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  • Summer Boredom Busters on the Cheap: Days Nine through…

    Yes, I’m a little behind here. My official excuse is that I didn’t want you to be overwhelmed by the number of posts going up; but if I’m being honest it’s more that I was too busy doing these things to blog about them.

    Here’s how we kept busy this week:

    Day Nine: Find Shelter.

    In preparation for the Great American Backyard Campout, the kids built several temporary shelters; fort-like structures, tents suspended from ropes that were tied to trees, and teepees. The boys took this task very seriously, consulting their library copy of Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties: The Classic Guide to Building Wilderness Shelters . (Those who have read Last Child in the Woods will remember this as the book Richard Louv consulted as a child. The kids found it not very practical, as many of the structures involved “stuff like nails” that their father wouldn’t let them have.)

    In the end, it was decided that the best option was to sleep in an actual tent that came from a store, because it could be zipped up against the mosquitoes that were feasting on our blood.

    Day Ten: Camp Out! We made s’mores, caught lightening bugs, read Little House on the Prairie by solar flashlight, talked about my childhood camping trips. Cassidy was not so crazy about the chirping of crickets, and when the screech owl came screaming around, she was done; inside she went to find refuge with Daddy. Around midnight the wind whipped up out of nowhere. There was thunder and lightening, the tree tops were swaying dramatically. It was wild.

    We had to de-camp, hollering to be heard over the wind (probably just talking loudly, but outside at that time of night it felt like hollering); Jacob found that pretty exciting. Mav was dead asleep and had to be led inside, he had no memory of it in the morning. All in all a fun experience and one we’ll try again.

    The next day in the paper they ran an article about the Great American Backyard Campout; turns out only 13 families in our area registered for the event. Hmm, maybe next year they’ll run an article the day before, rather than the day after?

    Day Eleven: Sew something.
    I taught my kids the bare basics of sewing about a year ago, and they’ve been off and running with it ever since. They particularly like to make sock creatures. I encourage this creative outlet for a number of reasons; Jacob is more proficient than Maverick, so there is a working together; it puts our scrap fabrics and lone socks to good use (even the rattiest, most tattered fabric can be used as stuffing), and they wind up with a surplus of toys so I rarely hear any pleas for new ones. They make so many, in fact, that they often give them away, and are surprised when people praise their “puppets”- after all, they have twenty just like it at home.

    Some excellent books for sock critter inspiration:

    Day Twelve: Tell a story and share it. One creature made of socks this week was created in the likeness of Indiana Jones, and a story was mapped out and photographed. It’s still under construction, but Jacob started a blog to showcase The Adventures of Sockiana Jones and his fellow sock friends. If you have kids, have them check the blog out, (keeping in mind it’s brand new). If they are inspired to make creatures of their own, they can email Jake pictures and he’ll incorporate them into the ongoing saga.

    Day Thirteen: Go on safari. Get out your magnifying glass and see how many bugs you can find in ten minutes for Mommy to take pictures of! Ready, set…go!!! OK, now take this Field Guide to Insects and Spiders and identify them! (This is actually an everyday thing at our house, but somehow the kids are much happier when I call it bug safari. Or leaf safari. Or whatever. This particular day, we couldn’t find the magnifying glass, so I created a makeshift one with cardboard and plastic wrap. The point isn’t the magnification, but the prop, so they can hunt Sherlock Holmes-style.)

    Day Fourteen: Clean out your closet, your desk, your toy box, and under your bed. Wow! It’s like Christmas all over again! All these toys you didn’t know you had!

    Day Fifteen: Make Sun Prints. Sun prints are achieved with special paper that changes in the sun. The paper comes out of the package blue; you put an item on it (we like ferns and keys best), sandwich a piece of clear acrylic (included in the kit) on top, and leave out in the sun for a few minutes until it is bleached nearly white. Then you “develop” your picture by swirling it in water (we used a pie pan so we wouldn’t have to go inside), and presto change-o, the paper turns back to blue while leaving the area covered by your object white.

    You can achieve a similar effect by wetting down construction paper and leaving it in bright sun, but this will take longer, of course. I think it’s worth buying the sun print paper at least once for the high drama of the waterbath color change- the kids totally do not expect it and the results are very pretty. The refill papers are fairly inexpensive and I don’t think the acrylic is necessary if the sun is bright.

