Proof that you can buy anything on e-bay. This is a piece of scrimshaw baleen from Fairbanks, Alaska.

I thought it would be a neat item to put in Grace’s whale lap-book. She was so excited when she saw it she told here dad, “Look! It’s a piece of baleen from a whale.” James replied, “What’s baleen?” “You know, dad, baleen, from a mysticeti whale, it’s like their teeth…” Oh….

I got a new game last week from the thrift store. It’s called s’math and it’s like scrabble, except you have numbers instead of letters.

We played and it got really hard. I’d be looking for an equation and I wouldn’t have an = sign and then I didn’t have the right numbers to use one of the signs that was already on the board. Neat!

Here are Grace and Hannah’s salt crystals that have been growing for about 2 weeks now.

Not very spectacular. It’s just evaporated salt in a cup of water.

I wonder if ammonia would have made it go faster?

Maisy had fun at the doggie fest, but I shouldn’t have given her that dog treat in the car. We made it into the driveway and she threw it up, gross doggie throw up on my van carpet. Note to self, no more dog treats in the car.

What fun! I went to church last night for a ladies bunko night. I’ve never played bunko before and it was pretty easy. We had 16 tables with 4 people at each one. The rules were: roll 3 dice, if you get a 1,1,1 (and it’s time for 1’s) then it’s a bunko. Any other set is a funko and if you roll a 1,4,6 (and it’s 1’s) that’s 1 point and you roll again. It was harder than I thought to roll a bunko, but I did roll 8 funko’s. The first table I sat at the ladies and I were talking about children. They were older and their kids were grown up, they said how hard it was for their kids in college because they didn’t know what they wanted to do. I said 3 of mine have already decided: Joel - pilot, Bethany - dancer/librarian, Grace - marine biologist. I said that Grace was way into whales and one of the ladies said that her daughter wanted to be a marine biologist and train whales. She said she has a ton of old books about whales from when her daughter was headed in that path and she’s giving them to me. How cool is that? Grace is about to have an overflowing whale book collection!

Anyway we played two sets of bunko from 1-6 and then got prizes. I got a prize for having the closest birthday to Friday. It is a book of devotionals for women. There were prizes for most losses, most bunko’s, most funko’s, biggest purse, craziest socks and more. Plus there was a ton of junk food. It was 90% junk and 10% carrots (we also had 2 bowls of candy on every table.) I actually had to eat a few carrots at the end because of all the sugar in my mouth. I also met a new HS’er to CO, always good to see that I’m not the only one in church that does it (which I know I’m not, but they are hard to find for some reason.) I hope they do this bunko again; I’ll take it over the scrapbook night every time!

Today we’re going to the Parker Barker fest because….we have a dog and now we can go to all the dog things around town. Maisy is clipped and brushed and ready to go meet some fellow dogs (well, probably not, she’s just going for the food.)

What a week. Here are my birthday pics.

We went to Mimi’s for a late lunch and had some great food. My biggest birthday present was that I didn’t have to vacuum!
Monday we started (Joel and Bethany anyway) on CSAP testing. Bethany had 2 days, Joel had 3. When I picked her up after the first day she was saying, “Can we come back tomorrow?”, and of course she made 12 new friends. Joel was just ready to go and get out of there. In the upper grades they don’t give them a break to talk, but he was the only boy in there so I don’t think talking would have been an issue.

While they were testing Grace, Hannah and I went to the thrift store and Crown Hill Park.

We also went to the bookstore, Prospect Park and a historical park where they had a log cabin and old post office set up.

It wasn’t open though, Fridays only it said. We might come back on a Friday to check it out.

Thursday I was just finishing up the school room transformation. All I need to do is put a lamp together for the corner and I think it’s done. There is a reading area where Grace’s desk was, the bookcases are moved over to where Bethany’s desk was.

Joel’s and my desk are in the same place.

Now Bethany and Grace’s desks are against the other wall, and I moved the piggie cage and slide.

Today was presentation club: Bethany showed her paintings and drawings, Grace showed her paintings (one of a whale of course), and Joel showed his hat that he knit and the loom he made it on.

Joel wasn’t happy about being there and threw a fit when walking up to talk. So, he got the royal treatment at home, a yelling at and his games taken away. I think he needs more sleep, it becomes readily apparent when he has been up late and not gotten enough sleep. Plus his air mattress popped, so that might account for lack of sleep too.

Yeah for the weekend!

Joel and Bethany had CSAP testing this week, so we’ve been up early and then rushing around for dance, doc appts. and such. I’m also rearranging the school room, it’s almost done (I should have taken before pics, oh well.) We should be up and running by tomorrow.

Matthew 28

The Resurrection

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Maisy already christened the snow we got last night with her footprints. Instead of saying that my birthday falls on today, I’ll say that I am honored to share it with the celebration of Jesus’ rising from the dead. My birthday and Easter haven’t intertwined in 95 years and they won’t again for another 200! So, today we are going to church and then to Mimi’s for my birthday. (I’m 35!) Here are my flowers (and I got a new mop; hokey, maybe, practical, Yes!)

