Vicarious Thoughts

Click on the image for a closer look.

This is my first time doing one of these challenges from the Digital Photography School. This week’s challenge was to capture contrasting colours and so I’ve taken a photo of the flowers of our Jerusalem Artichoke plants with the clear blue sky as a backdrop.
I really like how crisp and clear the spiky parts are and that you can see the detail of the internal parts of the flowers without petals. Colour me weird (and forgetful when it comes to the names of parts of a flower). :)

So a quick update on the items I’ve worked on since identifying what I can do last week:

54. learn to crochet
As it turns out, I had already purchased a crochet hook and I had some balls of wool as well, which is always a useful thing when learning to crochet.
I found some directions in a book I own on how to crochet. Last night I attempted to follow them. Attempting turned out to be the correct word to use because my chain stitch looked odd and then trying to do the next type of stitch resulted in a mess of confusion.
My next plan of action is following along with some Learn to Crochet videos on the Lion Brand Yarn website. The added complication that I initially thought wouldn’t be one (since I mastered knitting just fine), is that I’m left-handed. The other complication is that I’m pretty sure the crochet hook I purchased is too big compared to the wool I’m using. Wouldn’t hurt to find a smaller one when I’m out and about next.

94. work up to blogging regularly
Well I published three blogposts last week and because I didn’t do just one, I’m only challenging myself to publish another three this week. It would be nice to also have some drafts in progress but I’m not going to bust a gut over that for now.
I’m happy with my progress on this task, especially since I don’t feel stressed in trying to keep up with it. Let’s see whether that changes in the coming weeks.

22. get a stable vegetable garden going

So this is our chaotic vegetable garden. It’s been a bit neglected recently, and with the changing weather it’s all over the show. Our vegetable garden is set up as a grid of four gardens. The garden in the foreground is our “main vegetable garden”, simply because it’s the one we got going first. It currently has gherkin plants, aubergine plants, zucchini plants (there was meant to be a variety but only zucchini produced) and along the western boundary bean plants. The gherkin plant is ready to come out and the remaining zucchini, I mean marrow, need to be harvested. The bean plants are having their second wind and I need to harvest what has grown also.
Here are a couple of close ups from this garden patch.

Look at how lovely and glossy that Aubergine is. And if you click on the picture below you’ll be able to see a giant “gherkin” growing with the beans. Our gherkins grew too big for the most part (I’m not admitting to being too slow at harvesting), and so we’ve been eating them as cucumbers instead (seeing as they come from the same family).
So my task for this week is to harvest all the vegetables I can from this garden, remove the plants that are at end of life and then straw over the garden, until we purchase some green manure crops (if we even do this year). I need to also look into whether I need to lay some manure down under the straw if that’s better left til Spring.
I’d also like to remove the corn plants which are clearly at end of life, tidy up the garden they’re in and also get that one strawed for Winter.
I’ve got to keep the momentum up in the gardens as the recent rains have drenched the ground and the grass in the area will soon be more mud than grass which will make any work in the garden that much more difficult.
I have also been through our seed stash and there’s quite a number of options for Autumn sowing that can be done. I need to get out into the garden before I can consider those options further though.

Other
I realised last night that I have 2 tasks on my list that were meant to be updated on the 26th December 2010! Since I haven’t put any thought into what I could make of these tasks as yet, I don’t want to make a hasty decision and put the first thing that comes into my head. Instead I’m giving myself a week to thoughtfully consider what tasks I’d like to add to the 101 in 1001 list. Any suggestions?

Number one task is the Home Education Exemption that is a requirement in New Zealand. I have a bunch of excuses which are entirely uninteresting and the end result is that we should have had this submitted back in January. And we’re heading into April!
So by the time I write the followup blogpost in a week’s time, I will have our exemption sealed up tight in an envelope to be able to slip into the Mailbox on the Monday morning.

