And still more crystals

Our sudden interest in crystals turned out to be extremely timely, as last Saturday was the Friends of the Geology Museum's Winter Workshop. The topic was "Bubbles of gas in lava that solidified as they cooled and then are gradually filled by the crystallization of impurities in ground water seeping through." If that's too complicated for you, you can go with the museum's title: Geodes.

We learned how geodes form (see bubbles, lava, and impurities, above), saw pictures of geodes big enough to be a bathtub (but the sharp edges of the crystals would be ever so unpleasant on the backsides, so not recommended), learned that completely filled in geodes are agates, learned that beautiful purple geodes can be found in both South America and Africa from a place where they split apart from when they were part of the super-continent Pangaea, and were informed that when illustrating the part of of a talk about unearthing geodes in Chihuahua, Mexico, an Internet search for images almost uniformly yields small canines.

The highlight of the whole thing was cracking geodes:

And a bonus picture of Beeb rockin' the safety glasses (and badly needing a haircut).




Aren't they pretty?

The clear, sparkly stuff in the one on the right (belonging, appropriately princess-like Bean) is quartz. Four quartz make a gallon doncha know. The one on the left is Beeb's and has layers of chalcedony (the milky, bumpy stuff) over quartz. The one in the middle is mine and has a wonderful combination of chalcedony bumps and worms and sparkly quartz. Bug squirreled his away into his lair long before the photo shoot, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was equally cool.

Here's a close-up of mine:

The grand finally was getting to see these Trancas geodes under short-wave ultraviolet, which made them fluoresce green!

Horicon

On the way home from the WPA homeschooling conference a week ago, we stopped at the Horicon Marsh, which is a huge wetland area.  Part of the marsh is managed as a National Wildlife Refuge and another part as a State Wildlife Refuge.  In the National Wildlife Refuge, there is the “Horicon Tern-pike” which, in addition to being a terrible pun, is a motor loop through the Refuge, complete with interpretive signs to stop and read.  Also, partway through is a parking area with a floating boardwalk that makes a nice short hike though part of the marsh and then back through woodland.  A fun side trip for Mother’s Day!

Lot of lovely scenery and a beautiful day for seeing it!

Trillium in bloom in the woods

Muskrat house seen from the floating boardwalk.

One of many turtles seen from the floating boardwalk.  A bit of “Where’s Waldo?” was involved to spot ‘em.

Goslings!  Babies!  Fuzzy and cute!

A couple of beautiful birds.  We saw zillions of different kinds of birds, but these were the only ones besides the geese that I could captures with my little camera.  The pros had their big gonzo fancy pants lenses.

Yes I Can!

and have been doing so frequently. Can, that is. I got a pressure canner for my birthday and have been using it a lot. So far this summer I have "put up" strawberry and raspberry (both red and yellow) freezer jams, concord grape jelly, pickled beets, watermelon pickles, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sauerkraut, beans, greens, creamed corn, and pinto beans. I did the pinto beans as an experiment with my new pressure canner and many other kinds of dried beans will follow when the weather gets cold! The low price tag of dried beans without the hassle of always remembering to soak them the night before? Priceless! At some point, I need to get some pictures of my stash. The grape jelly is particularly lovely if I do say so myself. When I held it up to the light for Miss Bean, she said, "It shimmers like purple diamonds!"

Also, it turns out that the veggies in my chili recipe fit nicely in a quart jar:

So this winter, if I get kidney beans canned, there will be some super easy batches of chili this winter! Other than dumping jars and cooking, the only thing I will need to do is measure and add seasoning, water or beer, and ground been and/or TVP.

There will be at least one more trip to the orchard for apples for apple butter and apple sauce. We got a big bag of eating apples and all the grapes for jelly there last weekend. The concord grape jelly? Between that and the freezer jam, I don't think I am ever going to buy jelly at the store again. The homemade is SO GOOD, that I believed I have been completely spoiled rotten for the other kind. This weekend will be another big batch of sauerkraut as we currently have two CSA cabbages in the fridge.

There are FOs to post and lots of other stuff coming soon...I hope!!!

