January 23, 2012
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Patchwork Blog
Boom, Boom, Boom! Hey. It’s morning. I… slept for crap last night, due to thunderstorms that were just crazy loud. Ended up with a kid in my bed, twice. Really unkewl. And it’s crazy, cuz yesterday it was face-freezing cold when we went to town… if it’d hit us THEN, we would’ve gotten gorgeous snow. Instead, it warmed up to almost 40 by nightfall and poured. Go figure.
Ice Sculptures! I didn’t mention that last week we went to the Rockford Ice Sculpting Festival. See, we’re still keeping up our tradition of going on adventures every weekend, and just because it’s winter doesn’t mean anything. So we’d never been, before, and went up to check it out. It was really very well done. There were around 30 scuptures, ranging in size from 8 foot tall (a dragon) to two foot tall (a snowman with a hole where his face should be, so little kids could put their faces in it and have their picture taken). There was an umpire with a hole in his mask for kids to throw softballs thru, a goalie with a hole between his feet that kids could take a stick and puck and whack one thru, a mini-golf course of ice sculptures, and more. We got to watch the ice fly as a guy near the pavilion worked on a 7-foot polar bear. And it was a gorgeous (albiet bitingly cold) day… good thing we all have snowpants!! And it was all free… all except the trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant (which has free children’s meals on Sundays, so we still walked away having spent only $30 for a full day of fun/food for a family of seven!).
Art Museum! Yesterday was one of four days this year in which the four major museums in Grand Rapids are open (free!) to the public from noon until 5pm. They’re the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the Grand Rapids Children Museum, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. We went to the Art Museum, and made sure to get there *AT* noon, since Sunday is church-day for the chrischuns, and we figured they’d have to go home and change, stop for lunch, and then mosey their holy little hineys to the museums. It worked great… the place was barren when we got there, we stayed and looked at EVERYTHING for 2 hours, and when we were leaving at 2pm, it was PACKED. There was a lady who said she’d stood outside the Children’s Museum for 40 minutes before giving up and coming over. So we chose well! FWIW, the GR Art Museum was voted by Newsweek to be one of the six best new buildings of 2007. I have news – it’s butt-ugly, completely lacking in energy efficiency, and the waste of wall space is abominable. But it had tons of Picasso and a Bruegel (who we’re studying in our artist feature this week)… and there was even a Frank Lloyd Wright. And we can say we went… so that’s good. And it was FREE… we figure it would’ve cost us $40, otherwise. So that’s great!
Mama’s Comments. We were walking down this aisle of art paintings by people known only by first name and age (local, maybe?) HomiGawsh, they were… ridiculous. And all these people were standing there, staring at them, like that would help or something. The kids were like, “What the heck is up with these, they don’t look anything like what they’re called!” I said, “Well, on the bright side, when we get to where we’re working with oils, your stuff will definitely look better than this.” Brian said a guy standing near me had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Apparently I’m not the only one of that mind…? I’m not saying there wasn’t amazing art there… just that there was some exceptionally NOT amazing art there, as well.
Little Red… We went Saturday to the symphony and ballet. I know, I know, but they seem to do EVERYTHING all at the same time, and I can’t help that. Once a year, the Grand Rapids Symphony and Grand Rapids Ballet have a children’s production. It’s $5 per person… and you just can’t beat that. There’s NO way I can take our family to the ballet OR symphony, otherwise! So we went. I got good pictures, too! So tomorrow we’re doing the orchestra lapbook, because today…
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Today is the Chinese New Year!! We did lapbooks for it last year, so we took them out after breakfast and ‘set the clock’ to Year of the Dragon, and reviewed the information about the Chinese New Year. ((You can find the Lapbook on my Homeschool archive, or just link HERE.)) Anyhow, after the Art Museum yesterday, we ended up having lunch at the Jade Garden, a very nice, extremely quiet (read: we were the only ones there!) Chinese restaurant. We had almond chicken, Sweet and sour chicken, Cashew Chicken, egg drop soup, crab ragoons, and oolong tea. And don’t forget the fortune cookies! So we got our Chinese in a little early… which is good, since tonight is Sing Thing and I can’t make stir fry. (((Sigh!)))
