Whirwind weekend update

Well, I have been wanting to post since Friday evening, but haven’t haqd internet since then. Phooey. So I am doing this in word, and hopefully I will have DSL by tomorrow. (Edited to say Yay, I have internet again!)

The kids actually had all their school work completed by 3 pm on Friday, so we packed up 4 lbs. of cherries and some leftover chicken, drove over and picked Papa up from work, and went over to Lincoln Park. We sat in the shade and talked, played on the great swing-slide, and had cherry-pit spitting contests. We headed home after traffic was over, curled up in our bed with the fans pointed right at us, each of us with a hunk of Sculpey in our hands, and listened to Papa read a few chapters of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

At first you might think this is a scientific story, and to a point it is, but it is also a great character study: Take 3 dudes, put them in an underwater box, and see what happens. One hates it and feels like a prisoner, one is enthralled with the experience of being surrounded by the science of the underwater world, and one could go either way, sometimes siding with his science-loving master, sometimes siding with the whaler who can barely take another minute of captivity. Fascinating. The kids love it. (Added Monday evening-We only have 3 chapters left! Can't wait to see how this story ends!)

Saturday, the Girl and I went to the feed store, getting feed and a few supplies for the chickens. There was a young man (13 yrs old) working there who has convinced both the Girl and I that we can successfully keep all ten chickens, and won't have to give any to Mr. B. at all (That had been our original plan- to keep 4 to 6 of them, and give him the extras.). In fact, the Girl is trying to convince Mr. B. to pay her for raising another set of chicks for him- she had a lot of fun with the wee ones and wants to do it again. We shall see.

This young fella at the feed store gave us a great tour of the store, took us out back and showed us their coops, and gave the Girl a ton of good avice about chickens. She got to pet tiny new kittens, tiny fresh chicks, and saw several varieties of chickens. I was surprised at how many she knew, just from reading the chicken books from the library. She really has a way with animals, too. It was cool to watch.

Sunday, papa got up early and was working out in his cottage garden, but he let me sleep in to a blissful 10:00, at which time I awoke to the wonderful smells of bacon, taters, and eggs. Wonderful! I really needed that. Then he and I worked in the veggie gardens in the blazing sun. My tomatoes are like a jungle- so are the potatoes, and the pepper, cantelope, and cucumbers were just not getting enough sun, so we transplanted them into another bed. We had a ton of cantelope seedlings left over. We potted them up, left some on our next door neighbor's porch (today I found 3 corn plant starts on my front porch- neighbors are so cool!), and took the rest over to the B family's house. We had another one of our harvest parties. We brought fresh picked peas, lettuce, and the veggie starts.

We dropped off some of Papa's homemade potato salad at Gramma's, and gave her quick kisses, before heading to the harvest party. We brought the ice cream maker, and made a batch of strawberry ice cream. We picked tons of fresh raspberries, thinned carrots, and had a good time visiting. Only a couple families showed up this week, so it was nice and low-key.

Today, Monday, the Girl had a two hour long piano lesson. She has her solo recital on August 12th, and she is working very hard with her piano teacher. While they worked, the Boy and I had a baby snack. Girl's teacher has a sweet, roly-poly 11-month old boy, whom Redal cannot leave alone (Hey- who wouldn't rather play with a baby instead of working on your latin? LOL)

Once we got home and cooked lunch, most of the day seemed to be gone. I worked in the garden again, even though I should have been focusing on schooling the kids, but that's okay. They did what they did, we will deal with the fallout later this week.

After Papa got home and we had supper, we helped our next door neighbor poor some concrete, and she let us put our handprints (and her dogs' paw prints!) in the fresh concrete. The kids are tucked in with freshly brushed teeth, one listening to Pooh, and one to Jim Weiss telling Greek tales, Papa and I are tucked in too.

TTFN,
LB