Hike!

In a huge answer to prayer, the weather held, and we were able to go on our hike yesterday morning! Hooray! It was cloudy and a bit chilly in the morning, but it didn't rain--and the day got progressively nicer. Now the bad weather seems to have moved off for awhile, and we are all so thankful to see the sun again!

I took the 3rd graders over first (Jonathan's class). There were 10 of them, and 3 other parents. I wasn't exactly sure how the timing of the hike was going to go (since Luke and I had spent a lot more time stopped, identifying trees, than we did yesterday as a group), but it was fine. We ended up going up this path, then diverging onto a second path that goes up along a ridgetop. The forest up there is different than the one down at the bottom of the trail--primarily tall oaks and hickorys, as opposed to a ton of red cedars and shrubbier-type trees down at the bottom. We walked around the trail and started down, and then turned onto a different trail that heads back and meets up with the trail we were on originally (at the point where we diverged), so we didn't have to back-track the whole way. The timing was just perfect! Luke and I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the second trail, if we hadn't run into those wasps, so it was all good that I knew how the trails connected and could go that route.

The park has planted a stand of trees in a little meadow, next to their nature center, so we started there. American chestnuts, sweetgums, and ash are planted there, and all those leaves were in the book we made last week, so we reviewed the identifying characteristics of the leaves (simple, compound, alternate, opposite, margins, etc). We looked at all the chestnuts that were on the ground in their big spiny cases ("Why would a chestnut not be a good shade tree to plant in your yard?"), and I talked about the chestnut blight that killed over 3 billion chestnut trees in the first part of the 1900s. Sad! We talked about how you can chew the sap of the sweetgum tree (not that you should ever wound the bark of trees!) and what sorts of things are made of the strong yet elastic wood of ash trees (baseball bats, bows, etc.). Then we moved onto the trail.

I talked about the 4 layers of the forest, and what sorts of living organisms are in all the layers. We saw dogwood trees, and a blackgum tree, with its characteristic square blocky bark. It's leaves are among the first to start changing colors, so we talked about why leaves change colors, the different pigments in leaves, and why only some trees can have leaves turn red (not all trees produce the pigment anthocyanin, which helps the tree regain the nutrients in the leaves when it is stilll producing sugar in the warm sunny days of fall, but the sap can't move the sugar back down the tree during the crisp, cool nights).

As we walked up the trail, we noticed how the forest changed in appearance. We looked at the ground to see the acorns and hickory nuts, which are so important for animals in the fall and winter months. We talked about moss, lichen, mushrooms, and bracket fungi, of which there were lots of examples to be noted! Some bracket fungi even have growth rings, which I didn't know before I started reseaching exactly what I was going to say! There were a lot of downed trees, and the ones which had been chopped gave us a chance to review the inner parts of the trunk, which we talked about last week--heartwood, sapwood, cambium, and bark.

We meandered our way along, and I think all the kids were just so happy to be outside, stretching their legs in the fresh, non-rainy air! I know I was! It was wonderful to be outside. The kids really remembered a lot of what we talked about last week, about the different tree types. I was pleasantly surprised! Of the 14 leaves we talked about last week, we saw 9 of those trees. I think they enjoyed recognizing the leaves on the trees!

So the timing worked out perfectly--we got back to the church a few minutes before 11:00, when they switch to their "aide-time" class, where they eat lunch, play games, take prayer requests, and do character time. They had plenty of time to wash their hands and drink some water. Then I picked up the 4th graders, and after their bathroom break, we were good to go! We took the same route, I said the same things, and it also worked out really well! That class (Caleb's class) had 13 kids go with us, and 2 extra parents. It was really fun!

We got back to church before pick-up time, which is at 12:30. Then I took the Rivendell kids over to the other church for the afternoon. I still had memory work and science left to teach! We got home about 5:15, and we had about 20 minutes before we all had to rush off to get Nathan and Luke over to their football practices. Whew! When we got home, Bob was home, and I made a quick dinner. The I sat on the couch and didn't move, LOL. It was a good day, but a long, tiring day. I was so thankful God kept it from raining!

