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BlogTuesday, June 30, 200933 going on 23Today was my birthday. We had a great day. My throat is still sore and it sounds like I am getting larynxgitis, so I don't want to talk a whole lot. Here are some pics:  The kids woke up gave me a kiss, wished me a happy birthday, then made me a cake all by themselves in their pajamas. They did a great job. The only thing they forgot was to set the timer, but I noticed and set it for them.  Meanwhile, Rachel ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich remnants from breakfast. (My kids, except Bradley, love PB&J for breakfast.) I used my birthday to exploit my kids and asked them to clean my kitchen floor for a present.  We went to a small local water park. It's half price after 3PM.  Fun spurty water fountains.  Fun slides. Sarah liked those too. Rachel had a great time.  She really did. She was just crying in this picture because it was late and her sippy cup was empty.  Rachel found her shadow.  She couldn't figure out why it was following her.  Even tippy-toeing wouldn't make that thing go away. After 1/2 price Sonic burgers, I opened presents...  My parents gave me a purple shirt I maybe would've worn in 1989 with a nice big black elastic belt around the waistline. (It must have been on sale. Mom, do you still have the receipt?) Maybe it looks better on? The thing is, I want a new shirt to go with my new......  AWESOME SHOES!!! If you can't tell, those are pink, sparkly, Converse slip-ons. My husband noticed me eyeing them at Target a few weeks ago. They are actually kids size 5 1/2 which I guess equates to women's 6 1/2 or 7? I LOVE them! It was nice to get a real gift and not a "this is what I wanted to get you" with an online image of an item with a hefty price tag. I also got the DVD Enchanted. I'm so excited to watch it.  The finished product. They baked, frosted, and decorated it all by themselves. The only thing I did was take it out of the oven when I saw that they didn't notice the timer had gone off. I loved it. They made 2 nine inch layers. We saved the other plain layer for Wendy's birthday tomorrow. Yes, we have another birthday to celebrate tomorrow! I have to say that I'm glad that mine comes first. I have to think of how I am going to decorate hers.  Emily put the candles on and miscounted. I had 23 candles instead of 33. I'll accept it.  I once more exploited them and had them clean the dirty dishes. It was good day. Need to get some rest for another party tomorrow!  Monday, June 29, 2009Science MondayMy day began with my kids running into my bedroom to wish me a Happy Birthday Eve. Here's the rest of the day:  If you feed Rachel too late (12:45 PM) then she will fall asleep at the table. (Pretzels can be pretty exhausting.) My ambidextrous son. (Not very sciencey, but cool.) He switches back and forth the whole time he is coloring.  Yeast + Sugar + Warm Water = Blown Up Balloon Cool, eh?!  A lesson in density. We filled six cups with equal amounts of water and used food coloring to color them the colors of the rainbow. Then we added salt to each of the cups. red = 1 tsp., orange = 2 tsp., yellow = 3 tsp., etc. Then we poured some into clear vinyl tubing (found at a hardware store in plumbing section) with the bottom duck-taped, beginning with purple and the colors layered because of their density.Word of the Day = Density  Our couch is getting quite dense. I'm ready to upgrade to a sectional.
