OK, so we had our first week of full-on summer. I vacillate between loving the summer vacation and well, not hating it, but feeling that I can't cope. In the mornings I wake up full of hope and optimism; by 5pm, I've had it.
I am a structured person. What I mean by that is that I need structure in order to thrive. I have to have a to-do list, I have to have goals, I have to have a vision of what it is I am trying to achieve. And, in my mind, I have to be able to connect my immediate actions with my longer-term vision. Otherwise I get very, very grumpy. So, you can imagine that having a family of small children has not been an easy ride for me. It's all about slowing down and 'smelling the flowers' and that sort of stuff. I do realize that smelling the flowers with small children does have connections to longer-term goals. I also realize that being grumpy with children pretty much undermines all the good that one is trying to do with them, so I try to keep my frustrations in check. But, the bottom line is that the summer is a potential disaster zone for me. There has to be structure, or there will be trouble.
So, structure it is. Goal number one is to make sure these kids get outside on a daily basis. I can't stand the whole laying-around-in-an-air-conditioned-house-while-its-sunny-outside business. In that sense, living in England for so long was probably a good thing for me. It's never really that warm in England, and most houses don't have air conditioning. So I never got paranoid that we weren't using the summer to its full potential. What potential, I ask you?
Anyway, so I have decreed that we will go on a hike every day. Oh, the moaning and the groaning which I have had to endure from every corner. The problem is that, unlike England, it gets very hot here in the day, and you really can't go out and do strenuous physical activity after, say, 10am. So, that means getting up early to go on a hike. Now, the kids have two things to complain about every day!
Yet, we can't hike all day. We're home by 10am. So I have decided to work on one of my long-term vision thingys as a parent: teaching my children Greek and Latin so that one day we can sit down and read the New Testament in Greek for our family scripture study - plus ancient Greek texts, of course. To this end, I have started teaching Samuel and Georgiana ancient Greek. I have had better success with this than with the daily hikes. The kids LOVE IT. Even Eleanor and Verity, aged 7 and 5, are asking to learn Greek. We have learned the Greek alphabet, and already the kids can recognize the English equivalent of certain Greek words. We are using this book,
which I recommend highly. Even if you don't know ancient Greek, which I don't, you can still teach your children a lot about the language from this book.
After we do our Greek, we move on to learning Latin. We did the Cambridge Latin Course for ages, but, as much as I love it, the kids aren't really motivated by it anymore. So, for the summer, we are reading a verse or two from the New Testament in the Vulgate, and translating it into English.
After that, I try to do some classical music education with them. I have rather strong opinions about music, I'm afraid. I think that pop music is shamefully over-emphasized, and we don't do nearly enough to expose our youth to classical music. So, we just listen to one piece of classical music and learn a bit about it. I have this great book for kids called Mozart and His Famous Operas, which I bought when I visited Mozart's house in Vienna a few years ago. It tells the story of a few of Mozart's operas, and comes with a CD which has selected pieces from those operas.
In the afternoon, we try to make headway on all the many projects we have going around here. We have tons of stuff the kids need to organize and put in their scrapbooks, tons of pictures we need to scan and put into digital photo books. The kids are also going to learn how to make tie quilts this summer. There is a charity in San Diego that accepts baby blankets to give to poor families who have just had a baby. I want the kids to get involved in serving in the community, so we will start with making these simple quilts.
Of course, there is the day to day stuff we have to do. This includes running errands, shopping, etc. On Friday I took all the kids to the mall to shop for summer clothes. We got there before lunch, and didn't get home until 8pm or so. It was traumatizing for all of us. Today Verity said to me, 'Mom, I don't ever want to go to the mall again.'
Sunday was Father's Day. We tried to make it special for Tim. To me, making something special means doing something special with food. Food is my love language, I'm afraid. It always has been, so at least I'm consistent. I remember making a three course meal for my parents when I was 12.
Anyway, he was presented with a rather large breakfast in bed. Here's the menu.
We went for a French theme. I had made some French apricot jam a few weeks ago, and bought a sourdough bagette, and then I just planned the rest of the menu around these things. I have to make a special mention of my Provence-inspired museli, though. Dried figs, cherries, apricots mixed with pinenuts, pumpkin seeds and almonds, with a hint of ginger. 48 hours later, and I still cannot stop eating it.
The requiste Father's Day picture:
And the requisite out-take:
Then a neighbor offered to take one of the whole family:
Dinner was roast lamb stuffed with rosemary and garlic with a saffron lemon gravy, parselied new potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, peas with mint, green beans, and yorkshire puddings. Dessert was the ever-popular raspberry/cherry chocolate trifle, requested by Daddy himself:
We then ended dinner with a cheese course, consisting of manchego with a rosemary rind, camembert, toscano, havarti, and a blue cheese, with chilli jelly and white fig spread. Star of the show: the white fig spread. Awesome.
Afterwards we played card games until it was way too late. The children were very loud, but I tried not to complain. I know these sorts of things are the stuff of memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment