Weekly Wrap UP 10/22/21-- Scarecrow festival and stain glass project

  Every year our little town holds a Scarecrow festival for the entire month of October.  This year there are over 200 Scarecrows all over town, some are recycled from last year but there are many that are new.  I always take a few pictures of some of my favorites.  I don't find any of them particularly scary but you always get the Debbie downers of the town throwing a fit about this festival saying the scarecrows are disturbing or scary.  Seems like you can't do anything anymore without someone having a complaint about it.  oh well 

Lots of theme ones this year for the local high school 

Raggedy Anne and Andy

Dorothy from wizard of OZ 

a toilet spider outside a plumbers building

an entire skeleton family just enjoying the day 

This one reminded me of Mrs Potato head

there were several groups a scarecrows

This one is appropriate for outside our local Barbecue restaurant 

The Scarecrow festival is also in the month of the towns local celebratory weekend.  Last year it was cancelled but this year they are determined to hold it, even though our area is still reeling form the increase in hospitalizations.  While the county has a mask mandate our local Knuckle-headed mayor has decided not to enforce the mandate so we will be skipping it this year:(!

I started working on a new project.  I bought a pattern but am modifying it slightly.  It will be the Yggdrasil tree of life.  This will be my fall/ winter project.  

I have spent about three days so far (approx 14-16 hours) on this so far.  

I have had a few people contact me about doing commission pieces whether they come through or not is still pending as I gave them the price and they now aren't sure.  I keep telling people glass supplies are expensive and the prices of copper foil, solder and zinc just went up at supply shops.  This usually makes people reconsider lol.  Oh well I will just keep making them for myself!

Weekly Wrap UP 9/17/21- - We have another driver in the house:)

 MarioFan passed his driver's permit test several weeks ago.  Both of my kids needed a little bit of a push to learn to drive.  I didn't mind waiting till they were older as I think 15 is way to young to get a permit.  But at 17 it is time to conquer that adult skill!

Happy Kiddo 

We went on our first outing at the local high school parking lot to get behind the wheel the first time.  

Learning all the parts of the car:)

and then practicing driving and stopping without causing whiplash;) Actually Mariofan did really well.

Learning to put gas in the car:)

We have hired someone to help with driving lessons.  It is a retired police officer who owns a driving school.  I like this as he has an extra set of brakes in his car which after teaching Firedrake to drive we all decided was worth paying someone for this :).  Firedrake is actually a great driver but my anxiety goes through the roof teaching kids to drive on the highway.  So, I am relinquishing this responsibility to someone else this time around!

This driving specialist wasted no time getting MarioFan on the road and said he did just fine.

Hubs and I will also be taking him out on the road in-between lessons to give him as much practice.

In our state kids must remain on their permit for a minimum of six months before taking their final driving test.  However they can wait up till one year before needing to retake the written test.  Our goal is to get the driving test done before the year is up.  I am more concerned that MarioFan is a safe driver then how fast he obtains his license.  I was the same way with Firedrake and she is now a great driver! 

Weekly Wrap up 6/18/21-- 11th grade completed and other news

 MarioFan completed 11th grade, actually he finished a few weeks ago but I just got around to writing about it.  MarioFan took 3 online classes and received an A in all his classes and I was very proud of him as I was really hands off, but available if he asked for help, but most of the time he did everything just fine.  He showed up on time and completed most of his work on or before the class deadline with minimal assistance from me. 

MarioFan completed his last 2 project for electronics which was to assemble the circuit and box for a useless machine and counter.  I must admit I wasn't around much for this build as I was pretty much checked out of schooling by this point.  Luckily he did it on his own.  If you are looking for electronic soldering builds I highly recommend Spikenzeilab. We have used several different companies for projects with varying success.  This is our favorite company as they had clear, concise and easy to understand instructions and videos.  