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool was...

well, sheepy and wooly. The whole famn damily went up to Jefferson around noonish and we saw sheep dogs and sheep and shearing and lambs and vendors and lunch and shaved ice and all the wooly wonders. Since we had taken two cars, Kitty Daddy and the kids left around 3:00 and I got serious at the vendors. I found buttons for my February Lady Sweater and was viciously attacked by a couple of spinning projects. It turned out that Gale's Art booth was nearly fatal for me. First, this lovely jumped off the shelf, roughed me up, beat me into submission:

It's a merino/bamboo blend and it is as soft and cushy as it looks. While trying to get up and dust myself off, this subtle little lovely on a bottom shelf started flirting with me:

This one is an alpaca/silk blend and quite possibly even cushier than the ruffian above. Her booth also had trindles which captured my eye and my fancy, but they were out of budget after feeding my flock lunch and snacks. Next year, they can starve so I can have more fun at the vendors. Well, probably not, but the trindles did make my fiber encased engineer-type heart go flippety-flop. The etsy pictures hardly do them justice. I haven't tried them, so for now I am trying to convince myself that they couldn't possibly be as wonderful as they look.

Anyway, after the family left and I spent my money, I had some quiet spinning time by myself and did some people watching until it was time for the after-party and Ravelry meetup, organized by our very own Chocolate Sheep. The dinner was yummy and the cheesecake was practically illegal!

Oshkosh B'Gosh

Whee! We just sailed back into town after two nights in Oshkosh. We left Friday noon for the WPA's annual homeschooling conference. The conference started Friday evening and ran all day Saturday. Kitty Daddy and I traded off kid duty, so we each got to attend some of the sessions. Daddy made it to three and I went to two. Bug and Bean (with either Mommy or Daddy and sometimes Beeb) went to sessions on making seed starter pots from newspaper, a fun and games session, a stories and games session, a paper airplane making session, and a flat traveler session (more about that last one at some point...). We stayed in the conference center (which apparently was a dorm in a previous life), so the kids got to try out dorm living and Kitty Daddy and I got to relive our undergrad days and two nights was quite enough of that! I much prefer being a grown-up! I do believe that everyone had a fabulous time. Bug didn't want to go ("I'm so shy about conferences"), but now he can't wait to go back next year.

Although the conference was over by suppertime on Saturday, we opted to stay over a second night and see a little of Oshkosh. We got to go swimming on Saturday night and we spent Sunday morning at the Oshkosh Community Playground and the Oshkosh Zoo, both of which are part of Menominee Park right on Lake Winnebago. The playground was one of the biggest and nicest I have seen. We got the Beeb seal of approval:

(Why yes, those are Oshkosh overalls he's wearing!) and the Bean seal of approval:

and the Bug seal of approval, but that one was moving and climbing too fast to capture with a camera. Well, that and I was pushing Beeb on the swing most of the time we were there!

The play structures were just too cool. There was the standard towers and stairs and climbing and playing things that we've seen at other dream parks (like McKee Farms Park, where we used to play a lot), but a few of the things that really caught my eye included a castle:

See the arrow loop for shooting arrows out off? See the keystones on the two arches?

There was also a very cool airplane:

And, my favorite by far:

The first time I walked by (before I had dug out my camera) there was a kid peeking out of the mouth. Bug got eaten too, but I was pushing Beeb on the swing. I didn't look closely enough, but Bug and Bean tell me that you can look out through the eyes (maybe a telescope or periscope?)

Signs of Spring

It's green! Three of the daffodils we planted last fall are peeking through. After having lived with some neurotically early daffodils in Iowa City, I was starting to think these hadn't survived the winter. My IC daffs were facing south and probably an early variety anyway, but they always came up during a rogue week of warm and sunshine in the middle of the winter (like early February) and then got snowed on and frozen and generally abused for the next couple of months until spring really arrived. The flowered when spring really arrived and generally flourished, but the ends of the leaves always looked like the losing side of a rough boxing match.

