Idle hands.....

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its life believing it is stupid. -- Albert Einstein- A friend posted this today on facebook and I just thought I would share it.  It's very true and something I believe.  We all are bright and capable people, we just need to encourage a love for learning and doing.  We need to try to do things, even if they are hard.  This is a little thing we often tell our daughter.  When she tries something new sometimes she says, "I can't!"  Hogwash!  yes you can, you may not be an expert but you can do it. 

I often think we all have an inner artist, but society puts restraints on us, shackling us into their confines and ideas of what is and isn't.  Constantly telling us we aren't good and only those that appear famous or are famous and will be famous when their dead are artists.  NO!  My heart still breaks when I think about the little 5 year old boy in our homeschool group that stopped coloring after another child told him he didn't color right.  I often hear myself telling little ones, you can color it however you want, in your world it might be purple grass.  Lines are ok, but we don't always need those boundaires which sometimes make little sense to little hands.   We each are artists, just as we each are scientists, naturalists, farmers, teachers....  we need to just open our minds up to that fact and step out of the box someone else has put us in.  Ok, off my soap box.  :-)


Sarah's Plate of yummy goodness



What a busy time we are having.  Birthdays, cleaning, getting ready for a trip to Oregon, school preparations, and more.  One day this week I canned, in my pressure cooker (Thank you Christine!!!), 14 pints of green beans.  Yummy!  I need to make relish today or tomorrow and get the food dehydrator ready for apples and herbs soon.  I may try some other foods too.     I also need to make jam, apple sauce, and may even try my hand again at pickles for the two pickle lovers in my family.  One day this week was just a bar-b-que kind of day and we had fresh green beans, mashed yukon potatoes, grilled steak marinated in oliver oil and a steak rub and dilly bread.  We then we ate outside like kings!  It was fun and I really don't know why we don't make a habit of it.  Sarah loved it, we all relaxed and it's something we need to do.  We need to slow down more often.  It would be good for us.  Speaking of which I am hoping we can pitch the tent and "camp" on the back 40, LOL, in the next couple weeks, maybe after Oregon.  Fire up the fireplace, use lanterns, the whole nine yards.  Have a great learning experience. 

Last week or the week before we entered a contest to win some character building flash cards, We Choose Virtues.  Thank you, Homeschool Distractions for giving us the opportunity to win these cards and use them in our Year of Virtue Training as part of preschool this year.  THANK YOU THANK YOU!  Check out both the web site for the cards and the blog, Homeschool Distractions.  I think it will work very well with our approach we are using for homeschool.


Sheldon's Super Cape



I have been busy making aprons and super hero capes for birthdays and nature bags too.  Last week we had two birthday parties, one on Sunday helping Dakota turn 4 and since she is a homeschooled girl too, I made a nature bag for her similar to the one I made Sarah.  Sunday last week we then helped Leah turn 5 and to go with her baking set I made her an apron, not near as elaborate and fancy as the one I made in July and then today we helped Sheldon turn 3!  I made him a super hero cape.  It was fun, a few mistakes but people actually thought I bought it!  So that was a compliment I think.  Now my little adventure girl wants a cape also so we will be going to the fabric store soon and picking out her cape colors. 

Have a blessed day tending your garden!