4th of July Brain Surgeon

This summer we went on many unpictured adventures.  We went to Roaring Springs, swimming, floating the Boise River, Ward Campout, Discovery Science Center, the Aquarium, Zoo, Jumptime. . .um, I can't really remember what else because I did not take pictures.  Bummer.  JT had band class for 3 weeks, 2 scout camps, and wrestling camp.  Rory had the band class and volleyball camp.  Simmy had swimming and tennis lessons.  We also celebrated Rory and Roger's birthdays and Grandma and Grandpa's too with not a single picture taken.

I do however have these random pictures from the 4th of July.

Can you tell what JT is doing?? His is performing brain surgery.  After I gave my children the example of chalk art where you jump in the art, he thought for .2 secs and decided to draw his goal job.  That is the kind of kid he is.

Levi drew his 1st picture- on our neighbors driveway.  It remained their for months because there is no rain in this place.  Sorry neighbors.  I finally hosed it down.

We also played with bubbles, bounced in our little bounce house, and  fired up fireworks in our driveway.

Good fun!

May Garden

Hi.  How's it going?  It no fun to post without pictures and I was lousy about taking pictures of our adventures this summer.  Lousy.  I also didn't really think people check my blog anymore but the more family and friends I saw the last few months the more I realized that you are checking- or should I say lurking.  I have really loved having photo books sitting on my coffee table made out of this blog so I best be shaping up.

Perennial gardening has been the biggest surprise for me this year.  Last year I had almost no interest in pretty plants and flowers- only things I could eat, the bulbs that came up in spring and composting.  After spending my spring planting fruit bushes and vines and getting my veggies on their way I became obsessed with making my home beautiful for as much of the year as possible.  I devoured perennial books like they were novels and read them over and over.  My mind was a new sponge after years of having pregnant mushy brain.  I needed to know everything about every plant there is.  I made a spreadsheet to keep track of the needs of everything I already had growing and everything I planted.  My favorite place to be was a garden store.  This became my new hobby and I LOVE it.

These are the last pictures of my garden and the yard changed dramatically since then.  I have since planted 100s of perennials and the vegetable garden grew beautifully.  My camera has been a pain and my plants were puny since I bought them cheap and small.  They will be gorgeous next year and then I will show them off.

On one of the last snows I threw out hundred of poppy seeds and enjoyed their beauty.

I consider my vegetable and fruit to have gone moderately well this year.  I would have loved to bring in more raspberries, strawberries, watermelon, pumpkins, corn and tomatoes than I did but other things went really well. 

I bagged loads of spinach

I watched watermelons hang from the vine

I decided I detest cress and arugula

We ate a ton of peas and carrots and I pressure canned many pints of carrots and green beans

My kids love eating right from the garden 

I also canned grape juice, dill and sweet pickles, pickled beets, pickled green bean, pickled peppers, tomato soup and tomato sauce.  We ate pesto all summer and have a little bit frozen.  We ate fresh pico de gallo, salads, broccoli, radishes, sweet and hot peppers, My yellow, and green zucchini were not too overbearing. We had a few dozen cherries and a handful of peaches that were amazing from the trees we planted last year.  I really enjoyed eating fresh and experimenting with veggies we picked.

I have learned plenty and was sad when the first frost hit.  I look forward to an even better year next year.

Awards

Longest.awards.assembly.EVER.

I can't really complain.  Jt and Rory came home with a hefty load but do kids really need to get an award for choir, band, and orchestra.  Did we not clap our hearts out for them at their concerts.

Jt won the Lions International award for his Patriotism essay for the 5th grade.

He also received one for Choir, Band, Student Council, and Honor Roll, and Personal Best.  The personal best was given to the 4 kids in his class who has a 4.0 the whole year and signed up and participated in everything he possibly could.  Jt is definitely a go getter.


Roty received one for Choir, Honor Roll, Student Council, and Reading Achievement.  She mentioned that Rory and her bf were always the one to laugh at jokes that no one else gets during the book that is read aloud.


They are both so dang smart in their own ways.  Way to go kids!


Shall I mention here that in 1st grade they only get one award a year and Simeon received his in the very beginning of the year and I missed it for no good reason.


Way to go Simmy!  Your are insanely smart too!

Years off my Life

When Roger and I were first married, I had separation issues.   My sister had only died 8 months before and I was scared to bawling everyday that he would not come home because of some accident or another.  Every time I heard sirens I would panic.  He "laid down a law" telling me I could not worry unless he had been gone for 24 hours.  I am sure I would not be able to go that long but it did help me relax a bit.


