Finally...some pics!

Work and Play at Home (and Elsewhere....)

Last week, my Girl Scouts made "Pillows of Hope" for kids in Haiti. The one to the right is an old T-shirt of mine that got a bleach stain on it, so I donated it to the cause. The girl that made this T-shirt is the only one to complete hers thus far (even mine & my daughters aren't done!) In fact, this girl made two! Good Girl, "G".

High Tea-Time

A few days ago, I was making a cup of  Green Tea "purple oxidents" - fortified with Grapeskins, Rooibos (Red Tea), Anthocyanins & Vitamin C. The Princess made a cup of regular green tea. Next thing I know, she's dumping the tea pouches out onto a napkin and seeing how much moisture the napkin absorbed. We then noticed how different the tea leaves of the two looked. That led us to opening up a pouch of Dandelion Tea (didn't mind wasting that one!) and regular tea as well. Quite interesting!

Speaking of dandelion tea...

To tell the truth, that is about THE WORST tasting tea I have ever had!

Now that I got that out....I have been studying everything to do with camping, since that is my new obsession. This led me to boondocking, or camping for free. There are many state lands that let people park for free or very little. There is often no water or electrical hook-ups.

Some people really get into it (like I know we would) and search out foods found in nature. Very interesting subject. I think I may get a book on the subject to study (just like the tea leaves, a lot of plants look similar, but different).

That would expand on the tea experiment, and we would learn before we venture out camping. It can also ride along in the trailer to have info on hand.

Tech Tub

The Girl Scouts have several "tech tubs" available for troops to borrow. We borrowed the "engineering" tech tub. We started on it this week. Look at this thing! I thought it would be a little bin- it took up most of my backseat! It is so cool, and the Princess could do some of these on her own here if she wants.

One of the experiments was "Toxic Popcorn". The girls had one tub that said "safe" and one that said "Toxic". We dumped popcorn kernals into the Toxic bucket, which was in the middle of a big circle (forgot dimensions right now). Using only a tire tube (only 1) and a 7+ ft piece of rope (per girl), they had to pour the popcorn into the Safe container. They weren't supposed to step in the circle, and the Toxic bucket had to be in the circle.

They did it, but a few of the girls got mangled and mutilated by the toxic waste when they forgot and stepped into the circle! It was really fun. Before that, they had played a game that teaches the different types of engineering jobs.

There are several more cool experiments, which should keep us busy for a few weeks.

Toothpick City II- Temples and Towers

Yesterday, the Princess did her interview with the Stan, the toothpick man (forgot to ask him if he minds me calling him that!) He is a pretty cool dude. I'll put the link here for the online version when it comes out (in March). In the meantime, visit his site at: http://www.toothpickcity.com/.

After that, we grabbed a sub at Subway, then went to the library. I was trying to find a book on Boondocking- no such luck here in the Boondocks (Ha-Ha!). The Princess got one of the Twilight books- I think the second one. She's been reading it like crazy- yeah vampires!

I have a new student I'm seeing this afternoon at the library- I'm a Literacy Volunteer. The Princess will either go visit her homeschooling friends, or browse around the library, play games on the computer, etc...

One of our new fave ways to learn...

Are you smarter than a 5th grader (um...no, I'm not!) and Cash Cab (I LOVE this show!) Check 'em out!

Anyhoo, gotta go!

The Princess sure does keep busy!

The Queen (of course!)
The Princess shuns the Queen!

This morning, the Princess made herself some breakfast. then she started HER OWN blog (hmph!). It is about babysitting. She has attempted a website about babysitting, but because you have to have so much content at once, I think she was overwhelmed (like I am at my site!). With a blog, you can post a sentence, paragraph, or whole story each time you post.

Great News!

The Princess is going to  be interviewing Stan, the toothpick man ( as I call him!) in early February! For those of you who didn't see the Toothpick City, check out Stan's site at: http://www.toothpickcity.com/. I think she will really enjoy it. She talked to him a few weeks ago when she was at the museum with her aunt. We also got some pics when we went Friday. My camera is being stupid, so only a few pics came out. Check it out HERE.

Later, The Princess found some OLD computer paper, the kind that where each sheet is attached with a perforated line where you can separate it. She decided to draw the solar system. She dragged out some of our science materials. One thing was the book I bought at the museum Friday.

Golden Child, the Princess' 18 yr old brother (graduating in June from PS) came out and started flipping through the book. Before you know it, we were all so interested in all the stuff in the book. We came to a page about rocks, which then had me getting the fossils.

When we bought our property, it was all woods- and BOULDERS-BIG BOULDERS! And tons of rock, stone, etc...We spent tons of time digging the boulders out so we could have a yard. In the process, we've found many fossils, mostly with small shell imprints. Others look like leaves or "ribs" of something small imbedded in the rock. Once, I'm pretty sure I found an arrowhead. I handed it to a kid I was babysitting, and told him to hang on to it. What does the kid do? Tosses it into the woods!

That was almost 12 years ago, still no arrowhead :-)

Golden Child just ran down to his school. They have regents today and he had none so he had the day off. One of our "fossils" looked like a bone. He took it to his science teacher (just got back)- the teacher thinks it's a kneecap from a dog or something like that. We do have coyotes and wolves in the area.

Bad news, he went to get it back and dropped it. It broke into a bunch of pieces.

Right now, I have a skeleton of a (?) chipmunk I found in the yard. It's in a box waiting to be put back together.

Ok, enough eeby-jeeby stuff.

Later at Girl Scouts, the girls are going to make "hope" pillows for kids in Haiti. I'm bring in all of my material, ribbon and whatever. We have to run to the craft store and get more needles and thread and a few other items.

I'll try to get pics today- providing there's anything to get a pic of and that the camera works! I figure it may take a few weeks to complete the pillows. I would like to send a number of pillows, and we only have 4 girls.

So, the Princess has done some writing, artwork,science, geography, home economics and more today..........

And it's only 12:47 p.m.!

Later!