What we've been up to.

Baseball. The Washington County Fair. Jonah and Butterscotch in the 4-H Cat Show. Keeping up with my little garden. Visiting MN and having my parents and brother (from Japan) visit us. Making plans for building a bedroom in the basement for the older boys... they have out grown their little room upstairs. Swimming lessons. Birthday parties. Six flags. Noah's Ark Water park in WI Dells. The Laura Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, SD with my sister and her three children.

I love summer and am always sad when it draws to a close. I've been madly searching out curriculum and making my lists for what we need before we start school (hopefully mid-August). I'll let pictures say the rest...

Chicken love

Just to prove that our chickens have it pretty good... no more sitting incidents since I wrote about that a few months ago, I have to post this pic. It's one of my favorites.

We've started letting the chickens out into our back yard from time to time. They have an outdoor fenced area, but that has been pretty thoroughly scratched and picked, so now they get bored and wait for us at the fence gate. We can only have them out while we are watching them, to avoid them meandering over into either neighbors yard. They happily cluck, scratch and peck in the woods, dry leaves flying out behind them. Getting them back into the chicken yard has proved easier than I thought, all it takes is a white bucket. They'll follow us all over the yard just to see whats in the white bucket. Today's treat? strawberry tops, homemade pizza crusts and the corn cobs from lunch today.

We're done with school, Yeah, Yeah!

That's our happy dance this weekend... We're done with school, yeah! Yeah! We're done with school Yeah! Yeah!

It was a great end of the year.

Monday: Grandma M was here and had some home time with the kids before leaving mid morning. We hit the books for a couple of hours. Jonah left for his last track and field meet.

Tues: Ron stayed with E and A, I took Jonah and Isaiah to the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the Public Museum. It was awesome mainly because it started with artifacts from the Greek period, including a mosaic of Alexander the Great, then went on to the Romans with actual coins from the first century and more pottery, including copper tools from Pompeii. Then we entered the display of Jewish and Early Christian people, again of the first and second centuries. I don't know that I've every seen artifacts that are so old. We've covered ancient history this year, so the boys were able to truly appreciate most of what they saw. Those periods of history have truly captured our imaginations this year so seeing the artifacts in person was so inspiring. Sorry, no pictures. Cameras were not allowed.

Weds: Homeschool track and field day. We all went (Daddy too) and participated with 300 other homeschoolers.

Thurs: Finished book work with E and I, J divided up the reading he had left and did about 30 pages, saving the last 30 for Friday. Then went to the track and field picnic for Jonah's team. The team played games and had fun, the other kids and I played in the sun on the park play equipment. I got my first minor sunburn of the year. :)

Fri: E and I had a dentist appt. J stayed home to finish his reading. We ended the day with movies and brownies and ice cream on my fancy plates.

Ahhh, it's a great deal of work, but so, so rewarding. To God be the Glory for another year!!


I'll try to post some pics soon!

Don't sit on the Chicken!

Sometimes you hear yourself saying things as a parent and have to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Aaron LOVES our chickens. He would be out in the chicken yard every morning and all afternoon if I let him. He tosses food and bread crusts for them, follows them around, and loves to catch one and hold it for awhile. So, I wonder what was in his 3 year old mind when I looked out the window and saw him sitting on a chicken. Feet straight out in front of him, sitting calm as can be. So now, when he heads out the back door, we have this conversation.
me: "Aaron, are you going to nice to the chickens?"
Aaron: "Yes."
me: "Aaron, are you going to feed the chickens?"
Aaron: Yes."
me: "Aaron, will you promise me that you won't sit on the chickens?"
Aaron: "Yes Mom, I promise."

Needless to say, our egg counts have been decreasing this week. But Aaron is having a great time!

What did the chicken say...

... when it laid the egg on top? We don't know, but we think it was the equivalent of a 10 pound baby. I thought for sure it would be a triple or at least a double yolk, but no... just one yolk, which Isaiah scrambled and had for breakfast the next morning.

Perhaps this was her first egg of the summer? The chickens are laying more now- five eggs today (five/day is the average we are hoping for with seven 2yo chickens).

Now, if I could just get some success in the garden...

Maple Sugaring

Our big experiment this spring was a success! The kids and I bought four taps from our local hardware store (the one with the life size plastic horse in the window and an old cat meandering the aisles (I love it)), then tapped four of our maple trees. We learned that an eletric drill is much better than a hand drill for this job. (not enough arm strength here) Sap started flowing immediately. After collecting for a day, I started it boiling on the electric grill to avoid having to tend a fire all day long. This worked slowly, we never got a good boil going and the cost was rising steadily. Propane ain't cheap. Our first quart was a disaster. I watched for the telltale rising of the sap like a hawk, but unfortunately kept stirring it down at the same time. The result was burned marshmallow gunk . I threw away the whole jar and resolved to LEAVE IT ALONE next time!

The second attempt was a success and the kids begged for it as soon as they got up and saw the jar on the counter. I made crepes and they rolled and dipped them in little bowls of syrup. This stuff is too precious to waste!

After that, we changed to fire. The boys LOVED tending the fire with me and we all enjoyed being outside watching it boil. We got two more quarts this way at no cost (thanks to the stacks of dried wood we have), but four full days of effort. It was way more time intensive, but more satisfactory too. Next year we plan to double our efforts. If so we'll have almost a full years supply for our family if I'm stingy with it. So now you know why real maple syrup costs about $60 a gallon in the store!

Next time I'll nab a picture of the chickens who stared at us the entire time from their fenced in yard right next to the burn site. I guess they were hard up for entertainment after a long winter all cooped up. :)




Here's the finishing operations (filter, boil and can) and boys tending the fire.

Birthday girl

OK, so it was a month ago... but I just uploaded pictures today and here are some worthy of sharing. Ella had her golden birthday on March 7th. She wore a special flower to church and helped me decorate her cake.



The most exciting part came a week later when my sister and niece came ALL THE WAY from South Dakota to take a train with us into the American Girl Store in downtown Chicago. It was my first time on the train as well and I was thrilled with how smoothly it all went. Now that we realize this is at our backdoor, the options are limitless! (Kids under 12 ride free on weekends. Woo hoo!)