Journal Jottings of a Maine Mama - April , 2016

I haven't had much time (and truth by told ENERGY) to do much blogging lately, or even reading all the wonderful things you all blog about. My life is blessed! I simply want to enjoy every day that God has given me with my loving husband and zany kids, the new experiences, the adventures, and even the challenges.I miss writing though, and this link-up. Perhaps starting it at the beginning of the week and posting the following Monday will work...

CLOCK READS
2:48pm

WEATHER IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS
Although we've had some days of steady, cool rain, the weather has warmed up. We are enjoying more and more sunny days. Some days we don't even have to wear jackets!

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW and IN THE GARDEN
All the snow is gone. The leaves have been raked off the lawn. The downed tree branches have been gathered and stacked to burn in the fire pit. The grass is green and growing. Cate's perennials have popped up as well as the Bleeding Hearts under the crabapple tree. The brook is swollen with melted snow from the mountain. Decidious trees are leaf buds. And the birds and spring peepers are back filling the woods with songs.

WHAT I'M DOING RIGHT NOW and AROUND THE HOUSE
After a busy morning filled with learning and errands, I'm resting in the livingroom. The windows are open and I can hear the hens clucking. Another egg? Sam is making homemade peanut butter cookies and watching Netflix. The dogs are napping on the other end of the couch.

TODAY'S TO DO
Laundry
Grocery Shop
Bank
Band Practice
Homeschool
Dishes
Vacuum
Scrub Toilets

DINNER MENU
Monday: Pepperoni or Cheese Pizza
Tuesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread and Steamed Peas
Wednesday: Leftovers - Baked Beans and Hot Dogs or Spaghetti and Meatballs and Baby Carrots and Celery Sticks
Thursday: Breakfast Pizza with White Pepper Gravy, Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Bacon and Pineapple Chunks
Friday: Chicken Alfredo and Steamed Cauliflower/Broccoli
Saturday: Chinese Take-out
Sunday: Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

WHAT'S ON TV
I usually catch up on "Survivor", "The Amazing Race", "The Voice", and "Big Bang Theory" on Hulu or CBS sometime AFTER they have aired. We haven't had cable or local TV in several years now (nor Netflix). I do miss some of the shows on cable, but it's convenient to watch shows when it works for me through Hulu or CBS.

FROM THE CRAFT BASKET

Most of you probably don't know that 3 1/2 years ago I attended the birth of my nephew Ayden. I was also there with my family when he died 50 minutes later. Ayden, the first child of my sister, arrived at 22 weeks due to an incompetent cervix. He was perfect in every way, but too early. It's been on my heart for a while to use my crochet to create special hat and blanket sets for Moms and Dads who's babies never go home through prematurity. These parents have only a few special items from their babies so they are treasured. I took a break from my 2 temperature blankets to make 2 sets for hospital donation. (If you are interested in also donating Project Robbie is a great place to start.)

The left set is for a baby about 1 pound. The hat is approximately 8" in diameter and 3 1/2" from top-to-bottom. The blanket is 17" x 17". The right set is for a baby about 2 pounds. The hat is approximately 10" in diameter and 4" top-to-bottom. The blanket is 18" x 18".

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Frontier Dreams (Tuesdays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design (Wednesdays), and Lunamon Design (Wednesdays).

PAGE TURNER

A BLESSING

It's truly been a blessing to spend a couple of overnights a month with my husband boondocking in our little camper. We've had wonderful times together: fishing, exploring waterfalls, seeing new areas. The simple pleasure of a homemade breakfast sitting near a rushing river or reading our bibles before it gets too dark at night with the ocean waves lapping the shore nearby and a campfire are special times together.

DEVOTIONAL and INSPIRATION

James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

I'm linking up to The Simple Woman's Daybook and Happy Homemaker are Mondays.

Creative Crochet: Chicken Potholders

Did you know that I'm a CRAZY CHICKEN LADY?

Just over 4 years ago the kids and I incubated eggs for learning fun. After watching those cute lil' fuzzies hatch we couldn't part with them. Believe it or not, chickens have unique (and oftentimes amusing) personalities. We love 'em!

After watching this video, I decided that I had to make these chicken potholders! 

Aren't they adorable? It took me a few days to find and purchase 100% cotton yarn (as acrylic can melt under high heat I'm told), but then I got crocheting. They're quick to crochet up and an easy project to bring along in a handbag to pass time while out-and-about.

