Holiday Weekend

This holiday weekend was very full…food, family, and fireworks, just as it should be.

Friday the eldest helped with a neighbors party. He was the 15 year old watching the younger ones on the zip line, and helping with fireworks. I stayed at home, being unsociable, and enjoying the quiet of the house. The man about the place had taken the youngest to Virginia, to pick up the middle son at Boy Scout Camp. They went up Friday afternoon to be there for the bonfire, enjoyed the wonderful cool air and camped out overnight.

Saturday morning I began the clean-up and cooking for the friends coming to join us for the fourth. The eldest scrubbed down chairs and set up picnic tables and chairs. I made a blueberry and a blackberry crisp, homemade vanilla ice cream, prepared hamburger patties and made fresh tea, and made some fresh pico de gallo.

By 2 pm the family was reunited… small boys with tales to tell, and lots of camping gear to put away. It was cleared off the front porch just in time for the first friends to show up. The afternoon became one of fishing, swimming, chatting, and eating.

The tractors always end up out and being used for something.

The fish were not really biting this evening...

Perhaps because there were so many people in the water.. in boats, kayaks, canoes, and swimming...

I enjoyed chatting and knitting….

My current lace knitting project...

and got custody of a molar that finally fell out…

Middle son, lost another tooth.

It was a lovely fourth, that went into the evening. Fireworks sounding off all around us, along with the frogs and the fireflies that kept us company as we talked and ate. Grilled brats, potato salad, crisp and watermelon and ice cream and chips and dip and beans… a wonderful evening.

How wonderful freedom is. We are so very blessed.

Packing continues….

The summer days have gotten into a nice rhythm of sorts. I have my school work spread out in my office, and I put in a couple of hours there. I am also trying to fit in 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week. SO far, so sore.

The rest of the time is either doing housework, or packing. All of this packing may seem a bit silly..afterall, we are moving 50 feet away. But, the packing is at this point a way to do a 13 year spring clean.

We have been packed into this house 13 years, and there are things we no longer need, things that are broken, things outgrown. I don’t want those things to travel with us to the new house. So, I go to a shelf or closet where there are things we are not needing.. attic stuff for instance. And I go through, sort, tidy, before sealing a box which then gets removed to the inlaws garage storage. (A nice upstairs room of their new detached garage). These things are the first things out, and can be the last things in.. the flannel sheets, the boys main lesson books, the Christmas decorations, etc.

But as I go, there is also a bit of “fixing” to do. At this point, delays in paperwork mean we are pushing back occupancy of the new house, sigh. The moving in will be during the busy school year, sigh. So, while I have time, and cannot paint or plant new gardens or unpack my new kitchen, I am repairing things as they come through my hands.

Mrs. Thaw, a wiseman, and a shepherd boy

Here are some prime examples of my time spent yesterday. These three figures are part of our nature table. I made them when my boys were small, in those brief napping hours. As a result, the wiseman and Mrs. Thaw were never completed. Neither has hands, and both needed some repair. We use them year after year in this state, but it won’t do for the new shiny house. The little shepherd boy was a victim of the new puppy for E’s 9th Christmas present. His foot had been torn off and the hair torn a bit.

So, rather than just pack them, they all got a mend.

Mrs. Thaw, freshened up, with new hands to hold her twig broom to sweep away winter each spring.

Wiseman, with new hands, crown and hair fixed

Shepherd boy, hair fixed, foot repaired, ready to be dazzled in the field with his flock and the angels.

Feels good… and several of my blouses now have all their buttons again.

Back to packing…..

Beauty in wood…

The eldest did not play baseball. He likes to join his brothers in the front field for a game, but playing on an organized team is not his thing.

But wood working is. This is the table he made in Wood Working this spring. Very lovely, and will look elegant in our new house!

I see this in our new entry way

These pictures do not really do the table justice. It is tall, and simple in design, which lends to the elegance. It has a shelf that goes below, which Z still needs to finish trimming to size.

The colors of the wood are beautiful

The shelf for below, lovely 2 toned

I set out my favorite tea things on the table, only to come back a bit later to find the creator had come along and put protective cloths under everything. Whooops…

The last days of machine pitch…

Team gearing up...

Our youngest played his last week of machine pitch.. an entire week of All-Star games. Cooper is also one who can get to the plate and make a hit almost every at bat. Strategy is also something he gets, and got several double plays this season single handed. (catching a fly ball and tagging the runner or base for the second out) He was selected for the All Star team and really enjoyed playing for the Red Wings.

On deck...

Batter up

Running home was always the best part of the game… well, it might be the red socks that were part of his uniform. We have been having trouble keeping them off his feet, even in this heat. He wears them all day and night until I insist they get washed.

Sneak thief…

Baseball has been the main focus of the lives of our 2 younger boys for several months. This weekend, the final tournament was played. Okay, maybe it was the final tournament. There is some talk of playing one more in late July, so there are more practices to be had.. but this week, the son that would play in those games is at Boy Scout camp, so we are off the hook.

E - man at the bat...

E is the middle boy, and at 12 is a fine player. He may not hit the farthest, or pitch the best, but he plays all positions well. He is dependable, and gets the job done. He also gets strategy. So he might be sent out with the instructions to swing at the first pitch, which gets everyone distracted and the runner on first can steal. He almost always got on base, and once on base, he would steal his way around into scoring position.

E-man going for it...

And sometimes, he would even steal home…

E-man stealing home

He had a very fine season, and we are proud.

Summer flowers…

For days we watched a big fat bud in our pond, and wondered when it would pop. We have 2 types of water lilies in the pond, and the one variety has been blooming for a few weeks. The buds stay tightly furled until late in the day, and then they pop open for a few hours, and close early. Nice work if you can find it.