Not only do I have three up, there are also lots of cracks in the soil at roughly the spacing that the bulbs were planted, so I am optimistic there are many more on the way:

Fortunately, the forecast 3-5" of snow this weekend failed to materialize. We had a dusting on Sunday morning, but that was gone by mid-day.

And it's green! Tomato seedlings are coming up:

They will need to be thinned once they get some real leaves. I am also planning on potting up to yogurt containers before putting them outside.

And, finally, it's green! Okay, technically not a sign of spring, unless you count the fact that I am just perverse and twisted enough to start a sweater just as the weather is warming up. My (March) February Lady Sweater continues apace:

I got a big whack done at Late Night last Friday. I was just a few rows shy of splitting off the arm holes on Friday morning and (barely) managed to get them divided before heading of to Late Night. I was pretty sure I would have better luck with the whole knitting a seven-stitch lace repeat while counting off number of stitches before casting on extra armpit stitches at home. But I made it, and knit gull lace until my brain was no longer capable of keeping track of a four-row, seven stitch repeat. For a late Friday evening, I was fairly impressed with how far I made it. After that, I worked on the toe of my second attempt on the Raspberry Charade socks. After misjudging the amount of pulling in from the pattern, I finished one sock that wouldn't fit over my foot. After carefully measuring, computing, and pondering, I started the second one. After getting a few repeats into the pattern on the foot, I finally accepted defeat when it became clear that version 2.0 fit over not only my foot but also my sneaker. Version 3.0 has been started with a number of stitches between the two. If that doesn't work, I will accept that the pattern and or yarn are clearly cursed and put both in timeout and start a new pair of socks.

On Saturday we went to the Mackenzie Nature Center for their Maple Syrup Festival. We had fun looking around, but only saw about half of it. I didn't realize that one of the flyers we got when we arrived had a map on it and left it in the car. One of the kids was too tired and crabby to go with the flow and just wander around and see what we could find. After a while, Bug, Bean, and Beeb started getting restive (and hungry), so I gave in gracefully and we went to find some lunch!

Wacky Week

This is the story of the little rhinovirus that could (with apologies to Watty Piper).

Once upon a time, the little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The baby got sniffly. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The four-year-old got sniffly and Mama got a tickly throat. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The Mama got stuffy, the baby and the four-year-old got coughy and sneezy and snorty and snuffly. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The four-year-old got hoarse so no one could understand what she was saying. I didn't really matter though because the Mama's head and ears were so congested that she couldn't hear what the four-year-old was saying anyway. The baby continued to produce his body weight in snotters. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The six-year-old went on a field trip, the snuffly four-year-old trailed along, while a stuffy (and somewhat cranky) Mama carried a snorty baby on her hip in the sling. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The six-year-old woke up the next day coughing and sneezing, the four-year-old were still snot-encrusted, the baby was blowing snot-bubbles of Olympic caliber, and the Mama discovered that she had put out her back carrying the baby around. Mama said, "Dude, I give up. You win, you nasty little bug." The little rhinovirus proceeded to get prissy and strut around announcing, "I knew I could, I knew I could," until Mama smacked the snot out of the little brat.

Other than the stupid cold, we have been having a nice week. On Tuesday, Bug went to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center to learn about Maple Syrup. They got to taste sap and syrup and my little connoisseur was the only one in the group that preferred the fake stuff to real maple syrup. I guess the bright side is that means he has beer tastes on a beer budget, right? He also got to carry a yoke with buckets and drill in a log with a brace and bit, learned how to identify a sugar maple in bud (sharp buds), and saw trees with sap collection buckets. I think we will go, as a family, to the MacKenzie Environmental Education Center on April 4th for their Maple Syrup Festival so the rest of us can check things out!

I got about 20-25 rows into the February Lady Sweater yoke and discovered that I had dropped a stitch about ten rows back so I frogged back, got all the stitches back on the needle, noodled around to get all the stitch back where they belonged, counted and recounted the stitches (and recounted a few more times) and accepted the inevitability of missing one stitch somewhere. I couldn't find it, though my best guess was in the buttonhole. Since I was (a) one stitch short, (b) thought the first buttonhole looked a lot wonkier than the second buttonhole (which vanished when I frogged back to reclaim the dropped stitch), and (c) was not convinced by the order (left leaning vs. right leaning) of my increases for the raglan, I decided to start over. None of these three alone (or probably even in pairs) was enough to convince me, but all three apparently pushed me over the tipping point. So far, I am just past where I was when I took the picture early in the week and am MUCH happier with both the buttonhole and my increases, so it's all good.

