These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
-Thomas Paine
the mice will craft!
Pumpkin Girl took advantage of our mostly testosterone-free week by making me craft with her. She’s working on basic sewing and sort of pre-embroidery skills. I’m not at my finest teaching her fine motor skills type stuff, but I powered through it, trying to remember how patient my aunt and grandmother were teaching me how to embroider. While Pumpkin plugged away at stitching, I cast on for another sock. It was a Little House on the Prairie moment. Sorry, no pictures yet.
Last night I tackled a long overdue project while the chicken nuggets were being heated in the microwave.
A bazillion years ago, my parents gave me these old ladder back, rush seat chairs. They’d had them since the dawn of time and I needed chairs. I’ve never liked the look, feel or sound of rush seats and these were falling apart but still functional. Then the three of us visited a Shaker village and I saw the really cool Shaker tape chairs they had. This was back in about ’95, before the internet became THE source of all knowledge, but somehow I managed to find a source for Shaker tape and a booklet of instructions.
I cut off the old rush seat, sanded and stained the wood chairs, then wove Shaker tape seats. Very nice. They held up well for 10 years until the Great Bathroom Flood of ’06 when they got hit by water and ceiling plaster. They actually dried out just fine, but the tape lost some of its starchiness and started slipping apart. After a year and a half they were no longer usable. Then Bip the Destroyer got to them and starting unweaving them. Here’s one coming apart:
So I got online and ordered new Shaker tape. As luck would have it, I found the little how-to booklet. Pretty amazing for 12 years and 6 moves later!
First step was to remove all the tape.
In between the woven seat is a little cushion I made, following the book’s instructions. The glue on the edges had loosed so I removed the cushions completely, shook them out and reglued them into place.
Now the weaving. Here’s all the warps (or is it the wefts?) in place.
And now the weft (or is it the warp?) gets going. Once you’ve got a couple of rows, you add more warp (?) on the left and right to account for the bottom rung being wider than the back.
All finished. Nice.
When Bip saw it he said, “Oh, pretty! Me sit on it?” Then he went to the second chair, still waiting for it’s new seat. “You do this one, too?”
“Yes”, I said, “I’ll do that one, too.”
“When? Later? After naps?”
(Hmm, do you think I’ve been putting him off a bit lately? Telling him “later, after naps” a bit too much? Guess I’d better go remind myself about what I learned from Coconut Syrup.)
So one chair is done and I have plans to finish the second one before the boys return tonight.
No, not to my blog! Good heavens, what would the world be coming to? No, it’s time to say goodbye to a couple of friends and neighbors. This picture, taken from my front door, is a scene all too common around here lately. It’s the PCS season again. Moving Season, for you civilian types.
Today is the last day that I will answer the door to find our next door neighbors hoping for Boo and Pumpkin Girl to play. They are a nice Catholic family with children neatly spaced right in between ours. My children knew what time their bus dropped them off from school and would often meet them at the bus stop to walk them home. On cold days, they would huddle together under the bleachers at the baseball adjacent to our house or sit in the bus shelter just across the street from the Potomac River, just waiting for the bus to bring their friends home.
The four of them had many adventures together and for the most part, they got along very well. The occasional rough spots were quickly mended.
This morning after swimming lessons I found myself with 6 children playing upstairs, taking refuge from the already hot and humid day. Next door, they finished the final cleaning of their house and the emptying of their refrigerator (into mine!) in preparation of their “clearing quarters” this afternoon. At some point, I’m not sure when, they’ll walk away from their house one last time and we won’t ever see them again.
PCS season is a bummer.
Another good Catholic family is leaving this weekend and clearing housing today, too. They live across the big green field from us. I can see their house from my yard. Their children and mine were friends, too. Their children have been good friends with ours and I enjoyed the mom’s friendship in our Catholic Women of the Chapel and Catholic homeschoolers group. We will probably see them tomorrow evening at church and again, we will most likely never cross paths again.
Sigh. With friends moving away, storms in the forecast all weekend, and Boo off the Cub Scout camp, of course I am feeling disquieted today. I need to focus on something else.
