• Sep. 29, 2008
Teaching Children Self-Control

In a world that focuses on immediate self-gratification how do you teach your children self-control?  In a world that is bursting with selfishness - how do you teach your children to discipline themselves to do what is right instead of what is easy and pleasurable?  In a world where the majority of people are out of control - how do you teach your children be self-controlled?

This is something that we must constantly work on in our home!  I'm not a naturally disciplined person and have had to really work on myself so that I can set a good example for my children - an imperfect example at best.  Self-discipline is so crucial to our happiness and success.  I desire for my children to be able to control their tongues, their bodies, their passions and their minds.  It is no easy task; and yet nothing worthwhile is ever easy, is it?  We have reinstituted a practice that we did on a daily basis a couple of years ago.  It began out of the desire to teach my children how to be reverant and be still.  We practiced at home hoping it would help them 'be still' when we were at church.  We called it 'self-control practice.'  The children each had a cushion on the couch to sit on.  They guidelines were that during the set time we were 'practicing' they were to use their minds to control their bodies and tongues.  There was to be no talking, no getting up and leaving, no bothering/touching the person next to them.  The goal was to sit and be still.  If by chance the person next to them was bothering them - they were to control himself/herself and not react.  We started out practicing for only 5 minutes each day and added 5 minutes every week. The little ones struggled - but made improvements each week.  It's been a long while since doing this but this week it became apparent that we needed to get back to our practicing.  Last Friday was our first practice.  We set the timer for 10 minutes.  It was hard for them - the boys really struggled with keeping their bodies still.  My 12 y/o daughter had no difficulty - now if we can just carry that over into real life when her brothers aggravate her - I'll be thrilled!:)

What a challenge it can be even as an adult!  I don't think I'll ever reach a point of being able to check disciplined off of my list of things to work on!  I'll admit, though, that I love the few minutes during our practices that it is so peaceful and quiet!!

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• Sep. 25, 2008
Fortitude

We spent some more time on this painting this morning. The more I read and learn of this - the more I am inspired!

Here is what Charlotte Mason wrote:

"As St Paul would image the fulness of Christ in the characters of Charity, so Isaiah gives us an image of Fortitude in setting forth the humiliation and sufferings of Christ. Fortitude grows up within us, a tender plant, is without form or comeliness, bears griefs and carries sorrows, endures chastisement, suffers and is dumb, does no violence, nor speaks deceit, is put to grief, yet––divides the spoil with the strong. There is only one true Fortitude among men, the fortitude of Christ; and every little bit of cheerful bearing that we are able for, without self-pity or self-complacency, comes of that divine fortitude.

Moses was the meekest man that ever lived, and his meekness was Fortitude. For forty years in the wilderness he bore with the waywardness of Israel; and, when the offences of the people had, so he thought, exceeded the patience of God, he prayed, "Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me also, I pray Thee, out of the Book of Life."

St Paul, too, after much bearing,––"in journeyings often; in perils of waters; in perils of robbers; in perils by mine own countrymen; in perils by the heathen; in perils in the city; in perils in the wilderness; in perils in the sea; in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness:"––could wish that he, too, were accurst for his brethren.

Perhaps Fortitude has always an element of tenderness, and always means bearing for love's sake; if it be only the fortitude of a child who bears toothache cheerfully that he may not distress his mother. "  Vol 4, bk 2, pg 43

Maybe you are a great example of fortitude.  In our family there is far to much of impatience, uncontrolled tongues, complaining and whining about distresses etc.  I love the great literature that has been written to inspire us to great ideals and virtues.  Most of all I'm grateful for a Savior who is perfectly strong, perfectly patience and perfectly merciful.

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• Sep. 22, 2008
Feather Find

 While walking on our nature hike last week we found this beautiful feather laying on the grass in an open area.   

We thought that it was probably from a turkey vulture or or a red tailed hawk.  We did some research on the web and found these pics of red tailed hawks.

After looking at the turkey vulture pics - we are pretty sure that the one we found came from the red-tailed hawk.

The other morning I heard a raspy-call from our woods that sounded like a hawk. We are pretty excited!

