De Poezenboot

We spent part of today at De Poezenboot - known in English as The Catboat. It was at the top of my daughter's list of places in Amsterdam she wanted to visit. (She kind of has a thing for cats.)

It's essentially a floating cat rescue. People bring cats to the Poezenboot, they care for them and work to find the cats new homes. Along the way, visitors come to play with the kitties and hopefully donate a few Euros o help pay for it all (believe it or not, there was no fee to get in.)

Not all the cats were up for snuggles, but this sweet boy soaked up all the scritches he could get. I'm not sure if you can tell, but he lost both of his eyes to an infection. One of the volunteers said he was brought to the boat all the way from Turkey. 

We really enjoyed our time there; in fact K asked if we could go back again before we leave town. 

Safe and Sound in Amsterdam!

Yup - my mom, the kids and I are traveling. We left Sault Ste. Marie yesterday afternoon and landed in Amsterdam this morning.

Our home for the next two weeks is lovely. It's a typical canal house - about as wide as one room and four stories tall. The kids took the bedrooms up on the fourth floor, my mom and I have spots on the third floor, the living room is on the second floor, while the kitchen and dining room are on the first floor.

 

And the location is amazing - right on a canal, with a tram stop about 200 feet away on the corner.  My mom couldn't have found a more perfect location.

Right now, however, I am completely exhausted and need to go collapse. Hopefully we'll all wake up tomorrow full of energy, ready to start exploring the city.

Look Familiar?

As we were walking down Mission Hill the other day we noticed this interesting hole in the pavement. Does it look just a tiny bit familiar to you?

Here's a hint:

Seeing Things?

Am I seeing things? Or, is this post trying to tell me he isn't thrilled about people walking the trails along the Black River. I would have thought he'd appreciate a little company.

Hanging Out

I'm not quite sure what he (or she) was interested in, but this barred owl spent a couple of hours just hanging out in our backyard yesterday.

New Friends

A few weeks ago we adopted a few new friends.

OK, seven new friends...

Seven adorable little fluff balls who are currently living

in the house until it warms up a bit.

Allen isn't thrilled with the idea of having a crate full of chicks in the house, but the kids and I are loving every minute of it. They're just so stinkin' cute!

Delicious

 

At least once a summer we have to stop;

 stop for burgers, onions rings and milk shakes.

Mmmmmmmmmmm,  milk shakes.

And a bit of silliness. Because, with a 13 year-old in the

car, we get lots of silliness.

If you're passing through St. Ignace (between spring and the end of deer season)  and you happen to be hungry, drive in to Clyde's. It's delicious.

Opening day is tomorrow!

Spicy Ginger Cookies

These ginger cookies are sooooooo good. They have a strong gingery bite to them due to the addition of crystallized ginger. They're delicious, especially because they are nice and chewy...

3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar (+ a bit more for chopping ginger)
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
A handful of crystallized ginger pieces - finely chopped

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Chop ginger pieces. You can do this by hand, but it is much easier to use your food processor, chopper, etc. Just be sure to add a little sugar as you go. The insides of the ginger is very sticky - adding the sugar helps the pieces not stick together in a big gloppy mess. Set these aside.

Mix softened butter, sugar, molasses and egg. Beat well.

Stir dry ingredients together into a bowl. Mix well and then slowly add to the wet mixture. Last, but not least, add the ginger pieces. I must admit that I never do this. I throw the spices into the wet mixture and then add in the flour and they always turn out just fine.

Chill the dough for about an hour to make it easier to work with. (Trust me - otherwise it is way too soft.) Scoop out one inch balls and then roll  them in sugar - turbinado sugar is wonderful, but white sugar works fine, too. Place on cookie sheet about two inches apart and bake about 10 minutes if you like a chewy cookie, but a couple of minutes longer if you prefer a bit of crunch. Make sure you try one while it's still warm!

Boats?

Star Line has had the Huron back up and running for a few weeks now, and it's been wonderful. Except today. This morning they weren't able to get out of the harbor due to a buildup of ice. Hopefully they'll be able to get out tomorrow - the kids both have doctors appointments on the mainland on Wednesday.

