Wherein I find our Homeschool Lacking

Boba Fett says this isn't a Valentine. 

 

I don't know what he thinks a valentine is but this is definitely one.

On the back it reads "I SCOTT lots of love for you."

If this isn't a valentine I don't know what is.

Heart? Check.  

Handmade from construction paper? Check.  

Punny, implied yet non-committal declaration of love? Check.

Obviously my kid would have learned this if he had been to public school.

In other news Nutmeg has been over the moon excited about Valentine's Day.  She has been counting the days all month long.  This morning she woke us up 2 hours early running into our room screaming "It's time!" 

Since we don't make a terribly big fuss over Valentine's Day, last week, I wisely I asked her why on earth she was so excited about it.  "Because I want one of those heart shaped boxes with chocolate." she replied.

Silly girl, every one knows that the reason to be excited about Valentines Day is the 30 year old Moss Family Tradition. 

Cinnamon-Marshmallow Valentine Suckers,  the sure fire way to be the most popular kid in school one day a year.

Thankfulness

A coldfront blew in this past weekend.  Coincidentally, the furnace went out the night before, we called furnace folks in spades but no one would return our call for 3 days.  On Monday there was a snowday for the public school kids but no snow. Our furnace was also fixed that day; it wasn't broken, just a sensor that needed to be reset, it cost us $90 to learn that.

Snow on our shingles, I just think they are so pretty, It was our first snow at Starlings which was a blessing even if we were freezing at the time.

On Wednesday, I found that the pipes to the washing machine in the garage  were frozen so I filled up the washer with hot water by the bucketful from the laundry sink.  Eventually the washing machine defrosted (with the help of a space heater) but later that evening and maybe or maybe not related to this event the downstairs water heater broke and leaked all over the basement.  Inspection of the almond colored appliance revealed that it was made in 1980.  Obviously replacement not repair will be the order of the day. Of course, this happened at 5 pm the night before Thanksgiving.

We won't be having hot water until Monday at best. Happily the upstairs bathroom has a separate water heater so we can have warm showers, but no dishwasher of washing machine on Thanksgiving Eve!

I had the fun task of cleaning all the dishes and the kitchen before Thanksgiving food was made, during and after by boiling water in the tea kettle.

This wasn't to be a complaining post, I just wanted to illustrate why we chose a snowflake theme for Thanksgiving decorations.
 

 

The Gardners and the Warrs heeded my pleas to come to Starlings for dinner and we had a lovely evening.  All the important foods were here, hummus included.  The sweet potatoes were divine and the heritage pastured turkey from Kookoolan Farms (thanks to Kristin's mad bartering skillz and generosity) was the best turkey ever known to mankind.  Even Moose thinks it is the best turkey ever.  We will have to keep inviting Kristin to Thanksgiving forever because we could probably never afford such a turkey on our own.  **Flash to the scene from A Christmas Carol where Scrooge buys the enormous goose***

 

Here is a photo of Moose carving the turkey, he was the only person  man enough for the task (it must be all that working out on his birthday weight bench.)

I-Shuan made an absolutely darling "Welcome to Starlings" sign as a housewarming gift on her new "Silhouette" machine, so perfect and thoughtful.

And the greatest blessing of all, we have wonderful, fantastic, amazing renters in our old house.  A giant weight has been lifted from our shoulders.  Thank YOU!  Amen.

Spooky Times at Starlings

There hasn't been much time but we have managed to do some spooky things this month to celebrate the season. We decorated, no new decorations but with a new house it was fun to find new places to put them.




















We had  Third Annual Spooky Stories and Carmel Apples Night 


with Los Dominguez.


It was a hit even though I bought poor apples.

My spooky story recommendation  for the year is "The Dream Woman" by Wilke Collins. (Scroll down to #18-22)

 There was pumpkin Carving And last but certainly not least the costumes.

 

Camrock as The Grim Reaper with a homemade paper mache scythe.  He made it all by himself.

 

Boba Fett as Harry Potter.

And Nutmeg as Tinkerbell. 

 

I think might just start referring to her as Tinkerbell.  When the folks at Disney were imagining Tinkerbell in 60 years ago I am sure that they had Nutmeg in mind.

She looks just like she stepped out of the movie 

 

complete with the attitude.

 

This is not Tinkerbell doing the Robot  but Tinkerbell measuring her hips

This is Tinkerbell being really mad at Wendy (the redheaded pirate lass) because Tinkerbell isn't winning a cake in the cake walk.

She has been flitting about for two weeks doing her Tinkerbell imitation and it is good, really, really good.

 

Making the Tinkerbell hair bun was a feat of engineering that I am particularly proud of, it involved mohair yarn, Styrofoam and lots of hairspray.  I made the wings and sewed the costume from a pattern I had in my head but the Disney Store made the light up Tinkerbell shoes.  The only decent thing I have ever seen at that store.

Happy Easter?

On Sunday I realized that Nutmeg really needs a new summer dress. I make them long and squeeze as many years as I can out of them. The dress she wore on Sunday I bought when she was 6 months old and she has been wearing since she was 18 months old. That's 3 years.

So last night I went into the sewing room to tackle the project that has been filling me with guilt since March, the 2010 Easter Dress.

I had the dresses (I have a matching one) all cut out and then that fateful day arrived when I received the telephone call that turned my life upside down and I have only just started putting to rights. All thoughts of Easter dresses were instantly shelved until I could get to them again.

The past month I have had those dresses hanging over my head like a black cloud as I noticed Nutmeg's Sabbath options becoming shabbier and shorter with every week.

