Busy, busy.

Sorry about not keeping up with MaTh although my last post is still open to add your link until the end of the month.

I have been really busy lately.  It doesn't take THAT much time to make a blog post but sometimes it does.  Anyway, here is what I have been up too.

The main things that took up my time was formatting the newsletter for CBW-LA and tending to sick kids and a sick hubby.

The newsletter turned out great, but it is time consuming.  Hopefully it can be enjoyed for many years to come as people find out about Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles--the newsletter is free for the public to view.  Has great info for writers and anyone thinking they want to write a children's book.

Besides that my kids have each had a turn being sick with fevers, coughs, runny noses, and my husband had some stomach thing earlier this week.  Can we get over all this yet?  It has only been going on for two months!  I think we are in the clear now though (fingers crossed).

I did manage to sneak in some activities.  I was feeling very tight and sore after so much going on that I had my little two babysat and I went and got a one hour massage.  It hurt but felt good too--the massage woman was really good at getting to my deep tissues.  I haven't felt my neck so free to move around in a very long time.  Do you hold tension in your shoulders and neck?  I know I do.

Also, my husband and I got out for a couple hours just to walk around Hermosa Beach and the pier (that is a really long pier).  We live 15 minutes from there and we have never done that before.  It was relaxing and fun to talk.  Then later that night we took the kids out to the desert where we could get a better look at the meteor shower.  We only saw about a dozen shooting stars but I had fun (the kids were mainly full of complaints that it was too cold and they were tired).

Those are recent happenings : )  Hope everyone is doing well and has been healthy because being sick or having sick kids is tough.

MaTh activity Thursday: 4.MD.C.5 & 4.MD.C.6

Hey there, time for MaTh!  4th grade focus this month, so link up any posts if you have them or want to make one : )

4.MD.C.5 and 4.MD.C.6 are all about geometric measurement with a focus on angles--knowing how to measure angles and make them.

For this activity I got out my handy Spiral Draw (Klutz) book and started playing around.

After I drew one of the designs I decided to explore it.

(unfortunately my picture from this post got deleted.  Hopefully I can replace them soon)

I wondered how far apart each rotation was.  I couldn't find a protractor, but I did have a right angle.  I know a right angle is 90 degrees, so I counted how many times there was a tip (rotation) in that angle.  It looked like exactly 9, meaning it would be 10 degrees.

But then, I need to know if it is really 10 degrees each.  I tried another design...also had 9 points in 90 degrees.

If it is ten degrees exactly there would be 36 tips or points around the whole circumference.  Turns out there were only 35, so then I have the problem 360 divided by 35.

That turned out to be 10.28...

So, without a protractor we were able to figure out the angles for this circular scenario.  A protractor comes in handy when drawing angles with a specific degree though.

Have fun with angles and try to apply them to everyday experiences...  Can your students figure out how many degrees apart the minutes are in a clock face?  Pick a time and find out how many degrees there are between the hour hand and minute hand.

Thanks for joining me and see you next week : )

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday

Hey, I totally missed my normal post yesterday.  I am feeling swamped but I am keeping my head above water (just not enough to have posted yesterday).  : )

I figured I would participate in Doodle Bugs weekly linky

Okay, so what have I done this past week...  feels like a lot, but when I try and remember anything it seems like a blur, but here goes...

1.  Last Saturday I worked on and led a bunch of volunteers all day renovating and expanding my kids' elementary school garden.  My post about that one is here.

2.  It's been very busy taking care of my two toddlers.  The littlest one still has a cough and I took him into the pediatrician again.  This time we get to give him breathing treatments every four hours.

He was okay with it the first time, but the fun has worn off now and it isn't easy.  Most of the time I have to pretend I want to do it and then he is more willing to try.

3.  Did I mention it is hard taking care of toddlers?  This week's excitement has included the littlest one being able to push chairs around and climb to almost anything he wants.  I've had to put the knives on top of the refrigerator!  One day the older toddler got open a Costco size bottle of chewable vitamin C and the two kids had quite a few before I discovered it.

4.  A good friend from church passed away this week after a six-month battle with cancer.  I have been making arrangements to help with a luncheon for the family, including doing the floral centerpieces and making one big easel floral piece.  We'll miss you Barbara but so happy you are free from pain.

5.  Busy, busy with the vacation rental unit VRBO.com/561194 

Yesterday I was making the final prep for our guests that were coming.  I finally got around to planting a few things in the backyard that I had been meaning to get in the ground since Saturday.  Then I saw an email that the people needed to cancel due to a family emergency.  I was able to refund a majority of their payment and hoped someone else might come.  Well, just a couple hours later someone booked for this weekend!  I am feeling very blessed.

