The Sketch Tuesday theme at Harmony Art Mom's blog this week was "In a Garden".  Here is S's sketch of a Fire-wheeled Indian Blanket flower (Gailardia pulchella), a lizard, a lady bug, and a worm.

Blessings,

I hope everyone had a Happy Independence Day. We spent ours in the All-American fashion: home improvement and colorful explosions.

I'm very happy that I have finally gotten an American flag hung on the front of our house. However, we are not following the Flag Code to the letter and some of us are more upset about this than others. I'm not pointing any fingers, mind you. There are just some among us who think it unreasonable to "properly illuminate" the flag at night or take it down every sunset and hang it again every sunrise. To a bugle playing Reveille and Taps, of course.  By the way, if you wear a flag emblazoned t-shirt or use a flag stamp, you're not following the Flag Code either. Good thing I'm not pointing any fingers - I'd have to point all my fingers and a few toes at myself.

I also got a new porch light.

We think it is lovely. You may have noticed the CFL light bulb inside the lamp. I promise we do not buy carbon offsets from Al Gore; H merely detests changing the porch light every two weeks.

We're also organizing our junk  valuable belongings on the patio and in the garage with a couple of these, these, and these. They were all quite easy to put together and are working well, so I can recommend these.

We ate a berry-filled meal. You can see our menu here (plus we had twice-baked potatoes). Sorry, no photos. By the way, ricotta in a dessert may sound icky, but trust me, it was yummy.

Our Independence Day ended with a block party consisting of men blowing  things up:

and ladies dancing with fire:

And I, much like the Founding Mothers, I suppose, had a nice little sit down at a safe distance and admired the view.

Blessings,

For a long time, I used a homemade cleaning solution. H, however, didn't really care for its vinegar scent. Then, I hit upon a better smelling idea: wintergreen alcohol. I now pour equal parts water and wintergreen alcohol in a spray bottle. This works great for mirrors, windows, and other surfaces. I find my wintergreen alcohol in Walmart's first aid section. The wintergreen scent is pleasant and the new solution is easier to mix. The cost is a bit more than my old solution, but still, I believe, cheaper than Windex or like products, to which I'm allergic.

Blessings,

The Fourth of July, 1916 Giclee Print
Hassam, Frederick...
Buy at AllPosters.com

Looking at the helicopter's crew, some wearing Che Guevara shirts, Betancourt reasoned they weren't aid workers, as she'd expected — but rebels.

Finally, a good use for that evil man's image: as a disguise for the rescuers of Ingrid Betancourt , three Americans, and eleven Colombians.

Donning a Che t-shirt is akin to wearing a Hitler or Stalin t-shirt, which is to say not cool at all. People who wear Che t-shirts and romanticize the man and his image are foolish. As this rescue reveals, a Che t-shirt is a good way to cozy up to kidnappers and murderers. 

The t-shirt above and others are available here.

Blessings,

The Sketch Tuesday theme at Harmony Art Mom's blog this week was "Picnic". D drew the scene above, featuring fried chicken and cake. (My kids sure do love food - drawing it and eating it.) I like the basket details D included and her lightning-style branches. Sketch Tuesday is such a great idea, we've added it as part of our weekly art assignments.

Blessings,

call for desperate measures.

My favorite late night snack is a bowl of some sort of grain cereal drowned in ice cold milk. (Warmish milk is the eighth deadly sin. Really.  Gluttony, sloth, warmish milk. See, I know these things. Just don't stand too close to me in case lightning strikes.)

The other night I had a hankering for a nice bowl of cereal, but the pantry was devoid. (Yes, hankering is a real word; it's been around since 1627. I looked it up, though, to confirm that fact.) I did, however, spy in my pantry some oats and a bit of sliced almonds and some coconut. So, I concocted my own cereal. First, I melted some butter - sorry, no measurements here. Then, I poured in some oats, sliced amonds, coconut, and almond extract. I, then, toasted my ingredients until properly browned. I let my cereal cool a bit, poured it in a bowl, sprinkled a bit of sugar on top, and let the deluge of icy milk begin. It was so, so yummy.

As is said at The Common Room, "What do you have in your hand?" That phrase is sort of like the old adage think outside the box. In this case, think outside the cereal box.

Blessings,

Take the Quiz here!

She also took a different quiz, but she was quite perturbed that it declared her to be Eleanor Dashwood. We have decided to ignore the second quiz, as the quiz writer was obviously brainless. D wants you to know that she said brainless, not I, lest you think I would write such language. Now, I must go as I cannot type and eat spinach at the same time. I also cannot type at all right now because my editor beside me is very picky and keeps pointing out the spinach I have in the corner of my mouth.

 Blessings,

"A good book always ends with a wedding."

Blessings,

The Sketch Tuesday theme at Harmony Art Mom's blog this week was "Something Sweet", so S drew this Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream cone. He  emphatically declares this to be his favorite flavor. I beg to differ; I have only seen him order ice cream so psychedelicly-colored it would make trippin' hippy Timothy Leary shiver in fear. (Kiddies, you don't need to visit the "Timothy Leary" link. He was just a guy with a sad life who became famous by advocating drug use. Nothing to see there. "And we're walking.")

Anyway, as you can see above, S and I are still working on where and where not to place capital letters. But don't you love that fast falling drip he drew?

Blessings,

No doubt ya'll saw the Wife Test, which recently made it's way around the Blogosphere. Our Blue Castle had a link today to the online quiz for either the Husband or Wife Test. I took it and scored...

95 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

This was even after I admited to putting my cold feet on H in bed at night, being jealous, being grumpy in the morning, and wearing my night clothes to cook breakfast. If I can score this high, I believe there is hope for all wives because, trust me, I don't think I'm a "Very Superior" wife at all.

H, what do you score?

Blessings,

Below is S's creative writing today. It is the first chapter of a book he is writing, in the first-person, on World War II. His writing has not been proofread and is raw. S is nine years old.

Chapter One: Operation Husky

I sat at the briefing tent listening to the captain speak. he said we would have to take out 4 AA guns and to expect heavy resistance.  He also said that we would be fighting Italy's best men: The Black shirts. When we were done I picked my weapons: The Thompson, The M1 Garand and The Colt. I said to Sergeant Setzer this is something I don’t like and he said well I certainly don’t like parachuting that’s for sure. We got on the plane the good ole’ C17 when we were going towards Sicily we were accidently getting hit by our own navy, two men were killed but the rest made it out of the plane. As we were going down to the ground corporal Johnson was hit in the arm as soon as he got to the ground a medic got to him me and Setzer got together with corporal Dunn and private McCloskey and moved slowly to the mayors residence which I might add had  AA guns we found Braeburn  and Clarks with a few other guys under heavy fire from the Italians although originally armed with K98 rifles they are sometimes armed with MP40 machine guns. We ran in to a MG42 the famed German machine gun he hit Ward and Carter but before he did anymore damage Clarks hit him in the head with a Springfield sniper rifle I rushed in to the building killed 3 Jerries  1 Jerri went upstairs an manned the MG42  killing Johnson I went upstairs and killed the gunner got on the machine gun and killed 2 Jerries  but left because of heavy sniper fire I got to 1 of the  AA guns killed the Jerries and blew it up. Then I quickly got to the other one and blew it up I found a K98 rifle went to another one blew it up but then Setzer was hit and McCloskey and Clarks were killed I got to the last one and blew it up we completed all objectives and the Germans and Italians were in retreat. The war has begun may it end soon.

Blessings,