The following is information taken from the Golden Guide on Birds.  "The red-tailed hawk is a large (18 in.) soaring hawk. Its wings are broad and its tail is fanshaped and chestnut-red above.  Underparts are lights except for a band of streaks across the belly.  Young have a finely barred tail.  They are permanent residents throughout the range of most of the United States - except in the north central states.  Their eggs are dull or creamy white; spotted brown or purple; rarely marked.  Their nests are made of twigs and branches lined with grasses, weeds and dead leaves.  They build their nests in tall trees, 20-80 ft up in forest areas or in small groves."

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• Sep. 20, 2008
I love when the light goes on

Yesterday we got completely sucked into Our Island Story.  We usually read one chapter and then narrate.  But yesterday we read 3 chapters and my kids didn't even notice.  We began with the chap on Vortigern and King Constans - and couldn't help but continue with The Story of the Coming of Hengist and Horsa and then on to Hengist's Treachery.  My kids were amazed when I told them that I'd read 3 chapters.   

My daughter and I are also reading The Story of King Arthur and his Knights. In the 3 chapters we read of Our Island Story we learned that King Contans had two brothers: Aurelius and Uther Pendragon.... You should have seen how wide her eyes got when I read that part.  For Uther Pendragon was King Arthur's father.  I love seeing the amazement and the connection in their eyes when the light goes on!!  We've had that happen several times since switching over to the Charlotte Mason approach.  Another one of these moments happened after we read in  Our Island Story  of the "white cliffs of Albion." We were reading 'How the Whale got his Throat' in Kipling's   Just So Stories and came to the part where the man that the whale has swallowed asks the whale to take him to the 'white cliffs of Albion.'  Our faces lit up - we knew exactly what he was talking about!  Don't you love it when that happens!

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• Sep. 18, 2008
Art Lessons

I love art!  I'm not  a great artist myself and I marvel at the talents of great artists.  We have been learning about Sandro Botticelli and his painting entitled Fortitude.  The meaning of the word fortitude gives much insight into what Botticelli  was trying to portray in this painting. 

What a great word - -fortitude......  The definition is "mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously."  I went to www.amblesideonline.com and read what Charlotte Mason said of this painting.  She said

 "This 'Fortitude' is no colossal figure, standing stark, bristling with combative energy. Noble in stature, she yet sits, weary after long-sustained effort; wistful, too, as who should say, 'How long?' But, though resting, she is wary and alert, still grasping the unsheathed sword which lies across her knees. She is engaged in a warfare whose end is not within sight; but hers is not the joy of attack. She is weary indeed, yet neither sorry for herself nor pleased with herself; her regard is simple. She has the 'single eye' which looks upon the thing to be done, not upon herself as the doer––the thing to be borne, rather, for Fortitude suffers."

What a great lesson for children today who see a society that teaches immediate self-gratification and to avoid any kind of pain or hardship for a greater good.  This painting is inspiring to me and I find myself thinking of it and desiring to show fortitude in my own life.  Do I show fortitude when things are difficult?  Do I show a strength of mind in the face of challenges and temptations?  More importantly that this painting, my children will learn fortitude through my living it before them.

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• Sep. 17, 2008
Lessons and Bees

It's been too long since I've been able to blog......  We are getting into a groove with our lessons.  It is going really well.  I'm amazed at how much more relaxed I am.  I'm really enjoying the books we are reading.  Some of my favorites are:    Fairy-Land of Science, Our Island Story, Tales of Shakespeare and Parables from Nature-- just to name a few.

Today we were learning about bees.  Did you know......

*Bees have 5 eyes.

*Male bees in the hive are called drones and female bees in the hive (except the queen) are called workers.

*An average bee-hive can hold 50,000 bees.

*Foragers must collect nectar from about 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.

*The average forager makes 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

*Bees carry pollen in a basket on their hind legs called a corbicula.

Today we went on a nature walk and at one point we heard an awful lot of buzzing. I saw a few wasps flying near the ground.  We had to be very near a nest of some sort - but we weren't able to see it.  We didn't hang around that area long. 

