december nine

Yesterday was shopping day.

The very best part was when Santa's magic led me out to a different part of town to look for something that I couldn't find for Maddie - and there she found it. The very last one.
oof.
Thanks so much, old Friend. This one gets your name on it.

We're set with snowpants and boots and a few things on The Wish List.

Now today we stay home with breads and cookies and candy-making and music.

Have a lovely day!

december eight

We started out this morning with Maddie waking up before the sun.... and observations about what was happening in the sky.
"So.... it was dark, and then light, and now it's getting darker again?" she asked.
"No, it's getting lighter, slowly."
"So the sun is going down?"
"No, actually, the earth is turning toward the sun, see? Like this. Here's us, and the earth moves like this...."
A few minutes later I took her back to demonstrate with the globe and a desk lamp...

I tended to our magnets. They were messy from rusty filings, and not doing anybody any good. So, of course we had a bit of play with those when they were looking friendly again....

ScoobyDoo Christmas. From fanpop. We're loving that. :) Last night we had a snuggle and Charlie Brown, and then the cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Madeleine fitted Annabelle with a (wrapping paper) saddle this morning, and then wrapped it up. It's now under the tree.


She decorated Annabelle with a little something for the Now, too.


Investigating with the balance scale


0rgan playin'

(this thing is like second or third generation -Eric's family- ... isn't it great? :) )

Whatcha doin?"
I'm making a wagon.
"You're making a wagon?"
"Mmmhmm."
Yep, she did.

We tried out an experiment that demonstrates how different parts of the sun rotate at different speeds. The details over at olm, too. Very, very interesting.


Lego Star Wars.

Experimenting with beads and suction on tongues. (Madeleine)

I read three chapters of Cricket In Times Square to Trev while Madeleine played on the floor with the scale and blocks again.
I needed to get up for a while, so Trev began the next chapter on his own. :)


There has been snow eating

and candy-cane hangin'

-and candy-cane eating-

and contraption making (Madeleine).

Rudolph watching (yup - fanpop)

Zoob construction (Trev)

more candycane eating (both)

laundry (Mama - huh. as if.)

And now....
the watch of the clock speeding by.

Eric and I have a date for a fancy-shmancy dinner with a bunch of (definitely drinking entirely too much wine and possibly talking way too loud for such a lofty establishment) Foodie high-brows and hipsters.
I really must see about sanding the rust from those magnets off of my brown-stained fingers, and file my nails. Let's hope I still own an emery board, and the very last one didn't get used for some project or another....

So Mama and Daddy are off to play with the adults, while our dear, kind friends tend to the babies.
I'm not sure who is looking forward to it the most, but my guess is not Julie and Lee. :) (Not to worry, we'll take them a consolation prize.)

Gotta race off!
We'll prob'ly see you tomorrow.

monday, monday

Today inventory was taken on how things are coming for our holiday gift baskets. I'm feeling like we're in pretty good shape. :)

And we checked in with Tucker the mouse and Chester the cricket, and how things are coming along in Times Square.

We had some telephone and sound experimenting. (Again. I'm telling you , they love this!)

And guitar play.

And started making plans for sledding.

And took two hours to get ready to go sledding. :)
Sometimes all of that is fun. Twenty-five layers of scarves, thermals, shirts, six pair of gloves each for the babies, double layers of socks, homemade hot cocoa..... yeah, sometimes it's a good thing.

There wasn't a lot of snow on the ground, but no matter. It was soooo frozen
and cold
and frosty...
and we played
and discovered


just fine.

There was cocoa
and lots of truths about Physics




and a picnic
and a snowball fight


and running
and playing

and quiet

and still



and screeching

and wahooing
and rest




and loving.



Lots and lots of loving.

Home to a toasty house,
Christmas lights,
and a warm bath.

Candycanes have been hung.

Games are waiting to be played and favorite holly-day shows are waiting to be watched.

Life is so,
so good.

An' prob'ly we'll see you tomorrow.

december six

"Hey do you guys remember Jane Blinkun?"
"Mm-mm," said her Mama, "I've never heard of Jane Blinkun."
"I think she means Abe Lincoln," offered her brother.


He continues to count coins (so that he can go to the video store to get Alvin and The Chipmunks"), "Hey, how come these pennies are brown?"

A couple of hours later I hear "Abe Lincoln, for the last time!"
"Jane Blinkun?" I asked.
"Jack Plinkin."
"At least he's not a girl this time," I consoled him.


We tried something out-- you put an open 2 liter bottle in the freezer for a few minutes (or just outside-- dang it's cold out there!), then pull it out and place a wet quarter over the top of it. As cold air takes up less space than warm, there is pressure to escape as the cold air warms - lifting up the quarter on one side so the excess gas can escape. The coin rises and falls, clicking at the top of the bottle. Sometimes the gas will knock the coin off center, just place it back over the middle, and it will start clicking again, until the temperature is the same as the outside. Pretty cool! And easy to understand.

(This was one of Janice VanCleave's, by the way, from Chemistry for Every Kid. And I'm totally going to enter it in the drawing! - :) -)

The gingerbread men were finally hung up today.

Maddie made sure at least one of them was recognizably a Gril.

And we made a couple of long paper-chain garlands to hang on the tree. Only six hundred more links to go.

There has been lots of Charlie Brown watching. :) Maddie loves it.

And lots of tidying up. Mama loves that.


