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for History today we watched the Inauguration. What? EVERY Inauguration is historical. I heard a lot of Roosevelt and Kennedy in Trump's speech.

Also, I would like to point out that the "deplorables", the "racists" et al are NOT the ones committing violence and vandalism here - it's the "peaceful", "civilized" protestors - HILLARY SUPPORTERS that are doing it.

So - just WHO are the deplorables, huh? Seriously - there's NO call for violence and vandalism. Grow up. :shaking my head:
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spent yesterday with the grandparents. They're getting old, and starting to slow WAY down. :sigh: I keep consoling myself that at least the kids had them until their late teens. (Grannie is 84, and Papaw is 86. I think. Both are in their '80s, that I know.) We'll be going back on Sunday - they had a tree cut down, and SG wants the wood. Unless it's pouring rain again, of course. :lol:

Today we (Herself and I, and some SG) "fixed" the chicken run. It's now...well....Ugly. We had a layer of chicken wire on the bottom, then garden fencing...the chicken wire has been attacked by cats and hens and was worthless, especially around chicks. Of which we have 6 that need to be OUT there, and 6 1 week old chicks and 9 1 week old guineas (we lost 1 yesterday. :sigh:) So. Now we have a row of roof tin all along the bottom of the run. Ugly, yes - but effective. I managed to smash my left forefinger with the sledge hammer.....:sigh: Fun stuff!

Passover is Friday; next week is our Spring Break. I'm printing out all our Torah Class books for next year - we'll be finished with Joshua this Friday, and we'll start Judges week after next. We'll FINISH Judges end of August, it looks like (I haven't put in our holidays yet, so it might be a little later - but not much!), then it's on to Ruth, which will take....a month, maybe? - then on to 1st Samuel. I'm printing it now, but the printer JUST borked. :sigh: Ah, well - I have a little over half of it printed, so...that's good. I'll be dropping them into PlanBook next week.

Not much else to report - except we're waterlogged and need to evolve webbed feet. :Quack!: :lol:
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Busy, here. I'm in the middle of planning out 2015/16...yeah, I'm slow this year. However, I have an excuse: We were slogging thru Chemistry until last week, Himself decided a few weeks ago that he simply could NOT stand to read another book by that author, and I had to wait for the new books to come in. Plus, he wanted something different for History......

Here's what our 2015/2016 school year looks like: (for the record, he's a Sophomore)

Torah: Still doing TorahClass. We're nearing the end of Deuteronomy; we'll be moving onto Joshua when we finish. TorahClass doesn't have any books past Deuteronomy, but Mr. Bradford has his class lectures neatly typed up and available for download. I printed out all of his Joshua ones and spiral-bound them, then went thru with sticky-flags and scheduled it out.

Science: This year it's Physics. I'm doing the course laid out at donttouchthephotons.wordpress.com - a homeschool mom compiled it, and was nice enough to share. It's...fast-moving, so I might be doing some re-arranging later on, but for now it looks like 1 chapter per week, with labs and worksheets. I'm very grateful someone else put this all together, because *I* would not have gotten as in-depth.

History: We are departing from the norm this year, and doing an Architecture thru History thing. iTunes U has an actual *course* that I am using as the base; I am adding in NOVA documentaries (and some episodes from "Engineering an Empire" as they fit) to flesh it out and make it a bit more fun. It's not exactly what he had in mind (this is History OF Architecture), but he said it sounds cool. *whew*. Next year...who knows? I have a Great Courses World History course that I might push...we'll see.

Math: Right now, we're working our way thru Khan Academy's Trig lessons. I am in NO rush for him to get to Calculus, and the review has been good - he's been stumped a few times on things Khan expects him to know that Life of Fred didn't cover. At some point, though, we WILL be moving on to Life of Fred: Calculus......pray for me, guys. :lol:

Hebrew: Still working our way thru the Hebrew Podcasts. I'm not sure we'll ever get *fluent*, but we are starting to understand a little. Enough that we get the gist of the conversation, which is good.

Latin: Um. Yeah. Probably....not. Or we'll re-do Latin 101 again. We'll see......

Language Arts: The 1 blank area I have. I think we're going to start out with Shakespeare - I have a documentary on his life - then we'll pick a play (probably "Taming of the Shrew") to do an in-depth study on. We'll compare it to "Kiss Me, Kate" (musical. Hey, that's Art & Music!! :lol:)....then we'll pick a novel. Not sure what, exactly....but....we'll do *something*.

I think, for "Enrichment" I'm going to see if I can get him to sew. See, he's decided that he HAS to have a Jedi costume for Dec. 18. I'm cool with that....but. IF he wants to start costuming, HE'S going to have to be prepared to do it himself. :nods: Sewing is a good skill to have - and I have a plethora of machines right now (my Rocketeer, Herself's modern Singer, Herself's Bernina, Himself's Featherweight....); granted, some of them need to be looked at, but we HAVE machines. I can give him the basics, then turn him loose......

