or perhaps it's that way because they haven't learned the "take care of yourself" rule, that eliminates a lot of the tattling because they learn that I won't pay attention to most of what they say about other people.

They're also more social, in that they play off of each other a lot more. If one starts singing a song, several others do, too. If one of them starts saying something silly, the others jump right in. And it's about impossible to rein them in if someone starts making strange noises in large group time on the carpet (you know, tongue clicking, general spitting noises, heavy exhaling, etc.)

They also play with different things than last year's class did. Like these big bouncy balls, for example. Last year's class hardly touched them. This class bounces all over the playground at them - they're quite skilled in this Big Ball Bouncing. One little guy just likes to run up to them and jump belly-first on them to see which way his little body will get flung off. And then there was the full scale Bouncy Ball Assault that three boys launched on the unsuspecting Duck, Duck, Goose game last week. Somehow they were coordinated enough to grab the balls and run full-force with them over their heads toward the game, finally bouncing them off of several off the sitting (and altogether unsuspecting) players. We intervened on that one and let them know that wasn't a good idea. They then changed the plan to running up to the players, yelling "Goose" to one of them, and running away and hiding.

So, different, but clever. I mean, you have to give some good communication points to anyone who can organize a coordinated Bouncy Ball Assault.

At least the first time.

Stay Vertical, My Friends

2011-09-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, you might think that with a fifteen-year old and a thirteen-year old in the house that at least one of them would have attended one school dance in their lives. (Of course, if you grew up in a church environment like my childhood one that thought might never cross your mind. I grew up with the basic guidelines of "No Drinking, No Smoking, No Dancing". Oh, and "No Mixed Bathing", something that my personal church left off the list - but that's another story.)

I digress. The fact is that neither of the boys has attended any dances so far, although there have been plenty of opportunities for them to go to one. (Dances seem to be a big thing here.) It's not that I didn't want them to go, but rather that neither of them have ever really ever shown any interest in going to one.

Until now. It turns out that disinterest in a dance can be very quickly superseded by interest in the girl who asks you to a dance. And so it is that Jericho is attending the Sadie Hawkins dance this Saturday night.

I personally am not at all worried about Jericho attending a school dance. However, I was a little surprised at the "School Dance Contract" that came home from school today. It had all kind of rules to follow which were a little - interesting.

The first part is rather obvious and straightforward:

4. A student and his/her guest must exhibit and maintain class and dignity at all times, be cordial, use appropriate language and act and dance appropriately. Students who dance or behave inappropriately will be escorted out of the dance, parents will be called and the student will not be given a refund.

Then it gets more interesting:

a. Dancing may not be sexually explicit. This means no freaking, grinding, groping, etc. No making out.
b. Dancing may not be dangerous. This means no moshing, slamming, getting on someone’s shoulders, etc.
c. Dancers must be vertical when dancing with someone.

Okay, first of all, there is at least one term on there that I am not altogether familiar with, although given the context of the sentence (a), I can probably figure out the basic meaning.

Second of all, who is the Dirty-Dancing-Term-Savvy faculty member who knew all of these words? Wow. I'm kind of impressed with their knowledge.

Third of all, dancers must stay vertical? I was trying to imagine how dancing horizontally could even be possible -- then I stopped myself. Not going there, especially with my son in that mental gymnasium.

Wow. So in this Alternate School Dance World, "No dancing, smoking, or drinking" has moved to "No freaking, grinding or groping." Very (frighteningly) interesting.

I will still let him go, though - I think. But I will remind him (on this and many other occasions) to stay vertical.

Perhaps I'll Keep Them

2011-09-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well, the past few school days have prevented me from calling my supervisor and asking for a new group of Little People to teach. Of course, I'm pretty sure what she would have said if I requested a new batch, but it was worth a try.

Actually, yesterday was also kind of a crazy day, but there were no rodents or bathroom incidents involved - just the hugest clean up job ever after centers, hand/arm prints involving a lot of paint washing-off, and some general rowdiness.

One thing I did appreciate about my day yesterday is that I had someone in doing an assessment on one of the Little People that I have been wondering about from Day One. The assessor came away from the experience with the exact same feelings and impressions that I have been having all this time, so that was kind of a gratifying thing - in teacher kind of way.

In the Non-School World, we've been having Back to School Nights and band practices and homework here and there.

All in all, about normal for the end of September.

Varmints, Re-Revisited

2011-09-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the varmint trouble continues. And not even in the classroom this time. (Well, actually, considering how the week at school has gone, 'varmints' is not such a far-off word for - well, never mind.)

No, this trouble is at home. I just had not realized how much these creatures like flour. Whether it is in a play dough ingredient bag at school, or a flour bag in the garage, it's obviously a big hit in the Rodent Diet World.

Since I had already had the trouble at school, I wasn't too surprised earlier this week to find that some rodent had been in the box with the flour in the garage, eating through the bag and leaving lots of completely gross souvenirs behind. Not surprised, but completely disgusted. I saved the dishwasher soap, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol containers (this was the "Ingredients for School" box), and threw the flour, salt and box away. It was creepy and gross, but once it was gone it was out of sight, out of mind.

However, that night when I opened the door to the garage to get something out of the car and heard scrambling and scrabbling noises, I knew exactly what it was. Sure enough, when I turned on the light, there was a large rat sitting on top of the big shelf unit, looking at me.

Jason came to scare it out, and Jericho came to shoot it with his air soft gun, (Jacob did not come out. He, like me, is not a big fan of rodents.) However, by the time they got out there, it was gone.

Hopefully forever. I've had enough rodent encounters for a good, long while.

I'll Take a Green Suit, Please

2011-09-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Source: cdn-www.cracked.com via Suzanna on Pinterest

Yesterday was a Hazmat Suit kind of day. I can't even bear to share the details with you (nor do you want me to), but trust me - it was a bathroom nightmare, and it took up most of the morning to deal with it all.

Thanks goodness I had been "properly trained" on dealing with this kind of thing. A week or so before this school year began, we had our big "Welcome Back" meeting at a local school auditorium. Part of this day was an "All District Employees Must See" Health Services message about blood borne pathogens.

Now, I have had Blood Borne Pathogen training before. It largely consisted of watching a video of people injuring/cutting themselves in various ways. Blood would spurt theatrically from the wounds, and then someone would deal with it in a safe and effective manner.

This presentation, however, was different. With every sentence, the issue of blood borne pathogens got bigger and more relevant. The phrase "dispose of sharps probably" (which I would have dismissed before) became suddenly more relevant as the presenter reminded us that "sharps" could be pencils, scissors, even staples. We were asked if we had masks or gowns to deal with any potentially infected matter. We were asked what we did with old band aids or tissues with blood on them - did we have a Red Bag in which to properly dispose of them?

And that was just the regular blood and throw up issues. Being the preschool teachers that we were, it was soon pointed out that we also deal with all kinds of other - matter - that could present additional problems (as if the fact that we need to deal with those things in the first place isn't problem enough).

By the time that was over, I was ready to order my hazmat suit. I could just hear my airy, ventilated voice as I spoke through my mask - "Welcome to Preschool, children. Do not be afraid - it is I, you loving teacher."

Not long after this meeting, we got an email that said that it was the custodian's job to deal with any potentially infected materials - they had the Magic Red Bags (and masks and gowns, I presume).

Of course, as was the case yesterday, you have your potentially infected material (which was everywhere), and you have your child who needs clean clothes because of the potentially infected material, and you have to do quite a bit of glovage and work before you even get to the custodian stage. I mean, you can't just hand the child over and say, "Hose him down!"

Trust me - the whole incident still left me longing for my own hazmat suit - perhaps in a nice green color. And while it prevented yesterday from being boring, it also left me again yearning for those fun, easier preschool days....

A Well-Needed Laugh

2011-09-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well, today I just woke up feeling kind of blah and lifeless. I keep wondering when school will be fun again - or at least not so much hard work. I had absolutely no energy at the gym this morning, giving up after only 20 minutes. Plus, on the blogging side of things, I have no cute stories at all - just some self-annoyance at how I kind of left my last blog post just hanging, with no little summing-up statement at the end. But I just couldn't think of one. (Only something lame, like, "The moral of this story is....don't light ground squirrels on fire. Blah.)

