Weekly Roundup: Work Dogs, Work!

Yes--we've been busy.

This post will catch me up on 2 weeks.

A couple of Saturdays ago, we all headed up to Fredericksburg to visit the Nimitz Museum because we had never been, and because last year we Fifi studied WWII, and because it seemed a really pleasant way to spend a cool Saturday afternoon.

And we just couldn't have been more wrong.

For the two of the 5 of us who are still in single digits, even the best museums are long, boring exercises in self control--trying not to sigh too loudly, keeping fingers off the glass, and having to ask to be lifted up to see the displays. And did I mention how difficult it is to find a picnic table on which a frugal mother carrying lunch for five might spread her family's feast to nourish them before the upcoming 3-hour tour?

Very difficult. As in there aren't any but one--on the other side of the town from the museum. Maybe we'll try again in a few years when we can't remember how very miserable we were the first time.

Now, before I dive into the big projects around here, let me pause for a moment to remember some of my favorite quieter moments...

...lunches outside on the patio...

...Fifi practicing scales and Suzuki...

...and little girls playing nicely together with all manner of figurines. These are the moments that make me pause and thank the Lord. And then I make supplication to Him that if He ever chooses to bless us with more children, please, please, please give them in pairs like this! 'Cause I am too old to get down on the floor and pretend to enjoy giving voice to the mommy elephant.

One day last week, we arrived home from errands to find this on our front stoop. We don't acknowledge Halloween, but the girls' Grandmother does. She sends them candy and gifts, and thankfully, keeps it pretty neutral.

White cardboard packages done up in stickers are one of our favorite things! They are what we call "candy picnics," and Nana sends one about every "holiday." The littler ones probably think the boxes are Nana, which only speaks to our need for a trip West.

That picture was totally posed by the way; I don't have a wide-enough angle to catch all three girls in one frame as they run around hoopin' and hollerin' at the sight of a package from Nana.

On top of the candy picnic package was another surprise. Lady Laura gifted me a book I haven't read, and a dishsoap apron. Yes, that's what I said: an apron for my dishsoap. I didn't get it either at first, but Fifi did, and I must say--very cute. Thanks, Laura!

Another posed shot as Fifi tried to impress her father...

The same day--midweek--we found out that there would be room after all, for us to set up a table at a local homeschool bazaar. Being that my children are always making things to sell to the neighbors--things that would never, ever make the grade after the slightest effort in market research, mind you--I thought this would be a good opportunity to make some "real" things and let them sell them to a fairly forgiving crowd.

Here's the little ones designing bookmarks that I would take for lamination later...

Here's Fifi making biscotti: orange or anise. I told her that this crowd wasn't going to go for it, but she's got good taste and high hopes.

However, I was right. It didn't sell. Not that anyone here minded; they obliged and gobbled both varieties right up.

Fifi was going to make a couple different varieties of muffins until I found these at Michael's for 50 cents a piece. I might have bought a dozen or thirty.

She filled some with pumpkin bread, and others with her specialty: chocolate banana bread--the best you can't get your hands on, because...well, this is a blog, and the technology just isn't there yet.

The little girls had a recipe too. Whatcha doin' with that pan, Cuddlebug?

Hey! Stop that! That taste-testing is costing us capital, girls!

How cute is this? Give that girl a cooking show!

This experiment in entrepreneurial economics absolutely took over our kitchen, exhausted all of us, cost a little bit of capital...

and was one of the single best things we've done in our homeschool! We all learned so much.

Here's the set up. Recognize the tablecloth? It felt a little like getting to wear a bride's maid dress a second time.

Next time, I will remember to not treat the ice cooler stocked with water and food as a luxury. Husband had to bring the mini-merchants lunch from Subway. A vendor's got to eat!

What's this? A bagpipe band showed up...

That was so neat! And it turns out they are from my voice teacher's church. The woman in front is the mother of two of the young men in kilts. There is not much in this world that strikes me as more beautiful than watching folks mentor their own in God-honoring customs, music, and traditions. Even if it does involve men in kilts. *wink*

During the afternoon's bazaar, I got to talking with our hosts about Fifi's artwork which consists of dozens, if not hundreds of long, hoop-shirted women in period dress, and they invited us to attend a coronation ceremony with them that evening, where spectacularly elaborate dresses would be on display. How delightful!

They were elaborate all right.

And they paraded them.

And paraded them some more--for two and one-half hours!

In the end, it was just...at the risk of sounding ungrateful, which I don't mean to be...kind of bizarre. Beautiful to behold, but a little uncomfortable at the same time.

Back to reality...

The next morning, we I woke up inspired and decided that I we wanted a garden--a real garden. With real food. To eat.

The only way to make that happen was to lose a few trees that were blocking the sun. And since that's not going to happen with the kitchen scissors or the Swiss Army Knife at our disposal, I made encouraged Husband to go buy a saw and a wheelbarrow--'cause after 19 years of marriage, and about 15 years of home-ownership, it's time to be the grown-ups and stop borrowing from the neighbors.

The wheelbarrow was a hit!

It served well to carry some rocks that I dug up from the bottom of the slide over to the place I want to border some xeroscape. This photo is supposed to be all artistic--but really, it's just making me carsick.
Aaah, that's better.
The very best moment of our clean-up day came as we were speaking with our really great neighbors on the front lawn in our cul-de-sac--and after nearly 5 years here--discovered that the dead, gray, bent, pitiful tree on their side of the front lawn is really our tree on our side of the front lawn!

Our tree?!

That thing is our tree?!

And he didn't need to hear more.

The neighbors had been cursing that tree longer than we've been here. The story goes that some previous owner extracted a promise from another previous buyer that he would never cut down that mesquite. Too bad for the tree, they don't live here any more.

We finished the weekend with a MIRL for Fifi. Actually, Fifi knew this girl from last year's orchestra, but only briefly because then she went away with her family to minister in Korea for 6 months. I stumbled upon her blog one day, surfing over from another's; and after that, a familiar refrain around here became, "Can I check S.P.'s blog?"

I love to watch Fifi make the acquaintance of other young people with a heart for serving and loving God. And when the Lord chooses to bloom those introductions into friendships--all the better.

I am not awarding a Quote of the Week this week because I cannot remember a single thing that anyone said.

The End.