Blogging joys and woes

 Oh, OH!  My sweet friend Wrena at  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diesel-Daisy-Design/406431534907?ref=ts  has been at it again.  I am totally in love with my new background and cute signature line! 

As for me and my poor neglected blog posts....Um, I am sorely lacking and have several I'm wishing were done!  Regardless of the heat (some days more than others) I am just totally loving summer & feel so very blessed in my life!
Now I'm off to clean up my poor neglected house.  AGAIN.


 

Summer days

 I have a love/hate relationship with summer.

I love a more relaxed schedule, long days, sunshine and GREEN.  The freedom to pack up and go somewhere without dealing with kids and school schedules.
Not that that happens very much, but just knowing it's an option is lovely.

I love being able to have my grandkids come spend some time with us.  I love being able to go visit our kids.

I have realized tho that I'm really not so fond of hot, hot and HUMID weather that comes along with summer.  I would really prefer about 75* and a nice cooling off in the evening with a breeze that keeps the mosquitoes away.
Eh? You think that's too much to  ask for in this fine state of ours?
Yes, unfortunately I suppose it is.
I've been lamenting that I can't have relaxing lazy long days of summer and get anything accomplished at the same time.
The heat and humidity zaps my energy and keeps me from accomplishing most of what was on my "summer" WANT to do list.

Bother.

I hate it that the days and weeks of "summer" go so quickly, and that my calendar of events is a little too full of things that I have to do, leaving less time for some of the things I WANT to do.

In Jan-March I dream about Spring, planting gardens & what I could preserve.  We often have cool, rainy, stormy springs and it seems to delay getting my garden in.  Until the end of May.  By the time the middle of June hits & things are starting to come up, then is when I want the stuff, but it isn't matured.
By the middle of July it's HOT and the weeds have taken over, and I have no appreciation for gardens or desire to work outside.  I'm wondering what on earth was I thinking!

(Oh yeah, never mind the 4 children that live here & the fairly steady stream of other company and extended family meals I make that I need to have the food for)

One of my friends wrote a couple recent blog posts on "Valuing the process, and loving the moment"  Oops--Very guilty of not doing that. It's human to want instant gratification on our projects. It's easy to wish things different or complain instead of just appreciating each day for what it brings.  Time goes fast enough & the weather is not going to change to suit our wishes or plans.  I just need to change my ideas and plans around to suit whatever the days & weeks bring.

The chickens are growing.  They've been in movable pens outside, and we need to get the chicken house finished (yesterday!) so they will have a inside place to roost.
Last night a bit after Kara did the chores she looked outside & said "Oh no, the chickens are out".  So she and I (being the only ones home) got our exercise shooing them back in the pen.

 Back to the first part of July, & grand-kid time

 The porch made a good playroom.  Shade from the sun, and kept the toys out of the (SMALL) living room.


Derek came over on Saturday with 3 more kids, and the cousins all had a day together.  Navaeh wanted to stay over that night, and after a long hot day of play we stuck them in the tub.  Serenity wasn't about to be left out, so we had....

 

  THERE WERE FIVE IN THE TUB.......

 AND THE LITTLE ONE SAID.......

 MOVE OVER, I'M COMING IN TOO!



 

Snips & snails & birthday tales

 I am a very happy Grammie.
 Our 3 oldest grandkids are here to visit.  This is the 2nd summer now they all 3 have got to come stay.
It's a little different this year than last because our 3 older "at home" kids are gone else-where visiting and we only have our youngest here.  Youngest, but she is nearly 10 in just a couple more weeks!
Having a 10 yr old around is a good combination with these other 3.  She's not too old to play with them, but old enough to read to them & help keep an eye on them. 

I wish I had a picture of them sitting in their chairs the other night before Bible study.  My sister walked in and said it looked like a scene from some years back.  Just a little Jeanne, Lynisha, Dalayna and Ryan sitting there!  I may have to re-stage it for a photo.

It's been busy days around here.  Hopefully fun ones for the kids too.  I have such wonderful memories of spending summers at my grandparents home, I hope my grandkids can look back on these years with as much enjoyment as I do my memories!  I wasn't fortunate enough to have cousins to spend my summers at my grandparents with, but I did have best friends that lived just down the street and that was a huge part of our enjoyment of spending time at Grandpa & Grandma's.

 Kyrie & Trey spent a  day  very impatiently by themselves before Kaela and Jessi got back here.

 They like to take their shoes off, but leave them on the trampoline & watch them bounce around while they jump.

 The front porch makes some nice shaded outside play for inside toys.

Thursday (June 30) was our first really really hot day and since I had a cleaning job, it worked out well for Leon to take the kids to the water park for some play time.  I met up with them later.

 They thought the swans were very interesting until one decided to get too close with what looked like the intention of taking a bite out of Trey!

 Then they ran pell mell back to the play ground.

 Doesn't this look like fun?  It's new since I'd been there last.  It's a pirate ship play ground with dolphins to ride. The kids thought it was pretty neat.  It spurred their imaginations but we didn't spend much time on it t, as it was so hot & the kids had been outside for long enough.

After getting ice cream cones, we headed home and the kids went to work baking me a birthday cake!
They didn't want me to watch or help, told me I should go take a bubble bath and a nap!  I wasn't quite brave enough to leave them totally on their own but I did stay out of the kitchen and gave the phone to Kaela with instructions to call her sister if she had questions!

 I couldn't resist taking some pictures tho....
We did have a funny moment when I overheard the phone call of "what do I do now" and I peeked in the kitchen and noticed that she was pouring the batter into the cake pans however she'd NOT added the cake mix in with the oil, water & eggs!!  Opps!!

 While the cake was cooling I went and took a nap while they decorated.  They wouldn't let me come down-stairs until they had it all done.

It was supper time, but we had cake and ice cream anyway--
after all, it's Grammies house, they're on vacation & we're making memories!