Our Last Hoorah

Today is the last week day of our summer break. Monday, it's back to the books. Though we've had a glorious break, it's difficult to imagine what may be ahead. The planning and scheduling is nearly complete. The organizing is done. The laundry is in a state of "being laundry".

There is never a lack of things to prepare. There never will be! But for today, we will prepare for son's birthday party tomorrow, do a little errand running, and catch a little "play in the sun" between scattered showers. We will enjoy each other and go to bed weary from our day. We may even forget for a moment that our free-time is soon to be limited and our brains will soon be in over-drive!

We'll probably miss our carefree days, but maybe, just maybe we'll appreciate our down time more. We're learning to make the most of each opportunity and here's our chance to put it to the test! May God have mercy on us and show us the benefits of seeking His face. This is Friday, August 1st, 2008.

Back to School Gift Basket

Who doesn't enjoy the excitement of buying school supplies? I know I sure used to. Still do on occasion. As the years go by, however, I need a bulk of them less and less. But one thing we still treasure is the chance to gift our kids with a Back to School Gift Basket.

It's a tradition we began early on. I cleaned up in the $1 bin at Michaels yesterday and filled a couple of their neat, colorful plastic totes that are great for carrying your school work to the porch or swing-set tower. I'm sure I'll pick up a few more goodies for them, but we enjoy the tradition of surprising them on the 1st day of a new "year".

Dreaming of Summer: The List

Wake me when summer gets here!

It has been so miserably gray and cold. I broke out the 'ole cumfy sweater the other day. Even though it just hit 60 degrees, it felt like it was barely 50. The rain and wind has just kept coming...so has the hot tea. We've had just enough teasing to get us dreaming of summer.

So we've been working on the list. Every year our family tradition is to make a summer list. It's a list of things we really want to do, accomplish, places we want to go, and people we want to see. We started this when son was two. It's really been a blessing! In the past we have posted it prominently and enjoyed crossing off things as they have come about. Usually, we start making the list about February! That way, as we compile our ideas, we don't have too skimpy of a list ! ;)

It's growing longer each day and we look forward to posting it the day we finish our lessons--currently set for June 20th! I'm not sure, but the first thing we'll do will be outside! Hopefully, it'll involve a pool!

On our list, we have things in the following categories:

• Field trips we didn't get to this year--mostly history related and somewhat local.
• Festivals. We just haven't been to enough festivals!
• Visits with friends we rarely see.
• Other things we've put off like experiments from our Flying Creatures book.
• Strengthening our milestones: swimming, golfing, biking, dancing, basketball, picture taking.
  
• Reading, reading, reading!
• Gardening, and more gardening.

Our purposes are as important as the specifics:

• To glorify God in all we think and do.
• To be together.
• To continue to grow and learn.
• To be a blessing to others.

I encourage you to give this a try! Our whole family enjoys the process and the outcome!

One Square Foot at a Time

Finally, finally, FINALLY! I get to play in my yard, clean out my beds and plant my vegetable garden! Though we are nearly a month away from the last frost, the days are beginning to show some promise AND warmth. My kids played outside all afternoon on Saturday with their Daddy, flying kites and drawing on the driveway. And me! Well, I spent the afternoon at Lowes and 47 other places looking for compost.

Lowes made me happy though. They had some veggie starts and that was what I was ready to see! I finished getting the lumber and materials for my square foot gardens and after 3 trips through the check out line and to the car, I was done with them! This square foot gardening thing really does show incredible promise, but I'm a by-the-book (this book) kinda gal so when they say get five kinds of compost, that's what I'm going to do. Fortunately, I only have to do this once. I plan to start composting myself, too. So off to Home Depot, Menards, Meijer, Wal-Mart, etc. For some strange reason, all the garden centers around here aren't open yet. What's with THAT! I only found three types so far and two may be the same because one is not labeled. So I have cow, mushroom, and mystery compost. Doesn't that just thrill you to pieces?!!

I know I saw "worm casing" compost somewhere before--I think it was Sam's Club, so I'll head there in the next couple of days. I don't know what it is about this area, but they are all so IN to cow manure. It's just everywhere. I never thought I'd be interested in such things, but you know...a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do. And this girl needs to plant vegetables for her family--if I don't self-destruct.

Ah! The joys of gardening! I've always loved flower gardening. Learning bit by bit, year after year. It's all great until about mid-July when it gets so stinkin' hot you'd rather be inside, and definitely NOT out weeding. My little Daffodils are up so far--nothing else. The pussy willow did fully puff out and the puffs are starting to "flower", or turn bright yellow. Can you tell I know nothing about these things?! . It's kind of a neat plant. I'm still waiting for my Forsythia though. The buds look good.

We have a weird bird visitor too. It keeps crashing into our windows trying to get in. When it's not crashing, it just hangs out on the screens. I think it likes us. Nothing we do seems to affect it. I haven't figured out what it is yet, so we get to do a little digging today. One day, I hope all these things will be our common knowledge. Until then, we'll just use the Field Guides!

