Driving home from Mass today we spotted the Great Blue Heron at the pond.  So, we went in to change and then grabbed the camera to try and get a picture of him.   I took some other photos along the way.

Summer at the pond

The other end of the pond.

The creek end of the pond.

The 3 geese families that live at the pond.

Gamer-boy posing with some goose feathers he found. That's Dino-boy running away.

At this point, we’d gone down to the pond, walked around a bit, and were feeling discouraged, because once again, the Great Blue Heron had eluded us.  Every year I say I’m going to get some pictures of him, but I never have the camera on hand when we see him, and when I purposely go to get pictures, he’s not there.  But as we went back home, I spotted him!

The Great Blue Heron

He was catching a fish, but that picture didn't come out at all.

I wish I could have gotten closer, but I didn't want him to fly away.

Isn’t he awesome?  I’d like to start going on regular nature walks with the kids.  We love taking nature walks, but for whatever reason, we never get around to it.  Even though today’s excursion was short, we had a lot of fun.

I’m attempting to be a bit healthier in my cooking now due to the fact that Rob found out he has high cholesterol.   He’s a very picky eater, so this is a big challenge–finding healthy food that he’ll actually want to eat.  I went through all my cookbooks and pulled a few recipes together for the week–we’ll see how it goes.

As far as breakfast and lunch go, I’m planning to make a big batch of granola for the week, and lunches are usually leftovers or sandwiches.

Saturday

Spicy Chinese Noodles with veggies

Sunday

Grilled Chicken, lemon-herb couscous, corn on the cob

Monday

Cook – out with the in-laws

Tuesday

Chicken burritos, fruit salad

Wednesday

Chicken Adobo wiht Black bean and mango salsa, rice

Thursday

Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil pizza, salad

Friday

Spaghetti and meat sauce, garlic toast

I think I’ve worked out out science plans for the next school year.  Annie really wants to do life science/nature study.  So, I went through my shelves, and pulled out Handbook of Nature Study and The Young Naturalist.  I think these will be our spine books for the year.  I also got out Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You, mostly for inspiration.   I’ve had these books for years, and while I always planned to use them, we just never got to it.  I will admit, the Comstock book intimidates me.  But I’m determined that we’re going to use it this year.

Basically, we’re going to be focusing on nature, but in a more scientific way, if that makes sense.  Annie is going to keep a nature notebook, but in addition to just sketches and photographs of the nature she finds outdoors, she’s going to do the experiments and projects in The Young Naturalist and keep notebooking pages about them, write research papers and narrations based on things we study or read, and I’m going to have her begin some collections–my idea was to have 3 different types of collections.  Things like leaf rubbings and pressed flowers, shells, animal tracks, etc.

I’m thinking we’ll have several focus studies throughout the year–like a month on just trees, or birds, etc.  I haven’t worked it out exactly yet, other than Annie specifically requested that we do NOT study spiders or any other creepy bugs.

Annie is very excited to begin, and I’m really looking forward to it as well. Her exact words were, “This is what I’ve always wanted to do for science!”  When I have it more formally planned out, I’ll post the plans here in case anyone else is interested.

The twins will be doing something different though, because they want to study earth science.  I’m still learning toward R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey for them.

I received Unlikely Spiritual Heroes from The Catholic Company to review.  I really enjoy reading biographies and books about inspiring people.  This was definitely in that category.  Brennan R. Hill gives us 8 short biographies ranging from laypeople to John Paul II.   The biographies are pretty complete in themselves, but they give just enough info that you want to search out more information.   I like that many of the people were missionaries.  I’ve had a hard time in the past finding books about Catholic missionaries to share with my children.  This book wasn’t written for children, and some of the stories (Jean Donovan immediately comes to mind) are definitely not for children.  But, it’s nice to know enough about them that I can retell the jist of the story to my children.  It would make good reading for a high schooler though.

From the back of the book:

“No one is born a hero”

Jean Donovan – a Harley-riding businesswoman, turns missionary and martyr.

Helen Prejean – a religious sister, befriends and advocates for murders on death row.

Dorothy Stang – a religious sister and schoolteacher, champions the environment and loses her life doing so.

Pedro Arrupe – a medical school dropout and priest, survives a nuclear holocaust and becomes a great Jesuit leader.

Thomas Merton – a party-going ladies’ man, becomes a Trappist monk and peace activist.

Maximilian Kolbe – a sickly, eccentric Franciscan, turns publisher and dies in Auschwitz, trading his life for a Jewish prisoner.

Joseph Bernardin – a bookish, shy son of Italian immigrants, becomes one of the most outspoken prelates of our time.

John Paul II – a young Polish poet and actor whose election to pope changes history.

Yes, I know it’s Mother’s Day, and I should be relaxing and basking in the glow of having my family cater to me.  And they made me a delicious breakfast and let me lounge in bed this morning, so now I can work on a little project.

