A Record Breaking Summer

Yep, Wichita did it! We officially have the hottest recorded summer. We broke the record from 1936.

Oh my goodness our lake is so low--I've never seen it like this before. The water usually reaches to the road, but now you can walk on it towards the middle. NONE of that greenery or brown dirt you see should be there--it should all be covered by water.

In the next picture, do you see the concrete in the foreground in the lower left corner? That is part of a huge pipe that runs under the road. The kids like to stand on it. The lake should reach that pipe and there should be fish jumping out of the water and the kids should be able to lay on their tummies on the pipe and touch the water. I just can't get over how low the water is.

Plants have died; or maybe I let them die because I gave up watering them, always hoping it would rain more. I'm not sure if some of them will come back, especially the little evergreen trees. I've heard they won't. One is completely brown, the other still has some green on it. They stay green even through the winter, so I guess we'll know our answer come next spring.

Some flowers I thought were dead have actually come back. It's helped me learn what are hardy and can take the heat. I took these pics around 4:00 so they are wilting under the sun, but they are not dead and I am so excited!

 In the next pic, you can see the brown stalks from the previous flowers that bloomed, and then you can see the pretty yellow flowers that are blooming--all from the same plant. I had not seen yellow flowers for a long time, so I thought this plant was dead. Glad I didn't pull it out.

 A pretty pop of pink telling us she's still surviving.

Our grass has had its ups and down with going from a green color to brown. It's currently brown, but I'm positive that when we get rain it will green back up because that's been the pattern all summer. An unbelievably hot, hot summer.

First Day of Co-op

Evan is a 5th grader and Lauren a 2nd grader this year. They had fun in their classes today and seeing friends they haven't seen in about 4 months. Evan's schedule is Multiplication Mastery, Tall Tales, Rainforests, Pilgrims, and Spy Science. Lauren's classes are Art I, Scientific Foundations, Rainforests, Colonial Times, and Storytime Cafe. I am teaching Evan's Tall Tales and Pilgrims classes. Next semester I hope to teach a class for Lauren's grade level. Please lift up a prayer for us all to have a great year of school. Thank you!

2011 Awesome Adventures

Another great summer of Pastor Pam's Awesome Adventures included the Derby waterpark, Tanganyika Wildlife Park, the Ugly Duckling play and Valley Center water playground, Salt Museum in Hutchinson, pizza and movie at church, and then a free admittance to the Broadway Disney musical the Little Mermaid! We missed Cowtown and the zoo.

Fireflies

Such a simple summer joy for children!