Busy Time

These next few weeks are shaping up to be totally crazy! The main source of extra stress is that it is my turn to teach for 2 weeks at our elementary co-op, so I'm busy preparing for that on top of my physical science and Latin classes (and of course all the regular homeschooling teaching and grading for 5 people, LOL). And next Saturday is a consignment sale, and the following weekend I have a ladies retreat with my church Friday and Saturday, and then we head up to PA to celebrate Bob's mom's 85th birthday Sunday and Monday! And of course football takes up every evening, plus 2 games on the weekends. I figure if I can just make it through Oct. 11--then things will settle down a little bit.


So I'm teaching 2 lessons on trees for the elementary co-op. I really like trees, and I taught a chapter on them last year in life science, so I already had some ideas. Unfortunately I did not use my summer time wisely and plan everything out then, however, so I've been busy the past week. Tuesday we're going to touch briefly on the different parts of trees, and I'll bring in my tree cross-section slice that Ed L. graciously cut for me last summer. I've gotten quite a bit of use out of that thing! Then we're going to talk about the basics of tree identification using leaves--simple, compound, opposite, alternate, pinnate, palmate, serrated margin, complete margin, lobed, --those sorts of term. I drew 14 leaves (that is what took so much time, LOL) that illustrate those terms, got them copied on to green cardstock, and now I am cutting them all out (for 26 students!) so they can glue them in the appropriate places next to descriptions on white pieces of cardstock, so they have a little tree guide for themselves.

Then, Lord willing, we will take a little field trip the next Tuesday to a local park, where we can hike around and see those 14 leaves on actual trees. Well, only 13--I used the buckeye to illustrate palmately compound leaves, and I haven't seen a buckeye anywhere around here yet! Oh well. This is actually a big prayre request because we have been having quite a bit of rain, especially on Tuesdays of late! The boys and I were laughing ont he way to Rivendell last Tuesday (in the rain). Last year we primarily had nice, sunny days on Tuesdays. The only thing that has changed is that the C family moved to Hawaii, so clearly they took the sun with them. Come back!! LOL!

Back before the co-ops started up, the kids and I went on a hike at this park so I could find a good trail and make sure I knew what trees were on it. It was hot, the girls were whiny, as were some of the boys, and somehow I lost my notes once we got home. Story of my summer! So I knew I needed to go back to make sure of my plan!

This time I was smart, and just Luke and I went on Wednesday! We had a really nice time, and it was great to spend some time with just him. He didn't whine or complain once! We headed up the trail we went on last time, and as we got to the highest point of it, right in the middle of a nice oak/hickory forest, there were several wasps flying around the trail. After evaluating the situation, we decided to turn around and go on a different trail, LOL. No need to be a hero! Luke was understandably skittish because as it turns out, when he was at WSS this summer, as he and the rest of the campers were coming back from rapelling, he stepped onto a yellow jackets' nest, and he got stung several times. The poor kid behind him got stung even more times though. So yeah . . . no need to repeat any stinging opportunities!

We identified all the trees we needed to, but the real stars were the amazing fungi fruiting bodies that had popped up all over the forest with all the rain we've had lately! So big! So many colors! So cool! Here are a couple of examples, but I'm not going to identify them because, well . . . I'm just not that into fungi. And I don't have time to look them up, LOL.

Bob's Big Home Improvement Project

This is another way that Bob has spent the last week--the one filled with over-90-degree temperatures. At the top of a very high ladder, working on the trim on our house! He had noticed that there was some definite rot going on way up there, so he took the old piece of wood off (cutting it into several sections to get it down), and then he put up new wood. That he carried up just in 2 sections--we were all a little worried about that, but the Lord was protecting him, thankfully!

