I love hiking with little people. We probably made it only a half mile, but the kids point out many things I would fail to notice: imaginary snakes, acorns, ants, small waterfalls. Some of the leaves were even beginning to lose their green.
Garden Update
The garden is winding down. Here is a quick rundown:
Best Plant: Giant sunflowers. Planted as an afterthought, these guys did great.
Most Disappointing Plant: Blue Hubbard squash. They died midway through the season. The strawberries also never did well, but I didn’t expect much out of them.
Biggest Mistake: The tomatoes supports. The plants are floppy. The method is good, just didn’t keep up with it enough.
Unused Crop: Cabbages and chard. Apparently we don’t really eat either.
Best Idea: Planting sunflowers in with the vining crops. Although some out competed their companions.
No-shows: I seeded in a bunch of flowers and herbs. One flower came up a couple months late.
New crop: Cabbages. A lot of pests eat cabbages, and I don’t. Probably not a repeat.
Early Harvest: The beans surprised me with how quickly they produced a good harvest. I seeded them in after the peas finished.
Most Delicious: Fresh, ripe cantaloupe.
I have just a small patch of potatoes to dig, the tomatoes are still producing, but that’s about it. Not a bad year.
Kids
When PB hears a new word, he doesn’t always get it right. The carnival was a carnivore. He wanted me to turn the shovel off of his music.
He is often frustrated because he wants to do things but can’t always figure it out. One day we had a good half hour of tears because he couldn’t cut out animal pictures. When he does do something challenging, he breaks into a big grin saying, “Mommy I can do it now.” His accomplishments he is proud of include drawing a square and rectangle, getting dressed by himself, and finally cutting out a picture.
Here is a video of my wild children.
Bikers
Parade
Eating loads of taffy, and sitting on asphalt makes for two messy, but happy kids. We had a blast at Peach Days last week: riding rides, watching parades, and not going to the car show. I sent Joe and PB and stayed home while Mr. C napped. I don’t really care about mustangs or corvettes, although my car loving kid is making me notice them.
Sunflowers
Reaching up tall
Shining bright
Full of their own beauty
In their prime
Drooping
No longer beautiful
Straining under the weight
But here is where
The important work begins
For if a plant only flowered
It would be quite lovely
But eventually fade
And be forgotten
But if a plant not only flowers
But produces seed
It fades and dies
But
The seed continues
Next year, forever
Never forgotten
School
PB is in his first year of preschool, and instead of any formal preschool we do activities at home, like this:
It is a face, that went along with this book
I’ve been trying to get school to go a little smoothly, and a lot of it is just good preparation. Me trying to force PB to do something is not very effective. What works is setting up everything beforehand and letting him lead. This is what the setup look liked today:
The unused dish drainer worked perfectly for organizing school. Both the boys had fun with everything. Mr. C loves playing with the markers and managed not to bite off any of the tops today. We took the sensory bin outside where it was fought over a bit and then eventually abandoned.
Fish
We went down to the park with a friend, and found these giant schools of baby catfish. They would move much like the school of fish in Finding Nemo. Fun to watch.
Insects
Gardens don’t just grow plants. Here’s a look at some insects I found in my garden the other day:
Ick. I could use a lot less of these grasshoppers. I still don’t have any control methods I’m comfortable with, so I just give these guys glares and kill as many as I can.
Much better. This was a good sized praying mantis, we left him alone.
This guy is (as far as I can tell) a locus borer beetle. We have a lot of locust trees around for the juveniles, but this adult has taken up residence on one of the sunflowers.
Soap box moment: I don’t use insecticides at all, I think it can cause more problems that solutions. It is much more interesting to let insects fight it out. And please, don’t ever spray because you want to prevent an unknown problem. Spray only for known pest as a last result.
Prayer
My husband heard PB say a very interesting prayer in the bathroom:
“Heavenly Father, bless that I won’t have germs on my hands”
Joe went in to remind PB to wash his hands. He said he didn’t have to because he said a prayer instead.
Liz Braithwaite 