Raising Roots

My friend Kelly at thecentsiblelife.com asked me to do a post about dealing with sick kidlets, and she posted it today!!! Wow!! So welcome to new visitors!!

Here’s a link to the post on Kelly’s site

(I’m still not writing as much as I want to… I find myself thinking of things to write, but never actually do it… how do you get past that?)

A friend of mine (thanks Char!) suggested that I start blogging about children’s literature, so I’m adding a day per (hopefully) week to discuss books for kids.

The problem is, Miss is a voracious reader.  She’s reading stuff 4th graders and older read.  I love that she is a bookworm.  The problem is that I’m used to sheltering her from things that aren’t appropriate for her age.   She watches little to no T.V.  She doesn’t get to wear dresses sized for 7yos but designed for 16yos (much to her dismay)  She also doesn’t get to read Harry Potter, which is a great book, but she’s 7. Harry Potter, which is one of my favorite books, is not written for a 7yo.  I tell her she has to be 10, but I might bend at 9.  There are lots and lots of other books out there that she *could* read, but the content isn’t written for her age.  It’s SO hard to find age appropriate content at her reading level.  I know some other mamas out in the interworld are having the same problems, so Mondays I will strive to introduce books that I think are at her reading level, with interesting storyline, and appropriate content.

This week’s book is called Ginger Pye.  It’s by Eleanor Estes and was written in 1951.  I’ve found that most books written in the 40’s and 50’s are good for a 7yo to read.  There’s no adult content, no real violence.   This book is rated ages 8 and up (most books published these days will say on the back bottom left corner what the age range is).  The basic plot is 2 kids, Jerry and his sister Rachel Pye buy the world’s smartest dog, who is stolen, and they spend much of the book having adventures and looking for the dog.  The idea of having your dog stolen can be upsetting for a sensitive reader, but rest assured, there is a happy ending.

I’m not sure if Miss will actually enjoy reading this book.  She’s very much into Star Wars these days, and likes to read books that have much more adventure and battles than Ginger Pye has.  I’d like to tame that part of her just a little bit, so I’m putting this on her “try it” list.   It’s just over 300 pages long, with pictures here and there throughout the book.  When she gets around to reading it I’ll let you know what she thinks, but for now I’d say it’s a good book for a 7yo to read to herself.  It’s also a good parent reading story, if you read a chapter a night it’ll take exactly 2 weeks to get through it.

If you read it, let me know what you think!!

Miss and I have no idea why this is an important day, but this evening we took the opportunity to try some new foods.  Miss has always had some food issues, weird textures and strong or strange flavors are awful for her, and trying new foods has been, until recently, a HUGE struggle.. now it’s just a small struggle.  It helped that we made the time to cook Quesadillas together.  We made hers first, plain cheese, and then mine, which had tomatoes, onion, and chicken.  We also made guacamole and Miss cut up some cucumber.   The amazing thing was that she ate half a cuke slice!! and took a bite of a diced tomato (a teeny tiny bite)  It was a fun evening of cooking and we listened to some brazilian music to try to set the theme:)     Did you do anything interesting tonight?

grating cheese

cutting cukes

Miss's dinner

My dinner (veggies inside the Quesadilla)

Dessert, AKA Bribe-for-trying-something-new 2 of those are mine:)

Supergeek and I have been working SO hard lately to get ready for 2 things.  First, this coming weekend (in 6 days!! YIKES!!) is his 20 High School Reunion. We’re hosting a thing on Saturday night… it’s been a great push to get the downstairs and outside cleaned up a nice looking.  Second, we’re serious about getting a smaller house closer to Miss’s school and want to get the house on the market as soon as we can.   My new favorite thing?  FREECYCLE!!!!   I post an offer, and someone  (sometimes many someones) says they want it, and then they come and get it.  It keeps stuff we don’t want and can’t sell out of landfills (and out of that giant dumpster that is sitting in front of the house). It’s amazing how fast people will come and get things!!  It makes me want to just keep listing stuff!!  I’m totally in love with it!!   This is yet another in a long line of steps toward simplifying our lives.  Getting rid of the stuff, getting out of the big house, getting into a smaller space.  We truly believe that it will make us happier people, and a happier family, and teach Miss about what is really important… not the stuff, but the love… (awww.. that was SOOO sappy!!!)

A few weekends ago we had a very VERY rare free Saturday… No Farmer’s Market, no Rehearsals….  and Miss had just finished a fairly rough week at school (another rarity), so we decided to do a family day and go to the Maryland Science Center.  Miss had no idea where we were going and was thrilled when she figured it out, and discovered all the wonderful things there are to do at this place!  She spent a great deal of time being a paleontologist.  We saw a movie about rainforests, which tied in nicely with what her class was working on at school.  There was also a special program going on that day about the newly dwarfed planet Pluto.  They got to do special projects that dealt with the planet, a new probe going out to visit pluto, and some other fun things.   Miss thought it was a super wonderful day.  Super Geek and I thought it was a very easy day trip, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

We came home from FLA to 40 degree weather and lots of rain.. but the other day the sun came out, and today it’s about 70 degrees out!!!  Miss has been off for Spring Break this week too, and has only wanted to be outside all day… we’re currently at Gymnastics, and she didn’t want to come because she wants to be outside!!  The forsythia are starting to peek out, the crocus and daffodils are waking up… It’s lovely to see the earth renewing itself!!  

