When It Rains . . .

It's an apt idiom with this unseasonably spring-like weather, but I'm actually talking about my projects.  I'm busy right now with two very different projects:  the elementary school cookbook and the historic house curriculum on the Revolutionary War.  And despite trying to schedule those so they didn't happen at the same time, they are.  Between now and mid-February, I will gather more than 150 recipes and edit them, then organize and arrange the cookbook and place the order (thankfully Mommy Goose is my co-cookbook editor!).  And, for the historic house, I need to research and write several fact sheets on women, maritime trade, African freedmen and slaves, taverns and travel, and the house, as well as write instructions for the archaeological activity and edit the teacher packet.  Plus lead four docent training sessions on said topics.  And that doesn't include my usual Daisy troop leader responsibilities, nor our gig teaching about Chinese-Americans for the multicultural program at school. I'm not complaining, though.  Not at all.  I like cooking.  I like history.  And most of all, I like to feel useful.

Even if it is cutting into my rigorous schedule of "Glee" reruns and blogging!

Something New Everyday Day

Sis was diligently working on her clay diorama when she asked, very seriously, "Mom, do worms have eyes?'

Mentally picturing numerous cartoon worms with eyes, I said, "yep," but also googled "worms" and "eyes," as I did so. So I could show her an image to base her diorama worm on.

But lo and behold, worms don't have eyes, specifically, just photoreceptors. And now we know.

Gotta get that diorama scientifically correct, you know.

Project: Diorama!

Remember those wonderful shoebox creations of elementary-school education?

Sis and Bud have been assigned their first school project: to create a shelter for an animal, using paper, collage, whatever materials, to bring into school next week. And Sis and Bud are set on doing dioramas in shoeboxes--their ideas, not ours because we are trying hard to let it be their projects.

Sis is doing a shelter for a bunny, a burrow, visible where the bunny sticks its head up out of the ground. She's doing it in modeling clay right now. There's a sun, tree, worm, cat grass, and a duck pond with a duck. I'm supposed to go to the store and buy more colors of clay.

Bud wants to do a beaver lodge, complete with real sticks and maybe a toy beaver from our little animal collection. He's not working on his right now, which is fine, especially as he is independently rebuilding the Lego Wampa cave piece by piece.

So, you know what we'll, I mean, er, they will be doing over the next several days!