stories and crafting: go

One of my favorite things about this time of year are the stretches of time where hands are busy making something beautiful or whimsical and totally unique, and the mind is caught up in a story.  We are lucky that Dan is an actor and a vocalist and is the best reader of stories a person could hope for (with one exception: I will forever hear the Uncle Remus stories in my grandfather's husky voice, which to me is just as they should sound).

There is an hour or so just before bed when we gather in a bedroom or, if I'm lucky, in the living room to listen to Dan read.  Currently it's the sequel to Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransom, called Swallowdale.  While he reads the girls draw or make cards, and I sew or felt lanterns (yes, still).  It is absolutely my favorite part of the day.

We also love audio books; right now we are close to finishing the story of Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, and really enjoyed The Higher Power of Lucky, which got us all the way to Richmond and back over Thanksgiving (listening to it twice!).  

Ani received a subscription for her birthday in May, to Sparkle Stories, and we look forward to the new story in the series By Thistle By Thimble every Friday.  They are original stories expertly told (a subscription would make a great last-minute gift!).

My own crafting time, late in the evening, is made even sweeter with This American Life podcasts, or a recent recommendation from Kelly at We Are Here: a BBC production of History of the World Through 100 objects.  It is an indulgent gift I don't think to give myself at other times of the year.  Dan watches me making like a mad woman and shakes his head at the last-minute fury, but the stories make it all so much more satisfying...

Do you listen to anything while you work with your hands? Any good podcasts or stories to recommend?

doings this week

 Bird inspiration continued into the week, with a few books from the library (The Boy Who Drew Birds: The story of John James Audubon) and some pen and watercolor art.

Ani's Owl

Eliza's Crow

We embarked on another art project about birds - we'll have to share the whole process when we've got them finished...

We read a lot this week, finishing the third in our series by Monica Furlong (love!), and Ani read through several Amelia Bedelia stories all on her own. She and the author, Peggy Parish, share a great love of words and word play.  Ani was wondering today why the earliest people who used language thought to come up with so many words that rhyme...ah, good question. My answer? 'Cause it was FUN!

We had time with friends this week - at Homeschool Marching Choir and at the park after (it was nearly 60 degrees out) - and at home, making masks...we visited friends on the farm and had friends over to play cards and watch "Groundhog's Day". Much silliness.

Eliza spent time working on her typing, on BBC's Dance Mat Typing.  We also watched a few more Muzzy in French videos on YouTube (wish our library had these! they're awesome!).  Also listened to a charming fellow teach us french greetings (enchante!) on JeFrench.

More stories - these from Story of the World, which we have on CD - Jim Weiss talking about the early humans...

Lots of piano playing by Eliza - her teacher has skipped her ahead a book because things are just clicking! It's so fantastic to watch her enjoy playing so much.  She's feeling really good about it and is picking things up quickly. 

Ani and I played a lot of race to one hundred - basically, using our math manipulatives from MathUSee, we try to fill in the 10-spot lines of a one-hundred block, using cards to guide us. Trick is that you have to fill in one row before beginning another, so her understand of what makes 10 is really solid!! I thought about making her a little cheat sheet, but she showed me right away that she doesn't need it, adding or subtracting. And she loves the game.

Making  cheesy crackers like these (recipe in the comments) has been on our list of things to do for a couple of weeks now, so we finally got to it on Friday - YUM. Highly recommend them, especially if you have a helper as diligent and enthusiastic as I did.

And then...Friday afternoon...the act of courage for the week. Eliza cut her own hair.  Now, I know what you're thinking - "what kind of mother lets her 9 year old cut her own hair?" - but really, I thought it was ok. We talked about it for a while - she's been toying with it going really short for a few weeks, and I finally said that as long as she felt good about going really short if it didn't work out as she had planned, then I was ok with it!

In the backyard, getting ready!

I've always wished I had the courage to cut my own hair. I don't. But I could see how awesome this made her feel...

YEAH!

Go!!!

Let me read her lips for you.  "I'm cuuuuute!"

Mmmmhmmm. Girl, you are cute.

