(Yeah, that's a cat's tail sticking out underneath the dropcloth.)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Weekly Report 10/30/09
A busy week here.
Read alouds include Little Pilgrim's Progress, in which we have just discovered that Hopeful is portrayed as a boy in this remake (Thalia: "Hopeful's supposed to be a girl." Me: "I know, but since Christian is a little boy maybe the author didn't think he should have a girl as a little friend." Thalia (whose best friend when she was around 4-5 years old was a boy):"Boys can be friends with girls -- that's just dumb." Me: "Well, duh, they've written the book to be almost entirely about BOYS -- girls aren't supposed to be anything in this world, so get over it." ). I'm not sure why we're continuing this book, except someone innocently gave it to us. AnnaBeth keeps proclaiming that she likes the story in the original, so maybe we'll ditch this and go back to the original.
We also started reading LInnets and Valerians, which Melissa Wiley had mentioned in her blog a while back. I'm such a Melissa Wiley groupie that I immediately requested it at the library. And I got so caught up in the book when I started reading it aloud to the kids that I read the entire thing to myself (Sustained Silent Reading!) over the course of the next couple of days. Wow -- great book! And it has a touch of magic that's just perfect for Halloween.
In Story of the World we've managed to unite Italy into a nation, and read a book about Giuseppe Verdi, followed by finding some clips from Aida on YouTube. Someday we may get bonus points from Mrs. Piano Teacher for this.
In math, I discovered thatDr. Callahan has tests for Jacobs Algebra -- they're in the Teacher's Guide pdf that's linked on the page. So Thalia took the test for chapters 1-3, although she's currently working on chapter 5.
And AnnaBeth is drawing near the end of RightStart D, looking at congruent shapes, making boxes, pondering perimeter, area and volume.
Thalia has completed the first full writing assignment of Jump In Writing. She did quite well with it. It was an opinion piece, and I think she enjoyed writing it.
And AnnaBeth learned the difference between a direct object and predicate nominative this week in First Language Lessons 4. One lessons mixed up the DOs and PNs, starting sentences along the lines of Juliet mashed a banana, and Juliet is a chef, then moving to Juliet mashed a chef, and Juliet is a banana -- so unexpected that AnnaBeth burst into laughter, and could barely finish the lesson. From this point on we will always be able to mention banana vs. chef to help AnnaBeth think about the difference between a direct object and a predicate nominative -- I doubt she'll ever forget that lesson. Nor will I since that's the sort of moment you want to bottle up and treasure all through the homeschool journey -- seeing your child laugh so hard while learning something new, it's priceless, you know?
Umm, let's see, what else ... Thalia is still enjoying her science co-op class. She's supposed to give a semester presentation of some sort. The teacher had several suggestions on presentations about plate tectonics. Thalia was reading through the list in the car, and for some reason some suggestions reminded me of Girl Scout-type things, so I asked if she could maybe do an Interpretive Dance (we have a long-time joke about the New Way to Earn Interest Project Badges, which is heavy on the touchy-feely [check out the "Reflect" portion -- it makes my eyeballs roll back into my head every time I read it], and often delight in pointing out when people are descending into Girl-Scout-speak, which often leads to asking "Could we do an Interpretive Dance about our feelings on this subject?"). Can't you see it? She could get a group together, with some of the kids being the tectonic plates, and one of them being a volcano. She'd have to film it, of course, since she couldn't drag all those people into class. But, alas, I think she's planning on doing something NORMAL like writing a report on the formation of the Hawaiian Islands.
The kids continue to enjoy the drama class that they're taking. While discussing Verdi and music and Italy AnnaBeth commented that improvisational theatre groups began in Italy. Really? I had no clue. Apparently she picked this up during drama class. Heck, I thought they were just playing Zip Zap Zoom every week.
Today we'll finish up bits and pieces, leaving the weekend free for that all-important Halloween celebrations.
Read alouds include Little Pilgrim's Progress, in which we have just discovered that Hopeful is portrayed as a boy in this remake (Thalia: "Hopeful's supposed to be a girl." Me: "I know, but since Christian is a little boy maybe the author didn't think he should have a girl as a little friend." Thalia (whose best friend when she was around 4-5 years old was a boy):"Boys can be friends with girls -- that's just dumb." Me: "Well, duh, they've written the book to be almost entirely about BOYS -- girls aren't supposed to be anything in this world, so get over it." ). I'm not sure why we're continuing this book, except someone innocently gave it to us. AnnaBeth keeps proclaiming that she likes the story in the original, so maybe we'll ditch this and go back to the original.
We also started reading LInnets and Valerians, which Melissa Wiley had mentioned in her blog a while back. I'm such a Melissa Wiley groupie that I immediately requested it at the library. And I got so caught up in the book when I started reading it aloud to the kids that I read the entire thing to myself (Sustained Silent Reading!) over the course of the next couple of days. Wow -- great book! And it has a touch of magic that's just perfect for Halloween.
In Story of the World we've managed to unite Italy into a nation, and read a book about Giuseppe Verdi, followed by finding some clips from Aida on YouTube. Someday we may get bonus points from Mrs. Piano Teacher for this.
In math, I discovered thatDr. Callahan has tests for Jacobs Algebra -- they're in the Teacher's Guide pdf that's linked on the page. So Thalia took the test for chapters 1-3, although she's currently working on chapter 5.
And AnnaBeth is drawing near the end of RightStart D, looking at congruent shapes, making boxes, pondering perimeter, area and volume.
Thalia has completed the first full writing assignment of Jump In Writing. She did quite well with it. It was an opinion piece, and I think she enjoyed writing it.
And AnnaBeth learned the difference between a direct object and predicate nominative this week in First Language Lessons 4. One lessons mixed up the DOs and PNs, starting sentences along the lines of Juliet mashed a banana, and Juliet is a chef, then moving to Juliet mashed a chef, and Juliet is a banana -- so unexpected that AnnaBeth burst into laughter, and could barely finish the lesson. From this point on we will always be able to mention banana vs. chef to help AnnaBeth think about the difference between a direct object and a predicate nominative -- I doubt she'll ever forget that lesson. Nor will I since that's the sort of moment you want to bottle up and treasure all through the homeschool journey -- seeing your child laugh so hard while learning something new, it's priceless, you know?
