MommyCoddle

NWF Green Hour: Backyard Scavenger Hunt

WELCOME! to those of you that are wandering over here from National Wildlife's Green Hour Blog. If you are looking to download the sample scavenger hunt worksheet, you can download a printable pdf  by clicking on the worksheet below. Enjoy and happy hunting!!

Image Sources:
White Pine needles
http://masswood.com/drawings/whitepine_trans.gif
Oak leaf:
http://z.about.com/d/forestry/1/0/m/h/white_oak.jpg
Feather:
http://www.albertoproietta.com.au/Images/My_Drawings/Feather_for_Nick_Large.jpg
Pine cone:
http://z.about.com/d/drawsketch/1/0/C/A/weil_pine.jpg
Maple leaf:
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/coloring/autumn/images/maple-leaf.gif
Pill bug:
http://www.bumblebee.org/invertebrates/images/ArmadillidumVulgare.jpg
Spider web:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23040/23040-h/images/fig6.jpg
Dandelion:
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/7500/7561/dandelion_7561_lg.gif
Dragonfly:
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/2100/2198/dragonfly_1.htm

Life in the bush (and migraines)

Things are missing around this house. Water bottles. Dishes. Trays. Mail. Benches. Sweatshirts. Backpacks. Boxes of crackers. Yarn. Pruning shears. Small chairs. Pets.

Even children.

I found them.

They're in the bush.

I don't blame them. It's like a snow-colored wonderland. They've taken those pruning shears and carved themselves a tiny home among the soft balls of white loveliness. There's a whole village underneath those branches. Things that are secrets, things I'm not allowed to see (that would probably be the missing yarn, I'm guessing.) Things hanging, things stored in piles. Special seats for company. There's even a toddling two year old who delivers the mail.

I spent some time out there myself just yesterday. Not huddled under the bush mind you--because there are secrets in there. But they gave me a special bench just outside the door. So I took it upon myself to soak up some sun, listen to their chatter while they thought I was sleeping, and allow little hands to cover me in velvety white blossoms. I swear, it was like a spa treatment.

I highly recommend it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

On Monday, Mary went to the doctor and was diagnosed with migraines. It's a long, drawn out back story, but I'm just wondering if any of you have any experience or children struggling with this. The doctor said her symptoms were classic. I never even knew children could get migraines. Right now, we're trying to treat it with diet changes, ibuprofen, hydration and catching the symptoms early. I'd love to know if any of you have any experience.

Just an Innocent Walk in the Snow

So I thought it would be a good idea to go outside first thing this morning. Get the girls some fresh air. Spend a little time exploring in the lightly falling snow.

Look for tracks.

Look at the snow hanging delicately on the pine branches.

Feed the chickens.

Take a few pictures.

By the time we made it out to the back field, around to the chicken coop and back to the front walk again..............

Mary and Emma had gotten in an argument because Mary wouldn't walk down to the stream with Emma. And Emma pushed Mary, sending her tumbling into the snow. Which left Mary crying over freezing cold hands and wet knees. (Mary can't handle any extreme temperatures--hot or cold.)

Emma then continued to give me a little attitude and was sent into the house and her attendance at tonight's 4-H meeting is in jeopardy.

Elizabeth tripped over her own feet and had an up-close encounter with the sidewalk.

By the time I got to the front door, I had three crying girls in the middle of meltdowns while I tried to remove coats, and hats and boots, attend to freezing cold hands, deal with attitudes and check for bloody chins.

Sometimes, in these moments, I have to admit, that I lose my cool. But sometimes the absolute craziness of it becomes suddenly humorous to me, and I'm able to handle it with a cool attitude and a calm demeanor.

Thankfully, that's what happened this morning. And I still managed to snap off a few pictures of the pretty snow.

I love it when things don't go exactly as planned.

Happy Tuesday.

a little bit of everything

Can we all hold hands, bow our heads and have a moment of silence together....because I feel the need to commemorate this day. All the laundry in the mommycoddle household is DONE. And folded. And put away. It took much labor, much discovery of things that had been missing since, oh, summer, and the deed is done. One step closer to organization, my friends

And now that all the clothes are clean, I've come to realize that my two oldest children have serious dresser issues. Their "hand-me-down, get by for now" dressers have four small drawers and a cupboard with doors down below. The stuff down below is a massive wad of turtlenecks, bathing suits, wool sweaters and tank tops. Seriously, when I clean their room, I take my foot, shove all the stuff back in the bottom cupboard, slam the door and walk away. So today, we took a trip to IKEA and bought some nice, cheap cloth baskets and got those little dressers all neat and organized. Then Emma had the genius idea to make little pictures on the outside of each drawer/door so they would know what to put inside. The taped-on method is a little wonky, but otherwise I love it. I did Mary's sketches, Emma did her own.