But then I saw this, and I laughed out loud, so I will pass it on to you.

Source: you-can-fly.tumblr.com via Keri on Pinterest

Ah, so funny. And perfect for today, because some days are just like that.

Varmints, Revisited

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Laurel on Pinterest

Well, I saw more signs of our classroom varmint today. Fortunately, the sighting did not involve blood. Just some - droppings.

Seeing this reminded me of a story I heard from Jason last week after I told my Mouse Blood story. This story also involves varmints, but on a much bigger scale. It seems that a farmer somewhere in California was having quite the ground squirrel infestation at his place. Tiring of this, he decided to try a new method. This method involved filling the tunnels in the ground with propane and then throwing a match down one of the holes.

It turns out that this method was indeed quite effective. All ground squirrels were effectively eliminated - including the flaming one that shot out of one of the holes onto the adjacent field - starting a fire that eventually burned several acres of land.

Rule #12: We Keep Our Pants Pulled Up at School

2011-09-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

Source: printpattern.blogspot.com via Andrea on Pinterest

Well, today was quite the Crazy Day at Preschool. Everyone was amped up from the weekend, I suppose, and showed this in their own unique way. Lunchtime and playground were by far the craziest times of the day, although the rest of the day was a close third. Lunch probably won because we had general craziness plus a throw up. Playground came in second because we had general craziness, the parent of the sick child to call, plus two "We Keep Our Pants Pulled Up at School" episodes.

One of these was completely my fault. It involved one of my English Learners, and while he's catching onto some things, he still has a lot of English to learn. We were just done with playground cleanup and the conversation went like this:

Child: Drink, teacher?
Me: Oh, you can get a drink at the water fountain over there before you line up.
Child: (beginning to edge toward the gate of the fence) Drink, teacher?
Me: (looking away at the other kids). You can get a drink outside. Then after that you can get another inside.
Child: ....(silence as he starts to go outside the gate toward our room, looking concerned).
Me: (seeing him outside the gate). No, no, no - go over there for a drink! (I point dramatically over to the outside water fountain, thinking this will help his understanding).
Child: Okay. (And off he goes that direction).

The problem with this conversation is that I was thinking all the way through it the words he was saying were the words that he actually meant. However, the truth is that the words he was saying really meant something completely different. So, actually the conversation really went like this:

Child: Bathroom, teacher?
Me: Oh, you can go to the bathroom at the water fountain over there before you line up.
Child: (beginning to edge toward the gate of the fence) Bathroom, teacher?
Me: (looking away at the other kids). You can go to the bathroom outside. Then after that you can go to the bathroom inside.
Child: ....(silence as he starts to go outside the gate toward our room, looking concerned).
Me: (seeing him outside the gate). No, no, no - go over there for the bathroom! (I point dramatically over to the outside water fountain, thinking this will help his understanding).
Child: Okay. (And off he goes that direction - and pees in the bushes right by the kindergarten windows.)

Sigh. Okay, we'll have to work on those important vocabulary words.

Or, we'll have to just never assume that words mean what we think they mean. Especially with this particular student.

Not a Good Day

2011-09-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Written Friday Morning:

Yesterday was probably not a good day for the Little People. Nor was it a good day for their teacher. Actually, I should say that first it was not a good day for the teacher, and as a result it probably wasn't a good day for the Little People, either. In fact, I definitely don't think yesterday will be voted "Best Day of the Year" - by anyone.

It all started at 3:00 AM the night before when I woke up to find a sick son in our room, saying that he felt horrible, and his head really, really hurt. He and I spent the next hour applying a wet rag to his head and dozing on and off in his room (he in the bed, I on the floor). Finally he threw up about four, and we both were able to go back to bed.

The resulting tiredness paired with a few other day-to-day issues at home brought me to work feeling grumpy and weary - and oppressed. Right before I got to school I got a text from the morning teacher saying that we had been instructed to stop using sidewalk chalk because - well, someone wasn't happy about it.   Then we had another day in our continuing "lunch table" saga between our class and another "fringe group" at school (whom I will not name, but I will just say it's not a regular classroom). In short, the person in charge of this group has been unhappy about the current seating arrangement in the cafeteria and has been wanting our class to move to make this better. I saw no reason to move, but was trying not to seem unwilling to cooperate, nor was I (yet) wanting to go over her or the cafeteria manager's head to get it resolved satisfactorily (meaning: resolved in the way that I thought it should be). So when we walked in the cafeteria and saw that the leader of this group had just come to the cafeteria extra early so that she could get the table that she wanted, I was not very happy.

So, the Little People might have suffered just a little. Well, not suffered, but I certainly wasn't my regular self.   I was grumpy. Instead of asking Little Suzy three times to please not yell in a singing voice in the cafeteria, I moved her immediately to a different seat - without any explanation at all. When my second-year student was spraying other people with water, I just sternly said, "Now, Little Johnny, you know better than that. Cut it out." I even used my meanest/on-the-edge-of-yelling voice when two little girls wouldn't let go of my id badge when I saw that someone across the cafeteria table was putting a large juice cap in her mouth that she could surely choke on, especially since - how shall I put this - common sense does not always appear to be in this student's Top 10 list. "Let GO", I hissed to the little girls when they would not and I needed to move quickly to stop the potential juice cap consumer. Yep, they kept their cautious, puzzled eyes on me for a good long time after that one.

I told students, "Nope. You're not sitting up on the carpet, you're not getting a sticker. No sticker for you." I told Little Wood Chip thrower (in front of all the other kids), "If you yell 'no' at me one more time, I am going to get up and call your mother and tell her you have to go home RIGHT NOW."

Yes, in hindsight I feel bad about all of this. Especially about Little Sally, who we've learned is used to communicating mainly in a very bossy yelling voice. Usually we can say, "Sally, please use a talking voice to talk about what you want instead of yelling." But yesterday when I heard her shriek once again, I was just tired of it. "Sally." I said sternly. "You are going to have to learn to not yell out whenever you want something. It is not okay to yell like that. Now, what's wrong?" She looked at me with big tears in her eyes. "Somebody stepped on my toe," she said sadly.

Oh dear. I repent. Someone needed to make Mrs. Locke take a break away from the group and take some long, deep breaths.

But some days are like that. And even though the kids most likely go home and tell their parents, "This day was SO FUN," I know that it's okay. Today is a new day.

Plus, my supervisor told me that we are not allowed to sit or otherwise "mingle" with non-preschool children and therefore can not legally follow the seating plan that the Fringe Group person was trying to implement.

So, today is looking better already.

Varmints

2011-09-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

It is a sad fact that we have a varmint in our classroom. I first began to suspect this a few weeks ago, when I found a bag of my play dough ingredients with a strange hole in the corner of it. (Yes, this is one of the suspect-looking bags that Jason could have been arrested for in downtown Fresno not long ago.) Then I found a package of nibbled-on crackers in the bag wecarry to the cafeteria lunch. Finally, the morning teacher saw a bit of fuzz on the ground out of the corner of her eye, and when she looked again - it was gone.

As a result, the custodians have set a trap. Or two. I'm not sure exactly how many, because I have not actually seen the traps. In fact, I have been working to avert my eyes from any of the places that I think they might be set to avoid seeing the trapped mouse in Trapped-Mouse Agony.

After a few days, though, one begins to lose this Heightened Mouse Consciousness and begins to forget that a mouse existed. So it was yesterday when I was puttering around after school cleaning up. I was removing papers and various objects off the counter top when I noticed that someone had spilled something on the counter. I grabbed my handy container of Clorox wipes and began to wipe it up, thinking, "Now, who spilled something over here and didn't clean it up?". It looked like some kind of red juice, and it was kind of - spread out in drops and smears all over the counter top. I was wiping up these strange dried-up red puddles when suddenly I spotted several little mouse droppings amongst the red stains, and it suddenly hit me - this was mouse blood. MOUSE BLOOD! Apparently our mouse had somehow been injured, but had still managed to drag his wounded self across the counter, leaving mouse blood everywhere. It was like a crime scene from a graphic mouse crime novel.