Umm, let's see, what else ... Thalia is still enjoying her science co-op class. She's supposed to give a semester presentation of some sort. The teacher had several suggestions on presentations about plate tectonics. Thalia was reading through the list in the car, and for some reason some suggestions reminded me of Girl Scout-type things, so I asked if she could maybe do an Interpretive Dance (we have a long-time joke about the New Way to Earn Interest Project Badges, which is heavy on the touchy-feely [check out the "Reflect" portion -- it makes my eyeballs roll back into my head every time I read it], and often delight in pointing out when people are descending into Girl-Scout-speak, which often leads to asking "Could we do an Interpretive Dance about our feelings on this subject?"). Can't you see it? She could get a group together, with some of the kids being the tectonic plates, and one of them being a volcano. She'd have to film it, of course, since she couldn't drag all those people into class. But, alas, I think she's planning on doing something NORMAL like writing a report on the formation of the Hawaiian Islands.
The kids continue to enjoy the drama class that they're taking. While discussing Verdi and music and Italy AnnaBeth commented that improvisational theatre groups began in Italy. Really? I had no clue. Apparently she picked this up during drama class. Heck, I thought they were just playing Zip Zap Zoom every week.
Today we'll finish up bits and pieces, leaving the weekend free for that all-important Halloween celebrations.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Work in Progress Wednesday
Thalia's Halloween costume requires white sweatpants. We quickly gave up on finding such a thing -- what person who wears a size medium in Women's clothing would ever choose to purchase eye-catching snow-white sweatpants? Sweatpants in those sizes are typically dark and anonymous.
So I'm making a pair. Quickly. Using Butterick 3314 again (used last week as flannel jammy pants). This time I made a dart in the waist line of the pattern pieces so there wasn't as much bulk around the waist, as sweatshirt fleece is a rather bulky fabric.
I still need to put in the elastic:
By the way, the most exciting part of these pants was purchasing the elastic -- when I got to the checkout counter it turned out to be 29 cents per package. I ended up buy 5 packages of it, and regret leaving any behind for anyone else.
Still to come, work on AnnaBeth's costume. We also quickly gave up on finding appropriate sweats for her in yellow, or sweatpants in white (which we would've dyed yellow). So I bought some fleece during the $3.99/yard sale at Hancock's, and will make it up using a tried-and-true pajama pattern:
The 2 colors of fleece are because she will need fringe.
Why fringe?
All will be revealed in due time.
So I'm making a pair. Quickly. Using Butterick 3314 again (used last week as flannel jammy pants). This time I made a dart in the waist line of the pattern pieces so there wasn't as much bulk around the waist, as sweatshirt fleece is a rather bulky fabric.
I still need to put in the elastic:
By the way, the most exciting part of these pants was purchasing the elastic -- when I got to the checkout counter it turned out to be 29 cents per package. I ended up buy 5 packages of it, and regret leaving any behind for anyone else.
Still to come, work on AnnaBeth's costume. We also quickly gave up on finding appropriate sweats for her in yellow, or sweatpants in white (which we would've dyed yellow). So I bought some fleece during the $3.99/yard sale at Hancock's, and will make it up using a tried-and-true pajama pattern:
The 2 colors of fleece are because she will need fringe.
Why fringe?
All will be revealed in due time.
Monday, October 26, 2009
A Couple of More Dances
Okay, I had chosen to post the clip of hornpipe yesterday mostly because I knew a friend wanted to see it.
But then when KM's daughter enjoyed watching it so much I thought maybe I should include a couple of more of the videos I took.
Here's Thalia dancing Job of Journeywork:
Upon watching it last night her first comment was that she really, really needed to point her toes. And that's part of what happens at this rehearsal -- the school makes videos (from a centered, elevated vantage point) and shows them to the kids along with the judges' comments -- there were 3 adjudicators sitting at tables right in front of the stage, just as will be at Oireachtas. The judges took notes on everything -- even their impressions of hair and makeup . Then the kids and teachers review all of this to see what they need to work on in the next month.
Here's Annabeth's team dancing High Cauled Cap. After the walk-on (which is part of what they'll be judged on) there's a 30 second pause while the judges complete their notes and then finally give the signal that they can start to dance. I think this is blurred out enough that no one is particularly recognizable -- Annabeth was watching the video and kept mistaking herself for another girl who isn't even on their team, for pete's sake..
As you can see, it's sort of like an elaborate square dance.
Thalia's ceili team disbanded. Now she's a sub on a couple of the older teams. Ceili's are grouped by age -- everyone on Annabeth's team, for example, was less than 10 years old on January 1, 2009, so they are an "Under 10" team. Thalia subs on teams that are Under 14 or older. Those teams dance a different dance, by the way.
But then when KM's daughter enjoyed watching it so much I thought maybe I should include a couple of more of the videos I took.
Here's Thalia dancing Job of Journeywork:
Upon watching it last night her first comment was that she really, really needed to point her toes. And that's part of what happens at this rehearsal -- the school makes videos (from a centered, elevated vantage point) and shows them to the kids along with the judges' comments -- there were 3 adjudicators sitting at tables right in front of the stage, just as will be at Oireachtas. The judges took notes on everything -- even their impressions of hair and makeup . Then the kids and teachers review all of this to see what they need to work on in the next month.
Here's Annabeth's team dancing High Cauled Cap. After the walk-on (which is part of what they'll be judged on) there's a 30 second pause while the judges complete their notes and then finally give the signal that they can start to dance. I think this is blurred out enough that no one is particularly recognizable -- Annabeth was watching the video and kept mistaking herself for another girl who isn't even on their team, for pete's sake..
As you can see, it's sort of like an elaborate square dance.
Thalia's ceili team disbanded. Now she's a sub on a couple of the older teams. Ceili's are grouped by age -- everyone on Annabeth's team, for example, was less than 10 years old on January 1, 2009, so they are an "Under 10" team. Thalia subs on teams that are Under 14 or older. Those teams dance a different dance, by the way.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Updates
Leaf Update:
Rick cleaned up the entire driveway Wednesday night. Within a day and a half, it looked like this:
Since the leaves were wet, I was shoveling them off with the snow shovel.
