A Quilt for Colin

Now that I have made a few baby quilts for friends with babies my boys are beginning to make noises about a quilt for someone in our house.  I have never made a full sized quilt.  I made a Dakota's bedding when he was little.  He's in the Navy now so that's been a while.  Last spring I pieced my first baby quilt in more than twenty years.  I have never made a full sized quilt. Here goes nothing, GULP!

I am starting with a jelly roll quilt for Colin. I LOVE precuts mostly because I hate the rotary cutter, or maybe it hates me.  I don't know which, but I do know have ruined a lot of fabric with a sudden slip of that thing.  I'm still learning, but I still have all my fingers, so I'm not doing too badly.

Once I found fabric Colin liked I started on a Pinterest frenzy looking for an idea that clicked.  A few hours/days/weeks later this is what I found as my inspiration.

It's the Cascade quilt pattern from Robert Kaufman Fabric.   I already have the fabric so I'm not ordering a kit.  It looks pretty straight forward though.  

The next step for me was to try and lay out the fabric to see if I was going to like it.  

I do not like the stripes.  DO. NOT. LIKE. Also those angled joins are going to give me fits, I just know it. On the other hand I am feeling much better about Colin's choice of blue for the contrast fabric.  His rational was blue is opposite of orange on the color wheel.  Pretty smart kid, it really works well.  I had been thinking black, which I now think would have been too harsh of a contrast. 

Quick note: the contrast fabric is the brighter blue under the lighter strips on the left of the picture.  The rest of what you are seeing is the back side of a quilt the boys have had since Colin was 3 or 4. It just happens to be very close in color to the background color so I am using it to play with layouts.  That also explains the blue and green triangles, they aren't part of the design, just part of an old dinosaur quilt.

Next try. More randomness, less stripes, no tricky angles. 

Better, so much better.  Not sure that I like the dark to light gradation though.

Attempt number three.  Getting tired of crawling around on the floor, so I hope this one works. 

This is my favorite so far.  I'll show this post to Colin tonight and see what he thinks.  I hope he picks this one.  Oh, and Colin?  I'm not sewing that top striped one.  No way, no how! 

Now I need to go remake the bed I stole the quilt from before the kids get home.  Let me know which one you like best and have a great day.

 

Science Lessons

On of the tough things about homeschooling in Malawi is science.  More specifically shopping for science lessons.  Basic things like balloons or modeling clay are either impossible to find or ridiculously expensive.  We needed balloons for something, I forget what, but we went to 5 different stores before I found balloons.  I was all excited and grabbed the package.  Dave stood there looking at the price, until finally he asked slowly, "Are you really going to pay 10 dollars for a bag of balloons?"  Sigh.  I guess not when you put it that way.

Anyway, the two older boys have started working out of their chemistry book, yes I have both boys working out of the same book even though they are different grades.  I don't remember much from junior high science, do you?  I have yet to be able to find everything needed for any of the experiments, and the boys and I were getting really frustrated.  Yes we have been able to watch the experiments performed on Brain Pop or Discovery Streaming, but it really isn't the same as doing the experiments yourself.

Finally I had an epiphany! Last Christmas Colin got a super-duper huge electronics set complete with teachers manuals and student learning guides.  Out with chemistry, in with electricity.  Looking at the first few lessons had me trying desperately to remember the difference between series and parallel circuits. I know one of those is the reason when one Christmas light goes out on the tree they all flipping go out, but I don't know which or why, and actually I don't much care. I finally asked Dave for help.  Mr."I-did-advance-electronics-in-the-navy"  has taken over the science lessons for the Alonzo and Colin. Yay!!

Now I am sitting here with my feet up listening to him drone on and on about protons and electrons, charged particles and switches.  The boys are totally enraptured.  They're happy they are learning "real" science. Dad's happy to be involved in the homeschooling and teaching something he likes.  I am happy.  I'm relaxing with a beer.  Now all I have to do is find someone who wants to teach the boys reading, or math, or writing.

