Norse Lore

SQUIRTING TURTLES: This morning was errand filled. First, we had to dash down to southeast Kent to pick our roofing materials up from a trucking company. We came home, unloaded those, changed cars and then charged out north of the U-district to University Village, a California-style shopping mall (the store entrances are all outside rather than inside, per the Northwest norm).

Since we avoid any style mall at all costs, we had no idea where to find the store we were looking for (The Confectionery, a candy store where I needed to buy some chocolate pebbles for a cake project coming up). And parking at University Village is nightmarish, so I took the first spot I could find by a mall directory. Once we consulted the map, we found we couldn't really have parked any farther away from where we needed to be. That meant we got to traverse the whole damn place. Sigh.

And so, as I limped along, the kids and I checked out window dressings and saw lots of eye candy. Finally, we reached our destination, where they had a super cute baseball themed display. Almost made it worth the trip. Happily, I got my edible rocks and the kids, of course, got a small treat. In the photo above, you can see Annabelle sucking her "cherry cola" candy stick which tasted neither cherry nor cola like, but she liked it nonetheless.

On our way back to the car we took a different route and discovered a cute little fountain featuring spewing frogs and turtles. 

CJ managed to stop one frog from spitting for awhile. 

As we were leaving the fountain, I heard someone behind us shouting, "Excuse me!" We turned around and I spied a woman pointing at Annabelle's pink sparkly shoes.

I looked at Bee and asked, "Did you forget anything?" and she thought about it, looked around, shrugged and said, "No."

"Are you SURE?" I asked.

"Yeah. Nothing," she assured.

And then I looked down at her feet. She followed my gaze and then finally scampered back for her shoes. 

VIKING TALES: A BBC Schools newsletter pointed us in a fun direction today. One of the educational gems the email let me know about was a series of animated videos about Viking mythology. First, we watched one about how humans, our Earth (Midgard) and heaven (Asgard) were created by Odin. 

Before the video started, we talked about how many cultures have a creation myth to explain the mysteries of the universe before there was the science to offer plausible explanations.

The kids really enjoyed the video. In fact, they liked it so much, we watched all of the videos in the series, including one about vain Freya and the goblins, and a video about Thor battling a giant. It was great stuff!

Afterward, I asked the kids to write their own creation myth. I told them there was only one rule: "Whatever you do, do NOT include science." How often are they going to hear that from me? LOL. 

Here's what Bee came up with ...

Once upon a time, even before time was created, there was a god named Torantino. He had a former god helper, named Sangun. Torantino was the first thing in the universe. Torantino made Sangun to accompany him as his former overlord god. Torantino told Sangun to watch as he made a green, lush, area for the humans to live. Torantino  told Sangun he had made this land for humans. "What are humans?" asked Sangun. Torantino said "You will see," and made humans by taking water, leaves, and earth to mix them to make the first humans. Then Torantino decided to have a little fun and made icy caps for the tips of the earth. He felt like he and Sangun shouldn't be the only gods, and made lots of other gods like them. They decided they all should have a home, so they made Urbinia and connected it to the land they made for the humans, that they called Zungid, by making a magical bridge made of platinum. Once they had made the world, they could finally relax, in the place they just made. 

And CJ's take ... 

The creation of Earth starts like this: Before we were here, the supreme god Noronan came. Noronan used his abilities to start the creation of land for the Humans, Istalal. When Noronan created the land for Humans, he took 21 gemstones, whispered "You will now become Humans" to the gemstones, and they became the first man and the first woman. Those two people had sex and Noronan created their children. When Noronan realized that he can't just do it by himself, he created more gods, one of them being Sawar Gones. Noronan created many other more creatures then just the humans, Also, he created goats, horses, ducks, squirrels, zebras, and many more. After Noronan worked on Istalal for a while, he said that he said it is going to be the way it is for a long time, and it was.

BABY BIRD: This evening we checked in on the baby osprey in a nest over a baseball field in Sand Point, Idaho. It has grown a lot since we last saw it. We also noticed that the unhatched egg that was in the nest is now gone. Guess the mom finally gave it the boot. 

GROWING STRONG: Our garden is enjoying the start of summer. We're starting to see some blossoms. Here, for example, is a tomato blossom. Hopefully there will be a lot more where these came from.

Also, our potatoes are blossoming. Can't wait to see what this leads to. Christian started the plants by just taking nasty ol' eye-sprouting potatoes from our pantry, cutting them up and then sticking them in the ground. 

I love their UW Husky-colored purple and gold blossoms. :)