An appropriate response? Maybe?

So, Julia calls to me and says, "You know what I would say if Jesus came to our door?"

We had just been to church, so I thought maybe the Sunday school message was on her mind.

"What would you say, Julia?"

"I'd say, 'Oh, my God!! It's Jesus!'"

A sneak peek

Here is just a small glimpse of one of my craft projects. I won't tell you what it will be or who it is for, but I just loved all the colors and the feeling of satisfaction of having an idea and following it through, so I wanted to share. Did you see my horribly ugly sweater in there? It's not so bad when you chop it into pieces and spread it out a bit.

The things that keep me busy

Since we started homeschooling this year with a few new programs, I have found myself making the most unusual grocery lists. The list below is for science, we're going to be testing acids and bases and making our own litmus paper with red cabbage and coffee filters (just writing that makes me exhausted!)

Our history program, The Story of the World, lists multiple activities for each lesson. Usually, I go through and pick out the easiest activity. I especially like when I get to tell Grant to go make something out of legos like a ziggurat or a siege tower. That keeps him busy for hours and I don't have to supervise at all. However, since we were already purchasing the red cabbage for science, I thought I'd try something a little more involved and do the "Dye something a royal purple" activity. (Again... totally exhausted! What am I thinking?) If and when this gets done, I promise to post pictures.

I was able to finally take "canned papaya" off of my shopping list. I'd been on the search for that one for a couple of weeks. It was part of our history lesson on Africa. One of the activities was to make an African feast. We didn't make the whole feast, just some fried plantains and this papaya fried rice. The kids weren't overly thrilled with it, but I liked it lots.

And finally... something that doesn't involve the kids or a history lesson! I found this sweater at the thrift store. Isn't it just so incredibly awful!!!! but it's a great color for some of those cute felted sweater projects that I have been wanting to do. Go check out Betz White's blog, I love her stuff. http://blog.betzwhite.com/

Chemical Reactions

Last week, Grant, Julia and I did some experiments with chemical reactions with common household items. (Egg whites, salt water, sugar water, vinegar, milk, lemon juice, and baking soda.) We spent a lot of time guessing what will happen when we mix certain things together, mixing them and then recording the results.

The best reactions were, of course, the baking soda and vinegar and baking soda and lemon juice. Honestly, the kids could do this one over and over again.

This lemon juice and baking soda concoction made a good, organic cleaner for my sink!

Rainbows on a gray day

Julia and Grant caught this rainbow on Saturday.

It was a dreary day, but the rainbow added a nice spot of color.
The tree below is just one of many that Julia took while she was playing with the camera.

I have so many other pictures that I would like to share, but they are all of the crafts that we've been working on for our handmade/homemade Christmas and if I posted the pictures, my secret would be out!

A date at a museum

Although I still miss the West Coast, one of the best things about living near D.C. is being able to visit all of the wonderful museums. Dan and I went on a date (that's right, just the two of us!) to the National Gallery of Art. We visited some paintings that are familiar and have become like old friends (like the Van Gogh above) and found some new ones like those below.
These paintings are a series by Thomas Cole called the Voyage of Life. The one that caught my eye at first is the one just below with the castle in the clouds, but as I looked closer and saw that they were a series, I became more interested.

The first one, Childhood, has a baby in the boat and the flowers in the foreground were very bold and cheery. (They're brighter in person.)

The second one, Youth, has a teenager dreaming of castles in the sky.

Manhood, faces a rocky voyage.

Old age, is looking at his heavenly reward.

But as Dan put it, "You're born, you have dreams, life sucks and you die."

(That was just an interpretation, not Dan's view on life.)

And there's your cheery thought for the day!

Marshmallow Molecules

The kids are learning about atoms and molecules in their Chemistry book, who knew molecules could be so much fun! I guess marsmallows can make anything fun. We started out making "no rules" molecules. Here is Julia's friend, Mr. Molecule.


Then we got serious and made some real molecule shapes, but a methane molecule sure can make a boy smile. He called it a "toot" molecule (or maybe he used the other word for that.)

I love seeing them so intent and interested in their work. I imagine that they'll remember this when they are in 10th grade Chemistry.

Ancient China History project

Just a couple of pictures to show you our history project for Story of the World's Ancient China lesson.

We opted to make a clay bowl in the style of the blue and white porcelain popular in China.

Julia painted glue all over it to make it shiny.

Go Navy! Beat Temple!! In Overtime!

This post is a bit late (a whole week!), but I got sidetracked (and hoped Dan would take over) and never got it posted.

This was one of the best football games we've been to. About halfway through things were looking pretty grim, but amazingly Navy managed to tie the game at the last minute and won in overtime.

This is one of the few smiles we got from Quincy.

She read her book throughout the entire game.

The outlook was so grim that half the crowd left before Navy turned things around.

For Julia, that meant more space to stretch out.

The things Dan saw in Bahrain

For dinner we had "street food"...this is Chicken Shawarma at a place called Zahlawiya
Didn't eat here, but I loved the sign

We stayed at the Gulf Hotel...probably the nicest hotel in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Lobby of the Gulf Hotel

The Grand Mosque in Manama, Bahrain

Dan's trip to Naples, Italy

A Roman Arch across from our hotel.

Castle (also across from the hotel.)

The Grand Hotel Santa Lucia

Hotel lobby

Driving in Napoli.

Naples in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius