Techno Thursday

Totally faking it at 7pm on Friday!  He wasn't even at his desk when I went upstairs but insisted that he must be positioned correctly.

Not sure what he's doing with the calculator, probably something intellectual like trying to write rude words with the complicated, scientific function buttons.

The Reading Rabbit

Hurray for Rose.  This week she brought home a certificate for doing 50 nights of home reading.

At our previous school she only brought home 1 book per week, here we have 1 in both English and French every night.  Some nights its hard work but we have been diligent and Rose's reading has improved tremendously.

Actually, I've just realized that means we have read over a hundred books at home since September.  Blimey, no wonder I'm tired.

The Fort

I think I've been suffering from anxiety because I didn't post this stuff.  First I dreamt that Jacob was the master of time and space kid from Heroes Reborn, then yesterday night I was touring the country in a van with Jacob and a big black Alsatian doing Caribou gifted math tests.

So without further ado (while I stand in a corridor waiting for his guitar lesson to be finished) here are the pics of his snow fort that I took on Friday.

Well I hope that sorts my head out and I get a proper sleep tonight.

Techno Thursday

This week I've gone for a different angle so you can see the current set up in all its duel monitored glory.

I suggested sitting up and smiling but he said that that isn't the point of Techno Thursday so this is what you get.

As promised here is a typical everyday scene in the playground at school pickup time right now.  Rose is the one resplendent in Aqua at the top of the slope in the bottom right hand corner, Jacob is around the other side of the building defending his fort (picture to be provided tomorrow).

It happened to be snowing big clumps of perfect snowflakes so I tried to take a snap of them, it was tricky as they were melting on my glove before the camera had focussed properly but you can see a couple here I think.

Ooh it's Cold

But not as bad as last year to be fair.

Temperatures have been dropping to -10 so while I have been worrying about slaloming all over the roads on the way to and from guitar lessons etc Rose has been traumatizing about her neck warmer being too small.  So here's a new one, knitted by yours truly out of leftovers.

I've not let her out in that particular outfit.

I'm putting lack of blog posts last week down to the cold and extreme tiredness brought on by doing the school run in snowboots, excessive snow shovelling and standing around the schoolyard after hours watching the kids sledging.  If I can get my hands out of my gloves long enough I'll take a photo of that last bit tomorrow.

Block of the Month

Quilt stores over here have a great marketing scheme called 'Block of the Month'.  Each year they come up with a design, you pay a monthly subscription and they give you a pattern and each month send you the materials for a block.  It's great for their cashflow and it's a really good way of buying quilting fabric which is quite expensive if you pay up front for a whole quilt's worth.

Anyway, I'm not doing one.

Well I am, but not like that, I just stole the name.

So to get on with it I'll tell you a sad story.  On December 17 2013 I sent off for this fabric bundle to make a 70th birthday quilt for Dad.

Needless to say, when it arrived several weeks later it was hastily shoved into the bottom of a box with no plans ever to remove it.

I have decided that this year I will make the quilt as a sort of monthly act of remembrance and contemplation, I think I'm ready to do it now in a positive way.  I'm going to go with the design I had originally planned based on Elizabeth Hartman's Birdbath quilt from her book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork...

And using improv techniques inspired by Jacqui Gering, particularly the wonky log cabins tutorial on her website, Tallgrass Prairie Studio.

My working title is Wonky Wheels and here are the first 2 block centres completed today.

They're not looking too wonky right now but I think when I've put them into straight cabins they should be just a little bit annoyingly skiwiff, which is what I'm going for.

I'm planning to make 20 blocks for a 4 by 5 foot lap quilt so that's 2 block centres per month for 10 months, then 2 months to complete the cabins and sew it all together.  It should be doable but we shall see, someone used to say 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' and I'm sure if you can get there in a hand basket a quilt will do just as well.

Wow

I was wondering what on earth to write about today, it's been fairly uneventful apart from the 6 inches of snow but then this happened.

That's Jacob voluntarily shovelling the drive.

You could have knocked me down with a feather.  He used an interesting technique but by the time he'd finished and the sort of plough furrows were gone he'd done a pretty good job.  I think this could herald a new era of child labour!

TT and Hats

I bet you thought I'd forgotten about Techno Thursday, well I didn't, here's Jacob at 5.15 on Thursday.

My attempts at efficiency are going from bad to worse right now.  Today was spent running around trying to get on top of things.

Rose and I were at Walmart bright and early trying to buy cheap CSA approved hockey helmets as the school is sending the kids off for 2 free skating sessions, they will provide skates but not head gear and only gave us 4 days notice.  Sigh.  I've got to say that I'm not overjoyed at spending $50 on a helmet for Jacob as I can't see him ever wearing it again.  Rose on the other hand ought to wear one all the time as she could probably break 4 bones sitting in chair reading a book.  And she does look good in a hat.

Cold Hands

Temperatures are set to plummet next week so today I made hand warmers to keep people's little fingers warm inside their mittens.

There are quite a few tutorials out there for rice filled pouches so I thought I'd try some of those.  It's pretty simple, just fill cotton bags with rice, but there are two key things to bare in mind.  Don't use manmade fabrics or they will melt when you heat them up, and don't use quick cook rice.  Not sure what the problem with quick cook rice is, I used basmati as it is what's in my cupboard right now and that works.

So here they are.

To heat them up you just bung them in the microwave for about 30 seconds each.

The kids test drove them on the way back from school with mixed results.  They're very hot when first microwaved (the hand warmers, not the kids) then don't stay warm for a huge amount of time, 20 minutes maybe, and Jacob objected to the lovely fragrant aroma of the basmati rice.  Still for something that is essentially free it isn't bad and it reminds me of Laura Ingalls going to the sugaring dance with baked potatoes in her pockets which appeals to the pioneer in me.

I might try Martha Stewart's ceramic baking beans version if I can find some cheap in the dollar store.

Happy New Year

Here we are back after an extended Christmas break.  It's a Tuesday but we will have to think of some other storyline for Tuesday's as the amyrillis got the sack.  It's bad enough when you have moody children in the house so I'm afraid there's no room for a sulky plant.

I thought I'd post a few photos of Christmas for my first blog of 2016 but looking through the camera roll I realize I've not taken any so we'll scratch that and instead here are our New Years resolutions...

Rose says she plans to smell better.  She doesn't actually smell bad anyway so I'm not sure where that came from.

On New Year's Day Jacob resolved to do 2 hours of video game programming in 2016.  He got it done by around noon then said he'd achieved everything he wanted to for the year so now he doesn't have to get stressed about it.

I think I'd like to be a bit more efficient and get things done quietly and calmly instead of running round like a headless chicken, nagging people, being overwhelmed by everything I need to do and not managing to do anything at all.  I'm not sure how this is possible to be honest so any suggestions from organized people would be very welcome.

To finish here are the children with the rather fine photo of them that I had taken to distribute to relatives.  I had no idea they could look so normal!