Ordinary Time

Many children were able to come out for Labor Day. Food, fun, laughter, though we missed those who had to work. 

Tonight we went to the Kane County Cougars baseball game using the free tickets from our library's reading game. Since it was their next to last game for the season, we were cutting it kind of close. We had fantastic weather, good seats, the Cougars won with some exciting moments in the game, and J. came extremely close to catching a foul ball. His fingers were on it, but he couldn't quite grip it and it ended up a row behind us. He did catch one of the balls they were throwing into the stands after the game, though. Everyone had a great time. L. with the ball J. caught A couple of after game fireworks. K. took a lot, so I've edited them down a bit.

We've been working on making it possible for Y. to learn to drive. She will need to go through various state agencies to make this happen because there is just no way we can pay our of pocket. This has been one of my summer occupations. We are making progress, I think, but it is an extremely slow process.  To anyone who thinks I'm naturally patient, I'm not, but I can fake it when I have to. This morning was one such example. After a very long conversation on the topic, the final question I was asked was whether or not Y. has her permit or her license yet.  I'll just pause while you ponder that. I've been pondering it all afternoon. And then taking multiple deep breaths.  So while I can make a good pass at being patient when necessary, it does mean that my margin for being patient in other parts of life is extremely co-opted. I realize any filter I may have had is virtually non-existent at this point in my life.  And here's my public service announcement for the...

First the clarification. I hope no one was concerned for me yesterday due to my post . That wasn't my intent. I've known the end of homeschooling was coming for the past sixteen years. Because I knew it was coming, I have been actively working to fill my life with interests outside of active parenting (I'll always be a parent, even if my grown children) and homeschooling. I can appreciate the fantastic times we've had (and have yet to have), but I can also be appreciative of having a bit more disposable time. There is a reason my farm and business is Bittersweet. Most things in life are both at the same time. Now the advertisement. Feel free to pass this along to whomever you think might find it useful.  The start of a new school year can be a time of big transitions, especially if you are sending a child off to college. Transitions can be challenging. With this in mind, I'm offering a special package of book three sessions but only pay for two for parents who have ...

Yes, you read that correctly. I am sharing a photo of G. and L. before they head off to school.  School being the community college where J. works. And this was yesterday, I didn't get a picture of Y. this morning, but it wasn't her first ever day of school because she took classes last year. Technically it was L.'s first ever in-person day of school because she took an online Introduction to Archeology class over the summer. But you get the idea.  They are all taking dual enrollment classes which give them both high school and college credit. This is what D. did his last two years of high school as well. Needless to say, with these three being the youngests life is going to look a lot different at home this school year. Those with classes go to school with J. first thing in the morning, stay all day, then come home with him at the end of his work day. There are a lot fewer people around during the day here at home.  The other significant change is that after years, we wo...

I'm sitting here listening to the second round of storms that are passing through, and we might possibly have a third round coming. We desperately needed the rain, so my only complaint is that it could rain a bit longer. J. happened to be walking Kenzie in the forest preserve behind our house when the first round rolled in and got some videos. There are three videos with the storm growing in each one.  He and Kenzie made it back just as the rain was beginning to fall. This next video is from our back porch. Some people were excited and went out in the rain. (Not during the lightening part of the storm, by the way, for my safety conscious readers.) And after the storm, the second round at least. 

We always do some sort of museum trip to kick off our school year. Usually this happens on the day after Labor Day, which, I think, is when school should start. This year is a bit different. A homeschool mom arranged a group price to see the exhibit that's in the area which had an original print of The Great Wave, so I jumped at the chance. Today was our day to go see it. Because we were with a group, we also had one of the museum directors give us an introduction to what we were going to see.  The actual name of the exhibit is Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World at the Mcininch Art Center at the Collage of DuPage. This was a very well done exhibit. The first gallery has the history of the artist and the art form, another gallery had a lot of various prints and other Japanese art. This was where The Great Wave is exhibited. There was a street scene recreating early 1800's Edo (Tokyo) that you could walk through. A third gallery held an immersive manga exhibit because Hokus...

