Another Week Floating By...

Where is time going? I'm staring down my last week of vacation... then, back to work, and the week after that, back to school as well.

It was a good week though!

Activities This Week...

We went to a newer Farmer's Market on Sunday, still a very small one, with maybe twelve or so vendors. We came home with a jar of delicious, and local, blackberry honey, and the kids enjoyed some fresh lemonade. We're going to go again this weekend to check out the veggie offerings.

On Monday, the kids acted as dogsitters for my mom, and then again on Wednesday. It is a nice, and generally easy, way for them to earn a little money! The Girl especially is very good with the dog - she makes sure he gets outside when he needs too, and they can happily play together for hours. I've heard that there is a training center for guide dogs near us, and that they're always looking for kids to volunteer time to help the dogs acclimate to children, and I am thinking that might be a very good opportunity for her, so I need to look into that.

Yesterday, we headed out for some time at the river. We swam, drifted down river in the current, baked in the sun.... it was good!

I am curious as to what flower this is....

Then, we headed to a food-and-movie night at M's culinary school. Delicious empanadas, an intriguing film, and a couple of great speakers. Our kids were the only children there, and they behaved very well!

Learning This Week...

The film last night was Genetic Roulette, all about the GMO "movement", something we feel very strongly about. It was an interesting, and fairly horrifying, film about Monsanto, and what they're doing to our food sources. It definitely renewed our interest in eating locally and organically! I personally was dismayed to find out that zucchini, one of my favorite foods, is a fairly common GM food. Anyhow, the kids learned a lot about biochemistry, industrial farming and feeding practices, and so forth. Then the speakers came up, one being the manager of The Seed Bank (incidentally, he homeschooled his kids too!), and the other a farmer who used to grow wine grapes, but is now re-diversifying his farm. He talked a bit about biodynamic practices,and invited us to come visit his new farm stand and tiny bakery.

We started reading Robin Hood, the Roger Lancelyn Green version, this week, which has ignited an interest in both kids regarding British history. I think we might read through Our Island Story, which has very short chapters and a great flow to it. We read a little more in Cheaper by the Dozen as well. The Boy finished Leviathin and has returned to The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the moment.

We've been watching birds a lot week, with geese flying over morning and evening, and then a couple of new residents in the neighborhood... here's one that The Boy photographed...

We think they are a mated pair, and they appear to be taking up residence in one of the cypress trees across the street. I love hearing them calling to each other!

Other pursuits this week included painting, lots of homemade playdough modeling, some Merlin and Eureka, and so on. Our garden is doing pretty well - the corn is taller than me now, and is starting to form ears. I'm going to be reading, on recommendation from the farmer last night, Lasagna Gardening, for soil improvement purposes, because I would really like to expand our home gardening efforts.

Coming Up...

We're prepping for some remodeling in the kids' bathroom. The old "tile" is coming away from the wall in a few spots, so we need to pull it all off, put in some new sheetrock, a new moisture barrier (of which there was none), and then? I don't know that we can afford new tile, and what' coming down is nasty, thin, old stuff that I'm not sure really is tile. Maybe laminate? Anyhow, it will be a good project for the kids to help with.

And, with the end of summer rapidly approaching, I need to decide for once and all on Option A or Option B. Grrrr. I'd say at this point, because learning is seeming to naturally unfold these days, Option A is winning, though I still love the depth of Option B!

Hope you all had a good week!