Summertime

This girl finally got her wish! We didn't make it to the pool yet (though that's on the agenda for today) but she did get to splash through the fountains at a local park.

Simple, summertime happiness.

While summer isn't by any means my favorite season, there are some things I enjoy about it--grilling, a little slower pace, and having a little more time for reading.

So, I'm wondering, do you have anything special on your reading list for the summer? I'm hoping for some suggestions!

Last Week

Last week we blasted off for Space Probe VBS. It was a fun, busy week. It was a little bittersweet when I realized that this was Gracen's last VBS to be a student--she will be a youth helper next year. The growing up clock needs to slow down!



Along the way we saw strange, beautiful orbiting things.



And really strange aliens like this:



It was a great week and, as usual, Mrs. Peggy did a wonderful job.

Missing My Girl

On Friday, I met my parents at the half-way point and Gracen went home with them. It has been 6 days since we saw the kid!

She's having a ball--swimming with Jordyn, riding bikes with Jordyn, fishing with Jordyn, eating Popsicles with Jordyn (see a theme?).

We are seriously missing her.

The house is too quiet.

The dogs are lonely. Biscuit has gone into her room no less than 4,800 times and come out with a stuffed animal. That usually causes Gracen to come running very quickly only it isn't working this week and Biscuit is very confused!

The week has been somewhat productive once I got used to the quiet! But, I am ready for her to be home.

I'm not sure she will be ready to come though!

Fourth Fun

Our 4th of July began at the zoo and ended with a fun time of food, fellowship, and fireworks with friends. A good day...

One of the zoo highlights was seeing this baby flamingo!

Another highlight was a camel ride.

The First

Our first yield from our little garden experiment. We were so excited that something actually grew!

As I looked at the garden this morning, I had the sneaking suspicion that I better start searching for zucchini recipes. There are 4 plants in the squash row; I thought 2 were yellow squash and 2 were zucchini--at least that was my assumption(though not verified in any way) when I thinned out the seedlings.

It appears as though we have three zucchini plants and one yellow squash. And I hear that zucchini can be quite prolific!! They do all have a lot of blooms on them.

It should be fun...

The Experiment

One of the potential problems with reading lots of gardening books, blogs and such as that, sooner or later, the dedicated reader/learner wants to actually experiment--to put that knowledge into action.

Now, I don't view this as a problem. My sweet husband whose idea of a perfect day outside consists of sitting in the shade with a good book, a cool breeze, and a glass of lemonade doesn't exactly agree that digging in the dirt, pruning and watering is quite the delight! Because he is such a good sport, he readily agrees to most anything I ask him to do outside.

This spring, that involved building a raised garden area, hauling 2 truckloads of topsoil (and unloading) and amending the soil--all for an experiment which I don't honestly recall if he actually agreed to or not!

Tomatoes, squash, peppers, basil, rosemary, and parsley were planted in the bed. (In the picture above, the flowers are lantana that are blooming profusely in the front beds--not the garden patch. I just thought they were pretty!)

Some of my fondest memories are of spending the day in my grandparent's garden digging potatoes. They also had miles of corn, peas, tomatoes, etc. I don't remember the hours (it seemed that long anyway) of shelling and shucking as particularly fond, however. But that was probably because the potato dig was a family affair. I remember some years my great grandmother was out there with us.

My Granddaddy would always start (and I'm sure he always started it) a dirt throwing war. In the midst of digging potatoes, we would dodge flying clumps of dirt hurled from the other end of the row. It was hot, dirty work but it was fun.

I remember the picking, putting up stages--I don't remember being involved in the preparation or the planting. So, I was flying a bit blind when it came to what to do in my little patch of dirt.

Despite--or because of--my ignorance, some things are growing quite well. The grape tomato plant is about to take over, the basil is in need of a harvest (I need more ways to use it and to find out if fresh basil can be preserved somehow). We have one bell pepper with more little buds on the plant.

The squash is the big question mark. Lots of blooms but so far only one little squash. I have high hopes.

So, in the mornings after Jeff has gone to work and Gracen is still a-snoozing, I check on my experiment. I remember being in my grandparents garden. I think of reading more garden books. I dream of having just one more little garden area.

Somewhere, I am sure that Jeff just groaned!

Worth It

These pictures bring joy to the whole pool debacle!!

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day*

You ever had one of those days when nothing went quite right?  Yep, had one yesterday--and what is really bad is that none of it was big stuff.

Yesterday was pretty warm here and I had been promising Gracen that we would go to Wal-Mart and look at the plastic wading pools to see if there was one big enough for she and possibly Biscuit, our water hating Golden Retriever (aren't they supposed to like water?!).    

