a quick Debriefing (Its pretty brief)

The last few weeks have slipped through my fingers.

I have many posts that never got posted because well, I just didn't post them.

There has been some major going-on's around here to make us busy enough to leave little or no time for pictures,

And even less time for blogging.

Its been exhausting.......

We (the kids and I) hosted our first yard sale.

We hosted four other ladies and all their junk.

Lauren let me run her lemonade stand

All. Day. LOOOOOONG.

My nose and forehead took a major beating from the rays.

I have beat my time and distance in running.

6.2 miles.

60 minutes.

It hurts to think of it.

My Mothers Day Present to myself:

7 miles.

Birthdays, t-ball, field trips and wait

THE SUN!

Destination: river

All this to say that I have been in this funk of unintended unschooling craziness.

I have been flying by the seat of my pants and

hardly know which way is up.

Its time to strap on my apron,

I see more chaotic days in the horizon.

Juggling of school, river, sun, river chores, river, t-ball, gardening,

river, river, river

Summer+Peeps= :)

The Pieper Times.

The best most exciting news of the week:

Lauren was accepted into an empty position on Silas' t-ball team.

She fits right in with the daisy pickin' 4 year old ladies.

Her first foul ball:

Silas dissected a goldfish. Of course he had to poke out the eyes.

He has a thing for fish eyes.

He made some observations for his notebook that were a real hoot.

I have a real hard time keeping a straight face when I read them to him.

''We found the fish dead, bent over to the left.

I sawed it with a knife to cut it.

There were green guts in it too,

But I didn't touch them because it was a watery mess.

I poked the eyes out with my fingers..I smooshed it and black slippery stuff came out"

My personal observation:

1. It is perfectly acceptable and wonderfully planned out to dissect things in your underwear.

A boy who usually would wipe guts off onto his shirt wouldn't dare wipe it on his bare legs or belly.

2. I am in love with this part of home schooling and would live broke (not working) until my kids moved out in order to do so.

3. I am so lucky to have a husband who gives me the resources necessary to enrich my life and invest in my children's future by allowing this whole ordeal!

Last but not least:

Claire Bear Hot Cakes.

They're all the new rage in my home.

My baby Peep is allergic to wheat.

I finally found a pancake recipe that she can have!

Up till now, she lived on dairy, meat,

And the occasional pile of beans or brown rice.

Here's how I do:

1 1/2 c. milk

1 c. brown rice

1 c. rolled oats

2 Tb. butter

1 t. vanilla

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 t baking soda

3T. honey or brown sugar or some of both!

2 eggs

In a blender, mix first five ingredients for about a minute.

Let soak overnight

The next morning,

Blend the rest of the ingredients,

Adding more milk if necessary to create a vortex.

Blend until smooth (a minute or two).

Fry them up on you wonderfully seasoned cast iron skillet, or a skillet with butter (to prevent the sticks).

I am aware that some people are timid about leaving milk out overnight. You needn't be! This is safe (especially because your cooking the pancake). You can read about the health benefits of soaking grains here.

Its worth it for your health to vary the grains in your diet.

This recipe is tried and approved by my family.

Anyone brave enough to try it?

Week

Lauren got to mow the lawn with Dad today. She was so sweet and helpful! It probably had something to do with the photo shoot happening all around her.

Lauren's cake all served up

(on her own dishes).

Lauren, icing a cake for the first time

All by herself!

The pesky animals always come

That belly needs some cake.

The end product.
Good job baby!

Silas and the first love of his life: Karate Kid. He's obsessed.

He is watching Karate Kid Part 2 as I type.

This week, Poor Claire endured her first sunburn. Poor baby. You can still see a little bit of rosy on her cheeks from it.

So you wanna know what I used on it? VINEGAR. It sounds like it would sting-because of the acid, but it is actually very soothing to a burn. Call me crazy. Its o.k. my husband thinks so too.

Sometimes I feel like the dad from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, except his thing was Windex (which doesn't even touch vinegar in my opinion). If you don't remember, watch the movie. Its cute.

Jake hates vinegar with a passion (He can't stand how it smells). He didn't seem to notice it on her though, and I think it helped.

I also use vinegar to clean our counters because it is the only non-streaking cleaner for the granite (even Windex didn't work!) It is our window cleaner, table cleaner (safe for the kids to use when helping out!), and it really does the trick. Its astringent properties make it safe-even for meat juices and on cutting boards.

I put a cup in every load of laundry because our river water is soft, and prone to making our laundry mildew smelling. The vinegar makes our laundry smell like nothing (unless perhaps it spills out quickly spills. Then you can smell it for sure).

