No photos, because I can't find the camera.  Er.. I think I'm worse than the children for misplacing things. 

What a plentiful harvest!  We've been so blessed.  This week: fingerling potatoes, red onions, garlic, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow crookneck squash, zuchini, cue ball squash (looks like... a cue ball, tastes like zuchini), lettuce, honey and apricots.  Mmmm. 

Local pizza: we sauteed some local Italian sausage and then sauteed the onions and garlic together in the same pan (while the sausage dried off), and then sauteed some yellow squash as well.  I chopped some of the oregano and basil I had frozen in bags, and sprinkled it all over the pizza crust.  Now I just need to start making mozerrella!

On the local note, it seems that the mill I was eyeing from which to purchase flour is out of business.  So still no local source of flour, though fields all around us are growing wheat.  The local oats I found aren't cleaned.  What does that mean exactly?  I'm not sure.  How does one clean oats?  Dunno.  It's all a process... and I'm still in the beginning stages.  But I'm learning.

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We are incubating an egg of an idea here... (no, we're not pregnant)... and I feel like this egg is of God's timing.  I can't share all the details right now, but I would ask you to pray for our patience as it develops, and for our discernment as we sort through the idea.

Oddly enough, when we ask God... He answers.

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I am surrounded by God's goodness these days-- or rather, I have always been surrounded, but lately I have eyes to see and ears to hear. 

:: mountain roses, blooming their hearts out

:: baby raspberries (especially ones that spew applesauce all over me)

:: red-throated house finches, singing on the rooftop

:: sunflowers

:: my four year-old, singing about her purple shoes

:: the smell of basil on my hands as I pinch off the flowers

:: tomatoes, weighing down the vine

:: my five year-old, playing piano for any and all who will listen

:: old friends who pop by at a moment's notice

:: an eight year-old boy reading on the couch in the sunshine

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Several friends have commented that I am grumpier in real life than on my blog.  Is this a concerted effort to improve my public image?  Is it a conspiracy to make other moms out there feel alone in their grumpiness?  No!

Most of my posts are not grumpy because I write them ahead of time.  Usually, I sit down for an hour (often, when I have downloaded photos) and write several posts at once.  Then I can up-post them (that's the opposite of downloading, right?) with one button click, so I'm not spending all week writing posts, and getting distracted by the "Hot Gossip" on msn.com.   But I only sit down to write those posts when I'm feeling chipper and creative.  (I have no creative energy when I'm grumpy.)  Then I change the date/time from the post from when it was written to when it was posted.

So-- 'tis not a conspiracy.  I am just as grumpy as all my friends (who, for the record, are not any more grumpy than anyone else).  But when I'm grumpy, I'm too grumpy to post about it... so you don't often read about it. 

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SweetP is delightful these days-- laughing and chucking at our slightest antics.  She likes raspberries on her soft little neck, and lies, holding toes in both hands, to watch us.  She is combat-crawling to get her toys, and is getting up on her hands and knees as if to crawl properly.

Oy, I'm not ready for a crawling baby... and neither are the boys who like to spread the legos all over the floor!  Things will soon be a-changin' at our house!

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I'm chafing at summer's bit, ready for school to start again.  I sound like a "regular" parent () who sends her kids away come September first! 

But it's true-- transition to summer was hard for me (though the kids might not have noticed)-- and now I'm eager to start school again.  As our books for fall have trickled in, the kids have asked when we get to start again.

My friend Molly mentioned Genevieve Foster's The World of Abraham Lincoln to me as an antidote to the rapid pace history is taking.  We did Story of the World Vol. 3 last year, and it flew by... and I fear Volume 4 will whiz by as well.  So I was eager to check it out when Molly mentioned it, and it's in the mail on its way to me as I write.  I'd love to linger a little more over history.  Plus, we've got so much supplemental reading to go along with the westward expansion alone... (It makes me think of Prince Humperdink in The Princess Bride saying, "Ty, you know I love to watch you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it... I'm swamped.)

We went to Barnes and Nobles yesterday to pick up vacation reading for the kids.  They had a sale on (large) art prints. I picked up 14 Dali and 14 Monet for $10 each.  We didn't get to Chagall yet, so I have those ready as well.  For music, I've got Opal Wheeler's Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms for the fall.  We'll see how far we get with those before I buy more.  The boys still have a ways to go in their Singapore (math) books, so I didn't have to order those yet.  For physics, we're going to try a bunch of crazy experiments from Backyard Ballistics and read throughDavid Macauley's The New Way Things Work together.  I'm excited. 

I'll post another day about our literature selections.  And for geography, we're going to work on Africa.  If we ever finish that, we might move on to South America-- though I anticipate Africa taking us several years.  We'll see.

I guess my vacation from school did the trick: I'm refreshed and eager to get going again. 

Jeremiah 31:25 "I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint."

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Here's a adult woodpecker (on the right, black cap) flaking off the bark of a pine tree.

Here's the woodpecker feeding the grub it finds to the baby woodpecker (left, lower, wearing the yellow cap.)  Notice how fat and fluffy the baby is still. 