This past week has been a time to clear our heads and get back onto the correct page so-to-speak, and I’m looking forward to jumping into this coming week with a vengeance!
I recently caught up with some local homeschooler’s and I’ve come away thinking that my educational expectations are higher than the average homeschooler and this on top of Sam’s particular needs/considerations is probably why I’ve been feeling more than a little overwhelmed at the fact we appear to be falling behind with all the non-education-related stuff that’s been chewing up our time recently.
What I need to remind myself is that Sam often exceeds my expectations on the short term level and that we often surpass a 15 minute lesson which is outstanding considering her Autism.
I get that I need to make some adjustments in terms of the workload but I also need to cut us both some slack in that we’ve been trying to achieve so much more than what I suspect someone with her needs would normally be expected to achieve.
Getting down to specifics, I’m impressed with her recent requests for words to copy and her ability to then do so. I can just tell that when she finally unlocks the mystery of reading that she’ll be off and away and that makes me want to Squee! with delight. She’s also getting back into drawing and she’s turning into a motor-mouth, although her personal style of grammar is still extremely evident.
In the past month she discovered she could do more with a computer than simply watch movies and was having a great time navigating sites like Starfall.com which I’ve heard no end of raves about. Unfortunately, it had a disappointing affect for us, in that Sam started connecting particular words to sounds instead of simply recognising they were examples and that made our homeschool language/phonics lessons more difficult. The american style of word pronounciation became overwhelming evident as well and was also not helping with our efforts in the language department. So sadly, Starfall is no longer welcome in our day.
Luckily, the software we ordered several weeks ago has finally arrived. The application is called Clicker, and it’s a wonderful tool that I know we will use often. In comparison to the oral part of Starfall.com, Clicker comes with a British accent and is able to interpret the pronounciation of words as they are presented to it. And as a bonus, if it get’s it wrong, or if we simply pronounce it differently down under, you can correct it!

In a completely different part of my life. The domestic goddess *cough* part, that is. I made Sultana Biscuits on Monday, Gingerbread Biscuits and Burger Buns on Thursday, and today Triple Chocolate Muffins (from a box admittedly), and also Apple Pie! That’s an extraordinary feat for someone who aims to bake one thing a week and fails most weeks! :D I guess you could say I cheated with the Gingerbread Biscuits a bit as we made the dough back in early December(!), but I thawed, rolled and cuttered thank you very much!

From my goals for the past week, I’ve met quite a few of them which include:

Yay, 3 blogposts up (if you include this one, which I most certainly do!)

Halfway through an inventory of our Laundry cupboards (where I store all our new/excess non-kitchen supplies)

Did a great job at keeping up with my weekly housework chores, including doing some that I tend to avoid at all costs.

Put some items up for auction (> 20 items at that!)

So my plans for the coming week are:

NUMBER ONE PRIORITY: Home Education Exemption out the door!

Home Education planning/prep under control – need to get this back into a routine.

Get 30 minutes sustained exercise only 1 time this week. 1 time only. I can do only 1 time. Right? RIGHT!

3 more blogposts this week. It was a breeze this past week and I know I can do it again!

More items up for auction and an item given away to a good home.

Weekly (Household) Tasks more than 50% of tasks complete – I managed it this week and those ones I procrastinate, they weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be – Funny that!

Make progress on a website I’m working on.

Finish inventory of the Laundry – Really this just makes good sense. Cause you know it’s easier to move around in there when the cupboards don’t look like they’re having a good vomit.

This probably won’t surprise you but this isn’t all I’m working on but just the ones I’d show some insight into or that a bit of public accountability wouldn’t hurt with. Some of the tasks are more defined on my personal Weekly Review page in my planner.

Wish me luck, and I hope you all have a wonderfully productive week too! :)

So I’ve joined an email group called Question of the Week about Homeschooling and Family, which as you can possibly divine from the name is about the posing of a question which needs to be answered.
So I thought I’d post my responses on here. This week’s question is:

What happens if you have bought a product for homeschooling that you thought would be fabulous and it just doesn’t work for you?

