Home Learning Week 6 - Thanksgiving, Earthquake Kit, Soaring Eagle

Monday was no school - I went to John and Sharon's Thanksgiving. They are part of my mom's family - we go there every year: it's fun. We bring Chinese buns.

I like to play with Katie. There are lots of dogs there.

I volunteered sorting fabrics at OSF. OSF is a place that gets fabric from people who want to throw it away. This is old polyester. The red one is adorable. The Beatles wore clothes like this. The girls wanted to kiss them, right? Yes or no? Polyester makes you uncomfortable. 

We are making an earthquake kit. We'll use it if it's an earthquake. We need to buy energy bars and water. The radio tells you the news in an emergency; it works by winding it.

I don't think earthquake drills are scary, but it freaks me out if it's a real earthquake.

We got a face mask because we want to see if we can make the same one.

Lush smells good.

We put lipstick on each other for fun. I like make-up. I want to be a make-up artist - any kind of make up I want to do on people, and hopefully they will like what I made for them... makeovers and scary kinds. I like all kinds of make-up!

Bananas come from Gautemala. It says it on the bag. I don't know where Guatemala is. Is it in Mexico?

We caught 8 cm of water in one day. That's a lot, but I don't think it's very interesting. I'm used to the rain.

Carlo came over. He's my friend. We played soccer and made a potion. He got stung by a bee. He was like, "HA!"

Today was my first day of Soaring Eagle. I had a good time. We went outside and did stuff. I runned out of the forest 'cause it was dangerous. There was a tree that crashed a car!

I had some licorice plant: it was disgusting. You can eat it - it's a fern. You don't eat the leaves, you eat the stem. You can swallow it if you want to - it's kind of bad.

None of my rain gear is waterproof. I was freezing cold. Feel my hand. Feel it! My feet were wet, but I was fine with my new boots; they had a good grip.

I always enjoy myself.

Other Home Learning Posts

Home Learning, Day 1, Grade 4 - Smoothie, Recycling Rigid or Soft Plastic, Transfer Station, Compost

Home Learning - Week 2 Chai, Fruit Fly Trap, Garden Kiosk, Albinism

Home Learning - Week 3 Apple Taste Test, Gymnastics, Back Brace, Subtraction

Home Learning - Week 4 Subject/Predicate, Squash, Mint/Calendula Face Mask

Home Learning - Week 5 Slugs, Radish, Mushrooms

Home Learning - Week 6 Thanksgiving, Earthquake Kit, Soaring Eagle

Home Learning - Week 7 BC, +/- 1, Braces, Bees, Rain Water

Home Learning - Week 8 Pizza, Alberta, Halloween

Home Learning - Week 9 Dogs, Earrings, Adding White

Home Learning - Week 10 Christmas List, Cupcake Face Mask, Green Poodle

Home Learning - Week 11 Mango Lassi, Saskatchewan, 10 Partners, Cat

Home Learning - Week 12 Bees, World Book, Lip Balm, Seeds

Home Learning - Week 13  Memory, Sewing, Back Brace Adjustment

Home Learning - Week 14 Snow,  Salad, SPCA, Manitoba, Bison

Home Learning - Week 15 Christmas, Manure, Evil Sister

Home Learning - Week 16 Gerbil, Slime, Hummingbirds, Cocoa

Home Learning - Week 17 Ontario, Apple Taste Test, Denim Purse

Home Learning - Week 18 Thank You Notes, Math Without Help, Term Two Reflection

Home Learning - Weeks 19+20 Nerd Outfit, Quebec, Birthday

Home Learning - Week 21 Emotions, Ordering Numbers, Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Soaring Eagles #4

Home Learning - Week 22 Valentine's Day, Science World, New Brunswick

Home Learning - Week 23 Worried, Adding Tens, Nova Scotia, Science World #2, DIY Lip Gloss Soap

Home Learning - Week 24 Real-Life Math, Nap, Lonely, Wolfdogs, Spring, Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Home Learning - Week 25 Schedules, Yukon, Pysanky, Bank Machine, Regrouping, Loved, Term 3 Reflections, Soaring Eagles #5

Home Learning - Week 26 Rotten Food, Embarrassed, Newfoundland and Labrador, Can Opener, Skating, Teacher Screecher, Rain Water, Slugs, Word Search

Home Learning - Week 27 Cheer, Fish, Digit Sequences, Spelling "ea", Sad, Spring 2, Matching Pictures, Butterfly Books, Math Review, Private Questions 2

Home Learning - Week 28 I Spy; Subtraction of Numbers Larger than 19, without and with Regrouping; Spelling "ee"; Frustrated; Ancient Greece; Nunavit; Quinoa Veggie Salad; Cat Whiskers; Dog Biscuit; Butterfly Cage; Baby Alive Food DIY

Home Learning - Week 29 Kitchen Scraps, Northwest Territories, Butterflies, Fort Langley, Bike Riding, Estimation, Helpful, Banana Orange Smoothie

