Rainy Day Projects

I can not believe the amount of rain we received last night. When Papa came to the house the gauge had five inches and it was splashing out and then it kept raining all evening until the electricity went off around 10:00 PM. Luckily we had anticipated this and had the candles burning before it happened so we seamlessly moved on to bed at that time.

And me with two grandsons visiting.

Homemade Slime:
Joel and I got in the kitchen and whipped up a small batch of Homemade Slim in just a few minutes.

He poured 1/4 cup of liquid starch into a small ziplock bag, then we added a few drops of green food coloring, then when I poured 1/4 cup Elmers School Glue into the bag and we began to squeeze the bag a strange substance began to form. It looked pretty disgusting in the bag. We could see a solid forming when the glue and starch came together.

We took it out and began to squeeze it with the remaining starch until a pretty solid substance was formed.
I washed off the excess starch in a bowl of water and we began to play with our homemade slime.

I did find the substance mellows to a smooth consistency and we stored it in a mini container. Not only was it fun to stop and have a little 3 oz cup of Blue Bell ice cream but the container was the perfect size for our slime.

Homemade Glue:
Before we started our second project we searched the house for more glue but it had all been used for our Slime project so we made homemade glue for our next project.






In a small saucepan we mixed 1 1/2 cups of water with 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch, 2 Tablespoons Vinegar and 2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup. Then we turned on the heat and stirred until the glue stopped looking cloudy and became clear. We stored our glue in a jar with a lid and found an old small paint brush to use for application of the glue.

We wrote out Joel's name on a large paper or poster board. Using recycled magazines or colored construction paper or even colorful candy wrappers we tore the papers into about 1 inch pieces. We applied one color in the negative space and another color in the positive space. Using the small paintbrush apply the glue on the paper, place the magazine piece on the glued area and then reapply glue over the top. Continue to add glue over the top as often as needed to get the pieces to lie flat. The glue dries clear and has a matt finish. This project will take a good bit of time so we plan to work on it again later.

Oobleck:
I think the Oobleck has been by far the most fun for Joel and it is so simple. When the kids get tired of it just turn it into sidewalk chalk and you have two projects from one.

Use a large plastic bowl, nothing breakable because the kids are going to want to be punching oobleck.
If you have the Dr Suess book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck this would be a good time to read it and then make the Oobleck. Oobleck is a liquid, but when you quickly slam your fist into it, it a solid. It can pour from a spoon but if you try to whip it with the spoon it will crumble to pieces.

1 1/2 cups cornstarch,
1 cup water with a few drops of food coloring

Put the cornstarch in the plastic bowl and using your finger make a hollow area in the middle to pour in the water. Pour in the water and begin to stir until all the cornstarch is moistened. Resist the urge to add a lot more water but if you can not mix it at all add just a little at a time until it is moistened.
It all cleans up with soap and water.

Let the kids punch away.


As the Oobleck begins to dry out it looses it's "power" so it can be put into ice trays or some small container to make sidewalk chalk. Let it set up until it dries out.

The kids will think you are the smartest person ever.

Joel's prayer today at lunch....
".....and thank you, God, for this day, it has been the most fun ever...."

And it was a rainy day!

Day Two Summer Vacation

Rainy days don't get us down.













The sunny atmosphere of El Mercado and lunch at Mi Tierras turned out to be a good choice for this rainy day. How could you not be happy here?

Day One of Summer Vacation

Vacation has finally started. Sometimes you just get lucky and get to start off with grandchildren on day one. Being a teacher I am against letting the kids sit in front of the television watching their brains turn to jello when there are a ton of things to do here that they can not do elsewhere. So we are scheduling activities.

Ideas are welcome.

Our day started pretty early. Now as I look back on my day I think it started at 6:30 with Eric at my bedside telling me to wake up. Most mornings I am up between 5:00 and 5:30 but since the gramdkids are here, Caleb and Gaby were here visiting and some of us sat up talking to really, really late.

I would have gone on to bed but I had 20 pages left to finish off "The Help" and had to get it done. I was nearing the end when I heard one of the grandsons yell out and then moments later Joel was standing next to me in the living room. He asked me where Eric was and said something about how he was standing in the middle of the room and something... something... He snuggled up next to me and then in a minute got up and left to go back to bed. I have seen it before in all of the males in our family. I recognize sleep walking when I see it. Once I knew he was settled back in his bed I wasted no time in getting myself to bed and that was the last I knew until I heard Eric calling my name. How did that time pass so quickly?

So that was the start of my first week on vacation.

The first activity for the day once all the meds, and the mandatory coffee had been taken was to feed the baby calf. Poor little guy, his mother rejected him and he is bottle fed. So this is a morning and evening activity for the week.

Then a "quick" trip to Walmart took place to buy all the reinforcements for the week. It ended up lasting all morning because we had to split our trip to meet Papa at the nursery where he picked up the compost and gardening soil I needed for our evening activity.

Lunch was simple.

Then our big project for the day: making the candy sundae.