We also got our tomato seeds into little peat pellets to start them on Tuesday night. It will be fun watching the little seedlings grow and getting ready to start a real garden! We have also spent an unusual amount of time playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii and watching videos and reading and otherwise laying low to let our bodies fight the virus. We all seem to be on the mend, so we just need to let the darn thing run its course.

Darwin Day

Sheesh! Can someone tell me what happened to February? I have been dithering from thing to thing, rarely finishing things before getting distracted by something else. Plus, a few days of deceptively spring-like weather has made us even squirrelier about enduring the snow and cold! So I have a couple of blog items to get caught up on. Here's the first.

For those of you not in the know, Charles Darwin's 200th birthday was the 12th of February (as was Abe Lincoln's...quite the auspicious day back in 1809!). As Kitty Daddy has been on a bit of a evolution kick lately (elbow deep in Stephen Jay Gould and we have been getting the videos from the PBS Evolution series out from the library), we were unnaturally excite about Darwin's birthday! First off, the weekend before, we went to a Darwin Day up at the University. They had tables set up with displays and activities for all ages. At some of the tables, we collected stamps on our tree of life leaflet to win a prize (a shark tooth fossil for each kid). One table that caught my eye was the Wisconsin Fast Plants. The guy who developed these bred them for a rapid life cycle, for use in educational settings. They can be used for activities at most any age level. For small fries, they can watch the life cycle unfold, learn about pollination, and harvest seeds. For bigger kids, they can change environmental factors and observe changes. For even bigger folks, there are different varieties of seeds available (fuzzy stem, purple stem, yellow-green leaves, taller species, etc.) so there can be experiments with breeding and genetics. We ordered some seeds and have been getting ready to grow some. I may or may not post some of our progress here, but for excruciating details, you can find them here.

For the actual day of Darwin's birthday, we made fossil cookies for Daddy. When I was growing up, I remember having made cookies with ceramic stamps, so I had my mom send a couple of the recipes that came with the cookie stamps and we used some of the kids' dinosaur toys to make our "fossils." Before baking:



and after:

What a week!

We have had a good mix of exciting and historic and quiet and routine-y this week. On Monday we joined our friend K at the state capitol for a Martin Luther King Jr celebration. It wasn't exactly what we expected. We had thought it would be more music and less speechifying and one of K's friends was supposed to sing a solo with a choir and didn't. Beeb and I had a great time wandering the halls. He looked and and felt different colors of marble, climbed up and down steps, and inventoried and inspected every light fixture in the place, while I listened to the musical numbers (actually enhanced by the building acoustics) and tried to listen to the speakers (made pretty hard to decipher by the selfsame acoustics). Bug and Bean sat with K, but I think the whole thing was a bit beyond a six-year-old and four-year-old attention span. When Bug was explaining what I had missed, his synopsis was "A man had a birthday and tomorrow he's going to be president." Yeah, Bug, but not exactly. However, the HIGHLIGHT of Monday was the repair of the washing machine. After about 10 days without a washer, I'm thinking the maintenance guy was lucky that we weren't home when finally did the repair. I'm pretty sure I would have kissed him full on the lips.

While we were watching some of the pre-inauguration on TV on Tuesday, we got straight on whose birthday it was and who was becoming president. We watched most of the inauguration, but Bug and Bean tended to drift in and out over time. At least it was interesting enough that we found some books about voting, the presidency, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from the library on Wednesday.

