as cozy as spring

Remembering

July 4th, 1999 (Boston, Massachusetts) - The day after my sister's wedding.  We headed downtown early and thought about getting a good spot to watch the famous fireworks show.  Instead we walked around the city.  I remember a church or two but mostly I remember how insanely hot it was.  Boston in July can get every bit as hot as Texas in July.  I sat on a blanket that evening with my husband.  There was a Japanese family beside us.  At one point I offered to take their picture.  There was an obvious language barrier, so this was done with smiles and gestures.  They gathered together and I snapped a shot.  I wonder if they remember me when they look at the photo.  After the fireworks, there was no train running to my sister's neighborhood, so my husband and I ended up walking from the nearest stop.  There were steep hills and plenty of them.  It was after midnight and still very hot.  I was so annoyed about the trains, but that dark walk in the still, quiet streets stands out very poignantly in my memory.

July 4th, 2000 - I was 31 weeks pregnant.  My parents had a barbecue to celebrate the 4th.  I took a long hot walk with my sister around the neighborhood.   Later that night I awoke to contractions one minute apart and spent a few tense minutes reading through all those stupid pregnancy books and finally, hesitantly called my doctor.  I spent the next few days in the hospital, confused.  The nurses would come in and sit on my bed and watch Wimbledon with me.  I have no idea why I was watching Wimbledon. 

July 4th, 2004 - 35 weeks pregnant this time and on "limited activity".  My almost 4yo daughter was scared at the neighborhood fireworks, so I carried her 2 miles back to the car on top of my giant belly.

  

July 4th, 2008  - I broke my toe.  So I stayed home from fireworks and instead hobbled around cleaning the house.  That was awful in such a trivial way.  Every day this summer I awake with a prayer of thanksgiving that my toe is not broken.

July 4th, 2009 - Mass with my family!  The four of us again at the neighborhood fireworks.  My husband and I enjoyed  80's rock from a really incredible band.  I teared up during the fireworks thinking about my deployed brother.  I took far too many photos of fireworks for my expat sister who probably won't see any this year (and mom, who will be home tomorrow!).  Again, I walked back home with a four year old on my shoulders rightly assuming that walking 2 miles with forty pounds on my shoulders cancels out any ice cream sundae (and cobbler!).

Outside my window right now, it is raining.  How wonderful!

Oh beautiful.

Happy Independence Day!  I'm always a wee bit surprised at the sense of gratefulness that hits me on July 4th.  I've never lived anywhere else, so I can't say for certain where the grass is the greenest, but I also can't complain about being here.  We are abundantly blessed.

Pick your own

 

Happy 4th Friends!  I really, really hope to spend everyday at home this weekend.  A bit of knitting and coffee for me, Peter in Blueberry Land for my son, new recipes to try with my little girl, and the wonder that is air conditioning for my husband.  Y'all, it's been a crazy hot summer here in Texas.  I walk outside and wonder how we are all still alive.  I usually feel guilty for flipping on the AC but not this year.  

This morning a friend and I succeeded in finally taking our children blueberry picking.  To watch the children pluck the ripe berries off the bush and pop them right into their mouths over and over was utterly charming.  Their baskets may not have been full, but their bellies were.  Just as it should be.

Curricula

For my eight (soon to be nine year old daughter)

Math-U-See Delta

Latina Christiana (cont. - we are about halfway through)

New American cursive (cont)

My Catholic Speller - Level C

Language of God - Level C

Catholic Geography Bee

Behold and See

This is heavy on CHC materials.  I like them.  They are easy to use and pleasant for her without taking up an extraordinary amount of time.  The anxious part of me likes to have workbooks to make sure we are crossing those Ts etc.  I wouldn't say these constitute a big part of our day, but they keep us focused.  I mean, seriously now, Behold and See could never take the place of the rich discussion about seed dispersal we have while walking through the woods.  The Catholic Geography Bee is something we are working through this summer.  She is completing a state profile page every day.  We are focusing on American geography just before moving into American History in a more intensive way with the Sonlight Program.  I haven't used or even purchased it yet, but have seen good reviews and I'm very excited about trying it.

We are studying A Midsummer Night's Dream this summer and will be studying (in a less thorough way) Romeo and Juliet in the winter.  We have the opportunity to see the ballet, so that dovetails nicely.

I'm not talking about read alounds or literature because that's undecided.  She is reading Anne of Green Gables right now by herself.  I'm also not addressing faith just yet.  And my spacing is messed up again here.  What's up Typepad?

For my four (soon to be five) year old son:

Bob Books - Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons worked very well for my daughter, but has been less successful with my son.  I read Lissa's review of the Bob Books a few weeks ago and thought I'd give them a try. 

An Easy Start in Arithmetic - I looked through this when I was starting with Lucy and so much of it didn't apply because she was past all of that.  I think this will be better used on my son.  I'm not starting any program yet.  We're sticking with manipulatives, number recognition, and games for now.

In a thematic sort of way, we are working on learning more about time, specifically the seasons.  I always start with time (ht: God).  We are doing this mainly through picture books.

I may start in with some handwriting practice, but I'm not going to press it.  I don't think he's ready.

OK, that's all, but not really.  This is just the foundation and probably not even all of it.  

