Making a Cuneiform Tablet

Yesterday Red and I did the "Make Cuneiform Tablets" activity that goes along with The First Writing chapter from The Story of the World Ancients activity book.  She had been pleading with me to do it for several weeks, but we didn't have clay on hand.  Finally, I caved and we used Play Doh (which we do have) instead.  First, we checked out the key in the activity book for the symbols we wanted to use and wrote them out on a piece of paper to make copying them easier.

Then, we rolled out our Play Doh and used a straw to poke a hole so we can hang it up later when it's dry.

Pumpkin decided to get in on the action by lying on the activity book.  Good thing we had already copied down our characters.

Next, we carved our tablets using a paper clip.

Here's Red with our finished products.  Mine is the dark brown one and hers is tan.  

We're going to use mine for an upcoming project called "Why Do Clay Tablets Last Longer Than Paper"?, but first we have to make hieroglyphic scrolls.  With all the rain we've been getting, we might make those today.  Happy Friday everyone!

My 2011 Goals --- 7 months later

At the beginning of the year, I did a post about what my personal goals were for 2011.  It's nice to feel like I've made some progress --- yay!  I'm hopeful that the rest of the year will be productive and successful too.  In italics below are my original goals I set back in January.  Below each goal I wrote in the progress I've made thus far.

Healthy - I am managing my illness.  I am planning healthy meals and snacks for my family.  I am exercising at least 3 days per week.  We just bought a 3 month membership at the local rec center so I'm planning on taking the kids 2 days a week to swim (one of those times is for their swim lesson and once for just fun).  I'd like to make it over one other time on my own before they get up in the morning.  I have an appointment with the trainer on 1/10 to come up with a realistic workout that accommodates my knee injury.

I think I've taken the greatest strides in terms of my goal to be healthy.  So far in 2011, I've only had one episode associated with my illness and that was back in March.  I've just recently gone off of my meds after my insurance started considering them a "non-preferred drug" (What the heck?  Who wants to pay $50 for 30 pills that we're not even sure are working?) We're doing well in the healthy meal and snack department (but couldn't we always do a little better?), and I've been consistently weight lifting and doing cardio 2-3 days a week with my workout partner Colleen since the beginning of February.  Colleen has been the key to that one though.  If she wasn't going to the gym, I don't think I would be going so thanks Colleen!  I've been taking the kids to the pool once or twice a week, and Red has made some amazing progress with her swim lessons.  She can do the crawl now!  What a difference from last summer when she wouldn't even put her face in the water!

Happy - My husband and I are close and are going on a couple of date nights per month.  I am planning time each month to spend with friends.  I am spending less time on the computer and watching TV and more time living my life.  I'd like limit recreational computer time to 30 minutes (with allowing extra time for listing things on eBay or doing household related items) and limit TV time during the week to 1 hour per day.
This goal I'm still working on.  The Cobbler and I are going out once or twice a month which has been great.  Granted, we're not doing anything major (we usually end up browsing at Barnes and Noble or TJMaxx), but we're talking and spending time away from the kids which is always good.  My TV time has gone way down, but my computer time is still about the same.  I need to work on reducing that more...

Getting to know God - I am spending time daily in study, prayer, and meditation.  I am committing one hour per week to a cause I am passionate about.  I will find a church situation with which I can be content.  I will continue to teach Sunday School and write for the prison ministry.  I will commit myself to listening for God's voice in my daily life.  I will plan family devotions.

This goal is probably where I'm doing the worst.  I've had a crisis of faith of sorts this year (i.e. I'm not really sure if there is a "right" belief system anymore) so I've been reading a lot and trying to work my way through that.  I guess that I have been spending time working on my faith and trying to figure out what it all means, but it feels kind of weird not having a specific direction.  I have not found a cause to work on, I've decided my church situation is fine for now, and I have not done anything about family devotions.
Some things I have done right in this area are teach Sunday School and write for the prison ministry.  Baby steps...

A good example for my children - I want to feel like my kids would be great adults if they modeled my behavior; therefore, I need to think more before I act or open my mouth.  Continue to teach them and read to them.  I want to give them opportunities to try new things and have new experiences without being pushy.  I want to give my children equal individual attention.

