Nodin's Nest

Rewild The World, George Monbiot

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 18:55:00 +0000

Summer Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:39:00 +0000

We've had a ton of rain here lately and this little day lily has decided to finally bloom. Isn't it pretty! It's called a White Beach Spider Lily. I wish I had more of them, so delicate.

Summer Tree Planting

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 19:04:00 +0000

What does a crazy lady do when her a/c is on the fritz and it's 95 degrees outside? Why go outside and plant a tree of course! This is a Royal Poinciana Tree that I grew from a seed.

I planted it in the yard today in hopes that in 10 or 20 years it will provide the house with some much needed afternoon shade.

When it grows up, with any luck it will look like this beauty! Until then, I guess I have to call the a/c repairman again, ugh.

Pixel Art Sharks!

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 19:49:00 +0000

My son has been trying his hand at pixel art and I thought some of his designs looked so good, I turned them into shark bookmarks.

His digital art is mounted on card stock then heat laminated on both sides to create a sturdy bookmark. I hand cut and trimmed all pieces. You can find these and other bookmarks in my Etsy shop.

Our New Feline Friend, Jabu

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 19:25:00 +0000

This beautiful guy showed up at our door last week. After checking him out to be sure he was ok, I tried to ignore him, thinking he would go home. He never left. So of course I started feeding him while putting out the word that I'd found a cat. I thought for sure he belonged to someone. He was neutered and not too bedraggled, so I figured he had not been outside long. No one was looking for him and he had no collar or microchip.

After a few days of hanging out on my front porch, I decided to bring him in. We had some bad weather coming and I couldn't rest knowing he was outside. So I treated him for his fleas and brought him into my Florida room, separate from my cats. He was spooked for a little while, but then settled down and went to sleep. Now he's flea free and seems happy to be here. I have named him Jabu and I guess he will be staying.

Happy Valentine's Day, Minecraft Style!

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 19:57:00 +0000

Today my son planted a Minecraft garden for me. He told me it's a special indoor garden with a stain glass roof to let in light and fountain walls to water it. This is a screenshot from his computer. It's a lot more awesome than this photo!
The plaque at the back says "For the mother I love". I admit, I got kind of weepy. Hope you all enjoy your day :)

Tinker Crate

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:25:00 +0000

My son is so excited! I just ordered a subscription to Tinker Crate for him to try. He thinks of himself as a creator but we find it hard to gather all the items he needs for projects. Tinker Crate takes care of that with a kit sent to you. They call it "A laboratory for hands-on experiments delivered every month" . All materials are included.

From their website "Tinker Crate inspires kids to explore and learn about science, engineering, and technology—and have fun doing it. Every month, a new crate to help kids develop a tinkering mindset and creative problem solving skills."

His first kit has not arrived yet, but I will update you on how he liked it. Just so you know, this is not a sponsored post, I paid for this myself and have not had any contact with the company. They do however offer a referral policy if others buy from your link. $10 off for them and a $10 credit for you. The link in this post includes that code. So if you were thinking about trying Tinker Crate, we both get a reward!

Halloween Costume 2014

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 17:49:00 +0000

Halloween 2014... This is it! My son already selected his costume this year and it's not even October yet!

No last minute costume changes this time, scary Jack-o-Lantern it is. So he say's now anyway...

Summer Fun

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 16:56:00 +0000

One of my clients gave us this pop-up backyard pool as a gift. We call it the "Big Blue Blob"

It's really not that big, but that's ok. It holds enough water to cool off in! Unfortunately, it's going to leave a "Big Brown Blob" in the grass when I remove it. Good thing our grass (weeds) grows back fast :)

Summer Storm

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 17:12:00 +0000

A few days ago, we had a doozy of a late afternoon thunderstorm and this large branch of my carrotwood tree, came down.

After I trimmed away all the branches that I could, this was left.

I'm considering leaving it like this for now. I think it looks kind of cool, like the tree is trying to get up and walk away!

Saturday Morning Squirrel Watching

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 19:29:00 +0000

Inside

Outside :)

Happy Saturday!

Froggy Footprints

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 20:26:00 +0000

Several mornings lately when I go out to the driveway, I'm finding track marks in the dew drops on my new car!

I could not tell at first what was crawling around on my car in the night and I was worried it would scratch the paint.