Guess I need to get back to planning Physics. :sigh: Ah, well - I only have to do this once a year. After that, it's open-and-go...which *I* like. Makes my life SO much easier!
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Ali made an interesting post, saying (basically) that Christianity is screwed up. Not wanting to blog her comments, I'm posting it here. This *might* upset some of you - but please, before going off in a ranty rage, please THINK about what I'm saying, OK? This isn't aimed at ANYONE specifically, it's just me trying to put my thoughts in some sort of order.

OK. Christianity IS screwed up. Basically because Constantine - in the 4th Century - declared all things Jewish forbidden in *his* religion. Which became the core of the Catholic church, which has become - thanks to the Protestant Reformation - the entire Christian church. Problem......JESUS, the Messiah that ALL Christians profess to follow, IS Jewish. (Which....actually explains a lot of what I don't understand in modern churchiantiy. Anyway...)

If you profess to be a Christian, you claim to follow Jesus. A JEWISH man. The JEWISH Messiah. He kept Torah. He followed Tradition. He kept the Biblical Feasts. He was Jewish. Let that sink in for a bit. IF you are Christian, you worship the Jewish Messiah.

Now. Most churches espouse "replacement theology" - even if it's not stated outright, they have the mindset that Christianity has *replaced* Judaism as God's people. I have asked for Biblical support for this idea....and have NEVER gotten it.

Oh, they try to use Paul's words from Acts...but that doesn't work. See, you have to read the ENTIRE thing, not just cherry-pick....and it simply doesn't work. (An aside: this is why I have a problem with those who claim circumcision is gone....um. That's NOT what was said. Yes, Paul said it's of the heart now...but he was talking about circumcision on adult males. It's hard, it's painful. Remember Shechem, where Jacob's sons attacked the men the 3rd day after they were circumcised? Because the prince had raped their sister, then wanted to marry her? Paul was saying, hey - don't put that burden on the adult men, because pretty soon they won't want to join us. Instead, give them a pass - they WILL circumcise their sons, in accordance with the Abrahamic covenant (which has NEVER been overturned, BTW). Anyway....) The original Gentile Christians became Jewish - but ones who believed that Jesus WAS the promised Messiah. They kept Torah. They kept kosher. From the outside, they would have looked JEWISH.

When you removed the Jewish bits from Christianity, you are left with......not much, honestly. Pagan bits creep in (just take a look at Christmas traditions. Seriously. And don't get me started on Easter....) - even though Scripture clearly states to NOT mix the Holy with the profane. But without the foundation that Jewishness gives you, there's nothing there - so things have to be added to make it "work".

And......why is it that so many Christians are anti-Semitic? I mean....Jesus IS Jewish. Why, oh why, do they HATE the Jews? How can they function with that kind of disconnect....I mean - really? How can you claim to follow Jesus, and yet support a 2-state solution? (Seriously, how can anyone claim to follow Jesus, then scream for Israel to GIVE UP land that GOD HIMSELF gave to THEM?????? I just......I can't think that way.)

It's not just Christians, either - the Messianics are also messed up, but in the opposite direction. They want to be TOO Jewish.....:sigh: Yes, Believers are grafted in - adopted, if you will. IF you believe that Jesus IS the Messiah, then, in God's eyes, you ARE one of His chosen...which IS Jewish. Which goes against most of what modern churches teach...but it's all there, in the Bible (in the Torah, even, which makes it more "real". The NT was never intended to be held to the same holiness (for lack of a better word) as the Torah/OT was. The NT was, basically, commentary on HOW to live a Torah-based life for those not raised with it. Gentiles, in other words. The Jews that believed didn't change how they lived - except they shared the news of Jesus with everyone they met. They were *still Jewish*.

:sigh: I have more, but it's hard to catch to put into words. I'm also trying to frantically get a Physics course set up for Himself - we are 1 week (or so) from finishing Chemistry, and he told me Monday that he really, really HATES this author. :eek: So, I have been googling my little eyes out. I found a promising looking, Homeschool-designed Physics course ( donttouchthephotons.wordpress.com ) that he said looked "OK", so I have been scrounging up the money to get the books. :grumble: Thank the Lord for eBay and HPB.com! 4 books ordered, for under $20. 3 to go....but I think we can get started with just these 4. :sigh: Ah, well...

Shabbat Shalom! Please keep the comments civil - I don't block, but would like to be able to have a discussion about this, not screaming fights.
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It's 26* and sleeting. AND raining - they're calling it "thunder sleet/snow". THIS is why I am glad we bred late again this year; had we bred in Sept/Oct the way the "experts" say to do, we'd be kidding out in this crap.....and possibly losing babies to the cold. No, thank you - I'll continue to breed in December and kid out in May. Yes, it still gets "cold"...but not THIS cold.