Nathan, Luke and I were ladder-moving assistants. One person would stand on the bottom rung so we could swing the ladder away from the house without it slipping out on us. Then we would GINGERLY carry it a few feet (praying madly that it wouldn't go out of control and fall, hitting our neighbors' house--yes, the ones that don't like the trampoline!), set it down, hop back on the bottom rung, and carefully lean it back against the house. Whew! Definitely not a one-man job, moving that monster!

The ladder was actually a huge gift from God. We were out walking one evening several weeks ago when we noticed this ladder laying down along the curb outside a house on a different cul-de-sac. This family had just had a bunch of landscaping work done, so we were wondering if maybe the landscaping crew had just left the ladder or something. At the end of the walk, Bob rang the guy's doorbell and just flat-out asked if the ladder was out for the trash (which was going to be collected the next day). The guy said yes, so Bob and the boys took it on back to our house! It's a 40 foot ladder, which would be quite expensive, so we were so incredibly thankful! Most people in our area just hire people to take care of all their outside house stuff, and the man was definitely older, so he probably just decided he was never going up a ladder like that again, so why let it take up space?! Whatever, we are appreciative! Bob has also cleaned out gutters and installed gutter screens over them, which he couldn't do with our old ladder, since we have a two-story with a walk-out basement. Those back gutters are REALLY high! I think we will all breathe a big sigh of relief when we don't need to move the ladder around anymore, though. It's a scary job, an accident waiting to happen!

Major Tree Trimming

We have a huge tree in front of our house--a "willow oak" I now know, since I finally got around to identifying it. (When Amy was out visiting several years ago, she said she thought it was some kind of oak, but it wasn't in my handy-dandy Michigan Trees book from botany class in college, so I never confirmed that. Bob wonders when Amy's friends will stop doubting her, LOL!) Anyhow, this tree just keeps growing and growing, and we have not spent much time cutting it back or shaping it or anything really. We were taking a walk last week, and we noticed how most other people with this kind of tree have the lowest branches a lot higher than ours, and consequently, their trees don't look like they are taking over their front yards, as our did. So we got busy yesterday.
Many, many large branches were cut off. We were ruthless! And the difference is so amazing. The whole front yard just opened up! You can see our house from the street! I wish I had a "before" picture, but I really didn't think about it. Bob was up on the ladder using this new electric reciprocating saw he got not too long ago. It worked really well! Here is Nathan demostrating how to use this fine saw to cut branches into appropriately sized lengths for future fire pit use.

Luke also had several turns with the new saw. Plenty of cutting to go around!

Caleb was an awesome helper in toting all these new logs back to our wood pile in the back yard.

It truly was an all-day project. After dinner, we went back out there and bundled up all the branches that didn't get cut up for firewood so the trash guys will take them.

So here is a picture of the tree in its entirety. Note how you can see the front lights on the house--Bob just replaced them, so they are really nice, but you couldn't even see them before, unless you were walking on the front walk up to our door! I don't know how tall the tree is, but we have a 2 story colonial house with 9 foot ceilings on the main floor, so it's pretty tall! We've never actually had big trees in our yard before in any other house we've lived in. and now we don't feel like the branches are about to poke our eyes out if we walk across the yard!

Letterboxing Hike

We've been having some really nice weather the past few days, which has been such a relief after the week of high 90's and high humidity that my parents brought in with them, LOL. Bob had a holiday on Friday, and since it was so beautiful, I thought it would be a good day to take a hike. I have wanted to go letterboxing for quite some time now. Letterboxing is a bit like geocaching, but you don't have to use a GPS to find the clues. You just go to the letterboxing site, click on your state, and then you can find different hikes. Each hike has all the clues listed for how to find the hidden boxes. Print them off, and you're good to go!

I picked a hike in a park not too far off with 3 hidden boxes along the same trail, which happened to be a loop. Yes, it was the perfect hike for little kids, LOL. I was the "reader of the clues", but the boys were very into looking out for whatever it was we were searching for. Nathan commented that it was fun to "have a mission" while hiking.

