Mars is amazing! And I'll never see Calvin and Hobbes the same way again.

(Warning: a bit gross - I know my kids wouldn't have liked it when they were little.)

The weather's been keeping us outside, planting, raking, digging, and enjoying the sun and the dirt. When we're not outside, there's been lots and lots of crafting going on.

I got through making my poncho with a bit of difficulty. It has a few of what my friend Karen calls 'soul-holes', but I like it a lot. Reading the pattern was really confusing for me, but I decided to make another poncho and suddenly it all clicked. I had no trouble with the second one and finished it quickly. Rowan adopted it. It's soft and cozy and I'm glad she loves it.

Rowan's still really into the Bobbsey Twins. She recently got some old books - one from 1904 and one from 1907. Very cool. She also got a Bobbsey Twins coloring book from the 1950's. It's never been colored in and she's very happy with the drawings of the twins. We've looked up some other BT items, and she's been disappointed in the dolls. None of the ones we've seen are accurate. So Rowan decided to make her own. She got some dolls at the craft store, cut and styled their hair, and made them outfits. Here's how they came out:

Bert, Nan, Flossie, and Freddie hang out in our bedroom so I get to see them all the time, and they make me smile.

Today was Sheep Day at Soule Homestead. From the minute we got there Dagny had her eye on two women who were spinning. After a quick picnic we headed over to talk with them. Within minutes Dagny was happily spinning.

(I've got to give Rowan credit for the second picture, which I love!)

I think the juxtaposition of Julian's very cool, studded, patch-covered jacket and the old-fashioned art of spinning is neat.

The women were great. They were excited by Dagny's excitement. The woman in the picture runs spinning classes, which Dagny's going to check out. The other woman gave Dagny a gift - some beautiful fleece. It was a really amazing experience and lots of fun. I love to be around people who are doing something they love and want to share it.

Dagny's got an etsy! Check it out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5127498

Nobody warned us. We had no idea it could happen.




Who would have guessed that bringing three giggly, slightly crazy-in-a-fabulous-way friends to Hershey, PA would lead to this?




I'm afraid we have no choice but to eat them.

Do not press the red button.

Valerie Fitzenreiter once asked me how I would define unschooling. This was my response:

Unschooling is life as a child would live it, unencumbered by society's 'shoulds'; with wonder and spontaneity, curiosity and imagination. It's a conscious decision to live in connection with your children and to live with your eyes wide open.

I was reminded of that definition when I read this article from the Washington Post, and this paragraph in particular:

"There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

Interview Magazine is quoted as saying that Bell's "playing does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live." The children who tried to stop and watch didn't need to be told - they see it in every pebble and hear it in every bird song, smell it in every blade of new-mown grass and taste it in every cookie - but they wanted to hear it just the same.

I wonder, will the mom quoted in the article continue to propel her son through his life, eyes and ears closed tight to the magic he sees and hears all around him? Or will she learn from her son - and from a man who, as a child himself, found music in a handful of rubber bands - the reason why she bothers to live?

We're heading to South Carolina on Wednesday. I'm bringing my poncho project, which I'm finding a bit nerve-wracking so far. Dagny's basically talking me through it stitch by stitch. I love the yarn, though. It's got just about every color you can think of. Dagny said it looks like a rainbow threw up. In a good way.

I'm leaving my computer at home, so I'll be disappearing til sometime after April 6th. Rowan and I are pretty sure our roadtrip's gonna be jumbo large.

I leave my camera in the living room. I like when I turn it on and see pictures someone else took. The puppies are a popular subject. Dammit doesn't know that she sticks her tongue out while she's sleeping. She fancies herself very dignified and I don't think she'd believe it for a minute. But now we have photographic evidence.

Today Dagny took some pictures for me - our new dining room table and my completed blanket.

The blanket's really big, but I like these pictures of bits and pieces of it. My next project is a poncho. I'm copying Kelli, because I like hers so much. I'm using the Kathmandu vegan yarn from Wool Peddler. I'm a little nervous because it's my first crochet project with a pattern, but Dagny checked it out and thinks I can handle it.

Here's some pretty fun: Boomshine

Anybody who enjoyed Sprout will probably like Sphere. If you get stuck, like we did, you can go here and read the instructions posted by mykos. It's hard to read it without getting more information than you might want, though, so you may want to ask someone else to read it and give you a hint.

That game led us to MOTAS, another good one.

Then there's Frostbite. We haven't tried that one yet but it looks like fun.

This is what the table in our dining room looked like for quite a few days. We had the idea for a window seat in our mudroom shortly after moving in. (7 years ago!) Last week we finally had everything we needed to make it happen. Jon cut out a base, we got some foam and batting, and we ordered some ridiculously expensive upholstery fabric. Based on what we saw at the fabric store, there are people who pay $2-300 for a yard of fabric. We are not those people. But still, I had to gather my courage before I could cut into this fabric. Then I had to look at it for another day or so before I finally picked up the staple gun.

I'm ok with a staple gun. They're fun, they make a good loud noise, and you can do cool things with them. What scared me was corners. I googled my way through a bunch of sites to try to get some idea of the best way to upholster corners. Pretty much everything I found said something along the lines of, 'start in the middle, work your way to the corners, then do the corners.' Um, ya. Very helpful.

With Dagny's assistance I finally did it. If you ever need someone to encourage you that you can do something, Dagny's the one. She's very convincing :o). One cushion down, one to go.

Hey, wait - there's a table in our dining room! But, no, not a dining room table. I went to an antique store last weekend in hopes of finding one, and instead came home with this 8 foot table, which we think will work great in our craft/sewing/doing fun stuff room.

It needs a little TLC, but so far we've eaten on it, crafted on it, and sat on it, and it seems to belong here. Dagny's very happy to have somewhere to put her sewing machine.

Rowan, meanwhile, is sick and has spent the past 5 days in bed, which is really not her style. Ok, she did jump out of bed and run outside when it suddenly started to snow the other day. And a good thing too, since the snow only lasted about ten minutes.

Here's a little entertainment for her:

String Spin

Draw Toy

Some neat stuff to look at:

Dirty Car Art

Gummi Bear Sculptures

And some interesting reading:

Coins

Dad at Comedy Barn

Meet Doug...

There are two kinds of people: People who don't get a headache from games like Sprout, and people who do.

My head a splode.

A couple of years ago Rowan read a book about chocolate and learned that the streetlights in Hershey, PA are shaped like chocolate kisses. She decided that was something she really wants to see.

Vacation, chocolate, streetlights shaped like kisses - sounded like a good idea to the rest of us. The only thing we could think of to make it even better was to invite some friends. And heck, why not drive to the Lovejoys' house in South Carolina while we're out and about for a concert and what looks like it's going to be a heck of a party with bunches of people we don't get to see nearly often enough?

We had our usual logistical issues to figure out - aka who will take care of the puppies-who-think-they're-human? We're bummed that Andrew has to work and can't come with us, but very relieved to know that he will be here to take good care of Godiva and Petunia. Dammit, of course, insists on staying with Amy because she has put so many years into training her in proper princess puppy care.

So off we go, March 28th, to play with unschoolers and see all there is to see in Hershey. Yay!

Speaking of our fabulous unschooling friends, I got a surprise in the mail today. Kelli sent me the felted tapestry from Lactation Nation.

It's even more beautiful in person and it feels really cool too. And every time I see it I'll be reminded of people I love. How lucky am I?

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.