I had an allergic reaction this weekend - think it was the Gingerbread cookies Herself made Friday. I have itched since Saturday evening....and the only "new" thing is the cookies. :sigh: They were good, too....but I need to do a patch test on the molasses. (The cookies were a mix; the only thing different from other box mixes was the molasses. So.....I have to assume that's what caused the hives. 3 cookies Friday evening, 2 Sat. morning and 2 Sat. evening seems to have set me off. 2 more Sunday, and it was itch-city all damn day. :sigh:) Benedryl barely touched it......darn it, I LIKE Gingerbread!!!!

Am almost 1/3 done with the hose. Must keep knitting......2 weeks. I have 2 weeks.....

School: We are doing Shakespeare in place of Latin. We're starting with "Midsummer's Night Dream" - CurrClick has a unit from Home Base English on the Bard, and I'm loosely using that. We'll spend about 3 weeks on each play; PBS has a "Discovering Shakespeare" series that looks at each play, and we'll be doing those as well. I'm lucky - both kids were exposed to the Bard at a young age, and actually LIKE him. So, the announcement of this unit was met with anticipation, not groans. :lol:

I need to do a little bit of googling for school - stay warm, y'all!

:blah:

Feb. 19th, 2015 08:49 am
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Weather's been typical Texas - go from 80s on the weekend to 30s during the week. No wonder we're all sniffling - the trees don't know if it's Spring or Winter! And they're tentatively predicting "snow" next week - whatever *that* is. :lol:

Herself is set up for oral surgery next Friday. Fun times - the dentist was very nice; he explained everything to her so she's prepared. Nervous, but OK. *I* need to stock up on ice cream.....

Called the IRS; seems that they are "double checking a lot of returns due to identity theft". Um...OK, but WHY did you tell me you deposited my money, then changed it to "Your refund has been delayed"...because, IF you deposited it, like you said ON THE WEBSITE on Thursday, WHY, then, on Monday did you change it to "delayed"? It...doesn't make sense. The agent was nice, but even he hemmed and hawed when I asked that....:sigh: 60 days. We have to wait 60 days now - of course, it MIGHT get sent out sooner, but I am not holding my breath.

Kilt hose: Got to round 8 on the leg, but ripped it all out this AM. I had somehow buggered up the pattern rows and was off on 2 of the motifs; decided I couldn't live with the fudge, so RIP. I'm now up to round 2.....with markers EVERYWHERE. We'll see.....I seem to remember ripping a LOT on the first one, so this is par for the course.

School: We finished Latin 101. We're taking a break from Latin for the moment; we'll start up again in a week or 2. I need "light" for a bit.....so we're focusing just on the basics. :sigh:

Not much else.....guess I should get books together so we can start our day. Laters!
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Let's see:

1. Made soap Wednesday, and cut it today. My Studio now smells like a....um....upscale Gentlemen's Club visited a Laundromat en masse. :lol: I made 5 batches of soap: 3 Neroli-Shea Blossom (soft, non-gender specific floral-ish sort of scent) and 2 Snow Queen (which reads to *my* nose as fresh laundry.......I am the only one here that gets that from it, but.....and yes, I went More Purple this time! :wink:) We'll see how the scents settle; the Neroli batch is a new technique for me, and 2 logs turned out almost perfect. The 3rd....well, that's the tester log. :lol:

2. The IRS/my bank has lost Herself's refund. :sigh: Our Joint hit, and Himself's hit, both on the days the IRS said they would. Herself's was due to hit Wednesday; I called yesterday and was told (by my bank) that maybe they just hadn't "gotten it from the Internet yet - check back at 2 PM. We do another check then." Um.....that's NOT how this works, but whatever. Called back today, and it never HIT the bank. There's no record of the name/amount/account number, not even on the error report......and the IRS won't talk to me before Monday....which is a Holiday, so it'll be Tuesday at the earliest. :bangs head: and :sighs: This is my washer and new mixer money, so at least it's not *Needed* right now, but....it would be nice. :big sigh: (The kids get SSI from their dad's estate, and I have them withhold 10%, even though SSI is non-taxable. This way, we get a chunk of $$$ back to do household stuff with - and I give the kids a good chunk of it as well, to do with as they please. It's win/win, because they feel like they are contributing to the household, but still get some spending $$$. Herself didn't even have hers 10 minutes - it all went to Fire Mountain. She'll be making LOTS of sparklies soon - and claims she'll even try to SELL some. :blink:)

3. Went to the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes yesterday - Oh. My. Gosh!!!!! It's.....well, incredible doesn't cover it. It'll be in Santa Ana, CA in June - GO. Just.....make it a mini-vacation and GO. They have movie props and costumes from the 2 RDJ movies (Blackwood's casket! The "original" taser!!!) and stuff from "Elementary" (eh. Watson is NOT female...sorry. Can't watch it because I can't get over the gender-swapping. :sigh:) It's interactive - YOU "help" Sherlock solve a mystery. There are stations where you do hands-on experiments to see if London's finest are correct or not - it was totally cool. You get a notebook to record your findings - you do rubbings and stamps and stuff like that - no pens necessary!) and...well, it was cool. And fun. And worth the exhibit fee. The vignettes are full of actual antiques - FROM Conan-Doyle's era! - and...well, it's cool. Especially if you're a Sherlock fan.

