Don't Eat That!

Baby S reached a wonderful developmental milestone this summer ~ she can finally be trusted not to eat every single thing she touches! Oh, she still tastes things she shouldn't sometimes. But now, as long as I am right with her, she gets to squish playdough or scoop beans or string chunky beads for a necklace. She's pretty pleased about it, too. With the temperatures over 100 degrees almost every day this summer, I'm glad we've been able to pull out some of these toys now and enjoy them in the air conditioning.

Pitching In

We had three generations shelling black-eyed peas

The boys picked our first crop of Champanelle grapes! So exciting, and yum!

Moment of Library Clarity

Finally, finally. I've been praying for the answer to organizing our books ~ our many, many books. Grouping by author was absolutely useless, as was grouping alphabetically by title. I even looked into several computer programs designed to help me keep organized, but they just weren't the right fit for our situation. It finally dawned on me to organize them as we use them: by relevant time period! Oh, what a relief.

I put the system in place a couple of months ago while Mike was off from work to help wrangle the kids, and it was a chore getting everything in order! I went through every book and noted on the front flap in which section it belongs. But I'm so glad I did it ~ it is working wonderfully. For the first time in years, I can walk to any of our numerous shelves, find the correctly labeled section, and quickly pull out a certain book. So nice.

We have biographies, history, and historical fiction all organized by historical period. We also have several shelves devoted to what we call "Our World." That can include books about cultures, maps, weather, insects, how things are made, and all kinds of other science materials. Finally, we have several shelves for what we call "Story Books" that hold all the fiction, readers, and just-for-fun materials that don't really fit any other category.

This has been such a blessing, since we are a Charlotte Mason family, and we mainly use books as they correlate to our history studies. When the kids pull a book on their own to read, they drop it in a basket in the school room when they are finished. HW is responsible every day (it's in his ChorePack) to shelve books from that basket. For the most part he does a good job of it, with just a little follow-up from me.

We do have one problem, though. We still, even after a ruthless culling, own too many books. What a nice problem to have, and we feel very blessed, but it is still a problem. Another paring down is in order, and I'm going to have to get tough about it. Until that happens, though, I'll just ignore that stack on the floor, and enjoy my neat and tidy shelves.

Southern Summertime Suppers

We've enjoyed filling our table with so much goodness fresh from the garden this season. The potatoes have been a hit every way I've made them. HW loves the tomatoes so much that he runs through the kitchen several times a day, grabs a couple and pops them in his mouth on the go. And the okra ~ wow! Normally, I never fry foods. But during okra season we just have to have some platters of this crispy southern goodness on the table, so I pull out the frying pan. It's truly worth the mess of frying just to see Baby S ask for "More kokra, puh-leeeeease!" The black-eyed peas have been very productive, too, even in this terrible heat wave we are having. We eat all we can, then fill the freezer with peas ~ we already have 11 quarts vacuum packed and stashed away for the winter! We are so thankful for all these goodies and for the chance it gives our children to learn about how God sends us our food. They are really looking forward to the melons and pumpkins next!

We eat this crispy okra like popcorn.

We've had some big beautiful reds, lots of grape tomatoes, plus these luscious little yellow pear tomatoes.
 They make a gorgeous salad with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. 

The black-eyed peas thrive in this heat, with a batch ready to pick every two days!

Our first cantaloupe! It was gone in minutes. 

The Wrong Dream?

The Fort

Remember this?
This project has been a long one ~ lovingly crafted from the ground up, with all the kids pitching in to help their Daddy. Dear R especially has been his biggest help, rising early each Saturday morning to put in several hours of work before the day heats up too much. They have enjoyed working together so very much! I'm so proud of them and all they've accomplished. And soon we'll be able to show finished photos of this great big fort. It's going to be a playhouse any kid would love!

After their work this past week, R and HA and HW packed a quick lunch of hot dogs and strawberries and chips, kicked their shoes off and had a picnic in the ground floor of the new fort. I'm so happy for them!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom is what we grands and great-grands call my dear grandmother. She celebrated her 91st birthday in style with a bash at the beautiful nursing home care center where she now lives. My parents, my aunt and uncle, and Mike and I and the kids were all there to help her celebrate!

A fun time was had by all at the party. R decorated the brightly colored cakes and decorated the dining room. HA played some tunes on his guitar for the residents. HW gave lots of hugs and handshakes and helped blow out candles, and S ran around being entertaining and generally bringing lots of life and noise to the party. I know that Mom enjoyed having everyone there to celebrate, and all the other residents had fun, too. It was a pleasure to be there, and we are thankful Mom is doing so well and is so close that we can visit her often. Happy 91st Birthday, Mom! We love you!