Lydia's kitten

  We have a new kitten!  He is a long haired orange cat named Sunny.

 There is a story here.

  Our 2 eldest children, Naomi and Lydia, both love animals.

 Last week, we visited some friends who have 2 kittens.  We have a number of outdoor cats who are loved and treasured, but Lydia wanted a kitten.

  I told her that I didn't want a new kitten. We have a baby. We're busy.  No kitten!

  Lydia came back later and said again that she wanted a kitten.

  Ok, I said, why don't you pray for a kitten?

  Now, why did I say that?  To get her off my back?  Yes.  Because praying is the right thing to do if you long for something?  Yes.  Because it was a good way to learn that God sometimes says no? 

  Yep, that's what I was thinking.  We weren't getting a kitten, but Lydia could pray for a kitten and she could learn that sometimes God says no.

 The NEXT DAY, Kevin told me that a lady at work asked him if anyone wanted a kitten. This little guy in the picture was roaming the neighborhood and obviously didn't have a home. There was someone who was sort of taking care of it (feeding it), BUT this same someone had once "adopted" another kitten and then stopped caring for it when it grew up to be an adult.  I find that reprehensible but some people are like that.

 Clearly, this is a kitten that needs a home.  Given that I told Lydia to pray, and this kitten needs a home, I bowed to the inevitable and we agreed that we should adopt the kitten.

 Lydia is through the moon excited about the kitten, of course. And Naomi and the other children like him a lot too!

  This does involve some work and expense as we need to get him neutered and all that jazz. But I'm willing to be part of an answer to prayer :-).

  Welcome, Sunny, to our happy family.

Give De Ants De Air

In a previous post, I detailed my exciting experience when I tried to open the top of our ant farm.  Several ants escaped and I had to squash them.  It was mildly traumatic.

That was a couple of weeks ago. The ant farm instructions said to open it briefly every week to give them fresh air.  My friend Sarah suggested putting the ant farm in the refrigerator to make the ants sluggish.  That is a great idea, but the remaining living ants kept hanging out RIGHT at the top of the ant farm and even if they were sluggish, I was afraid they might escape.

A few days ago, Kevin started cracking me up by intoning solemnly and repeatedly, "You got what you want.  Give de ants de air." which is a parody of a quote from the movie Total Recall when some bad guys cut off air from one section of the Martian Colony.  Kevin does a pretty good job of copying Arnold Schwarzenneger's Austrian accent.

It made me laugh, but it also made me feel vaguely guilty. I was afraid to open the top, but were they suffocating?  Poor ants!

So 2 days ago, I was peering at the farm dubiously and noticed that the ants were congregated at one end of the top.  Could I crack open the other end and let some air in?

No.  The whole top came off.

BUT, amazingly, the ants were so startled (or were too busy enjoying the oxygen) to do anything crazy. I got the top back on quickly and no ants escaped or were squashed.  Oh joy!

So for now, we have happy ants and a happy Laraba.  By next week they may all be dead as they are dying off.  Ants don't live that long.

As a total aside, I do NOT recommend the movie Total Recall.  I had seen it a couple of times 20 years ago and remembered it with fondness.  We acquired it recently and sat down to watch it together and wow, I gave up after about 45 minutes! It is VIOLENT.  The language is BAD.  UGH!  It is a movie with an interesting premise but it is over the top in a couple of areas.

I'm much more careful about what movies and TV I watch and have been for more than a decade, and my spirit is much more sensitive. I think that is a good thing. I don't want to get used to excessive violence or rotten language.

Our 2 Littles

  Here are our 2 littles.  Aren't they cute?

  I usually dress my babies in sleepers in cool weather, but today I went all out and put Daniel in some little jeans and a little shirt.  I have to laugh at the jeans as they come complete with tiny, real pockets.  What would a baby need pockets for?

  As Isaac said, because they look GOOD.

Math Scale

  A long time ago, at a homeschool convention, I bought this math scale.

