Miracle Sugar Snap Peas

I went out to do a little weeding and discovered 4 sugar snap peas, ready to enjoy. We've had so much rain the vines are all yellow and don't appear to be thriving so I wasn't expecting to see these 4 sugar snap peas. Each member of our family gets to have one. LOL! Hopefully, more will appear soon.

I also caught cute little Benjamin bunny trying to pull down the rabbit fencing from around our carrots. He had just about gotten it low enough he could have hopped over if I hadn't spooked him, naughty bunny! I did not find his blue coat left behind.

I haven't had much time to work in the garden and that has me a little bummed. I should have planted more earlier. I am shocked my cilantro has grown so quickly, its now going to seed! The basil is ready but I'm not. I wanted to make pesto, but don't have enough olive oil. There are a few bites taken out of it, so I'm thinking of starting over with the herbs and see where we end up by summer's end.

DS11 and I are into watching the game show Lingo. You have to know your 5 letter words and think fast. Watching the show with him affirms to me how well he can read and spell. He's been quicker than me to guess some of those words.

Another word game we're playing lately is good old fashioned Scrabble. I'm in a Scrabble game on Facebook that is getting competitive and after playing over my shoulder the past few weeks, the boys expressed an interest to play me in real life. I realized there's no reason why we can't keep the board out, taking turns throughout the day, so that's what we've been doing today, using our real Scrabble board game rather than the computer. I surprised them and played the word "sex." DS11 protested saying he could have played that word but didn't think it was appropriate. :)  I'm such a bad mom! LOL!

Scattergories

I forgot how much I love this game. Want to play with me? Consider yourself "tagged" if you do.

Rules: Copy to your own blog, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 10 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real . . . nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Dawning

2. A four Letter Word: deep

3. A boy's Name: Daniel

4. A girl's Name: Daria

5. An occupation: doctor

6. A color: dark blue

7. Something you wear: Domo t-shirt

8. A hobby: doll making

9. A food: doughnuts

10. Something found in the bathroom: duck

11. A place: Dodgeville, WI

12. A reason for being late: Don't have anything to wear

13. Something you shout: DUDE!

14. A movie title: Do The Right Thing

15. Something you drink: Diet Rite

16. A musical group: Blind Melon - (Ok I cheated, but there is no other for me!)

17. An animal: dog

18. A street name: Doty

19. A type of car: Datsun

20. The title of a song: Dumptruck (yes its a Blind Melon song)

Feeling more groovy....

Maybe its because I made granola? Maybe its because I told myself its ok to chill and go with the flow?

I'm straightening up here and there, but I know its just family coming. I have to leave some dust for them to feel at home. (No offense to my family bloggers!)

Maybe I'm feeling better because I'm getting girly. I put on Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong CD. I just love her version of the Joni Mitchell song, River. The Christmas music inspired me to make room for the tree, so it also feels good to redecorate.

Outside I rolled the pumpkins into the unofficial compost corner of our lot. They were partly frozen, partly decayed moldy messes. I couldn't lift them, but I pushed them using my feet. It gave my legs a workout. They should make exercise balls like this. I felt it not only in my legs but my lower abs as well.    

I checked on Turkey Tom and he still felt very frozen. I thought I had calculated correctly. One day of thawing in the fridgy for every 4 pounds. Our bird is almost 20 pounds so I moved Tom from the freezer on Saturday. He still felt hard as a rock and we only have one more day of thawing. Hmm.....Do I risk using the sink trick?

Tomorrow I'll whip together the sweet potato casserole. I don't exactly have the recipe. Every year I end up asking my MIL, "What's the recipe?" I found three different recipe notes, each from the past three years of me asking for the recipe. Each one is different so I'm not sure which to use, but I do know it must have the corn flake/brown sugar/pecan topping! Forget the marshmallows!

Last night we all played Can't Stop. You roll 4 dice and come up with two sets of numbers 2 through 12. You roll until you decide to stop or until you bust because you didn't roll the numbers you expected. You have markers to keep your place and if you bust, you lose your spot allowing someone else to steal it. I'm probably not explaining it very well, but its really fun except if your husband is like mine and adds your dice instantly. It seems like my dice are just coming to a rest and he's telling me what my numbers are before I can finish adding them up! At least I won the second round.

Hmm.....my teacup is empty. I suppose I've done enough babbling. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, know I'm in the kitchen! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
  

Wii Fit

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Video Games
Genre:	Family
Console:	Nintendo Wii

We finally got around to trying this out after the stomach bug left our house. I knew I wouldn't like my BMI, but its very cool the game figures this out for you. What I didn't expect was for the game to automatically change my Mii to reflect my true BMI!! That was kinda funny. We all had a good laugh watching our Miis change shape. (A Mii is your Wii avatar.) I'm going to have to figure out a way to show you my Mii.