Saturday afternoon was spent with a leaf blower and a rake. One large maple is 90% down, but we still have 2 sweet gums, another large maple, 2 large oaks, and assorted other trees that have barely begun to turn.
Dance Update
Class Friday night 4-5:30, then choreography practice from 7-8. Home, watch part of Indiana Jones, then to bed. Up the next morning, class from 9-11, followed by a show:
in bright sunshine with cool winds coming straight into their faces, hence the closed eyes. Once the breeze died down it was a gorgeous day, though.
Followed the next day by an Oiereachtas rehearsal, which is sort of like a dress rehearsal.
Oireachtas is a major competition, so this is a Big Deal.
And, like all Irish Dance competitions, no video recording is allowed during a competition, BUT we can take pictures and videos to our hearts' content during the rehearsal. Here's the hornpipe:
Overall I'm wondering if this works like theatre dress rehearsals -- that is, a bad dress rehearsal means a good show. Because the Oireachtas practice went incredibly smoothly overall (well, except for Annabeth totally forgetting her hornpipe steps, and the girl with her slipping). What does this mean for Oireachtas?
Current Status
Annabeth seems to be asleep on the couch, Thalia decided to skip the Halloween party she'd been invited to for this afternoon, and I'm thinking I'd like to sit around eating junk and reading silly novels. Rick is being industrious, though, putting quarter round around the kick plates under the cabinets, and leaf guards on some of the gutters.
Rick cleaned up the entire driveway Wednesday night. Within a day and a half, it looked like this:
Since the leaves were wet, I was shoveling them off with the snow shovel.
Saturday afternoon was spent with a leaf blower and a rake. One large maple is 90% down, but we still have 2 sweet gums, another large maple, 2 large oaks, and assorted other trees that have barely begun to turn.
Dance Update
Class Friday night 4-5:30, then choreography practice from 7-8. Home, watch part of Indiana Jones, then to bed. Up the next morning, class from 9-11, followed by a show:
in bright sunshine with cool winds coming straight into their faces, hence the closed eyes. Once the breeze died down it was a gorgeous day, though.
Followed the next day by an Oiereachtas rehearsal, which is sort of like a dress rehearsal.
Oireachtas is a major competition, so this is a Big Deal.
And, like all Irish Dance competitions, no video recording is allowed during a competition, BUT we can take pictures and videos to our hearts' content during the rehearsal. Here's the hornpipe:
Overall I'm wondering if this works like theatre dress rehearsals -- that is, a bad dress rehearsal means a good show. Because the Oireachtas practice went incredibly smoothly overall (well, except for Annabeth totally forgetting her hornpipe steps, and the girl with her slipping). What does this mean for Oireachtas?
Current Status
Annabeth seems to be asleep on the couch, Thalia decided to skip the Halloween party she'd been invited to for this afternoon, and I'm thinking I'd like to sit around eating junk and reading silly novels. Rick is being industrious, though, putting quarter round around the kick plates under the cabinets, and leaf guards on some of the gutters.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Homeschool Happenings
The whole Weekly Report concept is on hold until we have something resembling a normal week. I don't know if that's going to happen any time in the near future. In the meantime, homeschool does continue to happen around here, just not in a particularly orderly fashion.
Annabeth is finishing up RightStart D. We're into the fun bits that involve geometry, the drawing board, and some origami. Yesterday we went on an origami craze, searching for Halloween-themed items. A bat:
Okay, actually Thalia made the bat. And it's hanging by a thread from a Halloween tree in our entrance. Annabeth spent time working on a Jacko'lantern face
Thalia continues to work in Jacob's Algebra. She's in fractions and percents now, still not hitting anything particularly new and different.
We finished reading A Little HIstory of the World and have returned to plodding through history via Story of the World vol. 4. This week we found Dr. Livingstone in Africa.
We also finished reading The Secret Garden. Now we've picked back up The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which we had paused mid-book. We also continue in LIttle Pilgrim's Progress, which Annabeth has decided she dislikes. But we persevere in the interests of Cultural Literacy. Thalia says she associates Pilgrim's Progress with a large pit and a lemur ... or maybe a ferret. So, you know, if she ever wants to talk about pits and lemur-like ferrets, she'll be able to make reference to this book. Handy, right?
Thalia has hit the first Big Project in Jump In Writing. So far she's been enjoying the program.
And then there's science. Thalia is taking a co-op class using Apologia Physical Science. She's doing very well with the class, and now understands why we've been sticklers for labeling units in story problems -- at this point it's second nature for her, and it actually makes a difference in her class performance. And she can bang out a simple lab report like nobody's business.
Latin has been erratic. They seem to be absorbing some of it, though.
Annabeth has learned to diagram indirect objects, and has memorized both Ozymandia and How Doth the LIttle Crocodile.
The kids have started the music for the Christmas piano recital.
And maybe, just maybe, we'll soon have a week with no one sick, no trips to the doctor or weird, time-consuming errands to run, nor Scout responsibilities that suck up all of our free time.
Annabeth is finishing up RightStart D. We're into the fun bits that involve geometry, the drawing board, and some origami. Yesterday we went on an origami craze, searching for Halloween-themed items. A bat:
Okay, actually Thalia made the bat. And it's hanging by a thread from a Halloween tree in our entrance. Annabeth spent time working on a Jacko'lantern face
Thalia continues to work in Jacob's Algebra. She's in fractions and percents now, still not hitting anything particularly new and different.
We finished reading A Little HIstory of the World and have returned to plodding through history via Story of the World vol. 4. This week we found Dr. Livingstone in Africa.
We also finished reading The Secret Garden. Now we've picked back up The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which we had paused mid-book. We also continue in LIttle Pilgrim's Progress, which Annabeth has decided she dislikes. But we persevere in the interests of Cultural Literacy. Thalia says she associates Pilgrim's Progress with a large pit and a lemur ... or maybe a ferret. So, you know, if she ever wants to talk about pits and lemur-like ferrets, she'll be able to make reference to this book. Handy, right?