I'm continuing to work on my son's red, white and blue ripples blanket, but breaks for these quick, fun projects break up the monotony of the same stitch and pattern over and over, row after row. I am anxious to finish up the blanket and start planning another for my step-daughter. In the meantime, what's my next project? I'm thinking a simple cell phone case for my new phone...

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at The Philosopher's Wife (Mondays), Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design (Wednesdays), and Natural Suburbia (Fridays).

Get hooked! What are you creating?

Creative Crochet: Mason Jar Cozy

I had hoped to have my son's ripple blanket completed by now, but I've been, er, distracted by other projects. Pinterest is a "dangerous place" when it comes to inspiration! Do you have a Pinterest board dedicated to crochet? Please share in comments. I can NEVER have too many ideas pinned!

If only I had more time and more yarn...

My pastor's wife celebrated a birthday last week. She makes beautiful beaded jewelry, something I haven't been able to figure out. She gave me some pretty earrings for my birthday in December so I wanted to make something for her. A Mason Jar cozy seemed like the perfect gift since she sips water out of a Mason Jar.

Free Pattern Here

It's super quick and easy! Since my cozy was for a quart size Mason Jar, I started with the 4 increasing rounds, but I think next time I'd only crochet 3 rounds (or 30 stitches). I like a snug fit. And I only crocheted 4 rounds of SC instead of 5 (Rounds 5-9). The result was a simple, tight cozy with texture in a worsted weight cotton-blend lavender.

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at The Philosopher's Wife (Mondays), Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design (Wednesdays), and Natural Suburbia (Fridays).

Creative Crochet: Coffee Cup Cozies

I'm still working on Jake's Rugged Ripples blanket. (You can see my post about that here.) It's slowly and steadily looking more and more like a blanket rather than a LONG scarf.  I've decided to orient the blanket with the ripples going vertically rather than horizontal as the width turned out to be MUCH wider than anticipated. It's going to be a cozy blanket for cold winter days!

Sometimes I need brief breaks from the same stitch and pattern. It gets too monotonous. Why not try something new? I changed things up by creating some coffee cup cozies this week. Doing a search on Pinterest turned up a few different basic patterns. 

Bubblegirl Mug Cozy Pattern
Sewing Barefoot Mug Cozies

Practical Functional Crochet Mug Cozy

Using worsted weight in dark jewel-toned yarn (blue, green, burgundy and gold) and "thyme" green, I crocheted up 3 of these cozies. They work up super fast. My favorite cozy was the pattern found at Practical Functional. I did alter the pattern a bit. Instead of using DC stitches, I did HDC, and I did a SC border rather than a SS.

I'm still struggling with creating an evenly spaced SC edge to my projects. I watched this You Tube video to give me some pointers, but I guess I just need to practice more.

And then I made another cozy in heather gray with a simple wooden button for a family member. A friend has asked me to try making a tea up cozy...

Time to return to my son's blanket! Perhaps it'll be completed by the next Creative Crochet posting...

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at The Philosopher's Wife (Mondays), Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design(Wednesdays), and Natural Suburbia (Fridays).

Crochet Creations: Market Tote

Did you read about last week's project here?

 I needed a brief break from crocheting up my son's rugged ripples blanket. It's a longer project so "changing things up" keeps the creative "juices" going.  Instead, I finished up a couple of Market Totes I started a couple of months ago.

It's not like me to leave a project unfinished, but I was excited to start on my first blanket and knew I would get back to the totes soon enough.

SMALL MARKET TOTE

First, I crocheted up a small, child-size tote out of light blue and green-blue worsted weight acrylic yarns. The finished size was about 11 inches x 11.5 inches with an 18 inch long single handle. I did SC around the top of the bag and edges of the handle, hoping to give it more support and lesson the "stretch" of the handle. (I'm not crazy about my edging around the handle as it's not uniform and I'm a bit of a perfectionist.) A 5 pound bag of apples or potatoes fit in easily with room for a few more small items.

EXTRA LARGE MARKET TOTE

And then, I decided to make the extra large, adult-size version in worsted weight "thyme" green yarn. The finished size was about 17 inches x 17.5 inches with a 14 inch long single handle. I didn't do the SC edging on this one. One of my bed pillow fits easily inside it.