I had never seen this behavior before-- and that they let me watch and get close enough to photograph it-- I was thrilled!

Any bird experts know exactly what kind of woodpeckers these are?  I'm thinking three-toed, but my books don't show a baby, so I'm not sure if the juveniles have the yellow cap without the white speckled forehead.

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Here's the crew pulling oregano leaves off the branches to freeze.  (This works great with oregano and parsley-- not so much with basil, because it turns black.)  Then in the winter, I chop it frozen to add to sauces and whatnot.  Just opening the bag brings me back to summer.

All of a sudden, the farm bags these last two weeks have been amazing-- gobs of potatoes (red or yukon gold), kohlrabi, turnips (yellow or red), onions (this week Walla Walla!), garlic, carrots, zuchini and summer squash, and lettuces... I'm forgetting something.  It was a slow start, but I'm in vegetable heaven now.  We also got our first fruit from the fruit farm-- Rainier and bing cherries.  Mmmmm.

I discovered that the vanilla my grocery store sells is local, and I'm looking into a local cheesery... though I may end up just making my own cheese.  Anyone with experience in this?

"Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  They will be yours for food.'.. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.  And there evening, and there was morning-- the sixth day." Genesis 1:29, 31

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Several years ago, my friend Bill recommended this charming children's book. It became a favorite-- not just because the story and iillustrations make us laugh, but because it sparked a game: Daddy makes pizza.

Here's Daddy making strombolis (like a pizza, but with the fillings rolling inside the dough.)  Daddy makes the best strombolis.

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Sunday we spent a day with my husband's cousin and her family.  These aren't folks I know extrememly well, so I was curious to see how the day would go.  It was lovely.

We went up into Rocky Mountain National Park and had a picnic and a walk around Sprague Lake.  A family of ducks was far too social.  A pair of woodpeckers had lunch by us as well.  The children got wet.  They climbed trees.

When we went back to their cabin, the kids played well-- they made two "plays" (high on action, low on dialogue and character development) for us.  What a delightful day!

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I'm a planner... I guess you could figure that out from all my posts about planning this, and getting X done.  I like to have a to-do list.  I like to check off what got done.  I like to figure out ways to do things better.  Working this way has certainly helped me achieve things the world values, and helps my life run more "smoothly." 

But I think God values interruptions.  God values relationships, and relationships mean interruptions.  My "acheivements"-- even something as small as getting the laundry done on Monday-- can crowd out the significant, loving interactions God values more highly than my laundry.

In the past few years, I have noticed an unhealthy pattern in my life: plan first, then ask God to bless it.  Yes, planning is a good thing.  But I think God would have me do things a little differently-- ask first: what shall I do?  Then wait...

It's the waiting I'm bad at.  I would much prefer to plan, to get going, to accomplish.

Waiting requires risk.  I have to trust that God will answer.  And I then when he answers, I have to obey.

But I'm learning.  Lately God has given me some opportunities to ask, wait, and receive-- little things... like practice runs.  For example, I wanted a bike trailer, but I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars.  I asked my neighbor if she'd seen any at garage sales, and she said, "Get in line.  I've been looking for a used one for two years."  But I asked God about it, and waited... and my neighbor called back after seeing a bike trailer at a garage sale on our corner that she didn't want.  And I bought it.

More significantly, I've been asking God for opportunities to love my neighbors.  And every time I've asked, he's opened a door-- a dinner here, a trip to a museum there, a medical question there... all ways I can love my neighbors in tangible ways.  But these weren't opportunities I could manufacture, simply with my excellent planning.

So now I'm trying to ask God about the bigger things: how do you want to use our family for your glory?  And now I'm waiting...

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One of my favorite parts of Independence Day is NPR's recording of the Declaration of Independence.  We heard in first in 2002 or 2003, in the car, and Sam and I were both weeping on the highway.  There's something about hearing the words read aloud-- the defense of our founding fathers' very shocking decision to have Revolution.

You can access it by going to www.npr.org and clicking on the link to Morning Edition.

May freedom ring!

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"That which we love, we shall grow to resemble."  Bernard de Clairvaux

Oh Lord, may I love you: incarnate, crucified, risen.  Make me like you.

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I love being outdoors.  I love being in our yard.  But I haven't figured out the best way to use the space well.  (I'm sure Pottery Barn could give me a lot of solutions for under $60,000.)  Because I don't have the patio set up well, we tend not to eat outdoors, which I love to do in the summer.

Saturday our neighbors had a garage sale, and we added a few things to it, which meant I was outside a bit with them.  Then I invited them over to dinner.  Being outside inspired my husband to cut the grass (and weed-whack)... which led him to dead-head the roses, and move the grill off our little patio... at the end, we had reclaimed the patio from all the stuff living on it.  So I threw a table cloth over the kids' picnic table and over the bigger table, and voila!  We had a perfect space for dinner.  We set our chairs in the grass and spent two hours out there talking while the kids played.  Lovely.

