Alaska: The Last Frontier

On Fridays we study US geography and we are planning to study a different state each month. In April it was Alabama (we are going in alphabetical order - it is actually a very varied way to look at the US) and for May is has been Alaska.

Now I knew Alaska would be fascinating because it is sooooooo different from Florida, but I did not anticipate how sincerely Annalise would tell me that she wants to move there or how longly Caleb now wants to own a sled dog. And I didn't realize how perfectly ignorant I was (and probably still am) about our 49th state.

We watched three PBS videos (from the library) about Alaska, one was about the Iditarod Dog Sled Race, which is very interesting just in itself. We also read a book about the Inuit, listened to a book on CD about Balto the famous sled dog, and watched Snow Buddies. To cap off each state, the plan is to eat a meal themed on that state. We had that tonight:
Snow Crab Claws! I suggested salmon at first, but Rob is kind of a Deadliest Catch fan...


Caleb liked the first bite, but then decided he didn't like it. After he rejected it, Annalise decided she didn't like it either. Our side dishes weren't particularly Alaskan.

But for dessert...Publix has three Denali flavors (the Alaska reference is Denali national park, where Mt. McKinley is) - Annalise picked Bear Claw.

Let's just say it was good :)

We haven't actually had our Alabama meal yet because when I looked for ideas the recipes I found didn't seem terribly unique to me. I know I have some current and former Alabamians who read my blog - do you have any suggestions? There is a restaurant on the way to the Keys called Alabama Jacks, it is on the water and is kind has kind of a crusty shrimp boat feel to it. Would that be authentic enough? We did learn some interesting things about Alabama (they have a coon dog cemetary), but it didn't seem quite as exotic as Alaska. Next is Arizona and then Arkansas! I should be able to come up with an authentic meal from there, don't you think? :)

Just Off the Nightstand : The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam

Are you thinking, "Where does she dig up this stuff?" Well, look back to this post and you will know my inspiration.

Honestly the personal travel to Iran and having been an English major aside, the main reason I was curious about Rostam was because a c-section in Persian is a Rostamzad. It made me think, well why is a cesarean called a cesarean anyway? Julius Caesar wasn't born by cesarean - or at least it is assumed he was not because women didn't survive them when he was born and his mother did survive the birth. Reading about Rostam gave me some insight. Rostam was abnormally huge - think John Henry in American folklore - and I can imagine having people think that you were so big even as a child as to necessitate a cesarean would translate into you being bigger than life as an adult too. That is my take on it, I don't have outside evidence to strengthen my position.

The Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam is an excerpt of a larger epic poem called the Shahname (Book of Kings). It is the story of how Rostam has to kill his own son, Sohrab, to protect the shah of Iran. It isn't quite that cold hearted though. Rostam doesn't know Sohrab is his son - Sohrab, like his father is abnormally huge and at ten years old appears to be a young, but equal opponent. Being only ten years old, Sohrab's immature pride leads him to plan an overthrow of the shah to put his own father on the throne. He enlists the help of the Turks - an enemy from whom only Rostam has been able to protect the country. Since neither one has ever seen the other, they battle in ignorance until Sohrab is fatally wounded, then he warns his opponent, Rostam, that his father, Rostam, will avenge his death. The truth all comes out and Rostam is horribly grieved. He threatens to kill himself, but the shah talks him out of it because he is so essential to national security that they whole country will be lost if he dies.

This is an ancient (pre-Arab/pre-Islamic) story and only one of many stories about Rostam. I can imagine he was a greatly loved character for children. The greatness of Rostam aside, the real theme of this story is that death is inevitable and the inability to understand God. The ancient Persians were Zoroastrians and so far as I know, some Iranians still are today.

The Kids

Today in a typical chaotic and crowded moment, I heard Annalise mutter, "I wish you didn't have a baby."

It reminded me of how Caleb used to ask me to recycle Annalise or donate her to Goodwill. And now, of course he wouldn't admit she is his best friend, but they are very close. I hope someday, Annalise has a reason to eat her words too.

Just a Thought

A friend of mine and her family went to Spain for the month. When I found out, I thought (greenly), I wish we could go to Spain!

But my next thought was, there is probably at least one person stuck in Spain thinking, I wish I could go to Florida!

Halfway There

Actual Quotes

To my knowledge, neither of them know what these idioms actually mean :)

Caleb: I have to change my underwear. I have ants in my pants.

Caleb: (While playing with his marble race set) Oh no! I lost my marbles!

Annalise (I was serving a snack during some art time and she had a pair of scissors): I need to cut the cheese!

Fireflies

Somehow one night, the topic of lightning bugs came up with the kids. I had never seen lightning bugs down here, but it isn't very rural where we live, so I wasn't sure if Florida has lightning bugs or not. But a couple of weeks ago, we were driving home after dark and a bug hit our windshield and left a glowing spot, so we got our hopes up.

A few nights later, Rob came back from Mako's bedtime walk and annouced he'd seen fireflies. The next day he hyped up the kids and Caleb went out with him armed with a jar. They did catch some and we put what they caught in our butterfly cage, but what they caught was NOT lightning bugs!

