Grass Heads

For Art Day, we did a project found on Ordinary Life Magic, originally from Usborne Big Book of Things to Do: Grass Heads.

We had the basic ingredients. Socks:Dirt (okay, potting soil):Grass seed (purchased as "turf builder"):
Buttons:
And straight pins:
We did not follow instructions though. We didn't stretch our socks over cups the way you're "supposed" to. But then, we're unschoolers and we do whatever the hell we want. We put seeds in, put dirt in, tied it off (and figuring out how to do that so the knot wouldn't be at the bottom, but the seeds would be at the top was initially complicated), then put buttons on with pins. Like beading, placing buttons with pins was Bastian's favorite part.
Jonas was here too, so I took a photo for his mama, who was not.
Then we placed them outside in the rain. Bastian loved these things and made three of them. In the end, he got a little crazy with the pins. Those are both his on the left. Aleks' is meant to be a skull and has pins for teeth.
This was Bastian's last grass head and he really got into the pins by the end of it.
These two are mine. The one on the right was the first to figure out how to do the project and the one on the left was because there needed to be a cyclops. You just always gotta have a monster around. They come in handy. I'm not sure what for at the moment, however.


Ta-da!

Back to Walkin'...

For weeks now, it's been one thing after another: out of town visits, birthday parties, car break-ins, illnesses of one sort or another, endless doctor visits, and the loss of a friend, all amidst the usual meetings for volunteer work, meetings for creative work, getting the garden ready, conflicts with neighbors, looking for work, keeping up on the house, and committing genocide against the ants that are now overtaking our home. Somehow, in all that, our library books got to be rather late.

So today, after calls to figure out health insurance, life insurance, and doctor's bills, along with bill paying, and a lovely letter from the Lego company thanking Aleks for his input (three letters he sent to them a few weeks ago), the boys and I packed up the wagon and headed all the way up the hill for a library visit. We stopped at the hardware store along the way as well for boric acid for killing more ants and grass seed for creating the grass heads we're going to make at art day tomorrow.

On the way, Aleks demonstrated that he can do the Thriller Dance while walking. It reminded me that my only New Year's resolution this year was to learn said Thriller Dance, which I have not yet accomplished. Gotta get on that. Maybe a good project for the fall.The library took much longer than expected as we had to check in the two large bags that we returned before we could check out the three large bags we took home. Plus there were a lot of people waiting who all went in front of us because there was but one circulation clerk.
Then the boys rolled down the hill of the big park and I watched from very far away (which made me nervous) as they played for just a few minutes before dinner. The place was packed and the evening breeze was making it the perfect temperature.
Another good day despite no jobs, no money, no health care, no future, and swine flu on the way!

Should We Talk About the Weather?

Well until the last two days, it was all so lovely that it was the only thing to talk about, but alas now we can talk about the government and the zombie apocalypse that's comin' via the swine flu. Or whatever. Let's not talk about that. Let's just remind ourselves that Vitamin D helps prevents colds and illness (along with probiotics and omegas), and we'll go out and enjoy the sunshine, suck down our ice cream cone and get on with it.

The last several days have been nothing but playing in the yard, digging in the dirt, lunching on the porch in my new wicker chairs, using the ottoman as a table for our empire, and taking walks to Coventry for snacks, books, and playing. The neighbors have all been out in the yard, helping Papa with the garden, walking their dogs, and having barbecues on their porches. It's been such fun. It feels almost like summer. We can't wait.

Two Weeks Later...

Another trip to the botanical gardens on a lovely day and this time, the coy are back in the pond and more and more flowers are a'bloomin'. We invited Emma along to play too. Lovely day.

Bastian tried out all the little seats under all the little trees.

And things are growing more and more! They're beautiful! It feels real, as though there might not be any more snow, dare I wish it!

Grape hyacinths get a technicolor wash...
Digging in the cool sand.
My favorite bottle border all a'glow in the sunlight.
A sun not yet a fountain, but ablaze in the afternoon light.
Pansies with their pretty little faces.

