Guest Blog by Mxyl: Goshen, Round I

Good evening (If you're reading this in the morning, then it's the evening in China anyway).  Last week, Zorg and I went to Olmstead, Goshen for summer camp for an excruciatingly achievemental time.

Here you see us (even if you can't see us, you get the idea) leaving on the bus on a several-hour trip to Goshen.

Before long (actually after long, but you also get the idea), we were there, and we were shown all the Merit Badge-earning places.  Unfortunately, my schedule involved traveling the whole place, which I guessed was enough to earn Hiking!  All the less fortunately, Hiking required walking 70 miles, so the camp didn't count.

Fortunately, Zorg was a first-year, and they had a special 1st-year course that didn't involve as much moving around, so that was a plus for him.

Girls' Week Round 3

We really did have a marvelous time.  We watched Persuasion and Anne of Green Gables and the sequel to Anne of Green Gables.  All chick flicks all the time!

We baked quite a bit.

We rediscovered the potholder looms. 

These looms (we have two) have remained derelict and unloved in the depths of the homeschool room for years untold. No one ever showed the slightest interest.

They are now both in daily use. 

This is a problem for me because I need to declutter the homeschool room.  It is full of stuff that might catch some kid's interest some day and then they'd do something wonderful. 

I had finally convinced myself that I  needed to let go of the stuff that no one had shown an interest in...

What's your definition of something wonderful?

To me it looks something like this...

Did I mention my grandmother is a master weaver?  (Did I mention she reads my blog?  Hi, Grammy Ann!)

Klenda did these with no instruction, just playing around with different warps and wefts.

 You know what this means, right?



I can never get rid of anything.

Girls' Week Round 2

You might be wondering where Choclo and Oob were douring Girls' Week. 

Actually, they were here having fun too.  They liked all the craft and art projects, and they loved the bath fizzies.

One thing we did was bubble painting.

You take paint and add bubble juice or dish soap (I used bubble bath) and enough water to thin it a little.  We used four foil lasagna pans to hold different colors of paint. 

Then everyone gets a straw and starts blowing!  Someone asked if they drink it, and the answer is, "Once."

To get the prints, you lay the paper across the bubbles in one or more trays.  We made a lot of prints and will cut them up to use in collages later.

We also went to Target because, as you may know, this is the hot and sticky time of year when they (inexplicably) mark all the water toys half off!

We got this toy for $5. 

So cute! 

A little squirty thing comes out of it's head and sprinkles you when you get close enough to put the ball through the hoop!





In real life, it will drench you at 50 paces.

We, evidently, picked the maniacal, "I'll get you, my pretty!" dolphin. 

I know what you're thinking, but we actually have low water pressure and the hose was not on full.

I think they liked it better this way!

Girls' Week Round 1

 We had a great time last week while the boys were off at camp.  It was Girls' Week!

We made bath fizzies!  Bath fizzies are fantastic!  At last, sweet smelling science!

The principal behind bath fizzies is actually the same as a baking soda and vinegar volcano.  Seriously, they even contain baking soda!


Here's the recipe:
1/2 c. citric acid
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup corn starch
 Optional:
powdered food coloring
1/2 tsp almond oil
fragrance

Mix it all together and then start misting with water while you stir.  When it's just damp enough to hold together when you squeeze it, pack it into molds and let it dry for an hour.  Turn them out of the molds and let dry overnight, then seal in bags or bins.

Really, that's it.  You have a dried acid (citric), a dried base (baking soda), and a binder (cornstarch).  Here's the interesting part: acid/base reactions only happen in the presence of water!  As long as the acid and base remain dry, they will not interact.  Drop it in the bath, of course, and it's a bath bomb!

In other girl news, Mumpy gave us a Top Styler!

Klenda practiced on Leena:

Leena did a great job on Klenda, too, but I didn't get a picture (bad mom!).

Veronica is Awake!

She is out of the coma and talking!  They are saying she'll need physical therapy, but will probably make a full recovery.

Thank you so much, for your prayers!

Not the Post I Planned

Today, Mxyl, Zorg, and the Emperor returned from Scout camp, brimming with all the fun things they've done the past week. 