Beyond that, we have been doing our usual things which includes some knitting. I finished Beeb's winter night longies and I am just tickled with how they turned out:



I just hope Beeb's ankles and feet don't get too cold from the snowdrifts! And a close-up of the snowman:



We have also been playing Lego Star Wars on Wii and have discovered that Bug needs a timer when the game is going or he would never quit. I have been playing along with him and it's actually pretty fun. I like the cooperative nature of the game better than the Wii sports that came with it. Actually, I don't like getting beaten by Bug who waves the remote around in the air, mostly at random and still beats me at most sports.

Catching Up I: Fall Fun

Although I am very much a winter person, I still think fall may be my favorite season. It has a lot of thing going for it...fun activities, cooler weather (winter's coming!), it doesn't hang around forever (yes, February, I'm looking at you.)...

We've been puttering around, mostly tending to day to day stuff. We've been doing a homeschool playgroup, library story time, and Farmers' Market pretty much weekly. In addition, I have been doing a little canning and freezing while we can still get fresh produce. And since the weather has cooled down, soup season has started again! Yum.

We had miniature caramel apples for a treat one afternoon:

Just one bite (ballpoint pen for scale)! They solve the problem of how to eat a caramel apple without getting caramel all over your face and hair. I got the idea here.

We have also been going on homeschool field trips at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. We have been to two classes, and even though Bean is technically not old enough to participate, the leaders have let her tag along with big brother and do the activities. The first class was on birds and each of the kids made birds' nests using things that birds would use (pine needles, straw, leaves, etc.) and a few that birds wouldn't use (e.g., glue and paper). We came home and made origami birds for the nest.

Here is Bean's:

She has declared the black birds to be vultures.

And here is Bug's:

He insists that the red birds are canaries. I suspect that he means cardinals, but he insists that isn't the case when I asked. They are canaries.

We have also done one on trees and seeds. Currently, we have only signed up for one other of the remaining four (Bats!!!), but we have had such a good time at the two we have gone to that we might go ahead and sign up for the others, too.

Routine!

After the chaos of getting settled, I find myself once again reminded how much better we (including me) do with some kind of routine or rhythm. I think we have our weekly schedule pretty much set finally. Monday is our homeschool playgroup with 6 and under unschoolers; Tuesday is our "outing day" (more on that in a sec); Wednesday is library day and starting this week, we will be joining a story time group; Thursday is our day to get together with our local "grandma"; and Friday is Farmers' Market day. I really like that most of our things are half day or less so we can fit groceries and other chores in flexibly.

Two weeks ago, our Tuesday looked like this:

so we headed to Lake Kegonsa State Park and spent most of the day there. We had a picnic, identified a few trees and wildflowers and played on the playground. Another mom and her two girls (almost three and just turned one) stopped and played for a bit and Bean declared the older girl to be her "best friend." After they left, Bean pretended to talk on the phone to her, making plans for fun things to do and telling her that she loved her very much. That evening, when telling Dad about our day, she announced in her ever-so-earnest (as only a three-year-old can be) voice: "____ is such a great human." I am desparately hoping for a little girl about Bean's age at story time...she wants a girl friend so much right now!

Beeb had fun doing Beeb things:


and trying outa new hairstyle courtesy of the slide. That's some serious static electricity!

This past week on Tuesday, we joined other homeschoolers for a tour of the Sassy Cow Creamery. Very interesting for everyone, but some of the highlights were riding on pedal tractors, trying out their ice cream, and watching the bottling machine. The bottling machines had all of our boisterous group watching with rapt attention! I didn't have my camera, but there are a few pics at Denise's blog (she's the one who organized the trip). I have started carrying a notebook for Bug and Bean and crayons or markers when we go on an outing, so they can "journal" about the outing. I posted some of their pictures here (I also finally got around to posting their Sheep and Wool pictures, too).

We went apple picking with our local "grandma" on Thursday and then came home and made applesauce for lunch. The big kids cored and peeled and Bug and Bean chopped up the apples with butter knives, so it was a group effort. Another very fun day and I am currently on my second batch of apple butter! I would like to get some apple sauce put up too, so we may end up going apple picking again!

So a lot going on, not a whole lot of blogging, but now that we are getting settled, it should be easier to get back on track posting regularly!