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• Sep. 4, 2008
A Not So Great Start

I'm recovering from a nasty head cold that came on the evening of our first day of school.  I've been pretty wiped out.  So, needless to say we haven't had the week I had hoped we would!  Our first day went well!  I bought a little digital recorder for the kids to record their narrations into.  I plan to type them out later and keep them in a folder on my computer.  They are excited about that.  Some of the books we've started with are:

*The Burgess Animal Book for Children

*Our Island Story - a history of Britain

*Secrets of the Woods

*Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers

*Just So Stories by Kipling

*Augustus Caesar's World (my 7th grader)

*Abraham Lincoln's World (my 5th grader)

*Paddle to the Sea by Holling

*The story of King Arthur and his Knights

*The Travels of Marco Polo

For grammar I'm trying Primary Language Lessons and Simply Grammar. 

I think I need to change Math Curriculum for my 4th grader. He was already complaining and struggling the first day back.  He is in Horizons and I'm going to check into Math-U-See and maybe Singapore??

I've seen some 'fruit' already....... We started the Burgess Animal book last week and one morning my 10 y/o woke up and said 'Hey mom, can we read some more in that book today.'  YEA!  I can't remember the last time that happened! 

I'm feeling a little bit of anxiety because I haven't had time to get a 'schedule' worked out for each child.  But, we dove in anyway and hope to get that worked out here soon.  I think that getting sick was a sign that I needed to slow things down!

I hope you all had a fabulous Labor Day and a great week so far!! 

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• Aug. 27, 2008
Nature in our Backyard

We are gearing up to begin our lessons next week.  I've been planning, organizing and ordering a few last books.  At first, I was feeling very overwhelmed.  Now, I'm feeling very excited about all the great books we are going to be reading and all the new adventures! 

The past couple of days we've gone our in our backyard - identifying wild flowers, trees, insects...... and whatever else we find.  I need to get a field guide for insects.... anyone know of a good one?  We have several of the Audobon Pocket Guides - just not the insect one, yet. 

This is a nest we've known about for some time.  We've never been able to spot the little birdie that calls it home, though.

The tree is a Honeylocust.   I don't know if you can see the many thorns it has protruding from its bark.  They are intimidating trees!

My five year old took this pic.  Not bad, huh?  This is a White Oak.  I hadn't really seen the green acorns before and thought that was neat to see.

This little guy was found by my 9 y/o.  Apparently my focus was not where it should have been -he turned out fuzzy.  I tried to get another shot of it and it fell into the grass and we could not find him.  Great camouflage!  We did a little research and believe that this walking stick is green because he is newly molted. 

We did identify another tree - a Black Walnut. 

The kids drew each kind of tree in their nature journals and labeled them! 

Aren't God's creations marvelous!

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• Aug. 26, 2008
The Power of Narration

I've been learning about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy.  As I study and learn - I feel as if I've found the true way of education.  Narration is a very large part of her philosophy and what an inexpensive way to educate our children.  Narration, put simply, is children telling back in their own words what they have read.  It is the child taking ownership of what they read.  It is so simple and yet very powerful. 

In Charlotte's own words: "Children must Labor.  This, of getting ideas out of them, is by no means all we must do with books.  'In all labor there is profit,' at any rate in some labor; and the labor of thought is what his book must induce in the child.  He must generalize, classify, infer, judge, visualize, discriminate, labor in one way or another, with that capable mind of his, until the substance of his book is assimilated or rejected, according as he shall determine; for the determination rests with him and not with his teacher." (Vol. 3, p. 179)

"To secure a conversation or an incident, we 'go over it in our minds;' that is, the mind puts itself through the process of self-questioning... This is what happens in the narrating of a passage read: each new consecutive incident or statement arrives because the mind asks itself, --'What next?'  For this reason it is important that only one reading should be allowed; efforts to memorize weaken the power of attention, the proper activity of the mind; if it is desirable to ask questions in order to emphasize certain points, these should be asked after and not before, or during, the act of narration." (Vol. 6 p. 17)

