4/25/12 written Sunday 4/15/12 flower seeds...

We planted flower seeds in the two pots in the frount yard. If we get more snow or frost, we can get more seeds and plant them. The seeds that were planted last year were perrenials, so they may sprout this year too. We got two packs of flowers, two different kinds, so there may be a lot of colors in the planters.

4/24/12 written Saturday 4/14/12 air gun for science class...

William worked on the dishes today, Beth did the laundry and Maggie needs to make an air gun for science class. It uses a bucket and some plastic and a bungee cord. A hole is cut into the bottom of the bucket and onto the top is taped some plastic. When the bungee cord is pulled back and let go the air rushes out of the cut hole in the bottom. To get an "A", her air gun must be able to blow out a candle at 20 feet. She needs to write a paper on the project too and do a drawing. It is due in a week or two.

4/23/12 wtitten Wednesday 4/11/12 board games and unicycles...

We played board games a few nights ago. We haven't played board games in a long time. We played "Blockus 3D" and "Go". It was a lot of fun. We played for a few hours.


Maggie has been riding the unicycle. She has been holding onto the fence as she rides along it. The last time that she was riding she started by the garage and tried to ride down the driveway. On the first try she was able to the length of a half of a peddle before she fell off. By the time that she came in she was able to pedal twice before falling. Maggie was so pleased. She looks sturdier when she is away from the fence, because she is relaying on her own balance and not on the fence to balance her.

4/22/12 written Monday 4/9/12 unicycles and Easter...

Last Friday night Maggie was able to get onto the unicycle. It was Friday so she didn't have any homework, it wasn't raining and we were at home. Her balance is getting better but she is still holding onto the fence.


Yesterday was Easter. The kids and I went to the Easter service on Saturday night. I love Easter. It is such a good time to say all is forgiven and we can start over.

4/6/12 written Sunday 4/1/12 cont. being baptized...

I was baptized today. I do feel new, like a burden was lifted. The kids and I picked up Beth's friend and went to the church. There was a short meeting to make sure that everyone was sure that they were ready to be baptized. We got our pictures taken and gave them a copy of our spiritual story...what we had done before, what we had worshiped, like work or money, when did the change happen and why did we want to be baptised. They baptize people in large pools with full dunking. We went to the chapel where they showed us how to line up and how the service would go.


then we went into the sanctuary and all sat in two areas together. There are two tubs so one group sat on the left and one on the right side of the church. The water was very warm, 104 deg. The washing away of the old...life, person etc,. and coming out of the water as someone who belongs to God in a deeper and closer way was so fulfilling. It all happened so fast. About seventy people were baptized that day.

There was a church service and communion at the same service. There was singing as the baptisms were being done. After that there was community time out in the church. They had "walking tacos", root beer floats, inflatables for the kids and music.

4/5/12 written Sunday 4/1/12 kids zoo interview...

Maggie, Beth and I went to the Zoo teen interview this morning. It was scheduled at 8:30 am. They got name tags and had their pictures taken. After some short introductions the kids went downstairs to play some games..to make them more comfortable to talk during the interviews...and then to be interviewed. The parents went upstairs and were told a little about what the teens do. They do a lot more than just inform kids at the zoo. It runs May through October. They go out of the zoo and do some community service, like packing bags for the homeless. They also have picnics for the teens and do a one day field trip to a nearby big city. It is possible to be a zoo teen year round, if the kids are that interested. The group takes about one hundred new kids a year. One hundred and eighty kids have applied.

When they were done telling the adults about the program, the adults had about forty-five minutes of free time. I went downstairs ...there was a fallout shelter. I don't see many of those any more. I looked at some of the animals and read a little until the kids were done. When they came out they said that it had gone OK. We should hear back if they were selected in about two weeks We looked around the zoo for a few hours. The battery ran out on my camera after taking only a few pictures outside. Beth's camera on her phone worked so she took a lot of pictures.

4/3/12 written Saturday 3/31/12 sewing machine...

We got our sewing machine back on Friday. It is nice to have it fixed. It is an old treadle, Franklin machine that we got at a flee market. It came with the bobbin and the instruction book. We have had it for a year or two and have been trying to get it to work off and on.


