A Place Like This......

Crumbled.......

At 7:30 PM three children came bounding in the back door with a proclamation. "We have entered the Edible Book Contest at the library." "Fantastic!  When is the due date?" I inquired. Tomorrow at 3:30.

Now that changed things a bit. After a hurried trip to the store, the kitchen came alive with the making of our very own "bookish" cake creations.

While three very large sheet cakes, in a variety of flavors were baking in the oven, the three amigos were making their very own marshmallow fondant.

                          

      

                          

As things bubbled and baked, book inspired designs were chosen, and all was tucked in for the night when we would work in earnest to prepare and ready things for the next day.

        

                                 

The Next Day.......were delivered two lovely cakes. One Peter Rabbit and one map of the Hundred Acre Wood.

         

                          

                          

The Very Next Day after that........the girls took second place for their Peter Rabbit cake.

      

Moral of the story.....you can have your cake and eat it too. My feet, however, still stick to my kitchen floor and yes, I would do it all over again. In fact ,we have already started thinking of next years master pieces.

I Discovered Guernsey

                

I entered this day to yet another incredible thunderstorm. Though it slacked off some, we were met with even more liquid sunshine later in the day. After a morning of incredible creating activity, the afternoon gave itself and me a little breather and so I sauntered over to my favorite bookshelf. The one with all of the books I want to read.......and I picked one.

Honestly, I had never heard of Guernsey. Yes, it's true. I've visited over 30 countries and had heard of various British Isles but the Channel Islands had skipped my attention. That was until I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society."

             

::" I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers." Juliet Ashton ::

Now I have just spent an afternoon discovering new friends, in a new place, all remembering how books got them through a very difficult time during the German occupation in WWII. I was completely charmed and beguiled by this wonderful story. Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. I truly didn't want this story to come to an end. I wanted it to go on forever. I now feel that I am apart of their story and each time one of us reads the book we continue the legacy of the Potato Peel Pie Society.

After my special afternoon of reading  all I can say is that there is a homing beakcon pointed at Guernsey. I must go and visit and see if Juliet,Dawsey,Kit, Isola and all of the others are there.

I would like to know if you have read this book and what you thought of it ? Is there anyone from Guernsey ? Has anyone ever been to Guernsey or the Channel Islands ?

A Midsummer Weekend

 :: A firefly light show.

                                                

:: Celebrating in a Swedish way.

                           

:: A friendly father's day barbeque.

                       

                        

:: Designing the next project.

                       

                        

   

:: A kitchen filled with midsummer yummies.

                       

                       

                       

:: Knitting for change.

                       

:: Flower picking.

                          

Taking advantage of the midnight sun or at the very least the extra hours of daylight, I truly do not think we could have squeezed one more thing into this weekend.

One of the great highlights.....seeing the fireflies. "It's Starting." Look!!! "Wow, how beautiful!" Isn't it amazing?" This was the chorus of onlookers to our incredible fireflies of the Smoky Mountains. In mid-June and lasting for one week, the fireflies start-up at about 10 pm nightly. They have 6 seconds of darkness then in perfect synchronicity, 1000's of fireflies light up 6 times in a row rapidly, within a three second time period......and then.......they turn out the lights for another 6 seconds. It isn't limited to just the National Park either. Many of us have small clouds of fireflies in our yards which have the synchron action going on. It truly is a sign that summer is here. Oh how we love the weekends.

                        

Happy MidSommar

   

The light has returned to it's fullest. Today, is the day of the midnight sun, it is the longest day of the year. And so we celebrate.

with flowers,

                         

                                                

music & dancing

        

         

       

      

and feast

                     

        

       

Happy Midsommar everyone!

        

Wreck This Journal:week 3

Here we are at week three already. It has been just wonderful seeing everybodies journals. I felt so inspired after seeing how many of you are artfully wrecking your journals. So I gave my self a pep talk. No inhibitions and please Valli girl , use color.

And use color is what I did. It was my theme this week. Here's a look:

                                 

                                               

                      

And the funnest page of all was that which I spilled coffee on. I wrote the directions on how to make Turkish coffee. Why? you ask. Well how else am I going to read my fortune in the bottom of the cup.

                     

  

A Real and True Howler

The last few days have seen thunderstorms like I have never seen before. Dark omber clouds dumping inches of rain, wind, and hail. Up north of us a bit there was even a tornado. Last evening I was driving in such a storm and returned to a house with no electricity. That's ok.... we had a fun candle lit evening.

