Best Read-Aloud of the Summer

I saw a Facebook post asking readers to share their best read-aloud of the summer.  Ha!

I have read aloud the following books.  Usually one a day. Sometimes two.  Sometimes an entire book before breakfast.  Sometimes an entire book after supper.  This 6 1/2 year old's appetite for read alouds is seemingly insatiable!

Our 2020 Summer Read-alouds:

• the A-Z Mysteries (26 books) plus some from the author's other series, 
• Imagination Station (we're on book 12 or 13)
• Primrose Day,  
• the Penny series by the same author, 
• some of the Betsy series, (and we cannot wait for the Eddie series by the same author to arrive via InterLibrary Loan), 
• several Amelia Bedelia books, 
• a few of the Hey Jack series we read over and over 18 months ago, 
• The Children of Noisy Village (Astrid Lindgren), 
• Owls in the Family (how we wish this were a series!), 
• the Sonlight 2020 Summer Bundle for Elementary boys (google "Sonlight Summer Readers" to find their lists for previous summers), which includes
• Mac B., Kid Spy 1: Mac Undercover
• Freddie Mole Lion Tamer
• The Bad Guys, and
• a series worth every penny (Good News for Little Hearts by New Growth Press).

And the summer isn't over! :)

Little Guy has also listened to other people read (from Audible, Libby, and Librivox via Alexa or bluetoothed to his hearing aids - game changer!!) several Boxcar Mysteries, Charlotte's Web, Anne of Green Gables, Mercy Watson (Collection #1 and #2), Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and Mary Poppins.

And that's just the chapter books, not the picture books.  Our lastest favorite picture book (for all three of us!) is "The Biggest Bear," which might lead us down the path to starting a challenge to read as many Caldecott and Newberry winners as possible. :)

I am saving our shelf of chapter books we own for such a time as InterLibrary Loan or even the libraries might close again. :(

What chapter books are you reading?  Do you have any more to go with our list?

Outdoor living

We are spending hours in our backyard this summer!  (In addition to the items in this post, the Lord provided a used slide/ swings / play house for a steal on FB Marketplace.  And we never got a trampoline...)

For the past several summers, we have gone to the park once or twice a day.  It's a lot easier now that everything is in our backyard!  We still go to playgrounds, but not twice a day or even twice a week.

We also go to outdoor church (one of those "Name something you've said in the past four months that would make no sense to someone in 2019" statements).  

When we're in Wisconsin, we spend a lot of time playing in the backyard or on the deck, at the beach, or walking the shore path.

On Sunday afternoons (Jim's day off), we try to go on adventures, to get out in nature and hike a little.  It's harder than you might think to find woods to hike in, but we're expanding our list of places to go. 

We're spending so much time outdoors that I have a farmer tan for the first time in years and I'm wishing I hadn't gotten rid of my handkerchiefs from Japan. I need them to wipe the sweat! :)

Menu of the year

Each year I have a menu. If anyone eats a meal in our home that year, they eat that menu. If they eat a meal in our home in March and also in October, they get the same meal twice. :)

This year's menu is:

Li'l Cheddar Meat Loaves

(Note: there is also a makeover recipe)

Oven-roasted green beans with bacon & Fish Mama Spice

Slow Cooker Garlic and Parmesan Potatoes

Bagged Salad

Playground friends

Playgrounds have re-opened here, and we swim often at a beach at a lake.  But in this strange new world in which we find ourselves, when the children make friends in the water, we moms do a little dance of glancing at each other, and asking if the other one is okay that our children are interacting.   

"Are you okay with my children playing with your children?" 

is not normal, but at this moment in history it is the kind and respectful question to ask. 
So far we have mostly avoided playgrounds when other children are playing at the same time ... until this past Sunday.

We spent the afternoon at a state recreation area, eating our fast food lunch at a picnic table in the woods, hiking a short trail, and then enjoying the main playground, before our ice cream treat. 

Our ice cream was delayed, as we ended up at the playground for almost 1 1/2 hours!

