6/06/2010

Weekly Wrap Up

From the Heart: We had a wonderful visit with our son and his wife. We will be seeing them a few times over the summer. Took Naomi up to camp where she is working for the summer. Boy do I miss her! She is not allowed to call ect except on weekends. That leaves Emily and Josh for the summer. Dear son is not home much though ( work, ect). So this has been very different! So much quality time with Emily ( I had prayed for more quality time with her a while back and just look how God answered that !) School is offically done ( although we did not quite finish math books). As for a year in review...hmmm. Not really wanting to put that to words! We did it. Our schedule became complicated and it was difficult for quality time. I am looking into making it better for next year. Even after 19 years things change and must be tweeked.I am seeking the Lord mightly over the summer.

What We are Learning: Learning takes place even when school is over: Dear daughter and I are organizing, cleaning, and just enjoying eachothers company. She is a great organizer! Who knew? She and I are on a journey to loose 15 lbs over the summer. She is asking lots of questions about food and taking it very seriously. ( a milestone!!! Happy Dance) Doing this together is so much more fun than doing it alone!

Outside Adventures: I said in an earlier post that I really wanted to get outside this summer and that I want to walk with my daughter somewhere new each day. I shared about one adventure in an earlier post.  So todays aventure started in a graveyard and ended at one of our favorite walking spots: Oak Grove Park.

So why visit a grave yard of a 374 year old church? To find a relatives headstone of course! Elizabeth Bacon wife of Nathaniel Bacon who is related to the famous Francis Bacon is related to our family ( distantly) It seems her grave cover ( not head stone) is stored at St Pauls for safe keeping ( many miles from its orginal resting place.) Sure enough we found it leaning against the wall. The trees in this church yard are huge! There are headstones everywhere..and most cannot be read anymore.

We also found galls on the leaves of the very very old trees. Specifically the Hackberry Nipple Gall Psylid. Clueless? Curious? Sure ya are so go take a look! http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/other/hbpsyllid/hbpsyllid.html There are so many different kinds of galls. Here is a very short article on galls. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall 

The Park. We walked 3/4 of a mile. ( good for me as I am out of shape ). Saw so many wonderful things: turtles, baby birds, butterflies, dragonflies. Fish. This park has a two mile walking path around a manmade lake. The path is kept level for the handicapped. The trees keep it shady for most of the walk. Our goal: To walk this every day. Working on it! Emily has had 2 ear infections back to back and is not up to long walks yet...and I need to work back into it.

Our yard: This has been a source of learning as well. We did some bat watching one evening. Hope to do that more! Its fun! Here is a great page for identifying bats: http://www.batcon.org/index.php/all-about-bats/species-profiles.html Bats are very benifical. Great info here: http://www.factmonster.com/spot/kidsbats.html  Enjoying our volunteer garden and the butterflies that visit there. We keep a water dish with pebbles and mud in it for our visitors. Our most recent visitor is a Zebra Swallowtail. Quite beautiful. http://www.harkphoto.com/zeb.jpeg Most states have a butterfly society. Its easy to attract and keep butterflies in your yard. If you do not garden there are butterfly gardens in most cities.

Frugal Finds: Oh so many! I was able to get for free this past week: 6 beautiful cloth table napkins ( new), a table cloth, a snowman tea pot and matching cups ( for hot chocolate), ( new still in the box), a 1930s occupied japan vase, 3 books, and a huge box of nice hangers. For 25 cents each: four fall placemats, fall maple leaf candle holder, a birch candle holder, For 75 cents: a book. The Jesus Freaks by DC Talk . http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Freaks-Stories-Those-Ultimate/dp/1577780728#noop For 1.99: A brand new still in the plastic wrap and all, board game. ( its now in the Christmas Box.) The game retails for $19.99!