NOTES

• Tote stretches quite a bit as does the handle. A shorter handle makes for a tote that doesn't hang too low. Shortening the larger tote by 4 inches worked well.
• Stick with the child-sized pattern for groceries as it's plenty big enough and won't be overly heavy, or the larger size for lots of lighter weight items such as a beach towel, sunscreen and lunchbox cooler.
• Attach crocheted or artificial flowers, bows or appliques to up the "cute" factor". 

FREE MARKET TOTE CROCHET PATTERN

I'm sharing my crocheting creations over at Linda's Crafty Corner (Mondays), The Philosopher's Wife (Mondays), Lucy Blossom Crafts (Mondays), Lunation Design (Wednesdays/Thursdays), Small Things (Wednesdays), Oombawka Design(Wednesdays), Natural Suburbia (Fridays) and Be a Crafter (Saturdays).

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 14 - Back from Break with NEWS

EVERYDAY LIFE
Welcome to 2015! (Where did 2014 go?) I wish all of you a year of spiritual growth, good health, contentment with life, and laughter and love...

I got engaged! Eek! On December 20th, my BF asked me to marry him! I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life (and my kids'), one who is Godly, hard-working, selfless, giving. Despite life's bumps along the road, it IS good!

We all - my fiance and his kids too - spent 6 days with my family to celebrate an early Christmas. Weather was unseasonably warm and we took the kids to the Atlantic beach. No, not to swim, but to climb rocks, wade in the salty water with "muck boots", explore. It's not too often you can go to the beach in December in Maine! (Compared to this week when the Polar Vortex descended upon us and we had some -20s or so at night with wind chills. Vehicles were hard to start. Pipes froze. And schools closed.)

Photo Credits T. Skehan

We did some organizing, decluttering and rearranging in the bedrooms and closets. Sam is super happy to have a "livingroom" in his bedroom now. (He and Jake moved an extra sofa and coffee table into his bedroom, making a perfect area for him to build Legos or use his new Physics science kit.) Jake's bedroom went through BIG changes; a downsizing of stuff and a change of furniture placement. It took us a whole, exhausting afternoon, but so worth it!

We rang in 2015 with board games, an "Ice Age" marathon and yummy munchies.

And I whipped up a number of crochet projects (of course)! I created headband "ear warmers" (PATTERN) and a hat (PATTERN), with and without flowers (PATTERN), dishcloth scrubbies in greens and blues (PATTERN), and mid-sized mesh bags in sherbert ice cream and blue, mint green and white colors (PATTERN). I finished a cluster stitch bag for my daughter in harvest colors and another in orange, peach and white (PATTERN). I finished a cowl for me (PATTERN). And, finally, I am working on some coasters (PATTERN). Yeah, I'm obsessed. But my stash of yarn is getting low...

Check out this link to see why crafting, knitting and crocheting, is neurologically AWESOME for us

PEOPLE & PLACES
❄ On the Island (All) ❄ T__  Visited ❄ Lego Club (Sam) ❄ Jazz & Concert Band Practice (Cati) ❄ Cub Scouts (Sam) ❄ Patrol Leader Meeting (Jake) ❄ Bible Study & Fellowship (Me) ❄

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS

It's always a challenge to get back into our every day activities and learning after a break, but especially so after 2 1/2 weeks of indulging in late nights and later mornings with unscheduled days. But we meander on. Our year is not quite half over.

Cati was blessed this Christmas was a MacBook. She spent a lot of time over the break writing stories on Wattpad. Have you seen Wattpad? I love seeing her delve into her creative writing with focus and excitement...and now she doesn't have to wait until my laptop is free!

Sam received a GREAT physics science kit as a gift. He has spent hours building and exploring on his own, but I thought it would be a great week for him to delve into the experiments provided by the booklet included. So, I replaced most of his Earth Science with Physics experiments this week.

It was also a review week for him. Those of you with unique learners know that sometimes a skill just needs repeating...and repeating...Sam reviewed multiple digit and multiple addend regrouping and alphabetizing with this game. Alphabetizing several words proved to be a visual challenge for him, one that not only worked his reasoning skills but his visual tracking. I came up with an adaptation for him: Write down the beginning letters then place them in order. All those letters needed visual "management" to avoid frustration and cognitive shut-down. I think he's got it now!

