He Blinded Me with Science!

Brown Eyes rolled into double digits this fall.

He's my quintessential middle son. After I wrote that, I had to do a quick search to make sure that I knew what all I was including in that statement. The website I was checking out says that there are two types of middle children...Brown Eyes would be the quintessential Middle Child #2: outgoing, friendly, loud, laid back, and patient. And loud. Did I mention that one already?

Anywho, he is the most tender-hearted kid I know. And I don't mean that in a wimpy, thin-skinned kind of way; I mean he has more compassion and tenderness than should fit in his little body.

So I'm getting off track...he turned 10. And he's sweet. So I wanted to do something special for his birthday party. He also loves science, so rather than trying to find some awesome party-in-a-box thing, we got creative.

I observed that we should have areas in which we could analyze as many areas of science as we could. So here's a sample of what we did to construct his day in a Weird Science kind of way:

So of course we had to activate the thing with some solidified carbon dioxide (a.k.a. dry ice)...

...and some creepishly huge insects in jello lab jars in the windows...

...eyeball beakers were certainly in order...

...as well as a petri dish cake. Complete with multiple bacteria and lab rats.

We had a substantial collection of experiments to investigate, and we initiated the plan with a scavenger hunt Data Discovery game.

Hopefully, you've noticed by now how much linguistically scientific I have become since this party.


Ummmm....yeah. Anyway. Back to discovering data....

I wrote clues with a lemon juice and corn starch composite on regular paper, and classified a set for each team. One clue connected with the next so that the team collectively determined what clue they were to find next. Can you guess what picture they were to find based on this clue?

Once they evaluated and understood the clue, they had to search for a picture of that clue that I had hidden in the yard. At that point, they opened up the paper to reveal the next clue. (I had a separate line of clues for each team.) Watching them run around the yard trying to be the first team to find all of their clues was the best part of this game.

Once they had discovered all their clues, this was the specimen they found...

And now that they each had their own set of protective eyewear, we were ready for some experiments...

We concocted a silly bandz lava lamp using oil, water, food coloring, alka-seltzer, and of course, science-shaped silly bandz!

We interblended white school glue, Borax, and food coloring to make the classic Gooey Gunk, which many of the boys had never handled before. If you've got boys and have never made this, go here for the recipe. It's a good dose of awesomeness for a kid.

Lil'bit's face cracks me up in this one...

We also put a penny inside (almost) clear balloons, blew it up, and then shook the balloon in a circular motion to illustrate centripetal force.

We performed a couple of other small experiments before going inside for cake and ice cream, but I have to say this picture just beats all...the moment the best friend of the birthday boy realized his beaker was staring at him...

And last, but not least...we burned off a little steam with an explosion of epic proportions...mentos and diet coke.

We tested several of these explosions, but this was the best picture recorded...and the very first one we launched. We estimated about 30 feet of diet coke lift.

Incidentally, if you are ever in need of either 1) all kinds of science-related equipment or accessories; or 2) wasting a profusion of time unnecessarily, you must visit the American Science and Surplus website. I haven't laughed that hard from shopping in a really long time. The product titles and descriptions are hilarious!

My personal favorite: the product title for temporary tattoos = Rebel without a Commitment

Have fun!

Rising Out of the Ashes and the North Georgia Fair

So. December was pretty much a blur.

After a fiendish case of strep throat immediately followed by bronchitis, once able to lift my head off the pillow I was suddenly faced with the monstrous task of making homemade gifts and cards, baking no less than 12 dozen cookies, freezing homemade pumpkin puree, ALL of my Christmas shopping (and I was shopping for everyone in my family PLUS for grandparents' gifts to the kids), and shipping everything except what was to be opened here in my own home...in just a little over a week.

I hardly remember the whole thing.

I shipped DH's grandmother's gift to her, and when I talked to her after Christmas, I made the mistake of asking if her cookies made it in good shape. "What cookies? I didn't receive any cookies."

Oops.

I haven't experienced foot-in-mouth like that since the last time I mistook a lady's distended midsection for a reason to celebrate.

Oops again.

