What am I knitting?
Winner gets tagged on this post as the best guesser ever!
Hint #1: The color is relevant.
Hint #2: It’s very tiny (but no, dear heavens no, I am not pregnant)
UPDATE: Mommy22alyns guessed the answer! Take a look on page three of this thread if you want to know and are not Patchfire.
I’ve been all manner of crafty-productive of late. I bought some new knitting patterns and have been knitting up a storm in preparation for Christmas. In the past week I’ve almost finished a soaker for a friend’s baby and also knit some present for Babypie.
I made this Luna doll sweater for Babypie’s baby. It’ll go in Babypie’s stocking.
I also made her this Daphne monster for her stocking (if I can shove it in there). I will probably whip up Delilah–the baby–over the next two nights. She’ll be made from the Papaya (orange) yarn.
I have quite a few more projects to finish between now and Christmas, so I’d like some motivation from you guys. I’ve shown you what I’ve been working on; now show me what you have been making! Do you knit, crochet, sew, woodwork?
Show off your recent creations in the comments! I’d love to see what y’all are up to.
I’ve kept a personal blog (on another blogging site that allows more privacy) for the last nine years. For the last few years, I’ve posted lists of my recommendations for the best Work-At-Home Mom (WAHM)-made items for Christmas. I usually break them down into a few lists: stocking stuffers, under $25, The Gift (as in, The Big One), and last minute buys.
None of these recommendations are solicited in any way, though I did get an entry in a contest for linking to the Homegrown Families giveaway (which I found because I was already a fan of Polar Bear Creations, which was going on the list regardless). This list is based solely on items I think are cute or that we have and love ourselves. All of the products are made by small businesses owned by mothers, father, and/or grandparents who are trying to generate an additional source of income. They’re all made by hand (ie. not mass produced) and often of “green” (eco-friendly) materials. Many WAHM-made items are one of a kind or limited production items, so if you love it, snag it while you can! Of course, many WAHMs will gladly make customs, so if you can’t get the item you want, don’t despair. Email them and find out if they offer customs options.
Normally, I would just link you to important blog posts, but this is SO important that I thought it needed to be reposted right here.
Voting is tomorrow and Patchfire (and I) believes you should vote your conscience. Patchfire was shocked to discover that Veritas Press thinks they know your conscious.
Voting Is Tomorrow in the USA – Go Vote!
Some things go together – peanut butter & jelly; ice cream & chocolate syrup; apples & caramel. Some things, though, do not. I would argue that politics and curriculum do not and should not go together.
Of course, I’m aware that my political views are a minority within the homeschooling community. It would be hard to miss that fact! However, when I make a decision to purchase books from a curriculum provider, I expect my personal information (e.g., my email) to be used to communicate with me about the products of the company.
It’s no surprise to me that Veritas Press and I have little in common politically. We have little in common religiously, either, as they are Calvinist and conservative, and the Christian parts of my beliefs are Arminian and liberal. In fact, I have paused before purchasing from them, but the books that have purchased have been hardly available from other outlets, and seem either non-religious or at least not specifically Calvinist.
Monthly, Veritas Press sends out an “epistula” to those who are lucky enough to be on their list. Usually it’s about teaching Latin or history or perhaps it delves into a religious subject, which I promptly ignore. I just couldn’t ignore the title this time, though: “Calling for the Vote.”
Voting is, to me, at once a privilege, a civic duty, and a profound responsibility of all citizens. I may joke about voting “early and often,” or suggest that perhaps only those who agree with me should vote on a given day, but they are, at heart, jokes only. We must vote, and when citizens fail to vote, we all lose, in some way.
Naturally, then, I wanted to read an article entitled “Calling for the Vote.” Instead I found myself in the midst of a poorly-written propaganda piece that was carefully cloaked so that they could not be seen to be endorsing a particular candidate or party.
“We are smack-dab in the middle of a disaster.”
“There is much talk about the Republicans taking back the House and maybe even the Senate. That would certainly counterbalance some unfortunate policies of the current administration.”
“Over the years I’ve heard talk of a flat tax replacing the graduated income tax…. This also seems too little.”