Summer Morning

We woke up this morning, started off with strawberries and yogurt whilst listening to Ladybug Picnic.  I sipped my coffee in the backyard and the children picked tomatoes on vines that towered over their heads.  It was cool enough to go for a bike ride.  Sarah wished that we would have our favorite weather the other day.  I thought, "Pfff!  Fat chance of it raining in Texas in June."  But July is (almost) here and thunder is in the air.*

My Dad brought us a bag full of blueberries.  I thought nothing could compare to the wild blueberries my sister brought us from New England, but East Texas blueberries are surprisingly delicious.  So delicious that I don't even scold my son for climbing right up on the dining room table and diving in (or blurring my blueberry photo with his chubby little hand).  And the color!  That color is just breathtaking.  That last photo is Tyler Florence's Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars.

*Name the poem that line is from for...  Well, you win nothing but I would high five you if you were here in person.

My baby boy.

My son turns five in a few weeks.  He has asked for two birthday presents; Star Wars legos and a suit with a green tie so he can marry me.  

Patterns in blogging

I don't have much to say.  I'm very excited about our third grade curriculum and our pre-K curriculum (which is: teach him to read).  I'm knitting and sewing quite a bit.  I'm trying to keep the weeds to a minimum out in the garden while also trying to keep everything watered - futile to be sure, but I try still.  My grandfather, my gardening hero, was raking leaves in his front yard one day while more leaves showered all around him.  "How do you stay motivated, Papa?" I asked.  He replied that he took it one leaf at a time.  Even if two or three leaves took its place, he wouldn't have to pick up each leaf more than once.  

That was an unexpected tangent, but there you have it.

Getting to the point!  Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when I had a miniature anxiety attack over the responsibility of my children's education?  I received an email from Charlotte essentially telling me to "Relax.  Look through your archives. You panic every year at this time."  Oh that made me laugh.  It's embarrassing enough to see your own emotional patterns emerging but to know that you've documented it all publicly so that everyone else can see it too!  But I did relax and everything fell into place rather quickly.  

So when I started to feel a little bored with blogging and wasn't motivated to write, I checked my archives again and saw this.  It is just summer, just the heat sucking the spark out of all of us.  That's not to say things aren't pleasant.  They are, but pleasantly mellow.  It's funny what you can find when you peruse your archives, patterns in nature notes, patterns in attitudes.  And it's even better that I've made some wonderful friends along the way.

I hesitate to mention this - it rained yesterday, but almost exclusively in our backyard.  Heaven sent, quite literally.

My life in verbs.

**Typepad isn't working for me this morning.  Sorry for the abrupt ending.  More tomorrow.

Reading - The Penderwicks with Lucy.  Mostly Sandra Boynton with my son.  He's on a Pajama Time kick.  I'm picking up Persuasion today, having finished Mansfield Park.  There was one plot device in MP which stood out as a bit too similar to one in Pride and Prejudice.  But this is me reading as a someone who has very little knowledge of what was going on then.  Overall, an enjoyable read - it made me appreciate writing as an art form rather than just a way to communicate.

Eating - Tomatoes.  There are a few weeks in late June where I feel like all I do every day is chop and process our garden tomatoes.  Woe is me.  I've made three big batches of salsa and am trying to find new inventive ways to cram tomatoes into every meal.

Knitting - Hermione's Cable & Eyelet Hat - What a great (free!) pattern.  I started yesterday on one for Lucy.  It's super, super easy and the instructions are very clear.  Even if you don't like Harry Potter (but why?  Why don't you??) it's a really cute hat pattern.

Speaking of Harry Potter and knitting!  Sunshine Yarns had a store update last week featuring Harry Potter inspired yarns.  Oh my.  Most everything sold out in a matter of minutes, but I was determined.  I had saved up for weeks, foregoing such trivial things as regular meals and air conditioning so I could splurge.  

From left to right: Crookshanks in Worsted, Crookshanks in Twist, and Butterbeer in Sport.  Aren't they dreamy?

Starting:  Third grade (I guess!).  We started our "school year" yesterday.  And my spacing is not working right in Typepad right now, so I will write about that tomorrow .  I can't even see what I'm typing anymore.  Clearly, as always, forgive any typos.  Weird!

Standing Still

 

Happy Summer!  Now we feel justified in complaining about the heat. ;)

I'm not here.

I'm over on Ravelry.  Question:  How much time can one spend thinking about sock patterns and/or sock yarn before one is considered mentally unbalanced?  The problem is that there are a lot of people (esp. on Ravelry) who spend a lot of time thinking about sock patterns and/or sock yarn so it's just so hard to tell if I've lost my mind entirely.  

And oh my, did you hear?  Obama killed a fly!  Never in the history of the world has such a big deal been made over someone killing a fly.  Good heavens, news media!  That's two presidents with awesome reflexes, though the clip of Bush ducking the shoe is far funnier.  I could examine that like it was a priceless work of art, the anger and courage that prompted the shoe to be thrown, the slight smirk from the president as the show flew by...  It was beautiful.  It was beautiful if you didn't like George Bush and it was beautiful if you did.  

That's about all I have to say right now.  I'll try to pop back in soon with something of value.

Affectionately yours,

Jenn