Cati

• English - Wattpad Creative Writing and Editing, Transitive & Intransitive Verbs, Active & Passive Voice, Adjective Prepositional Phrases, and Indirect Objects
• Pre-Algebra - Order of Operations with Fractions, Exponential Expressions & Radicals, Surface Area, and Scientific Notation
• Earth Science - Energy Resources, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Resources, Nuclear Energy & Energy Conservation, The Water Cycle
• Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Greece Around 500 BC
• Current Events - CNN Student News
• Phys. Ed. - Walking
• Creative Arts - Jazz & Concert Band, Minecraft

Sam

• Language Arts - Spelling Weeks 36-40 (1st grade) / Weeks 1-4 (2nd grade), Fables & Moral Copywork, Alphabetic Order, Grammar Ninja 
• Math - Addition Regrouping, Elapsed Time, Solve for Missing Addends, Multiplication Facts
• Earth Science - Rocks & Weathering
• Physics - Center of Gravity
• Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Green Around 500 BC
• Current Events - CNN Student News
• Phys. Ed. - Playing in Snow
• Creative Arts - Minecraft, Kinetic Sand

READING & VIEWING
❄ Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (Peppe) (Me) ❄ Quartet (Lowry) (Cati) ❄ Ben and Me (Lawson) (Sam) ❄

PONDERINGS

Happy Homeschooling!

As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:

Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
Six Word Saturday: As 2015 Begins
Memory Monday: A Sticky Situation
Tuesday Coffee Chat: That One Resolution

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 11 - Rut oh!

EVERYDAY LIFE
On-line time was curbed this week. My laptop is with Eric, the Computer Guy, for a charger port replacement. I suggest never sitting on the charging cord while it's plugged into the computer...I haven't had time to write blog posts or visit your blogs or even play Words with Friends on Facebook. Fortunately, I am able to use my oldest son's school computer for HOMESCHOOL and a little personal use. My laptop is a very important part of our learning!

I've had more time to crochet! Just last week I decided to teach myself using You Tube videos with the Crochet Guru here, then moved on to making a double-crochet beanie after watching this video. I've made a camo beanie for Sam and another in blue for Thomas, my BF. I like to challenge myself though, and crochet seems more understandable than knitting, so I made a single-crochet toddler beanie with a scalloped edge and a pink daisy for a friend's granddaughter.

But then I came down with a bug on Wednesday and Thursday, putting a damper on school and everything else. I'm feeling better today, but I'm still achy and tired.

MENU
• Chicken Alfredo with Spaghetti & Cucumber Slices • Chicken Veggie Pot Pie • Pizza • Hot Dogs, Baked Beans & Brown Bread • Baked Chicken, Rice Pilaf & Peas •

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS
Can I tell you how "on the ball" Cati is this year? Gosh. She certainly matured over the summer months, becoming much more focused on school with a positive attitude. This is a girl who gets up at 5am sometimes (Yes, really!) and gets her Saxon Grammar and Writing and Saxon Algebra 1/2 completed before my alarm even goes off to get Jake up and off to charter school. She does creative writing every day on Wattpad, not part of her homeschool, but because she enjoys it. She walks every day, snow, rain or shine, to improve her health. And she even does my dreaded dirty dishes. I know I'm being braggy, but I'm proud of my girl!

Sam delved into the World of Multiplication this week. (We touched on it at the end of last year.) I wanted to add a little creativity to his learning, so I searched my Pinterest and came up with some games to play to reinforce multiplication facts. (Links are below.) Do you have any games or websites to help learn multiplication?

Cati
Phrases and Clauses, Direct & Diagramming Direct Object, and Descriptive, Proper, Limiting & Diagramming Adjectives
Creative Writing on Wattpad
Equivalent Equations, Reciprocals, Multiplication/Division Rules, Average, Symbols of Inclusion, Order of Operations, and Multiplying/Dividing Mixed Fractions
Geologic Time Scale, Types of Fossils, Carbon Dating, Soufriere Hills, Montserrat Volcano, Mt. St. Helens Volcano
CNN Student News

Sam

Sara Teasdale and Jack Prelutsky Poetry, Ice Cream Poem, Spelling 34 

Multiplication Chart, Multiplication Facts 0, 1, 2 & 5, Multiplication Patterns, and Multiplication Facts

Monitoring Faults, Types of Volcanoes, Soufriere Hills, Montserrat Volcano, Mt. St. Helens Volcano

CNN Student News

READING and VIEWING
• Stuart Little (White) (Sam) •

"Volcano Eruption - The Eruption of Mt. St. Helens (1980)" (You Tube)

PEOPLE and PLACES
 • Jazz & Concert Band Practice (Cati) • Cub & Boy Scouts (Jake & Sam) •

A FAVORITE SOMETHING

Happy Homeschooling!

