never enough

We had a great weekend.  They never last long enough though! Friday, we had a nice lunch with most of the kids at the local bar.  We try hard to not eat out, but once in a while you have to go eat TJ's burgers!  After lunch, we visited the book sale.  I will be completely honest, I do not like to buy books.  We all love to read, though some of the kids will deny it, but I find them with books a lot.  I just don't see the need to own a lot of books.  They take up room, and I rarely have found a book I wanted to read twice.  We spend a lot of time at the library, and we download a lot of stuff.  Once a year, I make an exception to my "no buying books" rule.  At the library book sale.  They have a bag deal - all the books you can fit into one bag for $3.  How could you go wrong with that?  The girls know this is their one chance and I tell you, there is no way you could have fit more books into a bag than those 2 little girls did!  I splurged this year and they each got their own bag!  :)  When we got home, I realized they had each gotten puzzle as well.  I have no patience for puzzles, but the kids did have fun trying to get this one together.  I told Saige she cannot open hers until they finish Harper's!  Preston worked for a very long time on it.  I would say they got it about 1/4 done.  If it sits there long enough, Jim won't be able to stand it and he will help them finish it! 

I do love that my kids like to read.  It made me happy to come in and see the girls happily reading!  I love our local library as well, we are blessed with that in our small town.

Madison has had to work a lot of weekends since she got her new job.  She was excited to have this weekend completely off.  She and Andrew decided to plan a picnic at the lake.  They invited us all to join them for Evie's first lake day!  This baby does love the water!  She fits right in with her aunts!  Preston decided he didn't want to take off work, and Colin and Cameron were helping Spencer move, so we missed all of them!  

It was a lot of fun, good food, and a nice chance to sit down and catch up a little bit.  We should do it more often!  

Sunday was a mad scramble of catching up.  I was happy to see Colin when he came to work on his derby car.  Derby is right around the corner, and he is mostly ready!  The kids had fun zooming around the yard again!  Sadly, I don't think we will get to watch all of his derby, because it is at the same time as the livestock auction.  Hoping we can catch some of it though!  We all love a good derby (well, except for Jim - he isn't redneck enough).

Sadly, the weekend is over.

A little mid-week gathering

Jim's job sometimes gets us into doing community service. Yesterday, Jim was worried because they didn't have many volunteers to unload books for the library's book sale.  He told Preston if he could get some friends to show up, he would buy them pizza for lunch.  Preston has had this handful of friends since they were babies.  They came to the rescue, and Jim did indeed buy them pizza.  Then they decided they should spend the afternoon at our house.  When I went to take them home, they were chest deep in our pond (our pond that is really a mud hole).  I told them they had to get out, clean up in the hose and dry off before I took them home.  Somehow, drying off after taking a hose bath included lighting a camp fire.  That turned into gee it would be awful to waste a good campfire, so Jim agreed to bringing home hotdogs and marshmallows.   The next thing I know, they all have permission to sleep out on the trampoline.  An impromptu camp out.  I can't complain.  I honestly did not see them.  They all stayed outside, without a cell phone in sight playing in the mud, playing ball, cooking their own dinner, and sleeping out under the stars.  It was a good little gathering.

The corn the neighbors gave us not only filled up my freezer, but it made some critters incredibly happy!  

Almost

We almost had a relaxing weekend.  We almost saw all the kids.  We almost needed to come back to work to be able to sit down!  

Que Friday - my favorite day of the week.  The idea of having a little time off work always appeals to me.  I don't know why.  I love my jobs.  Truly, I do.  But somehow, the idea I can sleep in, and spend some time getting caught up at home is always appealing.  Saturday morning, I told Jim I had a couple of projects I was absolutely going to accomplish.  Both the bathroom sink, and the kitchen sink were clogged up.  The bathroom sink had a lego man or something stuck in the drain, and I knew it would be an easy fix.  The kitchen sink - well that was going to be a stupid project and I put it off for a couple of days.  I have gotten quite good at plumbing projects, and have saved us a ton of money considering with the numbers in our family, something is always broken or clogged.  Jim said he could take care of the bathroom sink while I worked on the kitchen.  We got where they are both draining again, however I believe he had the easier job!  I actually think the clog in the kitchen sink has been there since we bought the house.  It was a nasty mess, but it is draining better than it has since we lived here!  Since I was doing gross jobs, I also completely took apart the refrigerator and cleaned it, got the ice maker working again, and did laundry.  Andrew asked if I could watch the baby for a little while.  After the way the morning went, I was absolutely thrilled to have a reason to stop doing stupid projects and just hang out with my sweet pea!  

We all adore this little girl.  She is amazing!  So sweet and happy!  

