Yard work and cicadas

Did you know that cicadas spend most of their lives below teh ground, feeding on the juices of plant roots, and then emerge, mate and die quickly?  And did you know they only emerge, mate, and die quickly once every 13 or 17 years?  Did you also know that because of this, they evade many predators that live in 2, 3, 4 or 6 year cycles?

I didn't until I started homeschooling!  Love it!

Yesterday, we had all worked hard in the yard:
 -the little girls on watching our new kittens while running full buckets of weeds from the garden where I was weeding to the garbage can
-Chugger-dude was in charge of doing major cutting back to our grape vines across the gate to our garden so it didn't become the "tunnel of death" later this summer when the grapes came on and the hornets flock.  (I'm learning :).)  He even thought to get a ladder to reach it better and had a fine time pruning and playing with the vines.
-the Goob, Pipalicious, and Chugger-dude helped to create little depressions around the base of each vegetable in our garden with me and then fertilized them one at a time.  I encouraged them to talk to the more struggling vegetables :).
-I attacked our last big patch of weeds in our garden where I am growing pumpkins and will plant corn later today.  I love working in the garden and seeing the beauty and order emerge!  This must be a small taste of what God feels like each time He creates a new world.

The kids enjoyed some otter pops to cool down while I finished up weeding (I hate to stop when I am so close!), and then we headed out on an outdoor adventure!  I love having "nature days" where they can just immerse themselves in nature.  We are blessed to be so near the mountains, so we went up to a little trail just off highway 89, a little portion of the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  First we picked up some lunch and goodies (chocolate milk...yum!) and then headed to this spot, which is nice and flat and is just a short way from a little stream.  We must have spent three hours just wading, building with rocks, and talking.

While we were there, some fellow nature explorers came along and showed us some cicada husks they found a little further up the trail.  Apparently, there were a whole bunch of holes in the ground where they had emerged, and the branches, grass and leaves all around that area were covered with these husks from which the cicadas had emerged just that day!  The Goob went and found a live cicada alongside a husk.  They were so cool!










It was so nice to just be together for a long time, no phones, no schedules, no work besides the work of play.  We even got to see a couple snakes and watch them slither back and forth.

Inevitably, at one point Papaya stripped off all her clothes. She had on a long white playdress and no shoes.  She had played in the water and then walked up to find the cicadas further on the path, so her dress and feet were covered with mud.  Her answer?  Take it off and wash it in the stream, which just made it messier.  Sigh.

Hava had a great time making "bug houses" in the water out of rocks.  Pipalicious, Chugger-dude and the Goob made dam after dam, played some bombing games, stacked rocks and just had a great time.  Spooner got used to the water and played for over an hour in it.  Eventually he got tired and napped on my shoulder.  Papaya was about done at this point, so we three headed back the 20 yards to the car for Spooner to sleep.  Papaya was completely naked at this point and opted for staying in the car rather than put her cold wet dress back on.  She crashed in the car shortly thereafter and I took a nap as well, while the other kids wandered back up the path to the car and played on the rocks at the entrance for another solid hour.  They wanted to stay there and not go home.  Who could blame them :)?  Home has been work, lately, and my projects were calling: dinner, trashed kitchen, turn of the watering we had left on...things like that.

Q-dawg and Lek left for a high adventure trip this weekend yesterday morning, so they weren't there.  Liliputian and Avot are in New York (and I miss them soooooooooooooooooo much!!!) with Aunt Jackie and Uncle Zy for two weeks, so it was "just" the seven of us.  I made a delicious dinner, an Indian type stir-fry I made up on the spot:
-chicken, cut into strips and fried in a little bacon grease
-frozen broccoli and cauliflower
-cut up sweet red peppers, mushrooms, onions and cilantro

Simmer/fry/steam them all up with garlic salt, celery salt, cumin, masala blend, oregano and sage to taste...super yummy!  Especially with the artisan bread I picked up at the store to go with it :P.  Regardless if I am cooking for 1 or for 20, I do like good food!

We ended the evening with a quick clean-up (three day old dishes...blech), baths/showers, and then snuggling in our blankets and pillows in front of "My Fair Lady."  The Goob and Chugger-dude took advantage of the peaceful moments to plan out their "History Bandits" club for the summer where they study one war two times a month, with projects, studying and teaching each other each time.  They have some fun activities planned for this first month: The Civil War.  I made some "scotchies" cookies (butterscotch/oatmeal) to go with it, and it was an evening of fun :).  I have to make them that way when Q-dawg is gone to lessen missing him.  It is good knowing he is bonding with Lek :)!

