Weekend

Well, our weekend was pummeled by the "Pineapple Express."

An atmospheric river that made its way here from

the Hawaiin Islands.

Lots of rain, rain, rain.

And since we are studying weather and climate, I thought this would

make an excellent lesson!  So Binky

made a diagram of the "Pineapple Express."

You can read  more about it here, if you like.

 

 



 

So while we were indoors, listening to all that rain, Goose

broke out some holiday decorations.

This is Binky's favorite christmas item.

I bought it for him at the Nutcracker several years ago.

 

 



 

 

 

I made some salt dough ornaments and we

had a blast decorating them!  Grandma came over with her

craft box and we went a little crazy with all that paint, glitter, and beads!!

I love how they turned out! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two ornaments are for my two nephews.

I hope they love them!  I had so much fun making them!

 

 

 



 

 

 

I even made some for us.

It was a nice time.  Holiday memories in the making.

I asked the kids what they would like to do this holiday season

and we came up with a few ideas so far. 

 

Make snowflakes

birdseed ornaments for the birds

solstice walk in the woods

gift making for family and friends

light the lights for Hanukkah

watch Elf

go ice skating

 

Joy, over at You know how we're an art family...

has a beautiful list of advent activities she made with her family.

What special activities do you do with your family this

time of year?

 



R e s t

 

 

Sebastien found the best spot in the house the other

morning to enjoy the sun.

He loves to lay in the sun.  He will follow it around the house

just to soak up all that warm goodness.

I love his little face reflecting in the window.

I could use some rest like this.

I am not feeling too good right now.

I am functioning, but I am nauseas all the time,

especially after I eat.  I am really

starting to feel the effects of this chemo cream I have

to put on my face.  I can't see anything yet, but I can sure feel it.

I must try and fit some naps into my day!

Never easy while the kids are home.

Especially during the holidays!

 

 

 

 

Tosca

Wednesday afternoon was a good one!

Goose and I joined some friends for the final dress rehearsal of

Puccini's Tosca.

It was amazing!  I loved it.  This was our 4th opera together and

Goose said it was by far her favorite.

During the intermission there were cookies waiting for us and they left the curtain up

so we could watch the set change.

It was very interesting.  So many people working to

put it all together.  And so much larger than I realized backstage.

The San Francisco War Memorial Opera House is gorgeous!!

It takes us 15 minutes to get there from our house!

If there is no traffic, of course.

I am learning to really love the opera.

After seeing The Capulets and The Montagues in September

I was hooked.  The two women who played Romeo and Juliet

were absolutely amazing!!!!!

 

Don't forget about my Giveaway!!

Deadline to leave a comment is tomorrow night!

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

 



Giveaway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first Giveaway!

I am giving away a scarf of your choice from my Etsy shop, Crochet Crowe!

Please go to my shop blog, Crochet Crowe and leave a comment letting me

know which is your favorite scarf!!

The deadline to leave a comment is Sunday, November 18 at 12pm Pacific Time.

I can't wait to hear from you!!

Happy November!

 

 

Antibubbles

 

 

Have you ever heard of antibubbles?

I had not until last week when Binky came home from

science class and was talking about bubbles.

An antibubble is a bubble underwater.  So it is water surrounded

by a thin layer of air, which is surrounded by water.

A little confusing, I know.

I have a link below that explains it with diagrams.

 

 

 

He also practiced blowing bubbles inside of bubbles.

Both Goose and Binky had fun with this.

At one point, they could blow 4 bubbles inside of each other!

I was amazed at how much fun they both had blowing bubbles all weekend.

And whenever a friend or family member came over they had to show

them how to do it!

 

 

 

 

Binky's teacher talked about antibubbles a little bit, but didn't

really get into it, so I found a great website that

explains what they are and how to make them!

Of course, we had to try and make our own.

It does take patience, but the results are worth it!

I also found this great youtube video.

We have to try this next!

And I thought we were long past bubble play!

Have a great week!

l i f e

 

Life is a little crazy right now.

