Fri., Apr. 18 - Mon., Apr. 21

Friday I got some packing done. Yay. A start. A couple quick errands were accomplished in the afternoon. During J’s nap, N wrote a dramatic production, yes – on paper, and set up the ‘stage’ and ‘props’ in the back yard (all this with zero prompting from me, please know). When J awoke, he read through it and agreed to do it with her for me. They greatly enjoyed it and I completely had a blast watching them. I wish I could detail the funniness and creativity of it all. One thing I have to write about is N’s costume when she went from her role as ‘space ship command control’ to that of ‘alien’ on the ‘moon’, which ‘astronaut’ Justus met upon landing there. During Justus’s landing moments, N snuck around behind me and slipped a tomato cage over her head, upside-down (so the pointy ends that stick into the ground were pointing to the sky). The rest of the play had her in this alien suit (heehee), and then when the play was over and we went back into the house, she forgot she still had the costume on! When she realized she’d forgotten to take it off she hooted & we all just laughed!!

I spent much time on the phone with Jeremy on Friday; this is the day he had arrived in Omaha, where he felt good enough to take a break from the monotony of driving to spend some time with loved ones there. It just so happened that he and I had lots of little things to talk about at different times during this day; it always makes me happy to get to talk to him so much even when we’re far apart in distance.

Friday was the day I tried a new zucchini recipe; it’s from “The Yeast Connection” book, many of whose recipes I am anxious to get going on. At any rate, the recipe is inexpensive and easy to make. I was SHOCKED at how delicious it is, especially considering it has only five ingredients. Natasha (our more-adventurous eater) wasn’t terribly excited about trying it, once she heard the ingredients (zucchini, butter, milk, eggs, salt), but once her first tiny bite hit her tongue she exclaimed, “MMM!!” I said, “I know! I was surprised, too!!”


Zucchini Florentine

6 sm. zucchini (washed and cut in ¼” slices)
2 T. butter
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put zucchini in 1 ½ qt. casserole dish; dot with butter.
Bake 15 minutes.

1 c. water or milk (I used milk.)
3 slightly-beaten eggs
1 t. salt
Combine. After zucchini has baked the 15 minutes, remove from oven.
Pour the milk mixture over top. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Set casserole dish in a shallow pan with one inch hot water.*
Bake for 40 minutes until knife comes out clean.

*Note: I baked this in the 9x9” Pampered Chef stoneware so I wasn’t about to put the hot stoneware in water!!!!!!!!! (I hesitated to pour the milk mixture in there, but made sure that by the time the liquid hit the hot, dry stoneware it had already rolled over the hot zucchini – to at least warm the liquid…. It turned out fine 4 me, but was a mite scary for a minute there!) I put ½” of water in a jelly roll pan (18”x13”x1”) and set that on the oven rack that happened to be on the bottom level.


Alas, no, the zucchini I used didn’t come from the garden; I bought it. HOWEVER, here are pictures of our beet adventure on Wednesday.




I also must post some pictures I took of us biking together on the Saturday the Balderramas were with us! I am so thankful for hand-me-down bicycles!!!!!

(This is one thing I will definitely miss about AZ: the beautiful, unique flowering plants. The plant below is a "Bottle Brush". I took this picture while blowing by on my bicycle; I'm so happy it even turned out!! lol)

[This is another thing I will miss, I expect: our nice family-friendly neighborhood here. Most-everyone is friendly, the drivers are careful, and there are remarkably many things for children to do, right here on these five streets. The picture below shows how easy it is for children to safely bicycle, the four-square game (a child is standing in the center of it), the basketball hoop, the play equipment, and the park. I didn't plan this picture to illustrate this point, but it certainly does a good job of it, eh? I think it's *possible* we might not miss this neighborhood once we get to Des Moines, depending on the level of wonderfulness of our living situation there.]

And, while I'm posting pictures, here is one I took of our car at night, parked facing the street on sloping drieway. Interestingly, the interior of this vehicle has, we think, almost exactly the same amount of space as the Rodeo has. Huh!!

On Saturday I had some more running to do. We spent a little bit of time with two church families who had asked us to ‘come by’ so they could give us stuff to help with our move. One family gave us boxes (THANK YOU!) another gave us a card … which we later discovered held a HEFTY check and words that moved me to tears. (sigh) While we were out we also hit the P.O. and the Library. We got home in time to bike together a little bit, and after that I walked the dogs while the children biked in circles around me. Heehee Jeremy arrived safely in Des Moines and began working to get his office set up; there was very little house hunting he could do, having arrived in D.M. on Saturday afternoon…. No problem there; he needed to rest up anyway!!!!! And WHAT a wonderful Sunday he had, too! (His birthday, additionally) The elders have arranged for him to have two Sundays ‘off’ before he is to start preaching. What a blessing is Jeremy’s, finally, to have the privilege of sitting in the pew listening to someone else’s thoughts, for once; there has NOT been enough of that in the past 19 months. Jeremy will have many opportunities to enjoy this very type of blessing at Grand View, since his preaching responsibilities are FAR fewer than they were at M.V. … so much healthier – for everyone.

