Thursday, June 26, 2008

Soap Cutting Today

Today I cut my recent batches of soap. Lavender and Oat and Grain. They start out as a twelve pound block of soap that is then cut into three logs. The bars are cut out of the logs to get the final size. Every bar is unique because they are cut by hand with a knife. Often, I think about getting a special tool to get more precise measurment of each bar and a uniform appearence, but then realize that it is a labor of love and makes each one special.


Monday, June 23, 2008

The Greatest Vacation Bible School Ever!



This was a great week. Nathan got to enjoy being at a Bible School Day Camp that helps children learn to trust themselves, others, and God. They were given the opportunity to ride horses, swim in the lake and creek, play in the woods, climb towers, use various zip lines, and swings and ropes hanging in the trees. They were encouraged to safely explore situations that could be frightening and grow in faith and trust.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Garden Update

What can you say about gardening in Mississippi except that it can be a very daunting task...You get fooled into believing that it is spring time, then all of a sudden it is winter again, then it bounces between hot and cold for a time and wham-bam summer hits in full force and it is 80 degrees at 7:00 in the morning and 90 degrees until nearly sunset. So with that said my experiment continues. My first run with tomatoes failed because they were damaged by a late frost and I do not think they will recover. The second set of tomatoes are doing beautifully and so far there are at least 10 beautiful tomatoes several as big as my palm. The peppers that were planted are okay but not thriving. The cucumbers are struggling and may recover...time will tell. The eggplant is hanging in there. The herbs are doing very well and it has been nice to have fresh herbs to use in cooking.




Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Bugging out at the Library

Today was lots of fun at our public library in Oxford. The library hosted a bug seminar. Mr. Sam Testa came and talked about bugs with the children and then everyone went outside to go "bug hunting". They brought pond water and all the children were allowed to dip into the water and sift through the water they gathered in order to see what they could find. It was great to see all the different kinds of pond life. We learned about many different larve that live in water. Some things found were dragonfly larve, damselfly larve, water boatmen, seed shrimp, salamander larve, salamanders and tadpoles. If you look carefully in the rocks you can see the two tadpoles that we have brought home to observe. They seem to be Leapord Frog tadpoles.








Sunday, June 1, 2008

Sunday Fishing Fun

Today we got out of the house just to enjoy the day.
We went to a local state park not far from the house to let Nathan and Noah fish a little, have a picnic, go on a little hike and even swing on a vine.
It was a very nice afternoon. The boys didn't catch any fish but it was fun to see all the wildlife. Nathan took a picture of a big rabbit and I was able to get a couple of damsel fly pictures.