As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:

Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
Six Word Saturday: Forward

And check out these FREE on-line resources for YOUR homeschool!
Multiplication Grid Game
9s Hand Trick Video
Multiplication Video Games
Colorful Multiplication Chart
Color my Number Multiplication Sheets

It's a Wrap! Session 2 Week 6 - Let the Holidays Begin

In My Life This Week

Poor Sugar Maple woke up Monday morning with a sore throat and coughing. She spent the day in bed watching Netflix movies on my Kindle, reading or napping. Fortunately she felt better after a couple of days and it doesn't seem like she shared with the rest of us. Yet.

What We're Cooking
French Fried Onion Meatloaf from Tilly's Nest! Meatloaf is such an easy dish to prepare, but it's also "blah". Adding dried onions and cheese chunks sure spruced it up for us! 

Homeschool High School
White Pine assembled some really cool DNA strands from colored construction paper that represented guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine nucleotides for a Genetics "modeling" lab. All those G, A, T, and Cs! But mostly he spent the week finishing up his learning goals for English and Algebra.

White Pine and His Paper DNA Models

Accomplishments
Dumas Persuasive Paper, Conrad Author's Profile and Approach Paper, Algebra: Solving for N, Biology: Genetics (DNA/RNA)

Homeschool Elementary
We wrapped up our volcano unit study. Sugar Maple and Balsam Fir put together their lapbooks, reviewed volcanoes and the rock cycle on StudyJams, and made an erupting volcano model. Don't forget to click here to see the creation of our volcano and 2 ways to make "lava" eruptions! Balsam Fir was SUPER DUPER excited with Mt. Boom!

Top L. to R. Front Page of Lapbook and Back Page of Lapbook. Bottom L. to R. Center
Section with Flap up and Center Section with Flap Down

We finished a tad bit of SOTW on Ancient Greece: Minoans, Mycenaeans, Dorians. And, ahem, watched "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief". It's about mythology, right? ::wink::

Sugar Maple's Accomplishments
The Story of Helen Keller (Hickok), Personal Letter, Creative Writing, Writing Process, Idioms, Cursive, Volcanoes, Word Processing, Ancient Greece, Mapwork, Band Practice, Pasta Ornaments

Balsam Fir's Accomplishments
Little Bear (Minarkik), Creative Writing Notebook (Complete Sentences/Main Idea), Handwriting, Rounding Up, Subtraction with Borrowing, Volcanoes, Ancient Greece, Mapwork

For the Love of Books

With the movie "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" coming out soon - or did it release already ::laugh:: - Blue Spruce dug up his copy of the book and I started reading it to the saplings. None of the saplings nor myself have read this book so it's a new "adventure" for us. Have you read it? I'm still undecided as to whether it's a good read ALOUD book or not.

With Our Hands
Fiori Pasta Snowflake Ornaments from Katy Elliot! Using pasta and Tacky Glue, we created snowflake shapes and let them dry. After 2-3 light coats of white spray paint, we "painted" them with Tacky Glue and covered them with silver glitter. Sparkly!

Sugar Maple Making Fiori Pasta Snowflake Ornaments

Places We Went and People We Saw
☃ Library (SM) ☃ Scouts (All) ☃ Band Concert (SM) ☃ Girl Scout Nursing Home Singalong and Holiday Party (SM) ☃ Boy Scout Camp In (WP) ☃

Helpful Homeschool Hint

Having maps for Geography is a great resource to have! Not only do we label places and landforms, but we also jot down historical notes. Tying events to places can be a very powerful learning tool! Education Place has some great, but simple outline maps to print out for free! 

Around the 'Net
☃ Advent Christmas Lanterns from The Tiger Chronicles
☃ Gift Boxes and Envelope Templates to Print Out and Assemble from Katilbalina
☃ Printable Paper Grinch from The Flying Dachshund

Well, that's a wrap! I've got a few more posts lined up for December so don't forget to come back. Linking up to these fun blog hops! Click over and check them out! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!