Ants Carrying Shells, Tiger Journaling, Ceramics, and Good Eats

April is my favorite month of the year.  (October is a close second.)  During April, new life and hibernating life emerge, and the sun shines warmly on my skin while cool air whispers across it.  I wonder each year what new surprises await me and excitedly look forward to enjoying familiar delights that will never grow old to me.  I encourage my children to seek the special wonders, too.  There exists a lifetime of treasures and more.

We all played outside together on the days the weather was nice.  Sometimes I'll be so enthralled by what the creatures are doing when I'm hiding that I'm tempted to burst from my hiding place to get my camera without delay.  When I finally am found or decide to make a run for it, I go get my phone right away.

I heard the scratching, clicking sound at first.  I turned around and watched in amazement as ants dragged shells or some sort of hulls along this tree. 

I watched for awhile, then I moved down into the creek and sifted my hand through small, sandy gravel and happened across what appeared to be a tiny bivalve mollusk or a nut or other seed hull loosely connected, but open, with a dried, shriveled-up occupant.  The outside of the shell looked identical to the shells the ants were carrying.

I kept the shell, and once I was able, I fetched my camera, placed the shell, which had broken at the loosely-attached hinge, on a plantain leaf to photograph it. 

I later took out what appeared to be a seed and photographed the outside of the hull halves.  I do not know what kind of plant the seed is from, do you?  The hull is very hard.  The tree was a sycamore, so the seed does not belong to the tree.  I think the ant must be a harvester ant of some sort.  My guess is that it is Pogonomyrmex occidentalis.  I'm still not sure why the ants were carrying the shells/hulls across the tree.  Why did they not go find only the seeds and carry those to eat?  I read about some harvester ants in the genus Messor in the area of Israel and Turkey that took snail shells and built up their mound with them.  Apparently Pogonomyrmex builds gravel mounds.

I had to pause our outdoor game to photograph the irises in partial bloom.  They look a bit like purple tulips here!  I think the freezing overnight weather was more than they could take.  They didn't bloom fully and stay well.  Furthermore, these are the only two flowers that made a showing.  More irises are on the hill behind the house, but none have bloomed, so I fear they may not.

We all do cooking.  Even Elizabeth is getting to do more and more, even though she doesn't do anything completely by herself, yet.  I made the baked potatoes with garlic, rosemary, and Greek seasoning. 

I also made homemade tortillas for the first time in a few years.  Wow, were they ever good!  They're whole wheat, freshly ground, of course, and so they don't roll like the store-bought tortillas.  They taste so much better, though.

We ate vegan chick'n fajitas one day for lunch.  Those are cheddar chunks, not eggs.

Carissa made her "potato no-name dish" concoction another day.  Those are delicious, too.

I made up some white rice so that I could make some fried rice (with a couple eggs) with organic maple chicken sausages and sauteed onions.  It's sooooo good.  And yes, this was different than the experiment I had Carissa fix last week, but the two dishes were similar and both good.

One night Carissa baked our spaghetti squash and made up a homemade salsa to mix with it and made up two pans of nachos.  The squash made for an interesting meat substitute.  Trusten and Elizabeth were not impressed.  I thought it was ok.  Carissa and Olivia were approving fans.

We got in our Universal Yums box.  We've so far enjoyed everything this go around and figure we will enjoy the remaining items. 

I made my second mug with horses for Olivia.  Carissa hasn't made a second mug, yet.  She worked on her avatar and has not quite finished it, so I won't be picturing it, yet.

Nearly every day that Elizabeth writes in her journal, she writes about animals.  (She had to go back and add the date afterward.)  Here is an entry about tigers, and she happened to have her tigers and other cats (as well as some dinosaurs and a horse) keeping her company.  These days she really likes cheetahs.  She wishes she had a cheetah.

My sweet girl really enjoys her Zoom meetings on Fridays with her class. They're never academic; the time is devoted to visiting with each other and playing games together.

The kids are still working on geography skills.  I want them to really improve in their geography knowledge.

I have gone a few days without reading out of our group book, Words on Fire, but we will get through that.  It's interesting so far.

Trusten finished reading Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, and I assigned him to draft a closing argument (as either a defense attorney or prosecuting attorney, his choice) to defend the main character Kira or to doom her.  Since it's been a few years since I read the book with Jaden and so could not adequately come up with an argument/debate assignment without reading it again, I looked online for help, so this is what I decided upon. I got the idea from this Gathering Blue novel packet for 7th grade.

That's about it for now.

Until next time...

