Treasures for Heaven

Friday, July 31, 2009

I'm STARVING

Why is it that kids are always hungry until you actually put the food on the table? The boys are continuously complaining about their empty tummies. I fix a good meal or even a fun meal (who doesn't love cereal at lunch time?) and yet they aren't that hungry. Oh DUH of course not because its not candy or pop or other unhealthy "foods". My favorite excuses are "My tummy hurts." (wait it hurt just 10 minutes ago because they were hungry), "I have a bug in my stomach." (think flu bug) and the best "This is mommy and daddy food, not little boy food."

I suppose I should post this and get on with the torturing of the kids. I think we will have fried egg sandwiches and apples for lunch. I might even throw in some strawberry milk for added pain. I'm such a terrible mom! ;)

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

If only we had the time

The boys have been putting in their requests for what they want to learn in school. Here is an incomplete listing:
birds
insects
pyramids
Romans
how things work (like cameras, ovens, engines)
castles
cathedrals
stars and planets
metal
frogs
plants
explorers
and on and on and on

I'm glad that we will have the chance to study some of these topics. This is one of the reasons I love homeschooling. When the boys learn about topics they have suggested they seem to enjoy school more and retain more of the information. Lucky for me they are still young enough to suggest fairly easy topics. I am NOT looking forward to the day when they want to learn complex chemistry or Greek. Thank goodness Darren's strengths take over for my weaknesses! God has blessed me in more than one way through Darren.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Back to normal

Darren went back to work today after being off for 2 weeks. Its amazing how our routine gets messed up when Dad is home. I think I would have our routine completely forgotten if Darren could stay home all the time. We had a good time with him around. He has been busy residing the house and putting in new windows. He also had to tear out the deck and found out that we need to regrade the house. Sounds like we will have some excitement this week when the heavy equipment shows up.

I have finished deciding what we will do for the next school year. Now on to the planning session. I am so excited for school to start. I am sure the boys will enjoy this year. I planned to do a few things a bit differently. I will have 3 kids in school this year, plus Rex who will think he needs to do anything Cormac does. I can't wait to share pictures and stories of the coming year.

The garden is producing LOTS of good food. We enjoyed some snow peas and new potatoes the other night. The tomatoes are getting closer as are the peppers. Oh and we have our first pumpkin growing. Blase can hardly contain himself!! The corn is growing up to Blase's chest in some places. Now the weeds...oh my!

To answer Meredith's son's question - The birds never did return and I haven't seen them around the yard since then. Darren did take down the nest and kept it for us. We have a new porch light so there will not be another nest above our front door. Blase is talking about putting up bird houses for next year.

Our newest animal craze - BUTTERFLIES! Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

Door County

STURGEON BAY:
On Sunday (the 26th) we traveled over to Door County, Wisconsin after Mass. It wasn't too far from Green Bay (where we attend Mass). We had never been there before so wanted to play tourist for a day. We started out by eating a nice family restaurant. The boys had pancakes, pancakes and more pancakes.

Then we spent some time looking through the Door County Maritime Museum. The boys were captivated by the models of the ships and the lighthouse room. It had a working lighthouse lamp/light and an interactive map of the lighthouses in Door County. Blase and Darren experimented with the range finding activity. I think we all loved the periscope. You could look around outside the building and see the boats, bridge and buildings that surrounded the museum. I enjoyed the area dedicated to the female welders who helped build ships during the war. We also watched a short movie showing how to build a canoe. They made it look easy!

This is outside the museum where the fire boat and tug boat was docked. We didn't tour them, but they were impressive to look at.

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EGG HARBOR:

Next we drove up to Egg Harbor, WI. You can see Menominee (where Darren works) from Egg Harbor, so we lined up for a picture. I thought I would show the amount of pictures it took to finally get a somewhat decent shot. Oh boys anyway!!

Where's REX? So I'm walking over to get him.

WAIT...we can't see Brech's face.

REX!!! Come back!

AHhh, now we can't see Rex's face!

EVERYONE LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!!

Oh forget it...at least we are all in the picture this time.

Garlic oil

I learned how to make garlic oil the other night. Its actually very easy. Who'da thunk it? Now I just need to grow my own garlic or buy some organic, fresh garlic from a local source.

I also learned how to make a couple of herbal salves. I wish I had more time to experiment with other recipes. Next class we are doing an herbal walk to locate herbs in the wild. Then there will be another class where we will learn how to make tinctures. Ohhh I'm so excited!!!

10, 9, 8...Space Birthday

Blase turned 8 on July 21. He wanted a space themed birthday party. He also took charge of the invitee list - Fr. Litzner and our new friends, the Ostermann Family. As always, he was spoiled with all the presents. I'm thinking we will have a hard time topping this birthday.