Thalia has hit the first Big Project in Jump In Writing. So far she's been enjoying the program.
And then there's science. Thalia is taking a co-op class using Apologia Physical Science. She's doing very well with the class, and now understands why we've been sticklers for labeling units in story problems -- at this point it's second nature for her, and it actually makes a difference in her class performance. And she can bang out a simple lab report like nobody's business.
Latin has been erratic. They seem to be absorbing some of it, though.
Annabeth has learned to diagram indirect objects, and has memorized both Ozymandia and How Doth the LIttle Crocodile.
The kids have started the music for the Christmas piano recital.
And maybe, just maybe, we'll soon have a week with no one sick, no trips to the doctor or weird, time-consuming errands to run, nor Scout responsibilities that suck up all of our free time.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Work in Progress Wednesday
Jammie pants for Thalia. She's supposed to go on a camping trip this weekend (although she has yet another bad cold, so I'm not sure that's going to happen), so we got out Butterick 3314 and some flannel that we've had around for ages (I think from Sewzanne's about 3 years ago). Cut a size medium, but added 3 inches in length.
This concrete was swept clean of leaves yesterday:
but if I sweep it up again these will quickly replace whatever I haul off:
The gutter had to be done this afternoon because it's going to rain tomorrow:
(And, yes, we know about gutter guards, although I've not seen any that are truly leaf-proof and that you don't have to clean under -- the worst gutter is this low one I can reach with a ladder.) (And, yes, this is pretty much how we spend October and November around here -- trying to shovel our way out of all the leaves.)
Also, put the ghosties up in the yard, which involved crumpling newspapers to make the heads. You'd think the cats would be the ones to play in the crumpled newspapers, but no....
This concrete was swept clean of leaves yesterday:
but if I sweep it up again these will quickly replace whatever I haul off:
The gutter had to be done this afternoon because it's going to rain tomorrow:
(And, yes, we know about gutter guards, although I've not seen any that are truly leaf-proof and that you don't have to clean under -- the worst gutter is this low one I can reach with a ladder.) (And, yes, this is pretty much how we spend October and November around here -- trying to shovel our way out of all the leaves.)
Also, put the ghosties up in the yard, which involved crumpling newspapers to make the heads. You'd think the cats would be the ones to play in the crumpled newspapers, but no....
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Still Don't Have Focus Necessary to Write Posts
I was going to write a catch-up post on homeschool telling what we've been up to the past few weeks, but this morning I drove over to Madison, Illinois, then down some lonely road full of potholes until I reached a motley bunch of buildings located in the middle of nowhere. It seemed a pretty good spot for something like a drug deal, maybe, but I was picking up an Irish Dance solo dress which had been delivered to that spot by some unnamed person driving there from the Detroit area. Then back through pothole-land into civilization.
And now I feel like just staring into space, or maybe going for a walk. Because I think I deserve a little pat on the back for doing all of that.
And now I feel like just staring into space, or maybe going for a walk. Because I think I deserve a little pat on the back for doing all of that.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Snippets of Weekend
Friday night was an awards dinner for Rick's work. It was ... an awards dinner. What else can you say? Not terribly thrilling, not terribly anything but long. Very, very long.
Saturday afternoon we again babysat a 3 year old. Wow, this kid is so cute and so funny! We dragged the rebounder upstairs, and also a bunch of little cars we'd amassed from giveaways. Since it was sort of cool and damp out, we spent most of the day crawling around the floor playing with cars, or else jumping on the rebounder, seeing who could go highest (Thalia's head nearly hits the ceiling).
And we marveled at Purdue's victory over Ohio State. Too bad this didn't happen last weekend when we were in Dayton.
I had checked Elissa's Quest out of the library last week, and read it Sunday afternoon. It's a fun book for girls. It even includes positive discussion of a girl's first menses, which isn't something you see in a lot of books.
I also spent some of the weekend thinking about fascia.
Annabeth's turnout really improved when she tried some myofascial release. Back story: Lisa Howell's Front Splits Fast email for this week mentioned the TFL. Googling to find out what the heck the TFL is, I found this video. You can buy those rollers at Target, among other places.
In the meantime, I was reading Deborah Vogel's blog, and by jumping around various links landed at this cool picture of the fascia that shows the line running from the top of the head down the back to the bottom of the feet. Which is why Lisa Howell suggests massaging your neck and head and feet to maximize your hamstring stretch.
Also spent a fair bit of time poking around on Ray Peat's website, reading articles about high cholesterol as a protective adaptation for hypothyroidism (the sort of weird health information I'll ponder for weeks at a time).
Saturday afternoon we again babysat a 3 year old. Wow, this kid is so cute and so funny! We dragged the rebounder upstairs, and also a bunch of little cars we'd amassed from giveaways. Since it was sort of cool and damp out, we spent most of the day crawling around the floor playing with cars, or else jumping on the rebounder, seeing who could go highest (Thalia's head nearly hits the ceiling).
And we marveled at Purdue's victory over Ohio State. Too bad this didn't happen last weekend when we were in Dayton.
I had checked Elissa's Quest out of the library last week, and read it Sunday afternoon. It's a fun book for girls. It even includes positive discussion of a girl's first menses, which isn't something you see in a lot of books.
I also spent some of the weekend thinking about fascia.
Annabeth's turnout really improved when she tried some myofascial release. Back story: Lisa Howell's Front Splits Fast email for this week mentioned the TFL. Googling to find out what the heck the TFL is, I found this video. You can buy those rollers at Target, among other places.
In the meantime, I was reading Deborah Vogel's blog, and by jumping around various links landed at this cool picture of the fascia that shows the line running from the top of the head down the back to the bottom of the feet. Which is why Lisa Howell suggests massaging your neck and head and feet to maximize your hamstring stretch.
Also spent a fair bit of time poking around on Ray Peat's website, reading articles about high cholesterol as a protective adaptation for hypothyroidism (the sort of weird health information I'll ponder for weeks at a time).
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Work in Progress Wednesday, Thursday Edition
A quick tour of things going on here:
One sock done, the second is almost to the heel. I had hoped that by waiting a day I'd get some sunshine for a picture, but we seem to be stuck permanently in gloomy-wet-cold mode.
