Spring arrived today...I think

I sit on my front step, wearing some "spring" capris, rubber boots, sunglasses and a sweater.  It appears my fingers hardly want to grasp the pen, let alone write out the next blog post.  It appears my fingers hardly want to grasp the pen, let alone write out the next blog post, after trying to pound through ice for half an hour.  I hear the music of melting snow all around me - the slow and steady drip to my left, where we've noticed the eaves aren't quite level; the tinkling to my right as water tries to make its way down the downspout; the splashing of tires meeting puddles.  Oh spring, how could I ever have doubted your arrival?

We've been warned that most houses in our city will get some water in their basements.  I gaze around the foundation of the house and notice where the tiniest of puddles are starting to form.  And then I glance at the four feet of snow barring the way to the sewer drain.  The same sewer drain that is under at least 8" of ice, that I've been pounding away at, hoping I'm in the right spot.

Meanwhile, children down the block are playing outside.  I can hear Nicholas' voice from where I sit.  I can see snowballs being lobbed through the air.  I sigh and hope no one gets a mouthful of snow and the play comes to a sudden halt.

I hear Astrin cry inside and hope that means Chris will be up from his nap and out soon to rattle the bones of his upper body while chipping away at the ice covering the drain.  My body could do with an Astrin-speed walk about now.

And now all five of us are together outside.  Placing bets on where that drain is.  Getting advice from the neighbour, who has seen plenty of spring thaws and knows exactly where that drain is.  Watching in horror as melted water from the sidewalk starts to seep, and then pour into the hole that we've been making.  Quickly damming it up with snow, which is still abundant.  Pounding some more and damming again.  Finding a yogurt container to bail the water with.  Hitting what sounds like pavement.  Crestfallen when the water doesn't leave the hole.  Finding the pitchfork, when we fear we will break the ice chipper the neighbour lent us (for we've already broken one today).  Brightening into smiles and celebrating with high fives when the pitchfork pierces through the grating and the water starts to disappear - we were in the right spot after all!  Rushing inside for toothpicks so we can pretend they are boats, and see and appreciate the speed of the current we've created, as water drains from the sidewalk and the street.

 

I feel the need to babysit this hole we've created, and I'm aware I'm likely caring for this sewer drain much like my father would care for the drain by alley at my childhood home every spring.  Shepherding any standing water that will eventually find this drain and ushering it there just a wee bit faster. 

But I am reminded that it is nearing supper time, and the sewer drain will be fine on it's own now.  It doesn't need me.  It just needs the sun to continue to melt the snow.  I come inside to find dripping wet children with dripping wet socks stuck inside soaking wet boots.  We wrap them in towels to dry and warm cold feet, find dry clothes, cuddle the littlest one a bit and wipe her runny nose.  Their cheeks are rosy and their bodies are spent. 

I'm proud of this day's work and that we accomplished something.  This is what I envisioned welcoming spring would look like.  Thank you, spring, for arriving!

A week in pictures

Taking cover during another epic battle in the War of 1812

Playing dress-up with Jaelyn's clothes

Reading duo

Could this puddle mean that spring is on its way?

Have a lovely weekend!

Club Day. The Nature Version.

Hmmm...I do think that spring is making a valiant attempt to arrive here!  The sun felt just a bit warmer and the snow is perfect for snowballs.

With that in mind, Nature Club did a wee bit more to prepare for our pizza garden, by fertilizing and watering our young onion seedlings.

I provided Nature Club with bananas, carrots and hard-boiled eggs for a snack, with instructions to save their leftover peels and shells.  As we cut the banana peels with scissors, peeled the carrots and ground up the egg shells, we chatted a bit about the worms. 

I told them the story of how the ancestors of our worms entered our lives the same year that Jaelyn was born, and how those worms were of the revolutionary variety...meaning that we often found worms who had escaped from their container when we awoke in the morning.  And while we know it wasn't that worms wanted to escape from us but rather the less-than-ideal conditions we had created in their container, we struggled to fix it.  I had nightmares about walking across the floor with worms squishing underneath my feet.

We also talked about gizzards, which the worms use to digest their food.  The eggshells we crushed help them use their gizzards more effectively.

The worms don't escape anymore, thanks to a new container system, which is actually three plastic totes stacked one on top of the other.  The two top totes have holes drilled in the bottom so that liquid can escape.  The lid of the top tote also has holes so that air can circulate.

I'm pleased to see how nice the compost looks like!  I was also pleased at how the Club eagerly dug around among our kitchen scraps, shredded newspaper and worm casing to find some Red Wiggler friends.  Eventually we fed the fellows our snack scraps, then we pulled off the top two totes to see the "compost tea" that had collected.  This stuff is potent, so I demonstrated, using a syringe, how to drop just a bit (5 drops) of compost tea in each of the planter cells, followed by a good watering.  These onions are looking good so far!

With the worms were taken care of and the onions were tended to, we cleaned up our messy hands and made our way out to enjoy that glorious sunshine!

Here's a little poem I found (in case I needed it for the transition from snack to worms).

The Worm by Ralph Bergengren

When the earth is turned to spring
The worms are fat as anything.
And birds come flying all around
To eat the worms right off the ground.
They like worms just as much as I
Like bread and milk and apple pie.
And once, when I was very young,
I put a worm right on my tongue.
I didn't like the taste a bit,
And so I didn't swallow it.
But oh, it makes my Mother squirm
Because she thinks I ate that worm!

Today's learnings

Today I learned...

  ~ How awesome authors can be.  Nicholas decided to write to one of the author's of a book he just finished reading, Silver Dragon Codex.  She, the fabulous Ree Soesbee, responded within hours.  How cool, and gratifying, is that? 