Not sure what was happening here.

Maybe a nightly critter hoedown under the moon?

Finally after a few days of this,

I could make out the hoofers telltale shape.

Looks like my car is playing dance floor to a froggy free style routine!

At least the paint is safe. Dance on little frog, dance on!

Eeek, What is it?!

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Wed, 28 May 2014 19:03:00 +0000

Summer in Florida brings on not only the heat, but some cool creatures as well. I found this guy outside my garage chasing a lizard up my brick wall. I guess I spooked him because he took refuge under the wall a/c unit for a whole day. I tried to coax him out with some lettuce, he was not interested.

I know it's a reptile, but what kind? Iguana, Bearded Dragon, someones missing pet, not sure? He was about 12 inches long and had some greenish/yellow stripes under his neck. I was hoping to get more photos, but the next time I looked, he was gone. I now have a hole in the ground about his size, at the bottom of that wall. I wonder if he dug himself a tunnel to live in? Anyone have any idea what kind of lizard he is?

Zoom Zoom!

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 20:07:00 +0000

After 12 long years my old wagon finally became a liability. It had to go before it drained my wallet.
So out with the old and in with the new....well almost like new.

This is my new to me anyway, 2011 Mazda 3 hatchback! I have never owned such a sporty car, but it called my name and followed me home. Makes me feel sort of young again :)
Zoom Zoom!

It Might Be Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:01:00 +0000

The flowers are blooming.

My Pigeon Peas are flowering.

I love how delicate these tiny flowers are!

My parsley is growing secondary leaves. It's also 86 degrees outside and yesterday we had a thunderstorm. It just might be Spring!

The Hitchhiker Fish

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 22:04:00 +0000

Look what we found by surprise, a baby American Flag-Fish! Last summer when we were gathering native minnows and fish from the canal near our house, I also brought back some plants and vegetation to keep in a large tub on the patio. I wanted to grow some plants and algae to feed the fish in the tanks. The only fish I put in the tub were a couple of mosquito fish, to eat any mosquito larva that developed.

Well, lo and behold, this week when cleaning out the tub, I found the mosquito fish doing well and this tiny Flag-Fish. It's a female, only a half inch long. Since Flag-Fish are egg layers, I assume her egg was attached to some of the plants and it hatched in the tub.

We had no idea she was in there and now she has been relocated to a more luxurious residence in my large aquarium. There is a larger female already there to keep her company, so we hope she likes her new home :)

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:18:00 +0000

Incognito

As you may have noticed, the frequency of my posting has declined. The truth is, my life has had some extra stress the last few months and I've been unable to come up with anything much to blog about other than the "less than fun stuff" that we have been going through.

In fact "BlogHer" actually pulled my ad account, due to the infrequency of my posts. Not that I blame them, they are running a business. It may end up being a good thing because now without their restrictions, I'm open to take other opportunities and reviews, that I have had to refuse in the past. So you may see some changes here in the future, in order to makeup for the lost income.

As for my life, my son is now nine years old ( 9yrs old! I can hardly breath when I say that) and I have hit some road blocks with him that I am working on. Educating a highly gifted child has many challenges and I am learning that he also has some social behaviors that make working with others challenging. It's appears that he may be what they call "2e" or twice exceptional. Meaning he is gifted but with learning and/or behavioral difficulties as well. I'm in the process of figuring it out and will hopefully share what we are doing on the blog.

At the same time, my younger sister has been very ill with end stage Lymphoma and has spent much of the last six months in the hospital. She is stable at the moment and looking into clinical trials to maybe give her a little more time on this earth.

My pet sitting has been hit and miss, hence the need to bring in more income. I have spent what time I have in-between other things, working on my Etsy shops and trying to boost the sales there.

So that's about it. Just thought I should let you all know what's up and why I've been absent, without dwelling on it. I plan to continue to post about our home education and about my world, as soon as I get a handle on a few things. Thanks for listening, DJ :)

His Favorite Thing

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 17:07:00 +0000

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

We had a wonderful Christmas and this was his favorite gift,

a Furby Boom.

I admit, I didn't really know why he wanted one or what it did, but it's kind of cute.

Hope everyone is having a Happy New Year's day!