Fast forward into the not very far future when we starting making babies.  I would say that most moms think my "leash" with my kids is too long and I let them stray too far from me to be safe.  I would agree that my leash is longer than most but part of that is so I could come a little closer to the length of Roger's leash.  His is oober long.  No doubt he loves his kids as did our parents who let us roam the neighborhood/city or their parents who let them travel cross country with a sibling at a young age.  Is it fair saying these days are different?


We don't always agree on how far Jt can ride his bike but slowly I have given up the reigns on the distance I am okay with.  Last week I wasn't asked for approval and he traveled on scary traffic roads.  I held my breath the whole time but he made it home safe.


My saying all that has set up tonight's scenario.  Jt rides his bike to scouts.  It has taken me while to be okay with that but its a pretty straight shot 1.5 miles away but it crosses a few intersections and does not have sidewalks most of the way.  A whole half hour after he was supposed to come home I started to get nervous.  I give myself credit for waiting that long.  I thought back to when he should have come home and I remembered hearing sirens really close.  I checked my phone to be sure because Rory made a call at the time I heard the sirens and that was when he should have been close.


We hop in the car and I can feel my heart drop and I am holding back tears because I don't want to panic.  I call Roj who did not answer his phone (he was still working) to get the scout leader's #.  I make it to scouts and his bike is not there which means he did leave and is not home.


Seriously?

• sirens
• 40 min late
• no bike

I call my friend who has a boy in his troop to get the leader's #.  She let me know that the scouts went on a bike ride and had not returned. She was at the church for another son's pack meeting and he would find her when he arrived.  Whew!  Years off my life I tell you.  I called my neighbor to vent and calm down while I waited.  My friend at the church texted me to tell me he was on his way and I waited outside.


He rode up with a look on his face that suggested he knew I would be worried.  He told me he had asked to use his leader's phone and he brushed JT off (I could ring his leader's neck).  I told him calmly my scare and could only say that I just really love him.  He gave me a tight hug.


Could you imagine life with out Jt?  It would be so horrible.

More Flowers

The other day I laid down on the couch in our bedroom and looked out the window and saw this beauty.

Is it lamo that I love love love my flowers and trees?  2 owners ago planted so many gorgeous trees, shrubs, and perennials.  The last owner did so much damage but we are reviving the,

I have planted quite a few things too like these awesome tulips.

These azaleas and rhododendrons never bloomed last year and I glad they appeared this year.

Summer flowers via seeds I scattered are just starting to show up and I can't wait.

The rest of the trees are amazing too but that may be another post.  Maybe.

GGma Bday

Recently we were able to celebrate Roger's great grandmother 90th birthday at our home. Most of Lucimae's children and some grand and  great grand were able to come. 

Her piano came to live at our house for awhile and so we sang songs to celebrate :)

So glad everyone came- it was good fun!

Shrooms

Look what I found the other day at a garage sale next door to Roger's parents!  They took my breath away I was so excited.

Why would I be excited about that?  If you are family, you would so understand. Have you ever noticed these on my wall?

They were my mother's and I grew up with these shrooms on my counters and walls all growing up.  Now I have the canisters in my house- unless I decide I should give them to my little bro for his graduation present from college.  I wonder if he wants them. . .

Since it is Mother's and shrooms were my mother's thing, I made the radishes from my garden into tiny mushrooms to go onto the salad greens which were also from my garden.   Good fun!

Fiona

The rabbits we acquired at Christmas time were our leap past having fish for pets.  They have been great especially for my compost and chasing and cuteness but they did not help in my need to keep unwanted pest out of my yard- mainly squirrels. Those pesky animals are prolific and nuts and go after my nuts so I decided we needed an outdoor cat.  

We rescued Fiona from the Human Society and so she is fixed, vaccinated, and micro-chipped.  So far she has been great for that need and she fits in well here but like all living beings she has some quirks.  She can't handle loud noises which are constant here and she can get a little frisky making us be fairly cautious around her.

I don't let the rabbits and her outside at the same time but Fiona makes that easy.  She likes to spend the day in the garage attic so we can shut her in.  We are outside during that time any way and can chase the squirrels away.  I actually had a dream last night that she attacked a rabbit.  Not a fun dream.

Owls

We went on an adventure to the Foothills Learning Center to see some owls' nesting area.  Roger's aunt lives nearby and we have a little bit of overlap with kids.  They used to live 5 min away but now live 25 min away which is a bummer but we will take what we can get.

They disgustingly dissected owl drops and picked out rodent parts- ewww.  They loved it.

Levi was so enamored with his owl face painting he kept running off to the bathroom to stare at himself in the mirror.

In one of those holes is an owl that we could see with binoculars.

Good Fun!