Free Time

The joys of having "no screen time" is that the boys become more creative in what they do to entertain themselves.  Today led to their stuff animals have a scout cross over.  The puppies were crossing over to the next level (which of course I don't recall now) and all the other stuff animals are families and friends.  Sorry for the grainy look, I took the photos from inside the kitchen with the window and screen down.

Pinewood Derby

Another year of Pinewood Derby!  It is Thing One's fifth and last year as a Cub Scout, but only Thing Two's second year.

Following are a few photos from the building phase:

Almost completed cars.  Still need wheels and more weights

Few "tools" of the Pinewood Derby.

Scale!  Need to be able to figure out if your car is at the 5 ounces or 141 grams

Paints used, but not put away!

As an after note, neither boy won anything!  As someone put it "That could be good to come home with no trophy".  For Thing One, kind of disappointing though, that after 5 Races there were no trophies.  Oh well!

A Long Month

This month has felt so very long and tiring.  Forgotten to update so many things about our lives, that I am willing to share on the internet anyway.  So here goes the run down of life:

1. Our official Home Study is in hand.  It was post marked 9/2/10 of this month.
2. We celebrated another birthday for Kevin, one that ends in a "5".
3. The boys tested for their Senior White Belts in Tae Kwon Doe on 9/11/01 and passed
4. We've now had 3 service calls on our kitchen fridge since 9/11/10 and are hoping that it will work properly now.  Fortunately we've only lost a half gallon of milk.
5. Scouts have started back up for the boys.
6. Quest has begun for Thing One.  It is the Sunday School for 5th and 6th graders at our church and they have events a few times a month as well.  He is so excited about this.
7. Breakaway has started for me ~ this is our churches ladies Bible Study time.  There are actually about 9 different studies going on between Tuesday morning and Wednesday night.  We head out to the Tuesday morning one, which means I need to be well organized and have plenty of seat work for the boys to do.  Our church has child care through 6th grade as Tuesday's Bible Studies are attended by a lot of homeschooling families.  I've also joined the drama team.  That adds lines to memorize and rehearsal times to my schedule.  First one went well.
8. Base Camp has begun for Kevin ~ this is the men's bible study at our church.  One study that the men can go to, either Tuesday morning or Wednesday night.  Kevin is leading a table this semester.  Basically keeping in touch with the guys during the week, encouraging a time to meet outside of Base Camp, and encourage Biblical growth.  They have chances to earn points and at the end of the semester, the table with the most points wins gift cards to local restaurants.
9. Two separate rounds of colds for me!  woo hoo, lucky me.  Okay, maybe not.  At least it's over and life can move on.

That is our month in a nut shell!

Can you hear it?

It is the sound of nothing but slow, relaxed, happy breathing. It's the hum of a slow summer day. It's the sound of bugs flying from one flower to the next. It's the sound of ice melting from hot, fresh tea being poured over it.

Welcome to my day, sprinkled with a bit of reality (laundry and dishes don't take a vacation).

Last Friday wrapped a crazy week of VBS. The boys had a great time, but it sure was all consuming. Think I logged, on average, 6 hours each day at church even though VBS was only 3 hours. I'll be the first to admit, and the boys will attest to it, that it wore me out. Knowing myself though, by next May or so, I'll be ready to jump back into it and log some crazy hours again. Hopefully, I'll remember what worked and what didn't!! Eeek, I'm suppose to write something like that up for the co0rdinaters (yes, I did a lot of hours, phone calls, shopping, computer work, etc. and I wasn't a coordinater over it all. Our 5th and 6th graders do a number of service projects during the week and that takes a lot of planning).

Okay, back to this week. It was thought that this week would be a lot slower! Yeah right! As certain parts of our Home Study took so long to get accomplished, some of the back ground checks have expired and new "rules" took effect as of July 1, 2010. So, we spent a portion of yesterday getting finger printed AGAIN, I need to go by the post office to pick up a lot of $$$'s worth of certified checks AGAIN, and get another form notarized AGAIN. Friday, we hope to drop all this off, in person, during our last interview (yup, as of July 1, 2010 we need 3 interviews).

Scattered in there is getting Thing One ready for his first Cub Scout sleep away camp! Not sure who is more nervous - him or me!! Kevin would tell you, in a heart beat, that it's me! Just can't believe he's old enough for things like this. Yes, there may be kids that go to sleep away camp or boarding school earlier than 10, but our kids never asked to go!

