Random Tid Bits

1. The chair Travis is making is more of an undertaking than he thought. He's never made furniture before. Consequently I've been playing single parent some. I'm not complaining. I don't mind making meals, or doing dishes. There are somethings he does better than I do though. Like helping Isaak with *cough math, and cutting Isaak's hair to name a few. We are all a little snappy at each other. I think when one of us is stressed, it rubs off on the rest of us. 

It doesn't help that his bosses keep going out of town; leaving Travis and their pregnant daughter in charge. He hates being in charge. Especially when coworkers bitch about other coworkers, leave early, and don't do the work to their full potential.


2. I think it's odd when 2 people go to the same place, and don't ever carpool. This would be my boss and his wife. 





3. I was kind of excited to be a part of a focus group in the middle of the month. It's mid April. Thankfully it landed on a day I didn't teach. They also pay, and give you food, for being a part of it. The guy called me, I missed the call, and now I can't seem to get a hold of him. Guess that's, that.


4. I had Isaak take the trash out to the curb. He did. Travis came in and asked, "Why is the trash can out on the curb when there's no trash in it?" Apparently we only had the kitchen trash that wasn't even all the way, full for all week. Not bad for 4 people. We do our best to recycle, reuse, and compost.


5. We went to Mica's school for Literacy Night. They had pizza. There were booths with different activities. Once you filled up your card with stickers from the booths, you could go pick out a free book. We waited until the end to get the free book; they had already taken the table down. I'm like, "Sorry Mica." Isaak however won two books at the Book Walk. 






6. I

One Boy's Trash is Another Boy's Treasure #craft #art #paint #mixedmedia

My next art | craft post is up on ParentSavvy. I'm really excited to share the steps of this one.

There are 3 main things you need for this:

1. Heavy Structure Gel
2. A Masonite Canvas
3. Light Weight Junk You Will Turn to Treasure

I was so happy! My work gave me a $5 coupon to use at Blick Art Supplies. I found Winsor & Newton Heavy Structure Gel on clearance. It was $7. I had my teacher's discount on top of that. It was pennies.

We had canvas laying around.

Isaak has a lot of of junk that he wanted to turn to treasure. 

Screens

Washers and Other Things

Rubber Bits and Rusted Metal

Rainbow Loom - Not Really Junk, but We Used Them
We Also Used String

A Spoon to Apply the Medium, a Pen or Something to Draw on the Junk to Cut Them Out, Scissors to Cut the Junk

You May Use a Paint Brush, or Foam Brush (Optional)

You May Use Paint or Sand (Optional)

Turning the Trash to Treasure

Figure out what you want to stand out, how things will look on the canvas, and if there's any add on things you'll use before you get started.

We kind of had it figured out here. We decided to make the white mesh the biggest thing on the page, also known as the focal point.

Using Heavy Structure Gel:

Once it was all laid out we started to use the gel. Important use something you can wipe off to apply it. We used a spoon. You can use a fork, a palette knife, or even a plastic comb if you wanted to. It holds it's shape really well, so a fork or comb might be interesting. You'll get lots of lines.

Apply it to build it up on things that have recessed areas. Everything else can just be stuck into it.

We lifted the screen up to re position it. The gel held the texture! It dries a lot faster than I thought. Not so fast that you can't re position things, but I was expecting hours of drying time because it's thick. Nope! More like 20 min. When it dries, things are down for good!

We could have stopped here:

The little circles are Rainbow Looms.

But decided it needed something that would make one thing travel to something else. I told Isaak, "It looks like a Thomas train set with all the buildings, but no track.

We added string:

We could have stopped here:

We Chose to Paint it!

Gold and Silver went on! Isaak sprinkled sand in the wet paint in areas.

Blobs of silver paint went inside the Rainbow Loom circles.

It's Finished!

I would have worked on it more to add reds and teals to enhance the metal look, but Isaak hit his limit. I think it looks cool. Seriously a monkey could have done it with us.

It can go vertical or horizontal. Which way would you put it?

Garbage Day

We don't take the garbage out a whole lot. We keep a year round compost pile, and recycle most paper, plastic, and glass.

Trash in our house just doesn't stink up very fast because we keep a compost pile going year round.

One of Mica's jobs is to collect and take the trash out the one or two days a week that it needs it. Usually he does it, and I hear no complaints.

Taking the compost out varies because it has to be taken out more often then the trash. I'll sometimes do it myself, or ask who ever has shoes on to do the deed. I'd say most of the time it's Isaak's chore. That chore is easier because the bin is right outside the back door.

One night this week I asked Mica to take the trash out. 

Mica, "Pretty soon I'm not going to be fond of outside." 

Me laughing, "Why?" 

Mica: "You know...there might be people and critters poking around these parts of America." 

Me laughing, "Ok Mica. What's this really about?" 

Mica: "Well when I take the trash out I think there might be ghosts out there." 

Me: "It's a good thing we watch you take the garbage out then."

I always watch him take the garbage out because there was 1 collage kid who went to take the trash out, and never returned. Jason disappeared in 2001. Another high school kid went to take the trash out last year, and went missing. They found out she was a runaway. You can just never be too careful!

If you have kids, what chores do they have?  
Mine have more than taking out the trash and compost, but I'm curious what you have your kids do.

Trinkets

Isaak love to collect junk trinkets.

This last weekend I had mountains of laundry to do. I had a mission I was going to try and wash all the bedding. It got done!

In the washer I found metal parts!

I knew the washer wasn't broken. It was the contents in Isaak's pockets.

 What's the craziest thing you've found in the wash?

Holy Underwear

Isaak had to go potty, while we were in line at the grocery store. I hesitantly said, "Mica will you take him?" I knew Isaak wouldn't go in by himself, but he also was being a punk to Mica. What's a mom to do? 

Mica agreed to take Isaak potty.

Mica came out of the bathroom and whispered to me, "Mom there's a problem."

I said, "What is it honey?" Thinking that Isaak pushed him, or tried to wrestle with him in the bathroom.

Mica whispered, "Mom, Isaak has holes in his underwear!"

I said, "Really where at?"

Mica said, "On his hip."

I said, "It's ok we can just throw them away at the end of the day."

At the end of the day:  

I said, "Isaak just throw your underwear away. They have holes in them.

Isaak said, "No mom I want to keep them. I like these underwears!" -Yes he calls them, "Underwears".

I said, "Isaak just put them in the trash. You have a whole drawer full of underwear." 

He didn't throw them away, so I did.

The next thing I knew they came out of the wash. He must have picked them up out of the trash and put them in his hamper basket. They are back in the trash now.