We have two old jackets of Maggie's that have broken zippers. They are still good jackets, they just need the zippers fixed. I need to take the old zippers to the store so that we can get new ones of the right color and length.

This machine is an old foot pumping treadle machine. Before we use it, it must be oiled on five places underneath where the treadle is, oiled on top of the machine in about five places and oiled under the machine where the pieces move to make the bobbin move. Then the machine is run for a few minutes to get the oil worked in and then wiped off so that no oil gets onto the material. We need a project to do so that we can use the machine.

4/2/12 written Saturday 3/31/12 National History day...

Maggie and I went this morning to the University for the National History Day competition. We had to check in between 9 and 9:45 AM. Her website was judged at 12:30 and the winners were announced at 2:30. She saw a friend of hers and his step-mom, so we sat with them until he presented his project at 11:40. He did a documentary on Germany. Later Maggie presented her website. After that we ate lunch at the school cafeteria. Some of the questions that the judges asked were "Why did you pick this topic?", "What type of sources did you use?", and "What would someone learn from this that they didn't already know?" The presentations went smoothly for both of them. We walked around the building for a while. We looked at the bookstore. At the awards ceremony, neither of them won. It was sad, they had both worked so hard.

4/1/12 written Friday 3/30/12 National History Day...

Tomorrow, Maggie and I go to the University for her to compete in the National History Day competition. She has done a web site. The doors open at nine AM. Her project will be judged at 12:30 PM and the award ceremony is at 2:30 PM. I am excited to go. Last year mom took Maggie and I was with Beth at a choir competition. If Maggie wins, she will go to the state competition.

3/30/12 written Monday 3/26/12 shoes and bikes...

We have been putting our shoes on the trays on the floor in the kitchen for a while. Any shoes that do not fit on someones tray must go to the basement shoe shelf. It has been working really well. William and Maggie are each keeping one pair of shoes on their tray. I have three pairs and Beth has a stack. Beth has them balanced very well. It has really helped a lot to have the kitchen floor cleaner.


We got William's bike back today. It needed two new inner tubes and a lining that prevents the spokes from going through the inner tubes. Some broken spokes were also fixed.

3/28/12 written Sunday 3/25/12 cont. flowers and Legos...

We bought some wild flower seeds this weekend to go in the front of the house. These are perennial, so they should come back every year. We got two packs, of two different wild flower mixes. Once we mix them together, there should be a lot of color in the front yard.

Beth helped to set up the Lego League contest at her school this year. It is where groups of younger kids come to her school with remote control robots. They have the robots do things like push Legos from one area to another or pick up Legos and move them to another area. The Legos that they move aren't single Legos, but they are built into specific things, like chickens. The principle asked her if she wanted to come to the school over the summer to work with the Lego league. She and Maggie are also on the mission trip and have their Zoo Teen interview this weekend. She might be able to be in all of it, we don't know how the hours will work out yet.

3/27/12 written Sunday 3/25/12 weekend accomplishments...

A lot was accomplished on my list of extra things to do, this weekend. I usually can't say that. Willaim's bike had two flat tires and it squeaked. It went in to be looked at. The sewing machine went in to be looked at. The Christmas shopping was started. We now have one stocking stuffer. Maggie needed dominoes for her science project. We have the dominoes now.

I am hoping that next week is quiet. Maggie wants to ride the unicycle. Every time that she goes out, it starts to rain.

3/26/12 written Wednesday 3/21/12 cont. science class...

In Maggie's science class they need to invent something. The example that they gave was if you wanted to open a door, instead of opening it by the handle, their invention might have marbles rolling down a tube, hitting a toy car that bumps into books that fall over that somehow opens the door. It is called a "rube Goldberg machine" I think. The kids have two weeks to design and build this. They are working in pairs. Maggie and the girl that she is working with are going to invent a way to get hand sanitizer out of the bottle.

3/25/12 written Wednesday 3/21/12 cont. games...

When I picked up Beth from school, they were outside. They had two boards about six feet long. Each board had four blocks of wood nailed to the top of them, and four ropes attached to them, each rope was by the blocks. Four kids stand on the board, like the boards are skis, with one foot on each board, all facing the same direction. Their feet are up against the blocks of wood. The object is to lift their right foot at the same time and move the board forward. Then they all move the left board forward. They had a girls team and a boys team. When someone fell off of the board, they had to take the boards back to the starting line. One person on each team called out "one, two, three, right, one two, three, left...". Then they could all move together.


