We're back from vacation and I'm a day late getting a picture of the boys with the Sunflowers. This is two weeks of growth. Before vacation they were still shorter than the fence. Now, they are around ten feet tall and the boys are really loving standing next to the Sunflowers, under neath and looking up to them.

The first picture at two weeks from sowing, June 16, here.

Second picture another two weeks later, July 1, here.

Third picture one week later, July 8, here.

Fourth picture one week later, July 15, here.

This upcoming week is the week we take vacation every year - the middle of summer. By this time lovely summer weather is here and there's still plenty of summer left to enjoy. In the past, we've gone to Lake Michigan but the budget has been a bit tighter the past couple of years and we've stayed closer to home. This year we will be staying close to home again. We have the concerts and festival fire works to go to. These events were planned some time ago. BUT there are some things I don't get to as often as I'd like - going to some garage sales, local antique stores and used book stores. I hope to catch up on some reading, sewing, and art projects. If it works out, I want to get to farmer's market today. Not everything is all planned out though. With the girls, there's also unplanned, spontaneous things that come up to make it interesting to figure out what is going on exactly. Summer days are precious and I will be enjoying them.

VACA'TION, n. [L. vacatio.]
1. The act of making void, vacant, or of no validity; as the vacation of a charter.
2. Intermission of judicial proceedings; the space of time between the end of one term and the beginning of the next; non-term.
3. The intermission of the regular studies and exercises of a college or other seminary, when the students have a recess.
4. Intermission of a stated employment.
5. The time when a see or other spiritual dignity is vacant.
During the vacation of a bishopric, the dean and chapter are guardians of the spiritualities.
6. Leisure; freedom from trouble or perplexity. [Now little used.]

All of my tomato plants except for one are doing well. They were all planted at the same time, in the same soil, and have the same sunlight but one is hardly growing. I'm not sure why. Looking through my garden all I see is green, green, green! -- lots of green tomatoes with more tiny yellow blossoms promising fruit later on. I'm glad of that because I really only like fresh grown tomatoes. I can't stand the awful ones from the grocery store and with the FDA's conflicting reports about salmonella bacteria I won't purchase any. I've been buying locally at the farmer's market and I'll wait for mine. Huge, fuzzy borage leaves, Balsam, and Calendula fill in around the tomato plants as companion plants to help keep the weeds down. Zinnia are two feet high and budding. It seems like the pumpkin vine is growing inches by the hour. The herbs are spilling over the pot sides and need transplanted. Even the little visitor resting on the parsley is green. Soon, the colors in my garden will begin to change.

~Polly Chase Boyden~




Mud is very nice to feel
All squishy-squishy between the toes!
I’d rather wade in wiggly mud
Than smell a yellow rose.

Nobody else but the rosebush knows
How nice mud feels
Between the toes.

This is my recipe I served for our birthday cook-out week-end. Couscous is a coarsely ground semolina (a high protein, hard wheat) pasta. I'm always trying to find new, healthy recipes with more vegetables for us to eat and this time my mother, sister and were the only ones who liked it. The rest of the family wasn't that thrilled with it.


Ingredients:

Couscous
10 ounces couscous
2 cups water
1 TBSP olive oil or butter

Veggies
½ cup fresh spinach, julienne cut/matchstick size
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced
½ cup black olives, diced
½ cup celery, diced
½ cup Feta cheese

Vinaigrette Dressing
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt to taste
honey to taste

Preparations:

Bring two cups of water and olive oil to boil, stir in couscous, remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minuets. Set aside and prepare vegetables and dressing. Put couscous in one large container and fluff, then add vegetables, cheese, and dressing. Chill for 4 hours or overnight.

Variations:
Use fresh tomatoes if desired or any combination of favorite vegetables or spices & seasonings. Sugar can be substituted for honey. I enjoy this year around but the red and green color makes it a beautiful, festive dish at Christmas time.

Here are the Sunflowers with the boys today, seven weeks from sowing and approximately four to five and a half feet tall. There were seven plants to begin with. One is just sitting there and I pulled out the smallest one so it's down to five.


The first picture at two weeks from sowing, June 16, here.

Second picture another two weeks later, July 1, here.

Third picture one week later, July 8, here.

with FAMILY AND LOTS OF CAKE, ICE CREAM and GOOD FOOD.

Orangeblossom's Chocolate cake for her dad . . .


and her Strawberry Dream Cake for my mother (her grandmother) and me . . .

It was a cook-out birthday week-end along with the opening of our city's annual summer festival. My mother's birthday was July 5th, my husband's was yesterday and mine is in five days so we all celebrated together. Orangeblossom made a chocolate cake for her dad and a yummy strawberry cake for my mom and me. We celebrated by grilling steaks. Some thing my husband and I rarely eat except once in a while for special occasions we splurge -- that's usually for our birthdays.