It’s hard, you know? PCS season really is a bummer – friends are moving away, it’s hot, it’s sticky and there’s nothing I can do about it. I can stick out my tongue and stamp my foot and nothing’s going to change.
But I can change my attitude. I’m not so much as a “glass half empty” person as I am a “Hey, how come everyone else got a glass?” type. Looking on the bright side doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m really going to have to now, though, or I think I’ll go crazy.
Let me give it a try. Here’s a thought: Each newly emptied house is an opportunity for another great family to move in. Oo, here’s another positive thought: In about one month I’ll be enjoying the coolness of the California coast and when we return, summer will be nearly over and Fall will be just 6 weeks away.
See? It’s not so bad, really. I just hate saying goodbye.
My parents have been here on a visit to see Pumpkin Girl’s ballet recital. Yesterday they suggested we go to Mount Vernon on their last day here. Our family really enjoys Mount Vernon, so of course we were happy to go. As luck would have it, another internet friend – Trish, who lives in Honduras – was also going to be there the same day, so I was hoping to meet up with her and one of my 7 Friends Named Jen there. She had mentioned that the basement area of Mount Vernon was also open and she thought she’d like to see it, too.
We arrived around 9:15 am and asked about the basement tour. Earlier in the year, a short tour of the basement was added to the regular tour of the mansion in response to the interest generated by “National Treasure 2.” We didn’t get a chance to get out there then which I thought was a bummer after we finally saw the movie just last week. What I didn’t know was that the basement was open again.
This time however, it’s not just tagged on to the end of the mansion tour. The “National Treasure Tour” as it’s now called is $5 a person, with a limit of 25 people in each group. It runs about 4 times a day.
The tour starts on the lawn behind the mansion where the presidential birthday party is held during the movie. The tour guide explained how the movie was filmed without damaging the historical property and without detracting from the authenticity with the movie making gear.
Then we moved into the basement through this locked door.
We saw the alcoves and a replica of the cornerstone that were depicted in the movie.
We were also able to see the area that was used as a kitchen and eating area for the white servants.
Then we moved to the ice house that can be seen in the movie when the Nicolas Cage character climbs up from the river. The ice house and its chute that leads to the Potomac River are the inspiration for the underground tunnel in the movie.
From the ice house we went down to the dock. We crossed a “No Visitors Beyond This Point” sign (ha!) and walked along the river. We saw where the ice house chute came out and George Washington’s dairy. Then we caught a great view of the mansion from below.
As a special non-related-to-the-movie treat, our guide showed us this 1936 Ford Fire Engine stored in a whiskey storage cave. Apparently, Henry Ford didn’t think Mount Vernon had enough fire engines in case of an emergency and donated this brand new fire truck.
The “National Treasure Tour” is running until October 31, 2008. If you have a chance to get there I highly recommend it! But see the movie before you go. The tour is about an hour and a half long. My 7 and 9 year olds both enjoyed it, but they are also really into history, especially the American Revolution. So much so that they took it upon themselves to memorize the whole paragraph of Thomas Paine’s letter about “these are the times that try men’s souls.” Our 2 year old wasn’t too into it. He was actually being kind of a pain. Not distracting to the others on the tour, just hard to manage. We had a stroller for him, but for about half of the tour, we couldn’t use. Thankfully it is light weight and has a strap to carry it over a shoulder. He would have been better in a backpack. The tour did not backtrack at all, so leaving the stroller somewhere was not a real option. Just something to note.
Also, it gets very hot and humid in DC during the summer. Bring lots of water, wear sunscreen and hats. A shuttle is available at the dock where the tour ends that returns you to the education center if you’ve had enough walking. We took the first tour of the day, then had an early lunch at the restaurant. After lunch we finished with the rest of our sightseeing.
Oh, I totally forgot to mention…we didn’t manage to meet up with my friend Trish as planned. We did find her and Jen right as they were leaving. Here’s a picture, just to prove that we were all there. Love the Giant Washington Head. Trish’s daughter got a great picture looking up his nose. Maybe she’ll put it on her blog.
