Poem
Evan keeps a journal in his class at school. In it, there is space to draw as well as to write. When he came home, he said that he had drawn a book in his journal and then had written a poem inside of it:
I can read
I can write
I can tell a trilobite
Trains!
When Evan was four, it was trains trains trains–every day! That finally ran its course and the trains took some time in the closet, hoping to reemerge some day. Since Grayson so looks up to his brother and wants whatever his brother wants, I thought that our fun train set wouldn’t get much attention again. Well…since Evan has been back in school, Grayson has asked for the trains–every day! We have had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to set things up, without a helpful older brother to tell us a better way to do it.
First Grade
Evan started first grade this past Monday. He was both excited and a bit nervous. I guess we all were. We’re so hoping for a great school year. So far, his teacher has done some typical beginning of the year stuff, but I think Evan is ready to get down to learning new things. After school on Monday, he started drawing all sorts of imaginary monsters and dinosaurs. For one with who knows how many teeth, he said, “Your wouldn’t want your teacher to look like that!” I asked him if he thought his teacher was a monster and was quite relieved when he laughed and said no.
Evan came home pretty exhausted after the second day of school and I started reading The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle to him and Grayson. They both enjoyed just relaxing and listening. In fact, they wanted me to read long after it was time to stop so that we could get supper ready.
How much would you weigh on Jupiter?
We were driving back from the Greensboro farmer’s market yesterday morning and Evan was reading from a Magic School Bus book about planets. He kept reading and telling me about interesting facts about the planets and got to a part that said he would weigh 2.5 times as much on Jupiter as he does on Earth. I was telling him that would mean he would weigh almost as much as his dad; then I went on to tell him that it would be the opposite effect on Earth’s moon. He wouldn’t weigh much at all. He responded, “Does it go like this–the smaller the planet the less you wiegh because it has less gravity?” I love this boy’s ability to think and to reason!
Sauce and Soup
This weekend, Ben and I were working like crazy to get some things done while my little guys were and Nana’s house. We ended up finding organic zucchini at Vernon’s Produce and had enough to make 10 batches of zucchini soup with tahini (yum!). We ate it for lunch two days and still were able to freeze nine stuffed quart bags. Finding organic tomatoes ready to work with upon purchase took some more looking. We found them at the farmer’s market at the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds. One twenty-five pound box yielded 23 pints of our special sauce.
This is half of the zucchini. The box had 50 in all!
This shows the soup before it is pureed.
The after shot where it is ready for a bowl and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
Early in the process–before I look exhausted at the end!
My, how we love this sauce. We are going to try to do two more runs before August ends.
Ready to be stored for the winter months! Yeah!
Vacation!
We recently got back from vacationing in the Pacific North West! The trip lasted just shy of two weeks and we got to visit with lots of family members at Fort Columbia, next to the Columbia River. We had such a great time.
Bike ride at Salem Lake!
We took the boys to Salem Lake on Sunday, with Evan riding his own bike and Grayson riding the tag-along behind Daddy. This was a SEVEN mile trail!
We rode with our friends, Stephanie and Taylor. Taylor was riding her bike, like Evan. We all felt so good to be able to make it all the way around the lake! 
The Last Lecture
Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1)
ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine: A Food Lover’s Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy
Messenger of Truth: A Maisie Dobbs Novel (Maisie Dobbs Novels)
Doctor Dolittle’s Circus
The Dalemark Quartet (4-IN-1)
Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age
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