But the large bud on the larger lily was wide open this morning. Truly spectacular.

A wider view for perspective.

Hostas in bloom

Air is perfumed with magnolia..mmmm.

Summer morning….

1. Exercise

2. Begin pot roast for dinner.

3. Bake some bread – the boys love the salt-crusted bread.

4. Use up the raspberries from the garden.. we have both red and black raspberries.

To be made into raspberry butter. Not sure what to do with the quart still in the fridge. Have made 2 qts of raspberry ice cream already.

5. Finish latest grocery bag experiment.

Now, what to do with the afternoon?

Did you hear it?

The bell rang one last time today, to usher the school doors closed and the summer doors open.

The students actually finished on Monday. Tues and Wed were retakes and reteaching for a few students, but mostly it was cataloging textbooks and getting grades checked and uploaded and exams graded. It was indexing equipment and getting everything stored away. Removing things from walls and counting the protractors.

Thursday another 243 students marched across the stage and into the wide world, while we teachers sighed with relief. Another group launched. Some students we were so sad to see go. Some we celebrated because of all the obstacles they overcame. And some we just had to chuckle over and pat ourselves on the back for finally getting them through.

Today was about coming together as a faculty. Signing report cards, sharing a meal together, and then saying goodbye.. goodbye to those not returning. Happy summer to those coming back. Summer plans were talked of and shared.

It has been a tough year in some ways for our school. But our leadership kept us going.. and we got to the other side of this rough patch.

I was tenured this year…which feels nice. And I had some wonderful students I really enjoyed. SO in spite of the uncertainty, in spite of the struggles, I think it was a good year.

I am ready to rest, to renew and plan, to enjoy my family… and to gain momentum for the fall. It will be here before we know it. I can almost smell the textbooks now…

It’s a generational thing….

So here is cookbook post number 2.

I was given several cookbooks at a kitchen shower nearly nineteen years ago as a bride to be. I got the classic Better Homes and Gardens, and the classic Betty Crocker, circa 1989/1990. (I also got 2 homemade cookbooks, recipes compiled by the invitees of the shower. Very enjoyable!) Over the years I have turned to these cookbooks for the basics… and I have jotted down notes and amendments in them as I learned to do from my mother and grandmother.

Classic Better Homes and Gardens

Above you can see my newlywed copy way off to the right. THen next to it I have a copy that was my grandmothers, and another copy gifted to me by an aunt who runs an antiques stall. At the top is a copy of a junior version of the cookbook that my grandmother had. It was either my mom’s, or my grandma picked it up for my sister and I when we visited from a yard sale. Either way, we enjoyed it. And I cherish them all now. They have notations in the margins about what worked and did not, what recipes were favorites… favorite banana bread and favorite biscuit recipes. And often there are other recipes from other sources stuffed in here and there.

Here is my newlywed Betty Crocker and my grandmother’s version. She always used a piece of plastic wrap to cover the pages from splashes in later years, and that is something I have kept in the book. Need a recipe for pancakes? All of them have excellent versions. Need one that doesn’t call for butter, because you are out? Turn to the older cookbooks!

And I love my grandmother’s Joy of Cooking… which I use quite a bit. And another kids version, which was either purchased for my mom, or purchased later at a yard sale and used by my sister and I.

My great grandmother did not use cookbooks as a rule.. she did everything by eye. I only have a few of her recipes that my grandmother wrote out for me, as she did for my mother, when we were newly married. Lazy Day Cake was a favorite.. must post the recipe sometime if I haven’t done so before.

If you were stranded on a desert island (or a dessert island, either way)..

which cookbook would you take?

I have a large collection of cookbooks. Some are my mothers/grandmothers. Some I recieved as wedding presents at my kitchen shower. Others have found their way to me through gifts from inlaws, siblings, and children. Some have been gifted to me when others move or downsize their collection. And over time, I too have tried to cull mine and keep the collection under control.

It may be months before the house goes up, but with a short window of time available to me for summer play, I have already started packing up. My sister is still very ill, and I want to be able to be there if I am needed, or play with my kids, or prep my new course.. so all available time now is being given over to sorting through and a first run through of packing the non-essentials.

So which cookbooks do I pack, and which do I keep out? Sigh. This sort of packing actually takes a bit longer I think than normal packing. Becuase once I have sorted the keepers, the giver aways, the things I need to keep out, I make quite a mess and some need to be put back on the shelf. But it is a good way to neaten and cleanse, even if right now my house is a disaster.

There are actually three shelves of cookbooks here… the top one is not visible. The top shelf also contained all our Wildlife identifications books from trees to wildflowers to reptiles, as well as our crafting books for kids. Most of the contents are now in boxes seen in the last entry.

I decided to stick to a theme for the summer cooking… and chinese was not part of it. Well, not sushi anyway. I kept the wok cookbook out, and the little cookbook that has all our favorite ice cream recipes.. but sushi and southern living Christmas, and many other specialty cookbooks are now stored away.

The boys have a fair number of kids cookbooks too… The Redwall Cookbook and BHG Baking Book, and The Little House Cookbook.. as well as my own kid cookbooks from youth. I pretty much decided they could all be packed..the oldest is only interested in eating, the middle one likes to cook but can follow any recipe now, and the youngest still needs me to help, so I will help him. I did keep out the kid pizza book.. that will be fun with fresh summer veg and fruit and tomato wealth. And I kept out several of the kid craft books like Kitchen Science and BoyCraft… we will have fun doing.

It was hard to pack away some favorites.. I know the minute they are packed I will think of 10 recipes I needed from them. But I was trying to really be selective.

Stay tuned for cook book part II.