plans

Last night just before we fall asleep, in the dark and all, Nels whispers to me,

“I need a dead body. A fresh dead body. Do you know how I can get one?”

I shudder. It’s dark, and everyone else is asleep. Nels is the sweetest boy alive. So anyway, I ask him why he wants a dead body.

“For an experiment.”

He doesn’t want to tell me. I cozy up. C’mon. It’s safe to tell me. Eventually he discloses:

“I want to pour water down it’s mouth until… until I can see what happens.”

“Nels,” I tell him after a small, only slightly horrified silence. “That is not nice.”

He laughs airily. “Mama. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

see a dog, maybe a few birds flying high.

A couple things.

First, I TOTALLY MADE THIS, and even though the prudent and reserved thing to do would be to blog it on my son’s birthday – it’s a gift for his 9th on April 7th – I am feeling SO AWESOME about it and must post now! But to be clear, this is my daughter modeling – and no, my son has no idea I made this for him. Yet.

Luigi's Mansion Hat for Nels

Luigi's Mansion Hat for Nels

Luigi's Mansion Hat for Nels

***

In other news, my daughter enrolled in a college-level course in Biology; she is trying to pursue experience that will help her get a job at an aquarium. I will be very interested to see if she is willing to go through a bunch of slog to get accreditation, my guess is No. But she is tough, so who knows!

With her permission, I’ve published part of her work today, an essay (problem statement in bold):

Problem Background: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a history that dates back to the late 1950s. NASA was the United States’ response to the “space race” with the Soviet Union, in which the two countries were developing space technologies as a way to maintain their status as world powers and as a “military necessity” (citation). NASA’s early missions emphasized developing technology to get spacecraft, satellites, and eventually people into space. NASA’s work now affects many aspects of our lives that often go unnoticed. TV, GPS, and weather forecasts all rely on satellites and many of the things that we use at home were developed by NASA. Among them are cordless power tools and smoke detectors (citation).

Space exploration is now one of NASA’s major roles. Officials at NASA are seeking your help in preparing for their next mission: the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Your team of biologists has been recruited to advise NASA in the search for life away from earth. In particular, they would like to know 1) where they should search for life away from earth and 2) what they should be looking for once they have determined where to search?

In order to defend the expenses for this mission, NASA needs scientific justification for both where and what they searching. Additionally, it would be useful for your team to explain why the exploration for life is important. After all, Congress and the American tax payers are generally interested in the benefits or applications of scientific research. Without it, funding for research may go away.

To provide scientifically justified recommendations, you will probably want to address several questions.

1. What are the fundamental characteristics of “life”?
2. Under what conditions do we think life as we know it began?
3. What things are necessary for life?
4. Beyond conditions that may be appropriate for life, what evidence should we look for
to indicate past or present existence of life?
5. The search for life sometimes begins with a search for water. Why?
6. What is it about water that makes it uniquely important for life as we know it?
7. If life began under different conditions, how might the things that we search for differ?

Phoenix:

The search for life is important because of curiosity. A puppy would have never left his bed if he didn’t have curiosity. Curiosity is what makes the puppy find his food bowl or his mother. Curiosity is something that every animal has and what makes them special.

The search for new life on planets we haven’t even discovered would probably be like the “Space Race”. What new tools could we invent while on this quest to find life on other planets? What new tools will we make for people’s everyday life?

The fundamental characteristics of life are animate, breathing, at least more then 50% of the body is made up of water and cells. Must have cells.

Water is one of the main conditions the earth might have been in. The early earth probably must have been damp and moist. Other planets don’t have this feature, but also no oxygen.

Bones and preserved waste is one of the keys. To present day existence of life, look around, see a dog, maybe a few birds flying high. Also preserved trees, also called charcoal. These are he things NASA could look for.

Water is a key element to life. Without it in our body, we wouldn’t get the proper nutrition. Earth is made of 70% water. Cells are usually surrounded by water. WATER IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE.

 ***

I know, right?! It is straight-up better than your average TED talk. Mostly because it relies on puppies as a key point, in such an eloquent way I was about to cry, reading it.

