Downward Facing Pig?

Not much is cuter than a little piggy doing downward facing dog. Every time I see that tail, I giggle...

Animal Crossing Birthday

My youngest child turned 15 this spring and asked for an Animal Crossing themed birthday party. For those of you without kids, Animal Crossing is a video game. Players take on the role of a human who lives on an island inhabited by different anthropomorphic animals. Players create and build a village, interact with villagers, collect fossils, fish, and generally live out their happy lives in the village. Interestingly, Animal Crossing simulates the passage of time and players move through the different seasons in real time, or so my kids tell me.

For me the best part of this birthday was copying the cake from the game. (If you play AC on your birthday, the villagers throw a party for you - complete with a cake.) The only issue was - my kiddo is not a strawberry fan, so using real fruit on the top was not going to make them happy. Once again, my 3D printer came to the rescue.

I found a strawberry on Thingiverse, edited it in Tinkercad (changing it from solid shape into a cavity within a solid shape which I then cut in half) and printed out a strawberry mold. From there I just dyed some marzipan red and and made my own non-fruit strawberries. It sounds like a whole lot more work than it actually was.

At first glance, they look amazingly real. In the end all that mattered was the newly-turned 15 year-old was happy with it. Sadly, Grandma and Grandpa didn't get to have any because Grandma tested positive for Covid a few days before and had to quarantine! Thankfully, she'd been vaccinated and her only symptom was a runny nose.

Happy birthday K.

I hope you know how much we love you

and how proud we are of you.

Funny of the Day

I was out walking with my students a week or so ago for ACES (All Children Exercise Simultaneously) when I noticed these hitching posts on the West Bluff. I laughed out loud. I hope their neighbors appreciate their sense of humor.

Spring has Sprung

As you know, I'm a sucker for flowers. So when I noticed these beauties all lit up by the evening sun, I just couldn't resist. 

I'm not sure what these are, but they looked beautiful at the side of the road.

Truth in Advertising

Homemade bread in less than one hour? Let's look at the directions:

 

Hmmmmm. Let rise for two hours, rest for 40 minutes and then bake for abut 25 minutes - that adds up to three hours and five minutes. Shame on you Krusteaz, shame on you. I know what you're thinking -they were talking about the baking time, but that's not what 75% of the people picking up the box will think. It's a good thing I have all day...

Tasty

Darn it! I've been dreaming of a heaping spoonful of flour all day. I mean, really? I did some digging, and apparently, contaminated flour is a thing.

In 2015 General Mills recalled 45 million tons of flour sold under Gold Medal, Wondra, and Signature Kitchens brands because 46 people got sick from eating it raw - 13 of those people got so sick they had to be hospitalized. And in July of 2019, 21 people from nine states got sick from eating E. coli contaminated flour. Kind of makes me rethink my raw cookie dough addiction.

Source

Yoga at School

The teachers at the Mackinac Island Public School are incredibly lucky. Not only do we live and work in an amazing community, and have fabulous students, but we also have incredible support. The Mackinac Island Community Foundation is one of the organizations that provides that support.

This fall I made a grant request to MICF to start a yoga program with the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students at the school. In December we were  given the funds to purchase a mat, blocks, a strap, a blanket and a carrying case for each student. Since the start of the second semester, the students, the 3rd-4th grade teacher and I have practiced yoga two to three times each week. We're hopeful that by starting this program with elementary students we can help them gain some of the benefits of yoga, especially an increase in their abilities to manage stress as they get older and move up to high school. One third grader told me last week, "I always feel good after yoga." Comments like that make it all worth while...

Pinch Me

I think I must live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I doubt I will ever get tired of the Straits of Mackinac. It's my happy place...

Even More

Every day I am seeing more signs of spring. Believe it or not, on this day it wasn't the tourists I noticed first- it was the trash can. Those trash cans are only out during the season, so their reappearance around town means spring is here. Of course the big group of tourists walking around was a big clue, too.

Signs

Spring comes late to Northern Michigan, and even later to Mackinac Island. It makes sense - were surrounded by million of gallons of cold water. It takes a great deal of energy to heat up all that water, so Mackinac Island typically has late cool springs. Even though spring is not my favorite season, I do tend to keep an eye out for signs of spring, and crocuses are a sure sign that warmer weather is almost here.

The Wheels on the Bus

We bought a new bus! We use to own half of a bus - one we shared with another district, but it had their name on the side. This is our first ever bus with our name on it! If you ever see us driving down the road, be sure to wave hello!

First Attempt

I have always liked the look of cookies iced with flow icing, but I've never tried it. Until now. My youngest child decided they wanted an Animal Crossing themed birthday party this year, so it seemed a perfect time to try. 