Annabeth is putting together a collage for a Girl Scout project. They're working on the pet badge, and making collages or scrapbooks of animals. Early in the project it looked like she'd be able to glue an actual cat to the board she was using:
But that didn't work out really well. This is what she has left. Thalia wrote the haiku. (Click for enlarging.)
Starting our Halloween decorating:
I cut out these pants 2 weeks ago, and this is how far I've gotten:
Thalia is putting together stuff for a space & astronomy Interest Patch, which doesn't lend itself well to photos. And I'm piling up the stuff for the Fall Product Sale so I can tell the kids about it.
We're also in charge of snacks this week, so I need to go get that stuff together. I feel like I'm taking half of my house to this meeting. Not my idea of a good time, but, hey, that's why I'm not a Scout Leader.
One sock done, the second is almost to the heel. I had hoped that by waiting a day I'd get some sunshine for a picture, but we seem to be stuck permanently in gloomy-wet-cold mode.
Annabeth is putting together a collage for a Girl Scout project. They're working on the pet badge, and making collages or scrapbooks of animals. Early in the project it looked like she'd be able to glue an actual cat to the board she was using:
But that didn't work out really well. This is what she has left. Thalia wrote the haiku. (Click for enlarging.)
Starting our Halloween decorating:
I cut out these pants 2 weeks ago, and this is how far I've gotten:
Thalia is putting together stuff for a space & astronomy Interest Patch, which doesn't lend itself well to photos. And I'm piling up the stuff for the Fall Product Sale so I can tell the kids about it.
We're also in charge of snacks this week, so I need to go get that stuff together. I feel like I'm taking half of my house to this meeting. Not my idea of a good time, but, hey, that's why I'm not a Scout Leader.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
100 Species Challenge
1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain
10. English Ivy
11. Boneset
12. Poison Ivy
Okay, I've never been good at identifying because I'm not someone who reacts to it. At least, so far I haven't reacted -- I've heard that you can build up intolerance over time. So when we were tromping around in that scrubby little section of our yard trying to fix the sprinkler, I kept thinking, "I'm pretty sure that's poison ivy, and I should probably do something about that." But I had to go look up whether the central leaflet of of the three has a long petiole, because I remembered that as one of the identifying characteristics.
So I'm pretty sure this is poison ivy:
And I should probably do something about it. I have friends who are highly allergic, and would cringe at the thought of our cats wandering around in this stuff and then rubbing against their legs.
Of course, you've gotta wonder what positive use poison ivy has. I've read that cows and goats eat poison ivy without issue, and that if you then consume the raw milk your sensitivity to the urushiol (that's the oil that causes the problems) will diminish. And I used Rhus tox as a homeopathic remedy when Thalia had chicken pox (it worked great, by the way).
Steve Brill mentions here that its roots provide erosion control, and it provides cover for small animals.
However, none of these things need to happen in my yard -- I'm not keeping cows or goats, I'm not making any homeopathic remedies (too lazy to do all that shaking), and small animals seem to have plenty of cover in the other weeds. So, theoretically, this plant will be killed now that it has been identified.
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain
10. English Ivy
11. Boneset
12. Poison Ivy
Okay, I've never been good at identifying because I'm not someone who reacts to it. At least, so far I haven't reacted -- I've heard that you can build up intolerance over time. So when we were tromping around in that scrubby little section of our yard trying to fix the sprinkler, I kept thinking, "I'm pretty sure that's poison ivy, and I should probably do something about that." But I had to go look up whether the central leaflet of of the three has a long petiole, because I remembered that as one of the identifying characteristics.
So I'm pretty sure this is poison ivy:
And I should probably do something about it. I have friends who are highly allergic, and would cringe at the thought of our cats wandering around in this stuff and then rubbing against their legs.
Of course, you've gotta wonder what positive use poison ivy has. I've read that cows and goats eat poison ivy without issue, and that if you then consume the raw milk your sensitivity to the urushiol (that's the oil that causes the problems) will diminish. And I used Rhus tox as a homeopathic remedy when Thalia had chicken pox (it worked great, by the way).
Steve Brill mentions here that its roots provide erosion control, and it provides cover for small animals.
However, none of these things need to happen in my yard -- I'm not keeping cows or goats, I'm not making any homeopathic remedies (too lazy to do all that shaking), and small animals seem to have plenty of cover in the other weeds. So, theoretically, this plant will be killed now that it has been identified.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Tagged!
Ami tagged me for this meme a few days ago. The idea is to write one word answers. Sometimes I drifted into two words, but I made up for it by typing everything with one hand (a cat just fell asleep on my other arm). Sheesh, I used to do this one-handed business all the time when the kids were tiny, but I'm really out of the swing of it now. So much so that I'm skipping the part about tagging others, and just doing a cut-and-paste before I go bonkers.
By the way, since this was from Ami I considered using the same word for every answer -- that word being "wig" of course.
1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? unruly
3. Your mother? talkative
4. Your father? quiet
5. Your favorite food? cookies
6. Your dream last night? detailed
7. Your favorite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? big
9. What room are you in? family room
10. Your hobby? reading
11. Your fear? pain
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. Something you aren't? tall
15. Muffins? no
16. Wish list item? embroidery machine
17. Where did you grow up? Indiana
18. Last thing you did? drive
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pets? asleep
22. Your friends? assorted
23. Your life? hectic
24. Your mood? overwhelmed
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? new
27. Something you're not wearing? glasses
28. Your favorite store? grocery
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? 6:45pm
31. Last time you cried? unknown
32. Your best friend? absent
33. One place that I go over and over? dance
34. One person who emails me regularly? Uncle Chelsea
35. Favorite place to eat? home
By the way, since this was from Ami I considered using the same word for every answer -- that word being "wig" of course.
