new post please

The only reason for this post is to limit the amount of exposure of my son wearing a dress. At the mall yesterday Eva did some good work on the giant jumper.

Three Little Princesses

Yesterday Xochi came to play. Here are the three kids enjoying the trampoline. Fodder for Micah's wedding!

One of Those Days

It began with a dream. I was playing ringette and my performance was terrible. Missing every pass and just making wide lazy turns instead of doing anything remotely constructive. Left me with a feeling of disappointment and frustration.

All night I felt like I had solid sleep waiting in the wings, but never quite got there. Woke up tired, even though we went to bed quite early.

I am getting discouraged because I have yet to exhaust the never ending supply of cement-like substance which is blocking my nasal passages. I could blow all day long (and kind of do) and never have a clear moment, not even immediately following a three-kleenex series of blows.

Micah was in fine form today. Let's see.... crayons and strawberry lip smacker on a variety of walls.... while I was cleaning that he filled the kitchen sink with oats and water.... later a giant meltdown because I buckled his seatbelt for him... toilet brush dragged to the playroom... ripping parts out of his book.... fell asleep briefly in the car and didn't sleep later (when I REALLY could have used a few winks of my own)...

I took the kids to the park to kick a ball around and they would not be convinced to kick the ball to each other.... they both would just kick it away from the other one who would cry and complain and it was generally unpleasant all around.

They did eat really well at supper, which always gives a mother a happy feeling. And went to sleep more readily than they have in three days. I am planning to get to bed on the early side and have my solid heavy sleep!!

Cosmic Cookies

The kids and I made these cookies today. I got the recipe from the Delicious Nutritious Frugalicious blog.

I made one batch using the recommended 1/3 cup but the cookies were so ginormous I downsized to tablespoonfuls and I liked that better. I might even make them smaller next time, because they are so hearty Eva didn't even finish one of the smaller ones. FYI they don't spread so you can space them closely on the cookie sheet.

I am really stuffed up right now so I can't comment too much on taste, but I love them based on the ingredients alone. They are practically guilt free! They make an excellent quick snack or road trip food.

I substituted plain unsweetened yogurt for the oil and slivered almonds for the pumpkin seeds.

2 1/4 cups oats
2 cups flour
1 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
1/4 cup flax seeds
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 3/4 cups dark chocolate chips or carob chips
1 1/4 cups raisins
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup oil (I used olive)
1 cup milk (use whatever kind you like... skim, soy, almond, etc)

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Mix wet into dry and stir until mixed - don't over mix.

Drop 1/3 cup of the batter at a time and form into cookies. Bake at 350 for 24 minutes or until lightly browned.

Fun shots

Yesterday the kids put on their favourite costumes and we took a few shots. Michel came over to join the fun. The only problem was she was sick...as you'll see from the shots.

Micah giving us a lion's roar....even though he's tigger.


Eva giving us her best pose....


This picture is hilarious. Our kids are very into it while Michel is sick and wondering what the heck is going on.


Michel...

Addition

Every Friday Eva comes home with a packet of the work she has done throughout the week. This week one of the items was a page of addition problems. Her teacher wrote the problems and Eva determined and recorded the results (with some guidance from her teacher).



The math component of the Montessori method gets me excited. It's so tactile and visual and natural. Math can sometimes be such an abstract subject for students; the way it is presented in Montessori makes it so much more concrete.

Here is what A Parents' Guide to the Montessori Classroom by Aline D. Wolf has to say about it:

A child in a Montessori class never sits down to memorize addition and subtraction facts; she never simply memorizes multiplication tables. Rather, she learns these facts by actually performing the operations with concrete materials. When the child wants to do arithmetic, she is given a sheet of paper containing simple problems. She works the problems with appropriate materials and records her results. Similar operations can be performed with a variety of materials. This variety maintains the child's interest while giving her many opportunities for the necessary repetition. As she commits the addition facts and the multiplication tables to memory, she gains a real understanding of what each operation means. In a Montessori classroom there are many materials that can be used for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

THE SHORT BEAD STAIR

The Short Bead Stair represents the quantities one through ten in easily recognized colors. A single red bead represents 1. A bar of two green beads represents 2. A bar of three pink beads represents 3, and so forth, with the bar of ten golden beads representing 10. If a child wishes to do the sum 3+5, she places the bar of three pink beads beside the bar of five blue beads, counts the total number of beads and records her result: 3 + 5 = 8.

Daylight Savings Time

Though Torreon is in the central time zone, Mexico changes its clocks on a different date than do Canada and the U.S., who will change this coming Sunday March 8. Here we won't change our clocks until April 5.