Slow Motion?

After these past few weeks of so much activity and advancement for the projects we've been doing the past few days seem to have gone in slow motion by comparison.  We've had to adjust our schedule to returning to a daily school routine and then try to make time around this for finishing the kids bathroom.

Since so much requires Kevin's help for me now to get the last of it put together that also means waiting for evenings when he's home from work.  So for our updates:

School- Cameron has volunteered to help with Science lessons and the History program I planned for Hannah. It is a combination of a unit studies, that I do with her, and a Drawing/Writing lesson that he helps with.  It is really nice to have the extra help!  This study begins with Creation so their initial drawings are of things created each day.  I was totally impressed with what each has managed to produce and with Cameron's patience at showing each step of the process.

Hannah's first attempt on the left - not bad!

Lauren is now beginning the process of reading since her language skills have improved to the point she's ready.  So once more we break out our very well used Sing, Spell, Read and Write Phonics program! I've used it to teach all my kids and loaned it out to 3 other families in between Cameron and Hannah for their school programs.  Needless to say the videos are probably on their last student. The sound and picture are definately showing their wear, still those same annoying yet catchy songs  do the trick  : )   I'm just hoping it will hold out until Lauren grasps the full concept of matching the phonics sounds to the words she needs to read.  What I've always loved about this program is it deals with so many of the exceptions that English has to letter pronuciation.

Bathroom Project- Kevin installed the new faucet last night. I'm pleased with the look and it is a HUGE improvement over the poor old one that had lost much of it's metal finish over the years from trying to scrub the hard water off and eventually wearing the finish off as well. Will have to find less abrasive way of keeping this one clean!!

Liking the new faucet : )

Garden- I pulled the dead giant sunflower stalks and dried up corn stalks out of the garden. I'll wait until the sun is a little less intense to begin another planting in the bare areas.  Had to peel back the bird netting too to try and let them help with some annoying little beetles that are taking a toll on my Kohlrabi.  Since I don't have seedlings right now they can uproot the birds should be a help rather than an hinderance in the garden.  Had to show my giant zucchini that at this rate will take over the whole garden!  It's been a great producer though so can't complain.  As some of my old posts show I have been quite creative in trying all sorts of new zucchini recipes and am finding it a wonderful addition to many foods and meals.

Garden sans sunflowers and corn- ready for new plantings

Monster Zucchini

Finally - I've had the girls pulling sunflower seeds out of the now dried out flowers to roast when the weather cools and to save for seed later. They can't believe how many seeds we have from those few they planted in the ground.  With so many more to still put in the ever growing bag of seeds I think they'll be happy when we process the last one.  I told them later we'll plant more sunflowers in the yard for the birds to enjoy the seeds from giant flower heads.  They seemed to like that idea.