Emily, I was going to call you on the way to IKEA but I knew you'd just finished entertaining/holiday, so I wanted you to relax and not feel the need to rush out and meet us. But we're on for next week.

I met with my new book group last night. (They really wanted to "make" the blog today. Hi girls.) We spent about five minutes talking about the book and rest of the time telling funny stories and laughing so hard, I left with sore abs and achy face muscles.

I just wrote a new post on baby center about getting a chore system in place for the girls. One woman can't be expected to do it all. And I think the magnetic refrigerator grid pad that Joan, from BusyBody Book sent me is going to be just the thing for this. Thank you, Joan.

The guineas have had their own little Independence Day. They are now free to move about the cabin...or yard. And word to the wise, don't forget you left the guineas out after dark. We left them out in the dark for maybe thirty minutes. Bye-bye one poor little guinea. Emma reminds me, "Mom. Life on the farm can be tough." And Mary keeps telling me, "When the guinea's ready, he'll come back." She goes out to the back yard every day and calls to him.

Meanwhile, our six hens have become five hens plus one rooster.

Mary and Elizabeth have runny noses. Could cold season already be here? What do you do to protect your children from the flu during this season?

The girls have been wanting pancakes for breakfast for the last few days. And because I'm not at my culinary peak come morning, I decided to make the pancakes this afternoon. We made a few with cinnamon and chocolate chips "for special", and some plains for Dan, bagged them and tossed them in the fridge for tomorrow morning. Hello? Why haven't I been doing this before??

Thanks for banging through the random thoughts with me.
Happy Thursday, friends.

BirdJam

It's pretty safe to say we're a bit bird crazy in this household. Nothing warms my heart more than hearing my daughter cry out from the backyard, "Mom! Quick! Put the guineas in their pen. I hear a Red-Shouldered Hawk!!!"

There is always a pair of binoculars on the cupboard in the mudroom--whether they are Dan's nice ones or Mary's purple plastic ones. And they often get swooped up and carried outside in a flurry of excitement over something calling in the trees. Almost nightly, my setting of the dinner table requires that I first push aside field guides that have been pilfered during breakfast and lunch.

Once your ears begin to recognize bird sounds, it really is amazing how much more you hear and notice when you are out doors. The birds that wake you in the morning are no longer a cacophony of  calls, but become Song Sparrows, House Finches and Nuthatches. It's like walking through life with cotton balls in your ears, and someone finally taking them out and revealing a whole world you only previously heard in muffled, muted tones.

And honestly, there's nothing better than seeing this awareness and consciousness of natural surroundings being passed on to my children. I love that their ears are alert, and their eyes are soft, looking for movement and color in the treetops.

Dan and I have gone through a lot of tapes and CDs of birdsong and calls, doing our best to learn as many birds as we can that are native to our area. And it isn't easy. You learn birds only by sound, but can't remember what they look like. Or you know their picture in a field guide, but can't remember what their call sounds like when you're in the field.

So when I heard about BirdJam on a birding podcast, I knew I had to try it. BirdJam is a program of "song files" that can be loaded onto your computer or better yet, your iPod, to learn your bird songs. Each song file brings up a photo of the bird, their name and their genus species. (if you're feeling really ambitious). It is the perfect combination, being able to listen to a song and call, while having the visual photograph in front of you as well.

And guess who's been stealing my ipod to listen to the "bird song CD"? My girls sit with the computer or my ipod and work their way through the songs, calling out the birds they recognize either by song or photo and they are able to put all their knowledge together.

Bird Jam comes in an adult version, too but we have the version for young birders. It is a companion to Bill Thompson's (editor of Bird Watcher's Digest) amazing Young Birder's Guide. (which he wrote with the help of his elementary-aged daughter Pheobe, and he says it is one of his proudest accomplishments of all his bird content writing. ) We have a lot of kid-friendly field guides, but this one is definitely the best. All the information for each bird is on one page and the photographs and facts about each bird are really interesting. I've learned something new about each bird I've looked up in the guide.

