A fine example for why we have ‘regulating and governing bodies’ today especially when it comes to research:
“In 1731, Stephen Gray performed an experiment similar to the comb experiment just described. He rubbed a rod with a piece of cloth to accumulate electrons on the rod. Then he touched the charged rod to the feet of a boy suspended on a rope and brought a metal foil to the boy’s nose. The foil bent on approaching the boy’s nose, being attracted to it, and, as foil and nose touched, electricity passed from the rod, through the boy, to the foil.”
pg. 113, An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour by Bryan Kolb and Ian Q. Whishaw.
emboldening my own. Not to say ‘how’ this poor child was suspended by rope but… yeah!
Been busy studying my school work, teaching my children and knitting. Here’s a pic to share. A HuGe thank you to Melanie for the book I won, is very exciting to win, even though I did make a paper cover for it because it gave my son the heebee jeebies!
“Apes are arboreal animals, with limber shoulder joints that allow them to brachiate (swing from one handhold to another) in trees, a trait retained by humans, although they generally do not live in trees. Apes are distinguished as well by their intelligence and large brains, traits that humans exemplify.”
Isn’t that right? lol… you can tell this has been edited for Political Correctness! Anyhow…
This is what happens when you are taking courses on the internet. See… ?
And this… this is what I’m supposed to be looking like…
and then there would be that issue with tabbed browsing! Yet, have no fear and feel no need to ‘encourage’ me to continue studying because I’ve been at this for over three hours today. Some fun time is allowed!
The Real Housekeeping Institute would like to report on some of its most recent research.
First the inspiration for the experiments. At one point we had a lovely cat named Paw-casso. Paw-casso was a rescue adoption cat who had received the benefit of art therapy while in the able care of our friends at the OSPCA. At an auction Paw-casso’s creations were even sold to raise the agency some money.
Paw-casso has since left our care for some permanent rest and relaxation.
But she still inspires!
Research has conclusively determined that:
a. Parental consent will not be given for exploration in the realm of “Painting with Pets.”
b. The best time to get into trouble conduct “Painting with Pets” is 6:30 a.m. when your Senior Research Advisers are likely to respond to all sorts of mayhem with vague orders to “Be Quiet and Let Me Sleep.” This can allow for extended efforts.
c. To really produce art works of “lasting quality” it is important to change mediums. Water colour is passe, Acrylics are much more vibrant and produce much better coverage with longer lasting effects.
d. Dogs don’t really like paw painting. However, if they get their tails in the paint, they are much more prolific painters.
e. Dogs like to jump on furniture to get away from Junior Research Assistants.
f. It is possible to hide the effects of Dogs painting on furniture by carefully flipping cushions over, carefully wiping paint off wooden surfaces and “Volunteering to Wash the Dog While You Sleep In Mom.”
g. Acrylics don’t come out of upholstry fabric after 3+ weeks of time.
h. Junior Research Assistants feel quite passionately that after a passage of say… 24 hours… a certain amount of immunity must apply to transgressions discovered after those initial 24 hours.
i. Or, at least, total immunity should apply after 1 week.
j. For sure after 2 weeks.
k. You really can’t be expected to be blamed after 3 weeks.
l. Fidelity between Junior Research Associates do not hold up well to accidental spills of mushroom soup on the sofa which lead to a Senior Research Assistant removing cushions and in the process turning over those cushions.
m. Real Housekeeping Institution no longer stocks paint in its art supply cupboard.
n. NO! as in there will be absolutely NO more experiments with liquid mediums and any Junior or 4-legged Research Associates… ever!
One of my latest forms of school torture is to have the children do a Dictation daily. I’ve found that doing spelling for the sake of spelling doesn’t happen at our home. I’ve found that journaling is an exercise in annoyance for myself. At the least it doesn’t achieve the goals I had hoped it would achieve. Copywork, well that is so grade 2! So this year, I decided Dictation would be the quickest means to the end I wanted.
They are given some time to study the poem, at this point because we are easing into this new art, I have allowed the poems to be child loved. Later on in the year we will go into more ‘upper-crust’ poetry, lol!
After an appropriate time to study the poem we go right into Dictation. Again, because we are starting out I include spoken punctuation marks and allow them to work on the spelling of words together and give slight head nods to let them know if the spellings are okay.
Then after the dictation they have a chance to self-correct the work. After which I receive the work and give the final correction.
Today’s poem provided much joy and so, we decided that we’d illustrate them while we studied Greek and Canadian History lessons and then post them here for you to enjoy as well!
Um, in case you can’t read the words because they aren’t showing up the best they are:
“Mother’s Nerves”
My mother said, “If just once more
I hear you slam that old screen door,
I’ll tear out my hair!
I’ll dive in the stove!”
So I gave it a bang and in she dove.
Excerpted from Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh by X. J. Kennedy, Illustrated by Joy Allen.