Home Learning - Week 30 Watermelon, Money, Tired, Butterflies, Handsome Warren, Catnip, Water Measurement, OT Assessment 2, Rounding, Contractions, Silly, Soaring Eagles 6

Home Learning - Week 31 Ella Enchanted, Butterflies 3, Money, Story of Life 1, Watermelon 2, Sweet Pea, Tomatillo, Disappointed, Visual Memory, Adding Tens, Garden Beds, Muffins, Thank You to Carol, Contractions 2, Butterfly Cage, Ken

Home Learning - Week 32 Encyclopedia Brown, 41st Ave., Money, Chrysalides, OT Assessment 3, 600 Million Years, Mishka, Related Tens, Round-Offs, QE Park, Mother's Day Card, Acting and Dancing

Home Learning - Week 33 Butterflies, Estimating Sum and Difference, Thailand, Money Book, 600 Million Years 2, Library Holds, Mara the Meerkat Fairy, Soaring Eagle 6
Home Learning - Week 34 Castles, Planting Veggies, Long and Short "a", Butterfly Release, Banana Smell, Estimating Sum and Difference, Drawing v Colouring, Horrid Henry, Poppy Seed Pasta Salad, Pond Water 2, Trike Planter, Lush Gift Card, Beekeeping
Home Learning - Week 35 Money, 600 Million Years 3, Long and Short "e", Cirque de la Symphonie, Farm Visit, Sharks, Appropriate Questions, Microscope, Pandora, Telling Time, Estimation, Cheer

Leah's Good Notion: Polyester Double-Knit at OSF this Sunday, October 16, 2016

Best-ever selection of 100% easy-care, wash-and-wear, non-breathing, abrasive-textured, double-knit polyester from the time of the Beatles. In hopeful colours and prints.

$5/m

Sunday October 16, 2016
10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Our Social Fabric
340-1275 Venables Street
Vancouver, BC

October 23, 2015 - Meatballs, Raspberries

A quick one, I hope: got to get up early for tomorrow's Our Social Fabric sale - the last one at 871 East Hastings. After we give away the last bundle we will dismantle the shop, pack it all into a storage pod, and figure out what to do next.

The music: Joni Mitchell BBC Concert, 1970; Neil Young, same thing, 1971, three times. Can't get enough Neil. Rolling Stones: Live at the BBC (1963-1965); Rolling Stones It's Only Rock 'n' Roll.

Kitchen Island - Friday, October 23, 2015 

Counter-clockwise from lower left: the same water bottle as yesterday, Humatrope, glasses, Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking, phone 1 of 3, yard sale measuring cups. The set was missing exactly the one cup I already had. Lucky, right?

The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking, 1982, edited by Charlotte Turgeon

Passed a major milestone yesterday: 10,000 hits on my site. I've been watching it come for months. Celebrated with Hawaiian meatballs from the cookbook I snagged from my mom when I left home in 1983, but used pre-made, Costco meatballs. Delicious.

Dinner: two ate Hawaiian Meatballs, one had his meatballs with tomato sauce, one had his tomato sauce with faux ground beef. Cucumbers. 3 milk, 1 sparkling water with lemon

Love Notes

To Do Lists for Three

Trivot from yard sale free box -  what is she doing to that fish?

Contingency plans

Dreams, Reality

Peppers from my daughter's plant, ageing ginger, sketchy fennel, one canning lid left-over from making zucchini relish, a piece of cording, and one small potato - dug by hand on a summer's late afternoon. No gloves, but the soil was perfect and cool and the potatoes worth the dirty fingernails. 

The bowl was painted by me in Mexico, the reward at the end of a pointless time-share presentation. It took a surprising amount of time - most of the vacation... the painting, that is. I was 7 months pregnant. We were there to rest. When I wasn't painting I lay on my side on the swinging palapa platform, reading - white cotton curtains surrounding me, sparkling turquoise ocean just beyond - sucking back banana smoothies and dreaming about the little girl inside me. We would understand each other. 

Though most of my dreams for her will never come true, the same is true for any parent's dreams! The difference is timing, that's all. My dreams came to an end when she was only two months old, when we were presented with her diagnosis, grabbed by the collar, and rudely jerked out of our misty dream-world. How lucky for me! Unburdened by my own hopes, I am free to celebrate her smallest achievement: jumping with two feet together, for example, or figuring out the first step of tying shoelaces. Her achievements are many and fill me with pride. What's more, she is fascinating. She is a delight. Who knows what she's capable of?

The last raspberries of summer - worth removing one's gum for

October 21, 2015 - Summer is Gone

Late August - that was then...

Late October - this is now

Summer is gone. Socks now, slippers and boots. Birds and pedicure migrating South. But I love the leaves when they're dry and crunchy. Good-bye for now.

The music: Dylan, alphabetically, starting with "4th Time Around". Dylan never disappoints. Highlights: "To Ramona", "Buckets of Rain", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" - as usual. A new favourite: "Blood in My Eyes". But "To Ramona" a hundred times.

When the boys had left the table, my daughter and I turned on the music, and nodded and smiled as we continued to eat.
My daughter on Dylan: He must be a star. His singing is bad. 
My son: Is he even saying words?