I get the chance to share a lot of good finds with you here on my blog, but I have to say, this goes down as one of my favorites. I hope I just made your holiday shopping a little bit easier because I know you bird loving friends will really enjoy this find. And sharing a love and appreciation for the natural world with children, is something I feel passionately about.

happy bird watching, listening and learning....

This Old House Rocks

If you live in an old house, chances are you are very familiar with the phenomenon that if you set a ball down to rest on the floor, it will easily roll to some little sweet spot across the room. Some resting place where the settling and shifting of time has caused the floors to sag and give.

We have many floors like that in this house. Character-giving flaws, right? In fact, there is a room upstairs, that when empty of all furniture, gives me a serious case of vertigo--the "fade to center" was that bad. Now that we've completely filled it with desks, beds, dressers, I feel much better. (Though I happily usher all our guests to that room.)

And when floors sag, chances are you have a few doors that don't cooperate either. If you want them open, they want to swing closed, if you want them closed, they'll swing open.

In a house with so much character as ours has, one piece of hardware is vital--the rock door stop.

And it just so happens that if you follow our mowed trail out the back fence and through the field you'll find yourself at the perfect little stream crossing. The perfect little spot for gathering nice, heavy rocks to hold back doors.

On this particular trip, I failed to remember that you can't rush stream play. We'd just returned home from running errands on a beautiful day and I was feeling stir crazy. If I was a completely responsible mother, I would have been sending all my children upstairs for stories and naps, but instead I decided to strap Elizabeth into the backpack, tell the girls to get their bathing suits on and grab a bucket. We were going rock collecting.

Of course I told them we were on a time crunch. A small piece of information that didn't sink in.

Over an hour later, after I'd given ten of the "I'm serious this time" warnings, none of which were serious:  "Okay,  I'm really leaving now and if you don't come with me I'll make you eat these rocks for supper..." I found myself standing knee-deep in the stream, shoulders aching from the 29-pound chunk of baby on my back, fingers stiff and cramped around the handle of a pink plastic feed bucket carrying 15 pounds of potential door stops,  I realized all my mental guidelines for this trip had suddenly washed down the stream with the current:

We're only going to take 20 minutes.
Don't take off your shoes in the water.
Just don't get your hair wet.
Don't sit down there, you'll get the seat of your suit covered in sand and mud.
You must carry your own rocks back to the house.
Don't get me wet.

What was I thinking? Seriously.

Days later after the rocks were given "baths" more times than my own children, we finally had a painting day. (Which quickly morphed into a face (and hand and bicep)-painting stand. )

All in all. A good outcome. I have a lovely tattoo of flowers on my bicep, which I'm thinking looks pretty tough. And my bathroom door no longer hits me on the way out.

hello again

I disappeared for awhile last week, didn't I? Just feeling bogged down with the usual--getting close to the big move, Dan working long and late, homeschool review, "working" the farmers' market, and other things that would make a real downer of a blog post.

We did not move in this weekend. It was a break your back trying to move in this weekend, or have a smoother move in a little later. We opted for later. I'm so ready for this to be over. It is really wearing on me lately. It's been a rough few days, for some reason. Without getting into the details I've had two people say different things to me in the last few days that really hurt my feelings and offended me. One about my parenting, the other about my struggle with missing Dan while he's working at night. So this morning while my kids play outside and Elizabeth naps, I'm escaping to the comfort of my blogging friends, and then I'll probably call my sister and wah-wah to her about my woes. And then, I"ll shake it off and move on.
 


But, BUT on a happy positive note...we've officially adopted our first new member of the Thomas Run four-legged community. "Rosie" was one of the first batch of kittens we found born here on the farm this spring. Emma and I loved her from the start. But then, her mother moved her kittens away and we didn't  know where she was. Several weeks later, we discovered that she had moved them to some brush across the road. We watched and waited and hoped there would be some way to catch this wild little kitten and give her a good home.

A few days ago, Emma came running inside to tell me that the mother cat had moved the kittens back into the milking barn but they were still wild and impossible to catch. But the night I walked up to the barn to look at them, Rosie just happened to scurry into a tube that was blocked on the other end and we scooped her up. She came home hissing and spitting and growling--scared and fending for her life. But after some good food, the comfort of our tiny little bathroom and Emma spending a whole day sitting on the bathroom floor cooing and calming her, she has gone from feral to friend.
 


