The Weekly Review IX

Sunday~

The storms in the night knocked a tree down at the beginning of the street so we had to take the alley to leave for church. Tea came over to play with Bea after church. After a dinner of grilled roast sandwiches and salads we cut up that tree. It was really quite a small, young tree to fall in the wind, compared to some of the trees near to it.

Monday~

I sewed and lots of neighbor kids came in and out and the kids played ball in the field. Margaret and I made her Raspberry pie. These berries had a Lot of little black beetles in them that were a trick to get out. After soaking them for about 5 minutes they started crawling out of the berries. You didn't even see them until you had soaked them awhile. Nati got one in his piece of pie so then he couldn't finish it, so did I but I am used to bugs in my food I guess so it didn't bother me. I got my next Booksneeze book and am anxiously waiting to start it. I am trying to read two that I checked out from the library and am not enjoying as much as I did when I first started them. One is Age of Opportunity, a great book about parenting teens and the other is Crime and Punishment, who decides what makes a great classic anyway.

Tuesday~

Margaret and Harrison had music lessons. I baked bread and chocolate mint chip cookies, a really good batch, if I do say so myself, and everyone else thought so to because they didn't appreciate me limiting their quantities. We went and picked grape leaves for me to put in our supper and the kids played football and soccer with the other kids around here. Harrison again bruised his foot and it got a little swollen like last time but I didn't worry about it because he has shoes and hands to put them onto his feet. Harrison about cried when he came to the supper table and found that he had picked grape leaves and I didn't use them in dolmas but in Stuff. He does like him some dolmas, that is for sure.

Wednesday~

We went to the Chutes and Ladders park with Christy and Co. The kids played for awhile and then we went down the trail a little way and had a picnic lunch. It was a very hot day but the park has a sprayer tube that they all had fun running through and getting quite wet in, dripping wet in. We were late getting to horseshoes because I need a watch. Everyone that wears a watch in our family pays no attention to when we are to be places. Malia came with us for the rest of the afternoon. The girls did beads and made several more geckos. I had a hard time thinking of an exciting way to teach about Jonathan and his armor bearer climbing up the cliff and slaying a bunch of Philistines on their own (with God's help, of course). A great story, but I didn't have any teaching aids for it. So I took Harrison's toy soldier's and set them up with some tents and acted the story out using them. They are modern warfare men so Gregory kept telling me which ones were using the bazooka and so on. I don't know if they remembered the story later on but everyone thought it was fun to play with different toys during playtime.

Thursday~

We were planning on going swimming at our friend Diane's house with some other friends from church. It was raining in the am so Diane thought we had better cancel and try for a better day. I finally finished Beatrice's fairy outfit. When she was maneuvering out the door the wings got knocked and already have issues. I had thought they were pretty sturdily made, too. We finished reading The House of Sixty Fathers. It was such a sweet story based on a true story, which makes it much better to me. Hans and Garret came over to play for the day since we couldn't go swimming. Tammy came and visited for awhile in the evening. Travis impressed her with his awesome tapioca pudding making skills.

Friday~

The most exciting thing we did, in my opinion, was make krumkake for breakfast. They were very yummy. After I had them going Margaret pretty much took over the cooking of them, Harrison did a few also. Since it was something new and different it was very exciting to them to get involved. We want to have an ice cream party and serve it in our own home made bowls now. Travis was pretty sad when he called home and heard we were making them and he wasn't there, we saved him some though and he had a serving while waiting for lunch. I hadn't thought about making krumkake for years so when I was reading Emily's blog on Thursday evening I had to get my iron out and use it. I also vacuumed a little and made Ben's bed. We ran to the library. We went out to supper with the Faust family from Ohio and China.

Saturday~

Margaret, Beatrice and I got three overflowing baskets full of laundry folded first thing in the morning. Good job girls! We ran to get gas for the lawnmowers and Travis a pair of jeans for work at Fleet. He was hoping they would be on sale. His are really wearing out. Ben came to spend the next week or so with us. He brought us bamboo chopsticks and we tried them out on a stir fry for lunch. Bea particularly enjoys using them so it is nice to have some for the appropriate meals, and now we have some even for our guests to use. 

Tom, a friend from church, came over to hang out with Ben and all of us. We had supper of pizza, brownies and cucumbers, fresh from my garden!! We watched Knight's of the South Bronx after supper.  Then we sent up a hot air balloon that Ben had brought from China. Several held lighters and a candle and Tom and I held the edges of it. We held it until the heat sent it up, Up, UP! We watched the light until it was no more in the sky.

Goodnight,
~Anna