{life with a curious and crazy almost 12 yr old}
She’s a kook – this little duende of ours, a real mischevous little sprite. Our local trash transfer station has the Swap Shack (I’m sure I’ve mentioned it – ha!) and lately Ms. D. has been finding large toy horses that she is in love with (she has 4 now!). This last one apparently begged to be lavished with Unicorn goodness, so she repainted her/chalked her hair pink, and made her a horn (with flecks of sparkly mica on it). She was so pleased with herself, I had to share.
So, we got this new app together for our phones – I know, I know, you wouldn’t expect us to let our almost 12 yr old have a cellphone but it doesn’t call anyone or connect to the interwebs, it just allows her to have a couple of game apps, her own music (thank goodness), a family chore app and our new app – Seek, by iNaturalist (and supported by Nat Geo). Super fun. You aim your phone at random nature bits and it compares to your area and comes up with an identification. You can connect with a larger group or just your family. It gives badges for different categories (plants, birds, insects, amphibians, etc) and different levels of those badges (bronze, silver, etc). We’re all nerding out on it and learning new stuff everyday, snails, frogs, ‘weeds’, mushrooms. It was especially nice to take it to Nana’s garden and see lovely flowers, too.
As we get closer to ‘somebodys’ birthday, we are cleaning up the gardens and seeing new plants and creatures everyday!
Rock Bottom Homestead 