Nerdy Delights and Advanced Weaponry

Today was Prairie Girls. We are currently reading On the Banks of Plum Creek, but our group has been struck by summer slothfulness and very few children had read (or listened to) the book. As it happens, Katie and Travis are enjoying it. Particularly the part where nasty Nellie Oleson gets leeches all over her legs. Anyway, we are pushing next week's meeting back a week to give the slugs busy people time to catch up. Today we started quilting our nine patch "quilts" together.

Katie gave quilting a few tries, but found the smaller needle hard to use. The other girls in the picture are dutifully working on their quilting, and Katie is just chatting, without even making a pretense at working on the job at hand. I guess she really is mine! We also tried raw parsnips, which are something the Ingalls ate. My gratitude for Not being a pioneer is deep and abiding.

And here is something that my dear UPS man brought today. Does it make your soul sing with nerdy rapture too?

Okay, I guess it's just me. But designing, printing, and binding workbooks for the children just sounds like such fun! I'm planning to steal ideas for our history/literature/etc. workbooks from here. Mine won't be as pretty as hers since my color printer died when we left Florida, but they will still make me so wonderfully organized, don't you think?!

And finally, poor Travis wants, craves, lusts after a bb gun. Apparently, every kid in North Carolina, except him, has a bb gun. (They are probably sent home from the hospital with every boy baby, right along with the formula samples.) But his cruel, unreasonable mother (that would be me) says "No!" He is impulsive, flighty, and heedless, and, don't you know, he'd shoot someone's eye out?

So today he made his own bb gun. (You'll want to click to skip the ad, and also turn down the volume!)

Sure, it looks like a empty toilet paper roll (thank goodness his sister has taken to collecting these) with a piece of balloon stretched over the top and held on with electrical tape, but boy can it shoot pebbles!

Mostly he aimed this way, in the general direction of Tony's grill. He got a surprisingly long distance several times. And he only got the kitchen window (completely in the other direction, behind him and to his right) once.

Oh yeah. He's cool!