I did catch the testing phase and saw in in action 

Assembling the box to surround the electronics

Useless machine in action, when you turn the switch on a lever comes up 

and turns the switch off:). Pretty useless LOL

The plans for the summer for MarioFan will be to continue private tutor for piano and Spanish tutoring weekly and to attend 3 different summer camps, 2 are being done virtually and 1 is a sleep away camp.  He also wants to start studying for his driving permit in order to take the test by the end of the summer.  We  have plans to get together weekly with one of his friends so they can socialize since there hasn't been much of that this past year.  Everyone has been vaccinated so we are safe to get together!

I am planning to take a break from most school related activities and work on my stain glass hobby for a bit.  I have a rough outline of courses for next year classes and a very brief outline of lessons for some of the classes.  I will work on those a little later in the summer. 

Firedrake has been home for a month and did well with her first year at college, although she ran out of steam by the end of the second semester.  I think everyone was feeling this way, it has been a hard year for everyone!   She was a bit worn out by the end of the spring semester and was actually ready to come home.  She took about a week off to relax and get a few things done, like going to the dentist and cutting her hair!

I will admit I was not enthusiastic about her cutting her hair short as she has such gorgeous long red hair.  However once it was done it look good!!!

She was quite happy with the new do and it will be cooler for the summer months.

side view

Firedrake has also found a summer job! She is now working at Walgreens for the summer and they said she can transfer her job to her college town when she returns to school if she likes.  We think it may be a good idea to maybe have one or two shifts a week during the school year so she can transfer back to the Walgreens in town when out of school over the Christmas holidays or summer break and not have to keep looking for summer jobs.  However that is still up in the air as studying for college is her priority.

Kids have already gone to six flags three times this summer and have plans for many more trips since we live so close by.  It feels like things are slowly returning to normal and that is a huge relief for us all! 

Weekly Wrap UP 11/08/19-- Dear Evan Hansen show, Eric Gayles show and UK Christmas cake

We have had a very busy week.  My husband and I went on a date night to see a guitar player that he loves.

Eric Gayles

It was a lot of fun and we had excellent seats

We got to meet him after the show:)

Then the kids and I went to see the theater show, Dear Evan Hansen!  My daughter really wanted to see this show so we bought tickets and told her this was part of her Christmas present this year!  She was very excited.  We also got tickets to see Stomp and Wicked in the next few months!  

we got there early for dinner...my husband couldn't go as he was out of town

Firedrake was very excited to see this play as she has been reading and listening to the music for a while

we were a bit high but that didn't seem to matter

It was a great show, although a bit depressing in some areas.

I also got to work on baking my UK Christmas cakes, which I do every year.  I got this amazing recipe from a friend while we were living there and my family loves it.  This year I made three cakes.  I always give one to my Mother when we see her at Thanksgiving, we keep one for ourselves and then I usually give one away to one of the children's teachers or a friend.

lots of fruit and of course Brandy

all baking in the the oven

It wasn't until they were all done that I realized that I forgot to put in the candied  lemon and orange peel:(. This is the first year I have ever forgotten to do that.  I hope they will taste good.  I still have to feed the cakes more brandy over the next few weeks.  I have already ordered my Royal fondant from Amazon.

The house sure does smell nice when they are cooking!  A family favorite :)

Weekly wrap up 6/21/19 Coming home from camps

Both kids completed their camps and returned home this week.  Both had a very successful experience and were so excited to share their stories.  I was a nervous wreck for most of their time away worrying about anything and everything.  When your kids are with you all the time it is hard to let go but it was a good step for all of us.  The kids will be leaving the home in just a few years with college just around the corner for Firedrake and in a couple of years for MarioFan.

My Mom and Husband will tell you if I didn't hear from the kids every evening I worried but with every note or phone call from them and just hearing how happy they were, I soon relax (a little).  Firedrake was gone for two week, while MarioFan was gone for a week.  The day we picked them up I was so exited to see them again:)

At the end of the 2 weeks they had a ceremony

Firedrake will have earned 3 college credits after attending this course:)

Her roommate--She has never had a room mate before !