1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? unruly
3. Your mother? talkative
4. Your father? quiet
5. Your favorite food? cookies
6. Your dream last night? detailed
7. Your favorite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? big
9. What room are you in? family room
10. Your hobby? reading
11. Your fear? pain
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. Something you aren't? tall
15. Muffins? no
16. Wish list item? embroidery machine
17. Where did you grow up? Indiana
18. Last thing you did? drive
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pets? asleep
22. Your friends? assorted
23. Your life? hectic
24. Your mood? overwhelmed
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? new
27. Something you're not wearing? glasses
28. Your favorite store? grocery
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? 6:45pm
31. Last time you cried? unknown
32. Your best friend? absent
33. One place that I go over and over? dance
34. One person who emails me regularly? Uncle Chelsea
35. Favorite place to eat? home
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Gem City Feis 2009
Friday we headed over to the 5th annual Gem City Feis in Dayton, Ohio. It's about 6 hours away, which is far enough to watch both Narnia movies on a laptop in the backseat. And it rained the ENTIRE WAY.
But it's a pretty easy drive, given that the directions can be summed up as: "Head west on I70 until you get to Dayton, then find your hotel."
We once again stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Huber Heights, using a free night from the stay-2-get-one-free promo. The room wasn't quite as nice as last year, the pool was freezing cold, and the whirlpool was broken. Boo, hiss. I'm not sure whether we'll be back. We saw at least 3 other feis-going families there, so they did pull in some business from the feis.
It was about a 10 minutes drive up to the Airport Exposition Center on Saturday morning. The Exposition Center looks like this:
and has gobs of free parking.
We set up camp with our New Camp Chairs (we're getting so hardcore with the feising)
And the chairs came with handy medal-holders for the kids to store their medals in.
The feis a nicely laid out area for used dresses, and we tried on gobs since we are in the market.
I really, really liked this one, but it cut into her windpipe:
You can say all you want about Siopa Rince and Swarovski crystals, but I look at these sleeves and think Hamburglar:
Oh, oops, I forgot that I was going to try to stick to positive comments. We'll skip over the purple one that had skirt panels that were apparently made from those lead aprons they put over you at the dentist's before x-rays ("hey, you could curl this a few times to make up for skipping weight lifting this morning!").
This one was nice; we sent the photo to our teacher to see what she thinks:
Okay, anyway, what about the feis itself? It got off to a late start because of a large accident south of town that caught a lot of competitors in the traffic stoppage. Which was nice for those competitors, but we knew we'd all be paying for it at the other end of the day. The competitions kept moving at a fairly brisk pace -- many of Annabeth's were danced 3 at a time -- but we still didn't finish until AFTER the beginning of the Ohio State football game, which was shocking. Also, they didn't have little televisions in the lobby this year for the more football-oriented to watch (definitely an attraction last year).
The people were helpful and friendly. One of the kids commented afterwards that Irish Dance is interesting because the dancers all sit together chattering and wishing each other luck, and then get up and compete against each other. At least, that's the way it goes in the midwest. I imagine the tone of the competition varies by location.
In spite of missing a week and a half of classes, and hanging around the house sick, Thalia earned some 1st place medals, and placed in all of her dances. Annabeth placed in all dances except one, but 1st place still eluded her.
We stuck around this time to pick up our results. We got the actual, handwritten notes from the adjuticators. Here are Thalia's:
Okay, that last one is definitely "watch your ending" (that was on Trad. Set -- she did Job of Journeywork). And on the 3rd one down (which was Light Jig) I think it recommends to "raise ..." something or other, possibly something that starts with a T or a J or some other letter. The other 2 are total mysteries. Remind me to never volunteer to enter this stuff on computer -- I have new respect for the people who put this stuff together to email out to us, or put it on Feisworx. Also, the judges have a split second to jot some pithy remark down before going on to the next dancer, so I'm not complaining about that -- I'm just fascinated to see what this stuff actually looks like. You learn something new at every feis.
Also, since it bugs me that the results for the grades (beginners through prizewinners) weren't posted online last year, I thought it would be clever to photograph the results sheets and post them online. Except my camera batteries conked out after 3 pictures. Oops -- too many dress pictures, I guess. Here's what I got:
Overall, another great feis by this group. During the day I saw volunteers walking around analyzing what they could do better for next year -- pretty cool how they're trying to continuously improve. And we'll be back next year to see what's new!
But it's a pretty easy drive, given that the directions can be summed up as: "Head west on I70 until you get to Dayton, then find your hotel."
We once again stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Huber Heights, using a free night from the stay-2-get-one-free promo. The room wasn't quite as nice as last year, the pool was freezing cold, and the whirlpool was broken. Boo, hiss. I'm not sure whether we'll be back. We saw at least 3 other feis-going families there, so they did pull in some business from the feis.
It was about a 10 minutes drive up to the Airport Exposition Center on Saturday morning. The Exposition Center looks like this:
and has gobs of free parking.
We set up camp with our New Camp Chairs (we're getting so hardcore with the feising)
And the chairs came with handy medal-holders for the kids to store their medals in.
The feis a nicely laid out area for used dresses, and we tried on gobs since we are in the market.
I really, really liked this one, but it cut into her windpipe:
You can say all you want about Siopa Rince and Swarovski crystals, but I look at these sleeves and think Hamburglar:
Oh, oops, I forgot that I was going to try to stick to positive comments. We'll skip over the purple one that had skirt panels that were apparently made from those lead aprons they put over you at the dentist's before x-rays ("hey, you could curl this a few times to make up for skipping weight lifting this morning!").
This one was nice; we sent the photo to our teacher to see what she thinks:
Okay, anyway, what about the feis itself? It got off to a late start because of a large accident south of town that caught a lot of competitors in the traffic stoppage. Which was nice for those competitors, but we knew we'd all be paying for it at the other end of the day. The competitions kept moving at a fairly brisk pace -- many of Annabeth's were danced 3 at a time -- but we still didn't finish until AFTER the beginning of the Ohio State football game, which was shocking. Also, they didn't have little televisions in the lobby this year for the more football-oriented to watch (definitely an attraction last year).
The people were helpful and friendly. One of the kids commented afterwards that Irish Dance is interesting because the dancers all sit together chattering and wishing each other luck, and then get up and compete against each other. At least, that's the way it goes in the midwest. I imagine the tone of the competition varies by location.
In spite of missing a week and a half of classes, and hanging around the house sick, Thalia earned some 1st place medals, and placed in all of her dances. Annabeth placed in all dances except one, but 1st place still eluded her.
