Category: Fun finds

Sometimes it’s best not to ask

We’ve had some big adventures with the homeschool club this year. During the first semester, we made ice cream, did a leaf chromatography experiment, performed many light experiments, built a hovercraft, taught many robotics classes, and today we made flashlights, batteries, and built circuits. Richard and I (and the other parents who help out) are really exercising our science-teaching muscles.

Do you want to know the favorite activity, according to one of the students?

Bubbles.

(We did this just for fun while the kids waited for turns to ride the hovercraft.)

Here’s a good recipe for homemade bubble solution. Ask your pharmacist for the glycerine.

  • 2/3 c Dawn dish soap
  • 3 tsp. glycerine
  • 1 gal. distilled water

Mix all ingredients and allow to sit uncovered for four days. It just gets better with time. While you’re at it, you should try making your own bubble wand out of a hanger. Bend it into a circle and wrap cotton yarn around it so it will soak up bubble solution. You can make huge bubbles with this.

Here’s another solution we tried, but it didn’t work as well as the first:

  • 2 c Dawn dish soap
  • 6 c water
  • 3/4 c Karo syrup (corn syrup)

*Photo by my friend, Monica.

Nativity Puppets

Using my Aunt Kate’s concept from the nativity blocks she gave our family about 14 years ago, I occasionally make these felt nativity pieces for friends. This time, my friend was looking for something she could use for a puppet show on Christmas Eve, so I glued craft sticks to the backs. I think they are cute. The little ones love to hold them, crookedly and charmingly.

Physics Fun

Today was the day we finished making our own hovercraft. I’ve been holding on to this idea since college.

Here are some photos of our process today. We tried all of this yesterday but it failed. Today was try #2 so we were professionals (and true scientists).

hovercraft 001

hovercraft 002

hovercraft 003

hovercraft 004

hovercraft 005

hovercraft 006

hovercraft 007

hovercraft 008

hovercraft 009

Sir Isaac Newton would be proud.

Rest: 1977 style

1977 toy box

Trying to come up with a caption for this picture. Yes, I have better things I could be doing. Here are some options:

Hang up the phone, put down your tools and get some rest. That’s what I say. And if your belly happens to be showing, all the better.

That old shag carpet looks like the latest thing!

I just realized I never bought my children a toy box/little bed.

Notice that I haven’t forgotten to use sheets on my little bed.

I remember those sheets every now and then. Sheets were softer in the 70’s… and busier.

If this were a reality show, it would be called Little A in the Little B.

I am thinking big thoughts in this picture.

My name is Angie (hi, Angie) and I am a recovering thumb sucker. (Applause). I’ve been on the wagon for 27 years.

I’ve made the move to a king sized bed and I’m never going back.

Alas, the poor princess couldn’t sleep. Not only was there a pea under the mattress, but a hundred tinker toys, hot wheel cars, little green army men and plastic animals jabbing her in the back.

(Sigh.) Now if I could just get rid of the paparazzi I could get some sleep.

This is the mesmerized look of someone studying the glitter dots on a popcorn ceiling, hoping to find constellations.

*The End*

Is this my strangest post ever? Probably.

Thinking about Pirates!

Timothy the pirate

Timothy made a great picture of a pirate battle. As always, this drawing is in miniature and you may not be able to see everything. I am amazed at the detail he creates on such a small scale. There is a sinking ship, several islands, a whirlpool (I think!) and some fires. I feel pretty bad about the guy falling from what is left of his ship amidst some heavy fire and a huge splash.

Timothy pirate battle

Forever Friends

Daniel package 10 years old

Daniel received this package in the mail this week. Inside was a newspaper from his birth date, almost 10 years ago. Our friends, the Espersens have been saving it for us in Austin all these years. Dave is quite the philatelist. (I’ve always wanted to use that word.) I have been staring at this package for a long time, enjoying the beautiful stamps and missing these dear friends.

Daniel has been lonely lately. His best friend moved away last month. I think that our Heavenly Father knows this little boy’s needs and has inspired so many good people to reach out to him. If you think about it, this kind act was put in motion 10 years ago and the timing is perfect. I sit back in wonder, and I’m reminded of the importance and power of love and small gestures of kindness and listening to those little ideas that come to our minds to do good. Who knows what a difference our small acts of kindness will make?

Espersens

The Espersens

ABBA Gold

1977 carrot

I listened to our new ABBA Greatest Hits CD all morning as I cleaned the house. When I was little, aside from having natural highlights in my hair (see above picture), I loved to dance to our ABBA  8-track in our front room on the gold shag carpet. I’d land on the floor and look up at the light fixture which had a golden circular screw which would reflect a tiny image of me. My memories of the seventies have a golden hue. It probably has something to do with the carpet, but I think it also has something to do with the happy childhood I had.