I admit that I didn't even finish the job. I threw my wipe away and grabbed the hand sanitizer, suddenly having visions of a wounded, bleeding little Mouse Zombie lurking behind the microwave or staggering out from the recesses of the filing cabinet...and I left.

I wanted to leave a big note pointing to the blood trail for the custodian marked, "MOUSE BLOOD! PLEASE FIND INJURED PARTY AND TAKE IT AWAY!", but I didn't know if that is part of a custodian's job description or not. So I just fled.

I hope it gets taken care of though. Because a little Mouse Blood is more than enough mouse for me.

From Pinterest to Real Life

2011-09-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Well, my Pinterest boards and pins are growing and growing. Lately I've been finding lots of ideas for school, and have been organizing them into categories: Art Ideas, Alphabet Ideas, etc.

Apparently I'm not alone in my Pinterest obsession. Lots of people like to Pin, and once I even saw a blog offering up a challenge for people to show what they actually made from all these ideas they were gleaning (which to me insinuates that lots of people Pin ideas that they never actually get to).

I didn't send in any projects for that challenge, but I have made several things from the ideas I've found.

Here are some in my classroom:

A height chart:

Pinterest Version

Source: learningandteachingwithpreschoolers.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

My version. I used this wonderful colored masking tape to mark the height lines, and it turned out really colorful.

A balloon wreath:

Pinterest Version

Source: blog.catchmyparty.com via Julie on Pinterest

My version. I made different "Happy Birthday" tags and we put it out whenever someone has a birthday. Unfortunately, the kids love to pull the balloons out, and I caught someone actually trying to blow one up one day (while it was still attached to the wreath). They were - unsuccessful.

This project wasn't actually a Pinterest one, but I thought it turned out really cute regardless. The kids did a pretty good job picking out a color that was close to their skin color.

So, all in all, a good gleaning from my Pinterest boards...plus some other inspiration, as well.

Trudging Along

2011-09-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Karen on Pinterest

Well, I wish I had some cute and funny stories to tell today from the Little People, but alas, I do not. Yesterday was a loud and crazy day, and today was a calm and almost peaceful day. I liked the calm and peaceful day much better.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring...

What I've Been Working On

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a little sewing on the weekends and in the evenings after school these last few days. I'm starting some things I want to put in the Holiday Boutique coming up at a church, and I've also made a baby gift. My friend Gay is about to become a grandmother in November, and I decided to try a rag quilt to give to the baby at the shower this weekend. It was really quite easy - I sewed it up in one afternoon/evening, and then the next day snipped all the seams and washed it to give it the frayed look:

I backed it in his cute floral print that I thought would wear well if it were used as a "Baby Picnic" quilt.

It was cute and easy and I hope the baby just loves it. :)

Picture Day

2011-09-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Source: weheartit.com via Kelly on Pinterest

I had to go back through the blog posts from last year to see if I wrote anything about Picture Day. And I did not, except to describe how one Little Person was going to pose like a boxer for his picture.   In hindsight, it is quite amazing to me that Picture Day escaped with so little comment, because the truth is that Picture Day is crazy. I mean almost out-of-control chaos. It's a wonder that any preschoolers anywhere survive it. Or Preschool Teachers, for that matter.

To give you a better understanding of this traumatic event, let me just tell you all of the elements that must go together to make Picture Day. First, you have the Picture Day setting: Lunchtime.   Not only is lunchtime a noisy and distraction-filled time on any given day, the combination of a noisy room, any kind of food and 21 dressed up, curled up and/or slicked down Little People is generally not a good one.

Then you mix in the fact that everyone in the school is getting their picture taken, so despite your best wishes, the Little People must actually start eating their lunches before it is their turn.  (See point above.) We can only be thankful that there was no chili or ketchup on the menu that day.

Then you add in the fact that the actual pictures are taken on the stage of the cafeteria.    The stage with a four-foot drop off that naturally serves as a magnet for any three or four year old. Plus a live microphone, which my aide wrenched out of Little Johnny's hand just in time before he gave his own personal broadcast to all of the upper elementary grades.

In addition to the elements already mentioned, you also have one grouchy Picture man in a very deceptively happy-looking Hawaiian shirt. I'm not sure if he just didn't like preschoolers or was just feeling resentful to all children needing their pictures taken. (Which would be sadly ironic, since that was obviously his job.)   Either way, he wasn't very friendly, nor was he the least bit accommodating to our Little People.   In fact, even though he had his own photography station that he had been using before we got up there, he didn't even take pictures while my kids were up on the stage. This left them to wait through just two photographers. Then he came to me and said I would need to line all my remaining kids up behind just one of the photographers so the bigger kids could come to the other two cameras. I furrowed my brow at him and asked as sweetly as I could, "Or perhaps could they just stay with the two photographers they're at now so they can get done quicker -- because they're four." He said huffily, "I know they're four," but he didn't make me move them. And obviously he didn't really know that which he said he knew, because anyone who really knows that knows that you don't try to line up a class of preschoolers on a stage with a four foot drop just feet away from them.   In fact, the words "line up" and "wait" don't even go together in Four Year Old world. I definitely don't think he knew that.

Finally, the final part of this is that fact that the three teachers also have to get their pictures taken. We just took turns after we finally got everyone back to their seat (where they were too distracted to eat any more and were largely just either yelling as loudly as they could or were flinging their lunch boxes around wildly at their neighbors). I tried to wipe the sheen of sweat and Picture Day stress off of my face before they took my picture, but I'm not sure it worked.

I think I just looked Harried. Which I suppose captured the entire experience perfectly.

Enough Said Here

2011-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Source: joann.com via Julie on Pinterest

Oh No! Poor Joe.

2011-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is a book about Joe. It's a book I use during this part of the year to help teach body parts - at least those body parts above the shoulders. I read the text and the kids fill in the missing body part. They in general really love it - once they get it.

For example, the first time I read the book this year I started with this page. I said, "Oh no, poor Joe! He has no________". And immediately a voice piped up "moustache!".

Well yes, yes this is true. He also has no mouth, which I would think would be the greatest of his problems, but I suppose you can never overlook the importance of a moustache.

It Might Be a Roller Coaster...Or it Might Be a Train Wreck

2011-09-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, remember when I talked about the "Little People Adjustment Rollercoaster"? Well, this is how the roller coaster looked today. More, in fact, like a train wreck.

Source: royarden.com via Gemma on Pinterest

Actually, the first part of the day wasn't too bad (except for the fact that they would not stop talking to me for a second ("Teacher, teacher, teacher..."). But then just after Outside Time it took a quick dive downhill. Of course, "After Outside Time" is the time when they're required to actually sit on the carpet and listen and - most of all - stop talking. ("Teacher, teacher, teacher...")

It was in fact a steep and sudden downward turn, and the Little People just loved it. They threw their little hands in the air and screamed in delight as the Roller Coaster cars plummeted downward. Their hair stuck straight up from their heads and their eyes rolled back in an ecstatic frenzy as it went faster and faster and grew more out of control. The foamed at the mouth as they realized the strength and potential of their Little People Mutiny. They held hands with their little Roller Coast Car Neighbors, cajoling even the calmer and more on-track students down into the abyss with them. And all the way down they chanted in their high-pitched voices:

("Teacher, teacher, teacher...")

Oh, it was chaos. And a very good reminder of why I don't like roller coasters.

The good news is that no one was harmed in the Roller Coaster Plummet. Even the child who sat and on the carpet and angrily threw wood chips at me was not harmed.

They all went on their merry way after school, wiping the foam and drool from their cheeks as they went. And hopefully tomorrow will be better.

The Counting

2011-09-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Source: notimeforflashcards.com via Cindy on Pinterest

Well, Week Two of the Little People went pretty well, all things considered. Basically they just rode that ride that I like to call the "Little People Adjustment Rollercoaster", where one day things went pretty smoothly, and the next day I was asking myself, "What is WRONG with these children?" And then the next day would be a little better.

