The Downstairs Playroom

We finally finished getting the great play room reorganization wrapped up.  I managed to weed out a few toys…not as many as I had hoped, but it’s a start and the drama and tragedy was kept to a minimum.  We now have a nice place for everyone to do their thing and as long as I stay on top of everyone, I am hoping we can keep it cleaned up and enjoyable.

We have all of the “play house” stuff along one wall with plenty of room to pull out the table and chairs to play kitchen.  It would be nice to keep it out, but this space is between the stairs and the rest of the basement, so everything gets tucked back in when we are done, so we don’t have to worry about tripping over stuff.

I found a chair and a loveseat at the thrift store, so there is a place to sit with a book and a blankie or a nice place for mommas to sit and chat now that we can actually have someone over for a playdate again without worrying about losing a child in the chaos.

And finally, the new shelves!  There is a bin for almost all of the rest of the toys, so there is a clear difference between put away and claiming to have picked up, but in fact thrown things any old place.  There are also shelves that are out of reach to some family members to make “Don’t take anything new out until you pick up the old mess” somewhat more enforceable.  The table is a good place for Lego building or art projects and there is enough floor space for trains or blocks and the like.

Although we are starting to get to the season of more outside time, it will be nice to have a welcoming space inside, especially in the cooler basement once the summer starts warming up!  Hopefully, I can remember to get some pictures of this space in action…

I am still puttering away at weeding out and organizing throughout the house, but the next big project to tackle is the downstairs bedroom.  If I can chip away at it, I am hoping to once again unearth the futon so we have a functional guest bedroom once more and get the rest of the space organized so I can have a welcoming place for crafting and creating.  The biggest obstacle is taming the clutter, so I just need to keep making progress on that…

Spring has…

Well, not exactly sprung, but here in Wisconsin, we have pretty low standards.  Most of the week has been sunny and warm.  Shut up.  45°F is TOO warm.  We made our first trip of the season to our favorite state park on Tuesday.  The lake was still iced over.  It looked kind of slushy to me, but we saw a guy out ice fishing, so it must have been at least a little solid yet.  And there were still snow on the ground, but the playground was clear, so we had a nice time running around and playing.  We also looked at the tiny buds on trees and basked in the springy-ness of it all.

On Wednesday, we met friends at our regular homeschool Wednesday park.  Again there was snow on the ground, but Miss Bean decided that it would be good idea to go wading in the puddles.  We had a bit of a discussion about good decisions versus poor decisions after I had her put her damp socks and boots back on.  I was pretty sure little Mr. Beeb would think his big sister’s idea was great when he followed me over to lay down the law.  Fortunately, Bug did a good job distracting him away from the temptations.  My admonition that we were going home RIGHT NOW if anyone else went wading in the puddles, accompanied by the steam issuing from my ears may have had something to do with it.  Smart kid, that Bug.

The week ended with a phenomenal BANG last night with Late Night Knitting.  There was all of the standard good stuff about Late Night at the Ear:  good friends (like her, her and sadly blogless lovely daughter, her, and her), good food (including the vanilla cupcakes that actually restore my will to live every couple of weeks), lots of luscious yummy yarn, and beautiful and inspiring projects.  But, as an added bonus, the amazing, inimitable Franklin Habit was there to sign books and read a selection from “It Itches.”  And, as an added, added bonus, the wonderful Mr. Habit came and hung out in the naughty girls’ room* before and after the reading.  Life is good when someone you stalk admire is even more delightful and swoon-worthy in person!

___

*Don’t ask.  What happens at Knit Night, stays at Knit Night.  Like gravity, it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Why?

So tonight’s dinner is going to be Chicken Satay (aka Chicken on a Stick).  It’s one of those fuss a little, wait a little, lather, rinse, repeat kind of meal.  I had the defrosted chicken on the kitchen counter for cutting and putting in the marinade and Beeb pulls up a chair to “help.”  The conversation went a little like this:

Beeb:  What dat?

Me:  Defrosted chicken

Beeb:  Why-eee? [Definitely a two syllable word]

Me:  I’m making chicken on a stick for supper

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me:  We needed something for supper and haven’t had this in a while.

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me:  I don’t know, we just haven’t.

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me (firmly):  I don’t know.

~I continue cooking and he watches for a few moments~

Beeb:  Me lub chicken.

Me:  You love chicken?  That’s good.

Beeb:  Me lub chicken and you.

Me:  Awwww.

~Another pause~

Beeb:  Wat loo do-in?

Me:  Cutting the chicken into strips.

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me:  So I can soak it in the marinade.

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me:  Because that’s what the recipe says.

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me:  I don’t know…you’d have to discuss that with whoever wrote the recipe.

Beeb:  Why-eee?

