Roller Skating

This week Nora Lee went roller skating for the first time! One of our homeschooling groups planned a field trip and we got to spend an afternoon skating and eating pizza. It felt like a big breakthrough day because at the beginning Nora Lee was so frustrated. She said, "I hate skating and you do too! Skating is just about falling down." I realized that she didn't understand yet what the payoff was of learning how to skate. I shared with her that once you know how, you can go really fast and it feels like flying.

After one round on the rink she tried for about 15 more minutes on the rug and then wanted to take off her skates. I let it go and decided to just have fun watching everyone. Soon after, pizza was ready and we went to the food area to chat with some friends. There was a little girl Nora Lee's age that she began playing with and after lunch Nora said, "I'm ready to put my skates on again." She practiced some more of the carpet and then announced she was ready for the rink. By this time, I had taken off my own skates, thinking we were done for the day. I walked her over to the rink to an area where I could walk beside her. She tried that stretch of the rink and wanted to continue alone! I told her that she would need to go the ENTIRE length of the rink by herself. She said she was ready! So off she went, taking tiny, tiny skate steps as she held on to the railing. It took her about 20 minutes to get around once. Then she wanted to go again and said, "You can skate too and I can be near the wall." By this time we had only 15 minutes left of the four hour day but I was ready to skate! I got my skates back on and loved every moment.

Nora Lee went twice around the rink all by herself and felt very successful. She and I can't wait to go back!

Our Summer Garden

The Devil Tomato




We've got zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes, steak tomatoes, and basil growing right now. The strawberries and cucumbers are not happy.


These sunflowers are about 8 feet tall!









This was the first year that the fruit tress that I planted a few years ago are producing. Matt and I had an ongoing (and losing) battle with the squirrels who ended up eating almost everything. We had about 100 apricots and about 30 apples. We netted the trees and everything but they still got them. In our exasperation we were actually considering a BB gun but don't think our neighbors would be too delighted with our missed targets. I've heard hanging human hair and/or moth balls in the trees can work. I'm hopeful that in the next few years the trees will produce enough for us all to share. This is what happens with our citrus trees in the back yard and it seems like a win-win situation ;-)