Science Fair

Yeah! Science Fair time is over. It was a big success, despite worst Mommy. They had fun, they learned a little something. They got to experience the proud feeling of working on, finishing, and displaying a project. Now, I just vow to do better next year. :) I was proud of Rebekah too, that despite being at Jazz band and her private sax lesson until 6:00 and having tons of homework, she decided to attend the science fair too to provide support to her siblings.

Anyway, first up, Julianna's project. For the record, procrastinating Mommy not with-standing, this project was not all done on the same day, it just happens that the days I took the pictures she was wearing the same outfit--she wears it a lot, it eliminates the great pants problem.

Take a peeled apple and cut it in half. Rub that half good with your hands.

Wash your hands.

Rub another half with the clean hands. Put both halves in clean, sealed jars.

Wait a week to a week and a half. Take notes, observe the changes. Now, Julianna washes her hands pretty frequently, so this wasn't as dramatic as it was when I've done it previously. But even still, you can see quite a difference.

The unwashed hands apple half grew dark spots. When we enlarged the photos you can clearly see that it's quite disgusting. The clean-hands apple is on the bottom right. No dark spots. Now, granted, you don't handle foods with dirty hands, let them sit for a week and then eat them, but still, it makes an impression. :)

Next up was The Great Popcorn Experiment. We bought five different kinds of microwave popcorn, popped them and weighed and measured the unpopped kernels to see which brand/kind performed the best.

Both kids had a ball at the Science Fair. There was a great presentation about science by an husband of an old friend. I haven't seen him since Jason graduated from High School. He didn't even know about Jacob and Julianna. It's always funny to see people's reactions in that situation. There they are, adjusting to being empty-nesters, and here we are with a kindergartner and a second-grader, a junior and two grandchildren. The paths people's lives take. lol.

Anyway, he put on a great show, making grape-lightening in the microwave, making light bulbs light up in the microwave, burning candles in the microwave. I wonder if Bob will buy my next microwave when my two little tweedles blow this one up?

Of course, Jacob being Jacob, he managed to be a goober, even at the science fair.



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Tell Me Thursday...

I got an intriguing comment on my Wordless Wednesday post of yesterday from a sight called Tell Me Thursday. They're all about promoting being truly wordless on Wednesdays then telling about the picture on Thursday. I think it's a very fun idea. They profile some truly wordless Wednesday pictures and invite you to participate in Tell Me Thursday, telling about your picture. There's a Mr. Linky at the site where you can link up and post your story about your photo. They do a show profiling the pictures that they have linked to. I enjoyed listening to it. It's two women, interacting, talking about the previous week's participants and stories, then introducing this weeks picture choices. It was interesting. They have good radio voices, they interact well, and it was fun to listen to.

Anyway, they really liked this picture I had posted. I was happy it had caught their attention. This picture instantly brightens my day because it perfectly captures who my hubby is. He's definitely a big kid at heart. I love when he gets the chance to just let any troubles and worries behind and be completely silly. it takes me back to who he was when we met and fell in love. In this picture, we had just finished taking a walk at one of our favorite spots, and had stopped for ice cream. Jacob and Julianna were being silly, as usual, and messing around. Mark got into the action and I love that I captured it. I'll treasure this snapshot of who Mark truly is at heart--he's a fun, goofy, carefree Daddy that loves his family completely.

Wacky Wednesday

Julianna, seeing as how God likes to mix things up and have a chuckle now and then, is our child that breaks the molds. She's honestly not like any of our other children. She's the one that keeps us humble and reminds us we don't know as much as we think we do. She's also, for the record, an incredible child and it honestly fills me with joy to know that there's so much for her to teach me about being a Mommy.

One way that she is so different from our other children is that she doesn't really play with toys. There I said it. I've said it before, sort of, but here I am officially admitting that she's just not interested in toys. (I only cried a little when I wrote that.) Yes, after spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the MOST! AMAZING! TOYS! any little girl would love to play with, I'm finally dealing with the fact that my incredible little girl does not want to play with them--most of the time at least. Another fact about Julianna that I am coming to terms with (yes, she's six, I'm a slow learner), is that she does not like to play alone. I am very comfortable with our decision to send her to half day kindergarten however, I am learning that I need to give her afternoons some direction. (Can I hear a big Duh!) One of the ways I've decided to deal with my little one is to invent and celebrate Wacky Wednesdays. Every Wednesday we're going to do something different--and fun. It may be going to the library and just spending as much time as we want browsing. It might be going to an art museum, or the conservatory, or the mall for a pretzel and some window shopping. Sometimes it will cost money, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it will take a long time, sometimes it won't. The point is to just do something special, out of the ordinary, together, once a week. I've wanted to do this before, but I was really concerned about how Jacob would handle it. I still am. I know he may be jealous. I know this could be opening a can of worms with him, but that's okay. This is what I need to do for Julianna, and I'll deal with whatever fall-out there may be with Jacob when the time comes. Parenting as needed...how's that for a parenting self-help book?

