wax

Samuel asked me what wax was and we looked it up
Did you know?

I was finally able to finish knitting a doll for Eva and am happy to say she turned out lovely. Eva loved her so much and put a barrette in her hair and made a necklace for her. She told me she didn't care what she looked like and that it was only important that I knit her. So of course I gave her the doll when I finished and did not save her for Christmas, which had been my original intention. That, and the fact that I am going around finishing up projects (or ripping them out entirely) so that I can have a fresh plate for the New Year. Every New Year for the past several years I have gone around and tossed any lists I find (to-do, to-get, to-be, to-read...) and I am also now trying to finish things up. Some of the unfinished projects are not a bother and others really keep me from moving on. The doll is finished! And I am sad to say that my camera died yesterday so there will be no picture forthcoming, at least not in the near future.

We got our turkey for Thanksgiving today at the market!

Oh, and I made this awesome soup with the kabocha squash from my produce basket. I cooked the squash (and removed the seeds, etc after it was cooked), sauted leeks, garlic, one potato, added cooked squash, two cups broth/water and thyme from the herbs out back and some wild rice/brown rice. It was amazing. You could blend it all up and then add the rice or leave the potato and leek chunks, which I chose to do because I have had several pureed soups of late.

No picture today. Today's picture would either have been of the leaves, which will soon be raked again, or the new baby doll, all pink and purple with braids and a pink barrette bow in her hair.

Oh and I think I am going to knit some of these leg warmers for Eva, who is in need of warmth!

Eva made a fancy tree for her little guy Gilbert. It is a pipe cleaner tree and she decorated it with pon poms and some sticky molding stuff I can't remember that name of. She was asking me just now if I knew about Turkey Trees for Thanksgiving, so of course I said, no, I don't know about those. Apparently, there are these turkey trees that you can buy in stores. They grow the trees and then they put cooked turkey on the trees and on Thanksgiving you can just eat the turkey right off the tree. Something new every! single! day!








Rain on one side of the house and not the other; tea time for snowy owl

Eva and I made cupcakes today. She has been asking for days now it seems. The whole time she helped add ingredients and mix things up, she wore her purple crown, lip stick, and plastic high heel princess shoes. I tried to get a picture of the shoes but my camera battery died. Maybe you can imagine how cute that is? And a little precarious too.

We found The Force Unleashed for the wii yesterday to rent and Samuel finished it today. He is just loving it, although I think he was surprised that he was able to finish it off so quickly. I know I was surprised. Not sure if it will be on his Christmas list or not as this point.

overheard-
lego guys talking to mermaid barbie- "wow, you are really big! You are almost as big as Samuel. You should really meet our friend Samuel. But come to think of it, you are not quite as tall as Samuel. You are more like..."
mermaid barbie talking to lego guys- "medium size?" (wry grin)



(it is like a little halo on top of Eva's head- must be the mermaid singing she has been up to)

woo wii

So a good friend of Matt's gave him a wii for is 40th birthday last week and last night they set it up. Samuel was so excited!! We are now a wii compatible household. And obviously today we are going out to find some more games to play on the new addition.

what kind of title for this day

We spent some time at the park today with friends. This particular park has a large gathering of ducks, geese, gulls and other birds (a crow nearly flew off with a bag of chips!). Now, at some parks with water and birds, there are signs up cautioning against feeding the "waterfowl" lest they become overly aggressive and to be honest, used to being fed. This park had no such sign and when we arrived at the park, we were greeted by a large procession of geese and ducks, letting us know in no uncertain terms that they were OK with being fed. In fact, they expected it. Nicole and Esme brought cracked corn to share so that everyone could take part in the feeding frenzy.



eva feeding so many birds



here they are following us across the bridge. we are like the pied piper of geese. and this white goose and samuel took a liking to one another.



I liked this fancy guy who walked around upright. This is Samuel's new Playmobil guy. He told me his story when we got home. As it turns out, this particular guy made a deal with the pirate devil (a sort of pirate faustian tale). In the deal, pirate guy got eternal life but he forgot to ask for eternal youth (ah the short sightedness of youth). Then he was stranded on an island and he will remain on the island, aging forever. You can see he is already quite aged. He is practically a skeleton. And Samuel said to check out his eyes. They are crazed! Aren't they crazed?



and i have mentioned how much eva enjoys making dolls. this doll is on her finger. she has gum for hair and a little flower in her hair; marker eyes. a little out of focus because she dances and sings as well (while you photograph her!).

Among unschoolers there is much discussion about how much limiting should be done with things like television, video games, candy. The three main vices that parents worry about (for younger kids, at least). I wrote this on a local unschooling list that I am on in response to a question about setting limits on these three-

"Seems like a lot of the discussions I've heard about letting kids set
their own limits focuses on older kids and teenagers, and I'm wondering
if people let their kids decide all these things from the very
beginning, or if they started them out with some limits and let them
take over more decision making as they got older"

I wanted to add that yes, I did start when my kids were very young. They are now still young, 81/2 and 5 1/2 and we have the same kind of scenario that Jenny described. Candy left after a couple of days, kids jumping up from the TV to play a game together that was inspired by the TV and no one flinches when I turn it off. When we talk about allowing kids to set their own limits, there tends to be this image of a small child sitting alone in a room with a bag of candy and the TV blaring, some sort of summer vacation gone awry, no one venturing outside and no one eating an apple, ever. But what really is going on is there are respectful adults around who are loving and care about the children and offering support. I wouldn't suggest giving your child his or her own limits if you are only going to sit on the sidelines and say over and over "this will never work. I don't believe this will work." You have to let go of that kind of thinking- I mean really let go of it. No eye rolling. No "I told you so's"- not to a child, a husband, a wife. Try it out. That's what we're talking about here. Really trying it out because it feels good to you and you trust that it will be OK. My experience has been that if you don't believe it will be OK, it probably won't.

Not to say that I don't have issues with some of these things. I have learned a lot from approaching things from this perspective of trust and support and continuing to work at it from this point of reference. That is what I am suggesting because it is all a work in process.