Days filled

Morning #2 of summer school.

If you will notice, 1 minute ticked by between the "I'm not ready to be awake" to the "See, I'm out." pics.    Last night was a late one, mostly due to a nasty nasty wind storm!  My girls were a bit freaked -- I was too, for that matter!  Paul, of course, was working, so I was fending the family's safety by myself.  Radio stations, TV stations, and Weather.com all said Wind warnings, but no mention of the "T" word for our area.  I still wasn't set at ease -- that wind was downright scary.

Since sleep was the last thing on my mind, I continued working on decluttering "my side" of the bedroom.  Can you tell which side that may be???  ;)  (Hint:  I sleep on the side that houses the alarm clock and lamp)

Other than a little damage in the garden, the wind storm treated us okay.  Cassie and I fixed up the garden this morning by resetting Paul's black covering around/over his cabbages, and then we planted the final seeds for the season:  5 more rows of corn.  

And then... one thing lead to another:

Walking around front, we pulled weeds from an eye-sore flower/bush bed.  I've been meaning to demolish that area;  it's about the only part of the property that is simply a nuisance for me to care for.

In the midst of that project, Cassie and I started uninstalling the 4 tires that we've had as play items near the swing set for years.  

Which then had led to Cassie bringing the tractor over to pick up the tires and pulled weeds

Which moved me to get the lawn mower out to trim up the edging of the eye-sore and mow down the weeds that had overtaken the tire area

Which continued into an hour long lawn mowing (it didn't need it, BUT the trim job was now shorter than the rest of the lawn----badabing.....)

BUT, after about an hour, I turned the machine off.  It was making a "funny" noise; as if the left blade wasn't attached correctly--loose.  SO, I wasn't about to push my OR Cassie's luck since she was going to finish up the mowing job for the next couple of hours.  Nu-uh.  Safety first.

Once noon rolled around, we had a quick lunch, and then I set her off into decluttering her closet while I worked on decluttering the laundry room.  We both had an incentive of BEACH TIME @ 2:00 if we accomplished a good portion of our decluttering task.

Good.  Lord.  

Clutter, clutter, clutter!  

And of COURSE, I have no pictures to show of anything.

And then, the rest of the day flew by at the beach, a lil' shopping mixed in, a quick meal on the grill, and then back to the beach for Cassie's softball practice.  LOL.  Yup--- great softball practice, right?? ;)

8:00 -- it was finally quieting down at the lake.

8:45 -- arrive home.

9:00 -- sit down to eat dinner!  LOL.

9:45 -- ship two youngest girls off to bed.

9:55 -- youngest girls ZONKED!!!! 

I love summer!

Little happinesses!

I LOVE my clothesline!  What a great energy saver; yummy 'out-doorsey' smelling clothes;  what's not to like?

{{Well, I suppose I could admit that I don't like having to re-wash some clothes that get some bird-droppings on them due to the few nests we have under the upper deck flooring, but still.....Psht!}}

 A small update on the bat-capades:

Candace put on her big girl panties the other night and grabbed the net to make sure the coast was clear before heading to bed.  LOL.  The reality... after 20 minutes of being upstairs, she came down by me, scared of the bat.  :)  Ah well... Paul wasn't home, so I didn't mind the security company. :)   No sign of it since my episode the other night.  :\

Monday morning zooming by already!  The girls have started summer school;  dropped them off at 8:00 for that.  I've been working non-stop on laundry since;  folding some older baskets that have been wrinkling up for the past few days (**sigh**) and keeping some fresh loads going in the washer and on the line.  So, finally... I'm CAUGHT UP!  

A little motivation was found at NINE O'CLOCK PM last night to clean girls' bedrooms and the loft.  LOL.  Nothing like summer motivation striking that late, huh?  BUT, we made a GREAT dent by 10:00;  all dirty clothes thrown into the hamper;  closets and drawers a little bit organized of what does/doesn't fit (THAT task will be continued today!!!!).  

The house has been tidied up enough to be presentable for my parents who will be rolling in in a couple of hours.  They'll be spending a few days with us to enjoy a couple of summer days with the girls and to watch them play some softball games.  

So now...

... Seven Shirts!  Yup.  I think I want to set that as my "to-finish" goal for today.  A couple more passes with the pantograph and that should do it.  Then, whip up some binding to mark it as a finish.   We'll see....

Happy MONDAY!

SMM swap; Midget morning & more gardening

Not gloating; not bragging, not trying to rub it in.....


But I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE my mornings this week and next week! I'm up by 5:30 (when I remember to set the alarm correctly for Paul----SORRY SWEETIE!) I forgot to reset it the other morning from 6:30 and he woke at 5:50, LATE. I felt so bad :0( But I'm up shortly after him with a cup of coffee in hand ready to start the day by reading emails and blogs. 7:00, the girls are wakened to eat breakfast and to get ready for summer school, which starts at 8:00, going through this week and next.