Today, I picked Julianna up from school and told her about our new plan. She was very excited. Before we started our afternoon, I had to go to the music store and pick up some reeds for Rebekah. I thought it was going to be a quick errand before the fun began. In reality, we spent 40 minutes while she tried all the digital keyboards, digital pianos, and drum sets that were on display. She wasn't obnoxious, she just had a ball checking out all the musical instruments. It was very fun to see that side of her. I'm very thankful we had that time, and that I didn't hurry her through it, or prep her that the first stop was going to be a yucky errand before our fun began. Yeah! I did it right, and it paid off in fun for my little one.

After the music store, we went out to lunch, then to the zoo. We had a ball checking out the animals we could see. Actually, one of the most fun things was watching her taking lots (and lots and lots) of pictures. Garbage cans actually captured most of her interest--they were all decorated differently. We had a lot of fun and our afternoon together affirmed that when I sense a problem with my kids and put on my thinking cap to come up with a solution, I do pretty good work. Affirmation, it's a wonderful thing.


One sad mark on our day, as we were leaving, the zoo was sponsoring a job fair. Not a job fair for zoo jobs, but for jobs in our community. There were thousands of people all lined up for their chance to go into the building and talk with potential employers for their shot at a job, any job. The line went on and on, out into the parking lot, with literally constant waves of more people coming and coming as we were leaving. Very, very sad. Julianna definitely noticed it. I think it reminded her of some of the scenes she had seen in the movie Kit. Very sobering, and it did put a bit of a damper on our day, but it was another important reminder to treasure what we have and make the most of it.
By the way, for the record, I hereby acknowledge that all of my children break the molds, all the time, and keep me guessing and on my toes doing my best to be a good mother to all of them.

Fabric.com...a coupon!

So, after my post last week praising fabric.com, they contacted me and offered a coupon for myself and my readers. I've never had that happen before. I have no idea how they even found out that it was on my blog, but evidently big brother (or in this case, fabric.com) was watching. :-)

Fabric.com is offering $5.00 off any purchase, no minimum, until March 2, with the code blog4evermom. I don't get anything out of this, it makes no difference to me if you use it or not, but I wanted to pass it on in case any one's interested.

Silly Daddy :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Meal Plan #48

Science Fair project are done!!! Yippee!!

Monday--Fajitas. mmmmm!
Tuesday--Fat Tuesday--Pancakes, sausages
Wednesday--Noble Pig's Plum Chicken, steamed rice (I heart my rice cooker), sugar snap peas, pot stickers
Thursday--Oven fried chicken, crash potatoes, green beans, wedge salads

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Worst Mom Award

Yes, it's Sunday morning, and guess what? We still haven't started Jacob's science fair project. *sigh* I really do stink at this sort of stuff. Don't worry, I'm fully aware that when he's in high school and he's the one procrastinating, and it drives me crazy, I'll have only myself to blame. ;-)

In my defense, Julianna was sick all last week and that pretty much involved nothing unessential getting done. Then, I've been very busy with some of my favorite people. We were supposed to be celebrating my mom's birthday this weekend. Unfortunately, she's sick and couldn't come, but Jason, Lori, Matt & Lily are in town and we've been having a lot of fun. We babysat last night so Jason & Lori could go out for dinner and to see Hello Dolly. The theater department is putting it on and Rebekah's manning the spot light. Mark and I got a sitter Friday night and went out to dinner and to see the play. We had a great time with our much needed night out and wanted Jason and Lori to have some time together too.

I love getting to spend so much time with Matt & Lily. Matthew slept over last night and, well, we've been pretty silly and cramming as much fun as we can into our time together, unfortunately it's a quick trip and they'll be gone again all too soon. Then it will be time to pay the piper and get down to business.

