Signs of spring

Last weekend the temperature got all the way up to almost 40, and most of our snow melted.  While the ground was muddy, the children looked out in the backyard and saw many birds.  Being birdwatchers, they alerted me to this fact and were surprised that none of them were coming to the bird feeder.  I looked and saw the reason why.  They were robins - 16 of them - looking for worms.  These are the first robins I have seen this year.  Last year I did not notice them until March.  They and a few dark-eyed juncoes were visiting us on that day, and I was glad.  The next day the snow started falling again.  When I fed the animals that morning, one lone robin was in the hickory tree singing.  Maybe he was wondering about the snow.  Since then I have not seen one.  Lots of juncoes and some cardinals.  When the snow melts again, they will be back and so will spring.

Can you find all 16?

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." - Genesis 8:22 KJV

Blooming Venus flytrap!

Last December when we were shopping, Sarah asked OBT if we could purchase a Venus flytrap.  They had them at Meijer's right there with the other plants.  OBT said, "yes", and we took it home with us.  Somehow that carnivorous plant is still alive, and last Sunday I looked at it and saw a flower.  A FLOWER!  I knew that one stalk looked a lot taller than the others but had no idea that it was going to bloom.  Never having seen a Venus flytrap flower in my life, this was a reason for excitement.  I went around making sure that everyone in our house saw it too.  After all it is not every day that a Venus flytrap blooms right in your own home and right while you are studying Botany in science that year.  Bloom on, little Venus flytrap!

The Long Winter

This winter has been hard.  Since moving to Ohio, the snows have been a change from the winters I knew as a child.  Never did I live anywhere that got this much snow.  A little?  Yes.  A few snow days off from school?  Yes, but never a lot.  Now we are in Ohio, and I cannot say that anymore.  I like the snow.  The beautiful flakes quietly falling transform the out-of-doors into a winter wonderland.  This year; however, I am ready for the end of winter.

Our driveway - can you see the culvert and miss the ditch?

The road in front of our house.  Yes, that is our mailbox.

The driveway view of our house and the truck that is not going anywhere any time soon.

The deck

The animals are surviving.  All but one.

Sunny, our first goat, had her kid early during a night of 40mph winds with snow on the ground.  To everything there is a season, and this was not the time for this kid to be born.  It died, and I found it two Wednesday mornings ago.  After calling the local 4-H goat club leader to ask her what to watch for next, I kept an eye on Sunny while she was in the process of passing the afterbirth.

Friday morning when I went out to check on the animals, Sunny did not come with the other goats as usual.  She did not even get up.  She ate a little hay that I fed her and barely touched the water.  I called again and was told that help could not come until that afternoon.  I understood that.  That afternoon I went out to check on them again.  Sunny had moved outside to where we feed them their hay.  She looked like she did not care what happened to her next.  The goats were out of water so I trekked back in for more.  Help arrived after that.

They were a lot more experienced than me who has just started learning about goats and has a lot more to learn.  They checked her temperature - low and started giving her shots, but it was just too late.  She died while we were there.  It seemed to happen so fast in my mind.  She had been full of life just a day before and now the life was gone out of her.  Final.  Not coming back.  Sadness.  What could we have done differently to prevent this?  Regret.  I cannot change what has happened, but I can learn from this experience.  Then we had to fight to get the helpers' car up our driveway.  I thanked them profusely for coming over.  They were sorry that this has happened.  Sometimes it does.  That is life.  We have three more goats still counting on us.  Dependent on our not giving up on them.  We are cast down but not destroyed.  Determined to go on as good stewards learning as much as we can along the way.

"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." - Proverbs 12:10 KJV

Things We Said

Sarah (sings):  Indiana, we're going to Indiana.

Leora:  Wow!  We're going to see the Indians!

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Lepidoptera:  You will need to double-click on the ziggurat icon in order to play the game.  Do you know what a ziggurat looks like?

Leora:  A cigarette?

Lepidoptera:  No, not the thing that you are not supposed to smoke.  A zig-gu-rat.  It looks like a pyramid.

Leora:  Oh, yes.  I think I know what that looks like.

What We Read - January 2010

The trucker by Brenda Weatherby

A boy imagines he is a real truck driver like his dad.  We liked this book and enjoyed the trucker lingo in the back of the book.

Mom and the polka dot boo-boo by Eileen Sutherland

Sarah first noticed the illustrations drawn by the author's daughter.  This is a good introduction to breast cancer and gave us a topic for a discussion which went very well.