Wordless Wednesday - JUMP!

Wordless Wednesday - Homeschooling

Homeschooling Day 1

Today we are supposed to start homeschooling. It is now 9 am. Only one of the boys has had breakfast.  No one's bed is made. the books are still in the cabinet. Two boys are fighting, one is crying, the other is smirking because he made his brother cry, and one boy is hiding in his bedroom as far from the other two as possible just in case some of the blame for the bad behavior should spill over one him.  Great start.

Today's plan was to start slow. List what everyone, including mom, hopes to study this year.  Look over all the new books.  Do a little math, a little writing, and work on a daily school schedule. I am having a few problems figuring out how to school 3 kids at 3 different grades all at once.  I expect we will work it out eventually. When I home schooled Alonzo year before last it took about two months to settle into a  schedule that worked.  Hopefully it will go faster this time.  

In addition to the academic basics of reading, writing, math, science, and history, I really want to teach life skills like simple cooking and the basics of sewing and most importantly MANNERS. What  skills, academic or otherwise, do you think are essential for kids to learn?

They finally quit fighting and are checking out their new math manipulatives. Things are looking up, fingers crossed. 

I set out all their books on a blanket for then to look at but they just grabbed the math stuff and took it to the table to play with.

Wordless Wednesday - The Kids Made a Slingshot

Wordless Wednesday - The Thursday I forgot yesterday was Wednesday Edition

Book Week 2012

Today the kids were supposed to dress up for book week. Colin and Grayson after some serious thought decided to choose characters that would allow them to dress as regular kids, no uniforms. I think they may be sick of uniforms. Grayson chose Horrible Harry, and Colin chose to be a moron from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  Alonzo decided on Malfoy.  Most kids would choose Harry Potter, but Alonzo chose the villainous Malfoy. So I have a Horrible Harry, an unnamed moron, and Malfoy.  I am so proud.

 Choosing costumes was tough. Grayson wanted me to run right out and buy a ready made costume. I tried explaining that there are no costume shops in Malawi so that would be a bit difficult.  He was ready for me though.  "Mom, you are supped to hire a tailor."  Ummm...Yeah.  Perhaps it might just be time to look at a DC posting.  I think baby boy has been overseas a bit too long.

A moron, Draco Malfoy, and Horrible Harry. That's a whole lotta trouble on one couch.

Reading selections.

Apparently the choice of moron was related to hair length. I did offer to cut his hair so he could be the main character Greg, but he declined. I guess as long as he is happy, I'm happy. In any case he is at school and I can have some coffee in peace and quiet. Ahhh...Life is good.

He deserves it!

Today David was running some wires in the attic to hook my TV in the kitchen up to AFN. Yes I know that a TV in the kitchen makes me a little spoiled, but I don't mind, besides I spend a ridiculous amount of time in there since there is no such thing a convince food here.

Colin was in the living room playing video games on the computer when he heard a scratching sound in the corner, he was unaware that Dave was in the attic. Then dust started falling from the ceiling as David made a small hole to pull the cable from the AFN decoder into the attic. Colin jumped up and went tearing down the hall screaming, and I do mean screaming, "THERE'S A RAT! THERE'S A RAT! IT'S CHEWING THROUGH THE WALL! I SAW IT! THERE'S A RAT! DAD? WHERE ARE YOU? DAD? IT'S A RAT!"

I managed to keep it together long enough to accompany him back to the living room with a broom to kill the rat. Colin pointed up at the ceiling just as David let out an obliging rat-like squeak. Colin about fainted. I totally lost it giggling like a mad woman. It wasn't until David started to laugh up in the attic that Colin caught on that the only rat was his dad.