At least we've come up with a project. I think it's a little weak, but it's been on a lot of science fair project web sites, and it's quick, easy, and most of all, interesting to Jacob. We're going to make a bunch of different kinds of popcorn, including homemade, and see which leaves the least and most unpopped kernals. The real bonus for Jacob? Lots of popcorn to eat. ;-)

Rocking

My little guy has been alive 3145 nights. I've been lucky enough to rock him almost every one of those nights. Sure, I've missed a night here or there--the night Julianna was born, two days when Matthew was born, two days when Lily was born, the seven days Mark and I went away together, the occasional night out with my friends or Mark.

Still, I've rocked him at least 3000 of those nights, and I'm thankful for every one of them.

I have so many memories of rocking him. I remember rocking him when he was a chubby little baby, wishing desperately that stage would last forever. I remember rocking him when I found out I was pregnant with Julianna, much sooner than I would have expected, wondering what had I done, how was I ever going to not force him to grow up too soon with another baby on the way.

I remember rocking him, tears streaming down my face, pregnant, staring into Jason's empty room, missing him desperately. The going joke (which I hated) that Jason's friends and friends' parents liked to tell was that we wouldn't miss Jason when he went to college, we were replacing him. Wrong. I missed him desperately, and I spent weeks rocking Jacob at night with tears streaming down my face missing my boy.

I remember rocking him and Julianna at night and at nap times, rocking, rocking, trying so hard to be everything they both needed. Standing up while holding both of them, laying Julianna down in her crib to sleep, and putting Jacob to bed.

I remember.

I don't know how much he remembers, but I know what he remembers is that love that he felt while we rocked. For that time, every day, whether it was 2 minutes, like it often is now, or 30 minutes, like it often was then, time stops. It's just him and me. We rock, we sing, we whisper, we giggle, we talk. Often, now, that talk turns to Pokemon or Heroscape. We chat about what book he's reading. We talk about what happened during his day. No matter what's going on in our lives, we always stop at the end of the day, and take those few minutes to just be. I know I often spend that time half listening, instead thinking, praying silently, how grateful I am for that time. How grateful I am to God for sending me those two precious last children that we never could have known we would have. My heart literally feels like it's going to burst sometimes with that feeling.

He's 8 and a half now. I don't know how much longer I have to rock my precious boy. Right now it's still very important to him, but I know our rocking time is getting shorter and shorter. One of these days, he'll be in a hurry to get into bed to read, we'll miss a day, then another. One thing I know for sure, I'm really going to miss these moments.

A Special Project

Recently the girls and I went to a fabric store to try and find some material to make Julianna a dress. While we were there, I told Rebekah she could pick out some material and make something if she wanted to. With a little encouragement, she decided to try and make some pajama bottoms. She surprised me by taking the initiative and doing them almost completely on her own. I was really, really proud of her. More importantly? So was she. :)

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Sick...part two

Well, I can now recite word-for-word the four episodes of Frances Sprout is offering On-Demand. Woohoo. I'm pretty sure I could also recite all the High School Musical movies. I know I can't get any of the songs out of my head. Here's hoping she gets better before my brain completely atrophies.

Sick

Poor baby. Fever + Sore Throat + Vomiting = No fun.

Wordless Wednesday

Finding Fabric

Where I live, there used to be several fabric stores. When I sewed for Rebekah I had lots of choices of fabrics and I could always find something that I liked and couldn't wait to sew into something cute and fun for her. The problem was finding time, not finding material.

Unfortunately, a lot has changed in the ten years between Rebekah and Julianna. Several fabric stores in our area have gone under, and our local JoAnn fabrics has undergone an identity change and is no longer predominately a fabric store. If you're looking for craft supplies, cute baskets or scrapbooking, they're great. If you are looking for fabric, it's very hit or miss. It's been driving me crazy because since I got my awesome machine, I've been wanting to do some sewing for Miss Junie-bits. Sadly, I've been unable to find fabric or patterns that I wanted to use. Recently I was able to solve one of those problems.

I happened upon a website called Fabric.com. They do have some type of an associate program, but I am not a part of that and I am receiving nothing to write this post. I just think when I find a great website or company out there, it's nice to pass it on. The internet is wonderful, but sometimes it's hard to find out about the good companies out there.

