Sunflowers

We grew sunflowers this summer - giant ones. Then we read about how to dry them and harvest the seeds. My husband did most of the work, but we are just now getting to the part where we remove the seeds from the dried flowers and use them for something.

We have still been doing bird studies for science (almost done), and we recently made bird feeders out of empty milk jugs. So our plan is to put the sunflower seeds into the bird feeders. The kids have all been rather excited about it, especially making the bird feeders (one for each - fortunately, we drink a lot of milk, so just happened to have 3 empty milk jugs handy).

But after the initial excitement of figuring out how to get the seeds out of the dried flowers today, my 2 younger ones have given up rather quickly. It is hard work, separating the seeds from the rest of the flower. My oldest is still outside, but the younger 2 have come in to play play-dough. It is rather warm outside still, I have to admit. We are eagerly awaiting the cold front that is supposed to come through Saturday night, bringing highs only in the high 70s (and lows in the 50s!)

 We've had some other excitement lately. My husband found a puppy on the side of the road near our house two days ago, and we have not been able to find the owner. We might be willing to keep it, but it looks like a Rottweiler, and we're not sure we really want that breed of dog. So we're searching for someone who might want him....

My middle child came down with a stomach bug yesterday morning too, but fortunately, it only lasted a few hours, and she is fine now. My youngest came down with a fever and a cough almost 2 weeks ago. His fever only lasted a day too (of course, the day we had a really good field trip planned), but the cough is only now gone.

And on top of all that, my husband has been furloughed without a job since Tuesday, when the government shut down. It is handy to have him home for a few days, but I think we'd both prefer it if this was just (paid) vacation time and not forced, unpaid time off. Fortunately, we have enough savings to last us for a while, but not forever....