Child Labor

A few weeks ago before we went camping I really wanted to get some green beans frozen and was grateful for the help I got from the kids. They had a great time snapping off the ends and I didn't have to do it!! Here they are hard at work:

Fruit of my labors

I recently picked up some peaches from the area YFC fundraiser. They are so, so yummy. I've gotten them for the past several years and have never been disappointed. However, this year I had bought some peaches from Cub Foods in the hopes I could save a little money. Ick. They were horrible. So I wasted that money and ended up buying them from YFC anyway. From now on, I'll just stick to the YFC peaches since I know that they will be excellent. I bought 3 boxes--we'll eat 1 box fresh and I canned/froze the rest. Here is my bounty (8 quart frozen, 7 quart canned, 8 1/2 pint jam) :

State Fair

Saturday we went to the state fair. We've never been. Even Dan, who has lived in Minnesota most of his life, hasn't ever been. So when we found out that Dan's dad would be singing Saturday afternoon, we decided we'd go. We've always wanted to go--just never got around to it.
This year is Minnesota's 150th birthday so someone decided that a choral group from each of the state's regions should sing at the state fair. They commissioned new pieces of work from Minnesota composers. Each group (about 6 total) sang 2 songs and then they all sang a song together at the end. It was pretty good although a few of the groups sang some rather boring songs. The song that Dan's dad's group sang was good-lively and funny.

We spent the whole day at the fair. We left town at 7:30 and parked at a Park and Ride which was pretty close to the fair. We didn't have any problems finding a parking space and took the shuttle over to the fair. We even took the double jogger along and fit that on the bus without any problems. I'm so glad that we parked there instead of at the fair because the line to park at the fair was incredibly long. Plus then we'd have had to pay for parking. This way we parked for free and those shuttle buses just cut in front of everyone so the ride and wait was quite short.

When we first got to the fair we went over to the Little Farm Hands building. Here is where kids get to pretend that they are farmers. They get an apron and a bucket and work their way through the path. They get to milk a pretend cow (water comes out, not milk), plant crops, harvest crops, take their crops to the farmer's market, sell it and then buy a snack with their profits (apples or boxes of cereal).





After that we met up with Dan's mom (his dad was at a church somewhere practicing for their afternoon concert) and we picked up some lunch. I picked up a bucket of cookies (freshly baked) from Sweet Martha's and we got a roast sandwich--both yummy. And of course, the fair wouldn't be the fair without an order of cheese curds.

We also went to the Miracle of Birth building and got to watch a calf being born. We couldn't actually get close enough to see the cow but watched it on one of the many TVs they have hanging from the ceiling. The building was packed, but we also managed to see some little piggies that had been born the day before. They were in the farrowing pen with their mother and they were all suckling away.

Next we went to the horse barn and looked at the several different kinds of horses they had there. The kids even got to pet a few. Some of those horses are absolutely huge and I definitely wouldn't want to get in their way. They were such beautiful animals and it was cool to see all the different varieties, colors, etc.

We also went to the Creative Activities building. There they have all sorts of different displays including quilting, jewelry making and miniatures. The older three were fascinated with the miniatures. There was a group of ladies working on some miniatures and the kids spent a great deal of time there. Darin even got to help one lady make some plants. They learned a few tricks about making miniatures such as drying green pepper seeds for potato chips and using the bottom of individual creamers for a waste basket. Also on display was this beautiful canoe that someone had made. They had put together different types/colors of wood (kind of like a butcher block) and made this gorgeous canoe. I'm not sure I'd want to put it in the water since it was so beautiful.

The canning and baking items were also in the CA building. The kids thought I should enter several things next year. And I might. I wasn't all that impressed with some of the entries (I realize they were about a week old by the time we saw them, but still). It'd be fun to do I think but I'll have to check out the rules.

In the education building the kids got a bunch of freebies--bags, pencils, etc. They also had on display artwork from kids. There are some really talented kids out there. There was one painting that I saw that I wish I could buy. It was done by an 11th grader and was just ethereal. It was two little girls sitting on a blanket on the beach. The colors and the technique were superb. I just stood there looking at that one painting for quite awhile.

Later in the day I took the younger two with me to the Fine Arts Building because I wanted to see the photography and paintings by adults. There were a few cool things but I'd have to say I enjoyed the ones in the education building better. Some of the things done by adults were really weird and others I could have done (and I wouldn't have called it art). There was one very large picture that someone did completely in pencil (though you'd never guess). That was really amazing. There were also some others done with colored pencil--although I had no idea that was the medium until I read the placard beside it.

After the Fine Arts building Darin, Natalie and I went over to the Eco building and had our pictures taken at the reusable bag booth. Then we each got a free bag. They are nice and large and I'll definitely use them, especially on my big grocery shopping days since I never seem to have enough of the green ones I usually use.

