May 30
Firstborn:Â watched PBS special on The Bonus March, which sparked a discussion with dad about the GI Bill, of which we’ve been beneficiaries. Spent much time contemplating how to create a trick gum that seems to be peppermint but really tastes like liver. Had a friend over for the afternoon, found a snake, and shot plastic bb’s at just about everything in the yard and woods.
Sunshine: Read to me various picture books and When You Give A Mouse a Cookie. We spent some time talking about the differences between “sign” and “sing”; both my older two struggle with letter reversals and have been late to read. She helped me mix up a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.
W: spent time going over a book about shapes and textures with Phat Baby and I. He’s a bit over that level but he “taught” little brother and I’m sure it reinforced what he already knew. He has been a big helper today, making my bed for me, stirring the iced tea, and vacuuming the floor. He even went and got the got the screwdriver set up for me so when he told me that he’d sucked up so many big things I’d be all ready to clean it out ;-).
They all had a long conversation on the front porch with our neighbor, an adult man who walks his dog and who they call “Racoon”. He is much taken with the fact that they are so outdoorsy and imaginative. While Phat Baby napped and the Firstborn and his buddy shot bb’s at one another, I read The House At Pooh Corner to Sunshine and W, chapter 2, In Which Tigger Comes For Breakfast and chapter 3, In Which A Search Is Organized and Piglet Nearly Meets the Heffalump Again. And dear Pooh, if the illustration by Ernest H. Shepard is any indication, it was thirteen pots of honey, rather than fourteen. We counted. They all watched The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, an old disney movie with a very young Kurt Russel.
I folded two loads of laundry from the line, one load from the basket, and got another out on the line to dry in the sun. Two loaves of bread baked, this time with double the yeast in attempt to get better loaves with this freshly milled wheat a friend gave me to play with. The front flower bed weeded while Phat Baby played in the grass, and I cut the front yard lawn before Dad came and mowed the back.
We finished the night with cookies warm from the oven (I waited to bake the dough until the house cooled down) and Little House on the Praire. We made it through chapter 3 just fine and halfway through chapter 4 before we had a typical problem with boys, the citronella candle, the appeal of fire, and the inabilty to not interrupt.
