Posaics

Or whatever you'd like to call mosaics made from Post-it notes.

I must say, I had nearly as good a time watching them make these as the artists did!
This is one of those ideas I've been thinking about for a while and put off as too expensive and kind of messy.

I'm glad I finally did it! They used less than I thought they would, so I have enough to do it again once or twice.

On a day when I was busy doing a million things and running home school blocks (they did it during the "fun" section), it was just delightful to look over and enjoy the kids having fun.

And it wasn't that messy!

Novena to the Holy Spirit

Mxyl will be confirmed on April 8th (He's taking the Confirmation name of Michael)! We are going to do this novena to the Holy Spirit for him starting today, and we'd like to invite you to join us in prayer.

You don't have to say the whole novena, of course, any prayers would be appreciated!

We are saying the following prayer each day:

O Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, please grant the same Holy Spirit to us that He may perfect in our souls, the work of Your grace and Your love.

Grant us the Spirit of Wisdom that we may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal,

the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten our minds with the light of Your divine truth,

the Spirit of Counsel that we may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven,

the Spirit of Fortitude that we may bear our cross with You and that we may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose our salvation,

the Spirit of Knowledge that we may know God and know ourselves and grow perfect in the science of the Saints,

the Spirit of Piety that we may find the service of God sweet and amiable,

and the Spirit of Fear that we may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him.

Mark us, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate us in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.

Thanks for your prayers!

Blossoming Adventure

Our adventure this week: the Cherry Blossom Festival!

We hit the blossoms perfectly at peak for the second year in a row!

Last year was 20 degrees warmer, sunny, and very crowded. This year, we dressed warmly, had less blue sky, and had the place to ourselves!


I guess not completely to ourselves, but, really, not crowded at all.




We took the free shuttle from Hains Point (free parking!) to the Jefferson Memorial, and then walked around the Tidal Basin.









The plan had been to go to the FDR Memorial and maybe even the Lincoln if the shuttle went that far. As it was, the shuttle went only as far as the Jefferson.

That worked out fine. We spent more time enjoying the trees and the monuments at a distance. Really beautiful!

Gospel Dessert Week 3

This week's Gospel was "the woman at the well."

Easy peasy!

We did blue jello for the water and built a rice crispy treat "well" around the water.

Angel came over for a visit, bearing gifts of chocolate from her recent trip to Switzerland. One bite made very clear why our Swiss friend had no interest in any local chocolate when he was visiting the US...

We used it to decorate our well, of course, and the whole thing came out rather... well!

Pingu

Am I lthe last person on the planet to have discovered Pingu?

It's a Swedish thing that is right where Choclo is at right now. I like it because Pingu (the boy penguin) is always trying to help, and he takes such great care of Pinga, his little sister. My favorite clip is this one, when he tries to cure Pinga's hiccups:

Bathroom Update

Watching things being torn out was fun, but watching them build it back in again has been amazing!

We are using the same construction company that put the top floor on our house, and one of the things that I love most about them is that they are very kid friendly. They don't mind the kids hanging around and asking questions!

Also they do great work on a budget and on time!

Our Toadstool Business is Mushrooming!

At least, that's what Klenda keeps telling me....

Seriously, I think the size doubles every day. Next time I want to measure them and graph it!

We are planning to eat them tonight before we are overrun!



UPDATE: They about doubled from the last picture! We ate them in a stir fry of thin sliced beef, loads of asparagus, and cashews (sauce: soy sauce, honey, grated garlic and ginger, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, water and cornstarch). Yum! Definitely the best mushrooms I've had!

Adventurers: Magnolias

This week was one of my favorite Adventures!

Rocking Along

Science Class this week was all about rocks. This was a case where I waaaay overestimated my time. I started out talking about the three main kinds of rock: sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous.

As it happens, on one of our many forays hunting fossils near Calvert Cliffs, we happened upon a recent chunk of fallen cliff that was loaded with the impression of fossil shells. The most interesting thing about it was that the hunk-o-cliff was not actually rock, but compressed sediment. Clearly it was turning into rock, but it could be easily crumpled with your hand.

That's the tan chunk in the middle.

On another trip, we found a chunk-o-something that looks like shells stuck in cement. Except, it's not cement! It's a harder layer of sedimentary rock "under construction!" Interestingly, these shells do not appear to be fossilized, whereas the impressions in the softer "compressed sediment" are completely dissolved away.



We actually have a lot of sedimentary rock in our collection - almost all fossils are in sedimentary rock. Most of the rest of the collection is igneous Oooooh! Pretty crystals!).



This is where I kind of lost the class. I had radically underestimated how long the kids would want to look at the rocks.


This is one of our four containers for small rocks...


Basically, I should have turned them loose with magnifying glasses and the rock collection and left them for half an hour, and then spent the next class explaining what they had seen.

What I actually did, was move on to the rock cycle. This was a great idea I lifted from the internet somewhere..

The kids each choose a crayon. Working in teams of 2 younger kids and one older Zoomlian, the Zoomlian shaved the crayons with a sharp knife onto a sheet of double thick foil.

When they had enough shavings, the kids pinched them together. The shavings stuck together loosely, and you could see the individual shavings, kind of like sedimentary rock.

We folded up the foil and the kids hammered on it. This pressure caused the shavings to really stick together and merge a little, kind of like metamorphic rock.

Then we heated the foil packets a little on the stove (you could also do it over a candle) and then cooled them in the freezer. Of course, the shavings melted together and formed a solid, homogeneous whole like igneous rock!

UPDATE: I found the experiment on this video:


And then we were ten minutes over time....

So, next week we'll set up a ton of crystallization experiments and make our own "pumice."

Fun Guys

So, out of the blue, Leena asked me, "Mom, can we grow mushrooms?"

Sure, why not! We found a mushroom kit here.

Our first try didn't work.

I had noticed, when the kit arrived, that the box was a little damp, but I didn't think much about it. As it turned out, something had been amiss with the packaging and our kit got contaminated with mold during transit.

We actually grew a fine carpet of green mold . We decided it was not edible.

I gave the company a call and they sent us a new kit.

Fungi perfecto! This one took off and is growing like crazy!

The top picture shows the primordia (baby mushrooms) just starting to form. The next picture was taken the next day, and the last picture was the third day!

So cool! There's a fungus among us!

We'll keep you posted...