Worm poop makes the best compost!

A couple of years ago, I started a worm composting bin with my fourth graders.  The bin is a simple plastic box with air holes which you fill with damp newpaper strips and red wriggler worms.  The wrigglers are easy to care for, they just need to stay damp and be fed everynow and again.  They are not picky eaters and will devour vegetable and fruit peelings, grains, coffee grounds and filters, newspaper and other organic materials.  They eat up and then 'cast' out beautiful, rich garden compost.

Since I've been at home, I've kept the worm bin on the porch. Sometimes I pay attention to them, most of the time I don't.  In fact the last time I peeked in the box I was frightened away by a large infestation of soldier flies.  They look like giant wasps.  So I screamed, and closed the lid, deciding that the worms could just fend for themselves from now on.  After I calmed down, I discovered, that though nasty looking, these flies just meant I had damp, organic material in an advanced stage of decomposition.  Basically, I needed to empty out my worm bin and give my wigglers more to eat.

Thanks to a little prodding from Douglas, we decided to have a family night centered around harvesting our worm compost.  We emptied out our bin and found it full of several pounds of dark, rich compost and a healthy colony of worms.  The compost went on the plants and the worms went back in the bin. (Mostly.)

Here's what our beauties look like.

Photo Journal

Aunt Amber sharing the love.

Love Ruby's laugh!  She's the cutest.  Maybe her good nature will rub off on Elias.  Oops, apparently not.

These girls got along famously.  Lovin' the hats - and Ruby's bum.

Grandpa is very proud of all his grandkids.

We went for a short walk at the top of Millcreek Canyon and had to get our feet wet.  That water was so cold!

Where Have You Been!?!

I've been off my blogger for awhile and can't seem to get back on.  But I'll give it a try.  Here's a recap from our last month.

We had a wonderful time in Salt Lake visiting Grandma and Grandpa.  Our original purpose for going, was to attend cousin Gracie's baptism.  We were so glad that we could be there for her special day.  Grace looked beautiful and very happy.  So proud of you!   Addison was flattered to be asked to play her violin during the service.  She did a great job.

We had originally planned on staying through the 24th of July so that we could attend the parade and fireworks that are part of  Utah's Pioneer Day celebration.  Douglas stuck to the original plans, but the kids and I ended up staying, and staying and staying  . . .

Visiting Grandma's is like staying at a five star luxury resort, complete with individual suites and matching bathrobes. (Well not really the bathrobes.)   Even the baby got his own room - the magical "chamber of sleep," where our little one learned to finally sleep through the night without keeping the rest of the family, or the neighbors awake too.  Heaven, pure heaven.

Our five star resort had the best of everything!  Yummy homemade food, a fun pool with all sorts of floaty toys, an entire room dedicated to toys for kids, and a television that finally allowed Addison to watch her fill of Hannah Montana and whatever other obnoxious drivel Disney channel provides.  (I am so glad we don't have Disney channel!  But I am kind of sad that we can't watch the Olympics now that I chucked the TV antenna. Oh well.)

Elias and his cousin Kenny got in hours of playtime together.  Mostly, they got along swimmingly.  Elias really fell in love with his big cousin.  After we got home, every night for a week he prayed, "Nank you, Heavenly Fader for playing wif my cousin Kenny."  I thought it was incredibly sweet.

The kids had a TON of cousin time.  They wore themselves out, and in turn we completely wore out Grandma.  After we had stayed and stayed and then stayed some more, she finally threatened to drive us home.  So, we took the hint and skedaddled out of there.  Thank you, mom for putting up with all the chaos!

So now we are back home, nothing much doing.  Douglas is still mostly out of work.  He did have a fun three day gig working  for the CBS show NUMBER3.  He got paid to be a "climbing consultant" for an episode that featured rock climbing.  I think it was the most fun he's had in a while.  Since then, we've been doing all the usual job hunting stuff, praying hard, going to the temple, abstaining from food for periods of time (mostly cuz we're low on grocery money - ha ha ha), burning incense and putting fruit on our altar of unemployment insurance.  You know, the usual.  So it should all work out eventually.

This being just a quick recap, I have left out several important, fun details, such as Our Day With the Potters, and Watching the Olympics With the Kriders.  But to make up for it, here are some cute pictures instead.

Just kidding.  My camera battery died.  I'll have to post pictures - Later!

Vale Television

I really appreciate the various suggestions for a preschool name.  Unfortunately, there was no clear cut winner.  Though I did get a good laugh over Live and Learn and Demure Daycare.  "I signed my precious child up for preschool, and it was a disaster.  Oh well, live and learn."  or "We think our child is much too outgoing and is lacking subtlety, so Demure Daycare sounded like an answer to prayers."  I may be leaning towards Addison's suggestion of Happy Hour.  We'll see.  I think I still have time.  The preschool portion of my plan will not get into full swing until Fall 2009.  I'll start my enrollment drive in January and February of next year.  So I'll need a name before then.

Now that I have been spending so much time preoccupied with plans for educating little ones, I have been painfully reminded of an area in which I have totally let go of all convictions and boundaries.  

Television.  

Television has become like child care crack to me.  It is the babysitter that keeps the two-year-old happy so that I can mess around and solve my crosswords.  It is the, get-out-of-my-hair-I-don't-want-to-have-to-entertain-you pill.  Oh, bad mom, bad mom.  

Any parent who has not been hiding in the backwoods has heard that children under the age of two should not even see a television turned on, ever.  (There is even a campaign on this subject.)  Not to mention the first three years of life being the most important and blahedy, blah, blah.  So I've had just a little bit of guilt.  But no more - this morning I took the rabbit ears off of our TV (don't laugh at me, we refuse to pay for cable.), walked outside and tossed them in the dumpster.  Bye, bye television.

I'm thinking that there will be a short mourning period.  But we should fill it up pretty quickly with web surfing and video watching.  In case you were worried.

Some Pictures from the Long Weekend