To Wisconsin!

We're (as my Dad, brothers, and me: My Mom is staying home this time) heading up North today: Up to Janesville, probably until Tuesday or Wednesday. It will, of course, be fun. Going to Wisconsin (and especially Janesville) always is.
My Dad is helping the Muetzes with some handy work, I don't know what all he's doing, but I do know he'll be helping trim some trees!
I'm taking some of my sewing with in hopes that I can get some of it done. I have no idea how likely it is that I will, but I'll have it just in case!


Well, I better go pack!

Chicken Smuggling

Tonight, during dinner, Jeremy and Luke decided to discuss if I would ever break a law or not, and if so, what would it be?
They decided there were two possibilities, unfortunately I can't remember the second one, but the other one was funnier anyway.

Apparently, if I ever broke a law, it would be because I would be smuggling chickens into a city apartment.
Luke says I would put them in a box when I move in, and if they started squawking I would tell the landlord that it was really my dog barking.

Turkey Love

This is actually from a few weeks ago, but I just remembered it and thought I would share.

Luke and my Dad were outside by the chicken/turkey yard when someone drove past and yelled "I love you turkey!".
Isn't that funny? Some guy just drives by and randomly talks to our turkey. I find it awfully amusing!

Creative Spelling?

So, I just read where someone spelled "appreciate" as "apreshyate". I've never seen such a horrendously botched up spelling of that word. That's pretty special.
Note: This is not the same person as in my previous post. This person isn't even a homeschooled student: She goes to a public school. Therefore this rant is in no way related to the previous one. That being said, I feel the need to also mention that I am not picking on public schoolers, just this one particular person's creative way of spelling things.

Embarrassing Homeschoolers

Homeschooling, while good, is not for everyone. It's been an excellent choice for us, but there are certainly some people that should not homeschool. I know of people who are homeschooling, want to homeschool, or have homeschooled, and I firmly believe that they should not be/have been homeschooled.
There's some homeschooled students that are just down right embarrassing to the rest of us homeschoolers.
There's a girl on my Facebook, she's a little younger than me: 15, I believe. And she is an embarrassment to homeschooling. First of all, she can't capitalize, spell, use punctuation or grammar, make a coherent sentence or make a logical argument. I like her, she's very sweet, but she is definitely one homeschooler who gives others a bad name. I cringe to read what she writes.
Today she was posting about the health care bill. I know she doesn't know anything about it, and I know I don't know anything about it, but at least I have the sense to not go around arguing about it. I think people look a whole smarter if they only stick to arguing subjects that they are knowledgeable in. Talk about something you're clueless about and you're going to look awfully silly.
Today this girl was talking about what an outrage the health care bill is and she was saying we ought to start another civil war over it. She went on to say that the bill is breaking her heart, and she thinks Christ needs to hurry up and come back because she doesn't think Christians should have to suffer so much. Really? I think she needs to pick up a copy of Foxes Book of Martyrs.

Why, oh why do those homeschoolers not see they're giving the rest a bad name? And why do people have to meet with just one homeschooler like that and then decide the rest must be that way too?
As Jeremy would say: Blargh.

So Annoying!

You know what really, really annoys me?
People (mostly middle/high school girls) who add extra letters into whatever they're writing!
A girl on my friends list on Facebook ALWAYS does this. She writes "good" as "goooood" or "bed" as "Beddd", and "text" always has at least tree Xs in it, so "texxxt". It's so obnoxious!
I understand the occasional typo, I'm sure I have plenty of typos. But to consistently add extra letters? It's senseless. It certainly doesn't make them look any smarter or cooler, so what's the deal? Why would you do that?
It's definitely one of my pet peeves.

Spring

Here it is, the first day of Spring. You know what the weather's like right now? It's cold, about 35, and snowing!
The past few days have been absolutely amazingly awesome (Oh look, alliteration!) weather-wise. In the 60s and sunny. My Aunt Kathy says it got up to 70 yesterday! the highest I saw the thermometer at was 66, but I would totally be up was up to 70.
And now, the first day of Spring has to come and tease us by being cold and snowy. It's as if it wants to remind us that Spring can still have snow storms.
Thanks Spring, but I don't need your reminder.
*sigh*
And the highest temperature I see for the rest of this week is 51. What a shame.