Here is Caleb asleep next to his "fireflies".

What they caught are called eyed click beetles. Their bottoms do not glow, those two eye spots do the glowing.

If you mess with them they don't show off their lights, they play dead, so I colored in what they look like lit up:They don't really blink, it's more a steady burn and brighter than regular lightning bugs I think.

It turns out we have seen these bugs before, but not in a fascinating sort of way, in a "There is an ALIEN BUG with GLOW IN THE DARK EYES in the bathroom!" sort of way. Too bad we didn't know they are harmless...as adults. As larva they are called wireworms and they are a garden pest - they eat roots. What I read said they may live underground for up to 10 years, so maybe that explains why we don't see them every year.

Crayon Stockpile

At our house, every crayon is loved down to the nub, with is paper meticulously ripped of and its end constantly resharpened. But evidently many many people (even people with children) find hordes of crayons creating clutter in their homes. So when I hit some garage sales, I nearly always try to ask if there are any art supplies. Often there are - I've found crayons, markers, watercolors, glitter, colored pencils, usually dumped in a single bag being sold for a quarter.

Now being a crayon snob, I would not buy Rose Art crayons at an actual store, but in these grab bags, sometimes there are a lot of Rose Art supplies. (If it is clear that they are mostly Rose Art, I won't buy them - not even for a quarter.) But there are a lot of Crayola supplies too and sometimes rare shades like:

Or an entire study in one color:

And sometimes the bag will have a mix of crayons and markers. Most recently I admired a bag-o-crayons and the seller just gave it to me. In it were three colors of "Silly Scents"These are "Belching Baboon", "Dragon Drool", and "Abominable Snowman" - and they smell putrid. Especially "Dragon Drool" - blech!

Now I'm sure you are wondering how many crayons we have - I can't say for certain, but we lined them up neatly in an old baby wipes box (neatly so as to fit more in) and each row had about 30 crayons and I am pretty sure the box was about 10 rows deep. That's our reserve.

Easy Art that Looks Really Nice

I bookmarked a blog called Splish Splash Splatter - it's the blog of an elementary art teacher, and clearly she is a great art teacher and a real artist. We have tried a few of her projects with very nice results. She tags the posts by grade level, so it is easy to sort out what is best for what age. Her kindergarten/1st grade crafts work well for us.

I especially liked this one. We made it after reading the story in Mark where Jesus calms the storm, but it also is an art lesson about warm and cool colors.

Step one: draw a line to divide the paper into a top and bottom (a sky and a sea) - I told the kids it didn't matter if it was straight or wavy, but they both preferred to have waves (Caleb wanted really BIG waves!)

Step two: Using watercolors paint the sea blue, green, and purple.


Step three: Flip the paper around and paint the sky red, yellow, and orange.


Step four: add a boat - her instruction were to use wallpaper scraps, but we used a magazine.


This one is Annalise's - and she really did most of it herself.

I wish my pictures were better, the colors on these are really beautiful.

May Goal

A few months ago, I read about a family that was reading through the New Testament in a month's time. Their reading plan was 10 chapters a day, which works out to less than a month, but when I decided to follow in their footsteps I made a plan for myself that would take 31 days - it is 9 chapters a day for 9 days, and 8 chapters every day thereafter. For me, this is a pretty hefty goal. When it comes to Bible reading, I'm kind of slow, I did after all take 2 and a half YEARS to read Proverbs...plus I've always thought, if I read it in bulk I'd miss too much to make it worthwhile. But the post I read said, that while you miss some details, you'll "be surprised how much of a bigger picture you catch" - and it's true. I have never read the Bible this way and I'm finding that individual verses I'd memorized were not exactly what I thought when taken in larger (bookwide, not chapter-wide) context.

I decided that I would choose a translation of the Bible I had never read so that I wouldn't feel so familiar with it that I just skimmed the words. I was thinking something like The Message or the Living Bible, but in March I unexpectedly got a copy of The New Testament in Modern English which was translated by J.B. Phillips. Phillips was a contemporary and friend of C.S. Lewis. In the forward he explained how he wanted to make sure the words remained relevant when he revised the translation and he was surprised at how little basic English had changed over a 12 year period (given that slang seems to change constantly). The revised edition was published 1972 and I think it remains very accessable to modern English readers.

I was curious, so I looked online and not everyone thinks it is a good translation, but not everyone likes any translation and personally my opinion is that since I cannot read Greek and Hebrew, I am really trusting God and the translator(s) that any translation I read is good enough to convey His message. Basically, there are two ways to translate - word or word or thought for thought. The Phillips translation is thought for thought. In the forward, he used the illustration of a bird - you can study it in flight, or you can kill it and dissect it, but you really need to do both if you really want to know about birds.

I'm not finished yet (and don't expect to be before the end of the month - and only then Lord willing, because the amount of time it requires daily is a lot for someone with only pockets of uninterrupted free time!), however, I like it. I feel stretched, which is something I haven't felt in a while - at least spiritually speaking. And in time I hope to do it again with a word for word translation.

