Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Summer Days

This summer has been the nicest weather-wise since I can remember! Really it has been incredible. Here is the view out my back door. It's the clouds that have been most astounding. Nearly everyday this summer we have been treated to incredible cloud formations.


The flowers make the back come alive with color and beauty. I always imagine sitting there and rarely get to but the thought that I could is still nice.

Rachel will be starting high school at a local Christian school next week! It's hard to believe. It will be a new experience for all of us since Michael and I were both homeschooled and Rachel has been until now. It turns out that golf is the sport that fit for our family so Rachel's been trying to learn all she can the last few weeks before practice officially starts. The nice thing about being a golf mom is you can sit outside in a beautiful and peaceful setting with no loud crowds (that I know of)!!!


"Dress Like a Cow Day" came last week and the kids cooperated with their outfits and we all enjoyed our once-a-year dinner at Chik-fil-a!


We managed to get all the 4h projects done and submitted (no small feat!!). Rachel's work finally paid off and after four years of entering knitting she is going to the state fair with her entry!!! (I will post details on the pattern later this week.) Andrew is also going to the state fair with his genealogy work!!!


We spent a perfect evening at the County Fair last week -- the weather was in the low 70's which was unbelievable! We visited all the children's entries as well as mine and then walked around the animal barns before ending at the archery building where the kids showed Grandma some of their skills!


It's now a tradition that we go to VBS at Grandma's church each July. The kids love it! This year there was a spy theme and David dressed the part!



Laura spent a few mornings home with Dad (she's too young for VBS) and kept him well fed and entertained.


I spent a few mornings (well, part of 5 mornings) at one of my favorite past-times -- shopping at the Goodwill Outlet where you "pay by the pound".  It had been months since I'd been. I find it a fascinating experience, not just a good place to find things for my crafts. I observed the "regulars" -- people who went EVERYDAY! (yes, I was one of those but just for last week!) I met and talked with the loveliest lady who drives a truck for Goodwill and she gave me all her linen-cleaning tips!


And I was blessed to find a lot! This was one day's traul: sweaters to felt, vintage linens to use and sell, a Gladys Taber book (!!!!!), a complete set of days-of-the-week tea towels, fabric, clothing, etc.


Laura came with me two of the mornings and of course we had a great time together!


 We love watching her care for her precious baby dolls. She is the best mommy to them!


And then she landed herself in the hospital overnight on Friday after tripping and hitting her head on the kitchen floor. This was her third ER trip of the year and we hated to go but she had too many signs of possible concussion to avoid going in. Thankfully, the CT scan showed all was fine but her heart rate was too low so they kept her overnight. Her heart normalized in the early morning and no one could explain what was going on and by the afternoon she was home again. Our crazy little baby!

 Craig and Em hosted the joint Grandma-David birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Lots of fun!


This was my favorite picture -- trouble is right! But, at least it is usually fun trouble!


Yay for the birthday people!


The grand babies all love Grandma:


We also celebrated 15 years of marriage last week! (We have about 6 birthdays and 1 anniversary in the same week in our extended family):


We managed to do some celebrating with a little get-away to downtown Indianapolis!


Some yummy food:


And a lovely hotel!


Looking a little different than 15 years ago:


The hotel we stayed at used to be a train station! Some guests could choose to stay in train cars! All I could think of was a Poirot movie.



And now we are home and catching our breath before we say goodbye to pure summer and dive into the next school year (yikes!).

3 comments:

willow said...

We have had lovely weather here too. We have been able to eat dinner in the garden at 7pm most days for weeks - its a while since we have had a summer like this.

Give my best wishes to Rachel for starting her new school - very exciting.

My youngest is in your part of the world this week. One of his school friends met an American girl at University in the UK and they are getting married next weekend. A group of school friends decided to take the opportunity to have a holiday in the US and attend the wedding. The place is Logansport, I don't know whether that is near you but it is good to read that you have been having good weather. They will be camping in the days leading up to the wedding!

Anonymous said...

One of my 3 year olds had a great nap today and is up late sipping tea with me and looking over your pictures. She saw the "today" picture of you and Michael on your getaway and said, "They are sooo happy!"

CFS

Jessica said...

All of your amazing summer adventures! I love the fair pictures, and the wedding picture is great! We have had such a busy summer I feel I haven't really caught up yet. Lot's of gardening and photo projects. Eliot loves to play golf with his grandma. Fun sport. I'll post and update soon ;)