If you have an article/blog entry for the November 23rd Homesteading Carnival, please use this form before tomorrow afternoon.  It's being hosted by The Homesteading Carnival themselves!

This week's Carnival was hosted by Catherine at Seeds of Love.

Please let me know your thoughts!  Thanks!

What I would love to be able to write is what a sweet fun time we had today making this craft.  I don't do crafts all that often and the boys typically really like doing them.  I was looking forward to them having fun with this activity.  I would like to say that we enjoyed laughter while we talked about turkeys and the day of giving thanks.   I would like to say that everyone was happy and cooperative while we were working. 

Instead though, I'll tell you what really happened.  We waited until the end of the day to do this craft.  (That was probably mistake number one, but we had a couple of therapies and a science lab interupting our day).  The boys were to have gathered pine cones earlier in the day.  One hadn't and went out to find one in the dark.  It was a small one and he was not pleased with it.  Another boy had gathered two earlier in the day.  Well, the first boy decided he wanted the extra one (though wasn't all that nice in asking).  The other boy didn't want to give his up.  Hearing them argue over a pine cone didn't do a lot to put me in the best of moods either.  And no, I didn't take advantage of this teachable moment to talk about sharing or listening or anything else.  My first thought was that I needed to remember this when it came time to do Christmas crafts!  lol

The boys were a little ... less patient that I would have liked for them to be.  I probably was too!  The pine cones were prickly and didn't feel good on the hands.  The pipe cleaners hard to manuever and the level of difficulty was just too much for my boys at this time.  I ended up helping them a lot.  (And did I mention that they weren't really being patient?) 

In the end, we got them made.  And they are cute. 

I think the lessons that I need to learn are several.

*Don't wait until the end of the day for crafting when people are tired and the grumpiness comes on faster.

*Check the level of difficulty before starting a craft.

*Patience, patience, patience.  I need to model it and teach it through my actions.

I know we'll remember these turkeys - and hopefully not the bickering that went with it.  I hope I'll learn.  I wasn't at my best tonight, but thankfully, there will be another chance.  Thankfully the boys are pretty forgiving and love me in spite of my flaws (and the feeling is very mutual).  I'm thankful for the times that I fail for it reminds me that I struggle just like my children do.  It reminds me of how much I need a Savior to shape and mold me into the image of the one I want to reflect.  So while it may not have been a teachable moment that was used wisely, I did learn from it. 

Just thought some might like to see a less than stellar experience.  We all have them.  Sometimes I think people can feel discouraged when they hear about "all" that someone else is doing.  Most of us tend to share the positives (I'm no exception).  Just know that we all have those days - and so do our children.  I still have much to be thankful for and yes, I will still do crafts with them at Christmas. 

Blessings
Leslie

P.S.   If you are looking for something fun to add to your November, check out the blog of my FIAR friend Kendra   She has posted a great list of activities to do celebrating Thanksgiving. 

Let's see if the system works....

My mother is taking me to court.

She had left her landlord/roomate's house. They were lovers at one point but for many years they have had seperate bedrooms and were basically just roomates. He was around through my childhood and was like my dad.

She left and then stole his things- multiple times. And why she would stop by and take things that she then tried to give away, I don't know. Why everything was suddenly hers, I don't know that either.

I DO know that somehow I got stuck as mediator. Probably because she tried to get me to lie and say the neighbor stole part of his belongings. Or when she tried to get me to spy on him... and I wouldn't do it. That kind of got me involved to.

Long story short- I took his stuff back more than once. I never did get it all back. One of the things I took back she is really mad about. It is an old civil war letter. It was only appraised at $125 or $150 but they think it might be worth more than that.

So she is taking me to court for theft. Even though she KNEW she needed to give his stuff back. And even though she had given me permission to be in her home to get his things back. The day I took his letter back (it would of been considered his) I was using her computer. The letter was beside the computer so I took it back. How simple is that???

Now I go to court on the 3rd at 2:30. I am not being charged for everything. Just the letter. This is so pathetic. It is slowing down our trip down south. Oh wells. Let's just hope the magistrate is level headed. :)  

And to make it worse, she and my brother can break into my home while I am gone on vacation and the police can't do anything because they don't have forensics. And they can break into our other house, that used to be her lover/landlord/roomates because the house deed wasn't in our name yet. It doesn't matter if WE were the ones that paid all the years of back taxes on it. Whatever.

We had another fabulous co-op day.  I feel so very blessed to be a part of this group.  The talent, creativity and energy is amazing - and a delight to be a part of.  And fun!  This is a fun group of children and moms! 

We started out talking about fats.  Hmmm ... interesting start to the day, isn't it?  But, it did weave in through the other topics.  The children went to a table to see lots of jars filled with interesting colors and substances.  Each had water and a fat in the jar. 

The jars were passed around and the children shook them up to see if they could get the fats to dissolve.  Some did while others were more resistant to change forms.  We heated a couple to see if this made a difference and it did for a short time.  It was interesting to learn and observe the difference.  The shaking was a hit too.

Next it was time for art.  This involved fats too!  The children did a crayon resist using light colored crayons on art paper.  The crayons were a fat.  They drew designs on their cards and then went over these with watercolors.  Each child was given 3 cards on which to paint and later send to a friend or grandparent.   Look at this beautiful example.  Can you see the lightning?