Here are some Easter pics that didn’t make it into the slideshow. Have a great day of wondrous joy and remembrance of what He has done.

Easter 08

Matthew 27

11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. 12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. 15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. 19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” 20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. 21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered. 22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” 23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” 24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” 25 All the people answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion

32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 38 Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” 50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” 55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

The Burial of Jesus

57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

The Guard at the Tomb

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Today is Good Friday and I have some comments. It is hard for us to think of Jesus crucified, bloody and dying, eventually giving up His sprit and being entombed. It’s hard because try as we might, we can’t be good enough to reverse that act. If it were possible to become so good that you never sinned, then Jesus wouldn’t need to die. The pain and agony He felt could be avoided. But, this can’t be. Because we are human, we sin. It’s just that simple. Because we sin we need a savior. Because we need a savior God sent His son. Because He sent His son, we can live. God knew what He was doing. We aren’t mistakes; He chose to make us this way; maybe to remind us that we are fragile creatures in need of someone to care for us, love us, accept us, hold us. Jesus will do all of that and more. He will give us life everlasting. Forever is a long time to be without Him.

Here are three crosses from our house. Joel made this first one and it reminds me that Jesus was a man. He was the son of a carpenter and was brought up in a shop with sawdust floating in the air; the sound of a saw rasping on the wood.

This cross is crude and simple, that’s why I love it. It also reminds me that I can come to Jesus as myself, just me, no hidden agenda, no putting on airs, it’s just crude, simple me. Waiting to be transformed.

This cross was one I found in a store. It’s nice; I like the silver on it.

It reminds me that Jesus encased the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was the silver lining for the disciples. Here their master was gone, but He left them a comforter, the Holy Spirit. It is in all of us and guides us in our lives, even when we don’t know it. The Bible says that even when we don’t know the words to pray, our spirit cries out for us.

This last cross may look very catholic, that’s because it is.

James’ mom was brought up catholic and this was from her great-grandmother who came over from Italy. It is very ornate, hand-carved and now that James’ mom, grandmother and great-grandmother have passed away, it is a reminder of them. I look at this cross and I remember that Jesus was not just a man, but He is the son of the living God. He was made to be our savior; He was made to remind us of God. When we look at Jesus, we see God. We see someone who loved His father so much that He obeyed Him on our behalf, giving up His life for ours. That is truly a beautiful scene.

Remember, Easter is not about chickens or peeps or bunnies, it’s about Jesus!

Joel, Grace and Hannah made some stop-motion movies at the library today.

Click here to see Joel’s movie. Click here to see Grace and Hannah’s movie (we forgot to stop it after the credits, so it will just go on for another 2 minutes of black screen.)

This was too cool, we have a web camera and we have windows….I think we’ll be making more of these.

Wow, we have never been on a tour of a television station before, and it was pretty boring. Apparently with March madness going on, news has stopped. But before I get into that here is our tour.

We first stopped at the wall of employees.

They go from oldest to newest hire; the guy on the upper left has been at channel four since 1971! Onto the weather center, and since it was such a pretty day I guess there was no weather to report.

We saw all of the computers and the weather desk and the green chromo-key background.

After this we went into the main reporter area. There were a lot of empty desks, which brought us to the assignment editor. He explained that usually the place would be hopping, but since they are in the middle of March basketball madness and they don’t have to show the news until 10pm, everyone was covering basketball or on vacation.

Good thing no important news happens during basketball season……anyway the assignment editor talked to us about how the news gets to them. No, they don’t usually go out and get it the old-fashioned way, it comes to them. They listen to the police channel, emergency channels, they get feedback from the east coast affiliates, phone calls and e-mails. In fact the recent outbreak of salmonella in Alamosa’s drinking water supply was e-mailed to them by a concerned individual and then they checked up on it and got the confirmation from the water district. Good thing there are concerned citizens out there!

He showed us the cameras around town where they can look for weather, accidents or such. Then he asked two awful questions: 1. Who here watches channel 4? (We watch channel 7 and a lot of us don’t watch news anyway, they are children he’s talking to.) and 2. Who wants to be a journalist? (I could see their minds whirring; they were asking themselves ‘Doesn’t that involve writing?’) Nobody raised their hand.

Next stop was the station of the guy who puts all the video feeds together on the station to look nice. He was pretty cool. He showed them how to add layers of video and then sound and transitions. His board looked like the board at the radio station James used to work at, but the monitors…I was jealous (more jealous than with the morgue monitor.) They have 4 huge plasma screens with different video feeds on them.

Next we went into the room that you see on TV. There were really big, expensive looking cameras.

Our guide told us that it only takes 1 person to operate those because they use a joystick, neat. Notice (besides the red eyes of the children) that in the news desk they have a screen and keyboard.

We didn’t get the 411 on the keyboard, but the screen scrolls their script, so does the mirror under the camera, so they have another place to look for their words if that one goes down. Then Jim Benemann came in to do a spot and we had to leave.

I guess the kids would have been more impressed to meet a ‘TV celebrity’ if they had known who he was.