They have a terrific selection of fabrics, they have good, reasonable prices (great prices on clearance items), they have a good free shipping policy. Using my friend google, I was able to find coupons to use with my orders to make the fabrics even more reasonable. They also participate with ebates.com, fast becoming another one of my favorite websites.

Fabric.com's site is easy to navigate and user-friendly. I have placed two orders now. On my first order, I received an email within a few hours apologizing that two of my fabrics were no longer available. They were on clearance, I understood that was a possibility. What I really appreciated was that they gave me the opportunity to choose other fabrics as part of that order and applied the coupon I had used on those fabrics as well. There's a lot of communication from the company so you know where your order stands every step of the way. My order was ready to ship just a few hours from my reselection and arrived promptly, even though I had taken advantage of their free shipping offer. I received 10 yards of fabrics, shipped to my door, for less than $40. That's a real bargain.

As can happen with internet purchases, when I got my order, I was less than thrilled with two of my selections--actually, more like "what was I thinking???". I wasn't terribly upset, because the overall prices had been such a bargain. Still I called the company's toll-free number and they immediately offered a store credit or a refund, my choice, and told me to keep the fabrics to use for practice or to donate somewhere. Wow! I certainly hadn't planned on that. They have a wonderful no-hassle return policy and they even pay return shipping.

At this point I can't say enough positive things about this company, and if you find yourself in a similar situation, lamenting the dearth of quality, attractive fabric choices available in your area, I urge you to check them out. I always try to buy local, but in this case, that option is not available to me, and I'm thrilled to find a great alternative.

I'm thinking this will make a great neckstrap cover for my camera.

Sundresses for Julianna

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Help! Science Fair Hell

Jacob and Julianna want to participate in their school's annual science fair. Those words, even as I type them, strike fear into the depths of my soul. I am no good at science. I am not interested in science. I am terrible at science. I scored a perfect score on the ACT portion of the exam that measured social sciences and a not so impressive score on the part that measures physical sciences. In short, science is not me.

I don't want my kids to grow up to be like me. I try to fake it. I really do. Julianna's entering an experiment that compares what a chunk of apple looks like that has been handled by clean, washed hands, verses unwashed hands. We did this when Rebekah was about her age. It's pretty amazing...and gross. So, Julianna's well taken care of.

Jacob? Not so much. I can not come up with an experiment that thrills him. He'd like to build an underwater volcano, or a baking soda/vinegar volcano. The problem is, with the underwater volcano, it requires hot water which we would not have access to on science fair night, it's pretty much a one-shot experiment, once you've done it, it's done. It does demonstrate that hot air rises, but...yawn. The other volcano experiment appeals to the messy little boy in him that would like to blow things up. Yes, we can make a volcano and fill it with baking soda. He can make it erupt by pouring vinegar into it, but...so what? What does that show? It certainly doesn't have anything to do with a real volcano. I'm stuck.

I need help. Because I am an awesome mom, I have procrastinated and procrastinated and we're really getting down to the wire on this one. Does anyone have any terrific science fair projects that are quick and easy, use basically household materials, how something to do with actual science--answering a question or demonstrating a scientific principal, that can actually be done in a week? Much appreciated.

Meal Plan 47

Monday--??? I'm being 'fun mom' today to make up for the last snow day when we worked, worked, worked. :)
Tuesday--Lasagna Style Baked Ziti, broccolini
Wednesday--Salmon patties, (chicken legs for Julianna) wheat noodles, creamed peas
Thursday--Challah french toast

I'll figure out the weekend when it gets closer, we're having my parents and Jason & Lori to celebrate my mom's birthday.

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A chuckle

Jacob and Julianna were talking while Jacob was cleaning his room. They were talking about a new book Jacob just got, The Fantasy Encyclopedia, (Jacob's brought this book home every time he has library at school from the beginning of the year, I found it online for $3.30, so I bought it for him). Julianna was asking lots of questions and Jacob was answering her and they were having a great time.

I overheard Julianna ask Jacob "What is an encyclopedia anyway"?

Jacob struggled with an answer and then finally said, "It's a book where you can look things up...it's like Google in a book".

That made me chuckle. It's so funny how technology has insinuated itself into our lives without our even realizing it.

Valentines

I've been browsing a new blog lately, Skip To My Lou, and found these adorable valentines. Julianna and I had a ball making them. I realize you're probably all set for this year, but if you're not, or if you're really organized and looking ahead to next year, check these out. Very cute, very easy, and a very big hit in Julianna's class today.

