June

June was supposed to be quiet. All the meetings with work were done, Sunday School was almost done, and life was supposed to quiet down. I was going to start all the "get ready for fall stuff". 

To be fair to June, it wasn't nearly as busy as it could have been. There were some meetings with people from the church, regular tutoring, a birthday party, a concert, two Sunday School parties, new internet, Sunday School wrap-up, and two Sundays of baptisms. It wasn't outrageously busy (except that one week; I'm not sure what happened there). Still, it seemed tiring. I'm not sure why.

Nothing too exciting happened this month. I planted some seeds and things are growing. I'm hoping for flowers and tomatoes before the end of summer; right now it's just all green. We've had some major storms coming through and it's definitely summer.

I started looking at curriculum for Sunday School in the fall, and found some help organizing things, and set up a meeting to make plans and see what needs to be changed and what stays the same.

Someone gave me pizza as a thank you gift and someone else gave me a bag of spring rolls, so my life is pretty happy!

I finished the three books I had planned to finish in June, meaning that my summer reading plan is on-track (there were also other books, of course).

There was some pain as the church had to move to step 3 of church discipline of a good friend. That was very hard and I'm praying so much for him and his family, that it never reaches the fourth (and final) step.

Overall, though, it was a good month. It seemed very short, and summer seems to be zipping past already. July is much quieter (so far) with only a couple meetings and events. It's the month of "get as much work done as possible" to prepare for fall. It's also "relax and enjoy summer". I'm working on how those two work together!

A Couple Books

Earlier this year I came upon 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It was on a book list and it looked interesting and the library had it, so I read it. It's a short book of 20 years worth of letters between Helene, living in New York City and Frank Doel, chief buyer for Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers, located at 84 Charing Cross Road in London. It started as purely business: Helene was looking for various used books and Frank was selling them. Over time, their relationship grew, and others in the store and in Frank's life joined in the letter writing. It's just a simple story of a friendship that grew through letters and shared bits of life. It's also a peek into England post-WW2.

Recently I finished the follow up: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. After 84, Charing Cross Road was published in the UK, Helene was finally able to visit London. She met many of the people she had been corresponding with (although sadly not Frank, who died before the book was written) and several of her fans. It is Helene's journal about her fun in London. It's also a short book, but quite interesting.

Neither book is incredibly deep, but I found them to be simple, interesting stories of life.

What's Happening Outside

Last week was rainy. This week is set to be rainy. I'm loving the rain. It keeps things cooler, it waters the flowers, and it fights the forest fires.

It's very windy right now and the trees are waving their limbs about wildly. I'm considering going outside to enjoy the wildness.

There was a major thunderstorm this morning, just before 6:00. It woke me up, so I'm sleepy, but I was able to enjoy some epic thunder. I don't know about the lightning since I didn't actually get up.

My plants are growing nicely. The sunflowers are getting tall, the onions seem to be doing well, and the various wild flowers are sprouting; only the bulbs have refused to grow. The first tomato plants died so I tried again; these ones are growing well and might give me tomatoes by fall. I bought some petunia -- purple ones and pink-and-white striped ones -- so that I would have some colour while I wait for everything else to bloom. I like my little balcony garden.

Everything is green and when I go for a walk, there are many yards with flowers blooming. The ducks and geese are enjoying the pond. Last time I was there one of them was sitting on a nest; I should walk down again to see if the eggs have hatched. And I should go to enjoy the red-winged blackbirds.

A Story from a Sunday School Girl

It was very weird. It was very, very weird.

I was at the park with my mom and my sister. I was playing with my little sister but then I abandoned her.

(I did not abandon her; I asked politely.)

I was casually doing the monkey bars.

There was another girl. She came out of a tunnel. She just appeared.

She had the same name; she stole my name.

Her mom had the same name as my mom.

She was born the day before me.

She had the same hair as me and the same eyes as me.

Maybe it was my conscience.

Sunday School

Another year of Sunday School has come to an end. It was a good year and we go Christian to the Celestial City by the second last week.

I am pleased by how much my children remember of The Pilgrim's Progress. The boys were over last week (the girls will have their party this week) and we watched a truly terrible version of the book. They were able to notice not just the big changes but even the little ones, such as Christian and Faithful being caught in the Flatter's snare much too early; in fact, they knew it should be Christian and Hopeful. Then yesterday we did a quiz about the book and they were pretty good at remembering details. They also know that John Bunyan was born in 1628.

We ended the year with the quiz, cupcakes, juice boxes, trivia games, and mini chocolate bars. It was a good celebration!

Now I'm on break for a bit before I start to plan next year!

Noise

My Sunday School boys were over yesterday for our end-of-year party. We had planned to go to the park for the evening, but it had been raining and was wildly windy with more rain to come, so we stayed inside. There was pizza, cookies, chips, and pop, so they were well fed. They played together, building with Lego, checking out whatever toys I had, and making up games with the farm animals and Mr. Potato Heads. We watched the worst version of The Pilgrim's Progress I've ever seen, laughed at it, and complained about the missing and/or changed parts.

It was fun, but SO NOISY! Everyone seems to think that girls are noisier because they talk and giggle. No way. The girls may be noisy, but the boys are louder. Many of them don't have quiet voices and they try to fight and wrestle. They also laugh loudly for longer than necessary (there was some attention-getting going on). It was four hours of loud boys.

To be fair to my boys, there weren't all extremely loud. A couple of them are quieter and understood when it was time to settle down a bit; one walked away from a game when another boy wouldn't behave (the other boy straightened up right fast when he was going to lose his playmate). 

They're good boys, but my main memory of yesterday evening is NOISE!

The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah

Tuesday is tutoring day. I spend the afternoon working with three lovely children; they are 10, 8, and 6 years old. I do some reading and math (and talking and educational games and whatever comes up) with each child individually and then we do an activity together.

Lately we've been learning about different countries. We find the country on the map, read a book about the country, and then they do a craft that is somehow related while I read stories that usually take place in the country.

Yesterday we learned a bit about Russia, and while they started on a simple nesting doll craft (pretty dolls for the girls and soldiers for the boy), I read them two stories from Russia. We first read The Turnip by Jan Brett. It's a fun story and the children enjoyed it. What really caught their attention, though, was The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Felishia Henditirto.

Rochel-Leah's main problem is that she is a girl living in a small Jewish village in Russia in 1835 and she wants to learn how to read. Her mom and aunts can't help her because they don't know how to read and everyone else doesn't think she needs to learn to read; in fact, she is told that the rules are that only boys learn to read. Rochel-Leah is determined, and in the end some rules are bent a bit so she can learn to read.

The story is based on the author's family history and a story that was passed down though the ages. She says in the book that it's true-ish.

Usually when I read, the oldest child listens and does the craft at the same time; the middle child stops working regularly as he listens; and the youngest mostly does the craft with some interest in the story. This time, all three stopped working and focused entirely on the book. I don't know how much was the story and how much was the excellent illustrations, but this one held their attention like few other stories do when craft time is involve. 

My favourite part was when Rochel-Leah is learning to read. The youngest child was so excited because "Now she can teach her mom to read!"

My second-favourite part was after we were done, listening to her tell her mom the story with all the drama and excitement. I was asked to let them borrow the book so they can share the story with their mom; of course I said yes.

I am adding The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah to my list of books to read to the Wednesday morning kids next year.