Last week was one of those crazy weeks. I actually passed my husband on the road and, as we sped off in opposite directions, we stuck our arms out of our cars and waved at each other. Sigh.
So, what kept us busy?
The usual: gardening, housework, eating, cleaning, hanging out with people, thinking about schoolwork, listening to music, making music, appointments, soccer, doing math, working crazy hours, emptying the dehumidifier, planning for university, enjoying nature.
And the unusual: checking out green curtains at IKEA, going on dessert walks around our orchard and garden, eating French raspberry pie (with cream cheese filling), whizzing through books at a small school’s library, and having adventures.
Or perhaps having adventures is no longer so unusual for us. One afternoon our adventure magnet, Miss 12, was wandering peacefully in the corn field with the dogs, listening to music, when she realized she was lost. In her panic she lost her sister’s MP3 player, crawled through long aisles of corn to find it, and then raced down more corn rows to find her way out. The leaves made tiny cuts all over her face and arms, and when she finally saw freedom, she was horrified to also see huge numbers of coyote tracks all around. Needless to say, she ran the long distance home as fast as her tired legs could carry her. Ironically, just the day before my husband and Miss 15, while walking past corn fields, had decided that it would be impossible to really get lost near our place.
A more peaceful adventure, but about more warlike days, was our family trip to Fort Henry in Kingston. Now Kingston is a military town, and the McDonald’s we stopped at was right beside the base and soon overflowed with soldiers, filling some girlish eyes with sparkles. Although I was instantly reminded of Pride and Prejudice, it wasn’t the young men in the uniforms but the uniforms themselves and the dream of wearing one eventually…. The Fort itself was amazing (you can see some pictures here) and the drive through hills and dales of goldenrod was magical. To top it all off, my husband bought steak on the way home and supper was grilled steak, fresh salad with the first baby carrots, cauliflower, and leftover red rice.
Outside it was a week of storms, fat raindrops, and dramatic clouds. There were the meteor showers, and I saw a shooting star from my bed even without my glasses. It must have been huge! One evening a heron flew lazily over our house and then croak-quacked angrily near the river. We sat under our butternut trees overlooking the meadow, listening to frogs croaking to each other in their different frog voices. Sometimes they were a chorus, but other times they would get their timing mixed up.
Schoolwork: Although we’re still on holidays, we have started some casual schoolwork using Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre and Gena Mayo’s new 21 Lessons for 20th Century Music Appreciation. In preparation for university, Miss 17 is reviewing her high calculus and other math using Singapore’s New Additional Math.
Blogging: My comment form (and much of the back end of my blog) is finally fixed! I thought it would never happen! The next blog project is to get the statistics counter to display again.
Personal reading: Disciplines of a Godly Woman, Minds More Awake, Drawing Textbook, Hold On To Your Kids, Overcoming Adrenal Fatigue, and 1 Kings.
Reading with the family: Journey through the Night, Proverbs, and John. And in terms of kid reading, I noticed Scout lying around….
How is your summer going? Is it almost over or are you still looking forward to a few weeks? My comment form is fixed (!!) so you can comment here again.
Summer feels like it is winding down. Smoke in the air from all the wildfires in our region and beyond. Still waiting for tomatoes to ripen and green beans to arrive though! Zucchinis abound and spaghetti squash are huge.
Here it is still a good summer. We have a blissfully hot week forecasted and neither smoke smells nor manure smells from the local farms.
Good for you that your spaghetti squash are already huge. We’re late this year, and the bean harvest is just beginning in our garden although some people had three pickings already. I hope your beans will soon be ready. They are so yummy!
Hooray for comments working!! Yes, life is full to bursting with kids around.
Sounds like things are going well, but what an adventure for your daughter. Glad she found her way back.
Thank you, Jenn.
Yes, JoAnn, it was an adventure for her, one she won’t forget for a long time.