And tulips, dark as tiger lilies, and perhaps more fierce.
The bird house atop the toolshed.
The architecture in the area is all fascinating. The Gehry building blinds planes passing by.




Making mountains out of muck.
Leftover Rasta shovels.

Excursions

After planting seedlings and heading to the Co-op, Aleks wanted to stop at Borders. I'm usually quite reluctant about trips like that, but this day I was cool with it, for some odd reason. So we headed there, talked to Heather for a few minutes and got the tremendously well decorated and delicious hot chocolate they offer in the cafe. Then we browsed books for what felt like hours.



I took a look at Keri Smith's new book How to be an Explorer of the World -Portable Art/Life Museum. Then I took an unusual photo of it.
And stars and dust (stardust) above the bookshelves in the children's section.
And of the ceiling.
Finally, we left with a book about reptiles for Aleks and a Diego book for Bastian (whose middle name is actually Diego). Aleks has been especially interested in reptiles and amphibians since he decided that he wanted a pet snake. Our lengthy discussions on the matter resulted in a final decision: Aleks will be getting a leopard gecko for his birthday sometime this summer, given lovingly and freely with all necessary equipment to him by our friend Barbara and her lovely youngest daughters who have become bored with geckos as they have become full-blown, crotchety adolescents. We're going to wait until we get back from vacation at least so we know what we're doing by the time we have to tell a sitter. It will be the children's first real pet. It's quite exciting.

More Seedlings for Earth Day

Earth Day was the new time slot for our Unschooling Co-op/Lego Club-whatever-it-is, so we made planted some seeds. I encouraged the use of marigolds for our garden to keep out pests. The boys liked to pop beans out of some pods that had dried and use those.

Mari makes her own lovely potting mix, which is more ambitious than what we're doing these days, but then she's a Master Gardener. Maybe one day we'll get there (and be able to keep our houseplants alive and well looking).Egg Cartons, we are finding, are infinitely useful.

The boys pick their seeds, then run outside again, then back in and finish pressing them all into cups before I've had a chance to grab my camera again. When they are growing big, I will show them off again.

Collage Monsters

For Art Day, we made collage monsters. Mostly Ivy and I made collage monsters. Miranda did a couple briefly. Bastian cut up some paper. Aleks made me some scales for my dragon and mostly supervised. Bastian's cut paper:
Miranda's Medusa:
Ivy's awesomely abstract Loch Ness monster.
Then they did this:
I spent ten hours working on the Eric Carle dragon we'd been planning since last summer. We worked on some scales a bit in January (which I could not find in my collage box for Art Day, alas), but the whole of the project was quite daunting. Which would make sense considering it ended up requiring the better part of ten hours to complete. After Donna and the girls left, my dining room deteriorated into collage madness:
Finally, at 1:30 a.m., she was complete:
detail of the head
front leg with beard:
other front leg:
rear leg and the tail, which I made too short:
Now to find a way to mount it... She's currently perched rather precariously atop the armoire in my bedroom.

Gardening

The weather has begun to break and Spring feels officially in the air. Our seedlings got to spend some time out of doors, soaking up the sun.Casting long shadows in the late afternoon light...
Bastian suited up to help out with the garden Papa and the neighbors are putting together. The house next to us has a bit of backyard, with space beside the garage big enough for diggin' up a couple hundred square feet for all the wonderful foods we wish to grow and eat. A collective agreement was met and Jon, Chris, and Brad have been spending afternoons listening to Indians games on the radio, digging and prepping, getting ready to sow.
Bastian uses a trowel to break up clods of dirt and uncover treasures like tile pieces and old marbles long buried.
Sifting compost.
Giant worms in the compost heap! We are feeding them too well because this thing was so big, it was gross.

Sports and Visitors

Finally we're able to once again spend days outdoors, riding bikes, playing baseball, and enjoying the company of neighbors and visitors from out of town, come to say hello for the official 30th birthday extravaganza (we make big deals out of birthdays in my family).

Our neighbor, Chris, tried to help me help Aleks learn to ride his bike without training wheels. We're on the way to learning, but I discovered that it's exhausting holding him up and running!

