Way Back In June

~ I went for a morning WOG, (that would be a walk/jog, for those non-athletic sorts such as myself) looked up and saw my friends Hot Air Ballooning overhead!  What a strange and interesting life I lead and what interesting friends I have!

~ I went for an evening WOG and saw what I suspect will be the closest I ever come to witnessing the Lord's pillars of clouds and of fire.

~ I decided to make it a point to harvest strawberries and scapes early and often, rather than late and in one fell swoop.  Novel, I know.

~ Adele' looked entirely too grown up for my liking.

~ Judah worked on his TrailLife badges, including the Family Man- in which he made us all meals!  

~ A crinkle eyed girl shot out gladness from the doorway

~ Moses turned into a beetle

~ Promises made preparations

~ I smelled old fashioned roses by my bedside each night that I could.

~ Peonies got some sort of blight which rotted the amazing blossom balls before they bloomed and spoiled most of the flowers...but I enjoyed the ones I got.

~ Judah won Spirit of the Troop in his Trail Life group

~ We tried (again) to rid ourselves of excess nailpolish

~ Corynn's poppies showed off

~ We finally got ourselves a cow again!  Maybe we can start to call ourselves almost-farmers again?

~ We danced 'til we wore out our shoes...and then we danced barefooted.

Three Mamas all celebrated finishing end-of-the-year homeschooling paperwork (and the completion of another year on the books) with porch rocking and sippin' on strawberry daiquiri's.  

Friend time is very rare and awfully special.

~ We celebrated this handsome fella on Father's Day with a honkin' breakfast sandwich.  

(He is easy to please...)

~ Hope unfurled

~ God worked His everyday miracles, as He always does.

~ And I tried my darndest to see them. 

Beehive Busy

The roofing job wreaked havoc on the only storage space in our house (and my plans for the next few weeks).  It turns out that when you decide spontaneously to take off the asphalt shingles over the storage space instead of just covering them with metal, all the old nails and dust will fall through the wide, old cracks and into the storage space below.

And if that storage space is the only one in the house, is usually either frigidly cold or smolderingly hot and something that you must crawl into... that means that likely the bins filled with sheets, dress up clothes, extra blankets, pillows, suitcases etc.  will not be properly covered.

And if that is the case, then an inch of black dirt, dust and nails will get over every.single.thing.

And that, it just so happens, is exactly what happened.

(The above pictures of both porch and granary are after several HOURS worth of work to get it to the place where I could even stomach the idea of photographing things.)

Meanwhile... I had previously asked to borrow my father-in-laws trailer so that I could downsize/consolidate/clean out/organize/purge the Granary, which had become out of control.  

So it all happened at the exact same time, which was a blessing and a curse- as there were plenty of household storage things that needed to be junked after the roofing project too.  

I had to shake every ever-loving sheet and pillowcase in the place and wash almost every blanket.

 

I spent days, black with soot, sweat making tracks down my neck.

The porch was absolutely covered with junk (and then, of course, that's just when neighbors stop by.. ACK!)

I still have two bins of sentimental notes, letters, photos, school work, etc. to go over.

I have been so torn between two simultaneously large projects that our actual house has become, well, a pit of despair with not a single place to retreat to... and this weekend we are hosting the Newunion!  

It's been a bit overwhelming but...

 We are now rid of an entire dump trailer of clutter/junk from our lives.  

I've donated things I probably should have donated a looooong time ago.  

I've had the pleasure of rereading long lost love notes from days-gone-by.

I've enjoyed coming across the sweet little drawings and projects of children now grown.

The children are envisioning a Granary spaces like Once Upon a Time.

Messes have to happen before progress does.  

And who would have decided to tackle these projects just for fun?  Not me.  But I am glad I was forced into doing them because now they are actually getting done.

So these days I have been as busy as a beehive.  But if the bees can do it, so can I.   

Roofing Crew

Summer "vacation" came in with a BANG this year and it didn't start with vacation.

It started with a roof job.

We've needed a new roof for a several years.  We've had tax return money set aside to do it since last spring.  But the job seemed too big to squeeze into life for quite some time.  

With the prices of building supplies (everything!) going up so quickly these days, I knew we needed to make it a priority before the money we had saved for supplies wouldn't be enough to cover them anymore.  

Easy for the person who is NOT working on the roof to say we need to make it a priority, I know.  

But these guys are some of the hardest workers I know and when they decide to do something, they do it.  They got the whole job (except a few tiny loose ends) done in a SINGLE DAY.  They were absolute BEASTS.

I love that our boys are growing up to emulate these fine, hard-working men.  

I love that the young guys keep up with the older fellas (and vice versa).  

I love that three generations were all helping out; one big, happy family.

I love the exceptional work ethic and dedication they all show to get the job done and done well.  

I love that Corynn's fella, Kemuel, is gifted at swinging a hammer and wanted to be a part of things.

I love the practical knowledge of how to maintain a home on your own that is so abundant around here, a home culture that the boys drink up daily.  

And I love not having to strategically place bowls around the house when it rains.