Leaf Project, Money Matters, and the Start of TSAP

In the bible, we are two thirds of the way through Isaiah, and as always, we're reading a chapter of Proverbs each day.

We went to a family reunion (my dad's family) the evening of July 18th to mid-day the next day. The reunion was at my aunt's bed and breakfast that my cousins bought for her. It's like a huge mansion, and it has a game room. Nathan worked on teaching William how to play the game of pool. It's been one of Nathan's favorites since he was a young child. He always loved to play with the old men in his hometown. And he's plays well. :-) I've included a picture. I also have included one of the pictures from Will's swimming lessons. His instructor was teaching him how to float in the picture.

Will painted a picture a week ago, and he got the brilliant idea of spending some of his money on a frame so that the picture could be framed and hung in their bedroom. I thought that was a wonderful idea. Doesn't it look great on his bright green wall?

We are about to start the Leaf Project. I have decided we will put aside our outdoors time on Thursdays to work on our plant identification. I bought a green binder, a package of colored card stock (beautiful shades of red, blue, yellow, and green), a pack of large index cards, and some plastic sheet protectors. We'll collect leaves (and other identifiers, such as fruit, seeds, or whatever) and identify the plant. We're going to start out pressing the leaves, and if that glueing them to the card stock doesn't work well, we'll start scanning and printing copies of the leaves. Then, we'll talk about the plants together, and I'll have Will tell me things like whether the leaves are palmate or pinnate, what the leaf pattern is, etc. I'll write these things down on the index card after the name of the plant and include whether it is a source of food and/or drug, whether it is poisonous, and any other important information. Next, Will will paste the index card to the bottom of the card stock, and finally I'll glue/paste the leaf and insert the page into one of the sheet protectors inside the binder.

I wanted a nice cover for the binder, so I found an image of leaves and printed them on sticky paper. I chose the black walnut, because we have a lot of black walnuts in this area, and it is a good food source. (We also have a lot cedars up here, and though juniper berries are edible, those aren't as tasty or beneficial as the walnuts.) I almost chose oak, because I love oak, and acorns are edible in small amounts, too. I'm really pleased with the walnut branch cover, though. :-)

I am scheduling my days in a planner, because I need to work on time management. I've been doing a poor job of it. I'm pleased that it's helping me get more done and also helping to have more peace in the home. I'm also getting to read more, and I've had a hard time getting books read in a decent amount of time over the past few years. Right now, I'm reading The Firstborn Advantage. I've been fascinated with birth order, among all my other interests in physical and spiritual genetics and family dynamics. I've been led to write about family and show how our relationships in physical human families are parallel in many ways to our relationships in the Spiritual Family of God. One of the things I've been shown and have been led to write about is the importance of the firstborn child and more specifically a firstborn son (though people can lose their firstborn rights and not even act like firstborns). So, when I saw this book, it jumped out at me, especially since I'm a firstborn child myself. So far, I'm really enjoying it. I'm reading things I already know, but I'm learning new things, too.

Will is getting a break from most of his school work now. We are going to be working on the Leaf Project on Thursdays, and in the afternoons on most days we are going to be spending a little time on his learning time and money. He's going to learn more responsibility so that he can earn a good regular allowance, and he's going to learn how to tithe, save, and spend. He is going to pick someone or an organization of his choice to help with his tithe, his savings money is going into an envelope that will go into our safe, and he'll have his vacation money for the feasts (it'll be like his feast tithe, since I'm going to be having him do 10 percent for his savings, too), and his spending money will be kept in his piggy bank and his wallet.

I started TSAP--Torturous Solanaceae Abstinence Program--which is what I've named my two month experimental abstinence from all plants in the Solanaceae family. I started going without yesterday--July 27, and even though I'd already cut back, now that I've set a date to stop eating it, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes look and sound that more appetizing to me, which is why I've named the experiment what I have.

I read a book to the boys after lunch and before we go outside. Then after we come in, I let Will read to me a Rocket Readers book and then work on time or money. I also sit down with Trusten and look at a book with him that works on one of the basic things like counting, alphabet, colors, shapes, etc.

Well, that's it for now.