Because Pinterest makes me happy and this looked super easy, we tried a plain yeast bread made in ziplock bags. It worked really well overall. Not too messy or frustrating. If you follow this recipe be mindful of how much flour you add. We added too much but it rose despite that.
Bread in a Bag here
While you wait, try this quick and easy experiment with video here
One of the beautiful places my friend Michelle took us when we visited the Pacific Northwest this year was Deception Pass. Joseph Whitby found the pass in 1792. George Vancouver dubbed it aptly since the sailors were duped initially, thinking the islands they were mapping were actually a long peninsula. Not so. The water was just shallow and the twists and turns of inlets tricky. On this beautiful morning they showed off a range of spectacular blues as our crew explored the tide pools.
We do a lot of mountains but not as much water, much less ocean. The new ecosystem captivated them.
Wherever we go I am drawn to the people. I've realized that while I love being out in nature, I am most likely to pull the camera out where people and planet intersect. While we were exploring the water's edge we found a group of men from a local hobby boat club. Good clean fun.
After climbing all over the shoreline Michelle took us to Deception Pass Bridge.
This is me standing 180 feet above the water after following the kids allllll the way across the bridge. Ok you can't actually see me because I am holding the camera. But still. Bravery points right there. We weren't planning to get all the way out there but it is a single lane path and no one told the first person so he just kept walking.
And thought the whole thing was pretty funny.
With any luck I am going to catch up on travel stories this month. Or at least make a dent in them! It's been so fascinating to study the states as we visit amathem.
Some resources for US States Studies we are playing around with:
state songs Did you know Connecticut has Yankee Doodle?
Because each state has unique landforms this set of manipulatives is a great tie-in
Since I ADORE vintage state plates you know I am all over this project
We had an afternoon to fill while we were in Cedar City, UT for a working trip for my husband. While he was in meetings the girls and I decided to check out the Frontier Homestead State Park. You can't always know ahead of time whether these places will be bust or boom but this one was definitely a hit.
First stop was a station explaining the route west and the specifics about what could be taken along. There were weight limits on the stage coaches. The girls had to fill a model wagon with what they felt were the best items.
This little experiment should illustrate to all who it is you want packing your wagon. Tess, ever practical, read all the explanatory signs and tallied up the crate weights. She stuffed her wagon with flour, shotgun powder, vinegar/antiseptics, and tent supplies. Abbie Rose assessed her options and loaded books, sugar, heirloom linens, and china which of course I could not fault her on. Priorities, people! : )
Next they tried their hands at washing clothes with plunger and washboard. Tess LOVED this. She insisted this was not work. She went so far as to suggest we try this at home. thanksnothanks
They tried on stripes and sat in lock up.
We visited an old schoolroom and tried to decode the Deseret alphabet which was a bit of history news for me. There's a reason that didn't catch on but hey, here's your fun fact of the day. If you want to give it a virtual whirl you can use this translator.
Picture me, trying to explain why people thought this was a good idea. See her totally not buying it, but also humoring me with an appropriate face for my theme picture? Bless her heart. When we got home I looked up the history of dunce caps, being the rabbit trailer homeschooler I am. This is actually a really fascinating story.
Then we ventured into a native American dwelling and they tried grinding grain into flour. While they were game for laundering outdoors the whole corn-grinding-with-a-rock thing did not go over well. Like, Tess was pretty sure that certain death by starvation would soon follow if this was the only option, especially when she figured out how long it would take to grind enough for our family.
There is a lovely old farmhouse on the grounds complete with period furnishings. I have loved touring Victorians like these since I was the girls' age. Always, always I want to unpack and settle in.
Settling in wasn't an option but a very nice lady tourist offered to take a picture of us on the velvet sofa. That helped. : )
We wrapped up with a game of horseshoes. Before we knew it the afternoon had slipped by and we headed out to get Dad. The park was so well done and I am so glad we found it.
While I don't feel I am getting nearly enough reading done in general, road trips have afforded me some blocks of time to dig deeply this summer. As so often happens, all of these titles found me by way of serendipity.
Spiritual: In This House of Brede This has been sitting on my shelf for perhaps 20yrs now. Such a shame! It is now dog eared and beloved. I have filled pages in my quote notebook from this novel. There is tremendous application for all of us in the domestic monastery.
Social/Memoir: In Contempt Our son convinced us to watch the OJ documentary. We did a bit of wiki searching during which was enough to whet our appetite to know about some of the main players. I grabbed this Chris Darden memoir from the thrift shop and am about a quarter way through now. The goal is to finish in time to drop it off to the Denver boys at the end of the month. It reads much like the tone his character portrayed on the documentary – quiet, even, insightful.
Home Ec: The Science of Good Cooking - People, this is saving my backside. Over and over and over. I bought this for my oldest daughter one Christmas and it sat for a year or more. We dug it out last month and decided to taken the time to really learn the science of food preparation. Admittedly most of my focus has historically been on ingredients versus process. Because I don't enjoy it I have always rushed through the process. We are taking one recipe at a time and trying the techniques. EVERYTHING has worked so far. I am buying one for all my big kids' households.