Countries of the World

How many world countries can you name? I can name 114 out of 195. I'm hoping to improve using Sporcle's "Can you name the Countries of the World?".
If anyone cares which I can name (and spell! Jeez, some of those are difficult!)...

Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Bangladesh
Barbados
Bhutan
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Canada
Cape Verde
Cen. Afr. Rep.
Chad
China
Comoros
Dem. Rep. of the Congo
Rep of the Congo
Costa Rica
Cyprus
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guinea
Haiti
Honduras
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
North Korea
South Korea
Kosovo
Laos
Lesotho
Lithuania
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mexico
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Norway
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
St. Vincent-Grenadines
Samoa
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Slovenia
Somalia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vatican City
Vietnam
Zambia
Zimbabwe

It's a Beautiful Day!

Today is such a nice day! It's currently 66. We have all of our windows and our back door open. The dogs love when the back door is open, they can just go in and out as they please.
And it's nice to air out the house. Houses get a stale smell when windows are closed for months. It's so nice to have had them open all day so far!
I should have hung some laundry out on the clothes line. I love how fresh laundry smells that way!
Ah well, maybe another day. Certainly not tomorrow: the high is in the low to mid 40s with a chance of snow. Lovely.
It's kind of sad to have a dreary day coming up tomorrow, but at least we have something to look forward to: Emily Nee from Bristol is coming to have us go through some of her unwanted fabric. She has some prints and things that might be good for some of the dresses I plan to make, and she says she has some wool too. I'm very excited to look through it all! I'll have to bake her something as a thank you.

Days are too short...

I decided that days are much too short. I can never get everything done that I want to get done.
I just found a link for a thing where you can type in how many hours you spend on things, and it tells you how much of your day you're using. If I did everything I wanted to do in a day (including sleeping) I'd have -12 hours left in each day. Therefore, I think we should add 12 hours to each day: We should have 36 hour days.

There's No Such Thing as Too Many Books

I don't think a person can have too many books; not in the way you can watch too many TV shows or eat too much junk food or have too many clothes or anything like that.
You can't read too much (well, you can read too much when you're supposed to be doing something else, but in your lifetime you'll never finish everything you think worth reading), so you can't have too many books (so long as they're educational or have some value to you). But you can have too many books to fit in your designated book space. So, it's not too many books if it's worth it to you; it's just too many to fit in that area.
I seem to be running out of book space. I was trying to put away a box of books from the book swap that I was at a few weekends ago, but my shelves are filled to capacity. Oy.
I don't have too many books; just a lack of space.
I think I need to put some into storage....

Chocolate Custard Meringue Pie

I realized that today is Pi Day (3.14-March 14) and I should have made a Pi Pie.
I saw this pie last year, and wanted to make something similar.
Unfortunately, I forgot all about Pi Day until I saw someone post on Facebook about how they had forgotten to make a Pi Pie.
I realized that I had too, but there was still time to make some sort of pie, just not a Pi Pie (I didn't have the right stuff). So, I combined a couple of recipes and came up with this pie (Jeremy and Luke loved it)

For the crust you'll have to bake chocolate cookies:
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 TSP vanilla
2 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 TSP baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl beat together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.
In a separate bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into butter mix.
(At this point you can add 2 cups of chocolate chips if you want cookies: omit the chips for a pie crust). Put cookies on ungreased cookie sheet and bake 12 minutes (for just cookies, 8-10 minutes. Pie crust needs longer).

Once you have cookies, crush them until you have 2 cups worth of crumbs. Melt 7 TBS butter and stir into the crumbs. Press the crumbs into a pie plate and chill.

For the custard:
1 cup sugar
2 TBS coca
2 TBS flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs separated
1 cup milk
1 TBS butter
1 TSP vanilla

In a large saucepan combine sugar, cocoa, flour, and salt. Mix well. Stir in egg yolks and milk, whisk all ingredients, cook over medium heat until the mix forms a pudding consistency. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla. Pour into pie crust.

For the meringue, whisk 2 egg whites until foamy. Slowly add in 1/4 cup white sugar. Beat until white forms stiff peaks, spread over custard, and bake at 400 for 5-6 minutes.

