The first week of summer (okay it techincally isn't summer, but my kids are out of school, and that's my benchmark) has gone pretty well. Every June I have high hopes that I can teach my kids how to work, and every mid-June, I have thrown my hands up in the air. But this summer I have a new strategy: I developed a "Chore Buddy Chart." I have typical jobs that I do on specific days: Laundry on Monday and Friday, Bathrooms on Tuesday, and Dusting/Wiping on Thursday. And so I have assigned each of the older children a day to be my chore buddy and help with that particular task. The kids rotate days every new week. So far, so good.

My garden is making me anxious. Why aren't those carrots coming up? I planted them a month ago! I even planted a "second planting" two weeks ago, going on pure faith. We were disappointed to learn that the soaker tubes weren't actually watering the areas where the boys had planted their corn and watermelon (Grrr!). I found some other places for their seeds, and they planted again. But it's getting later in the season, so I' don't know if the watermelon will have time to develop well. I'm a little apprehensive for their success. Janey's green beans and squash are coming up, though, and the tomato plants have some flowers, and best of all the apricot trees have fruit on them. So all is not lost.

I finished Killer Angels. What a fabulous read. I want to go to Gettysburg so bad that I'm almost considering driving my family across the country to do it. I want to see Little Round Top and see the ridge that Armistead was able to breach before he died.

And on a final note, Boon Dog passed his Canine Good Citizen test.

We are in

Husband and I are in the midst of Jane Austen immersion therapy. We enjoyed the older BBC version (1985, without Colin Firth) Pride and Prejudice on Sunday and Monday, and last night we watched the 2005 version with Keira and the MI5 guy. Why can I watch this story over and over again and still get excited when Elizabeth finally accepts that she loves Darcy--that he is the ulitimate honorable man--and then lets him know of her affection. I first experienced P&P at my grandparents' house, with Husband. I believe we watched the colorized Laurence Olivier version. I was completely ignorant of the story (even though I had just graduated from college with a degree in English! Some day I will write a list of all the books I didn't read in college but have since found and enjoyed) and I was absolutely delighted with the storyand the characters and the ridiculous costumes, and frankly I found Sir Laurence very amiable. Then I must have read the story and then saw the 90s BBC version, with the diehard's favorite, Colin Firth. I loved it, loved it, loved it. It is one of my greatest joys that I was able to introduce the story and movie to one of my young friends from church, who had been babysitting for me. When she returned the DVDs we talked about it and I told her my favorite part was when Darcy gets out of his pond and is dripping wet as he comes across a very humbled Elizabeth. Perfect. Her favorite part was when he was in the bath, by the way.
We saw the 2005 version in the theater with my brother and sister and their spouses and my parents. I was prepared to be loyal to Colin, but I was wonover by the beautiful music and the extra dramatic license--how he stands in the rain and confesses he loves her and then how they walk towards each other through the misty dawn and he stumbles with his words as he tells her her loves her again, and then finally the Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy kissing scene at the end... (don't mention it in front of my daughters--they will try to ruin it for you). I know dear Jane didn't put any of that in the book, but hey, it works for me.
Husband puts up with all of this very well. It doesn't hurt him that he's extra handsome and adorable and will share ice cream with me as I'm in raptures over lines like, "She is tolerable , I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me," or "I defy Sir Lucas himself to produce such a fine son-in-law," etc.
Well, Husband requires the use of his computer and unfortunately mine is not working so I must be off.

Okay, I finsished Lord of Chaos and than took a few hours to read Uglies. Husband tells me I'm crazy to be reading a series that is permanently unresolved, but I'm so interested in the story and what Rand al Thor is going to do next. I keep hoping for love scenes, but, as I said to Husband, looking for romance in Robert Jordan is like looking for a tomato at McDonalds. You keep thinking you'll find one, but somehow it's elusive.
Goose is still fairly high maintainence. It's my fault, I know I spoil her, but I'm not sure what to do about it. She cries, a lot. I still have to hold her a lot. And she just turned two. What to do.
Janey's black eye is fading to yellowish purple. I guess next week it will be gone.
T-Bone claimed to do 100 sit ups, 100 push ups and 100 jumping jacks yesterday.
Cheeseball made a very cute stick figure (literally) out of popsicle sticks and paper. He even gave him a back pack of sorts, which stored two different types of popsicle stick guns. His preschool teacher says he's the most creative kid in class. (I think she's just trying to butter me up).
Beulah has dropped her allegiance to David Archeleta. She likes Syesha (sp?) the most now. She still does not like Cream of Wheat. Cracked wheat also yields a snarl.
Husband is working on his book again. Now that my recreational reading is all caught up, I'm going to start helping him again.
Well we're off to go horde some oats. I don't like rice very much (except with curries) so I hope to be able to forgo purchasing it while the shortage looms large.

We saw this stranded seal at the tide pools at Point Loma last week. We had gone there at low tide and this poor seal had been washed ashore several hours earlier. The park rangers were there to keep people away, and just as our family left, we saw the the SeaWorld stranded animal team had come to save the day. The seal looked pretty bad; we saw it move its flipper once or twice but I suspect it's swimming around seal heaven now.
Our trip was fun. San Diego was perfect to visit. It's green from the recent rain and there are flowers everywhere.

Beulah was not pleased with cream of wheat for breakfast this morning. Between you and me, I don't like it very much either, but I managed to not yell about how we have it three times a week. (More like three times a month).
I had a mini crisis in Wal-Mart yesterday. I was looking for presents for Goose and I saw a "MyPod" from fisher-price, I think. Goose was immediately interested, "Want it! Want it!" I let her hold it for a while. It looked like fun; it had music features and flashed dots of light into numerals and probably letters, too. But I had seen too many cases of a little tiny person stuck on a little electronic device that they can manipulate, so I said no. We ended up getting her a handheld toy that just plays pretty music and flashes lights in time to the music. I don't mind her loving music--she's just too young and precious to be intimately involved with an interactive device.
Boon really stinks. I hear adds for miracle substances that supposedly remove stench from dog, but I don't think it's possible. Labs just really smell bad, unfortunately.

Janey and I are planning to refinish a boring old cabinet and turn it into a doll house. We have some little furniture pieces ("petite princess") that my mom inherited from Dorothy and we're excited to be able to finally display them. So I went to Wal-Mart and Target today with the hope of checking out generic wall paper only to learn that neither store sells anything besides borders. I'm planning to check out Home Depot tomorrow.

Last night Beulah and I watched A Walk in the Clouds. It was beautiful and sweet. Husband and I first saw it when Beulah was only 2 weeks old. (Husband's mother had come to visit and she was watching the baby). A couple of years ago, we were playing a game of Apples to Apples. I was the Judge, and my card was "Classic." Husband offered the card I chose, which was "Keanu Reeves."

And on a final note. . . . I read on the Round-Up bottle that the outdoor temperature should be at least 60 degrees for efficacy in weed killing. No wonder everything is still perky and green.