In the morning, while the boys played Lego's, I was able to finally finish reading an essay from a back issue of The Sun that I had started reading weeks ago, and got interrupted every time I picked it up (I have let my subscription expire and am not allowed to renew it until I've read all of the back issues I've been accumulating for nearly a year).
We played several rounds of Round Up and The Sleeping Grump, then I sent the boys back to the Den O' Lego's so I could sew...finally making our summer book basket.
After lunch, we walked to the mailbox, then, because E was feeling hot and tired again, I laid out our picnic blanket and they drew while I embroidered the word "Summer." Later we read a couple of chapters out of On the Banks of Plum Creek and they resumed Lego's while I started dinner.
It was so nice to just relax and not have anywhere to go or anything to do--it was just like those days off I used to get every week, without the rush to get M's bus. We did not even succumb to the TV temptation. I think I need to work on a scheme to get more days like that, don't you?
Now, as to the summer book basket, inside we have:
and lots of books about bugs and gardens. I'm sorry to say we've read hardly any of them! Between hardly ever being home, reading chapter books at bedtime (the Little House series) and my getting them out so late (I did get the actual books out a few weeks earlier, after we went raspberry picking and needed to read about Little Sal), we just haven't gotten around to it. (Perhaps we need another sick day?).
I'm glad to have all four book baskets done and tucked away, neatly on top of the bookcase at the top of the stairs(see Autumn, Winter, Spring--looking back, I see that all of them, except winter, were completed well into the season in question, so I guess I'm just continuing tradition here). I can picture myself, a lonely old (middle-aged) lady in a couple of years, taking down the seasonal books, reading them to myself (perhaps I'll need to get a cat) while my boys are off driving fast cars or something. Sigh.
What are you reading this summer?
We are also reading On the Banks Of Plum Creek! The Little House books are kind of going slowly for us this time around. I might cut it off after By The Shores Of Silver Lake or I might continue with The long Winter, but that book is soooo depressing; I don't know. I love your boxes. Some summery picture books I like: The Sea House, Three Days On A River In A Red Canoe, Just Us Women (maybe not one for your house).
ReplyDeleteWhat is summer without Blueberries For Sal?
ReplyDeleteWe recently went to the Booth Bay botanical gardens and there is the bear from the book, and the buckets filled with blueberries.
We have recently discovered the Gregor The Overlander series, which I have been reading out loud. My 8 year old loves it.
LSM--I LOVE Three Days On A River in a Red Canoe! Thanks for the reminder. I'll have to see if the library has it (and the others you suggest...and pay my library fine so I can check them out). Hmmm...it's been a long, long time since I read the other Little House books (I only read the Big Woods, Prairie and Farmer Boy to M), so I don't know what to expect (although I am getting nervous everytime Laura says "Grasshopper Weather"...I seem to remember a plague of locusts. Finally! I get foreshadowing!!)
ReplyDeleteLife as I Know it--I haven't seen the new children's garden at Boothbay yet...sounds like we need to get there and see Little Sal's bear. Thanks for the tip! And I'll have to check into the Gregor series for my oldest.
Yeah - we just hit the grasshopper plague part last night. The eggs for tonight, probably. Not that it doesn't serve the Ingalls family right.
ReplyDeleteYup. You are pretty much amazing.
ReplyDeleteI am re-reading Animal, Vegetable Mineral. And just finished Annie Dillard's "on writing," and then Safran Foer's "eating animals" and The Sun and Brain, Child and New Yorker and am now looking for a new good read because I am a book fiend.
My almost six year old's favorite of late is A Fine, Fine School, by Sharon Creech. We're also enjoying Creech's Fishing in the Air. I love Creech's books for older kids, too, like Love That Dog, Granny Torelli Makes Soup, and Walk Two Moons.
ReplyDelete