Life has been pretty calm around here. I'm not complaining, but it does make it a little challenging to find things to write about. Drama makes for a better story. Next week things will changed a bit as we head into a different schedule. I think everyone will be relieved by this as time has seemed to be hanging heavy for more than a few. (Not me, I should add. Having nothing on the calendar fills me with glee and I am more than capable of filling that time.)  Thus, this may be the last photo based post for a while because the more people do things, the more there is to write about. We'll be back to my 1000+ word posts before you know it.  In lieu of so many words, here are a few photos from this morning in the barn. First, a sparrow egg that I found on the ground.  They are teeny tiny eggs. And the side where the hatchling emerged. I just hope this next round of babies managed to stay in their nests. And next is just a sun-bathing rooster. Note the outstretched leg. ...

As I mentioned, last week L. and I tried to take advantage of the Adler Planetarium's free Wednesday night deal, but after four plus hours of driving the best we could do was to see the outside of the museum before heading back home. Last night we made our second attempt. We did things a little differently this time. First, before getting tickets, I checked the Soldier Field schedule to double check there weren't any more huge events. Second, we parked at my sister-in-law's house in the South loop. (No, I don't know either why we didn't do this the first time. In fact somewhere along Michigan Avenue last week I was realizing the magnitude of that missed opportunity.) These two things made for a much different... and significantly more enjoyable... outing.  The walk from my sister-in-law's is about twenty-five minutes to the Adler. It's a lovely walk along the south side of Grant Park and then along the museum campus. After you go around the Shed Aquarium, yo...

Since H. and R. had picked so many apples on Friday and they were covering most of our counters, it was time for J. to begin his cider pressing activities. He has kind of fine tuned the process this year to make it more efficient. This is a good thing because the apple trees are loaded. Step one is to grate the apples in a food processor. The next step is to press them with that guillotine-shaped thing there in the center of the table.  J. has it set up so that it has a jack pushing down a block of wood inside the strainer which is holding the grated apples. The key piece to this is the paint straining bag that holds the apples inside the strainer. It is so fine that only cider can come out. Plus they're cheap and washable.  The strainer is sitting in a foil pan with a spout cut out of it. In probably about an hour J. processed all the apples that had been picked and had about two gallons of cider. These early apples that he's using are pretty tart which makes a great tasting ...

Yesterday I had promised L. that we would go to the Adler Planetarium and take advantage of their free Wednesday night for Illinois residents policy. I even sprang for tickets to a  star show because I didn't have to pay an entrance fee. The budding astro-physicist was extremely excited.  Our tickets were for entry after 4:00 pm and our show tickets were for 8:15. We left at around 3:20 figuring that even with bad traffic on 290 (the highway into the city from the western end) that we would be at the Adler by 5:00. That would give us plenty of time to wander before the show. I've done this particular trip numerous times and I have my timing down pretty well at this point.  Until I didn't. You see, in the fall or on the weekend, I know to check the Soldier Field schedule because it can be impossible to get to the museums in sports or concert traffic. But a Wednesday not during football season? It never crossed my mind. (And there was certainly no alert on the Adler's web...

For P. and D., that is. Both P. and D. have jobs in downtown Chicago now and both have been commuting from the far western suburbs. I think it's safe to say that both are also very much over commuting into the city from the far western suburbs. For much of the summer, they have been looking for apartments that are in Chicago, close to the Red Line, have three bedrooms, at least one parking spot, and has rent that they, plus a friend of D.'s, can afford. They finally managed to find something and were approved this past week. Their lease begins on August 1. It's an exciting new step for both of them. Of course, the jostling for P.'s room here at home has already begun. We're actually going to let P. get moved out before we begin addressing that conundrum.  And P. gave me permission to share a couple of photos of her at work. She is a deck hand on one of the tour boats on the Chicago River through downtown, and sometimes deck hands are allowed to do some steering unde...

This should probably have been titled, "Lots and lots of sunset pictures". The sunsets on the western side of Michigan overlooking Lake Michigan are particularly stunning.  These photos are all by K.  And J. took this of the photographer himself.