Our Week in Which the Family Grows

A giant congratulations to Zach and Heather and Brayden on the birth of little Kasen.  

I'm smitten with the new grandbaby, but I won't get to meet him in person until September when they come to California for a visit.  

Hannah drew a picture of Grumman, who promptly tried to eat it.  

I mean, Winston Churchill didn't like a portrait of himself, but he didn't eat it.  (Lady Churchill had it destroyed for him.)  

Hannah is enjoying the W. Bruce Cameron dog books lately, so I got her some more from the library.  We found one at a Little Free Library, too, which was a happy surprise.  

A project from Crafts Across America.  (With a stealth photobomb by Josiah)

Jack Jack and I had a table at the big homeschool book sale this week.  I brought him along as muscle.  I didn't sell nearly as much as I wanted to, but we made a couple hundred dollars.  Which is handy, because Hannah started up piano lessons at the school, and her teacher prefers to be paid in cash.  

Once Zach & Heather got settled at home, Zach face timed, so I could see the little guy.  

Feeling grateful for the marvels of technology, so I can see oodles of photos online.  Imagine how hard it must have been for mothers to watch their grown children move away when there were only letters to keep in touch.  

These books were from our second Library & Educational Services box.  There were more, but I didn't take a picture before I started processing, and a couple grew legs and walked away with interested youth.  I'm not complaining.  

$4.45, can you believe it?  When I started driving, gas was 0.97 cents a gallon.  $4.57 would get me half a tank in my VW Bug.  Now it's $60 bucks to fill up.  

I've been getting to know some different Little Free Libraries around town.  It's fun turning duplicate books we don't need into new titles to expand the library.  And you never know what you're going to find.  

Hannah's weapons drawing

Katie drew a cat, while wearing a cat shirt.  

Some Minecraft sketches

Grumman, disturbing a table full of books with covers propped open to let freshly stamped ink dry.  Oh Grumman.  

The school room is Out Of Control messy right now.  I cannot wait to get all the processed books to the school.  School was closed last week because the staff were camping, so I've been working at home, and there are now 15 bins of processed books, ready to deliver and shelve, sitting here in my house.  

Klimt inspired tree paintings with acrylic marker on black art paper.  

 

The numbers keep getting closer, the more I process.  I'll be really encouraged when I have more books finished than started.  

Seahorse drawings

Katie:  "Mom?  Is uboyre floss like floss picks?"

Me:  "Embroidery floss?"

Katie:  "Yeah"

Me:  "No"

Katie:  "Okay, I'll just use pipe cleaners instead."

Her finished friendship bracelet from Crafts Across America.  

I guess there's such a thing as too much car wash?  Poor Matilda lost a trim piece.  They're going to call me after they clean "the trenches" and let me know if they find it.  

One additional library run.  While cleaning out one of our bookshelves today, Hannah mentioned that she enjoyed books 1 and 3 of a series, so I put a few more of those on hold for her.