I did start Counting last week. You know Counting - where you give them to three to shape up, or else unfortunate (and yet appropriate) consequences happen to them. This particular method is based on a book called "1-2-3 Magic" that is very effective. I think the large part of this effectiveness stems from the fact that when you look straight at a child and say, "That's one," you are no longer pleading, cajoling or waffling while trying to convince them into a better way of acting. It's clear cut. Plus you use that Serious Teacher Voice and stern look, which can prove to be quite shocking to them.

In fact, the first time I did this in front of the group last week, it was because Little Johnny kept turning around on the carpet and making faces at Little Sammy to make him laugh hysterically. I had already explained to Johnny why we didn't do this on the carpet and I had reinforced my expectations several times. Finally I was fed up, and I gave them the Stern Look and used the Stern Voice to say, "Johnny, that's one. If I get to three, you will take a time out at the back table." Immediately, silence fell over the whole group and a little voice from the front said, "I want to go home now." You would think that I had hissed the words or something.

However, Johnny didn't turn around anymore, and every since has been keeping an eye on me cautiously, as if a second head would sprout on my shoulders that permanently held the Stern Look and Voice.

Of course, Counting does have its challengers. Like the child who catches on really quick to the system and just starts counting for me. When I say, "Little Ricky, you need to keep your hands to yourself and not swing them around in your neighbors face," he says cheerfully. "Okay. That's one." And then in then cafeteria when I say, "Ricky, your lunch box stays on the table," he says, "Oh, okay - now that's one," as if he's starting the count over for me. Why thank you, Ricky. I needed a little counting help there.

So far I haven't counted higher than one. But then again, this was only Week Two.

The Classroom Tree

2011-09-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

The tree is back up in my classroom, with a new and improved look. I had to pull last year's tree down at the end of the year, but enjoyed it in the room so much that I wanted to put up another one this year. Fortunately, I learned several things last year that I wanted to improve on, which helped me improve on the tree design a bit.

One thing I learned last year was the need to secure the tree "hole" better so that it didn't dip down into the trunk. The hole is made from a flower pot secured to a big piece of folded cardboard. Here's how it looks on the underneath all that paper:

This year I tied a piece of string on the back/bottom of the flower pot and secured it to the "roof" of cardboard above. This hopefully will keep it from falling down in the trunk).

My friend Gay was unable to help me tree-build, but Jacob came along to help. And the teacher from the morning class was there that day, as well. The only problem was that I really didn't know how to tell them to help until I fumbled through the process by myself. And by the time I figured out how to do each part, each part was already done.

I admit that I did despair a little bit during the building process, for a long moment losing hope that I had any tree-making ability in my at all. I believe that was the stage where I was trying to hold up three or four random tree branches over my head that were splayed out like unconscious octopus legs while trying to attach them to the wall. But then I pulled it together. Whew.

I did do something different for the leaves this year. Last year I just made leaves out of butcher paper, and then we added hand print leaves and other things as the year went on, as you can see here:

This year I bought some shiny, sparkly fabric and decided to make fabric leaves:

My original thought was that I would use the die cut machine at the Teacher Center to cut them all out, but this proved to by way too time-consuming, since you could only cut out two leaves at a time without the die cut machine making strange cracking sounds. (And believe me, that ladies that work there frown on that.)

So instead I brought them home and cut leaf shapes out with scissors, since I could layer them and cut them seven or eight at a time. I then decided they needed a little shaping, so I ran each leaf through my sewing machine to put a little tuck in the top of each one. After that, I layered the leaves into groups of three and ran them through the machine again without cutting the thread, resulting in long chains of leaves. (Yes, I know. I am a glutton for huge, time consuming tasks like this.) Then I could attach them to the tree in long pieces, giving the tree more leaf coverage:

Finally, I added some animals to the tree. Right now I have a raccoon, a couple of birds, and this monkey.

So that is Phase One of the tree this year. Phase Two will be to add apples, and then we'll move on to Fall Leaves (Phase Three). You might have noticed that I bought fabric for fall-colored leaves as well, but I will need some more time before I have the energy to even consider taking on that sewing task again.

The good news in that category is that leaves here don't even begin to change until around November, so there's plenty of time to rest up for Phase Three...and beyond.

Rice on the Run

2011-08-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

Source: momtastic.com via Bozena on Pinterest

Well, my twenty pounds of rice went off to downtown Fresno yesterday in the car that needed new tires, so it didn't get play with, mixed, or measured. (I forgot to put it in the car I was actually driving yesterday - whoops). What also went off to downtown Fresno (probably unbeknownst to Jason) were ten Ziploc bags of play dough "kits" that contained flour, salt, and cream of tartar. I'm just glad that he didn't get pulled over for a speeding ticket or anything - an police officer in downtown Fresno might be suspicious of ten Ziploc bags of white powder. Whew. (But wouldn't that have made a good story...)

It turns out that we had our hands full enough yesterday without the fun rice. Yes, it's true - we were at Day 6, and the Shock and Awe of preschool has worn off, leaving lots of blossoming personalities, and oh, so many little friends to poke, prod, tattle on, or try to annoy. Sigh. It was truly one of those days, and when I wasn't looking around desperately looking for something to ~~bribe~~ extrinsically motivate them with, I was vacillating between two thoughts: One, that this class was never, ever going to shape up, and two, that perhaps preschool is not the place for me anyway. Fortunately, I recognize both of those thoughts as Day 6 thoughts, and will just assure myself that things will get better.
Maybe.

Perhaps after I buy some ~~M&Ms~~ extrinsic motivators.

Rice Dying

2011-08-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been busy this afternoon immersed in a Rice-Dying Frenzy. I started out with 20 pounds of white rice and ended up with 20 pounds (minus a few stray grains) of green, red, yellow, orange, purple, lime, teal, med. blue, dark blue and pink rice. I plan to let the Little People layer it, mix it, measure it, and pour it. Then after it's all mixed up and they're tired of it I'm going to put it into plastic bottles and make "I Spy" bottles out of it. Like this:

Source: pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com via Suzy on Pinterest

I'm wanting to do sensory activities in a big way this year. I think this will be especially be helpful to all of my students, and especially one of my students who has some different social and developmental issues going on. (She's the one who looked up at me wearing my just-above-the-knee denim skirt yesterday and asked in a confused way, "Teacher, why are you naked?" I was actually embarrassed for a moment, and then after remembering that I wasn't actually naked, laughed the rest of the day about it.)

I didn't do many sensory things last year - besides our basic sand table we just got a couple days of shaving cream and one day of goop (cornstarch and water). But we're going all out this year. I plan to have that stuff everywhere (a fact that my associate teacher might actually physically shudder at). But we're doing it. Heh heh heh.

But now we're starting with rice. And then, who knows?

But What About The Cupcakes?

2011-08-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

Source: flickr.com via Megan on Pinterest

Well, the first week of new preschoolers went pretty well. I went into it a little doubtful, thinking as a second-time mom does: How could I love this new batch of preschoolers as much as the last? But here on Day 5 I am seeing how this might just turn out to be a good class, too.

The week started off with a bang, with the usual general chaos, very protective parents, and random crying. I fortunately went into the experience armed with the knowledge that I gleaned from my notes about last year's class. I just kept reminding myself that "They know nothing", and "It's just going to be crazy at the beginning." And both us those things went right along with my expectations.

It was nice that we had three birthdays to celebrate at the beginning of the year. We celebrated one on Monday and two on Tuesday. It was a fun and festive way to start the year, but I knew that it just might mess with how the kids were going to view preschool. Sure enough, we got to the end of day yesterday and when I announced that it was time to go home, I had at least one very confused and disappointed preschooler on my hands. "But we didn't have cupcakes yet," she complained.

Ah, yes. Cupcakes every day would be nice, but sadly, that's not how preschool really is. And perhaps that's why they were a little more rowdy today - they were mutinous after realizing that this preschool business was not all it had been made out to be.