Here they have just found the first box. It was hidden behind a tree with 4 trunks! I never got a really good picture of the tree (and I never even looked at the leaves to identify it, I later realized--duh), but here is a picture of Caleb, Jonathan, and Anna in front of a similar 3-trunked tree.

The second box was further off the trail, and had more detailed instructions. Nathan was the first to spot the box in the hollow part of this tree. The boxes are just little Rubbermaid-type tubs with a stamp and a little journal in them. You are supposed to be carrying your own identifying stamp and little journal, so you would stamp your stamp on the journal in the box, and stamp their stamp on your book. We brought neither stamp nor journal. Oh well.

The thrid box was the trickiest. You had to find a certain bench off the trail, sit on it, and while looking across the trail, spot a tall stump with many holes. Going to that stump, you had to find a fallen log off to one side, and . . . some other clues I don't remember. Anyway, Luke was the one who correctly followed that sequence first, and he found the last box.

Everyone was even more excited to find a cute little toad right by the box! He hopped into the fallen log, where he obliged us by staying around to get his picture taken.

As we were walking back to the trail, we startled a few tiny little frogs (toads? I never got a good look at them, LOL) that hopped quickly away and hid under leaves.

So it was really fun, and I can definitely see us doing more of this. I think we will probably try geocaching as well. I know the boys would love that.

Problem Solved!

Here's our problem: a lot of kids who like to play outside, even in the summer, and who wear things like rollerblades. Well, okay, that in and of itself is not really a problem. But they need lots of water, and we don't want them skating on inside. Bringing cups outside is also not an ideal solution because rarely do all of them make it back inside, plus they invariably spill or get bugs in them or whatever.

So Bob had to do some deep, heavy thinking to solve this problem. He came up with a Waterdog Pet Fountain.

It's a water fountain that attaches to your faucet with a Y connector, so you can still hook up your hose! It has ultrasonic sensing technology, so when it senses movement in front of it, water starts up, and when it doesn't sense any more movement, it shuts off. Here's a closer view of this wonderful little device.
Obviously it is supposed to be for dogs, LOL. Bob installed it upside down so the water shoots up in an arc, instead of down, where it would go into a dog's mouth. Also, he got a piece of PVC pipe to make it as tall as it could possibly be. It's perfect for Anna and Grace, and a little short for Nathan and Luke, but oh well. Water problem solved! Way to go, Bob, for thinking outside the box!

Box Turtle Mama

Virginia is home to Eastern Box Turtles. We have seen ones before, traversing our yard, so we knew they were in our area. Last evening we were on an after-dinner walk, and we noticed a box turtle beside the road. We investigated closer and discovered she had just laid eggs in a hole she had dug! There were about 4-5 of them. She was at that time slowly putting the dirt back in the hole to cover them.

After we got home, we did a little research on box turtles. We discovered that "box turtles generally grow slowly, reaching sexual maturity at between 7 and 10 years old and 5 or 6 inches in length. Once mature, a female box turtle will lay between 3 and 6 eggs each spring in a shallow nest. The eggs are left unguarded and hatch in the late summer or early fall when hatching occurs."

The mama did a pretty good job of covering back over the next, don't you think? You can hardly see where she dug! We went back at the end of our walk to check on her progress! Unfortunately, she didn't do such a red hot job in choosing the place in which to dig the actual nest--the median between the road into our subdivision and the sidewalk!

We will keep an eye on the nest as it gets closer to fall, but I doubt we can do too much. The nest is at the opposite end of our little neighborhood, close to where the main road is. If only she had dug closer to our house! At the end of our cul-de-sac, there is a wooded area and a creek! If any of the eggs (1.)do not get dug up and eaten by skunks or racoons, (2.)manage to actually hatch and get out from underground, and (3.) aren't immediately eaten by a bird or dog, or run over by a car, then we might try to move them (if we can ever even see any) down by the creek. Again, quoting from the website, "When a box turtle first hatches from its egg it is a mere 1.25 inches long. Little is known about the lives of young box turtles because they are so secretive and hard to find. In fact, it is very rare to find a box turtle much smaller than about 3.5 or 4 inches long. It is thought that these young turtles spend most of their time concealed in brush and leaf litter and feed primarily on insects." So it sounds like it would be a rare feat indeed to actually see a tiny baby box turtle! It would be really, really cool though. There is no "brush and leaf litter" where the mama decided to make the nest, however! Just the shadow of a stop sign and plenty of grass!