Emma has this knack with the kittens and cats around here. It is almost magical to watch. She is patient and quiet and calm...For five! hours on Friday, she sat on the bathroom floor making potholders, thinking of names for her kitten and making a fast friend.

Yesterday Rosie fell asleep on my neck while I read and napped. I woke up to her licking my cheek, chewing on my earrings, and purring at deafening levels. Welcome to the family little Rosie.

This afternoon we're headed over to the house to put down some rugs and move around some furniture. And then we'll have our own little party on the back porch, I think.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Happy Monday, friends. Thanks for listening.

 

a pinecone, a feather, an oak leaf, pine needles

My children haven't been getting outside enough lately to just run around and play. The cold weather and not enough prodding by me to get them out there, I guess. Oh, the bundling required. But nevertheless, they need the fresh air and the exercise. When they aren't getting enough outside time I really notice a difference in their behavior and general crankiness. Aren't we all a little like that?

So this morning, I printed a few stock photos off the computer, stapled them together and sent them outside for a miniature scavenger hunt. I thought I'd keep it to a few things so they wouldn't lose interest. They were back in five minutes. BUT, they went right back outside.

I finally finished this scarf for Emma that was supposed to be a Christmas present...then a birthday present...and now turns out to be a Happy Thursday!! present. I let her pick a jumbo button out of my stash. She picked one of the first buttons I ever made. I think it suits her perfectly. And it helps the scarf stay on. Now I have one more to finish up for Mary in the same style, and I think all my Christmas presents will be finished! Oh, that's pathetic.

a new baby

First of all. Wow. Thank you for all the ideas on my breakfast post. You guys always pull through with the good advice. This weekend, I'm going to sit down with pencil and paper, go through the comments and make my grocery list. There's new ideas, forgotten ideas and recipes I want to try. If you haven't checked back with the comments, it is definitely worth a second look. It will give all the healthy, hearty breakfast motivation one could need. I'll go through the names this weekend and pick out a bumper sticker winner.

And secondly, I feel like I need to say hello and thank you to all those new readers that showed up in the last post. My inbox was full of new names. It was wonderful. Thank you so much for stopping by and for saying hello. It warms a girl's heart.

So the 'new baby'....you'll have to go over here for the details. And I have a feeling there will be a book (or two) you'll want to add to your home library...or at the very least, pick up at your library this weekend.

Dan and I will be finishing up series five of BallyKissAngel and hunkering down with the kiddos for some cold weather on the way.

Happy Weekend, friends.

illustration from "the book"

a box of treasures

I've been meaning to share one of my favorite Christmas gifts that we gave to Mary this year. I was starting to think that you'd all be bored with a holiday recap, but this one could really be given at any time of the year. And it was such a success, I had to share. (And if you haven't read Courtney's post about her holiday giving this year, it is worth the look.)

Before Christmas, I began asking my children what kinds of things they were hoping to receive under the tree. Time and time again, Mary said things like, "A new refrigerator for you. A drill for Daddy. A broom for the kitchen floor." No matter how much I probed, or shoved catalogs in her face, I couldn't get her to give me anything to work with, (though I did appreciate her simple, generous spirit). Finally, one day she settled on "a box of marbles". And that was the present idea that she stuck with for the rest of the holiday pre-season.

So I decided to take the idea and expand on it a bit. Of course, I couldn't think of anything worse or more dangerous to have rolling around the floors of my house. With a newborn scooting all over the place trying out anything from mud to dryer lint in her little mouth, it sounded like potential disaster. I figured I better review my choking baby techniques!

I decided to improvise and make a few additions to her request. Dan built her a large wood box with a lid that slides off easily. The handle is fashioned from one of the mushrooms I ordered and one of these days I'll add some detail to it. He made the box deep enough that nothing is in danger of spilling out and she can really rifle through it without risking anything flying out of the box.

I knew I wanted to fill the box with marbles and treasures--things to sort and count, arrange and examine. I opted for the flat-sided glass marbles in the florist section of the craft store because I knew they wouldn't roll away and get lost as easily as round marbles. I also knew how much she loved shells and since we sadly, don't have a local source for collecting, I settled on a $2 bag of them at the craft store.

