Some Crafty Fun - Finished

The advent muffin tins are finished.  I'm very pleased with them - lots of fun!

And for some last minute, slightly stressful, crafty fun, we have a felted purse size calendar holder (and calendar) for my sister and felted scrubby soap for my bro-in-law.   The calendar holder idea was VERY last minute - saw it in a magazine today.  I used felt pieces from an old, woolen sweater that I felted in the washing machine - and needle felted the design on with roving - actually Madison created most of the design.  I only did the orange.  The holder is hand sewn with crosstitch floss.  My sister's life is organized in her little calendar every year.  I hope the holder will be fun - though it certainly makes the calendar a lot more bulky.  The felted soap is ridiculously easy to make.  Over time the felt will get stiffer - therefore creating a scrubby cover over the soap.  My bro-in-law spends a lot of time outside - thought this soap would be good for grubby hands.  I find buying for my sister and family the hardest - they have much of what they want.  So, I decided to go homemade this year.  

Now Doesn't That Just Make You Smile!

I couldn't resist using the cactus picture for my blog header.  I drove past this house today - love it!

Some girly fun - a Christmas Tea

Do you like Madison's painting smock?  The girls made some felt ornaments.

Pooh sticks progress.

A New Supermarket, South Africa & Being Homesick and Puberty Riddled Brains, Etc.

I've got lots of groceries to put away but just need to blog or my head might explode.  I went to the new supermarket near us - it's big and there is hardly anyone shopping there - it's very cool, except it will take me a few weeks to get used to a new layout.  So, the bagger with a foreign accent takes my groceries out to the car.  Of course, I have to ask her where she is from....we don't get a lot of fur'ners here and I'm losing the nack of figuring out where they are from.  So, she says South Africa (and of course it's South Africa now that I really listen to her) and I say I moved from NZ, and she says her son is in Auckland......and we talk about NZ (and why in the world I'm living here)....and we talk about her daughter who is here and her other son still in S. Africa....and immediately I'm homesick for NZ......which might seem odd unless you know that there are a bazillion S. Africans living in NZ.  You get so used to hearing their accent...they are your friends and neighbors and your boss (the Orthodontist I worked 2 years for is S. African).  So, a conversation with a S. African lady transported me straight back to NZ.  She is homesick and not sure that living here is all it's cracked up to be...and I get that - and her children are spread around the globe.....and I totally see that in my future.  I felt sad for her and sad for me too.  Boo Hoo!

So, I've come to the conclusion that our education system is wrong regarding what we require out of our young teens who are smack-dab in the puberty years and have brains that have turned to mush.  You see, they should just go back to kindy during this time - you know, paint and play with playdoh and dress-up and run around a lot outside and brush up on their manners and work on remembering to shower and brush their teeth.  School would be reading lots of picture books and doing math by cutting their sandwiches into pieces.  You know, you have 5 pieces of ham sandwich, if you eat one piece, how many pieces are left?  There would ABSOLUTELY be no long division or fractions.  Then, when those middle years are over and the ravages of puberty are somewhat behind them, it would be BACK TO THE BOOKS for the high school years.  In this way, homeschool mothers around the world would be freed from the tyranny of trying to teach long division and losing their tempers EVERY DAY and yelling and wondering why their are keeping these poor kids at home to be yelled at by their mothers when they could just go the school and be yelled at there by someone who is not their mother!!!!!!!!!!  Sigh!  I've got to get a grip!

I bought a big honk'n, 14 pound gobbler today to serve for Christmas lunch.  We're doing a repeat of last Christmas Day (without our Canadian/NZ friends - BOO HOO!) and hosting lunch for family and friends.  As we only do Christmas with my sister's in-laws on Xmas Eve, we had to dream up something fun for Xmas Day - as otherwise we would sit around and fight with each other and have a Grinch old time.  So, we have some church friends coming - and probably my sister and family and my Dad.  I'm doing potluck as I have no desire to cook for days before - and my kitchen is small - and my oven has only one rack.  I'm roasting the bird and making a couple of side dishes - and the others are bringing some more sides and desserts.  Now, I have to figure out how to roast a good bird - as, unbelievably, this is only the 2nd turkey I've ever cooked and the first one was not too great.  I'm sure Google will have all the information I need.   If I'm in the mood, we're going to make homemade crackers (the kind you pull, not the kind you eat - and everyone has to wear the funny hats that we'll put inside them) and a Kissing Bough (or ball).  Mad and I read about the Kissing Bough (an old English tradition) in our book of all things Christmas that we're using for Christmas school.  Since I choose not to buy a real Christmas tree because of the cost, we can buy some cheap greenery, for the Kissing Bough, and still enjoy the piney smell.  

Things I'm loving:

• the cooler weather - though we're still having the odd day up near 30!
• Christmas lights everywhere
• endless Xmas music
• Luke is doing better - praise God for meds
• Craig has work coming out the wazoo......Hahahahahaha, just looked this word up.  Here is the definition from Wikipedia.  Slang for anus.  Originally derived from the Pama-Nyungan languages (the family of Indigenous Australian languages), and thought to refer to the anus of an animal, particularly the kangaroo.  I had no idea.  Craig has been working longer days here to get his camp hours in, so that he can fit in other jobs.  Hurrah for lots of work!

Some Crafty Advent Fun

Countdown advent muffin tins....shhhhh....for my nieces for Xmas.

Parent Observation Day at ballet

This was Parent Observation Week at ballet - parents, grandparents, etc can sit in on a class.  It's fun to see the girls up close and personal.  

They finished the class with a little piece from The Nutcracker - the party scene.  Madison is on the far right.

Christmas School

I've decided we'll take a break from regular school and do a little Christmas School - because a change is as good as a rest, isn't it.  Madison is doing this lapbook about Christmas symbols.  Sasha is doing the same reading and writing a summary for each symbol in his writing book - he's not the lapbook kinda guy.  I also printed out some Christmas symbol worksheets from here. 

If you are into Advent calendars, CHECK THIS OUT!    I'm feeling a little crafty, so may be making one or 2 of these.

Mistletoe Trot

Sasha ran with some of his Cross Country team in the Mistletoe Trot today - a 5k race.  Maybe once or twice a year here we have an all day rainy day - yesterday was one of those days, and it continued into this morning - while Sash was running and Mad and I were watching.  It was cool and rainy - but not terrible.  Some windy weather blew through just after the race and brought colder temps - a high of around 15 today, but back up to 26 by Tuesday.  You can't beat a central FL winter - just enough cool days to give a wintery feel.

 

Sasha, center of picture, in the red tshirt - doing some stretching.

The course was once around the lake.

The finish!  He did great!  That is around his average time for 5ks.  He still had some go in him at the finish - talked to me straight away and ate a banana (which is much easier for me to watch than when he is totally run out and has to stand around with a glazed look for awhile, looking like he's going to flake out at any moment).  

All done!  Wet from the rain instead of dripping in sweat.

This was an interesting experience for all of us - how to check in, pin the number on his shirt, tie the chip to his shoe, etc.  The chip signals the computer when he finishes the race.  A good experience - he's keen to do more and hinting at wanting to play soccer for this school team after Christmas.  His coach said he really hopes Sasha will come and play soccer for them.  And I thought I was done running him back and forth to this school which is not at all close to our house, but, I guess not.  I don't mind too much.  It's great to see him back in the saddle again - so to speak.