Sunday, June 28, 2009Baby Food Storage At a young age, Rachel is learning to always have a back up food source.Saturday, June 27, 2009No More Goop (for Rachel)It was about 98 degrees today. A drippy, hot and icky 98 degrees. There were threats of severe thunderstorms so instead of going to the pool, we let the kids play with the hoses this evening. Cute.  Cute?Her diaper nearly bursted off of her with the weight of the water. Rachel is over the goop. But now we have a Jason and Sarah with green oozing out their eye. Lovely. All I have to say is, "I better not be sick on my Birthday!!!" No reruns of last year, please. Friday, June 26, 2009I'm 5 feet 4 inches. The seed packet wasn't kidding when it said, "Mammoth." My cucumbers and tomatoes might be suffering in this heat, but my sunflowers are loving it! I'm also telling you that compost is the KEY ingredient to a garden! I wish I had a measuring tape. (actually I'm 5 feet 3.5 inches, but I round up.) Thursday, June 25, 2009Always say, "Never."I always say I never want to go anywhere with my kids by myself because it's too exhausting and too much trouble. I pay enough each month for my house, I might as well enjoy it, right? Well, today my husband was attending an all day seminar and then had a class immediately following in the evening. I forgot to send him off this morning with the library books that were due today, so I decided that when Rachel woke up from her nap I would put all the kids in the van and drop off the books.We went to the library, returned the books, then we went to the children's section to do a little browsing. We collected a reusuable grocery shopping bag full of books and 5 DVD's and checked out. Thankfully they accepted my driver's license because I couldn't find my library card. When we were checking out I noticed it was raining. When we were finished checking out I noticed it was pouring. I slung the heavy book bag over the handle of the stroller, told Jason to put his cowboy boots back on his feet and stood there a moment to try to make a decision. My options were: 1) wait outside under the overhang and hope the rain would let up enough to make a run for the van, 2) go back to the children's section and wait for the rain to stop, 3) make a run for it in the pouring rain. When I heard the loud thunder clap, I decided to wait it out in the children's section. The children played with the wooden puzzles. After each child did each puzzle, I checked with the librarian at the front desk to see if they had a back door that we might be able to use. Our van was parked in the back of the building where nobody usually ever parks because it was busy when we got there, which meant if we left the building from the front door we would have to basically walk around 3 sides of the large building to get to our van, meaning that we would be entirely soaked as well as the library books. You would think it would be in their interest to help me avoid the rain to save their precious books, but she told me there was an emergency door and a staff door then gave me an indication that there was a fat chance that we would be able to use either of those. However, she said that I could ask the staff back there and maybe they would help me. She didn't seem to want to be involved in breaking the rules. So I walked back to the children's area where my not so quiet children were still playing and I chose to ignore the sign that read "Please assist us in the keeping the noise level down." Maybe that would get them to help me out the back door. While I stood there Emily said to me, "All the people here have umbrellas. Why don't we have an umbrella?" "Because we're not that smart," I replied. But in my defense, when I checked weather.com this morning for the zip code in which I live there was NO rain in the forecast AND it was dry as a bone in our neighborhood when we finally got home. I didn't think to check the zip code only 10 miles from my house. But it's not like an umbrella would've been very useful anyway with the load I was toting with me. I could see a patch of clear sky between the evergreen trees, but the rain continued to downpour . I got anxious to leave and wanted to see how helpful the staff in the back would be. So I gathered the kids and said, "Let's go for a walk." I approached the info desk and politely asked them if I could use the back door to get my six children to the van in this pouring rain because I did not have an umbrella. They grimaced and said, "We really aren't supposed to let you do that." I determined the key word was 'supposed' and repeated myself, "I have six small children, no umbrella, and I'm parked in the back of the building." Then I flashed them a look that said, "Please!" The young girl said with a sigh, "Ok. I suppose since it's raining." So she took us back to the sacred back room of the library which happened to be a couple of offices and crates of books. Then she apologized to her boss for having to bring me back there but explained that I had lots of small children. Her boss seemed sympathetic and nice which surprised me because from the way the staff was so unwilling to help me, I imagined they were being managed by some ogre master libarian. Meanwhile I couldn't find my keys. I knew I just had them. I searched my purse. I searched