Let's go ahead and throw in the fact that I needed to wrap all those gifts I bought, plan, shop for, and cook a sizable Christmas dinner, including pies and hors d'oeuvres that no family could ingest on one day. The whole time I was thinking to myself, "I'm not cooking again for another week. We'll live on this all week, just get it done." I did; and we did.

Now, before you get the crazed idea that I'm complaining, allow me to set the record straight: I am most certainly not complaining. I love doing these things. It's just that I usually do them over about a three week period...not all at once like that.

And so I will conclude this portion of today's post by saying that the Christmas season as a whole was a sweet time, and a glorious display of what God can do through a very tired girl in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Next year, a Vitamin C regimen is on the agenda beginning with Thanksgiving.

Now that you know what got me off track, let's finish catching up on the ol' blog, shall we? Back to last fall....

North Georgia Fair


We went to the North Georgia Fair, which is always fun. I'll just share a few pictures and captions and call it a night. It was a fun day, but the one thing that really sticks out in my mind is my own personal "that figures" moment.

For the months of September, October, and into November, I was successfully staying on an "eating plan" that consists of low carbs and very low sugars. When I get going on something like this, it's usually pretty easy for me to stick with it as long as I have healthy options.

But on this day, I was at a Fair, for crying out loud.

I really thought I was doing pretty well skipping past all the corn dogs, funnel cakes, and homemade sweet potato fries and heading straight for the Cajun booth selling steak wraps. Think about that: the only carbs are in the tortilla and a few in the grilled veggies, but really...that's not too bad for a Fair! Nevermind that the "wrap" was the size of a submarine; that's beside the point.

Afterward, I was waddling walking around feeling pretty good about myself. I got a "wrap" at a Fair.

Do you know that less than 20 minutes later, we turned a corner and saw a Greek salad bar?

At a Fair.

All of sudden, my I-actually-found-the-most-healthy-food-at-a-Fair attitude deflated. I missed out on a Greek salad...and on bragging rights.

Other than that...and sweating profusely...we had a rather fun day.

Here's the kiddos with their foot-long corn dogs.

Brown Eyes with his homemade root beer bottle.

 Brown Eyes decided he wanted to do some rock climing...

 Almost at the top!

Back down safely...whew!

 DH at the Fair.

Lil'bit on his way up to the top of the inflatables.

Both times I tried to get his picture coming down this slide, there was a little girl that hadn't gotten off yet...I was cracking up!

 This is my favorite picture from the day...it pretty much sums up how we all felt.

Trip to Kentucky, Numero Dose

Well, in the spirit of "Do Overs," I am going to post my new (but not new) slideshow.

See, here's what happened: I spent a lot of time creating this fantasic slideshow on the Rock You! website. When I pasted the code to my post, it showed me the wrong slideshow. I emailed the company, but got no response (to this day). So I then emailed a friend who has had the same problem, and she said hers eventually published just fine; maybe the spanish slideshow is just a filler until your post actually publishes the slideshow. Great! So I scheduled the thing to publish.

WELL, my DH stayed home for a bit this morning, so I didn't check my blog until 7:30 am or so. Some of you had commented already; including one dear friend asking if we speak spanish fluently! Well no, we really don't.

So I sent another email, sent a message to their online "live chat" (which was OFF line), and after searching for a phone number on their site for some time, called their offices...which had NO ONE to answer the phone.

Go figure.

So Smilebox is now my internet hero. (I have others, but those are either God, or people...this one is just a website). Anyway, they saved the day for me.

At least I hope so. As I am typing this, I haven't actually published it yet. :-)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Trip to Kentucky

So my mom was here for 10 days for the first time in four years. Yep. Four years. Usually we go home (she lives in Texas) at least once a year, but I had told her we most likely wouldn't make it home this year. So she did what any self-respecting Mamaw suffering from grandchildren withdrawals would do: she hopped on a jet plane and came to see us!

We also have some friends who are much further along in life than we are. She and I worked in women's ministry together for a while and got to develop a Christ-centered relationship through that. Even though she and I don't get to attend church together anymore, we still have that sweet bond that joins two believers together and nothing can separate...even time away. She and her DH have spent the last couple of decades saving up money and furnishings for land and to build a cabin in Kentucky, which is where their roots are. (Talk about inspiration!) Both of them grew up within just a few miles of their property, which they call Twin Oaks.