When isn't it, really?

My mother's husband has brain cancer.

He was diagnosed 2 years ago with stage 3 anaplastic

oligodendroglioma. 

He had surgery to remove as much as possible as soon as he was diagnosed

and then 1 year of chemo.  It was an oral chemo that was very easily tolerated.

And then all was mostly well.  About a month ago, after one of his

usual MRIs, we could see that the cancer had started to grow again.

We knew it would eventually.

So he went in for surgery last Wednesday and his home now.

The surgery went very well at UCSF.

He had the best possible surgeon.

Joe, my step-father, is now scheduled to start brain radiation

in less than two weeks.  Treatment is EVERYDAY for 7 weeks.

And now they have opted to add chemo again while he is doing the radiation treatments.

I don't know how this will affect him. 

From what I have read online, it will not be easy for him.

But he is still young, in his mid fifties, and healthy otherwise.

But in the end, we all know this will take his life much earlier than

expected.  It is a lot to deal with.

I haven't even mentioned it here because then it becomes more real.

I am very concerned about my mom and how she is

handling everything.  We are going to visit tonight or tomorrow, depending on

how Joe is feeling. 

As for me, I am starting my chemo cream for my face today!

My insurance did not want to cover the prescription at first.

But my amazing doctor got on the phone and made it happen!

 

On a happier note, we are getting ready for Halloween!

Binky only needs 2 more things and then both kids are all set.

Goose will be a gypsy and Binky will be Jester, a comic book character.

I can't believe how grown-up they both look in their costumes.

I will post pics later.

I am looking forward to the distraction.

Watching all the kids with happy faces and fun costumes.

I hope your celebration is filled with fun!

Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

 

 



New Blog!!!

 

 

 

I created a new blog for my Etsy shop!

I am so excited to finally be doing this!  Crochet Crowe is

my shop for handmade scarves.  Crocheted cowls that are beautiful and cozy!

I will have some new scarves available later this week.

I hope you will stop by for peek!

 

 

 

 

home learning fun

 

Binky is up to his drawing again.

I love this one!

I love seeing him hang out in his room

and come up with these ideas of his.

I want to print this one on a tshirt to give him for

Christmas this year.  He will be so surprised!

 

Goose's science group is studying Earth Science and I taught a class on

volcanes.  We sketched and labeled the main types of volcanes.

The kids labeled a world map with a variety of different volcanoes.

We talked about the silica content of magma and how the more silica in the magma,

the more viscous the lava.

 

 



I poked a tiny hole in toothpaste tubes and the kids squeezed the tubes to watch how the

"magma" oozes down the side of the tube.

This is very viscous lava!  They made a chart of all the different elements

in igneous rocks formed from different lavas, like basalt, andesite, dacite and rhyolite.

It was a great class!  I only had two hours, but we covered a TON of information.

 

 



 

 

Goose decorated this lovely sarcophagus. 

She is still studying Egypt.

We attended a workshop at the local Egyptian Museum last Sunday

focused on Egyptian oils and perfumes. 

She loved it!  One more workshop this weekend and

 she will be able to attend a sleep-over at the museum.

How cool is that!

 

 

 

 

 

Goose has also spent a lot of time crocheting this week.

She made herself a little pouch yesterday.

So cute!  I love seeing her enjoy something I love so much.

 

We are looking forward to a cooler weekend here by the bay.

It has been in the 80s most of the week!

A little too warm for me right now.

I was getting used to wearing my scarves and boots

and then I had to break out my sandals and tank tops again.

But I have noticed a beautiful sparkle to the sun.

Every October the sun seems to sparkle.  I can't find a better word

to describe it.  Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, I love it.

It will be much cooler this weekend.

Hopefully I can break out those scarves and boots again!



s k y and s c h e d u l e s

 

 

While sitting in my room the other evening I could see a pink glow

seeping through the blinds.

When I peeked outside, the clouds were aglow with beautiful

shades of pink.

 

 

And the moon was gorgeous!