This year my husband had a Porterhouse steak and I had Filet Mignon. I still have some of mine left for dinner tonight. After the steaks were done, we put a pan full of chopped vegetables sprinkled with olive oil and herbs on what was left of the burning charcoal to slowly cook. Our feast also included fresh veggies with our favorite Dill Dip and a new summer cold Mediterranean Spinach Couscous Salad.



After our cook-out Orangeblossom and I went to the festival to walk around for bit. We spent some time watching children playing and laughing in the water fountain. A variety of aromas coming from the food stands swirled in the air: corn dogs, chicken, cotton candy. I'm glad we ate before we went. The Elephant Ears smelled most delicious of all. I was tempted to get one but refrained, took a picture instead, and we got a Lemonade and Strawberry slushy.










One of the events we look forward to the most is the Museum of Art's "Chalk Walk", one of our favorites of the whole festival. A portion of Main street is closed off from traffic and artists draw on the street with chalk. The number of participants grows each year and there were many so we didn't get to see all them. It was getting hot in the sun and we needed a break so we headed back home. There's still festival activities going on until the week-end so we hope to get back again and also close out the festival with the fireworks on Sunday night.

A few more views of the sites at the festival and Chalk Walk.

How big is Africa?

After reading the article "AIDS in Africa: What Does the Christian Faith Require?" from my church's online magazine, I went looking for information on HIV/AIDS in Africa to find more about Why Wait? Africa and Professor Dick Day, co-founder of Sub-Saharan Africa Family Enrichment (SAFE). Other links came up and through a rabbit trail I came across the Fon is Fun site from Benin, Africa where they asked the question on African geography: "How big is Africa?"

Choices:
A. As big as the United States.
B. As big as the US and China.
C. As big as the US, China, and Europe.
D. None of the Above.

Answer: D. None of the Above

Approximately how many countries put together can make the size of Africa ... just an aside find ... probably some thing commonly known but I found interesting.

A new highlight of our summer is the Faith Nights Baseball Tour with Hawk Nelson and it's only two weeks away. This band is Orangeblossom's first favorite out of many. They're from Canada and we try to see them as often as we can when they're touring close to us. We've seen them many, many times and enjoy them more each time we see them. There's music of some kind playing in our house most of the time -- we enjoy a wide variety of music from hymns, to classical, jazz, Celtic, rock, to contemporary easy listening -- and Hawk Nelson's is listened to the a lot.

This will be our second year to attend the Baseball Tour. We have our tickets for both the baseball game and concert. In fact, we get to see them two times on this tour -- two baseball games, two concerts! We did the same for their Green-T Tour back in the spring, two concerts. I enjoy these guys and their music as much as Orangeblossom. Their music is good, clean, and fun with a serious side, too, about family and life experiences, all filtered through the lens of faith. Talking with them is a pleasure -- they're down-to-earth and and very personable. I enjoy hearing about Canada, their families, and hockey. Anticipation is growing.

More information at Hawk Nelson or myspace or YouTube

A week later. Still growing and now above their heads.

The first picture at two weeks from sowing, June 16, here.

Second picture another two weeks later, July 1, here.

Our street sewers and drains are old and with the down pour only minutes ago, they couldn't take the rain fast enough. We live on the corner of a intersection and this is my corner where I've planted flowers which are now submerged. This is our view from our front porch looking south-west.

During the time our Founding Fathers were writing the Constitution the differing ideas and a variety of interests caused great debates and made agreements scarce for a while. There was a particular controversial debate of June 28, 1787, in the Constitutional Convention, about how each state would be represented in the new government. The larger states wanted voting in Congress to be according to population and the smaller states wanted equal representation. As with this debate and debates of other issues, ideas and principles needed to be worked out in practical way for the birth of this new nation, our nation. The process was difficult and I can't imagine that they reached an agreement without a great struggle or any easier than we do today.

My family and I have been learning what our freedom means in relation to the Constitution. Even with all the issues and differences, a common interest bound them together, producing our Constitution of the United States of America: the expression and clarification of our inherent, sacred rights and our responsibilities and also, a new form of government, limited in design to protect our liberty from being taken from us by force, to protect us from external invasions. The preservation of our liberty depends upon us, "We the people." Hopefully our nation will find the common interests keeping us together. Happy Independence Day!


"... all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness (property). That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..."

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

This is my first time participating in the Carnival of Homeschooling. Read the July edition: Celebrating July 4th at Beverly's Homeschooling Blog.

Here are the Sunflowers with the boys today, two weeks later, and approximately two to two and a half feet tall.

The first picture at two weeks from sowing here.