It’s the newest rage. It’s the game Pit on steroids…or wires.

This child has been practicing his microcontrolling skills.

(As an aside, he came up from the basement the other day holding a speaker with wires coming out of it. I asked where the speaker came from. The Thomas the Tank engine ride-on toy, he said. One of these days Ruthie will wonder why all her noise-making toys no longer make any noise.)

So, back to RC Pit. Everyone was dealt their cards according to the usual Pit rules.

But here’s where it got unusual: every player was also dealt their own remote control. It didn’t matter what the RC went to, as long as it was powered by infrared.

The play proceeded as usual, except that when a player had nine of the same commodity, rather than push the bell, they pushed any button on his remote control and the bell would ring.

This reminds me of the recent real-life transition from floor (pit) trading to electronic trading. Hmmm, makes me wonder how the idea began in the first place…

RC Pit, anyone?

When I was scanning cookbooks at the library last Friday, this one was especially appealing, not only because of the beautiful pictures, but also because I wondered if it would spur a child on to cooking.

It did.

When Peter spotted it in the pile of checked-out library books, he picked it up and exclaimed, “Maybe this will inspire me!” Then he brought it upstairs to read before bed.

Immediately after returning from church today, he announced that he would make lunch. He turned to this recipe:

and got to work.

I enjoyed the tastiest sandwich I’ve had in a long time. This could be the start of something beautiful.

One generation commends Your works to another; they tell of Your mighty acts. (Psalm 145:4)

There is no better way to leave a legacy.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them. (Psalm 127:4-5)

We love fall at our house. Time to harvest.

Guess what we’re harvesting today:

Stumped? Here’s another clue:

When the sunflower begins to droop due to the heavy weight of its head,

it is time to cut the flower off and shake the seeds off for roasting.

Yum!

Hard to believe this big guy turned 12 years old yesterday! He kindly reminded me that he’ll be driving in 4 years. Let’s not rush things, I told him.

His favorite verse right now is Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

Run fast.

Be tough.

Hit hard.

Be agile.

Cheer loudly.

Celebrate a job well done!

With the nice weather this week, when Jake leaves for class, the rest of the kids have had free time outside. Derek soloed on the lawn mowing job they had yesterday.

Ruthie mimicked.

Meanwhile, Peter and Jeremy had to clear the front yard a.k.a. football field of doggie doo. Look at that balance of Jeremy’s! And what a responsible older brother Peter is to supervise the cleanup.

I know what you’re thinking…gee whiz, how hard can it be to throw a picture or two up on a website every now and then? Evidently, much harder than it seems, because these days, just to sit down at the computer for a few minutes has been a challenge. Did I mention school has started? :)

Jake is taking a couple classes at the local high school, as well as competing on the cross country team. After lunch he walks to class.

When he walks, he reminds me of the Mr. Men character, Mr. Tall. His long legs take one step for three of mine.

The fact that someone leaves in the middle of a school day is a big deal around here. Being home schoolers, we are accustomed to doing virtually everything together, or at the very least having everyone under the same roof.

When it was time for Jake to leave for class after lunch today, Ruthie was not fond of the fact that he was leaving by himself. She took it upon herself to follow after him and “go run wif Jake”.

Unbeknownst to me, she walked out the front door and started down the sidewalk after Jake. When I looked out the front door, there she was.

Don’t worry, Ruthie. He’ll return the same way he left.

Thanks to Aunt Sarah, Ruthie has a new stack of shoes to try on and walk around the house in. She especially likes the clicky ones that make noise on the hard floor.

Seems like just yesterday she was learning how to walk around the house. I was reminiscing about this day in particular:

Fact: it is 95 degrees outside. I’m sure there’s a heat index that makes it feel like 110 or something.

Fact: there are two activities going on simultaneously outside our house. In the back, we have your traditional summer pastime–swimming.

And in the front, we have an activity which requires layers. And layers. And layers…of plastic and polyester–football.

Hot? Who’s hot?

We have an update on Ruthie’s Olympic training. She has shown great success in the preliminary trials, and her support team couldn’t be happier.

She is now working on nailing Goal #2…if you know what I mean.