Good Neighbors

We have a book called The Berenstain Bears and the Eager Beavers. In this classic tale, the Berenstains get some new neighbors--a family of beavers. The Bear family is a real casual, fun-loving family who would rather play games than take care of things around the house. The Beavers, however, are hardworking and industrious,and they never "waste" time playing games. So they immediately embark on all these ambitious projects around their house to make it look nicer. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that eventually Junior Beaver turns out to be a natural at paddle ball.

Well, I am sure you can imagine what kind of family we are more like. We have a lot of kids, all of whom love being outside. And of course we have lots of outside toys for all those kids, the newest one being the very large trampoline. And we don't have any sort of "professional" landscaping.

Our next door neighbors are a very nice family of fellow believers. They have 2 daughters who are spaced a respectable 4 years apart so one of them is finishing her second year of college, and one is finishing her second year of high school. They are all quiet and very, very hardworking. The mom, "Rose", is very talented with flowers and landscaping, and their yard is a place of beauty and curb appeal.

Their yard got hit pretty hard with all the snow we had this part winter, so they lost some trees in the back. One tree in particular fell onto the deck of the house behind them. It was a large evergreen tree, so when they took it down, it really left a big hole in the yard, and now the house behind them is quite visible from their kitchen and family room. Also, their yard has had some issues with drainage over the years, with water rushing down through the back from up the street. So several weeks ago they started working on their back yard. And they worked like real troopers--out there all day, digging ditches for a drainage pipe with pickaxes, renting equipment, etc. They put in a sprinkler system and and a big pipe for drainage, and they tore up all their grass. They ended up resodding, and on the Saturday before we left for VA Beach, Rose planted a bunch of shrubs and flowers in the back corner of the yard, where it adjoins with ours.

That same Saturday Bob had been working out in our yard. Our yard always looks like it has 7 kids running through it, and this year we have tried hard to reseed parts of it to make it thicker. Bob also bought a few very small trees and planted them. He bought a pine tree for the front yard, over on the side where our yards adjoin, and was planning on planting it, but "David" told him he didn't want him to plant it. So Bob took it back and told the lady at Lowes, "My neighbor didn't approve." LOL!

Anyhow, David mentioned to Bob that we aren't supposed to keep our trash cans on the side of the house. This is true--it actually says that in our HOA covenants, stupid things. We're supposed to keep them "out of public view", but a lot of people in our neighborhood just keep them wherever is convenient--on the side, in the front in between the 2 garage doors, etc.--so we didn't really think much about it. I mean they are those rolling trash containers that everyone has. Who cares?! Well, evidently our neighbors do, and we hadn't realized exactly how deeply they care. So Bob decided to move our trash cans into the back yard, and not just in the back yard. He would move them all the way into the back yard, into the far corner, so that they were as far away from the front yard as possible, which is what he figured they wanted. So he did.

I was innocently cleaning out the big van in preparation for our trip when Rose came storming out of her house to me. She told me she had NEVER been as furious as she was now, and she didn't know WHAT Bob thought he was doing, but she had spent ALL DAY working to make a FOCAL POINT in her back yard, and now he MOVED. THOSE. TRASH. CANS. RIGHT where she could see them out her back windows!!!!! She went on for awhile more, but the gist of it all was that she tried really hard to make her house and yard a place of peace and serenity, and she couldn't do that with us around. Ack! I sat there and was very humble and contrite and calm, and assured her I would move the cans immediately. She was mollified and went back inside. I was shaking and felt so bad because it was very obvious that these things had been building up for quite awhile, and we had no idea.