I’ve been contemplating making a homemaking notebook.  I’ve seen many websites and message boards discussing how great homemaking notebooks are.  I’ve tried to make one in the past, but I got so bogged down in the process of making the notebook that I didn’t really use the notebook.

My biggest issue at the moment is the actual cleaning.  I have been just dealing with each mess as I get to it, and that is obviously not working.  I get overwhelmed very easily.  I need to make things simple so that the cleaning actually gets done.

I’ve decided to give each day a focus–only one or two main chores so that I don’t overwhelm myself with a long to do list.   Here’s what I have so far:

• Monday: Clean the bathrooms / dust and vacuum
• Tuesday: Clean the kitchen
• Wednesday: Wash and change all bedding / dust and vacuum
• Thursday: Laundry catch up day
• Friday: Clean bathrooms / dust and vacuum
• Saturday: Clean out the fridge / all trash taken out and clean trash cans (this is also grocery and dump day)

I’ll try and get to laundry daily, but I figure scheduling a catch up day will ensure that it actually gets done.  I’m going to try this for a week and see how it goes.  I figure vacuuming needs to happen every other day since the dog sheds so much, and the bathrooms have to get cleaned at least twice a week due to little boys with bad aim.  I’m thinking of it as an experiment…or baby steps to a more organized home.

I sat down yesterday and worked out a list of meals that we’ll eat the next few months.   I had to brainstorm some less heavy, warm weather meals.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• French dip sandwiches
• spaghetti and meatballs / Cheese ravioli
• Pasta salad w/chicken
• Homemade Pizza
• Stir fry
• Fried Rice
• Hot dogs/burgers
• Tuna quesadillas
• Chicken & Pesto pasta
• Taco salad
• Chinese beef and peppers / Beef and broccoli
• 7 Layer Taco dip
• Chicken Caesar salad
• Pulled Pork sandwiches
• Melts (either tuna, lunch meat or  just grilled cheese w/tomatoes and basil)
• Homemade chicken tenders and fries

I started out the year with big ideas about how I was going to simplify.  Those big ideas were quickly smothered by all our clutter.  We have a lot of stuff.  And by a lot, I mean A LOT.  Granted, we’re a family of 6 living in a 1700ish sf,  3 bedroom house.  You would think we’d be able to streamline, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Take, for instance, the toys.  I’m all about the kids having fun things to play with, but how much is too much?   I’ve trying to set up systems, where each kind of toy has it’s own bin, but then everything gets dumped and mixed up and nothing ever gets put back into it’s proper bin.  We have dinosaur bins, wedgit bins, car bins, littlest pet shop bins, polly pocket bins, I could go on and on.  That’s not counting the bakugan balls and cards all over the house, and all the baby toys that Cutie likes to strew around the room.  And this is just the toys people!

If I had my way, I think I’d cut our stuff at least in half.  I’d purge the toys and save only the things the kids actually play with and love.  I’d cut the clothing in half.  How much clothing does a person need?  Our closets and drawers  are so full it’s ridiculous.  And we probably only wear 1/3 of it.

One of my favorite books to browse is Material World: A Global Family Portrait.  I am always fascinated by how other people live.  It’s amazing to me too see how little other people own.   If I had to drag all our belongings outside and have a picture taken…I think I’d be embarrassed.   Not to mention the time it would take to actually get all our belongings out on the lawn.

I think a good start will be to just go room by room and start purging.  Maybe if I blog about it, I’ll be more motivated to keep it up.  I guess it’s time for some spring cleaning.

This week we are finally wrapping up the American Revolution–it feels like we’ve been studying it for years.  The kids are so glad to be finishing it up.  It’s been an enjoyable study, but we’re all ready to be done now.

We planted 18 sunflowers this past weekend.  I don’t know why I keep trying, every time we plant them, they get eaten by the neighborhood critters.  This time we’re starting them indoors in an egg carton, and when they get tall enough, we’ll move them outside.  I refuse to get my hopes up, but it would be nice if even just a few of them can survive.

Tomorrow is Cutie’s first therapy session.  Her eating has dramatically improved over the past month, so I’m thinking she doesn’t need the feeding therapy now.  But we still need to work on getting her to talk.  She is babbling now, but no words yet.  Probably she’ll start talking when she’s good and ready, but since the older 3 were all talking by 6 months, it makes me feel better to get her some help.

We’re doing a lot of reading these days.  Here’s what everyone is currently reading:

Annie: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
(she’s going to do a guest review here when she’s done.  I LOVED that book, and she’s really enjoying it too).

Gamer boy: Day Of The Dragon-King (Magic Tree House 14, paper)

Dino-boy: An Alphabet Of Dinosaurs

Read alouds: Patron Saint of First Communicants: The Story of Blessed Imelda Lambertini (Stories of the Saints for Young People Ages 10 to 100)

The Silver Chair (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 6)

Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution

Mamsaurus: The Host: A Novel