Diving in...

My boys are watching the documentary "DIVE!"  today. (It can be streamed free on Netflix.) It's a profound look at how much food is wasted in today's society.  It gives the statistic that 1/2 of all food produced is wasted. 

The movie brings to light the current issue of food waste, but also a gives a history of how our parents and grandparents were taught and raised to value, preserve and not over indulge in food.  In the last 40 years the perception of food has changed.  Somewhere in those 4 decades a fear of handling and preparing fresh, whole food was ignited.  With the creation of convenience food a whole generation was left out of the knowledge of food handling and food preparation.  Plus, the more is better and increased portion size warped our value of food.   My own two cents... the feminist movement moved women out of their homes.  'nuff said.

The statistics in the documentary stuck with my oldest (11) and made him pause in thought.  My 6 year old was shocked the grocery store would throw out a whole carton of eggs just because one was cracked.  My 8 year old thinks a good way to practice what he learned would be to not waste food at meals. 

After my second time of watching it, I got teary eyed and it re-kindled in me a desire to make sure my kids understand fresh, whole foods.  That they know where to find them, what to look for, how the handle them and how to prepare them.  

This is one of those movies up there on the must see list with; Agenda, IndoctiNation, Super Size Me, and Ben Stein's Expelled.

 Enjoy the trailer...

Participating in a link party at:

Training In Progress...

I often get the the feeling that I'm behind the curve.  That I'm a couple years late to homeschooling, Christian retreats and conferences, buying bulk, or buying from the local farmer.   Maybe it's from growing up in Alaska where we were always two years behind in everything, it seemed.  We were late to the parachute pants party.  Yes, remember those?  I wore them in middle school.   Shame on the person who ever introduced those to Alaska.
But even now, I feel like I'm rushing to catch up - to something.  I'm thankful to my friends who have brought information into my life that has been a blessing.  I'm thankful for listening to a friend who said that the homeschool Cub Scout Pack was awesome because she was right.  I've learned many things from the Cub Scout parents that have helped me on my homeschool journey. 
Presently, Josh and I are concentrating on training our boys in more challenging work than what they've been used to.  We feel like we're a few years behind on this.  So, this summer will be a time of new work opportunities for our boys.  Doesn't that sound exciting!
Here's a look at some fun we had this weekend.

 

8 year old using a push mower.

11 year old sanding the picnic table.

6 year old helping clean up the dust.

Looking for more things to vacuum.  Watch out bugs!

Not sure what he's going to find there.  Time to refocus.

Let the training continue...

Brown Rice is Good . . .

Scientist

I'm getting the feeling that parenting is not to be perfected.  Probably because there is only one true perfect parent, our Heavenly Father. 

Tonight, for dinner, I made brown rice as a side dish.  I chose not to put a portion on the 6 year old's plate because he doesn't like white rice very much and I figured he'd like brown rice even less. Plus,  I was already giving him something he didn't like, chicken (Costco, roasted chicken - everyone else loves it but not this boy!)  and I really just wanted a peaceful dinner.  Don't you have days like that when you just want a peaceful dinner and you'll do anything to make it happen.  

So when he saw his plate he promptly went to the fridge hoping to find some left overs he would like and could use as a substitute.  He found some hard boiled eggs and asked if he could have those on his plate.  I said yes and he helped peel them.  He still had the chicken on his plate but it was a pleasant meal without complaint as he munched away on boiled eggs and raw carrots.  

After dinner, when our oldest son was still working on finishing dinner the Scientist asks him if he could have some of his brown rice.  He says "I didn't get any brown rice for dinner."  After two bites he says,  "Mmmm, this is good Mom!"

Seriously! Would I have gotten the same response if I would have put the brown rice on his plate to begin with?  *sigh*  I'll never know.

Orcas Island Part III . . .

Our evening started with a lovely ceremony...

A toast to the happy couple...

And an wonderful dinner.  

It was a great day on Orcas Island.

Orcas Island Part II . . .

 Our trip started on Sunday morning.  We caught the Anacortes Ferry and arrived at Orcas Island a short hour and a half later.  Our first stop was to the top of Mt. Constitution which was the topic of the previous post.  After that, we headed to Rosario Resort to check into our room.  We found some beach to explore at low tide right below the guest suites where we stayed.

Orange shirts, orange sea stars and orange flowers.  We were color coordinated with nature.

The wedding was at Rosario Resort in the Skagit building suites above. 

There's my Mom saying hi to us from her balcony room.

The weather was amazing.

Skipping stones.

The boys had a full day of exploring and climbing and it was time to get them rested and changed before the evening activities.

Orcas Island, Sucia Island and the Big Garage Sale...

This week-weekend was all work.  I de-cluttered the house and made $ 70.50 at my garage sale today.  I helped Josh and Professor get ready for a 2 day camp out on Sucia Island with the Boy Scouts by precooking their breakfast and dinner food and helping them organize all their trail food.  I did a bit of reorganizing in the garage today as the garage salers slowed down, swept it out and mowed the grass after dinner.  I'm a bit tired.
Last weekend on the other hand was all play.  We traveled by ferry to Orcas Island for my Mom's wedding and I took over a 100 photos.  This post will be the first in a series about our trip.  It's about our visit to Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island.