Why do I think that this is 'true' education?  Because it deals with the child's mind - not as a bucket to be filled with facts and information that the teacher has deemed useful - but as a living, unique individual with the ability to think and judge for themselves.  It involves trust in the child and trust in God.  Trust that God has created this person with a purpose and a unique mind with uniques gifts, desires and interests.  Our job, according to CM is not to fill the bucket with as much information as we can, but more importantly helping them to develop relations with the world around them.  We are building from what is already inside of them instead of filling them up with what we have chosen is correct for them.  Isn't that the source of resistance in learning?  Forcing learning instead of presenting it and letting the child take what he will and build upon it will only produce frustration and resentment.  This principle of narration gives the child the opportunity to make his learning his own without the interference of the teacher.  It is not setting the child up for failure with comprehension questions based on what some authority has delcared that he should know.  How limited! How short-sighted!

Will I be surprised when my children complain about having to narrate their readings?  No, because it requires a lot more effort than just answering a few questions.  Now they have to engage so many more mental processes.  But I am excited to see how much more they will retain and how inspired we'll be from the living books we'll be enjoying together!

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• Aug. 23, 2008
Lessons from the Garden

The other night my DH helped me can 14 qts of green beans.  It was getting late and I was tired.  I started thinking about our summer and how we didn't get nearly the reading etc. done that I set out to do at the beginning.  But, I thought, what did we learn this summer?  We've had a rather large garden this summer.  The kids helped to plant, water, weed, and harvest.  What lessons are there in a garden?

1. Hard work - work is a disciplined habit.  Working together as a family builds unity and appreciation for one another.  It also produces satisfaction at a job well done.

2. Faith is like a seed - if planted it will grow.  We do all we can do to plant and nourish - and we watch as God does the rest. 

3. Patience - there is no instant gratification in gardening.

4. Pollination - what are all those bees up to?

5. Science of plants - What do plants need to grow? water, soil, and sunlight.  What do plant cells have that animal cells do not?  Cell walls. 

6. Principles of Self-Reliance

7. Opportunities to serve one another - to go outside of one's comforts for the benefit of our family. 

8. Weeds will overtake the garden if not pulled out.  Our minds are like gardens - we need to constantly nourish our mind with the best books and ideas or the weeds of idleness will choke out all that is good. 

9. Insects - beneficial vs. pests     The garden is a great place to study insects like aphids, lady bugs, daddy long leg spiders, Japanese beetles, tomato horn worms, bumble bees, soldier bugs, squash bugs and more.

10. Canning and preserving food - yum!

We learned much more from our garden than we could have ever learned from books alone! 

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• Aug. 23, 2008
The REAL world

Last Saturday our family traveled about 30 minutes away for our 10 year old son's first football game.  He had to be there 1 hour before the game started to practice and warm up.  My husband took the rest of us to Subway for some lunch while we waited. As we walked in the woman behind the counter was talking about her kids going back to school and how she couldn't wait for the first day of school.  As she said that, she saw me walk in with 4 of my 5 children and she commented "It looks like you can't wait either."  I replied "We homeschool so that doesn't really affect us."  At that point she got surprisingly snarky with me and said "Well, I do send my children into the real world and it does affect us."  I didn't comment after that and was a little taken back by her abrasiveness.  As I stood there a little stunned - I thought how ironic her comment was.  I was the one that actually taught my children in the 'real' world.  Her children didn't go into the 'real' world - they went into the public school environment which is certainly not patterned after the 'real' world.  I thought it very interesting!  Where does this mindset come from that the public school system is the real world?  What differences do you see between the 'real' world and public school?

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• Aug. 21, 2008
What's going on here

I'm feeling the pressure to get things organized for our schooling.  We are going start after Labor Day.  I've been in the canning zone -and have been so worn out lately that I've had a hard time mustering the energy - even the desire - to switch gears.  I've taken a break from canning the past 2 days.  Yesterday we had a 'family-fun day'.  I've been so busy with the garden and canning that I haven't had much 'fun' time with my kids.  So, yesterday we made a list of all they 'fun' things that they would like to do and we went to it.  We played in the sprinkler - and they were surprised at how much fun it was!  We had a picnic for lunch, made cookies, watched a movie, played baseball in the front yard and played the card game 'In a Pickle.'  It was good!  Today, I've been trying to catch up on laundry.  I haven't seen my laundry room floor in a couple weeks.  We are making progress!  It is amazing how much work canning can be...... but it is worth it! 