We don’t buy many brand new items as money has to go a long way and spending it on items that we end up not using is a real concern.
I try to mitigate this by researching items I think we could/should be using extensively, getting a gut feeling from people’s testimonies/feedbacks and hopefully garnering a peek at what the content is like. Then, and this is the bit of my process that really agitates me but is super worth it, I put my final decision(s) on a wishlist and let it sit. Often when I’m next getting a hankering for purchasing materials, I have another look at this wishlist and am able to edit it further, leaving just the items that we really can utilise.
This has worked well for us and I have few regrets over the items we’ve purchased online as a result of this.
But buying online isn’t our main source of homeschooling materials. The big booksales in the region are my primary source for books and despite my overpurchasing tendency I still have few regrets with the purchases we’ve made.
This probably has much to do with the fact we’re only in the early stages of homeschooling (our daughter being 6) and it is easy to say “well, she’s not really ready for this lot of materials right now and we can find out how useful they will really be when she is ready” and stick them on the shelf ready for that glorious day.
With the items that are found to be unsuitable for whatever reason, we return them to the booksale for some other person to discover or sell them online via Trademe, Sella or a homeschool sales email group.
Getting back to the original question though, there hasn’t been a product I was absolutely certain would be ideal for us that hasn’t turned out that way (as yet, it’s early days). Definitely we’ve had to switch courses to better meet our daughter’s needs but since we haven’t yet spent a great deal on a single item, it hasn’t been a huge burden to change tack after purchase. With the alternative materials we do have we will pass on once she’s grown out of their use ensuring that we don’t dispose of them before we’re certain we have no futher use for them.
I guess our situation is easier also as we have just the one child and so don’t have to consider the future needs of her siblings in the years to come. On the other side of the coin though, we don’t get the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) decreases that come with a product that is reusable with multiple children and this factor matches up to why we consider hard how suitable a sizeable purchase is for our child.

So the following is the result of a recent brainstorm I had wanting to move forward with my 101 in 1001 list, with the result being a random 8 items I can move forward on. Coming up with a concrete identifier of what constitutes a WIN is really hard work and even now I’m not completely assured that I have done so.

5. be familiar with the location of the countries of the world
Work continent by continent
Find websites to help concrete information
Regularly doing quizzes
WIN = 80% accuracy in locating countries on a global rather than continental basis

11. create a recipe binder and/or book
Use my existing book as a starter
Regularly add recipes to existing book
WIN = Book filled with recipes I’m comfortable with, to the point I refer to it before other books.

19. finish cross-stitch and frame it
Regularly work on cross-stitch until complete
Purchase frame. Prep and frame cross-stitch.
WIN = Finished cross-stitch project hanging on wall

22. get a stable vegetable garden going
Harvest ripe vegetables and remove end of life plants
Empty beds covered in straw or sown with mustard seed.
Check out seed stash for possible winter growing options
WIN = regular planting and maintenance occuring for duration of 101 in 1001.

45. grow some mushrooms
Buy mushroom kit ($35 from Bunnings)
Setup and maintain.
WIN = Mushrooms grown

54. learn to crochet
Buy crochet hook (double check haven’t already)
Find directions on learning and a project I’d like to complete
Practise regularly until basic stitches are ingrained
Work on basic project
WIN = able to complete basic project

79. relearn calligraphy
Practise regularly
Work on calligraphy project regularly until complete
WIN = Calligraphy project complete

94. work up to blogging regularly
Start with writing drafts regularly
Move onto 1 blogpost per week and as successful adding 1 to the weekly goal, and subtracting 1 from the weekly goal each time I fail.
WIN = Steady at 4 blogposts a week for 3 months relatively sustained.

So the next step now that I’m happy with these goals is putting them into practise. Piece of cake! ;)

It’s been another long day and I’ve spent the last two hours trying to relax by watching TV and almost relaxed too much and missed the deadline.

I visited Rosebowl Bakery & Cafe today and if you’re relatively local to Feilding they have an awesome range of cookie cutters (and heaps of cake decorating supplies!). Though I have to admit I didn’t see anything like the ones shown below, which are totally cool! They’re designed by Mizuguchi Gami and whilst I couldn’t find them for sale anyway (perhaps they’re just a proof of concept as she seems to be more of a designer than a manufacturer :) you can see her work here. Found via Craft.

Apparently, that’s what we did today. After a rather frustrating morning, Sam and I went off to get away from it all for a few hours and I drove us to Pryce’s Rahui (Reserve) which is managed by Forest & Bird.
Either the grass has been growing super quick or I suspect we were the first visitors there in at least a week as the main gate required effort to open and close it against the grass and the 10 second drive to the picnic area reminded me of trying to do the lawns when the grass is taller than the lawnmower. The ground on the track was still a little muddy in places but was solid enough that Sam’s dainty weight didn’t make much of a dint in it and I was able to manoeuvre around it with little effort.
There are three tracks all linked to each other. The blue track is the shortest one I feel and we didn’t go on that one today. The red is meant to be the same length as the blue (20 minutes each) and follows for the most part the same track as the yellow which is the longest at apparently 1 hour long. I can’t tell you the times we did because we did the red and yellow tracks in a rather unconventional sequence. One day we’ll do it normally I guess.
We hung/hanged out in the picnic area for a good hour either side of the walk and so had a chance to get the full benefit of the local bird life. I saw a pair of Eastern Rosellas, heard and saw in the distance the squawking of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, the almost baaing sound of Paradise Ducks overhead, saw Kereru doing acrobatics (flying up at a steep-ish angle and then “stalling” causing them to swoop waaay down low) and oh how I love the sound of them thumping along overhead, Tui’s skipping through the air (as a friend recently described it, which makes me smile), the call of the Shining Cuckoo, the cheerful flitting and squeaking of the Fantail, Seagulls (sorry no better description) flying in to check out the nearby newly tilled/ploughed paddocks, Yellow Hammers singing away (I can’t think of a good way of describing their call), the friendly sound (to me anyway) of the Kingfisher, and I know I have missed some birds off the list (like the Magpie – grrr I don’t like those birds, and the Thrush nesting at head-height right by the track and who I startled as much as they startled me.
Sorry no pictures this time. I decided to enjoy where I was firsthand for a change :)

