GET OFF THE SHiP

"Sometimes getting lost is the learning.  To do any of that learning, though, you have to first leave the ship.
                                                                                                             ~Patti Digh
                                                                                                             from Life is a Verb: 37 Ways to Wake Up,
                                                                                                                                                Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally

As I pondered life on the eve of my 35th year I decided to pluck Life is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally from the bookshelf.  A gift from my mama last Christmas, it is a beautiful treasure trove of a book. 

The stories in Life is a Verb were written for the author, Patti Digh's, daughters.  She hopes the stories will teach them to live fully in their daily lives.  It is reads more like a workbook than a traditional novel.

I thought today would be a propitious day to do one of the exercises in the book. 

I just randomly flipped through the book and decided on the story titled "Get off the Ship."  

Here Digh describes a learning abroad cruise that she took while attending a university.  The boat was scheduled to make stops in ten ports ranging "from Kobe to Split to Istanbul and Cadiz--and beyond."

During her stay on the boat, she took notice of one student that had yet to get off at any of the ports.  Digh decides to get to the bottom of this woman's hesitance, and targets her while they are docked in  Penang, Malaysia.

After talking with the woman a bit she discovers that the woman was afraid to leave the boat in fear that she might get lost. 

Digh considers her answer and asks "How old are you?"

"Twenty."

She then asks "And what do you think the life expectancy is for woman in the United States these days?

The woman guesses eighty.

Digh cleverly asks, "Do you think you'll stay lost for sixty years?"

They decide to "get lost together" at the next port: Madras, India.

Following each story, is a "37 Days: Do It Now Challenge." For "Get Off the Ship" she challenges you to take your camera or journal and find an object that you feel inspired to photograph or journal about.  She recommends taking at least twenty pictures or writing twenty descriptions observing this object from different angles and light.  

In doing this it encourages us to realizes "Where we 'stand' changes our perspective and angle of vision....How can we change our perspective to see more sides of the people and events in our lives?"

The last portion of each story is labeled "Movement."  It provides ways to stretch these insights into your daily life: 

"For thirty-seven days, be a conscious explorer. Every day, place yourself against new themes: Get lost, take a wrong turn, veer off the path you always take, walk a different path with your dog, read a magazine you would not normally pick up, connect with someone different from you, eat in a restaurant you've never tried...Get off the ship." 
  

Next stop...Venice, or Africa, Portland perhaps?

CHRONiCLES FROM THE MAGIC SCHOOL HOUSE: LANDFORMS

"Too often we give children answers to remember rather     than problems to solve."
 ~Roger Lewin

In addition to having our lessons at home we are a part the creative learning cooperative that meets once a week.  We really love having this be a part of our school week.  This was the first week our coop met  after a long winter break.  It was my week to lead the lesson, and our preselected topic was earth's landforms. 


We start our mornings with yoga stretches and a few BrainGym exercises to turn on their brains.  Then we circle up for a discussion. 


It is funny, you can never predict how these discussions will go, but they were really into today's discussion.  Wahoo!!  We discussed the different landforms (plains, plateaus, volcanoes, mountains, grasslands, valleys, hills, islands, glaciers, etc) and identified them on the map. 

Then, they made their own maps out of clay.  I asked them to include at least four landforms on their projects.  I provided a small piece of cardboard, clay, cedar branches, and moss.
                               
                                                      
 They made the structures first and then we painted them after our lunch break with tempera paint.  They turned out so cute and were very proud of their work. 

If you are interested in making your own  you can find the air dried clay recipe at Our Little Nature Nest.  It worked great for this project!

LiViNG iN A FAiRY WONDERLAND

" About the woodlands I will go, to see the cherry hung with snow.”
                                                                                                                                     ~ A. E. Housman

Today provided another blissful snow day in the Ozark Mountains.  It snowed all morning.  We played outside in it for a while.

