Busy....

We finally met with our accountant last week to see about filing our taxes. In April we filed for an extension. Life was busy and El Professor was distracted by some work issues, so we filed for an extension intending to get to the taxes over the summer months.....we never did....and you KNOW how convenient September is. Thankfully, they are now done. In the meantime, we are back in the saddle with homeschooling alongside our local Classical Conversations group, which translates to 'hitting the ground with your feet running'. I am teaching again, and I've added the afternoon grammar and writing class to my teaching responsibilities. I am challenged, busy, and just a little stressed. (OK, a lot stressed.) Still, this opportunity has landed in my lap and I intend to give it my best shot (even if I feel that for the 12 fall session weeks I will think about or do little else). Amidst all of the busyness, fall has come. I'm wearing a down vest and looking out at the gray and feeling thankful for challenges, fullness, provision, and community.

The garden has been churning out an abundance of peppers, beans, onions, and (FINALLY) tomatoes. (I have had several successive years of tomato killing prowess.)

'Sundried' tomatoes...SO good.

So far, I have only managed to snatch a few shots of our Classical Conversations class. I am usually so busy I forget to pull out my junky old camera and capture some good moments. Here, Annie is operating her 'shaduf' model she made for her presentation on ancient world irrigation methods.

We begin each Classical Conversations day with a large gathering in the gym of the church in which we meet.

Part of the busyness of teaching at Classical Conversations is transporting 'the stuff of the day' into rolling crates, shopping bags, and a portfolio carrier. The rest of the week, my CC stuff is usually strewn about our living room. (I'm working on carving out space in the garage.)

On Fridays I transport another homeschool boy to piano lessons with Daniel, while another homeschool friend helps transport Annie from a dance class. On Friday this translated to some extra play time on both ends. Annie stayed and played at this friend's, while the piano boys came to our house for a lunch/study session. I had to smile at the sweetness of these two teenage boys, goofy and yet serious, asking questions and helping each other with Latin declensions. That just sounds so academic, doesn't it? Just to add reality to the whole scene, though, here's basically how a conversation I had with Daniel went...

Me--'Who is your History of Science' report about this week?'

Daniel--'Some guy who lived a long time ago who I wish would never have been born so I wouldn't have to write a report on him!'

Feeling grateful for it all. (Most of the time).

Plums A-Plenty........

Plums a-plenty.

Plums galore.

In every colander, bowl, and more.

A bag at every neighbor’s door.

There’s plum juice on the kitchen floor,

And Bill is outside picking more.

Golden plums in the golden sun.

Lining the branches, every one.

Branches cracking under plum plump plums.

Plums pureed for making jam.

Jars on the counter for a plum jam jam.

Plums a-plenty.

Plums galore.

I can’t believe there are so many more.

Plums in the garden.

Juice in my hair.

Golden plums with plenty to spare.

We've been away.......

...to the 'dry side' of Oregon.

Up and into the southern Cascade Mountain Range.....

...to Crater Lake National Park.

And on over the mountains to the high desert where El Professor grew up.

Over the mountains where summer storms bring rumbling thunder and jaggy lightning, and where the 'cha-cha-cha' of giant sprinklers irrigating alfalfa fields lulls you to sleep at night.

Where bales of hay make the best play structures....

...and mustangs greet you at the corral.

Where grandpa is a cowboy and you can ride horses with the cousins....

...or shoot guns with dad......

...and drive the car on the outback country roads (even though you're not 15)...

...and where swimming holes are high desert rivers.

We've been away to a part of Oregon where the counties are huge but are populated largely by sagebrush....

...and tiny communities dot the landscape.

Where you can go way out in the outback, way out where the sagebrush expanse is like a sound sucking vortex, where it is sunny and so very quiet, and you can gather sunstones.

We've been out where the trees draw the line and give over the expanse to sagebrush and juniper scrub.

Out where the hills have names like 'The Coyote Hills' and 'Big Juniper', and giant escarpment fault block mountains rise up from the desert.

Where the desert rivers run into inland seas and evaporate. Many of the giant lakes are 'dead' from alkali saturation.

We've been away, driving back west across the desert expanse into the Central Cascade Mountains where my parents' cabin can be found....

...to gather with sisters and more cousins.

A region loved by the populated 'wet side' of Oregon, where the summer crowds crush, and the 'swimming holes' include rather civilized pools.

A place where my parents' purchased a cabin 30+ years ago, and selling it is in the near future--if the economy cooperates.

A place where the crazy, old pink tandem is still ridden by the children, just as we rode it when we were 'the children'.

Where 'Fort Rock' is part of 'the lore' of the cousins, and they build and arrange the rocks each time we visit.

Where the sagebrush and Juniper scrub give way to the mighty Ponderosas, and the mountains are lined up, creating the division between eastern, stark, dry beauty and western, wet, lush beauty.

So much to see and do.

It was a great getaway.

A blog post worth pondering (not mine, but the one linked here)

Among the myriad homeschool blogs I've come across is this one. This blogger reads and reports volumes about the things she is learning during her homeschool/parenting/life journey. My own 'busyness' takes a different form than regularly researching, reading, and sharing through blogging, but I admire those who do have and take the time to do so. Recently, this blogger posted information from a site that I plan to spend more time exploring. She was specifically referring to this post, and I truly appreciated the content I found there.

After reading this post I was reminded of a time, years ago, when El Professor and I met with one of the elders of the little church we were attending at the time. I don't remember the purpose of the meeting, but I remember the perplexity the elder conveyed over the fact that I hadn't had a conversion 'moment' that seems to be the conventional Christian idea of what it means to become a believer/follower of Jesus. My journey to faith had many arduous moments, days, weeks, months, and there are markers along the trail of where I began to question, and the answers and resolutions I found along the way. Every 'believer' has a different story and a different process, and I need to pray for wisdom and patience as my own children process, question, hurt, doubt, experience, believe, and question some more......