Her RA whom FIREDRAKE thought very highly off and whom was also homeschooled:)

Her certificate of completion.  She has until the 1st of July to submit a paper on her experience in order to receive college credit:)  she will be working on this right away while the experience is still fresh:)

A very proud DAD-- I was unfortunate in that I could not attend as I was busy picking up my son at his camp both ended on the same day and at the same time but a hundred miles apart.

MarioFan went to a Science and adventure camp for a week and had a great time.  Here are just a few of the of the pictures.  I bought a disc with over 4000 pictures taken at camp.  I am still going though them finding all the ones of MarioFan.  It looked amazing there was cave spelunking, helping a vet participate in animal surgery, pottery, cooking, animal husbandry, science experiments and so many other classes.  Seriously there needs to be an adult camp cause I want to do some of those things:)

My Mom was there to help me pick MarioFan up

He showed us around the place and was very informed of all the animals and very excited to tell us about all the things he tried while at camp 

One of his camp guides

His favorite camp guides who was from the UK and said so many nice things about MarioFan

MarioFan loved the zip line, archery and rifle classes.  He won first place at the end of the week for his accuracy on the shooting range.  He wants to go again next year!!

Weekly Wrap Up 4/12/19--Spring Piano recitals

I have not been blogging much as there has been a lot going on in my family's life at the moment.  Once things settle and I can breath again I might finally be able to write about it.

So for now I am just posting my kids piano recitals that they just finished participating in this past weekend.  Enjoy!

Both kids played 2 piano pieces each show casing a different mood of music

Firedrake played Exit by Ludovicion Einaudi



Inizio by Ludocicion Einaudi




MarioFan played Waterland (Mario) by Koji Kondo



Sonatina. in C by Frank Lynes

Weekly Wrap up 11/23/18 -- Comic Con and Meals by the kids

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  

We are spending a quiet dinner at home just the immediate family and enjoying a little down time!


Every year I say the kids are going to do more meal prep and every year due to the evening schedule our well intentioned plans fall apart.  However this year my schedule is even worse and my husband has a new job in which he is working even longer hours, and I am trying hard to lose weight so eating out is not an option.  I have had to get super serious about meal planning (not my strong point) and everyone has now been assigned an evening in which they are responsible for a meal.  I have told the kids if you don't plan a meal and put the ingredients on the shopping list than it will be breakfast cereal for dinner.  I am still nagging to get ingredients on the shopping list by Sunday but at least the kids are doing their assigned dinners.

Firedrake making quiche one evening--this is a family favorite but she has even gotten out my old cook books and made few new to us dishes.  Everything she has attempted has turned out yummy!!!  

MarioFan is still learning the basics of cooking and I am teaching him the family favorites first then I will let him find things in a cook box to try.  

His favorite dish Enchilada's:)

We went to a small local Comic Con and spent the day exploring and couple of weeks ago.  Firedrake loves anime and when she heard that a voice actor would be there that is in one of her favorite shows she wanted to go and her her speak.

Firedrake dressed up as Taako

This is the voice actor for Pearl on Steven universe.  It was fun to hear how her speak I will say .  I have watched this show with the kids so I could actually follow along most of the time. lol

Firedrake paying rapt attention 

MarioFan found out their is going to be a star trek convention this summer in the city.  He knows all the star ships in the all the series.  There is even a local club to join.  

Seeing a 3D printed this one is only $160 dollars and can print small pieces.  The price is sure dropping on these things!!!

MarioFan messing about with light sabers:)

He stood in line for 45 minutes just so he could play a virtual reality game!!!

The TV screen shows what he is seeing, they told me.   He loved it!!

I made him wait till the afternoon before allowing him to play in the video game area.  He thought I was so mean lol!!!  I  think he played the exact games he has at home--I just don't understand the allure  sigh

 Next are just some photos of some of the customers we saw.  I haven't a clue who or what they are!!

School is going okay, nothing exciting to write about.  We took the week of Thanksgiving off of school as everyone needed a mini break.