Tidbits

At long last! My silence is broken! I just might have something to say after all.

And, at last! I had my hair done!! Wendy, who does my hair, had surgery on her shoulder in the middle of August, and then it took longer than anticipated for it to heal up. On September 30 (the day we'd planned to do my hair) her right arm still couldn't hold it's own weight. But on November 4 I finally changed my hair. :-) I'll get back to that in a minute.

In other news, my kids are getting ready for their first piano recital on November 21 at 2:00 at Riverton Music in West Valley City.

Piano lesson

We had a fun Halloween. Brad and Becky and their family came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. (Once again we hauled about 30 lbs. of candy--which all disappeared within 48 hours.) My friend Jessi lent us some costumes, so I actually dressed up too. But my favorites this year were Jason as The Dread Pirate Roberts (Nobody is afraid of the Dread Pirate Jason!)

and Kaylie as Hermione Granger.

And now I am in Holiday Mode. I'm making gifts with my scroll-saw, my sewing-machine, my computer and a drill-press. Very busy! Sound intriguing? Well, I'm not using all of those tools on one gift; they are all being used for different gifts. I'm pretty excited about some of the things I've got planned. (Sorry, no pictures of this!)

I'm also sewing curtains for my brother, window valances for my cousin, and girls dresses for a friend of mine.

I'm not just grumpy and scowling. That is a look of fierce concentration. You try feeding that much heavy fabric through your home-sewing maching.

Let's see . . .

I can't think of anything else to stall you with, so back to my hair (I know . . . you are just dying to hear this): The poll closed in September with 9 votes for short, natural-colored hair, 2 votes for long and natural-color, one for short and red, and one for keeping it the same (long and red). I think I can guess who cast the short and red vote, as well as who voted to keep it the same.

Back in July I was ready to cut it all off and dye it pink, I wanted a change so badly. But during my waiting period the need for a drastic change wore off and I decided I still like it long. But I did decide to go back to my natural color, for easier maintenance. It's lots darker than I thought it would be; I guess I've had the light reddish thing going on for a while. And I had it trimmed just a little.

So, here's my "new" look:

I think I like it!

Ancient History

It's been a long time since I've written (or even thought) anything interesting. So to make up for it I'm going to write a very long post about something that happened a long time ago.

What I am about to tell you happened a long time ago. At least six years--no, seven years . . . Forever ago!!

I had a bout of madness, or good-motherliness, or sick-of-public-schoolness, or something, and I decided to home-school my kids. And we started our home-school out with a BANG! The first thing we did was a study of ancient Egypt, which was lots of fun. We went to the library and got lots of books on Egypt, and it turned out that one of them was a craft book. Seeds were planted in our minds; we decided that along with our study we would create our own museum of ancient Egyptian artifacts . . . and the rest is history!

Once we had decided to build an Egyptian museum, a mummy was a must, but it needed an ancient Egyptian name. So I asked the kids to come up with a good name for our child-pharaoh, and Michael immediately came up with "Tempahten" (including how to spell it). Wow! That even sounds kind of Egyptian! Tempahten it was.

Lindsey, a friend, Michael, Brandon and Jason build the sugar-cube pyramid

We started out simple, learning about pyramids, and made a sugar-cube pyramid. But as we studied we added things like jewelry, amulets, canopic jars, even some ancient-Egyptian games and we even learned to read some hieroglyphics. And of course, we made the the sarcophagus too. It was lots of fun.

Michael and Lindsey mold ancient gods from salt dough. You can see the two canopic jars in front of Michael, and the head of the hawk--one of the lids to a canopic jar--drying on top of the canning jar.

Jason's essay: What is a Canopic Jar?

"Well, a canopic jar is a thing that the Egyptians would use to keep organs. It only happened to dead people. The hawk holds the intestines. The jackal holds the stomach."

We filled our canopic jars with "dried organs" --beef jerky--which we offered to any guest who was interested.

Lindsey's essay: Why did the Egyptians become a great civilization?

"They were great because the Nile River overflowed every year. When the river overflowed it made the ground so soft and it made silk (silt). It made it so they could grow food on a farm, like wheat. They could send other things to other people by putting it in a boat and letting the boat go to a different place. Other people sent things to Egypt too. It made it so they had lots of good things." (Written with a little help from Mom)

Lindsey and Brandon show us the wealth of Ancient Egypt: Tempahten's jewels and amulets

Ryan displays an Egyptian flask

The really tricky part was figuring out how to make the mummy. We started out by tracing around Brandon's body to get the size right; but we wanted a very realistic looking face for him and didn't really know how to make one. Finally we decided to papier-mache someone's face. Lindsey volunteered first, but while we were building Tempahten her mask got crushed so we tried again, using Jason's face.

I built the framework with cardboard ribs and covered it with plastic wrap pulled tight. And then everyone covered it all up with papier mache.

Michael's Essay: What is a Sarcophagus?

"A sarcophagus was like a coffin that was used for Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs (Kings). the Egyptians believed that hieroglyphics were magic and wrote them all over the sarcophagus. Sarcophagi were made out of stuff like papier mache. They made the sarcophagus look like the Pharaoh when he looked his best.