Last week Miss and I went with BeeMa to Naples, FLA.  It was not the warm sunny spring break we were hoping for, but we had a great time with family.  Miss actually got into the Pool 3 times, the temp of the water was about 60 degrees!!!  Some of the fun touristy things we did was to go to the Naples Zoo, which is always fun (remember to see the shows!!) and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  We didn’t see much at Corkscrew this time (we go every time we’re visiting Naples) but we did see some Swallowtail Kites-4 of them- flying around and around, and 2 alligators!!   We also took a day to go see a Miami U baseball game, which was seen through a book by Miss.   Mostly though, we hung out with Yaya and Haz, and 2 really fun teenage cousins.  Here are some pics of the trip… a movie might appear once I figure that particular part of blogging out:)

"watching" the baseball game

Ocelot during one of the Zoo Shows

Spider Monkeys

Feeding Funny Ducks

Wild Raccoon looking at us in our "cage"

Ok, this doesn’t really count as a Work IN Progress, but it was in progress, so here it is:)

Right before xmas, I attempted a Twirl skirt.  Without a pattern.  I’ll post a pic and a blurb later… It wasn’t as twirly as I’d intended, but Miss loved it, and it was great practice.  For her birthday, my star wars obsessed girl had picked out 2 different stary sky fabrics, and I decided to look at a pattern, and go from there.  I used a pattern from Youcanmakethis.com , which has lots of cute patterns, for all sorts of purposes. I read it, and then just did my own thing.  The pattern was a great guide to get me started.  I measured, counted, and cut once, and ended up with a third more strips than I actually needed (must brush up on my math!!) did my second ever gathering stitch, and succeeded in making a totally awesome twirl skirt.   To make the outfit even more adorable, I found some fuse stuff for ironing on applique, and cut stars with my Sizzix die cutter, made Orion and the Pleiades on a shirt, and crocheted a pair of legwarmers (again, without a pattern, they came out slightly different, but adorable)    So here’s the result, Miss loves it, and wants to wear it all the time…  I’ve got a new skirt for her in the works, and it might turn into a dress if I’m feeling daring:)

(this post was written last month when the northeast was hit by 2 blizzards in as many weeks… crazy weather!!)

Wow.   The area I live in (Philly Burbs) has had more snow this season than in any other winter on record.  There’s no thaw in sight, and right now, as I type, more snow is falling.  Fortunately this should only be 2-4 inches, not 20.   When Miss went out after the second

big snow, it was up to her waist.  

Amazing.  It brings back memories of when I was 4, and there was a HUGE snow (but not this much) but it was super deep for a 4yo, and my dad shoveled a path from our house to our next door neighbors’.  It took me 15 minutes to walk the path though, because he made it twist and turn and wind through both yards.  I couldn’t tell because it was over my head.

This year SuperGeek and I made a sled track in the front yard.  The yard goes down to the street, and we wanted to make sure the kids sledding wouldn’t end up in the road.  Miss and the neighbors had so much fun sledding.

Hours and hours of fun!!

School’s been cancelled since Wednesday last.  Some of our Snowed In activities have been making smores,

making Maple Candy,

taking care of Ms Meow,

having a little more screen time than usual.

Movie nights and dinner and breakfasts in bed…  and lots and lots of sledding.

(Oh dang… I was trying to upload a video…  something for my list of things to do..  If I figure it out, it’ll be here:) )

I’ve been remiss in posting lately.  I found that I’d write up a post in textedit, intending to post it later, and then forget about it, or not have a picture, or something… since we’re on vacation this week, I’m taking some time to get everything posted, and will add to posts as well… I’m hoping to really get better at this posting thing!!!

This was written in early January…

Miss’s birthday is coming up (have I mentioned that yet?) and last year I made her a simple Birthday Crown, with the intention of adding a new part every year, until she’s so old that she feels silly wearing it (and I might make her wear it anyway!!) I hadn’t seen it in months, and worried that I’d lost it, and would need to make a new one, but during a decluttering session a few days ago, it magically reappeared!  Yay!!  The big question is, what to put on it?  Miss is going to be 7.  I can’t believe it.  She has SO many favorite things, I can’t choose just one… Maybe I’ll take her list of favorites from New Years and see if I can figure something out.. Time is running out!!

(this part added today, March 9)

So, After the joy of finding the crown, I decided to attempt a few different things, one for each year.  I was going to put a little hand, for learning Sign Language, a little foot, for learning to walk, but didn’t get to it.. maybe next year.  I did add a book, which will get a head reading it next year (for learning to read), a rose (her fav. princess story was Sleeping Beauty when she was 3), a butterfly (we helped raise butterflies for a local butterfly house when she was 4), a star (she loves Star Wars and anything space), and a tree with a tire swing (her favorite pasttime).  It was a big hit on her birthday, and she insisted on wearing it all day at school, and upside-down at her party…  Here’s the final (or current) version.