Friday Coop Day

7:30 AM A deer wanders through the yard. We saw them everywhere this week while the corn came out of the fields.

Got to co-op at 8:15-the two "big" girls went to their pre-co-op women's singing group. 8:30 Everyone goes to class.

9:15-10:45 Taught my two art classes. This week we learned about illuminations. We started drawing illuminated letters. We will finish and put color on them next week.

Sarah F. brought this pretty guy to show all the classes. She has a breeding pair and raised this one from hatching. He was very popular.

The jr. high and high school art classes did self portraits and finished off their mosaic projects to take home. Daughter L.'s on right.


The Senior choir's director/pianist had to be gone, so they taught themselves. I. (15) and C. (16) directed and accompanied the choir.

12:00 Classes done, lunch at B.'s house with others who need to stay in town for afternoon extended classes. Much eating, playing and talking among kids and moms. After lunch, took a few shots of friend A's kids who wanted "school pictures." They have 7 great kids but are down to 4 at home now.


A few "fashion shots" of I.

Her friends helped with the shoot. Photog's assistants. They provided shade in the midday light, and smiles on the subject. It was BRIGHT! But we are not complaining about this weather in early November.


How'd these two get in here? The are not Friend A's kids?( That's C.K. and C. B.) Oh well, they're cute. Sometimes the camera gets a little carried away.

1:00-3:00 M and L. have Logic, World Geography and Shakespeare at Extended Co-op, then M. is off to an overnight birthday and L. is off to a friend's until ballroom dancing lessons in the evening. A. will pick her up after work/supper out/movie with a friend. Husband is home in the field doing tillage. W. and I head home through the great fall weather, savoring our blessings. Fridays are a marathon, but one well worth participating in.

I embarrassed my daughter today. She was willfully defiant in her homework (she talked back, refused to do work, and quietly ripped the page up while I was out of the room.) The idea was to get the book work done quickly because a friend of hers was coming to play before noon. So we had an intense heart to heart (after the torn page) and she had to finish her work, then sit in her room for 1/2 hour after the friend arrived.

She finished the work a couple of minutes after the friend arrived. I explained to her friend that my daughter had a little trouble with her work and attitude and that she had to sit for half an hour before she could play. My girl looked at me with pleading, tear brimming eyes, embarrassed that I would tell her friend her troubles. My heart clutched, but I said,"She is your friend, she will understand when you have trouble." Off she went to her room. (No tears spilled.)

As I went back to finishing the noon meal prep, I felt bad that I had to embarrass her. She was so uncomfortable. But then I thought, "That is just a small bit of uncomfortable." If she never has to deal with the uncomfortableness of consequences for wrong actions in these small ways, how will she be able to deal with larger uncomfortable moments in life? I must be realistically tough with her (them) when she is young to prepare her for when she is older. It's not much fun though, when those big eyes look at you.

So we learned a few lessons this morning:

Mom is in charge.

Friends who are real friends will understand when you have trouble.

Work that must be done is best done quickly. (As Ma Ingalls said.)

At least I hope she learned all these lessons! Somehow, I think we will be covering a few of them again in the future.

Lone Tree

Here is the Indian Mound tree in its fall glory. We went by it the other day and the sky was a great color. Daughter L. had to catch a few shots. See it in the winter here.

Family Pictures

Yesterday I took a few shots of our B. friends. A beautiful family, inside and out!

Here are their blond cuties.

Black Cats and Decorated Pumpkins

This week in art classes we decorated pumpkins. Our group generally celebrates All Saints Eve/Day more than Halloween, so we decorated "Fall" pumpkins and stayed away from the "icky" side of Halloween celebrations. (Daughter M's above.)

The pumpkins were donated to us from the B. family. Here is what we did:

You need:
Permanent markers
pumpkins, any size, washed (and wiped with a Clorox wipe, if desired)
washable markers
reference pictures (fall, leaves, curlicues, lettering)

Look at ideas for fall. Go over lettering and decorating ideas. Have references for students to refer to. Fall stickers, fall advertising and fall decorating catalogues are all good places to look for ideas, as well as on-line.

After talking about fall ideas, give each student a washable marker. Avoid black and yellow. One shows up too much, the other not enough. I told the kids they had to do fall designs so their parents could use these as decorations into November. I also required them to figure out a design on scrap paper or in washable marker on the pumpkin and have it OKed by me before drawing it on with permanent markers.

The washable markers can be freely used on the pumpkin and will wipe off with a damp rag after the permanent markers are on and dry. Draw right over them with the permanents when the design is ready to go. Care should be taken to not smear the permanent markers until they dry. This was not a problem, but I did mention it to them first. (If there is a smear or mistake, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers will somewhat take off the permanent markers.)

Emphasize simple designs with minimal detail. Show them how to use the marker to make a thicker, smoother design line with the side of the marker. Filling in some of the elements makes them stand out and improves the look of the project. You can see other pumpkin/marker projects I did if you look in the crafts, fall or art postings. There are several postings there.


I usually try to have a "quickie" project on hand for those who finish early. This little black cat project from my favorite art blog fit the bill for this week. http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/

You need:
black paper
sketch paper
pencils
Prismacolor colored pencils

We started with a directed drawing (I do it, then you do it...) of How to Draw a Cat. I did this with them on scrap paper before we started the pumpkins, so they could be ready to draw directly on the black paper when they finished their pumpkin. Be sure the eyes are large with half pupils as in the pictures above.

After drawing their cat on the black paper, they used white Prismacolor colored pencil to trace it heavily. Have them color in the "whites" of the eye with white colored pencil and then cover the white eye area over with yellow colored pencil. For older kids, a little brown or green could be added to the edges of the yellow layer for shading. That's it! A fun fall drawing project, and mini blending practice for Prismacolor pencils. I would think this project could be done successfully with colors or oil pastels too.

A note about black paper. This time I used black construction paper. I usually have black scrap booking paper on hand for these kinds of projects. Construction paper, especially black, will fade and not show up well. You will get a much nicer project if you use the "real" black paper.

Slow Lane Halloween

After the trick or treating: James. Ann, L. Rachel, W. and M.

There is something to be said for the slow lane. Last night we had a lovely slow lane Halloween celebration. The girls went to their Grandma's and Aunt Shirley and Uncle Don's houses to do our traditional Trick or Treating, then we headed to a small town south of us to trick or treat with friends. The kids went around to a few houses while Husband and I went to Friends Fran and Linda's to prepare food. We got there about 5:30 and sat at their table in their warm and homey kitchen, eating and talking. The kids arrived home flushed and happy. We spent the rest of the evening talking and eating. (Who can beat that!?!) The older girls watched a movie (Roman Holiday) and started a blog together, and the younger kids played Life, swung on the rope swing , played Ghost in the Graveyard, and played on the round bales. Five hours of good eats, good play and satisfying conversation. What a great slow lane Halloween celebration.

Last Corn

The leaves are off the trees and you can see the bins from the road. They are working at the home place today taking out the last field of corn. (Cousin's farm in the background.) Corn will be done today. They will switch back to the bean head to finish one low-lying field of beans that was too wet.

All Hallows Eve

It's a classic picture--a black cat with a bright orange pumpkin.

The darn cats always get into the back porch!

The cat ears and tail were from our Halloween box. The pumpkin was a cool hand-me-down blanket from a friend. I had the sticky-backed black felt with my craft supplies, and we had a great outfit in about 5 minutes. My kind of costume!