Interesting Times

We (individually and collectively) have been getting into all sorts of trouble lately. Let's see, we'll back up a little over a week ago. Last week started out with gorgeous weather: sunny and clear, low humidity, hot in a summery way rather than in an oppressive way. By midweek, the humidity and the heat were both on the climb, so we arranged to meet our local adopted grandma at the beach. The Madison area is just filthy with lakes, but I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I hadn't been swimming in a lake in at least two decades. The ocean, yes. Pool, indoor and out, yes and as often as possible, but lakes or rivers? Nope.

So on Wednesday, we set out for a swim in Lake Wingra. Since it is a shallow lake, it was as warm as bathwater. The kids had a blast! We brought sand toys and splashed and played and dug and poured all afternoon. Beeb hung out at the shoreline and had a great time digging and splashing. I managed to suppress my squeamishness at swimming in a lake and had a better time than I thought I would. Needless to say, there was sand everywhere by the time we were ready to head home. We hosed off with a shower before we left, but even so, I had a major case of the screaming heebie-jeebies the whole way home with the sand and the vegetation and everything on me.

Once we got home, we had all took proper showers and got out of swimsuits. At this point, I would like to apologize to the City of Madison for taking home Vilas Beach in its entirety. We really should have left some behind for others to use. I thought we had washed most of it down the drain when I sprayed out the bathtub, but it turns out I was wrong. I had significantly underestimated how much sand Beeb had put in his mouth. For DAYS after, every time he pooped, there was more sand in his diaper than had been in the swim diaper when we got home. Yeah, one of those things they don't tell you about before you become a parent. With three kids, we have had plenty of technicolor poops from chewing on crayons, but even those didn't prepare me for the sheer volume of sand this little dude was processing.

All said, I'm not in a huge rush to get back to a beach anytime soon, but on the other hand, I really do need to work on getting over my lake-phobia with all the nice lakes and beaches nearby (and so much cheaper than the swimming pool, since we will be losing our apartment swimming pool with the move.)

The next grand adventure was Friday night Knitting at The Sow's Ear. Prior to the evening in question, Dale-Harriet had put out the call (oink, I say, oink) for a little Hog-n-Blog meetup in the back room of the Sow's Ear. Let me tell you, the turnout was grand! There was Chocolatesheep Beth, Molly Bee, and Elizabeth SABLE representing the Hog-n-Bloggers. JaalaDay joined Beth and Elizabeth for the release of a new issue of Knit Circus and CathyCate had made the trip to Madtown and has posted some great pictures of the insanity here. Let's just say there was much laughter, some well-deserved escape from non-fiber life, and tattoos in places not available to the general public (they were temporary tattoos brought by CathyCate, and Cindy, I snagged one for you after our meme inspired tattoo discussion. I'll bring it to Last Saturday Knitting).

On Monday, Beeb mastered a new skill. I went upstairs to throw in a load of laundry and came around the corner to find him looking very pleased with himself in the upstairs hallway.



Mad skillz. He gots em.

Tuesday was a quick trip to the zoo since the humidity had broken and the weather was nice again. In the Herpetarium, we heard the tortoise "talking," so we went to investigate, since the most active we have ever seen the two tortoises is maybe blinking.

Oh. *ahem* Moving on...

Going to the zoo

Mama has been painting, sanding, and priming like crazy. The bench that we brought home from KittyDaddy's mom's basement last winter is done and I will hopefully have pictures up soon! The dresser we brought back this weekend is sanded and primed, waiting for paint. We managed to sneak away yesterday to kidnap our friend Library Karen and head to the zoo for a while. Some of the more photogenic zoo denizens:

The giraffes

The rhinoceros

The red panda (not a great picture, but the best view we have gotten of him yet!)

The turtle

The rare and unusual Beebicus Cutus

Today, we are looking forward to our first trip to the farm to pick up our first CSA box! According to our newsletter, we can look forward to lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, turnips, radishes, green onions, and more!

Busy, busy, busy!