A friend from Kentucky, Sam, was in town with my fairy godmother Peggy (back again!) for an audition for a theatre conservatory. He tossed baseballs for Aleks for quite awhile.

Aunt Lilly came from Chicago to celebrate my pseudo-surprise birthday party with me.
Lilly and Bastian practice being strong men for the circus.
Bastian loves everyone these days, including those he's just met or met only briefly, as in the case of Emma, Peggy's daughter. She's pretty sweet though, admittedly.

Aleks Decides

We seem to often enough do something because Aleks has decided arbitrarily that it should be so. This day he decided that we should have lasagna for dinner. We had not made lasagna in ages because we found ourselves using really good cheeses and spending far too much money on far too little food. Thus, Aleks had forgotten all about lasagna until old Garfield cartoons on Netflix reminded him. So he had to try it.
In the end, he didn't really like it at all and Jon and I ate most of it.

Easter Chicks, Birthdays

Things have been far too hectic lately, but I took photos along the way. Here are some of the boys with their chickens at the grandparent's house on Easter Sunday. Bastian would very badly like to bring the chickens (his "birds") home to our house or, barring that, to get a new house that we might be able to actually do so. Neither of those options are currently on the table, thus the chickens are being fed and cared for instead by Grandpa Jim as we intended. We will visit them again, however, at the end of May for Bastian's birthday.

The boys also wore tattoos all over their bodies which came in their Easter baskets. We had a big birthday party the night before in honor of my 30th birthday (see photos below), so Easter was a relatively low-key affair, which is just as well as none of us are at all religious. Mostly we just like traditions and meals together and chocolate.


The boys had an excellent, excellent time at the 30th birthday party my parents threw for me. They were so stoked to get to go to a grown-up party and shake their booties. I went to many as a kid, but haven't had the appropriate venues for the boys much.

Heather and Aleks (note stoked face):
Servin' up cake.
Babies like cake.
The gang: Steve, Heather, Anna, Jay, anna kiss, Jon - all in one photo and smiling, an unusual occurrence.
Jay helped Aleks DJ a bit. He sang "Happy Birthday" over the microphone too.
Aleks approves of Gogol Bordello.

Our Deepest Condolences to a Member of the Unschooling Community

The husband and father of a well-respected and admired family in our local unschooling community passed this morning. We offer his wife and her children our deepest sympathies. We are thinking of you, Neal, wherever you may be. These blows are crushing, our grief and confusion deep.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

- W. H. Auden

Beginning...

Our day at the Botanical Gardens - the very start of the outdoor gardens being open for the season...



Easter Bunny - Petra Cottontail...










Discussing important things: snakes for pets, and going to Mexico. Both of these subjects are things that Aleks has decided and not so much things that we're actually working on making happen.
Looking at the sky, thinking about Mexico.
Sculptural seed pods.








A robin.
Bastian has been insanely affectionate lately. Lots of "I love you"s, hugs, kisses... Constant attention. But who's complaining?
Bastian took the camera and managed to snap a photo of Aleks' smiling face, which he'd been hiding away every time I brought the camera near him.

Afterward, we met Papa at the Co-op, where the snake discussion continued.
Bastian said he would like a crocodile, a gecko, or a snake for a pet.

Art Day: Animal Mobile Finishes

Despite the tragic events of the weekend, we forged on, and by Monday, I felt loads better and Bastian was running normal amounts of amok. I spent all of Monday furiously conquering my mountain of paperwork, which felt oh so satisfying. My paperwork included calling insurance adjusters, paying bills, preparing taxes, emailing people about volunteer work, taking inventory, reading the IRS website on closing a business very closely, calling wholesalers whose products suck, calling glass companies, calling mechanics, calling body shops, calling the Secretary of State, calling the Business Tax Gateway people thingy, and sitting on hold listening to upbeat jazz tunes in Muzak phone synth. It was a very productive Monday, all things considered. Which, considering all things, was excellent preparation on my part for the serendipitous events that followed on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, I received a phone call from the insurance adjuster about coming to look at the car for the inspection. She was able to come today! This was especially good news as she needed to see the car before the glassman showed up early in the afternoon. It was, as I said, serendipitous. I had hoped the adjuster would call and it would all work out and it did. It was almost bizarre. She arrived, did the inspection and pulled out just as the glassman pulled in.

