Saturday, June 3, 2017

Weekly Reflections - Summer Edition...


At Home

It was a week of sowing here on Drywood Creek. Last Saturday, we made a run to a couple of local nurseries, purchasing an apple tree, grape vines, tomatoes, peppers, onion sets, cabbage, many varieties of seeds and annual flowers. Sunday, Riley and I totally overhauled the perennial flower bed along the front of the house, removing every plant. The Farmer and Ruben brought us loads of composted manure that we tilled in. We then divided old perennials and replanted. We also planted our new apple tree in our orchard, bringing us to three apple trees total.






































The perennial bed now looks a little scrawny, but over time, it will grow and fill in, creating a lush scene along the sidewalk. Wednesday, we planted the vegetable garden.  I still need to get the grape vines in the ground. I also want to redo the raspberries this year and think about a potential strawberry bed for next year.



Riley started softball this week. It's always a little unnerving for her, meeting new teammates, but she's played with several of the same girls over the past couple of years, making it less daunting. Overall, it went well and it looks to be a fun season.

Friday, she and I made a 100 mile trek to the neighboring state to a homeschool conference book sale. We found a couple of new treasures, including some Elsa Beskow and Robert M. McClung books. It was a good trip with great books and I really enjoyed Riley's company!

Around the Web

With the nice weather and prime planting season, I haven't spent much time online, but I did enjoy looking at Ryder's Show and Tell posts. Each journal showcased provides a peek into the different personalities of people. I love to see the creativity.

I also love reading other posts regarding curricula we use, such as this Teaching Middle School History Through Literature by a fellow Beautiful Feet user.

Contrived Atmospheres by Nancy Kelly is a great perspective reminder. It put me in mind of this passage by Charlotte Mason in Vol. 6, A Philosophy of Education...
It is not an environment that these want, a set of artificial relations carefully constructed, but an atmosphere which nobody has been at pains to constitute. It is there, about the child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of the earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons and things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense. - Vol. 6, A Philosophy of Education, p. 96
Oh, and I'm dreaming of attending the Summer Soiree with Rea Berg and Greta Eskridge. It's too far across the country to be a reality, but if one is going to dream, they might as well dream big :)

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