Last week, Johanna and I went raspberry picking in a friend's backyard.  It was slow, sweaty work but the rewards were sweet.  With some of the raspberries, I made this raspberry salsa.  I love sweet and savory together so it's right up my ally.  If you like spicier salsa, you could easily increase the amount of chili powder and minced jalapeno.  It makes a nice change from ordinary salsa and could be canned* and given as a unique gift. 

Raspberry Tomato Salsa

2 cups diced peeled fresh tomatoes

1 cup unsweetened raspberries, mashed

 3 Tbsp chopped green chilies

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp finely chopped onion

2 Tbsp grated carrot

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp minced jalapeno pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp chili powder

Mix all ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Serve with tortilla chips.  Yield: 2 1/2 cups

*If you are of the hearty, pioneering sort who actually cans.  I do not.  Not on principle or from fear.  Just from laziness, really. 

It looks very pretty, too.

Go.  Make.  Eat.

I am currently trying to pull together a collection of famous speeches which will be appropriate for the 5th graders in my class to do for a speech meet.  I came across this speech, given by William Faulkner in 1950 upon the occasion of his receiving the Nobel Prize.  It's shameless humanism, but it is so beautifully written (spoken?) and contains so much truth that it is worth reading.  It is not very long, so click on the link above and read.  Okay?  Go ahead. 

Now, tell me what you think.  Use those Humanities brain cells and really think about it!  You go ahead, I'm going to bed.  No, seriously, I want to know.  I'm just too tired to think about it myself at the moment. 

I don't think I'll include it as an option for my students, but I'm glad I stumbled upon it.

Here is my tentative plan for an "ordinary" day.  Seems like we don't have too many of those, but this can be our default mode.   What do you think?

I adapted this from another blog but I can't remember which blog, so I apologize to whoever the original author may be! 

This post reveals the key to my most successful days of housekeeping, parenting and homeschooling.  It’s something I intend to read every time I’m tempted to over-complicate anything as a diversion from the job at hand. 

Don’t talk about it, don’t write about it, don’t think about it more and more and more… you’ve done that already.  Just DO it.

Don’t make a schedule, don’t find a workshop, don’t make more lists.  Just DO it.

No more excuses.  No more procrastination.  No more diversions.  Just DO it.

Talking won’t help, thinking won’t finish, whining won’t work.  Just DO it.

A building isn’t functional while it is still on paper.  An arrow looks lovely in a quiver but is useless unless you aim and shoot it.  Just DO it.

The time you waste not doing it can never be regained.  Just DO it.

I know you can’t fail if you don’t attempt but you can’t SUCCEED either.  Just DO it.

Your kids are growing up.  They aren’t waiting for you to grow up before they do.  Just DO it.

Throw away the charts.  Toss aside the schedules.  Eradicate the formulas and JUST DO IT.

Well, here it is, the middle of the first week of school and I'm still coherent enough to type full sentences with real words...sfiw elasoi hglaf ...well, mostly.  My tiredness on Monday (our first day of school) was compounded by our annual family trip to "The Great Minnesota Sweat-Together," aka the state fair.  The weather was, in fact, perfect, and we had a good time.  By the time we left, though, my entire body ached with exhaustion and I'm not sure I've recovered yet!

As for school, though, so far, so good.  My lesson plans are already way off of my original plans because, wowie, does time fly in there!  I have from 1:20 to 2:45 to do grammar, writing and literature and sure, that sounds like a long time, but when it takes some of them five full minutes to write a single sentence, what I think will take 20 minutes ends up taking 40!  I haven't even started the grammar yet! 

Classroom management is okay.  Mrs. Smith, the other teacher, has some great systems in place and I just ride her coattails there.  But I think I've been too friendly so far.  *sigh*  I'm going to have to hand out some "cards" to get the attention of a few of them.  I don't want to get too 'drill sargeant' on them, though, because a few of them, the new ones in particular, still look like wide-eyed lambs and I'm afraid of scaring them off completely! 

Many people have asked how William feels about having his mom hanging out at his school.  I'm happy to say that he's still young enough to enjoy the minor celebrity it brings him.  And, hopefully, he and I have a good enough relationship that he doesn't mind having me around.  In fact, yesterday, I was sitting in the classroom doing some work while all of the students were going to lunch.  Wm came back up and asked if I had eaten my lunch yet.  I replied that I had not but would probably just eat in the classroom.  He said, "Well, I wanted to eat lunch with you."  Of course, I quickly retrieved my lunch and sat with him and his friends during lunchtime.  I know that it won't be long before he'd rather die than have his mom sit with him and a group of his friends at lunch, so I am enjoying my boy while he's still young enough to think I'm cool. 