the diaper bag. I searched the book bag. I sent Emily to go look for them in the children's section. I searched for them in the children's section. Just when I got back to the staff room, Rachel leaned forward in the stroller and I saw my measuruing tape keychain sticking out from under her bum. I sat her on my keys when I put her in the stroller. Whoops. I thanked the girl several times for letting us use the back door and told the kids, "Make a run for it!" We sloshed through the puddles and got drenched anyway. Then we went to Lowes. (The rain had stopped by the time we got there.) I have a couple of stories that irritated me there too. But I'll just say, "How in the world can you not know if you carry copper wire?!!" This is a home improvement store and you work in the electrical department!! Seriously there were 4 male employees all searching for copper wire. Is copper wire not a common thing? Because they sure make it seem like it is in all of these science books I'm reading. We finally found some suitable copper wire and some galvanized nails so we hopefully can get some electricity from a lemon. So I'm back to thinking home is where the heart is. To think I did all this today to save $0.75.  My camera kept me occupied for a few moments at the library.  What a face! I think Jason looks a bit Muppetish in this picture, but he was so proud of his stack.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009Pink Eye Has Struck My baby is disgusting. I didn't want to look at her or touch her today. The poor thing spent most of the day in her high chair and crib because I didn't want her walking around spreading goop. I wonder when I'll get it.On a cuter note:  On Sunday Rachel showed us that she likes cucumbers and she figured out how to eat cucumber and suck her fingers too.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009Happy 17 months!I forgot to blog that Rachel turned 17 months yesterday. It seems so strange that she is still our youngest child. This is her new trick: Now she qualifies for being big enough to clear the table before meals.Monday, June 22, 2009The WeekendThis weekend was an unusually busy weekend. My girls were flower girls in a good friend of mine daughter's wedding:  They thought their corsage's were beautiful.  Now if only they looked and acted so angelic all the time.It was a fabulous wedding. Beautiful bride, good Southern food, a juke box, good sweltering Southern heat (like 100 degrees), and good cake. Nobody even noticed that before the wedding the cake topper toppled and the groom's head fell off. Somebody had to go buy a new cake topper. It was still a beautiful and delicous cake!  Beautiful cake.  I didn't do it! But I was the tacky guest who took a picture of the cake injury. Every wedding needs a small mishap. My wedding mishap was that I was a half hour late arriving because I couldn't find the temple. I forgot to think to get directions. Apparently my brain was long gone before I even had kids. Sunday, June 21, 2009Father's Day and Talk Happy Father's Day!(A couple of them dozed before we took the picture. I had to prop Wendy up for the pic.)
Our family also includes:
Most importantly, Family Home Evening should be FUN. Our family has been guilty of dragging our lessons a bit too long to the point where we end up swatting children with the Gospel Principles book for climbing all over the furniture. That is bad. Make it fun. WHERE?Family Home Evening. Duh. ( I didn't really say, "duh.") President Hinckley said: It is not Family Movie Theatre Evening or Family Soccer Field Evening. It's Family Home Evening. WHEN? It was in 1970 President Joseph Fielding Smith and his counselors designated Monday as Family Home Evening. President Hinckley said: Ok. Monday it is.
He then said, "Who within the sound of my voice would be willing to sell these promises to those who would confiscate our Monday nights? Not one of us." Amen, Brother! (I didn't really say that either, but I was thinking it.) But there's more.... The First Presidency in 1976 also promised: “Regular participation in family home evening will develop:
"It is our promise that great blessings will come to all who conscientiously plan and hold weekly family home evenings.” But wait, there's more. President Faust has also said: "If we go forward with our family home evenings:
(James E. Faust, “Enriching Our Lives through Family Home Evening,” Ensign, Jun 2003, 2–6) Awesome!! Then I added a few more quotes to make FHE enticing:President Monson said: “I begin with family home evening. We cannot afford to neglect this heaven-inspired program. It can bring spiritual growth to each member of the family, helping him or her to withstand the temptations which are everywhere. The lessons learned in the home are those that last the longest.” (Thomas S. Monson, “Constant Truths for Changing Times,” Ensign, May 2005, 19) Elder Costa said: "It is our responsibility as fathers to lead our families in daily family prayer, daily study of the scriptures, and in family home evening. We must prioritize and preserve these opportunities to build and strengthen … our families. President Hinckley said: “Try not to let anything interfere. Consider it sacred.” (Claudio R. M. Costa, “Priesthood Responsibilities,” Ensign, May 2009, 56–58) Then I