Starting with a plastic glass, a Styrofoam disc, a 3 lb bag of hard candies, a white silk carnation,
a red tootsie roll pop,
a little crinkly paper
a bunch of straight pins
and a little bit of time in the middle of a hot afternoon
will produce something as deliciously delightful for both the little ones and the big ones. Joel was really pleased with the finished product and once I jumped in to help him it took us about an hour.

Then on to more fun stuff but nothing was sweeter the rest of he day.

We did a quick trip down our Royal hill to Grandmama and Granddaddy's house for coffee and conversation.
By the time we returned home the long shadows were beginning to cover our new flowerbed we were going to plant. Once it was all planted and we stood back and looked we were satisfied.



A quick cool down for the kids and the plants. A little time in the hot tub previously set to the summer temperatures a bit cooler for us and a little time on bicycles and the day was nearly over.


Supper was simple.
And before baths and bed we made photo cubes with the pictures of the days activities.
And sleep came easily.

For Everything There is a Time

Reading is a part of our lives from the time we are just babies and sat on our mothers laps and felt the rhythm of her breathing and heard her voice telling the story . We associated reading with comfort. It is no wonder so many of us continue to love to read as adults.

When I was a young girl I loved to read.
We made it to the library a couple of times a month. Two lions flanked the concrete steps of the downtown library. I lingered at the steps reaching as far up as I could, running my hands across the ominous looking lions until Mama rushed me into the building. Inside the building a Tom Thumb display was set up on a huge square table in the center of the room. I walked all around the table taking in every angle of the display. I could hardly take my eyes off of it. I was so intrigued by the idea of a tiny little person. I asked one question after another until my mother finally convinced me to move on to the next room where Linda had ventured ahead.

By the time I was in junior high some years later the mobile library started to come to the parking lot of the new Spartan store on Goliad Rd close to my house. It was not as big as the downtown library, nor as grand but it gave me a more limited choice and I could find something every time and each book was better than the one before it. I missed the big library but I got used to it and we were able to check out books in less time than before.

By the time I was in high school a branch of the downtown library was built just a few miles from our house and we became regulars there. By then Bobby was little and I would help him find Harry the Dirty Dog to check out or George the Curious Monkey but Harry was his favorite. Once he was settled and looking at books I headed straight for the mysteries and immediately looked for Victoria Holt. I read every book by her that I could find until I had her formula down and knew how to predict the ending before I got there. There was comfort in the familiar and when I could find no more books by her I felt lost and did not know where to go to find a good book.

Today I ventured out and ordered myself an electronic reading device, a Kindle online. After browsing through the shelves in Amazon I can now purchase and download in a matter of minutes to my Kindle and I can keep about 1500 books on this small device. I'm not sure it will completely satisfy the feel of a book in my hands or the smell of the aging paper or will allow me to flip through the pages to see how much more there is before the chapter ends but I believe it is the future.

Soon students will have an electronic reading device issued to them instead of tons of books and each device will be able to hold every book they could possibly need throughout their school years. Backpacks will be smaller, less heavy and will carry snacks instead of books.

Change is inevitable. Change is refreshing.
You either learn to embrace it or you continue to find yourself unhappy about something new.

If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies.

THE OLD PHONE

I can not take credit for this.
It is one of those email going around. But I thought it was touching and so true.
It is long but worth the read.

When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our
neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The
shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the
telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to
it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an
amazing person. Her name was 'Information Please' and there was nothing
she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone's number and the
correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my
Mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the
basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but
there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give
sympathy.


I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at
the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the
Parlor and dragged it to the landing climbing up; I unhooked the receiver
in the parlor and held it to my ear.

'Information, please,' I said into the mouthpiece just above my head. A
click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear.

'Information.'

'I hurt my finger,' I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough
now that I had an audience.


'Isn't your mother home?' came the question.

'Nobody's home but me,' I blubbered.

'Are you bleeding?' the voice asked.

'No,' I replied. 'I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.'

'Can you open the icebox?' she asked.

I said I could.

'Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger,' said the
voice.

After that, I called 'Information Please' for everything. I asked her for
help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped
me with my math. She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park
just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts.

Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called,
'Information Please,' and told her the sad story. She listened, and then
said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I
asked her, 'Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring Joy
to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a
cage?'

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, ' Wayne,
always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.'

Somehow I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone, 'Information Please.'

'Information,' said in the now familiar voice.

'How do I spell fix?' I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was
nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend
very much. 'Information Please' belonged in that old wooden box back home
and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the
table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those
childhood conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense
of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and
kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle
I had about a half-hour or so between planes. I spent 15 minutes or so on
the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what
I was doing, I dialed my hometown Operator and said, 'Information Please.'

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well. 'Information.'

I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying, 'Could you please tell
me how to spell fix?'

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, 'I guess your
finger must have healed by now.'

I laughed, 'So it's really you,' I said. 'I wonder if you have any idea
how much you meant to me during that time?'

'I wonder,' she said, 'if you know how much your call meant to me. I never
had any children and I used to look forward to your calls.'