While the glassman repaired the window, I retired to my internet and coffee routine, whereupon opening my email I discovered many encouraging, practically miraculous things. Firstly, it turns out I do not have to pay a CPA $300 (which is especially good considering I have to pay a $500 deductible on the car). All I have to do is write to the IRS. Which secondly shot our tax return into possibly enough money to get us through the summer since my husband has no job. Finally, the gentleman I emailed would very much like to talk to me about volunteer opportunities. I could hardly believe my good luck.

With such loveliness chirping like birds all about me, I told Donna that she and the girls should definitely come over for Art Day, if they did not fear our past illness. So they did and we journeyed onward with our animal mobiles, which were a spectacular success.

These are the instructions I'd written for the project a few weeks ago. Click to enlarge. If you can't read my handwriting, from top to bottom it says "egg cup, collage, glue, paint, poofs, tail (paper, other object), fancy yarn/ribbon, beads, Finished animal egg cup mobile."
Bastian loved stringing the beads on yarn to hold between each egg cup (our "animals"). He did it so well, he ran out of string and we had to remove several beads just to tie the whole thing off.Ivy had definite plans about her lions. They were to have progressively larger and fuller manes, which were made with yellow feathers.
Donna brought the beads. Everything else was laying about our house.
Aleks had no interest in mobile making and instead elected to practice his avant garde photography. First he tried the sneak attack.
Then he just photographed interesting shapes and textures.
He tried skin, clothing, and hair.
As well as printed materials and random objects.
It snowed. I knew it would again. It did Sunday. It did Monday. It did Tuesday. Baseball season just started. It's a travesty. The kids ran outside to catch snowflakes on their tongues.
Bastian was the only one bundled to my liking, despite being still in his pajamas. I am a freeze baby and just looking at the kids without mittens makes me shiver.
Finally, our mobiles were complete. In the background, you can see our traditional Indian one, composed of turtles. In front are Ivy's lions.
Miranda used chenille craftsticks (whatever they're called) for tails and drew faces on with marker.
Bastian mainly liked the beading and has great distances between each of his egg cups, which he left unadorned.
I took mine very seriously. My heads were poofs. The eyes were metallic sequins and the tails, like Miranda's, were chenille-craft-bendy-stick-things-that-used-to-simply-be-called-pipe-cleaners.
I had nine egg cups on mine, so I took lots of photos out of crazy pride.
They really did end up looking like turtles.

This is my mean drag queen turtle. He's my favorite.

Saturday, Nothin' to do...

Since Aunt Natty was visiting and the sun was out, it seemed reasonable that we might do something productive. Except there wasn't really anything to do. So we decided to walk up to Coventry to visit the coffee shop and get Natty's hairs cut just to pass some time and work our legs.

The Daffodils have finally bloomed! Spring is coming! Maybe there won't be anymore snow after all! Ha! What a foolish thought!Natty pulled some bubblewrap out of someone's garden and gave it to Bastian to pop before we made it to a trashbin. She said "bin." I didn't say "bin." I don't pretend to be British. ... Much.
At the hair salon, I tried hard to entertain the kids while Natty was pruned. Bastian tried out several of the empty chairs.
Aleks came prepared with markers and paper. That kid's getting smarter and smarter all the time.
This particular salon just opened up and is owned by the same person who owns another shop but a few doors down and one story up. I was confused about that, but apparently, apart from the economy tanking at the moment, it's quite sane to have three hair salons in 1/8th of a mile.
After awhile, my distraction measures began to wear off. Even the loud colors did no good.
I offered the camera as a last resort, but Aleks just demanded to be in charge in order to photograph their alien and penguin from the growing eggs Piddy Peddy had bought them. They were much like the ones Kevin had bought them many moons ago, and like those, the creatures they released have become favorite pets for the carrying all about until their novelty wears off and I pretend to lose the hideous things with their pealing paint and odd lumps.
Then to the coffee shop, where Bastian got a tummy ache from drinking too much hot chocolate too quickly. He played with the penguin and alien and climbed on chairs and generally kept a lid on it for the sake of all those students studying hard.
Aleks drew many more pictures for the girls who work there and hung them up with all his others. In fact, we noticed that one of his pictures - of Darth Vader climbing a pyramid - had a note written on it which read, "Hi Aleks! From Casey!" Casey, if I am not mistaken, is Aleks' former speech therapist and our favorite to date. She went off to get her PhD, which makes us sad for us but happy for her.