Year of the Dragon. I read at a Jewish blog that this year is significant, because it’s the last year before the Gog-Magog war, and it’s the year of the Dragon – Satan being the Dragon, of course. I can’t read how they calculate this stuff, as I don’t read/speak Hebrew well enough, but apparently the Year of the Dragon is the ‘last hurrah’ before Messiah comes on the scene. And apparently there was an amazing Rabbi who prophecied three times that Messiah’s return would be 5772… in other words, before October of this year. So the fact that this is also the year of the Dragon ties in for them. I don’t know. I just read and report. Cuz… I believe He’s coming by October, too.
Another Big ‘Un. This morning, an M-9 class CME headed out from the sun in our direction. M-9 is the last available M-class number before we get into the X-class beasties. In other words, this is a BIG ol’ CME. The geomagnetic storm should reach us Tuesday/Wednesday night, and I’m expecting a quake or two on Thursday of the rather enormous variety. Should be fun!
Video Vamp. That’d be me. I forgot that Brian had taped 30 minutes or so of the X-mess show Lydia and I were in, and I had to make the nine clips into a DVD. I have a program to do that, but I’ve never tried to make a whole MOVIE before!! So last night I sat down and worked on transitions, credits, titles, integrating clips… it was crazy, but it burned beautifully, and we have a video! WooooT! Now I just have to start working on picture editing… I haven’t done any since Sukkot, and that was a LONG time ago!
Shakespeare Sunday! So far, we’d done ‘Midsummer’, ‘Much Ado’, and ‘Twelfth’… so this week we did ‘As you Like It’. It’s always fun doing Shakespeare with the kids. There are some GREAT movies out there, and I found a ‘comic’ book with 4-page spreads of each play that we go over before watching them. The kids think they’re hilarious. And even funnier? Is listening to the kids afterwards. “Thou art a knave!” declares Ethan. “A knave? A knave? Well…! Thou art a WOOGY-WART!” If anyone wants to clue me in on what a ‘woogy-wart’ might be, I’m open to suggestions…
So Yeah! We’ve been ESPECIALLY, really busy lately! I… need to go sit down and just chill for a little, methinks. I got a book at the library the other day, called ‘Enchanted Ivy’. Have you noticed how dark the teen section is, anymore? It’s all sorcery, vampires, undead, evil, and dark magic. Kinda creepy, to think what the next generation is growing up on. And for the record? Whoever wrote ‘Enchanted Ivy’ has a think for Bella/Edward… because I swear, they’re the SAME characters, just at Princeton with talking gargoyles, this time. Crazy shit, I’m tellin’ ya…
Comments (4)
Sounds very busy for a gal who likes to stay at home!
Our Studio does a spring show that is a theater show – full quality props, costumes & the whole nine yards then does two days with 2 shows each for the local public schools to come watch. They call it “theater for kids by kids” and it is the only time most of those kids will ever step foot in a theater. No backstage parents so older kids learn to help younger – parents can help in the waiting rooms but even the youngest kids are told they are responsible for their costumes and if you are missing part of your costume you don’t go on. It doesn’t happen often because those older kids have it drummed in their heads to help but it only takes once to learn a painful lesson. *Then* there are two evening shows for parents & the public. Works well because by that time the kids are old pros.
Our problems are the stage parents and finding a show that every class can participate. This year we couldn’t find the script we wanted as the flood destroyed our files and a replacement was impossible to find. So its three different shows and the school kids will be watching “Copelia” I hope that’s spelled right. Every year we have parents complain about their kid not having a lead or why some kids seem to be on stage all the time. Well…drama kids get speaking parts, dance kids dance, and voice kids sing. Take a lot of classes be on stage a lot – very simple unless you are a stage parent.
We got the storms last night too but they left before midnight so everyone stayed in their beds. I would love some snow so we could stay home & there has not been enough moisture: snow, rain, sleet I’d take any of it right now.
Hey, guys – send the rain towards TX, please! We need more rain! (Even if I grumble, we’re still pretty dry.)
You *have* been busy! I’m exhausted just reading!
Sounds fun, though!
Wow! You have been busy! But then, that’s a typical weekend for you guys, isn’t it?
Well… add in the chalk n’ cocoa, Shabbat dinner, and a game or two, and yeah.