But I'll bring them around. Sooner or later.

Pinterest Picture of the Week

2011-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This picture choice has nothing to do with how I feel about my new batch of preschoolers:

Source: piccsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

New Pinterest Board Ideas

2011-08-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a while ago how much I was enjoying the Pinterest site, and all the fun images that you can find there. I've been trolling around there quite a bit lately to get fun ideas from school, and so far I've pinned a whole "board" of them.

I have several boards on there. Some of these are "For School", "Things I Want to Make", and "I Miss Snow", and "Mosiacs". Of course, sometimes when I look around there I think of new categories I want to make (but I don't). Like "Cute Baby Animals", or "Projects That Would Take Way Too Much of My Time". (Although Jacob was quick to point out that if I had the time to pin all those pictures on that particular board, perhaps I had more time than I thought).

Another board is "Cruel Things People Do to Small Babies for the Sake of a Picture (In My Opinion)".

Here are some I would like to pin on that board:

Source: livinglocurto.com via Noel on Pinterest

Source: carolinetran.net via Noel on Pinterest

Source: laurafarrisphotography.blogspot.com via Noel on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Noel on Pinterest

Source: blushbybk.com via Noel on Pinterest

Source: facebook.com via Noel on Pinterest

Getting Things Done

2011-08-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

Source: blissbloomblog.blogspot.com via Coco on Pinterest

I'm happy to report that the editing problem in Blogger seems to be fixed. I can now go back into saved or published posts and edit them, which I could not do a few days ago. This restored editing function significantly reduces the pressure in writing a post, because I don't have to worry about getting it perfect (or at least non-embarrassing) the first time before I have to save or publish it.

Whew.

I've been spending the last few days here sans boys, since both boys went to visit grandparents this week. One (Boy A) went to one set of grandparents in Texas, and one (Boy B) went to the other set in Tennessee. As I write this, Boy A is flying from Texas to Tennessee to join the Boy B, where they will visit together until Boy B flies home Tuesday, and Boy A flies home Thursday. Well, they actually fly into San Francisco. And they flew out of Oakland. You almost need a flow chart to keep track of it. Of course, you know what they say, "Why do things the easy way when you can do it the complicated way." Or at least I say that.

As much as I love my children, I always look forward to times like this when they take little trips because it's prime "Get a lot of things done" time. I always have an ambitious list of projects to do when they're away, and I like to throw myself into a Project Frenzy once they leave.

However, this time I've noticed that the time while they're gone is different. I guess it's because when they were younger, I spent a lot more time doing things with and for them, and when they were gone, that time was suddenly freed up. I could do things and projects that I couldn't before without those child-driven interruptions. Now I realize that a lot of my time is interruption-free anyway. If I want to do a big project when they're here, they are okay without me and for the most part can wait until I'm done - or take care of things themselves. I guess the truth is that they just don't need me like they used to...sniff, sniff.

This somber realization has taken the edge off of my Project Zeal for a little bit, but I'm working to get it stirred up again. So I'm making a list of things to do in the next few days, if for no other reason, because school is starting in two weeks, so it's time to get moving.

Disclaimer

2011-08-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am feeling the need to insert a little Blogger Disclaimer here. My last two posts were posted before I actually wanted to post them. This is because I saved both as drafts as I wandered off to find pictures or to find links, but then was unable to go back and edit them later. It wouldn't let me edit them or view them as drafts - the only thing it would let me do was publish them. (Well, perhaps it would have let me Delete them, but I would rather have a weird post than delete it). And now that they're published I can't go back in and edit them, either.

So, especially in the case of Hedgehog, the pictures are in the wrong place, things are probably spelled wrong, and it probably has several places where it just doesn't make sense. I would read over it to find these specific problems, but since I can not fix them, I will not look for them.

Oh, well. It can be a little precarious in the Internet world, so we'll just have to go with it.

Hedgehog

2011-08-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things on my joblist this week is to fix hedgehog. Hedgehog is one of Mocha's toy stuffed animals who unfortunately has seen better days.

Mocha actually has a basketfull of animals just for her, and each one of them is near and dear to her heart. She loves to fetch them if you throw them down the hall, and sometimes she will pounce on them for no apparrant reason and then happily lick or chew on them. I've noticed lately that she especially will do this pouncing if we (the people in the house) are yelling about something on TV, such as a great sports play. Or if the boys start chasing each other or wreslting, it's like it makes her so anxious that she feels she must pouce on a stuffed animal.

The sad thing is that Mocha is very hard on her stuffed animals. The ones with the hard plastic eyes or nose fare the worst. This is because she will hold them between her little paws and chew those plastic pieces right out. No plastic eye or nose is safe from her snaggly dog teeth, and they end up looking very sad after she's done with them - and of course they smell even worse.

Hedgehog doesn't have any hard plastic parts, but he rolls nicely down the hall when she chases him, and perhaps this is why she likes him so much. Sadly, one day last week she chewed him enough to open the seam on him back, and out came his stuffing. See, here is the grievous wound:

When the stuffing comes out of an animal she doesn't quite know what to do with it, so she just keeps licking and pulling at it, and then she's got fuzz in her mouth and between her snaggly teeth, not to mention the potential for a monster fuzz hairball. So at this stage we have to do an intervention, and in this case we took Hedgehog away.

Jason wanted to throw him away, but he came all the way from the IKEA in Prague, and I declared he could be saved.

So, Hedgehog should be back in the stuffed animal rotation soon enough.

I'll leave you with there pictures I took back in Morgantown, intending to use them on a scrapbook page:

A Pallet Quandry

2011-08-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I talked about Pallet art, and all the things you could do with an old pallet. I have one sitting in my back yard right now, and was thinking all that I would paint some nice words on it and call it an art project.

However, my friend Ann Sparks set me on to this wonderful table shown recently in Sunset Magazine. It apparently originally came from faroutflora, where you can see all the instructions yourself.

Source: faroutflora.com via Lee on Pinterest

So now I admit I'm in a pallet quandary. Do I want to go with pallet artwork, or a pallet tables with succulents growing down the middle? One bonus about the table is that I now have a whole host of baby succulents growing and will soon be wanting a new home. However, a disadvantage is that I would have to find a table bottom, which could involve some serious time at Craig's List/at garage sales.

Hmmm. I will have to give it some thought.

Pismo

2011-08-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Our family took a little one-day getaway last Friday and spent the day at Pismo Beach. A large group from church spends one week there each summer, and this was Pismo Week, so we joined in by driving over for the day.

We arrived just in time to eat some fantastic clam chowder at the Splash Cafe. We've eaten there several times now, and every time it's worth the wait in line to get in.

We then headed over to Avila Beach, where the boys rented some wet suits and boogie boards and spent some time playing in the Pacific. (That's them heading into the waves in the picture below - teeny and front and center).

Later we headed over to eat steaks at Jocko's in nearby Nipomo. (Sorry, but Jocko's does not appear to have a website, which actually is not very surprising to me.)

Finally, we joined our church friends on the beach for a bonfire, and then headed back to Fresno.

A long day, but a good day.

Jericho the Leper

2011-07-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Today I am bringing you a picture from our Luke VBS. We had the kids go through game stations that had to do with Luke, and at this particular station, they were to wrap the leper in toilet paper. Each game station had a different Bible city name, corresponding with where the event the station was based on occurred. Jericho volunteered for this station once he heard what activity was going on there, and was extra happy that what he wanted to do was actually at the "Jericho" station.

The night this picture was taken was the last night of the three-night event, and this was the only time he let the kids wrap his head.

Ah, my son the leper. It makes a mother proud.

Recovering

2011-07-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the boys and I spent all of last week at summer camp in the mountains, which was great fun, but...tiring. So now we are recovering, which to us means lots of sleeping late and a few naps thrown in here and there. (Yes, I know, we are lucky .)

Assisting in our post-camp laziness is the fact that one of our cars is in the shop, leaving us (at our choice) without transportation as Jason takes the car to work.

So while we are resting, I will show you the new mosaic boards that are ready for glass.