Probably should get back to reality for a bit! At least check on laundry and do a few odds and ends. Some will be fun, some school related, some just flat out CHORES.

Stay cool friends!



P.S. How do you like the photo (above) of the flowers in the corner of our yard? Been meaning to take one lately and got around to it today. It's my tribute to Wordless Wednesday even though I wrote a lot.

The Week in Review

What a crazy week it has been for me; a busy week squished in between two weekends away. From my post this past Tuesday, you know we visited my folks for their birthdays. Kind of cool that they were born 362 days apart. We're getting ready now to go camping in the cold, dreary rain.

Highlights of the week include:

• Decorating for fall ~ hanging swags, new and old, but still need to get our pumpkins out
• great time at Breakaway ~ the ladies bible study at Burke Community Church
• Wednesday was Thing Two's first Den Meeting as a Tiger. He was excited about it all week. Monday he said something along the lines of "I can't wait until Wednesday for my Den Meeting. It's toooo looonnnggg!!"
• Yesterday was such a rainy, chilly day that the trip to Cox Farm was postponed until next week
• Both boys enjoyed making Chinese style hats ~ an activity related to Thing One's book for FIAR ~ Grass Sandals
• Thing One had his first building session for Lego Club. That was fun for the boys involved
• A highlight for me, is that I managed to make a round trip to Costco, in 45 minutes on a dreary, cold, raining day, during rush hour (there's one street that just gets bogged down with people trying to get onto or off of Interstate 95). Made the trip in just enough time for Kevin to help me unload the van before he had to run off to a meeting up at church
• The boys and I were successful in finding puddle jumpers. We'll need them this weekend!

Here are some photo highlights as well:

A close up of Thing One's hat. It says "Cool" on it

and the oo's are the eyes of the owl. Totally his idea.

Thing Two's hat with a Robin on it. He's really into
"Teen Titans" right now. Everything is Robin.



The bamboo we bought as a tie into Grass Sandals. No,
we won't plant it outside, it grows to crazy like.

Our new puddle jumpers. The boys both have black.
I got a shinny, red set.


Above and below pictures: The boys needed to make
sure their puddle jumpers were water proof.
Think they just wanted to play in the rain ~ which didn't last
to long, because they didn't want to wear their jackets and
got cold quickly.

Cub Scouting

It's official - we have two Cub Scouts this year. Thing One is a Webelo 1 and Thing Two is a Tiger. We finally got to the point with Thing Two that "he will try scouting for one year" because he wanted to try it one day and not the next. This cycle went on to long that we decided to use parental prerogative. He seemed to enjoy himself last night, although it was a little overwhelming and he thought it would be to hard.

Here are our boys before the meeting:

Police Station Tour

Tonight, the Bears in Pack 683 had a tour of the local Police Station. The boys seemed to have a good time learning about safety, how to identify a Policeman (not quite so easy with people trying to impersonate them), and mostly looking at all their equipment.


Here, in the lobby, officer talked a lot about basic safety, how only policeman can where the word policeman, and that it's okay to ask for identification.






In an interrogation room at the station. A very small, very cold, very boring room. Suppose it should be to let someone "think" things through.






Only way Thing Two would get in the police car was by sitting on my lap. He eventually thought it was cool.

Miscellaneous Musings

It's been a bit since I've blogged about very random things. Life's been busy with school, chores, snow, church, birthdays, Legos, Pinewood Derby, on and on it goes. So, here is my life in pictures and musing over the past few days.

PINE WOOD DERBY DAY
It seemed hard to believe this was our third Pine wood Derby. Thing One still enjoys this event even when his car doesn't win. He's got two more years to figure out how to do that and then go to Districts. His car is below, far right, mostly blue with white where someone would sit.

Thing Two seems to have more fun each year too. He actually has a few scout friends now, as a result of swim team this past summer, and a neighbor friend (whose older brother is a Web 2 in our Pack) came along that Saturday. Nothing like two wound up 6 year olds along with a bunch of other boys of varying ages. Thing Two's car, below, is the one being placed on the track. It is suppose to be a Star Wars fighter with R2D2 (the blue thing behind the brown window). No surprise if you know my son.

