Weekly Wrap-Up: Summer Pursuits (and a Few Educational Things)

Since we're not starting school for almost a month, we are still wallowing in summer delights.  This week was lovely.  The girls and I visited a local organic farm stand and purchased beet greens, cucumber, squash, zucchini, red potatoes, eggs, carrots, and raspberries.  We feasted that night at supper.  (I scarfed most of the raspberries on the drive home from the farm.)  The eggs are lovely, all shades of brown and tan, and a few were speckled.  I took some lovely photos, but I'm having technical difficulties uploading photos from my camera to my laptop.

The girls are still enjoying helping out with story time at our town's library.  And we are all reading gobs.  In fact, you can read my latest book reviews here.  (For more reviews, click on the Reviews tab on the right-hand side of this page.)

We have managed, finally, to add a few curriculum readings to our days.  We thoroughly enjoyed Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I, by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema; it is very well done. This is not surprising, given the awards it has won, including ALA Notable Book, Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book, and American Bookseller Pick of the Lists.  We are in the midst of The Bard of Avon, which is by the same authors.  We heartily recommend both.

Another highlight of the week: the girls practiced and performed a dance “recital” for an audience of two: their mother (me) and their dog (Jasper).  My sisters and I used to do the same kind of thing when we were young.  We also went shopping in Bangor yesterday, a small city that boasts a mall and other shopping opportunities, for a change of scenery.

As I've mentioned above, I’ve taken some nifty photos but can’t upload them from my camera to my laptop, something that worked swimmingly last year but not this year. I attach the cable and then my camera just blinks at me, annoyingly. It’s a conundrum.

And I can't get enough of watching the hummingbirds at my feeder that I hung in the herb garden, just outside the kitchen window.  The distinctive buzzing sound of their wings and the squeaky sound of their "call" pulls me to the window to watch every time.  Instead of buying mix this year, I just make my own sugar syrup.  I can I just say that, for very tiny beings, they eat a LOT.

This afternoon, Tiny Girl has her first riding lesson, to which we are looking forward.  It's been a few weeks since she was in the saddle, so we'll see how she does!

Next week, I'm going to sit down with my school plans and give them a good going-over.  Really, I will.  I'm ready to be excited again about our educational pursuits.  As lovely as summer is, it can't last forever, can it?  And if it did, it wouldn't be nearly as sublime.