NOT going to post any spoilers, as Conan has not finished yet, (so please don’t anyone else post them, either!); just wanted to say HOORAY I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! First book I’ve actually finished in a LONG time. Stayed up until 5am or something to finish it, but I couldn’t put it down! I’m surviving on less than 3 hours’ sleep, but I think I’ll manage… I see napping in the Heiselt family future today…

Question though: How do all the rest of the moms & dads out there find time for reading? I feel like laundry and all other activity went by the wayside as I committed to reading this book. There’s got to be a better way than getting no sleep in favor of reading, isn’t there? 

For my birthday I received a variety of interesting garden veggies, including a variety of beets. Now, I like pickled shoestring beets on salads, but that’s really all I know how to do with beets. Fortunately, my veggie gift also included a cookbook on how to cook everything that farm produces, so I had some options. I decided to try a really simple recipe stir-frying the beets with carrots with just a hint of cumin. Sounds odd, but I thought it was delicious! Unfortunately, I was the only one. But aren’t they beautiful?!

So, I was watching over the two little boys this evening

and it occured to me, looking at Keane’s "chubby," stout figure and Burke’s "tall," thin one that I’ve seen this somewhere before…. 

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So, Conan just discovered this really cool documentary series, that my kids LOVE. Especially Neils. We just bought it last night but Neils (and Conan) couldn’t wait to see it so they popped in the car DVD player and I listened to all kinds of amazing things about the ocean on the way home from the mall. Keane was even back there saying "fish!" "fish" "fish!" Neils finally couldn’t take it anymore and the conversation went something like this:

Keane: Fish! Fish! Fish!

Neils: "No, Keane, those are crustaceans!" 

Keane: Fish! Fish! Fish!

Neils: No, Keane, those are crustaceans. Can you say "crustaceans?"

Keane: Fish! Fish! Fish!

Neils: No, crustaceans, say it with me Keane, "crust-a-she-ans!" 

Keane: Fish! Fish! Fish!

Neils: OK Keane. You can call them fish. But they are really crustaceans. 

So, our family is becoming increasingly Vegetarian. Conan went Veggie over a year ago, then quickly turned Vegan (so, plant food only–no dairy, no eggs). So we humored him at dinner times with Vegan meals, but the kids and I still ate our chicken nuggets at lunch time, and that was that. Then, when reading the Word of Wisdom, it caught my attention that the counsel was given that we should only eat meat during times of extremity. Well, in a life and land of abundance, I could hardly say we needed meat to survive, so I decided I’d give vegetarianism a try. It didn’t really take, as I grew up on all meals including some kind of meat (if there’s no meat, it’s not a meal, mentality) so craved some kind of meat dish constantly. For my birthday week, I decided to make all my favorite meals, regardless of how vegan-friendly they were. Most of the time, I didn’t really feel so great afterwards, and I started craving more veggies. Then last night, I finally made the last of our frozen chicken into a creamy chicken dish, which I LOVE. I figured, "hey, it’s chicken the boys are bound to at least eat that," since I was also serving a Costa Rican dish called Garbanzos, which they will generally only pick at. The kids wouldn’t even TOUCH the chicken. Even Neils (who automatically despises anything with the word "bean" associated with it) asked for Garbanzos instead of chicken. And Keane, who has eaten hardly a thing all week, had three helpings. I guess I need to just to resign to the fact that: Yep, we’re officially a Veggie Family.

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Thanks to Mom Heiselt, we have a few more group shots from the large Heiselt gathering at our home. Here are some of my favorites:

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Some of my birthday gifts from yesterday needed my attention right away, so this morning I braved the *gasp* FRONT yard with all three boys and several containers of plants needing a new place to set down their roots. (This actually does make me really nervous as we live right on a state road where lots of large diesel trucks drive by with their heavy cargo). Sadly, I didn’t think to take "before" photos, so you just get to see the "afters" but for those of you who have seen our yard, you’ll see this is a VAST improvement.

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Well, I wasn’t expecting much (Conan specifically said, "whatever happens, promise me you won’t get disappointed,") but Conan totally made the perfect birthday day for me! I had always wanted an actual birthday PARTY for my 30th, and boy did he deliver. He had decorations, balloons, cake with candles (yes, he really did try to set the house on fire with 30 of them!) and a piñata… AND it was a total surprise! I LOVE surprises! The best part was being able to celebrate my special day with my wonderful friends here in Michigan. Not that any of them read blogs, but thanks to you all, anyway. 

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So, I’ve been really loathe to bring up reading and homework with Neils this summer. My original goal was to do a worksheet a day all summer and get him ahead enough that his work would be easy in the fall. Very familiar at the least. I want him to be a great reader because I know he can be and I know it will make life so SO much easier for him if he is. Unfortunately, Neils HATES to read if I have anything to do with it. I’m probably too pushy, even though I try so hard not to be. At school he does great, he doesn’t hate reading in general, we LOVE to read together, and we still do that. I just can’t be his reading coach. Conan has decided to become his reading tutor, and so far, SO GREAT. Neils read his first WHOLE book aloud to us last night while I was making dinner. He was SO ready to just quit by the last page, but he did it, and Conan asked him, "Neils, have you ever read a whole book like this before?" Neils thought about it and he said, "no I haven’t! This is the first time EVER!" and after that he was so pleased and proud.

Conan, you’re such a great Dad.

So, by Friday I realized that we’d been to a different lake every other day of the week this past week! Unfortunately we only have pictures from our ward campout to post, and none from the other excursions. Granted, when it’s just me and 3 kids at the beach (usually with a friend) I don’t really have enough hands to be the photographer as well as the hands-on lifeguard! I love LOVE living so close to this many wonderful lakes.

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