We got back from the beach Thursday afternoon, and a few hours after we were home, Rose came over with a letter. In it she explained how they feel we fall short in the yard-upkeep area, and how they dislike our trampoline, which we never even got approval for from our architectural review board before we bought. Also, our kids are distracting for her while they are on it, and they want us to move it farther from their house. Also, she feels that although we say we want a good relationship with them, our actions fall short because we deliberately do things to antagonize them, like move the trash cans right to where they can see them even better.

So even though Bob and I were very tired and I had a huge headache, we stayed up composing a letter back to them. Obviously the first and most important thing is that Rose feels that we were doing things on purpose, when in fact we were cluelessly just bumbling along, thinking we were doing what they wanted, not realizing what their actual real beef was. She was putting motives on our actions that simply were not there at all! We addressed their other issues as well. We said that moving the trampoline would be difficult because we have such a small backyard, and it would involve cutting off several larger branches. We said we were willing to move it, but we wanted them to come over and help us figure out where, because we didn't want to move it and have them not be satisfied with it, since it appears the issue really is the existence of the trampoline. Also, it never even occurred to us to seek approval from the ARB, since it's not some big building thing, and other houses in the neighborhood have trampolines right out in the open.

I went over Friday afternoon with the letter, and Rose and I had a great conversation. I reiterated how we were absolutely not doing anything too deliberately provoke them, and we were so sorry that was how it had appeared. We talked about the trampoline, and she said they were getting used to it. I told her that the kids wouldn't be on it as often as they had been. For one thing, it was still new. For another thing, we had been doing the test review, and I was sending all the other kids outside while I was working with each individual child. The weather was so beautiful, and it worked out really well. I told her we homeschool year-around, and the kids really aren't outside before the afternoon. She said she couldn't ask us to not be on it in the morning, so she was a lot more reasonable about everything. I think having communication was really helpful, and we both felt better about the whole situation.

But I still have struggles. For one thing, I know we will disappoint them again. We simply can't keep our yard to their standards, and our kids love to play outside! The boys picked up a second hockey goal from the trash pile of a house up the street, so now we have 2 "rescued" goals on the side of the house where the trash cans used to sit. Is that any better to look at?! I'm sure not, although there are no covenants about that I don't think. But that doesn't mean Rose won't simmer with resentment over them for a few years.

The strange dichotomy for our area is that everyone has really large houses. Everyone. Our house is over 4000 sq. feet, with 6 bedrooms. It's wonderful for our big family! I don't know what everyone else does with all the space, LOL. But our yard is small--only 1/4 acre, and our house footprint is fairly large--and so it our garage. It's a 2 car garage, with a big post in the middle of it, and no extra room on any of the 3 sides. In Ohio we had a one story, 4 bedroom house with an ENORMOUS garage--3 cars, with all sorts of extra room! It was bigger than many apartments! So now we have 8 bikes, a wagon, several different strollers, hockey quipment, roller blades, soccer stuff, baseball stuff, Bob's tools, extra toilet paper and paper towels, a freezer, a refrigerater . . . in a small garage. We don't have room for our trash cans! (The garage is where Rose thinks we should keep our trash cans, since that is where they keep theirs.)

So now I just worry that our kids are being too loud, that we have too much stuff, even though it's all played with, that we are just a source of stress for other people. It's hard to just relax outside anymore. And it's hard to understand the different priorities. Obviously they value their yard and peace more than children. But they are Christians! Even if they decided not to have as many as we do, it would seem like they would still see the value of children! And our kids really aren't wild and loud, tearing up stuff and causing huge scenes. They just play outside like kids USED to play, before everything was scheduled and there was no informal play and childhood obesity was a huge problem. Except we don't have that problem here. Hmmmm.

