Edible oasis

So, we're talking about the desert this week in school and decided we should make an edible one! Brown sugar sand, Tootsie Roll/candy fruit slice palm trees, M&M water and animal cracker elephants and rhinos. The hardest part was getting the girls to actually DESIGN their oasis and not just eat it!

Oh, it's ancient history

This school year, we were invited to be a part of a homeschool co-op with some families from our church and our area. We use a history-based curriculum (which is great because I LOVE history!) and because of what the other families have done in the past year, we are starting in the medieval period. Since I didn't really want to just skip ancient history (I was obsessed with Egypt when I was a kid!), and after deciding to join the group in late July, I threw together a crash course in ancient history for the girls. We talked about archaeology, how people learned to make pottery, building the Egyptian pyramids and eventually made our way to Greece and Rome. I started off strong with some fun hands-on projects so thought I'd throw together a little slide show. (Sadly, Greece and Rome really only got coloring-sheet treatment!) A few friends asked me recently to share some of the projects I do, so I'll list materials too for those who want to know.

Since the captions are so short, here's the rundown of what you'll see:
-The archaeology project: digging random things out of a bucket of paver base (sand and rocks). Materials needed: gardening gloves, small paint brushes to "treat ancient artifacts with care" (:D), a bucket, sand, and random treasures from around the house.
-Making clay pottery. Materials needed: quick dry clay, stamps, jewels to decorate, tools to carve designs with, paint to use on the pottery after it has dried (optional), water. Note: we found real clay pretty tricky to work with. I think there may be easier to use options but haven't tried anything else yet.
-Moving blocks to build the Great Pyramid: since the Egyptian farmers who built the pyramids used a type of sled (i.e. NO WHEELS!) to move all the blocks to the pyramid site, we tried pulling a landscape stone across the yard with a winter sled. The girls found out quickly how difficult that would have been!
-Sugar-cube pyramids: They loved doing this especially since we had some friends over that day who did it with us. Just Google "sugar cube pyramid" and you'll find loads of recipes for the mortar, etc. Our pyramids only had a base of 6-7 cubes. Ten is what is usually recommended but I frankly don't want enormous sugar-cube pyramids lying around my house, nor did I want to spend my entire grocery budget on sugar cubes!

So, there you have it!

A month in the life...

Well, it's been a frightfully long time since I've updated my blog. Many apologies for that...July was a busy month with lots of people in town to visit us. First, Grandma and Granddad came up on the 4th and stayed with us for a week. We had a great time with them; the girls especially enjoyed going out on their own with Grandma and Granddad for a meal. Then our friends Josh and Hammer came to visit us. Formerly known as our 'basement dwellers', Josh and Amber lived with us for a few months one summer a few years ago. We always love having them here and hearing about what the Lord is doing in and through their lives. Following Josh and Hammer, our dear friends Ryan and Scottie stayed with us while they were here at Bethel doing two weeks of intensives. The kids LOVE hanging out with them and we enjoy some fun date nights out thanks to the guys. (And, they don't just babysit; they make homemade pizzas, ice cream sundaes-who could ask for more?) And then the big news, we were having dinner at a friend's house one evening and Anna fell from their monkey bars and broke her wrist. One trip to the ER, two x-rays and 5 days later, she was fitted with a super-cool hot pink cast! She has done really well with the frustration of having one arm in a cast during swim season. This Thursday we go back to the doctor; if after another x-ray, the arm seems to be healing well, he'll put it in a short cast, one that doesn't go above her elbow. Then she'll have it on for about 3 more weeks. And while all this was going on, our little garden has grown from strength to strength. So, I've included a picture of our harvest: so far just cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes and one small carrot (we'll leave the rest of the carrots to get a bit bigger! We were just curious!). The girls are having a great time watching our plants grow so big. And finally, Joel had some fun Daddy time with the kiddos for 4 days while I went to Indiana to spend time with my girlfriends from my Cambridge prayer group (see picture at the top!). It was such an encouraging time for all of us to come together and share what's going on in our lives and to pray for and encourage one another. I'm so thankful to Joel and to everyone who helped him with the kids (Amy, Kate, Melissa, Kelsey and Amanda) for making this time possible. And I'm forever grateful for the friendship of these gals, Renee, Jill, Katie and Karla. Sadly, four others couldn't be with us this year--Caroline, Pip, Alysia and Emma--and we missed them. It would take a miracle for ALL of us to get together (I guess that's what heaven is for!) but we enjoy the times we do have. So, I conclude because it's late and I should get to bed. School starts for us this week so I need to be on my game. I hope I'll keep up here a little better than I have this summer! Till then...