Christmas Tree 2013

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 19:20:00 +0000

As you can see, I gave up on the wall tree idea and put up our old artificial as always. However, this year we decided to not use any of the old decorations and make new ones from items we had in the house.

My son had fun wrapping wooden clothes pins in pipe cleaners to create some abstract holiday characters.

He also designed the star with popsicle sticks, old buttons and glitter pens. Simple but effective, he's quite proud of it!

I decided to try my hand at bottle cap ornaments, with tiny pictures (cut from old Christmas cards) sealed under clear resin. Then we added some strings of Mardi Gras beads from his dress-up box, for impromptu garland. It's an all new tree look and we love it!

Happy Holidays to everyone, and Happy New Year too!

Wall Christmas Trees

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 19:36:00 +0000

Follow DJ Nodinsnest's board Wall Trees on Pinterest.

This year I'm looking for ideas for a wall tree instead our usual cat playground known as the traditional Christmas tree. I realize we are running out of time, so I went pinning and these are some I found.

What do you think? I'm still not convinced the cats won't just climb the walls too, but it's a thought.
My other thought is no tree at all, but not sure I can convince my son about that one ;)

The Magicstick by Powerocks

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 18:54:00 +0000

The folks at Powerocks have offered to send me a Magicstick to try, and I happily agreed! Now that my son is older, we do a a fair amount of our homeschooling away from home. It never fails that his Kindle will run out of power at the park, etc.

This compact and lightweight mobile charger will quickly become must have for any person on-the-go. The Magicstick 2800mAH is the perfect size for any pocket, purse, or backpack. Never get stuck with a dead phone or other mobile device again.

They tell me that it will work with his Kindle, so I will give it a try. I'll let you know how it went in another post. In the mean time, this would make a great stocking stuffer for your tech crazy kids!

For more information go to: PowerocksUSA

Halloween 2013

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:27:00 +0000

This year my son decided he wanted to be something scary, sort of. Of course I didn't get the memo until the last minute and had to scramble to come up with a costume. I ended up with a combination grim reaper and street urchin. He even let me put some makeup on his face. He loved it and had a ball walking the street in disguise! This is his best scary face for the camera.

Twin Heart Christmas Ornaments

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 18:11:00 +0000

I've been doing some holiday crafting and just finished these twin heart ornaments!

This pair of ornaments are handmade from layers of vintage Christmas cracker foil wrappers, mounted on card stock and heat laminated on both sides. A loop of ribbon is attached for hanging.

You can see more of my handmade ornaments in my Etsy shop.

What We Are Working On

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 15:50:00 +0000

From time to time, folks ask my son what he's learning about this year. So in the interest of sharing great resources, here's our list:

1. Life of Fred, Decimals and Percents: Math was never so much fun! My son has read almost all the books just for the story, then we go back and do the math problems

2. Balance Benders Level 1: Logic and algebraic reasoning puzzles from The Critical Thinking Co.

3. Word Roots A2: Teaches students the meanings of Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes commonly used in English. Also from The Critical Thinking Co.

4. Developing Critical Thinking Through Science, Book 2: Hands-on, minds-on activities that help students learn basic physical science principles and the scientific method of investigation. From The Critical Thinking Co. as well (can you see a pattern here?).

5. Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program,Level 2 : By the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary

6. The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance : This text is a very fast read for my son, but it then provides a foundation for further research when an event or historical figure catches his interest.

My son will turn 9 this year and he still loves to read just for his own entertainment (yeah!). He reads both fiction and non-fiction as he pleases. At the moment he is reading a very old volume of Aesop's Fables that was mine as a child.

Those are the only texts or workbooks we will use, but of course video and online learning is mixed in. He has learned a great deal about computer language and skills just from his online game creations and Minecraft play.

In between helping me care for my pet sitting clients, we just follow his interests the rest of the time.

He also has decided he wants to document things more (thoughts, ideas, findings etc.), so he is getting writing time in on his own as well. This is much better than me asking him to write something specific, which never worked!

Afternoon Cat Nap

noreply@blogger.com (DJ) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:43:00 +0000

It's hot here, real hot! Our outdoor stray "Scat Cat" stretches out on the front porch to sleep. I love that he fell asleep on his catnip mouse! He comes to eat and visit, plays with his mouse but still won't let me touch him. At least he's comfortable and feeling safe enough here to have a good long nap :)