Our summer---all 5 days of it so far, depending on how you look at it (Isaiah says summer started on Monday)----has been a hodgepodge of pretty random activities.
1. Marathons
Sew Easy...or Go Easy on the Sewing?
There's the sewing frenzy of the last couple of days in which I pounded out 2 pillow cases and three zippered bags while the sewing machine was 'out' on the kitchen table. The sewing machine has been put away now...and everyone can take a sigh of relief. *sigh*
Bill Nye
But, we're still in the middle of a Bill-Nye-the-Science-Guy marathon and need to watch at least one video each day to make it through our selections before having to return them to the library on Friday. We've all got the theme song stuck in our heads, "Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Bill, Bill, Bill". Catchy, right? Actually, the videos are quite informative and pretty well-made...and Bill is quirky funny. Some of his humor reminds me of another 'science guy' I know....
2. Encounters with Nature
Robin's Egg
Our neighbor found an occupied robin's egg in her lawn and, after a couple of days of warming it with a towel on top of the dryer...and really worrying over it, has passed her little burden onto us. Isaiah couldn't have been more willing to take on the challenge! He quickly got on the phone with Mrs. Chupp, asking if he could borrow her incubator. We have no clue if this will work...and we're actually pretty certain it will fail if it depends on us, but we're giving it a try. If anything, we now know for sure that Isaiah would be in 7th heaven if we decided to hatch chicken eggs. We just need Papa's roost to peck each other to death and then we can raise him a whole new batch (j/k, lol, csg...better get your book out for that last one, Lou).
Baby Spiders
We also came across a bunch of teenie tiny spiders that kept the kids fascinated for quite a while. I eventually had to 'take care' of them because my neighbor absolutely detests spiders and these were on their property line. Poor Brielle! She's on the other side of the spectrum where I'd say she actually loves spiders...and more so lately because we've been reading Charlotte's Web to her at night.
Mr. Frog
Isaiah caught a pretty good-sized frog with his new net today...
Chickadee
And our cat brought in a live chickadee, who survived the ordeal and eventually managed to get out of the house before I got a snapshot of it. I'm just glad it got out alive! Laura Chupp and I were concerned the cat had more than toyed with it. She and I first stumbled on a mess of feathers on the family room carpet and didn't think the bird in question had lived to 'tell the tale'. I did finally hear the chickadee struggling in our skylight an hour later. I couldn't really miss it because it was dropping feathers all over the kitchen floor as it struggled to break through the glass. I think by mistake it swooped down and landed on the counter with a thud. I managed to throw a towel over it (thanks for the tip, Kara) and whisked it away before Kiwi had a chance to pounce on it. Surprisingly, it flew off the deck with no trouble. I now know that birds can spare quite a few feathers if they must...if they happen to get cornered by our prowling, villainous cat.
3. House Projects
Door Handle
After several weeks of having a hole in our front door where the handle once was, we decided we really needed to replace the handle. Although the package the new handle came in says it's brushed nickel, it's not really..or at least doesn't quite match...but I honestly don't care. Andrew saved us a good chunk of money by going with that one..so I'm okay with it.
Now here's the really funny thing. Andrew and I both thought that not having a door handle meant we couldn't get in the house if we locked it from the inside (using what we thought was the dead bolt). We both avoided the front door and used the garage door opener to get in the house so we wouldn't run into this 'problem'. I even thought I had locked myself out over the weekend because I had locked up the house, completely forgetting that Andrew had left with our garage opener. When I realized I had supposedly locked myself out, I went over to the Chupps and borrowed Laura for a half-hour so she could try to fit her hand through the hole to open the lock from the inside. She couldn't squeeze her hand through so we had to resort to me propping her up through our garage window so she could let me in, All along, I could have simply let myself in my slipping my key in the keyhole that was
on a separate piece above where the handle normally is. I could have unlocked the door with the key and simply pushed it open! Wow...now
that's dense! We were all so blinded by our misconceptions that we couldn't see the keyhole before our very own eyes! We thought we were locked out and we simply couldn't see it any other way.
Well, it's still a good thing to have put in a new door handle cuz it's much better than having a hole in our door...and now our minds can no longer trick us to think that we are locked out. ;)
Wall Shelves
Thanks to this great find at a garage sale, and thanks to Andrew's patience with my home decor changes, there's no longer a blank wall over our leather couch in the living room...
4. Learning New skills
Throwing Skills with Mr. Jeff
Mr. Jeff, our neighbor, took it upon himself to teach our daughter how to throw a ball. He worked with her for a good 40 minutes. Here's a video clip of their efforts:
Ironing and sewing with Mom...
Isaiah asked if I could teach him how to sew at bedtime one night and I gladly agreed. It was fun to get him all excited about it!
I know all this randomness could make some heads reel...but I've learned to embrace it. I even find it invigorating! I naturally want to be organized and purposeful and usually dislike being 'last minute' on things, but I've learned that I need to be super flexible in the summers with Andrew off. And so, these last five days capture rather well how summers roll around here: spontaneous activities, work done in spurts, and teachable moments taking precedence over anything else on my so-called agenda.
Not to say that we do not have plans to have any kind of routine...because we do, Andrew as much as myself. BIG plans. Just how much we'll stick to them is an entirely different matter. And we're okay with that...because whether or not the sun will shine, it's SUMMERTIME!!!
Ma maman...so patient, so generous, so constant. 