Me (firmly):  Because that’s just the way it is.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m delighted that he’s smart and wants to know how everything works, but sometimes the endless “why” starts to get to me.  It’s fortunate that he’s so stinkin’ cute.  Yesterday he was singing “What do you do with a scurvy pirate?” (a Backyardigan’s song) and it sounded something like “Wat loo do scooby pie-yit?” and the last line is “Make im walk ker-lank.”  Hee.  I guess I’ll keep him around a little longer.

Valentine’s Mischief

On Friday, when it was doing this outside:

We were inside doing this:

  

In order to do this today:

Which resulted in masterpieces by Bug:

 

And by Bean:

And by Beeb:

And me:

Plus some leftover house parts that just got decorated:

I think a good time was had by all.

Oops.

Forgot the action shot that follows this one:

in the previous post.  Clearly, relaxation is contagious:

Mmmmm…ketchup

Oh wait.  Not that kind.  I mean “catch up.”  We have a new furry family member that joined our family this Christmas.  May I present “Snowflake”:

We went to KittyDaddy’s mom’s house on Christmas Day and returned to Wisconsin with this little guy.  Three of the five kittens in the litter had already been selected by cousins, but Miss Bean got to pick him out and name him.  He is appropriately playful and silly:

Surprisingly patient with all three kids:

Even though wee Beeber has been known to carry him around the house just like Charlie Brown’s neighbor did with her boneless cat.  No pictures of that, but take my word, it’s stinkin’ cute.  I just don’t want to send mixed messages:  Don’t do that to the kitty, but wait a second while I take a picture.

Friend Molly Bees came by for a bit of knitting and, instead, deboned the cat.  She says she put all the bones back, but he’s been a little slinky every since, so I’m not sure everything got put back in the right places.

But at least Beeb has had the chance to study sunbeam basking with a master:

Kitty Chai has been doing her best to resist his charms, but she is putting up with a nap buddy begrudgingly.  She has been reminding him regularly that pouncing on the diva is ill-advised, but he seems to be a slow study.

My only complaint is that the vet has been pestering us for a <ahem> sample to analyze.  With two cats sharing a litter box, there is no way to get his sample without witnessing him in the act.  So last night we finally got lucky and he was taking care of business when KittyDaddy went to clean the box.  I ran and got a baggie and retrieved the treasure.  Since it was a bit, shall we say, fragrant, I set it out in the garage.  Then first thing this morning, I wrangled all three kids into clothes, grabbed my purse and the baggy, hied everyone out into the 2°F weather*, and trucked over to the vet’s office.

I went in to make the delivery, fairly pleased with myself that it had only taken a month and a half.  I proceeded to get LECTURED about how it had to be less than 8 hours old and that it couldn’t be frozen.  (Might have been nice to know that before).  The general tone of the lecture was that I clearly don’t have my priorities straight.  I should have brought it in within a couple of days of being asked.  I should have know that it needed to be delivered still steaming.  I am clearly a bad pet owner for, well, you know, living life, dealing with my children and the household, etc. instead of following the kitten around with a plastic bag.  If I were just a wee bit pissier, I would come back to the vet with the cat and a plastic bag and told them to call me when they have what they need.  Pardon me, if you need me I’ll be over here, rolling my eyes.

* Okay, perhaps I exaggerate.  I may have been as high as, say, 5°F.

Making changes

2011 appears to be declaring itself the year of home improvement.  With three kids, we are living in constant chaos and I feel like I go into cranky-mommy meltdown mode fairly regularly to try and restore some order.  There have been times in my life where home was basically a place to eat meals and fall asleep between hectic here-and-there-ing.  As a homeschooling mom, I am finding that we need our house to be a place that is more conducive to creating and learning and just plain old living.  I am reading Shelter for the Spirit:  How to Make you Home a Haven in a Hectic World by Victoria Moran.  This book was recommended in one of the sessions I went to at the homeschooling conference last spring and has turned out to be just the right book at the right time to make our space more livable.

Being in a rental, there are some things that just aren’t going to happen.  It makes no sense for us to invest time and money in making things more like we like them only to have nothing to show for them when we move out.  So, early last month, I went through our place, room by room to figure out what we need to live with and what changes we can make to make things work.  A few things clearly fall in the need-to-live-with category are the dishwasher and washing machine.  Each has significant personality issues and after several requests to the landlord are as fixed as they are going to get.  So if you could send a good word to the deity of your choice for them to die completely so the landlord HAS to do something, I would appreciate it.

So I have developed my big list which includes simplifying and reducing stuff where we can and getting the stuff we have better organized, as well as creating spaces for our living to happen.  There is also a whole category of things that I am doing to keep things that were a problem when we moved in from getting worse and quick and dirty cosmetic fixes I can do to make things look nicer.