You can see the sea glass/rocks that I added already for the hail. I found them to be very transparent, so I first glued on the paper so that the rocks would look white.

This one is fuzzy because I didn't retrace the lines after I traced the lines through the tissue paper pattern.

The pictures we used for these last boards are from The Complete Bible Story Clip Art Book, which unfortunately is out of print. However, you can still find used copies online here and there, or you can luck into one if your mother-in-law is a Children's Minister with a rather extensive library.

I guess I didn't really realize how many new ones there were until I started taking these pictures. Of course, I'm itching to start filling some of them in, but first I need to finish some of the old ones.

Finished Project Alert

2011-07-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

Hurray! A new finished project! This one involved putting the final touches on the Nativity scenes we made during the Luke project.

You might remember that this was one of our "Wednesday Workshops", where the kids came early to church on a Wednesday night to work on them. Everyone who came got a complete Nativity scene (or the parts to complete one) to take home. This one (the model) will be displayed in the church building at Christmas time.

They really enjoyed this project, and it helped that we had several teenagers there who were wonderful at helping out the younger children. Plus, there were several adults to help, as well.

I thought they turned out really nicely:

Here is the finished project.

I especially liked how baby Jesus got wrapped up in a snug white blanket.

The happy family

Despite the blurriness of this picture, I'm sure you can tell that Mary turned out with great hair.

Here are the three wise men. Wise Man on the Right is having a little trouble getting all that glue out of his beard and hair, but notice how joyful he looks regardless.

Here is their very flexible camel.

This white hair was by far my favorite to work with. I think this wise man is truly having a great hair day, in a wise kind of way. And no, that's not a #1 on his Wise Man jersey. It's just his belt going its own way.

This hair wasn't so cooperative, but does make for an interesting beard.

Donkey head shot.

Don't you think she looks very surprised? At least on the ground she doesn't look like she's about to fall over, like she did in the picture above when she was on top of the stable.

Here are the shepherds. Jacob made them. They used to have a crook to rule in the sheep, but it fell by the wayside somewhere. I thought he did an especially good job on their hats.

Didn't this sheep turn out fabulous? You can't tell where any part of him begins or where it ends - just a big bundle of sheep hair.

My joke the whole time we were planning this project was that after the kids made them, we would then have them look in the book of Luke to see who was actually listed in that telling of the story. Then we would get rid of all the non-Luke characters. But of course I was just joking, because that would mean no animals, no wise men, and no flexible camel.

So, there you have it - another finished project.

Funny

2011-07-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

Source: cafepress.com via Julie on Pinterest

A New Project

2011-07-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I reported that I wasn't (actively) looking at the discarded items in our neighborhood during Operation Cleanup because I had several items already to fix up.

Well, this is one of these items.

This old school desk came from Gay. I think they had it outside in their backyard, because it has some serious water damage on it. She offered it to me when they had their yard sale several months ago, but I declined. Then I kept eyeing as it sat lost and forlorn in their garage every time I went over to her house, but declined.

Finally, last week it was even rejected by the Salvation Army. Gay and David put it by the front curb, hoping that someone would pick it up. (They had tried this once before, but no one bit). Finally I peeled off the wood-damaged veneer to discover that it still had a solid top on it. I also figured out that the bottom piece of it could be removed, and I could have a new piece cut to fit...so it came home with me.

Not just a DIY furniture project, but a Forlorn Furniture Rescue, as well.

New Mosaic Boards

2011-07-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Timeline Mosaic has been picking up speed lately. We just made a bunch of new boards for some of the stories we're missing. In fact, after this set there are only eight or nine that we need to make up of the almost sixty that we want to do.

Here they are during the Marble Letter Process:

Do you see the board in the left stack with the rectangles of black glass on it? That's the next step in the process - even before I release them to the people working on them. I learned very quickly that it's better to put the marble letters and black border on the boards first, as opposed to hoping the kids leave enough of a blank space to add those things later. In the kids' defense, it is hard to eyeball how much space those things will need, and it saves me from doing a lot of chiseling off many glued-on glass pieces that way.

So, I'm learning - and the mosaic is growing.

There's a Hole in the Wall...

2011-07-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Just in case you're wondering, this is what the exterior wall of your house will look like if you decide to reroute your water pipes.

While I do have some experience with patching drywall, my home improvement skills do not extend to restucco-ing exterior walls.

I guess it's a good thing it's not going to be cold here for the next few days...

Glass Marble Letters

2011-07-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was lucky enough to discover flattened glass marbles on sale at Michael's. I was planning on buying them anyway, but was delighted to discover that they were on sale for $1 a bag, as opposed to $2.49.

And why did I need flattened glass marbles, you ask? For the mosaics, of course. I use them to make letters with which I "write" where the pictures come from on the Mosaic Timeline squares.

I first print the letters and numbers I need on my computer - you can use a smaller font than the marble size, because the glass will magnify the print.

I then copy my printed page on a photocopier onto white cardstock. I use the photocopier instead of my ink jet printer because the photocopier will print in ink that will not bleed when wet. (And the inkjet ink will - yuck). I use cardstock because it would get too saturated with the glue, nor will it wrinkle when it gets wet.

At first when I started the project, I punched all the letters and numbers out with a circle craft punch and then glued them to the marble. However, I soon learned that it was just as easy to glue the marble onto the paper and cut around it when it dries. The scissors just follow around the outside of the marble, and this goes very quickly.

Therefore, I just put some glue right on the letter. (Today I was using Alene's craft glue).

I then press the marble on top of the glue, and rub it around a bit to make sure the backside of the marble is coated, and no air bubbles are in there. I can dimly see the letter through the glue, so I center it in the marble.

I then let it dry, and then I cut each letter out. Finally, I line the letter I need up to spell out where the Bible story comes from. As you can see, the glue dries clear.

It makes a very nice and visible way to spell things out on the boards.

I also got this sea glass for $1, too. I'm going to use the small pieces for hail - for the plagues, of course.

Baby Plant Parts

2011-07-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Remember my sad Succulent Topiary? And how my goal was to take the fallout leaves and pieces and make new plants with them? Well, I have to admit that I started that project with a fair amount of skepticism, watered with a good amount of ignoring the project once it got started. (Which actually means that there was no watering involved at all.)

However, despite all of these factors, I now have baby plants growing. A week or so after I put the leaves in the dirt I pulled a leaf out and noticed tiny baby roots growing from it. And today when I went outside to take pictures of the roots, I saw baby plant parts growing.

Amazing. Here is the bucket of Fallout Leaves, stuck recklessly in the dirt:

And here is a tiny baby plant part. Below the tiny leaves you can see the roots growing down, sucking up - air? - from the dry dirt below.

Here is another growth spot:

Here are some out-of-focus roots growing from the end of a leaf:

Truly amazing. Maybe my succulent topiary has hope for many good topiary hair days after all.

Pallet Art

2011-07-15T06:43:00.000-07:00

Not long ago my dad sent me this picture from this blog:

Source: lifeonthebalcony.com via Bevin on Pinterest

I thought it was terribly clever, not to mention a good use of an old pallet. Then, not long after that, I ran across this piece of art from this blog:

Source: loveoffamilyandhome.blogspot.com via Brenna on Pinterest

The person who made it got the idea from this piece of art from this blog:

Source: theletteredcottage.net via Pearsnickity on Pinterest

I of course love all of them, so obviously my next step was to think, "Ooh, I need a pallet to make art out of, too!"

Lo and behold, on the evening that the very thought came to my head, I spotted a deserted pallet as we were driving out of the church parking lot after the last day of VBS. I believe it had been used in the "Homeless Awareness Station", where the kids created a shanty to experience what homelessness might be like. But since that was over and it was sitting by the side of the parking lot, I deemed it available for pickup.

Here it is:

Right now I'm picturing it with some kind of words painted on it mounted on the back of the fireplace on the back patio.

Something like this, but bigger:

We shall see.