Last stop was the sports center where they have a mini-studio to do the sports.

Then it was time to leave, but not before Hannah and her co-hort pushed a chair off the stage. Luckily the guide was already down the stairs, she never heard a thing.

I think it would be nice to go back when the place is crawling with people and see them doing their jobs.

Maisy says Happy Spring!

Where the guy finds that meteorite and he touches it and then everything started to grow green stuff? Well we ended our sponge garden, it was just being crazy. Here are day 5 and 6.

See the crystals growing over the edge?

They were falling off onto the counter (remember that’s food dye that colored it) and it was just getting messy. I expected to wake up one morning and find my whole kitchen engulfed in crystals, so we said goodbye to that experiment. It was pretty and cool too!

We need to wait a few more days for the salt crystal on the string, we added too much water and it’s taking awhile to evaporate.

We had fun at my Africa co-op yesterday. I just wish I had more time. We started a few minutes late and ended early for clean-up so I think we spent 1 ½ hours on it. I divided the room into 3 areas of Africa: Desert, Savanna and Rain forest. We started off in the Sahara desert. I read a story about a boy named Ali who was helping his family take their camels to market. We talked about deserts, water, animals, clothing and food that would relate to the desert area. We had a pan filled with sand and I poured water over the areas that had vegetation, this was for the kids to come back later and find the water under the sand.

I had a craft for each area, this one was sand art. The kids put glue designs on their paper and then covered it in blue or yellow (or both) sand.

It was kind of messy, but it landed mostly on the blanket (my brown blanket was the sandy desert.)

Next we traveled to the Savanna and read the story Brining Rain to Kapiti Plain, also the book Water-Hole Waiting and Kenya Count to Ten. We talked about the Masai and looked at Swahili words like: simba (lion), rafiki (friend), also numbers: moja (1), mbili (2) and so on. As I read the watering hole book the kids strung bead necklaces, this went with the knowledge that the Masai produce beautiful jewelry. My green blanket was the grassy plain and I had a blue blanket to represent Lake Victoria. We talked about what kinds of animals you might see in the plains as opposed to the animals we saw in the desert.

From there we went to the Rain forest, I strung up crepe paper (I should have used more) on a string to be the forest vines.

We read about Koboto, a child of the rain forest, and looked through a book called Panther Dream. We talked about how hot and sticky it must be in the rain forest and how people who live there want to wear as little clothing as possible. I asked if anyone had been to the Denver botanic gardens and gone into the dome. They immediately understood how humid, hot and sticky it must be in the rain forest! I had another book of the Zulu tribe that showed examples of loincloths. We were going to make loincloths, but I grabbed small paper bags instead and we decorated them with paper cutouts (I had almost all girls in this class!)

As they were doing that I turned on our African drum-beat CD and we listened to that while they decorated their mini-balloon drums. We had animal printed pencils for drum sticks.

Our last place to visit was back at the tent for the Kalahari Desert.

We talked about how this desert is different than the Sahara. There is sand, but there are also salt pans and red rocks. Most of the kids had been to red rocks in Denver, so when I said imagine living there, they could see it in their minds. We dug into our sand pan and found water under the grasses (in a sponge I had placed under there earlier.) We picked out rocks to make rock art. Everyone drew designs onto their rocks (and Hannah drew on herself too.)

Then we started cleaning up and making file folders to go home. Everyone grabbed a folder and put in it: an African passport, animal game, crossword puzzle, coloring pages, map of Africa, word scramble, paper that looked like a suitcase with pictures of Africa on it, and animal fact sheet. I think everyone had fun, I just wish we’d have had a little more time. I wanted to play the counting game (where I call out a Swahili number and the kids run to get into groups of that number) and the bean guessing game (where everyone takes a handful of beans and then puts some in their right hand. The other person guesses how many you have in that hand, if they are right they get your beans; if they are wrong they give you that number of beans.) Maybe we’ll take those ideas to park day and do it there.

Here is a list of resources for learning about Africa:

Here is one that has you play a game through the forest to get to the village.

This one is a web page with lots of links to different areas of study for Africa.

African crafts for kids.

Please don’t get into translations other than Ireland forever. It is corrupted in English anyway, so let’s just leave it at that. Grandma Carberry claims Irish ancestry on her husband’s (James’ grandfather) side of the family. She says when they came over 3 greats (grandparent’s) ago their name went from Carbrae or Carbrey in Ireland to Carberry at Ellis Island. Which I can totally believe. Here is what Maisy would look like if she was truly Irish.

Here are the kids with the props Grandma Carberry sent. This was taken a week ago; we actually have about 4 inches of snow on the ground today.

Here are my lassie’s looking cute.

Here is some St. Patrick’s Day stuff for kids and some history of St. Patrick.

Have fun!

Maisy says thank goodness it snowed today.

She also says thank goodness we took her sledding. She is going to be in the ‘Idon’tarod’, that’s for those dogs that just can’t mush enough for the Iditarod! The kids had a blast.

The hill only got 3 inches, but that’s all we need. The sun came out just as we left, but I see gray clouds to the east of us, more snow?