The second game they played, I couldn't hear the instructions. They had big blocks of different heights. Some were about five inches high, and some were about ten inches high. The blocks were in a circle about a foot apart. The kids were each given a little piece of paper and they had to move to other blocks. They had to pass each other without falling off of the blocks.

The third game that they had was a string wall. They must have played this game first, I didn't see them use it. It is two metal poles about five feet high and about six feet apart. There is a string tied between them at the top and at about one foot from the ground. Between the poles and the string, more string is tied to make openings of different sizes. There were seven openings, so each team had seven people. The object is to have everyone go through a different opening, without touching the string.The openings are different sizes and at different heights. To get to the upper openings the kids can be picked up, use chairs, use the blocks to stand on, etc. Whatever the kids can think of.

The kids like these games, they need to work together and think to play them.

3/22/12 written Wednesday 3/21/12 "Hamlet"...

Maggie is reading "Hamlet" in English class. They just finished "Mid Summers Night's Dream" and "Animal Farm". She didn't talk much about the other two books, but she talks all of the time about "Hamlet". Before the class started reading the book, Maggie found the cliff notes on the computer and she got the book from the bookstore. This book has the story in Shakespeare's words on one side of the page, and a translation on the other side of the page. She found a "Hamlet" comic book on the Internet. She has printed it, punched holes in each page and numbered the pages. She is now coloring in the characters with colored pencils. It is so hard to find what will spark a child's interest. "Hamlet" has sparked Maggie.

3/21/12 written Tuesday 3/20/12 spring cleaning and ice skating...

I made out a list of jobs that needed to be done for our spring cleaning. It is written in my little notebook, so I won't need to rewrite it again next year. The list is longer than I expected it to be.


The girls are now signed up for ice skating lessons. William won't go to lessons, but he will go with us to open skate. It starts in a couple of weeks. This session is four lessons. The next session after this is in the fall when the kids go back to school. It is an indoor rink, so we can go to open skate all year.

3/20/12 written Sunday 3/18/12 unicycle...

We got the unicycle out on Saturday. The kids were so surprised. They pumped up the tire. William was thrilled to see it, but he said that he would ride it later and went back inside. Beth was all dressed up for St Patrick's Day and said that she would ride it later. Maggie did ride the unicycle. We have a chain link fence in the backyard by the driveway. Maggie rode there. Maggie said that she didn't want to take it into the front yard, where there is no fence, until she was sort of steady on it. Then the neighbors wouldn't see her falling over. I tried it too. It is tough but do-able. It was a bigger work out than I had imagined. On a bike you need to balance to keep from falling over sideways. On a unicycle, you need to not fall over sideways or forward or backward. Maggie and I practiced for about an hour. We need at least two more unicycles so that when the kids get their balance and don't need to hold onto the fence, they can ride together.

3/19/12 written Friday 3/16/12 Maggie's web site...

Maggie's website is due tonight.Changes must be done before midnight. She showed her website to the teacher today and he said that it was not right. Maggie had done a lot of quoting and footnoting . The teacher said that she couldn't have any quoting. The whole website had to be in her words. She has to re-type the whole website tonight. Maggie has the "deer in the headlights" look.

3/18/12 written Thursday 3/15/12 cont. lightning, homework and magnetics..

There is lightning everywhere in the sky. There is no thunder, the sky just keeps lighting up.


Maggie's paper is due on Monday, but her project, the website is due tomorrow. the website will be locked out at ten pm tomorrow. No changes can be made after that. Maggie may stay up late to work on it.

We have out two Easter decorations. Little trees that sit on the dining room table, with Easter ornaments hanging from them.The trees must be magnetic because the kids have started hanging magnetics from them.

3/17/12 written Thursday 3/15/12 unicycle...

We now have a unicycle. It was on www.craigslist.com. There were two more listed, but when I called no one answered. This one is about the correct height for us. It needs the tire pumped but it looks in good shape. I put it in the chicken coop so that the kids won't see it yet. Maggie has a huge paper due this week and I don't want to pull her thoughts away from the paper. I would like to get another unicycle.