This pie can be served warm or chilled.
It's really yummy!

More About Sewing...What a Surprise!

I didn't expect to be able to go to Hobby Lobby until next Thursday, but my Dad kindly offered to take me today! I bought the fabric that I needed, and I also picked up some embroidery floss. I'm going to teach Jeremy how to make his own buttons and eyelets for his garb.
The fabric for my dress is currently in the washer. My Mom is sewing right now, so the table is unavailable, but once it is I may cut out the fabric for my bodice. Or, I might start on Jeremy's garb. I'll cut out a mock-up in a cheaper cotton before cutting into the wool, but if it ends up fitting well I'll go ahead and finish the mock-up and then Jeremy will have two sets of garb.
Unfortunately, before I can cut out my bodice or any of his garb, I have to draft the patterns. Before I can draft the pattern I have to take a piece of poster board (one of my Dad's customers was throwing away a LOT of white poster board, and it was in perfect condition! But my Dad asked if he could have it) and make drafting paper. This involves using a yard stick and drawing 1" grid. It's very tedious, I really hate doing it, but I also hate paying $25 for 100 pieces of drafting paper.
I may get Jeremy to draw out some of the drafting paper...

Tea

We have sooo much tea! Way too much tea. No one is ever going to drink that much tea; it's insane!
There's a few teas that I drink regularly (English tea, chai tea, constant comment, etc), but we have so many others! We have things like: Raspberry Gardens, True Blueberry, Mandarin Orange Spice, Pumpkin Spice, Country Peach Passion, Vanilla Caramel, Nutcracker Suite (which was a holiday special and was actually pretty good), and so many more. I really don't care much for the fruity teas. I like good tea-ish tea, like English tea. The fruit flavored teas can be okay once in a while, but not often. So, I've made it my goal to drink some of our excess tea before I buy more of my regular tea. I've had one cup of tea each day so far, for about 4ish days. If I decide a tea is completely awful I'll just throw it away, but even so it will take a while to visibly shrink our over-abundant supply of tea.

So...does anyone want to come drink tea?

Weather

I'm so glad the weather has warmed up. It may have been cloudy and rainy the past two days, but at least the temperature is warmer; it's so nice not having to wear a coat! And the chickens have been very happy, too. Each time I go out I see them having a blast in their yard. A lot of the grass is surprisingly green already, so the chickies enjoy that and it saves us money on chicken food.
For the past week, every morning I've gone out, there's been a little frog (sometimes lots of little frogs) who jumps in the little pool in the chicken yard. And I saw fish in it this morning! I doubt they were there all Winter; my Aunt must have bought them yesterday.
Right now it's about 48 out, with a high of 52. I can't wait until the weather is in the 60s and sunny; I'll be able to open my window! And even hang some laundry outside to dry. I love the way laundry smells when it can dry outdoors! It's so pleasant.

Jeremy is Amazing!

Jeremy just completely amazed me.
He wants two sets of garb, and he would even be willing to learn to sew so that he could make a set himself!
It's simply astounding.

Oops!

So, I accidentally (actually, saying accidentally is fairly pointless; it isn't as if I would have done this on purpose) messed up on the dress I'm working on (the pattern I bought yesterday; there's a picture in the previous post). I failed to notice where the pattern instructions said it was only for dress A, and I'm making dress B. So, I was able to salvage some piece, but I'll need to get a little more fabric. I could have gone ahead and made dress A, but I really didn't want the sleeveless dress. I like the dress with the short sleeves so much more than the dress with straps. I might make the dress with straps some other time, but I really, really wanted this fabric for the one with short sleeves. I probably won't be able to go back to Bourbonnais and Hobby Lobby until Thursday, though. So until then dress making is done.
I did, however, manage to finish cartridge pleating my garb skirt, and I even got it sewn to the waistband. My fingers currently feel like pin cushions, but it was worth it. Now I just need to hem the skirt, but I'm going to wait on that for a little while; I have to decide what I'll be wearing under the skirt before hemming it.
Since I don't have a dress to work on anymore, I'll go ahead and start on my bodice. I'll draft the pattern and get it cut out tomorrow. It's getting to late to start that tonight.

