Friday in review

School went well this week. A couple things were difficult, but all in all, a great week. Nothing in particular made it awesome, just things went smoothly. One great thing happened on Wednesday, at Thing One's den meeting, trees were being discussed (forests, canopy, cool fires, hot fires, kinds of trees, etc.). Our den leader showed a tree in his neighbors yard; Thing One was able to identify it as a banana tree (also known as a Basho tree). He learned this from "Grass Sandals", the Five in a Row book we have been reading. Yeah for him!!

Science Friday

Not an original idea, but I am back dating a post for Friday (post being typed on Sunday); we raced out of hear for camping shortly after finishing Thing One's science lesson. One of the lessons is entitled "Science: Chemistry - Bananas and Oxidation". You know those fruit (and some vegetables) that turn brown shortly after being peeled: bananas, apples, and potatoes for example. It's a chemical reaction to air when the white flesh is exposed to air. Here's what was done and observations made:

A banana, not exposed to air yet. Should be banana white,
except for a bruise maybe.

Just sliced to allow for more oxidation.

About 35 minutes later, the first signs of the banana slices
turning brown. This took a bit longer than was anticipated.

Approximately 20 minutes later, the slices
are darker brown.

Just over three hours later, a skin is forming over
the slices. These where left out until Saturday evening.
They weren't much darker before being dumped into
the compost.

Next time we try this, we'll have put lemon juice on some of
the slices. Citrus fruits have an acid in them that make oxidation
slow down. It would have been interesting to note the difference
between the two groups.

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.

Monday Musing

The weekend sure did get away from me. Don't remember much from Friday evening, probably spent a portion of it knitting. Saturday, we ran A LOT of errands and even a return of one purchase. Yikes, a lot of tracking between stores. Got to sew some duvets for the boys new comforters. Two sheets (@ $4.50 a piece) were a lot cheaper than the almost $20 or almost $30 the boys were looking at. Let's see, $18.00 for the four sheets or $50 for two pre-made. That's a no brainer of what to do. That evening I even got to hang out with a friend and meet some new ladies that I recognized from church, but hadn't met yet. Sunday was just as crazy. Church in the morning, then lesson planned for a couple hours until hubby was home for lunch. Cleaning, more lesson planning, waiting for hubby to get home with a color cartridge so I could print things for school (that was an ordeal he can describe on his blog!!). We got to some cleaning in the basement and watched some ball games. Dinner was finally made and eaten to be followed by printing, in color. The boys to bed and finally working on the long over due checkbook.

So, it's now Monday and the pace hasn't slowed much. Got up, exercised, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, sorted and started our mound of laundry, finished lesson planning (and still a bit to do), and onto school. We're wrapping up most of the work now, to break for lunch, then the library, possibly another return, to back home, to a bit more school. Still need to update the sidebar pictures too. That will have to be later today though. A bunny trail from school let us learn that there are 6.7 million square miles in the USA (were we live obviously), 6.59 million miles in Russia (setting for Another Celebrated Dancing Bear), and 127.77 square miles in Japan (setting for Grass Sandals).

Hope your weekend and Monday have been more relaxing than ours!!