As Slick as Can Be

The snow fell lightly in slow small flakes. It was not enough to sled ride in because it would melt as soon as it touched the driveway. “That is very disappointing,” I thought as I looked outside the window from where I was sitting on our couch.

The days just got colder and colder. The hoses began to freeze up and not work. That meant carrying water from the ponds we have. The boys would go and unhook the faucet every night. Everything was icy and slick.

When it was about four degrees and no snow was around, Samuel and I went to check the Frog Pond. It is a pond that is not very deep. It’s perfect for ice skating. We went and checked it, and it was not ready yet because the ice let out loud cracking noises, like it was groaning.

As we walked back down, I had a great idea. “The creek is smaller, and it is probably frozen by now. That might be a good spot,” I said. The house was now in plain sight.

I pulled on my rubber boots and took another long walk to the creek with Isaac, and we went scouting for a good spot to skate. We strolled along some of the thinner ice, and it cracked. We kept moving up the creek for a better spot.

We were near the top of the creek and there in front of us was a decent sized ice patch. It had a little snow on it, and we slid around to make it slick. Soon it was as slick as can be.

We ran a little way on top of the frozen water, then slid as far as we could, and it was slick. It was the iciest thing I have seen this year so far. We slid around for a while till it was time to go in and eat dinner.

Finally, the Frog Pond was frozen enough to be able to be skated on. We skated for a long time and played a lot of ice hockey. We only had two pairs of skates. Jayla and Halayah used them and the rest of us skated in our boots. I was glad I didn’t use the skates because Jayla fell a whole bunch and hurt her knee, bruising it up. She has been limping ever since.

The fun hours I had up on the ice is an unreplaceable memory I will always treasure. We had a bunch of fun with all games we played all over Providence Prairie. It was as slick as can be.

~Unique

One Ring for Thirteen

On our birthday when turning thirteen, every girl in our family has gotten a birthstone ring. All my older sisters already have theirs, so I was especially excited to get mine. This year it was my turn to get one!

It came in a small little blue box, and I knew what it was and was excited to open it up. I pulled off the pretty colored paper carefully and saw my special ring. Mine is a garnet with white stones surrounding it and the color of the ring’s stone is red. I think that is a pretty color. It sparkles while holding it under the light. A garnet is a crystal that comes in many different colors. The most well-known color of this silicate mineral is red. I slipped the ring on my finger, and it fit perfectly! It’s lovely and exactly what I wanted.

Rings have been around for almost five thousand years. Egyptian kings wore them, and the garnet was even discovered in the art of their times. The word garnet comes from an old word that means pomegranate. It is thought that it is the color of the seed. The garnet has inspired many legends that talk about love, friendship, light, and vitality.

Now the hard part for me will be having it stay on my finger. Amanda told me how she lost her stone while she was working in the garden. Rachel had lost her ring too. Jayla once lost her stone from her ring, and later Jonah found it under the couch. Halayah has gotten a whole new ring, because her ring got lost from her finger. My plan is to keep it tightly on my finger and so far, that’s exactly what I’ve done.

So having a ring is a big responsibility for everyone. That’s why I’m going to take the best care of it I can and see how long I can keep it. I really enjoy gazing at it on my finger while I’m having fun doing all kinds of things. I got a ring for thirteen, and I like it extremely well. I had a great birthday.

-Unique 

I’ll Just Have To Call It a Tie

Butterflies are so incredible in many ways and there are many reasons why. Let’s dig a little more into this fascinating creature. Butterflies are active in the nice hot day time and are different from their neighboring moth who is most likely found at night.

Let’s look at the wing structure and the amazing patterns on the wings. The wingspan on some butterflies is only 6mm, although most have a 10mm wingspan. The average butterfly’s wingspan is about 30mm. The moth’s wingspan on the other hand is about 4mm. They are usually much smaller. A butterfly’s wings are usually very colorful, while the moth’s are dull colors.

 

So how does a butterfly search for its food? The nectar channels of flowers allow butterflies to easily find the food they enjoy. Butterflies drink nectar using tube-like tongues. Did you know that butterflies can taste through their feet? Butterflies have small sensors that are on the back of their legs. The insect will step on its food to sense the tasty sugars. I’m sure glad humans don’t have to do that! The butterfly that I saw not too long ago was a beautiful monarch drinking nectar from the zinnias. Moths suck the juicy nectars from the flowers, too, just like the butterfly.

How fast can a butterfly go? Skipper butterflies fly so fast that they could outpace a horse at 37mph, but most butterflies fly at 5 to 12 miles per hour. I think that’s fast. Moths can reach speeds up to 35mph. That’s fast too, but not as fast as the butterfly.

A butterfly’s life cycle starts with an egg. It hatches into a larva, then becomes a pupa. Finally, it becomes a beautifully colored butterfly. I have seen butterflies in their chrysalis before. This is the pupa stage. Jonah got a see-through container where he had lots of butterfly caterpillars. It was about five to twenty days before they all hatched. After that, Jonah set every one of them free. Jonah has caught moths, but he has never kept them through all the stages. Moths make a cocoon that is silky unlike the butterfly’s smooth, hard chrysalis.

The butterfly’s amazing habits have always inspired me in many ways. The more I learn about these insects, the more I like them and their miraculous life-cycle. It’s hard to decide which one I like better between the moth and the butterfly, so as far as I’m concerned, I’ll just have to call it a tie.

~Unique

A Wonderful Way To Entertain

I like to entertain all my little nieces and nephews. They like to hear the stories I tell them during their stay at our house. My idea of the best way is by using puppets or stuffed animals to amuse them.

I make the puppet shows, and they love it. I just come up with the shows. I don’t do anything special from a story book, but when I get better, I think it would be fun to start to do it that way.

