Two Book Tuesday (Whoops Wednesday)!! Father's Day Ideas!

Some of you may know that I live in a Geek household. Of course the biggest geek of all is GeekDad Matt! Today I want to highlight books to celebrate the Dads and Geeks in your life!

Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share
by Ken Denmead (Matt's fellow GeekDad)

I wish my dad had this book when I was a kid. I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through my children! Ken has collected amazing activities to share with kids. These activitiess are unlike any I have ever seen in a book! As a teacher and parent I have collected quite a few of a similar flavor with ideas for experiments, crafts and games. These projects are designed to spark kids imagination and get them really engaged in the process.

Some favorites from the book:
See the World from the Sky: Secure your mini digital video camera and launch it into the sky with the help of some balloons. I can't wait to try this one on our annual trip to the beach!
A Never-Ending Demolition Derby: Combine the awesomeness of RC cars and Legos and then let your kids go wild!
Crocheted Dice Bag of Holding: Come on, you knew I would like that one!

The kid in me loves the ideas and thinks they are coooool! The grown-up Mom in me is really impressed with the ratings for each activity for cost, difficulty, duration and reusability. OK, so obviously this one is great for Geek Moms, too!

My Daddy is a Pretzel
by Baron Baptiste

So once you have run around with your kids, come on inside and get centered with some yoga! This story puts the practice of yoga in the terms of everyday life, giving kids a great visual for every posture. A great story to just curl up and share or to open up on the floor next to your yoga mat.
Combine this with Yoga Pretzels, a deck of cards full of more yoga postures and activities for kids and adults to share.
Or if you would like to take your practice out into the world try the Yoga Planet deck to take care of the earth and people around you!

I'm Hooked -The Challenge!

I have issued myself a challenge! An Amigurumi Challenge! My goal is to come up with and develop a new pattern once a week.

Most of the characters that I make are my own personal designs. I do take existing patterns in books and online and then modify them for my own style and tastes. I am starting to think of myself as an artist. But this is hard. I have never thought of myself as such.

So now your part of the challenge.....

Give me some ideas! I have a few stored up from friends who have made requests and my own noggin has been working overtime!

For today I would like to introduce two new designs:

The Hula Dancer is my own inspiration, I had a lot of bright green yarn a friend had given me and I was thinking about a good use for it! I really like her, and if you have come here via Facebook then you know she has become my profile picture!

The Cat in the Hat was an idea from a lady at my knitting group! She commented that her young grand daughter might like it. I am not quite happy with his face and will need to keep working on it.

So now my friends it is up to you to keep me going with ideas! Leave your comments here or email me directly.

Girls Only Weekend

It is rare for me to have the opportunity to spend an extended period of time with just one of my children. But this weekend, Leah and I had a Girls Only Weekend! Isaac went on a special trip with his grandparents and my GeekDad husband, Matt was in California at Maker Faire!

So we started with making a list of things Leah wanted to do on her special weekend.
Hang out with other girls
Do nails
Eat spaghetti or steak
Eat ice cream
Read

We managed to do all of the things on her list! Although I opted for spaghetti instead of the steak!

In addition we spent alot of time snuggling, chatting and tickling. It was wonderful and magical and I am thankful for this time. She will be so big so soon and then who knows if she'll want to spend this time with her Mom!

Two Books for Tuesday!

I've decided to try something new.... Two Book Tuesday. Each Tuesday I will strive to share two favorite books, one for adults and one for kids. We are big readers in our house. Each day the kids are reading their own books, Hubby and I are reading our own books, and then each night we all get in our jammies and have a reading time. We read aloud from a book we are all interested in. This is my favorite time of day.
With out further delay, on to the books!

