I love it when a new month begins on a Monday! I hope you all had a fine Canada Day (I could hear fireworks while typing this post). We finished school on June 7th and the past few weeks have gone by quickly.

Read

One of my goals this summer is to read more fun novels aloud to my kids, since during the school year I ran out of steam for reading beyond our school books (lots of good ones there, though!). So far we have finished The Story of the Treasure Seekers, one of my childhood favourites. (I’m always telling people that it’s better than some of Nesbit’s other books that get more press! Now I need to buy the sequel since the library doesn’t have it.)

For my “Books of Centuries” challenge I read Everything Sad Is Untrue (21st century), Travels with Charley (20th century — I forgot I’d already read two), and Genesis: Finding Our Roots (Bible times). All worth reading, in my opinion!

Of course we’ve also read stacks of picture books. Here are a few that I’d like to share: Threads: Zlata’s Ukrainian Shirt, Pond Babies, and When You Have to Wait.

Eat

Some new recipes we tried in June:

• Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche
• Filipino Chicken Adobo
• Pide (Turkish pizza)
• Pork Chickpea Stew with Cinnamon
• Chinese Scallion Pancakes
• Strawberry Curd (we also made rhubarb curd, but it turned out too runny)

For summer break, I’ve enlisted my two oldest to make supper on Fridays, including choosing the menu and cleaning up. So far they’ve made caesar white beans with sausages, cheese biscuits, and salad; lemon meatloaves with mashed potatoes; and alfredo pasta with peas and salmon.

Juliet had a pancake-themed birthday last week; over the course of the day we consumed ube mochi pancakes, latkes, personal-sized pizzas, and a Flapjack Party Stack!

Finally, an unexpectedly yummy snack with more protein than sugar: Blue Diamond holiday almonds, especially the snickerdoodle flavour, but also peppermint cocoa.

Do

• Dairy Festival in Canton (free yogurt and pizza, parade, petting zoo)
• Choir concert with the theme “welcome home”
• Car show with “touch a truck” event and food vendors
• Attending a friend’s piano recital
• Strawberry picking
• Riverfest (book sale, bouncy castle, garden club tours)
• Trying out a kite and metal detector
• A very windy picnic by the St. Lawrence
• Vital Ideas online conference on classical education put on by Beautiful Teaching (very inspiring and I’m looking forward to watching the replays of sessions that I missed)
• First time swimming this summer, along with a delicious meal and bonfire with generous friends from church, who have a wonderful property on the Raquette River

Listen

Our church practices a new Psalm selection every month, and I really liked the June Psalm of the Month: 118A in the Book of Psalms for Worship.

Watch

I watched Fisherman’s Friends a few weeks ago. Even if this movie isn’t the greatest I’ve ever seen, I just love the music!

Meditate

Bible reading update: I finished Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Romans, 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians.

This is the passage I chose as memory work over the summer, though so far I’ve not been doing a good job getting the kids to work on it.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:9-21