To make it even cooler, I attempt to make my mouth not move. I can convince the younger ones, but the older ones are uncertain and merely just go along with it. I need a lot more talent and skill to convince the older ones. They know that I’m making the sounds from my own mouth.

Did you know that puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate people’s ideas? Puppetry takes many types, but they all act out a story by making the puppet look like it comes alive.

Mom gave me a sheet of words to practice ventriloquism. Ventriloquism is when someone doesn’t move their mouth so that the puppet looks like it’s talking. You can see the puppeteer and the puppet together. The person really is talking without their lips moving. He moves the head, arms, and mouth of the puppet with his hands, which makes the puppet look more real. I hope my nephews and nieces do not see my mouth move! Mama told me that I was doing a good job talking with my mouth closed and that I might enjoy practicing the sheet of words. I completed all the words and performed the one skit that was on the paper.

I practiced more and more, and the more I practiced, the better I progressed. I am hoping to make my next show for all of my nieces and nephews. This time, I hope they all will be convinced. Isn’t that a wonderful way to entertain?

~Unique

Now Part Of the Club

Do you ever wonder what the three R’s stand for? Maybe you think of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. If you look at the bottom of a plastic jug, you will see the symbol of three chasing arrows in a triangle. It means to reduce, reuse, recycle.

When Mom and Dad go on their jog, I sometimes tag-along to pick up cans to recycle. I find them mostly alongside the road. I am looking for steel, aluminum, or copper, also. The typical person has the chance to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime. Beside the house, I keep my bags stored and any time I get cans, I smash them and put them in the old feed bag I have.

Recently I collected two and a half bags full of aluminum cans. When I told Dad, he said we could take them to the T and T Recycling place. I was so excited that I loaded the cans up right away. 

Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to repair America’s commercial fleet of airplanes. It made me happy that my cans would make me some money instead.

After a nice drive, we made it there and put my cans on the scale. The cans gathered in my bags weighed fourteen pounds. I stood watching as the men moved my cans from the scale into the crusher. It smashed the aluminum into large cubes. Afterward, the workers gave us a receipt to give to the lady inside.

We walked into the building where I would get paid. Going straight to the counter, I handed my receipt to the lady. She handed me back the slip along with some cash. She then gave me a whole lesson on what could be recycled and what could not be recycled. It was very interesting. She even gave me a magnet to test metals. If it doesn’t stick, the metal is copper, aluminum, brass, or stainless steel- all good materials for recycling.

As soon as I got home, I got to work on our junk pile. There are lots of metals to sort through. Now I’m officially part of the T and T recycling club! I’m very happy to be part of the people who are recycling. I like recycling not only because it helps me gain a lot of money, but it helps conserve nature, and helps save energy.

~Unique

A Magical World of Creativity

Sitting up on the game closet shelf is a village of tininess. This town has been there for about three years. Calico Critters are one of my favorite little toys to play with. They have been for a long while now. Calico Critters were first made in Japan in the year 1985.

There's a large variety of miniature critters with homes, furniture, and lots of different kinds of accessories. I have a lot of the animals that there are. I have gotten many over the years as gifts. Calico Critters are sold in so many families, such as the rabbits which are some of my favorite ones to play with when I do have them out. There’re big ones, smaller ones, and cute little baby ones. All of them are one-of-a-kind. The animal figures are very amazing because they are made of a special cloth that gives them a soft feeling.

Using my Calico Critters, I have made many stop motions films. It makes the animals seem to come alive! They are easier to make when you have the small little pieces to work with. My Calico Village is a happy place. All of the critters have a special part in the town, just like in the actual world. I have made approximately five stop motion films, most of which are currently in production.

My Calico Critters sometimes get dusty while they are sitting there on the shelf waiting for me to play with them. I don't play with them as much as I used to. Nevertheless, I still love them just as much as I did. Calico Critters still is a magical world of creativity in our home.

~Unique

Pizza and a Crazy Shake

The day we left Hillsboro Family Camp, Mr. and Mrs. Eddy took us to Terry’s Pizza. They had talked about wanting to take us there when we went to revival at Allensburg with them. After we left camp, they accompanied us to Terry’s Pizza to eat and get a Crazy Shake.

By the time we got to Terry’s, it was raining really hard. We all ran into the store to order the pizza. By the time we got in there, we were all soaked. Mr. and Mrs. Eddy were waiting for us in the store. It was so crowded in there; they were getting great business!

It was nice of the Eddy’s to buy us dinner. The pizza was tasty. I had four pieces, and they were delicious. When we had eaten lots of pizza, we all went outside to order a Crazy Shake.

It was still raining a little bit when we went to the outdoor window. When we were all done ordering our Crazy Shakes, we went back inside to wait for the big treat. Not awfully long after we ordered the Crazy Shakes, they came to our table. I was excited!

I got the flavor Sour; it was a huge shake with lots of stuff all over it. There were Nerds all over the outside of the cup, and there was a sour popsicle and whipped topping all over the shake. It was delicious. I was stuffed after I was done with it. I did not finish mine because I was too full.

Jonah and Samuel had Cotton Candy shakes and Isaac ordered one with popcorn all over called Caramel Corn. 

Mom and Dad shared one called Candy Bar. 

Halayah’s was a Unicorn shake and Jayla’s was Brownie. Samuel, Jonah, Halayah, Jayla, Isaac, and I did not finish our shakes, but we all loved them.

For a while we sat close and talked at a round table. We all had to squeeze around because it was so packed in Terry’s. It was fun. Everyone was laughing in surprise, how we all fit.

We are all very thankful for Mr. and Mrs. Eddy for sharing dinner and Crazy Shakes with us. We had a lot of fun visiting with them. We are all thankful for their generosity. It was really exciting to have pizza and a Crazy Shake with the Eddy's.

~Unique