At last a quick moment to sit down! Last week was rainy and overcast, so instead of a hike or other outdoor adventure, we took a trip on the city bus and went downtown to see the Wisconsin Historical Museum. It was a fairly short trip as some of the exhibits tended to be a bit dry for a three-year-old and five-year-old, but I foresee many more trips as they get bigger. I thought it was fascinating (or at least as much of it as I could read without getting TOO far behind the kids!). As a bonus, we ran into Dale-Harriet, who is a volunteer there, leading a group of school kids around. While the school kids had a few minutes of free exploration, we got to chat for a bit.

Most of Thursday and Friday (except for our requisite library trip) was spent doing laundry and packing for our trip to Iowa. If you aren't a local, or are one of the three residents of Wisconsin that Bug didn't tell about our trip plans, we went to visit Grandma and go to KittyDaddy's 20-year high school reunion. Iowa is currently giving Minnesota a run for its money on the 10,000 lakes thing, and if they get anymore rain, they may join Hawaii and become the second state comprised completely of islands! The kids had a great time with Grandma (except Beeb, who was not amused by being left behind without Mama) and we also got to see one of Mike's sisters while we were there. As for the reunion, I think KittyDaddy had a good time. As for me, let's just say I was the spouse at a high-school reunion and leave it at that.

The highlight of the trip for me was the knitting time in the car! I worked on my Laminaria and got a couple of blossom chart repeats finished and since my homemade spindle is so dinky, I even got about 10 grams of Corriedale spun. I also got the next hank of Malabrigo wound for the Laminaria. We also brought home a dresser from Grandma's basement. I am in the process of repainting a bench with storage under the seat that we brought home on our last trip, so I will have more refinishing to do when I get done with that! We'll have to wait for everything to dry out first...on Sunday as we were coming home, Madison was having record rainfall. From the NWS today: "A record rainfall of 4.11 inches was set at Madison yesterday. This breaks the old record of 1.4 set in 1874."

The other big excitement from last week was Beeb's nine-month well-baby checkup. He weighs in at 20 pounds and stands 29 inches tall! Beyond that, he was proclaimed both very healthy and adorable, neither a big surprise.

We are also looking pretty seriously at relocating in August. KittyDaddy has been commuting nearly 20 miles each way from our current location. Add to that a growing dissatisfaction with a few of our neighbors and the management (or lack thereof) of the apartment complex. We found a place just two blocks from his office. Like here, we will be within walking distance of a grocery store (if the weather is nice and the kids are feeling perky) and I think we could probably even make the library on foot (with the books in our trusty red wagon). There is even a wonderful bakery just a block or two away from the library that could be used as bribery in a pinch. As much as I dread the idea of packing up and moving again, I think it will be a good thing if everything falls into place.

Getting ready for company

Well, my parents took to the road on Sunday and should be rolling in to Wisconsin sometime today. The kids are just too excited to see Grandma and Grandpa. Bug and Bean each put together a book for Grandma and Grandpa (I can spill it now since it is unlikely they will be checking the internet before arriving!). I cut a bunch of plain white paper in half and the kids have been creating art on the pages for the last couple of weeks and then yesterday, they each picked a piece of cardstock (Blue for Bug, Pink for Bean) that I cut in half for the covers. Three-hole-punch and some yarn to tie things together (white cotton for Bean, pink acrylic for Bug) and they are ready to go.

We have also been getting the house spiffied up for them. This morning I scrubbed the kitchen floor with three little helpers...yes, even Beeb had a (dry) sponge that he was pounding on the floor with. As the Harlot said on Monday (paraphrased): It's not technically child labor sweat shop if they are enjoying it. Of course, we also must ignore the fact of how much extra cleaning it took to reverse all the "help"!

On Tuesday, we went for a "hike" at the local botanical garden. Although it was a bit windy and chilly, it was wonderful seeing all the spring flowers in bloom and burning some kid energy.



Yesterday, we decided to go completely green. We needed groceries and not only did we remember to take the reusable bags, but we walked and pulled our little red wagon. Bug pushed Beeb in the umbrella stroller and Bean "helped" me with the wagon. We stopped at "close park" to play for a little and enjoy the sun. All I can say is, boy did the kids go down easy last night!