  The idea is charmingly simple.  We hang weights on one side of the scale, usually just 2, on 2 numbers (or 2 on the same number).  The child learning addition puts the correct weight on the other side so that the scale balances.  So if there is a weight on 6 and on 2 on the left side, then the child puts a weight on 8 on the right side, and the scale balances.  If the child puts the weight on the wrong number, one side or the other dips down and the other side goes up. 

  I can also do subtraction facts by putting a bigger number on one side and a smaller number on the other side, and he has to figure out the subtraction problem by putting the correct number on the smaller number side. Does that make sense? Not sure.

 The balancing is a nice "self check" and it is a big help for a child who is hands on and learns well by physically doing something.

  I will confess that more than once, I considered tossing the math scale in the trash.  It is big and bulky and therefore vaguely annoying.

  SOMEDAY,  I plan to write a long blog post on decision making about keeping and throwing away things.  It isn't easy to make those decisions.

 Anyway, let me say I am glad I held onto this thing!  Joseph is not a natural mathie and he is doing well with the math scale.  He is starting to "know" addition and subtraction facts without having to think about them long.  By that, I mean that if I say, "What is 2 + 3?"  he can spout out "5" without having to think about it and add those numbers in his head.

 But more importantly, he is truly absorbing the concepts of addition and subtraction. The visual references of the numbers are helpful as he moves weights around.  Now, addition and subtraction are pretty basic but he is what he is.  He is NOT a natural math kid and I realize I need to meet him where he is at.

  The above picture is from something Miriam was doing.  She is at the other end, she is a total and complete mathie.  Just as one short example of that, this kid memorized the entire times tables (through 12's) in 2 short weeks.  Yes, our 6 year old daughter knows the times tables cold at this point. (I'm guessing she'll need a refresher at some point, and then I'll have her play Timez Attack again.)

  She also enjoys the math scale.  She wanted to know what 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10 were.  As you can see, she put those on one side of the scale, and discovered that 55 is the answer (there are 5 weights on the 10 spot.)

  So, nice math scale.

To Rima

I LOVE it when people read my blog.  Welcome!

I know my blog is a rather "no frills" and I admit sometimes I forget to check for comments to approve, so if you leave a comment and it doesn't show up immediately, I promise I'll get to it within a week.

God bless, Laraba

What Are Those Ants DOING?

I'll be honest.  The ants have been a bit boring lately. At first they were SO fun to watch, as they vigorously tunneled through their blue goo to make tunnels.

Then we had the Great Ant Escape (see earlier post).  That was not fun, but it was exciting.

But since then, they've settled into a less exciting routine. They scurry through existing tunnels. They eat, presumably. They die. (Yes, many are dead. That is normal as they don't have a long life span.)

A few days ago, I went in to check on them and found...a ball.

 You can see it on the right side of the ant farm.

 It is HUGE, compared to an ant.  It definitely wasn't there before, so they made it!

I admit to being perplexed, bemused, and amazed! 

There must be a purpose for it, but what is it?

Joseph pointed out that it blocked off the exit (or entrance) to a couple of tunnels.  Maybe they made the ball for that purpose, to block off a tunnel?

 Anyway, it is interesting.

  (Here is a larger picture of it.  You can see the tunnels below it that are blocked off now.)

Poulty Visitors

Ok, this is FUNNY!

Our neighbors acquired some baby guinea fowl a couple of months ago.  I think I mentioned them before as they all escaped and we were helping round them up.

Well, there seem to be 4 guinea fowl and one chicken now.  Or maybe the chicken died because while we saw her a few weeks ago, we've not seen her since.

Anyway, the guinea fowl have grown fast, which is the way of poultry.

And now they are REGULAR visitors to our humble homestead.

Why?  It might be in the enchantment of our old garden, which is a veritable thicket of weeds.

It might be the joys of sneaking into our barn, hopping onto the big van, and hanging out in the rafters.  (Yep, happened last Sunday.)

But my best guess is that our chickens are the main attraction. On more than one occasion, our chickens and the neighbors' guinea fowl have faced off across the chicken wire.  I don't know if they are exchanging convivial conversation, or threatening each other.  But there is definitely interest and curiosity on both sides.