Yard Mart

My uncle's church has an annual sale that they call "Yard Mart". It's normally a really good sale. It lasts 3 days (but you want to get there early on the first day if you want anything worthwhile), and has amazing prices. Last year I got a brand new Christopher & Banks skirt for 50 cents (normally $50), and brand new $99 boots for $1.00, and many other great deals. Jeremy got a suit for $2 (it's the suit he wears for his Billy Smith videos), we got some books, baking dishes, LOTS of stuff, and only spent $15. I was really looking forward to it this year, but it was terrible . Besides not having much stuff, lots of things were way over-priced. And my Mom and I got totally beat up there! I was looking through the clothes rack and people were shoving me out of the way and grabbing things out of my hand. People were ramming into people, some old man bumped into my Mom and turned around and said "Well I hate you too!". Isn't that crazy? And I saw some lady throw a doll at another lady's head. Seriously! I don't think the lady meant to throw the doll at her head, but why was she throwing a doll in such an incredibly crowded place? Dumb plan!
The only thing I found was a corduroy skirt and a recipe book. My Mom found a Saxon physics curriculum. Luke might use it, or we might sell it. She also found a couple other little things, but it really wasn't worth it. We left very disappointed.

After Yard Mart we went to Joanns, where we had terrible service. I wanted to get fabric swatches to send to a friend for her approval (she wants me to make her garb this year), and when I asked for them the lady working there told me that she could only give me a 2" swatch and that it would cost. I asked her how much it would be, but she wouldn't answer me. She wouldn't even check to see how much it would cost! So I went and got my Mom and she came over (which made the employee roll her eyes at me; how rude!) and asked for the price. The lady made a big production about having to check the prices. It ended up being 6 cents a swatch. Why couldn't she have told me that it would be under a quarter? I was concerned that they would want to charge for the smallest amount of fabric they normally cut (1/8 yards). She just didn't want to work with me because I'm not an adult. I can't stand people like that. Seriously, it's dumb. What's the person's problem? They'd save time by dealing with the kid rather than refusing to help them and waiting until a parent comes. It's so annoying.
I think I quit with Joanns; I get terrible service whenever I go there!
I'll be going to Hobby Lobby from now on. In fact, I'll be going to Hobby Lobby's website soon to sign up for their coupons.

We did go to Hobby Lobby today, after I got disgusted with Joanns, and I found another really cute pattern and fabric to go with it.
I think I'm becoming addicted to patterns and fabrics and sewing...

I like the dress in the main picture.

Facebook Issues

When I first signed up for Facebook you had to either be 18 to use it, or list your highschool. They didn't have homeschooled as an option, so I just said that I was 18 and hid my birth year on my info section.
Facebook finally added a homeschool option, so I requested they change my birth year to 1993. They did so, but they messed up my actual birth date in the process. I noticed that my birthday said July 7th, 1993. That is not my birthday! Thanks, Facebook. That's brilliant.
Now it's been another few weeks since I requested they set it back to July 31st and they still haven't fixed it. I found a survey in my email from the original change request; it was asking questions about how timely the service was, if they had resolved my problem, etc. I told them that they took too long, got it wrong, and they're taking too long to fix it.
This is so annoying! If I was over 18 it would let me change my birthday back to July 31st, but since it's now at least to the correct year, I can't change the day. But really, that's silly. It's not like 18 year olds have randomly changing birthdays. Weird.
I hope they fix it soon.

Allergies

I've been experience terribly, horrendously itchy ear the past few days, and before that I had had mild pain in my ears. Actually, the mild pain had been a few weeks ago, but it seemed to go away after we treated it at home. In the past week the itching started, and the past few nights it was so bad I couldn't sleep. The itching seems all through my ears into my throat, but it's particularly bad in the left ear. On the left side of my throat there's been a white spot (we were worried it was strep at first, but it never changed and hardly even hurt), so we wondered if that was connected to my ears. My left ear started stinging a little bit too, along with the itching, so we decided it was time to go to the doctor.
After asking lots of questions and checking things out, the NP told me that I have allergies. The reason it's affecting me the way it is due to a cold I had not too long ago. Apparently there's liquid stuck in my eustachion tubes, that came from having a cold, and the allergies are making it trapped in there. The spot on my throat seems to be completely unrelated; it's just some viral thing in my tonsils.