He is not pleased with either of us and feels we were being unfairly mean. I reminded him of this video but somehow he feels like terrorizing his mother with a ginormous spider is not at all the same thing as the possibility of a rat chewing through the ceiling. Apparently parents should know better. I am sure we pay for this little stunt at light's out time tonight, but seriously, I think he deserved it. Don't you?

Things Kids Say - Colin Edition

"Mom, Where is tortellini from? Italy or France?"

"Italy? Why?"

"Can we move to Italy? Please? They have good food."

We had this conversation as we cleaned up after dinner. I made tortellini with pesto cream sauce, yum! I love that kid, and Italy is OK with me. Too bad we will have to wait until this fall to find out if it is on our bid list.

Wordless Wednesday -- Snail Attack

Wordless Wednesday -- Science Experiment by Colin and Grayson

Oh Baby Baby, It's A Wild World

It's Saturday night. The weekend is only half over. So far this weekend has seen a pied crow with an apparently broken wing, the return (yet again) of Squirtle the Bell's Hingeback Tortoise, several lizards, a white tree frog with orange feet, two millipedes, a brownish tree frog with red feet, assorted bugs, a blue headed agama, and last but not least, the African pygmy hedgehog currently eating a cricket in my kitchen. Thankfully there have been no spiders or snakes, yet.


I am not sure why my kids spend so much time watching Animal Planet or NatGeo Wild. They are far more entertaining, and often more terrifying than anything I've yet seen on either channel. Currently the boys are watching Austin Stevens chase hyenas around Africa. I have no idea why, and it seems like a spectacularly bad idea to me, but the boys seem to be into it.


Colin wants to have an animal TV show when he an adult. Considering what my daily life looks like I am betting he could just make that happen. He has a plan. He will go to the Coast Guard academy getting his degree in biological-environmental sciences. This part of the plan may or may not be heavily influenced by Dad. Then after he serves his time as an officer he will return to college to get his masters in herpetology, then he figures he should be ready for his own television show.


Update on assorted animals: The pied crow did not have a broken wing. We think possibly one of the guards had thrown a rock at him, and he was stunned, but not really hurt. Dave was able to walk right up to the bird and pick him up. We took him to the wildlife center but when David opened the basket it simply flew away. David was pretty surprised. Most of the lizards, both frogs, and the millipedes were released unharmed. A couple of lizards did become snake food because snakes need to eat too. The hedgehog will be released before bedtime even if I have to do it myself. Squirtle has yet again taken up residence in the large konde, oh yay. Sarcasm intended. I am sure that tomorrow will bring more animals. At least my life is rarely boring.


I spoke too soon. While I was editing pictures for this post the cry went up "SNAKE!!" and now all the boys, including David, are outside with the guard looking for a snake, in the garden, in the dark, in Malawi. This seems like an even worse idea than chasing hyenas around Africa but there you have it, a future Animal Planet star in the making. I really hope they DON'T find it. Nope, my life is rarely boring.

Wordless Wednesday - Another Snake

Wordless Wednesday - Frat Brothers

Wordless Wednesday - A Special Treat

This Is My Life

It's no secret that Colin aspires to grow up to be Jeff Corwin or Dr. Brady Barr. He spend hours watching Nat Geo Wild and the Discovery Channel. He memorizes animal books. If I want to know what kind of pretty bird is in the back yard I ask the kid. He won't tell just me it is kingfisher, instead he will tell me it is a MALACHITE kingfisher. Then he will give me a run down on similar species, how to tell them apart, diet, and habits. He can happily entertain himself for hours with a pair of binoculars or a camera stalking the animals in our yard. He isn't happy just catching a turtle. He has to know that it is a Bell's Hingeback Tortoise.

You would think all this focus would be a good thing. And it would be if he would stay focused on birds, turtles, lizards and other non-scary, relatively harmless creatures. His new fascination is spiders. Big hairy spiders! Baboon Spiders! I have mentioned previously how I feel about these things. He is even using the spiders to terrify his big brother, going so far as to put a spider in his shoe. EEEKKKK! I will be checking my shoes from now on or maybe only wearing flip-flops. Have you ever seen the movie Arachnophobia? I haven't, and after the last week I don't feel like I need to, I have lived it.

