I love a little bit of wild in the garden. You all know that already. Sometimes, though, the paths have to be cleared. That was today.
My summer garden seems to bound all at once. One minute I’m reveling in the spring excitement of a few green sprigs emerging from a winter’s sleep and the next I am battling mosquitoes, 100-degree weather, and a mass of plants that seem to be fighting for the space in my small garden.
This morning I went out before it got too hot and pulled all the grass and “weeds” from the path, cutting back overhanging plants as I crawled along.
Now visitors can walk easily down the path rather than on tip-toe, afraid of stepping on something. It’s just prettier this way as well. The neat path, dissecting the wild little garden, gives a sense of order.
Crawling along, I admired butterflies and bees and bugs. As usual. I made notes of things that need to be done, but only one big chore at a time.
I thought you might want to see the pokeweed growing up next to one of the arbors. I know people consider pokeweed a weed, but I think it’s a pretty plant. Now, I don’t want 100 of them. Just one or two.
The flowers. Later on it will have deep purple berries. Thomas said it used to be used as ink. Use care — they are poisonous.
I wanted to share my science activity bags because I am so excited about them. First of all, I wouldn’t even know science activity bags existed if it weren’t for my friend, Leslie. She is an amazing woman. If you visit her blog, you’ll see what I mean.
What you see above is a large laundry basket full of almost-ready-to-go science experiments. Each experiment came from a book from this website:
Leslie organized a swap and she had 25 moms who were interestd and signed up for the swap. Each lady took one experiment and made 25 bags of supplies for the same experiment. So I arrived at the swap with 25 identical bags and left with 25 different bags.
Do you know what this means?
I have 25 weeks of hands-on science for Michaela. Each bag has pretty much all you need, though there may some small thing to pick up to go along with some of the experiments. For example one of the bags is all ready to go except I need to buy a bag of mini marshmallows the week we do it. The experiments are geared for K-6th grade, so I think we’ll easily get a lot of use from them. (Michaela is entering 6th grade this year. )
Now for the real exercise. I had to work today, but my supervisor was kind enough to let me have a loooong lunch break, during which Joseph, Michaela and I tested for our next belts. I am happy to say we passed.
I thought I’d share this wonderful exercise plan a dear friend of mine has been on.
Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides, and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax. Each day you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.
After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks.
Then try 50-lb potato sacks, and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand, and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.
After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each sack.
Life here consists of juggling work and home and children and school. It’s really fun on most days.
My farm-raised husband does a little bit of gardening. It’s small time compared to “back when I was little, we…”
Thomas works in the tomatoes, watering and removing suckers and hoping for lots of fruit.
I wander around the periphery, up and down rows, working, playing, dreaming about flowers and herbs, and trying to learn a little bit as the days fly by.
The garden’s a chaotic mix of stuff this year, but things are growing like crazy. Hmmm. I could have just described my life.
Today’s Quote:
“It’s never too late to be what we might have been.” ~George Eliot
One of my online Five In A Row friends, Susan, shared with us an amazing claymation video that her daughter, Rebecca, made. I know you will enjoy watching it as much as we did. We loved it! It was especially timely since we recently finished reading Hamlet. Enjoy!
They sleep mostly, yawning and stretching and showing off their soft little tummies. Sometimes they dream and kick their legs and open their mouths. Their good mama, Cookie, is always close by.
Fresh vegetables and fruits were in scant supply except in season, for ice houses were relatively unknown until just before the American Revolution; even then, it was only the most luxurious homes which possessed one. In general, items considered perishable were placed into the well where they could remain cool.
Actually, many fruits and vegetables were not raised or eaten at all. The usual vegetables which served as staple items of diet with fish and meat were beans, turnips, carrots, and cabbage.
The food situation in Philadelphia and its environs was different from many colonial towns in that from the bginning Penn’s city had excellent markets. There, one could find a huge supply of all kinds of privisions–vegetables, meats, poultry, fruits, and many foreign delicacies, available because of that town’s active trade with all parts of hte world.
An interesting rabbit trail: how much did the average American diet change between the early 1700s and the mid 1800s?
This morning I want to share a few more pictures from our Yorktown trip. This part of our trip is from walking through Historic Yorktown where there are quite a few homes and buildings dating from the 1700s. They survived the Battle at Yorktown and now many of them are private residences. Can you imagine living in waterfront Historic Yorktown?
I noticed this wonderful backyard garden. Oh, I wanted to just go back there and sit down and take it all in.
The brick, the shutters, the flowers! Isn’t this just a 10 on the adorable scale?
If you ever wanted a pretty neighborhood in which to walk, this is it. I don’t think I would ever tire of walking and remembering things I’ve learned about our country’s history. There would be NO excuse for not getting my exercise if I lived here.
We noticed these purple flowerheads all over the place. My sister and I wondered about them. We recognized them as being in the onion family, but we weren’t sure what kind. A local told us that they were the Yorktown onions, as in THE Yorktown onions. You know I want to find out more about them and buy some seeds or a plant or two to have some here in my own yard!
These onions are exceptionally pretty growing in this large expanse of yard with the old white building and fence as a backdrop.
I’m looking forward to putting our pictures into our school notebook and doing some sketching from one of these pictures. Soon… Today is a work day so it’ll have to wait until at least tomorrow.
As an aside, that’s one of the hardest things about working. I loved my trip last week so much, and I would not trade the time with my sister for anything, but I got in Thursday evening, had to get straight to my desk for Friday and again Saturday. Friday is an extra long day because we have karate on Friday nights. Sunday of course was our day for our church meeting and basically just a family day, so the house had become void of groceries, I’m still not totally unpacked, and it will be tomorrow before I can breathe a sigh of relief and get my life in order again! We’ll be jumping on some spelling lessons this week as well, so I know my days off will FLY!
This makes me want a picket fence somewhere in my yard. I know the perfect place! Around my vegetable garden in the backyard. I wonder if big furry man is up to it? Maybe if I start building it by myself he’ll feel sorry for me and pitch in. Let’s think about that for a bit, shall we?
Beautiful! I wish I had had more time, but I am planning to go back. It really takes a couple of days or so to go through Yorktown and gather up all the details, like the owners’ names of the original homes in historic Yorktown and who they were and how they contributed to the war efforts. (For example, The Moore House.)
Here is the beautiful view from Historic Yorktown.
The girls ran and ran and ran. I finally got Michaela to run back my way for a picture, but she was poised to run off again and catch up with her cousin.
The day was a bit gray so the pictures aren’t as bright as they could be, but I actually think we had perfect walking weather — not too hot and a nice breeze to keep us cool as we explored and walked and talked.
I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome.
I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop.
For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do
Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
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for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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