I walked down our path a ways, while Violet and Kalin constructed yet another snowman as the snow gently fell around us.

 The woods were ever so magical.  It is amazing to me the many nooks and crannies that the snow reaches.

The birds were at the feeders thankful for our gifts.  We made them some yummy bird treats and filled the feeders to the brim anticipating their hunger. 

This evening as I headed outside to dump our compost.  I was sure that someone had moved in across the mountain.  Where did the new porch light come from?  No, it was the amazing full moon rising over the ridge.  It was completely indescribably huge and bright and made the blanket of snow glitter like a fairy wonderland.

 I do wish that you were here to enjoy this with me.  I can put the tea kettle on, or french press.  Cocoa perhaps?  Which do you prefer?



SNOW DAY AT THE MAGiC SCHOOL HOUSE

        "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
                                                                                                                               ~ William Butler Yeats

Today we woke up with the silence of a light snowfall blanketing our woods.   After a romp in the snow we headed back inside as our home was transformed into the "Magic School House."   We usually go ahead and have school on snow days so that we can take other days off during the year.

 Being a snow day, something fun was in order.  We decided to read Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words: From Accessories to Zany.

 I want to say THANK YOU JANE O'CONNOR for writing such wonderful books that have inspired so many creative and fun home school moments.  I am always looking for ways to "light the fire" of learning.  I feel that the knowledge gained from these moments is the stuff she is eager to remember, and search out after the fact.   

Here's how we made our "Fancy" Word Box:

I gave her a file box that we had hanging around and a stack of 4x6 index cards.  She went to town writing "fancy' vocabulary words on the front and their definitions on the back.

I made a set of A-Z dividers out of colorful card stock, so that she could alphabetize them.

Then she decorated the box in the true "Fancy Nancy" style.  This included lots of glitter.

I also introduced the concept of using a thesaurus.  She loved that we could take an ordinary word and turn it into a fancy and sophisticated word. 

Also for those who have their own Fancy Nancy enthusiasts, her website has a bunch of cute printables for planning your very own Fancy Nancy event.  I think that I may see a Poetry Extravaganza in our future.

RESOLUTIOiONS

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850

                                               

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!

Last year I gifted Violet with a 2010 calender on New Years Day.  I selected  Becky Kelly's Enchanted Little Moments tear-off  calendar that I found at Barnes and Noble.  They always put their calendars on half price the week after Christmas.  Wahoo!!  We really enjoyed the artwork--lots of faeries and woodland creatures.  It was a great way for her to be more interested in the workings of a calendar and the pages were the perfect size to recycle into lunchbox notes.

Anyway, this year I decided to carry on the tradition. Unfortunately, there isn't a Barnes and Noble for like 200 miles around here, and it was too late to order on-line.  I perused the Internet and found a bunch of cute ones on Etsy (you should check those out).  My search continued and I ran across a free one on My Owl Barn.  Jackpot!!    It is an awesome collaboration of artists that have painted the most wonderful pictures of owls. It is also down-loadable, and printable for that instant gratification or last minute timing.

I had it printed and waiting for the first day of 2011!  She loved it.  We are both fans of owls. They are such magical creatures.  We have several barred and screech owls that live in the woods surrounding our house.  Actually, several years ago, I first became aware of our little screech owl friend while feeding our cats.  As I was rationing out the Special Kitty, this scream erupted from the woods. Kalin thought it was hilarious when I came running inside the house proclaiming that we had a panther in our front yard.  (I think the story in Little House in the Big Woods where Pa gets chased by a panther, had stuck with me. )

So, if you are an owl lover head on over to the site and print your very own copy.

Best wishes for the new year!!  Cheers!!!

****Oh yeah!  So my resolution, or well, one of them is to make more time for sewing, sketching, knitting, spinning, felting, and basically all things creative.   I am sure that I did not allow myself enough of that this year.  It is food for my soul.