Education: Ordinary Children, Extraordinary Teachers – because…. Marva Collins. Enough said, right? Just found this one and it is probably a good sign that I have already turned down the corners of pages in the introduction. I love this woman. She was one of my first teaching mentors and continues to inspire.
How Lincoln Learned to Read - This one jumped out at me from the library shelf while waiting for the children at chess club. It is a collection of cameos of the unique educations received by a handful of famous folks. This is my favorite sort of educational theory volume. It describes a variety of experiences and you are left to consider which common threads run through them all.
What are you reading this summer? I am looking for new novel suggestions and hoping to begin a classic.
Summer for me has long been a season of recharging. This year has been especially encouraging as I have been reunited with cases of books that were stored while we lived overseas. For many reasons I continue to be drawn to the quiet voices that helped me form a solid and sustaining vision for my life so long ago.
It is not uncommon, when we make an honest assessment of ourselves and our personal strength and abilities, to feel unequal to the tasks before us. If we lose sight of Who called us to that big work and Who it is Who is going to see us through it can be daunting to say the least and paralyzing at its worst. These words spoke to me when I was rereading an old favorite in a waiting room this week:
"Doubt management is rooted in the Word – in truth. When you have doubts, what are you doing with those doubts? Where are you turning your thoughts? It should be to the Word…. "Casting down all imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5
When the doubts came she had to put them aside – out of her mind. It was all a matter of what she would do with her thoughts. Would she allow them to dwell on the doubts – would she feed her mind on those doubts and let them root and grow? Or would she take her thoughts captive and use God's Word to replace her doubts with His truth?
When God calls us to a task, He also enables."
What I know to be true today is that what we feed tends to grow. Some confidence and optimism verses to nourish our thoughts:
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phil 4:13
"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor 12:9
"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:6
"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you He will not fail you or forsake you." Deut 31:6
'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' Isaiah 41:10
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
“Believe me, life can be much simpler. And you'll discover an energy for the things in life that really matter.”
―Emilie Barnes
"What I am doing is wrestling with my own sin that lures me into thinking that if my work and daily life isn’t considered amazing, or isn’t recognized, then it isn’t important.
And so I’m learning to practice the beauty of ordinariness through things like patiently brushing my daughter’s hair, thoughtfully completing a year-end report that no one may read, responding to emails that may not necessitate a response, holding a sick child, weeding my garden, listening – really listening – to a colleague, and working through spelling words with my first grader.
These are ordinary things that I feel a deep sense of calling to, a calling that necessitates faithfulness to each and every one of them…" more here
These words resonated with me. Maybe it's human nature. Maybe as my dear friend says it is the on-stage aspect of our lives today. Maybe it's just the age-old message driven into our heads that only things with invoices and price tags are of high caliber, products and services that can be marketed and rated. However it happens, the temptation is to think the hidden, daily, private things are somehow of less value. You know the whole if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there and all.
There are people here though. They compose a small, but significant, audience and even when they are scattered here and there an audience of one good God remains behind, noticing the care put into every chore and project, no matter how mundane.
The older I get the greater the peace there is in hidden work and unrecorded exchanges. Ordinary, but beautiful.
A favorite this week was Boxes for Katje about a penpal relationship between a Dutch and American family in postwar Netherlands. It really drives home how easy it is to bless people that cross our paths and reminds us that many people go without things we take for granted.
Since sometimes people are curious about simple ways we extend our reading here are some things we did:
found the Netherlands and Indiana on the map
talk about wooden shoes like in the pics
note the mailman's bicycle instead of our mail truck (and Dutch bicycles here)
follow the life cycle of a tulip in the last pages
review parts of a personal letter and how to address an envelope
All off the cuff, no elaborate manuals or standards. We just noticed those things in the book that relate to things they study otherwise.
“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart."
After a long day in the car but before unpacking the suitcases their Dad suggested we go outside and walk as far as we could before sunset. He and Brendan slowed down to throw the football back and forth. Abbie skipped over to a patch of dandelions, grabbing as many as she could.
By the time we got back to our hotel room all the cobwebs were blown out along with those seed heads. Everyone was finally ready to curl up under the blankets for the night.
And I am finally working through the Last Child in the Woods, thinking of all the places to explore this summer. There are going to be lots of evenings like this, God willing.
This seemed ambitious to me – building the playset ourselves. Sooooo many pieces labeled with letters and numbers. "Oh yeah," he said. "We can do this. It'll be good for them," he said. "They need to learn to this kind of thing." He was right.
The kids asked everyday how many more days til they could open the big boxes that have been waiting in the garage since Christmas. Last weekend was the start date. They got up bright and early Saturday morning and began doing inventory and making a game plan. My head does not work this way, for the record. I'm sure glad his does. Patiently they sorted and piled and hammered and tightened screws. It's nearly finished and with any luck it will be together before the weather turns again Sunday.
Starry Sky Journal 