While we were at the Fine Arts building, Dan was with Ellie and Kara at the WCCO building. Ellie and Dan both rode bikes to generate power for the broadcasts. Once they got to a certain amount they got to pick a prize--Dan chose a t-shirt and Ellie got a really nice bag. Here is Ellie riding the bike:


While we were at the fair we actually ran into my brother and his family. They live in St. Paul and I hadn't bothered to tell them we'd be in town because I didn't really figure we'd see them and I knew we'd be seeing them in a few days for our annual camping trip. It was kind of funny to actually run into them considering how many people were at the fair that day (171,000 that day).

After Dan and I met up again we went over to the Drink-all-the-milk-you-want-for-$1 stand and dipped our leftover cookies into our milk. Then we headed home. We picked up the shuttle again and went back to the Park and Ride. The shuttle we rode back was a charter bus and Darin got the biggest kick out of it. He was giddy and loved that he was in a charter bus. All the kids thought it was pretty cool that a bus could have a bathroom!! It was hilarious to watch their excitement over something that we find so commonplace. It wasn't funny, however, to listen to the guy in front of us swear every third word. Thankfully, the kids didn't really pay attention to what he was saying and since they've never heard most of the words he wasn't saying, it didn't really register with them that he was saying bad words.

We got home safely around 11:30, much later than we had planned, but we had a great time and plan to go back next year.

School has started!!!

After taking part of the summer off we have started school again. It surely is nice to be back into a routine again. Towards the end of the last school year I bought the Managers of Their Homes book and implemented a schedule that worked wonderfully. I still need to tweak a few things on it for this year's schedule since we've changed our history curriculum and added a few things. I hope to get that done soon-hopefully within the next week or so.

So this past week we did a decent amount of work but didn't hit it too hard. I worked Sunday and Thursday night so the days after weren't as productive.

Here is what we did:

History: We've switched to Tapestry of Grace this year and love it so far. It is a classical history curriculum that integrates history, church history, writing, literature, geography and art history. In high school it also adds philosophy and worldview. I made each of the girls their own notebooks for the first unit--it has all of their assignments and they are responsible for getting them done. The kids have been loving it so far. Ellie even asked if she could work ahead in her history reading because she loved the book so far (a book about King Arthur). For our read aloud, we've been reading about the visigoths and others who contributed to the fall of Rome. We also read the story about Saint Valentine--his work and how his faith got him killed. We had planned on starting our salt map one day this week but 4 very tired children required naps so we didn't get it started. Instead we just reviewed some of the geographical terms that we had planned to put on our map.

English: We didn't completely finish Ellie's text from last year so we are just highlighting the grammar parts and skipping the writing since she's doing writing with Tapestry this year. With Kara we reviewed nouns, pronouns and action verbs. She's also memorizing the poem Mr. Nobody. She's got 2 of the 3 stanzas memorized.

Math: Ellie took a few tests in Saxon 65 and she started with lesson 15. She also did some math fact review using Quarter Mile Math (a computer program). Kara did a couple of lessons in Saxon 2 and a few lessons in her Singapore Math workbooks.

Science: We started a unit on ponds. We had planned on going to Quarry Hill to look at the pond and do some drawings but it didn't work out. I had worked the night before so was really tired, we had a picnic that we were going to that night so I needed to do some baking, and there were 40mph winds. So we just started reading about them and learning about muskrats.

Latin: Ellie is still working her way through Latina Christiana I and did lesson 23 this week. She'll move onto LC II when she is done with LC I.

Typing: Ellie started typing this week which she has been really excited about. She's been doing it in the evenings after Darin and Natalie go to bed and has been asking every day if she can work on it.

Logic: Ellie has started working her way through MindBenders A2. She uses grids to find out the answers to the puzzles--such as who lives where, etc--based on the clues given. We aren't doing any formal study of logic till 7th grade, but she loves working on these and does them in her spare time.

New furniture, earrings, etc.

Wednesday we had some new furniture delivered so we spent most of the day rearranging. We had gone shopping before vacation and bought a new couch, 2 new chairs and a new bed. We needed the bunk beds that Ellie and Kara have been using for Darin and Natalie's room so we put our bed in Ellie and Kara's room and the new bed in ours. The new furniture in our living room is extremely comfortable but we haven't used it much since we've been busy and the old couch is still in the middle of the room. We had been thinking about buying a leather chair for the living room but couldn't find what we wanted in the price range we were looking. My sister recently got 2 leather chairs for a decent price and we really like them so we were hoping to find something similar. Instead we decided to go with microfiber. And we bought 2 chairs and couch--not the one or two chairs we planned on. But we love the set. Friends of ours have the same set in a different color so I guess you could say we test drove the set before we bought it.

