Window Dressing

Don't you love making your kids think that you have totally lost your mind? Try painting on the windows!

Spring has started to poke it's head up here so we decided it was time to make the house look like it. This is our learning room window and I had hoped to pick up an ivy garland to drape over the top but since we are all feeling blah and not much like running out anywhere, I decided to dress the window up with some paint. Yes, that's right. It's paint. But never fear, it washes off quickly and easily with a little warm water & vinegar. I just used warm water and that was enough but the vinegar might come in handy once the paint has been on their awhile.

I only had blue tempera paint in the craft closet left over from the popcorn bluebonnets that we made many moons ago. I was able to add a little yellow food coloring to make the green but I think that the paint produces a better color. As soon as we get to the craft store, we are going to add butterflies and ladybugs and all of the other things that remind us of spring! I have promised the children that the lower windows are reserved for them. Here is the recipe:

Window Paint
2 Tbl. dried tempera paint
1 Tbl. warm water
1 tsp. dish liquid

Mix water and paint until paint is dissolved. Slowly mix in soap (so as not to make bubbles). Paint with brush or sponge, just watch out for globs and drips. The paint dries pretty fast but you might encourage your children to be patient before adding multiple layers to get a really vibrant color. The first coat was kind of thin. Also, if you add a little more paint or a little less water, it does make the paint thicker but you still will need to do a couple of coats to get vivid colors.

I'll post another picture when the window is finished.

New Wildflowers

Well, I guess I was wrong when I thought that the Drummond's Phlox would be the only harvest we would see over in our wildflower corner. Here are a couple of new friends that popped up to say "hello":


Up above are Batchelor Buttons, also called Cornflowers. Shortcake has declared them her new favorites! While "cornflower" is one of my favorite shades of blue, these have a lot of purple in them! More periwinkle than cornflower, you think?
I believe this is a Red Gaillardia, but I am not sure. The photo in our field guide is not a great one and when I search to find more information, I get images of the Indian Blanket (or Firewheel) which is in the same family but a totally different flower. The overall shape of the flower and the leaves are very similar which is why I am pretty sure this is a Red Gaillardia. I just wish I could find a secondary source to confirm it.
And lastly, this pretty Coreopsis showed up bright and early when the kids went outside to check out the others I photographed yesterday.

Since our pressed flowers from earlier in this unit study have finished drying out, we are going to start work on our wildflower notebook. I might have one or two pictures to post when it is done. : ^ ) OK... let me try that again with a straight face....

Nature Pics

From our nature walk last Saturday...

Daylily

What my grandpa would call "Thunder Boomers" rising.

Mexican hat

Coreopsis

Firewheel and friend. Also known as the Indian Blanket.

Caught in the act!

Indian Blanket

Busy Bees

I know the feast of St. Joseph the Worker was last week but we have been buzzing around here with enough creative work to put the bees to shame.

To the M.I.S.C.R.E.A.N.T.S of the blog world... don't hate me because I'm crafty! Please.

Shortcake sewed this doggy door hanger with minimal help from me (making knots and that stuff). It has a pocket in the front for leaving little notes.

Sunshine is almost halfway done with her first latch hook kit that she was just starting here.

The Professor's history text asked him to make a *model of a Viking ship. Here is his version made out of Sculpey. This was our first "fun with Sculpey " session and I think we might be hooked!

Monkey see, monkey do.
What Big Brother does,
Little Brother must too!

This was my fun craft. What to do with blue jeans that have gone weak in the knees? Make a little bag! I opted to roll the top instead of fringing it and made the handle a little thicker and shorter to fit the girls better. After painting some Showy Primroses (aka Buttercups), the girls have claimed it as their wildflower hunting bag complete with field guides and mini binoculars. I want to add a buttonhole to the top if only to learn how to use that feature on my new sewing machine.

*(aside) Have you seen the amazing ( & free) paper craft downloads from Canon. The Professor wants to tackle this project next. Might make an interesting summer project! I am always looking for things to do during those sweltering summer months. I have a feeling this website will be receiving many hits from us come June, July and August!