I'm off, now, to adjust lesson plans and prepare for tomorrow. 

Sam got a haircut!

He's sometimes very unphotogenic, but look at the hair, folks.  Focus on the hair.

From the back.  Still curly!

What a handsome guy!

I took him to a place called Kids' Hair which specializes in, you guessed it, cutting kids' hair.  They had TVs at each station - the one by Sam had the movie Cars on it, so he was transfixed from the moment we entered.  They had a truck for him to hold while she cut and a lollipop as reward afterward.  They even had coffee out for the grown-ups.  Sam was so distracted, he barely took note of the lady with the scissors standing behind him! 

Now, he's all trimmed up and his hair looks much better.  But he also looks not so much like my baby anymore!  *sniff*sniff*

No comments?  Really?  All those cute pictures of Sam and no comments? 

Remember this?"Cheeeeeese"  Okay, well, anyway...

I'll give y'all an update on our various pursuits in the world of academia.

Last week, I had three days of teacher meetings at Liberty.  Lots of it was quite mundane - procedures, etc., but some of it was teaching methods, etc. that make classical education distinctive and that was fun stuff.  It was also fun to get to know the other teachers and spend some time feeling like a part of the faculty. 

Last night was Back to School night where all of the parents and students come and we talk about the upcoming school year.  It all went well, I think.  This year, we will have eighteen boys and three girls!  Oh, my. 

William thinks it's cool to be a fifth grader.  Not only does he have the prestige of being one of the oldest students in the Lower School, but this year he's not all new to the school so he knows teachers and students, classroom and procedures.  He's on his own turf.  And, of course, he thinks it's cool that there are seventeen other boys in his class.   

Of course, Back to School night was preceded by many days of cleaning, sorting, moving, and even painting, in our classroom.  On Monday, Wm and I painted one wall of the classroom a beautiful sage green and it looks great, if I do say so myself.  It was worth the three days of sore muscles and stiff neck afterward! 

Now if there were such an easy solution to the inordinate amount of heat in our classroom, all would be well.  The classroom gets the sun in the windows all day long and by afternoon and evening, it is a sauna.  I can't wait to find out what it smells like in the afternoons after recess and gym class! 

So, with Back to School night over, we now set our sights on the First Day of School. 

The Shaw School for the Gifted and Talented will not start until after the first week of school at Liberty.  My pupils have kept in practice pretty well over the summer - amazing how school work so easily fills those long summer mornings.  I do need to do a bit more organizing and planning before the year starts, but I have all the books and feel relatively prepared to tackle our homeschool. 

If you are so inclined, please pray for us all in our educational pursuits, especially over these first several weeks as a new schedule always requires many adjustments and lots of patience from everyone involved.  And we're not always long on patience around here.

I'll do one more vacation post and hopefully will only have to write it once! 

On Thursday, we all hung around for most of the day, just relaxing together and enjoying the "down time."  In the evening, we went to a lovely restaurant for dinner for a celebratory dinner.  Our crowd sat at two long tables and kept the wait staff on their toes.  As the adults lingered over the food, the kids were lured outside by a playful golden retriever.  They all took turns throwing a frisbee to the dog and laughing in delight as she caught it and returned it to them. 

Finally, we headed "home" for anniversary cake.

Here are the twins, John and Joel. 

The next day we went to the Cass Scenic Railroad.  When the logging camps in the area closed in the 1960s, the state of West Virginia bought the company town of Cass and turned it into a state park and museum.  Now, visitors can take a 30 minute ride by steam train up the mountain to a logging camp, then back down again.

Here we all are in front of the engine.  Two parents, four sons, three daughters-in-law, and fourteen grandchildren.

Poor Joel was a little nervous when the train lurched into action. 

At the top of the mountain, we ate our lunch in the logging camp.  Here, Sam and Daddy had found a bit of shade in which to eat.

Little boys and trains just seem to go together.

This picture was taken inside the dining "hall" (really, just a rail car taken off its track).  I'm thinking of incorporating this sign above the table into our own dining tradition.  It reads, "No talking at the table."  The reason the loggers weren't allowed to talk is because they had to refuel as quickly as possible and get back to work.  The loggers could easily eat 2,000 calories in one meal and burn it off by the next. 

