The Kiwi Crate Blog

When visiting my blog you’re much more likely to come across a muddy kid, a dead animal, or a sleeping dog than any sort of crafting post.

That’s because I sort of hate crafting things with my kids.

I know it sounds horrible, but I justify my reluctance with the fact that I’m more open to it than John, who if given his way would throw out all the crayons in the house.  Of course Ivy and Clara love it when we (read I, the crayon-hater does none of this) set up any sort of crafting activity for them.  And that right there is the problem – the set up.

First I have to have an idea. I’m full of ideas, ideas for animals to raise, home improvement projects, dessert, kiddy crafting ideas… not so much.  Fortunately, thanks to the beauty of the internet, I can use other peoples’ ideas.  Believe me, if you’ve never done a little web surfing for kids’ crafts, I’ll just let you know that there are approximately seventy bazillion crafty blogs out there to choose from, all with fantastic super-cool crafts.   Just be careful because at least one bazillion will make you wonder, if these authors can make and decorate their entire home with the help of their smiling children (whom they have taken beautiful step-by-step pictures of)  why your big accomplishment of the day was to get everyone’s hair brushed.  Then, if by chance I happen to actually have all the needed supplies for the super-cool craft, (and brushed hair) I have to find said supplies,  set it all up, get the kids engaged and then finally finishing whatever it is because the kids get bored.  So there I am (with my brushed hair) sitting at the table by myself with a gigantic mess wondering why I bothered.  Needless to say a fun afternoon of crafting is not really my kind of afternoon.

Enter Kiwi Crate.

Kiwi Crate is a website that sells a monthly subscription where your kids get a crate in the mail with themed projects in them. Sounds awesome right? I agree, but we don’t do that. What I do do is follow their blog, and my very favorite part of the Kiwi Crate blog is Tuesdays, because Tuesdays are two ingredient Tuesdays. Crafts and activities that involve two common items, now that’s something I can wrap my non-crafting head around. Often it’s just something small to keep a kid briefly entertained , like putting a penny in a balloon. But that’s great because I have pennies, I have balloons and it will take me 45 seconds to put them together and if they hate it (which they didn’t, it was a huge hit) there is very little to clean up. Cookie cutter tracing was another big hit for the girls and today we added crayons to hot rocks for some melty fun. While today’s project was a bit messier than I normally undertake, I have crayons (because John hasn’t won the anti-crayon war yet) I have rocks and a bit of a mess was alright on a rainy afternoon.

The blog also has tons of other ideas, involving more than two items.  We’ve made marshmallow launchers and frozen toys in a big block of ice for excavation on a hot day and done some salt painting – all with stuff around the house. So, while I continue to figure out how I can justify the expense of the awesome sounding monthly crates (Damn Dave Ramsey, again!) I’ll be a regular reader of the Kiwi Crate blog. The girls are loving it, I’m enjoying it more than I would have guessed and the crayon-hater…  he’s hopeless!

Moose’s Loose Tooth by Jacqueline A Clarke and Bruce McNally

Most everybody has a thing. A thing that gives them the heebie jeebies, the shivers, the get-me-out-of-heres, the gag reflex, the I-can’t-even-look-at-it-I’m-running-the-other-ways.  For some it’s spiders. (Personally my live and let live philosophy on spiders maxes out when they reach half dollar size and they are crawling on my leg and then my girly reaction kicks in and I squeal and fling in off and then stomp it to death with a bathmat – other than that sort of scenario (which happened last week if anyone wants to know) I let them live in the corners of the house, check out cool webs outside and visit the tarantulas at the zoo.)  Other people can’t stand to look at snakes, worms, maggots and a certain notable person, *cough* John *cough* , has a major issue with brown, slimy, lettuce.  For me it’s teeth. I don’t like teeth. I don’t like my teeth, I don’t like your teeth, the dentist touches my teeth, I hate him. Teeth are my heebie jebbie inducer.  So please tell me what on earth my husband was thinking when he brought this home from the library:

And, as if that isn’t bad enough, the moose asks an ostrich to pull his tooth out…

Then, leaving aside the fact that I can think of no good scenario where a moose, ostrich, tiger, zebra, giraffe and elephant all live together, I really, really never wanted to see them pulling a tooth out together. Ever.

And then.

And THEN.

The elephant swallows the tooth.

AAAHHHHH!!!

Which brings me to my long winded point.

I hate this book.

Which brings me to me really long winded point and a household rule we have.

Mom only has to read a library book once. (Sometimes I love making the rules.)