We stuck around this time to pick up our results. We got the actual, handwritten notes from the adjuticators. Here are Thalia's:
Okay, that last one is definitely "watch your ending" (that was on Trad. Set -- she did Job of Journeywork). And on the 3rd one down (which was Light Jig) I think it recommends to "raise ..." something or other, possibly something that starts with a T or a J or some other letter. The other 2 are total mysteries. Remind me to never volunteer to enter this stuff on computer -- I have new respect for the people who put this stuff together to email out to us, or put it on Feisworx. Also, the judges have a split second to jot some pithy remark down before going on to the next dancer, so I'm not complaining about that -- I'm just fascinated to see what this stuff actually looks like. You learn something new at every feis.
Also, since it bugs me that the results for the grades (beginners through prizewinners) weren't posted online last year, I thought it would be clever to photograph the results sheets and post them online. Except my camera batteries conked out after 3 pictures. Oops -- too many dress pictures, I guess. Here's what I got:
Overall, another great feis by this group. During the day I saw volunteers walking around analyzing what they could do better for next year -- pretty cool how they're trying to continuously improve. And we'll be back next year to see what's new!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
General Busy-ness and Jumping Through Hoops
It's raining. It's supposed to rain all day. And it's supposed to rain tomorrow. But we got all of the outside stuff done that needed to be done this week. This included:
Fertilizing the lawn. We only fertilize in fall, because in spring it's growing like crazy anyway and in summer it's dormant. This time we used a product to kill weeds. Although I'm generally okay with weeds, I'm not okay with plants that turn into bullies -- and the lespedeza is a bully, folks. It's taking over the place.
Repairing the sprinkler system. This is the first house we've had with a sprinkler system. It is So Annoying -- there's always something going wrong with it. This time a line got broken while planting a tree (a spruce to eventually replace a white pine that's dying a rather dramatic death, as white pines tend to do). Several trips to Lowe's, and a trip to the irrigation place that turns the stupid system on and off each year (because legally you have to have the system turned on and the back pressure valve checked every single year whether you use the sprinklers or not). The irrigation place was very nice, and turned out to be a cheap place for do-it-yourself repairs. This scenario also involved several nights with lanterns and flashlights wallowing in mud. So those mud-caked pants I was wearing this week weren't a fashion statement. Also, Rick isn't planning to become a lawn-irrigation guy as a career move -- what dismal work.
Indoor adventures included:
Thalia's ear. After a terrible earache the pain subsided and yellow stuff came out of her ear, followed the next day by an ear full of dried snot. This seemed worth a visit to the doctor. They peered inside her ear, but didn't see a huge, gaping hole. They gave us a prescription for antibiotics ... we rarely use antibiotics, frankly. But, after much consideration and discussion, she's taking them. It hasn't exactly been a miracle healing. And last night her eyelid started swelling up. A stye? Who knows.
In the meantime, Annabeth was still sniffly. She made a concerted effort to eat and drink super-healthy things yesterday. Because of this and the easy accessibility in our house to Emergen-C, she now understands the concept of how a body rids itself of excess Vitamin C in the digestive tract. Ahem. And guess what -- the sniffles are totally gone, and she seems perkier than she's been in weeks. So, a startling, memorable experience with a happy ending.
Cat news:
Me: I think we should teach the cat some new tricks.
Thalia: How about if we teach her to do quadratic equations?
Me: I was thinking more along the lines of jumping through a hoop ....
So, Monday the hoop-jumping started. The training has been a little erratic, what with running to the doctor and all. So far she simply steps through the hoop and then pauses to receive her reward. Wow, that cat loves to eat. Anyway, video to follow when we either get her a little more air-born or else she starts solving quadratics while stepping through the hoop.
Fertilizing the lawn. We only fertilize in fall, because in spring it's growing like crazy anyway and in summer it's dormant. This time we used a product to kill weeds. Although I'm generally okay with weeds, I'm not okay with plants that turn into bullies -- and the lespedeza is a bully, folks. It's taking over the place.
Repairing the sprinkler system. This is the first house we've had with a sprinkler system. It is So Annoying -- there's always something going wrong with it. This time a line got broken while planting a tree (a spruce to eventually replace a white pine that's dying a rather dramatic death, as white pines tend to do). Several trips to Lowe's, and a trip to the irrigation place that turns the stupid system on and off each year (because legally you have to have the system turned on and the back pressure valve checked every single year whether you use the sprinklers or not). The irrigation place was very nice, and turned out to be a cheap place for do-it-yourself repairs. This scenario also involved several nights with lanterns and flashlights wallowing in mud. So those mud-caked pants I was wearing this week weren't a fashion statement. Also, Rick isn't planning to become a lawn-irrigation guy as a career move -- what dismal work.
Indoor adventures included:
Thalia's ear. After a terrible earache the pain subsided and yellow stuff came out of her ear, followed the next day by an ear full of dried snot. This seemed worth a visit to the doctor. They peered inside her ear, but didn't see a huge, gaping hole. They gave us a prescription for antibiotics ... we rarely use antibiotics, frankly. But, after much consideration and discussion, she's taking them. It hasn't exactly been a miracle healing. And last night her eyelid started swelling up. A stye? Who knows.
In the meantime, Annabeth was still sniffly. She made a concerted effort to eat and drink super-healthy things yesterday. Because of this and the easy accessibility in our house to Emergen-C, she now understands the concept of how a body rids itself of excess Vitamin C in the digestive tract. Ahem. And guess what -- the sniffles are totally gone, and she seems perkier than she's been in weeks. So, a startling, memorable experience with a happy ending.
Cat news:
Me: I think we should teach the cat some new tricks.
Thalia: How about if we teach her to do quadratic equations?
Me: I was thinking more along the lines of jumping through a hoop ....
So, Monday the hoop-jumping started. The training has been a little erratic, what with running to the doctor and all. So far she simply steps through the hoop and then pauses to receive her reward. Wow, that cat loves to eat. Anyway, video to follow when we either get her a little more air-born or else she starts solving quadratics while stepping through the hoop.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
100 Species Challenge
1. Strawberry
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain
10. English Ivy
11. Boneset
A couple of weeks ago while I was mowing the lawn I was thinking that I needed to identify these plants that are growing around the edges of our yard
and sort of hanging into the lawn itself, at which point I run over them with the lawn mower because they're in the way.
