Good stuff, y'all. I prefer mine slightly steamed before carrying on with the roasting part. Makes it less bitter.
Dirt, dirt, dirt
We are doing a modified year 'round schedule this year since we have a lot of travel opportunities once again. Right now we are in the thick of all things dirt – on a literary and a literal level. Once the snow melted and the rains began to fall the weeds erupted in the open expanses of dirt we brought in the backyard last summer. We laid landscaping fabric and hauled in a couple truckloads of mulch to bed it down and crossed our fingers.
Living here has been an ongoing real life lesson in soil content, quality, and enrichment. Our dirt is sub-par, a shallow layer resting upon rock. That likely bodes better for our foundation stability than our landscaping options. We are using this experience as a launching point for a unit about soil and composting.
Experiement with oil and water and why soap removes dirt better than water.
Tess felt "dirt" dessert would inspire lol
There will also be Dust Bowl reading and perusing after learning about erosion and climate:
More here
Topics to research here
End of unit questions here
Important Places
Summer has officially kicked off. We have been working hard on the yard and helping some of the kids begin new ventures. Weekends at home are sacrosanct however – especially holiday weekends. This first long weekend of summer took us all over town. The sun set on a good number of us here at home afterwards with hot dogs grilled over the fire and backyard games. It's what we do and I love that even though they can go where they please these days they still sometimes choose to come here.
20 odd years ago I had a friend who was one of 13 children. Her husband came from a similarly sized family. She mentioned how much they loved going "home" to get together. Over the years her in-law's had made thoughtful additions to their modest midwestern family home to ensure their growing clan always enjoyed their time there. A swingset one year. A swimming pool later. A ping pong table. It was one of those casual conversations that planted a seed in my mind.
Everything we do around here is with an eye towards the time we spend together. What would make it nice sitting on the deck or what games could half a dozen people play at once in the yard?
I never take for granted that the time our adult children take to come here is their vacation. It's such a blessing when they choose to spend it with us. There is nothing better than falling asleep with the windows open on a summer night and hearing their laughter and shouts wafting up to us.
We are not perfect. Neither are they. Sometimes we step on toes. Sometimes we make grave missteps. I hope they always appreciate the gift they have in each other and the ability to come home, no matter what else the world is offering.
Child of mine
Come as you grow
In youth you will learn the secret places
The cave behind the waterfall
The arms of the oak that hold you high
The stars so near on a desert ledge
The important places
And as with age you choose your own way among the many faces of a busy world
May you always remember the path that leads you back
Back to the important places
(Dad to Forest, 1986 – Forest Woodward)
the quail
The pull of the deck on these pleasant, warm evenings is irresistible. We eat outdoors often and linger long. When dishes are finish we wander back to the yard. Respiration deepens, pulses slow. During one such evening we heard a distant call echo up from the woods. It was not the peacocks down at the farm below us. The sound grew louder and more furtive until out burst a little quail in quite a state, calling and calling and rushing to and fro. The Audubon Society describes the call as haunting. (link here) It did indeed bewitch me enough to follow it around the house til the cries stopped. Once reunited they happily and quietly walked off.
They are favorites of mine, these timid little birds that flee to nearby bushes as soon as they are noticed.
The Quail's Nest
I wandered out one rainy day
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise,
When from my foot a bird did flee–
The rain flew bouncing from her breast
I wondered what the bird could be,
And almost trampled on her nest.
The nest was full of eggs and round–
I met a shepherd in the vales,
And stood to tell him what I found.
He knew and said it was a quail's,
For he himself the nest had found,
Among the wheat and on the green,
When going on his daily round,
With eggs as many as fifteen.
Among the stranger birds they feed,
Their summer flight is short and low;
There's very few know where they breed,
And scarcely any where they go.
Mud Run
Since we are always up for a new challenge to try together, the at-home clan decided to sign up for a terrain race this spring. I say this all the time but I wasn't sure the younger's could hang with the adults. As usual it was just fine and they performed amazingly well. If it's one thing we have figured out through all these years it is that it's better to let them decide what they can and cannot accomplish. It is usually way more than we could guess.