If they bring a book home from the library I’ll read it once. If it is a good mutually acceptable book I’ll read it 37 more times during the course of the week before we return it but if it’s bad – once. This is something that people have harassed me about, saying that if my kids want to read I should be reading whatever they want. I disagree.  There are plenty of books out there that we would both like to read so when they do manage to sneak a book like Moose’s Loose Tooth or anything involving Dora home, I’m only reading it once.  Because sometimes once is more than enough.

Now, I’m looking for a children’s book that has brown, slimy, lettuce in it, maggots would be nice bonus material, anybody have any ideas?

To be fair, if it weren’t for my whole teeth hating thing this book would be just fine. It’s got the kind of repetition and humor that kids like, Ivy has been asking about when her teeth will fall out and I’ve had to reject it as a possible read almost every time we’ve sat down in the last week!

Leaving You Hanging

Here is how all my phone conversations have gone this week:

Me: Hello!

Other Person: Hi, What are you up to?

Me: Watching the Olympics.

Other Person: Where are you?

Me: At home.

Other Person: What?

Me: We borrowed a TV.

Other Person: Really?

Me: Yes. Now I have to go swimming is on!

My other conversations go like this:

Other Person: Hey, why is there nothing new on your blog?

Me: I’ve been watching swimming in the Olympics, did you see… (blah, blah, swimming, swimming, blah, blah, excited, excited)

Other Person: Ummmm… no… (changes subject)

Sorry to leave you all hanging but John and I are having a fantastic time ruining any sleep we might otherwise be getting and watching all the swimming on our borrowed TV! Now if you’ll excuse me John is home and it’s time for me to go jump up and down while I rub in the fact that I saw the very exciting final of the men’s 100 free already (and the girls 200 fly and the 200 IM’s and did you see the girls 200 breast semis!?!)  and he hasn’t!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

Not being a big purple fan, I had a hard time getting excited about this week’s challenge. But a challenge is a challenge so I gathered up my camera, my oldest daughter for a designated purple finder, tried to keep in mind a few tips from Rick Diffley’s Photography blog and headed to the neighbor’s CSA farm looking for purple.  Ivy and I found more purple than I expected (young sumac stems, who knew?) but this purple cabbage was our favorite!

Still Talking Smart

If you don’t remember the family rivalry in the Pewaukee Triathlon two years ago I invite you to go back and read up on it, you’ll find it under Talking Smart in the archives. Two years later and the competition and the smart talking are still going strong!

I was unable to make it around the lake to spectate at the Tri-Allegan Triathlon but I was able to convince Uncle Weasel to be my first ever guest blogger and share the story:

This year’s Tri-Allegan Triathlon featured an epic battle between young and old, man and woman, athletic prowess and wily experience and cunning.  It may go down in history as one of the greatest athletic events of all time.  That being said I must report that my team, Team Old Guys finished in a solid 4th place.  My swimmer, Scott  pared 30 seconds off last years swim time but died coming out of the water and couldn’t muster much more than a walk across the beach and up the hill to transition.  But then again he’s a swimmer not a runner.  Marty the runner is the closest to a rock star as there is on the team. He just plain flies and uses himself up on the course….he also spends a lot of time using himself up during warm-ups.  I’m the old guy on the bike and even though I’m due for knee replacement in 2 weeks I was determined to hold up my end of the bargain.  To boot I had made a small wager with the local chief of police (10 years my junior, 50 pounds lighter and 2 good knees). My bike time against his bike time, loser congratulates the winner publicly in the local newspaper.  Maybe not so smart but if you talk big you gotta back it up, right?  I trained over 550 miles getting ready and was determined to at least beat the chief.  I found myself getting my game face on minutes before the start and who should pop out from behind my friend Mel (Mel is a big guy and easy to hide behind) but my little sister Mary.  I was shocked to say the least and stunned to see that she was in her “skinny pants” with a timing chip on her ankle.  She was in the race!!!!

Now it was time for a quick team meeting and a recalibration of race strategies and goals.  The old guy’s mission is to BEAT MARY!!!!!!

Scott swam like a torpedo, I biked as hard as I could and when something let go in that right knee at mile 11 I kept going, Marty ran like the wind.  All of us with one goal. BEAT MARY!!!

Now you have to understand I put together a team 2 years ago to beat Mary and she edged us by 2 minutes.  On that team I had a University of Wisconsin Stevens Point Athletic Hall of Fame swimmer and a svelte, fit twenty something runner and we couldn’t do it. But Tuesday night a bunch of old guys gave it all they had and we beat Mary by a decisive 4 minute margin!

