It looks like the site with the paper folding story got more traffic than it could handle. That seems to happen a lot to sites that are linked on Fark. You can read the story here too.

Fark linked to an article on The Natural Child Project site today. The article is titled Good Children - at What Price? The Secret Cost of Shame and got Fark's obvious tag. Judging by the comments, what's obvious to me isn't obvious to a lot of other Fark readers.

Rowan has informed me that I do not post often enough on my blog. She doesn't care if I write anything particularly interesting, as long as I write something for her to read. So here's a post for Rowan.

You know how they say it's impossible to fold a piece of paper in half more than seven times? Well, Rowan has been arguing with Jon forever that it IS possible and 'they' are wrong. And they are.

http://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htm

Personally I would never argue with Rowan about paper. She's a fourth generation paper freak. I woudn't mess with her.

In other news, I've always wanted to try Pysanky - Ukranian easter eggs made with layers of wax and dye. I'm thinking of ordering this kit from the Ukranian Gift Shop.

I bet Rowan likes that blue one.

Finally, some important Homestarrunner news. According to Homestore Runner they are discontinuing three of their tshirts - Videlectrix, Li'l Brudder, and Homestar 10 year anniversary (aka Seriously). They're $10. What's that? You've only got 5 bucks? Well, no shirt for you then. But you has what it takes! Join today!

Jon's having one of those days where everything he tries to do is going wrong - he broke a glass, spilled a container of soup, broke a gravy boat, and did something bad to his email all within an hour or so. I'm afraid it's contagious. I just set up my etsy shop and all the pictures the kids and I took are too big. I'm going to get the message and not attempt any other projects today.

Here's hoping my computer doesn't explode when I publish this post.

We've been working on the dining room, painting and laying hardwood floors. It's just about done - and with only one injury. I cut my toe after years of making fun of people for fussing at me about working barefoot. I learned that I really enjoy laying floors and that sometimes (very rarely) shoes are good.

Now we need a dining room table. We really want this one but I'm not sure we can make it happen. We went to an architectural salvage store yesterday, and then to an antique store that specializes in making reproduction farm tables. They had some very pretty ones, but not as thick as we'd like and very expensive. So the hunt continues.

The salvage store was a blast. The kids used to love running around there when they were 7 and 3ish but they barely remembered it. So we all went - me, Jon, Dagny, Rowan, and Andrew - and my sister met us there. Rowan loved all the old tea services. Dagny and Andrew fell in love with a street light, a console record player, a juke box, sewing machines, an old buggy - all sorts of stuff. There was an amazing robotic person and printer's drawers with the old letters still inside. We learned later (from my mom) that the reason we say 'uppercase' and 'lowercase' is that the big letters were kept in the upper drawers and the small in the lower.

The next room on our work list is what we originally called The Gunroom, since that's where the house's previous owners kept their guns. It morphed into The Office at some point. I'm not sure what it'll be called when we're done, but we're planning sort of a craft room/sewing room/office. I've had my eyes out for some interesting craft storage pieces, and yesterday found this at the antique store.

It was one of those see-it-from-across-the-room-must-have-it things. Getting closer to it only made me want it more. It's made of old sewing machine drawers. Some of them are carved on the sides.

I was glad everyone was there to give me opinions and decide if the cost was ok. I wasn't feeling all that rational, myself. In the end I think they took pity on me, and home it came. Now that it's here we all can't seem to stop touching it. There's something addictive about opening and closing all those drawers. Or maybe we're just a very weird family.

We made sugar cookies last night to bring to the local unschoolers get-together today. I still can't believe how many unschoolers have come out of the woodwork. Dagny found someone to crochet with (someone whose mom was happy to drive home again when her daughter realized she had forgotten her yarn), I had bunches of people to talk to who like their kids, and Rowan had so much fun with new friends that she didn't mind her cheeks going completely numb while she played capture the flag. (Did I mention it is FREEZING here? Still no snow.)

Rowan mixed sugar and food coloring to make tons of colors for the cookies, and we tried out the new cookie cutters Karen gave me.



Body parts - yummy and funny. And in the case of Margaux Lange's jewelry, quite pretty.

Last week a teacher in Fort Gaines, GA taped a ten year old girl's mouth shut (story here). This is what the Superintendent of schools had to say:

"She reportedly was telling the child to quit talking. She tore the tape off and politely put it around her mouth. She's a nice lady. She just made the wrong decision."

And we unschoolers are the crazy ones.

We've all become a bit obsessed with Arrested Development. I saw a few minutes of it on TV one night and could not rest until I found out what show it was and how I could see all of it. Lucky for me they have it at Netflix. I space the discs out carefully on our queue, and Dagny insists we ration the episodes when each disc arrives. We're introducing Andrew to it now so we can watch the whole thing all over again. Um, I mean because we thought he'd like it.

We're getting into some other TV shows thanks to Netflix. Lately we've been watching The Dick Van Dyke Show and Bewitched. They're worth watching just for the fashion - both clothes and house furnishings. Some serious style going on there.

Then there's all sorts of good stuff on being a husband/wife/parent/family in the days of pearl necklaces and single beds. And great examples of how to stand with your foot just so.

Mr. Deity would like his own TV show. I say let there be freaky blue light.