On the way back down, we got to see the brakemen in action.  They lean way out over the side to make sure that the cars are not going to bump into one another.  Then, if the brakes need to be adjusted they pull on a large wheel and tighten or loosen the brakes as needed. 

I had never been on a steam engine before and I was as fascinated as the kids.  I never really understood the amount of noise and grime involved before.  One can understand why horses were terrified and people were leary when steam engines first were introduced.  Sam was excited about the train, but once it started moving and making noise, he sat very still and sober on my lap.  He was more willing to move around on the downhill trip, but sought the safety of an adult when the whistle blew or the steam was released. 

On Saturday, we said our goodbyes to the Shaw clan and headed for Pennsylvania.  Before we set out, though, we drove to the top of Snowshoe for one last look at the beauties of West Virginia.

Saturday through Wednesday, we hung out with the Copeland side of this three-ring circus.

More cousin time.

Aunt Katie time.

Copeland family time.  At Pizza Joe's, of course!  We love Mom and Ava's cooking, but every visit home requires a visit to Pizza Joe's, the Sub Palace, Bert's Wooden Indian, and/or Bruster's.  Now you understand why we bring our stretchy pants when we go a'visitin' in Beaver Falls!  We also went swimming, shopping, fishing, etc., although, sadly, we didn't find time for a game of Scrabble this time!

Then it was time for the loooooong drive home.  We took two days to get home, staying overnight in South Bend.  In the morning, we took a few minutes to drive around the Notre Dame campus.  Of course, the Buckeyes being Big Ten rivals to the Fighting Irish, we were dutifully unimpressed with the large new stone buildings with beautiful architecture and especially the football stadium and mural of Touchdown Jesus. 

We arrived safe at home on Thursday night, thankful to be back in our own beds, but more than thankful for a safe trip and many, many happy memories of time spent with family. 

Okay, I give up.  The first time I began this post, I had to leave it for a while, and the computer kicked me of the www, thereby erasing my efforts thus far.  The second time I began to post, had written quite a lengthy, brilliant, informative, witty, frankly incomparable entry, the power went out just before I hit the post button. 

So, since some higher power does not wish me to embellish in my usual quirky way, here, is the next installment in my recounting of our Snowshoe Vacation.

We saw the world's largest toilet National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

We went to the Droop Mountain Battlefield.  See?  Cannon.  That proves it.

We ate lunch in the rain.

Big brother helping little, muddy, dripping, shivering brother to eat his lunch.

Pearl S. Buck's home.  We did not go inside.

But we took pictures of the misty mountains.

There.  I'm going to post this before something happens and I have to begin this once again!

As I revealed in a previous post, we travelled from St. Paul to Columbus, OH, in one long day and spent the next day recovering. 

The next day, the Lord's Day, we drove to Morgantown, West Virginia, and worshiped in the OPC there.  When we arrived, we discovered that Brother Dave and his family were there for church as well.  So, after church, we all took our picnic lunch to a park and dodged the poison ivy to eat together. 

The drive down to Snowshoe from there was uneventful, rather quiet, in fact.  Perfect for a little napping.

After catching a few flies z's, we arrived at our "cabins" at Snowshoe.  Remember the cabins from camp, just basic wooden boxes with a few windows cut out and old army cots squished together inside?  Well, these were NOTHING like that.  These were houses, beautifully decorated, many bathroomed, comfortable and elegant.  The only hardship we endured from the houses was a lack of air-conditioning in our house, but, being brave and hearty pioneer-types, we managed without. 

The cousins were ecstatic to be together and thoroughly enjoyed the time.  The most popular games were "Jackpot" and "Spud" which involved a football and lots of running, laughing, and yelling. 

This occupied the kids outside nicely so that the adults could actually hear each other talk inside. 

Sam was a very happy camper, being the youngest and cutest of the bunch, and the center of much cousinly attention.  If there was not a brother or sister available to accompany him on his adventures, there was generally a cousin willing to go along.

Here are Sam and Sami (Joel's middle) in the "front yard" of our house.

The first day we were in the house, Mom decided that she wasn't getting enough attention and threw herself down the garage steps. 

We were very thankful that she only sustained some bruising, but it could have been much worse.  It is rather nice to have a couple of doctors in the family to wrap bruised hands and assess damage - otherwise I think that Dad would have rushed Mom to the emergency room!  It turned out to be a fairly minor incident and Mom was fine by the next day, although she was never again allowed into the garage!

