It's Been Too Long . . .

. . . since I've grilled.

 How do I know?  Perhaps the mouse nest in the corner is a clue . . .

 It appeared to be mostly grass clippings for structure
with fur (from Dusty's outdoor grooming sessions) added for comfort.

 Note the cherry pits on the left.  There was a much bigger pile deep inside the grill.

The holes were gnawed in order to get to the tasty kernels.

Tennis, Anyone?

I made a new friend last year. Her oldest is the same age as my youngest; we met through our daughters. We co-oped for writing, art, and science with a third family, and the girls shared a tiny homeschool ballet class.

J's role in the co-op was hosting a four-year-old boy so the co-op (which included older siblings) could run more smoothly. I think she would have enjoyed teaching, but with a napping toddler at home, it was not to be. And she was a huge help. The four-year-olds had more fun at her house, and the writing class was easier for us other moms to teach. I'm all for multi-age schooling, but some subjects are just plain harder to get through with an active non-reader looking for fun.

Anyway . . . This summer, J is sharing her expertise by teaching tennis to several little ones (5-7 year-olds).  She is an incredible teacher, with a long list of games, prizes, and motivational ideas in addition to her sports knowledge.  She is incredibly positive and patient with the group.  Rebecca is having a blast!

Lately I've been benefiting so much from the generosity of other women who have been willing to share their time and talents with my children.  Thank you, ladies!

Sew Amazing

A friend who knew I was sewing with the little girls this year showed me a quilt top she had made and recommended Quilt in a Day by Eleanor Burns.  Apparently she is a strip quilting/machine piecing pioneer.

I eventually did some research and mentioned that I would try quilting with Rebecca this fall.  Unfortunately, I doubted Marianna would have time due to commuting, school, homework, sports, etc.  Well, C volunteered to teach Marianna the process this summer.  What a gift!

She met us at the fabric store (in the last few days of a big sale) and spent nearly two hours coaching us through fabric selection.  (Log cabin piecing requires a specific size and color coordination.)  Here's what we purchased:

 And here's the result so far:

This is the quilt top (fields and furrows pattern).  I'm told that Marianna sewed nearly every stitch herself.  Soon the team will tie the top to the batting and backing (a turquoise sheet--the patterned border will wrap around to the back), then bind the edges.

I'm grateful and impressed.  Marianna is justifiably thrilled and proud.

The Math Major

Wow, this summer is zooming along!  A vacation, a wedding, and the new school year are right around the corner . . .

We haven't seen much of David lately.  He was home for just a week in mid-May and then drove back to school for an eight week internship/research project/I never get it right.  He's receiving free room and board on campus plus a generous stipend.

Saint Mary's offers a limited number of summer grants to students so they can perform research.  David worked up a plan, submitted the application, and was selected!  It's a math thing, something about finding a formula or equation that creates a particular shape.  Here is a link to the sort of work he's doing, although David's project involves weighted curvature instead of curvature.

I'm glad he's found such a satisfying way to spend his days, but it will be great to have him back at last.  I think I've spent more time with his girlfriend, Colette, than with my boy these past few months (which has been great fun, though)!

Summer's Gone

But not forgotten . . .

 Our early October harvest

We call it home ec      :-)

I've had trouble keeping my pesto beautifully green.  I've tried "Ever Fresh" and crushed vitamin C tablets, which only seem to work until the sauce contacts the hot pasta.

This summer I got a tip from my sister's friend:  briefly blanch the basil in boiling water (say that five times fast!), shock in ice water, and proceed.  I blanched our entire harvest, tossing handfuls into the 8 quart pot and scooping leaves out with a strainer before depositing them in a sink full of ice water.  Dried in the salad spinner, the basil remained a gorgeous green (see above). 

An added bonus:  much more wilted basil fits in my food processor at once.  (I measured the leaves before blanching.)  I was able to make a 6 X batch instead of the usual double.  A quicker way to get a dozen bags of summer into the deep freeze!

Harvest

Not so big, but this is the first melon we've EVER harvested!  Usually bugs or critters ruin them before we can enjoy the fruit.  It was delicious.

For some refreshing summer ideas, check out the recipes for bubble tea

 and real lemonade

over at my cooking blog.

Summer Daze

The patch of wild mint bordering our woods is where I discovered the only living creatures that seemed to be enjoying the oppressive heat and humidity of a July afternoon.

At least ten species were crawling, hopping, and fluttering among the petite blooms.