Two other children were playing on the huge play structure when we arrived, and so I asked the parents, as is the new normal, "Are you okay with our children playing here, too?" They said they had just been discussing the fact that they needed to ask us that. 

I had heard them speaking in a foreign language, so inquired, "May I ask what language you were speaking?"

And that started our conversation!  We four talked easily for over an hour, and could have talked all day!   Their 10 year old daughter was like a camp counselor with our two plus her 5 year old brother, suggesting games, playing with them, reminding them of the boundaries, and ensuring everyone was having fun. 

They are not from the U.S.A., but their children were born here.  We switched topics comfortably between school, homeschool, parenting, places to be out in nature, economics, coronavirus, pigs, etc.  Jim would have loved to talk with them more, and I would have, too.  As we were parting, the wife said our time together was a bright spot during the coronavirus for them.  

After we left, I googled the department of a local university where they teach ... and her face is on the front page in a news article reporting on a research project she is leading on COVID-19 research.  They both are involved in really high level research, nothing I could ever understand. But oh, so humble, and kind.  Our time at the playground was a breath of fresh air!

Just a providentially delightful afternoon for all 8 of us!

Monday morning ...

Up in the night two or three times with a needy 3 year old.

Not sure what time it is when the alarm goes off.

Stumble into the bathroom.

Thankful I set out my clothes the night before.

Go downstairs & ask myself why I thought it would be a good idea to schedule weekly summer speech for Little Miss at 8 AM on Monday mornings?!? :)

Boil water for tea.

Eat some fruit.

Oh! Only one more boiled egg in the fridge. Save it for Jim. Fry myself an egg.

While it's cooking, gather breakfast-in-the-car for the children and two water bottles.

Thankful I was able to get the van tire repaired Saturday.
Thankful for a good Sunday of rest, worship, nature, and human interaction!
Thankful that summer speech was an option for Little Miss and that the clinic is open for in-person visits.
Thankful for that 8 AM Monday slot where there are theoretically fewer germs in the clinic than any other time all week. :)

Mini-vacations

One thing I am glad I started around the time that we began staying home in mid-March is following a few Facebook posts that help me relax and take a mini-vacation from our four walls.

One is a page of scenic photography from the region where I grew up.  Just seeing the undulating mountains, the morning mist hanging below them, the old weathered barns with rusted tin roofs, the country roads, etc. relaxes my whole body.

I also started following the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum FB page. During the shutdown, their head security guard "took over" their FB page. His humor makes me laugh, and now that they're open, the FB page continues to have friendly banter between him and the Marketing director. 

What do you do for mini-vacations?  Especially those that are shorter than even 15 minutes with a book?

Corporate Worship

I do not intend to start a debate, as that is happening elsewhere on the internet.  But we all can agree that corporate worship looks different than it used to.

For eleven weeks I think we "met" online.  Then our church started meeting together, alternating inside (with social distancing, and with reservations the first week) and outside (in the parking lot, bring your own chair), depending on the weather.

We have elected to attend in-person when it is outside, due to "comfort levels," one of many new words & phrases that has become a part of our new vocabulary.  [Side note: "You do you, I'll do me," is another phrase I've heard a lot, but it rubs me the wrong way for some reason.]

One week recently when our church was meeting inside, we opted to join a nearby church meeting in the park.  Meeting in-person, even if it's not our home church, was so much more appealing!

After so many weeks of just gathering in front of our TV to "watch church" (another phrase I do not like), it is an adjustment to prepare to go somewhere for corporate worship.  And more than just a "comb your hair & get dressed" adjustment.  Our church provides children's ministry up through 2nd grade (except for one hour during the summers after K & 1st), so our children are not used to sitting in corporate worship with us.

Thus my new Sunday morning list (in addition to the regular Bible, pen, and paper):

• lawn chairs,
• picnic blanket,
• activities,
• song sheets,
• hats for all four,
• headphones (Little Miss cries even thinking of the loud noise before we go),
• water for at least two of us, and
• snacks.

Oh! And shoes for the children, who have become very accustomed to going barefoot this summer. :)

What does your Sunday checklist look like these days?