Geography and Ceramics Mug-Making

At the start of the week, we decided to play our American Trivia board game that covers history, geography, art, and "general," and I realized that the kids, especially the girls, needed to learn a lot more about their geography.  Jaden William knew far, far more before their ages, and I knew not only all my states before Elizabeth's age, but also all the capitals.  By Olivia's age, a child should be learning more world geography, in my opinion.  So on Monday, both the maps came down from the boys' room to be washed, and I hung the world map on the dining room wall.  Trusten put the states one back up in his room. 

 I am glad Sheppard Software is still up and running.  I used that a lot in my home school. 

I introduced the kids to "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"  I looooved that game when I was a kid.  That was back when my home computer operated on MS-DOS.  I became an expert and learned so much.  I told the kids how I'd used hardback encyclopedias (which we now have in our home) to gather all the information I needed to catch the criminals. 

To play, visit this link and choose to play in your browser.

I brought out the old, worn place mat of the world flags for the kids.  I'd used the 'F' encyclopedia as a kid. 

I got out our copy of My First Atlas by (Katie John Sharp, 2005) and the 'M' encyclopedia so they could access a list of the countries' currency to assist them.  My First Atlas is a good book of geography that lists important agricultural resources, exports, the capital cities, etc.  I remember spending so much time engrossed in the encyclopedias. I also remember something I accessed on the computer, too, though, that helped me memorize various other data, like important exports and whatnot. 

The game was a big hit.  Learning is most effective when it is fun and engaging.

They will continue with geography learning.

We still got outside plenty and engaged in fun exercise. :-)  I'm so happy it's spring and that so many lovely flowers are blooming.  Our lilac bush smells so wonderful, and plenty of butterflies and bees are enjoying it.

Elizabeth enjoyed a Zoom meeting with her teacher and a few of her classmates last week, though I didn't take any pictures.  Here is Olivia chatting with her teacher and some classmates.

Carissa and I started making our mugs. 

My first mug is for Trusten, decorated with tigers. I think he is going to want it to be blue.

I find it ever so difficult to get things to be perfect.  Oh well, I guess it's got that homemade look!

I am about to start reading Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen to the kids. 

I found a recipe so that we could use some of our chicken maple sausages with some leftover rice to make a lunch.  Carissa fixed it, and it was pretty good. :-)  The red pieces are red bell pepper.

Next week, I will be making some teaching videos based on past learning with the kids.  I'll be using them for my field experience hours, but maybe it will also help inspire some parents out there who are struggling with the pandemic homeschooling they've been thrown into.

Until next time...

Sewing Masks, Outdoor Fun, and Journaling

Last week Olivia and I decided to get out the sewing machine, fabrics, thread, etc., wash all the fabric, and start sewing masks.  We made the first one quickly to see how it'd turn out, and Liv is keeping the mask.  We also used fabric from what were probably my favorite pair of hemp beach pants, the beautiful purple pair I wore completely out.  We kept a purple mask for our own use.  Carissa must venture out on Friday to pick up packages from the post office, so she will wear it then. 

We will donate all the other masks we have been making.  People need them during this covid pandemic.

If you'd also like to sew masks to donate or to use personally, the pattern we used can be found here, and a video with instructions can be found on Youtube. 

 

We didn't have elastic in our sewing supplies, but we used ponytail holders, rubber bands with yarn wrapped around them for ear comfort, and even plain doubled yarn.  We will continue to double yarn to make masks until we are out of fabric. 

I make sure all the kids are journaling almost every day, and I'm especially making sure Elizabeth practices writing.  I truly believe one day she will write well.  She's just got to get to a point where she enjoys it, and I believe that is within her.  I'm working on getting her to align her paragraphs correctly. 

It seemed I had fixed a quinoa breakfast for Carissa and myself a couple years ago, and I even seemed to keep a vague memory of it being something we didn't like much, but I gave it a go for all of us, and we will not be doing that again.  It doesn't matter that it's got cinnamon and dried coconut in it.  It doesn't matter whether I added berries (cannabis and flax seeds, as well as almonds are also components).  It doesn't even matter that I decided to add honey to sweeten it.  It tastes terrible, and we had to force it down.

Pizza was as fancy as it got for our last Sabbath meal, but homemade pizza is good. :-) 

It was Carissa's turn to choose dessert, and she requested some sort of "blondie brownie" with cocoa butter pieces.  I added chocolate chips to my corner. :-)

We spent a lot of time outside, at least during a couple of the days.  We played Kick-the-Bucket two days in a row, and that left me so sore.  I'd not run around like that in a long time.  I also got to spy on the insect world while hiding.  After one round, I ran in to get my phone to film this:

 

The kids are mainly working on math online.  The girls log in to their accounts with login info with which their teachers supplied me.  Since Trusten finished his original school packet, I've assigned him lessons from Life of Fred.  One of his teachers gave me a list of things they had planned on teaching during the remainder of the semester, so I'm covering things on there.  I suggested he read Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry.  He said his English teacher read The Giver to him last year.  I will give him an assignment afterward for him to work on debate/argument skills. 