Yesterday before leaving for work, Jim asked Ruth what she would like as a reward for accomplishing Goal #2. With barely a hesitation, she declared that she wanted to go to Home Depot and sit on the tractors. Jim sealed the deal with a promise to a trip to the Depot if she accomplished the goal.

Well, not long after that, she did it.

So after work, we were off.

We ended up going to Farm and Fleet, where there are more tractors to choose from. And car carts.

Olympic memories being made right here in Aurora, IL.

Peter’s creative juices were flowing yesterday, inspired by: 1. the fact that his buddy Derek is gone for the weekend, and 2. the Olympics were to begin last night.

He asked if he could make his world-famous sugar cookies. That’s an easy ‘yes’ because they really are good; plus he cleans up after himself.

After pulling them out of the oven, he sat brainstorming how he could decorate them. Should he do plain icing, or something more complex? He opted for the complex and decorated some of the cookies with an olympic theme.

So here’s an Olympic challenge for you today. Guess what sport is depicted on each cookie:

Sports represented on the plate: soccer, boxing, badminton, shooting, track & field, archery, sailing, tennis, basketball, swimming.

You’ve probably heard that the Olympic committee added Women’s Boxing for the first time this year, but were you aware of the other new sport?…

…Women’s Potty Training

We are still in the early stages of training, and it’ll be a long road to Gold, but we’re hopeful.

I have recently discovered a fun thing to do when its cloudy. I set the camera on a tripod and constantly take pictures of clouds, and then I combine all these pictures and get a very short but cool time-lapse video of clouds. Unfortunately I cannot find a way to make the time between each picture longer, so I have about 1000 pictures per 10 minutes.

This is my first one, I manually took pictures every five seconds to make this.

I think this one is better. These are distant towering cumulus clouds that will eventually grow into cumulonimbus clouds. The clouds grow from warm air pushing water vapor up.

I just made this one today. These are altocumulus clouds, these clouds usually predict there would be rain in a few hours.

Jake

Shaving time, that is.

He ran the mile event in the second of three summer meets last night, and finished a full minute faster than the first meet.

His fan club waited with baited breath for him to finish.

He finished strong, and was inspired to continue shaving.

Meanwhile, Ruthie refueled with the leftover water…cheering your big brother can be exhausting.

My day began this morning with Ruthie persistently letting me know, “I want God to give me snow.” And when I say persistent, I mean she was repeating the phrase every fifteen seconds. I tried squashing it by letting her know that it is very hot outside, and there is no way it will snow today.

This response was not acceptable to her, so I have been answering with the more politically (Ruthie) correct response, “Then ask God to give you snow, honey.”

There was a two hour reprieve while she took a nap, and I thought for sure she would wake up rewired, like rebooting the computer after it’s acted up. But after awakening, she bounded down the stairs asking me to take her to Russia so she can play in the snow (thanks to Derek for that idea). She’s now running around the house yelling, “Russia! Russia!”

This little one is going to give us lots of storytelling repertoire, I can see it now.

*update* As soon as Jim walked in the door, she made her snow request known to him. His response? He filled a large cup with crushed ice, set her on the deck, and told her to play in the snow. She’s now sitting quietly playing with her snow.

Cheaper than a plane ticket to Russia.

See Jake run.

See Jake earn a ribbon at his first track meet.

The cross country camp at Metea has proven to be a great experience for this soon-to-be freshman. Jake is learning discipline by getting up early, running through aches and pains, and still accomplishing chores at home.

At the beginning of the summer, he ran a 5K with his grandma. They did great, and what fun it was to watch!

At some point, a toddler becomes sure of who she is. For instance, this was the short conversation I had with Ruthie the other day:

Ruthie: yawn

Mom: Are you tired, honey?

Ruthie: I’m not tired. I’m Ruthie.

No one teaches her this stuff.

America’s favorite pastime has become our family’s favorite pastime…

…that is, when it isn’t football season.

Derek is smacking the ball for the beloved NY Yankees and alternating playing right field and first base.

And we have become Cubs fans this season. As long as the Cubs are under 10 years old.

Peter’s favorite position this season has been catcher.

Jeremy has shown the most natural baseball ability, playing coach pitch on the D-Backs.

After we taught him where first base was, he’s been shaking up the field ever since.