(I cannot argue with the last third of the article, which suggested two actions: taking the time to vote on Tuesday, and praying.)
As I mentioned on Facebook, I would have had equal problem with an email sent from a curriculum company sending an email in 2002 or 2006, damning the administration then in power, and remarking about a hot-button political topic in such cavalier terms as to deem it “too little.” It’s not the particulars of the message than bother me (though I admit I disagree!), but rather the assumptions and the crossing of lines. It isn’t a church’s business to tell anyone how to vote. It isn’t a curriculum provider’s business to tell anyone how to vote. When you vote tomorrow, Americans, your choices are between you, your conscience, and your Higher Power, should you believe in one. No one else.
Agreed completely, my darling Patchfire. We disconnected our home phone in a large part to end the constant tirade of political phone calls. I throw political flyers straight into the trash. I don’t purchase from businesses who assume they know my mind, my politics, or my conscience. I’m an educated voter who doesn’t want, or need, my choices dictated to me or decisions made for me.
If you see fit to comment here, I hope you’ll go and comment on the original post as well. If you’re a frequent buyer from Veritas Press, I hope you will contact them and ask them to please stick to the business of producing homeschooling materials and out of the business of telling their customers how to vote.
Have you ever visited Poisson Rouge (Red Fish)? If you have a younger child who wants a chance to explore online, but you’re concerned about ads and content, point your family to this site and let ‘em loose!
The only ad on this site is on the intro page, where they are asking for donations to keep this FREE website up and running. Donating isn’t required to enter the site — just click any of the links (“I’ve already donated” or “I’m unfamiliar with the site”) to go to the main page. There are no third-party ads, no content inappropriate for any member of the family, and page after page of everything from games to songs to language lessons. Tank especially enjoys the songs sung in French and the activity were you make the Spanish guitar play different chord progressions.
When I need quiet time, I turn on Poisson Rouge for Tank to play for 20 or 30 minutes. The noise is unobtrusive — the singing is in a pleasant voice, the sound effects aren’t shrill or irritating, the music is often downright soothing. The images are bright and simple. It’s really the ideal website for kids. Even Captain Science will sit and help Tank play around…not that the site requires a lot of hand-holding to navigate; Captain S just enjoys it!
Go check out Poisson Rouge (and maybe donate a little?) and see if you enjoy it as much as we do!
Take a moment to watch this brilliant animation “Typography” by Ronnie Bruce of a poem by Taylor Mali.
Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.
Are you guilty of the “relentless interrogative?” Are your children?
I know that I am going to make a more concerted effort to have my declarative sentences actually declare and to speak with certainty and confidence in my opinions. I don’t want to be a part of a downward slide into inarticulation. Speak with authority so that your children can learn to speak with authority. Let’s model conviction for the next generation.
Teaching Tolerance, the educational publication from my beloved Souther Poverty Law Center, has published many excellent sets of lesson plans on educating students on religious differences and espousing religious tolerance. I’m very pleased to see that they have now published a great lesson plan on respecting non-religious people–atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, deists, and free thinkers–as well!. The three sets of lesson plans cover grades 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12, and while it is geared towards the public school classroom, many of the lessons could easily be applied to homeschoolers.
Teaching Tolerance explains the need for such a curriculum:
Students often learn the importance of respecting people of different religions, and of respecting religious beliefs that are different from their own. But what about people who do not hold religious beliefs at all? Too often the right not to believe is excluded from lessons about tolerance.
Yet atheists and others who do not believe in God experience discrimination because of their nonbelief. In this lesson, students learn about episodes of anti-atheist discrimination; and they develop ways to educate others about respecting nonreligious, as well as religious, diversity.
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve seen a fairly high level of expectation of tolerance of their religious views from Christian homeschoolers, but don’t often see the same level of tolerance extended by them towards the beliefs non-religious homeschoolers among us. I think of that absurd “don’t call it ‘Christian mythology’” nonsense from a while back, as one example. The non-religious are expected to treat religious text as sacred and factual, out of “respect” for the Christian homeschoolers…who don’t seem to realize that they’re treating the non-religious homeschoolers with the same level of disrespect they believe they’re being shown.