Currently preliminary data culled from extensive research at the Real Housekeeping Institute, located in Guelph, Ontario can report conclusively:
There are, in fact, space time continuum disturbances. However real time experiments have shown that previous theories have not been expansive enough as previously it was theorized disturbances were limited to the dimension of time. Allow us to note the following examples leading us to conclude that the space time continuum theories need to be expanded.
Example 1: It has been observed that the distance from the top of the dishwasher to the interior of the dishwasher is greater than or equal to the distance from the dirty dish to the dishwasher. There is some evidence to suggest that some element of time disturbance is also present, especially when there is a ‘bedroom variable’ present. Typically adding the bedroom variable means the dirty dish will take twice, if not exponentially more time to reach the interior of the dishwasher. Early reports suggest that this is because the distance from the floor of the bedroom to the dishwasher top is ‘too far’ to complete in one trip.
Example 2: Sizing. It has been observed that when an article of clothing has been identified as belonging to “Mom” it automatically possesses multi-fit-ability. An ideal example would be socks. Again, adding the “matching pair” variable and it has been conclusively shown that Matching Socks Belonging to Mom fit every member of the family. Repeated research has shown the following anomalies to this phenomenon:
-Mom’s socks worn by other family members rapidly loose their elasticity and no longer fit Mom after being worn by other family members.
-There appears to be colour and pattern variance to this rule, pink socks with hearts do not fit any male unless put on in the dark at which point they fit until they are visually noted by any one other than the dog. At which point, they apparently shrink instantly or grow amazingly painful to wear. At least Real Home Institute supposes this to be the situation based on the rapid removal of said socks.
Example 3: Unfortunately, this is an example of time. Real Housekeeping Institute acknowledges that this example is widely accepted by the general public. Time spent recording research while on the computer passes by at the speed of light.
So until a further moment of extended time, Real Housekeeping Institute will have to conclude its observations for the day.
Well, yes… the thieves have done a number on our little plans…
The estimated repairs to the car to make it drivable are $1100. With those repairs being the bare minimum, the mechanic feels that he would not trust it outside the city. Joshua and I feel that it is time to call it finished with that car.
However, technically it is still insurable! And as it no longer moves of its own ability, we could park it in the driveway and consider it thief proof. That is our worst case scenario because we already know we need to keep our car insurance!
We are working on another possibility, but yeah…
In other news, our morning routine now involves one other step: “Go outside and see if anything else was stolen.”
Inside I just weep to hear these words and see these actions from my children.
Not only that but yesterday the children came to me and we talked about the car and saving up to buy a “new” car and the both volunteered to give up their ballet and hockey lessons respectively. Joshua and I had talked about the possibility but here they were giving it up of their own choice.
Now, we have been blessed because I just had a phone call with the Director of the daughter’s Ballet school and I’ve just traded my sewing abilities to pay for her dance lessons this year.
Hockey presents a bigger hurdle because, well, I don’t think they need sewing and it isn’t in our city so we have a transportation hurdle as well.
To paraphrase Shrek, my life is like an onion… onions have layers, my days have layers… I never know what’s going to come next!
and… yes Donkey! I’d rather it was a parfait!
Well, in all the turmoil and upsets I had meant to post several times that I have the first set of knitting ready for the shipping.
I have the kitchen set ready to go. The second winner is having a baby in November so I’m going to be knitting for that child. I’m having fun looking at all the patterns!
Anyhow, I was going to post a teaser picture but I thought it a bit unkind so… I’ll take a picture and post it after I have word the parcel has arrived, or within a reasonable amount of time after I have mailed off the parcel.
Well, thanks to friends, the car has been recovered.
It doesn’t work and had to be towed to the mechanic’s shop. The mechanic can’t get to it until Friday. But his initial prognosis was not good.
The car had been a blessing and gift to us. We had hoped that it would allow us to save up enough money to buy a decent car to replace it while having the ability to get groceries via car in the winter time. The thought of mushing through the snow by bike laden with groceries is something about which I have only wussy “I don’t want to thoughts!”
There is always the possibility that it would be fine, but there is another possibility in the picture. I’m in the process of exploring this possibility.
Meanwhile, I just wanted to thank all of you, those who responded and those who didn’t, for your well wishes, thoughts, and prayers.
We have yet to hear back about the bike. But I am very spoiled by my husband in that we have already replaced my bike. We have installed a really good frame lock on the new to me bike.
We’ve also invested in all new bike locks for the entire fleet 
, new garage door locks, and new house locks.
This series of thefts has been heartbreaking, leaving us furious, and frustrated. At this point, after the year that we have already experienced it is hard not to feel that things could not go worse. That being said, we really hold onto the fact that we are actually very blessed.
Daily I meet people who are in worse straights than I. I have firmly fixed in my head that my children and husband are health, our pets are healthy, we have our home, and we have great friends and family here with us. Through thick and thin, we’ve been pulling together and the support that we have been given is phenomenal and we really just thank you all for doing that for us! For without you this year would have found us broken long before we got to the events of this weekend.
Take care my friends and family and readers. I treasure you all! You are the golden lining!