Tomorrow I'll share our adventure in the rain.

Thank you, National Camera lady (and Pat!), for recovering my pictures!  I don't have time to share them all now as I am off to write lesson plans for a few hours, but I will post one since I know that you are just dying of curiosity to see some of my pictures.  (You are, right?)  

This is the lovely valley where Pearl S. Buck was born and raised. 

More later...

As it turns out, I will not be sharing any photos from our trip. 

Last night, I sat down to download pictures, but couldn't find the right cord at the moment, so decided to put it off until after the church ice cream social/game night.  Of course, afterward, I was too tired to do anything useful and went to bed.

This morning, while I was gone to book study at church, Sam got ahold of my camera and in the excitement of being chased down by his siblings, threw the camera and somehow managed to erase over 200 pictures. 

So, unless a niece or nephew is kind and e-mails me some pictures (hint, hint) I will just have to paint verbal pictures for you and hope you have a good imagination. 

Here's a shot of the perp from several weeks ago.  Don't let the big brown eyes fool you.  He's dangerous, especially around high tech equipment.

Maybe worse than the pictures being erased, my camera now tells me that it can only hold 15 pictures at a time, and it currently holds three pictures I took about six months ago.  I have a hope tormenting me that if I only knew how, I could retrieve the lost pictures from some far recess of my camera's memory.  Being a technical dunce has its drawbacks as I have no clue how that might happen.  What do you think?  Should I abandon hope or seek out some camera whiz who might find the magic button and get me my pictures back?   

Yes, it's true, we are home.  We had a lovely time with family and many miles of safe travel, for which we thank the Lord.  I was also thankful to wake up in my own bed this morning, though!  We came home to a flourishing garden (thanks, Alison!) - fresh tomatoes seem within reach!  We also came home to an army of ants in the kitchen!  I have taken measures to decrease the ant population in there, but the effort was not helped by a knife, generously covered in peanut butter and honey, left on the counter by a certain ten-year-old!  He was helping to make lunches, though, so I'll only complain a little bit. 

Over the next little while, I will share pictures of our adventures, so stay tuned.

My account on Half.com has a place where I can switch to vacation setting when the need arises.  Blogs don't have such a feature, but I'm forging new ground here to put my blog on vacation setting.  This means that I won't be putting up new blog entries every day and you'll have to hold back on the high volume of comments to each entry.  Oh, wait.  That sounds like what it's like all the time around here.  Well, you know what I mean.

We are, in fact, already on vacation and have been for the last thirty-one hours, although the first fourteen were hardly what anyone would consider as vacation.  After all, vacations are supposed to be relaxing, refreshing, a delectable break from the ordinary.  Yesterday was...not.  You see, we spent the day, fourteen hours to be exact, in the van.  Let me break it down. 

Dollar store presents for the kids: $25

New used movie for borrowed DVD player: $8

Enough snacks to choke a horse: $40

Toll road: $1

Bare bones dinner for 6 at Arby's: $30

Gas: I don't know, something astronomical

Arriving at Grandma's house all in one piece: priceless 

So, here we are at Grandpa and Grandma Shaw's house.  Today, we recover.  Tomorrow, we press on to West Virginia to meet all of John's brothers and their families for a week at Snowshoe.  Yes, Snowshoe is a ski resort, but we are assured that there are other things to do there.  I hope so because grass skiing does not appeal to me.  I need the snow to break my falls.

At the end of the week, we plan to go on to Pennsylvania to visit my family for a few days.  My sister, Katie, is home from London for a month, and I need to see her while she's on this side of the pond.  Then there are my parents, my brother and his family, my cousin and her son, a friend with a new baby, etc.  Many well-loved faces to see again. 

So, keep me on your favorites list, I'll be back.  While you're waiting, I suggest you try a vacation, too.  They're pretty good.  Well, after the first fourteen hours or so.   

While John is away at General Assembly, whooping it up nine hours a day in meetings and debates, the kids and I go along here in the usual way.  I mixed it up a little the other day, though, by greeting the kids in the morning with a  list of chores and schoolwork to complete before noon.  I wasn't sure what kind of response this would receive and was happy to find that there were few complaints and by far fewer tiffs between the kids than on a typical, aimless, entertainment-based morning.  You can bet this list thing will happen again! 

