Hair Cuts

This morning I gave the boys haricuts with my new Wahl clippers. They don't look too bad. A little shorter than I was expecting, but I won't have to cut their hair again until the Spring at least, maybe longer. Viva la doing things yourself!

The Smiling Fox

The Smiling Fox Farm?...Hmmm...that name may have a future. Thanks for the great photo Dad!

Family Day

Whew! This week was a busy one.
Sam was out and about from San Diego to Bakersfield almost all week long with work. He drove over 800 miles over the course of four days, so we did not see him very much. I was busy with the home front, which was busier than normal without Sam. So, today being Saturday, it was family day. We drove down to the Ocean Beach People's Cooperative Market first and enjoyed a yummy vegetarian lunch. Spinach salad, roasted potatoes, pasta salad, and brunch burritos. Sam had a bit of business to do there as well. What with trying to get a coop started right here in San Clemente, they are a wealth of information.
From there we drove over to Balboa Park to the San Diego Natural History Museum. Tristan and Piper have been into dinosaurs for well over a year now and the museum has a good ongoing dino exhibit, and now a 3-D Imax film called "Dinosaurs Alive". Although the movie was good, with neat computer animation, Tristan and Piper had some trouble because the glasses were adult sized. It might have been a good thing that they did not see all the dinos in 3-D and get the pants scared off of them.After the movie, we strolled around the park for a bit. Balboa is one of my favorite places out here. There are street performers and water fountains, gorgeous architecture and wedding parties, joggers and families, and people from all over the world out enjoying the day.












The kids started to get tired, so we packed Bert up and started heading home. On the way home, we got in touch with Jill and met her for dinner, grabbed some coffee afterward, and then went to her house so Tristan, Piper, and Jolyon could see her two cats, Tootsie and Lulu. We finally started to head home around 7:30.
Now we are home, the kids are asleep, and the house is quiet. Time to rest after this busy family day.

Jewels in a Basket

I was thinking about the eggs that our chickens lay each day, and then I pulled them out of the refrigerator to look at them. They are really beautiful. Each one is different, each hen does not lay the same egg twice. Sometimes they are slightly spotted or bumpy, sometimes they are perfectly smooth and uniform in color. They are also precious, life sustaining, nourishment for our bodies. Chickens and cows are probably the two most useful farm animals to keep, as they provide sustenance on a daily basis, and they also can be eaten themselves. But, unlike a cow, chickens are easy to keep. They don't require alot of special care, they do not need to be milked twice a day, and they don't need alot of room. They provide us with entertainment (have you ever seen a chicken run?). I am also waiting for their manure to fully compost so I can start using it in the garden. I hope to always be able to keep chickens. I hope to bring in a few jewels in a basket for the rest of my days.

An October Day at Our House

Today was a pretty productive Monday. I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning, and after that I started the laundry. The dishes had gotten away from me last night, and I could not face them this morning either, so I got the kids dressed and we started school. Tristan did his reading lesson, with lots of moaning and groaning. This makes my heart sad because he loves to be read to and loves to sit down and look through books, and I am such a bookworm, I hope, hope, hope it is just a five year old phase that he will grow out of. Next was his math lesson, which he really likes. There are lots of manipulatives that came with the curriculum and he always wants to make up stories after the lesson using them. Finally he did his handwriting for the day, which he is always happy to do as well. Then it was Piper's turn to learn her letter of the day, which was "M". After our lessons I switched the laundry and we all headed to the backyard. The kids played and intermittenly helped me plant our winter crop of veggies. Broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, arugala, cabbage, cilantro were all started today. I am grateful to the Southern California weather for this reason and this reason only: I can garden all year long and get lots and lots of practice. Otherwise I would be looking forward to the cold winter setting in right now. After lunch, which was peanut butter and honey sandwiches for the kids and leftover pasta for Sam and I, I headed to Trader Joe's for the weeks groceries. Then home for dinner which was my made up creation of some sort of cheesy chicken chili. I tend to make up a lot of stuff for dinner with whatever we had. Anyway, this one was really yummy, and for desert...apple pie. Now it is evening and I must head back and finish my laundry.

Cruisin through Ohio

This is our Suburban. His name is Bert. He is nine years old. I really like him. I hope to have him for a really long time.

On day two of our trip, we left Las Vegas, and headed into Utah. The temperature was in the high nineties all day. We drove through Zion National Park. Beautiful!

After Zion, we pushed on for a few more hours, until about 5:00 p.m. When we found a beautiful campsite in the Fremont Indian State Park. There was a brook that the kids played in, trees, pretty rock formations, and the temperature was cool. After picking out our campsite, Sam drove back to the fee area to pay for our night's stay and to pick up some firewood. Here is where the trouble began. Bert started, then stalled. Sam tried again. Same thing. Then he wouldn't start at all. Finally he did start, but really rough, and Sam limped back to the campsite. After turning the truck off for a minute, Sam started it again, and it wanted to stall again several times. We wondered, battery?...alternator?...electrical? With three kids excited about campsite there is not much time to sit and wonder, so Sam took them for a walk, I started dinner, and sat down to read the day's devotion from my bible. The author told a story about learning to wait on God and trusting him. Her story goes that she and her husband were driving through a game preserve in Africa. Their car broke down in the middle of nowhere, and the husband knew nothing about mechanics. All they could do was sit and wait for someone to find them. After several hours her husband decided to look once more under the hood. He saw that there was a loose cable. I sat there thinking, if only it was something as simple as a loose cable. Well, after a very long and troubled night, it was finally morning, and time to see if we would be going anywhere. Sam had found a Napa Auto Center 15 miles up the road on his Blackberry, and our plan was to drive there. After a prayer, Sam turned the key, and...Bert started. Really rough and not sounding good, but we drove the 15 miles and pulled into Napa. A man named Gayle tested the battery and the alternator. Both checked out fine. Electrical? That would not be good. He poked around a bit, and saw...the battery cables were loose! They were barely on! Loose cables! He tightened them up, the truck started, and we were on our way! I have never had a religious experience so black and white (literally!). Sam & I were so relieved that we laughed until we cried.