A Common Shepherdess

Yesterday we experienced our first Arizona dust storm. And our first 100+ degree day here in the Valley of the Sun. I was outside when I noticed the dark clouds in the eastern sky. My first thought was, "Great! Rain! It will cool off." Then I noticed in front of the dark clouds were lower light brown clouds. A few wind gusts came up and then it started. Suddenly the wind blew hard and the air was filled with dust. It seemed like a light fog had settled over our area. My kids were outside playing with a couple of neighbor kids when the storm hit. The older kids started screaming (in excitement rather than fear) but my 5 year old son started to cry. I think he wasn't sure what to do. I grabbed my son and my 3 year old daughter and put them inside the motorhome. They stood on chairs and watched out of the window as I tried to roll up our awning. Putting an awning up is hard to do when the wind is rocking the motorhome back and forth and jerking the awning up...

Outdoor pool Playroom, schoolroom, and outdoor kitchen (note the crockpot) Garden of succulent plants Yep, we got it all!

My Hobbit Name Azaelia Loamsdown of Deephallow My Elven Name Larien Carnesîr

Blogger has a new tool that allows bloggers to write Hindi words phonetically and the words are automatically changed to Devanagari script. Of course, the only Hindi phrases I know are Bollywood movie titles. Lagaan = लगान Kuch Kuch Hota Hai = कुछ कुछ होता है Swades = स्वदेस Dil Chahta Hai = दिल चाहता है

While googling "frugal recipes," I came across a website that shares British recipes from the WWII era. One recipe for Woolton Pie called for 1 lb. diced swede. Apparently "swede" is slang for rutabaga. Too funny!

. . . or maybe we just need to get out of the house more. We recently went to a laundromat to wash two sleeping bags. Kiddos #2, 3, and 4 were fascinated by the front-loading washer. A kid's natural curiosity is a great thing!

Recently our library was giving away a huge box of old National Geographic magazines. Every time we visited we would take a few home. I think we were the only ones who ever took any. We ended up with a big stack. Whenever I read a book to my daughter, we talk about the different animals we see in the book. Then we look through the magazines and cut out pictures of animals we saw. My daughter glues each of these pictures onto an index card and I write the name of the animal on the card. She loves getting these cards out and looking through them. Sometimes I ask her to sort them according to color or size, or whether or not the animal can fly, anything to get her thinking about their differences.