4. Am almost done with the knot work cuff on the hose. :sigh: I HATE knitting flat....I can't wait until I join it in the round so I can start banging it out. The clock is ticking...and I wanna knit something mindless!

Gotta skitter - got Shabbat cleaning to do, then it's on to the knitting!
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because it was fun!

1. Yesterday was Comic Con! I have quite a few photos - I need to see if I feel comfortable posting them, as Herself is plainly ID'able (she's OK with it, but.....I am not. Not really, anyway.) Suffice to say that there were Daleks aplenty, and she got her photo taken with all of them. :lol: We "met" Dalek Tim, who said "Hello" to me (THAT photo is hysterical, because I didn't expect it to turn the eyestalk to me and say "Hello". It was a hoot! We talked to a group that is producing a fan-based Dr. Who series (Soldier Stories) online - sounds fantastic.

SG got autographs from Nichelle Nichols (the original Uhura) and the actor who played Ti'ilk (Stargate). $80.....:wince:...but he wanted them.

It was fun - even though we stood in line outside for 1.5 hours (AND we had purchased our tickets online!!!!). I overheard Security say that 11K people were there - not sure if they meant AT that moment, or Saturday total - it was PACKED. To the point that *I* started freaking out a little. Still, it was fun - both kids enjoyed it.

2. Heard from Skutt! It IS a Skutt kiln; built sometime between 1960 and 1980. It needs a Lot of Work, according to the tech....I am waiting to see what the estimate is before moving forward. I also asked my potter friend to give me her opinion. We'll have to pay for the repairs piecemeal no matter what; I just don't want to pay MORE than the kiln is actually worth, y'know? And I don't want to pay for something it doesn't really *need*. So....we're in a holding pattern there.

3. Bought more yarn for Himself's kilt hose from a Ravelry member. I gotta say, the Lord is good!! And I apparently *did* rate a miracle, because - Miracle of Miracles!!! - the dye lot MATCHED mine!!!! (You have NO idea about how big a deal this is! See....yarn is dyed in batches - might be large ones, but still, finite batches. Each batch has it's own dye lot number; it means that all the yarn with *that* number was dyed at the same time, in the same pool of dye. I bought my yarn last March from a store in WA state. The destash came from a lady in Indiana.....and all of the "new" yarn is the exact same dye lot as my original set!!!!! What are the odds???? I'm telling you, God is GOOD!!)

3a. Speaking of Kilt Hose, I am 3" away from starting the toe on #1. :Sigh: Kid's got big feet! Still, I can see the end of this one....one more to go.

4. Not much knitting will be done Thursday. The Perot has a new exhibit opening this weekend - The International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes. Members-only days are Thursday and Friday, and we are going! Yes, I'll be in my Sherlocked shirt.....I don't have the socks done yet, but that's OK. I'll probably do them in March. Maybe April....so many socks, so little time. :lol: The kids are kinda excited - this is a forensics "lab" type exhibit. Should be fun!

Our IRS refund is due to hit Tuesday. Gotta pay the taxes, then I get to go buy a new washer and *hopefully* my replacement KitchenAid stand mixer. Won't have much "fun" money this year, but hey - at least the taxes are paid, right?

Gotta skitter - got knitting to do!

:bleurgh:

Jan. 23rd, 2015 07:59 am
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My sinuses decided to attempt to kill me yesterday. Out of the blue they shut down, and I can't breathe. Or smell (or taste. :sigh:) I took Benedryl last night to try and open them up.....nope. I was drugged to sleep, but couldn't breathe so kept waking up. :fun fun: I have the bed clothes in the washer now, in hopes that maybe the dogs brought something in that set this off. :sigh:

I am at the heel of sock #2. The plan was to be at the toe today....but life happened. I'll try to finish them Sunday.....

This year is our "Musical" year. We did a Great Courses Broadway course, then a couple of documentaries, and now we are watching all the musicals. I think the biggest hit - so far! - has been "Into the Woods", a re-telling of Grimm's fairy tales. TOTALLY hysterical - I hope the movie version gets at least half of it right, because if they do, it'll be funny. (But....not for young kids. Grimm's is dark, and Sondheim went to the source material for this. Kinda gory....but funny!) My favorite line was when Cinderella discovered that her husband was still fond of.....young maidens. She confronts him, and he says "Well, I was raised to be charming, not sincere!". :rofl: (And they kill the narrator off - it's hysterical!)