Farewell to Winter

I know everyone, including me, is all excited about Spring...and everyone, including me, went on and on about the snow for some time (like all winter!) but I'm finding this very difficult transitional weather hard to deal with! Besides the fact that it is extremely wet, and incredibly dark and gloomy, the up and down temps have me feeling like I'm going bonkers. I can't seem to get anything done. I'll sit down to have a cup of tea to warm up, and I don't ever want to get up!

I called it Spring Break this week and it's over half through and I'm disappointed because it wasn't what I'd hoped. Let me just say this for all you Spring Cleaning fans, I CANNOT Spring Clean in this weather! I tried. Really I did. I just need sunshine and warmth. I actually have my heat on higher than I did all winter! It's like I'm more cold now that it's supposedly warmer. Thirty-eight degrees is NOT warmer.

And these storms are wreaking havoc with my head. Every pressure system that moves through, goes right through my head like a ton of bricks. I believe I could predict the weather better than some of our weather people.

And not to be a whiner, but I went to the Chiropractor today and he took X-Rays and MAN the curve in my back is way bad (thank you, Mother who's now in Heaven with a straight spine). Think backward "C" sitting on top of a little "c". That's depressing. So I've been icepacking it today--doesn't help with the whole "cold" thing--hoping that the whole "walking without agony" thing will stop soon (it comes and goes).

In all fairness, it hasn't been a totally hopeless week. I got to see my Dad, whom I miss terribly since he ran off and got married. I did clean out one closet in a room with no windows. I got one bookcase up--whooppeee! I filed away all the winter decor and bought vegetable seeds that it is way too late to plant so I'll probably return them--and I don't have a grow light anyway and it's DARK AND GLOOMY! Do you hear the violins?!

My children just came in the room laughing because daughter has giant legos stuffed down her pants and she's "pooping" them as they fall through her pant legs to the floor. They think this is extremely funny. Ah!

So tomorrow is another day. The first day of Spring! Here's to the first day of Spring--may it be better than the last day of Winter!

Spring in Indiana: James Whitcomb Riley

If you ever wandered what spring is like in Indiana, then reading "The First Bluebird", by James Whitcomb Riley will nail it on the head for you! The Hoosier Poet knew the place that he wrote about, as every good poet should. Riley is our current Poem-A-Day poet and we are thoroughly enjoying his style and subject matter. It's as if he wrote these poems just for us! I can almost hear my own Grandfather's voice in the Indiana vernacular of old.

The First Bluebird
by James Whitcomb Riley

Jest rain and snow! and rain again!

And dribble! drip! and blow!

Then snow! and thaw! and slush! and then

Some more rain and snow!

This morning I was'most afeard

To wake upwhen, I jing!

I seen the sun shine out and heerd

The first bluebird of Spring!

Mother she'd raised the winder some;

And in acrost the orchurd come,

Soft as a angel's wing,

A breezy, treesy, beesy hum,

Too sweet fer anything!

The winter's shroud was rent a-part

The sun bust forth in glee,

And when that bluebird sung, my hart

Hopped out o' bed with me!

The Things of Man

I am learning the most interesting things about Easter. For instance, did you know that for several hundred years, Easter was not even called "Easter." Prior to the fourth century, Christians observed Pascha, or Christian Passover, in the spring of the year. Adapted from Jewish Passover, Pascha was a festival of redemption. As Jews, these early followers of Jesus celebrated both their liberation from slavery in Egypt, and their new liberation from the power of death itself.

As Christianity spread throughout the Roman world, however, the celebration became more and more a distinctly Christian one. But there also developed some disagreement about when and how the holiday should be observed. One of the principle reasons for organizing the council of Nicea in 325 CE was to set a firm date for the celebration.

There was a few problems with this however. There is a historic comtempt, and blatantly un-Biblical misunderstanding in regards to the Jews which led the papacy to change, not only the Sabbath to Sunday, (Biblically it is Saturday; the seventh day of the week) but also Passover to Easter. The reason? To ensure that Easter would not be celebrated at the same time of the Jewish Passover. The council of Nicea (A. D. 325) decreed that if the Jewish Passover fell on a Sunday, then Easter was to be celebrated the following Sunday in order to have "nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd." (Constantine the Great.)

Easter, or Eostre, which was the original spelling, was actually a holiday to celebrate the return of spring and the balance between light and dark around the time of the Spring Equinox. It was named after Eostre, the pagan goddess of dawn, fertility and new beginnings (and this worship was started in Babylon, of which we are constantly warned throughout scripture!). Eostre gave a rabbit the power to lay eggs once a year, on the Spring Equinox to symbolize new beginnings. The rabbit symbolized fertility. The Christian celebration of Christ's death and resurrection did, in fact, get its name from Eostre.

Interesting. There's more, of course, which I may post on later. Right now my prayer is that the things of man will stay the things of man and not replace the things of God.

The View From Where I Sit

This is the view from where I sit as I've determined it's time for a springy theme! Down will come the last remnants of all things wintery and up will go all things bright and cheery just as I hold out hope, this snowy day, for sunshine, flowers and outside time!!!