This goal isn't very tangible, but I'm feeling good about how it's going overall.  I'm obviously a work in progress so I'm not perfect.  I am, however, trying to put my best foot forward with the kids.  We've read a lot, we've done a lot of fun projects, and we've enjoyed our time together.  Okay, I guess I can say we're doing well in this area.

Pursuing a personal goal - I want to establish a meaningful goal so at the end of the year I can celebrate a tangible achievement.  Some ideas are pursuing publication for my children's book, getting family scrapbooks up to date, and starting a trip fund so we can go on a big vacation in 2012.  I'd also like to finish the quilt I started for my nephew's birthday 2 years ago.  Unfinished projects be gone!

I think the real gist of this goal was for me to get a sense of completion on something.  I had (and still have) so many unfinished projects lying about that it was making me angry and stressed out.  I've made lots of good progress.  The aforementioned quilt for my nephew is done, I'm nearly done with a quilt for Tom Thumb, and I have one in progress for Red.  I just finished a digital album of our 2008 photos (yes---I am that far behind!).  One step at a time!

I'm looking forward to revisiting this at the end of the year and seeing where I wind up.  What are your goals for 2011?  How are they coming?

And yes --- we made the toilet paper wedding dresses!

YES!  The bachelorette party and shower for my baby sister Christy are over!  As soon as I came home from vacation, I descended into the depths of bridal crazy land and have finally emerged mostly unscathed.  We launched into the weekend with the bachelorette party on Friday night.  Everyone agreed to keep it under control (heck, I had to keep it under control because I was blessed with being one of the designated drivers) since the shower was the next afternoon.  In case you needed anymore proof that doing shots is not a good idea:

Yep, that looks delicious!

We got to experience a girl on the dance floor attempting to use her date as a stripper pole (she literally jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist) --- prompting a woman to approach my sister and say, "Take notes.  If you do the exact opposite of what she's doing, you'll have a happy marriage."  Then, for who knows what reason, there were two guys at the bar dressed in animal costumes battling with glow sticks.  I'm not really sure what they are.  Perhaps a fox and a bear?

I guess I'm getting old because that was a new one for me.  Speaking of getting old...big sigh.  I didn't get carded.  I know it's ridiculous.  I am 35 and all, but when we approached the bouncer he said, "You two are fine (meaning me and my 40 something sister), but from the rest of you I need IDs."  My 30 year old sister gets carded and I don't?  WAH!!!!!  Maybe it's time to finally start coloring the greys.  Okay, I concede that maybe I don't look as young as my 21 year old cousin (left in the photo below) or my 26 year old sister (right in the photo below), but to not card me???  Heinous, I tell you.

The shower yesterday was a big success, but super hot and sweaty since it was held in an air conditioning free church basement.  There was way too much food (my mom and the groom's mom clearly had a communication problem on that), but my family and her future Macedonian relatives seemed to hit it off.  There was a brief moment of hesitation when I whipped out the toilet paper for the dress game (they don't play shower games at Macedonian wedding showers), but her fiance's foreign relatives ended up embracing it with gusto.  Here's them posing with their model Daniella:

In the end, we had some interesting dress designs ranging from my niece Hannah (which her team dubbed "the Hawaiian bride")

 to my sister's fiance's brother's girlfriend Brandy (her team called her look "risque Vegas"--- she's 2nd from the right in the group photo at the top of the page).  Red had a blast being a wedding dress model and assisting with gift delivery during the gift opening process.  I guess we bought my sister the right gift.  Who knew someone could be that excited about flatware?

All in all the shower took about 6 hours including set up, actual shower time, and tear down.  Wow--- I had some hurting feet last night.  I was pretty proud of our crafty/DIY showing for the event.  Since my sister's a daisy fan, I made the centerpieces out of a metal bucket bought at TJMaxx, a shasta daisy from the grocery store, and raffia.

My sister and her best friend tried their hand at a Martha Stewart candy bouquet (instructions are here):

 Overall, it went well, the families got along, and she got a lot of nice gifts.  

What more can you ask for?

Now---on to the wedding!!!

Back from vacation!

The one candid photo of me from the trip.  I'm reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan at the campsite and drinking a beer.  Yay for vacation!