testified of how I knew Family Home Evening is an inspired program and should be practiced in every home. I expressed gratitude for my awesome husband who takes Family Home Evening seriously. I should've doted on my husband more than I did, but he knows I think he's awesome. So yeah, I think Family Home Evening is kind of important. Family fun rocks and helps build our armor to battle Satan because Satan is a jerk. Preparing for the SabbathI'm still alive. Just preparing a talk for church tomorrow. I totally bailed out a few weeks ago when I was supposed to talk. Now I get to talk on Father's Day. I'll be back.Thursday, June 18, 2009Summer FunWhen my parents were visiting they bought us popsicles. Not the cheap kind, but the real Popsicle brand that have the jokes on the sticks. My kids have been begging and begging me for the past 3 weeks to eat them. After a few broken promises I finally let them have them today at 10:30AM while the porch was still shaded. Their love was renewed towards me. Even Rachel got her own Popsicle. Of course the Popsicles had to be earned. Each child scrubbed his or her own kitchen chair. They did a Fantasik job! "I heart sweet treats"I think I've bribed my kids with just about each of the sweet treats on her shirt this week, except for the cupcake. Maybe we'll do that one next week. I have to say, it's been quite successful. We've got a lot of cleaning done this week. Bradley can't resist spraying the hose when he's outside despite that fact that we've told him over and over not to play with the hose. But how can you deny a little boy a garden hose? They are just so much fun! Thankfully we've had a lot of rain the past couple of weeks and we can afford to waste some water. But it wasn't totally wasted. It helped clean the Popsicle drips off of Rachel. My Huggies Advertisement Now for some good Popsicle humor: Post your answer in the comments. What animal unlocked the farm gate? What does a mallard use to fix everything?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009I wish.Somedays I wish I could do this in the middle of the afternoon:  Also...I flipped on a little bit of the Science channel this afternoon. I have to watch a little educational digital cable everyday to justify why I'm still paying to have cable. Today I learned about the power of the placebo. There was a study done that had average people doing bicep curls. One group trained on a bicep curl machine for six weeks, while the other group sat at the bicep curl machine and watched a video of themselves doing bicep curls. At the end of the study the group who watched the video ended up being stronger than the group that actually did the excercises for the six weeks. They concluded that while watching the video, the study particpants brains sent a message to their muscles that made the muscles think that they were getting stronger. The whole point was to show how the brain is very powerful. They hope to use the technology to help chronic pain sufferers. I thought it was pretty cool. I think I'm going to go make a video of me doing a whole bunch of exercises and watch it all day. I wish. The guy did say this should only be used for athletes that are temporarily injured or for short term use. Darn! Tuesday, June 16, 20093 Things1. First of all let me just say how much I love clean toilets. When Emily asked me yesterday what we were doing for science this week, I told her Cleaning Science. With my husband working, I felt like I had the ability to regain control of my household domain. Not that he was begging to do cleaning chores while working from home, but being the only adult in the house now, I felt somewhat liberated and ready to take control. So on Monday we cleaned the kids' room. It was spotless. Then we cleaned the toilets. They are so sparkly clean! For some reason Emily loves to scrub toilets. She asked me questions while we cleaned such as, "Why are toilets so disgusting?" I started explaining more in depth about germs, mold, bacteria, etc. I explained that some bacteria are actually good and all that kind of sciency stuff. We talked about penicillin. I was feeling a little guilty about avoiding science camp in the name of "Cleaning Science", but when I sat down last night to look through my science book for the actual lessons I should be teaching this week I discovered that the next lessons were about fungus, molds, and bacteria. It turns out I was totally in tune with spirit of science! But anyway, I LOVE clean toilets. I just HATE cleaning them. Toilets are one of those chores I put off until I have guests or my gag reflex is triggered when I open the lid.2. Little boys. Jason thought this was a good resting spot for the jug of pink lemonade. He didn't realize that a container of crayons doesn't make a good coaster. (Bradley rescued the jug before it had the chance to spill.)  3. This evening we harvested a dozen green peppers. This one won the prize for beauty. (The pepper, not the husband.)  My husband also taught his first class today. In addition to his new temp job, he is working part time for the local technical college teaching HTML/CSS (geek speak). He had a great time. It's only 2 days a month, but fun. He had a whopping 3 students in his class and he taught them how to create a web page. Go big Daddy-O!