Also on Wednesday Ellie and Kara went over to a friends house to play and spend the night. While they were there they conspired that they should get their ears pierced. They called me Thursday morning to see if I'd say yes and in a moment of weakness (or something), I said yes. I met them at WalMart (parental permission is required) and then stopped at Sekapp on the way home and bought a box of tomatoes to can and 10 dozen corn. We ate a dozen for supper and it was so, so good. I'm going to have to get some more to eat on the cob before it is all gone. I froze 19 bags with 1 1/2 pints in each. I would have had a few more bags but I had to throw out one of the batches because I had put the shucked corn in a box that apparently had previously held part of a pressure washer and it reeked like tires. I did notice a bit of a smell when I was putting the corn in the box but it was sitting next to Darin's bike and being that his bike is quite new, I assumed it was his tire that I was smelling.

I also bought a lug of peaches and 3 lugs of nectarines from Cub Foods. The peaches aren't that great and aren't freestone. I'm hoping the nectarines will be good. They aren't ripe yet so the verdict is out. Since the peaches aren't that great, I ordered 3 boxes from the local Youth for Christ fundraiser and 2 boxes of pears. I've ordered the peaches from them (they get them from Colorado) for several years and they are always wonderful. They come away from the pit nicely and are the best peaches I've ever eaten. I hadn't ordered any previously because when they sent the info out earlier in the summer they anticipated that they would be delivered early to mid August--right when we were in Colorado. But after I got the peaches from Cub I looked at their website in the hope that they hadn't been delivered yet and I was in luck. They'll be delivered between the 23rd and the 25th so I'll have 2 days to can them before we go camping.

On our way home

Sunday night we packed the van, and I had the kids sleep in their clothes so we could get up early on Monday and just get in the van and go. We stopped overnight Monday at some friends' in Nebraska City and it was great to see them again. They were our close friends in Lincoln when we lived there and we saw them last year on our way out to California. Tammy made a great supper and then we took a walk to the Arbor Lodge State Park. The park was beautiful and they also had a whispering bench where you sit on one end and whisper to the person on the other end and you can hear each other like you were right next to one another. The bench is in a semi-circle and is about 15 feet across.

After our walk we chilled out and watched the Olympics for awhile. Tuesday morning we drove to Omaha and stopped at Nebraska Furniture Mart--a great store that we miss. We bought some new lamps to go with our new couch and then headed to Des Moines. We met my dad at Cracker Barrel and then left for home.

It is so good to be home. Darin and Natalie were so out of their routine that they were not behaving. We had to stop twice on the way home to discipline them. Now that we've been home and they are catching up on sleep they aren't the little evil devils I was convinced they were on the way home.

Family reunion

We had a great time at the family reunion. It was great to reconnect with Dan's cousins and get to know them better and their spouses. Almost all of Dan's family was there--just a few were missing.

We all settled in on Thursday night and had our first meal together. Dan's Aunt Elaine volunteered to be in charge of the food so she planned all the meals for our time together and made a huge Costco run. Then at the end we all pitched in to cover the cost of all the food.

Friday morning we had group games and had a great time. It was great to see everyone participate and try to win. Of course, no J***** family reunion would be complete without cheating. If something was not specifically prohibited, it was fair game. So while there was a winner, the team didn't win fair and square. I guess you could say that they were better cheaters than the other teams. And it was all done in good fun. We did a plate skate (and the plates tore much sooner than I had anticipated), a marshmallow toss, a clothespin drop, balloon popping and a creative activity where each team had to use nature and themselves to create something. The ideas they came up with were great and hilarious.

On Saturday we went hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park with Dan's dad and his brother-in-law and kids. We did a six mile hike and the kids did pretty well. We had Natalie in the Kelty and the rest of our kids walked most of the way. I bit the dust twice while hiking and am still bruised from that. Once I landed on my bum while going down an embankment and another time I tripped and landed on a rock right under my kneecap.

The hike we took went out to Mills Lake which was absolutely beautiful. The whole trail was gorgeous. When we got to Mills Lake it started to rain and since it was quite cool, we didn't really want to get wet. We were going to stake out under the trees for awhile but then Dan spotted a large rock leaning against another and we took shelter there. It was great and the kids thought it was really cool. We had a snack while we waited.

Here we are on the shuttle on the way to the trailhead:


Taking a snack break:


A view on the way:


Here we are under the rock waiting out the rain and having a snack:


Mills Lake:

After the rain stopped we headed back allthewhile watching the sky since it looked like it would start pouring any minute and it was thundering quite a bit. The hike back went much faster--of course, it was all downhill--and we did beat the rain.

Darin and Jacob playing hillbilly golf: