Friday Science Experiments

Over a week ago, the kids and I studied volcanoes and built these models out of paper mache, but we didn't get to the eruption until today. Honestly, no matter how many times we do this, the kids never get tired of mixing baking soda with vinegar.
However, the coolest vinegar based science experiment was one that my sister told me about while we were talking on the phone. Simply put an egg in vinegar and watch the results. Well, that sounded easy enough.

The kids watched as the eggs were encased with millions of tiny bubbles, so many that the egg almost looked fuzzy. After an hour or so, the eggs began to float. Within a couple of hours, the eggshells started to feel soft and slimy and not long after that, we noticed a crack or two in the shells. We were excited to see the acid in the vinegar eating away at the shell.

Grant also learned that if you put your hands in vinegar and proceed to shake the vinegar off, drops of said vinegar might fling into ones eyes which then causes much tearing and pain.
Acids deserve respect.

Overnight, the egg's shell had totally dissolved leaving only the outer membrane. So cool!

We could squeeze it and bounce it and generally gross people out with it. Tons of FUN!

Julia would like to sleep with it, but I have discouraged that.

Grant would like to throw.... ACK!!!! Julia just dropped her egg!!!

Oh what a mess....

Got to take a picture.

I kind of saw that coming.

The kids think the yolk looks like a little egg man.

Guess that spot on my floor will get a lot cleaner now.

A Picture of Homeschooling

Not much to say... I just thought she was cute!

Finally... a Snowy Day!

While so many of our friends and family have been inundated with snow this year, we have barely seen ten flakes fall from the sky and certainly no accumulation. So, yesterday, we finally got enough snow for the kids to get out and play. The snow wasn't quite right for snowmen, although the kids did try, but it was perfect for snow angels and throwing at one another and generally rolling in it.
I took the opportunity to take a picture of one of my favorite needle felting projects. Isn't he cute!

While the kids were outside, I played a little more with the roving and came up with this little pumpkin. It's just about 3/4 in. high and very cute. I'm gathering quite a collection of random felted items that I don't really have plans for. (I also made a heart, a ladybug and a bluebird this weekend, but their pictures didn't turn out well.)

Cuba: Day Two

When I heard that we were making Cuban food for MKMW, the first thing that I thought of was the yummy Cuban sandwiches that we used to eat in Tampa. EVERYONE ate these. In fact, no one actually said, "I'll have a Cuban sandwich." When you order one, you simply say, "I'll have a Cuban."

(Sounds kind of like you're asking for Ricky Ricardo, "one cuban light on the babaloo.")

Anyhow... after making the roast pork, I suddenly found myself in possession of all the fixings for a cuban sandwich. Roast pork sliced thin, ham, swiss cheese (I substituted with provolone), mustard, mayo and most importantly a sandwich-sliced pickle. ( I don't even like dill pickles and I never put them on my sandwiches, but I love this.) Pile all that up and press it in a panini maker,or between two frying pans, like I did, and there you have it.... One of the best sandwiches ever!

My Kitchen My World: Cuba!

Finally! I made my Cuban meal and it was very yummy.

A couple of weeks ago, I joined a blog group called, My Kitchen My World. About twice a month they come up with a country to "visit" and our job is to make food from that country and share the results via our blogs. I joined this group in the hopes that it would inspire me and, in a way, force me and my family to try new things. Cuba was my first one and I was excited, we used to eat Cuban food all the time in Florida! I had so many ideas, so many foods that we loved to eat.

But what should I choose?

I totally over-thought this assignment. For weeks, I stressed and planned and changed my plans. Finally, I decided on roast pork with mojo sauce, black beans and rice, and some mangoes and papaya topped with toasted coconut. Yum!

The black beans were sooo good. I soaked them overnight and, after reading about a million different recipes for them, came up with my own version, omitting the ham hock and adding sofrito. (I think any Cuban mother would understand my making do with what I had.)

Even better than the beans was the simple fruit salad, a perfect sweet foil to the salty and savory pork and black beans.

Having said all that, I think the very best part of the meal was the simple fact that all the kids liked it! They've even requested that I make the beans more often, so I definitely will.

In the meantime... I have to come up with a plan for next weeks assignment, Azerbaijan!

oh, dear...

Paintastrophe!

This weekend was filled with minor home improvement projects, some weather proofing, some decorating.

I hadn't intended to do much painting in this house since it is just a rental, but Julia wanted some color in her room, and who can blame her, basic beige is so boring! So we picked a color, ran it past the landlords and the scene was set for a weekend of painting.

Before you knew it, Julia's room went from this...

To this!

It's really a lovely blue and it takes the whole mermaid/under the sea thing to another level.

But we had almost an entire gallon left... what to do?

