Another Reason Why I Love Reading

We live in a world where we are bombarded by technology everywhere we turn. Cell phones, texting, email, blogs, facebook, television, movies, ipods, video games. The list could go on forever. This morning as I was reading a friend's blog, the power went out. Jaden and a couple of his friends were watching cartoons. What do we do now? Check my email? No. Call someone? No. Cordless phones. Text my husband? Nope. My phone was charging. No juice. Toast a poptart for my breakfast? Curl my hair? Start the laundry? No, no, and no.

Hmmm.... I guess there is only one thing to do to pass the time. Read. I pulled out the picture books that we checked out from the library earlier this week. "Anyone want to hear a story?" All three kids crowded around me on the couch and we read books until eventually each child had moved on to play something else.

I amused myself for a while just flipping through the books and listening to the kids as they used their imaginations. Ava took charge and decided that she was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter and tried to enlist Jaden and Nate as other characters in the book. But they had other ideas. Nate decided that he was a dog and Jaden wanted to be a baby. And I watched as their story took shape.

After a while, I left them to their playing and picked up Persuasion by Jane Austen. I love days like this when I am forced to "unplug" and enjoy a little time in the other worlds that reading can always transport me to. And I can do so with the power of my mind instead of the power from an electrical outlet.

Jaden's Soccer Photographs

This will be a little bit out of order because I am still working on several posts about our adventures this summer. The first week of school, Jaden and I had a lot of fun together in the mornings while his big brothers were at school. One of those mornings was spent at a park with a local photographer, Julie Mulkay.
Jaden loves running around and kicking the soccer ball like a "real" soccer player. After watching his older brothers on the sidelines for three years, he has the game down pat. He loves watching it and loves playing it even more.
At first, he was very shy with Julie. So I kicked the ball around with him a little but to warm him up. Once he started moving, the shyness melted away and he was all smiles.
Julie was great and had already scouted out the park and the lighting for the time of day we were there. She asked him to do a few things as she tried to pose him, like put your hand on your knee, etc. He did a few things to begin with and then started simply saying, "no" to her. But that didn't phase Julie at all. She said, "Ok. Show me what you want to do." And then she went with it.
All in all, we had a great morning. Jaden had fun and I was very happy with the photographs. I would recommend Julie to everyone. Check out her website at juliemulkayphotography.com.

Backyard Reconstruction

Earlier this spring, a section of our backyard fence blew down in a wind storm. So, Budge and his dad and my brother helped to put up a new fence. This is the finished product which looks great, right?


Well, as part of the "reconstruction" we decided to change some of the yard as well and put in a vegetable garden. For years, my sister has had raised beds for her garden and I loved the look of it. So Budge, with Xander's limited help, built some boxes. Then Budge and his dad (who was a huge help in this project, monetarily as well as physically) mulched and tilled the soil and prepared it for planting our first vegetable garden.


Then I made a list of plants and mapped it out. We planted some plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs, and then planted seeds like squash, corn, beans, beets, carrots, radishes, and pumpkins. The finished product was so exciting! It took us a few days to figure out a watering schedule. And in reality, we planted a little bit too late for some things to grow in the Bakersfield summer heat. But we did the best we could for what we had.


Then we left on vacation for two and a half weeks and came home to a garden that had grown into a jungle. From the day I planted the garden I had been looking forward to that first BLT. A few weeks ago I had that first BLT with the tomatoes from the garden and it was delicious! We have had fresh zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers (which were a little bitter), radishes, a few ears of corn, and more herbs than I know what to do with. We have learned a few things to do better next year but all in all, I think that it has been a success!