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

A Cheer From Every Treadmill

2011-07-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning when I arrived at the gym, I was happy to find that they were showing the US vs. France match of the Women's World Cup. We had been watching it for a few minutes at home before I left, but then I caved to the pressure of the child who was desperate to play his Wii game and let it be turned off.

However, when I got to the gym it was only in the 70th minute, so I set myself up on the treadmill and tuned in. I wasn't listening to the commentary, but instead had my music on. A few minutes after I started watching there was a dramatic play, and I found myself exclaiming aloud as a goal was attempted - but was missed. I quickly scanned my nearest exercise neighbors to see if they also had headphones on, or if instead they were looking my way with looks of curiosity or alarm. However, they were both ear-plugged (but appeared to be watching as well), so I decided not to worry about it.

As those of you who watched the game know, somewhere around the 80th minute, Abby Wambach had a beautiful header after a corner kick and scored a goal. Suddenly and unexpectedly, whoops and hollers erupted from all over the gym. I looked around to see fists pumping, people cheering, and some (the most coordinated) even clapping in celebration. It turns out that even though everyone seemed to be working out in their own little worlds, they were still watching - and cheering - together.

The same thing happened for the US goal a few minutes after that. I could have known that they scored even if I weren't watching just because of the crowd reaction.

It reminded me of being in our Prague apartment during national soccer matches when we lived there. These matches were usually in the summer time, and since we had no air conditioning in our apartment, our windows were always at least partially open. We lived in an apartment in a complex of thousands, and when the Czech team scored, you could hear it all over the neighborhood. In fact, you could hear it through the walls, and ceilings and floors. It was a true neighborhood celebration.

Isn't it funny how something like sports (especially in a national setting) can unite us? At least in an instant, in a roar of celebration or a groan of defeat. When we're living in our own little words, but suddenly we're part of a wave of something bigger.

Granted, there are more important things than sports to connect us together, but it's still very intriguing.

At the very least, it makes a trip to the gym much more fun.

It's That Time Again

2011-07-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's that time again in our neighborhood - Operation Cleanup. This is where the trucks come around and pick up any over sized items that you want to get rid of. Of course, you can call it Operation Cleanup, or you can call it Scavenge Fest. During this time the neighborhood crawls with cars of nonresidents trying to pick up some good stuff. It's especially active in the evenings after dark, when those of us who are shy in their scavenging come out.
You may remember that I also appreciate all the good items available during this time of year. In fact, last year I repainted a found piece for our front porch. However, I have three of four scavenged/found cheap items that I need to work on before I get any new ones.
Plus there's been nothing really good out there yet anyway. (wink, wink).
One thing that I have been seeing plenty of this year are drawers. Just random drawers all alone, with no dressers or desks with them. I mentioned to Jason that if someone knew some fun projects to do with drawers, this would be the neighborhood for them. And then of course I started thinking...what can one do with old drawers? I headed to my new favorite Internet site Pinterest to find out.

Here are some of my favorites:

Source: midwestliving.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: designspongeonline.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: storagegeek.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: frundy.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: patinawhite.typepad.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

You can find the rest of them here.

Drawer DIY. Who knew?

A Los Angeles Weekend

2011-07-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Do you like my new header picture? It was taken at the California Science Museum this past weekend in Los Angeles. We went there for a nice visit with our friends the Paffords. Here's a photo rundown of some of the highlights of our visit:

Everyone plays Whack A Mole at the Santa Monica Peer to win Jacob a Domo.

Success!

Some of our party ride the carousel on the pier. The arrow points to the teenager who is hiding from my camera.

Jacob and Chase perch on poles at Venice Beach.

Have you seen the teenage lately? He is so grownup.

Domo takes in the beach.

California Science Museum Exterior.

Jacob works on his sense of gravity inside the museum.

Jericho tries to see if it will tip over. Thankfully, it did not.

Jericho and Zach experience hurricane-force winds.

Jacob and Chase do the same.

After seeing Les Mis

Pink's chili dogs

Pinks Hot dogs on steroids

Home Improvement

2011-07-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

We're are having some big home improvement done at our house today. As I have mentioned before, I file home improvement projects into two categories: self-chosen projects intended to make things better, and mandatory projects forced upon you when something breaks.

Unfortunately, this project falls in the latter category. On Monday of this week we discovered that we had a water leak in our hallway bathroom. After consulting with several plumbing companies, we have learned that one of the hot water pipes in the house foundation is leaking. Apparently, your two options when this happens is to spot fix the leak, or reroute your pipes.

Now, at first thought it seems obvious that you would just want to just fix the leaky spot, as this is obviously the less-expensive option. Unfortunately, in houses that are a little older (ours is almost 30 years), fixing one leak sometimes leads to other leaks. At first this didn't make sense to me, until yesterday's plumber explained that if you've had reduced water pressure for a length of time due to a small crack in a pipe, fixing it and restoring full water pressure can sometimes cause worn down pipes to break in other places. And plus there's the factor that now when they build houses most builders don't even put water pipes in the foundation. They basically say, "I don't know what those builders thirty years ago were thinking", and route the pipes overhead. There's also the influential factor of the overhead pipe system having its own 25 year warranty, as well.

So, as you might have guessed, we are having our water pipes rerouted today, as soon as Juan the Plumber (aka the Attic Rat) arrives. I hope he arrives soon though, because as hot as it has been outside, I can't imagine how hot it gets in the attic.

I would like to say that the hot weather has helped us enjoy our all-cold showers this week while we were waiting for the repair, but alas, it has not. However, all-cold water is better than our first 12+ hours of no water at all. Plus, after today's job, all should be well in Hot Water World at our house.

At least for now.

2011-07-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have been hearing people talk about Pinterest a lot on their blogs the past few months. I knew that it was a site where you could "collect" images that you really like and "pin" them to your boards into categories. Finally, after seeing so many Pinterest blog buttons around, I checked it out for myself. I signed up for my own set of boards, and now just a short time later I am hooked. Or rather, I am pinned.

There are or course many ways to find pictures for your board. Usually I just go on my merry way around the web and when I see something I like, I click on "Pin It" on my Favorites menu. I then pick a category for it to go in, such as "Things I Want to Make", or "Great Living Spaces", or "Mosaics", and it gets pinned on that board.

Sometimes, however, I just go to Pinterest and search for categories to see what is there. Such as scrap spaces, or cubbies, or organization ideas. Then I see what fun images other people have found and I repin them to my site.

I am going to install this button in the sidebar of my blog, but today I thought I would put it front and center so it will be super-easy to go and look at my boards, if you so desire:

About those Mosaics...

2011-07-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Despite what it seems, the Timeline Mosaic Project has not fallen off the the face of the earth. It has just taken a break. A "Luke Project" break, actually. Right now I am in the process of finishing up the started pieces that I have here at the house. I also need to go through the blog and make sure all of the past related posts are all under the "Mosaic Timeline" tab above.

But for now, I will just show you Saul in his pre-grouted form. I am especially pleased with how he turned out. ("The light - it burns...")

I have several more very close to completion, so hopefully I can post more soon.

Happy Completed Project Day!

2011-06-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

I have a new completed project to show you. I actually finished it yesterday while waiting for the cable guy to figure out what was wrong with our internet, but didn't get around to taking a picture today.

My friend Gay showed me how to make one of these jean blankets. She learned from her friend Lois, who is actually related to our friends the Paffords. Apparently these jeans blankets are a big Pafford thing. And now I have one, since I sew with - a friend of the Paffords.

We actually started this in January, when the idea of sewing under a blanket of heavy denim cloth seemed almost comfy. But then the Luke Project got in the way, and then it was the end of May before I really got back to it.

But now it is complete:

And here is today's "Finished Project" Report:

Making Bowties

2011-06-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

by splityarn (Creative Commons License: Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike)

Open on Flickr

I spent some time this afternoon making a red satin bow tie. This might at first seem like an unusual summer activity, at least until you realize that this is VBS week for us at church. (Actually, we're not having a "VBS" per se this year, but that's another story.)   And with VBS week comes all kinds of random tasks that need to be done.