Monday, June 15, 2009Family Home Evening Treat   "Mommy, it's COLD!"Tonight we went to McDonald's to get ice cream for Family Home Evening treat. My husband started a temp job today so now he thinks he's making the big bucks and can treat his family to ice cream. Ok, so he's not making the big bucks, but he is making slightly over the poverty line for a family our size. Go Daddy! I also learned something tonight. When Emily saw a sign in the parking lot with a symbol of a person walking and the letters XING beneath she asked what it meant. I told her that it was a "Pedestrian Zing." My husband told her it was a "Pedestrian Crossing." Now that makes a whole lot more sense. I always wondered what a XING was. X=Cross. I get it now. Saturday, June 13, 2009Tonight.....my husband and I ate pizza. It was good.Friday, June 12, 2009My Three Worst Enemies1. Japanese Beetles  These things love to mate and make lace out of my leaves. In case you didn't know, lace is not pretty in the garden!  My husband goes out daily with his scissors and likes to snip them in half.2. Bambi  Bambi has been eating my green bean and okra leaves. Stupid deer! I don't even live in a forest!  That vine is supposed to have luscious leaves. 3. Squash Vine Borers  I was wondering why the bases of my zucchini plants were looking like this so I looked it up online. I cut open the stem and there he was the ugly ugly Squash Vine Borer. BAD! VERY BAD! Cross section view. I tore out all my zucchini plants because I was so disgusted and most plants were beyond saving. I learned that I need to control with something in May. Whoops. I take back anything I said about zucchini being easy to grow. I think I figured out why my zucchini stopped growing. So we had an impromptu science experiment to see which method was most effective at killing them. We concluded that the methods involving water were most effective, probably because it drowned them and had nothing to do with the pH balance of the liquid. The ones in the plain salt and baking soda were still squirming by evening. This was also a lesson as to when revenge is appropriate.  I hypothesized that the ugly grubs would fizzle and die when immersed in salt like snails, but instead concluded that plain salt acts as an aphrodisiac for Squash Vine Borers and makes them want to kiss and snuggle. (Yes, the ugly brown things are their heads.) Plain baking soda caused them to want to make Squash Vine Borer snow angels. Those things are anything but angelic.  One more photo of a garden failure. This cucumber seems as if she is trying to watch her figure. Gardening is no longer a relaxing stress relief. I can't wait to garden in heaven. Wednesday, June 10, 2009DinnerRachel ate a tortilla for dinner:  Where's Rachel?  Peek-a-boo!Plant Science CampToday we changed the color of Zinnias by hanging them over a jar of ammonia. That was kind of cool. It was another pH reaction. The smell of ammonia brought back memories of when I used to color my hair. I don't do that anymore. It's been about 5 years since I've done anything to my hair color. I have accepted my brunetteness and have decided to go low maintenance. It still surprises me when my kids draw a picture of me with brown hair. We also boiled some leaves and extracted the chlorophyll with alcohol. It didn't work quite how the book said it would. It said that the leaves would be transparent by the end. They were still green, but you could see the chlorophyll that leached into the alcohol.
That's about all that was exciting today. Monday, June 08, 2009Promise KeeperFor the past week or so Bradley has begged me to make pancakes for dinner. For the past week or so I've said, "We'll see." and of course it's never happened. Yesterday he persisted with his begging and I actually thought pancakes sounded good, but by the time we took naps, checked out the garden, and cleaned the dishes from lunchtime it was 9PM and spaghetti was a lot easier than pancakes. Bradley was very disappointed so I assured him we would have pancakes on Monday night. This morning immediately after he woke up, he came to my room and said, "Mommy, don't forget we are going to have pancakes for dinner tonight." Pancakes indeed! Science Camp Week 2: Plant Science. Today we turned the Gardenias pink. Emily showed me a "school bag" that she packed and showed me the contents. She had a folder of artwork including some Father's Day artwork. (I don't think she planned that far ahead for Mother's Day.) A money bag. Some pens. She also had coloring books, a shell, a river rock, crayons, colored pencils, and another smaller bag.... The small pocket of the smaller bag included a Ken Doll head. "Because he just smells soooo good!"I'll have to admit Malibu Ken does have a very pleasant coconut aroma. I wouldn't mind him in my purse either. Now tonight I'm going to attempt to tackle this:  This section of kitchen counter is a major clutter magnet.Sunday, June 07, 2009A Polka Dot SundayPolka dots make me happy. Today the whole family wore polks dots to church: Even my husband had subtle polka dots on his tie, but he changed before we took the picture. Unfortunately he wasn't going along with my coordinated plan on purpose. It's the same tie he wears every single week. Emily's are hard to see, but there are white polka dots on her skirt. Bradley had tiny polka dots on his tie. Next week Emily wants us all to wear stripes. I'll see if I can coordiante that one. Because Rachel didn't cooperate in the above picture, she gets this one posted.In case you've never seen an overripe cucumber. Here you go:  It got lost in the Zinnias. Mmmmm. My gardenias are in bloom. Those are the most delicious smelling flowers ever. I remember for my senior prom, my mom suggested that I get a gardenia wrist corsage. It totally rocked.
