in the garden...

after shucking amaranth...we picked cantalopes! which i've let some go too long...but most were ready for picking!
the goats destroyed the garden a while ago...so i have just been so lax about tending it...so it was a surprise to find the cantalopes had grown under the weeds!
the geese are coming over to check out jack at the gate =) he is trying to shut it up fast so they don't get into the garden =)
though they have lovely personalities..i dont' want them stepping all over stuff in there..

harvesting amaranth

this morning while it was still "cool" my minions and i cut down all the amaranth and started threshing it on a sheet..
i haven't ever done this before...so we educated ourselves beforehand (youtube)
there are so many little seeds/grains!!!!
amaranth is HIGH is protein and vitamins and minerals...i am excited to eat some!

jack's glass jewels...

i have noticed more and more that jack has his OWN ideas of creating something...
what i mean is that i will bring something to the table...like all these bits of glass he collected off the road...
and i'll give him cardboard and glue to make a collage or something...and he will have a very different other idea...
like this!
he used hot glue to connect them bc he "wanted the sunlight to see through them"
isn't it lovely?
it did come with a price...he burned himself with the hotglue gun...which isn't the first time...
we always talk about the fact that it could happen but if it does, it will hurt but he will be alright after the pain goes away...
he usually is super careful...but i still burn myself with that stuff too!

i feel like being a parent is a continual decision to let your child go....to let them become who God intended them to be for this world and His kingdom....
and often i hold them too close i know....but i do pray that i will learn more and more to let them make decisions...try and sometimes fail...but to try and trust that God loves them and watches out for them even more than i do!!!

anywho...i waxed long from a little thing...but isn't that life?
the combination of little things adding up into life...and making us who we are?

where o where could my change collection be...esme??

o yes, it is carefully filed in the floor boards...thank you ez!
ha!
jack looked everywhere for his pennies....and we found them this morning...with esme smiling boldly.

picked tomatoes this morning...the goats got in the garden about 2 weeks ago and DECIMATED the beans, okra, eggplant, pumpkins...and started on the sweet potatoes.....the vermin.
soooo, i have given it up for the summer...
which is honestly what i usually do around this time of year anyway..it is just TOOO hot to hang out in the garden!!!
i'll pick it up again in a month or so....when i can plant green things again!

yay for big strong firefighters!!

josh and daniel moved the butcher block inside last night!
yay~!
i just love it!!!
josh still has a little work to do on it...but i love having it inside with flowers on it!

playing in the dirt...

the boys made a pretty well thought out reservoir that they'd fill with water and then a stream that it would flow down and into the lake...and sorry about that photo daniel ...you can blame josh for that one =)

dinner party!

last night we had some friends over for dinner...
the kids and i made some ricotta (milk, lemon juice and salt), and we decorated pizzas from garden supplies....served up with salad...lovely and easy dinner!
jenny's boys and jack (and sometimes esme) played in the dirt and mud....they were like little excavators!
we hosed them off when they were all finished =)
beckie and mike are toying around with the idea of opening another restaurant so we got to hear lots of fun ideas...

this and that...

making yogurt...
easy to do so i dont' knwo why i still buy it!!!
heat milk to just below boiling...around 180
add a couple tablespoons of yogurt that has no additives or pectin in it....once the milk has cooled to 120
stir well and put in dehydrator on 115 degrees for 3 hours...
that's it!

i put it in our old containers so who knows the difference! my wallet! that is who knows! =)

there is a sign up in our tractor supply that a farmer is selling fresh milk (for animal consumption is the only legal way)
i think i will contact him/her and start buying milk from them....to make yogurt and cheese...
bc milk in the grocery store has become so expensive!

curious george

i mean esme =)
she loves to paint her fingernails and toenails...and the surrounding areas =)
she loves to wear her skirts like dresses and then add ribbon around the top...
she loves her slinky and uses it like an appendage to her arm...swirling around or making "waves"
she is my little sprite and i love her so much!
i had a terrible dream last night that she fell off a plane....i searched all night long for her in my head...
i woke up to her crawling in bed with me around 5ish and i couldn't have been happier
i love her fire and spirit...i think it will be a good tool for her...

gollum

notice gollum with 3 heads =)
that is jack's version of the story...the less human he becomes, the more heads he grows! =)

we talk about how when we give and share, we become more and more beautiful on the inside...more as God intended us to be.
and then when we keep for ourselves, the less human and more creaturelike we become so that even the world around us with all of its beauties isn't beautiful to us anymore...
i have no idea if it sinks in with them..but they love the story =)

jack collected lots of jewels from the gravel road...to make a precious jewel....he didn't want to make a ring...so i think he'll end up gluing it all together into a ball =)

Gollum the Greedy

we tell this story for fun..usually when one of them has said "it's mine!!! all mine!!!"
and i can't help but think of "my precious!!"
jack really wanted to make a book today...so i holepunched some paper and he wove a piece of ribbon through...
and then he copied the title down...
and numbered his pages...
and drew pictures of the story...
of the boat, spying the ring, diving in and turning invisible, and then loving that ring more than people and therefore becoming less and less a person like God made him to be and more and more a creature...how couldn't enjoy the world around him...but lived in a cave out of light.
jack and esme are FASCINATED with this story...
jack told me the story in his own words and i wrote it down on the opposite pages of his book...

it was fun!

planting seeds...

jack planted some early carrots =)
and esme planted sunflowers...i gave her the tin with hundreds in them and why i thought she'd only choose a few is my craziness =)
she put about 300 seeds in the small pot...
and began watering...
=)
little imp.
so i buried them with more dirt and we'll be sure to have something sprout i hope!