Texas Wild

Yesterday started off great with coffee at the bookstore, kept merrily rolling along with a trip to drop off some food for a new mama (I hope they could take their eyes off their beautiful little one long enough to eat it!) and ended with a perfect trip to the zoo with Husband and a perfectly frightful storm that made me think it was September in Sarasota. (It was my fault really. I made a pasta salad that is notoriously known as Storm Salad in our house since I only seem to make it in the spring and it is usually served with a side of wind sheers, rain and sometimes hail.)

The children really enjoyed showing Husband all of their favorite animals at the zoo. First stop was Meerkat Mound, with a swing by the African Savannah, a stroll past the sharks in the Great Barrier Reef and a quick saunter through the snake house. The majority of our time was spent in their favorite area.We stopped by on our first trip of the year hoping to see some wildflowers. There are so many we haven't had a chance to get up close and personal with! We see them as we drive here and there, but it isn't the same as getting to explore them with our senses. I think we might have to resort to poaching some soon. Don't worry! It isn't illegal. While a DPS officer might issue you a citation for impeding traffic, they would sooner give you a ticket for selling Limburger cheese on Sunday than for picking wildflowers. Anyway, there were no wildflowers to be found, but plenty of other beauties to behold. Bald eagles, bobcats, jaguars, mountain lions, coyotes (in between the jaguar and mountain lions acting very skittish...hmmmm... wonder why?), roadrunners and of course hornets, bats, bees and rattlesnakes.

Poor Husband! I know he loves me and he loves our life, but if we could move somewhere else without my mother hunting him down, he would in a heart beat. He has lived all over the continental U.S. so he speaks with a good amount of certitude when he says: Never have I lived somewhere with so many dangerous creatures everywhere you turn. You step outside and there are things trying to either eat you or kill you!

Sorry sweetie!

We visited Sea World last November, so the Gulf Coast area was of particular interest to my kiddos. You can touch a sea anemone (thank goodness for spell check), a sting ray (or just get splashed by one) and a sleepy slipper lobster.

Of course, we had to go see the Texas Wild Weather Show, again. It is super fun for everyone except BigBoy who doesn't like all of the loud thunder and flickering lights. The rain and golf ball-sized hail (plastic ones) was a little intense the first time the big kids saw it, but now they think it's a hoot! When the show is over there is a very nice (read: air conditioned) area that shows how good land management is our responsibility which fits right along with teaching our kids that we try to be good stewards of the earth.

However, this display was the cause of some amusement for Husband and a little embarrassment for me.
The yellow wrench has the word "contraception" on it. The first time we saw it I was furious! The Fort Worth Zoo isn't like other zoos where they try to make you feel guilty for sucking up all of the air and depriving the animals of homes with your very presence. Why have they changed now? What are they trying to say? How dare they suggest a thing like this in a place mostly enjoyed by children! I called Husband to tell him of my frustration and anger.

In his oh-so-calm, cool voice, with just the slightest hint of a chuckle (never condescension) he says: I think they're talking about... for the animals.

You know..."Neuter is Cuter!", Bob Barker and all that?

Tee, hee, hee! Silly me!

A Spring Walkabout

We went in search of more Texas wildflowers today in an attempt to re-energize our unit study after being drained from our Easter celebrations, the horrific stomach flu we all had and the yucky weather.

All right, so we kind of cheated....

In my defense, most of the wildflowers that we love so much are seen in brilliant bloom only on the sides of the highways where people drive 80 miles an hour in the slow lane. Not exactly conducive to a nice leisurely stroll. So as the kids and I were driving to the local hardware store on Friday we took a route we hadn't been down in a while.

We saw the most gorgeous wildflowers, but not in a field, in flowers beds and along the sidewalk. There was a sign advertising a landscaping company, but this place didn't look like a storefront at all, in fact, we couldn't see anything but this big beautiful garden of wildflowers that spread all the way to the curb. We came back this morning, so Husband could join us and took a closer look at all the pretties!