WINTER WEATHER MUSING

We finally got snow and more than just a dusting. Here's the view, early in the day, through the front screen door. The boys have been excited by the snow today and it sure has been an interesting one. Have you ever tried to Home School two boys who are totally stoked by the snow? It became more interesting when we noticed about 6 deer running through the woods behind our house. We went to the front window, thinking they might come up the pipe steam, but they stayed in the woods.

I was impressed with the contrast, here, of the daffodils growing in glass mason jars, that I had placed in my potted hydrangea, with the snow accumulating on the deck. To have such Spring flowers growing, albeit indoors, and to have snow falling outdoors. It was interesting to me.

Oh, and I am sure my cat's vet would appreciate the daffodils, hydrangea, and fern (not visible in this photo). All can be toxic to a cat, but Gremlin seems to leave them alone. She's more interested in playing with the legos and math manipulatives the boys leave laying around.

RECENT ATTEMPTS AT DECLUTTERING & REORGANIZING

I suppose we're becoming a book family. This small corner of the house is not for Kevin and me, but the boys collection. I worked today on combining the two different stashes of books, made room in a nook for both book cases, going through the books, and general reorganizing of their stuff. Didn't come close to finishing today (definitely a two day project), but got the big thing done - books.

The other reorganizing I did, was actually from yesterday. I spent time rearranging furniture so that all the boys games could be in one spot. It actually turned out better than I had hoped. Yeah!! They even helped with putting the toys back on the shelves and were happy to have a spot to display their new Star Wars Lego ships.

So, it has taken me about an hour and half to do all the uploading of photo's and dialoging for this post. Still haven't figured out an easy way for doing the photos. My way just seems backwards, but it works. Time to save one last time and post.

Home Made Bird Feeder

My son's Cub Scout Den will be making home made bird feeders this week and I wanted to have a practice run before Wednesday night.  As an adult, it wasn't to difficult to make, but I can already picture the questions that may arise when the kids start making them.  Following are the things you'd need and directions.

Items needed:

• empty and dry 16 to 20 ounce bottle WITH cap
• approximately three feet of twine
• scissors
• tack (I'll explain in directions)
• 6" dowel (these had a diameter of .5 cm and came 12" long.  I cut one in half)
• markers, duct tape, or whatever to decorate
• bird seed

Directions:

1. approximately 1" up from the bottom, poke a couple holes on the side of the bottle with tack - this is easier than getting the scissors into it.
   
2. on opposite side, do the same
   
3. now, push dowel through the holes on one side and then through the other side, leaving some dole out on both sides
   
4. approximately 1/2" up from dole, poke a couple starter holes, with tack
   
5. cut the bottom, for the bird opening, 1" to either side of the dole
   
6. next cut up, each side, approximately two to three inches
   
7. repeat steps 4, 5, & 6 on the other side
8. now, the rope needs to be tied, around the top of the bottle
9. tie the two ends together so that it can be hung from a hook or tree limb
10. fill with bird seed to the point that it is not falling out of bird feeder

Proud Parent Moment

Today's post won't be about Science. I know it's heartbreaking (hehehe, maybe not). Pack 683 had a uniform inspection at our Pack Meeting last night. Our Thing One won for his den. Woo Hoo!! He was excited because the prizes for each winner were a "I'm Proud of My Cub Scout" bumper sticker, a box of Boy Scout Popcorn, and a build a car type thing - similar to pine wood derby cars. He really liked the sticker because "Dad's car doesn't have one yet!!" This morning all he wants to do his build his car. Thing Two is kind of bummed because he wanted a car too.

Cedar Creek

My eldest son and I went camping this past weekend to Middleton, VA with his Cub Scout Pack.  This has become an annual camping trip to Cedar Creek where part of the American Civil War took place on 19 October 1864.  It's hard to imagine, that on all these rolling acres, so many lives were lost, while fighting for what was considered basic freedoms.

It was an enjoyable time with my son.  It was probably the most time we'd spent together, without his brother, in 5 3/4 years.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out and walking around looking at the living history exhibits, learning about cannons, and watching different aspects of the war being re-enacted.

It had been forecasted that it would be cold, so both Friday and Saturday nights thermometers were set out.  Saturday, we woke to cool weather, cool enough to go through a lot of hot chocolate.  Sunday, though, it was 31 degrees.  There was frozen dew on the tents, a wet dish cloth was stiff, and the scouts had earned there Polar Bear Patch.  The warm air in the van, on the way home, felt wonderful.  Being clean and a nap that afternoon was a welcome change.