Mt. Baker in the background.  It was very bright out.  The Professor left his sunglasses in the van.

Yes, I broke out the orange shirts again.

These two are good buddies.

A view of Sucia Island from atop Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island.

The Johnson Five

Worms in the house...

This Worm Farm kit is one of items I bought to use up some school funds. 

It's not hard to set up but is a little heavy on the stickers.  I should have left them off but felt compelled to stick ALL of them on.  It comes with a booklet with great explanations, instructions and experiments that are worm friendly.  NO worms will be harmed during their time in the farm.

 The Scientist loves worms.  Funny thing about them though, they don't do anything fast.  This is the kind of kit that needs to be forgotten about - for a week.  Then, when he comes back there's a possibility of seeing some changes.

He's so fun to do science with.  Last month he created his own experiment with flowers and how they wilted after they were picked.  After a week of gathering "data" I helped him sort and classify his wilted flowers.  Then we talked about some conclusions and journalized the findings.  I love how his mind works.  It keeps me on my toes.

2012 Piano Recital ...

Last Thursday night my two older boys had their piano recital to mark the end of lessons for the school year.  

Both boys played two songs, one solo and one duet.  The Architect played a duet with his Papa and the Professor played a duet with his piano teacher.  

The whole family gathered to watch and we were so impressed.  I'm constantly amazed at what only 30 minutes of piano practice a day can result in.

Nest update . . .

The mother bird has been gone for over a week.  The nest is empty except for the little blue egg that didn't hatch.

When I turned it over, it was cracked and a little gooey.

That's a bummer.

Hard Work...

 A few weekends back when Josh and I were at the Christian Heritage Conference we listened to a very motivational sermon on Hard Work.    

 What we heard wasn't new but, it was a loud and clear reminder.  We were created to work.  What was the first thing God did when he put Adam in the Garden of Eden?  He put him to work naming the animals.

It can be a bit challenging to find work for kids when there is an absence of farm life.  The boys help with daily house chores but I don't want them to only know how to care for the inside of a house.  As the rain has let up, the outside chores are becoming plentiful.  I've roped off sections of yard for the boys to weed.  The sanding and refinishing of our picnic table awaits them.  A garage needs sweeping out and last weekend the tool shed roof was taken care of. 

 

Hard Work - Done Well - Feels Good!

♪ ♫ ♪ Take Me Out . . . ♪ ♫ ♪

Last Saturday was a loooong day.  Baseball pictures at 9:30 am with a game at 11:00.  Home to change, eat and in the van to make it the Mariner's game at 6:05 down in Seattle.  We missed the opening pitch by only by a few minutes. 

We went to the game because one of our tickets was free due to the boys selling enough Cub Scout popcorn last October and the other tickets were discounted to 15.00 a piece.  Hard to pass up a good price like that.  We took Grandma Patty and Uncle Chuck with us.  They provided the peanuts and candy.  

This was one dooozy of a game!  The Mariner's beat the Minnesota Twins 7-0.  The kids were thrilled. 

Ichiro, Ichiro, Ichiro!!!

Yes, Spring Has Arrived . . .

I didn't make it to the Tulip Fields in Mt. Vernon this year but I have tulips blooming in my yard.

I haven't seen any butterflies yet but I have them in my dinning room. Idea from MADE blog.

  
I'm not putting in a garden this year but we are growing protozoa in the kitchen.

Note to friend A, this just happened to correspond to your posts.  Not done on purpose.  It made me chuckle to see the similarities in the differences.  :-)

Blog Post filled with Links. . .

It's been over a week since I've posted.  April and May are just those types of months.  So many things to squeeze into the week and blogging usually is last in the line.
Last weekend Josh and I were at the Christian Heritage Conference in Redmond, WA.  Wow!  This was so excellent.  Families from as far as BC, Canada and Oregon flock to this event.  I'm so glad I listened to all our Cub Scout friends that said this is a great event especially when Voddie Baucham is speaking.

This past week was filled with Boy Scouts, Baseball, school, and lessons.  On Thursday and Friday night I had the privilege of being a community judge for the local home-school regional debate and speech tournament.  Our local EPIC (Emphatically Proclaim with Integrity & Clarity) club is part of the NCFCA. (National Christian Forensics and Communications Association)
I was blow away with what these 12-18 year old students are capable of.  Their ability to get up in front of their peers, parents, adults and judges and speak, debate, or preform with confidence and enthusiasm.  Watch out world!  Watch out!

The speeches I judged were, Apologetics one night and Duo-Interpretation the next night.  I stuck with the one-on-one debate style for both nights because the topic stayed the same.  This was helpful because the first night I struggled just to make sense of what they were saying.  Here you try...
The debaters were giving arguments for and against this resolve, "In the pursuit of justice, due process ought to be valued above the discovery of fact." 

Did you have to read it a few time just to understand it?  I did.  But it was the job of the debaters to communicate to the judge and make them understand.  I learned a lot over those two nights.  I also ended up voting for the same side both nights.  Which side do you think I chose?