The Newunion

 

(Ice cream sundae bar for dessert)

Nothing like a brother and sister bond

(Take 1: Nacho photo bombs)

Another Newman reunion over and done with. 

But this year, with a sad, gaping hole where some of our favorite people ought to have been.   Maybe next year?!  I hope, I hope!

Field Trip!!! A ZOO!

Nanny.  She has been feeling crummy for weeks and weeks, and yet, here she is, ever the fun mom taking Aletta to the zoo.  She is one tough cookie.  And as always, living for others even at the expense of her own comfort.

I decided to pack up the kids and surprise her by showing up there at the same time.  (She loved it.) 
We can't take these moments for granted.

A section of the zoo was set aside for animatronics of hypothetical prehistoric animals. 

While everyone else was relegated to peering through cracks to see what animals were in this enclosure, Judah had no problem whatsoever.
Sometimes, it pays to be tall.

I think this bird was in competition with Judah and his pink shirt.  It was hilarious to watch.

Boy, do I want one of those feathers!

Weirdest bird I ever did see.

This lion was a crotchety old Grump and spent a good deal of time loudly complaining about his life.  But thanks to his grumpy ways, I now know how stinkin' LOUD a lions' roar is. 

It is unfathomably loud!  

 

We rarely do things like this (the price of zoos is... ouch.) but that face right there makes it all worthwhile.  I'm like a little kid when at a zoo.  It is so exciting and fun and amazing.  But I readily admit, I watch the animals only 50% of the time.  The other 50% for sure is spent watching the children light up with wonder and excitement.

High Summer

 

“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.”

― Martha Washington

We spent the fourth of July at Grandma and Grandpa's lake.  We wore red, white and blue toenails and lit sparklers and ate a fruit pizza flag and thanked the Lord for His mercies to us in these United States, and in this present moment.

They are many.

~ Sewing on the porch is one of the more pleasant things in life.  Unless it is windy.  And then, it looks more like chasing a dozen flying fabric butterflies all around the yard.

Our cow is officially dried up for a season- this was the last mozzerella I was able to make.

In a desperate attempt to get Andrew to eat more food, I made breakfast burritos to keep in the freezer for him.  

Lots and lots of breakfast burritos.

Adele' took these photos but I am blogging them because when I saw them I could barely believe it.  Ineke looks so grown up in these photos it gives me pause.

(Well, most of these photos.)

Where is the little girl I once knew?!

(Adele' also took this picture.  A girl after her Mama's heart... we both loves the chamomile coming up through the cracks.  I love looking at this picture both because it is beautiful and because in it, I see that I have left a piece of myself in the heart that thumps in her chest and in the eyes that see the beauty in even the cracks.)

Who knew our cows were the treasure at the end of the rainbow?!

Our fridge died a month ago and it couldn't have come at a worse time.  (As if there is ever a good time for that to happen.)  But this was right before I was leaving for a long distance trip to North Carolina- and immediately after I had just spent hours grocery shopping the most insanely huge grocery haul that I had just bought to make food to take to North Carolina, groceries to make food to feed the menfolk staying home, and groceries to prep for a party a few days after our return.  And all of this with a dead refrigerator.

It couldn't have been much worse.

When I emptied the tiny kitchen freezer though, I couldn't believe the gold that was in there.  Pounds and pounds of butter and cheese.  An entire cooler worth.

So maybe the cows weren't the gold at the end of the rainbow after all... maybe it's their butter!

Matt massacred our peach trees this spring.  His heart was in the right place but maybe he got just a bit overzealous.  Nary a peach to be found this year.  But, at least they didn't die entirely.  Maybe next year we will have a bumper crop because of his extreme pruning.

(One can hope.)

I had to plant the garden almost entirely myself this year, as all my strong, capable Biggles and Middles were off working so much.  Thankfully, I rallied a few troops to help me get the tomato fences up at least.  

While doing so, I stole one of the freebie hats that one of my boys got at a farm show.  It tickled my funny bone.

Firewood splitting begins...

(And Moses feels pretty grown up to be working the lever this year.)

(Corynn and Kem, with their womb baby between them, all snuggled on a floatie, watching fireworks)

Judah wins Spirit of the Troop award again.  (The only boy who has won twice!)

Mom, surrounded by grandchildren... one of her favorite things in the world.

The flower circle has been incredibly beautiful this year.

I wish I would have had more time to soak it up and also to share it with you.  

Evenings on the porch are as nice a way to wind down as mornings on the porch are to ready ones' self for the day.

If I could have Matt build every person in the world a porch, I would.

Gary and Linda celebrate their anniversary, which happened to fall on a Glupper night. In celebration, I made chicken and SHRIMP in a honey ginger glaze.

And we felt very fancy, indeed.

A homemade cheese whose marbling was too perfect not to take a picture. 

We like to kiss in the Newman house. 

Apparently, our gnomes do too.  

Look who I spied sneaking a kiss while watering plants the other day?!

The first of the homegrown strawberries from a neglected strawberry patch.  We had plenty more than this but not enough to can or make jam with.  Maybe if it were less neglected we'd be able to do something a bit more with them... or maybe it just takes showing some restraint?!  We are awfully quick to plop them in our mouths.  

Bursting with buttercups

Little Jemima

Andrew, ever the hard worker.

High summer:  Lots of beauty, lots of silly, lots of yummy, lots of love.