Can Kittens be counted as science?

Couple of hours before delivery!

Our cat Lexi had four kittens the other day. It has been the longest 6 weeks our youngest daughter has ever experienced! Every day, several times a day she would ask, "When do you think Lexi will have her kittens?". Our older daughter googled information on the gestation of kittens. The girls would examine the calendar and make a prediction. The closer the time came to guesstimated the birthing day and it would pass a new day would be set. I am proud to say I won the pool! Two days before my birthday and on the full moon to boot.

 The youngest and I were settling in for the evening when Lexi began to pace and meow. I knew right away Lexi was in labor but did not want to excite the youngest because it could be hours before we saw kittens. Lexi belongs to the youngest, she sleeps with her and she lets her hold her. It made sense that Lexi would seek her for comfort. I left the two of them and set out the "birthing box" in my walk in closet. I had not been gone 5 minutes when she came running down the hall shouting Lexi "peed" all over her skirt! OH BOY! I explained that she was starting the birthing process. We moved Lexi to the box. We called the older sister to get home, "We are having kittens"!

Maisy!

It was so awesome to experience the birth of that first kitten with my daughter. Just the two of us in the closet with Lexi. Watching her in awe, excited, and being a great birthing coach! She spoke very quiet and loving to Lexi telling her she was going to be fine and what a good job she was doing. :0)

After about 21/1 hours all four kittens had arrived. The youngest fetched food and water for Lexi. Later she decided that the area needed to changed with clean changing pads. The girls gently lifted each baby, giving them each a once over, then they named them. (Piddle, Maisy, Bear, Widget) During the middle of the night Lexi decided that this spot was not the right place. She ended up in the bottom drawer of an old wooden filing cabinet in the older daughters bedroom. It is nice and dark as well roomy for Lexi and her growing little brood.

Each day the the youngest checks them out first thing in the morning, multiple times throughout the day and says goodnight. Both girls are great babysitters when Lexi takes a breaks. I for see kittens missing their playmates when the girls start school!

Update on our window garden

You can imagine our surprise when came home from Seattle and found the girls seedlings had become full fledged plants! Sarah Elizabeth's sunflowers were huge. Unfortunately it appears that several days of watering was missed. Her plants are quite sad and droopy. I am in hopes that if we transplant them into better drainage pots they will come back. If not it is off the Greens Feed and Seed to try again. Our turnip had all but dried up~the growth on top however had been saved by draining all the moisture from the turnip top.

We have a new addition to our window garden peonies. Aunt Barbara gave each of the girls this really cool kit called an eggling. The kit came with seeds and a "egg" pre-filled with special soil. The girls cracked the egg, removed a little of the shell and placed the seeds on top of the soil. Add water and watch it grow. The girls had a lot of fun cracking their eggs and are anxious to watch them grow.

When I was at Target last night in the $ bins I found tiny little seed starters. A few more herbs, marigolds, lavender and a tomato plant. What luck! We are almost set with our garden. the girls would like to grow a few pumpkins, a strawberry plant, cucumber, zuccini and a red and yellow peppers. The girls are starting to get a little carried away!

What a truely amazing day!

Oh my golly spring is really coming! Today has been absolutely totally fabulous. I awakened to the sound of song birds and a cloudless blue sky. After breakfast I immediately re-evaluated the plans for the day. While Jeff is home with us we are trying to include everything we can because he has missed out on so many occasions and outings with us when he was working.

It took an 1 1/2 hours to get the girls out door for some reason...yikes they were grouchy. Sarah Elizabeth announced that the time change was not the sharpest idea from the crayon box!! I just chalked it up to teenagerness and the need to sleep forever at this age, LOL. I love you Sarah Elizabeth <3!>

Finally, we were out the door to explore. We went to Little Creek Park because it is close to home. Gas prices are really dictating where and what we do these days, especially with Jeff not working. Once the girls arrived at LCP their spirits changed completely......yeah!!!!!!! We drove around trying to decided where to explore and decided the creek was a great place to go. Dad was not happy thinking we were going to forge the creek! Silly Daddy.

I gave Dad the task of searching for tree buds and Emily did a great job sketching while Sarah bear was off exploring for a place to get into the creek without getting wet. She actually found this cool overhang rock that allowed her the opportunity to get as close as possible. All around the creek were shoots of one particular plant coming up. I was not able to zoom in close enough without getting wet, so I made a mental note that we would need to come back again a few times to see what blooms. My minds eye is showing it might be Lillie's of the valley. If so the creek bed will gorgeous next month.