"Mom, did I just invent a new hairstyle? Short in the front, but still long in the back? I really like it!"

Darlin', you are beautiful. Inside and out.

Sisters lookin' in the mirror

And yes, she still loves it, for so many reasons. I offered to even it out a bit, but she said that for right now she'd like for it to be the haircut she gave herself all by herself when she was nine. All right, then!

Shooo! So, that was a wild and crazy near-end to the week, but let's see...there were also many cardboard cups made and used, thanks to the demonstration at our salon...there was a first-time putting together a large puzzle all by herself, which was definitely exciting.

So much of that around here these days. It's all I can do to keep up!

Friday night family movie night (The Phantom Menace), and OH!! Gracious! I almost forgot, after our busy wonderful weekend - our week started with STOMP! YES!! It was AWESOME!!! Eliza spent quite a bit of time the following day looking up information on auditions...gotta be between 18 and 35, so there's a bit of time to prepare yet...

Story Lanterns from Alphabet Glue

We were the winners this week of the latest issue of Alphabet Glue, the literary-based activity-packed online magazine that Annie of Bird and Little Bird has created.  This was all thanks to a give-away by Lisa of Earth Mama, and it is lovely!!!  We had a go at what Annie calls Story Lanterns this week; in our house they became more something like Life-Cycle Story Lanterns, and are destined to become gifts later this summer...

We had little pieces of paper already cut, three of which fit inside the ball jars we had in our cupboard, ready for a project (or kimchi, or salsa, or pickled beans, or...).  I suggested that the girls map out their stories, like a storyboard.

It was all about the life cycles...birds, plants, trees, deer...

Eliza decided to add some texture to her drawings by using some cut up origami paper.

Neither of them decided to write accompanying stories for their drawings, but many of Ani's pieces were labeled for clarity.

I think they're beautiful!! We've often made lanterns around the winter solstice, using tissue paper, but I love these stories in pictures.

For more easy projects (detective kits! accordian books! storystarting jars!), check out Alphabet Glue for yourself!

Just in case there are not enough links in this post, we are also participating in Saturday's Artist over at Ordinary Life Magic, so head over there for some Create! inspiration...

March: when...then...

When pussy willows emerge all the way, that is a sign that maple syrup time is just about over for the year and that red-winged blackbirds have started to stake out their territories.
When maples flower and woodchucks dig up the hillsides, then ducks are scouting for nesting sites and onion sets can be tucked into the garden soil.
When coltsfoot buds in the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, azaleas are past their prime in Georgia.
When you see aspens in bloom in the Rocky Mountains, watch out for grizzly bears emerging from hibernation.
When bleeding hearts are an inch tall, then look for purple cress blooming in the bottomlands.
When you see bumblebees and carpenter bees working in the flowers, then you know it’s time for termites to swarm.
Cabbage butterflies in your back yard announce that bass and sunfish are moving to spawn in shallow waters.
When you see golden forsythia flowering, then you know that middle spring has come to your township, and that the first major wave of wildflowers – the trilliums and bloodroots and Dutchman’s britches and more – will be in bloom throughout the woods.
When the rhubarb is up a few inches, then you know the daffodils are blooming and maples are coming in.
When raspberry and rose bushes are developing fresh leaves and wild onions are getting lanky, then bald eagle chicks are hatching and peregrine falcons lay their eggs.
When box elders bloom and pussy willow catkins get their pollen, watch out for the first mosquitoes to bite.
When magnolias are blooming in the Ohio valley, then Sandhill cranes are migrating in the Rocky Mountains.
When the mourning cloaks, the question marks, the tortoise shells and the cabbage butterflies come out, catfish are feeding and goldfinches are turning gold.
When you see the first monarch butterflies in your garden, and the iris start to bud, that’s the time to go out to the fields looking for armyworms, slugs, corn borers, flea beetles and leafhoppers.
When you hear the robin chorus an hour or so before dawn, then, when the sun comes out, look for green-bottle flies and garter snakes.

phenology from Poor Will's Almanack for 2011