Another of Aleks' drawings, which was of Darth Vader and a light saber, hangs on the baord which announces the coffees of the day and Marta, Marcy, Felicia, and Heather all informed us (several times) of how customers ask everyday what the drawing is and ooh and ahh over it. As well they should, as my child is an artistic genius. For now.

Sadly, the wonderful day did not last. Jon and I took the opportunity of having a free babysitter in town to go out with friends. First we went out for Ethiopian. I'd only had Ethiopian once before and found it to be like Indian, but not as good, and seeing as it took me years to be adventurous enough to love Indian, I wrote it off as a lackluster experience I wasn't anxious to repeat. Nonetheless, I found myself in an Ethiopian restaurant.

The dinner was quite good, as it turned out, but when we came out, our passenger window was smashed, our car stereo stolen, and the panel holding it was all jacked up. This happened to us once before with our previous car (before it was crushed by a semi), just after I'd found out I was pregnant with Aleks. This time, rather than feeling overwhelmed with the hormones of new pregnancy and thinking that my poverty and my pregnancy and this theft were all too much to deal with, we remained quite sensible and simply swept out the glass and drove home. I rode with our friends, Jay and Anna, to avoid having to sit on glass.

We parked the car in the garage to avoid prying eyes and walked up to La Cave du Vin for after-dinner drinks and to see practically all of our friends. After lamenting about our car for a bit (and the loss of one of my excellent mix CDs by Heather T. that was inside the stereo), we got into a groove and began to enjoy ourselves. Then the phone rang and Natty announced that Bastian was puking. Home again, home again...

At home, I got into jammies and laid beside Bastian on towels with a bucket. We both slept for a bit. After about an hour, I awoke with chills. We spent the entire night getting very little sleep. Bastian threw up about every hour or so and I tried to contain it all while suffering from aches, chills, nausea and dizziness myself. By ten a.m., he threw up for the last time and went off to play while I crashed and spent the whole day which was set aside for taxes sleeping and drinking tea.

These things come in threes, they say...

Unschooling Co-op Lego Club Friday Whathaveyou

Nothing tremendously special was planned for Friday's Lego Club (now affectionately referred to as one of our Unschooling Co-op Days). We brought cookies that quickly disappeared and the kids ran amok doing the things that kids do: playing with Lego, listening to music, my boys playing with their Penguin and Alien and silly putty Piddy Peddy had brought them for a going away present that morning.

Later, Mari pulled out these geometric tiles which we all had a lot of fun arranging and rearranging, pretending to be quilters and stained-glass makers and mathematicians. My sun-flower:Bastian making maths:
Ivy and Miranda eating cookies, figuring geometry:
Mari's workmanship (she's a professional):
The mass, the mess, the leftovers...
Aleks made an alien, of course:

Lovely Day

First thing this a.m., I get a call that Speech therapy is canceled. Okey-dokey. I will sleep in and be lazier than usual in getting my bod a'movin'. A little later in the morning/afternoon, our neighbor from down the street, Jo, texted me to ask what I was doing. She was looking to hang out with someone as she is a night nurse and nice 60+ degree weather on her day off requires a buddy to hang with. Since Jon had class in the afternoon, I couldn't go off alone, but she stopped by after a bit. We were all unwashed and wearing jammies still. We sat on the steps of the porch until Jon left, then made plans to go to Panini's (where there is a patio plus food) with her friend Frank.