Saturday, June 06, 2009Help!I keep reading about how easy zucchinis are to grow. I would've thought so last week when I harvested 20 of them in about 6 days, but now they aren't looking so good. I'm thinking it might be blossom end rot? I bought some calcium stuff at Lowes to see if that works. The problem is the female blossoms are not getting very big and don't even open up. So I don't think it's a pollination problem. I just really want to get to the root of this. Here's a pic. Let me know if you have any experience with this problem. Maybe I just need to stick a little Viagra in the dirt? Tonight I heard Rachel crying at bedtime. I thought maybe her foot was stuck in the crib. Emily is usually pretty good about fixing that for her. I waited it out before going upstairs and finally she stopped crying. Later in the evening my husband told me that they couldn't find her sippy cup before going to bed which definitely explains the crying, but later when I checked on them I saw this:  I thought that maybe it was possible that she was bothered by the five blankets, ten stuffed animals, paint roller and rubber shelf liner in her crib. Friday, June 05, 2009Green Beans I promise only 4 more vegetables to go. My big cucumbers, my big tomatoes, my other variety of cherry tomatoes and my okra. I'm a little worried about my zucchini. They were prolific producers this past week and then it all of a sudden stopped. The female blossoms are very small and they don't grow. The male blossoms are large. I'm afraid I've spread my lack of fertility to them! Does anybody know anything about this? Do they need to rest from all that reproduction before starting to proliferate again? I picked off several aborted zucchinis the past couple of days. I've seen bees around so I know they are able to pollinate. Let me know if you know. I read somewhere that if you grow your own vegetables, your children are more likely to eat them. Fat chance with Bradley! That kid won't touch a vegetable, but he loves ketchup. That's his vegetable.
Thursday, June 04, 2009LostToday my husband was outside in the garden and a taxi cab pulled up beside the curb to ask for directions to a certain street. My husband didn't know where it was, so he ran inside to look it up on Google Maps. The whole time I'm thinking, "Why does this taxi driver not have a GPS system?" It's 2009 and I would think any taxi driver or taxi company would think that would be a good investment. Of course I don't own one either. Maybe the guy forgot it at home? Maybe he is new and is saving up for one? Maybe his wife is borrowing it? Maybe he couldn't find it because he was sitting on it?Anyway, I'm sure people could have similar criticisms about me. I'm a housewife and I don't own an ironing board (my kids broke it 3 years ago playing "store"), my vacuum cleaner sucks (Well of course it sucks. All vacuums suck, right? I mean sucks as in it's a piece of junk.), I don't own a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and I cancelled my subscription to Martha Stewart magazine a couple years ago. I seem to be getting along fine without the luxuries of homemaking. My kitchen table works for ironing the basics. The vaccum cleaner hose seems to work with the help of a little duck tape. My strong muscular arms can stir. And the Martha Stewart magazine was beginning to make me feel like an inferior housewife unable to live up to Martha's perfection (I do still have her stain fighting guide taped to the inside of my laundry room cupboard door though.) But, oh, how I would love a Dyson! And a new umbrella...  Now some more garden pictures: The First Cherry Tomatoes  (I love my camera's macro setting.) I bought three different varieties of cherry tomatoes this year. This is a different, more oblong one. On Sunday I quoted Spencer W. Kimball, “Another commendable thing about gardening is the exchange of products by neighbors and the fostering of fellowship and neighborliness.” Tonight we had several extra cucumbers and zucchini. I suggested to my husband that he bring some to our neighbors across the street. So my husband went to his computer and wrote on our neighbor's Facebook wall, "Do you like fresh zucchini and cucumber?" He replied, shortly after, "Love fresh cucumber!!!!!!!!!" So I gathered 3 fresh cucs and sent my husband with 5 kids to the neighbors. Isn't technology great? I might have wasted a zucchini on someone who doesn't like them!