We've seen a lot of good ones - can't wait to see what's in store! And...I need to figure out next year....because this was a definite hit with both kids. The goal was for them to appreciate musical theatre - and they do. (And they both agree that movie versions generally suck compared to the Broadway versions. :lol:)

I need to find more Kleenex, and we need to get our day started. Shabbat Shalom - and may you be able to breathe this weekend!
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Herself has been feeling sick, so I've spent the last 2 nights on the futon (for some reason, when she's feeling "off", she wants to sleep on the sofa. :Sigh: And she wants Mama near. :big sigh:

She's not feeling TOO bad though - right now the kids are doing their Home-Ec class. This week, it's Carrot Cake from scratch...and my kitchen is a disaster area. *I* am staying out of it - I will advise, I will demonstrate, but I am NOT doing the actual baking/mixing/reading of recipe. That's all on them. So far, Himself's done the dry mixing while Herself's done the wet - I had to shred the carrots, because the food processor kinda scares *both* of them. :snicker: It should go well with tonight's dinner - I put chili in the crock pot this AM, and it smells FABULOUS.

2.5 repeats to go on the scarf! I can see the light!!! :lol:

I need to stay off of Ravelry a bit.....see, Rav has a function where you can look up patterns/yarns and see what people have done with them. You can also look into people's stashes to see what the yarns look like under different lighting conditions. However.....Rav also has a function within "Stash" called "For Sale or Trade". :gulp: VERY dangerous, that is!

I, um...well. I scored a "Lucky Jack" Tsock Tsarina kit from a destash, and the pattern for "Lobster Quadrille". And an online friend picked up "York and Lancaster" for me from the Fiber Festival this Weekend (I think it's the "Big E", but I'm not sure.)...so I have 3 Tsocks coming. And another I've inquired about. :sigh: I need to step AWAY from the forum. :lol: (I LOVE Tsocks. They aren't normal mindless knitting, which is why I like them. And they're always inventive!) Oh, and I have a few more marked for later.....

Anyway. I need to see why the kitchen's gone quiet, and start thinking about lunch.

Hope your weekend goes well!!
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Tadpole: We started homeschooling primarily because Himself was being bullied in school. Badly. To the point of self-harm, even. And not just by the kids, but the *teachers*, too.

See, he's......I can't say this without sounding like I'm bragging, sorry - he tests in the 99% percentile across the board. With an extreme tendency in Math and Science. Also, I started taking the kids to NASA in 2003 - we went almost every year until we got the goats - so when it comes to space-type stuff, he KNOWS what he's talking about. And when the teacher in his 5th grade class said something that the Hubble had disproved, he politely spoke up...and got sent to the principal. I got a little upset, and sent him in the next day with a book that PROVED that what he had said was true...and he got sent to the office AGAIN. That was the final straw - I got his psychologist to agree that homeschooling was best for him, and we pulled him out (I was nice, and waited until the Mar. benchmark testing was done) in March of that year. We then pulled Herself out at the end of the year - with her being on the Spectrum, High School was NOT going to be a good idea.

It was tough at first, but we've hit our stride now and are cruising along. No regrets at all!

Knitting: Scarf is 1/4 done. :huzzah: I was able to score a copy of Willow Ware (another Tsock pattern!), so I'll be dyeing up some yarn for it today or tomorrow - but won't start it until AFTER all the presents are done. :bounce:

Leg: Lovely bruises. Swelling slightly down. Ankle....black. :sigh:

Homeschool: Did you know that only *1* store within 50 miles of me carries Rye flour? And I NEED Rye flour for tomorrow's baking class????? Shout-out to the Central Market in N. Dallas - not only did they have my flour, but the Ass't Manager (I think - she was in a Harley Quinn costume) went out of her way to find me the Caraway Seeds I needed. FANTASTIC customer service!!!!!

Gotta run and buy dog food, then fire up the dye pots. Laters!

:sigh:

Oct. 24th, 2014 09:29 am
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It's been busy. Dr. for SG on Wednesday, shopping yesterday. This AM, the kids are cleaning the doe barn (so school will start LATE).....it's been a wild week.

I spent the morning printing out and collating Mystery of History, Quarter 2. The book still hasn't printed, but the publisher has made Q2 available - both the book and the workbook - for download to those of us who pre-ordered, so at least I CAN teach World History. I wish they'd let me download all of the workbook, because I'd prefer to print it out at once, but hey - at least I'm done thru lesson 42!

