weekend ready

Harper spent yesterday at Arlington, and Mount Vernon as well as a few other places.  I truly have not heard much from her other than to say yes, she is having fun and that she really liked Mt. Vernon.  I guess I will get a big recap tomorrow night when she comes home.  Thank goodness the sponsors have been great about posting photos!  Otherwise....

Luckily, I don't have time to nag at Harper about her lack of sending me photos because I have plenty of projects occupying my time.  Yesterday, I forced Quincy to help me get the cover off of the pool.  This is what we are starting with.  Not the worst it has ever been for sure.  I can see the bottom, so that is not all bad.  We did drop some debris in there from the cover, which we hoped to avoid, but are just not strong enough.  I also have a leak, and am trying to isolate the area to find it.  It is a tiny leak that I attempted to patch last summer but never found it.  When we lowered the water to below the skimmer, it stopped, so we know about where to start looking.  This weekend Preston will be home, so I will recruit him to helping me.  I hope to be able to swim by next week!  

Confession - when we bought this house, I was not really on board with the pool that was in the yard.  To me it seemed like a liability, and a lot of work.  And that is still true today - it is a both a liability and a lot of work.  BUT when the original pool broke, it was me that talked Jim into replacing it.  It is also me who does quite a lot of the work on keeping it clean and the water balanced.  I always say it is for the kids, but truth be told it is for me.  I love having it.  I love getting in the pool in the summer time and then getting out and working in the garden or mowing the lawn, and then getting back in when I get hot.  I love having time to sit in the pool on my floaty with a mixed drink.  And I love poolside afternoons with the kids and grandkids.  It really brings me quite a lot of enjoyment and I hope that we will be able to continue to keep up with it for a long time.  

Last fall, I bought some sweet potatoes from a woman in Scranton.  We ate most of them, but I used a couple to make my own slips.  I was not sure what I was doing, but they went crazy inside the house, and even though they said to wait to plant them outside, I was over having them everywhere so I stuck them in this raised bed that Jim made for me out of an old entertainment center.  They have gone absolutely wild.  I have no idea what I am doing, I have never grown sweet potatoes before.  Fingers crossed that I will be getting pounds and pounds of sweet potatoes!  I absolutely love them!  

And these are white potatoes that I planted in feed sacks.  They have also gone crazy!  I planted some in the ground as well.  This is the second time I have grown potatoes in sacks - but last year I got about 4 potatoes.  Fingers crossed that they produce more this time.  The plants are way more impressive for sure!  

And I was given a couple of goji berry plants.  One looks absolutely dead, one looks like it will survive, and one is thriving.  My understanding is that if you plant one, you will end up with many, so I am not overly upset over the one that died.  Another confession.... I have no idea what a goji berry is.  I have never tasted one, I have never even really heard of them.  But my board president's wife was giving them away, so I accepted her offer.  She tells me that she loves to eat them straight off the plant.  The internet says that most people dry them and use them like dried cranberries.  I guess we shall see what happens.  I like trying new things.  I can always rip them out if we hate them right?  :)  They are a super food, filled with vitamins and minerals and highly recommended for nutrition, so I  am hopeful we can find a use for them.  

My desire to fill our yard with edible plants that come back year after year is slowly becoming a reality.  My little orchard is thriving, and I have expanded our berry beds.  I am thrilled with this in ways I cannot describe.  I truly am just a giant nerd I guess.  

 

goings on

We have had an odd week.  I am not sure why.  Maybe because Harper is gone.  Maybe because the weather has been weird, and the summer schedule is a bit crazy.  But odd sums it up nicely.  Last night, i discovered that one of the turtles had laid an egg.  Now, we thought that the turtles were both boys, so I was a little surprised by this.  And alarmed.  Two turtles is definitely enough turtles!  And although baby turtles are very, very cute, I was sort of hoping that these turtles were nearing their natural life expectancy.  I plan to show the grandkids, and then rid ourselves of the possibility!  I did giggle - right now I have more eggs than I know what to do with.  So of course, someone gives me more eggs!  