Creative Side: Well not much! Finishing up end of the year grading, doing a complete house cleaning, yard cleaning, and getting outside to walk each day. We have been very very productive but not on crafts. In the wings: unfinished afgan, unfinished quilt, unfinished dress and a bird cage skirt. As the work on the house subsides we will be working on these things.

In the kitchen: We purdged this week all things sweet and junk ( like chips). Cleaned the pantry and the fridg. So nice to see it all in order! Cooking has been a challenge...smaller portions.

Moms Reading Table: Should We Fire God by Jim Pace, Jesus Freaks by DC Talk, The Joy of Chemistry by Cathy Cobb and Monty Fetterolf, The Bible ( on day 30 of through the bible in 90 days)

So why no photos? Time! Perhaps next week.

15 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good start to your Summer Walking.

    Janet W

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  2. Iam glad you will get so much quality time with your dd. The graveyard story is really cool. We like to explore graveyards too. We got to find some gravestones of folks related to our adopted children a few weeks ago. It was a really neat connection for them.
    Blessings,
    Dawn

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  3. My husband and I are both adopted. We have found many of our "blood" family through the years. Putting the family tree together is a hobby.

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  4. Sounds like an awesome productive week. Once I move I plan on walking daily as well. My exercise bike is in storage in Orlando now, so I have to find alternatives. My oldest did a St Jude walk a thon yesterday with a group of serveral churches. I went and too my littles. The twins(age 5) and I walked a mile. It felt soooo good. Life has been busy and crazy, so I have not worked out in a while. I was glad it felt good to get out there. I even ran a little. I have new tennis shoes (free from my wins on swagbucks), so I have no excuses.

    Hope you have a great week!!

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  5. Walking is so wonderful! I hear its very humid in FL though so that bike will probably get a work out once you get down there.

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  6. Sounds like you had a really productive week. Our children really love when they get to go to cemetaries too. My husband owns a small business engraving and setting headstones. He often takes the kids with him. They enjoy looking at all the different types of stones and spending that time with their dad.

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  7. We enjoy reading the old english and other languages found on the headstones. There is usually quite a few history lessons in an old parish church grave yard. The one mentioned above has history of first settlers to the area,yellow fever epidemic, revoloutionary war, civil war,and much much more.

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  8. Great week! What neat frugal finds. I love finding good deals.

    Thanks for the visit this week on my blog.
    ~Tamara

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  9. My, you are a regular energizer bunny! I find summer vacation so freeing. Getting things cleaned and in order are so much easier when you don't have school to do. I am also wanting to loose some weight this summer. We can encourage one another! (So, did you toss the chips or eat them? hee.hee.)

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  10. We tossed them! It was wonderful to get all the junk out and really be able to focus on eating better. Not to say we won't eat sweets occasionally. My neighbor made us a delicious homemade cake for the table we gave them. You know there will be no crumbs left!

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  11. Thanks for the suggestion on soaking in hot water and epsom salts. I haven't done that yet, but I know that I really need to start doing that. Perhaps later this week as I recover from surgery.

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  12. I loved reading this weeks WWU. I love bats and think they are soooooooo cool. I have wanted to make a bat box with the boys but haven't yet. We have silver haired bats here in BC, Canada.

    I pray blessings on your time with your dd this summer. ((HUGS))

    Blessings in Him<
    -Mary

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  13. Finally someone else who likes bats! They are such amazing bug eaters! We have talked for years about building bat boxes...its on that list of many things to do.

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  14. Praying for you as you recover from your surgery. Soaking at the end of the work day really makes a huge difference. Also if you can use a heating pad before you stretch/ do exercizes and ice afterwards you will notice a big difference in pain levels. A bag of frozen peas works best for forming to the bottom of your foot. Just keep it in a large zippy and lable it as Moms Foot Peas...no one will bother them! Stretching slowly and over a long period of time is the key to less pain and healing.

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  15. It sounds like you had a wonderful week, and very productive.

    I hope this week will be as good for you.

    Annie Kate

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Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Psalms 143:8