Delivering acorns to squirrels in need

Yep.... thank goodness for facebook. I keep up with an organization called Carolina Wildlife Care, and my mom mentioned that they had posted on facebook that they needed acorns for squirrels that they are rehabilitating. Blondie had a great time looking for them in the yard, and my mom took them over to the place, and while very grateful, they needed more.

So, today at the end of my Brownie girl scout meeting, Blondie, Cheesie and the other girls, all went outside and gathered 10 or 15 pounds of acorns from under our oak trees at school as a simple community service project. It only took them 15 minutes because they were VERY engaged with the whole idea of helping injured animals. I was going to just hand them off to my mom tomorrow, but Blondie and Cheesie really wanted to see the place, so I drove across town, in rush hour traffic to deliver them in person.

This place runs on a few donations, and a whole bunch of volunteers, and they take in any wild animal to try to rehabilitate. I was NOT prepared for how many cages (about 50-70) of squirrels (several in each cage) were in one room. Honestly, squirrels are a bit of a nuisance for our family because try as we might, we can't keep them out of our attic in the winter, and we can hear them running the walls on really cold nights (creeps me out). Blondie and Cheesie however, are planning on going back out to the schoolyard tomorrow afternoon and pick up some more acorns - although I'll definitely hand those off to my mom to deliver on her way home.

Around the house...

Nothing specific has been happening.... just a lot of the same. I did manage to make a few Christmas presents this weekend for the little ones. I went to a few garage sales and found some great legos for the classroom, some more books for the kids (my daughters and my students), and T-Rex got a barely used bike and some nice shelves. So here are random pics of the kids for the weekend.

Big Al: Self portrait. I think these are about the only pictures she takes, unless its one with her and a friend. Big Al went with her friend to a charity walk for her friend's cousin. He has tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) which is when the body grows tumors in major organs. Big Al and her friend volunteered for about 11 hours, and I was quite pleased that she decided to do this on her own.

T-Rex: No idea what she's thinking here...... She is still on "Dawson Unplugged" which is our term for grounding - nothing that plugs in except the hairdryer. If you have time for the other stuff, then you certainly have time for studying math.

Blondie: played a lot, rode her bike. I love the sleeping picture. One night a weekend they can sleep downstairs and watch tv late. Blondie made up a special area and promptly fell asleep.

Cheesie has been keeping the tooth fairy busy this week (two teeth lost and one more loose). I would take a picture and share with you, but she is passed out on the couch from a very busy day in second grade (and if I don't post something soon, I'll be hearing from my father-in-law).

Scooping ice cream with one hand

So I bought ice cream cones yesterday (a rarity at our house). Tonight I'm helping T-Rex with math while Blondie reads to me, and Cheesie pipes up with.... "OH! We have ice cream cones." Blondie stops reading and heads to the kitchen to make herself one. As she is walking out I tell her to make me one too.

Then it occurs to me. How is she going to scoop ice cream and put it in a cone using one hand.... I was halfway hoping she would remember her left hand and use it somehow. A few minutes later I get an ice cream cone delivered to me. "Cool," I think to myself, "She figured it out."

Brian goes into the kitchen a minute later and starts HOWLING with laughter. This is how a one-arm working child scoops ice cream into a cone... (Please excuse the condition of her shirt.... she comes home from school everyday looking like this.)

Shove the cone into the ice cream until it stands up.

Scoop and pat...

Lick the ice cream off the bottom of the cone, and enjoy.

She is BRILLIANT!

Group photo - out takes

Last Sunday we went to the University of SC's arboretum. It's only open on the 3rd Sunday of the month to the public, so we seized the opportunity since we had never been. Someone left the University under 10 acres for the science department, and it was a densely packed jungle, in the middle of the city. Over the years one woman has been working with volunteers and students to create something spotlighting native vegetation and ecosystems. It is still a work in progress.

The beauty berry was full of its purple berries.

We walked along the trail enjoying the different gardens, and periodically trying to get a good "family" pic of the kids. Do you know what its like getting 4 kids to all look in the same direction for a picture? It's a little like herding cats......