The NP did ask if we have any pets, and I said that yes, we have dogs. She asked if any of them ever go into my room, and I told her that my puppy always sleeps in my bed at night. So, that could be a slight contributing factor, therefore I need to be sure to keep my room dusted and swept.

But on the upside, today had fantastic weather! I'm getting excited for spring! My bedroom window is currently open, letting in some of the nice, fresh 64 degree air.

I Want These Patterns!

I found these dresses online and I think they're really cute, but I don't want to pay $99 for them, so I want to watch for similar patterns and make the dresses myself.

Yum?

          I just watched Luke make himself a very interesting dinner. I think it looks disgusting, but he's quite proud of it.
He took a cereal bowl and crumbled  a few slices of white and wheat bread into it, he then drizzled honey all over his  bread crumbs. After that he spooned globs of strawberry and grape jelly onto the bread, added some peanut butter, squirted in a few drops of lemon juice, and stirred it all up.
He claims that there's another ingredient that I don't know about. He says he'll never tell me what it is because he doesn't want me to tell other people.

The Story of Scholorpo

I was going through some old documents on WordPad and came across a story I wrote in 2007.
It was for Kids Kingdom, and it had to have the word "shlorpo" in it.

As I was reading it today I edited some of the misspellings, but other than that it's exactly how it was when I first wrote it.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away there lived a Prince named Edgar.

Edgar hated being a prince, he found that it was tedious! He hated his duties as a prince, and he hated his school work.

One day, when he felt particularly hateful about being a prince, he took a walk into the woods.

He walked and he walked and he walked. He walked across a tree that had fallen across a creek and he walked through a meadow. At the other side of the meadow he realized how tired he was, he looked around and decided upon a little patch of soft grass. He went over to lie down and take a rest.

He immediately fell asleep.

After a while he woke up to his stomach growling.

"Oh, I'm so hungry" He said as he looked around.

He spotted a berry bush and walked over to get some berries.

As he was picking berries he saw sparkles coming from inside the bush. Wondering what it could possibly be, he parted the branches and looked inside the bush, He saw a lamp sitting on the ground.

"I've heard stories about lamps. Maybe it’s a magic lamp!"

Edgar reached down and picked up the lamp, he very gently rubbed it.

A crescendo of purple smoke came out of the lamp. Edgar looked around in alarm.

"For releasing me from the lamp, you get three wishes" said a deep voice.

Edgar's alarm turned to instant happiness.

"Can they be anything I want?"

"Yeah sure, just have to follow a few rules, No wishing for more wishes, no wishing to rule the world, no wishing for pickles-"

"Pickles?" Said Edgar in confusion.

"Long story, won’t go into it right now. No wishing for your parents to let you eat all the junk food you want, otherwise the tooth fairy will come after me"

"I wish I knew your name" said Edgar, not at all meaning that he wanted to use his wish on that.

"Schlorpo is my name, and you now have only two wishes left to make"

"Oh no! That was so stupid of me! I can’t believe I did that!"

"Yeah well, hurry up and make your last 2 wishes, I have a meeting with some Djinn in India that I have to get to"

"I wish I was smarter! I’m so stupid!" moaned Edgar.

Schlorpo looked at Edgar and shook his head, "tsk tsk tsk. You only have one wish left"

Edgar opened and closed his mouth repeatedly as if he were going to say something, but nothing came out.

Edgar then picked up a stick and wrote in the dirt "I will not talk aloud until I know what I want my last wish to be."

"Very well, Edgar, just hurry it up."

Edgar looked thoughtful for a moment. "I wish I was no longer a Prince"

Schlorpo looked at Edgar, "You should learn to be more specific with your wishes."

Suddenly Edgar found himself as a tree.

"What did you do that for?" He said indignantly.

"You said you wished you were no longer a prince, you did not specify what you wanted to be. I made you into a tree"

"No fair!" yelled Edgar.

"Edgar, always be careful what you wish for, as you have learned, a wish is dangerous. You may wish for something, and once you have it realize that it’s not really what you wanted, but it may be too late to change it.

