Pepper Paints

Oops I Forgot To Mention…..

I was talking about my butt over here the other day and forgot to tell you!

I have been informed by my son that in six months and fourteen days he will have his temps. Who the hell let’s kids drive at 15 1/2? That seems crazy to me now that it is only a few months away. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he was in that little bike seat behind me or learning to ride his two wheeler?

Well that part wasn’t about my cushion–thought I would save that for only those that are really interested! So if you’re a pervert and  want to read about my ass I guess you will have to click over to The Ohio Moms Blog.

Saying Yes More Often Pays Off

I am blogging over at Ohio Moms Blog today

My post is about saying Yes to my kids more often. Below is a snipit from the post

……..As my kids and family size grew so did my impatience! “No” had become my knee jerk answer.  “Can I ……NO!”   “Will you….NO!” I started sounding much like a toddler with a new and powerful word and I imagine it was really irritating for my kids! Soon my predictable yet arbitrary NO had lost its power.

I think I am going to write more about this soon. Saying yes is just the begining, the start of so many possibilities.

I Am Somewhere Else Today

Today I am blogging at Ohio Moms Blog

Relating all of our adolescent antics and high school foolery in and around the Cleveland area made me a little sad that my kids were not going to experience some of these same stomping grounds. I love when our neighbors here in Clintonville tell tales of when they were kids; the local schools they attended; Whetstone, Watterson, IC. Or when they recreate our street into farmland and our house into “The Doctors” house.

Bleh..

It’s another dull, gray day here in Columbus, Ohio. Almost everyone I have talked to around here in the past few days is ready for some sunshine and Spring weather but according to the calender we have several more weeks of this doom and gloom to contend with. This morning after an additional cup of coffee, I noticed at about 9am that it wasn’t much lighter than at 7am and I was figuring out how many hours until bedtime. I was planning to either sit on the computer all day or take a nap . Then the sun peaked out for a minute and I decided to bundle up and head outside with my camera to at least get some fresh air in hopes that it would wake me up. I only got a couple of shots worthy of posting but a little exercise and fresh air certainly helped get us through the day.

I bet he is wishing for Spring too!

I bet someone is missing this but probably better that they don’t find it now

a little evidence of life

like a crook of an arm or leg

Other than this I’ve got nothing. Not feeling too crafty or too motivated these days. Just feeling like hibernating and drinking tea and eating oranges. So that’s what I plan on doing!

Happy, Sunshine Days

Ahhh, finally we are all  feeling better. We are going to have another week of beautiful, sunny weather and my house is clean. Life is good!! That glorious orange ball in the sky makes all the difference around here. Our winters really are filled with gray here in Central Ohio so every time the sun peeks out we tend to run out and bask in it. Trying to pocket as much as we can to get us through until Spring!

I was lucky enough to attend two gatherings of women artists this weekend. They helped me to re-visit some goals I have– which is really to get my camera out of the bag for more than just photos of my kids. I so often see things that I would love to photograph….but if my camera is at home in the bag…well, than it’s at home in the bag.

Ooooop kids are up and calling………….

Galileoscopes

Did you know that 2009 is The International Year Of Astronomy? Well it is!!

In honor of that, the IYA is offering these high quality, low cost telescope kits. One of our local homeschool groups ordered a bulk quantity of these at a  lower shipping rate that we were able to take advantage of.

We finally put ours together the other night…(in anticipation of some great star gazing on our trip to a remote island in a few weeks-more on that later!).

My husband showing Jake which direction to assemble one of the many pieces!

The kit comes with three different magnifications. And don’t be surprised when you look through your eye piece and everything is upside down! The FAQ tab explains the reason why!

I would love to say that we went out side and saw the rings of Saturn with these babies…but no. It has been cloudy for days here in Central Ohio,  so my kids have been using them to see what our neighbors are having for dinner.  But they seem to be working really well!

Jake used the kit directions while we used the following “on-line” directions.
https://www.galileoscope.org/gs/sites/galileoscope.org.gs/files/Galileoscope-Instructions-20090710rtf.pdf

http://unawe.org/joomla/images/materials/instruments/galileoscope.pdf This one is just pictures, but good ones!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iByPaAG0U This is from You Tube

I felt so much better after hearing on the You Tube video that the model Galileoscope has been assembled and disassembled over 250 times and dropped several times and yet it still works! That means, destructo Ginger’s telescope may actually still be working by the time we go on our trip! She literally dropped and banged the thing 20 times during assembly!

Watermelon Slushie

This is sooooo easy and sooooo tasty.  Especially now that summer weather has finally hit central Ohio….the heat, the humidity!Uggh

My kids always seem to pick the biggest watermelons out of the bin and then I have to be strategic about when I cut them so the left over part fits back into the fridge! An easy solution-chunk it up and freeze it!

We took the frozen chunks and put them in the VITA-MIX with just enough water to slush the chunks around.

The slushies made a perfectly cool and healthy treat!