Paint the laundry room!

And that's when it all went south. One second the paint can was firmly placed on the top of the dryer and the next, it was on the floor, spilling out half of it's contents!

After a short panic, I decided not to let that paint go to waste and used the floor as my paint tray. Why not?! I wasn't going to make it any worse.



Things didn't go exactly as planned and I wore an awful lot of paint, but I managed to get the room done and I think it looks pretty good. With four kids, the laundry room gets a lot of use, so it may as well be a pleasant place to be.

As for the mess...most of the paint that was on the floor came up without too much resistance. I'll tackle the rest another day.

Joining the Flock

Another little guy joined my flock today.

The three of them together look so cute staring at me from the mantle. I'm tempted to just keep making more and more and more. They are all handsewn, but still it only takes me an hour or two to make each one.

My Owl Friends

Here are my owl friends. I think I want to make a million of them. They are so cute!

I'm finally getting around to using up some more of those felted sweaters. The beige one is about six inches tall and the blue one is a little more than 3 inches. I have a pattern for a middle sized one, but I haven't made him yet.
I didn't finish this one until after dark, so no artsy photos for him.

Tourists at Home

Whenever we move, we get to spend time being tourists in our new home town. If you have to be a tourist somewhere, D.C. is a good place to do it. We've been there so many times, but there is always something new to us, something we've never seen or done before.

On this visit, we did a memorial walk from the Jefferson Memorial to FDR. A beautiful walk now, but I plan to do it again when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. We had thought to go to the Lincoln Memorial as well, but hunger overtook us and we decided to leave the party while we were still having fun.

Last year, when we were reading the american girl books for Kit, Julia learned alot about the depression and soup kitchens, so we were excited to see these statues at the FDR memorial. Julia lined up with them to wait her turn for soup. She may have a long wait; these guys look like they've been here for a while.

We had never been to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial before so it was a new treat. We all really enjoyed it. It's long and meandering with water falls and quiet places to reflect on some of his quotes. It also has interesting statues and other decorations (wrong word, but I can't come up with something better.)

Julia and Mrs. R... best buds.

The Jefferson Memorial was cool too, but we'd been there before.

Now we'd like to go visit his home, Monticello. It's not too terribly far from here.

And while we are visiting President's homes, maybe we'll head over to Mount Vernon.

AND... when we go visit my parents, we can check out FDR's home in Hyde Park.

Lot's to do.

I have no idea who or what this is, but I saw it on the side of a bridge. He kind of looks like that governor in Illinois who is in hot water over Obama's senate seat.

Julia just walked up and said, "You took a picture of that scary throw-up head?"

A Bear in Sheep's Clothing

Here are the pics, Leslie. My first attempt at needle felting. I guess I did okay since I really had no clue what I was doing, but it sort of looked like a bear dressed up like a sheep.

Julia took so many pictures while I was working, that I could probably put together a tutorial, but that would be silly since I am still completely clueless. He is kind of cute, though. Maybe I'll add him to my nativity next year, but for now he lives on my bookshelf.

A Resolution

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but this is one that was going to get done whther I officially "resolved" it or not.

I must get my craft stuff organized!

I think I have craft ADD. There are so many ghosts of crafts past, crafts present, and crafts maybe-I'll-get-to-someday-in-the-future-I-hope?
One of the wonderful things about this house is that there are two wonderful craft storage/desk areas in the basement where I can keep all of my craft supplies together in one place! In the last house we had crafts in the garage, in the office, in the bedrooms, etc... Needless to say, I didn't enjoy digging the craft supplies out of the garage very much so I just didn't do those crafts.
Now I have one area for general crafts and another for scrapbooking (which I almost never do anymore, but I still have the stuff.)
These areas were sort of organized when we first moved in, but in the recent months, we've pretty much trashed them trying to find supplies for all of our Christmas crafts. So these are our "before" pictures.
I've already made some improvements since these pictures were taken, but I have a long way to go. A coat of paint would be nice too. Any ideas?

All the paper and stickers have been separated and put into drawers, to be better organized later, but at least they are all in one place for now.



The yarn was a tangled mess, but now they are cute little balls of yarn piled in a pretty basket.
(I'll have to take a picture.)
If anyone out there has some great organizing tips or ideas for me, please comment. I can use all the help I can get. :o)

Waking Up and Back to Blogging

I've been enjoying the quiet of the post-Christmas winter break, but it's time to wake up and get back to our regular schedule, and I guess that includes blogging.

I have several pictures to post, but let's start with these silly pictures.

Julia had been wishing for curly hair, so I bought her some sponge rollers for Christmas. Her hair turned out very cute with the exception of one crazy curl at her forehead. We got that one under control with the help of a hair band and were pleased with the results.