    We’ll probably use these on Cassidy’s birthday thank-you cards.

    OK, I think I’m caught up…

    What’s everybody else up to? How’s your summer going?
    Any good, inexpensive ideas to keep my kids busy?

  • Wednesday Muir

    To the sane and free it will hardly seem necessary
    to cross the continent in search of wild beauty,
    however easy the way,
    for they find it in abundance
    wherever they chance to be.

    -John Muir

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  • I Missed Flight Day…

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    I once had a sparrow
    alight upon my shoulder for a moment…
    and I felt that I was more distinguished
    by that circumstance than I should have been
    by any epaulet I could have worn.
    -Henry David Thoreau

    Right outside the window in our front hallway, we have a birdhouse.

    And in that birdhouse, we have house wrens.

    And in the spring, the house wrens return from their winter’s journey. Jubilantly they clean house, a study of frenzied efficiency, flinging whatever winter detritus they find out their little front door.

    When the spring cleaning is over, Mr. Wren sits on their roof and sings. The joyful, bubbling, unabashed, beautiful clarion call that is the song of the house wren.

    And inside my house, heads turn from whatever they are doing, and hearts leap up. Because the wrens are back, and that means spring is really here.

    For the next few days, Mr. Wren is busy, stealing twigs and maneuvering them into his little house. We love to shout encouragement when he tries to bring in a twig clearly too large to clear the opening; silly bird, what are you thinking? He always masters the geometry and finagles the stick within.

    I’ve tried on many occasions to photograph him, but he never sits still. Busy, busy, he will often stop to sing but his little throat dances so, the camera cannot capture him.

    Our cats sit at the window for hours at a time, tails flicking. Everyone loves to watch the wrens.

    As spring fades into summer, as I pass by the window, I hear a weird hushed cacophony of tinny cheeps. I stop to excitedly congratulate the wrens on their new family. Mr. Wren hides in the bushes and makes churring noises to scare me away, big brave poppa that he is.

    All day long, he tirelessly brings food home to hungry babies, the cheeps doubling in volume every time they sense movement outside their door. Sometimes the movement is Daddy Wren with a caterpillar or an orchard spider. Sometimes it’s just me, walking by.

    Then: Flight Day. The babies are pushed out of the nest and told to fly.

    Over and over we hear little thuds against the side of our house as they lose control, the shrubbery breaking their fall. Momma and Poppa Wren chirp like crazy cheerleaders; whether they are cheering or scolding I can’t be sure. We watch, we worry; what if they don’t learn in time? What will the darkness bring? Is it OK for us to pick them up and restore them to the safety of their little home?

    Our fears are always unfounded. At the end of the day, everyone flies straight and sure, and Mum and babies depart to new quarters. The next morning Dad brings food, but no one’s home. Alas, the nest is empty. Confused, he lingers another day or two, and then he leaves as well.

    Sigh. I missed Flight Day.

    I don’t know how it happened. I was really looking forward to taking pictures of the babes as they walked around on our pathway, parents walking behind and giving pep talks. I was going to set up a tripod (yes! I acquired a loaner tripod) and attempt to capture those first, erratic flights. I was going to get a decent shot of Mr. Wren, my little bird friend, my bringer of spring.

    But a few days ago I suddenly noticed- silence. No trilling, no early morning operatic bird soliloquy. No sudden chorus of cheeping whenever I walked by my window.

    No wrens.

    So now I’m trying to think- Do they always move on around this time? Do they come back for a bit before winter? Or did something happen?

    I feel like they were barely here. I feel abandoned. The music is gone.

    On the other hand, a small happiness. We have this tree out front, allegedly a magnolia, and it blooms for, I swear to God, maybe three days every year.

    The past three years, the only blooms have been way up high, and by the time I notice, all the blooms have gone crisp and brown.

    It is flowering now. And there is one flower that I can get close enough to photograph, if I stand on a stool. Just one. An enormous flower, the size of my forearm.


    Up close, this flower smells like heaven.

    A small consolation for the missing of flight day.

    But consolation nonetheless.