So far, I have made a bit of progress in our upstairs bathroom and in the basement.  Most of the bathroom had crumbly caulk and clear evidence of mildew under the linoleum.  After fight the futility of trying to keep water inside the bathtub for too long, I finally got it fixed.  Really the lino needs to be replaced, with some work on the floorboards underneath, but I did the best I could to get everything sealed tight so we can have splashes without aggravating the problem.  We also finally replaced the light bulbs above the sink with CFLs.  The bulbs were gradually burning out and I didn’t feel the love for having two types of bulbs going on, so we waited until half of them were gone and then replaced them all.  It is now possible to see in the bathroom again.  Very exciting stuff.  Since I have my fancy pants white caulk, I will probably go in and recaulk the sink just so it looks better at some point, too.

The basement has also been getting my attention.  We spent the better part of a weekend planning out shelves.  We currently have a mish-mash of shelves and storage containers and have accumulated just too many toys.  So the first job was upgrading storage.  Since we don’t expect to be in this place forever, we decided that it made more sense to go with something modular that can be taken apart to be moved or to be repurposed.  We have some of these shelves in the garage, so we spent a weekend planning out how many and what size of shelves we wanted and had our pantry shelves put up a couple of days later.  Now I have a good place for canning supplies and equipment, as well as a place to keep the full jars.

We also mapped out shelves for the play area, but the end pieces had to be special ordered, so we didn’t get them until just last weekend.  I have been working on them since.  Putting the parts together is easy.  The shelves themselves, however are a bit fiddly.  The narrower shelves above only needed a chunk about 1” x 1/8” taken off the sides at both the front and back edge.  After having done the ones in the garage, I have gotten pretty good at whacking out what I need to with the Dremel.  And the pantry shelves have only two shelves with a grand total of eight corners, so it went pretty quickly.  However, the shelves for the toy area are taking longer.  For the wider shelves, the premade shelves we are using are a bit too wide, so in addition to the four corners, I also have to take 15/16” of the long edge.  I wish I lived closer to family members who have a table saw or a radial arm saw, but I have gotten pretty handy with my Skil saw, so I am working away.  The other part that is taking much longer is that there are seven shelves, so that means sawing off seven edges and shaping twenty-eight freakin’ corners.  I finished four of the shelves today.  The bad news, however, is the reward for finishing the other three is that the next job is going through all the toys and getting rid of everything that is broken and winnowing down things that don’t get played with.  It is very likely to be not pretty as neither Bug nor Bean parts easily with belonging.

I am once again hoping to get back into the habit of blogging, but I’ve made that promise before, so don’t hold your breath!

Preparation and Mounting

I couldn’t find the master list that the scientists made before departing when I was taking pictures last night, but it showed up in the laboratory this morning.  Everything was duly checked off as the bags were packed:

After soaking and some additional gentle cleaning, the fossilized bones were laid out to be assembled:

The lead paleontologist did the actual assembly, while his able assistants documented the process and looked things up on the computer:

  

Bug did most of the assembly, but Mom-the-muscle had to be called in occasionally to snap together a stubborn joint.  My big clumsy thumbs also cracked the large claw on one foot, but it wasn’t completely broken and didn’t fall off, so I think it will be fine as a museum model if it isn’t touched too much!  The lead paleontologist poses with the finished skeleton:

And, finally, the display is assembled on the museum shelf:

There is a map of Asia, some information about Velociraptors and the finished skeleton.  Museum staff are duly impressed by the new exhibit.

Expedition to Mongolia

Bug has been completely into dinosaurs and prehistoric life again recently.  For his birthday, the presents were pretty much all dinos, all the time.  One of the gifts from grandma and grandpa was a dinosaur excavation.  He has been excited to do it since he opened it, but we finally found a good time to go on our expedition.  He consulted his handy-dandy paleontologist map and it showed a hot spot for excavation of a Velociraptor in the Gobi.

He and his colleague, Bean, planned things out carefully.  First, they made a checklist of the gear they would need to bring with them.  Water bottles, of course, since it is the desert.  All of their paleontologist tools.  They both geared up in their heavy hiking boots so they wouldn’t get bit by scorpions.  When the dining room table was finally cleared after dinner, they set out for the Gobi.

Once there, the dig begins:

The first bone is exposed:

It turned out to be a hand.  I called it a “front foot,” but was properly chastised by the lead paleontologist.  Velociraptor runs on two legs, therefore, the front limb is a “hand.”

The excavation continues as they are joined by a junior colleague, Beeb:

More bones exposed:

Digging in the desert is dirty work:

And hot, under the relentless sunshine.  The whole crew decided that they had better put on hats to shield themselves from the sun:

The only bad event of the whole expedition was when the junior paleontologist hurt his hand on the rock hammer.  We told him that I was documenting the injury so he could file a claim with OSHA when they returned to the U.S.  Actually it was because the tear trails on the dusty cheeks were so stinkin’ cute.

The bones are being soaked and cleaned overnight.  Tomorrow the paleontologists will return to their labs to finish preparing and mounting the skeleton.  Stay tuned!