I’m too chicken to write about most of the stuff that’s going through my brain at the moment. I haven’t made much progress on the NaNoWriMo front either yet – but my plan is to knock this blogpost out of the pack and then hunker down with some music blasting in my ears and churn out some pages. On the upside, I’ve got my characters talking now!

By the way, if you’re looking for “normal” character names I’ve found Seventh Sanctum to be helpful. The site has a whole bunch of different generators and you can kill quite a bit of time checking them all out (ask me how I know).

Something else I thought I’d mention is a Firefox add-on called LeechBlock. This is a really useful and powerful tool for people who procrastinate by killing time on the web. Let’s say you have discovered another webcomic recently and you have a compulsion to start from the very first strip all the way to the current one so you don’t miss out on any of the in-jokes and understand the back story. With LeechBlock installed you can restrict your access to the site to only a certain number of hours on certain days. One of my friends has done the opposite and restricted her web access so that she can only visit a number of websites that are related to her work activities. Obviously there are ways to circumvent the restrictions you’re putting in place but – the very act of circumventing can help you get back on track by realising the level you have stooped to to procrastinate. In which case, you should ask yourself – If I want to procrastinate so badly, I should really be cleaning the toilet/fridge/oven/freezer/(insert your worst chore ever) instead. At least that way you can say you did something productive – just not what you should have been doing.

I’d decided at the very last minute that I was going to attempt to do the official NaBloPoMo this year and yesterday I signed up and started my first NaNoWriMo!
I will admit that I didn’t achieve the daily goal yesterday for NaNoWriMo, that it seems unlikely that I will be writing over 2000 words in less than an hour tonight, and that I am currently stuck in a scene where I don’t know what comes next. I guess this is the downside to starting at the last minute and just starting writing rather than having some kind of idea about the story and background information related to it.
I will also admit that I am really tired – the ups and downs of the day (mainly spent out and about) has been really draining and I am looking forward to sleep whereas normally sleep is something that happens cause the body needs to recharge and my brain finds this need annoying. :)

Okay, I’m off to see how many words I can churn out from the comfort of the bed before the pillows beckon and to shrug off the guilt from writing such a no-content on only Day 2 of 30! :)

20. fly a kite

Today, we headed down to the park today with two kites. One is a very cheap kite reminiscent of the one I remember from when I flew my first kite (and wound up chasing after in an overgrown field) and required a little tweaking before it would fly and a inexpensive and better quality kite made of ripstop with oversewn seams and pockets.

I had forgotten how exhilarating it is to fly a kite! The ripstop kite was definitely my hands-down favourite of the two and was the easier to launch (just hold onto the string close to the kite and let it out as the wind catches the kite). We strung some expensive, what I’m guessing is, builder’s string that got put in the basket on a hardware shopping expedition by a certain small person and that worked well and only caused a bit of drag when I let the string right out.
The last kite I flew was a big (1.5m long?) box kite I made from scratch for our school’s kite day way back when I was 12ish. Today brought back the memory of the pride and excitement of getting something in the air.
Sam had a great time too – though she found the fact you can crash a kite by out chasing it a little frustrating. She did really well though – not only handling the ripstop kite with relative ease but also managing to keep the plastic kite up in the air for a really long time (way longer than I can recall from when I was her age anyway).
After some time she decided the nearby playground held more enticement than the kites and I had a 1/2 hour of fun by myself with the ripstop kite.
I definitely want to try out a stunt kite now and I know we’ll be back to the park with kites in the near future!