Chicken, chard, roasted veg, basil in olive oil, Dylan

Dinner: the entire chard harvest from the little alley garden cooked down to barely a meal-ful. Luckily, the kids won't eat it. Not at all bitter, as I thought it might be, with a little garlic from the garden, and basil, kept under olive oil. The basil takes up prime real estate in our over-crowded fridge, but it's worth it.

The right tool for the job: tongs, bought in Japan, were perfect for flipping the chicken kabobs - which neither of the kids liked. That's a lot of left-overs for me to eat alone. I'll have to get creative...

To do list: while I cleaned up the kitchen, my husband attempted to locate the manual for our seized-up dryer: the clothes are wet, and all the lights are flashing. That can't be good. Manual eventually located near the dryer - good thinking, whoever put it there 7 years ago - but it doesn't say anything about this combination of lights. I 'spect the dryer might be toast. New appliance lifespan is obscene. The number of broken appliances and electronics in my house is obscene. The fact that we will probably need to buy a new one already is obscene. Tomorrow I will call the 1-800 number and hang the wet laundry up to dry...

No more gardening for a while

Not a lot of time in the garden, these days. Other than raking, there's not much left to do. It took a while to find a better home for them, but the hostas are gone. They're now with a friend of the mother of someone who helps me with the kids. Sad Lilac now lives at a neighbour's; if it blooms this Spring I will learn what colour it was. The garlic is planted, protected by excellent, brand new wire. The parsley, run over by a truck, has been moved to a new container. The yard waste bin has been filled with leaves once already, but the ground is covered again. Sometimes I wish I had a leaf-blower.

Summer really is gone...

Garden 7: The Lady Next Door

Curlicue from my ex-neighbour's front steps railing

You'd think it would be hard to remain dignified while being escorted from one's home wearing a too-large, hooded, Tyvec onesie, duct-taped at the wrists and ankles, like a walking bio hazard - but my neighbour managed it.

...

She lived that way, it would seem, long before I arrived next door. Her shredded, water-stained curtains never parted; the shapes pushing them up against the windows did not change; and a cold waft of fusty air whacked me upside the head if ever I (rarely) knocked on her door: but it was only in the last few years that the extent of her situation became obvious to me. By then, proceedings had already begun to make her a ward of the province, have her hospitalized, and sell her house.

The place was a disaster, but in some ways a little cheering, too. The grass - which she cut herself, shoving and pulling that seemingly over-sized mower through the underbrush - was filled with bluebell and lily-of-the-valley. The back yard was a jumble of over-grown shrubs; an encroaching fig tree; treacherous, abandoned fence-post holes; a towering, out-of-place - but happy - Douglas fir; slugs; and - survey says - rodents (though I can't say I've noticed a decline since the house and garden were removed). OK, maybe the garden was not so cheering, but she planted it all herself in the more-than-40 years she lived there. That counts for something.

The topic of our odd, but beloved, neighbour came up frequently in the alley; we were vaguely concerned about her, but we let her do her thing. She mostly kept to herself, feigning invisibility unless someone spoke to her first, or she was faced with some task too big for her: break her into her house, or help with a flood and fire in her basement. If we met round the end of the fence she was warily generous, offering excellent, though bruised, Gravenstein windfalls that careened to earth from her never-pruned apple tree; tomato starts, discovered in her composter; Sweet William seeds in sealed, hand-labelled envelopes (no luck in my shady garden); and a miniature cup and saucer set for my daughter. Her comings and goings were announced by the sound of her gate, scraping along the ground between our houses, and, every night before garbage day, by the rattle and clink of the neighbourhood's empties, squeezing through it.

She participated in our annual garbage clean-ups, took canning classes at the community centre, and worked all the voting stations, film festivals, and Folk Fest. No doubt you've seen her around. She was engaged in her own timorous, slightly-crusty way, and she was fond of my kids. She was OK by me.

Hand-me-down hostas, sword fern and clematis; tidy, new neighbours, no trees.
Did she know I relied on her to remind me of garbage day?

After her release from hospital, she was moved into a condo across town. I am told someone checks on her to make sure she is not accumulating stuff. I saw her last, very briefly, at an Our Social Fabric sale, about two years ago. When I said hello she stopped not looking at me, and made an acknowledgement. Just like when we used to be neighbours.

I've been thinking: now that the shade is gone from my garden, I might buy some Sweet William seeds and see if they'll grow.

Garden 14:  Harvest
Garden 13: Abandoned Stuff, Things of Beauty
Garden 12: Death and Potential
Garden 11: Japanese Maple Tree and Sedum (?)
Garden 10: Foxglove and Weed Digger
Garden 9: Veggies and Sweet Pea 
Garden 8: Gnomes and Slugs
Garden 6: Euphorbia and Rusted, Metal Things
Garden 5: Cement Bench and Wallflower
Garden 4: Maryjane
Garden 3: Family Portrait
Garden 2: The Neighbours'
Garden 1: Lilac Bush and Abandoned Cans