Mon., Jun. 2 - Fri., Jun. 6

Here is what our week has been like so far. On Monday I called Mom, returning her phone call from the day before. After making a menu and list, we grocery shopped as a family! Woah, it was a HUGE bill, this being the first ‘normal’ grocery shopping trip since we moved in … then 3 ½ weeks previously. In the evening I made salsa and Pampered Chef’s Family Burrito recipe for supper. Jeremy had a rare “preachers & elders” meeting; they are working on plans for a state-wide event Grandview is hosting in the fall.

Twenty years ago, or so, Mom and Dad (for Christmas, I believe) gave me a cook book put out by Better Homes & Gardens. It’s called something like, “Kids Mix and Fix Cookbook”. I’ve decided to start planning some of the little recipes into the menu because Natasha requires very little help from me; additionally, she and Justus work extremely well TOGETHER to accomplish making meals together!!!!!!!!!!! This is a HUGE excitement for me. So, on Tuesday, N & J made peanut butter & banana sandwiches for lunch! After Jeremy got home, we got to make a hospital visit as a family. This, of course, had to include getting ‘lost’ in the city (all three major hospitals in town are downtown – argh), making us lose enough time that we decided to eat out that night since cooking supper would have had us eating after 9:00 p.m. Before our bedtime routines, Jeremy & Justus built a(nother) new book shelf & the small charcoal grill we bought, while N & I planted flower seeds. It was warm and humid, so the fireflies were out like crazy; I caught one for N, much to her delight.

On Wednesday I did a bunch of house cleaning. When we were talking about N & J making lunch and they were discussing what to make, Justus was asking about one recipe. He asked, “Do we have all the degredients?” It didn’t work out for them to make lunch, but it was N who put supper together, “Antipasto Salad,” our first time having it; we will enjoy it in the future with one or two easy changes; I am always happy to find easy recipes that can be eaten ‘later’, and are cool … for meals mostly in the summer! We had to stay awake late into the night, huddled in the basement watching tornado warnings on TV That rotating supercell missed us by about 54 miles.

The children presented me with a two-page spread (banner paper!) love letter on Thursday morning. The front says, "For Mom," with a picture of a tiny 'house' and an outline of a black tornado beside/over it. Inside, it reads (in N's handwriting), "We love you sooo much! Thanks a lot for staying up like that! We hope you had a good night of sleep. Thanks again for staying up! J (backward ampersand) N" The picture on the other side is of five houses in a row and a big, swirly (like scribbles) tornado beside them. Throughout the week, plans had changed enough that the groceries we had purchased on Monday were not going to meet the new needs, so I made a ‘quick-trip’ to supplement our supplies. Jeremy grilled fish on the new charcoal grill. Our old propane grill is still functioning, but Jeremy has decided he rrrrrreally likes the flavor of charcoal grill best. Since we grill so much, and the kitchen/back porch situation in this house is perfectly-suited for grilling, we are happy we made that purchase!! I did three loads of laundry into the wee hours, carefully watching the weather on both TV and the Internet, while IMing and telephoning with “weatherman” Travis, while we watched a rotating supercell that missed us by twenty miles. I did NOT want to wake up the family until I KNEW we needed to be down here. Argh

Today was Friday. Jeremy and Justus put a new battery in Elaine’s car so we are a two-car family again. (Thankfully it gave us good warning it was going out so there was no awful emergency.) Once Jeremy got the hood open, Justus stood with hands on hips and asked, “So, where is the alternator in this thing?” Then, a super-wonderful event happened. We got to meet the family of a friend I have known previously only from the Church of Christ Homeschoolers’ list I am a member of. They are in town this weekend for the NICHE (Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators) homeschool conference, and we got to meet. We had a rrrrrreally nice time together, and look forward to spending more time together. A few other errands were run this afternoon before we returned home. Supper tonight was at the Longfellows’ house with the Walkers (and was a pleasant and joyful time of much unplanned singing), so since I didn’t have to cook, I used that hour beforehand to work with the children, clearing the garden spot. I think it’s not possible that it was tilled at all last year, or tended to at all in the last two years, so it is much overrun with weeds, and wonderful ‘browns’ (dead, mostly decomposed leaves) for the compost bin. Haha THANKFULLY the temperature and humidity were ssssssssso nice today. Of course warmer than I prefer (since it’s not October thru April, here… November thru March in Tucson … September thru May in Bozeman), but totally manageable. We got about ½ of the way through the garden-clearing work in the hour we worked. I hope it stays cool enough for me to finish this project and get the garden in within this next week!!!!! That’s my plan.

And now, the pictures of our days with Sc & Am in Alb. Enjoy!