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The Colors of Summer

I can't believe how quickly the summer has passed. We are still planning on some last minute camping and vacationing in, but lots has happened already.

Marty and beth in their new tie dyes

All in one small period of time back in June, the kids got out of school, kaseja and Gavain left Lost Valley, and beth started her Masters program at U of O. Somehow, we made it through all that with relatively little stress. kaseja is happier and more grounded than I've seen her in a long time. The kids have really grown over the year and are so much more independent now than they were lat summer. beth loves being a student and she is already getting attention and praise from her professors in her first few weeks.

You can find out more about what's happening for kaseja and Gavain at their website idproject.us. They scrambled around looking at various housing options from renting, to buying property to joining a co-op or other smaller community. In the end, they decided to live in Gavain's van for the time being and take advantage of both the lovely weather and the mobility. kaseja continues to facilitate the Heart of Now workshops here at Lost Valley. She has a worktrade arrangement that allows her to continue some of her Heart of Now office work in trade for her and Gavain sharing in meals here a few days a week. So we have a deal that puts the kids to bed here at our house 3 or 4 nights a week. This still gives her lots of time to work extra Home Instead shifts and save up lots of money. We actually see more of her now than when she lived two doors down.

kaseja hanging out at our house

The kids are really enjoying their summer freedom. Ironically, they are learning more in terms of academics "playing" at home than they did in a whole year at Blue Mountain Free School. We are all pulling together on this. For one thing, the kids are enrolled to go to Trent Elementary School next year. They knew that they were behind their peers in academics and both of them really feel motivated to "catch up" before they start school in the Fall. We got to visit Trent at their end of the year festival. Aki came with us and we had a lot of fun. But now that Kite and Mariner have had a peek at what they are heading into, we made a deal that they will do 20 minutes a day of "homework." They've been super cooperative and they've both advanced rapidly.

beth and Ty (Tyre Dawn)

We also have the wonderful gift of Tyre Dawn, our summer DELVE intern. She is fulfilling part of her Masters program with Gaia University by studying children's hands-on education in intentional community. She comes with loads of experience as a Montessori teacher and Heart Circle instructor. She has a wonderful gift with kids. They really feel heard by her and enjoy their time with her, hardly noticing that they are learning. I feel especially grateful that she brought her classroom materials and manipulatives. She works with the kids in the classroom in mornings and they are free to run around int he afternoons. Yet many afternoons, the kids come to her to ask permission to go back to classroom.

My focus has been towards finding outlets for my creative energies. I kicked off the summer with a proposal to run a Cookies and Pop store this summer and sell sweets to the EPCP students. The children have really stepped up to staff our little business venture. Mariner is quite the Marketer. He got the store rolling by walking around and tantalizing the masses with his Mint Chocolate Monster Cookie and homemade Root Beer.

Kite having so much fun with his project and practicing writing, too

Kite and Karis both learned how to add and subtract dollars and cents. Kite loves to serve the cookies, especially the Monsters. Even Marten and Althea joined in, Althea even created the new flavor -- Ginger Goos. These replaced the original Oatmeal Raisin cookies which didn't sell very well. My personal favorite is the Agave Root Beer. I must confess that after making my 1200th cookie, I am looking forward to the end of summer. I'll take a break from cookie making and I look forward to giving them away for free next time I do. But the root beer on the other hand remains fun to make and worthe the while, especially on hot days.

This table seats 12 and is made entirely of salvaged lumber.

My second creative venture of the summer was to build a hexagonal picnic table for Lost Valley. When I heard that Marc wanted to buy some picnic tables to replace the old ones, I thought "That's silly. We can make picnic tables." He was worried that we would take too long to make them, knowing how these usually go at Lost Valley. But we even have the lumber since we demolished a shed in Bryna's back yard and salvaged all the lumber. It would only take a good thickness planer to make that lumber beautiful again. So, at first I thought about having LV pay me enough to cover me buying a planer. Then I looked online and saw that your basic picnic table sells for between $160 to $300. The hexagonal table sell for $800. Wow! If I sell one of those, I could pay for the planer and my time. So, I took a gamble and bought a planer and built the first table in two days. I better get another one going before the picnic season passes me by.

Then the latest creative venture was Sam's tie-dye workshop. Oh man, has it been psychedelic around here lately! He revealed his best tricks of the trade. Now we have almost a dozen brashly beautiful tie-dye garments in our household. It's so fun, too. The kids got into it and the results are all stunning. Now we're headed up to Mt. St. Helen's and possibly more camping, swimming and summer fun!

Chocolate syrup enhances a huge grin on Mariner's face