I have to say, I love Planbook! I love that I can go ahead and set the entire year up, then if something comes up I can bump the lessons. Or, if we get so into a subject we read ahead, I can pull back the lesson order. It's great - and I LOVE having everything set up ready to go. I also like that I can set up lessons per kid, if I want, and print out just their plan for the week/month - we tried that last year. Himself LOVED it, because he could do a week's worth of work in 1 or 2 days if he wanted to. Herself, however.....can't handle that much freedom. Oh, well - it was worth a try. :lol:

Not much else to report. The scarf is about 1/4 done, my leg is still black-and-blue, the goats - oh, yeah. The goats....we did lose the gray cashmere boy. :sigh: Everybody else is doing well, though - Frosty is starting to gain weight - which is good! - and the barn is being cleaned as I type. I need to stack firewood, but it hurts to walk much, so that'll have to wait. :sigh:

Ah, well - such is life. Shabbat Shalom!
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because yesterday was the BEST garage sale day EVER. EVER!

We didn't plan on hitting any yesterday, but the Lord had different plans for us. We got up intending to go gather more logs - and the truck was DOA. Not totally - the radio and lights work, but it won't crank at all. So, into the car we went - we had planned on doing some running around before gathering wood - and headed out.

SG wasn't paying attention, and headed into work. :lol: I said something, so he decided to go thru a residential area to get back on track...and there was an Estate Sale. Now, I'm a sucker for sales at old Historic homes - and out town has a LOT of turn-of-the 20th-Century homes. I didn't want to BUY anything (honestly!), I just wanted to poke around this lovely Victorian home.

Now, I live in a very Christian area. Our town has a population of 6,500 +/-. There are at least 10 churches IN town, plus a bunch more in the surrounding areas (you've heard of the Bible Belt? I live in the very buckle. :lol: It's Texas - it's a BIG buckle!) So imagine our surprise to find Judaica at this sale! I scored a lovely menorah and a set of 6 glasses (I think they're for Pesach, but I haven't tried to translate them yet.) I left 2 Jewish aprons - 1 was stained, 1 was ORANGE. :shudder:

Anyway, we did our errands, then hit an Antique Mall, where SG scored 2 new-to-him planes (at 10% off!), AND he scored me a set of #8 wool carders (in Good! condition!) for $12 and an almost new LeClerc shuttle - for $4!!!!!!! And a metal rolling pin for Herself at 75% off!!!!!!! (for clay work - I want my silicone rolling pin back!)

Knitting Report: Frogged the scarf again. I decided that I was experienced enough that if that little voice kept telling me that something was Not Right, I needed to pay attention. In the round, stranded, it was too damn thick to wrap around a neck, so I'm knitting it flat. Yes, the back will be ugly - but it'll be usable.

Goats: I have 2 sick goats, and I'm not sure what's going on. We lost Vinnie yesterday - Thursday he had gotten his head stuck in the fence, and I think the other bucks beat him up while he was stuck. We got his head unstuck, but he didn't stand back up and quit eating. :sigh: Now the gray "fun size" cashmere is exhibiting signs of polio - and it doesn't look good right now. I've been sticking him with Thiamine, but....I'm not sure it's doing anything. And Frosty - Annie's daughter - is thin and a little weak. She's on the shot regimen as well - she's eating, I got her up this AM, but she layer back down after a few minutes. :sigh: The only new feed is the hay - we never know where the bales come from - and with this drought there's no telling WHAT kind of quality/weeds we have. :big sigh: I'll keep popping them with Thiamine...but I think I'm about to be down 1 Cashmere. :sad: This is the part I HATE about animal husbandry....but it's part of it. Doesn't mean I have to like it.....

Gotta skitter - school today, because Wednesday is shopping day. If we start out week today, we can take Wed. off.
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Herself is MUCH better today, thank you! She slept soundly last night, and woke up ready to take on the world. Or at least, Canton Trade Days. :lol: I'm glad we went today instead of tomorrow; we found a "new" vendor (new to us, anyway!) that carries mostly old-fashioned hand-tools. Like the planes SG has been hunting. For reasonable prices.

A few weeks ago, SG showed me a video of Chris Schwartz (some big woodworking guru) - he was using a plow plane. SG remarked that he'd like one, but new they were in the $500+ range (the one Chris was using was $1700. !!!!)

Anyway, we're browsing the booth...and I see not 1 but *2* plow planes. 1 had a bunch of blades with it - but it was priced a little out of our budget. SG sighed and bought a Stanley plane, a...something else, and an old oil can. I asked the guy what was the least amount he'd take for the bells-n-whistles plane....and he said, well, I take checks, you know, and let me see...how 'bout $100? I had my checkbook out faster than SG could say "Yes". :rofl:

SG has promised to finish my weaving cabinet soon. He also offered to buy me the 2 broken-down spinning wheels another seller had....problem is that only 1 was almost complete. And...it's gonna cost more than the thing is worth to get it to usable condition (it's missing the Mother-of-All, the flyer and bobbin assembly and the wooden screw blocks needed to tension the missing MoA. SG can't do metal smithing, which is necessary for the orifice and bobbin rod.....we *could* purchase an Ashford flyer unit, but it wouldn't match and might not even work correctly on the old wheel. :sigh: It was a pretty thing....but I won't spend $100 on a non-fixable beauty prop. :big sigh:

Ah, well - we had fun. And Herself still feels good!