Their dream all those years was to build a cabin in which their children (and now grandchildren) can congregate for the holidays and reunions, etc. They have a large family, so the cabin needed to be accommodating...and boy is it.

My friend (I'll call her Penny) and her hubby are so gracious as to allow people (including our family) to visit their cabin when their family isn't using it. My DH built a few things for her kitchen, including a pot rack




and a bea.u.ti.ful shelving unit that is mounted to her cabinet





So couple that with the fact that this is our third time to stay in this glorious cabin, and you have a small sense of ownership on our part! It's like a home-away-from-home for us. Really, it's more like a heaven-away-from-reality. Yeah, it's like that.

Anyway, while we were there, Brown Eyes celebrated his 8th birthday, and even though he hasn't had his "party" with his friends and all, he (and we) had a ball. Enjoy the show:


[EDIT: Apparently Rock You! has some serious issues, because we are not a hispanic family, but that's the slideshow that was posted here this morning. I have an email into them to see if we can fix el problemo.] :-)

Marshmallows for Teeth -- Works for Me Wednesday

Well this week's Works for Me Wednesday was an "accidental" discovery, but hey, it worked for me!

Do you know what this is?

Mini me came in the kitchen one day during school and asked me for some vinegar and an egg.

Excuse me?

Vinegar is something my 10 year old cannot stand...ever since he was in first grade and developed the frequent habit of putting his fingernail in between his back teeth. I never discovered the big attraction to this habit, but I told him if he didn't quit putting his fingers in his mouth, I would dip them in vinegar.

Then I let him smell the cap from the bottle.

It worked. That one was a freebie. But do keep reading....

Anyway, this was a very odd request from him; a very odd request indeed.

"My health book says I need to soak an egg in vinegar to show me what happens to my teeth when I don't brush them."

Really? Because I never thought of an egg in association with my teeth. Humph.

Do you know any children (or maybe even an adult or two?) who just do not like to brush their teeth regularly? Maybe they just don't get the point, since they're just going to eat and dirty them up again. These same kids tend to not "get" the point of making up their beds, too. You know the ones.

Well, this experiment is sure to cure them of their ills.

We soaked the egg in straight vinegar for about 6 hours. I think the boys thought that the shell was going to totally dissolve and the inside would be oozing out into the vinegar, only to cause some kind of freakish reaction and bubble over onto the counter.

No such occurrence.

As a matter of fact, the only change that seemed to be happening to our egg was that every so often, little bubbles would form on the outside of the shell (see illustration) and then it would spontaneously flip over.

I haven't studied the level of physics that explain that phenomenon.

Anyway.

After about 6 hours, I finally decided to take the egg out of the glass and throw it away, since we didn't see a meltdown of all meltdowns.

That's when I discovered the beauty of this experiment: the outer shell of the egg felt like tomato skin!

I called the boys in and showed them this:

Do you see my finger pressing into the eggshell? This is a raw egg, ya'll!


It turns out that the vinegar (acid) continuously weakens the hard outer part of the shell (like the enamel on our teeth) and eventually eats it right off!


My son then proceeded to tell me that he learned that when we don't brush our teeth, the sugar and plaque (bacteria) produce acid (it's an excrement...eeewwwww), which then wears the hard enamel off our teeth...and weakens them just like this egg!


My Mini me and Brown Eyes were both in agreement after seeing the fate of this chicken egg: We're not complaining about brushing our teeth anymore!


What's more, even after I took the egg out of the vinegar, I let it set out over night and the acid continued it's work decomposing the outer shell of the egg.



Eeeewwwww.....






They've not complained since our experiment. Therefore, it's safe to say it worked for me!

Earthshattering Bible Lessons from the Family

Brown Eyes made this clever deduction the other day when talking to his little brother:

Brown Eyes: (indignantly) "The Bible says we should treat others the way we want to be treated. You should do what the Bible says!"


A lesson we can all take to heart, eh? Who knows what Lil'bit was doing. Obviously, ol' Brown Eyes, being the scholarly sort of fellow that he is...he had him on this one.


