I must say, summer is going splendidly so far. Not to say we haven't had our share of quarreling or complaints about being bored (seriously? - shakes head), but for the most part it's been successful.
First of all, I am the most unreasonable mother on earth (it's true, just ask my kids), because I created these rules for summer.
In order to play with friends they have to do:
- their assigned chore for that week
- 30 minutes of reading
- 15 minutes of cursive writing
- 15 minutes of something I assign to them personally
(Cora - piano, Joseph - organizational skills, Madelyn - math, Alex - history)
- 30 minutes of physical activity (this can actually be done WITH a friend, like exercise, bikes, playing at the park, anything to get them moving.
Then, in order to earn 30 minutes of TV or Video Games they have to do all of the above, plus one of the following:
- 30 minutes of creative time (sewing, Legos, piano, reading, making a video, doing a craft, drawing, or whatever else they can come up)
-OR-
- 1 hours of outside time. They can do whatever they want, they just have to be outside.
It's all written out for them on the whiteboard.
I told them that we'll go to the library every week, and I even made them each a new Dr. Seuss library bag. Yep, I'm cool like that.
I also told them I'd take them on one outing each week. The first week we went and picked strawberries at a beautiful, local, organic farm.
Then I made strawberry rhubarb freezer jam, and two nights in a row we had a delicious dessert of frozen vanilla yogurt with fresh strawberries and crushed up Oreos. Try it - you'll thank me. The second night we had the dessert BEFORE dinner, and then all I made for dinner was homemade hummus, which we had with pita chips and carrot sticks. That's what I call a successful summer-time dinner. There are two things that my family attacks like ravenous wolves - 1) a cocktail shrimp ring, and 2) a bowl of homemade hummus.
This is the recipe I use for my hummus, although I usually add a little extra lemon juice and/or salt, tasting as I go. It's good.
Let's see, what else? Cora died the tips of her hair a reddish purple.
It faded almost immediately, but you can still see it a tad bit.
Joe built a bike from scratch for Father's Day. From scratch, as in, he threaded the spokes on the wheels and went from there. He's cool like that.
Earlier in the spring we discovered a nest in a fake potted plant on our balcony, and before we knew it, we had babies!
They grew up rather quickly, and then they flew away.
Recently, we were surprised to find a new set of baby birds in the same nest. The other three eggs never hatched this time, and I don't know if it's the same mother bird or not.
We tried not to go out there much, and definitely never when the mother bird was there, but that sure made it hard to water my pretty flowers, so even thought it was fun while it lasted, I'm happy they're gone now too.
It's like the Wizard of Oz, only those were pink poppies, but I can definitely hear the voice of the Wicked Witch of the West saying "Poppies. Poppies. Poppies will put them to sleep."
Unfortunately, Cora had to say goodbye to her best friend, Xandria, who moved back to the States.
Another one of her best friends, Jackson, will follow suit in a couple of weeks.
I will miss those two kids too - good friends are so important. Such is the life of a military child in the summer.
Having never lived this far North before, it is strange to me how it is still pretty light outside at 10pm. This picture was taken by a friend of mine just after 10
And, of course, it will be this light again by 4:00 in the morning. That means we got a pretty late start for fireworks on the 4th of July. They started at 10:45 this year. But the base puts on a good show, so we don't mind too much.
I can't tell you how much I've looked forward to summer, and now that it's here, I'm going to try to suck the marrow out of it. Hmmmm, maybe it's time to re-read "Walden" again ;)
