EKjourney Backup

We are on our 3rd cold of the season (arrrggghhh). So....I decided to make some Elderberry syrup. I am pondering some kind of healthy milkshake to give the children daily as an immune builder. Elderberry is commonly used to fight colds and the flu and it grows native here in the Pacific Northwest so this was essentially a free remedy. I loaded up sniffly children in the car and we took a drive through the country. I didn't find many that were convenient enough to harvest but this made quart. A blury bunch. Cover with water, simmer 20 minutes, squish, and drain. Add some honey (I did 3 Tablespoons). This should refridgerate for several months. The dosage is 1 teaspoon twice a day when preventing and 1 teaspoon every few hours when sick.

Juice pictures, as promised! We got 28 quarts total. Phil and I were talking about how fun it would be to get some monarch caterpillars to hatch (those are not easy to find by the way). I thought, why buy caterpillars when I can possible get walking sticks for free. I called the elementary school I used to work out to find out if anyone still had them. They did, but a different kind than the ones that I used to have. We have a few adult and some new babies that just hatched. It will be fun to watch them go through the lifecycle. Maybe I will get out the mealbugs that have been cycling through the bonemeal that I have in a jar in the garage. Don't know where they came but I noticed them after I got a good half inch of castings on the top of the jar (ewww). They cycle through from beetles, to larvae, to worms. I will have to put together a lifecycle unit for school.

Phil picked grapes Sunday and we spent the entire day making grape juice. This is probably half of what we have out there. Pictures of juice to come!

We haven't done a great deal of school this Fall because we have been so busy soaking up the last of the good weather! This week the forecast calls for rain rain rain. So...we will be doing sit down/book preschooling with a little more diligence. Really, we school all the time because we are always learning. Phil and I love hearing our children casually mention gravity, planets, identify different bugs and spiders, discuss Bible topics, and make observations about the world around them with impressive vocabulary and surprising insights. Evi reads stories and colors on a clipboard next to Mommy or at the table. Working on a workbook page. Sawyer is really ready for preschool this year. Last Fall, we did quite a bit of preschooling, mostly in the form of activities and art but he wasn't quite ready for the actual content learning although he loved doing the activities. Jubilee is not ready yet but she loves coloring and participating. I bet she will be to jump right into ...

What hideth under this boy's hands? A little garter snake! Ok, he is kinda cute. Sawyer took excellent care of him and was very gentle. He escaped (outside luckily). We got several books from the library on snakes. We will be learning about them during school this week. Future birthday ideas for this almost 5 year old???

We bought a 1/2 of a cow this Fall. Did you know that meat makes great toys? Organizing Meat and blanket forts Stacking fun! Trucks come in handy for hauling

We had a 3-D ultrasound this afternoon.  Baby boy wasn't very cooperative.  He had his arms crossed over his face.  We got a few pictures but they weren't very good ones.  He did give us a very clean view of his gender!  There is no doubt, no doubt at all, that he is a boy!