Aleks and Jo headed back to her apartment so she could change while Bastian and I got dressed and ready, which at one point involved Bastian in the buff on my front porch holding the clothes I'd set out for him while sitting in one of my new wicker chairs (a steal - 2 chairs plus cushions and ottoman for $20!!!!). I was of course in the shower while he did this and had to run out in a towel, dripping wet and call him in, though luckily didn't have to go outside to retrieve him.

We walked up to Panini's to meet Jo, Frank, and Aleks, who was already enjoying a lemonade while soaking up the sun. Jo bought us all pizza and drinks, apparently payment for being coerced to come out with her, but it was hardly arm-twisting!On our way back home, Aleks and Bastian got piggy-back rides up to Jo's driveway, where we departed. Just as we were saying goodbye, a car started to back out of the neighbor's driveway. I yelled for him to stop as Bastian had run a bit ahead and the car would have separated us, preventing me from insuring his safety. The driver stopped and I got Bastian and walked back to where Aleks was sitting on a rock. The guy in the car asked if all was clear then said that there was a trampoline in back if we wanted and cats. We met him once last summer with his cats in his front yard. He has giant, fat cats, one of which is named Le Tigre, which is also an awesome feminist band. Jo knew him, so after he pulled out, we went to the backyard to pet Le Tigre and jump on the trampoline.
We jumped for more than an hour. We got to say hello to Jo's downstairs neighbor who has a 3 month old baby girl and to Jo's friend who came to go back out with her. Jo's roommate, Katie, also showed up and jumped with us for another half hour. Katie's boyfriend is one of our next door neighbor's, so we've known her for awhile now. The boys are always excited to see neighbors and friends and it's been a great pleasure getting to know everyone and having an immediate community right on our street.

After jumping, Katie walked with us to our house, where we ran into Chris, her boyfriend, and his roommate Brad, just back from a run. Brad sat on our porch with us for a bit while Katie and Chris went for a walk. When they came back, our neightbor who lives in the topmost floor of our house came out to go running as well and we all stood about chatting for awhile. It was a lovely, relaxed, warm spring day. The snow all melted and everyone has come out again, out from hibernation, thawing from the cold, moving stiff limbs, and exercising our social habits once more.





In the evening, it was take-out sushi for dinner and Aunt Natty came to stay for the weekend. It was a day to feel grateful for.

Pajama Party

Since we exist on a different schedule than many in America, I'm often wary about visitors and the possibility of a perceived laziness amongst us. This is, of course, a ludicrous insecurity, but there it is nonetheless: in my head, sitting, stewing, guilting. My parents are all early to bed and early to rise, which has never been me. I have been a nightowl all my life. I married a nightowl (with an inability to fall asleep, no less) and we bred two nightowls. We stay up late and sleep late. This can be awkward making when your guests are up at what feels like the crack of dawn, waiting for you to be alive and mobile.

The first day of Fairy Godmother's visit I was able to find new perspective on this conundrum by explaining our lives thusly: we live every day like we're on vacation. This was a handy revelation. Since our guest is on vacation, our late waking wasn't a problem at all. Also though this reframes the truth about what we're trying to do in this life: we're working to live rather than living to work. As much as we become insanely busy with activities and grow overwhelmed with responsibilities now and again, we're not particularly interested in tying our lives to things that don't feed us in one way or another. We're insanely busy with things that matter, that make a life worth living, and we sleep in every day because sleeping in feels good. In some ways, it is a luxury to live this life. It is certainly a privilege. It's also a choice we've been able to make and it is so worth it.

Fairy Godmother Peggy (as a child I called her and Bastian now calls her Peddy) fit right in, leisurely drinking coffee in the mornings, taking awhile to get going, and playing with the boys still in PJs.

Piddy Peddy Visit

My fairy godmother is visiting for the week. She reads Bastian to sleep each night, though last night they each read to themselves.