Such simple steps: a broom, a table cloth, some dinner... and we had another entire room.  And all this time I've let my visions Coastal Living's elaborately catered dinners-- or rather, my inability to imitate them-- keep me from enjoying our space.  Silly me.

P.S.  I made some great local pizza tonight, with homemade crust, local tomato sauce (from The Blue Parrot), Boulder Sausage, onions from the farm, and oregano and spinach from our garden!

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Our summer "curriculum" includes taking apart small appliances.  So far we've done the toaster (photo), the drill, a modem, and the tiny transitor radio J "won" for selling some Boy Scouts something or other.  All were broken, and now are really broken.  Over time, maybe we'll start to recognize different common components.

Glad those safety goggles are being worn so safely!

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We love musicals; we listen to them for hours in the car or around the house, and the children have several memorized from Overture to Curtain Call.  One of these is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

I put "Joseph" on in the car, and M said, "Wow, Joseph had a lot of brothers!  How did she handle it?"

I: Honey, Joseph was a boy, not a girl.

M: No, Jospeh is a girl!

I: Why do you think that?

M: She sings like a girl, and she dresses like a girl... and she has all those terrible brothers!

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M's imaginative play has spun out beyond her brothers' Transformers, Trains, Bionicles and battle-play.  Recently, she has created a long-playing Castle game for herself and O, and me if I'm playing.  Tonight we rode our bikes down to a little park with a bell.  O was "King Benny," she was "Princess Elizabeth," and I was "Queen Honey."  It was all very elaborate, with King Benny riding off to work, Princess Elizabeth going to preschool, and Queen Honey staying home to do the dishes... but she assured me that Queen Honey gets to wear a very fancy cape while she does the dishes.

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My blog is now a two year-old!  It's funny-- I didn't mean to start a blog, I only meant to be able to comment on someone else's post without being "anonymous."  So I registered with homeschoolblogger.  Then, when I realized I had started a blog, I started posting... mostly so my mother-in-law could see what we do all day and keep her in touch with our kids. 

The surprise to me has been how blessed I've been by blogging.  I love the immediacy of the medium, how "fresh" a post can be, and how quickly others in my cyber-community can give me feedback.    Blogging has taken out of homeschooling much of the isolation I feared.  So thank you, all who comment-- your comments are a great encouragement to me!

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So, do you remember O's race in April?  He ran a one-mile race-- and got 71st for his age group (5-18 year olds).  The race generously mailed a voucher for 2 major league soccer tickets to each child who finished the race.  Saturday we went to the MLS game.

They gave us front row seats, right by the goal (at the side, so we could see the action).  And all of the mascots spent lots of time entertaining the kids in our section.  It was delightful.  O was especially proud that he could treat me to a date.

At one point, one of the mascots walked toward us on the concrete barrier in front of us.  O grabbed his hotdog from the barrier to protect it from the ginormous stuffed bison.  The bison laughed and reached out as if to take the hotdog off O's lap.  O thought this was hilarious!  It was the highlight of the game for him-- although if you ask him what was his favorite part of our date, he says, "All of it." 

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On the whole, I really enjoy our neighbors.  But there is a little 6 year old across the street from us who has been a little bit of a challenge.

He receives very little supervision from his parents.  Example: he has a bike without training wheels which he can't ride.  So he comes and demands O share his bike with him.  I like  my kids to practice sharing, but...

When he comes to play trains, he commandeers J's battery-powered train.  J, torn between being a good host and wanting to play with his train, tries to get this boy to take turns.  The boy says, "Well, if you don't I won't be your friend any more."

The boy also has a battery-powered truck, which he drives up and down the street without helmets or any regard for the danger of the real cars.  This week, he was trying to convince O to tell me that it had seat belts (it doesn't) and that it's safe (it's not) so I would let O ride with him.  O refused.

I am torn between wanting my desire to let my children deal with a little peer-unpleasantness in a setting where I can come to the rescue before it gets out of control, and wanting to put my foot down and say, No, he can't play.  I feel like this boy can be a little sand in our oyster shell-- a little bit of negative peer pressure we can counteract and debrief as it happens-- to harden us to worse peer-pressure later.  Anyone have experience in negotiating through these muddy waters? 

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I received a box of Kumon books and thought I would share my thoughts about them.

O loved the Rhyming Words book-- there's just enough on each page to reinforce a word family, but not so much it's overwhelming.  The activities repeat with different words groups, so after reading him the instructions for the first word family, he knew what to do for the following pages. 

M loves the Tracing books, and these will be pulled out when she wants to "do school" with the rest of us.

The early math (addition and subtraction) books, however, are b-o-r-i-n-g.  Each page has way too many exercises for the pre-K/K/1st age group, and they're just math problems.  No matching, no variation.  Just problem.after.problem.  Neither O nor J wanted to do these, although either could have. 

I do like that their math problems are set up horizontally.  Supposedly that's supposed to promote memorization of math facts (so that 11 + 5 = 16 is automatic, instead of 11 + 5 is 1 + 5 = 6 plus 10).

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