I 3D printed an Animal Crossing cookie cutter and got to work. I will never again complain about how much these cookies cost! Not only are mine marginal at best, but decorating them took forever - and I only flooded one color! I shudder to think about how long it took to make cookies like these. 

K loved them, but due to Covid-19, we had to enjoy them at home and pre-packaged doughnut holes went into to school to celebrate. Despite the gigantic mess in the kitchen (and trust me, there was green icing everywhere) it was fun to give this new technique a try.

Spring

Another sure sign of spring on Mackinac is Worm Day. We joke as a family and call the first day each spring, when the worms come out en masse, Worm Day. It's still a little early for the invasion, (that usually occurs in May,) but it was nice to see that things had warmed up enough for them to start coming out. I noticed this little guy this morning...

Monday Morning

Foggy mornings on Mackinac are a sure sign of spring. Luckily the boats are running, because if we had to fly this morning, we would have missed our appointment.

I Heart Kid Art

As I'm sure you know, the Mackinac Island Public School is small. Our entire K-12 school is about 60 kids, half of which are in the "upper end" (7th - 12th grades.) Amusingly, my two kids are the only two taking high school art this semester. I love walking by the teacher's hallway displays and trying to decide which one of my children created each piece. 

This week is was block prints; my youngest made the character in black while my son carved and printed the rose in blue. The art teacher knows me well enough that she had each of them print a second one for me to hang on my art wall at home.

It's Happening Again

Back in the beginning of the Covid lockdown, I started seeing seeing faces and it's happening again. Every time I walk past the windowsill in my classroom, I swear this cactus wants me to stop for a quick chat. And then I start to wonder - just what is she smiling about? And then I remember - today is the last day of school before spring break! No wonder she's smiling.

In Transit

Last week a letter arrived for me. A letter that left New York on January 14th. As you can see, it arrived at the Mackinac Island Post Office on March 17th.  It took this lovely little thank you note 62 days to travel 612 miles. Really, 62 days? According to the USPS website, first class mail should arrived within five days. Our car insurance company has actually instructed customers not to send payments through the USPS due to issues like this. 

Dress Like "A Million Bucks"

For March is Reading Month, this year the Mackinac Island Public School is celebrating March is Math Month by reading a different math book every day.  Earlier this week we read David M Schwartz's If You Made a Million.

The kids had a great time interpreting "Dress Like a Million Bucks" day. I thought about my Grandma, who I remembered always looked like a million bucks. I paid homage to her by wearing one of her beaded jackets and her charm necklace*. Oh yes, and I gave all the kids $100 bills with my face on them. Too fun.

My grandma had a huge charm bracelet, full of charms my grandfather had given her over their years together. At some point her collection became too big for a bracelet and was redone as a necklace. (She had so many charms, some of them still wouldn't fit.) Each charm has a story behind it; where it came from or what was commemorated by it. Before she died, I asked my grandma to write down the "story" of each charm - and I'm so glad I did. 

Labor of Love

I packed this beauty up a few weeks ago and sent it back to its rightful owner. Years ago I my friend's husband snuck this unfinished quilt out of storage and secretly sent it to me. My plan was to finish the quilting for my friend, who as a busy Anglican pastor, just didn't have time to hand quilt it. Apparently, neither did I...

So it sat. And sat. And sat. For ten years every time I looked on the shelf in my swing room and saw the box,  I felt pangs of guilt.  Well, during lockdown I realized I did, in fact, have the time to quilt it, so I got to work. I worked all through the spring, summer and fall of 2020 - finally finishing the binding right after New Year's.

Saying good-bye as I packed it into a box bound for Tuxedo, New York, was harder than I thought it would be. I hope Rick enjoys having it finished as much as I  enjoyed quilting it.  

Blue Ice

Last night lots of ice blew up on the shore across the street from the school.  We know it was blowing at least 55 mph (about 88 kph) because the bridge was closed to high-profile traffic for about an hour last night.

It may have been right across the street, but we had to take a "field trip" to check out the blue ice the kids had heard about on the news.

I did some research, because you know,  I'm nerdy; I wondered why the ice is blue some years but not others. Apparently the  ice isn't really blue - it just appears blue. It's all about how much light can penetrate the ice. On years like this one, when the ice freezes slowly there are fewer air bubbles and larger ice crystals. That combination allows light to penetrate deeper into the ice. Six times more red light is absorbed by the ice than blue light (remember, white light is made up of all the colors of the visible spectrum.) Since that red light isn't reflected back to our eyes, the ice looks blue.