_________________________________________


Later in the night, the riveting saga continues:



DH was digging around in the frig like a crazed, hormonal woman looking for chocolate (can I get a witness... anybody?) He wanted something sweet. He had been on his confectionery safari for some time, and I heard him implore the Heavens: "Lord, help me find something..."


Do you know that man almost immediately found a hunk of chocolate chip cookie dough that I had forgotten about?

He must be living right is all I can say...chocolate chip cookie dough on demand. Sheesh.

God's So Funny Y'all

Okay, I have to admit. This next statement is SOOO much easier for me to say at 11:55 pm, when everybody has gone to bed and I am finally alone. But the fact is, God has really been very gracious to infuse a lot of His compassion and humor into my life with my kids in order to balance the aggravation that they can generate.


For example, have you ever noticed that baby poop doesn't really smell that bad when they're first born, but as they get closer and closer to their potty-training age, it gets worse and worse? I really think that's because God's saying, "They can't help themselves early on, so I'll cut ya some slack. But as they get older, you (mom) need to be motivated to get them trained!" What could be more motivating than an olfactory offense?


When they are first born, they sound so sweet and lovable when they cry. But a year later, we must be acclimated to a shrill that peels the paint off the walls...and sometimes in the most inappropriate places to boot.


Here's a biggie: They aren't mobile for a good while after they're born. I just KNOW this was by design, too. It's as if God said, "Okay, woman, you have this demanding little progeny that is totally dependant upon you...but at least you won't have to chase him...for a while."


See? God's grace is imparted.


Then they learn to talk. Oh boy. This is good and bad. It's good in that they can now tell you what they want; it's bad that they can now tell you what they want. Constantly.


But the other good thing about them learning to communicate is the process they go through. I have been keeping a journal of some of the things my kiddos have said over the years that have kept a smile on our faces as we go along. I think I'll share some with you now.

Mini me:

• Liked to go look at books at "Barnes and Stables."


• We would pass by the fire station, and if the door was closed, he would say the "fire truck is 'leepin?"


• He liked roasting "smarshmallows"


• More recently (like last week): I told him about the old Grey Poupon commercials. He said to me in his best English accent: "Pardon me, do you have any gray poop on?"

Brown Eyes:

• Big things were "HUGE-MONGOUS!"


• After he cut his finger, he went to his daddy and said, "My finger is cracking!"


• He loved to eat "oitmeal"


• Before he was 2 years old, he would try to eat his Grandpa's Starlight candies (red & white peppermints), but we would say, "Those are Grandpa's!" So he began to ask for "Grandpa's" (He thought we were telling him what they were instead of whose they were.)

Lil'Bit:

• Loves to eat "Chicken Little Soup" for lunch


• Always asks at church: "Can I go to da PRAYground?"


• Any cup with a handle holds "foffee"


• He is FINALLY potty-trained...and wearing his big-boy "Wonderwears."


• My personal favorite: "You're not a person, you're a Momma!" Yeah.

I love my God and His thoughtfulness towards us Mommas!




I think I'll head over to da prayground and drink some foffee tomorrow morning...after I eat my oitmeal and sausage with grey poop on.

Jeepers Creepers!

(cue suspenseful music...)

Today I opened the curtain to take a shower, and found this evil villain staring me down, attempting to capture our bathing headquarters and rule the whole stinkin' world!!

(make your children look away! AAAAAHHHHHHH!) This week's episode: Captain Catch-All and Superboy

combat against Spider-man's alter ego...the Cricket Thing!

(loud shriek..."Help me, somebody! Come get this thing outta here!")

You know, I'm really not a big sissy. It doesn't bother me so much that there's a large, creepy, highly volatile insect staring me down in my own bathtub. The problem I have here is with the nauseating crunch that you hear and feel when you stomp a critter like this.

Washing it down the drain is out of the question, you see, because I would never wash my face again for fear that the thing would crawl back up the drain and be with me in the shower!

Unthinkable.

So of course, the most logical thing for me to do is to call on...

Captain Catch-All and Superboy!! (insert echo effect)

Easy does it, Superheroes...he's a jumpy little thing!

Look at the supreme display of teamwork, careful concentration, and discipline!

My heroes!

Saved the day, once again! Thanks guys. You're the best!