Just Checking In . . .

The weather outside is . . .

Delightful. 71 degrees and sunny. It's been a beautiful couple of days but also with storms quickly moving in and ending in a downpour. Wahoo! Works for me. Lets me off the hook for watering! My favorite. Watering the garden takes some effort.

I'm listening to . . .

Mace chatting to himself in his bed. He's such a good boy. He waits in there until I come and get him.

Around the house and garden . . . 

Nothing much happening around the house. We've got a few projects that need to be finished. Wifey is trying to patiently wait. Ahem.

Garden is looking pretty good. No major problems right now. We did have a Colorado Potato Beetle problem but we kept picking them off and then added straw the base of the plants. Now we don't have a problem.  I noticed that one of the zucchini plants wasn't looking so well, looked under the leaves and found some squash beetles. Found the problem:  straw gathered under one side of the plant (straw is a home for squash beetles). Moved the straw away, had some hack off some stems, and things look good now.

We did have a big issue about a week ago. Some pesky critter dug a hole under our fence and had a feast.  Grr!!!  Chewed down the green beans, the broccoli, my new melon plant, parsley, and some lettuce and kale. Not a happy mama. Doug and Basil tried some different remedies and they worked!!  Yay! We haven't seen the critter since.

Dug some potatoes for lunch, a head of garlic, thinned carrots, and lots of berries. 

We've got cherries (sour ones). Now I just need to get going and actually DO something with them. 

Learning, learning, all the time. . . 

Nutmeg and I are trying to fit in phonics when we can. She also does a bit of journaling and math facts. Other than that, we are pretty laid back. Sage is "learning" to babysit Mace when I am out bringing the others to swim practice. All three are "learning" more this summer about doing dishes, cleaning, and weeding the garden.

We are reading . . . 

The boys are the reading fiends around here. Right now they are at a bit of a stand still while they are trying to figure out where to go next. They finished the first two books in the Will Wilder books and are hoping Raymand Arroyo will finish another. Basil is trying out The Silmarillion by Tolkien and also Frankenstein by Shelley but is thinking he may be over his head. Sage finished The Return of the Indian  and loved it. Basil had read a few Redwall books.  I know they've read some other things but I'm forgetting right now.

Mace is plowing through books too. He loves those books by Antoinette Portis called Not a Box and Not a Stick.

Nutmeg is loving The Adventures of Dr. Dolittle.  We are slowly working through it by reading a chapter or two a day.

I'm reading Kon Tiki and totally digging it. Ken, I keep thinking of you and wondering if you'd enjoy it. I think the boys will enjoy it one of these days. Sage even ran across a movie about it the other day. We might watch it. It won an Academy Award, I think. Anyhow, long story short (I really would like to tell you more but I gotta get Mace out of bed!), its the story of six men sailing an Inca-style raft over 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. Fascinating!

Doug is engrossed in Introduction to the Devout Life by Francis de Sales.

In the kitchen . . . 

Food. Food is in the kitchen. :)  It's the season of spending time harvesting things from the yard and figuring out ways to use it. It is time-consuming but fulfilling. Right now we are having smoothies every morning. Crazy nourishing smoothies and the kids drink them with me! Love it! I ordered some spirulina and we've been adding that to our smoothies. Nature's multivitamin they call it.

Today's smoothie: zucchini, spinach, carrot, flaxseed, spirulina, banana, berries, orange juice.

What else?

Doug and I got in an overnight date last weekend to celebrate our anniversary (13 years!) early. So relaxing and peaceful! We headed over to Durward's Glen this year. We practically had the whole place to ourselves. We fixed ourselves a salmon dinner in the kitchen, walked the trails, prayed in the chapel, and just generally listened to the birds sing all around us. Very nice.

We had a fabulous July 4th. We got into Circus World for $10 for the whole family. Saweet! We had an awesome time. Then we came home, rested, had dinner with friends, and headed up to the Dells for fireworks.

This weekend we've got an away swim meet.

Last but not least . . . Sage wants to share a few of his Lego creations with you all.  Enjoy!

The Lego church

The choir loft with the organ and the piano.

Note the stain glass windows. 

An obstacle course. 

Watching Mace watching the circus was worth the $10 in itself.

This is how we roll. 1/4 of a bag of cotton candy and we're good. ;)