We've been traveling a *lot* over the past few months. Fall's that way - we've got to get enough hay to feed our animals, enough wood to heat our house, and enough visiting before the weather locks us in. We haven't travelled far enough to put us in a new time zone, so I'm not sure where the question came from, but Hannah asked last weekend if it was daytime at Grandma and Poppa's house when it was daytime at ours.
Enter an awesome website. It's constantly updated, so you always see exactly where on earth the sun is shining.
http://www.opentopia.com/sunlightmaprect.html
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
In the Wild.
Have you ever been to The Wild? We went to The Wild, my children and me, last weekend. And ate snow.
Well, Ainsley ate snow. Snow's cleaner in The Wild.
And it wasn't so much The Wild as it was just off the road and up some hills in the forests of Wyoming. But to a four-year-old, that's The Wild, so that's what it was.
Their dad was cutting firewood and we were looking for a Christmas Tree. The girls found a tree for their room and a tree for the family. I found Beauty.
Lots of Beauty.
Do you ever wonder where Grayson is when you see all these pictures of the girls? Wonder no more. Here he is.
I've been showing Hannah pictures of baskets that Bee-leaf is making. She wanted to test the willows to see if they would work to make her a little basket.
"Where do you want to go now?" I ask the girls. "That way. Past the shadows - into the sun. Into The Wild again."
What a beautiful day to be in The Wild.
Well, Ainsley ate snow. Snow's cleaner in The Wild.
And it wasn't so much The Wild as it was just off the road and up some hills in the forests of Wyoming. But to a four-year-old, that's The Wild, so that's what it was.
Their dad was cutting firewood and we were looking for a Christmas Tree. The girls found a tree for their room and a tree for the family. I found Beauty.
Lots of Beauty.
Do you ever wonder where Grayson is when you see all these pictures of the girls? Wonder no more. Here he is.
I've been showing Hannah pictures of baskets that Bee-leaf is making. She wanted to test the willows to see if they would work to make her a little basket.
"Where do you want to go now?" I ask the girls. "That way. Past the shadows - into the sun. Into The Wild again."
What a beautiful day to be in The Wild.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Do your kids like insects?
Or hate 'em?
This website has been a surprising hit at our house. Lots and lots of laughter - especially when the 'bounce' is taken to the highest level. Lots of questions about spiders which led to talk of where I grew up and the tarantulas who live in Oklahoma, discovery of spider's favorite foods (push the spacebar and watch your spider run over and eat the bug you leave for it), and the most surreal discussion with a four year old about ratios (body to legs and skinny vs large legs - try it!).
The snake game on the bar across the top was also a surprising hit. I was not only surprised by how quickly she caught on to how to move the snake and stay away from her tail but also by the hysterical giggles when she ended up eating her own tail.
http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/
This website has been a surprising hit at our house. Lots and lots of laughter - especially when the 'bounce' is taken to the highest level. Lots of questions about spiders which led to talk of where I grew up and the tarantulas who live in Oklahoma, discovery of spider's favorite foods (push the spacebar and watch your spider run over and eat the bug you leave for it), and the most surreal discussion with a four year old about ratios (body to legs and skinny vs large legs - try it!).
The snake game on the bar across the top was also a surprising hit. I was not only surprised by how quickly she caught on to how to move the snake and stay away from her tail but also by the hysterical giggles when she ended up eating her own tail.
http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/
Monday, December 1, 2008
Family matters.
The disconnect between generations today is a tragedy. We need them and they need us.
I love watching my children interact with their great-grandparents.
We're very lucky to have them in our lives.
We do as much as we can to keep them connected.
I love watching my children interact with their great-grandparents.
We're very lucky to have them in our lives.
We do as much as we can to keep them connected.
Can you recite this?
I have a cousin who is amazing at memorizing and reciting long poems. I should send this to her and see if she can learn this one.
Try it. The challenge is to pronounce every word correctly. English is a hard language to learn.
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
-- B. Shaw
Try it. The challenge is to pronounce every word correctly. English is a hard language to learn.
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
-- B. Shaw
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Playing with letters.
Hannah's been playing with letters a lot lately. Wanting to know how to spell names, what words say, what sounds letters make. She's not much of a "hands on" learner, but I thought I'd get her some "manipulatives" to go along with her interest. Amazingly, I found that Ainsley was just as - or more - into playing with the "letter manipulatives" than Hannah.
I'd bought these cake decorating letters on sale a month or two ago.
Please loosely interpret Ainsley's "playing with" as "shoveling into her mouth".
Admit it - you wish you'd had these given to you when you were a kid and playing with letters.
I'd bought these cake decorating letters on sale a month or two ago.