I've been lesson-planning. Looks like our Home Ec course will be on Mondays - it's a non-full day (ish - Friday is our light day, but I want to keep it that way for Shabbat-prep). We're starting with scrambled eggs - that way she can cook *something* decent right out the gate. I have the Jan/Feb 1998 issue of Cook's Illustrated which has "fluffy scrambled eggs", "Best Bacon" (we'll use either Turkey or Beef bacon, of course!), Jewish Rye Bread, and Carrot Cake - that's a whole month, right there! :wink: We'll do a lot of it later in the day, so that supper will be taken care of - she learns to cook and *I* don't have to prep dinner. Win/win! :lol: I have 9 issues of Cook's Illustrated and 7 issues of Martha Stewart Living (I know, but - she's got good ideas.) - that should keep us busy this year! (And, we might do more than 1x/week. We'll see.)

Gotta re-boot the laundry. Hope y'all have a great day!

:ugh:

Oct. 1st, 2014 05:23 pm
fiberaddict: (Default)
We were supposed to go to the Fair today......didn't happen. Herself got sick last night - she finally fell asleep around 2 AM. On the couch. I was on the futon to keep an eye on her. 3 hours later, I'm up......3 hours of sleep is NOT enough for me. I've been a zombie all day.

We managed to get her in to the doctor - it appears to be a cold. But. Because her cycles have been off-the-wall-weird the past 3 months (she's been bleeding for 3 weeks straight this time), the doc sent us to the lab for blood draws. And put her on birth control pills. :sigh: and :huzzah: (I had forgotten that I had to go on BCP myself to get my cycles straightened out. Wish I had remembered this sooner!)

Anyway, we picked up her prescription and headed home. She was feeling better, and requested Henk's European Deli for lunch. I double- and triple-checked that she was sure; we went, we ate, and we hit the Half-Price books right across the street. Where I discovered that magazines are only $1.....:sigh:

We now have enough Cook's Illustrated and Martha Stewart Living for me to put together a Home Ec. course. As soon as I get some sleep, I'll go thru and start planning it - I want both kids to be able to cook - more than just box dinners! - and understand WHY you do certain things. Himself can already cook pretty good (but he's afraid of the oven, ever since he accidentally melted a spatula he forgot to remove from his dish. Ah, well - BTDT!), but Herself has been resistant up till now.

I'm so tired I can't knit! (You know it's bad....) But! I also picked up some Interweave Knits and some Clearance Books....I'm good for reading material for a while. :weak grin:
fiberaddict: (Default)
but you'll have to wait. I was *planning* on having Firebird #1 done *today*, but....Dr. Who and knitting from charts simply do NOT mix. :lol: And today...well, we have an outside class that's going to cut into today's knitting time. Not a big deal, but....the sock won't be finished (probably) until Sunday (I don't knit on Shabbat.) And SG finished another darning egg - I need to post that, as well. (He's getting better - he even added some pretty touches to this one!)

I also really, really, REALLY need to make soap - like, SOON. Paypal is supposed to keep track of inventory...but it kinda sucks. I have it set to notify me when I get down to 5 bars of a particular scent.....and it sometimes doesn't do that. Yes, I can visually verify - but when you have a batch that you think is "enough" and it sells, well - you kinda need to get it restocked. :lol: (NOT a bad problem to have!) I have a LOT of soap curing, but not of all my scents - some are new, some are fail-batches, and some are personal. So, soap-making gets moved to the top of the Must Do list and knitting gets moved down. (Since it takes 6 weeks to cure, I need to stay on top of the soap situation.)

At least this time I remembered to update the website with "out of stock" buttons. :blush: Which reminds me, I *really* need to get the new soaps listed - as I said above, I have a *lot* that's not on the site yet. :sigh: and :lol: (First world problems, right?)

At least I did my Shabbat cleaning early today! And dinner's already planned...so at least I am ahead of the game there!

Gotta skitter! Shabbat Shalom!
fiberaddict: (Default)
we need rain, but that's OK - we got a little bit yesterday. At least it's not 100+ any more!

Sock Report: Working my way up the leg. I have 31 rounds to go (or thereabouts) - I'm hoping to have it done by Friday so I can start #2. I'm taking extensive notes (and putting most of them on the Ravelry page for my Firebird) so that a) sock #2 will match and b) my Peacock version will go easily.

I have to hit the Post Office tomorrow - I have soap to ship out! (Thank you! You know who you are!!) I went today before I got the soap order - I had a box to pick up. I'm doing a little more work - surprisingly, the check was already at the Post Office! That was a nice blessing!