We're just home from a fabulous two week vacation out east to visit the Cobbler's family.  I went into it extremely apprehensive.  The majority of the trip was to be spent in a lean to (essentially a 3 sided shed) at a state camp ground in Vermont with no water or electricity at the site.  I don't consider myself high maintenance, but I do consider myself to be a girl who needs relatively close access to a bathroom at night --- having two kids will do that to you --- and our site was one of the furthest ones away from the facilities.  I should have not been afraid.  Prior to leaving the Cobbler built me my own luggable loo from a toilet seat and a cylindrical storage container.  Pop in a garbage bag--- voila!  An overnight pee pot.  

Before arriving at the campground though, we got to have an amazing stay at the Marriott next to Niagara Falls.  There are two Marriotts next door to each other on the Canadian side.  We were at the taller of the two that was further up the street (the tall hotel furthest left in the photo above).  Here's where it gets crazy.  The hotel has 31 floors.  Our room was one of two rooms on the 32nd floor.  Yep, the 32nd.  We took the elevator as far as it would go to 31, got off, walked to the end of the hall and went up a flight of stairs.  BEST ROOM EVER!  Here's our view:

 Check out the rainbow!

 We even got to see the fireworks show!

And let's just say that the kids (and the adults) enjoyed the in room hot tub.

We then went on our annual ride on the Maid of the Mist.

The next day involved an eight hour ride the rest of the way to Vermont.  Here's our campsite named Gum.

We stayed for a full week and shared our site with the Cobbler's sister Sandra and her son Peter who popped a tent next to the lean to.  We ate all our meals over at the Cobbler's mom's campsite Ivy and had a campfire nearly every night.  I even got two books read --- Tell No One and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  Both were great vacation reads.  Here are some of our  fave Vermont camping photos.

After camping, we headed down to Massachusetts to visit with my sister Andrea's family who live in the same town the Cobbler grew up in since she married his best friend!  We had a great time visiting and swimming in her in-law's pool.  Tom Thumb and Red had a blast with their cousins.

Then, to give Red a few alone days with Grandma as her reward for learning how to swim, the Cobbler, Tom Thumb and I headed down to Eastham on Cape Cod for an overnight.  Eastham has to be my all time favorite town on the Cape.  You can go to beaches on two different sides of the Cape in minutes.  Plus, it's not super touristy so it has a more relaxed vibe.  We went to the beach and Nauset Light and got to see our second rainbow of the trip.  We capped off our Cape visit with a duck boat tour in the Cape's biggest tourist trap Hyannis. 

After a 12 hour trip home on Wednesday, we're back.  I'm now in the throes of preparation for my youngest sister's bridal shower which is tomorrow.  I ran around for about 6 hours yesterday with my sisters and my mother choosing tablecloths, buying centerpieces, etc.    Today will be spent baking and cleaning since my older sister arrives with her two daughters tonight to stay at our house.  Oy---I'm going to need an adult beverage after this one.  See ya all next week! 

Book Review: Throw Out Fifty Things

I just wrapped up the book Throw Out Fifty Things by Gail Blanke.  I've been on a bit of a simplification/organization crusade this year, and my reading choices have reflected that.  I was expecting another typical how to get organized book, but I found something quite different in this book.


In the first section of the book, the author encourages you to throw out fifty things from different areas of your house.  When she says "throw out" she means either trash or donate, but keep in mind that you can't just throw out fifty magazines and be done.  Fifty magazines would only count as one thing.  Each of the 50 things must be different from one another so whether you throw out 2 shirts or 200 shirts it still only counts as one shirt for the point of this exercise.  I liked the author's narrative style.  It was written like she was doing it along with you so when it got to the end of the bedroom chapter, I had gotten together a bag of clothes to donate and she had thrown out 5 decorative pillows that didn't suit her bedroom's style anymore.  You get the idea.