White Prickly Poppy and friend

California Poppy

Texas Gold Columbine

Wine Cup

Prairie Spiderwort

Dakota Vervain

Orange Zexmenia (?)

Indian Mustard

Bull Nettle

What we had stumbled upon (we realized only after the nice man passed us a brochure through the fence) was the garden of a landscaper who believes in using "native and climatically adapted plants" to provide "year-round interest, beautiful colors and most importantly... low maintenance"!

Now, I like being outside and I appreciate nature. I have grown to appreciate it more since we have been inspired to enjoy it more by people we have grown to love as friends. But my thumbs do not have even the slightest tinge of green. I would love to have a garden, but wouldn't know the first thing about starting one. Oh, we have some beautiful examples of God's handiwork around our house, but those are courtesy of the retired couple who first owned this home, not us! They have survived our ignorance and the previous owner's neglect which tells you that the original owners probably had a lot in common with the landscaper we met today.

A garden is about a personal relationship that reflects how you want to interact with the exterior of your home. It should not represent dreaded gardening chores but it should be an inviting refuge from the daily stress and worldly demands...

I think I've found my new best friend!

Sunflowers Redux

Those BBC links in the post below are gone. I saved the coloring page as a pdf file if anyone wants it. I think Husband can show me how to post it later.

I had also saved this fun coloring booklet in a folder, but didn't remember where it came from. It took a small bit of sleuthing, but I found it. It has information about sunflowers and their seeds, a little geography quiz, a maze, a word search and even a recipe. The main character is Sunny Sunseed. I wasn't too sure about an organization that chooses such a seedy character as their spokesman... and for children! (Tee, hee!) Actually he is one totally far out surfin' seed sporting swim trunks, flip flops and shades. Word of advice... I didn't realize until too late that it should be printed out with page 1 on the front and page 2 on the back, etc....Here is our sunflower craft, with a twist! I traced the picture from the template onto translucent vellum paper. The children each glued tissue paper clumps to the vellum and colored in the stem and leaves. It made a very pretty suncatcher, or at least it will, once the sun comes back out to be caught.

The brightest spot of my day today came when I got to meet in person, an amazingly beautiful friend whose children are every bit as adorable and enjoyable as she says. The day was sunless and gloomy, but she was a bright drop of spring!

Sunflowers

Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers, Paul Gauguin, 1888

Tomorrow is the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh so we decided to jump our wildflower study ahead to sunflowers. They won't bloom around here until late summer so we obviously haven't seen any this year, but there is a field the children remember driving by last year that was filled with them.

In the meantime, we are content with looking at the paintings and pictures we can find. Oh, and of course, eating sunflower seeds!

The ones we don't eat will be used for a fun sunflower craft.

If you want to learn more about Van Gogh and his series of sunflower paintings you can check out the Van Gogh Gallery online. Be sure to visit the link Real Sunflowers for a comparison and contrast with the sunflowers Van Gogh did and the sunflowers God did.

This BBC website has over 100 paintings from 50 UK galleries in an online exhibition called Painting the Weather but it says that their license to display the artwork expires Friday, March 30 (I don't know what they will still have available after that). They offer a coloring page of Van Gogh's sunflowers that the girls should enjoy later.

The Professor will get to study the state flag of Kansas, also known as the Sunflower State and maybe even the flag of the Netherlands in honor of Van Gogh.I also found a sample chapter from the Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook that shows how to create your own version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. I have never tried something like this, but it sure looks like fun! The picture above shows the "Van Gogh Effect" you can create with Photoshop.

I hope you have a much sunnier day than we are having thus far. (Again...not pouting...the farmers need the rain!) It looks like our sunshine will have to come from inside today!

