Summering

Summer is just whizzing right by as summers usually do- the days are poured out into brimming weeks and our life overflows with good things.

The other night, after supper, I actually came in to the house from the porch instead of lingering...it was just so chilly!  A Saturday morning breakfast happened just the same.  Summer's end draws closer, I know, but we are still very much in the midst of the merry-making that can only be done in the warm days of summer.  

We go out and about, explore and see, visit with friends and family, do things we don't ordinarily do, have time to do things we don't ordinarily have time for, eat feasts as picnicking kings and have days stretched wide before us without allotted moments for meals and stories and subjects and school lined up like tin soldiers, steadfast before us, waiting to be conquered or conquer.   In winter I tend to be such a homebody, all curled up and hibernating, it is summer days when I feel free as a bird and the children loose the chains of these four walls.

My head whirls, my hands grasp for some semblance of order, my brain tries tirelessly to order my list of priorities taking into account all things and I fall into bed exhausted each night.  But these summer days, I wouldn't change them.

And I may even wish to put off that inevitable chill in the air for just a *bit* longer...

Helping Papa with work

A fairy garden wagon which has since lost its sand due to a baby who loved to sprinkle the sand everywhere BUT the wagon.

This is her "I know I am doing something naughty-but does Mama know it?" look.  Whenever she freezes when I look at her and she has this expression, I know she is doing SOMETHING she isn't supposed to be doing.  

  

A Luna

 

The reward for painting the porch...doughnuts for SUPPER.  And for one night, I was the best Mama in the world.

The clothesline, over many soggy, hard worked years had loosened up and hunched over like an old man under the weight of his work.  Matt added supports to the side to get it upright once again and the cats thought that he did it just for them.  

It makes a perfect perch for attention seekers.

Awww!  I caught her snuggling with her birthday dolly!

The blueberry's were beautiful this year!  Some were the size of quarters!!  The children and I went picking at a local patch since we have no mature bushes of our own yet. (Can't wait for that day!)  They were .70 cents a pound, the cheapest price found around here but twice as much as they were when we started picking a few years ago.  11 gallons worth.  

The lemon meringue pie had to happen.  (And it was a success.)

We had company over to help us eat it...though I still wound up eating way more than I should have.
I love lemon meringue pie.  And now I know I can successfully make it.  (This is bad.)

Cousins had a movie party.  At a movie theater! Watching a Movie!  With POPCORN!  AND SODA!  AND CANDY! AT A MOVIE THEATER!!!!!

This girl begs to sew on a daily basis.  Usually her pleading is met with "I'm too busy to sit with you right now..." but when a friend has a birthday that just calls for a poptart pillow- Adele 's day is made. (I need to get her embroidering, I know.  That would scratch the itch without as much Mama intervention.) Knowing and DOING are two different things, my friend.

Homemade ice cream hasn't been made as often as last year when we had ample raw milk to make it with.  But this cookies and cream version made me regret that fact.

 

Girl with a golden halo

Homemade Garlic Dill Queso Blanco cheese

We love it fried at breakfast.

Friends of ours fly over the house in their hot air balloon!
They go where the winds blow them so it was a happy surprise to see them
right overhead.  We whooped and hollered something fierce.