He will scoop up a spider with his bare hands and then let it walk all over him while he continues to hunt for more spiders. It is at once fascinating and horrifying. No one can figure out why he doesn't seem to get bit. His brothers and the maid's 3 daughters follow him around the yard as he collects more and more spiders in a sort of macabre parade, although no one else seems anxious to have the spiders crawl on them. I have lost count of the number of times he has walked up behind me and said "Mom?" just so I will turn around and find him with a huge sider sitting on his head or clinging to the side of his face. I know I shouldn't scream but I do, every time, which of course just eggs him on. I can't help it, I HATE spiders.

I tried to take a video of Colin today when he had only (ONLY!) two (TWO!) spiders on him. I figured I could handle it, but I didn't count on 9 year old little boy humor. Check it out. Unless I can get Dave to take some video this is all there is because I'm not voluntarily getting this close to Colin and his horrifying hoard of arachnids ever again. Oh, and for the record I make him release them AWAY from the house every evening before he comes in for dinner. There will be no repeat of Stanley with a baboon spider. Stanley the camel spider was kinda cute, these things are....ICK!

The Last First Tooth and a Spider Too

Today Grayson lost his first tooth. He's my baby. This is the last first tooth any of my babies will loose. It's the beginning of the end of an era.

He looks so darn cute with the little gap in front.

Tonight while I was cooking dinner Colin walked in the backdoor, I heard him giggle, he was happy about something. In hindsight that giggle had an evil sound to it. I turned around to find this in his hand.


That my friends is a baboon spider. In other words an African tarantula. A real live nightmare that lives in my backyard.

I screamed, the boys, including my husband, made fun of me, then took the little horror outside for a photo shoot. Oh thank God they took it outside! Apparently it is a budding spider super model because David took dozens of pictures while it obligingly posed. Meanwhile I decided I was too traumatized to continue cooking, poured myself a glass of wine, turned off the oven, and figured it was about time I updated the blog. Everybody managed to feed themselves so I guess it was a reasonable reaction.

No one was bitten, I have no idea why. I know for darn certain that if I ever lost my mind and tried to pick one of these up I would end up getting bitten and probably die on the spot. Here are a few of the pictures so you can have nightmares too.

OMG do you see those FANGS?!?!?!

The seductive pose.

I think it is smiling with its eyes.

Overheard Conversations

As I was cooking dinner the boys were huddled in the corner heads together. They weren't fighting for a change so I thought I should leave things well enough alone. A few minutes later I wondered if I should have investigated the situation just a little sooner as a bit of conversation drifted my way.

"Just eat it, it tastes like sweet milk."

"You should kill it first."

"Yeah! Kill it so it doesn't wiggle around when you eat it."

"I always kill them, I like my termites dead."

After I finished gagging I managed to put dinner on the table. Termites must not be very filling because all three boys ate like pigs. However just thinking about eating termites will keep Mom on her diet.

That Would Suck!

One week from today Dakota, my firstborn baby will be wheels up and winging his way to Naples Italy, then onward to Great Lakes Illinois for Navy boot camp. I am an emotional mess. But that's not what this post is about. The younger boys have been talking a lot about what they will do when it is their turn to leave home. (This is not perhaps the most helpful conversation to have in front of a very emotional mama. One baby leaving is bad enough, I do not need reminding that eventually they will all leave home.) Tonight's conversation took a turn to the hilarious.

"When I leave home I am going to be a lawyer." Says Colin, my argumentative one. I have to say it is a good choice for his personality.

"Not me!" piped up Alonzo. "I am going to go to the Navy academy so I can be an officer and Dakota will have to salute when ever he sees me."

"Oh man!" Dakota with a horrified look on his face. "That would suck!"