I'm planning on using Ambleside online for our curriculum this next year.  I feel like there is still so much I need to learn about the Charlotte Mason approach.  I'm also struggling with the question of do I go strictly CM or integrate CM into what I have.  For instance, I've used Bob Jones K5 and I'm debating on whether or not I should use that with my kindergartener - or switch completely over to the CM approach??  I used 'How to Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' with my oldest daughter.  She only did about half the lessons and then her reading just exploded.  My sons didn't do so well with that book so we tried different things with them.  My 5 year old daughter is very eager to learn to read - and I don't want to burn her out with the traditional bookwork.  So, I'm in limbo right now!  I did purchase a huge amount of books from homeschoolclassifieds.com this summer - and there is only a handful of books that I still need to get.  I feel like I'm just about there.  If anyone could give me some tips on nature notebooks, narrations etc. that would be great.  I read that CM doesn't encourage written narrations until around 4th grade.  Do you then have a notebook for each subject they are narrating?   For younger children - do you record their narrations as they dictate?  How often do you have your children record something in their nature notebooks?  Is it an assignment type activity - or more on their own?  I'm still not sure about Math...... or English?  We've used Bob Jones, Horizons, and Saxon in the past. 

I'm excited about this new journey and hope that we will rediscover the JOY in learning!

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• Aug. 13, 2008
Fun, Canning and Frustration

I'm taking a minute to do a quick update while my green beans are in the pressure cooker.........  Is it really Aug 13????  When did this happen?  I hope you are all having a good 'end of the summer'...........

August 11 was our 14th wedding anniversary!  Wow! We celebrated by staying in St. Louis for the weekend - thanks to my parents for keeping our kiddos........:)  We had such a WONDERFUL time!  It has been over 2 years since we've had a chance to have a little get away without our children........ we were sooooo overdue!  It was so good for us to leave the stress and to do's etc. etc. behind for a few days and just focus on each other and relaxation and fun.  The only problem...... it just wasn't long enough! 

Last week some friends and I made Peach/Strawberry jam.  We ended up making jam from 4 bushels of peaches ----- yes, we are a bit nuts!  My sister and I came away with 68 pints of jam - EACH.  It was exhausting work....... but I love seeing those glistening jars on the shelf!!

So far this week I've done  11 qt of freezer corn, 14 qt green beans, 21 qt dill pickles, and 14 pints of sweet relish.  The sweet relish is a first for me -- so I'm hoping that it will turn out.  My husband is the sweet relish lover.  We'll see if it meets his approval.  I sure hope so because that is a labor-intensive project!

Have you ever been so frustrated that you thought you were going to be sick????  Well, on Monday I discovered that my upright freezer that we keep out in the garage..................... had been turned OFF and everything was room temperature.  AHHHHHH!!!  Here is what we had in it................... 25+ jars of strawberry freezer jam, 6 boxes of a variety of steaks, 8-10 loaves of zucchini bread and a trash bag full of fresh dill that my friend brought back from Wisconsin for me to make pickles with because I can't find fresh dill anywhere around here................................   I was just sick!!!  After interrogating my children, my 5 year old admitted to turning the dial - which is inside the freezer way up high.  It was just such a freak thing and I may never know what prompted her do such a thing.  We had to throw out the steaks and dill..... I'm praying that the jam is not spoiled.  I'm not sure about the bread, either.  I just can't bring myself to throw out all that 'work'.......  Needless to say, Monday was an extreme trial in patience for me.  I've managed to work through it to some degree.......what else can I do but just let it go.........................................

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• Jul. 31, 2008
What is my part?

