Tomahawks, knives, and fire: a boy scout's dream campout

Nate went with Toby and Isaac to our area council's Scout Jam celebrating 100 years of Boy Scouts. Apparently, it was fabulous. The boys came home happy and tired. (Isaac wanted to go straight to bed - shocking coming from him at 6:30 pm).

We made him shower first.

Then he did go straight to bed.

There was knife and tomahawk throwing. Isaac was in heaven. He has been begging for a tomahawk all summer. And he came home and browsed for throwing knives on Amazon to add to his Christmas wish list (emphasis on the wish part). He also got to make his very own arrow head.

There were also guys with guns from WWII that they shot off for the boys (firing blanks of course), a helicopter,

and someone shooting a flame thrower. That was an especially thrilling part of the event.

I'm glad that Nate is willing to go to so many scouting events with the boys. They get to make lots of fun memories together. Thanks Nate.

Update: Adding video of the flamethrower.

What do I do?

This is Mango, Toby's parakeet. She has been laying eggs all summer. Usually, they get abandoned on the floor of their cage, and we toss them. We tried putting a nesting box in the cage with the birds, but she wouldn't use it and kept laying her eggs on the floor. This time, she has decided to sit on the most recent ones. (There are three.) If you look closely under her wing you can catch a glimpse of one. She sits here on her eggs all day. I guess she is serious this time.

But what am I going to do if they actually hatch? I don't really want three more birds. We'd have to get a much bigger (very expensive) cage. They are rather loud, and somewhat messy. And did you know that parakeets live for 20 years?! I had no clue about their life expectancy when we got them for Toby one Christmas. I guess I could save them for his children. They'd still have a good ten years left in them. Still. As cool as little parakeets would be to watch hatch and grow, I'm kind of hoping that this little experiment doesn't really happen. Or maybe someone wants some baby parakeets? I'll keep you updated.

Stocking my freezer

Fall makes me want to cook. Well, at least October brings on the cooking frenzy. We are still having upper 80 degree weather here. But I am breaking out the crock pots anyway and hoping that eventually the weather cools a bit.

I've spent the last week making soups (split pea, yellow pea, chicken noodle, tortilla), chili, browning ground meats to add to sauces, making meatloaf (very convenient serving size when made in a muffin tin) banana bread, pumpkin bread, spaghetti sauce, and chicken stock.

My chili ended up being way too spicy. I had to triple the recipe to tone down the fire just to get it to manageable levels for my family. So now I think I have enough to last us until 2011. But it is rather tasty so I am looking forward to some cold nights to enjoy it. So now my freezer looks like this:

I've still got some more meals to make to use up the rest of the chicken and ham. I've got Toby helping me too. He is a fabulous cook and so I am employing him to make the chicken makhani, thai red curry and massaman chicken this afternoon while I am working on the soups. (One of the joys of having a homeschooled kid is the built-in helping hands during the day.)

A fully stocked freezer is the best reward for a couple days of cooking and dish doing. Now, when it's 6:00 and I'm looking for something for dinner, I'll just have to warm it up and we're all set.

Priceless.

Aspen Was Inducted

into the National Junior Honor Society yesterday evening. We are so proud of her. She is a wonderful daughter. She is smart and caring, beautiful and creative. And she wrote a great essay on leadership for her application. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of it on the other computer. Way to go Aspen!