Hot?

It's been a little warm. This is a solar cooker. It is a cardboard box rearranged with tinfoil glued on. Direct the wings towards the sun and let the reflective surface cook your food. The black pan and glass top are key. Raising it just a little by resting it on small rocks. Yesterday this was our lunch, a quesadilla. It took ten minutes. The pan and lid were to hot to touch without a hot pad. The cheese was melted, meat hot, and the tortilla beginning to curl! Today we were brave and tried a small portion of sausage. It took longer to cook but still fine. So we threw the rest in. It really seems no different than a crock pot. Dad has requested solar pizza tomorrow.

So while dinner is cooking we have tried to keep cool. We have been to a beach up north twice, a lake to the east, grandma's pool, neighbors sprinklers, and our local pool. Sometimes two of those in one day!

It's been a little warm . . .

Isobel 3, Everett 6.5

Dear Lord, thank you for these two!

Happy 4th of July

I'm not missing

I have been organizing my home and others (I love doing it!) Hopefully I will find my camera in my own home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now that you are all laughing uncontrollably . . . I do have my keys, purse, kids, head, and phone. What is a blog without pictures? Still laughing are you? Yeah but you still like and trust me. And I love that too!

Opps . . . it's waterproof

1 2yr + 1 tube of mascara + 0 parent=

Fun Idea

Right now for school (yep still going) we are finishing up gardening/growing food/fruits of the spirit. So using my extreme artistic skills (HA! Those are my sisters) I very simply drew a symbol for the Fruits of the Spirit. Since all that was on hand was my cell phone for pictures: Love/ heart, Joy/smiley face, Peace/bird flying, Patience/clock, Kindness/outline of my hand, Goodness/my best drawing of a thumbs up, Gentleness/leaf, Faithfulness/curved long road, Self control/bicep. Now here's the fun part. We took all our beloved Franklin books and placed them under the corresponding drawing based on how Franklin acted or what he learned. It was great! Above that are the numbers 1-24 (24 for how far out some of our summer highlights are planned). So we labeled them with the highlights. Then every morning we "subtract" one. Way fun, plus I know how far way some birthdays are, the 4th, etc.

Just thought I would share some fun things.

Track 2009

I only had my cell phone to capture pictures. Isobel LOVED running on the track. She has such a joyful run. Arms swinging and legs dancing more than running. She did great and had FUN, which is our purpose for going. She had so much fun "racing" she did not want to do any other events such as long jump or javelin. She ran the 50m hurtles, 50m dash, 100m and the 200m! She earned 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and participant throughout the night. Ian and I were joking that if Evie was in front of her she would have run faster . . . just to keep up with her older brother :) It was so fun to see her have such simple joy.
Here is speed racer in a 50m dash bounding to the finish line. He is not even touching the track! Everett loves to go full speed! I am very proud of him and his character. While waiting with friends at the starting line, a lot of talk goes on about who wants to race who, and who is going to win. E however is just happy to hang out with friends and go full throttle. Despite placement, he is on to the next event and encouraging his friends to move on and join him.