Yesterday, I worked the entire afternoon in the yard.  I saw the forecast for more rain the next few days.  I panicked a little and decided we better get the mowing done.  Luckily, Quincy had the day off and volunteered to help with the mowing!  I also planted more strawberry plants that I found on a clearance at Menard's, and I might have hit a clearance sale at 2 locations on tomato plants.  We now have 55 tomatoes in the ground.  Is that excessive?  I don't think so.  Last year, I grew 30 plants.  I was able to make salsa and spaghetti sauce, but did not have enough to make chili ready tomatoes, or stewed tomatoes for soup etc.  So I decided to expand a little bit.  Will 55 be enough for that?  We are going to find out!  I also planted more squash, and more zucchini, and picked wild blackberries to work on while it is raining today.  I might be spending too much time doom scrolling, but my goal is to grow and can a lot of our food this year.  We may be eating weird things, but we will eat!  The one thing we did not get done, that I really wanted was to get the pool uncovered and running.  My hope was that it would be able to refill on rain water, rather than on water we have to pay for.  And honestly, there are years when we would have been swimming by now, but this year has been weird with a few hot days but mostly cold, rainy weather that has not felt like pool time.  

Harper hasn't said much about her trip.  She did tell me that one of the sponsors takes too many photos.  I am not mad about it, because that same sponsor has been good about posting them in the parent group, which is where I am getting these photos.  Yesterday they went to Capitol Hill, met with some of their senators and representatives and Representative Mann got them a guided tour of the Capitol, and a night tour of the monuments.  Aside from the complaints of the overzealous photography I haven't' heard much at all from her.  

They also went to the Farm Bureau building, had a tour, got to stand on their roof, and were served lunch.  Free lunch - which Harper likes.  :) 

Colin and Spencer sent me some photos.  Easton is trying to crawl already!  Colin said he uses his forehead instead of his arms!  Crack me up! 

I am planning my road trip!  Grammy needs some baby snuggles!

 

What a day

Scrambled brains and scrambled photos.  That’s what we have here at our casa currently.  

Two years of fundraising, 2 years of civics and citizenship classes, 2 years of community service projects and learning about government, and 2 years of planning, talking, and collaboration came to a grand finale today, when Harper’s group left for their long-awaited trip to DC.  She has never flown before.  She does know the people she is traveling with because she has been meeting with them for 2 years, but she doesn’t know them really well.  She was understandably a little bit nervous.  But excited!  I texted with her briefly last evening and she told me she did have a fun day.  She did not send photos, but her sponsors did!  She is traveling with a couple of the 4-H extension agents and a couple of parents who have kids on the trip.  I had to laugh when we showed up at the airport, the

sponsors had matching Hawaiian shirts with all the kids faces on them.  Hilarious.  

Also - the airport.  They redid it a couple of years ago.  My neighbor who travels all the time tells me it is awesome and she loves it.  My husband and I, who do not love flying, and who rarely utilize the airport do not love it.  In general, I do not love KC.  Why?  Because the traffic and the people and the feeling of panic over there being too much traffic and too many people I just do not enjoy.  Can I drive there?  Yes.  Do I pawn it off on anyone else if I have a choice?  Also yes.  Which is why Jim was driving and I was the ultimate navigator. Until I wasn’t.  We missed the parking garage not once - but twice!  Also luckily, I thrive on a thin layer of anxiety over being on time and had purposefully built in time for such nonsense.  We got turned around and managed to get Harper to her meeting place a full 12 minutes early!  

Jim and I then ran errands in Lawrence and got groceries since we didn’t get that done over the weekend.  Colin and Spencer sent me these cute pictures of lil Dale in the GTO. I keep telling them that the child will drive it sooner than they think.  I mean, he already got his first haircut!  Little big man!

Evelyn and Wrenley are having a great summer.  Filled with swimming and splash pads and parks.  Evie had a game last night, but we didn’t make it because so did Saige.  I hear she had a couple of great hits! 

Saige’s team won both games of their double header.  Saige played well and her team came back from a pretty large deficit to win the first game.  The second game was called after 45 minutes due to power issues, and they had played the 45 minutes under half the lights.  

She was safe despite her unconventional slide.  

I would be a very wealthy person if I had a dime….

New shirt ordered, and the coach apologized.   We were not upset - it happens all the time.  

After running to the airport, grocery shopping, new job orientation, working in the garden, covering Harper's side of chores, and then the ballpark, I felt that I earned the crash in bed that I got!