The ongoing saga of B-B and B Part 11 Walk poses 1

 

On a bench at a local school.

In front of a big pine tree.

B's an old pro at posing on rocks-we don't even need to prompt her-she just jumps up on her own, balancing like the little mountain goat dog she is.

I had to take the picture of B from afar because he hasn't mastered staying in the pose position on the rock.  He sees someone come closer and immediately jumps down, wanting to greet that person.  But at least he's learning to climb onto the rocks.  At first he was very hesitant and would only walk around the rocks.  It took a lot of treats and praise to get him up on top.

Sunday Randomness #91: Continuing Inconsistencies in life

*Mica to new roommates on their first night around midnight in response to staying up and getting to know one another: "I'm old." And then she went promptly to bed.  (She was a sophomore and they were freshmen.)

     Me: We got cheated on our chicken noodle soup! (Upon the discovery of one lone noodle in the box of soup.)
     Hedgehog: No we didn't.  It's quite literal: chicken nooooodle  soup.
     (I should have noticed it was singular "noodle", not plural  "noodles".)

*  Remark at a restaurant that caused the rest of our table to erupt in laughter:  "We're all decapitated in one way or another."   (Since everyone knows that being decapitated is so close to being incapacitated. You just lose your head sometimes.)

     Response by daughter after I hung up their coat on the new coat rack after they threw it over a chair:  "Noooo, things aren't suppose to be used for their intended purpose!"

*Mica's opinion of Daisy's lackadaisical response to doing chores:"You're only a disappointment on odd days.  On other days you're just a pet peeve."

     How high mom rates on the list of importance:  "I gave you my junk e-mail address because my other e-mail address is for people I care about."

*"What!?!"  Reaction of daughter when finding out that the family stapler was also out of staples when they attempted to use it.  They had thought to use the family one instead of their own because they would have had to put in new staples.
This is also the same daughter that told me that: "If you notice your coca-cola supply going down (the case of glass bottles that are suppose to be for headaches), it's because we don't have any clean glasses and so there's nothing else to drink."

     Hedgehog: "I didn't remember to return your headphones because I was so enamored with them. They have such good sound and they block out the rest of you outside noise."

Author #111: Books against Bullying by Erin Frankel

Erin Frankel's series of books by Free Spirit Publishing cover the ever present problem of bullying.  The three books show the same scenario from different perspectives: Dare is told by the bystander, Weird is told by the subject of the bullying and Tough is told by the person doing the bullying.  At the end of each book are steps each one can take to change behavior to getting along instead of victimizing or standing by the side.  Some of the lessons learned include:  In Dare Jayla refuses to take part in the bullying and encourages other kids to help instead of watching.  In Tough Sam learns that taking her anger out on others doesn't help her own situation.  In Weird Luisa learns that she is not to blame if someone bullies her and she doesn't have to change to please them; she can have confidence in herself and what she likes.  For more about the series and steps to prevent and change bullying, visit: http://theweirdseries.com/

Author 59: Judy Finchler teams with artist Kevin O'Malley for schooltime

It's a pretty common occurrence for children to wonder about the private life of teachers-after all, when school is in session they often spend a great quantity of time with the teacher in the classroom, outside, in the library, computer lab and other areas of the school and on field trips. Do teachers live at school? Read about one teacher, Miss Malarkey, in two adventures: Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10 and Miss Malarkey's Field Trip. How do teachers cope on field trips? Most of it boils down to experience-Ms. Finchler is a retired elementary school teacher and librarian from Parsippany, New Jersey. Mr.O'Malley has a website at www.booksbyomalley.com. There are currently seven Miss Malarkey books in print. Find them on Amazon or at your local library!

Cookie project

While they didn't have to do the science fair this year, Eva still had to do a project for class if she wanted to try for an "A" in the science section for her class. Eva chose a cooking project since we had all the supplies. (The shortening and margarine were from pie making during the holidays.) (The apple butter was bought for a recipe and we've been slowly consuming it on sandwiches and toast. We prefer the traditional spreads like raspberry and strawberry jam so the apple butter has lasted for some time.)Ingredients: brown sugar, white sugar, flour, salt, egg, baking soda, vanilla, fat & chocolate chips
(recipe courtesy of Small-Batch Baking by Debbie Maugans Nakos)

Fats used: Butter (B), Margarine (M), Apple Butter (AB), Shortening (S) and Oil (O)

We didn't sign up to do taste testing [that required a separate form (government bureaucracy-even at the elementary level)]. I'm sure there's many legal and logical reasons behind the extra form but we chose to just go by appearance for this test.

The oil cookies looked the prettiest but smelled and tasted the worst. The apple butter came out soft and chewy but really sweet and the apple tones were....unusual. The margarine actually tasted the best in this particular recipe but normally we use a combination of butter for taste and shortening for texture and softness.

Since the tri-fold boards were only a dollar, we went ahead and bought one from the school. The final score came in around a B+ to A- so that was pretty good. If Eva had to do it again she'd add taste and overall appeal-not just appearance.

Author 5: Lynn Plourde with school days

Do you have book fairs at your school? Dewey Booker can hardly wait for his class to go to the book fair but they are the last class in the school to go! Will there be any books left? What about the new Amazing Explorers Atlas? Or mysteries and histories? Will he have enough money in his bookworm bank?



We've read Lynn Plourde's book before such as School Picture Day and Wild Child. Mrs. Plourde writes a varied selection of books from simple verse to more complex stories for older children. I like the quote on her homepage: "...a better job title for me might be 'word player. I love playing with words....I just spill them onto paper, stack them up, move them around, and see what I can create.'"



Mrs. Plourde has over a dozen wonderful pictures books out in print with a number addressing issues with Mrs. Shepherd's class. She is a wonderful example of never-giving up. It took 13 years before her first book was accepted and that was after hundreds and hundreds of rejection letters. She emphasizes that it is better to write well than to write long. For more information, visit Lynn's website at www.lynnplourde.com