Recommended Reading: Women in WWII

I have continued reading about WWII over the last month. I also borrowed a documentary on it from the library.

1. Yankee Doodle Gals is an easy education on women pilots in WWII. It has tons of photos and illustrations.  I am dumbfounded by how brave these women were and how long it took them to get recognition for their contribution to the war effort.  It was not until someone made a blunder in the 70s referencing then recent women Air Force grads as the "first women to fly military aircraft" that the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of WWII were finally recognized for their efforts.

2. The Battle of Britain - There are 2 movies by this title. One is from the late 60s and is fun to watch from a historical fiction perspective, but not very clear in its plot or history.  The other one, starring Ewan McGregor and his brother is an excellent documentary.  After reading about the planes that Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and WASPs flew, it was fun to see them piloted up close.

3. The Secret Lives of the Codebreakers describes the work of men and women at Bletchley Park during WWII. I have not seen the Enigma movie yet about Alan Turing, but I doubt that I will like it as much as getting the true story from this book. I like the book because the author interviewed more than 100 veterans and tells the story in a multifaceted way.  It is crazy to think that all the men and women employed there had signed the official secrets act and were told to continue keeping the secret of what they did during the war until well into the 70s, and they did! National pride must have been more important to them then than it is to most people today. I guess that is my biggest take-away from all this reading about WWII.  Everyone did their part and they did it willingly, to the very best of their abilities, for the greater good.

4. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is about 2 Jewish children hiding in rural Poland in WWII.  It is the kind of WWII book that I don't like. I don't recommend it. War is atrocious. Some of the sad scenes haunt me. Their story is not true, just possible given a lot of true circumstances.  I started reading it and then I had to finish and find some kind of resolution.

We also recently finished or are finishing reading aloud 2 books with the kids.

5. Chasing Vermeer is a mystery with a lot of moving parts. I enjoyed it, like solving a logic puzzle. Big sister A had a hard time following all the details of it.  I think it is more for ages 10+.  There is no sketchy content, just a need for concentration and good reading comprehension skills.

6. The Boxcar Children (BOOK 1) is the first of a series, but only the first book is considered a classic children's story, as I understand it. It was published in the late 1970s and I remember reading it as a child. I loved the story then and my kids are loving it now. It is so hard to put it down and the children are so easy to relate to.  I think it falls in the "rags to riches" genre of stories. That is not the part that resonates the most though, at least not for me.  I love how they made do with what they had and were cheerful in overcoming hardships.

Family Schooling Summary

Lots of parties this week. We went to the ward Memorial Day picnic, then on to the Joy School Graduation party at Uncle P's house. Two of the graduates were out of town that day, but we had a fun little slideshow recap of the year and each of the kids received their report card and certificate of completion. 

Everyone tested out Uncle P's new swing set and bounce house. Then it was on to birthday celebrations for cousin B.

The party had a "Frozen" theme -- Anna and Elsa were everywhere.

They even had a pinata.

My new flower box liners came for my birthday this week. The kids quickly upcycled the box: scary vampire on one side, ghost on the other. All ready for halloween.

We started our summer art curriculum this week. It's called "Meet the Masters". There are 35 lessons in the package we bought. Each one is about a different famous artist. It includes a slideshow of their works with narration to go along with each slide.  Then their are some exercises to practice techniques like that artist would have used. This week we studied Vincent Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt. I am learning a lot myself. We are planning to go down to the National Gallery of Art to see some of the real versions of these paintings later in the summer.

Lots of rain here lately, but my strawberry pickers were undeterred. They went out with their umbrellas Thursday afternoon.

Friday we met up with the cousins to play at a park while their car was having some work done.

Big sister A is pleased with her new skill. She can pump herself on the swings now.

 Cousin L climbed to the top of the tower several times.

On Saturday our neighbor invited us over to pick mulberries in her yard. We came home with a big bowl of berries and purple juice everywhere.

Sew Special: Headbands

Awhile back Aunt H generously gave us part of a bulk batch of headband making supplies that she had gotten. We finally found the glue gun this week and made time for it. So cute.

