Lifestyle of Learning: What We Did: Summer 2014

Saving a lot of time here, I'm just going to head each month and post several pictures for each and keep commentary to a minimum. For more details on what we've done, I'll write more in my upcoming October post.

Don't miss the following supplemental posts detailing what we did during summer 2014:

* We went to Chicago.

* We identified local mushrooms and other fungi.

* I created character projects for the kids.

* I detailed our new science program and some awesome new reading materials, including new learning-to-read book sets. I also cleared away many books from our library. I not only made room for our new additions, but I've got plenty of space to spare (though I acquired several new fiction and non-fiction books to my Kindle library).

July

Beautiful ferns! I love ferns. The far left is Pteridium aquilinum (a bracken fern), not sure of the exact species of the other two...yet.

This is Ribes aureum (golden currant), totally edible and tasty. I had no idea we had these nearby. There's one just across the road and another bigger bush down the road. So these were an exciting find this summer. Liv is the one who initially found the farther-away bush of berry-looking fruits.

Above is pictured Blephilia ciliata (Ohio horsemint or downy wood mint) in family Lamiaceae with the mints. Looks similar to Blephilia hirsuta (hairy wood mint). Mints in the genus Monarda, which I've posted in the past—horsemint, wild bergamot, and bee balm—look similar, too. I have never seen this before on our property, and there was very little of it. It was a stunning find. It most certainly caught my eye. I was starting to think it was a new species. It turns out that it's endangered or threatened in many states.

I love the look and feel of this plant. It's some sort of fern, possibly a foxtail. I'm going to start trying to identify various local ferns. This is certainly a magnificent one, in my opinion.

Bad pictures, but these were taken through the window, and I didn't want to scare the squirrel. It's been gnawing away the deer antlers Nathan left in the tree's fork last year. Just one fine example of observational learning for the kids.

Elizabeth looooves when her daddy flies the remote-controlled helicopter for her each night. "Da-boom! Da-boom!" Usually she's jumping all around, though.

Yes, my beautiful baby girl still looks out the windows when we're not outside.

My sweet Love planted these honeysuckle for me. A previous neighbor had kindly gifted me with some red honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) several years ago, and within the past year Nathan accidentally destroyed it with the tractor, in a place he normally wouldn't use the tractor. He got me more (from the same neighbor), along with some other plants.

Can you believe this is the one and only swimming trip to the river we took this year?! I had plans to thoroughly teach Trust and Liv to swim. We had a mild summer, though, and the spring-fed rivers and creeks around here are cold enough. The few other chances we had where we would have gone, we chose not to, because the kids were vulnerable after having had whooping cough, and we didn't want them exposed to other possible viruses that would overwhelm their respiratory systems before the lungs had grown back their cilia.

Looking out another window, she is!

A quick, informal tea party for the younger three. I think the treats they ate were brownies that I made.

A fully-intact snakeskin! It's rare to see one fully intact like this. I don't think I've ever found one in this condition. It was awesome!

I made vegan rice-and-lentil burgers with onions, oats, and carrots. They were good!

We went on a quick visit to see family, because I wanted to visit my new niece. This is my parents' beautiful pond and yard; this is where I grew up.

Jaden William had gone to feed their chickens while we were there. Here he is investigating the bathtub where they keep goldfish.

I got some baby snuggles!!! I loved it! I've got two beautiful nieces now!

William found that the cats had killed this unfortunate bat. ("Now go wash your hands.") Bats are such amazing animals!

Vegetarian goodness: rice, cooked tomatoes, pepperoncini peppers, spices, and just a bit of cheese in a pan-fried tortilla.

Trust and Liv used some of their money (Liv all of hers) to buy Spiderman outfits. Liv was wondering where the web gun was and had thought she was going to be able to swing from the trees with webbing. Hahahahaha! These kids keep me laughing.

August

I took this picture and two others, of eggs planted on sycamore leaves, and all three of the pictures featured different eggs. Not only were the eggs themselves different-looking, but there were different amounts and patterns.

Can you tell this baby is having fun running through the sprinkler?

