Work and Play (not necessarily in that order)

I'm not a huge fan of Montessori philosophy of education, but I do like that they interchange the words "work" and "play", because really it's all the same thing. We've got to do things, things to keep us happy - and happy for us includes having income, having a clean house, being healthy and having exercise, exploring new places, running around in the woods, etc. So it kind of makes sense that work and play can be the same thing.

Our lovely little town just finished a huge park renovation in downtown that they've been working on for years! It includes all sorts of water features that we are so happy about, and will surely be enjoying a bunch as the Summer just gets hotter! This is how we celebrated Summer Solstice ~




Reed had a friend over and they decided they wanted to earn some money. Which of course is fine with me! I'm super tired at the end of the day, and the house is usually trashed after all the little ones go home, so I'm not opposed to some child labor around the house to get it clean :D

I know for alot of unschoolers, chores can be a sensitive subject. I simply made a chore chart with very low wages, so they can do chores if and when they feel like it. We keep track of what they do and they get paid on Fridays (no cash advances in this house!). It also solves most of the "I want's" in the toy department, since they've got to earn the money themselves! We've had this for a couple years now and it works great, they still enjoy doing the chores at least :)


Happy Summer Solstice everyone!!

New Parks

Found a new skate park right in town! A real hidden gem, as it is free (the main one in asheville has a fee), low-key (great for our not-so-pro boarders), has shaded parking, and has an adjacent playground with shade, so great for all the kids :)
Went with some good friends

How many kids can you fit in a plastic hippo?
The admiring girls on the side lines

oh yeah.

The only titles I can think of for this post are things like "oh yeah" or "nuff said" or "that's right" haha! A completely necessary week-long break from work and all things kid-related left me with these:

Love to all!!

Party!

Some shots from Clay's 10th birthday party! Clay choose to have his party at one of his favorite parks. Part of the park sits in a small valley with steep slopes on either side. One side has a slide built into the hill. We brought big sheets of cardboard and our plastic sleds and the kids had a great time.

Got to hang out and relax with some of my favorite folks
I made Clay a cheesecake and a keylime pie. The cheesecake had an oreo crust and M&M and fresh-picked strawberries to spoon on each piece. I did end up making a second cheesecake (the one pictured) since the first was so ugly. Now it's taunting me from my refrigerator! So delicious!!
Legos, DS Games & Teck Decks (who woulda guessed? :)

Goes to show that you don't have to spend big bucks to have a fun party! Menu consisted of: homemade bread, cheese slices, carrots sticks, young peas from garden, sun chips (oh, i'm a sucker for supporting compostable bags... okay, they're yummy too :), and halved bananas (from the disounted produce bags). To drink was soda cans (this is something we only get for REALLY special occassions, got 2 12-packs, which of course what not enough for everyone to drink soda the whole time, which was okay with me!). Also had out home-made lemonade (lemon juic.e, sugar & water), and a water cooler. Both cake & pie were homemade. Paper cups from a yard sale. Favor bags were hand-painted brown paper lunch bags. They were filled with fireworks, some party straws from a yard sale, some happy meal toys from the thrift store, and some mini-size playdo from a thrift store. This party probably cost under $40, with a bunch of happy kids!

Scenes from a Lovely Friday

A sweet way to end the week for us! We did some urban foraging. On our morning walk, a daycare child found 2 mulberry trees down a road we rarely walk! We ate a few, they were hard to reach. We then got our pail and headed up to the highway behind the house. There are about 6 serviceberries planted along it. Serviceberries (also called sarvisberries or juneberries) grow all over! I discovered them growing wild in SW Colorado, and here have found them all over town, being used in landscapes. Most people don't realize they are edible and delicious!! If you are local and want to know some easily accessible spots to get these, lemme know!


Great for eating straight off the tree, also good in baking or for freezing (remember to freeze your berries in a single layer on a cookie sheet, before you put them in a freezer bag!):
The new 20 sq ft garden plot:

I am busy this night getting ready for Clay's birthday party tomorrow. Bobby took the boys to ... drumroll ... WWE Raw Smackdown at the Asheville Civic Center (oh yeah!!!), so mama has some time to get all birthday crazy :) Making party favor bags (as you can see in the top right corner, i am just *that* mom that puts fireworks in party favor bags heehee)
Made cheesecake and key lime pie for party. This is only my second cheesecake, and my first to make in a spring form pan, and it cracked :( poo. hopefully it'll still taste yum tho :) It has an oreo crust and will have a choice (or combo?) of fresh strawberries or M&M's to put on it
Bread rising for party food (dang, i am still in love with the Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day book - buy it!!!)
Happy weekend to all!!!

A Whole Decade Of Clay Goodness!!

Ten years ago today, a very smooth and fairly short labor ended at 7 pm to this lovely little baby Clay Elijah. He can be very quiet and reflective, and very out-going and fearless - a true joy of a person to get to know!






This morning bouncing on his new pogo stick (I think I got one that's too small, he grows too fast!):
Happy Birthday Love!

Busy Days

Too busy to get photos up often! Today I started...er... completed a garden space. I actually had made a bean tee-pee for some Jacob's Cattle beans that were a gift from one of my favorite people, and were sent to me in the mail in a plain white envelope :) I didn't realize they were bush beans, not pole, so they did look kinda silly just bushing it up around the tee-pee, laughing at my desire for them to climb on up.

The bamboo was pulled, as well as my make-shift coat-hanger stakes that held down the twine and vines for more bean supports. Now to square off this little space and gain about 20 more square feet of gardening goodness!
And my extra motivation to get this project done is that a great little greenhouse tucked back in the mountains started their clearance sale tonight! Music, free food and free local beer got me right in the mood to buy too many plants :) I came home with a couple flats as well as some bigger pots. Of course if I had a normal size yard instead of the pitiful excuse for one I currently have, I would have bought a ridiculous amount of plants ... haha!

I came home with bell peppers, lavender, rosemary, echinachea, and loads of flowers, as well as some blueberry bushes to be gifted elsewhere. I think I spent $22 total - the clearance sale goes on for a couple more weeks if anyone wants to check it out. The place is Painter's Greenhouse in Old Fort. Most things are $1 or $2. A great way to fill out the garden on the cheap!

I'll post pics of all the goodies I bought in a later entry. For now, I'll just show what the boys and their friends were up to while the grown-ups were shopping: (making lounge chairs in a big pile of dirt ... ahhh, boys.)
And certainly the most exciting event is coming up! Clay is turning 10 tomorrow!! Hard to believe it was 10 years ago... even harder to believe in 6 years he'll have a driver's liscense or in 10 more years he'll be 20! sheesh. too fast. Here's the kitchen table scene beside me waiting for Clay to wake up in the morning. It's after midnite now and he's still in bed mumbling that he's too excited to sleep. aww, I love that kid.