"I will turn you back into a prince, but remember that not all wishes can be revoked"

With that Schlorpo turned Edgar back into a prince, and from that day on Edgar was always happy to be a Prince, and when he grew up and was King, and his young Prince hated the Princely duties, Edgar told him the story of Schlorpo.

Garb

So, now that I'm mostly done with my wool skirt, I decided to start over.
I decided it was too big (because the wool is thicker than anything else I've worked it, so I didn't take that into consideration at first), so I'm taking out one of the skirt panels.
And the fabric was much wider than the website said; it said it was 60", it's really close to 67". That makes a huge difference!

I'm glad I started this garb long before I needed it. Now I don't feel at all upset about having to change things; I have more than enough time!

A Page Off My Mom's Blog...

My Mom shared this very funny post with me (it's a few years old), and I thought it was funny enough to post here:

Sometimes you meet a homeschooler that is absolutely convinced that their very average child is an absolute genius.
I met one the other day and just wanted to slap the woman into reality. I have met their average 8 year old child several times.
She's normal, a bit spastic, fun, and pretty much right on target for her age group.
Mom brags "she can READ!". Umm yeah. I hope so. "She can say her multiplication tables up to TEN!" well, good for her.
Then she goes on to explain the child's imagination. She can entertain herself for HOURS with a box of Legos.
This woman is convinced she is homeschooling because her child's genius cannot be trusted to anyone else. ::eyeroll:: Don't get me wrong, the girl is doing very well being home educated. But she's NOT an advanced student. She's a cute kid that mom could brag on WITHOUT trying to make her seem special. In my eyes that makes it look like she's not confident and trying to convince us that she's doing a great job.. and it has the opposite effect. In other words.. since she brags about her times tables, I'm guessing the kid struggled with them. I dunno.

Now that I mention this.. I am so embarrassed to admit this to all of you moms with uber children, but Luke IS struggling with the fine motor skills required in the advance neurosurgery class he is taking.
But after all, we could only get him into advanced molecular nuclear astrophysics last year, so it is no wonder his human genome theory phd is at risk.

I cringe that he is so sub standard!
We avoid any co-op right now so as to not have him faced with his own poor self esteem... perhaps we will show our faces again after he finishes that water powered automobile engine he has been building with Tinkertoys and Legos.
It was a childish whim, but we allowed it.


Comments:
Tiredmama wrote:

Apr. 29th, 2008 11:43 am (local)

You are so brave to admit this here. I'm really shocked that you allowed Luke to lower himself to working with legos and tinkertoys for the water powered automobile. If he continues to struggle, we have found that Kinex work a bit better than the tinker toys. I will weep with and for you that he's unable to keep up with advanced neurosurgery. Maybe he can be held back and relearn the basics this year. Again, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this blow to his self esteem and to your ability as a teacher. I'll pray for you. It sounds like you really need it.

Laurajg wrote:

Apr. 29th, 2008 02:19 pm (local)

Oh goodness.. he would be soo upset if he had to start all the way back at String Theory and I don't know that Steven Hawkings is still teaching it...

Quotes

"Non scholae sed vitae discimus." (We learn, not for school, but for life.)

"Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est." (Knowledge Itself Is Power.)

Optimus magister bonus liber: (the best teacher is a good book.)

These are quotes that my Mom sent me in emails. I'm currently trying to clean out my inbox (having 1,000+ unread emails is just too much), so I decided to post the quotes here so I can delete the emails.

Stilt Walking

     Since the temperature was about 50ish I decided it was time to try some stilt walking again. I convinced Jeremy to come out with me (I'm not allowed to unicycle or stilt walk alone. Apparently it's dangerous...). He grabbed a ladder and I grabbed my stilts and we headed out to the driveway.
I use the ladder to get on the stilts, and I keep one foot on the ladder until I'm ready to step off. I have to make sure my first foot is centered on the stilt just right and try to focus on my center of balance. Once I feel ready I move my second foot (always my left foot) onto the other stilt. I only have that one chance to make sure my foot is on the stilt correctly; if I put my foot on wrong there's no way to adjust it, I just have to fall. I'm sure I'll be able to adjust it as my balance gets better, it's just difficult now.
I think what makes it hard (besides the whole balance and gravity thing) is that I can't step with just my foot, I have to coordinate my arm to lift the stilt as I take a step. There's been several times where I've done that wrong and end up with my foot coming off the stilt (which usually results in a fall). I could put straps on for my feet, but then if I fell I wouldn't be able to land on my feet. I suppose the straps could go over the top of my feet and therefore my feet could easily slide out, but I don't want to risk it just yet.
And falling hurts! I always land on my feet, but falling from a couple of feet in the air onto the hard driveway is pretty painful to my feet. I think I need shock absorbers!