Funk

I'm in a funk. Sorry. I know I haven't been around much. Things are going along all right, but it's also hard right now. Mark's mood is difficult. I don't blame him. I know it's a horrible time to make your living in sales. I just wish there was a way he could leave work, and it's accompanying bad mood behind when he comes home at the end of the day. He says he needs time to get over it, and then he'll be fine...alrighty, that seems reasonable. However, evidently it's a Mars/Venus thing. He says he needs time, I think take a hot shower, take 30 minutes whatever, apparently to him 'time' means more like days. I seriously wonder how people's mental health survived during the great depression. The stress, the moodiness, the tension. It's hard on the grown ups, it's really hard on the little ones.

Things aren't awful or anything, but it's not a whole lot of sunshine and roses either. One piece of good news we got is that we're getting a tax refund. That was very good news. We're going to take a little piece of it and go ahead and go to Lakeside this summer. We weren't going to--with the economy, worrying about college, the list goes on and on. Still, when we saw we were going to get a refund, we decided to go for it, albeit as cheaply as possible. I think we just feel so acutely the passage of time, it's very sobering to realize Rebekah does not have many more family vacations left with us. We're going to definitely savor the few we have left.

The collage is the best I've got for Photostory Friday. There's a little bit of the Pinewood Derby--not a lot because I managed to delete the folder from Picasa that held those precious memories. There's pictures from Rebekah's solo and ensemble contest--she did great. So proud. There's photos from our walk in the park last week and from the ice cream parlor that followed. There's photos from the Family Fun Night and the cakewalk--SO! MUCH! FUN! At least when you're 8 and 6. It may have taken them all night, but by golly they both won one.

Another thing contributing to my funk? I got multi-focal contact lenses yesterday. That's fancy speak for I am officially OLD. *sigh*


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The easiest cookies...

Our Family Fun Night at school was held recently. One of the things I volunteered to contribute was cookies. Since I know they always run out of cookies, I try to send a lot. I also personally try to send in something homemade. I think it makes it a little more special than the store bought cheapies. Still, I don't want to break my bank or spend days making dozens of cookies.

These Funfetti Cookies are the perfect answer. They're cheap, they go together pretty quickly, and it's easy to make a double batch. I made 72+ cookies start to finish including dishes in way under an hour and for less than $5. Perfect.

They also make a Valentine version of the cake mix that would be fun for class parties.

Meal Plan #46

Whoosh! Another week flown by. I know, I'm old, time flies, what can I say? :)

Last week, dinner was a bit late, and I was frantically flying around trying to get things on the table. Julianna kept coming in and telling me how HUNGRY she was. I offered her some broccoli and ranch while she waited. She ate a whole bowlful then ate more with dinner. It's a really good thing I gave birth to these children, otherwise sometimes I'd question if they are really mine. ;)

Monday-- Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salads
Tuesday--Stuffed Peppers, wheat baguette, tossed salad
Wednesday--Lasagna Style Baked Ziti, broccolini
Thursday--Salmon patties, (chicken legs for Julianna) wheat noodles, creamed peas
Friday--Crockpot Pepper Steak, white rice, pot stickers (I'm addicted! These are DELICIOUS!)
Saturday lunch--
Saturday dinner--Spaghetti w/Oven Baked Clams, caesar salad, bread
Sunday lunch--crockpot chicken sandwiches, broccoli rice casserole, baby carrots
Sunday dinner--Challah french toast


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Best Friends

From time to time over the years, in order to help make ends meet, I have done in-home childcare. Occasionally, the situation is an excellent fit and a really special relationship is born. When Julianna was about a year and a half, I started watching, very part-time, a little girl almost her exact same age. I continued watching her once in a while over the next year or so, whenever her mother had a doctor's appointment, or needed to do something alone. A couple of years later it turned into a more regular, but still part-time, situation. When the girls were three and four I watched this little girl several days a week, and Julianna and this little girl formed a very solid friendship. This year, circumstances changed, and I no longer watch this little girl. The girls aren't able to get together as often as before, and sometimes long periods will go by where they don't see each other. I can't tell you how gratifying it is to see that when they are able to get together, it's like they've never been apart. If anything, their bond has only strengthened. I hope it's like that for a long, long time.







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