The children and I had an interesting Sunday, for sure! Brothers and sisters at Palo Verde had passed through Jeremy a message for me to take the children out there and see them one last time before we go. We were happy to do so, though it meant an early morning. It didn’t help that N was malfunctioning badly … and had been since the night before. (sigh) Thankfully we got that all ironed out (a-hem) before we left and she was back to her sweet self … uggh. P.V. was hosting a fund-raising lunch for the camp, so I was happy not to have to cook. And then I got even happier when my (one) homeschooling friend in Tucson, Jeanne H., offered to pay for our lunch. And THEN, since we were discussing homeschooling math curriculum options, she invited us to head to their house for a little while after lunch so I could rifle through the stuff she has (Math-U-See, Singapore Math, and Miquon, my current top-three preferences). She is an extremely interesting person to listen to because of her stories about how dyslexia has shaped their family’s life experiences. Her husband was in special ed all through school. Gifted, but not in reading – so the teachers thought he was dumb; they told him in high school, “You should just prepare to choose a menial labor job.” He disagreed and instead got a Ph.D. After barely-graduating high school (His parents coached him, “Don’t worry about your grades, just perform your best and do the time.”), he attended a junior college, and then university. He is currently an engineer for Raytheon. Both of their children showed some pretty serious dyslexia symptoms early-on, and for reasons NOT EVEN RELATED TO THE DYSLEXIA, had learned to absolutely HATE reading by the time they were in 1st and 3rd grades, at which time they were pulled from public school and have been homeschooling extremely-successfully for the past four years. Jeanne, herself, is a former public school teacher; her method of homeschooling is much more school-like than ours has been. They just had their children take the CAT, I think it’s called, the California Achievement Test…?? Her son is just finishing 7th grade and scored “PHG” (Post High School Graduate) level in almost every area. Her daughter, 5th grade, scored PHG in something like 3 or 4 areas!! And they seriously spend maybe 4 hours a day “doing school”, including the time Jeanne spends reading out loud to them. They use a curriculum called Sonlight (very familiar to homeschoolers), which I am seriously considering starting up with N next fall….. Hmmmm….. I first started learning about Sonlight when N was (catch this!) but three years old!!! Justus wasn’t even born yet! Lol So, as you can tell, it’s been in my mind marinating for a while. ;)

There is something so comfortable and reassuring to me about being in the homes of fellow homeschoolers. Additionally, my eyes are practically *frantically* absorbing everything I can about their layout and organizational methods, etc. One thing I’m seeing often, that seems extremely wonderful and wise to me, is the idea of having a table, IN ADDITION TO the family’s dining/kitchen table, where school projects can be laid out and worked on and not have to be packed up, necessarily, before every meal. The trick is this: most houses aren’t equipped for such a lay-out, though more and more newish houses do seem to have two living areas. (More “Hmmmm…..”)

The current plan is that for the remainder of our time here in Tucson we will be visiting other congregations in the city. I won’t detail our thinking here online, but it seems for many reasons that this will be best. SSSSSO, we won’t be attending Sunday evening services or Wednesday mid-week services for the next couple weeks. That will be not-so-nice, but with the other congregations ssssssso far away, it just doesn’t make financial or scheduling sense. When the children and I got home on Sunday we crashed into naps and didn’t move until around 7:30!!!!! GOOD GRIEF!! (alarm blip). In the evening we ate a light supper and packed up boxes from the children’s rooms!

Today was Monday. The only thing that HAD to get done today was to get Elaine from the airport. Well, she missed a connecting flight (not her fault) and ended up flying in 2 hours later than was originally expected, which completely threw off … the entire day. This is why it’s so important to be flexible, riiiight?? The children and I ended up ‘killing’ the waiting time eating lunch in a nearby Denny’s. It was unexpected but very pleasant. Happily, we had taken the bag of library books on this trip, so it was a q-u-i-e-t ride both ways. A couple errands were run on the way home. Then I washed and sliced strawberries while the children biked … and let every single one of the neighborhood children (it seems) take a turn on our two children’s bikes, the only two ones out today. Then we rode around the neighborhood; then I walked the dogs. Chewie is now able to use the Gentle Leader we purchased for Kiana all those months ago, so it is easier than ever to walk him. Of course, he isn’t enjoying it as much as he did, since he isn’t used to it yet, but … our walks aren’t for his *enjoyment* as much as they’re for his physical and submission/following exercise. We got to have Strawberry Shortcake after supper. Three loads of laundry were accomplished today, Jeremy looked at two or three houses in D.M., as he begins tearing up stumps to find our house, and I did some cleaning in preparation for a bunch of serious packing tomorrow. (Donna and Shirley are coming over to help!! Bless them!!)