From 8:00 'til 11:30, the time is all ME time :0) Monday morning, sadly I had a dentist appt at 8:30, so that ate up much of my morning. Yesterday morning, I ran 6 miles after dropping the girls off, and this morning, I power-walked 4 miles before heading back home for some morning sewing.

I started this morning's sewing time by organizing my Smith Mountain Morning swap units; packaging them up all nicely to be sent to Judi.

Then after another cup of coffee and drink of water, I decided to have a Midget Morning and started paper-piecing Block #16. I only had an hour left before I needed to leave to pick up the girls; this is how far I got. I'll finish it up tomorrow hopefully.

Tomorrow's morning time: Speed workout: 5 miles, including 3x1600M @ 8:30. Gosh! I haven't done a speed workout in two years! 8:30's might just kill me when I've been averaging 11:00's. Oooohhhhh...it is taking SOOOOOO long to get back into running shape this year!

Just about every evening around 7:00, Paul, myself (and often the girls) head out to the gardens to tackle a little bit of weeding/cultivating/hoeing/watering..... This picture was taken at 9:00 tonight, quite dusky outside. Paul is hoeing up the potatoes in our lower garden which consists mostly of potatoes and corn, some carrots, onions, and three smaller garden plots that each of the girls planted of odds-n-ends.

I haven't shared any pictures of the upper garden, which I consider our main garden: carrots, celery, pepper varieties, 38 tomato plants, beans-beans-beans, cucumbers, onions, kolarahbi (sp?), peas, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, basil, dill, lettuce, bak choy......(I think that's it). Plus we have our raspberries that are about 1-2 days away from being picked for some JAM :0) YUMMMMMMM!

So, I have been loving my summer time. Truly and honestly.

Jam, Jam, and more Jam

After mowing the lawn this morning, I spent a couple of hours picking some more strawberries with Candace's help. And then Caitlyn came out to help me pick some more rhubarb. Nine more containers each of Strawberry and Strawberry-Rhubarb will be stored in the freezer. I was getting tuckered out of jam-making, so the remaining 18 cups of rhubarb were placed in freezer bags.

While stirring the pectin for one batch, I perused the directions page and saw "Cherry Jam." Hmmm......sounded interesting, so I asked Paul if he would be interested in trying some. Out he went with Candace and picked the few cherries we have on the tree this year (first year of harvest), and then mixed them together with a batch of frozen cherries we received from the neighbor last year. I've never had Cherry jam. However, with the amount of sugar used in all of these recipes, how can ANY of them be bad (tasting)???

I LOVE the summer!!!
As does Cassie,

and Caitlyn,

and Candace.

It's about the only time of year they really can spend a decent amount of time with Aunt Jenny.



Okay----OFF to the garden now that it's a bit cooler out.

Summer mornings; Design wall material???

I'm kinda wondering if this is going to be the norm this summer; those relaxed days where the schedule is wide open and rather stress free; and when I awake to see the alarm clock saying 5:24 am and NOT MINDING to just get out of bed to start the day. Why not, right??? I think it's because I know that if I realllllly get tired again later on, it's nothing to just sit back and "rest the eyes" for a few minutes.

Happy Friday morning to y'all. It's just beginning to rain outside; thunder rolling off in the distance. It this keeps up, DH will be home all day. I wonder what the plans will be. Maybe, just maybe, we'll start working together to begin to finish up the Quilting room and bathroom downstairs. We've already purchased the mortar for flooring (that's my job), but the walls will be his job. We (DH) hasn't decided yet whether we will be hanging drywall for the walls, or pine wood. 80% of our house has pine on the walls--DH HATES drywall!!! I don't mind the setup downstairs right now; being out in the open area of the basement, but it would be nice to get back into a cozy FINISHED room :0)

Oh, but this does get me thinking already-----what do some of you use as material for your design wall? Just a package of cotton batting? I have a feeling that I will be using on of the walls just for that very thing.

School's Out for Summer!

Let summer officially begin!!!!!

Okay....two days next week---volleyball at school
two days the following week----two full days of Data Retreat at school
A week later, 5 days of Statistics course
{{ THEN TWO WEEKS TO FAMILY!!!!!}}
Then 4 days of Algebra course
then 4 days the following week of Math Grant workshop
Then the following week, 5 days of Volleyball camp
{{TWO WEEKS TO FAMILY!!!!}}
Then volleyball practice/competition begins
the following week brings inservice
And then.....

SCHOOL BEGINS ALL OVER AGAIN.....


okay, let's not COMPLETELY think summer is over before it's even begun!!!! {{Because, afterall, FOUR WEEKS OF SUMMER VACATION DEVOTED TO FAMILY is better than what most have!!!}}


Happy Friday!