Colin and Margie

Margie the kitten left this afternoon and Colin the Cat went looking for her.  He was going around the house meowing.  I mentioned it to Silas, who immediately went to comfort Colin.

He sat right next to him and started stroking his back, "Are you okay, Colin?  I'm sorry that you miss your friend.  At least you still have me, though."

Then he came over to me and explained that Colin was missing his friend and asked what would happen when someone really missed his best friend a whole lot.  I told him to tell me, as he misses his best friend (Blake).

Bath Time with Margie

We've been kitten-sitting for Christian's sister and have had the pleasure of their black kitten, Margie, for a little while now.  Eli is in love with her.  Silas loves playing with her.  I love stroking her soft fur.  Colin likes to pretend that he wants to fight her.  Christian, well, I'm not sure how Christian feels about her.  I think he likes that she didn't disturb the house too much, but settled in quickly. 

And what does Margie like?

Margie likes baths. 

Or, at least, watching the boys take a bath.

She comes in every evening and sniffs around.

Wet cat.  She didn't mind it when Silas pushed her in.  She came back for more, actually.

It's so much fun to throw bubbles at her and to watch her try to wipe them off her nose.

Of course, then I have water and bubbles all over my floor.

But it's worth it.

"Margie, where'd you go?  Don't leave, Margie!"

Don't worry, kid, she goes and licks herself off and comes back for more.

Margie leaves on Sunday :'(

I'm So Glad We Homeschool...

• British sociologist Frank Furedi:  “It’s not up to the schools to determine the behaviour and values of the family. A child’s education should not be confused with politicization, nor is it about internalizing the values of their teachers.”
• Ms. Kidder said teachers hold personal views just like anyone else, making it inevitable that their own biases will influence their lessons. “Maybe not when you’re teaching two plus two equals four,” she said. “But nearly everything after that may have some kind of value-based context or spin.”

If my child is going to be influenced or indoctrinated by someone, I'd prefer it be by me.

This article is from Canada, but it's still indicative of what can and does happen in public schools when the teacher or union believes it's the governments job to teach children social and moral values.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/27/alternative-classrooms-may-not-be-as-inclusive-as-they-claim-to-be/
 

Museum of Native American History

We visited the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville in early February.  It was a great museum for our area.  It's got loads of arrowheads and rudimentary tools.  There's a lot of pottery (some funny-looking pipes and cups).  And it's got a few exhibits of clothes, weapons, chief head dresses and other odds and ends.  There was even a chest full of herbal remedies used by a Native American in the Wild West show.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.  The only photos I have are from our camera phone, which leaves a lot wanting.  Still, here are a few good ones:

Silas in the tepee with a woman's dress and a coyote hide behind him.

Aaaaaahhhh!  A stuffed bear!

And now for the good stuff:  the bows and arrows. 

The war clubs were his favorite.

And a warrior's shirt. 

It was a great museum and I'm sure we'll be returning over and over again to look at the things more in depth, especially as it's free admission.  It's right next to Crystal Bridges, so when we go there we might have to return to this place.

A Cake and His Boy

Eli and I made a cake for Auntie Charlotte last weekend.  It was just us two in the house and we had a great time. 

Eli was my official cake-taster.  He did his job well.

He even helped stir (no worries, I washed the spatula off).

He helped me clean the bowl, too.

Obviously, he was in a very good mood that morning. 

Come on, can he BE any cuter?

Alas, my helper ran off as soon as Daddy and Silas came home. But that was a good thing because I had the more tricky and delicate parts to assemble.

Okay, so this is a double chocolate layer cake with a fresh strawberry filling...

Nutella buttercream icing...

And shaved chocolate and almonds (with a strawberry carved into a rose) to top it off.

Homemade Fabric Softener

I make my own laundry detergent.  I do it for several reasons:  it's easy, fun (it makes me feel like a junior chemist), much cheaper, and I feel like I'm not getting scammed by the big detergent companies and their too-big scoopers (it's a conspiracy, I tell you).  I know exactly what is going into my washer and onto our clothes. 

There's only one real drawback to making my own laundry detergent.  It doesn't have a smell.  Even if you use a heavily scented soap to make it, it still doesn't leave a smell on your clothes.  And I like the nice, clean smell of Gain or Tide.  It's a conundrum I've been working on for a while. I've tried a few different things.  I bought dryer sheets, but then I just felt like I was wasting the money I was saving by making my own detergent.  I mean, how much am I paying for a little sheet with who-knows-what on it just so my clothes will smell great?  And I usually dry my clothes outside, so I didn't even use them.  The next thing I tried was placing a few drops of essential oils in my washer.  But that can really mess with your washer and it didn't really work.  After that I tried putting a few drops of essential oil on a cloth and throwing it into the dryer with the clothes.  But again, I don't always use my dryer, and I also only had peppermint oil and sandalwood, and nobody wants their clothes to smell like those things.  It didn't work too well, either.

Then I found this recipe for fabric softener:

6 cups hot water

2 cups nice-smelling conditioner

3 cups vinegar

Add the conditioner to the hot water and mix it up completely.  Then mix in the vinegar.  Pour about 2 tablespoons into your washer's fabric softener hole.

I made this today and used it on a load of clothes.  It was EASY to make and very inexpensive.  I had high hopes for it because I could actually smell the scent from the conditioner while it was washing.  After they dried, the clothes did smell better.  I wouldn't say they smelled as strongly as Gain or Tide, but they did have a pleasant smell to them.  Yea!

Feed the Food that Feeds You

"Feed the Food that Feeds You" - Jamie Oliver

I first read that quote a few years ago in one of my brother-in-law's cookbooks.  Jamie Oliver was trying to get across the concept that we need to be more in touch with where our food comes from.  It's something that I agree with wholeheartedly.  There's this disconnect that our culture has with our food, especially our meat, of where it comes from and what it looks like.  There are a few documentaries out there about the meat industry and I'm sure others about vegetables and fruit that are non-organic.  But it's expensive to buy organic, farm-raised, grass-fed, free-range anything.  And even then, do I really trust the government to regulate those labels?

 Becoming self-sustaining is a goal of our family.  A very long-term goal, but still a goal.  We want to grow our vegetables, raise chickens and cows for our protein, keep goats for milk, and buy as few things as possible from the store.  We're slowly moving that way.  We got more chickens last year for their eggs and ended up with four roosters, so we turned three of them into dinner.  We got some goats last May so we could dip our toes into goat-herding before we go ahead and start milking one everyday.  We usually kill a deer in the fall (but didn't manage it this year).  Our gardens continue to expand, so we can have more and more fresh vegetables.

So here's my latest attempt to live up to what I believe: 

A friend gave us some wild hog meat a couple of months ago.  I just now was able to find the time to grind it up. 

I'm not sure how it will taste.  It might have too much wild flavor to it.  I'm pretty sure it will taste good in a big pot of chilli, though.