I have been "spinning my spindle"...not as much as in January and February and I completely fell off the wagon with updating progress. The viscose was kind of sucking the joy out of spinning for a while there. I'd spin and spin and spin and maybe add a gram. Plus it is so sticky that it's like fighting with it instead of being relaxing. So I pulled out my corriedale roving and started it. Then I got sidetracked making my own spindle since both of my spindles are fairly heavy (the Ashford is 82 g and the turkish is 51 g) and I wanted a lighter spindle on the cheap.

Weighing in at a sleek and slender 23 g, it has made spinning fine singles so much easier. Not so great in the balance and momentum category, but, hey, you get what you pay for. So without further ado, my Spin My Spindle updates:

Spin My Spindle March 2008
Activity:	Spinning	Spinning
Fiber:	Corriedale	Viscose
Spindle:	Ashford	Turkish
Amount:	2 grams	4 grams

Spin My Spindle April 2008
Activity:	Spinning
Fiber:	Corriedale
Spindle:	Homemade
Amount:	8 grams

I think that I will probably go to monthly spinning updates, rather than weekly, as 2 grams of spinning is just not that impressive! I haven't given up on the viscose...there is only an ounce and I'm over halfway through. When ever I have a strong need for self-flagellation, I'll pull it out and spin a couple of grams. Meanwhile the Corriedale should go great guns...it's bouncy and crimpy and spins nicely. And with the little homemade spindle, it fits in my sock bag and I got a little spinning done at the botanical garden and the park this week!

Going Hiking

Today, the kids and I took a lovely fall hike. The Moms in Madison group is organizing Tyke Hikes now that we have the lovely fall weather. Today, we met up with other moms and little ones and took a walk through the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. We walked around the edge of the restored prairie and then took the path back through the middle of the prairie. I forgot my camera in the car when we got there, but managed to snap a couple of pics from the parking lot before the wee ones completely lost patiences with me. There were lots of gorgeous fall flowers:

And here you can see the pretty rust color of the big and little bluestem in the prairie (just past the parked cars):

We also got to see lots of cool buggies and animals, including several furry black and brown caterpillars, a slug, and a frog. We also got to examine all kinds of leaves and sticks and grass and rocks up close and personal. But probably the best part was getting to hang out with "fends"...some adult conversation for mama and some flesh and blood friends for Bug and Bean to hang out with (as opposed to our usual invisible animal friends).

Unfortunately, after our lovely, relaxing walk, I had some run-ins with a couple of my arch-nemeses: the "special people to whom the rules don't apply." First, a disclaimer: I am delighted to share the road with bikers. I wish more people rode bikes and left their cars at home. I have nothing at all against bikers. Unless they are jerks. Then jerkness trumps bicyclist. There were a couple of bikers that had a very casual relationship with the actual rules of the road that I did my best to not run over, but one in particular irked me. The road through the arboretum is quite winding, so I just drove slowly to stay behind this bicyclist for a while until there was a long enough straight section so I could pull over into the other lane to pass him. Well, the way is clear and I pull into the opposing traffic lane and start to speed up to pass him and the dimbulb decides that he needs to be riding smack along the dotted yellow line. So I slow down again and resign myself to following him. A few minutes later we get back into another curvy, winding section of the road and this guy suddenly discovers that I am behind him and starts waving me around. Since I want to give him plenty of room (and hopefully, thereby minimize my urge to flatten him), I am waiting until I can see far enough ahead on the road to pass safely. Meanwhile, he is making increasingly larger and more enthusiastic gestures that he wants me to pass, as if he is starting to get ticked off because I'm not passing quickly enough. I doubt he realizes how lucky he is to be upright rather than a big smudge on the road. In general, it is not wise to irritate the bejesus out of a hormonal post-partum mama with a wailing 3½ week old baby in the back seat (since we were driving too slowly to lull him to sleep...the motion of the car usually puts him right out, assuming we are going more than 10 mph). I'm just sayin'...

Fortunately, the mood swings go in both directions, so by the time we were done with lunch, the nice walk and lovely weather won out over the bad bicyclists.