William found this poor pigeon just lying on the ground. It had a band, but there was no contact info. He seemed to be exhausted, poor bird. It didn't seem diseased, just tired, so we reluctantly let all the kids hold it briefly.

We provided it with water, and William researched and found out it was a Roller pigeon. He kept it in a cage and hoped it would recover, but it was dead in the morning, so he buried it.

Yum! A vegetarian stew!

I found all my babies in the boys' room, hanging out together, and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Some dear friends came over to visit, and I got some baby snuggles! He would have been about seven months old here. Elizabeth sure loves him!

A potato and corn soup that I experimentally put together (a lot of the stuff I throw together is experimental, for that matter). It was good!

William usually watches his science classes on his iPad mini, and here he's shown using electricity to power a light. He did the same, subsequently, with an electrical buzzer for sound and then a motor and fan, and I don't remember what else, if anything.

We spent a lot of hours of each day outside. We had a great time just hanging out. I also did a lot of reading.

After a long time of begging me, I agreed to color Liv's hair (temporary natural henna coloring).

I used some reward dollars to buy the girls (and myself) new dresses!

Pigtails and a smile!

A butterfly delight! Cupido comyntas (Eastern tailed blue)

More hanging out, being silly, having fun! I loved every moment of it!

Elizabeth makes it all the more enjoyable!

September

Hyles lineata (White-lined sphinx)

Crowded carrots

Jade making pancakes, his favorite

Beautiful cherry tomatoes from the garden

William sliced tomatoes and placed them in the dehydrator. He did a great job, and I have wonderful dried tomatoes jarred up, which I've used in stews.

My parents bought a crystal-growing kit quite some time back. Here are pictured a few of the crystal mixtures (we haven't done them all). We covered them for a short bit after heating, because we read that it helped if they cooled more slowly.

We got home from somewhere one day, and I didn't realize Nathan had given Trusten some big paper. All I know is Trusten had gone to his room, and he quickly emerged with the above surprise. I loved it!

Before I could even get my picture taped to my bedroom wall (shown below), Trusten came back out from his bedroom to show me a picture he'd drawn for William. It's too light to see, but it says "Superman." I love it, too! He threw them together super-quick! (This is actually unlike his usual way, which is slow and meticulous, but he was very excited about that paper!)

To keep a smile, hang a smile and a sun drawn by your baby.

William wanted to do some metal-searching with the metal detector. He scored some fine treasures from our front yard! You should have seen how excited all the kids were over it!

After a quick-wash to see better detail

William dug out three quail in all. They appear to be from a set of wind chimes (not any I've ever had).

Some vegan bars I put together for breakfast one morning. It was the first time I actually made my own oat flour. I can't put rolled oats through my mill, but I put them in my blender, and wow! Excellent! These needed more blended figs, though, as they weren't sweet enough (and I don't like too-sweet).

Olivia loves using the Inchimals for learning math.

This was certainly worthy of a picture. I love seeing when the children hold hands.

I made vegan chocolate pudding, and this sweet, handsome boy enjoyed gobbling it down.

Well, these were some interesting eggs laid on a stick, that William found, and I wanted to keep. I'd put them in the aquarium we'd used for Tad the frog and kept it outside. But then they wanted the container for a mouse (to be featured in October's post), and it rained hard outside, so I'm thinking these are gone! I want to start hatching out the various eggs we find in a container so that we can identify different eggs.

Vegan lentil taco salad

Vegan home-baked beans and homemade coleslaw sandwich

My new ride, a 2008 Infiniti QX56. I love it so far! Nice to have a vehicle of my own again.

As things so often do work out, it so happens that I ordered a UV black light flashlight from Amazon, and when doing so Nathan told the kids that scorpions glow underneath it. A few days later, right after we got the light, I discovered a scorpion in our bathtub! We've lived up here for over a decade, and this is only the third I've seen (second alive, first was brought home by Nathan after first moving).

So of course we grabbed the flashlight, and I went to wake up the boys! It lived in a jar, so in the morning I showed the girls in our closet, and then we took a walk to release it. I love how things so often work out in this manner. It's one of the joys of life!