Trevelyn cooks. Hashbrowns.
And talks about the windpipe, trachea, the blood mobile, esophagus, and how "these hashbrowns don't have much waste, because they're just all natural potatoes." And then gets introduced to fiber. :) (This all happened the kitchen... Mama was in the next room over-hearing.)
Pretty funny.

More letters and lovenotes to friends were written today. Maddie has been writing, and writing.
I think I'll get out the tiles and letters from the Scrabble game tomorrow, and put them in a little basket for the livingroom cabinet - she might enjoy writing some real words.

And lots more guitar play with Daddy, too.

We're good.
And slow-movin'.
:)
Prob'ly we'll see you tomorrow.

so excited!

Hi everyone.

I am so thrilled to tell you that Janice VanCleave


-yes, that Janice Vancleave-
is sponsoring ordinarylifemagic.com!
(Let me just say that I am quite beside myself, friends. Might just put a hole in my floor with my joyful jumpings.)

We're having a give-away of three of her books

-three of her autographed books-

through the month of December.

Wondering what we'll ask you to do?
A science experiment, of course!!

Come over to ordinarylifemagic.com to read all about it!

December Three

Finished up the Compost Tea. (I'm so thrilled to have made something with which to nurture my houseplants!)


beading

moon-walkin' (his Dad is rather good at it, oddly enough)
break dancin',
and then a very fine sashayin' in the kitchen.

helping to clean the den.

Trev learned how to rinse dishes for the dishwasher... and then kept coming back to ask if there were any more dishes to wash yet (being the Good Mama that I am, I told him that he could certainly help me to wash the dishes after we had our fish and potatoes tonight...)

lotion bars - mmmmmm


looked at a beeswax pellet under the microscope (Maddie's idea)
and then a brown crumb that she found on the floor :)
and then a black one.
(Yes, I've vacuumed the kitchen floor already once today.)
(And yes, I vacuum instead of sweeping. Much more satisfying and effectual.)

workings for trimming the tree, again.




My goodness - we must be pretty casual about how we do things around here... this is the first time that I've willingly taken days to decorate the tree. :) (and we're not done yet...)

tv

lights
(the last ones.)

a visit from Grammy

and lots of taking care of business.
Which means Maddie writes invitations to her birthday party (again and still)
phonecalls to a friend (for her Mama)
and working on a superfun project....

We'll see you tomorrow.
Same Bat Time,
Same Bat Channel.

(Well.... maybe not the exact same time....)

a boy's life

"I could be famous over this."
"Yes, you could."
"But the bad thing is that I could have to sign a bunch of contracts."

december two

advent calendar

beads
-again and again and again-

a calculator math game
which led to wanting to check out multiplication problems
which led to "Hey! This is kind of like a video game!"
Which led to "Hey Mom.... 81!"
"Nine times nine."
"Correct! Nine times seven times five!"
"Uh... 315."
"Correct!" And on and on it went.....

more lights up

gingerbread cookies

running (the first time she's even been able to walk since she hurt her leg)

notes

knots

invitations

Sound experiment

the first three chapters of The Cricket In Times Square

painting

pms

annoying Daddy (thankfully it's him and not me)

and I don' know what else.

Let's call it good, shall we?

I have a long, quiet [please?] date with Doctor Watson and Mr. Holmes...

:)
We're still good.
Even though.

December One. Decorated

You know those days when your head just swims?

Hmm... 'tis the season, methinks!

I was just saying to my Aunt a few minutes ago that this time of year is so incredible...
It's amazing how ideas just start to pop and spark and flash and burst from all parts of us and everything around us...whizzz! Goes the everything.
All a poor girl can do is try to keep up.....
(er... and try her best to keep organized....)

So!
Such is my life today.

We started with the magic of the advent calendar.
"Mom. I think today should be all about Decoration!" says Little Son. An omen, to be sure.

Decorated gifts, first.
I tried and tried to transfer some decent (traced) drawings onto puzzles... finally I had success.


Yes, yes. All things like this are being transferred over to olm.com. Hopefully we'll all be used to it, soon.

"Gotta decorate the tree!" say the babes.
"Need candycanes!!"
"Need decorations!"
--About that... a couple of years ago I waited just Too Dang Long to decorate the tree.... and we finally ended up hanging toys on it. Dinosaurs, Star Wars, stuffed animals, etc... and [shudder] we also put up Colored Lights!! In my livingroom!
What? You say. I know.
It's A Me Thing.
I'm sort of a Victorian, matchy matchy, white lights and beautiful bulbs (along with candycanes) kind of girl. I shuddered as an adult at my mother's homemade decorations and toys tree.
Ha! Turned out... (much as I shuddered at Glitter pre-babies) that I happen to like it, now.
I asked the children if they'd like our regular ornaments (let's face it - Mine) this year, or if they'd like toys, homemade decorations, gingerbread, and colored lights this year. They chose to decorate.
So!...
"And the village!"
"And I want icecream!" pipes in Little Madd.
What? Where were we?

Mama makes pretty decorative boxes


while Maddie decorates our lives... with beads.


For her birthday.
For Trevy's birthday.
For Soleil's birthday.
At least Soleil's birthday is this month and not in June.....

To the garage!
Which is also the chapter called In Which We Get The Front Yard Cleaned Of Toys.

(a little tiny woohoo! is shouted out here by the Mama.)

Lights.
The Village.




We're waiting for Daddy to get home,
longing to go window shopping at the toy store,
and dreaming up Gingerbread Men.

Life is beautiful.
And we'll see you tomorrow.