April 3, 2013

Jed and I spent the day at Spinnakees' Fiber Farm while their small herd of sheep were being sheared!  It was so much fun, and we were so glad to get to help a little. 

March 31, 2013

Easter morning, before the attack of the Jedites  :)

We added Mary Magdalene to the reenactment crew this year.

This is one of my favorite traditions.

This was a new addition this year as well...Jed hooked up an alarm to the tomb, theoretically to catch me in the act of removing the body of Jesus, as he has suspected me of doing so for the last couple of years.  He was foiled in his attempt, however, as the alarm did indeed go off (whether I was in the room at the time or not, I refuse to comment) but he slept soundly through it.  :)

The ice is starting to melt from the lake!

March 28, 2013

We celebrated Passover for the first time today, more as a learning experience than a spiritual one.  On the menu:  roasted lamb, roasted red potatoes, and roasted asparagus.  Yum!

March 27, 2013

We had Jim and Lois over for lunch today to celebrate Jim's birthday.  One the menu:  crab cakes, roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and maple syrup, homemade sweet potato fries, and for dessert, strawberry pretzel dessert filling in for birthday cake.  Yum!  The company was good too.  :)

March 21, 2013

Another fun science class today!  This week we studied bats, and learned that there are some caves with nurseries containing millions of little bat pups.  Scientists have discovered that mother bats find their own baby among the millions by listening for its call and by its scent (which is really her scent which she strokes onto her pup).  To see how difficult this would be, each boy was given a unique scent, with which he doused a cotton ball.  The cotton balls were gathered together and each boy was blindfolded with the assignment to find his own cotton ball.  It wasn't easy with all the competing scents, even when they were as diverse as rubbing alcohol and vanilla.  :)  Bats are amazing creatures!

March 14, 2013

Science class was so fun today!  

We candled eggs to try to determine what happens to the air sac as eggs age.  

Even the little guys were spellbound.

March 13, 2013

Jed got his glasses today!

He was one happy camper that could SEE!  :D

March 12, 2013

Another round of science experiments involving eggs....this time started out with Jed trying to break an egg with brute strength.  Although he's been working out, he's no match for the shape of an egg, cleverly designed to distribute weight evenly to avoid breakage, most notably by mama bird as she settles onto her clutch.  Next we broke the egg at the pointy end to see if we could find the air sac at the round end.  It was easily visible, created by the membrane not quite reaching the end of the egg and stretching across the gap.  Pretty cool.

March 9, 2013

The house we're renting is way more contemporary in style than anywhere else I've ever lived, including a wonky little set of shelves built into the stairway heading down to the basement.  The previous renters had nothing on the shelves, and I wondered what in the world I would do with such tall and deep but narrow shelves.  I was so excited when I realized they were the perfect place to put the Grammy and Dyce dolls Jenn and Brad gave me for Christmas.  If you're very observant, you'll notice that Grammy has a lobster pot (complete with lobster) tied around her waist.  Yep, that's how Grammies roll in Maine.  :D

March 6, 2013

Jed's vision wasn't perfect when it was checked at his 9 year checkup back in October.  We made an appointment to get it checked by an ophthalmologist, which finally happened today.  It was much worse than his pediatrician's office had suspected...I was shocked to learn he could only see the big E.  He was pretty stoic about the whole thing, and was agreeable to picking out glasses.  He chose ones that are blue along the edges, which he can see through...he said it's like looking through sea glass.  Pretty sweet for a first pair of specks!

February 25, 2013

A few more snow pics for your viewing pleasure.  :)

February 24, 2013

Another snowstorm, another opportunity to play around with the zoom lens.

foreground...

 ...background

 foreground...

...middle ground...

...background

February 23, 2013

I took another card-making class today, and these are a few of the cards I came home with.  These techniques are probably not ones I would do on my own, but it's fun to be creative with other ladies for a couple of hours on a snowy Saturday afternoon.

February 17, 2013

Yet another science experiment...this time to see if salt is the scent you smell at the ocean.  It doesn't smell like much when dry, but when boiling water is added, it does indeed smell like the ocean.  Minus the seaweed and dead sea creatures, of course.  :)

February 15, 2013

Valentine's Day tulips, with a little visitor.  Made me decide to clear out all the winter decorations and bring out the spring colors.

February 14, 2013

Jed's favorite candy is Starburst, and he's not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, so he was pretty happy with this young-man friendly Valentine for his homeschool group friends.  His gift to me?  A poem!