Do you ever wonder what is your part and what is God' s part? I found myself looking for the answer to this question just yesterday.  It's not the first time - and I know that it won't be the last.  Sometimes it's hard to know whether to just be still and wait on God or press forward and do all that you can do. There are times when I do all that I can do and yet I end up frustrated because I still do not get the results that I'm hoping for.  Perhaps I need more patience (well, actually there is no 'perhaps' about it - I definitely need more patience.)  When it comes to training our children - which part is mine and which part is God's?  I am to nurture, guide, direct, teach and train.  I desire to teach my children to make wise decisions - and not just choose the easy or the self-satisfying route - but the right one.  In order for them to learn to choose righteously they must have their own experiences in choosing and the consequences of those choices.  It would be so much better for my children to learn this while they are young and making choices that aren't of life-altering consequence. 

 I strive daily to help my children learn the effects of their choices by giving them consequences - good or bad - depending upon the choice that was made.  For instance, yesterday, they chose to go against a 'home rule' and watch TV before their jobs were finished.  I was out in the garden and they got up and turned on the TV.  When I came in - I was very disappointed!  The consequences that came were no TV for 5 days and double the jobs for the day.  This started the day off on a negative note and they just goofed off for hours instead of doing their jobs (I think because they had double the jobs they felt a little overwhelmed so they just procrastinated - plus it was a rainy and blah day outside.)  So, here is where I was asking God - which part is mine and which part is yours?  God lets us have our consequences for our choices as well.  I was struggling with just making them do their jobs - and letting them waste their day away by goofing off.  They had to have their work finished in order to eat lunch.  At the peak of my frustration - it was way past lunchtime and no one seemed to care.  There were messes everywhere and I was waiting on green beans to be snapped and cucmbers to be washed so that I could can them and it didn't seem that my children were going to get to this anytime soon.  I kept thinking about how God doesn't FORCE us to do anything.  He lets us learn from our own experience of choosing and feeling the consequences of those choices.  So, was I to just let this continue until their tummies were so hungry they couldn't help but do their work??  I think so - except I did get so frustrated that I sent them to their rooms until they were ready to do their work because the messes just kept growing and growing. Better to contain the messes to their rooms than to let them engulf the entire house.  One by one they would come out and say they were ready to begin working.  To which my response was 'don't tell me - show me.'  I ended up doing the cucumbers myself so that I could get the in the canner.   I gave that child an extra job in the place of that particular one.  Maybe I should have waited on the child to do it - I'm not sure.  Is this where I need more patience????  I need to be faithful that God will let them feel the consequences of their choices  - the good and the bad - and that hopefully they will learn and desire to choose what is right and good.  Sometimes the little control freak in me rears it's ugly head and I have a very hard time 'waiting' on the Lord.  I guess we all have some work to do. How do you teach your children to choose righteously?

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• Jul. 29, 2008
Good to be home

It has been wonderful to be home most days the past couple weeks.  After a super busy start to the summer - I'm so thankful things have slowed down a bit.  It's amazing what I can accomplish when I'm home! :)  We've also gotten into a better routine and things are running more smoothly.  The kids are helping a lot more with the work around the house and we are getting to things that I haven't gotten to in months. It is nice for a change to feel like we're making progress instead of feeling overburdened.  The kids are also at the ages where they are capable of doing more to help - that is wonderful!  Another good thing we've done is severely limit the TV.  That is always a positive thing.  There is more peace in our home and the kids play more together and read more.  The greatest thing, though, is just having the pace of life slow down.  I get to feeling like I'm going to go crazy when I have to run and run and never have time to catch up on home stuff - or I'm just out of energy to do it.  That is one of the challenges of living in the fast-paced world that we do - it can take great effort just to STOP and get off the hamster wheel.  I absolutely abhor the feeling that my time is not my own.  Sometimes I do it to myself by overscheduling myself and/or my children.  There are so many good things that we can participate in or let our children participate in but is it in the best interest of our family?  Does it take away precious family time and leave us all frazzled and exhausted??  I know some who say 'That is just the way life is' as if they are completely out of control as to how and what they spend their time on.  To that I say - NO WAY!  I'm so thankful that homeschooling allows me the freedom to choose how we spend our time.  What a precious gift! It is so important to have time - time to be in nature - time to be with God - time to ponder and listen for His Spirit to guide and direct you.  Time is just the thing that seems to be in short supply these days. I'm so thankful to have had a little more of it these past couple of weeks! 