Based on the handy charts and photos at Bugguide.net,

I believe the blue-winged insect above is a double-banded scoliid wasp.

Neon green, ordinary black, yellow . . .  Boring and beautiful were both there.

The smallest ones seemed the most numerous.

These look lile Red-banded Hairstreaks.  Butterfliesandmoths.org has almost 4,000 photos of various adults--who knows how many caterpillars the website could also help you identify!

Better Than the Alternative

For a few years now I've been flipping out about my approaching 50th birthday.

Thirty felt young--for goodness sake, my first baby was barely a year old then. 

And 40 was no big deal.  Heck, I had a baby at 43!

But this half-century mark has been looming like a dark cloud on my horizon:

• For the first time ever, I was embarrassed to state my age.
• I dreaded becoming lonely and frail (despite the fact that the older generation of my family is busy and cheerful).
• I worried about becoming insignificant/obsolete, having my children outgrow me.  They are a huge part of my life.  Would I stop mattering as they naturally and rightly mature and move on?

Fifty didn't equal elderly to me, but it felt like the beginning of the end.

 

It may sound silly to you, but my angst and sense of foreboding were growing steadily.  Once in a while I'd joke that growing old "beats the alternative," but that wasn't enough to actually turn my attitude around.

So what changed?

I had been reflecting on discerning and following God's will, and on those who abandon themselves to Him.  Blogposts and In Conversation With God nudged my mind.

For ages I've believed myself committed to doing God's will if only I know what it is.  But how do I know? 

Of course there's plenty of guidance out there, most of which I'm too lazy to seek out and read.  But one day a thought passed through the noise and struck my consciousness:  until further notice, I can assume that God's will for me includes growing old (or at least older).

Go ahead--laugh.  I think I did, too!  ;-) 

Yet that simple idea has turned my attitude around.  God wants me to live, and live for Him.

 

If any of my fears become reality, so be it.  I can cope and offer up any hardship.

 

Growing old, like growing up, is meant to be.  Happy birthday to me!

 

 

Photos taken by Lauren during our June vacation in the Smoky Mountains.

Cherry Harvest

Amphibians and Reptile

First, "Days With Tadpoles" by Rebecca:

Yesterday Marianna and my mom were taking a walk with Dusty, and they came to a place where a big tire had made a puddle.

 They saw a bunch of tadpoles, which are baby frogs or toads.

So they came back and told me about it.  Then I woke up Joe and he wasn’t very excited, but we got on our bikes and went to the place where they were. 

 We brought a bag and a cup.  Then we got some tadpoles in the cup and poured them into the bag.

Then we went home.  We poured them into a habitat in my kitchen area.  We put pebbles in it and creek water. 

First they all started down at the pebbles, but after a while they came up and were all swimming around.  My mom bought fish food, but they didn’t eat it until this morning.  It’s Marianna’s job to feed them breakfast and my job to feed them dinner.  They ate a lot of algae from the water. 

We’ve only had them for a day; they’re really cute and tiny.  Lucca watched them for a minute or two, but she wasn’t very interested.  The tadpoles have a tail and it’s kind of see-through. 

They swim around all day.  They still hang out at the pebbles, and a few were hanging on a stick and being very still.

"Tadpoles," by Marianna:

Yesterday morning, while I was on the walk with my mom and Dusty and Mrs. Laing, we found in a giant tire rut hundreds of tadpoles.  When we got home, we told Becca, who got very excited.  Then we woke up Joe, who was not very excited about it at all. 

We got out the tadpole habitat and dumped a bunch of creek water into it.  We also put in a bunch of pebbles at the bottom.  Then we rode on bikes and put a bunch of tadpoles and some rainwater in a quart size zipper bag.  When we got home, we dumped them into the habitat. 

When we first put them in, they just went down to the bottom and wiggled in between the pebbles.  They didn’t move for a while, and I thought they were dead.  Then they touched each other and started swimming around.  They still spend time in between the pebbles.

Right now they are very tiny.  They are black with a little tail.  They are swimming around a lot, all over the place.  They’ve been eating the algae in the water and ignoring the fish food we gave them (until this morning).  We saw some hanging from a tiny stick that was floating in the water.  They looked funny. 

 And David's northern ring neck snake (or so I've been told), named Linnaeus (after the father of taxonomy):

Supposedly it eats worms.  There was one in the dirt David put into the aquarium, but we can't tell whether or not it's been consumed.   David is also trying scrambled egg, cooked chicken, and live tadpole (in the water dish).  Hopefully time will tell.