So, my best for today was probably about 4 or 5 steps. I might try again tomorrow, but there's a chance of rain, so we'll see.

Baking! Sewing!

I started working on my green wool garb. I thought it might be nice to get a head start on it. Last year I was unable to finish my garb until midnight the night before the Janesville faire. And for my new garb for Stronghold I didn't finish it until the morning of the faire. I'd like to avoid that this time!
So far I've cut out the skirt panels, sewn them together, sewed the edges on the front opening of the skirt, and started cartridge pleating. Cartridge pleating is easy, just time consuming. Especially when you mess it up multiple times, like I did. First, I started on the wrong end of the skirt. Oops! So I pulled out those stitches and put them where they should go. I finally got to the end of the row of stitches (the stitches are 1" apart on a 180" across skirt), and as I was tying it off a very sad thing happened... Apparently the knot on the other end of the skirt was not big enough, and half my stitches came undone. It was very, very sad. I did eventually finish the first row of stitches, but it was very frustrating! Now I need to do a second row of stitches just under that row. That row of stitches should be easier; I can just use the first row of stitches as a guide. On the first row I had to hold a tape measure while I was stitching to insure that each stitch was 1".
After I finish all of those rows of stitching I can finally put the skirt on the waistband.

As for baking...I made a loaf of whole wheat bread last night. It came out a little bit dry, though. I think there was a little too much flour, so I'll cut back on it next time. Other than that it was very nice. I took a picture before it was baked, but I forgot to take a picture of it once it had been baked.
Tonight I made oatmeal cookies. About two dozen are just plain oatmeal cookies, and another two dozen have walnuts.
Since we're going to be low on bread (because I made one loaf instead of two) I'll probably make white bread tomorrow. I might make a double batch (that will be 4 loaves) and freeze some.

Now I'm going to go wash some of the kitchen stuff (my apron, towels, wash cloths, oven mitts, etc) and go through fabric for some of the patterns I bought yesterday.






Oatmeal cookies.
This isn't all of them; there was still two batches being baked.

Whole wheat bread before it was baked.
I forgot to take a picture of it once it was baked.
I always braid my bread, I think it looks nice!

Russel

Russel, my rooster, is absolutely insane. He used to be a nice, amiable little rooster, but now he's obnoxious and and dangerous. He keeps chasing everyone around and trying to grab onto their legs with his spurs so he can peck them. You can tell when he's about to attack by the feathers on his neck. They'll stick straight out and then he'll stand up tall and start jumping and kicking. You really think he'd realize we humans have not done anything to harm him; in fact, we are very helpful to him. We give him and his hens lots of food and water. The hens love it when I go out; they try to sit on my lap to warm up their feet, and if I walk out with a container of leftovers they get so very excited.
But Russel is dumb and he doesn't seem to care that I take care of him. He has to chase me around anyway. So, I've been taking this 1" by 2" board (I'd say it's a little over 3 feet tall) out with me and if he tries to attack I just hit him with it and he goes away.
Not today. He kept attacking and I couldn't get him to stop long enough to get the gate open! He was chasing me around. If any of the neighbors were out they were probably laughing at me. We have a privacy fence, so no one could see what was going on, but they would have heard me yelling "No! Bad rooster! Go away!".
I eventually got out the gate, but then Russel was trying to peck my shoe through the fence, so I used the end of my board to shove his back down, forcing him to lay down. He wasn't too happy about that, but he finally went away.

I think my Dad's right. Maybe I should trade Russel in for a nicer rooster. I'm getting sick of being afraid he's going to attack!

More Patterns!