Sarah Elizabeth commandeered the digital camera and off she went. She does have a great eye for pictures and I cannot wait to upload them to the computer but that will have to wait until our main computer comes back from the computer guru, aka their godfather David. Lately it seem to spend more time at his house than our. Gotta remember to cover the off/on switch so that Joseph will stop turning off the computer so that he can change sites rather than asking for help. Meanwhile Emily went searching for signs of a troll who might live under the near by creek bridge. (Hmmm~do you think that Emily has watched way too many episodes of watching Dora with her little brother, Joseph?!) No troll but there was a cool water fall under the bridge and old oak tree with a huge hole in its trunk beside the bridge. I took the opportunity to remind Emily that flying squirrels nests are usually inside tree trunks (We are reading Mystery in the Night Woods, about a flying squirrel). Much to her dismay there was no nest in the tree but she did spot several squirrel nests in the trees overhead. Sadly, deep inside the tree some litter bug dropped a water bottle in the hole. Sarah Elizabeth was just about to extract it but Dad nixed that idea. All in all it was a great time.

I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING! It is days like this that deepen my love of homeschooling. Emily loves field trips even more today: on our walk back to the car she found a very worn, dirty $1 bill. Her comment, "Homeschooling can really pay off!" Gotta love her. :0)

Well, dinner is not going to cook itself and kids will be home from choir practice soon. Tonight we are having lentil soup. This is suggested by History of the World to go hand in hand with studying the Byzantine Empire..."We are eating Monk food, yuck." according to Emily. When reminded she and Sarah are cooking dinner (big grin on my part :0) ) she cheered up. Did I mention Emily is the pickiest eater in the whole wide world???

Project Budburst

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/

Thanks to mailto:momtocherubs%40becksbounty.com for sharing this wonderful project that will be great to tie into the Green Hour...no child left inside. Whether you homeschool or not this will be great to do with your children.

Have fun enjoying the beauty of Spring.

Ever have one of those days...

Well it has only taken three days to make and plant our herb terriariums and start our flowers. The girls forgot to water them after they were planted..oops. The beans started on Saturday are already making progress. The seed covers have popped open on Sarah' Elizabeth's pinto beans as well as her navy. Emily forgot to set hers in the light and stuck them in her cubby...another oops.

Sarah Elizabeth planted Mamouth sunflower seeds and moonshine sunflower seeds. Emily planted daisies and sweet peas. I had the girls examine and compare their seeds in size before they planted them. I made copies of their seed packets and they glued these into their notebooks. As usual Sarah Elizabeth took hours designing her notebook pages and Emily finished in under 2 minutes! Typical.

The girls will keep a diary of the progress their indoor gardens make and eventually move them outside. I sure hope the girls have better green thimbs than I do! :0) If so we should have the prettiest flower bed on the block.

The gentleman in the picture is from Greens Feed and Seed. Check out the size of the seed started bag. Did we really need a seed starting bag that ummm.....big?

How does your garden grow?

Today we had a beautiful blessing of snow! Joseph was so excited when he awoke and found it snowing. It continued to do so into to wee hours of the morning. More than 6 inches! My poor SIL in Cleveland received more than a foot. Wish we were there!

Yesterday we went to Green's Feed and Seed store to pick out seed to germinate. The girls had a great time...just so many seeds so little space in the window! I am trying to home school on a shoestring since Jeff lost his job and I tell you it is so hard. Seeds and soil ended up costing around $20 (ouch!). Each girl had two different kids of seeds. I only hope that they either begin to grow before we leave on the 18Th or do not make their grand entrance until after we get back from Seattle on March 27Th.

On a side note: I know your thinking how can we go to Seattle with Jeff not working? Our son, Joseph, and daughter Sarah Elizabeth are going for medical treatment. Thanks to http://www.miracleflights.org/ we do not pay for airfare and we are praying that we will be able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House http://www.rmhcseattle.org/ Joseph has a caring page at www.caringbridge.org/visit/JosephSprouse .


The whole garden thing began back when I followed the suggesting form Heart and Trees to grow a winter garden. We tried sweet and white potatoes, parsnip, carrot and turnip. Nothing grew but the turnip. The girls have loved watching it grow as well as Emily's friend Lilith, Every time she comes over she checks to see how much it has grown.

The girls planted their seeds in egg cartons. We were going to cover them with plastic wrap, this still might happen while we are in Seattle so that they are watered. The last thing I want is for them to die while we are gone. Emily is growing sweet peas and daisies (both are my favorites, and I promise I did not prompt her choice!). Sarah Elizabeth is growing two different types of sunflowers.

When we return from Seattle hopefully our NASA tomato seeds should arrive. I am uncertain what list I got the address to sign up but it sound really cool and tied right into our space and plants unit. http://www.tomatosphere.org/ Tomatosphere is an educational outreach project that reaches over 9000 classrooms across Canada, the United States.