Little brown brother, oh! little brown brother,
Are you awake in the dark?
Here we lie cosily, close to each other:
Hark to the song of the lark-
"Waken!" the lark says, "waken and dress you;
Put on you green coats and gay,
Blue sky will shine on you, sunshine caress you-
Waken! 'tis morning-- 'tis May!"

Little brown brother, oh! little brown brother,
What kind of flower will you be?
I'll be a poppy- all white, like my mother;
Do be a poppy like me.
What! you're a sunflower? How I shall miss you
When you're grown golden and high!
But I shall send all the bees up to kiss you;
Little brown brother, good-by.
Edith Nesbit

False Garlic

Okay, it's not a very pretty name, but it is better than "Crow Poison" and yes, it looks an awful lot like a weed. But... it is in our Wildflowers of Texas field guide so I am calling it a wildflower.

It says that it is often found in disturbed sites or neglected grasslands so I can't understand why we have it all over the backyard? (drip, drip... do you smell sarcasm?) We have an abundance of these weeds flowers so we took a picture for our wildflower journal and picked some to press. Shortcake was a little sad to see the pretty flowers she picked get squished, but she liked the idea that they would be preserved to look at over and over again. But then we were back to grumpy again when I told her it would take about 3 weeks. Oh well!

Bluebonnets!

We saw bluebonnets Sunday! On the sides of the highway and at church (which explains why I don't have a picture, gotta get a camera bag!). But I do have these lovely ones made by my children. Here is a link if you want to try it yourself. If you go looking for dried tempera paint and everyone who works at the gigantic craft superstore tells you they don't carry it and when they don't carry something it means it doesn't exist...don't listen to them! You should know that it is also called poster paint and I highly recommend the "dust free" version. We talked about why this strange looking flower has so many names and what they are. From one website I found while researching:

The Texas Bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. It is part of the lupine family.The Bluebonnet became the state flower on March 7, 1901. It is called such because it bears a resemblance to a woman's sunbonnet. This flower can be seen all over the state of Texas in the spring, usually around March-May. This flower is also known as buffalo clover, wolf flower, and "el conejo" (Spanish for jackrabbit).

Bluebonnets are a form of the lupine flower coming from the Latin word lupus, meaning wolf. They are called "wolf flower" because it was once believed they "devoured" the soil of nutrients, because they are found growing where nothing else can grow. It is now known otherwise that bluebonnets in fact add to the nutrients of the soil.

You can find out more here.

We read The Legend of the Bluebonnet and talked about the sacrifice the little girl made. ( A little foreshadowing to the clean out I have scheduled later on in the week.) Sunshine drew a picture of a bluebonnet seed (pictured above) and we put that in our nature notebook along with an acrostics poem the children composed.

Buffalo clover
love
Lupine
pretty
blue
wolf flower
four winds
green leaves
Sacrifice
gift
feathers

The Professor wants to make a Lone Star flag later on today. We are hoping to go back out once the rain is gone to try and snap pictures of the bluebonnets we saw. Since the weather is supposed to stay soggy for a while, it might not be until next Sunday. Here are some to tide us over.

I am not pouting... the farmers need the rain!

Our New Adventure

We are starting a unit study on Texas Wildflowers! We began by planting the seeds you see above after soaking them overnight in liquefied seaweed which the nice lady at the gardening center told me would help with germination. (FYI: liquid seaweed... thick, brown, & smelly.) My daughters were thrilled (flowers!), my sons were excited (dirt!) and my house smelled like Galveston, TX (gag!) all morning!

We are using a native wildflower mix of seeds that I had hoped to study a bit first before planting, but we are a little late although the online resources I have found say early spring is still a good time to seed. I also inadvertently threw away the seed packet which listed the variety of flowers we hope to see (whoops!) but the garden center had a few more that I can pick up when we are out and about.

Here are some of the books we will be reading: I also have plans to create a notebook, make a checklist of the ones we want to try to see, do some flower pressing, a few crafts and a lot of nature walks with the camera to capture all the little lovelies we see. Since this is our first official unit study, I would appreciate any other ideas or suggestions!