Joanns was having an absolutely amazing sale today! All Butterick patterns were on sale for 99 cents! A fantastic deal! So, I bought 11 patterns (the limit is 10, but my Mom paid for one separately). Now I just have to purchase all the necessary fabrics...
Our friend Emily Nee will probably be coming later on this month and will let me go through some of her unwanted fabric, so hopefully I'll find some that I can use for some of these patterns!
The first dress I want to make is the first picture I have up; the polka-dot one. In fact, I want to make it look like the pattern picture! I've already priced the polka-dot fabric, and with the 40% off coupons that we regularly get, it should be pretty cheap!
The next pattern is a retro pattern from '47. I think it's really cute! The next one is similar to a dress I have from Kohls. The 4th one I really like; I think I'm going to make the version of it with the cap sleeves (the white one). I think all the aprons are so cute! I can't wait to make some.
The 8th is also a retro pattern from '47, I prefer the one with cap sleeves. And the penultimate pattern (the 1st one in the last row) is another retro pattern from '52. I originally didn't care for the pattern, but after I saw the idea of it I started to really like it. It's a wrap dress, and the sides are open. Once you put it on you take the excess skirt from the back and it wraps around and buttons in front of you. I think it's really neat!
I have a pattern that we already had at home, it's for a dress and jacket. The jacket should work with most of sort sleeve dresses, so I'll make it.
Now, the total for this patterns without the sale price would have been $174 before tax. I spent less than $12! I love sales!
You can click on any of the images to see the website for them.

Now time to get sewing....

Song of the Day:

I absolutely love Chris Tomlin's version of Amazing Grace. I first heard it when my Dad's cousin sang it in church; it was great!

It's Warm!

It's warm (well, at least warmer than it has been) and sunny outside! I put on my purple coat this morning (which I bought on sale for an amazingly low price of $5) and went outside to feed my chickens. I quickly realized that it was too warm for my coat and my denim jacket would have sufficed. I am so thrilled to see that the thermometer says it's 40 degrees! And it's sunny! It makes me feel so happy. Now I want to play outside! Too bad the ground is still rather soggy, but maybe the next few days will be as nice as today! Then maybe Jeremy, Luke and I will go for a walk across the bridge. And maybe I can practice my unicycle or stilts! Maybe we can make a new video!
I love sunshine!

Quote of the Day:

"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Our Trip to Wisconsin

The trip to Wisconsin was a fun one, as usual (Wisconsin can't be un-fun, it's impossible).
We helped with a book swap and moved a lot of girl scout cookies! Stefanie, our dear friend and hostess, is a girl scout leader and her cookie shipment came in on Saturday, so we helped organize the cookies and break up the orders.

I had my Duck bake on Saturday, we made approximately 152 meat pies. I forgot to take pictures of them, so I'll have to do so next time. I mostly rolled and sliced dough, and then watched and played with the very rambunctious Timothy.
My character's occupation this year is the nurse/nanny to Timothy. My director and his wife are very pleased with this occupation choice as it will help them quite a bit! Especially since they have a new baby. It will not be a difficult job at all, Timothy is my best friend and it will be fun watching him! At the Duck bake he used pillows to build a fort and then tried to find a blanket for the roof, but there was no blankets that were big enough, so I promised to bring some old sheets and blankets to BAPA (Bristol Academy of Performing Arts) and when I have free time I'll help Timothy build one awesome blanket fort!

After the Duck bake I went back to Stefanie's house and looked over some of the books; I found a few that I picked out. In fact, my Mom found a lot too, so we ended up bringing more books home than we meant to! But that's the way it is with books.
After the book swap we were able to visit with friends for a while and had an all around fun evening. Although I seemed to be getting a cold. I was fine when we left home, but once we were at Stefanie's house I got all sniffly. We thought it might be cat allergies, but on Saturday evening I started having a little cough and a scratchy throat. Now that I'm home I still have a cough, but my stuffy, itchy nose and itchy eyes are all better, so it may have been part cat allergies and part cold. I guess we'll find out the next time I'm around a cat!
Anyway, we got home on Sunday, back to boring ol' Custer Park.

Song of the Day:

You're The One I'm Talking To

Quote of the Day:

"Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship." ~Benjamin Franklin