Every time I look at that boat it looks wrong to me. It's been two winters now and I have yet to get use to that blue stripe. Probably because the boat looked like this for most of my time on Mackinac:

It wasn't a big change, it is the same boat after all. All Star Line did was change that one stripe. Maybe one of these years I'll get use to it. I suppose it really doesn't matter - I'm just thankful we have  boats...

Mystery Visitor

I'm not exactly sure who stopped by the school this

weekend, but he (or she) made quite a mess.

Happy Valentine's Day

I came into school today and found this lovely little surprise waiting for me in the Teacher's Lounge. I hope your day is off to as nice of a start as mine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Birthday

I'm celebrating today, because this weekend The Quilted Turtle turned 10. I'm thankful my friend Maggie suggested I start blogging, and that my husband encouraged me by giving me a DSLR camera that year for Valentine's Day. I love how I can go back through all those posts and reminisce. Of all the 779 posts, the most popular one, hands down, has been Homemade Superhero. Apparently the cape pattern I created, back in 2011 to transform my daughter in to Jaguar Girl, has helped a few people - which makes me smile.

 

So here's to ten more years...

Waste Not, Want Not

 Do you know Mackinac Island has beavers?

We do! Down at the cove the beaver lodge is home to a Mama and her two kits.  They're quite popular among Island residents, and Nancy May does a great job of keeping everyone posted about how they're doing. (I'm not sure if there's a Papa beaver in the neighborhood.)

As I drove home the other day, I noticed my neighbor trimming his trees. As is typical on Mackinac, I stopped to chat. 

"Can't talk now," he said, "we're just about ready to take another load down to feed the beavers."  What a perfect solution to the problem of what to do with tree trimmings - beaver food!

Bright Spot

After the dreadful day I had (completely unrelated to my students) I found this happy little flower on my bed.

My thoughtful  daughter left him for me to find, knowing how badly I needed a bright spot in my day...

Mackinac Problems

A week or so ago we invited a few friends over to celebrate Allen's 50th birthday. I planned the food, I planned the beverages, I planned the entertainment. However, I forgot to think about where I could stash all the snowmobile helmets. It really surprised me - I am a total planner and I don't usually forget details like that. Plus, this is my 25th Mackinac winter, so you'd think I would have encountered this before. Apparently not.

My takeaway from the evening - we really need to have people over more often!

Breakout

The day before winter break my co-teacher and I treated the 4th, 5th and 6th graders to a Breakout Activity. If you aren't familiar with BreakoutEDU, in a nutshell they're activities that require kids to think critically and creatively, while working as a team to solve a series of  puzzles.

The teams did a great job finding the clues,

 solving the puzzles,

 and finally freeing the elf.

I owe my good friend, Kelaine, a big shout out for introducing me to BreakoutEDU, and another to our school custodian, Mike; he kindly added hasps onto six old cash boxes so we could lock them. You guys rock!

Screen Free

This picture perfectly sums up all of the crafting going on at my house lately. Knitting and stuffed critters, in all shapes and sizes, are the current favorite projects.

It's amazing what happens when screens aren't an option...

Time to Change

If you know me, or if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know my son has had long hair for quite a while now. He actually started growing it out back  in August of 2013 so he would have the right hair for his Halloween costume. (We don't do Halloween half way!)

 

Despite regular trims, it had gotten really long. After a week or two of looking at various haircut options, he decided to take the plunge and make a change.

 

A very drastic change.

 

But a change for the better, I think. 

He decided to donate the 15 inches he cut off to a Michigan charity.

S chose to donate to Children with Hair Loss because they are a nonprofit organization that provides free hair pieces to kids.  It really bothered him that Locks of Love charged kids for wigs, even though it was on a sliding scale.

Now, every time I look at him, this little diddy starts running through my mind:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Mackinac.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful day!

Video courtesy of  Grand Hotel.

I Wonder

Until last week, I'd never seen a toilet paper rose. Now I'm just wondering, did my doctor's office recently got a new cleaning person, or has some lovely woman been quietly leaving them all over town?  Either way, it put a little much needed joy into my morning.