I hope everyone had a great teacher appreciate week!  Have a great rest of the school year too : )

Another big gardening post--Elementary school garden gets a makeover and addition!

I'm tired but feeling great after this weekend's big project!  My friend had a great idea for our kids' elementary garden.  She wanted to make it bigger and better (but that was no easy task).  Back in December we talked about this and she had wanted to do it for several years.  Apparently she talked to the PTA president teacher and she said she would help us.  So, I was the designated garden design coordinator.

We brought big plans of making edible landscaping and gardens around the whole campus and brought it to the principle.  We got shot down for most of the areas, but he said perhaps we could start with a portion of it and then in future years work up to the larger-scale plan.  So, my plan for a mini orchard went out the window, but at least the idea that each grade level would get to have two planters and a tree to take care of sounded good.  A lot of approval from the district office and maintenance had to happen, but the big gardening day took place on Saturday (after months of going through approvals)!

Here are the plans...  It was a long seciotn so it was broken up into two pages.  Although the final outcome I didn't get the 24' section on the left of the first page--we squished everything from the left of the lemon bush but it still came out fine.

My friend, Steffanie, went through a lot of work getting the plants to be delivered, the soil to be delivered, and the old grass to be tilled before the project began.

Grass was tilled, taken away and we got mulch.

It was a lot of grass that was removed.  We were expanding the garden by about 170%

Soil delivery! 12 cubic yards.

One of the main guys going over the plans with me to make sure all the planters and benches would fit.  My original plan was bigger, but they wouldn't let me take the garden an extra 24 feet since utility trucks need space to turn around and come into the school near one of the gates.

Sharefest was the main contributor and helped organize volunteers and funding to sponsor our plan.  Here's the registration table.

Sharefest brought in a camera crew and did a few interviews before the project got underway.

Volunteers ready and going to help out!

While I had a crew working on clearing the older section of garden there were crews putting together the planters. 

With the four old planters cleared, we planted plants from the local nursery.

Lots of crews working on different sections of the garden.

Sharefest had helped make these boxes in the past, but kids would put trash in them.  We finally put soil and a rosemary plant in each corner box.  These bench designs were modified to be part of the new garden too.  Read on!

Planter boxes were laid out but then we ran a sprinkler system under them.

Sharefest organized lunch with Chick-Fil-A.  Yummy after working hard, but still more to go.

The planters were put back down, got a bunch of soil, but it was time to put mulch all around them.

Looking good!

Our first bench we assembled!  Only eight more to go.  We filled the planter ends with herbs.

More planter boxes that needed the slats put on to make a bench.

New plants need water : )

Putting the finishing touches on the garden, only a few more benches to go!

It was a lot of work and a lot of volunteer hours, but it is looking beautiful.

We're done!

And it looks amazing!!!

Now the school has a garden we can be proud of.  Kids can come out and read here and learn more about plants.  Hopefully we can enjoy the fruits and vegetables too : )

Thanks again to over 60 volunteers, many who worked from 8AM to 5PM.  Well done!

Currently May! Hooray!

Hey everyone!  It's that time again, the first of the month when Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade has her fun linky party!  Here goes...

Listening:  Well, he has quieted down now, but at the time I was working on the image Lucky wasn't too excited about the neighbors getting home...  silly dog.  Sometimes he thinks he is part cat too!  Just look at one of his favorite spots...that is the top of the couch.

Loving: That April is finally over.  That A to Z blogging challenge was difficult, especially with my kids having 2 weeks of spring break and all of us getting sick.  Let it be known that being vaccinated for the whooping cough doesn't mean you can't get it (yucky stuff, especially once you take the medicine to get over it).  Looking ahead to great things though (keeping fingers crossed that I get a literary agent for my kids books soon).

Thinking:  I have so, so much to do and get done but there is only so much of me to go around and so many hours in the day.  Right now is me time, though : )  During the day I hardly get any of that.

Wanting: A bit more energy would be nice!  I've been tired lately, but it might be the warm weather.  I think a pedicure would be nice.  I've only gotten two my whole life, but they were pretty fun--I think I should get one more often : )

Needing:  Air conditioning (melting!)  It is pretty hot here in southern CA.  I live near the beach so most buildings weren't made with A/C, but once in a while it would help (at least I have ceiling fans though).

Surprise:  I am planning a teacher appreciation giveaway!  I'd love to hear which product you think I should give away...  I was thinking of giving away one product to the first 50 people!  And for everyone I will have a sale of course : )

See you later!