 Hard to get a clear picture of this bouncy girl. Here is the headband that she wore for church today:

Garden Progress: Strawberries

It's magical when the garden starts to make lots of food, like having a pantry in the backyard.  This week I felt the shift to summer cooking. Everyone was in the mood for salad. We ate salad with strawberries from the garden 3 nights this week. I made raspberry vinaigrette with the Vitamix for the topping.

I have been enjoying breakfast burritos lately. Fresh eggs from the chickens, plus fresh cilantro from the garden, and a little bit of cheese, on a tortilla.  Sometimes the gathering is also part of my morning exercise -- sprint to the garden and back with the sprigs of cilantro before the whole troop realizes that I am gone.  This morning we ran out of bananas for the corn flakes.  The kids quickly determined that strawberries would also be good to fill this gap. Away to the garden yet again to pick strawberries for breakfast before church. I think we have been averaging about a quart per day from our little patch.

Family Schooling Summary

This week, I was in charge of the organizing the Class Fair for co-op school.  I had a committee of 5-6 ladies to help me so I just did a bunch of delegating.  We had booths for the first hour.  Some were science fair style, showing what the kids worked on in their classes and some were fun activities.  I put hubby in charge of the Plinko board, which was the most popular activity among the kids (lollipop prizes).

 Kids waiting in line for the Plinko activity:

There was also a slideshow running during the booth time.  Then the second hour there were performances from some of the classes.  Brother M's music makers class sang two songs.  The third hour was a picnic lunch.  It all went pretty smoothly.

This was also the last week of Joy School and I was teaching.  The past two times we have done JS we skipped the last week, so these modules were all new to me.  A bit more work to prepare, but fun too.  It was about babies and grandparents. There was a cool story where I was to draw it out on a piece of poster board or chalk board as I was telling the story.  The kids LOVED this learning method. (Noting this for future lessons teaching the kids about other things). I used a flattened moving box for the drawing. Then I let the kids embellish it after the story.  Our drawing skill levels are about the same.

 We spent some of our free play time in the yard. Big sister A taught everyone how to pick strawberries:

And brother M helped everyone catch rolly polly bugs:

Baby L observed intensely, as is her usual approach.

House Progress: Shutters and Flower Boxes

Here are some more pics from the day the storage pod was delivered:

Here is how the house looked at the start: (last fall)

Then we took everything off and started the painting. They used Sherwin Williams Duration paint. All four of the painters recommended this type when they gave us their estimates, so it must be good :)

Here it is after the painters' first day:

Meanwhile hubby was working on the shutters.  They are made from rough hewn cedar planks. They are about 25% wider than the original shutters.

He stained them black with a couple coats of a special exterior stain from Sherwin Williams.  Here it is after we re-attached the shutters and added the window boxes. 

Now we are just waiting for the awning, the window box liners, and the new storm door.  Then I will have to give the landscaping another spruce up. Progress!

Reuse Recipe: Dyeing Leather Shoes

Both hubby and I had some shoes that needed a spruce up.  Mine were a pair of birks that felt great on my feet, but the color was annoying.
I read up on how to dye shoes a new color and used these as the test pair.

 I taped off the soles and filled them with brown paper to keep the dye from going anywhere I didn't want dyed.

 I used a deglazer first, to take off any protective coatings and to make sure that the dye would take evenly. It stinks like super strong nail polish remover. I just rubbed it on with a clean rag. I was careful to get in and around the stitching.
The dye color is chocolate, which is supposed to be a very dark brown. The dye comes in a bottle and has a sponge paint brush.  It was very simple to use. Just paint it all over and voila. I wore gloves and did it outside based on others recommendations.

 I love the color.  I only used about a third of each jar to do these and probably could have gone a little lighter on the dye.
After the dye dried, I applied Fiebling's Mink oil to soften and waterproof them. Unlike the other products, this one smells good.

I showed my shoes to hubby and got his permission to fix up the dress shoes that he wears 6 days a week, to work and church.  I have tried to polish them a couple of times, but that is very short lived. Polishing shoes is so common in other countries, but not a habit among Americans it seems. In any case, this dye is a penetrating dye so it goes down into the leather rather than staying on the surface. 

Here is what hubby's shoes looked like at the start:

 I figured that my efforts could not make them much worse than they already were!   And luckily, using the same technique, everything worked great again.

 A nice dark chocolate.  These are taken after he had worn them for a couple days.