Summertime in Minnesota

Hello again my friends. Life is often unpredictable. Once again my husband was let go from a very good job. Reason: "reduction in force". This is our second experience with unemployment. It feels harder this time because we have been in Minnesota for a short time and don't have the network of friends and the support we had when we were unemployed the first time and lived in MA. He has been unemployed since April.
Our four children are older and more knowledgeable and experience the deeper meanings that come with their Daddy being unemployed. 
We live fairly frugally. We buy clothes from Goodwill or Savers. We buy books from used book stores. We don't eat out. We turn off lights when we are not in a room. We don't have the luxury of an air conditioner because the people who foreclosed on our home stole it before they moved. 
There are so many reasons to be upset or filled with anxiety, but I am not.
Each day we have enough, more than enough. We eat well, we laugh a lot, we count our blessings and look forward to the next adventure we will have. We are healthy. The lyme disease and babesia that I suffered from for 5 years has finally taken a bow and departed. I thank God for Dr. Julia Greenspan. She was a master at treating me and my symptoms have gradually gone away. I feel like she gave me another chance at life. We are together in this journey.

So our children won't get "dumb" over summer break from school, we have been doing "homeshcool". I was really impressed with Julie at http://wingedwisdom.wordpress.com/about/ and her curriculum for homeschooling and have based our summer school loosely on her plan. 
Each week our children chose a place and an animal, insect or reptile to study. They research and write out reports and give an oral presentation to each other and us. They include their own artwork as well. 
Each week we study a well known artist, we cook up something fun in the kitchen (like toffee, cookies, soups, etc..), we go on field trips, listen to classical music, watch Vi Hart http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart for math and geometry. We go to the local library more than once a week as our children are avid readers and on hot days it's a good place to cool down. We study body systems. We play games and have popcorn and movie nights. Our children bike, roller blade and play ga-ga on our lower, octagonal deck. They are becoming expert skateboarders.
We get out to explore and unearth the mysteries God has left us to discover. Our two younger boys are fascinated with finding "the golden ratio" in nature right now. Spirals are everywhere.

Our children are not lazy or bored or playing video games all day. They keep us active and we are learning new things as they discover the world around us. 
Each night we close the day by reading in a DK Illustrated Family Bible. We began at the beginning and are reading about the Israelites slavery in Egypt and the Exodus. We pray for others. We pray for ourselves. We thank Lord God Almighty for all we have been blessed with.