DH teased me about choosing the male trainer. You can choose to follow his moves by watching his front or watching him from the rear. LOL!

The more time you play, the more moves/games you can unlock, so you are rewarded for working out. It also tracks your progress and allows you to set goals.

When you first begin you do a body check test. My balance was already pretty good standing still, but when I try to do the moves I'm all over the place! The game of course knows when you step off the board.

My Wii Fit age is 2 years younger than my actual age. That made me smile! DH was older by 5 years. Hee hee! Actually he's in better shape than I am. Its the balance thing where I have him beat.

My favorite games so far are the running games. You don't actually use the Wii Fit board, but with the Wii remote in your pocket it picks up your steps like a pedometer. It was fun watching my Mii run in the game world, chasing after other Miis. I could definitely feel my heart rate increase. That's what's missing! Too bad the Wii remote or fit board doesn't pick up your heart rate.

I believe my entire family will benefit from this game. DH even suggested we present this as a science fair project next year in our homeschool group. YIKES! That means I better bring down my BMI by then!!!

Burr Ball

Who needs paint pellets and paint ball guns?

1. Find a few sticky burr balls and stick them together.
2. Find someone to chase!
3. Throw the burr ball at your victim.
4. Run away quickly!
5. If you are hit, remove the burr ball and seek revenge!

Tips:

Hitting your opponent where they can't reach the burr ball buys you more time to run away.

If you can't run very fast, HIDE!
       
Wear a hat!!!

We are thinking of trying another version of homemade paint ball soon. I just read a great use for old baby socks is to fill them with flour or baby powder and sew them shut. Then chase each other throwing the flour filled baby socks. When you are hit, you'll have a white mark to prove it. We're going to try this outside, when its warm enough to use the hose for washing off.

p.s. We did manage to get half our cleaning done today but the sunshine and 50 degrees called us outside. Here in Wisconsin, you have to take full advantage of any nice day.

DS9's fun game!

This morning DS9 asked us to play a game he thought up. He draws part of a letter or number and we have to guess what he is writing. Its simple but we had loads of fun stumping each other.

We also are celebrating "Pi Day" since its 3/14.  We plan on making pizza pie for supper and chocolate chip pie for dessert. Our breakfast was round waffles cut into wedges. (The boys didn't want to try quiche.)  For more Pi fun, click here.

p.s. I know I misspelled "Pi" as "Pie" on the chalkboard. Didn't realize that until after I took the picture.

Christmas can't come fast enough

DS8 loves the game Apples To Apples after playing it last weekend at our cousin's house. He has been asking to play it everyday but we have to wait to see what Santa will bring. If Christmas wasn't so close, I'd definitely fork over the dough to pick up this excellent game for him. DS8 has moved it to the top of his wish list and Christmas can't come fast enough now for him.

Yesterday I scored at the library, You Wouldn't Want To Be Sick In The 16th Century- Diseases You'd Rather Not Catch by Kathryn Senior. DS12 loves the "You Wouldn't Want to" books. Its remarkable how much history he picks up from them. We were watching Cash Cab the other day and after getting almost all their questions correct, this nice family decides to go for double or nothing last question. "What kind of stone is the Spinx made of?" We all missed it guessing sandstone except for DS12 who knew the correct answer, limestone. When I asked him how he knew, he reminded me he had read, You Wouldn't Want To Be An Egyptian Slave.

I saw a bookmark put out by United Way at the library that listed reading standard success. I agreed with everything it said until I read "reading by 3rd grade." Although my boys had begun reading before 3rd grade, I have to disagree with this bookmark. What difference does it make when you master reading just as long as you eventually learn?

Today we are going to enjoy more classic "unschooling". DS8 wants to make the ornaments I mentioned before and read the snail books we found last night. Maybe we can figure out why none of the pet stores in our area carry land snails? Santa needs help here!

DS12 is going to help me draw up Gingerbread house plans. I haven't made one in years, and I don't know if I still have a pattern. I was going to cheat and buy a premade house but that story is on my 360 blog.

Speaking of blogs, I'm nervous because my friend's Multiply blog disappeared on her. She was told it may have been accidentally deleted by someone else. Yikes! I really enjoy Multiply, but I  kept my 360 for my friends who didn't want to move over. Maybe I will have to figure out how to back up my blogs for these such catastrophes.

Peace and blessings....