Except I kept forgetting about it, so I never looked them up.
But today I discovered that Susun Weed has youtube videos. Who knew? I love Susun Weed. She knows so much about plants and nutrition and healing. So I noticed that this one had been uploaded recently and was about flu (very topical) so I clicked on it:
HEY! That looks like the plant in our backyard!
I grabbed Annabeth and announced that we were going to go do some science -- plant ID time!
Googled various websites for more pictures like these. And discussed the ways we identify a plant -- how are the leaves placed? the flowers? What is special about what we're seeing? Are we in the normal range of this plant?
Too bad ours are a bit past their prime for making a tincture. If they're back next year, we'll be harvesting some. I think we had a lot this year due to the cool, wet summer -- that part of the yard tends to stay damp. In the meantime, I finally get that the name "boneset" isn't about broken bones. I need to look up and learn more common names of this plant.
2. Black-eyed Susan
3. Rose of Sharon, Althea
4. Potentilla
5. Vinca
6. Grape Hyacinth
7. Tiger Lily
8. Lespedeza
9. Plantain
10. English Ivy
11. Boneset
A couple of weeks ago while I was mowing the lawn I was thinking that I needed to identify these plants that are growing around the edges of our yard
and sort of hanging into the lawn itself, at which point I run over them with the lawn mower because they're in the way.
Except I kept forgetting about it, so I never looked them up.
But today I discovered that Susun Weed has youtube videos. Who knew? I love Susun Weed. She knows so much about plants and nutrition and healing. So I noticed that this one had been uploaded recently and was about flu (very topical) so I clicked on it:
HEY! That looks like the plant in our backyard!
I grabbed Annabeth and announced that we were going to go do some science -- plant ID time!
Googled various websites for more pictures like these. And discussed the ways we identify a plant -- how are the leaves placed? the flowers? What is special about what we're seeing? Are we in the normal range of this plant?
Too bad ours are a bit past their prime for making a tincture. If they're back next year, we'll be harvesting some. I think we had a lot this year due to the cool, wet summer -- that part of the yard tends to stay damp. In the meantime, I finally get that the name "boneset" isn't about broken bones. I need to look up and learn more common names of this plant.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Weekend Road Trip
Friday we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's. We originally planned to leave very VERY early so we could go horseback riding, but the windy, damp weather squelched that plan. Plan B was to arrive a little later, go to Skiles Orchard and buy cider, then go bowling. But, alas, Skiles had lost their entire apple crop this year (although they had some apple butter -- we bought 2 cases). And Annabeth really didn't feel up to bowling -- extremely tired, and bad headache. So we spent a quiet evening watching My Fair Lady.
The next morning Annabeth was feeling perkier, which was good because the kids were headlining at the festival going on:
Note the lack of wigs -- they decided if they weren't required to wear the wigs they were going to leave them home. They put on a show that lasted about 20-30 minutes, with me talking in between some of the dances, dispensing the wisdom I've picked up from watching dozens of shows plus a little googling about some of the dances. Aunt Elaine, Uncle Mark and Aunt Cindy were also there.
Rick and I headed for Purdue Homecoming after that. The game started out great, with Purdue taking an early lead. After the 1st quarter things started to go downhill. I commented, "It could be worse -- we could be sitting here in the rain watching them lose." After which the temperature dropped and it started raining, But we stayed until the bitter end.
We headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's apartment, with a short break to help a girl with a flat tire -- her dad had bought her a used car the week before, and it didn't have a jack or a usable spare, plus the front passenger-side tire apparently was bad from the beginning (NOTE: if you buy a used car CHECK FOR A SPARE AND A JACK!). Arrived back at the apartment to discover that Thalia had spent the afternoon asleep on the couch. A quick supper, then we took Annabeth (now in good health and bouncing around) swimming, while Thalia stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and was feverish.
Sunday? Home again, with Thalia still sick. Time will tell if we spread the germs throughout Grandma and Grandpa's community.
The next morning Annabeth was feeling perkier, which was good because the kids were headlining at the festival going on:
Note the lack of wigs -- they decided if they weren't required to wear the wigs they were going to leave them home. They put on a show that lasted about 20-30 minutes, with me talking in between some of the dances, dispensing the wisdom I've picked up from watching dozens of shows plus a little googling about some of the dances. Aunt Elaine, Uncle Mark and Aunt Cindy were also there.
Rick and I headed for Purdue Homecoming after that. The game started out great, with Purdue taking an early lead. After the 1st quarter things started to go downhill. I commented, "It could be worse -- we could be sitting here in the rain watching them lose." After which the temperature dropped and it started raining, But we stayed until the bitter end.
We headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's apartment, with a short break to help a girl with a flat tire -- her dad had bought her a used car the week before, and it didn't have a jack or a usable spare, plus the front passenger-side tire apparently was bad from the beginning (NOTE: if you buy a used car CHECK FOR A SPARE AND A JACK!). Arrived back at the apartment to discover that Thalia had spent the afternoon asleep on the couch. A quick supper, then we took Annabeth (now in good health and bouncing around) swimming, while Thalia stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and was feverish.
Sunday? Home again, with Thalia still sick. Time will tell if we spread the germs throughout Grandma and Grandpa's community.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
R is for Rest
After a tough night of
Jumping in and out of the window,
Playing with the cord of the window blinds,
Running over the beds (and everyone in them),
Chasing the other cat, and
Sniffing everyone's faces to see if maybe they're awake even though it's only 4:30 a.m.
You just need some REST!
Thank goodness the bed is empty now so she can get a good nap.
And, could you get that camera out of here? It's keeping her awake.
Jumping in and out of the window,
Playing with the cord of the window blinds,
Running over the beds (and everyone in them),
Chasing the other cat, and
Sniffing everyone's faces to see if maybe they're awake even though it's only 4:30 a.m.
You just need some REST!
Thank goodness the bed is empty now so she can get a good nap.
And, could you get that camera out of here? It's keeping her awake.