The dress is going together swimmingly and I don't know why I put it off so long. Still, the sleeves need to be put in and I hate sleeves, they are such an unpleasant chore. I am sure that the skirt pattern runs a little short, but even so I am going to have to add at least 6 inches to get a decent hem on this skirt. That is how much she has grown in 5 months.

I don't think that I will get to my dress this summer.

P. S. I am awesome at pintucks, but we already knew that.

Mother, May I?

Mother's Day has to be the best holiday at our house.

Today the sun is shining, I wasn't expecting gifts, however, I woke up to
a very creative "Valentine" down planned to the smallest detail by Nutmeg and her written plans, executed with the help of Moose under her the direction of Nutmeg.Heart shaped jewelry from Boba Fett,
flowers and long coveted Matryoska nesting dolls/measuring cups from Moose.
I get to show off my new Mori Girl Skirt, made by me, designed by me, drafted by me, cursed by me fitted by Paula.

At church I am leading the children in a Mother's day song in Sacrament Meeting and in Primary there will be games, aprons, rolling pins and squirt guns.

After church there will be our annual Mother's Day Picnic (no cooking,) but this year it will not be at Council Crest Park but on the porch of my new house.
We get the keys at 6 pm.

Mother's Day at Council Crest

Unlike many, I love Mother's Day. I think it is lovely to remember all the things that mothers do for us, I find it a fulfilling and gratifying day not a day that makes me feel like I don't measure up. Look on the bright side ladies!
In the past many of the ladies have worn corsages to church on Mother's Day and I used to feel left out. Sunday morning I made my own, but this year the ladies who wear corsages are no longer in my ward and there were only two of us sporting fresh flowers and I felt a little odd. Six other mothers and I sang a lovely song in sacrament meeting called "Keeping Sheep" about being mothers in a world that doesn't value our work and the primary sang "The Family is of God" which is such a neat song.Thankfully, my neighbors had a garage sale this weekend so my children could afford to get me some mother's day gifts. I am actually kind of excited about the gold Christmas ornaments. I think it is sweet that they thought about me enough to buy me gifts.
We had our traditional Mother's Day picnic up at Council Crest Park. Council Crest is the highest point in Portland and logically it has the best view in town. You can see Mount Hood, Mount Adams, Mount Rainier, Mount Jefferson and Mount St. Helens from the top as well as the entire city and most of the suburbs.Council Crest used to be an amusement park and (according to this card) "The Dreamland of Portland, Oregon." Now it is just a nice calm park with a great view, It is an off-leash park which is not so great for picnickers but fantastic if you have dogs. We have had many canine visitors at our Mother's Day Picnics over the years. This year there was some construction going on and the west side of the park was fenced off.
One of the reasons I choose Council Crest for my mother's day picnic is because of the statue of a mother and child near the entrance to the park. It was stolen in 1990 but found years later and returned.

Here you can see how the park is encircled with blossoming plum trees. I love how the petals look like pink confetti on the ground.

The mother's day photo - I love how the kids look terrified underneath their smiles.

Boba Fett pretending he was "a bad man drinking wine." (I don't make these things up.)

My family running away from me.

Turkey Review

Thanksgiving went off well, the only hiccups were when Nutmeg knocked my computer desk over, (incredibly, my ancient laptop continued playing You Tube Christmas carols without a blip) and when the Arizona wing of the family found that their turkey had not defrosted. You might wonder why this was our problem, well Mr. Moss had the fantastic idea of hooking up the webcams and having dinner together. 3 siblings in Arizona and our family and Grandma and Grandpa in Oregon. The younger siblings were in Montana because they couldn't come to Oregon.
This is the Arizona part of our Family, oddly the girl on the screen is not a member of the family, but a friend. It was so fun to see everyone preparing dinner together.
This is the Oregon wing of the family just before digging in.
And Moose finishing off a bottle of Sparkling Apple Juice.
The food was great, we tried sausage in the stuffing this year and decided it was OK but we won't do it again. My yams were great. Pies tasted fine.
It hardly felt like work, my mom kept everything so organized and I feel like I hardly did any work. I am so glad someone else made the rolls. I don't ever want to do Thanksgiving alone again.Dad spent the whole week fixing up little things in my house like sticky doors, crossed hot and cold water lines and my broken FAUCET! I think my parents should come visit more often! We miss them already. The first think Nutmeg said this morning was "I want Grandma." The kids are counting down to the drive to Montana for our Cool Yule.

Not Back to School Day!

Today was the first day of school for the PS kids. We celebrated our freedom by doing things you can't do in school, such as...
sleeping in. Nutmeg did this really well, she slept until 10:30. I ended up getting up early because I was so excited about out not back to school celebrations.
We had cupcakes for breakfast and hung out in our jammies for a long time...
and then played with play doh, this wasn't on the schedule but the kids liked it.
They liked it so much they didn't want to stop.
We went to lunch and then colored on the car. We didn't hear any honking though.
Next we went bowling. You will have to excuse the number of pictures. I just can't help myself at the bowling alley.
Everything they do is so adorable and the camera just doesn't do it justice.
And there are three of them so the cuteness is tripled.
So I am a shutterbug at the lanes. I won, Commander C came in a close second.
Nutmeg carried the ball herself all 6 lbs of it.
Boba Fett's shoes were way too big for him.

After bowling we played with knives. The plan also included playing with fire but it was already 4pm by the time the knives were done and the kids wanted to play with the newly released inmates so the fie play was scraped.
We had a great time! The time went too fast.