It just goes to show, don’t cut us Old Guys out, she may be younger and fitter but us Old Guys are CRAFTY!

Excuse me now while I go write a letter to the editor.

 


Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

I have a native cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) in my yard. This plant and I have the perfect sort of plant-gardener relationship – the one where I ignore it and it grows and thrives. This year the drought has not been kind to it and it’s a bit smaller than normal. The foot diameter patch is only four to five feet tall instead of having closer to a two foot circle with over six foot flowers.  All the way up the giant stem cups are formed at the base of the leaves, after a rain (or a dewy night) the insides of these cups fill with water. Then these little pockets of water draw all sorts of insects, birds and sometimes even a small frog or two.  I can always count on watching our resident goldfinches  flitting in and out of the patch, getting a drink as soon as the plant shoots up in the spring and later eating the seeds from the yellow flowers.

Now I’ve got to end this post and get back to my usual fare of  swearing kids, sleeping dogs, and piles of laundry before I start writing like a gardening catalog and leave you with some sappy line like:

“Pick up one of these easy keepers for that troublesome wet spot in your yard today!”

Fisherman’s Luck, and Some Other Uncertain Things by Henry Van Dyke

Written in 1899 this collection of essays on fishing and life was a bit different from your typical fish story – but in all the good ways. Here are a few lines from some of my favorites:

A Wild Strawberry

” I tasted the odour of a hundred blossoms and the green shimmering of innumerable leaves and the sparkle of sifted sunbeams and the breath of highland breezes and the song of many birds and the murmur of flowing streams, – all in a wild strawberry.”

Talkability

“The inventor of the familiar maxim that “fishermen must not talk’ is lost in the mists of antiquity, and well deserves his fate. … Why  in the name of all that is genial, should anglers go about their harmless sport in stealthy silence like conspirators, or sit together in a boat, dumb, glum, and penitential, like naughty schoolboys on the bench of disgrace?”

A Fatal Success

“It is just a kind of a defect, due to her education, of course. In everything else she’s magnificent. But she doesn’t care for fishing.”

A Lazy, Idle Brook

“Indolence is a virtue. It comes from two Latin words, which mean freedom from anxiety or grief. And that is a wholesome state of mind.”

The Open Fire

“Wood is the fuel for it. Out-of-doors is the place for it. A furnace is an underground prison for a toiling slave. A stove is a cage for a tame bird. Even a broad hearthstone and a pair of glittering andirons – the best ornament of a room – must be accepted as an imitation of the real thing. The veritable open fire is built in the open, with the whole earth for a fireplace and the sky for a chimney.”

Finally my personal favorite:

The Thrilling Moment

“Such is the absurd disposition of some anglers. They never see a fish without believing that they can catch him; but if they see no fish, they are inclined to think that the river is empty and the world hollow.”

Unfortunately having been written in 1899 it’s not any easy book to find at the library but Amazon does sell it and I see that you can get it free on your Kindle.

Would I recommend it? Even difficult to find I’d still recommend it to all my fishing friends and relations.

Dear Jane

Dear Jane,

You just turned seven months old and have discovered that the world is a big place, full of things that need to be explored and tasted. You haven’t yet mastered crawling exactly where you want but you can roll, and wiggle your way backwards and around in all sorts of circles. Despite everyone telling me that I’ll regret it I keep encouraging you to crawl. You are so interested in everything, too busy to even eat when we visit new places or when things are going on around you and you are so close to crawling!  You get up on those knees and rock back and forth – soon, very soon you’ll get to where you want to go.  I’m sure the dogs water bowl is top on your list after discovering how fun it was the other day and I’m prepared to clean up the water spill at least a half a dozen times before it starts to drive me nuts, but here is the thing. Right now you are teething and still getting over the end of a nasty virus. So, when you are almost asleep you don’t need to reach out and touch the wall/chair/book/bed/door you can just relax, they will all be there when you wake up.   And when your little body hits the bed it’s not necessary to roll onto your belly and pop up on your knees like a funny little jack-in-the-box. You are so very cute smiling away, showing me once again how close you are to figuring it all out but right now you need your sleep and there will be more time when the sun comes up to try again. I promise.

Love,

Your Mom

Press Here by Hervé Tullet

Months ago we got this book from the library and while I know my lovely assistant and book connoisseur in the picture may not look like she enjoyed it let me assure you she did. We read it over, and over, and over, and over…

It was so simple you just…Then you watch what happens…Follow directions…And watch how the dots change…So simple…So fun!Would I recommend it? Yes, it was a surprisingly fun book – at least the first thirty times!