Liv is enjoying more time baking.  She makes breakfast some mornings.  I'm getting more time with  getting Elizabeth to the point of fixing something entirely by herself, minus taking it out of the oven.  She is not developmentally ready for that, yet.  She sure wants to, but nope, she can't. 

This week we are doing a lot of geography activities, so stay tuned for my next post.

Until next time...

Covid Quarantine: The Beginning {March 2020}

March started off normally for us, for the most part.  I was planning for a month of almost no work so that I could put in my required pre-clinical experience hours for my degree, but beside that, March was slated to a be a normal month.

Elizabeth went on to perform in her grade level spelling bee, and I kept that day open to go watch her, at her request.  Three winners were chosen, and my Lizi came in third place.  Another child from her class placed first.

This meant that Elizabeth was to go participate in the regional spelling bee.  We would have driven the long way to Kirbyville on April 30.  I was so excited for my sweet girl.

Life went on.  I fixed delicious food...

...and I worked in my ceramics class.

I received my first two free issues of Popular Science as a member of the NEA (National Education Association)...

...and continued to work in my ceramics class.

I finally got to take Jaden William's senior pictures, of which I selected just two here:

We got Elizabeth's swing frame concreted in so that she could enjoy her swing:

We received March's Yum box from Brazil...

...and then March 16 arrived.  March 16 is easy to remember.  It's Carissa's birthday.  The kids and I went to their schools.  I was doing PCE in the elementary school, just down the hall from Elizabeth's classroom.  I would finish 42 hours of my required 75 hours at the end of that day.  We would go home and celebrate Carissa's birthday, and then Trusten would dress up in the new black dress shirt I bought for him, and we would all go to his band concert, when we would finally get to hear him play the drums.  I was so excited!  Carissa was looking forward to it, too.  It was like a birthday gift to her.

We were told the schools were going to close, and the band concert would be canceled due to the coronavirus covid-19 pandemic.  I finished the day, and the kids and I went home.

We still celebrated Carissa's birthday:

Then we started planning for a new routine, but at first it was chaotic.  We did some of our own things, but the kids' schools had sent home worksheet packets for two weeks.  Jaden's school shut down, too, a day sooner, but he's doing school online on his school-assigned Chromebook.  His graduation was canceled (or maybe postponed?).

Since Elizabeth had coin-counting worksheets, I decided the girls could play Bookstore.  Carissa got really excited about homeschooling.  She insisted on playing the major part of Bookstore. 

I made coffee to sell, too.

Carissa and I drove to Crowder to pick up supplies to work on our ceramics projects at home.  The entire rest of the semester was moved online and at home.  We were supposed to spend the second half of the semester working on potters' wheels, but that was canceled.  Instead we are to make mugs by slab, the same way we were to make our personal avatars.  I was able to pick up my glazed brain coral, though:

I also finished glazing my teapot, but I don't know when it will go into the kiln and when I'll get it.

It flooded, and it didn't matter since we had nowhere to go.  Trusten found a tiny salamander, and I'd thought it was the smallest one I'd ever seen, until I happened to come across one William had found a few years ago when I was going through pictures.  I had posted it to the blog, too.

I made our own slip for our ceramics work:

My ugly avatar took a lot of work, but I finally got it changed and finished to a point at which I could be content.

I was able to drop it off at school, and Carissa finished glazing her natural object.  That is the last time we were allowed at the school (though we had not been allowed to classes for longer). 

I was able to see and take pictures of my bisqued coil pot.

I made us green smoothies to keep our immune systems strong.

Our days became filled with a mix of what the kids' school assigned and our own choices in learning and getting outside.  We started watching the Blue Planet series again and finished it, then we started Planet Earth.

A few things I'll use for stamps on my mugs

Lamium album (white dead nettle)

I am cooking more from scratch again, which is wonderful.  We are making plenty of delicious food.  I'm not missing or skipping sabbath desserts, which has happened a lot over the past two years because of our insane schedules.

Carrot cake

We are all really enjoying the break from the stress-inducing society.

We finished reading Wildfire:

A memory popped up in my Facebook memories of Carissa, Jaden, and I going on a night walk that day last year.  I asked the kids whether they wanted to go on a night walk, since it'd been a good while.  Though it was rainy and too wet to go that night, we ended up going the next night.  We all are making the best of this.  We really miss family members and worry about some of them.  I miss my Jaden William terribly.  But we are enjoying our time, too.  I had worked myself sick.  I've worked so hard that this all has, in some ways, been very therapeutic for me.  

Stay tuned to find out what we did during the first week of April.

Until next time...