Autumn had a doctor's appointment today, and for being so nice I got them each a bag of marshmallows. We discovered that they now make fruit flavored marshmallows, and I couldn't say no even though it's a huge deviation from the usual treat... last week it was real licorice and sugar-free fruit-flavored gummy bears. I have a huge jug of honey that is crystalizing so it's very thick, and they used it like glue to make marshmallow men. I like marshmallows too and this was my reward for getting everyone in the car and successfully pulling off a 2 hour trip without incident.

Once the marshmallow men were gone about 30 seconds later, they painted. I have a big canvas paint mat for them which is turning into it's own work of modern art gradually as they spill on it. Then we had a cleanup, and Annie picked up all the tiny scraps of paper from the morning project, which was to take a pile of card envelopes that I saved that have no cards to fit them, draw tiny happy potato people on them, cut them out, and tape them to the walls. For a minute I wondered why they always wanted to tape stuff to the walls and then I remembered my post the other day with my bus wall. :P

What is the point of all this? We don't have a first day of school in our homeschool. I can't properly call it unschooling because I do require a certain amount of effort be put into things they don't always want to do, but we work into it gradually. I like rhythms rather than deadlines. It feels like fall is suddenly upon us, which makes me instinctively clean out stuff and get homeschooling routinely again.

After painting and lunch and nursing Rainn and reading some of my college assignments, we went to look at the garden. We had a long record-breakingly hot week and the garden suffered dehydration. But I got the last of the peas and a whole lot of beans. It was so hot Autumn got a heat rash and took it upon herself to relieve her forehead of her bangs, so she looks a bit European. Then suddenly it got very cold and rainy - unseasonably wintery. All of these extremes took a toll on our garden and our immune systems. The carrots and basil thrived but a few tomatoes that had ripened in our sunshine got big strange rotten spots in the rain. The green ones seem ok so I'm hoping for a good haul - I really was looking forward to homegrown tomatoes. The biggest surprise was the peach tree. It can't even properly be called a tree - it's a stick that hugs the side of our house. It managed to put out probably 80 peaches, of which I was a little too late and got what you see below plus the 20 we ate this afternoon, lol. These peaches are so good - it's the freshest, sweetest explosion of goodness. I can never eat a store peach again.





On top of that I found even more blackberries around the fence and managed to make a pie this afternoon. I only had 2 cups of whole wheat flour to make the crust so it looks a bit funny, but oh so good. I'm pretty sure we are eating peaches and pie for dinner.


Then Rainn and Annie fell asleep so I went through some books. I have a lot of books, and some are going to the garage sale, some are being shifted to my newly organized school room, and some are going to be in my Deliberate Life Bookstore. I will be selling used homeschooling, self-sufficiency, deliberate living books here on a continuing basis, with reviews and homeschooling advice. I know books, and I've been part of the homeschool world for 20 years so I thought maybe it would be fun. :)