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I
could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

'Please do,' she said. 'Just ask for Sally.'

Three months later I was back in Seattle a different voice answered:
Information.' I asked for Sally.

'Are you a friend?' she said.

'Yes, a very old friend,' I answered.

'I'm sorry to have to tell you this,' she said. 'Sally had been working
part-time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks
ago.'

Before I could hang up she said, 'Wait a minute, did you say your name was
Wayne?'

'Yes.' I answered.

'Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called.
Let me read it to you.' The note said, 'Tell him there are other worlds to
sing in. He'll know what I mean.'

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

Never underestimate the impression you may make on others.

Little Irritations

Why is it that as soon as you sweep the last little bit of the dirt into the dustpan and dump it in the trash you simultaneously kick the cat bowl and water dish and have a wet, cluttered mush all over the floor?

...as soon as all the underwear are folded and stacked on the table, the last pair of underwear tip the scales and the whole stack tumbles over and unfolds?

...the short trip from sugar bowl to coffee cup ends with the sugar on the floor below.

...the cups on the top shelf of the dishwasher are filled with water when all the other dishes are dry and topple over spilling into the utensils and dishes below as you pull the rack out?

....the bottom sheet pulls loose but the sheets above it are still in place?

But all is well and if the house is not perfect when all the little grandbabies come running in...who will even notice?

Baby Girl Royal

Just Arrived!
Blakely Ann 9 lbs, 2 ozs.

This is the first photo taken minutes after she was born.

Harvest Tme

As the rays of sunlight broke across the eastern sky the sound of rumbling combines started and I could feel the vibrations of the machinery nearby. The sky was just light enough to see the combines near my back door, starting up and moving across the field of green beans growing just at the edge of my backyard. The harvesters must have arrived while it was still dark and moved in like Hitchcock's birds in the school playground.

As I sat having my morning coffee while I watched an old movie on TCM my senses became aware of the activities outside and momentarily I felt as if I had been plucked up from my serene country life and plopped down in one of those B rated scary movies where the victim of some unknown killer runs through the corn fields with menacing rotating blades of a combine moving closer and closer.

Stepping to the backdoor I watched as the combines took their place at the start of the bean rows and dust began to rise and billow out into the sky as the green plants began to get ripped from the ground and pulled into the blades of the combine.

Harvest is exciting to farm families. It is the time the goals are realized, the big pay off, the light at the end of the tunnel, the end of the hard work that went into that crop, a big relief. For this year, especially we are thankful for all that is harvested, the summer of drought, the wet fall, a struggling economy, and an uncertain future. I am reminded that faith has got to be a part in our lives. We can plant the seeds but God gives our harvest.

There are several harvests of various crops throughout the year. This is the second harvest this year of green beans, corn was harvested early in the summer, hay has been baled and peanuts are being harvested this week, also.

Harvest time and a baby on the way. What a good day it is today!

Living by the Old Tme

What a challenge it has been this week to get the time right.

All this week my internal alarm clock has been waking me up at 4:00 AM because it is the old 5:00 AM. I toodle to the TV downstairs to catch an old movie, put on the coffee, take my morning pills and settle down to the movie until time to go to school. .

Today my internal alarm clock got me up at 5:00 AM which is right for me even though it is Saturday, I toodle downstairs, turn on an old movie, put the coffee on, take my morning pills and settle in to my old movie.

Lee wanders in....awfully early for him....five o'clock.
He thinks it is six o'clock and that is good for him because he thinks it is the old seven o'clock.

Who's on first?

The Math of Love

Still waiting!
Poor Lisa!

Makes you just hurt for her!
If things do not happen before next Wednesday she will be admitted and induced on the 11th.
It is my prayer that things happen sooner than that for Lisa's sake.

Nine months is long enough to be pregnant for anybody with a three year old (4 in February) and a 20 month old at home with a husband who is out of town on business for days at a time. Poor baby! She is trying not to be grumpy but it is just so hard!

When I went into labor with my first I was eating out with a friend who had a five month old baby. I fed the baby all the way to the hospital. It was either I drive or I feed. I chose feed. Our two babies were friends for life, competed for grades all through their years in Pleasanton, graduated the top two in their class, roomed together at college and continue to keep up with each other even now.

By the way, the meal was Mexican food and I never got to finish the meal.

The second one came a week early and when I got to the hospital they gave me a sleeping pill and all labor stopped. Hours later it started again and he was born in two hours.

The doctor decided to induce the last two I had. He did not think I would make it to the hospital.
The next one was born during my mother's father's funeral. I missed the funeral. It was a happy/sad occasion.

By the time I had the last one I had it down pretty pat! Everything went as scheduled!

What a blessing all the babies have been in my life. I would not want to give any one of them up, mine, their spouses and the grandbabies.

Someone once told me she did not want to have any more children after her one child because she did not think she could ever love another child as much.
How sorry I feel for her. She did not understand the math of love!

You don't divide, you multiply!

So if you please, say a prayer for Lisa and the baby.