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• Jul. 25, 2008
Who would you choose?

Last night I was reading the story of 'Abraham and Isaac' to our kids.  When I finished reading we talked about how Abraham was willing to obey God even when he was asked to do something extremely difficult and painful.  It was then that one of my kids piped up and said 'Mom, if God told you to sacrifice one of us who would you choose?'   I replied 'Well, that depends on the day.' 

Ha! Ha!  We got a good chuckle out of that one!:)

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• Jul. 24, 2008
Canning Pickles

Today I went to the garden and found more cucumbers than I expected.  Those little guys grow so quickly!  So, I ended up canning 7 qts. of dill pickles today.  I have about 7 pickling cucumber plants and 2 regular cucumber plants.  They are doing well and in a week or so I think I'm going to be bombarded with cucumbers!  We also have several little cantelopes --- I can't wait to taste one of those:) 

Tomorrow I'm hoping for enough green beans to do some canning.  We have Roma Italian beans, Royal Burgundy (they really are purple but turn green when you cook them), Blue Lake pole beans and a yellow wax pole bean.  They are soooo yummy!

My tomatoes aren't quite ready yet.  I'm hoping by next week to be getting some red ones.  I can salsa, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce and whole tomatoes.  I originally started out with almost 50 tomato plants - yea, I can't control myself!  But we got so much rain in May/June that I lost half of them. 

We've also have several gallons of sugar snap peas.  My daughter will eat them right in the garden. They are so tasty!

Some day I hope to have fruit trees and berry bushes and even a green house to try my hand at growing food year round...... 

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• Jul. 23, 2008
Summertime

It's been awhile!  Here are some of the things we've been up to.....

* Finished our 3 week stint of swimming lessons - hooray!

*Oldest daughter had her first church camp 3 hours away from home - for 4 days................She loved it!  She grew to appreciate air conditioning more than ever:)

*Canning vegetables from garden - so far 25 qts of green beans, dill pickles and zucchini bread.  We had our first broccoli from the garden today and ooooh it was delicious:)   

*Took our kids on our mini-vacation.  We spent a day in St. Louis at the Arch and Missouri Botanical Gardens and a day at Six Flags.

*Cleaning and re-organizing around home.

*10 y/o began football practice this week.  It's his first year and he's very excited about it all.

Summer is just going by way too fast!  How can I slow it down?

My 'baby' at her swim lessons.....

The kids and I at the top of the St. Louis Arch

The St. Louis Arch

The Missouri Botanical Gardens - we are standing in front of a Chihuly blown glass scuplture.  It was awesome!

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• Jul. 8, 2008
John Wesley's Rule

"Do all the good you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can."

I came across this while reading some poetry to my children.  I think it is something to live by.

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• Jul. 8, 2008
My daughter's first overnight camp

My oldest (daughter) left for 4 days on her first ever church girls camp.  They are camping 2 1/2 hours away.  It feels so strange!  I really miss her!    She has been very excited about going  - but as the time drew nearer I could sense her apprehension.  My husband was the one to drive her to church and drop her off this morning.  He treated her to a 'drive-thru' breakfast on their way.  She said she only wanted some hash-browns or else she might get sick.  When he turned to look at her - her eyes were all red and watery!  AH!  It's a good thing I didn't take her - or we'd both been a mess.  She is an extremely independent girl - but at the same time she has a need to be close to her family.  It is an interesting combination.  It has subdued as she's gotten older - but comes out in times like this. 

It also didn't help that she had a 2 night sleep over at her grandparents this weekend for her birthday.  So, she came home yesterday afternoon and left this morning. 

I think it is going to be a good experience for her to be away from us for awhile.  'Absence does make the heart grow fonder.'  I'm excited for her and the new experiences that she will be having - but at the same time I just don't want her to grow up!   

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