Meet Molly by Valerie Tripp

Our first "American Girl" book.  Overall it was enjoyed by all.  It is a short chapter book, and the children found certain parts really funny.  Molly is not perfect, but she seems more like a real girl because of it.  We will look forward to reading more in this series.  The history tie-in throughout the book is a great way to learn more about days gone by.  Molly is a 1944 girl, and the era is WWII.  It was really interesting to learn that people put blue stars in their window if someone in their family was serving in the war and if they died, a golden star replaced the blue.

My shining prayer book by Linda Clearwater

Leora chose this one, and we both liked it.  A nice, sturdy board book with colorful pictures.

The First night of Hanukkah by Nicki Weiss

Leora also chose this book, and it was actually very interesting.

The story of a castle by John S. Goodall

A wonderful pictures-only book of a castle down through the ages.  The children really liked this one.  Well worth checking out.

Zat cat! by Chesley McLaren

A fun read about the Paris fashion industry and the way a cat influences it written and illustrated by she who did the pictures for Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries books.

Spy hops and belly flops by Lynda Graham-Barber

Another great nature find - a picture book detailing the way various animals move.

The big performance collection (Angelina Ballerina) by Katherine Holabird

Having an AB fan in the house means looking up the author's name at the library to see if you can find some of her books for your daughter to read.  Success!  Yes, she did enjoy reading these, and her sister did too.

Birthday girl

Come January our family is still celebrating.  It's time for birthday bashes, and this year Sarah wanted a Garden/Musical birthday tea party.  We culled ideas from Emilie Barnes' Let's Have a Tea Party.  This book gives tea party themes and suggestions for invitations, decorations, activities, and recipes.  OBT's mom supplied the birthday cake(s):  a big piece of homemade Red Velvet that was OBT's father's birthday cake from their church (his birthday is in January too) and a cake from the Balboa Dessert Company.  I like the fact that "Sweetness is used sparingly so the natural flavors are what you taste." according to their website.  Yum!

 The placemats were musical and purple, Sarah's favorite color.  Each one had a number on the back and shaped notes on the front.  Everyone present sang their notes in order and then guessed what the song might be.   "The Doxology", one of Sarah's favorite songs, was the right answer.

 

We ate flute cookies - pirouettes with black icing for keyholes,

piano key sandwiches - white bread with cream cheese and pineapple, pumpernickel with apple butter, thinly sliced apples and chopped walnuts,

 

sunny sandwiches - bread cut into circles with apricot preserves inside and raisin faces plus baby carrots for the rays of the sun,

snowballs - peppermint and vanilla ice cream balls rolled in coconut,

and drank raspberry tea.

Happy, Happy Birthday, birthday girl!

And happy birthday in January to me too!

TOG Y2U2 Celebration - Renaissance

Who says that you cannot have a Unit Celebration while on vacation?  Not us!  In fact this was a great time for our celebration as it enabled us to share it with OBT's parents.  For our menu this go-round, I did my research at the Alabama Renaissance Faire's 2002 Feast website.

The Furst Course

Manchet - dinner rolls

Botere - butter

Sallet - a spring mix & raisins, oranges, walnuts, dressed with vinegar, oil, and a little sugar

Apple Muse - We had made this earlier in the unit.  This time I used applesauce.

Potus - Hot Honey Lemonade and Raspberry Tisane (warm lemonade with honey added and raspberries & tea)

The Second Course

Funges - mushrooms and onion cooked in beef broth with a little black pepper and cloves

Carrots - carrots with a little honey added

Makerouns - homemade noodles layered with cheese & spices (medieval "macaroni-n-cheese") - Sarah and I used whole wheat egg noodles layered with grated parmesan and romano cheeses plus basil and parsley.

Poules Rostis - roast hen served with 3 different dipping sauces - We used a rotisserie chicken.

Cold Sage Sauce (savory) - parsley & sage, chicken broth, bread crumbs

Cameline Sauce (hot & spicy mustard) - Dijon mustard, cinnamon, honey, a touch of apple juice

Verjuice (sweet & sour cherry sauce) - canned cherries blended to a sauce consistency

Seed Cake - lemon poppyseed cake - Martha White to the rescue!

We skipped the Thrid Course so that there would be less food to eat and still had plenty.  We also skipped the Firenze Wafers from the Fourth Course.

The Fourth Course of Roial spicerye

Spiced Fruit - Leora made the orange slices in spices (orange slices in cinnamon & sugar)

We celebrated two weeks early as we will not finish Unit Two until next week.  It was great to have plenty of time to cook the food since we were not doing a full school day.  Sometimes we have our Unit Celebrations on Saturdays or Friday nights for this very reason.  The feast still took a while to prepare, but it was well worth it.  

Now on to Crowns and Colonies!