We tried the zen garden

SMILE, oops, no not a fake smile. Put your hand down.

Why are you tilting your head like that? Response, "Uh.... its what models do."

We tried the outdoor classroom....
Sit Up..... Quit talking to your sister

Cross your legs.....not like that ...... just your ankles...... YOUR ANKLES. Sit up AGAIN, no not your chest.

We tried different seats in the outdoor classroom.

SMILE. Look at DAD! not the lady walking by.....

It was MUCH easier getting this little salamander's picture

I... just....didn't....know

I went up to my room the other night, and found Cheesie sleeping in my bed. So I woke her up and shepherded her to her bed. As I walked in, I saw this....

And then promptly yelled, "BLONDIE!"

Blondie came trotting up the stairs and I asked, "WHAT is THAT on the WALL?"

To which she replied while rolling her eyes, "Um... My tally sheet for days until Halloween." and then I'm pretty sure she thought, "DUUUUH!"

Closer inspection showed that she used playdoh to stick the pencil and paper to the wall. This led to the question, "Why did you use playdoh?"

Again, you could hear in her voice that I was an idiot, "It is just like what you use at school for your posters."

Not exactly (I use properly sanctioned blue gummy poster thingies), but I let it slide. I didn't ask about the orange foam sticker stuck to my wall. Whatever. Hope it all comes off.

Kitchen Table

School is obviously in full swing... tonight I looked around my kitchen table and saw:

T-Rex working to fix her pre-algebra homework

Blondie working on her math (she and I are working hard to master the concept of place value - hence the base ten blocks)

then her bug project (Cheesie was absolutely entralled with the paper mache' and kept jumping in too).

Cheesie had finished her spelling earlier, and Big Al was in and out with her Algebra homework (she had retreated to her bedroom to avoid the glue and paint). My table was an amazing mess.

One UFO down

A UFO is an UnFinished Object in the quilting world. I have a lot of them. Back in January my resolution was to make a list and attack them one at a time. Brian was out of work, I had a stack of things to do, and nothing new needed to buy. I sorted them into piles, and there they sat. I worked on one knitting project for awhile, but honestly, boredom set in, and I got busy with other things. SO, then I figured I would work on things this summer, but instead I was working on a class, and literally just hanging out with my kids.

Lots of excuses right? A few weeks ago, one specific project kept getting in my way. I have a very messy drafting table with my sewing machine on it, and I had to keep shifting this project around to get it out of my way. It was the jean quilt. I had a couple pairs of my Dad's old jeans, mine, Brian's, and some the girls had outgrown. I spent the last two weekends using my down time to purposefully cut the jeans up into pieces so I could at least get them out of the way. Then I cut the flannel while I was at it thinking I could put the whole quilt in a bag and at least it would be smaller. Last weekend I spent an afternoon to test out my idea (I was making this from a picture, but no directions), and then I looked up to find half of it finished. Yesterday, I finished the rest of it.

The idea came from a website where they made a travel quilt and put patches on it from all of the different places they visited. There's was made out of polarfleece, I wanted mine out of blue jeans. I only used family jeans. I matched up the jeans and the flannel backing, and sewed the seam to the next square of denim and flannel. I left the seams exposed so they could fray. No batting in between because the denim was heavy enough, and I was sewing through 4 layers at a time anyway. I used 6 inch squares, but then the adult pockets were too big to be used. I saved those, used up the kid pockets, and if I ever make another one I'll use the adult pockets and a bigger square. I had a few squares left over, as well as the extra pockets, which did go into a bag, but I used every inch of flannel, so I'm counting this UFO checked off. WOO HOO!

Today we're cutting out T-Rex's African animal print quilt (crossing fingers it doesn't look like a hot mess when we're finished), and I'll start quilting the santa quilt because if I FOCUS it should only take a week or two, and lets be honest...... I need it ready by Thanksgiving to use for my holiday decorating. Maybe I'm getting back my quilting juju.