We are now operating under our summer schedule. We still have school to do since we go year round, but we finished our language arts program, so our load is cut down significantly. I’ve got some fun things for Boo and Pumpkin Girl to do, including art projects that tend to get forgotten during the busy school year.
Not that summer is any less busy. What’s up with that? We won’t actually do school every day this summer, with the exception of about 2 weeks. We’ve got swimming lessons in the morning starting tomorrow, Boo will be off at Cub Scout camp, then there’s Vacation Bible School, a visit from my parents and a 10 day trip to California.
So we will do school when we are able and enjoy the summer as best we can with the heat and humidity.
Several of our summer projects will include hitting some of the more cluttered areas of the house. We started this morning on the children’s bedroom.
Though they share this room, it has become Pumpkin Girl’s domain. Anytime we have to separate the two of them, Boo takes the playroom and Pumpkin takes the bedroom. That is also how the chores break down – Boo cleaning up the playroom, Pumpkin cleaning the bedroom. Don’t feel too bad for her, though. She has or had until today, plenty of toys in there to keep her happy. However, it was never my intent for the bedroom to have toys. If she wanted something from the playroom during enforced quiet time, she was free to get what she needed. Somehow that grew to quite a collection in there.
My goal was to rid the room of all toys and books, with the exception of stuffed animals. Using what I learned from my decluttering friend Jen, we completely emptied out Pumpkin’s headboard shelves and cubbies. We also cleared off the dresser and Boo’s headboard shelves. All the books- stacks and stacks of them – were returned to the playroom. We will have to reckon with them another time. Decorative items were dusted and returned, including framed pictures, piggy banks and special items. Stuffed animals are now the only thing in Pumpkin’s cubbies. They also live in a hanging mesh thing from IKEA.
Here’s the new and improved headboard. Still a bit full, but better.
Here’s the hanging mesh thing from IKEA. Can’t get the whole thing in one picture.
Another thing I learned from Jen was to containerize. All the little items that sit around collecting dust and looking cluttered will do better in containers. Pumpkin Girl has 2 matching baskets for her treasures. (You can see them in the first picture. ) One holds little odds and ends, her notebooks and special things. Another holds her soft dolls which she is allowed to keep in that room. In our cleaning we emptied a whole container which was given to Boo for his little treasures. It sits on his shelves.
Here are Boo’s shelves. His didn’t need as much work, just some dusting and putting that white plastic basket to use.
The dresser (below) still looks a bit cluttered since it is a display area for all sorts of treasures. Nothing, and I mean nothing else is allowed to be on the dresser.
All papers and flat items are stored in document boxes. Each child has one and they can store anything that fits in there. When it’s too full, we sort through it and toss out anything they no longer want. They can keep all those paper things that seem so important at the time, but they are safe and out of sight. Over time, most of those things lose importance and are thrown out without tears or remorse.
We have a basket full of blankets in the bedroom. Boo dumped the whole thing out to refold the blankets and we found several little toys squirreled away in there.
The room looks a whole lot better now. “It’s nice and neat like my friends’ bedrooms,” said Pumpkin Girl. Hopefully with the removal of the toys and books, it’ll be easier to maintain. She’s going to need a lot of guidance here. A lot of guidance. We’ve been through this with her before, but this is the first time we’ve removed so many things.
This recipe is Pumpkin Girl’s specialty. It’s best eaten the same day, so make it for a crowd or only make half. Though it is still tasty when reheated a day or two later.
2 tubes (8 oz each) refrigerated crescent rolls
2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup Mountain Dew
ground cinnamon
vanilla ice cream
Unroll crescent rolls and separate dough into 16 triangles. Cut each apple into 8 wedges. Wrap a crescent dough triangle around each apple wedge. Place in a greased 13″x9″ baking dish.
In a bowl, combine sugar and butter; sprinkle over rolls. Slowly pour soda around rolls. Do not stir. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake, uncovvered at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream.
Serves 16
Here’s Pumpkin putting the sugar mixture over the rolls:
The finished product:
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