This Week

Monday

Summer programs began today! 71 for the morning's preschool story time, where we made paper plate tambourines. If you think those were noisy, wait until we get to the rhythm sticks...

We expected around a dozen tweens for the evening program, and had twice that many! Funny what happens when you offer food! Fortunately, Miss Cheryl had made plenty of cupcakes for the Cupcake Wars. I don't know how sugared up anyone else's child got, but mine laughed like a lunatic alllll the way home.

Tuesday

More story times, then a trip to Walmart. Purchase orders get closed out soon, so I have to wait until the last minute to buy perishables like fresh fruit for teens and tweens. Find of the day: Incredibles themed yogurt cups for the tweens' upcoming movie night!

It was 106 degrees outside, and I had been running around too much to really pay attention to fluids...by the time I got everything unloaded, I wasn't feeling too good. Picked up the kid, went home, and right to bed for a little bit. Thank goodness for a 12 year old who can make supper for all his siblings, and keep them from killing each other or burning the house down! Of course, when I got back up, I was greeted with Sheridan's list of infractions, and hashmarks by each sibling's name, showing how many times they had transgressed.

The Rules!

Wednesday

Today I had the older kids for story time, so we switched gears and talked about petroglyphs and pictographs. One of the books we looked at was "First Painter" by Kathryn Lasky.

In a nutshell, a young girl paints pictographs on the wall of a cave in hopes of bringing rain to her people. We talked about petroglyphs and pictographs, then painted our own pictographs on rocks. As I was cleaning up, a couple kids came runnnig back in to tell me...IT WAS RAINING! This is a huge deal, because it has not rained here in months. I went outside with them to enjoy the sprinkles and hope for more.

On the drive home later, we got more...and a ton of hail with it, unfortunately. 

Hail, at least an inch thick. I ended up putting my car in 4wd! In JUNE!!!

The things in our garden seemed to be small enough to escape major damage, but several friends - whose garden is their livelihood - were not so lucky. Many fruit trees damaged badly, too. Flooding in several areas, but no major damage reported from that. The friefighter in me is happy with the rain, but I don't feel like I can celebrate when other people are devastated! 

And then the power went out. Mike hooked up the generator so we could run the internet and phone in case there were any emergencies in the area. I had Chinese pork salad planned for supper anyway, so we ate by flashlight. At least it gave me an excuse to send everyone to bed at eight!

Thursday

Down the hill with all the kids for dental appointments for the biggest (no cavities!), then back up to drop them up at Grandma's and grab things from the house, then back down again to work...

Our first Teen Cafe of the year, an interactive showing of Big Hero Six. A lot of fun! I'll post that seperately. And while we were watching, it rained! On the mountains and down in the flats. Just a good solid rain this time, so we can celebrate without guilt.

The annual Cherry Festival is this weekend, and I ended up in charge of the snow cone booth. I headed out to the local supply shop at lunch for cups and spoons, and was immediately distracted by kitties everywhere! Shy kitties, friendly kitties, kitty who just got spayed and wants attention, pretty long-haired tortie with a neurological problem who loves ear scratches, bitty orphan babies in a kennel...wait, what was I here for? Oh, right, cups. I gave one of the babies a bottle while the owner got the cups for me. 

Friday

My one day off this week, and SO much to do. Walmart had strawberries super cheap this week, so I bought a billion. First up, jam! 

Then one of my volunteers was selling peaches from her yard, so I bought all she could pick. Chunky peach butter!

My house smells REALLY good.

I had some jams and applesauces canned a couple years ago and nearing the end of their shelf life, so I started making fruit leather. Which means now I have more empty jars to fill.

Wonder if Walmart still has strawberries?

Logan kept me company with a discussion of proportion and perspective, and now wants to know if ants can see germs. Um...I don't know? Quick qeuery on the Bug Girl's page, and I got a couple cool web sites to check out later:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-camera-looks-at-the-world-through-an-insects-eyes-48582355/

https://askentomologists.com/2015/02/25/through-the-compound-eye/

We are studying Sweden right now, so while the littles napped, Christopher and Logan helped me make Swedish meatballs (Sheridan was at Grandma's).

They were a teensy bit wound. The meatballs turned out great, though! With asparagus and a cucumber/lettuce/onion/feta salad, I was pretty stuffed.

After supper we ran out to the fire department to get everything ready for the snow cone booth. And it rained again! We feel suddenly rich! The kids danced and splashed and...Sheridan, we do NOT lick water out of mud puddles!!! Apologies to any neighbors who happened to be looking out their window at the exact moment I made them all strip down to their underwear before getting back in the car. (Hey, I have leather seats!!)

A little sadness on the way - we saw a kitten in the road, obviously recently hit. I stopped to move it off to the side, and realized it was still alive! It was beyond help, though, and died in my lap. At least its last moments weren't on the pavement alone.

Back home in perfect time to channge into dry underwear and PJs...and start a load of laundry. Shoes will be clean by morning, but I do not guarantee dry.