 

 





 

 

A day or two later we headed down to the water

to fly Binky's new dual-control kite.

There were a lot of sailboats out there!

How I wanted to be on one of them.

 

 

This is the new kite!

Binky is so excited about it.

He is quite good, too.

He told me his kite was really pretty up in the sky.

 

 



 

 

Here he is doing his thing.

 

 

 

 

We have been very busy.

Our lessons and groups and classes have begun

and I am just trying to get back into the

swing of things.

Goose is quite busy this fall. 

Her schedule is as follows

 

US Constitution

Epidemics

Earth Science Group

Egypt

Writing Group

French

Algebra

Cooking classes

Library Book Club

 

Binky's schedule

 

Maritime and Tallships

Science class

Math

Writing

Engineering

US History

Martial Arts

 

Actually, seeing this in print kind of scares me!

It is a lot, isn't it?!

For many years I was one of those under-scheduling moms.

My kids had plenty of time to just be.

  But now that they are older,

they have a lot more interests. So we are busy bees for now.

Besides, I like my job as chauffeur!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Drawing and other stuff...

We have been pretty busy lately with lessons

and planning for the year.

Binky has been busy, too!

 

 



 

There has been a lot of drawing going on.

He has been giving his drawings away to

friends and anyone who will take one!

 

 



He wants to put them on

t-shirts next.

I think that is a great idea.

This is only a sample of his drawings.

I try to take pics of as many as I can because he

does love to give them away.

We've also started leaf collecting on our morning walks.

I love to look for leaves!

I usually come home with at least

10 or 15 leaves in my hand.

I just wish I could keep them all!

 

 



We have been eating lots of yummy soup this past week.

I made a pot of soup that lasted 4 days.

And each day it was better than the last!

I love to put parmesan on my vegetable soup.

What is your favorite soup to make at home?

 

 



 

 

Yesterday, we sat in the backyard and

made Autumn journals.

We used pretty printed paper and kraft cardstock.

 

This is the inside lining of Binky's journal. 

He loves the crow.

 

 



 

 

Goose used this very cool spiderweb paper

to line her journal.

 

 

Binky started his journal with a list of things that

remind him of the season.

Things like crows cawing, apple pie and

squirrels eating nuts.

 

 



 

 

 

Goose made this title page to start her journal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait to see what the kids have in store for their journals.

Have I mentioned this is my favorite season of the year?

It really is!  I just can't get enough of the falling leaves,

warm scarves and the long shadows.

 

So, now for some news!

My etsy shop is now open!

The name is Crochet Crowe.  I make crocheted scarves to

keep you warm and cozy!  I hope you will pop

over when you have the chance!

 



Thinking of Autumn

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn is on my mind!

My mother-in-law brought me a huge bag of apples

the other day and I have been baking pies like crazy!

The smell of an apple pie in the oven always makes me think of autumn.

 

 

I visited my favorite Botanical Garden yesterday.

It was just so beautiful.

The sky was so blue!

When I saw these leaves in oranges and reds, it made me smile!

 

 



 

 

This was my favorite spot!

A carpet of autumn leaves. 

 

An Autumn poem to get you in the mood.

 

September

by Helen Hunt Jackson

 

The goldenrod is yellow;

The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusky pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges flaunt their harvest
In every meadow-nook;
And asters by the brookside
Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

 

 

 

surgery update

My surgery went very well!

Only two excisions were needed.

The cancer had gone quite deep and some

precancerous cells were also found.

My scar is about an inch long.

But the doctor was able to sew me up, which isn't always the case.

So I was happy.

There was some swelling for the first several days, but

icing every hour really helped.

I still cannot exercise or do any lifting until next week.

I am having the stitches removed on Tuesday.

And we will talk about when to begin

treatment for the precancerous cells.

Which will include chemotherapy cream.

All in all, I am happy with the results of the surgery!

Now if only people would stop staring at me in public.

One guy even asked me what happened while I was with my husband.

He looked at me with a "likely story" look on his face.

I get so many stares!  What do they think happened, I wonder?