Preparing the Pharaoh for burial took 70 days. Some of the things they did were take out the brain through the nose. (They thought the brain was useless.) Then a priest would clean out the mouth and stuff it with sweet, oil-scented linen. A priest in the mask of Anubis, the jackal-headed god, drew a line down the corpse's flank. Then a man came in and cut an incision on the line and removed the organs. After he did this he was chased away with curses because it was forbidden to injure an Egyptian. After the organs were removed they put them with the body on a sloping table; then they put some drying chemicals on them and let them dry for 40 days. After they were dry the organs were put in canopic jars and the body was wrapped with about 150 yard of linen. And about 100 amulets were wrapped with him. Then the body was put into the sarcophagus."

Applying Tempahten's makeup

And here's the finished mummy. Brandon stands in front, sporting a pharaoh's head-dress.

Ryan's Essay: "This is a 'smart-cophagus.' But there's no brains inside it!"

As you can see, all of my kids really were experts on Ancient Egypt.

And now, here's the dilemma: Tempahten is starting to look kind of old and beat up. Do we keep him forever? I'd kind of feel bad just shoving him in the trash can to be hauled away. I thought a fitting ceremony might be to burn him; maybe while chanting and dancing around the fire.


Or maybe we should just keep him, forever buried in the dusty tomb of our garage, a treasure of our past.

It's this day, not me . . .

This is a great song from the musical of The Secret Garden. It's better if you actually hear it sung. But it applies.

When you see the storm is coming,

See the lightnin' part the skies,

It's too late to run--

There's terror in your eyes!

What you do then is remember

This old thing you've heard me say:
"It's the storm, not you,

That's bound to blow away."

Hold on,

Hold on to someone standing by.

Hold on.

Don't even ask how long, or why.

Child, hold on to what you know is right,

Hold on 'til you get through.

Child, oh child!

Hold on!

When you feel your heart is poundin,'

Feel a devil's at your door,

There's no place to hide--
You're frozen to the floor!
What you do then is you force yourself

To wake up, and you say:
"It's this dream, not me

That's bound to go away!"

Hold on,

Hold on until the night goes by.

Hold on,
Until there's nothing left to try!
Child, hold on, There's angels on the way!
Hold on and hear them say,
"Child, oh child!"

And it doesn't even matter

If the danger and the doom

Come from up above or down below
Or just come flying
At you from across the room!

When you see a man who's raging

And he's jealous and he fears
That you've walked through walls
He's hid behind for years.
What you do then is you tell yourself

To wait it out, and say:
"It's this day, not me

That's bound to go away."

Child, hold on!

It's this day, not you,

That's bound to go away.

Murder on the East Side

On Wednesday, September 23, 2009, being left to my own devices, I executed my long-planned attack on Juniper, an innocent shrubbery which stands in our east-side yard. At 9:27 a.m. I found a weapon, marched outside, and brutally and mercilessly hacked at it, killing it limb by limb while the sound of Mozart drifted through the air. It was just like a horror movie for trees. Only, unlike the killers in the movies, I had no cunning, elaborate scheme for disposing of the corpse. Most of it went out with the trash on Thursday, but some of the remains remain. [above right: the scene of the crime: Juniper, with her limbs scattered on the ground]


I always feel kind of guilty killing a green, healthy, living plant . . . well, not weeds. But how else do you get rid of an eleven-foot tree/shrub/thing that you don't want any more?

Standing knee-deep in the carnage . . . er, herbage

Actually I never did want that juniper. It was one of three that stood in the yard when we bought the house. I destroyed the first two in the first year we lived there. (And, yes, I felt kind of bad chopping up those living, thriving things, even though I didn't want them and wouldn't have put them in those particular spots even if I had wanted them.) I've let this last one live, mostly because "out of sight, out of mind." And it never blocked my view out the front window.

But this year my mom is removing a privet hedge from her yard, and it's mine if I want it. Well, yes, I do! It will make a nice alternative (and a less expensive one) than putting a fence there. But the juniper was in my way. And like most of those evil, murderous villains, I was not about to let the life of an innocent shrubbery put a stop to my plans.

"The world is spinning! Can this be happening to me? I feel so faint . . ."

Yes! Yes! I confess; I did it! Even though Fast Orange removed all traces of Juniper's sap from my hands, I admit it. I did do it! I killed that poor, unsuspecting tree/shrub/thing! I did it; and I'm glad I did!


Now when can I get that hedge in?

The Daily Funnies

My family is really funny. Really!

So here are some recent funnies:

We had yogurt for breakfast. Bruce (looking at the yogurt carton): "Oh, this yogurt is 'all natural.'"

Michael: "Yeah, they just found it that way."

Jason: "My eyes are weary with rolling."
(Say that whenever someone says a dumb thing to you!)

Driving home late one night, Bruce bursts into song.
Brandon: "Big, dumb, and tone-deaf. I'm so glad I was unconscious for all this."
(OK. Brandon is not just rude, he was quoting a movie.)

We were talking about the mummy we made in home-school several years ago.

Michael: "I liked it better when we used Lindsey's face, because it was thinner than Jason's face."
Jason: "What's wrong with my face?"
Michael (teasing): "I just don't like looking at it."

Jessica (very seriously): "No one does."