Well, Spooner is crying piteously and pulling on the computer cord...no wait.  He just headed to the cupboard where he knows the rest of the scotchies are, smart chap, and is whimpering for those.

Papaya is buck naked in the kitchen sink, doing creative poses while hosing herself off with water from the faucet.  I think it is on the "super-cold" setting.  Her feet are in the pot she started off by washing.  I think my journalling time is at an end.

First a little good news, though. The training for Vanguard on June 28th I am working on with some other amazing women is going to have some fantastic presenters teaching about how to teach with principles in the class and at home, and about agency education.  I am so excited! I just got the work that it is official! 

Time to face the music and get some scotchies out. Oh well, at least they have already had breakfast :)!

Scary!

Tonight, when putting a very tired and ornery Hava to bed, we saw quite the apparation on her pillow...



I was horrified, until we looked it up (good ol' internet) and found out it was nothing more than a sweet, little lady bug larva.  Awhhhhhh...still not something I would want to sleep with, though :).

Once Pipalicious and Chugger-dude found out it wasn't poisonous, they were all over carrying it out to our rose bushes to save our poor, capless flowers that had been devoured by aphids.  I personally wonder if the larva stands a chance, but maybe it will come out ahead :).

Our shot...so cool!

Meet Meriweather...

The Goob, Chugger-dude, and I read "Meriweather Lewis" this month for our focus for Knights of Freedom.  Since Lewis was an explorer, the natural activity was...go explore!  I told the boys to load up anything they think they would need in the woods, I packed some food, and we headed off!  It was bright and early, on Saturday morning, and it was me and the men...

On our way...

Clearing off a spot for the fire...I let them lead and figure out what they wanted to do and how to do it. I told them I was there just to keep it safer, but to pretend I wasn't there.

Matches were one of the first things they packed, surprise, surprise :).

 Got the fire going...after adding a little paper to help the flame catch.  Then it was off to building traps!  They had read about a Native American trap in the book, where they bent a tree down, attached it to the ground with a look, and captured animals and people that way.  The Goob figured he needed a pretty big tree so he could catch people, and chose this one.  Too bad his shoe got stuck in the other tree (on the right, wedged in the "v" of the tree)!  I sat and read with Spooner on the ground while the boys climbed trees.

Here they are, winding up the rope, after using it to lower the Goob down.  Chugger-dude attached the rope to the middle of a "mid-sized" log, tossed it up the the Goob, who draped the rope over a branch, then stepped on either side of the log to be lowered down.  At first, he was too heavy for Chugger-dude to lower (who was holding onto the other side of the rope), but then they wrapped the end that Chugger-dude was holding around a tree (as you see) so that Chugger-dude could use the leverage.  Smart boys!

Chugger-dude caught this fly and wanted to take it home to freeze it and make it into a pet

We took this one upside down per Chugger-dude's request, so it would look like it was standing up...cute?

They took the bugs home, put them in the freezer, and then tried to stick needles through them so that when the bugs thawed, they could be pets on a string. 

Well, I put a stop to that right after I heard sizzling, explosive noises coming from the microwave where Chugger-dude was "thawing" a beetle in the microwave...with the needle.  I don't know if I was more worried about the metal in the microwave, or the fact that he had a bug where I cook.  Needless to say, he learned how to sterilize shortly thereafter....

Attack of the Soldier Bugs

The kids wanted me to make sure I mentioned the "soldier bugs."  I may have mentioned them before, but here are a few things they wanted us to remember.

We have been attacked in full force by what they call "soldier bugs" here in Hungary.  Go figure, I always thought that our American name of "lady bugs" was so perfect and elegant.  Yes, they are lady bugs.  They come into the house through any opening they can, with often 20-30 milling around the windows or doors at a time.

When Q-dawg was talking to Tamas from upstairs about them, one flew up Tamas's nose.  Q-dawg joked and said that that particular soldier bug was doing a good job.  Tamas said, "That's not a soldier bug.  That's a terrorist bug."

Fortunately, with the cooler weather the attack has diminished.  Q-dawg is particular efficient at gathering multiple bugs in his hand and throwing them out.  As the kids pointed out, they really stink if you accidentally smash them on your hands, even if we wanted to do that instead.  They have a broad range of colors and designs, too...I have never seen such a variety, with large brown spots, orange, yellow, and brown wings, tiny dots, black with red dots...all sorts!  How cool!