 

Thanks, Nicola for your concern!!

 

 



4 0

This is me first thing in the morning.

This is me at 40.

Yep, I turned 40 on Sunday.

At 7:55pm to be exact.

It wasn't how I thought I would spend my

40th birthday. 

But it was still nice.

It was hard to enjoy the day when my son is in pain and

can't really do anything.

His concussion is VERY slowly getting better.

But oh, so slowly.

AND, we found out yesterday that his horrible back pain

is caused by a fractured vertebrae!

Before he hit his head at the gym he was jumping

on the trampoline and landed on his feet right onto the hard platform

surrounding the trampoline.  And he said he was jumping quite high.

Which is probably why he had such a hard time

getting over the small fence and hit is head.

But after he hit his head he was so

disoriented for a couple of days that he couldn't really remember all that happened.

So it took a week for me to get all the details.

Which is when I took him for an xray and visit with the orthopaedic doctor.

So we are looking at about 2 months healing time.

And to top it all off, I am having my skin cancer surgery(mohs surgery) on my face

in 3 weeks.  The round spot under my eye is the scar left from the biopsy.

That is where the surgery will take place.

I am getting nervous.

I did have a dream last night that the surgery went really well

and there was hardly any scar after it healed.

It was a nice dream!

My daughter is leaving for Catalina Island on Saturday.

She is so excited!

She and her best friend are sailing from Long Beach to Catalina Island

for a week long summer camp.

She is already packed and ready to go!

So... I am 40.

I made it!

Hoping the next 40 are filled with love and laughter!!

MaD TeA PArTy 2012

Please join me for a

MAd TeA PArTy hosted by the lovely

Vanessa from A Fanciful Twist!

There is sure to be tons of magical fun!

1 2

Goose turned 12 yesterday!

This is a photo from her first birthday.

Such sweet memories!

Happy  Birthday Goose!!!!!!

We are so proud of the young woman you have become!!

We love you!!

Mom and Dad

crocheting and concussions

This is my latest creation.  I am in love with the colors! 

I can't wait to wear it this fall.

I have been crocheting like crazy and hope to show you what

I have been up to soon!

Now on to concussions.

On Saturday, Binky was on a metal fence with metal bars, like jail bars, and fell while still holding

onto the railing and slammed his face up against the bars.

His brow bones and the bones under his eyes hit the bars on both sides!

He was disoriented, terrible headache, seeing colors and dizzy when he walked.

He is still dizzy, has a headache and his face hurts!

And some bruising is starting to show.

We went to ER yesterday just to be safe.

Now we are home trying to rest and avoid stimulation.

Do you know how hard that is for a 10 year old boy?

If friends come over they always end up wrestling at some point.

So none of that for this first week!

No TV, video games, computer, wii, physical activity of any kind or reading!

Focusing his eyes at all hurts.

That is for the first week.

Next week we can ease into reading for short periods of time.

So I am reading to him now.

Which I do anyway.

And he is playing with is action figures.

Clone troopers, mostly.

Thank goodness for Star Wars!

knight's helmet

I am not sure why, but Binky decided he wanted to make his own knight's helmet.

He started with a basic sketch.

There are so many designs to choose from!

We did a little research online and found this site very helpful.

We started with cardboard, a stapler and tape.

He had to model his helmet, of course!

And pose with it!

Next, we covered the entire thing with foil.

And now we are working on covering it with paper maiche.

This will take several layers and several days to achieve the final look

he is going for.  I can't wait for the finished product!

I will post pics when we are finished!

So, I had the cancer removed from my arm last week.

It only took about 10 minutes.

Scrape, burn, scrape, burn, scrape, burn.

While I was there, I had one more mole removed to be biopsied.

And the results for that one are benign!!!!!

The doctor also made me feel better about the

upcoming surgery on my face.  I am scheduled for

August 21 at 10am.

Keeping busy with the kids helps keep me calm.

Being crafty, like with Binky's helmet, also is a big help.

How do you keep calm in times of stress?