Besides that, though, we have had some fun.  We got Dairy Queen on the way home from William's violin lesson.  We went to the library and saw Bill the Juggler perform his amazing feats of - you guessed it - juggling (and a whole lot more).  We went and had a sleepover with Miss Pat and Miss Katie.  We made brownies last night.  And William has wrung a promise from me that I will watch a movie with them tonight.  I reserve the right to veto the movie choice, though! 

And, just for fun, I put up that picture of Sam.  Those are two Disney princesses firmly grasped in his little fists and a huge grin on his face to go with them.  I think this will reappear when he starts bringing girls home. 

I am proud (and relieved) to tell you that Micah is now riding a two-wheeled bike all on his own.  His reluctance to even try to ride without an adult holding on to the handlebars and awkwardly running alongside has turned into a reluctance to get off his bike for mealtime or bedtime!  This success, late-blooming though it is, I believe we can consider a validation of our parenting methods: sarcasm and, if that doesn't work, ridicule.  Things like, "See that tiny little girl over there?  She's probably, what?  three?  And she can ride a two-wheeler!" and "Did you know that every other eight year old IN THE WORLD can ride a bike?" No, no!  I'm kidding.  Really.  They were said with lots of affection so his feelings were hardly hurt at all.  And, see?  Now he's riding his bike.

Or it might have had something to do with Miss Pat's dogged determination to get that boy on a bike and MIss Katie's patient encouragement that he would get it and Miss Alison's advice that he needed to think about something other than his own feet.  (Do you think God placed these ladies in our lives to make up for our definciencies in parenting, to try and ameliorate the trauma my kids suffer from being my kids?)

No, I prefer to take the credit.  Sarcasm and ridicule are so often villified by parenting manuals and child psychologists, but, obviously, they are effective.  That's good parenting. 

(For those of you who may worry, we are truly proud of Micah and have told him so. )

This year, the weather on the 4th of July was sufficiently mild that we did not mind being out of doors for the afternoon.  We had our church picnic that day and everyone had a good time.  As far as I know, anyway.  Unless they were only being "Minnesota nice."  Sheesh, we "foreigners" could get really paranoid around here.  I can say with certainty that our family had a good time. 

Johanna helped me decorate a patriotic pan of brownies.

John (on the left) and Randy grilled up the burgers and hot dogs. 

Here was our lovely spot under the trees.  It was quite pleasant there until someone from another group started setting off huge (and probably illegal) firecrackers not far away.  But that was about the only thing to mar our idyllic setting.

Our group earned itself some strange looks with this "game."  Here's how it came about: somehow a foam ball got stuck in the tree, so someone threw a foam bat up to knock down the ball.  Of course the bat got stuck.  So, someone grabbed a set of bocce balls and everyone set to work, throwing the balls into the tree, attempting to dislodge the recalcitrant bat.  It took quite a while, but, finally one guy hit the bat loose, and William hit it down.  Sam really liked this game and insisted on standing right where the bocce balls usually came sliding down a branch.  Thankfully, he never got hit.  But his enthusiasm for the game led him to keep trying to throw bocce balls, and, in the process he hit little Caroline!  Thankfully, only tears resulted, no black eye, but we decided to try and redirect Sam's energies away from the bocce balls!

We knew that Sam wasn't going to make it there at the park until time for the fireworks, so we came home, did some sparklers in the back yard and watched the Washington D.C. and Boston fireworks on TV.  My poor deprived children never get to see live fireworks!  Someday, bedtime won't be so precious to us and we can let them stay up later.  In the meantime, sparklers in the back yard will have to do.   

Apparently, I can't stand to have one school year be exactly like the next.  The only time I have ever done anything even remotely similar from one year to the next was when John was in seminary and I was working at Geneva.  That was the first time I had ever taught any course more than once and William was in the same school two years in a row...although Micah was added in to the school business for the second year.  Anyway, we're changin' it up once again. 

For this coming academic year, I will be team teaching with Mrs. Smith in her combined 4/5 classroom - William's classroom.  I will do two hours in the afternoon, teaching literature, grammar and writing.  It will be new for me to teach 4th and 5th grades, although I have done it in homeschool co-ops before and survived, but I am excited, literature, grammar and writing being right up my alley.  For literature, we're doing good stuff, like Caddie Woodlawn, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Family Under the Bridge, Across Five Aprils, Number the Stars, and one other yet to be determined.  In history, they'll cover 1750 to the present, so the literature books were chosen to roughly coincide with that. 