Please loosely interpret Ainsley's "playing with" as "shoveling into her mouth".
Admit it - you wish you'd had these given to you when you were a kid and playing with letters.
Monday, November 24, 2008
I'm thankful for...
A kid who makes funny faces.
Especially when he's tired.
Really tired.
And gets caught halfway through a yawn.
Or all the way into a yawn.
And then asks to nurse.
That's what I'm thankful for.
Especially when he's tired.
Really tired.
And gets caught halfway through a yawn.
Or all the way into a yawn.
And then asks to nurse.
That's what I'm thankful for.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Snapshot Sunday
Thought I'd try something new, so I'm debuting Snapshot Sunday. I'm not really creative with names. What I'll do is walk through my life at the moment - wherever I am, whatever I'm doing and take five snapshots. No people, no arranging, no cleaning up. Sometimes captions, sometimes not. "This is my life. Right now."
Let me know if you like it, dislike it, or if it's 'meh'. Good time to de-lurk. *wink*
Let's begin, shall we?
The hitching post/parking lot/doorway.
Pizza dough rising by the fire.
I love the idea of seeing snapshots of other's lives. Not enough to feel intrusive, just enough to feel a mom-to-mom connection. "I have hangers hanging in strange places too" type connections. If you start this, let me know and I'll link to you next Sunday.
Let me know if you like it, dislike it, or if it's 'meh'. Good time to de-lurk. *wink*
Let's begin, shall we?
The hitching post/parking lot/doorway.
Pizza dough rising by the fire.
I love the idea of seeing snapshots of other's lives. Not enough to feel intrusive, just enough to feel a mom-to-mom connection. "I have hangers hanging in strange places too" type connections. If you start this, let me know and I'll link to you next Sunday.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Summer - a retrospective.
I'm away right now. I'm travelling to a surprise party for my mother-in-law, so I scheduled this retrospective post. Pictures from the summer that I never got a chance to post.
Hannah with a caterpillar she found. Look how short her hair is.
It's not as bad as it looks.
Playing in the laundry.
Did I post this one? I love this one.
My forlorn horse girl. She was waiting for me to have a second to help her get the pony out.
I got the pony, and after riding it for awhile, her sister talked her into walking the pony while *she* rode.
Oh, relax. I was there the whole time. Pictures add ten feet.
Ains practicing her "scared" look. She was being scared of a soda can when I took this picture, I believe.
Ains with the horses she carried around for a week. They're her sister's horses. You can tell by the haircuts.
She tried to get them to pull the cart.
She brought the rocking horse out to the barn so she could ride while I milked the goats.
Hannah decided to grow a beard.
Grayson and Ains in chairs. Not sure why Grayson is looking Hobbit-y. Ains is nursing the pink poodle.
Just had to throw this one in there. Hannah's cousin Bella. Look at those lips!
Gray got patriotic over Independence Day.
Cute cousins.
Cute sisters.
Ains on her grandma's trampoline.
Hannah writing letters while swinging.
Girls picking cherries.
Hannah, the little lady (just look at those crossed legs), helping pick cattails. More on that later...
Gray sleeping in a hammock while I garden. It was much warmer then. *sigh*
Hannah climbing into the orchard to pick cherries. OLM, I want you to bring your kids to visit next summer - we'd have so much fun! We're only three hours north...
Hannah with a caterpillar she found. Look how short her hair is.
It's not as bad as it looks.
Playing in the laundry.
Did I post this one? I love this one.
My forlorn horse girl. She was waiting for me to have a second to help her get the pony out.
I got the pony, and after riding it for awhile, her sister talked her into walking the pony while *she* rode.
Oh, relax. I was there the whole time. Pictures add ten feet.
Ains practicing her "scared" look. She was being scared of a soda can when I took this picture, I believe.
Ains with the horses she carried around for a week. They're her sister's horses. You can tell by the haircuts.
She tried to get them to pull the cart.
She brought the rocking horse out to the barn so she could ride while I milked the goats.
Hannah decided to grow a beard.
Grayson and Ains in chairs. Not sure why Grayson is looking Hobbit-y. Ains is nursing the pink poodle.
Just had to throw this one in there. Hannah's cousin Bella. Look at those lips!
Gray got patriotic over Independence Day.
Cute cousins.
Cute sisters.
Ains on her grandma's trampoline.
Hannah writing letters while swinging.
Girls picking cherries.
Hannah, the little lady (just look at those crossed legs), helping pick cattails. More on that later...
Gray sleeping in a hammock while I garden. It was much warmer then. *sigh*
Hannah climbing into the orchard to pick cherries. OLM, I want you to bring your kids to visit next summer - we'd have so much fun! We're only three hours north...
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