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Monthly Archives: February 2015

Thing Two expressed an interest in legends this morning so as any good home-schoolers would do, we started exploring! He actually wanted to know what “legendary” meant, and then he wanted to know more about the legend of the giant squid. Then our discussion morphed into folklore and how legends come to be woven into the fabric of our cultures. Since we have the ongoing subject of Alaska history we delved into Alaskan folklore. Here we learned about Qalupalik. Watch a short animated narrative about her here: Nunavut Animation Lab: Qalupalik

She is a green-skinned sea-dwelling creature waiting to nab a wandering child at the seashore or exploring the sea ice.
She takes children who do not listen to theirs parents or elders.
She prefers the very young and avoids adults.
She grows young while the child grows old.
Qalupalik never blinks, she watches and waits…

Thing Two thinks Qalupalik is “kinda creepy, but also kinda cool.”

Today was Thing 1’s pinewood derby “Grand Prix” race. She spent a lot of time sanding and painting her car. Applying her decals, picking her number…

grand.prix1 grand.prix2

She picked out the paint…hot pink body and blue swirly decals inspired by the auroras. “Dancing Souls” was the name she gave her ride. When we checked in we were way under weight. A quick trip to the garage and help from Dean to get her up closer to the weight max…

grand.prix3

still more weight....

still more weight….

Then there were 34 racers registered!

The field: 34 very original cars.

The field: 34 very original cars.

There were 4 heats and Thing 1 placed 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 4th. Her top speed was 120 mph (they have a nifty computer that adjusts car speeds to what they would be for a full sized car!!). But sadly, that wasn’t enough to bring home a trophy, the fastest car belonged to another girl topping 204 mph! She’s my kinda girl!

Finish Line

Finish Line

Overall it was a fun learning experience. We learned a lot about competitive Pinewood Derby racing! Next time we’ll have a few tricks up our sleeves!

Oh, and GIRLS RULE!

So here they are, shortened. They feel better, lighter and easier to manage.

short.locks.blogSome people will cringe because I cut my locks *gasp* but I had to! I like that they are easier to manage, I can have funky ponytails again and they are much easier to maintain!

Just the change that I needed!

November 2014 my locks turned 3! They have grown quite long…
locs.3yrs

My ends never have locked up, they stay wispy and curly. These babies are getting heavy now! And so long that buns make me about 6′ 6″ tall without shoes. lol I am finding it hard to deal with the length, so that blue ribbon that you are wondering about, yeah, Ima cut ’em off there.