The real meat of the book came later though when she got to the section entitled "Attacking the Mental Mess.".  This isn't just about cleaning your house.  This is where the book went from being just another organization book to a book that challenges you to throw out your emotional baggage too.  As you read the chapters titled things like "Letting Go of Feeling Inadequate, Irrelevant, and Just Plain Not Good Enough" or "Letting Go of the Need to Have Everyone Like You," you get to hear the personal stories of others who let go of these things and what they did.  I came face to face with myself  in the chapter "Letting Go of the Regrets and Mistakes of the Past" when the author told the story of a woman named Heide.  Here's an excerpt:


I recently met a woman named Heide who told me she'd always been so afraid of failing that she only attempted those things in her life and career that she knew for sure she'd succeed at.  "So you can imagine how limited my experiences have been so far," she said with a dry laugh...she has no major failures to regret.  On the other hand, she has no stunning successes, either.  Actually, she does have one regret: that she didn't push herself further...  The point is: You can't succeed big-time if you're not willing to fail---big time. (Throw Out Fifty Things, p. 138)


Most of my life I have spent avoiding failure.  I'm lucky that I've been blessed with a lot of talents, but I never pushed myself in areas where I thought I might fail.  My freshman year of high school I was trying to decide what sport to try out for.  I enjoyed basketball and was marginally good at it (being 5 feet 11 inches tall helps in that department), but I didn't think I was good enough to make the varsity team.  Maybe JV, but definitely not varsity.  On the other hand, I was also a better than average distance runner, but didn't like it as much as basketball.  The cross country team was no cut (i.e. if you came to practice, you were on the team) and if you ran in one of the seven varsity positions once during the season you got a varsity letter.  I chose cross country and got my varsity letter as a freshman.  My picture is still in the trophy case at my high school from my sophomore year when the cross country team took 2nd place in the state championship.  Even with that victory, I've always wondered what would have happened had I chosen basketball.  I didn't though because I was afraid to fail.  


I also enjoy theatre.  I did a lot of acting in high school, but never tried out for the lead (again, fear of failure) and didn't even bother to audition at all in college.  Instead I chose to do costuming and costume design because I knew I couldn't fail at that.  I ended up the supervisor of the costume crew my junior and senior years of college.  Is this avoiding failure or picking what you're best at?  I don't know, but I'm done with not trying things because I might fail.  There is so much I want to do still in my life.  Why bother being paralyzed with fear of failure.


Bottom line---I can highly recommend this book because you'll not only get a less cluttered house, but also so much more from reading it.  Enjoy!

The Big Storm of 2011

We spent the last three days without power after a huge storm on Saturday.  Two giant limbs came off the tree with that rope swing that's in the common area behind our house.  They landed on some wires and took out two telephone poles, one of which just missed one of our neighbor's houses.  All the debris, poles and wires landed in the four yards that are immediately behind our house.  

The Cobbler and I were unfortunately on a date when all this happened.  When we noticed how bad the storm was getting, we started driving home.  On the way, our babysitter called and said the power was out.  The entrance to the neighborhood was blocked by a downed tree when we arrived, but we were able to get into the neighborhood going the wrong way.  The street leading to our street was blocked by downed power lines too so we backed up on to the street and went a different way.  Going that direction, there was a telephone pole snapped in half and more power lines across the road there.  We finally had to exit the neighborhood and come in on an entirely different street before we were able to get to our house.  Fortunately, we had no damage to our house and there were no injuries that we know of in the neighborhood.  Our next door neighbor's tree in their front yard lost a huge limb that missed everything and landed on their front lawn.  The worst damage was to a house five doors down that had a tree crush their garage and the car in it.  Here's the playscape the kids normally play on in the common area.

 Here are some shots of our neighbor's yard who lives immediately behind us.  Notice all the power lines mixed in with the tree branches.

 Here's the tree that caused all the damage.

Notice how close the telephone pole is to their house.  That's where it landed!

 More downed wires.

The power finally came back on last night, but it's going to be a few days to get this mess all cleaned up.  I was able to save most of what was in our refrigerator by taking it to my uncle's house Sunday night and my parents let us stay at their house for a couple of nights since it was so hot out.  We're all just thankful that the damage wasn't any worse.  


In the end, the lesson I got from this is that we need to be better equipped for emergencies.  Despite the fact that I started on an emergency kit earlier in the year, it isn't finished and the kids had gotten into the flashlights and used up all the batteries playing with them.  Luckily, we had lots of candles.  What we really needed though was a big cooler, which we didn't have.  I need to add that to my list and get my kits finished up---and definitely restocked with WORKING flashlights!


What have you done at your house to prepare for emergencies?