An interesting read and could be helpful for understanding how to respectfully discourse w/ the homeschooling nonbeliever.
Attention North Metro Atlanta area homeschoolers! Patchfire and I are organizing a Pi Day celebration on March 14th (obviously), at 2pm at Swift-Cantrell Park in Kennesaw.
Bring your favorite Π-themed foods and activities to celebrate that magical irrational number! Pi-shaped cookies? Pumpkin Pi? Bring nibblies to share!
Because we are fair-weather friends, this is a fair-weather event and will be canceled in the event of rain, slushy GA snow, tornado, or any other bizarre meteorological events.
Those of you on Facebook can RSVP here.
If you aren’t in our area, you can organize your own Pi Day event for your local homeschoolers.
Captain Science is spending the night with Nana, which elicited much weeping and wailing from the Tank, who would only be pacified by the promise of making cupcakes after dinner. Since I didn’t feel like making frosting, we made Sugar Cookie Cupcakes (a Smrt Mama original!).
He had the Very Important Job of putting on the sprinkles just before baking. He also licked the spatula, which was helpful of him.
How did they turn out?
The Tank approves
The final product
You know you want a piece of these bad boys
Want to try them at home? They’re easy to make, taste just like sugar cookies, and (if you’re on Weight Watchers) 3 points a piece, since the following recipe makes 24 cupcakes. They’re thinner and more dense than the average cupcake, but fluffier than a sugar cookie — perfect way to satisfy the craving for both!
Sugar Cookie Cupcakes
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• Decorative colored sugar or sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 convection). Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add butter, milk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape side of bowl with a spatula.
Add eggs to the mixture. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape bowl again. Beat on high speed for 1 minute 30 seconds until well mixed.
Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until roughly 1/2 full.
Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles if you don’t plan to frost.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 5 minutes in pans then remove and place on wire racks to cool completely.
What does a homeschooler look like? You get to decide! Well, ok, I get to decide, but you get to provide me with a wide range of options from which to decide, which is almost as good and puts a lot less burden on your already overburdened shoulders.
Close your eyes and picture your interpretation of the quintessential homeschooler. What do s/he and her/his children look like? Is she wearing a denim jumper with an appliqued cardigan? Are they wearing mismatched clothing and badly in need of haircuts? Are perfectly coordinated poloshirts or yoked dresses involved somewhere? Does someone have a Aquanet-stiff beehive and a modest-necked sweater or a pair of worn out Birkenstocks and the lingering smell of patchouli?
Now ask yourself: “Do I look like that homeschooler?”
Our contest is simple, yet ludicrous, and the prize is absurd, yet priceless (simply by virtue of being awarded by Smrt Lernins). Here’s how to enter:
1. Find the best picture of you and/or your children looking like what YOU think of when you think of “homeschooler.” You decide what “homeschooler” looks like.
2. Comment to this blog with a link to that picture.
The winner will be chosen by an expert panel of judges (ie. my family) and announced here. One photograph entry per commenter, though if you can rope your spouse, partner, significant other, children, mom, or neighbor into entering a picture of your family, you can always get an additional shot at the grand prize.
Want more chances to win? A second winner will be chosen at random to win a second, even more absurd prize. Entering could only be simpler if you sent us the message psychically. Gain one entry in our random draw for:
1. Each link to this post AND/OR
2. Tweeting “@smrtlernins and I look like homeschoolers, and so can you! http://bit.ly/digDMv”
3. Commenting here with a link to the blog where you posted about our contest or your Twitter name.
While you’re limited to one Twitter-related entry, you can post this link to as many blogs or websites as you can without being called a wanton spammer, gaining one entry in our random draw per link! Don’t forget to leave a comment with the link, though, because despite that comment about entering psychically, no one at Smrt Lernins has developed psychic powers yet…that I know of.
Show me what a homeschooler looks like to you, tell other people about it, and win ridiculous prizes. So simple, even a public schooler could do it*.
Contest is open until February 28th. That’s almost a whole month, you guys! Plenty of time to make entries all over the blogosphere.
*And I’d know, as I went to public school.