I'm trying to decide on the that last literature selection, and thought about something having to do with the Revolutionary War.  There's Johnny Tremain, of course, although I'm concerned that it might be a little too much for the fourth graders.  I've heard Carry On, Mr. Bowditch highly recommended and it might do fine, although it's not technically about the war.  I really enjoyed April Morning by Howard Fast when I was in middle school, but it's been so long since I read it, I can't be certain that it was as good as my muddled middle school brain thought it was.  Then there's Little Women, anything by Lloyd Alexander, The Hobbit, on and on I could go.  Help!  Do you have any recommendations?  They can relate to the American Revolution or not.  There is so much good literature to choose from that it's hard to narrow down to THE best one for our purposes.  What do you think?

I will still homeschool Micah and Johanna in the mornings, and then leave John to crack the whip over them until they finish whatever they dawdled over in the morning.  This will be something new for all of us and I have moments of trepidation, wondering how we'll all do with mom working out of the home again, but we've adapted before, and God is always faithful. 

This past week, we were in the family way!  No, not like that.  But as in, we had family here for a nice, long visit. 

Monday and half of Tuesday were taken up in frantic last minute cleaning a few leisurely details, perfecting what is ordinarily extremely clean.  Spotless, you might say.  Ahem.  Anyway, then on Tuesday afternoon came the moment Johanna has been counting down to for many weeks now: the arrival of cousin Maggie.  Maggie also brought my brother (her father), my sister-in-law (her mother), and my nephew (her brother).  The kids immediately commenced with the games and dress-up and adventures and occasional squabbles.  My brother got to work on building bunk beds for the boys.  Sister-in-law-Ava and I put our feet up and drank iced tea all week.  Not really on the last bit.  We did, after all, have six children in one small house and yard, but we did get to relax some and catch up. 

Remember the Malingerer and the Shirker from my last post?  Well, here they are, neither malingering nor shirking, but working hard in the blazing sun to build the bestest, most sturdiest set of bunk beds this side of the Rockies.   

Wednesday evening, we all went to William's baseball game.  That's cousin Ian behind Sam.

Maggie, Johanna and Sam watching the game.

Look at that All-Star batting stance!  Well, he's getting there, and enjoying the journey.

Hello, Handsome.  He's playing for a city rec league on a team coached by the dad of one of his Liberty classmates.  In April, he knew almost nothing about baseball, and now he's learning new stuff every time he's out there.  It's good to be ten.

Uncle Tom took the four oldest kids (ages 10, 8, 6, and 6) fishing.  They had a great time.  Each of the kids caught several fish, although most were too small to keep.  They did bring home a few and we fried 'em up for dinner.

Part of the whole experience was watching as Uncle Tom cleaned the fish.  Some were still alive in the cooler!  Ewwwwww!  Micah, while being eager to catch the fish and even willing to step on them and make their eyes bug out, was nevertheless sad that the fish had to die in order for us to eat them.  He is waging the classic "Am I a boy or am I a bleeding-heart liberal?" battle. 

Friday, we went to The Mall of America.  Tom and I entertained the kids while Ava got her shopping fix.  And, boy-o, can you get a shopping fix there.  As-fix-iated, in fact.  As always, the Lego store was a hit with the younger crowd, as was a ride on the carousel and a treat at DQ.  In the evening, the four grown-ups went out for dinner while one brave babysitter took on the six terrors.  Did I say that?  I meant "six angelic, sweet-as-sugar cherubs."  The food service on the porch of the restaurant was slow, but it didn't matter.  We didn't have kids to placate and shush, and we had lovely adult conversation to enjoy.  Ahhhh!

Saturday, the kids did the sprinkler for a little while.  This was after Tom had mown the lawn, so they were covered up to their knees in tiny wet grass clippings.  But I'll take some grass clippings on my kitchen floor for those giggles!

Just six months apart in age, Johanna and Maggie are best friends.  (Note the shared sandals)  This does not mean it is everlasting peace - as I'm sure I've said before here, they are both strong-willed - but they do love each other and miss each other very much when they are apart.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye, but we got a couple of (mostly) good pictures before they left.  These are the pictures we'll treasure, and bring out again every time one of these six graduates or gets married.  Oh, stop.  I'm gonna cry.

Okay, that's better. 

As Tom, Ava, Ian, and Maggie set off down the road, we could only be thankful for the precious time we had together, the laughter, and the memories we made. 

(Tom also installed a ceiling fan in the kitchen and Ava folded a metric ton of laundry for me.  Thank you!)