The city council decided to have business appreciation day and give out some baked goods to the businesses in town.  Jim asked if I could bake a few cookies for him.  I agreed.  Then he said he needed 10 dozen cookies, 2 cakes and 2 pans of brownies.  So we made a deal.  I would make all his baked goods, he would run my errands, get the groceries and pick up a load of guineas I wanted to buy.  I will say hands down, I got the better end of this deal.  You see, a day in the kitchen baking stuff is my happy place.  And a day where I get my errands done without leaving the house - also makes me incredibly happy!  The only bad part was making 6 dozen no bakes with the kids in the house!  (We may have sampled just a couple).  

I was proud of Jim too, as he got the stuff on my list and did not go too crazy even though he had Saige with him!  I admit when she asked to ride along, I worried a little.  You see, my Saige is the queen of junk food, and she has her daddy in her back pocket.  He did let her talk him into some ice cream, but overall, he did good not letting her sabotage my list!

Our neighbor called to say they had planted a couple rows of sweet corn in their field and they were done picking it.  I stopped after church and got enough corn for dinner.  He came out and said that they truly were just done with it, and to take however much I wanted.  Quincy and Preston went back over and brought home baskets full.  I guess we will be putting more corn in the freezer.  I hate to see stuff going to waste!  

Andrew played barbeque master, and Colin and Mallory came out for dinner.  It was nice to have some time to visit with them.  We were sorry Cameron and Spencer couldn't join us.  I love having them all in the same place.  It doesn't happen very often these days!

After dinner, Jim kept his end of the deal, and took Quincy and Harper to Yates Center to get these beautiful birds.  I had 4 guineas left last winter, but when Blitz had her puppies and was in the house, something got them.  I am guessing a raccoon.   I was truly sad.  These birds are amazing at keeping bugs and snakes out of the yard.  I have been searching all summer, but the prices have gone crazy and I just couldn't bring myself to buy them.  I found a man who had 400 of them - and was well within my price limit.  If you ask Jim about guineas, he would probably not say a whole lot, but he has noticed the increase in the tick population since ours died, and was more than willing to go get a few more.  We got 10 new half grown guineas ready to put to work in a few days.  We will keep them penned up for a few days so they learn where their "home" is.  I am excited to see them out in the yard.  I absolutely love them.  

So basically, projects got done, errands got done, and the weekend is gone.

Headin' into the weekend

This feels like it has been an incredibly long, chaotic, weird, and did I mention long week?  We have had no ball games, which should have made life easier.  But it didn't seem to stop the crazy.  I did enjoy taking the kids to night swim, and we also went to evening swim several times.  They never seem to get tired of swimming.  I am happy to take them, as it wears them out!  We have also been working with fair projects, and planning for that.  I pointed out to the kids that they only have one month left of summer break.  Nobody liked me at that moment.  :)  

Story time - Cameron always makes me laugh.  I miss him like crazy.  Honestly, I hope someday he becomes an author, or a comedian or something because he has this way of turning an ordinary thing into a crazy story.  He was at home, getting ready for work when a bat started flying around inside his house.  He does not know where the bat came from, and he said he had honestly never seen an alive bat before.  He didn't know what to do, so he face timed me.  Except I didn't answer.  He then face timed everyone he could think of and nobody answered.  So he got his bat gear together - as pictured above - and decided to sweep the bat out the door.  This did not go well.  He then decided to consult the internet - because you really can learn anything on YouTube!  They had excellent advice about turning off all the lights, opening a window and pointing a flashlight toward where you want the bat to go.  I guess it worked, because he no longer has a bat in his house - unless it is hiding somewhere waiting for him to drop his guard.   When I talked to him the next day I was seriously in pain laughing at him and his craziness.  I hope this is the last bat he encounters! 

living the good life

In the summer, my friend Grace and I get up early, talk on the phone and walk.  I enjoy this a lot!  I am very blessed to have a friend who is so much fun to visit with!  This morning, while I was visiting, I also stopped along my driveway to take pictures of the wildflowers (sorry Grace - I was sweating though, so it still counts as exercise?).  I enjoy flowers.  Mallory has been making all kinds of flower beds at her new house, and I have been remembering how much I used to enjoy planting flowers.  I don't really plant much anymore because we own goats.  About the time you think they look beautiful, the goats escape and eat them all.  :)  I do love the goats!  I was looking at the pictures I took and I think the wildflowers are just as beautiful as anything that I have ever planted!  I love where we live.  I absolutely love it!  I love the peace and quiet, the lack of traffic, the lack of people, the open spaces, watching the wild animals,  the ability to own a few critters, all of it! 