She is fabulous.

Kelly as Sherlock, by Rocky

tweeps are the best peeps

Hutch continues to improve. He has two bandages on, cannot go for long walks (sadkins!), & is wearing The Cone of Shame. He also has no awareness of space with regards to that cone. I’ve been whacked with it so many times because he follows me everywhere because he loves me.

And below: from my friend Rocky, who is amazing. She asked what I liked and I told her, the hat Sherlock Holmes wears (and I like Sherlock Holmes, and almost anything remotely associated!). So this will be my new FUCKING AWESOME Twitter avatar for a while.

Kelly as Sherlock, by Rocky

Little Bird Of Fiercest Flight

She's Irritable

Phee

Happy Smiles

I bend to Phoenix’s ear at the fabric cutting counter and say, sotto voce: “Your hair looks greasy.”

“Who cares,” she airily replies, leaning forward on her elbows. “Certainly not me.”

My daughter is incredible. She’s like that friend you loved dearly, that girl you wanted to be. She’s smart and kind and beautiful and has a distinctive style of her own. Her toes are dirty at the end of the day but she is circumspect and loving. She makes her brother chocolate milk and she fetches me coffee if she sees my cup is empty.

She draws ferocious monsters, pages and pages and notebooks full of them, not a one alike, but then she gives me a backrub while we’re driving. She stays up late with me and looks into domestic foxes so we can have one who sleeps on her bed. She pulls her brother and the neighborhood boy D. in a giant wagon but when they horse around too much for her taste she says, “Sit. Down.” in this sharp voice mama-familiar that causes Ralph and I to look at one another, side-eye.

She takes the last bit of cash on her today and buys me fancy cookies.

Home and she takes her pumpkin up on the table and gets modelling clay and makes an “evilly-smiling” face, with a huge wound exposing his brain and a knife sticking out the other side. She makes this up in about five minutes. I’ll post a picture tomorrow. It’s awesome.

She puts on a horrible documentary about vicious parasites that wreak havoc on human beings. She says, “I’ll bet the next stage in the parasite’s life cycle is a snail.” To my minor astonishment this is true. I say, “How did you know that?” And she says, flatly, almost – almost – rudely, “Research.”

Clipped tone.

Like, how the fuck you think I know that.

These are all just like, a few things I remember over the last few days.

She heals up every way I wasn’t raised right.

Apple

Phee

Hutch Likes The Dog Park

Phoneix, At The Bay

derpy hooves

Swimming. Ralph loses sunglasses in lake, mounts a rescue mission.

Operation Sunglasses

Operation Sunglasses

Operation Sunglasses

Hutch continues to keep his priorities clear (shown with my mom’s dog, Tuck).

Hutch Takes A Break

A benefit of an unschooling life. You vacation any time. No one else is around. You can hang out in your underwear, like Phoenix here, outdoors in the sunlight. Or perhaps you can be a bit NAUGHTY & choose the practical ensemble of STARKERS NAKED with a dangerously oversize life vest (all photos of my children published with their permission, P.S.).

Phoenix Assists, #1

Phoenix Assists, #2

Phoenix Assists, #3

Phoenix Assists, #4

Phoenix Assists, #5

Phoenix Assists, #6

In other news, I still have SuperShero Hair.

Purple. Pimpin'.

get your Hoquiam aweomesauce here!

Hutch, Trillax

My new issue of Tumblehome, our third publication, is available online and in print. Anyone buying a print version or donating more than $6 gets entered into a drawing for a hand-sewn pincushion.

Additionally: archives are free. You can download a pdf for your own printing, or visit my profile at Issuu where I’ve posted the July and August issues.

It is a lot of work to envision, draft, write, edit, publish, staple, stamp, address, email, etc this zine. It helps to have feedback; particularly if anyone experiences technical difficulties, which can be tricky to troubleshoot given my resources and home environment.

And of course, I’m happy to hear about content and what you might like to see in future zines.

Thank you for your support!