What do you use it for? c'mon I know I'm not the only one!
Oh, another great vinegar trick: Fungus killer!

My poor lemon tree has been attacked by fungus especially hard this year.

See the black stuff on the branch? Its all over the leaves too.

I have been using my vinegar spray on it.

(about 1/4 c vinegar and a squirt of dish soap, and filled to the top with water)
I actually have lots of healthy new growth since I started spraying.
I think its slowly removing the black stuff too, but that could be my vinegar bias getting to me.

I am ready for a new week and new weather. We were not able to get out much because of the Rain. There was a TON of rain. This does not sit well with a 3 & 4 year old, or with their mom.

Say Say oh sunshine, come out and play with me

Bring back my sanity

dry out my lemon tree

come in my window

dance in my living room

were going nuts inside

now's not too soon!

Nothing big.

This week Claire got her first "sitting up" bath in the sink. Her hair is so curly when It gets wet.

Daddy lost a badmitton game.
Loser's prize: dishing up the pie

Our sunflowers sprouted this week.


And Lauren got her piggies painted.

Thats all I caught with the camera.

Oh, and we found a sprouted apple seed in Silas' apple (Post follows this one)!

Never ending story of our week....

We had a great week this week (about the opposite of last week thankfully!) I took a lot of pictures and am loving sharing them!

Guess who?

If you guessed Lowen, bingo!

So I don't know if you grandparents remember(how could you forget?) when Lauren was a little over two years old, She started losing her hair by the handfuls. Not balding, just shedding like a wild cat.

Well, then a few more months after being two, it started growing in in patches of new growth (that stuck straight up and her hair looked like an 80's rocker mullet. remember? its all coming back right?).

Now that were finally past that, she's on to something new again:

her roots are growing in SUPER curly!!!!! Her hair starts out curly at the top and then flows into straigh/slighty wavy ends. Its the funniest thing! On some days, she looks like her head grows dreads! Always something new with that sweetheart

Her party on top.

We spent A LOT of days (4 out of five to be exact) waiting for the rain to stop and the sun to come out!


We had Claire's "friend" Mason come visit so his mommy could go grocery shopping.
Thats about as friendly as it gets when your a couple months old!



We planted tomatoes, sunflowers, green beans, and nasturtiums.

Yes, The background to this picture is my current street.

Hopefully we will be joining the civilized world again this summer with a brand spankin' new street (and sidewalks all the way around the block!).

More seed planting...

Recently, our coffee center has had a shared space with our new wildlife observatory.

Tadpoles, Praying Mantis', and Coffee.

Frog mantis cafe? Okay, you think of a better name!

We discovered that our smallest tadpole is budding with new appendages. This was surprising because I would have guessed it to be the bigger ones to bloom first.

In a few weeks we should see a couple hundred praying mantis' eat their way out this egg!

Our Mantis egg

We went on a home school trip with a group of homeschooling families to a lavender farm. Her farm breeds praying mantis and wild tree frogs (you know the kind with the red eyes?). Anyway, we have a mantis egg of our own and were hoping it hatches.

We learned from the Lavender lady:

1. Mantis eggs need to be at least 70 degrees for a sustained period of time before they hatch. We have them inside, but it may be a while!
2. Once hatched, they will eat ANY kind of bug (including each other if they're desperate!
3. When mating, the female mantis may eat the males head (multi- tasking right?) and then when finished mating, she'll finish him off!

Anyway.......

We went to the boardwalk for some pizza and bike riding In the clouds/sprinkling rain

Silas did a great job sharing his bike with friends ;)

Funny things Silas said this week :

Mom, did you know that I am a famous Chuck-E- Cheese Basketball player?

The day I made bacone for breakfast: " bacon is my heart. Bacon is my wolverine" The boy loves his bacon.

Also, Jake and I walked into the living room to see Lauren sitting on Claire's back saying:

"Woo hoo! giddy up!"

Talk about heart attack and a half!

And Last but not least, Caire. Sweet Claire. Announcing the newest members of her body:

Teeth!!!!!!!

Two of them, right in the middle of her mouth.
She also has mastered the army crawl. When I figure out how to post videos, I will surely share it! She has been so sweet (and clingy!) this week! She has a contagious laugh and it has been coming out more and more lately.

This week, I fell in love with staying home all over again! Watching my kids learn, encouraging them to learn more, and being able to love them 24/7, is something I just wouldn't give up.

God is so good to my family! Oh How he loves us! I am so thankfu for new and better weeks. Last week was a struggle, but this week has been such a great week.

The Lord is my strenght and my Song.