Last week

If you think I'm only having trouble keeping up with the blog, you should probably see the unchecked list of chores and the piles of books, papers, and other items collecting on tables, steps, the floor, and even chairs. It's a shameful confession, but true. I haven't written in our daily homeschool log in two weeks, and Calvin's budget sheet has been equally neglected. At least the library books are not overdue, the gardens are watered, and we do have clean underwear. Priorities.

So what happened last week? Last week was hot. We had our air on for two more days that reached into the triple digits, and nights that barely dropped into the seventies. We kept our cool by working at the library, reading a lot inside, and playing in the water. It has been over two weeks since we have had any rain worth mentioning. Our average rainfall for July is 3.67 inches, and to date we have had a total of .77 inches, the large majority of which fell in the first week. I'm battling to keep the gardens alive, and the rain barrels aren't exactly helping much.

Calvin had daily "jump start" swim lessons all week as a supplement to his weekly lesson. He takes weekly lessons at a local swim school with a comfortably warm indoor pool and enthusiastic, joyful young teachers. The lessons are limited to four students per teacher, and they are never-ending, so kids just move up to the next level whenever they are ready and keep going from there. I do admit to feeling a little guilty, though, or maybe just nostalgic, in taking him to indoor summer swim lessons when I remember so fondly the weeks of rising early to take lessons in the chilly outdoor public pool when I was little. I had to walk uphill both ways to school, too.

It was Art Fair week. The Ann Arbor Art Fairs are quite a production, and most locals try to get out of dodge for the week, but I have always enjoyed the crowd and the festive spirit. Jon's family has a tradition of spending the opening day walking the fairs and we have always joined them, so while this was unfortunately the first year that Jon could not take the time away from work, Calvin and I had a great time seeing everyone and perusing the art. Calvin was particularly drawn to a booth of nude photography, a booth of plaster and stone reliefs, and a booth of metal sculptures. He spoke well with a number of artists, and enjoyed a fair favorite—fresh squeezed lemonade. Jon and I went back on Saturday so he at least got a chance to go and look around. But even the Art Fairs didn't bring any rain worth mentioning.

Probably the highlight of the week is Calvin's new, very own Magic Tree House, built for him by Jon's dad, as imagined by his mom, in a tree at their house. A real, honest-to-goodness, awesome as all get-out tree house. I'm a little jealous. Calvin, of course, loves it, and had a marvelous time spending all afternoon in it. He especially loved the sweeping and upkeep, so why, I ask you, is our own house so messy?

And lastly, we spent yesterday morning cooling off at the lake, where Calvin practiced his swimming and played at splashing his father for a good couple of hours. This year especially I'm feeling lucky to live so close to a small public lake and beach.

Which brings us to this week. We have just three more weeks before we'll be on our final summer vacation, which I figure is just about enough time to catch up on everything and get back into a routine so that I can lose a whole bunch of ground again by leaving. But at least it's been fun.

Vacation, part 2

We're now relaxing in Harbor Springs. Enjoying the company of well-loved family, playing putt putt in Petoskey, driving the Tunnel of Trees, swimming the surf of Sturgeon Bay, hiking the nature preserve behind the brewery-to-be (and why couldn't it have been in time for our trip???), and boogie boarding the waves of Little Traverse Bay from Petoskey State Park. It stormed over night last night, which is why we had such monstrous waves today, but we've had nothing but enjoyable weather during our waking hours. This is what summer should be.

Pirate's Cove, in Petoskey

Back up in Wilderness State Park for a swim in our favorite spot—Sturgeon Bay

Hiking Spring Lake Park and Round Lake Nature Preserve, in Petoskey

Eastern Garter Snake

Brown Snake

Eastern Kingbird (and nest)

Mute Swan (invasive species)

Ring-billed Gull, watching us swim in Petoskey State Park

Nature Thursdays—aquatic wildlife

Nature Thursdays are back! Last year we spent every Thursday with one of the two fantastic wildlife interpreters from our County Parks & Rec commission, and yesterday marked the beginning of the same for this summer. The weekly programs are aimed at children, each with a theme bugs, or snakes, or flowers, etc. This week's session was about water-loving wildlife. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Calvin and I were the only people who came, but we had a great time seeing our favorite Michigan wildlife specialist again, and Calvin got to touch green frogs, a crayfish, a snapping turtle, and even got to hold a painted turtle. We also went for a short hike to try netting smaller wildlife in the pond. Being just us of course meant that the program went at Calvin's pace, and because he was so obviously interested we were treated to extra discussion and netting time, which made it just that much more fun.

The program was at Independence Lake this time around, so we packed a picnic lunch and stayed to spend the afternoon, partly in learning to identify a few common Michigan plant and animal species (with only ourselves and a book as guides), and partly to play in the sand and water. Calvin is becoming a fish. He can now push off, arc into the water, and swim a ways with good kicks and a pretty good early crawl. And he loves to float around on his back. Back home in the late afternoon he spent another forty minutes in the bath. It's possible that he should have been included on the list of Michigan aquatic wildlife.

Playing the memory game, then sorting by salt vs. fresh water

Painted turtle

Painted turtle

Green frog

Trying to feed the turtles

Swans on the pond

Looking for and discussing critters in the net

Bigfoot print or tree stump?

Splashing around after lunch

Swimming!

Floating!

Getting as sandy as humanly possible!

Is it really Wednesday already?

I'm having some trouble keeping up. We had the book sale on Saturday, and a spring party for fourteen at our house on Sunday. Monday I have no excuses, but Tuesday we played with friends all morning and took the dogs to the vet in the afternoon. So I haven't been typing, but we have been busy. Very busy.

Calvin passed his beginner swimming class a couple of weeks ago and moved up to the gliders class, which means that he is now swimming multiple laps of the entire width of pool during every class. He's doing great, and he now comes home very tired.

Calvin is reading The Cricket in Times Square. He's about half way through and really enjoying it. So far we've made a cricket, assembled a cricket cage, and gone out for a Chinese lunch.

Our mummy project is moving forward steadily, one step at a time. We're making mummy cases with mummies to go inside, and we should be done by the end of the week, depending on how many coats of decorative paint we add.

And as of today we're caught up on laundry, the birds are fed, and the Legos have once again taken over the front room.

Iris would like her floor back.

Swimming at Goldfish