The picture of the two of them teaming up for the tire haul is a fave. Winning has many definitions. This has to be one:
Victory dance lol. And all of us together beforehand. Just know, if you photograph a terrain race you pretty much cover the entire course – with a camera in tow. You stay cleaner though.
“No matter what your current condition, how or where you grew up, or what education or training you feel you lack, you can be successful in your chosen endeavor. It is spirit, fortitude, and hardiness that matter more than where you start.” – Jack Ma
serendipity
Over the years we have developed a both/and approach to lesson planning for our home school. I appreciate having the big rocks (math, grammar etc) divided into the appropriate number of pages per week. It has also been a blessing to have built enough margin into our days to allow for serendipity to work its magic. That happened today when the topic in the vintage reader coincided with a recent discovery in the front yard. 
A day in Denver
Time with our adult kids is always in short supply so I relish days like this full of coffee and exploration. They know I appreciate wandering through colorful districts and interesting shops and lined up both.
My kids have such uniquely different personalities and interests that you're pretty much guaranteed a wide variety of outings with this bunch. Colin will find me coffee and music and vintage anything. Zach found me awesome street art and we toured the neighborhoods he is showing homes in as a realtor.
We actually had a massive wind storm the afternoon we were downtown so the Central Market lost power for part of it. Wild day!
And? Poodle grafitti! I GET this.
I'm so grateful for them and the time we have together. Never enough but always wonderful.
Salon date
We had a little outing, my oldest daughter and I. I tagged along to her salon visit and she then came with me to a photo session. I haven't been downtown in far too long. It was so inspiring to look into windows and see the people going by. The salon itself was a feast for the eyes. The client wasn't too shabby either. : )
prom
Our high school boys just wrapped up their big prom weekend, the last for Aidan who is now 18. It was wonderful they could do this together. They had lovely dates and a huge group of two dozen friends to go with. As is the way where we live, there were elaborate invite and acceptance rituals. Puns and signs and doorbell ditching. Texts flew back and forth in the following days, coordinating colors and planning the "day date" which precedes the actual dance date. Before previous events they have done gingerbread house making parties, ice skating, and mini golfing as a huge group. They considered doing indoor surfing this time around but one of the girls in their group had hip surgery recently. It did my heart good to see them put their heads together and consider activities everyone could enjoy.
After the dance the entire crew landed back here. They sang and quoted silly videos projected on the big tv. They played ping pong. There were the first smores of the season down at the fire pit. There was whooping and laughing and also quietly animated conversation I picked up about how, "This is the last time we will…. and next month/year when we are off doing……"
Graduation year is always bittersweet for me as we watch our children and their friends prepare to launch. It's as scary for us as it is for them (very likely scarier) and it often involves a fair amount of landing on one's face and do over's – when that's possible and it isn't always. Right now though, they are full of promise and hope and we celebrate with them.
May they take this joy and bury it deep in their hearts as they go out into the bigger world.
and so much more
"As a kid, I loved to do nothing too.
There were many afternoons when the weather was warm that I’d wander through the woods beside our family home. Often I’d end up at what I called “my rock” – a formation on the top of a hill that looked out over my family’s home and property.
I’d sit there – by myself – sometimes for hours, doing…nothing.
I’d look a the trees surrounding me and feel a sense of comfort.
I’d reflect on my day and try to come to peace with whatever challenge I had faced.
I’d dream about my future and what I might become.
Sometimes I’d pretend to be someone else and imagine what it would be like to live a different life.
That solitude, that alone time, that time to dream – it was heaven."
It's May. Like Kerry explained in the article linked above, I am not making a list. There are one or two big rocks our family will load into the summer bucket list for sure – a brief round of next level swimming lessons and church camp for instance. There will be a few super fun highlights surround by a wide margin of peace and fresh air and wonder. Lots of time for very necessary daydreaming. We are getting a head start on these newly warm evenings. Doing nothing….and so much more.
Starry Sky Journal 