One for Grown-ups!
In His Majesty's Service Three Novels of Temeraire by Naomi Novik

I am just eating up this book! It is huge because it includes the first three books in this series, plus a short story as well. Captain William Laurence is serving in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Here is where the history takes a twist. In this reality, dragons are a integral part of the war. Manned by aviators who bond with a dragon for life. Laurence quite accidentally bonds with such a beast and names him Temeraire. Together they must leave the Navy to join the Aerial Corps, an all together different culture than the Navy.
The relationship between Laurence and Temeraire is amazing, they are comrades and best friends and so much more. Novik has created the most amazing characters in the dragons. Add to that the attention to detail to history (other than the dragons), military and social culture and it is truly engrossing. If you enjoy historical fiction, fantasy and a combination check it out.


And One for our Kiddos!
The Mouse Hunter by Alex Milway

This is a delightfully adventurous trilogy perfect for a child who can comfortably read a chapter book or sit through the reading of one. In this fanciful world people are obsessed with mice. These are not the mundane vermin of our world. No, in this world there are countless varieties of mice in every shape and size. Rich and privileged individuals collect mice as pets. Others use mice as domesticated help. Children are trained and employed as Mouse Keepers. This is the profession of our heroine, Emiline. Emiline sets out on an adventure of a life time encountering mythical, rare and simply unbelievable ice.
We recently gave the first two books to a good friend of our son and she read them both in a few days time and then began rereading the first one again. The children in the school and neighborhood that have read the book have a mouse hunting team and go on adventures to find mice in the woods.
The last of the trilogy is only available in the UK but we have ordered it! I can't wait to see the look on their faces!

Shhhhhhh! It's a secret!

I've been thinking about secrets alot lately. Why do we have them? Keep them? Tell them?

We've been exploring this theme at church as we prepare to welcome a new minister and confront any old history that the church has swept under the rug. It prompted me to think about family and personal secrets (not that any of mine are big).

In modern society we might keep pregnancies a secret, marital problems, health issues or parenting difficulties. Why? Family and community support are often the biggest pieces of our success in life and yet many people shy away from it. Is it pride? Are we trying to "keep up appearances" for the neighbors?

Recently, I was sitting with an acquaintance and let down my guard enough to tell her "a secret." She replied quite positively that she and her family had encountered something similar. I was floored. We continued to talk and share information. It felt so good!

No, I don't want to walk around divulging every little thing about my life. But I do think maybe we need to open up and let our guards down a bit more often.

And NO, you nosy pokes aren't going to find out my secret du jour......at last not yet.

I'm Hooked: May the Force be with you!

In an attempt to join forces with my geeky husband, I present my latest amigurumi creations:Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and Yoda. Come see them a lots of other new patterns at the Reston Market tomorrow!

A (belated) Mother's Day Poem

I love my children for their differences.

My 9 year old, Isaac is all analysis. How does it work? Why does it work?

Leah, 7 years old, is synthesis through and through! She is the artist and poet.

This morning Leah presented me with a belated Mother's Day gift, an acrostic poem using the word MOTHER.

My love lies on you!
Of All that I know I wouldn't be here!
The thing that we love to do can be done with you!
Here the robins sing to the others!
Eggs are what I'll make on your birthday!
Run with me on Mother's Day!

I'm not sure I "get it" entirely, but I sure do love it and her!

No, Really.....

I have always had a problem getting to bed. Not to sleep mind you. No, my head hits the pillow and I am off to dream land.
I have a habit of being distracted, or lured away by the TV, laundry, computer, crochet projects and of course my favorite books. And so I announce " I am going to bed" to my husband and then proceed to do anything but. So a few minutes later I say "I should really go to bed" and then I don't. Finally I end with " OK! I am really going now! No, really!"
That is exactly the way it has been with this blog. I sit down to write and the kids need help with homework, the cats need to be fed, or the dishes need to be washed. I get distracted and make excuses not to write and yes, someday I will explore this with a licensed professional.
So what is the solution? With sleep, my body will eventually take over and complain loudly that I am not making it a priority. My blog, not so much with the complaining. I must make writing a priority!
And so here we go again! No, really!