Summer

A few days ago, El Professor and I sat down with a calendar and mapped out things we still need/want to accomplish this summer. One thing that is now off the calendar....climbing the South Sister. The Broken Rib Situation is beginning to slow El Professor down as he is learning that his determination to stay somewhat active means pain. In the past few days he has been resting more and accepting that he really can't go for long walks or help with tasks like unloading the groceries. Still, we are enjoying summer.

Maybe next summer.....South Sister and Moraine Lake.

The weather has turned hot and our house doesn't have air conditioning. Right now the doors/windows are open and the high velocity fan is pumping the cool morning air into the house. We've been doing our best to stay cool with activities such as Evening Movie on the Lawn and Freezer Surprise for dinner. Last night's Freezer Surprise was a spaghetti meat sauce with a January date on the foil cover. (It was great!) I'm trying to avoid indoor cooking/heating up the kitchen. Hopefully, by the end of the week all of the Freezer Surprise will have been discovered and I can defrost the freezer. It's getting rather 'ice cavish' in there.

We have some 'fix it' projects to do such as finishing the 4 year old unfinished windows, cleaning mildew off the yet-to-be-replaced aluminum windows, cleaning out the garage, and moving the remnants of the old woodpile we unloaded on Craig's List. I am beginning to ramp up preparations for my teaching role at Classical Conversations. Oh, and we need to file our taxes...how long is that extention good for?

I love the cool summer mornings and the drone of the fans. The birds are singing. The purple bush beans are beginning to crank out beans that need picking and the bolting lettuce needs to be gathered before it is too bitter for summer Caesar salads. I'm off......

Good Post....

I love this post.

Medals, Garden Mmmm, and.....OUCH.

Summer. Amidst the 'open days' there is a busyness that seems to fill the hours. This has been a busy, but fun weekend. Today we have painted, organized, cleaned, hunted for things, watered, watched the nephew, and now I need to go wipe mildew off a closet ceiling. (I will need to change out of my favorite black shirt first). At the moment the hot summer breeze is drying the towels on the swing set 'clothesline'. (The towels are a bit crunchy, but I love avoiding the use of the dryer in the summer for blankets, quilts, sheets and towels.)

A bit of the 'busyness' that has filled the weekend....

The kids have been participating in a local track club and the coach wanted all of the kids to do an event or two at the Track City Classic. Daniel was a bit reluctant to put his brand new shot put skills on display, but he was a great sport. The Classic has 'sweet medals', the coach pointed out and, as a bonus, it turned out that Daniel had the guarantee of a bronze medal....there were only three competitors in his event. Here he is pitching the shot put. (El Professor corrects me....he's 'throwing' the shot put. Apparently, you don't 'pitch' a shot put.)

El Professor, Annie, my nephew Rory, and Daniel heading for the stands.

The garden is always a part of summer, and now that summer is heating up the garden is growing in leaps and bounds. We are mostly harvesting lettuce, zucchini, raspberries, and sweet onions, but the basil is beginning to be usable. Waiting in the wings....tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, cilantro, dill, apples, kiwi, plums.


Zucchini, sweet onions, chicken, and a wine/teriyaki sauce made a wonderful summer dinner.....

....with some Trader Jo's whole wheat cous cous.

We're enjoying watching the kiwi produce for the first time....

....and the Million Plum Tree is beginning to sag a bit with the weight of the ripening plums.

The fact that I snapped El Professor walking into the track meet and BBQing is amazing, given that the weekend started off with a bit of a calamity while on a fun afternoon trip to a coastal river about an hour from home. This river is such a great summer destination. It is usually a bit cooler there, the water isn't Snow Run-Off Freezing, there are a lot of rocks to scamper about on, the current isn't Scary Rushing, and the river is loaded with crawdads.

Crawdad catching is such a fun way to spend a hot afternoon. Rory, my nephew, and El Professor were Crawdad Man and Crawdad Boy. They were into it!

Annie and Rory donned swimming goggles and went after the crawdads with the full body dunk. The little critters didn't stand a chance.

The great afternoon adventure took a bit of a turn, though, when El Professor slipped on those fabulous river rocks and went into a rib-catching hole. He felt his rib crunch. Thankfully, we were right by the little 'wide spot in the road' store where we could get some ice and call the 'wide spot in the road' doctor whom El Professor met several years ago. When it was determined that we could/should get back home I drove as quickly as El Professor could stand-- the bumps and curves of the scenic highway where painful. When we got into cell range (an hour later...what is it with our cell phone out of range adventures this summer???) we called my orthopedic surgeon brother in law who had us come straight to him rather than to the ER. (We called him back to ask him to put on a pot of bowling water while he waited for us.....)

It was determined that El Professor most likely broke a rib. But given that it was such a beautiful summer night and since El Professor was in a world of hurt, he and my brother in law sat together and enjoyed some good red wine and cigars. (A bag of ice also helped.) I have a great brother in law. (While they were doing this, guess who had to be the Boiler of Crawdads?)

On a funny note....as El Professor was calling the 'wide spot in the road doctor', he made it very clear that we were not to dump the Hard Caught Bounty back into the river. As it turns out, they were great dipped in melted garlic butter. (Although, if this was our only source of protein, we'd be in big trouble.)

El Professor will most likely spend much of this week sleeping on the futon, propped up on pillows and nursing his painful ribs.