This morning, I planned to blog about "Girls' Week," all the fun stuff we did  while they were gone... And I will blog about all that fun stuff.

But you never know what you're going to get in your in box.

This morning it was the news that the 5 year old sister of my godson had a stroke yesterday (while having her adenoids out) and she's in a coma. Please pray for this sweet little girl!  Her name is Veronica.

This afternoon it was the news that my cousin Ed (the one who runs the rocket launches) had a stroke on the same day.  He turned 65 last Wednesday.  He's the one in the hat, fixing Klenda's rocket.

We were able to visit him a bit in the CCU.  He was awake, but couldn't move his right side.  His wife is having a hard time.  Please pray for them too.

Vi Hart

Too fun! Recreational Mathamusician indeed!  Leena has been watching this over and over.

The Outer Boys' Room

 

This is Mxyl and Oob's room, the previous Klenda and Leena's room.

It took two coats of base layer yellow to cover the blue walls, and then two more coats of gold. Yes.  We painted it four times!

Fortunately Mxyl did most of the work.

The boys picked out purple curtains, which does remind me of the poem:  "his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold..."

But I guess that makes it a classic combination!

 It's a much larger room than the one Mxyl had been in, and there is more space to, say, construct your own recreation of Land of the Lost in Legos, if you are inclined to do that sort of thing.  Which they are.



The boys happen to own a large statue of Jesus.  It wasn't until I put it up on a shelf that I realized the visual significance of a gold room.

 It looks like an icon. 

If you aren't familiar with icons, they are highly stylized religious representations intended to be "windows into heaven."  Which means that they are extremely symbolic to the extent that icons are not said to be "painted," but rather, "written."

In the "language" of iconography, a gold background denotes the scene is in heaven.

Scenes on earth usually, but not always, have a black or dark background.    I didn't know that until I saw an icon showing the Baptism of the Lord and asked  why Jesus was being baptized at night.

Mxyl and Oob are enjoying their heavenly room!

The Inner Boys Room

 Figuring out what to call this room is a problem.  This is the room on the main floor which used to be Mxyl and Zorg's.

Now it is Zorg and Choclo's, making Zorg the only kid to not switch rooms.  His consolation was that we started painting his room first!

"Inner" does not refer to the location of the room, but to the birth order of the occupants!  They are the middle two of the four boys.

After so long of having the oldest two and youngest two share their rooms, it's hard to remember who is bunking with whom!

As you probably noticed, the room is gold.  This took one coat of a base layer yellow and two coats of gold paint, so we really painted this room three times.  Good thing it was small!

They picked out burgundy curtains.  Note the extra curtain for the closet.  Replacing all the kids closet doors with curtains has been a huge win for us, both in terms of space and repairing the doors.

And, look!  Choclo still likes penguins, so they followed him!

If you look carefully at the first picture, you can see, hanging from the ceiling, a penguin in a hammock. 

Zorg thinks penguins are fine, but prefers Super Mario Galaxy (and cats).  Fortunately, Choclo also likes both of those, so everyone is happy!

In fact, these boys also share a love of robots and all things Lego, which you can see a bit of on the shelves and bins in the first picture.

Question

 This is a question for all those of you with a flair for home decorating.

This is my kitchen.

I have put off repainting it for as long as possible, partly because of the work involved, but mostly because I have a vague idea that I could do something nice with it, but just don't know what.

Any ideas?

Right now, the walls are all off white.  I can't do white (I think) because the sink and oven are bisque.  But the fridge is black and the cook top and dishwasher are stainless steel (guess who shops the clearance aisle?!).

 The cabinets are cherry, the floor is "stone" in shades of tan with a little coppery tone to it.

The counters are a verdigris design (green with ripples of blue and teal).

There are beams across the ceiling that match the cabinets (by a happy coincidence!  I didn't think of the beams when I chose the cabinets).

I was kind of thinking of using two colors.  Maybe one for most of the walls and another for the bow window and the wall going up the stairs?

The silver streamers around the stairwell (ever a source of delight or amusement to visitors, depending on age) are a barrier to keep the parakeets downstairs (as opposed to a fashion statement!).

I also have some cream colored battenburg lace curtains for the window (to put behind the books), although I could return them if I came up with a different color combination.