Milestones aka Growing Up

Recently I had a reminder that life is not "status quo" - or at least the moment that you think the way things are is the way they are going to stay, things change. And although my reminder was kind of small and not kid related, kids are good reminders of that too.

Caleb has gotten to an age where he is truly helpful. He has a few daily chores which I can usually depend on him to do without my help or witness. It's gotten me thinking what else I can pass off to him to ease my load - and I do not really mean that in a wholy selfish way, I think the burden of caring for everyone's every need is too much for anyone and that everyone who is able to help out in a family has a responsibility to do so - preferably with a cheerful attitude and a thankful heart. It is a struggle, but Caleb is learning to do that.

Annalise is gaining grounds in expressing herself - both verbally and artistically. She loves dot to dots and drew this out in dots first and then connected them.She is learning to count the cost with her behavior choices, but some days she is really not sure if she wants to be a big girl or a baby. (Sometimes I can really relate!)

Natalie seems to be moving up faster than she moved forward. She only started crawling in April (at 10 months old), but she quickly made her way to anything to pull up on.So far she is pulling up only on short things (i.e. the bottom step, not the couch) but she is proving to be every bit as persistent as her siblings!

Wordless Wednesday

Take a Seat

Once upon a time, there were two of us, so we had two wooden chairs. In time we bought two more wooden chairs that visually matched the first two, but were structurally inferior. Both of those chairs literally fell apart. So (you have probably seen in pictures) we used two green plastic lawn chairs at our table. The idea was that someday we would buy a real dining set, but that idea keeps getting put off. So more recently, inspired by projects seen online, I decided I would buy some "new" chairs at rummage sales and refinish them. The goal is 6 wooden chairs and to date, we have 5 wooden chairs. It's not vital that they match perfectly (afterall the two wooden chairs didn't match the green plastic ones and the world kept turning). The plan is to refinish all of them in the same stain and at least they will all be the same basic color.

Chair A I bought for $3 at a church rummage sale. It is similar to the two existing wooden chairs (rounded back), but the legs are more decorative. Also there are more rungs and they are thinner and more delicate. It is a girly chair. I like it.

Before:
During:
After:Not terribly dramatic I know, but in real life, it really looks a lot better.

Chairs B and C I bought as a pair for $4 (that is $2 each). They will have to be refinished and reupholstered, which I think is going to be easier than it sounds.

Front:
Back:

Since the legs are smooth and it has no seat and no rungs, I think it is going to be a breeze to sand and restain. I've worked a little on removing the old fabric and it is just stapled on. I think it will actually be fun to restaple a cover on it! Stress reliever! Pow Pow Pow...

I'm thinking that the two odd chairs can go on either end and the matching rest (assuming Chair D is rounded) can make up the middle. Now, who's coming to visit? :)

White Collar Sideshow

White Collar Sideshow was back in town for 3 area concerts. The kids and I met them last year and have been fans ever since. Rob has known them a little longer.Self described they are an "intense theatrical music experience" - I have not actually seen their whole show, but it is mostly percussion. We like them because they are great people and great examples of how Jesus can change lives. Their ministry is specifically one of exposing hidden addictions and findig freedom from them in Christ.

I found out that a gal in my Moms Bible Study is a fan and had to gloat, I had them in my house! They had dinner with us. (Yay for the big table!)

C&A with TD Benton. He very much endeared himself to Annalise by watching a cartoon with her after dinner.

All 3 with Veronica Benton - at least TD and Veronica are from Arkansas. I don't know where Philip is from.

Posing with "Mr. Philip" aka "The Pig" - Annalise really had a hard time separating Philip from his mask!
Caleb had to try it on!
Rob told me that you can download their entire album for free at Come&Live.

Jack and the Beanstalk Art

This project is another from our Shing Lee art book. I liked how this one was tied into a book. I guess I didn't realize how appealing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk is to kids, but my kids were mesmerized by it. They were actually first introduced to the story in a Sesame Street Treasury book where the story was retold as "Bert and the Beanstalk" and the giant collected bottlecaps (the whole story showcased the letter B). We read two other (more traditional) versions before we made this craft.

The idea was to paint a long wavy stalk from end to end of a long strip of paper and then to add on Jack and other details.
Here are the finished projects:I think the tall thing next to the stalk in Annalise's is supposed to be the giant's house. In case it isn't clear, Caleb's has a cloud on it.

Caleb also put a weather vane on both Jack's and the giant's houses. I don't think there was a weather vane in any of the stories we read and we don't have one! So I'm not sure what his inspiration was.

Annalise said the little mound behind Jack is a mountain.

Later on, Caleb amused Annalise by drawing a Giant Annalise next to a beanstalk. Note the cloud :) And the "Jack" in this drawing is Caleb!

An Actual Conversation...Overheard

Annalise: (singing) I loooooove my family! And I looooove you Lord! And I loooooove evy-ba-deeeeee!

Caleb: Do you love Moammar Gadhafi?

Annalise: Oh no, not him. He is mean.

Wordless Wednesday

Sugar Festival 2011

Just some highlights! For more information, see last year's post.









I've said it before and I'll say it again: FIFTY SPF SUNSCREEN!!