I also love this little baby!  She is an amazing blessing and I am forever thankful that I get to be her grammy!  :)   And I mean seriously - isn't she beautiful?  I am getting a huge kick out of her.  She has recently found her voice and her feet!  So much fun!

Of interest, Ovebrook had a mural that someone painted a long time ago.  It started to peel and look bad, so the betterment committee hired a woman to re-do it.  She finished yesterday.  I was amazed by how fast she did this!  It looks amazing!  I absolutely love it!  I drove the kids by it on our way to the pool, and asked Preston to take a picture since I was driving down the highway.  He is not a good photographer.   I will stop someday and take the kids pictures with it just for fun.  

yowsa!

I made the mistake of telling Jim I was looking forward to the weekend because we didn't have much going on.  That was just a silly thing to even think.  Madison had Friday off work, she told me that she bribed the girls into helping her clean the house by promising them a trip to Small Cakes.  They are definitely motivated by cupcakes!  They also got drinks at Sonic, but that is because Madison is too soft!  :)  Saturday, the city rented a sod cutter and Jim worked all day long cutting sod off the old grass infield at the ball park.  I know that this is probably hard for him, because he worked so hard to get the grass infield in and looking good.  The unfortunate thing is that the grass infield just doesn't allow for many kids to be able to play on that part of the park, so they decided to go back to the gravel.  I am sure that after all the work that was put in, it is hard to take it back out.  Jim hasn't said much, but I have watched the process, and I know how many man hours have been involved.  

While Jim was cutting sod, the girls and I moved forward with the great bedroom exchange.  When Mallory moved out, it caused a domino effect of children moving around into different rooms.  Preston moved quickly into Mallory's abandoned room.  It was a smaller room than the one he had, but it is closer to the WIFI.  Quincy decided she wanted to move downstairs, so she moved into Preston's room.  BUT she is a messy kid, and she only halfway moved.  Her old room looked like an explosion happened.  Saturday, she was told she had to finish cleaning her old room.  It was a process that should have taken a couple hours, but ended up taking her around 12 hours.  Harper is moving across the hall, but she wants to paint the room, and the window is broken, so we will have to get a replacement before she can move.  Projects.  All sorts of projects!

This is Harper's month to clean the church.  Usually, when we go over, I have all 3 of the younger girls and we get done pretty quickly, but with Quincy moving at snail speed to clean her room, I just took Harper.  I was amused by this because we all have our jobs that we do and typically Quincy takes the trash downstairs, and checks the bathroom.  They generally make me vacuum because they all hate it.  This week, Harper begged me to let her vacuum and I take the trash down and check the bathroom.  Not because the church basement is creepy, or haunted.  The reason was because every time we go to clean Aunt Karen is there with some crazy story of a snake that was caught in her traps she has down there.  She has caught a snake a week, and Harper was not about to go down there and see any dang old snakes!  I told her I would do the basement duties, and decided if there were snakes in the traps, I would just call Aunt Karen.  :)  St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, maybe it is a blessing?  

When we got back from cleaning the church, we realized that Boomer was having kittens.  Finally.  We were starting to actually wonder if she had a huge tumor or something.  We were taking bets on how many kittens she would have.  I was thinking 8-10!  She was so huge and miserable.  She ended up with 6 kittens.  Five of them are black and white and one is orange.  They are adorable!  We will be finding homes for them, although Saige and Andrew have already laid claim on a couple of them!

Saturday evening, we had no place to go.  I took a shower, and realized when I came out the house was very quiet.  Upon closer inspection, I realized that everyone was outside playing ball.  If we finish the season, I guess you just have to play in the yard!  I was amused that Jim was out there with them, he was actually playing umpire because they needed someone to keep it fair!

Sunday, after Mass, we had lunch with Jim's parents.  The kids spent a crazy amount of money on vending machine erasers, and we got a good laugh out of Grandpa Ken's reaction to a Chief's shirt that contained a lot of profanity.  I guess we know what not to buy him for Christmas!

We managed to get our errands done, and got to spend a little time with Colin before the 4-H pool party!  

Harper and Saige ran with Mallory to check out some chairs she wanted to buy for her classroom.  It is easier to tell if they will work if you take kids to try them out!  Somehow, they conned her into taking them to Sonic.  I sense a theme here?  

Cameron wanted us to come out to Manhattan and attend the movie night at Bill Snyder Stadium, but we already had plans.  He said it was a lot of fun.  I hope they do it again, because I think the kids would have really liked that.  I am getting a kick out of Cameron learning to cook for himself.  This weekend, he mastered hard boiled eggs!

I hope the next time I say we don't have anything to do, I am right!