  ~ How valuable self-care is.  After a month (or perhaps more) of living with a stiff neck, and years since a massage, I finally took some time and booked myself in for one.  All the kinks aren't quite out yet, but I haven't had this range of motion for a while. 

  ~ That my two-year-old wants to read to me!  Astrin pulled out a fairy book Jaelyn brought home from the library, opened it up to show me the pictures and words, and told me about how the fairies and "man" (Jack Frost) were mad.  Yes, everyone in that story was mad, even if they were smiling.  So cute.

  ~ Where Chris had hidden all the board games so that Astrin won't pull them out and toss all the pieces around the living room.

  ~ That Jaelyn has gotten really good at math.  I mean really good.  She shared her strategy for subtracting in her head, which, if I understood correctly, means getting one of the numbers to ten, and then subtracting from 10.  I remember having a similar conversation with Nicholas when he was in grade one, and it made my head spin.  And I do like numbers, really.

  ~ That it can be difficult to find simple answers to some questions, like "what is alum" as we embark on a science experiment to create our own crystals.  I'm disappointed that I can't explain why mixing alum and water makes crystals.  It might be one of those questions that gets passed Papa's way.  But I could regurgitate all it's uses, from cleaning water to making bread "whiter" and pickles crisper.  The next time I bite into a crisp store-bought pickle, I'll wonder if I'm eating crystals!

  ~ Where I might go to find more answers to the question, "what do I do with this toddler while I try to focus on the other two children's work?"  Check out Christopherus Homeschool Resources' conversation board.  Check out topic #3.

Club Day. The Birds of Prey version.

Before I get into the details of our adventures in soap carving with the Birds of Prey Club, I must share how interesting the walk to pick up the boys was. 

As usual, Nicholas and Jaelyn ran ahead while Astrin and I walked behind at Astrin speed.  And the things we noticed while we cruised along at Astrin speed.  She stopped to show me "dirty" that was left behind by a car.  She pointed out a piece of garbage that needed to be picked up.  We saw that snow was slowly beginning to melt, despite the temperatures staying substantially below zero for over a week now.  And it looked like the trees were preparing themselves to start budding (though that could have just been some eternal optimism on my part).

Yesterday, I described how we prepared for today's meeting.  There were some things that I wish I would have been more prepared for.  For example, I would have ordered the book, The Inuit:  Ivory Carvers of the Far North, from an out-of-town library branch.  This book was recommended here, and this blogger also provided a link for how to carve a polar bear.  This mama provided some wonderful tips, like using Ivory brand soap and making sure to have a tablecloth of some sort to catch all the shavings.

We got the idea for making our own tools from craft sticks here.  And because my children had so much fun making their own tools, I decided that the Club could make their own tools as well. 

Once the soap came out, I simply gave the Club a few tips, such as that scraping off little bits at a time to ensure the carving wouldn't break or crumble (which we learned the hard way yesterday).  I didn't provide them with any patterns, partly because I didn't think they would use them, and partly because I value providing children with opportunities to explore the given medium and create from their own imaginations.  I did, however, provide them with one resource that we could find at our local library on short notice:  Art of the Far North. 

Lastly, I wanted to get feedback from the Club on what activities they liked the most.  Here's what they shared:

  ~ Puppet making
  ~ Soap carving
  ~ Charades

Prepare and practice

Yesterday I was humming and hawing over what to do for the next Birds of Prey Club.  Nicholas had given me the awesome suggestion of navigation, and my mind was starting to wander with the possibilities...learning how birds navigate the world, particularly when most of them have such long distances to travel...learning how to use a compass and playing some compass games...doing some geocaching...perhaps getting into navigation of earlier times.

But something was holding me back, and I recognize now that it was my own need for order and flow.  My brain's desire for activities to tie to a central theme, and my gut churning because it felt that something in the winter session of the Birds of Prey Club just didn't get wrapped up.  This, of course, is okay.  There was plenty that we didn't get to, partly due to our brief need to bring some self-imposed order to our meetings, partly because of illness, and partly because I lacked energy to do the preparation needed to get to that end point I so desired.  Perhaps I was also reading that the group just wasn't into learning about the potential threats to the Arctic.

Somehow, inspiration came in the form of Inuit art, and opening the possibility of marrying an ancient craft with ancient navigation techniques.  We would briefly explore Inuit culture (including the role of Inuksuks and carvings) and finish with carving soap in whatever form the children chose.

I have never carved soap before, so I headed straight to the internet to learn more.  My first couple of finds made me reconsider the wisdom of this project.  For I saw a gentleman sawing away pieces of soap, and another using what looked like a very large carving knife.  This was not what I had in mind, and panic briefly struck me. 

Fortunately, narrowing down my search to "soap carving with children" provided some much more kid-friendly results, which I'll share tomorrow. 

For today, though, we prepared and practiced.  We brought out some craft sticks and some sandpaper to make some rudimentary carving tools.  We cracked open a couple of bars of soap to see if our tools would work, and to learn some of the hands-on "do's" and "don'ts".

Here's looking forward to tomorrow, knowing that at least the craft part of our afternoon is ready to go.

 

A week in pictures

Just one photo today, as this has been what's been happening in our house all week.  That's right...the War of 1812 rages on.  Luckily, this Lieutenant was only "just grazed" by a bullet.  I love all this play I'm witnessing in our house - I really do.  And it makes me smile to think the re-enactments that take place in and around our home may go on longer than the actual war did. 

Have a lovely weekend!