we were blessed with amazing weather this weekend. beginning on thursday, we had sunny days and temperatures in the 60s and 70s.  we were able to plant the rest of our "spring" garden (onions, potatoes, peas, and rhubarb), do some mini-spring cleaning inside and outside, but most importantly, pretend it was the dog days of summer and planned a cookout on the (local) beach.

after a morning of baking (strawberry pancakes for breakfast, strawberry bread, and chocolate chip cookies), we packed up our cooler and picnic basket full of baked goods and cooking tools (grill, charcoal, can opener for the baked beans...), packed up the "speed racer," "reactor," "instep trailer", "diamondback" and "adult huffy" into the van and set off for sand and sun.

the boys talk about their bikes using the names that are written on them. when we're on the trail, you often hear sawyer yelling in his superhero voice: "here comes the REACTOR!" that's his bike. the older boys love the bike trail and have been begging to  bike since the first warmish day of the season. this weekend promises to be in the 80s, so we might be repeating our weekend again.

not just one, but both of my sewing machines died this week. and just when i really got the sewing bug. i've been focusing on knitting and organizing over the colder months, and it never seemed enticing to sit in the cold guest room (where the sewing nook is) and sew when i could curl up under a blanket and knit or watch tv, or begin my love of cheesy british mystery-novels. but now, i want to sew. i have boy's pants and quilts and dolls and placemat-napkin sets and curtains all itching to be made...and my beloved 50-year-old sewing machines are gone. the motor on my green machine is fried, and the table-sewing machine's bobbin is really messed up. REALLY messed up.

i am sure that i could take both of them to a repair shop, but truthfully (and secretly), i'd love a new one. one that sews like a dream...one that isn't 50 pounds...one that doesn't wake the dead. i'll even take a new-used one, as long as it was "born" within the last decade or so.

and now my search begins. goodbye "green machine" and "other-sewing-machine-i-didn't-quite-bond-with."

kenny has finally entered the blogging world with his new gardening journal. follow him at the good husbandman. the blog has pictures and journal keeping of his seedlings, plantings, vegetable and fruit gardens, and flower beds that dot our landscape.

it reached 70 degrees yesterday.

that gave the boys an excuse to get the hose and buckets out, strip down to their shorts and barefeet and make a huge mud puddle in the driveway.

rowan told me this morning that they were "painting the garage brown with mud." i guess i have some damage control to do today. fortunately, it's sunny and warmer today and tomorrow. unfortunately, all three boys woke up with colds.

first of all...thank you, heather and bonnie, for volunteering your husbands and their drywall/plastering work. we'll be in touch!

we were gifted recently with some really fun new additions to our classroom. they're actually not really used for school time, but they're fun to have, and we've all been enjoying them!

this LARGE chalkboard we mounted on a big blank wall in our kitchen. it's perfect - the three boys can stand (on chairs or stools) and draw for very long periods of time - i usually encourage drawing time when i'm getting dinner ready, but they're constantly dragging a kitchen chair over and erasing, drawing, erasing again, drawing again during the day. here, we have adam drawing his famous rainbow. he also like to draw his faces all over it.

 

three wooden, antique desks were also given to us. they're perfectly beautiful. adam likes to share the chairs and the older two like to have their own. i've since moved them from the dining room window to the back porch windows. the boys like to draw or color on them. we still "do school" at the kitchen table.

does anyone else have kids who automatically start saying "cheese!" once they see a camera?



sawyer, taking his "personal time" to practice drawing out of one of his ed emberley books

everytime a conversation about a plumber begins, i can't help but think of the cartoon (sesame street? electric company?) about the parrot and the plumber. the parrot is inside saying "Who is it?" when the plumber knocks on the door but never actually answers the door...and the plumber has to answer over and over "It's the plumber...I've come to fix the sink!" getting angrier and angrier when the door isn't answered. am I the only one who remembers that? anyone? anyone?

here is our downstairs hallway ceiling, after the discovered dripping coming from our bathroom. kenny tore off all the plaster and made the hole a bit bigger for the plumbing work later this week. the job is a bit involved and complicated so we decided not to tackle it ourselves (or himself, since i would only stand under the ladder saying, "how's it going up there" providing no help whatsoever) and hired a plumber to do the work. since the plumber won't take baked bread as payment, does anyone know of a good plasterer who might do the work for a few home-cooked meals as a barter?

don't you wish that's how we all did business?

or spring!

i updated our schooling blog with our current school status. we're DONE!