Wednesday, June 03, 2009High Fashion We didn't do Science Camp today. At the time we were supposed to be experimenting, every single child was involved in their own creative play: Emily - Barbies in the playroom Bradley - tinkering with random toys in the playroom Sarah - Barbies in the family room Wendy - Starfall on the computer (ok, so it's not that creative, but it was keeping her quiet.) Jason - Observing Wendy Rachel - napping I wasn't about to disturb the peace. I cooked dinner early instead, and read over the several zucchini recipes I printed yesterday. I have about 10 lbs. of zucchini I need to figure out what to do with. If you have a good recipe, I would love to have it. As I sat and read my recipes, I asked Sarah what her Barbie story was all about. All of the Barbies were naked and I was curious. She explained that there was Meanland (on top of the cabinets) and Goodland (on the couch), also known as Naked-dressland. Kind of like the Garden of Eden. She also explained that the naked Kens were the doctors and they were trying to get Barbie better because she had ants in her belly and it was making blood come out her eyes. Part of the treatment was placing her in a pit between the couch and the ottoman. I don't know if she ever recovered, but I thought it was a good story. I'm beginning to think that the 10 week summer Science Camp I have planned might be a little ambitious, but we'll see how it goes.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009Secret Messages and Baby TonguespH Day 2  Today we poured cabbage juice over ivory soap and watched the juice turn green. We also made secret messages by writing a message with a Q-tip and baking soda and water and then painting the paper with cabbage juice. Wendy's secret message from me was, "I love you!" You can also write messages with acid such as lemon juice, but that didn't work out as well. Bases are better.Now here is a video of Rachel. I knew from the day she was born that her tongue was going to be one of her greatest assets. You never know when you might need to lick some ice off the kitchen table. And for the record, I think Rachel's first word is "ice". You can hear her say it at the very end. Monday, June 01, 2009Exercise and ScienceI went swimming today! My husband thought I should get some exercise to help relieve some stress and perhaps raise my progesterone. I hate to run especially in 90 degree humid summer weather, so I had the brilliant idea that I would swim. We have a neighborhood pool within a short walking distance so I got up this morning and got there at 7:30 AM. The gate was locked with a big chain and huge padlock. I was mad! I pay good money in homeowner's dues to maintain this pool. Why can't I swim at a decent hour? The sign at the main gate says 8AM-5PM. I knew that the hours were extended in the evening during summertime, but I didn't know they were so strict in the morning. So I did the natural thing and sat on the park bench to wait for someone to come open it at eight. I could've gotten some exercise walking in the meantime, but I was wearing awkward flip flops and I didn't want to go home because I knew I would get distracted doing something else and not go back.So I waited... and waited.... and waited. I watched the birds. I watched the geese. I watched the lawn maintenance people mowing the lawn. I thought about how irritated I was and drafted a mental letter in my head to the property management company of how absurd I thought it was that the pool didn't open until 8 AM. Finally 8:05 rolled around and nobody had come to unlock the gate. I was furious. I decided to give the lock one more try which was when it occurred to me that maybe the key I brought to open the lock on the gate might fit the padlock. The key just seemed too dainty for a big brawny padlock, but sure enough it slid right in and conveniently opened the padlock and I was free to enter my swimming playground. I felt like a fool, but I was just happy to be able to swim. I've never had a swim lesson in my life so I stick to the basics such as the doggy paddle and leg kicking. That's why I like to go early. But it felt good. I feel like swimming is a cheater's exercise. Exercise without sweating? It just doesn't seem right. It did get my heart rate going and I could feel my muscles getting toner. Tomorrow Emily is going to attend with me and work on her swimming and keep me company. We also started Science Camp today. Our first experiment was pH. We boiled some red cabbage and strained the purple juice to use as our indicator.  We made hypotheses as to whether certain liquids were acids or bases.  Tap water and milk seem to be neutral (purple) with milk maybe slightly basic.  Baking soda and laundry detergent were basic (green). And lemon juice and vinegar were acidic (pink).That was fun! We also did our urine. Emily, Bradley, Sarah and I all had slightly acidic pee and David's was neutral because he drinks so much water! Tonight I realized that our whole day is filled with hypotheses:  Hypothesis: If I give Jason a creamsicle for Family Home Evening treat, he will drip some on his shirt. Conclusion: Results showed that Jason will drip creamsicle on his shirt. This study measured a minimum of nine drips. Perhaps as he gets older, the number of drips will decrease. Hypothesis: If I get my ice cream wet, it will still taste good.  Method: Dip in baby pool. Conclusion: Ice cream still tastes good after being dipped in baby pool. Further studies need to be conducted using different qualities of water as a variable. Hypothesis: If I get in this baby pool with my clothes on, my older brother will laugh. Conclusion: Getting in baby pool with clothes on does result in laughter from older brother. Next study will need to be conducted in bathing suit. Hypothesis: Rachel's floating ice cream will still taste good.Conclusion: Indeed, Rachel's floating ice cream does taste good, but perhaps would've been easier to eat with a spoon or straw. |
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