One of my favorite books is Amanda Soule's Creative Family.  She stresses the importance of making  creative time for yourself and your kids, even when it seems that their are too many other things to do.  I myself have noticed when working with children that there is a certain confidence they adopt upon completing a creative project.  It gives them something they can be proud of.  It is great for adults to!!

So whats your resolution???

HARVEST

This entry is an oldie that I ran across, I just forgot to post it.  Thought you might enjoy!!  Santa brought us Internet way out here in the woods.  I think i might finally be able to keep up with my blog!!  Stay tuned!

"For man, Autumn is a time for harvest, of gathering together.

For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad."

~Edwin Way Teale

Our tomatoes decided to take their sweet time growing this year, so we ended up with an abundance of green tomatoes. What can you do with green tomatoes you ask? Well besides the obvious choice: fried green tomatoes there are other options. My mother-in-law made a big batch of salsa verde substituting the green tomatoes for the tomatillas. I did some research and found this recipe for mincemeat on Allrecipes.com. I love this website. I have found so many good recipes there. We adapted the recipe quite a bit using what we had on hand. It is so tasty!!!!!

                              

If you find yourself with a bunch of green tomatoes hanging around here is the recipe:

Green Tomato Mincemeat

make 15 pints

4 quarts of green tomatoes minced

4 quarts of apples minced

3 oranges

2 lemons

2 cups golden raisins

2 1/2 cups raisins

2 cups crystallized ginger

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 stick butter sliced

1lb brown sugar

2 lbs turbinado sugar

2 tbs cinnamon

2 tbs cloves

1 tbsp cardamom

1 tbsp freshly ground nutmeg

Trim and de-seed the fruit (tomatoes are really a fruit!) leaving the peels on. Then cut them into quarters.

Grind quartered tomatoes, oranges, lemons and apples, in a food mill. (If you did not have a food mill you could whizz in a food processor or mince with a knife. )

Next grind the dried fruit.

Mix these together and add the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into a roasting pan and cook at 300 degrees for 3 hours.

Ladle into sterilized jars leaving about 1/2 inch at the top. Wipe any drips off of the lip of the jar. Then screw on lids and rings.

Place jars in a canning rack. Fill a canner with enough water to cover your jars and heat water until hot but not boiling.

Slowly and carefully lower the rack with the jars into the canner.

Bring water to a boil and can for 10 minutes

As for uses for this said mince meat. Well you can make muffins, layer it between cookie bars, make a pie , add it to a curry, fill little tarlets with it, or spread it on some homemade bread toast. It is quite delicious.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving weekend filled with great food, good conversation, family memories, and grateful thoughts.



The Magic School House Goes on a Field Trip

"Do or do not, there is no try"

~Yoda

Hello friends.

Violet and I went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History yesterday, and had a most magical time. There were some things (samurai armor and the old west town replica) from my childhood visits that I missed, but they have done such a great job of providing children a real hands on experience. I think that is their mission, it really encourages parents to engage their children and play with them.

Upon arrival, I presented Violet with the map and made her the tour guide. She led us right to the Dino Exhibit. This exhibit is very much geared towards children and provides lots of learning opportunities.

Violet was totally inspired and decided to make some sketches in her journal of the Palukskysaurus Jonesi.



We hung out in the Innovation Studios. This place was so inspiring I was ready to move in! From the artistic decor, to the music, to the activities they have available, they totally immerse you in the experience of their museum.



We were constructing a structure with these awesome building straws when I looked up. Can you imagine my delight when one of the quotes dangling from the ceiling was by one of my personal heroes?Yoda!





We spent some time in the Dream Time Exhibit which was a seamless creation of art and science.



The designer, sculptor Warren Muller, uses found objects and junk to illustrate different scientific concepts. There is a beautiful junk sculpture on the ceiling outside the exhibit that is just amazing.

We were so excited to see what awaited around each corner. We had such a marvelous day, and can't wait to go back. Thank you to The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History for providing us with another generation of magic.