It was fun to see the various designs that the children came up with and how the watercolors just did not stick to or mix with the crayons.

I didn't get a good close-up of the art, but you can see the technique in the red card on the table.  The word "Hello" is written in crayon then painted over with red paint.  The word just pops out from the paint.  It's neat and it a good use for those white crayons!

The next part of the lesson was about taste and the ways in which our body sends messages to the brain.  The children formed a chain by holding hands.  They were to squeeze the next persons hand and say "ouch" to see how long it too the message to get around the group. 

Then we learned about the 5 (yes, one more than I learned about in school) areas of taste.  The new one is savory

We also learned that the tongue can taste all of the areas throughout and not just in one spot.  That makes more sense to me.  This ball was a representation of the various areas of taste (see how the ends on the ball match the chart above?). 

We learned about what happens when we eat something hot!  The Scoville chart for measuring heat was discussed and various types of peppers listed.  (This may not sound interesting, but our energetic teacher made this very exciting and hands-on!) 

When we eat something hot and then drink water, the water acts to push the hot further into our taste buds making it seem hotter still.  If however we choose to eat or drink something with fat in it like milk or yogurt, then the fat will bind with the heat and pull it away from our tongue. 

Now, it was time to put that to the test.  The table was lined with 10 containers numbered from 1 to 10.  Each person started at 1 which was the mildest with no heat in it at all and then went as close to 10 as they wanted to go!

They each took turns.  Some needed some coaxing to keep going.   Others were eager to try more. 

A lot of the children made it to 10!  (It was yummy!)

While the older kids were learning, Rebecca was playing with Eliana and her friend.  She even brought some craft things for them to work on during this time.  What a thoughtful big sister!  She is awesome with younger children!

Daniel was given a neat picture from his friend Miss Lynn.  It is the leaves that they gathered at our last co-op.  She laminated them and made the page so that it could be hung on a window.  He was delighted and loves seeing it in our kitchen.  Wasn't that so very thoughtful?!  Thank you friend!

Another fun day with friends.  I love these days!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures. 

Blessings
Leslie

A sweet friend recently let me know that I'd been nominated for a homeschool blogger award (thank you Kendra!).  I was surprised as I didn't know anything about it.  I wasn't sure whether to post anything or not as I didn't want to be asking for votes.  I do however want to thank whomever nominated me.  Thank you.  It was very sweet!

I've been nominated in two catagories.  You can click on them if you want to see more.

Best Homeschool Mom Blog

Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger

I appreciate the encouragment.  I am thankful for the opportunity to share some of my life and always hope that it may bless and encourage someone else.  I feel that we all have great things to share as God is working in each of our lives.  I love that He has made us each unique with incredible gifts and talents.  I'm fortunate and thankful to be in a place doing what I love.  God is good.

I wanted to share a few other things.  Daniel has an appt with the specialist (neuro ophthamologist) in 2 weeks.  We were told that there would be 3 hours of testing done (to determine why he has optic nerve pallor in one eye).  I'm not sure what kind of testing.  I'm sure though that it will be a hard time for my sweet little boy due to his sensory issues.  We would love your prayers.  I confess that it is hard not to worry about what this could mean - especially if I do any googling on the exact words used to describe his eye.  We are hoping it is nothing or something fixable.  I've been told it may take a month to get the results!  I"m hoping that is not right!  I'll post more as we get closer to the date.  The date and time are also going to be a challenge for us personally.  They can only see us on the one day that is worst for us (field trip day) and beginning at lunch time (hard to juggle with Joshua's diabetes needs).  I know it will work out and I'm glad to have an appt sooner rather than later. 

Isaiah had an OT evaluation today and our therapist said he would definitely qualify for OT (occupational therapy) based on his handwriting and is looking to score his other tests to see if there are any other areas that need to be addressed.  He did well during the evaluation and seemed to have some fun with parts of it too.  I'm not sure when therapy will start for him.  (She told us there is a waiting list, but that it may be shorter for him since we can come during school hours.)  It's a step in getting some help for our sweet boy so he isn't struggling.  It is hard on a mama's heart to see your child struggle and to want so much to help.  I know that some struggle can be good and hopefully I can help him to learn from the struggles, because that is something that can apply to life over and over again.

Joshua is doing pretty well.  Diabetes managment can be such a roller coaster though!!!  Some days he seems to spike or plummet for unknown reasons.  Learning how to treat him is as much an art as it is a science.  He has a great attitude most of the time.  As an aside, Isaiah is very concerned about him and prays often that a cure would be found. 

Lastly, just something sweet. 

There are times when I just watch and think how lucky my children are to have each other.  One day, Rebecca decided to make cookies.  This wasn't a huge surprise as she does like to cook.  (I really appreciate this as cooking is not my favorite thing to do.)  The surprising part was when she included Eliana.  She got aprons for both of them, pulled up a chair and let Eliana help.

Is that cute or what?  Doesn't  Eliana have the best big sister?!

That's all for now.  I need to go finish up school and then get dinner started.  Thank you friends for your encouragment and prayers.

With love
Leslie