We got to WM and saw the pools out front, picked one out and went inside to pay.   My first clue that something was amiss (that I didn't catch) was the fact that we walked straight to a cashier with no line--and she was friendly!!   (Those things don't usually happen in succession at WM.)

We mosey out to get the pool and load it in the back of the car.  Now, in all fairness, I really thought that the pool would fit with the seats put down.  Forty-something poinsettias fit back at Christmas.   Don't you know, it didn't fit--and I, the queen of "turn it another way and it will fit" knew that it was hopeless.   To add insult to injury, my 10 year old girl thought it wise to add at this juncture that we should have brought a tape measure.

So, I began to think of what to do next...I'll make this as brief as possible.  I knew that Jeff, in all probability, couldn't get away from work to come to the rescue in his truck but I tried, calling with a borrowed cell phone from a very nice lady who thought I'd lost my mind had pity on us (another embarrassing part of the saga--I left my cell phone at home).   

With all options exhausted, we take the pool back to the front, go inside to see about an inflatable pool (that comes in a box, thankyouverymuch).   Success.  The inflatable pool is paid for (and it was on sale--cheaper than the too large plastic one).

At this point, it is about 10:30, thirty minutes into what, in my idealized mind, was a chore that would take about 30 minutes total.   I knew that we had air pump so I'm still thinking that Gracen can be getting cool and wet in another 30 minutes.

WRONG!!!

The air pump, after it was finally dug out from its spot in the garage, wouldn't work when plugged into the electrical outlet.   I dig the car charger from the depths and haul the inflatable pool to the garage with only a momentary question of how I would get the inflated pool back into the back yard.   

Our air pump, as it turns out, is not designed to do a large job at once.  Nope, it has to have a 10 minute cool down period every so often so that the thing doesn't blow up.  I'm sitting in my car in the garage in the heat cursing my bright idea and almost everything else that comes to mind--I don't think the air pump will be the first to blow!

It is now 11:30 and the pool is showing only the faintest sign of having any air in it at all.   I've tried the air pump, the foot pump for the yoga ball, and a few puffs of my increasingly hot air.

Desperation lead me to my next endeavor.  We hauled the *&%$**%$# partially inflated pool into the house, down the hall to the bathroom where I pulled out the hair dryer, opened up the larger air hole in the pool and blew air into the pool.  My goal was to get some air into the pool, take it outside and finish filling it with the foot pump.  

The hair dryer worked well--and fast.  The pool exploded in the hall, pinning Gracen against the wall.  

We finally, at 12:00--a full 2 hours after this had all began--got the pool outside with the water hose filling it.   And, bless her heart, she played in the pool the rest of the afternoon.  I don't know whether she really wanted to or if she was scared not to--I didn't ask and she didn't tell.

I will spare you the details of the explosion that my poor husband got when he came home for not having the garage cleaned out where I could find things, not taking care of the air pump so it would work when I needed it, etc.    I will tell you that he was most gracious and forgiving for a rant that he didn't deserve.  

And he, I  hope  after reading this, will have a good laugh at my expense! 

*My apologies to Judith Viorst for the title.  Her book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is one of my favorite children's books.  

Summer Fun

Gracen has really been enjoying the slip and slide. Biscuit enjoys digging under the trampoline!
For more summer fun, check out this.

Highlights

My Grandmother began a subscription to Highlights magazine for Gracen several years ago. And, with every issue that comes, I'm sure Grandma is laughing in Heaven because the first thing Gracen reads to us is the joke and riddle section. The jokes are corny and sometimes very predictable but absolutely hysterical to Gracen. The riddles, well, that' s a whole other issue--I hate riddles of any kind. I especially hate having to guess an answer because I generally have no clue! So, the combination of knowing that I detest riddles and the absurd answers that I try to give add up to great fun for Gracen.

Recently, I signed Gracen up for something new (to us anyway) from Highlights--Top Secret Adventures. About every 6 weeks, she gets a new case (the case includes a book about the country, "crook" picture cards, and an activity book) in the mail. She has to solve a mystery set in a different country. So far, she's done Australia and Japan. These have been great. They are very similar to the game Clue, which she loves. In each case, she has to figure out who the crook is, what they stole, and where they hid it. While she solves the mystery, she learns a lot about the country. The only down side to her is the 6 weeks between each case because she has finished each one on the day she got it!

Ah, Summer

Summer usually brings water fun, be it at swim lessons, in a pool for fun, or in the sprinkler in the back yard. Saturday afternoon was sprinkler time!

Very quickly, the call of the bucket and dirt was too strong to ignore!
Summer mud! Great in Gracen's book--not so great in mine.
Just another picture I snapped while she was playing.