This morning, however, brought new realizations. Pistol creek and Sandy Springs over ran their banks last night. The blue heron nest that I've been watching for weeks has been severely damaged. The new arrivals have decreased by one. So now there are only three little faces to greet us.

                       

                     

                     

     

    

    

A phone call from best friend Susie brought the story of a large tree down in their yard.

                                     

  

                 

I was hoping that last night was the end of the storms but it was not. We have spent all afternoon ducking storm warnings and watching as the rain fell, the wind blew, and thunder and lightening cracked over head. Let's hope these scary storms end sonn.

Let Us Eat.......

Cake ? No not cake but bread pizza. One of the items on the summer list is cooking. Mimi is an able bodied chef but young brother "O" is wanting to learn to cook "family favorites." How thrilled was I when we got the latest edition of the summer Book of Days? I had forgotton about our old family stand by, the french bread pizza.

It was a classic growing up. We would usually make them on Sunday. Mom would buy either french bread, hoagie rolls, or english muffins. It was one of my first memories of cooking in the kitchen. Mom would line up all of the ingredients in little bowls and dishes and we would take our bread and make our pizza as we went through the line. At the end was a cookie sheet just waiting to hold our edible creations.

Ok, I didn't line the ingredients up as cute as mom did but we had just as much fun. They tasted so good and it was wonderful to all be in the kitchen together making dinner. So Thanks Blue Yonder Ranch gang for bringing back a classic.

        

    

   

    

    

Wreck this Journal Friday

So here we are.....Friday.....that means it's time for Wreck this Journal. It was a very surprising journey this week. Some pages just terrified me. Like "Place Sticky Things Here," and "Do a really ugly drawing using ugly drawing material such as poop." I didn't realize I had a comfort zone concerning certain things so I was thankful for the discovery. This said I ventured to a couple of pages that I did feel comfortable doing. I didn't start at the beginning. I started numbering the pages as I finished them. This will not be linear numbering. So I thought that was kind of fun.

Here's what I got done this week.

Paper chains revisited from my Youth.

    

                         

A Bon Voyage Envelope doodle.

    

     Fruit Stickers. This will be a work in progress.

     

      

I get around!!!!!

   

Why not stop by and see what everyone else is doing.

The Summer List

Pancakes are made. Three children sitting around the table, and I with my pen and paper to write it all down.

        

It is a long standing tradition of making a list of what we want to do during the summer.. There are usually way many more things to do than there are days of summer,but that doesn't matter. Dreamin's free so dream big. The intention is always the same, however, and that is to make sure that we do not say goodbye to summer feeling that we haven't "lived it well."

                              

This year's list contains the usual hiking, biking, swimming.

• It also includes some reconstruction of fairy houses, in trees this time. 
• Tables, chairs, workbench,flag and "deck stuff" are to be lovingly constructed for the treehouse.
• Campfires which include s'mores,songs, and spooky stories.
• Learning how to cook family favorites
• Watching fireflies turn on and off. Did I mention in a group? not us ,the fireflies.

Book Jumping (More on this later)

"O" boy will finish writing his book"Arnold the Nerd."

Gardening

Putting up the harvest.

Working at Children's Hospital

What kind of birds are those in our backyard?

Traveling to far away lands.

Learn Hindi.

And..........The Big Project.

There is always the "Big Project". Remember last years big project? One of the requirements for the project is that is takes more than one person to pull it off.....usually a whole village. It's learning how to work in a team and be inspired by the group. This year we were greatly inspired by the box car over at Wisecraft and the Buffy Porson.

                             

Luckily, we ran into a copy of this great book at our used bookstore. It's fate!:) The dreaming has begun, modifications are being made, supply lists be written,helpers being contacted.In our spare time we have named our new creation to be "The Little Red Ride". There have been many drawings fashioned and drawn for us to model our car after. Some of us are so excited we can't even sleep.

                             

                          

                         

We are happy to be participating in This Vintage Chica's Summer Unschool this summer. For us the most important thing about "Unschooling" is the idea that the kids direct and choose their "learning" experiences . We are so happy to be sharing this journey with so many wonderful blogging families.

Welcome to the first days of Summer!!!!!!

                      

Summer Kick-Off

Ah Yea.......summer is here. All of the kids are out of school and yesterday was the first day of summer vacation. Little boy "O" and many of his friends were invited to a swimming party to kick summer off properly. I've never seen my boy so tired. He could barely keep his eyes open long enough to make the ride home.

Happy Summer Everyone!!!!

Coming Soon, the Summer List. A great a wonderful family tradition.