Science Experiments!

I often review books for Luxury Reading. Recently, I reviewed Time for Kids Big Book of Science Experiments ...a book all about science experiments for kids of many different ages. The book was surprisingly good! Most times when I see books like that, the items needed for the experiments will cost me more than the book itself. This book, however, was full of several experiments that I could do with just the items we had on hand. I think this one below was our favorite!

We got to microwave bars of soap! Strange, yes, but quite surprising what the results were. We predicted at first that the soap would melt and get all over the microwave. Since this is a relatively new microwave (after something else got melted in it a few months back!) I was a bit leery...but the other experiments in the book that we had done thus far worked just the way the book said they would, so I tried not be nervous on this one. HA!

Each bar took less than a minute to transform into what you see below. The white one is Ivory...what is called for in the experiment. We decided to try out another brand to see if they both did the same thing...our standard brand is Irish Spring.

(Please don't fill my comments with how they shouldn't be standing that close to the microwave!)

This one decided to sprout legs...and arms.

...and growing some more...

We call the Irish Spring one our "frog" because of the legs it sprouted. Crazy!

I have to be honest...I don't remember completely (at all) what the reasoning is for why the soap does what it does...or why one brand resulted in such a different "blob." Our favorite, though, was the Irish Spring...simply because it made a shape we could identify. :-D The really cool part of it all was that the soap bars held the shape that they formed in the microwave. AND, after they cooled a bit (they were quite hot when we pulled them out!), we could take a piece of the soap and still *use* it as soap! The microwaves didn't change its usefulness at all. Pretty nifty!

There were other experiments...cleaning pennies with vinegar, making boats of aluminum foil (different shapes) and seeing how many pennies it took to sink the different shaped boats, staining a cloth to test out which items in the house are the best stain removers, etc. Really fun stuff...and again, VERY easy! And how great for me that I got to count 6 or 7 credits of science that day!!!

I've missed you....

It's been several months since I've done any blogging, and even then it wasn't the blogging I was wanting to do. I enjoy writing and I enjoy sharing my daily life and kids with family. But, life takes over and the blogging got pushed out! :( I've decided that I'm going to try to blog more often...even if it's just a written one that doesn't include photos. (I kept waiting for a time when I had the time to upload the pics, and that time never came, so I never did anything!) I do have a couple that I'm uploading right now....hopefully it won't take forever! My goal is to restart the blogging aspect of my life as a creative/writing outlet for myself. Something for me. We'll see where it goes...

Lately we've been just trying to get through the day-to-day life. School and housework, what I can do of it, just takes the whole day. Keeping the kids from fighting (normally the oldest and youngest, oddly enough!) takes about 1/4 of the day, school takes 1/2, and the house stuff takes 1/2....Oh, wait, I'm a 1/4 of a day over! HA!

Recently, a very kind lady from church gave me a bag of clothes that her granddaughter can't wear anymore (for Alivia) and the night I went through them, these are the items A picked out. She wanted them put on immediately, and then paraded around the house in them. :) How could I not take a picture!? Crocs, a ruffly skirt, and a fuzzy winter hat...Precious! The only thing here that we already owned was the shirt. :D

Several weeks ago, we made a radar for science (LOVE Apologia Press!!!) and I was taking taking pictures of the process. The camera can't be out (or the phone camera) without her saying, "Cheese!" and then immediately it's, "Baby...Baby"....she's wanting to see the baby picture. :)

One afternoon, I was helping one of the boys with their schoolwork and she kept coming to me and saying, "Night night" and pointing to my shoulder, wanting to lay her head down. I couldn't stop at that moment and told her to go lay on the couch and I would be with her in a few minutes. Well, the math work ended up taking longer than I expected and when I walked into the living room this (below) is what I found. She *never* goes to sleep on her own. E.V.E.R. (And she hasn't done it again since!)

Last week, I decided to make breakfast. This may not seem out of the norm for most moms, but it is for me. I don't make breakfast or lunch at this point. The boys know how to make a few things so they typically do their own thing for both meals. But this particular morning, I was wanting to try something new with biscuits. I had seen something on Pinterest (LOVE that site!) where someone made cookie cups by baking the cookies on the bottom side of the muffin pan. Combine that with a meal I had over a year ago at Bob Evans that was called a Biscuit Bowl (a bowl sized biscuit filled with eggs, ham, fried potatoes, onions, etc...topped with a hollendaise sauce!! YUM!) and I had an inspiration. Clayton decided to take pictures of the process and Alivia had to get her chair up to the counter to help. :-)

They didn't turn out too bad....but need some work before I'm satisfied. But it was fun, regardless. I still want to try the cookie cups though....

Time to go. Time to figure out what we're having for dinner and get it made before T gets home!