I'm also struggling with exactly what is expected of us, as far as being good neighbors. How much of it is our responsibility to ensure people around us don't take offence at us and our big family, and how much of it is just us living normally and their needing to relax. It's a hard balance, especially with us being Christians and wanting to be a good testimony to Christ. We really don't want to cause confrontations and problems, but we also just want to live in the house the WE purchased, and enjoy our own yard! Three acres in the country has never before looked so tempting . . .

Backyard Improvements

This is mainly a test post to see if I correctly worked the settings so my blog publishes straight to my Facebook page. I finally did get around to taking a picture of the new trampoline, so here it is, with all 7 kids on it. You can see how it is crammed into the corner of the yard, with trees all around! We had quite a time getting it in there too. It took our neighbor, plus his son and daughter, Bob, me, 3 of our boys, and another neighbor boy to get it from our neighbor's back yard, through their trees, up the street, and into our back yard through more trees. We had to saw off a couple of branches in the process.
While we are looking at new things, this is our new grill. Bob found it on clearance at Lowes this weekend. He's glad to not have all these tempermental hot spots, like he had on the old one. I guess a grill can only take so many moves . . . The firepit is in front. That thing has been quite the hit, I must say. We also have a blueberry bush in that tub to the right of the grill. And the blue tub you can barely see is a part of our garden this year.

Here is a better picture of the tub. We actually have 3 tubs like this, and we are growing things in them, instead of down by our basement where we tried the past few years. That area didn't have great soil, it didn't get enough light, and it was a hassle to water. On the deck is better, and the boys have been very diligent about taking care of everything. We're growing tomatoes, spinach, peppers, zucchini, beans, peas, carrots, and something else . . . maybe another kind of squash? I can't remember. I am not the green thumb behind this operation.

We are also trying something new this year. This is Bob's cheap version of the "Topsy-Turvy" tomato grower, hanging off our deck. It's what we can the "cheap 5 gallon Lowes bucket with holes drilled into it". Catchy! One bucket has tomatoes and the other strawberries. We'll let you know if it works. Or you can just wait until you see us on late-night TV hawking our invention.

So that's the roundup of all our new backyard features. Now to see if this post shows up on my news feed . . .

Pictures of Something New . . .

Unfortunately, that something is not our kitchen. The drywall man is supposed to come back and sand the wall down, so that we can then paint it, put the outlet covers back on, and reinstall the flourescent lights we have under our cabinets. We do not seem to be on his top 100 list of priorities, however, so there is no telling when all this will occur. He will probably show up tomorrow morning, right as we are walking out the door to our co-op, I am sure. In the meantime, the microwave still sits on the island, a huge hulking presence there. The counters around the sink are empty, a very strange state indeed for our house! And walls look very unfinished, with the bare outlets, capped wires from the lights dangling down in front of them. I am definitely not posting pictures until it is a little more finished!

But we do have something new to report: a firepit for our deck! Bob bought this on Saturday, and to say the boys love it is a tremendous understatement.

They have been busy chopping firewood and kindling in the back. Real lumbermen, LOL, with the blisters to prove it! We've had s'mores 2 nights in a row (but now we are sadly out of graham crackers), and we roasted hot dogs last night for dinner. Actually, the boys roasted hotdogs, and Bob grilled a lovely steak for him and me. We had a romantic fireside dinner on the patio table on the deck--all we lacked was a big candle for the middle of the table, LOL.
We had considered a chiminea, but we are glad we went with the firepit. With so many little "roasters" around the fire, this has more area around it, so less crowding. And the coals are really nice for roasting marshmallows!

Yum, you can practically taste the stickiness here! We've been running high on baths/showers around here, LOL. Between the smoky smell, the dirty ash, and all the stickiness, little people have been remarkably dirty, to say the least.

Here is a bonus picture of Faith terrorizing Grace with a quarter quarter staff. Grace may not look terrorized, but she was quite annoyed and upset in reality. Faith really knows how to push her buttons, and she seems to relish the opportunity to do so. Hmmm . . . that sounds uncomfortably like another pair of siblings around here. We shall see how things, and personalities, develop . . .