I also knew I wanted little wooden objects, too, so I  filled it with all kinds of things from this online source. And of course, Amanda's post about her acorns added some inspiration to include those as well. I added wooden items like robin's eggs, buttons, tree shapes, mushrooms, bowls, ladybugs and egg carriers. I also got a small flat tray with compartments for her to sort some of her "treasures".

It turned out to be a really nice collection of things and one of the most inexpensive gifts under the Christmas tree. It is such a good feeling, seeing that it still gets attention every day. Mary and Emma sit over it and sort and share and 'shop' with the various treasures inside.

And a little girl who wanted to do something special for everyone else this Christmas, received something very special for herself.

december 6

Goodness! Where have I been? Actually, I wrote a post this week, but it stayed in the draft stages of my blog. It was one of those unloading posts, one of those, "I think I need a small break from blogging posts"...but I've fully recovered. I need to remind myself not to write posts when the laundry pile is taller than my oldest child, the breakfast dishes are being washed with the lunch dishes and both of my girls are roller skating in the kitchen! phew.

Anyway this week we welcomed our first day of snow. A beautiful, fluffy, all-day snow. "The whole WORLD is white!" was what I heard over and over. Mary barely made it over the threshold of the front door before assuming the angel position. Winter is finally here. Bring it on.

I've updated my sidebar with a direct link to all my posts at the babycenter blog. I couldn't keep up with the daily updates, so I just made a generic link to the posts by me. I just reviewed a book over there, which I think many of you would really love--because I know so many of us share a passion for teaching our children about good food, eating locally, and our food sources.

I also have a few thank-you's that are long overdue.

• First of all, thank you to Erin for sending Elizabeth a pair of these. She wears them every day except the day they're in the laundry!  You're a dear friend.

• Thank you to Tiffany, my local blogging buddy who gave the girls a cute handmade bag full of her limber letters. The girls play with them all the time. All the time. You can find them in her etsy shop with a whole load of other cute things.

• And another big thank you to Michelle, who quickly jumped on board to make my bare-headed baby a winter cap. I love it. And the extra goodies in the bag were snatched up and carried away quickly, too--let's just say they involved horses and crowns. Good stuff.

on her own

"I'm going outside to rest in a tree."

apples and bananas

waving to the "flying banana" as he's known in our family. even my grandmother called up, "are your girls outside? the flying banana is here!"  He flies this thing around with what looks like a glorified box fan strapped to his back. I'm not sure how he does it....but he does put on quite a show.

I know this is nothing new, but I've never done it before and man, was it fun. The girls and I made apple prints yesterday on some scraps of linen. They went crazy when they lifted up that apple to see the first print underneath. (I kinda did, too.) We couldn't stop ourselves. There are scraps of apple-stamped fabric hanging around all over the house.

We also made some applesauce yesterday, too. It's hard to make the picture look as good as it tasted. Yum.
Can you tell we just finished up our short vowel sounds? a-a-apple?

something scary, something sweet

"E" is for....not afraid of bugs anymore. (although suddenly extremely afraid of a toad that shows his face on my grandmother's stoop each evening. I will admit he's a little unnerving.)

a (forced) study in cicadas....since little hands have scattered and forgotten them all over my house. I had to remove one from my laptop before I could open it. icky.

escape route:

Now for the sweet.
Have you experienced the unequaled sweetness of a white peach? They are in their prime here. I cannot get enough.
They do enjoy sunning themselves in a kitchen window sill. Preferably one with a nice view.

swallows in the sky {interrupted}

Wow. I certainly didn't mean to disappear from this blog for the whole week. Life has just been pleasantly full.

The swallow mobile for Elizabeth's room is now finished, but still hanging in front of a family room window, getting lots of attention from the wind. It's been hanging with a single swallow on it for over two weeks so it feels good to have it done.

***This is now the fourth time today that I've tried to sit down at my desk to write, but each time I'm interrupted. Case and point, I'm being interrupted right now by a frustrated five year-old who's trying to make a mobile of her own. She has me tracing an intricate drawing of a horse and cutting it out for her mobile. And she keeps "messing up the coloring"....which means more intricate tracing and cutting for me.  Ahhhh...but we press on.

Hope you all have a pleasantly full weekend as well. I'll be back in the new week with more. Tomorrow my mom and I are heading to Baltimore for pre-birthday lunch and shopping. Can't wait.