At first when my friend Dawn called me asking me if I knew where she could find a red bow tie, I said no, no, I do not. But then I realized that I was standing in JoAnn Fabrics at the time, and surely I could find some red fabric and figure out how to make a bow tie.    So I changed my answer and said that I thought I could come up with one.

Then, on the way to the satin fabric section, I remembered that I have made a bow tie before. I made a bow tie out of pink moire taffeta in high school for my date to the prom to match my pink taffeta prom dress - that I also made. Then the memory floodgates were open and my mind was off and running thinking of all the other clothes I made for myself in high school. Dresses, skirts, tops, you name it. I even made clothes for other people (like my mother).   I'm sure there are several pictures around of some of these garments - I will have to look around and try to dig some up.

I remember doing some sewing in college as favors for other people, but after actually going to college, I don't remember actually making any of my own clothes.

Perhaps if I had a daughter I would have kept sewing clothes. Or maybe not. Perhaps it was just a phase of my youth (and a low clothing budget).

However, phase or not, I guess I had enough of it still in my head to agree to make a red bow tie this afternoon.   Which, the day before VBS, is just enough.

Just in Time for Sunday's Lesson

2011-06-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

by boston_camera (Creative Commons License: Attribution, No Derivatives, Non-Commercial)

Open on Flickr

Just in time for tomorrow's sermon on the last chapter of Luke, my friend's cat was resurrected this week.

Well, not exactly. But very close. It all started when I arrived my friend Gay's house house mid-morning on Wednesday to find her distraught over the morning's events.

It turns out that her husband David had gone out for his morning walk earlier and found their cat Ginger lying lifeless alongside the curb a few houses down. Gay and David have three cats, whom they love and adore. This particular cat had been with them for two years, after Gay brought her home as a kitten one weekend as a surprise for David, who was out of town. (While this would be unthinkable in my house, his immediate love for the kitty overcame his shock of finding it in his house unannounced.  Which in my mind clearly shows how much he truly likes cats.)

Out of all their cats, this one did make them worry the most about its safety.  From its early months Ginger had always been a wanderer, and loved to meander across the street slowly and lazily. Sometimes she would even stop and do a little sunning in the middle of the road on the way across. This and her general attraction to cars (and resulting habit of trying to get into any open car door) had led them to fear that she would get hit by a car one day.

And alas, that day had come. Fortunately she showed no signs of external injury, so David brought her home and woke Gay up to give her that bad news. They took her to the back yard and just held her for awhile, mourning her passing. They held her and petted her and cried over her. Then they picked a special spot in the in the flower bed and buried her.

Then they went on about their morning very sadly, crying over Ginger here and there as they went on their way.

When I arrived, Gay told me the whole story, which of course as a pet lover I could commiserate with. We talked about it here and there as we ran errands, solemnly remembering Ginger's short life.

Finally, we arrived back home, hands full of packages we had bought to use on the project we were working on that day. She got out on her side of the car and I got out on my side, and as I got out, I was greeted by small gray cat coming out from the backyard.

"Oh, here's one of your other cats now," I said to her, feeling glad that at least she still had other cats around.

"Which one is that?" Gay asked, coming around the car to check. And then there was a huge gasp, and "That's GINGER!"

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes! That's GINGER! There she is! She's ALIVE!"

Short pause from me. Then, "Um, then...whose cat did you bury in the backyard?"

It turns out that Ginger had not been truly resurrected, as she had no dirt on her at all, and was now wearing her collar. Perhaps she dug herself out, brushed herself off, and put her own collar back on, but I doubt it. At the very least, I don't think she would have been nearly as friendly to Gay if that had happened. I would imagine being buried alive would make a cat pretty mad.

So the real story seems to be that they discovered someone else's deceased kitty in the gutter. A kitty that looked just like theirs. They didn't think twice about it missing a collar, because it had lost its collar before. Instead, they loved, mourned, and cried over it for a good 45 minutes. Then they buried it in the back yard.

While not a true resurrection story, it definitely has some similarities. For example, even though they had warnings, the death was still unthinkable. And just when they were facing the fact that they would never, ever see Ginger again - there she was. Walking out of the backyard.

I would imagine that tomorrow as they listen to the sermon, they will see the story of the resurrection in a whole new way.

A Topiary Tale

2011-06-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Gay and I embarked on a new project this week. I had seen this wonderful idea in my Fine Gardening magazine, and we both thought it looked wonderful, so we decided we would try it.

Here is the magazine article from whence the idea came:

Nice, huh?

So, we went shopping at our local home and garden store, and came home with our materials:

The wire forms were originally hanging flower basket forms that I had bought for 50 cents each at her yard sale. However, I wasn't happy with how they were looking in my yard, so we decided to repurpose them. The rest of the plants and other materials we bought at Lowe's, the pots we got 70% off at Joann's, and the Diet Dr. Pepper she already had at her house.

The first step was to fill the plants with sand or gravel. We bought a bag of sand, but it wasn't enough to fill both pots, so we decided to supplement with some (unused) cat litter:

The next step was to wrap the wire forms with chicken wire. The was a very laborious, not to mention injurious process. Although I'm not sure "injurious" is a word. In other words, it was scratchy.

Here is my wire-wrapped form. And there is more Diet Dr. Pepper in the background. (I think it's funny how my DDP is in almost every shot. It's as if it's up for an award in the Supporting Actor in Home Project Blog Tutorial category.)

The next step was to stuff the form full of sphagnum moss. If you ever attempt this project, you will want to follow the directions on the moss bag and spritz it with water before you pull it out of the bag. Otherwise you just have a little sphagnum moss tornado flying everywhere, with little to place where you actually want it.

Here are the twin stuffed forms.

Here is mine alone, because it just looks so different from Gay's.

The next step was to take the little succulent plants and stick them in all over the topiary. This unfortunately proved to be a rather violent process for the plants. Many of them lost their fleshy little succulent leaves while being pushed into the form. It became quickly quite hard to believe that any of them would survive the process at all.

However, we got them all in there.

Unfortunately, our topiaries don't quite look like the one from the article. If you scan up to the article picture again, you will see that their topiary is lush and full of little plants. In fact, that stuff that looks like pine branches is actually many, many little succulent plants pushed into the form.

Needless to say, their topiary is at least a $200 topiary. Mine is a $50 topiary, and that includes the pot.

While a bargain is a wonderful thing, a bargain topiary is something more like a topiary having a bad hair day:

However, there is hope. After gazing sadly at my creation for a little while, I hopped on the Internet and searched how to propagate succulents. In my search I learned that this is a (reportedly) very easy process. You just take a single branch or leaf of your succulent plant, and then you let it callous over by drying out for a day or two. Then you place it gently on a pot of potting medium, and voila! It sprouts roots and turns into its own little plant.

So my plan is to take all the little leaves and plants that were collateral damage from the creation process and make more plants with them. Then my topiary can be lush and full, too. It might take the next ten years, but that's okay.

Here are some of the fallout leaves and branches as they are recovering and callousing:

Once again, I'll let you know how it goes.

Finished Project #1

2011-06-15T21:47:00.000-07:00

Here is my first finished project of the summer - the Domo blanket.

Here are the specifics of the project:

The truth is that as soon as I took the picture, Jacob ripped Domo off of him - June not the best blanket weather here in Central California. However, now that it's finished, it can hang out in Jacob's room until cooler weather arrives.

Oh, the Potential of It All...

2011-06-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

I would just like to say now that I am just loving summer so far. It just astounds me how much time is available to someone like me (a teacher) in the summer, especially with several very large projects behind me.

Every day presents a myriad of choices. Should I do mosaics? Should I work on my Lesson Plan Notebook for next year? Should I read a book? Should I work in the garden? Should I take a nap on the Big Brown Couch?

So far I have been sorting out all the teacher stuff that I brought home from school, and slowly getting the house back in order after it has suffered through all these many projects. Which I am finding all very gratifying so far.

Obviously, I am only two days into Summer, so perhaps it will all get old and boring eventually and I just won't know what to do with myself.

However, the summer is just ten weeks long. I doubt it.