Not much else going on - I'm knitting my way thru holiday presents; after this pair of socks I have a cabled scarf for Himself, a pair of socks for SG, a knitted version of the Skyrim helmet for Herself (she's...an interesting kid, what can I say? :lol:), and a hat for Cyn. (Need to get the yarn for that one; she's not a hand-wash person, so it'll need to be machine washable. And PINK.) I'm hoping to plow thru these quickly so that I can play with the Van Gogh goes Bob Marley yarn. :rofl: - thanks Ali!

School is going well. We added "real" Math in this week, as well as started Mystery of History IV. It's nice to be back in the routine of "real" school! Himself is kinda irked - he's taking Trigonometry this year, and I'm making him actually WRITE the problems out *on paper*. He's gotten used to doing all the Math in his head.....but I know that Calculus is coming up, and he's going to *need* to be used to putting the pencil to paper. I need to dig out his slide rule, too - there's no reason he can't learn to use it alongside a scientific calculator. :grin:

Guess I really should sit and knit a bit. The socks won't knit themselves, after all!
fiberaddict: (Default)
so, we went to the Perot! NO crowds; we got to see all the exhibits and spend time with Grandpa, who went with us. It was a good day!

I took a "back to school" photo, but the kids asked I not post it. Ok...but it's funny. The Perot has a dinosaur fossil on display in front of the ticket kiosk. Both kids stood in front of it, and right as I went to snap the photo, decided to play fight. :sigh: and :lol: Typical!

Am about halfway down the leg of my Impressionist socks. Have a photo:

Monet socks beginning

The yarn is lovely to knit with, the pattern is very very easy and intuitive. I like how the colors are working with the lace, but I'm not totally sold on the pooling I'm getting. I looked up the yarn, and it seems that this is typical of this yarn, so :shrug: I'll live with it. It's a nice, cushy sock so far!

The washer is fixed!!! All it was......HImself had overstuffed it when he did his laundry and one of his shirts got in between the drum and the...whatever, and wrapped around the pump. :sigh: We've gone over laundry rules again.....but I have a washer!!!!!

Busy day - and I'm tired. Laters!
fiberaddict: (Default)
RIP Robin Williams. :sigh: I wish the world had a better understanding of mental illness - it's just like cancer, only you can't *see* it. He died of his illness...and he'll be missed.

RIP Lauren Bacall. What a lady!

We had to do "emergency" fence repair this AM. Not really an emergency; but I couldn't let the babies out without doing *something* to the fence between the doe paddock and the back yard. The spacing on the cattle panels was too large, so I pulled out the chain link roll we had. God is good! It was *just* long enough to cover the distance we needed covered. And now there's no way the kids can get their heads thru the fence for the dogs to "play" with. :whew: (And yes, God IS good - we got the roll when SG's company closed the warehouse. It was free, but we really had no need for chain link. We took it, just because - and it was exactly what we needed to dog-proof the fence!)

Almost to the heel turn. Would be further along, but...well, Dr. Who happened. I can't knit a complicated pattern AND watch the Doctor at the same time. :lol:

We started adding classes back this week. This week was Art/Music - we're using the Teaching Company's "Great American Music: Broadway Musicals". When that's finished, I have a PBS documentary on more modern Musicals, and then we'll be watching and doing studies on various musicals. Both kids are actually looking forward to this - amazing, huh? :lol:

Back to the knitting - I want to FINISH this pair THIS WEEK, so I can start something different. Something...I dunno - NOT blue and yellow! :rofl:

Whee!

Jul. 18th, 2014 08:12 am
fiberaddict: (Default)
Just got an email from Mystery of History - Vol. IV will be shipping in late Sept/early Oct! Because I pre-ordered, it included a link to get the 1st Quarter of the Student Reader (the textbook) and the 1st Quarter Activities/Tests/etc. Guess what I've been doing? :lol: My printer is gonna hate me.....ah well.

I'll be sitting down with PlanBook in a bit and getting this scheduled. I LOVE schedules.....I like being able to just open and go - even though it takes a whack of time to do it all at once, it's how I prefer it. That way, *I* don't have to think once we get started schooling "for reals". :snicker:

I really, really like MoH - in fact, it's the one set of books that a) I went back and purchased the previous volumes (we started with #3) and b) I will not be passing on. Sorry, but...I LOVE these books. The author has been pretty good about keeping her church doctrine out of them (although some sneaks in....but not so much that it's annoying. I don't have to do a lot of editing - and I appreciate that!)(Yes, they're Christian. *I* appreciate that - but she hasn't gone overboard like some I could mention.)

It rained all day yesterday! We didn't get a whole lot - just about 1" - but up North of us they got 11". Nope, not a typo - 11". :blink: Thank God for it!

Gotta get started dropping stuff into PlanBook - Shabbat Shalom!

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